Wes Anderson doesn’t often discuss his animation work in detail. In fact, as his fame grows, he seems to become less inclined to participate in interviews. That’s why it was particularly delightful to have a conversation with the director of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Isle of Dogs” during the Annecy Animation Film Festival last year.
During a 90-minute workshop, Anderson shared the reasons that led him to become passionate about stop motion animation, explaining how his lack of prior knowledge in the field contributed to the unique style of his films. Additionally, he discussed how his experience with animation influenced his later live-action projects.
Unlike some other directors such as Guillermo del Toro and Jacques Demy who began their careers making simple stop-motion films at a young age, Anderson didn’t initially harbor the desire to create an animated film until after he had made several live-action movies. He gradually found himself drawn to it, he shared. Now that he has dabbled in animation, Anderson admits he has been bitten by the bug and is keen on doing another one, but not immediately.
When you complete a stage of your work, you’re often eager to advance to the next one. You rarely express a desire for more time in the editing room,” Anderson noted. “I thoroughly enjoy making stop-motion films. Once I’ve wrapped up one, I usually yearn to tackle a live-action project.
Anderson initially dabbled in stop motion animation for a specific segment within “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” which was influenced by Jacques Cousteau’s life, although he clarified a misconception I had. A well-known scene showcases the Belafonte, revealing a cutaway of the research vessel portrayed in the movie; it’s important to note that this entire sequence isn’t animated.
Nowadays, Anderson collaborates with Simon Weisse, a renowned expert in miniatures globally. However, for the film “Life Aquatic,” the ship was actual – one of two mine sweepers that the team discovered in South Africa and shipped to Italy. As Anderson stated, “It’s a massive set constructed on Stage 5 at Cinecitta, Fellini’s stage.”
Concerning the dolphins swimming beneath the boat, they were expected to be computer-generated images; however, they were mechanical instead. This was an unprecedented resource for Anderson to utilize, yet he still surpassed his budget by approximately $10 million and 20 days.
He mentioned that there are simpler methods for achieving this, recalling an instance where he witnessed the creation of robotic sea creatures by others. His immediate thought was, ‘Let’s acquire similar ones.’
Indeed, they prove challenging to collaborate with. Initially, their availability isn’t always immediate, and secondly, it requires a specific group of experts who work with robotic dolphins.
Anderson primarily employed stop motion animation in portraying the unique marine life species that Zissou’s team encounters during their sea voyages. The thought process behind this choice was: “We realized we couldn’t rival the authentic, underwater life documented elsewhere in the world. We aren’t divers, and we won’t capture the best footage of such scenes. However, what we could offer uniquely was the creation of our own animal species, which was part of the reason for choosing stop-motion animation. We aimed to depict wildlife that doesn’t actually exist in reality.
Instead, they enlisted the renowned stop-motion director, Henry Selick (famous for “The Nightmare Before Christmas”), to supervise the stop-motion scenes in the movie, which included creating the largest stop-motion puppet ever made: the legendary Jaguar Shark.
Henry was working at a distance from where I was during filming of the movie,” shared Anderson, sparking his imagination towards creating a full-length stop-motion project.
He reminisced about a book he’d gotten as a gift when he was around 7 years old, and it just happened to be Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ To secure approval, Anderson arranged a meeting with Dahl’s wife, knowing she was cautious about who she allowed to handle the stories, so he essentially had to try out for the task.
Ultimately, Anderson and his collaborator, Noah Baumbach, got permission to tour Gypsy House, Roald Dahl’s writing retreat (depicted in “The Marvelous Tale of Henry Sugar”), which greatly influenced the movie’s set design.
As a devoted connoisseur of Rankin/Bass TV classics such as “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer,” I’ve always harbored a dream to collaborate with Henry Selick, particularly on a project that would echo the charm of those timeless specials. However, fate had other plans, as Selick found himself at Laika Studios, where he was engrossed in the creation of “Coraline.” Little did I know that my opportunity to work with him was just around the corner, thanks to a serendipitous introduction by none other than Henry Selick himself. Years later, when Mark Gustafson clinched an Oscar for his work on “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” I realized that our paths had crossed much earlier in time.
