With The Wild Robot, Chris Sanders finally set computer animation free

When Lilo & Sew and Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon co-director Chris Sanders dropped into DreamWorks to see what motion pictures they’d on their improvement roster, he fell in love with The Wild Robotic. Initially a series of middle-grade books by author and illustrator Peter Brown, the story follows a robotic named Roz who results in the wilderness and varieties a deep bond with an orphaned gosling.

It was every part Sanders wished: delicate, emotional, and character-driven.

“Sometimes when I see a property like this, I actually get a little bit anxious, because I feel like I know what to do,” he tells Polygon. “So I want to be the one that does it. I just feel like, I think I know exactly what to do. Please let me do it, because I know where to go. I have a good direction.”

Sanders, who additionally co-directed The Croods for DreamWorks, knew what he wished this film to be. And now that computer expertise is finally able to approaching the look of hand-drawn animation, he was capable of push the film to look the best way he envisioned it. From the primary trailers, which revealed a lush, beautiful film not like some other, we have been wanting to know extra. So forward of the film’s late-September launch, Sanders sat down with Polygon to speak about utilizing his 40 years of expertise within the animation world to craft this deeply private story.

This interview has been edited for concision and readability.

Polygon: Is there a film you beforehand labored on in your profession that you simply really feel ready you most for The Wild Robotic?

Chris Sanders: Lilo & Sew and Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon. These are essentially the most private movies I’ve ever labored on. Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon was tailored from a e-book, nevertheless it ready me for this explicit movie, as a result of after we got here on to Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon, we have been inheriting the film from a former director, and so they didn’t just like the course that was going. They wished to make a change. We needed to strip the story all the way down to its framework with a view to work out what the issue was. Image a automotive coming into a store, and it’s not operating, and also you marvel why, and also you simply take the entire thing aside, and you start constructing it up from scratch.

So my expertise engaged on the story for Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon taught me that it’s OK to deal with this stuff structurally for some time. Earlier than you permit your self to get into the extra enjoyable elements and the characters, it’s okay to again up and take a look at them structurally. In order that’s one thing that I actually took away from Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon. It served me nicely on this explicit narrative.

How carefully did you’re employed with Peter Brown for the film?

Our very first telephone name was to Peter Brown for the mission. It was essentially the most consequential telephone name of the sequence. I’ve but to satisfy Peter in particular person. Our timing on this was very troublesome, as a result of he was within the midst of transferring, after which he had his first baby, and he was additionally ending up his third e-book, and he had a deadline for that. So he was by no means actually capable of come out and go to us. We have been at all times doing issues over Zoom.

However that very first telephone name, he mentioned one thing that was extraordinarily vital. He advised us that whereas he was writing the e-book, the theme that was going by means of his head was that kindness generally is a survival ability, and we simply instantly wrote that down. I knew that I wished to memorialize that in script and display screen, and that’s precisely what we did.

The Wild Robotic grapples rather a lot with the stresses of parenthood. How do you strike a line between a narrative that will probably be accessible to youngsters however nonetheless significant to adults?

Since I started my journey in animation, I realized that to make a great animated film for everybody, you’re employed to not exclude. You by no means fairly goal anybody, however you do the other. You just remember to don’t do one thing that might, for some cause, preserve another person — anyone — from having fun with the movie. And that doesn’t imply all people has to grasp every part. It’s okay to have stuff that goes over children’ heads from time to time. I keep in mind after I was a child, in TV exhibits and flicks, there have been sure issues, like, I don’t know what’s occurring, however I nonetheless like this film. So we work to not exclude.

One of many points of the story I actually gravitated towards was that there’s a robust theme of motherhood that runs all through — it’s at all times been a little bit of a gag in animation, that there are always missing mothers in these stories. And I’ve come to grasp why that’s. However on this case, it was core to the story.

So which means the entire thing was actually contemporary and actually totally different. And I like issues which are each difficult and in addition issues I feel I can do issues with. I don’t thoughts that there are parts which are a little bit of a puzzle, and that could be onerous to determine. As a result of when you may have a great story crew and a great editor, you’ll determine this stuff out.

What was one thing that introduced a little bit of a puzzle?

There have been a couple of, like precisely what Roz’s trajectory is thru the movie, notably when she arrives on the island. Within the e-book, she is pushed to discover a activity, and he or she’s within the improper place, and there are not any individuals to provide her a activity, so she is annoyed. That tends to get very monotonous. So one of many issues we have been actually attempting to do is preserve Roz fascinating and compelling, and by no means let her get right into a monotonous place the place she’s merely going and asking all people, “Do you have a job? Do you have a job?”

