Category: Disney Movies

Categories
Disney Movies Disney News

The Call of the Wild: How Storytelling Enriches the Meaning of Family and Helps Answer the Call

From our friends at ohmy.disney.com

News Disney

The Call of the Wild: How Storytelling Enriches the Meaning of Family and Helps Answer the Call

Jenn Fujiikawa

February 21, 2020 | 09:00 am

The Call of the Wild: How Storytelling Enriches the Meaning of Family and Helps Answer the Call

Searching for your calling in life doesn’t just apply to humans. Adapted from the classic book, The Call of the Wild follows the story of Buck, a domesticated pet turned wilderness adventurer, who is suddenly uprooted from the lap of luxury in California and has to learn to adapt to the rugged wilds of the Yukon during the gold rush of the 1890s. Oh My Disney sat down with director Chris Sanders and actor Cara Gee (Françoise) to discuss bringing the legendary novel to life and how they follow their own call of the wild.

Buck from The Call of the Wild

A live-action/animation hybrid, The Call of the Wild uses amazing visual effects to create life-like animals in the film. An acclaimed animation director and storyboard artist, Sanders took his first foray into live-action with this movie, but he felt well-prepared to take on Buck’s journey. “He’s an animated character in the best sense. That’s one of the reasons I was interested in doing this, and felt that I could. It’s my first live-action thing I’ve ever done, but there’s such a tremendously large animated element to it, that I felt comfortable.”

Sanders is known for being the creator and voice of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ beloved Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. This insight was key to bringing animated animals to life on the big screen: “He has to look real. But the trick and the fun of this whole thing was that for the first time, our dog can act, and he’s gonna be the lead. All these other versions of The Call of the Wild that have been done, the dogs are there to varying degrees, but there’s only so much you can do with them.”

The Call of the Wild - John Thornton and Buck

“So with this Buck, we had a chance to have him act and be a real character from start to finish, and see his growth,” described Sanders. “And he’s definitely sort of a bouncy, irresponsible, silly guy at the beginning, and at the end, you can see he’s really grown up — but we wanted to make sure that he grew up and got in touch with the things inside him, these gifts that he didn’t know he had — and yet we wanted to have his gentle nature unchanged.”

As a West Coast pooch, Buck had never experienced the cold before, let alone miles of snow banks. Once transplanted into the Northwest, he takes on a new adventure as a sled dog for mail carriers Perrault and Françoise. In the original book, the character of Françoise was a man, but Gee embraced the update, which was especially meaningful to her as an indigenous person. “It was really important to me to honor the novel, because it is so iconic and has such a place in American literary history,” Gee said. “I am an indigenous woman. I’m Ojibwe. And the character is Tlingit — the people who are indigenous to that geography. So I worked with a cultural advisor from that region, which is something that I advocated for in the process. It was really important to me that we honor and respect the Tlingit people — they invented dog sledding — so that was really important to me to build those layers into the character.”

The Call of the Wild - Francoise

“This is a really special moment. To be a lead woman in this film and to be a native woman is very meaningful and very powerful,” shared Gee. “And I hope that inspires the next generation. I feel very proud to be a part of this.”

In regards to a personal calling or inspiration, it all comes down to tales about family. “Stories. I always have stories in my head that I’m working on, that I’m putting together,” revealed Sanders. “And I think my call of the wild would be to get as many of those out as possible while I can. I’m drawn to the gray tones of things — things aren’t black and white in real life. Family stuff is complicated, but there’s magic in that and there’s surprise, and some great rewards, and I love those kinds of stories.”

For Gee, being nine months pregnant while promoting the movie has changed how meaningful family is in relation to the film. “I wasn’t pregnant when we shot the movie, and now, of course, that it’s coming out and I’m about to give birth, it’s taken on a whole new meaning. I am so excited to share this film with the next generation. It’s a beautiful coming of age story, there’s reverence for nature, there’s a sense of awe and wonder, and magic and possibility, that is just so beautiful,” she mused. “This film feels like such a beautiful story to offer the world.”

Ready for an adventure of a lifetime? Get your tickets to see The Call of the Wild, now in theaters.

Harrison Ford. Based on the legendary novel, "The Call of the Wild" February 21

 

Categories
Disney Movies Disney News

4 Things to Look Forward to When Disney and Pixar’s Onward Cometh to Theaters

From our friends at ohmy.disney.com

News Pixar

4 Things to Look Forward to When Disney and Pixar’s Onward Cometh to Theaters

Kelly Lin

February 12, 2020 | 09:00 am

4 Things to Look Forward to When Disney and Pixar’s Onward Cometh to Theaters

The team behind Disney and Pixar’s Onward goes behind-the-scenes on the making of the film.