Anderson admitted that Mark served as both the director of animation for the film and a mentor, teaching him the ins and outs of creating an animated movie. It took me quite a while to grasp these concepts, but I eventually did so through collaboration with some of the world’s top professionals in this field.
Attending the masterclass in Annecy often brings together a multitude of individuals who collaborated with Anderson on “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Every year, these individuals grace the festival, and they’re quite open about discussing the difficulties encountered during the film’s production.
As for himself, Anderson acknowledged, “I suspect my approach to creating this film was somewhat unorthodox, and I hadn’t fully grasped its unique challenges… which resulted in me undertaking tasks that made the production process considerably harder.
Rather than drafting the script based on storyboards, he and Baumbach chose to write it as if they were creating a real-life movie. Later, Anderson came up with the concept of recording the actors’ voices on a farm, with George Clooney and Meryl Streep portraying Mr. and Mrs. Fox.
I believe they might have considered my suggestion unwise due to potential issues with achieving high-quality audio recordings. However, when it comes to stop motion, it’s all about breathing life into the performance.
The primary issue that persisted with those contributing to “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was the distant manner in which Anderson handled the film’s direction.
Anderson mentioned that the team seemed taken aback by my limited physical presence, yet my strong desire to lead them. It’s one thing to pop in occasionally with ‘good job’ and a few ideas, but quite another to manage everything through emails. He explained that this wasn’t his initial intention; it simply developed over time, and I believe it took some time for people to trust me with the leadership role.
Working with stop motion animation is incredibly laborious, requiring hours to adjust props and puppets frame by frame over several days for just a few moments of footage. Given this time-consuming process, it’s not something that animators are keen on repeating. On the other hand, when it comes to live-action filmmaking, Wes Anderson is a director known for preferring multiple takes.
Anderson often says, ‘Good, good, just one more,’ repeatedly, but in making a stop-motion film, you essentially only get one chance per scene,” explained Anderson, using a technique less frequently employed by others.
He suggested you could make adjustments if needed. On occasions when things seem to veer off course, you might opt to revert to the previous state as a temporary solution. However, be cautious as this can sometimes hinder progress in ways that may be difficult for the animator to fully recover from – something I didn’t initially realize. Initially, I thought we could simply rectify the issue by returning to our earlier successes. But remember, they are not machines, and their work involves creating something organic, so they might need to navigate through these challenges rather than revert back.
One of Anderson’s less traditional choices, initially at least, was adopting a technique known as “boiling.” This involves animating fur so that it appears to move independently. Some may have viewed this style as somewhat amateurish. However, Anderson appreciates the aesthetic [because] he understands its origin: It’s people manually manipulating these elements.
Similarly, Anderson expressed that his thoughts on the lighting were contrary to traditional stop-motion techniques, which he was unaware of. He desired a softer, more diffused light, but cinematographer Tristan Oliver felt it wasn’t optimal for miniatures. “I believe he thought, ‘You’re asking me to produce a lower quality of lighting than my abilities allow.’
In due course, the animators ultimately agreed with his unique (and somewhat innocent) concept. “After working together for approximately six months,” Anderson explained, “we shared a segment of the movie with the team. It was at this moment that some team members finally understood our objective.
After that point, it became easier to persuade the team about his suggestions. While working on “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” the crew filmed in twos, which means animators adjusted the puppets 12 times for every second of screen time; however, for “Isle of Dogs” (2018), they switched to filming in ones, making it appear smoother but requiring twice the effort.
Approximately at the same moment, Anderson accepted a task to create a brief TV advertisement for Sony. The end product, showcasing a young boy of eight years old exploring how the Xperia phones function within a robotic setting, bears an undeniable resemblance in creativity to the one who produced “Rushmore.
