When Lilo & Sew and Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon co-director Chris Sanders dropped into DreamWorks to see what motion pictures that they had on their improvement roster, he fell in love with The Wild Robotic. Initially a sequence of middle-grade books by author and illustrator Peter Brown, the story follows a robotic named Roz who results in the wilderness and types a deep bond with an orphaned gosling.
It was every thing Sanders needed: refined, emotional, and character-driven.
“Typically after I see a property like this, I truly get just a little bit anxious, as a result of I really feel like I do know what to do,” he tells Polygon. “So I wish to be the one which does it. I simply really feel like, I feel I do know precisely what to do. Please let me do it, as a result of I do know the place to go. I’ve an excellent path.”
Sanders, who additionally co-directed The Croods for DreamWorks, knew what he needed this film to be. And now that pc expertise is lastly able to approaching the look of hand-drawn animation, he was in a position to push the film to look the way in which he envisioned it. From the primary trailers, which revealed a lush, beautiful film in contrast to every other, we have been desirous to know extra. So forward of the film’s late-September launch, Sanders sat down with Polygon to speak about utilizing his 40 years of expertise within the animation world to craft this deeply private story.
This interview has been edited for concision and readability.
Polygon: Is there a film you beforehand labored on in your profession that you just really feel ready you most for The Wild Robotic?
Chris Sanders: Lilo & Sew and Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon. These are essentially the most private movies I’ve ever labored on. Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon was tailored from a e-book, but it surely ready me for this specific movie, as a result of after we got here on to Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon, we have been inheriting the movie from a former director, and so they didn’t just like the path that was going. They needed to make a change. We needed to strip the story right down to its framework so as to work out what the issue was. Image a automotive coming into a store, and it’s not working, and also you marvel why, and also you simply take the entire thing aside, and you start constructing it up from scratch.
So my expertise engaged on the story for Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon taught me that it’s OK to deal with this stuff structurally for some time. Earlier than you permit your self to get into the extra enjoyable elements and the characters, it’s okay to again up and have a look at them structurally. In order that’s one thing that I actually took away from Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon. It served me nicely on this specific narrative.
How intently did you’re employed with Peter Brown for the film?
Our very first cellphone name was to Peter Brown for the venture. It was essentially the most consequential cellphone name of the sequence. I’ve but to satisfy Peter in individual. Our timing on this was very tough, as a result of he was within the midst of shifting, after which he had his first baby, and he was additionally ending up his third e-book, and he had a deadline for that. So he was by no means actually in a position to come out and go to us. We have been at all times doing issues over Zoom.
However that very first cellphone name, he stated one thing that was extraordinarily important. He instructed us that whereas he was writing the e-book, the theme that was going by his head was that kindness could be a survival ability, and we simply instantly wrote that down. I knew that I needed to memorialize that in script and display screen, and that’s precisely what we did.
The Wild Robotic grapples so much with the stresses of parenthood. How do you strike a line between a narrative that can be accessible to kids however nonetheless significant to adults?
Since I started my journey in animation, I realized that to make an excellent animated film for everybody, you’re employed to not exclude. You by no means fairly goal anybody, however you do the alternative. You just remember to don’t do one thing that will, for some cause, preserve another person — anyone — from having fun with the movie. And that doesn’t imply everyone has to know every thing. It’s okay to have stuff that goes over youngsters’ heads now and again. I bear in mind after I was a child, in TV reveals and flicks, there have been sure issues, like, I don’t know what’s happening, however I nonetheless like this film. So we work to not exclude.
One of many elements of the story I actually gravitated towards was that there’s a robust theme of motherhood that runs all through — it’s at all times been a little bit of a gag in animation, that there are at all times lacking moms in these tales. And I’ve come to know why that’s. However on this case, it was core to the story.
So which means the entire thing was actually recent and actually totally different. And I like issues which can be each difficult and in addition issues I feel I can do issues with. I don’t thoughts that there are parts which can be a little bit of a puzzle, and that could be arduous to determine. As a result of when you’ve gotten an excellent story crew and an excellent editor, you’ll determine this stuff out.
Picture: DreamWorks Animation
What was one thing that introduced a little bit of a puzzle?
There have been just a few, like precisely what Roz’s trajectory is thru the movie, significantly when she arrives on the island. Within the e-book, she is pushed to discover a process, and he or she’s within the fallacious place, and there are not any individuals to offer her a process, so she is pissed off. That tends to get very monotonous. So one of many issues we have been actually making an attempt to do is preserve Roz fascinating and compelling, and by no means let her get right into a monotonous place the place she’s merely going and asking everyone, “Do you’ve gotten a job? Do you’ve gotten a job?”