In Disney and Pixar’s newest film, Onward, audiences join teen brothers Ian and Barley as they embark on a quest to reunite with their dad, whom they lost at a young age. Like any great Disney and Pixar movie, this film has a great cast (including Chris Pratt and Tom Holland, just to name a few!) and is full of heart, humor, and compelling characters. As if that weren’t enough, here are four more things to look forward to when the film arrives in theaters on March 6!

A World Blending the Fantastic with the Familiar

Onward neighborhood

From a Monster world hidden just behind our closets to a kitchen in Paris, Pixar films taken place in some pretty interesting locations. Onward, which is set in a suburban fantasy world, is no exception.

For the filmmakers on Onward, placing the film in this setting helped them create a space where there could be both possibility and scarcity, fantasy yet also familiarity. A world where, through magic, Dad could potentially come back — but also a world in which that magic would not necessarily be easy to produce. “If we had other people who knew magic in the world, Ian and Barley could easily just go down the street and ask that person to fix Dad for them, but we knew we couldn’t do that because we knew we needed the characters on the journey,” shared production designer Noah Klocek.

Onward Unicorns

After several iterations, the team refined that suburban fantasy world even further, eventually settling on a style that was 70% familiar and 30% fantastic. Oftentimes, the 30% was easy to achieve, as the team soon realized that by simply placing an elf or a troll in a scene, they would instantly meet that threshold. It was balancing that out with the familiar that proved to be more difficult. To get inspiration for the familiar, the team took a research trip to Los Angeles, where they surveyed houses in the neighborhoods of Los Feliz and Frogtown and also looked at everyday mundanities like parking lots and power lines.

Magic Unlike Anything You’ve Seen Before!

Ian from Onward

Another major challenge for the team was determining exactly what magic would look like in the film. We’ve all seen many a fantasy film with magical elements in the past, but how do you craft a version of magic that can both fit the tone of your tale and also be completely unique to your film?

It takes a brave soul to embark on such a quest, and luckily Pixar’s internal club The Fellowship (consisting of fantasy geeks throughout the company) were the perfect people for the task. Together with director Dan Scanlon, they determined the three essential components of a spell:

  1. Heart’s Fire – This is the passion you bring to a spell that makes it come to life.
  2. Magic Decree – Used in the more intermediate to advanced spells, this is the specific state of mind you need to be in to cast the spell.
  3. Assist Element – An ingredient necessary for the most advanced spells, without which your spell would be rendered useless. In the case of the Visitation Spell attempted by Ian and Barley to bring back their dad, the assist element is a phoenix gem.

Onward Magic progression

Using these components as a guide, the team was then able to move on to more features of the magic, like what a spell should be named and what magic should look like. When it came to the look, the team considered many factors, including the color of the magic, how one’s confidence can affect the shape and style of the magic, and how much space a piece of magic should take up on the screen — which came together to create the final version seen in the trailers.

TROLLS!

Pixar is famous for their incredible Easter eggs, and Onward is no exception. Look closely while watching the film and you just might spot a troll or two or three, or nearly one in every frame! How did these trolls end up there? You can thank the Crowds team for that!

Onward Character line-up

On an animated film, it’s the Crowds team’s job to populate and animate the background characters of a shot. For Onward, these included everything from elves to satyrs to goblins. The magical species that was exceptionally hard for them place were the trolls. Animation Crowds Supervisor Sequoia Blankenship shared, “When we’d put a troll in a shot, it’d be so big that it would immediately suck up all the visual oxygen of the scene.” Determined to find a way to still incorporate trolls as background characters, the team took it upon themselves to not only find the right places for the trolls in scenes with lots of characters, but also the right place for trolls in every scene. Voila! An Easter egg is born!

And of Course, Awesome Animation

One of the great challenges but also great opportunities of animating Onward was determining the movements of several characters that don’t exist in our real world, like a person missing a top half, or the part-horse, part-man centaur. In these cases, the animators really had to think outside the box and use their imaginations to craft movements that felt fantastic, but not outside the realm of familiarity.

Onward Ian and Barley Dancing

The character of Dad offered that perfect challenge. “With Dad, we really had to ask ourselves, how can pants communicate and express emotion?” shared directing animator Allison Rutland. Before the actual animation even began, the animators did several green screen tests with Scanlon to test how a pair of pants would do things like sit down, be pulled by a leash, or perhaps even do a high-five. (For that, a leg would lift to tap a hand.) The flop of Dad’s top half offered the perfect jumping-off point for scenes where they needed Dad to show a bit of sass and attitude for comedic effect. In contrast, more subtle elements like foot tapping ended up becoming effective tools for Dad to connect in heart-to-heart moments with his sons. Combine all those elements together and you’ve got a character who can be both funny, sincere, and have a true personality — and do it all as pants. In short, the power of animation!

