Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512296
GRUMPY OLD MAN How do you create a relatable reptile who's grumpy but likeable and has emotional depth? This was the challenge for Animation Director Jason Figliozzi and the creative team on Netflix's Leo, a movie that revolves around an eponymous classroom pet, a lizard who learns that at 74 he has only one year left to live. With time running out, Leo plans to escape the terrarium he shares with Squirtle, a cranky turtle, but those plans fall apart when a mean substitute teacher arrives and Leo ends up serving as the class therapist. The story unfolds across multiple settings, from a classroom terrarium to the Everglades, but the heart of the film is about kids who are leaving fifth grade and going into middle school, and their emotional journeys during this transition. To authentically capture that, says Figliozzi, "We really just tried to dive into us at that age." They also spoke to fifth graders to find out what drives and worries them on a daily basis. As for Leo, the starting point was a species of reptile called a tuatara. Figliozzi says there were many versions of this lizard-like creature before it finally evolved into the Leo found onscreen. Trying to figure out what an old lizard would look like factored into that evolution. For references, they studied quadrupeds and reptiles and watched how they move. Then they pushed it from there to make a character that was uniquely their own. Figliozzi and his animation team created rules for keeping Leo in character. "Leo is a 74-year-old lizard, so we wanted him to feel that age," he says. This meant that F E AT U R E his movements had to be slow, deliberate, and methodical, with small gestures to show that he's conserving energy. They paid close attention to his elbows. "If you brought his elbows out and revealed that negative space under his arms, he automatically felt younger," says Figliozzi, adding that if they moved him too fast, this also made him feel more youthful and useful, so they minimized his movement. They also took care to ensure that his tail did not feel snaky or serpent-like, keeping it mostly behind him, except for scenes where he uses it like an appendage. Figliozzi describes a moment when fifth-grader Mia tells Leo, "You remind me of my grandpa." He says they brought that warmth of a favorite relative to the character to help with the emotional connection. They achieved this with the shaping of Leo's eyebrows and by being careful not to make Leo look mad, particularly when he's speaking to the children. "He could skew angry pretty quickly," says Figliozzi. "If we just brought … his inner brows down a little bit, he would turn into a different character, and we really didn't want him to feel off-putting or irritated in any way." They kept his brows up higher and made his eyes look kind by pushing his lower lids up a little bit. Leo images courtesy of Netflix 40 KEYFRAME