So discovering her perspective as she went into the entire thing, but additionally weaving the theme of motherhood all through all the movie. It’s a really highly effective factor, and also you don’t wish to shrink back from it, so that you wish to give it room to breathe. The timing of this film was very vital as nicely. It signifies that I took among the characters from the e-book and I trimmed them again so different characters would have extra time to do what they should do. But additionally that we’d have a film that had the identical tempo in its completed kind that I used to be feeling after I learn the e-book.
You don’t wish to be hurried. You don’t desire a crowded film. And also you don’t desire a film that has too many characters or an excessive amount of dialogue, the place you’re simply tripping over your self such as you’re working in entrance of a lawnmower or one thing. I’ve positively seen motion pictures that had that.
Did the voice solid for this movie deliver something to their characters that ended up shaping the film’s trajectory?
It’s one of many enjoyable issues about casting a personality. You do your finest to current a personality that’s fascinating and compelling. As soon as an actor says sure to a job, the very first thing you do is, you return by all the set of dialogue and also you rewrite.
Catherine [O’Hara] is a good instance. She performs the final word mother on this film — has three households a yr no less than. So Pinktail the [possum] may have been an excessively sentimental character, very involved about her valuable kids and this and that. However with Catherine on board, we took an entire totally different angle that was recent, and, I believed, simply a lot enjoyable. She’s over it. Her nurturing wore off many seasons in the past. So she’s a really pragmatic mother. She loves her youngsters, she takes care of them, however there’s a second the place she’s not precisely positive what their names are, as a result of she has too many yearly, and so she’s just a little bit behind on this and never tremendous involved. And I cherished her tackle that character.
Lupita [Nyong’o, who plays Roz] had the toughest process. We needed the recent and compelling tackle a robotic that’s rising as a personality, and we didn’t need it to be a two-dimensional factor, the place a robotic goes from being impassive to having emotion. That’s simply too easy. What Roz goes by is way extra advanced and extra dimensional. And Lupita labored very, very arduous, as a result of I insisted that Roz don’t have any facial articulation.
I’ve quite a lot of emotions about which sorts of robots work finest on display screen. Lupita knew that 100% of her efficiency was on her voice. We have been going to go away these recording classes simply along with her voice, so she needed to weave each little piece of nuance and emotion into these recordings.
What we additionally have been monitoring was this variation: Roz is essentially the most outstanding character by the movie. She’s the lead. So she has extra dialogue than every other character. The sheer scale of what Lupita needed to accomplish, on prime of the evolution of Roz, and actually discovering a voice to start and finish with that have been totally different.
As we went into recording classes, we needed to monitor that voice as we did totally different sequences, as a result of we do this stuff out of order. No matter sequence is able to go, that goes into manufacturing. That could be a sequence within the third act, or it could be a sequence within the second act. So we’re leaping round and dropping into these sequences, and Lupita needed to alter her voice relying on the place she was in the course of the recording session.
I can’t say sufficient about how extremely proficient she was. However not simply proficient — she had an unbelievable work ethic. She sat on the microphone for 4 hours at a time. I’ve accomplished stuff like that, and it’s exhausting — it’s arduous to remain centered and on level and recent on the finish of a session like that. She did such a superb job.
Picture: DreamWorks Animation
There’s a protracted historical past in motion pictures of robots who develop emotions and relationships. Had been there sure characters or motion pictures you drew from for Roz’s design?
There are positively robotic characters that I discover are extra profitable than others: C-3PO, R2-D2, the robotic from Forbidden Planet. The one robotic that I might say has facial articulation that truly works, for my part, is the Iron Big. So these have been the characters I used to be most taking a look at, not simply due to the shortage of facial articulation, but additionally simply because that they had such robust designs. That was a really welcome problem for us, was to create a robotic that will be iconic and memorable and would take its place — hopefully, in success‚ inside an unlimited group of very, very memorable robots.
Our design group, particularly considered one of our artists named Hyun Huh, who designed Roz… We have been all making an attempt out designs, myself included. However someday, after we got here into our artwork assembly, Hyun introduced his design, which is principally the design you see on display screen. All of us simply fell in love with it and stated, “You probably did it. It’s a unified design. It’s easy, it’s interesting.”