So discovering her angle as she went into the entire thing, but in addition weaving the theme of motherhood all through all the movie. It’s a really highly effective factor, and also you don’t need to draw back from it, so that you need to give it room to breathe. The timing of this film was very essential as nicely. It implies that I took a number of the characters from the e-book and I trimmed them again so different characters would have extra time to do what they should do. But in addition that we’d have a film that had the identical tempo in its completed type that I used to be feeling after I learn the e-book.

You don’t need to be hurried. You don’t desire a crowded film. And also you don’t desire a film that has too many characters or an excessive amount of dialogue, the place you’re simply tripping over your self such as you’re operating in entrance of a lawnmower or one thing. I’ve positively seen motion pictures that had that.

Did the voice forged for this movie convey something to their characters that ended up shaping the film’s trajectory?

It’s one of many enjoyable issues about casting a personality. You do your greatest to current a personality that’s fascinating and compelling. As soon as an actor says sure to a job, the very first thing you do is, you return by means of all the set of dialogue and also you rewrite.

Catherine [O’Hara] is a good instance. She performs the final word mother on this film — has three families a year at least. So Pinktail the [possum] may have been a very sentimental character, very involved about her treasured youngsters and this and that. However with Catherine on board, we took an entire totally different angle that was contemporary, and, I assumed, simply a lot enjoyable. She’s over it. Her nurturing wore off many seasons in the past. So she’s a really pragmatic mother. She loves her children, she takes care of them, however there’s a second the place she’s not precisely certain what their names are, as a result of she has too many yearly, and so she’s a little bit bit behind on this and never tremendous involved. And I liked her tackle that character.

Lupita [Nyong’o, who plays Roz] had the toughest activity. We wished the contemporary and compelling tackle a robotic that’s rising as a personality, and we didn’t need it to be a two-dimensional factor, the place a robotic goes from being impassive to having emotion. That’s simply too easy. What Roz goes by means of is much extra advanced and extra dimensional. And Lupita labored very, very onerous, as a result of I insisted that Roz haven’t any facial articulation.

I’ve numerous emotions about which sorts of robots work greatest on display screen. Lupita knew that 100% of her efficiency was on her voice. We have been going to depart these recording classes simply along with her voice, so she needed to weave each little piece of nuance and emotion into these recordings.

What we additionally have been monitoring was this transformation: Roz is essentially the most outstanding character by means of the movie. She’s the lead. So she has extra dialogue than some other character. The sheer scale of what Lupita needed to accomplish, on prime of the evolution of Roz, and actually discovering a voice to start and finish with that have been totally different.

As we went into recording classes, we needed to monitor that voice as we did totally different sequences, as a result of we do this stuff out of order. No matter sequence is able to go, that goes into manufacturing. That could be a sequence within the third act, or it could be a sequence within the second act. So we’re leaping round and dropping into these sequences, and Lupita needed to regulate her voice relying on the place she was in the course of the recording session.

I can not say sufficient about how extremely gifted she was. However not simply gifted — she had an unbelievable work ethic. She sat on the microphone for 4 hours at a time. I’ve performed stuff like that, and it’s exhausting — it’s onerous to remain centered and on level and contemporary on the finish of a session like that. She did such an excellent job.

There’s an extended historical past in motion pictures of robots who develop emotions and relationships. Had been there sure characters or motion pictures you drew from for Roz’s design?

There are positively robotic characters that I discover are extra profitable than others: C-3PO, R2-D2, the robotic from Forbidden Planet. The solely robotic that I’d say has facial articulation that really works, for my part, is the Iron Large. So these have been the characters I used to be most taking a look at, not simply due to the dearth of facial articulation, but in addition simply because they’d such robust designs. That was a really welcome problem for us, was to create a robotic that might be iconic and memorable and would take its place — hopefully, in success‚ inside an enormous neighborhood of very, very memorable robots.

Our design workforce, specifically one in all our artists named Hyun Huh, who designed Roz… We have been all attempting out designs, myself included. However someday, after we got here into our artwork assembly, Hyun introduced his design, which is principally the design you see on display screen. All of us simply fell in love with it and mentioned, “You did it. It’s a unified design. It’s simple, it’s appealing.”