Onward Ian, Barley and mom

Making a movie, let alone an animated movie, requires a lot of people to work together among a lot of moving parts. Yet when those parts come together in just the right way, it can be pure magic! Experience that magic first-hand when Onward comes to theaters March 6.

Categories
Disney Movies Disney News Other

The Magic Behind the Epic Music from Frozen 2

From our friends at ohmy.disney.com

News Disney

The Magic Behind the Epic Music from Frozen 2

Ilana Gelfand

November 22, 2019 | 02:32 pm

 

The Magic Behind the Epic Music from Frozen 2

When we learned about Frozen 2 — that it was even an idea in the works — the first thing we thought of was, “OMG, we can’t wait for the soundtrack!” Songwriting duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez completely nailed the music for Frozen, and we knew they’d do the same this time. Well, the Frozen 2 soundtrack is officially available, and it is so good! I mean, it’s been out for a few days, and we’ve got every word of every song memorized.

Let’s break down some of our favorite songs, and­ — thanks to a recent press conference we attended with the cast and filmmakers — get a glimpse of the magic that went into creating them:

Scene from Frozen 2 - Sven, Kristoff, Olaf, Anna and Elsa - from left to right

First, we have the masterful hit, Into the Unknown. The power ballad, sung by Idina Menzel, really challenged her vocals. She describes,

“Kristen and Bobby can write such memorable, impactful melodies, but also tell a story and involve your character through all that. It’s quite a gift. So I can just go in [to the studio] and have fun. The only thing that I do is that I warm up a lot because I know that they’re going to push me to hit [the] top of my range. And on a good day, I do, and I’m like let’s take it. Let’s go for some of these high notes. And then when I’m out in the middle of like Amsterdam on a tour and I have a cold, I just want to, like, go home. I have to take it down a key, because it’s just that they’re really challenging songs.”

The song is so impactful, and we’ll certainly be belting it for years to come.

Kristoff riding on a reindeer amongst a herd reindeer

The next song we can’t stop singing is Lost in the Woods, which is sung by Jonathan Groff who plays Kristoff. What we love about Lost in the Woods is that it’s so refreshing to hear a leading male sing about his feelings for the leading female, rather than the other way around. As the line from Reindeer(s) Are Better Than People says, “You feel what you feel, and your feelings are real,” and that’s a lesson we know fans will pick up on. Plus, we love that the Lopezes leaned into the 80s ballad style of a man having a really tender, emotional journey. You know, sort of how we sing just about every karaoke song.

“We needed to have a moment of fun. But we also didn’t want to lose the tether to real emotion and the real problems of transformation that are happening in the woods,” Kristen describes.

By the way, while we definitely will not spoil the scene for you, you should know that the song comes with hysterical, rolling on the floor laughing animation that you’re going to love.

Scene from Frozen two - group traveling in a wagon being pulled by Sven

The last song we’ll touch on is Olaf’s When I’m Older, which is incredibly relatable. Josh Gad recounts,

 “In the first movie, [Olaf] was this innocent ball of naiveté, willing to basically go out into the summer sun because he didn’t know any better but to embrace it. And in this movie, he’s almost gone from like toddler to fully grown child… where now he’s starting to ask those questions that don’t always have easy answers. And from a comedic perspective, it gave me so much to play with. But more importantly, from an emotional arc, it was just such a beautiful journey of that moment in life where you start to realize that maybe the world isn’t just raindrops and lollipops and roses…”

Relatable, Olaf. Relatable.

There’s so much more to love about the soundtrack of Frozen 2, and we can’t say enough about how truly epic this new adventure is for our favorite Frozen characters. Get your tickets to see Frozen 2, now in theaters!

Categories
Disney Movies Other

A Behind-the-Scenes Look into the Animation of Frozen 2

From our friends at ohmy.disney.com

News Disney

A Behind-the-Scenes Look into the Animation of Frozen 2

November 7, 2019 | 06:34 pm

Frozen 2 characters

It’s November, which means that we’ve officially entered the month of Frozen 2! It should be no surprise that we’ve basically been dreaming about seeing the film on the big screen for months!

About a month ago, we shared some exciting things we learned about Frozen 2 from the filmmakers. We’ve now returned to take a deeper dive into the animation of the upcoming film, and get a better understanding of how this beautiful upcoming masterpiece was brought to life.