And Peter Brown, in his e-book, describes Roz each very clearly, but additionally very graphically. Which implies quite a lot of the main points have been ignored, due to his graphic model. We knew we needed to have a humanoid robotic, not simply due to the design introduced in a e-book, but additionally as a result of Peter Brown instructed us in individual throughout a type of cellphone calls what a Rozzum [robot] was: A Rozzum is a generalist. A Rozzum is made to suit into human areas and work alongside people, doing jobs with them and for them. So Roz appears to be like human, however she’s additionally adaptable. She’s a studying robotic. She’s a bit like Foolish Putty. She will imprint on issues and be taught issues, relying on the place she is.
The visible look of this film is so distinct and evocative. How did you develop it?
It’s one of many massive tales of this movie. DreamWorks had already made some big strides in getting away from the CG look that we have been so habituated to by design. We have been shackled to that look as a result of the expertise had limitations. So with The Dangerous Guys and with Puss in Boots: The Final Want, that they had moved right into a extra illustrated model, which was wonderful. However for Wild Robotic, we needed to go nicely past that.
Our improvement paintings, it’s this unfastened, sketchy stuff that’s accomplished in paint — digitally, however nonetheless painted. I like the look of it. It had the impressionistic vibe, and it was very a lot the way in which I used to be seeing the story as I learn the e-book. So I requested [Wild Robot production designer] Raymond Zibach, may our completed movie be indiscernible from these explorations? And he stated, “Let’s go for it.”
One of many issues they wanted to do to attain that look… We may not wrap geometry with textures, which is what we’ve been doing in CG from the very starting. We want the hand-painted look all over the place. Not simply within the sky, however on the bottom and within the timber, in bushes and flowers and every thing. In order that’s what they did. They discovered a approach to paint dimensionally. So there is no such thing as a geometry within the movie, apart from the characters. And even the characters have painted surfaces.
[DreamWorks head of look] Baptiste Van Opstal labored very, very arduous to get each single feather to be a brushstroke. And for those who get near Fink [the fox, voiced by Pedro Pascal] or Thorn the bear [voiced by Mark Hamill], they don’t have particular person hairs, which is the factor we’re additionally used to [in CG animation], proper? You get actually near a personality, it’s like, Ah! Hundreds of hairs! Computer systems wish to do that type of photoreal factor, however we needed every thing to be painted. In order that’s the massive story of this movie, is what Raymond and his group have been in a position to obtain.
I really feel like this movie has actually introduced our journey full circle. I might say Bambi was the start. Bambi is our touchstone so far as the greatest-looking forest I’ve ever seen in an animated movie. Subsequent door to that will even be My Neighbor Totoro by [Hayao] Miyazaki. We now have been struggling to get again to that analog heat that you could solely get from the human hand, and we lastly did it with this movie.
One of many issues I’m so thrilled by is that individuals who have a look at it, even when they don’t know precisely why it appears to be like totally different, they nonetheless see the distinction and so they react to it. This can be very compelling, and it supercharges every thing on display screen. I’m actually thrilled — I really feel like we’ve lastly come out of the tunnel we’ve been in for like 20 years, and now we’re open and free to maneuver visually like we was a very long time in the past.
Picture: DreamWorks Animation
What have been some visible influences you drew from?
Actually Bambi, [and that movie’s lead production illustrator] Tyrus Wong. Within the futuristic elements, we checked out Syd Mead and his design sensibility, as a result of every thing is glossy and exquisite. We needed the world that Roz ended up in to be the precise reverse of the place she was purported to be. We additionally took quite a lot of inspiration from wildlife pictures and wildlife documentaries — the way in which that you just use lengthy lenses, since you’re obligated to remain distant out of your topics. So sure elements of the movie have a vibe such as you’d get from a nature documentary, due to computing it.
Over the previous 5 years or so, we’re seeing increasingly motion pictures that push the envelope for what pc animation can do. You’ve been within the business for many years — why do you suppose that’s taking place now?
I feel all of it does come again to expertise. That was the factor that anchored us proper in a single spot. We obtained extra chain yearly, however we have been nonetheless anchored to that CG look. We have been obligated to wrapping geometry, and we obtained higher and higher textures yearly, and so on., and so on. But it surely nonetheless had this bizarre type of photoreal vibe, although motion pictures like The Croods stored it so simple as attainable, so it was nonetheless very interesting. However I do imagine it was largely technology-based. And I feel that what occurred was, there’s a tipping level we lastly reached, the place we will lastly technologically transfer past the place we have been.
What current animated motion pictures have actually stood out to you in that vein?