And Peter Brown, in his e-book, describes Roz each very clearly, but in addition very graphically. Which suggests numerous the main points have been not noted, due to his graphic fashion. We knew we needed to have a humanoid robotic, not simply due to the design introduced in a e-book, but in addition as a result of Peter Brown advised us in particular person throughout a type of telephone calls what a Rozzum [robot] was: A Rozzum is a generalist. A Rozzum is made to suit into human areas and work alongside people, doing jobs with them and for them. So Roz appears to be like human, however she’s additionally adaptable. She’s a studying robotic. She’s a bit like Foolish Putty. She will be able to imprint on issues and study issues, relying on the place she is.

The visible look of this film is so distinct and evocative. How did you develop it?

It’s one of many massive tales of this movie. DreamWorks had already made some large strides in getting away from the CG look that we have been so habituated to by design. We have been shackled to that look as a result of the expertise had limitations. So with The Dangerous Guys and with Puss in Boots: The Final Want, they’d moved right into a extra illustrated fashion, which was wonderful. However for Wild Robotic, we wished to go nicely past that.

Our improvement art work, it’s this unfastened, sketchy stuff that’s performed in paint — digitally, however nonetheless painted. I like the look of it. It had the impressionistic vibe, and it was very a lot the best way I used to be seeing the story as I learn the e-book. So I requested [Wild Robot production designer] Raymond Zibach, may our completed movie be indiscernible from these explorations? And he mentioned, “Let’s go for it.”

One of many issues they wanted to do to attain that look… We may now not wrap geometry with textures, which is what we’ve been doing in CG from the very starting. We’d like the hand-painted look all over the place. Not simply within the sky, however on the bottom and within the bushes, in bushes and flowers and every part. In order that’s what they did. They discovered a strategy to paint dimensionally. So there isn’t any geometry within the movie, apart from the characters. And even the characters have painted surfaces.

[DreamWorks head of look] Baptiste Van Opstal labored very, very onerous to get each single feather to be a brushstroke. And when you get near Fink [the fox, voiced by Pedro Pascal] or Thorn the bear [voiced by Mark Hamill], they don’t have particular person hairs, which is the factor we’re additionally used to [in CG animation], proper? You get actually near a personality, it’s like, Ah! Hundreds of hairs! Computer systems need to do that kind of photoreal factor, however we wished every part to be painted. In order that’s the large story of this movie, is what Raymond and his workforce have been capable of obtain.

I really feel like this movie has really introduced our journey full circle. I’d say Bambi was the start. Bambi is our touchstone so far as the greatest-looking forest I’ve ever seen in an animated movie. Subsequent door to that might even be My Neighbor Totoro by [Hayao] Miyazaki. We now have been struggling to get again to that analog heat you can solely get from the human hand, and we finally did it with this movie.

One of many issues I’m so thrilled by is that individuals who take a look at it, even when they don’t know precisely why it appears to be like totally different, they nonetheless see the distinction and so they react to it. This can be very compelling, and it supercharges every part on display screen. I’m actually thrilled — I really feel like we’ve finally come out of the tunnel we’ve been in for like 20 years, and now we’re open and free to maneuver visually like we was once a very long time in the past.

What have been some visible influences you drew from?

Definitely Bambi, [and that movie’s lead production illustrator] Tyrus Wong. Within the futuristic elements, we checked out Syd Mead and his design sensibility, as a result of every part is glossy and delightful. We wished the world that Roz ended up in to be the precise reverse of the place she was presupposed to be. We additionally took numerous inspiration from wildlife pictures and wildlife documentaries — the best way that you simply use lengthy lenses, since you’re obligated to remain distant out of your topics. So sure elements of the movie have a vibe such as you’d get from a nature documentary, due to computing it.

Over the previous 5 years or so, we’re seeing increasingly motion pictures that push the envelope for what computer animation can do. You’ve been within the trade for many years — why do you assume that’s taking place now?

I feel all of it does come again to expertise. That was the factor that anchored us proper in a single spot. We bought extra chain yearly, however we have been nonetheless anchored to that CG look. We have been obligated to wrapping geometry, and we bought higher and higher textures yearly, and so on., and so on. Nevertheless it nonetheless had this bizarre kind of photoreal vibe, regardless that motion pictures like The Croods saved it so simple as attainable, so it was nonetheless very interesting. However I do consider it was largely technology-based. And I feel that what occurred was, there’s a tipping level we finally reached, the place we are able to finally technologically transfer past the place we have been.

What latest animated motion pictures have actually stood out to you in that vein?

