Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1530710
o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 2 c g w 7 A ROZZUM unit 7134 service automaton—also known as "Roz"—is shipwrecked on a deserted island in The Wild Robot, a critically acclaimed new animated feature di- rected by Chris Sanders. Based on Peter Brown's best- selling novel of the same name, the film follows Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong'o) as she inquisitively adapts to her unfamiliar new surroundings and begins to gain the trust of the island's animal inhabitants. As the marooned robot becomes increasingly assimilated into the flora and fauna of the island, she blossoms into a loving caretaker who takes an orphaned gosling under her own wing. Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O'Ha- ra, Matt Berry, and Ving Rhames also lend their vocal talents to this deeply captivating story. Animated entirely in-house by DreamWorks, Roz's adventures unfold in a brilliantly detailed, painterly style that dazzles the eye and immerses the viewer. At VIEW Conference 2024, director Chris Sanders, VFX supervisor Jeff Budsberg, and production designer Raymond Zibach shared an inside look into bringing The Wild Robot to life on screen. DIRECTING How did you adapt the source material for the screen? Director Chris Sanders (CS): As I read the book, I was seeing some very sophisticated imagery in my head, likening it to the way I felt when I saw Bambi and those beautiful backgrounds styled by Tyrus Wong. I wanted to have a certain level of sophistication to the look of the film, because there were elements that I knew would appeal to children automatically the animals, the robot—and I was very concerned because I thought, "This is a movie for everyone." So I wanted to really raise the artistic vibe of the backgrounds and the characters so that people would see the film in the right way, if that makes sense. I was working on the narrative in editorial with the story team. Jeff Budsberg [VFX supervisor] and Raymond Zibach [production designer] were creating this very unique look, and the whole thing came together so beautifully. There was a day where I was in a meeting that we have every week called Color Dailies, and in that meeting you look at designs, you look at some things from the color script. You look at these color sketches where we do exploratory paintings looking at different parts of the film, just deciding what we want the weather to look like, the lighting. I was looking at what I thought was one of those exploratory paint- ings and someone pushed a button, and it began to move dimen- sionally. I realized, "Oh, that's the finished film!" That's how painterly we pushed it, so that I didn't even realize it was the real film for a moment. I actually had a moment of panic. I was in a bit of suspense for the next couple of weeks because I thought, "Had we gone too far?" That's how radical the look really was. But once we placed the characters into the shot, it was mag- ic. It all came together, and I thought, "No, we have something really amazing on our hands." Artists set dressed with Sprinkles, an art-directed paintable tool.