I feel I might be shocked if anyone didn’t say Spider-Verse in answering that query. That movie was such a wake-up name, and it put everyone on discover that issues have modified. That was a sea change. The second got here out, and was equally as incredible. However the first Spider-Verse, I feel everyone was buzzing about that after they noticed it. You couldn’t cease speaking concerning the look of it, and the model and the texture of it. I’m so glad that it truly it had an ideal field workplace and it was acknowledged at awards season.
Picture: Sony Footage
So I do know I’m mentioning one thing you stated virtually 20 years in the past, however there’s a quote from again in 2007, while you left Disney to go to DreamWorks, the place you stated you favored the way in which DreamWorks checked out animation. Do you bear in mind what you meant by that?
I think what I used to be most likely speaking about was… It feels like a damaging, but it surely’s truly a constructive. We don’t actually have a home model [at DreamWorks], which means they’re not obligated to a sure look the place in the event that they abandon that, they’ll be dinged for it. And I feel this [movie] is a good instance of that power. We’re in a position to discover totally different appears to be like for various movies, relying on what’s going to be the simplest search for the movie.
What was it like returning to DreamWorks for The Wild Robotic? Did something change? What stayed the identical?
Studios at all times evolve. Artists come, artists go, and all of us flow into between studios. I used to be at Disney for some time, for a very long time, after which got here to DreamWorks, and I’ll go someplace else sometime! So it has advanced. However the factor about DreamWorks, I feel, that has stayed constant is an obligation to the audacity of the dimensions of the movie.
That’s one thing [Disney veteran and DreamWorks co-founder] Jeffrey [Katzenberg] was at all times actually good at. We as filmmakers are inclined to get nearer and nearer and nearer to a venture till, like, you’ve obtained this monocle on, and also you’re a watchmaker taking a look at these little tiny elements. And Jeffrey had this good way of simply type of figuratively grabbing you by the collar and pulling you again and making you have a look at the movie as an entire. Are you doing the massive, big issues that you just anticipate from a movie? He at all times was nice in specializing in the dimensions and the extent of audacity in these motion pictures.
What was one thing you labored on early in your profession that basically formed the way in which you checked out animation and filmmaking going ahead?
There’s fairly just a few, fairly just a few issues… I ought to preserve a listing of this stuff! Each movie, you be taught one thing. Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon. Magnificence and the Beast. The Croods. Mulan. You be taught one thing from every considered one of them.
One of the crucial vital issues I realized from Lilo & Sew from [composer] Alan Silvestri was that music is among the only storytelling instruments you’ve gotten in your arsenal. I’ve come to essentially, actually depend on that. In Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon, an ideal instance can be a sequence we name “the forbidden friendship.” That was when Hiccup discovered himself alone in that cove with Toothless. We simply turned the dialogue off, and music turns into the voice of the film. It’s one of the crucial enchanting issues you are able to do, is have characters speaking now and again. It actually makes individuals listen.
We do this so much in The Wild Robotic. One of many issues I’m actually, actually pleased with on this specific movie is the tempo we have been in a position to obtain. We had about 50% of the dialogue that these movies usually have, so we’ve got much more wide-open areas. Nonetheless, I nonetheless designed what I might name “homes for music” inside the film. We simply drop dialogue and let music take over. So there’s fairly just a few locations the place Kris Bowers, our wonderful, wonderful composer, was carrying the narrative for us.
The place do you most wish to see animation go sooner or later?
I’d like to see it go in all kinds of instructions. We lastly escaped the gravitational pull of planet CG, and I really feel like we’re all free to maneuver. So simply myself, personally, I can’t wait to discover totally different types, relying on the kind of story that we’re telling. Animation is extra alive and nicely than ever earlier than. One of many issues I’m getting such a kick out of is seeing how animated movies are actually doing nicely this yr within the theaters. [Ed. note: As of publication time, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, and Kung Fu Panda 4 were all top 10 biggest box-office earners for 2024.] They’re among the finest movies this yr, flat-out, proper?
I like seeing animated movies get their due so far as simply good viewers participation. I feel that tackling extra severe subject material… You’ll be able to inform a narrative for any viewers, any age group, so long as you’re conscious of what age group you’re chatting with. You’ll be able to capitalize issues. So The Wild Robotic truly tackles some fairly grown-up stuff and a few fairly heavy themes, however we do it in a approach that’s comprehensible and digestible to anybody. So I feel [American animation is] simply broadening the spectrum of the forms of tales that we inform.
The Wild Robotic hits theaters on Sept. 27.