I feel I’d be shocked if anyone didn’t say Spider-Verse in answering that query. That movie was such a wake-up name, and it put all people on discover that issues have modified. That was a sea change. The second one got here out, and was equally as implausible. However the first Spider-Verse, I feel all people was buzzing about that after they noticed it. You couldn’t cease speaking in regards to the look of it, and the fashion and the texture of it. I’m so glad that it truly it had an excellent field workplace and it was acknowledged at awards season.

So I do know I’m citing one thing you mentioned nearly 20 years in the past, however there’s a quote from back in 2007, once you left Disney to go to DreamWorks, the place you mentioned you favored the best way DreamWorks checked out animation. Do you keep in mind what you meant by that?

I think what I used to be in all probability speaking about was… It seems like a destructive, nevertheless it’s truly a constructive. We don’t actually have a home fashion [at DreamWorks], that means they’re not obligated to a sure look the place in the event that they abandon that, they’ll be dinged for it. And I feel this [movie] is a good instance of that power. We’re capable of discover totally different appears to be like for various movies, relying on what’s going to be the simplest search for the movie.

What was it like returning to DreamWorks for The Wild Robotic? Did something change? What stayed the identical?

Studios at all times evolve. Artists come, artists go, and all of us flow into between studios. I used to be at Disney for some time, for a very long time, after which got here to DreamWorks, and I could go someplace else sometime! So it has developed. However the factor about DreamWorks, I feel, that has stayed constant is an obligation to the audacity of the dimensions of the movie.

That’s one thing [Disney veteran and DreamWorks co-founder] Jeffrey [Katzenberg] was at all times actually good at. We as filmmakers are inclined to get nearer and nearer and nearer to a mission till, like, you’ve bought this monocle on, and also you’re a watchmaker taking a look at these little tiny elements. And Jeffrey had this wonderful means of simply kind of figuratively grabbing you by the collar and pulling you again and making you take a look at the movie as an entire. Are you doing the large, large issues that you simply count on from a movie? He at all times was nice in specializing in the dimensions and the extent of audacity in these motion pictures.

What was one thing you labored on early in your profession that basically formed the best way you checked out animation and filmmaking going ahead?

There’s fairly a couple of, fairly a couple of issues… I ought to preserve an inventory of this stuff! Each movie, you study one thing. Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon. Magnificence and the Beast. The Croods. Mulan. You study one thing from every one in all them.

One of the vital necessary issues I realized from Lilo & Sew from [composer] Alan Silvestri was that music is likely one of the best storytelling instruments you may have in your arsenal. I’ve come to actually, actually depend on that. In Tips on how to Practice Your Dragon, an excellent instance can be a sequence we name “the forbidden friendship.” That was when Hiccup discovered himself alone in that cove with Toothless. We simply turned the dialogue off, and music turns into the voice of the film. It’s one of the vital enchanting issues you are able to do, is have characters speaking from time to time. It actually makes individuals listen.

We do this rather a lot in The Wild Robotic. One of many issues I’m actually, actually happy with on this explicit movie is the tempo we have been capable of obtain. We had about 50% of the dialogue that these movies usually have, so we now have much more wide-open areas. Nonetheless, I nonetheless designed what I’d name “houses for music” inside the film. We simply drop dialogue and let music take over. So there’s fairly a couple of locations the place Kris Bowers, our wonderful, wonderful composer, was carrying the narrative for us.

The place do you most need to see animation go sooner or later?

I’d like to see it go in all types of instructions. We finally escaped the gravitational pull of planet CG, and I really feel like we’re all free to maneuver. So simply myself, personally, I can not wait to discover totally different types, relying on the kind of story that we’re telling. Animation is extra alive and nicely than ever earlier than. One of many issues I’m getting such a kick out of is seeing how animated movies are actually doing nicely this yr within the theaters. [Ed. note: As of publication time, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, and Kung Fu Panda 4 were all top 10 biggest box-office earners for 2024.] They’re a number of the greatest movies this yr, flat-out, proper?

I like seeing animated movies get their due so far as simply good viewers participation. I feel that tackling extra critical material… You possibly can inform a narrative for any viewers, any age group, so long as you’re conscious of what age group you’re chatting with. You possibly can capitalize issues. So The Wild Robotic truly tackles some fairly grown-up stuff and a few fairly heavy themes, however we do it in a approach that’s comprehensible and digestible to anybody. So I feel [American animation is] simply broadening the spectrum of the varieties of tales that we inform.

The Wild Robotic hits theaters on Sept. 27.