The development of a great movie always begins with a great team. Frozen 2 involved bringing multiple artists together to create an overall animation style, despite having animators with their own unique approaches. While this was prone to its own set of challenges, there were leads that helped to carve out a cohesive direction. Alongside the Co-Heads of Animation, the Supervising Animators worked to take charge of the characters and really drive them.

When it comes to the process of animation, every person follows their own method to prepare for a scene. However, what is always consistent is the process of “issuing” with the directors, which encompasses breaking down what a scene will look like. In this stage, Directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck serve as the resources for the overall vision for the different characters and movements. The animators will then soak up all of the information they’re given to help bring the movie to life.

Frozen 2 Storyboard

After issuing comes creating the layout for a scene. The job of the animation team is to then take the directors’ ideas and explore more of who the characters will be. How do they go about this, you may ask? By recreating their actions in real life! This often takes the form of acting out a motion to better see what it would look like, or shooting a reference. Co-Head of Animation Becky Bresee explains,

I actually act the scene out or my daughters will act the scene out, or [even] my husband will act the scene out. Everyone is affected by it.

Note to self: #SignsYouHaveAnAnimatorInYourFamily

Olaf: Frozen 2

The next step is Blocking, which involves looking at the timeline and number of frames in a shot. According to Co-Head of Animation Tony Smeed, the procedure entails filling in just enough film frames to pose a character in a “golden pose,” or showcase the tentpole moments of a scene. The purpose of this is to essentially showcase enough of the concept for the directors to understand, without having to fill out everything in case there are changes that need to be made. Upon receiving approval from the directors, the artists will close the gaps and smooth everything out.

The animation of Frozen 2 wouldn’t have been complete without some epic effects! From what we’ve seen in the trailer, we can expect the upcoming film to be nothing short of legendary. “Once you get to see the whole [film], every sequence seems to have [had] something really difficult to do. It was an effects animator’s dream come true because you [got] to do all this very cool, varied stuff,” states Head of Effects Animation Marlon West.

One of the amazing characters the effects animation team had the opportunity to take on was the Nokk, one of Frozen 2’s mythical characters. Fun fact: the Nokk took six months of development with half a dozen artists meeting almost daily! With that time frame and scale in mind, it isn’t shocking to hear that it was one of the most intensive characters from Frozen 2 to work on. Countless questions had to be considered during its creation, such as “How much do you even see Elsa through the Nokk?” West notes, “The character has to be believable above water [and] under water. Most of the things that make the Nokk look like water is his tail and his mane.” When working on effects, it’s also important to keep animations incorporated in mind to not conflict with the performance of the scene. Who else has full appreciation for the Nokk now?

What. A. Time. To. Be. Alive. We’re so ready to fully immerse ourselves with the animation of Frozen 2. Grab your friends and venture into the unknown when the film hits theaters November 22!

Categories
Disney Movies Other

We Met the Real-World Character Inspirations for Disney’s The Lion King, and They’re Incredible

From our friends at ohmy.disney.com

News Disney

We Met the Real-World Character Inspirations for Disney’s The Lion King, and They’re Incredible

October 31, 2019 | 04:13 pm

 

We Met the Real-World Character Inspirations for Disney’s The Lion King, and They’re Incredible

Filmmakers went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge to get the look, feel and sounds of all our favorite characters just right. And we got to follow in their footsteps!

Simba, Nala and Mufasa
© 2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We took a trip to the Most Magical Place on Earth to meet with some of the animals (and people) who helped bring Disney’s The Lion King to life in honor of the film’s Digital and Blu-ray release. It quickly became clear how influential Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge were on filmmakers as they brought Disney’s The Lion King’s iconic characters to life in an all-new way.

If you’ve been to Walt Disney World Resort (or it’s on your bucket list), you know the level of immersive storytelling that goes into every attraction, from the biggest set piece to the smallest detail. Disney’s Animal Kingdom takes it one step further, because it’s the true-to-life habitat to over 250 species of animals. In fact, a whopping 75% of all the animals that appear in Disneys’ The Lion King can be found in the Park, if you’re prepared to search for them all. Which is why when filmmakers started out the process of adapting a classic… essentially from scratch… they went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge to get the look, feel and sounds of all our favorite characters just right. And we got to follow in their footsteps.

