Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475662
Floriane Marchix, Art Director on the new DreamWorks film The Bad Guys, has worked on adaptations where adherence to the book was not a strict requirement and other projects where the author controlled the reins more tightly—most notably her experience bringing kid lit favorite Captain Underpants into theaters for Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. She says the approach to each movie was entirely different. Unlike with Captain Underpants, where the team had to follow the drawings "a lot more strictly" while adapting the books, there was room in The Bad Guys for more creative license. The Leeway Freeway In scripting The Bad Guys, Screenwriter Etan Cohen knew he had plenty of creative leeway, but he also wanted to include material to please the books' fan base. "Even though there is a macro arc to the books, they're meant more to be told in episodes," says Cohen. "You've got to transfer that into a shape that works well as a movie. So, you look at the whole menu of books and try to figure out the bits that make one good story. The way I tried to do that was looking at big themes that we could pull out of the books." Cohen had his pick of themes, such as everyone has the potential to change. The Bad Guys series recounts the adventures of a group of scary animals who, tired of being demonized, decide to make over their image while also plotting a heist. "Going good" is no easy lift, and the partnership between Mr. Wolf, Mr. Shark, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake, and Ms. Tarantula hits more than a few speedbumps. The book series' fan base may miss favorite plot lines or wonder about certain changes. The character of Mr. Tarantula, for example, became Ms. Tarantula to add a female presence. In addition, the world created by the books' author, Aaron Blabey, contains only animals, where the universe of DreamWorks' The Bad Guys includes human beings, as well. To make the books cinematic, Cohen, Director Pierre Perifel, and the team turned to some cultural reference points from movies that people of different ages might recognize. Those cool black suits and shades worn by our quintet evoke the crooks of Reservoir Dogs and the alien chasers of Men in Black. The movie also pays homage to George Clooney and the heist- minded hipsters of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven. "The movie has been informed by a love of the same things that have driven me to create the book series," says a delighted Blabey. "I think that is because we've completely shared that common language which is very cinematic. When I was making the books, I never pictured that kind of sun-bleached L.A. and the whole Tarantino and Soderbergh universe. [But] as we went on, there was never a single point in the visual sense where I went, 'I'm not sure that's right.'" The books are illustrated, but the aesthetics of The Bad Guys' cinematic universe is positively eye-popping, a blend of CG and 2D that artists say breaks new ground for DreamWorks animation. "In recent years, [DreamWorks] has upgraded its rendering system to give you very accurate physical lighting," says Perifel. "I came in and said, 'No, I don't want that.' I wanted something more painterly and illustrative that had more line effects." Applying this technique to animals proved to be a somewhat "hairy" proposition, especially in the case of characters like Mr. Wolf and Governor Diane Foxington. "I didn't want the rendering to get in the way of the characters," says Luc Desmarchelier, the film's Production Designer. He explains that CG tools have a tendency to render every detail, and as an artist, that wasn't how he saw the world. "If I paint hair, I'm not painting every single hair. You want to give the impression of hair. That's what we were trying to do in general with the look of the movie." "...you look at the whole menu of books and try to figure out the bits that make one good story." – etan cohen F E AT U R E The Bad Guys images courtesy of DreamWorks Animation LLC 22 KEYFRAME