Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1532337
FILMMAKING www.postmagazine.com 29 POST JAN/FEB 2025 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 fea- ture directed 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'Hara, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames also lend their vocal talents to this deep- ly-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. 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? Chris Sanders: "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 sophisti- cation 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 charac- ters 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 paintings and someone pushed a but- ton, and it began to move dimensionally. 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 mo- ment. I actually had a moment of panic. I was in a bit of suspense for the next couple of weeks be- cause 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 magic. It all came together, and I thought, 'No, we have something really amazing on our hands.'" How did you approach the challenge of bringing a character to life without any facial articulation? Chris Sanders: "That was a limitation I wanted to give the animators. I felt very strongly that all the robots that I really relate to and fell in love with had no mouths. Or if they did have a mouth, it didn't move. I would say that the only robot I know of that had a bit of facial articulation that worked was the Iron Giant. Otherwise — C-3PO, R2-D2, Robby from Forbidden Planet — they have no faces or very limited articulation. "Peter Brown's illustrations from the original book had a very simple line indicating that Roz had a mouth, and that was the only thing I said, 'Let's get rid of it.' I wanted to give the animators that limitation because I knew that would push them in other ways. That through pantomime and through Lupita's amazing voice performance, I was very confident we could get everything we wanted and maybe more, because I feel like in the absence of over-articulated faces, an audience will project their emotions onto that blankness, almost like a canvas. I felt like the end result was just very incredible." How did you bring a traditionally-animated feel into the CG world? Chris Sanders: "There's such reverence for 2D animation or classic animation amongst all the animators, amongst all the artists. There's a graphic quality to animation that will always have this different way of communicating with our brains. I think we look at paintings and we look at draw- ings in a different way. I think that graphic sort of communication, combined with what I feel was a great sincerity that we put into the story. It is not a cynical book, and we didn't want the film to have any sort of cynicism to it. It's a very earnest, honest story — very sincere. "I have to also mention Kris Bowers' incredible score. Kris Bowers, I would argue, is the largest voice in the film. There are many, many places where I built what I call 'houses for music' within the story, which I learned — an experience on Lilo & Stitch had a big effect on me — that we then applied to How to Train Your Dragon sequences like 'Forbidden Friendship,' where Hiccup and Toothless are working out their relationship and have no dialogue. Those moments are very, very powerful. So I have several places in this film where dialogue pretty much just stops and music takes over. Those moments for me are the most trans- portive, elevated moments in our film for sure." Do you have any advice for up-and- coming animators? Chris Sanders: "This whole idea of following your dreams is great, but if I had a dream to be a singer, that wouldn't have worked out because I can't sing. My voice doesn't do that. I was talking about this with Jeffrey Katzenberg, and he broke in and said, 'No, follow your talent.' And I thought, 'That's brilliant. Follow your talent.' If you have an aptitude towards animation or design or background paint- ing, go with that. Listen to that. "I started out in the story department at Disney. As I transitioned into directing, both Dean [DeBlois] and I thought, 'Well, how can we do this? I don't know how to animate. I don't know how to draw a background. I certainly can't paint very well. So how are we going to do this?' We both realized we would do it by staying where we belong — in story. "When I direct, I don't insinuate myself into other people's departments, into their business. I stay where I belong, so we talk about things from a story perspective. When I talk to animators or background artists or people who are doing the light, or if I'm in editorial, I talk about the needs of the scene, the needs of the story. If an animator goes off and animates a moment and it's not the way I saw it in my head, but it checks all the boxes, Lupita Nyong'o is the voice of "Roz." Director Chris Sanders