Step 1: Kilimanjaro Safaris

Wildebeests

Riding the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is like taking a tour through the world of Disney’s The Lion King. At one particular thrilling moment, we had to wait for a herd of wildebeest to cross in front of our truck (at least they weren’t stampeding). And that wasn’t all–the hyenas hid together in their den waiting for darkness to fall, hippos splashed in the water near pink-backed pelicans, elephants ate together, and the lions sunned themselves on the Disney’s Animal Kingdom version of Pride Rock like they truly owned everything the light touches. Disney’s Animal Kingdom has natural barriers, so the animals are aware of their neighbors by sounds and smells, even if they can’t all attend a Circle of Life-type celebration like they do in the film. (Sorry to whichever animals are next to Pumbaa’s inspiration.)

While there, we were able to meet Jon Ross, cast member with Disney’s Animals in Film & TV, who collaborates with Disney productions to ensure safe and humane access to the animals. We talked to him about how the animals helped filmmakers create the characters. (Jon’s favorite Disney film is appropriately Zootopia.)

“The filmmakers spent about 6 weeks [at Disney’s Animal Kingdom], basically getting unprecedented access to the animals. We worked really closely with our animal care teams to make sure the filmmaking process wasn’t getting in the way of the animals’ day-to-day lives. This allowed the filmmakers to focus on [the animals’] natural habitat and really hone in on those natural behaviors, which I think you can see really well in the final product.”

Step 2: The Lions

Nala and Simba
© 2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This past Summer, we got to meet Donald Glover at the premiere of Disney’s The Lion King but now we can say we got to meet “Simba,” too. That roar you can hear on the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction could be the same roar you hear in the film.

Jon Ross elaborated, “We had a sound crew from Skywalker Sound come to the Park for about a week and [they] spent a lot of time collecting animal vocalizations. We worked with the animal care team to find out when the animals were the chattiest. We went into those areas as they were roaring…. And a lot of that wound up in the film.” (Clearly, our own personal chattiest time is right now, after we’ve just gone on this amazing tour.)

“We got to spend a lot of time around the lions. They are super active early in the morning… And when they come up to the front of their exhibit and start roaring, you can feel it in your chest. It’s awesome,” said Jon.

Claire Martin, who leads Disney’s conservation team dedicated to delivering conservation inspiration and impact on Disney property and around the world, chimed in, “Best sound in the world.” We have to agree, actually. In fact, Disney launched a global campaign called Protect the Pride, to help ensure lions continue roaring across Africa with a goal of providing $3 million to the Wildlife Conservation Network’s Lion Recovery Fund.

Step 3: The Hyenas

Hyena

We spent some time with the hyenas only a few feet away from us (don’t worry, we were safe) and they are BEAUTIFUL animals. Their fur is gorgeous. Watching them play for a half-hour or so changed our perception of them. The animal care team was pleased to see the accuracy of the hyenas’ posture, movement and even their female-dominated social hierarchy accurately represented in Disney’s The Lion King. They told us the real-life versions of Shenzi, Kamari, and Azizi would probably be much nicer overall.

Claire has a soft spot for hyenas. “Hyenas, I think are one of the coolest animals on the planet. Of course, in The Lion King you have to have a villain… but in the animal world, they are heroes.” If they are, they’re definitely unsung heroes. We have a lot more empathy for them now!

Step 4: The Pridelands

Simba and Mufasa survey pridelands

We would be remiss not to talk about the character of Africa itself created by the filmmakers. We got to sit down with three-time Oscar®-winning VFX Supervisor Rob Legato to talk about the world that he helped to create. It blew our minds to learn that only one shot in the whole movie was real – shot on location in Africa. Seriously, just one?? If you want to watch the film frame-by-frame to find it, stop reading because SPOILER ALERT, it’s the opening shot of the sunrise illuminating the Pridelands. Don’t worry, we wouldn’t have known that either without Rob pointing that out to us. With the state-of-the-art technology having gotten so good at immersing the audience in perceived reality, he told us even he wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference without his unique insider knowledge. And he has three more Oscars than we do in visual effects, so that makes us feel a little better.

Also, because the Pridelands are NEARLY entirely virtual, we had to know if there were Disney Easter eggs hidden in plain sight. Rob confirmed that while he didn’t personally add them, he knows they are there. “[There are] always Mickey Mouse ears in every [Disney] movie. I haven’t seen the one — where they put this one in — [but] they’re there, for sure.” Well we know what we’re doing now that the film is out on Blu-Ray. There goes our productivity.

Bring home Disney’s The Lion King on Digital & Blu-ray TODAY: http://di.sn/6000ECcxA

Learn more about Walt Disney World Resort and Disney’s Animal Kingdom: Walt Disney World Resort

Learn more about the animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom: DisneyAnimals.com