Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/491590
"The Boov built seven billion homes with white picket fences in Australia," Johnson says. "The ceilings are a little low, though, because the humans looked shorter from space." S U R R E A L - I T Y The low-ceilinged houses land- scaped with picket fences look normal compared to the rest of the world once the Boov begin rearranging it. "Tim [Johnson] always re- minded me that the aliens didn't mean any harm," Ramasubra- manian says. "They came as interior decorators. They thought the humans needed help, so they helped them. They saw that the humans liked things manicured, so they built a whole country, complete with small bushes, garden gnomes, and roll- er coasters. They said, 'Let's have the humans stay there while we're in other parts.' The Boov transform the world, but they always think they're helping." The transformations these interior decorators produced looked more like something René Magritte might paint than a page from "Architectural Digest." Postapocalyptic was never so weirdly charming. For example, the six-legged Boov decided that bicycles weren't useful. So, as part of their tidy- ing up, they decided to collect the bikes with a bubble and store them. In the air. "We limited ourselves to the few technologies we assume the aliens have," Ramasubrama- nian says. Bubbles and gravity. They had small spheres that would locally control gravity, so they scanned the bicycles with a gravity ball. The bicycles stuck to the ball, which floats." Not only bicycles. In every scene that has characters flying in the car or sitting on a hilltop, you can see floating balls in the background. "It looks surreal," Ramasubra- manian says. "Playful. One is full of pianos and you hear tunes as they fly by. One has picnic tables, so the characters sit on a bench, have lunch, and then get back in the car and fly on." As Oh and Tip fly around the transformed world looking for Tip's mother, they might see a Roman coliseum floating over a US landscape, the Statue of Liberty surrounded by Roman monuments. In one scene, a Ferris wheel floats in the sky. In another, an Egyptian pharaoh. "The Boov could pick up any object and float it over the world," Ramasubramanian says. "It didn't matter. They were just doing interior decorating and keeping everything floating. Playful things. Sometimes modified. The captain of the Boov liked to put his image on everything. There is one sequence, though, in which the world doesn't look like Dali stopped by. "Oh and Tip are sitting on the hood of the car, which is floating above a quiet ocean under the night sky," Ramasubramanian says. "The sky is clear; it only has stars. Oh realizes he has not completely understood humans. That what the Boov have done has been horrific for the humans. Tim [Johnson] said to let that sequence be only about the characters. It's the one sequence in which you wouldn't notice any- thing has changed. Except there is an alien on a floating car." B O O V D E S I G N S You could sum up the character design for the Boov with one word: adorable. Or, maybe two: adorable and unique. The short little Boov have six legs, "nostri- cals" that curl like tentacles on the side of their heads where ears would be, and two arms. Their legs have no knees, but their arms have elbows that can bend to a sharp point when they're angry. And, they can uncurl their nostricals like an elephant uncurls its trunk. But in general, they are so and squishy. "I'm a Comic-Con habitué," Johnson says. "It's a joyful, fun event, but it's really hard to have a unique voice. A lot of character design feels repeti- 8 cgw m a r c h . a p r i l 2 0 1 5 OH'S NORMALLY PURPLE COLOR CHANGES TO REFLECT HIS EMOTIONS.