Five Quick Takes on Making an Oscar-Nominated Animated Feature
It’s Oscar Week, which means we’ll be sharing stories and lessons from this year’s nominees. Here, the artists behind the Animated Feature films discuss the things they’ve learned along the way.
“Animation is caricature in life.” -Tom McGrath
Director Tom McGrath considers himself a real-life “boss baby” to his older brother. He channeled this perspective with Alec Baldwin’s persona in 30 Rock to create the title character of his film The Boss Baby. While he turned to CG animation to bring it to life, he was “always trying to get to what we used to be able to do in 2-D.”
“You should be able to follow the story with the sound turned off,” he said.
“People actually do want to see something different. They want to see something they haven’t seen before.” -Ivan Mactaggart
Painter and filmmaker Dorota Kobiela first read Van Gogh’s letters at the age of 16 and then, ten years ago, decided to paint a film based on them. When she met her now-husband Hugh Welchman, he knew very little about the artist. After reading the letters and dozens of books, he too became obsessed with the story.
The journey toward Loving Vincent required the team to find advocates around the world and online. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, they began training what would become a group of 125 artists, across 21 countries, to paint like Van Gogh.
It took an average of one day to animated a third of a second.
Each shot was created on a different canvas, which was painted over as the action and camerawork progressed. In total, there were 850 paintings, one of which was donated to the Academy Museum.
“Loving Vincent” is the first fully oil-painted feature film.
“You have to remember your initial feelings when you watched it.” -Darla K. Anderson
The team behind Coco identified the film’s ending many years ago, and had to keep true to their initial vision of the story over years of production.
Anderson, who produced numerous Pixar films including A Bug’s Life and Monsters, Inc., found the process of making Coco a particularly special experience. The crew traveled to Mexico and collaborated with numerous cultural consultants. They enlisted an entirely Latino cast, including Gael García Bernal, who contributed Spanish slang and phrases to the script.
Coco’s score, composed by Michael Giacchino, was also heavily influenced by the culture. The Oscar-winning songwriting team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, co-director Adrian Molina and composer/arranger Germaine Franco were also an integral part of creating the film’s musical landscape.
“This is by far Pixar’s most musical film,” Anderson said.
“Eventually, things… just get to a point where it feels right in your heart and in your gut.” -Nora Twomey
The Breadwinner is based on a book written by Deborah Ellis for 10 to 13 year olds. Producer Anthony Leo first heard about it while traveling with several families. Each night, they would sit around and read the story aloud. Eventually, he pursued it as a film and, in order to remain accessible to the intended audience, decided to make it an animated feature.
The story takes place in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, where a young girl disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family. Director Nora Twomey read the book in one sitting. Of taking on this project, she said, “it felt right.”
Parvana felt like a character she wanted to follow.
For the first round of audiences, “I wouldn’t look at the actors when they were auditioning… I would just listen to the voices and look at the characters.” Much of the film’s warmth and humanity, then, rested on the voice of Saara Chaudry.
“We make movies for adults that we can bring the kids along to.” -Carlos Saldanha
Animation isn’t only for children — even when it involves a talking bull trying to change his violent ways.
Ferdinand is based on an American story by an American author (Munro Leaf) who had never been to Spain. “Maybe I can go for him,” thought Saldanha, who directed the film. His travels through the Iberian Peninsula informed the vivid environments of Ferdinand.
For the main character, Saldanha went back to what initially attracted him to animation: the ability to tell and story and create emotional moments with characters “that look a little goofy.”
Click here to learn more about this year’s Oscar nominees. For all things Oscars, visit Oscar.com.
