I’m a big advocate of following your dreams. It’s a theme I enjoy speaking about. There are a lot of young filmmakers out there who need to hear that it’s possible, even if it’s hard to do. But lately I’ve been faced with the question: what do you do with failure? And I mean BIG failure… like the crumbling of one of your dreams. What do you do with that?

It’s a theme I’ve encountered more than once this year. We toss around the cliche of the Phoenix rising from the ashes, but it’s a powerful thing to live through.

CASE 1: PHIL VISCHER, the creator of the worldwide phenomenon VEGGIE TALES. This month, I had the pleasure of hosting a session with him at a local university. We talked about how Phil watched his biggest dream, the company called Big Idea, go into bankrupcy and eventually get sold off. Everything was gone: Larry the Cucumber, Bob the Tomato, and the world he built from scratch. After outselling every kids video and making millions, the home video market changed dramatically. Big Idea had expanded to over 200 employees, ready to meet a need that was no longer there. Phil is very candid now about how gut wrenching it all was, and the life lesson that came from losing everything. No dream — even a dream you believe God gave you — should become so important that it becomes a religion itself.

Now Phil is rebuilding. He’s written a book about the fall of Big Idea and he’s started Jellyfish Labs, a new model for a new age of media. He’s not only survived his failure, he’s absorbed it, injested it like medicine. And it has transformed him as an artist.

CASE 2: HANSON, the three-man supergroup of the 90’s. I just finished watching their feature-length documentary “Strong Enough To Break,” which is now available in podcast episodes. This band has survived one of rock-and-roll’s deadliest obstacles: a monster hit. Even aboriginies have heard of the song “Mmmbop,” and believe it or not, no one is more sick of it than Hanson themselves. For years, it cast a shadow over everything else they created, until they had no choice but to leave the corporate record label that was choking their creativity. I have known these guys since they were in grade school, and to watch their rebirth into an adult band has been inspiring. I highly recommend watching the online episodes.

Painfully intimate footage reveals the step-by-step breakdown of Hanson’s relationship with their label. Their expectations were shattered, their talents were questioned, and they had to beg radio stations just to play their music again. How does a band fall so far without imploding? Watch the podcast and find out. The guys were brutally honest with themselves and had to reinvent how they make music and sell it. This led them to leave Island Def Jam to start their own indie label. They had to self-promote, tour colleges and drive sales via the internet. When their third album “Underneath” was released, it birthed a number two song and was the highest-selling independent album of the year. No, they have not returned to their “Mmmbop” status, but their new musical climb is on their own terms. And as they say in their podcast, “If it wasn’t for the experience we went through, we wouldn’t be the band we are today.” Check out the episodes — it is a rare glimpse into the hard choices an artist has to make to keep the art alive.

CASE 3: Yours truly. While I won’t go into detail, I have traveled my own rough road making “Hoodwinked” and reaching the next step in my career. Even though the movie launched me to a new level, it was not without a cost. It’s cost me personally and financially, and forced me to reinvent myself without the production company I helped found. All extremely painful experiences, but ones that have re-created me as an artist, a husband and a human being. As sick as it sounds, I’m ultimately thankful that I was pummelled so badly.

I’m not quite a Phoenix yet, because I’m only now climbing out of my own pile of ashes. It’s true that we are not defined by our successes; we are defined by our failures and what we do with them.

Sometimes I get hired to help with things that I can’t tell you about. Sometimes those things are uncredited, even if they significantly help the project. This is the business of “hired gun” rewrite work.

Sometimes you have to have a tough shell… like a turtle.

And even if you do good work, you have to stay invisible… like a ninja.

So I CAN’T tell you about the recent project that I did a major rewrite on. But I CAN tell you that it’s immensely satisfying to see that it went to NUMBER ONE at the box office this weekend.

And know that, like a turtle… and a ninja… I helped make it happen.

As many of you know, I am not directing “Hoodwinked 2.” Tony, Todd and I wrote the script for the sequel and have all moved on to new exciting projects of our own. But I always hoped that the director of this next installment would treat our baby right.

Well, I’m pleased to announce that MIKE D’ISA has officially signed on as the director of “Hoodwinked 2.” Mike is a veteran of the animation industry, working on some of Disney’s biggest movies in the last ten years, such as “Mulan,” “Tarzan,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” as well as the recent “Looney Tunes: Back In Action.” This guy knows more about animation than most of us on the original team.

This is Mike’s directorial debut, but I can tell you from our time together that the guy has a real passion for the film and a devotion to maintaining the “Hoodwinked” world. He wants to do the sequel justice and he really gets what we’re trying to do. He is also looking forward to any involvement from the original team, which might even mean new songs from Todd. I’m also ready to be a squirrel again.

Congratulations, Mike. Red, Wolf and the whole gang can’t wait to get started on another adventure.