Following “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Wes Anderson returned to live-action films, yet he incorporated some techniques he’d mastered during his stop-motion work. As Anderson explained, the animation elements served as fresh ingredients to incorporate into his filmmaking style. Since “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), he has consistently employed animatics — essentially animated storyboards — to plan out shots in every subsequent production.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Patrick Harpin (@patrickharpin)
To publicize the film, Anderson conceived an innovative approach that incorporated custom-made sketches (supervised by Christian De Vita). In the movie, Bob Balaban serves as the narrator and presents brief segments reminiscent of “Reading Rainbow”, highlighting some fictional books that the character Susie reads. For each book, a unique artist illustrated the cover, with some artists being personally connected to Anderson, so they decided to create short clips showcasing each book’s cover as well.
In his 2014 film “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, which was a blend of love and action, director Wes Anderson opted to include a stop-motion scene within a set piece. He expressed that he had envisioned an intricate ski chase for this movie. The alternatives were either to follow the James Bond path, venturing into the Alps with helicopters, or to take a different route, constructing our own ski slopes. We chose the latter option for safety reasons and because it seemed fitting for the narrative.
At this stage, Anderson decided it was time to create another animated movie, bringing back many members of his “Fantastic Mr. Fox” crew for the 2018 release titled “Isle of Dogs.
Anderson stated that since they had experience in creating stop-motion films before, they were able to approach the preparation with an understanding of the process. They learned the standard methods and then tailored their own unique approach. By the time they produced ‘Isle of Dogs,’ they had developed a system specifically for their team.
In “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” it was Andy Gent who took care of repairing and maintaining the puppets. Wes Anderson described him as the head of the puppet hospital, responsible for fixing the worn-out puppets after each workday. When they moved on to “Isle of Dogs,” they simply had Gent create everything from scratch. From the outset, he was considered a master of puppetry. Anderson also enlisted Gent’s help in his live-action films. One example is the roadrunner in “Asteroid City,” which Gent was instrumental in creating. Additionally, Gent designed the alien, an enormous puppet whose stop-motion animation was executed by Kim Keukeleire, one of the lead animators on “Isle of Dogs.
Anderson expressed that the intention was to breathe vitality into this particular scene, stirring the audience much as the characters themselves are being moved,” he said. “For me, I believed I possessed a hidden advantage – an animator.
Anderson didn’t concern himself with the potential distraction caused by stop motion. Instead, he expressed his fondness for the quaint appeal of handmade props in films, stating that “I believe there’s a certain authenticity to things when you know how the trick is done.” This was evident in his decision to incorporate a 2D-animated chase sequence for “The French Dispatch,” as he sought something unique.
He mentioned that the style was somewhat reminiscent of traditional French comic strips. A scene in ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ sparked this idea, but this project seemed to naturally incorporate it. Regarding the car chase, if we had attempted it in live-action, it would have required around two and a half to three weeks of shooting, which Anderson believed would compromise the final product. He has also directed an animated music video for Jarvis Cocker’s cover of Christophe’s ‘Aline.’
Lately, I’ve found myself dabbling more in animation, particularly for Wes Anderson’s four short films based on Roald Dahl’s stories. In these projects, I had the pleasure of designing the rat character for “The Rat Catcher.” My passion for stop-motion storytelling remains strong, and I eagerly look forward to creating another feature film in this style. One key motivator for me is expanding my family of live-action collaborators – animals are a significant part of the reason why I want to continue exploring this artistic medium.
Anderson expressed his eagerness to create another stop-motion film similar to ‘Isle of Dogs,’ stating, “Given the chance, I would jump at it immediately.” He went on to say that while it’s a large and somewhat intimidating project, it’s also incredibly enjoyable.
Read More
- SUI PREDICTION. SUI cryptocurrency
- „People who loved Dishonored and Prey are going to feel very at home.” Arkane veteran sparks appetite for new, untitled RPG
- LDO PREDICTION. LDO cryptocurrency
- Destiny 2: A Closer Look at the Proposed In-Game Mailbox System
- Clash Royale Deck Discussion: Strategies and Sentiments from the Community
- Jennifer Love Hewitt Made a Christmas Movie to Help Process Her Grief
- ICP PREDICTION. ICP cryptocurrency
- Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic Was Inspired By Akira And Cowboy Bebop
- Critics Share Concerns Over Suicide Squad’s DLC Choices: Joker, Lawless, and Mrs. Freeze
- EUR IDR PREDICTION
2025-01-07 19:50