How Much Has Changed in Animation Since Shrek?
It just felt weird and small…
COLLIDER: You co-directedShrek.
When did you realize, Oh, wait, this might be a huge hit?
Image by Jefferson Chacon
This is funny and really different.
It was before one of our big screenings, like before Cannes.
I’d never worked in CG, and very few people had.
Image via Dreamworks Pictures
The technology back then is so different than what you’re free to do now.
JENSON: In some ways, the technology isn’t all that different.
It’s all in the lighters.
Image via DreamWorks Pictures
It’s in the people.
Things haven’t sped up for me working with everybody.
There still isn’t a button that says, make Charming or something like that.
Image via 20th Century Studios
[Laughs] Crowd scenes are still very hard to do.
But there were still technical issues with feathers blending or colliding with one another.
JENSON: Yeah, yeah.
Image via Skydance Animation
Like, Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this?
No, you’re not alone.
That’s what a lot of filmmakers have told me.
It’s like you’re inventing to solve story challenges in the story you’re trying to tell.
JENSON: Yeah, exactly.
Was that the most nervous you’ve ever been, giving Carol Burnett direction?
Spellbound, directed by Vicky Jenson, follows Princess Ellian on her adventurous quest to rescue her family and kingdom. As a mysterious spell transforms her parents into monsters, Ellian must navigate this perilous journey to restore the King and Queen of Lumbria.
JENSON: No, I was more nervous giving Martin Scorsese direction.
[Laughs] Thats valid.
JENSON: I couldn’t sleep the night before because I thought, How can I direct a director?
I don’t know what I would say to him.
JENSON: But it turned out to be really fun because, apparently, he was just as nervous.
He was sort of like, I don’t know what you want from me.
This is not what I do… Do that.
That’s what we want.
you’ve got the option to do that.
In the end, it was so much fun.
But with Carol Burnett, oh, the stories!
She would just tell these great stories on set.
She was so much fun.
She was the first one there in makeup every morning.
That lady gets up early.
She’s also old-school, professional.
JENSON: Very professional, without making you feel like it’s a job.
She just genuinely loves it.
And Michael Keaton, too.
Oh my god, what fun.
Yeah, they come from a different stock of people.
They’re not transforming into them.
The story has already begun, and you’re catching up.
Can you talk about that story decision?
Some crazy spell is making my parents act like monsters.
It has to be.
That’s where the real story was.
So what were, if any, some of the big changes that happened through this production?
It was a big epic sword-and-sorcery kind of movie with this underlying family situation.
Both parents had magic, but some of that was sort of taking over.
It was in the way.
How do we best tell it?
Something must have happened to them because they’re not acting like themselves.
They’re fighting all the time and all of that.
So, that was a big shift for new writers to work on this new idea.
And then, his story sort of speaks to her story as he gets used to something new.
JENSON: It just looks like it was always there.
It’s a lot of fun, though.
I love the story-evolving process.
I’m fascinated by the editing process.
What was it like after some of your early screenings or even further along screenings?
What did you learn at those that perhaps impacted the finished film?
JENSON: Good question.
I don’t know if we changed anything huge.
We found peoplelovedthe oracles, so trying to find a way to bring them back.
You have to put yourself inside her.
I could be completely off base, but the fact that there are two of them.
Am I wrong about this?
JENSON: Tell me more.
For you, how do they nod toPrincess Bride?
It’s like there are two people in the forest, and you have Billy Crystal and Carol Kane.
They’re in the forest, and they’re providing answers.
There was a little bit like that.
The story has an earnest gentleness to it, so it shares that, too.
And the music is very much like a classic in that spot, too.
Sort of a nod to the old way of telling stories.
But nothing so literal, though.
JENSON: We’re just so lucky.
What are you thinking?
It’s a musical, and he suggested looking at Alan.
I didn’t even think that was possible.
It seemed out of reach.
It needs to carry the story and do storytelling, not just stop and sing one feeling.
I know you’re not going to answer this, but I’ll try.
Do you have a personal favorite song of the ones they did?
JENSON: You know that I love them all.
I think I feel very connected to The Way It Was Before, her I Want song.
She gets to feel that.
The pair also shared what they aimed for in the recording booth.
Can you talk about how long you’ve been working on this?
Animated movies take a long time.
JENSON: They do.
But it’s the story development that could take a long time.
There could be stops and starts.
I’ve been on projects where sometimes the storytelling took longer.
I’ve been on it seven years.
I started at the end of 2017.
Eventually, I was able to go to Madrid and work there much more directly.
We went through a couple of strikes, but we kept moving!
Everybody was so connected to the story emotionally.
So, I think it came through.
Was there one that was just extra difficult?
JENSON: Wow, a moment that would be hard to crack…
I know we definitely worked on that ending scene of the third act.
I think we worked the hardest on that.
It wasn’t anything technical.
Sea of Sand was a pain, sure.
But I think story-wise, how to handle that was the most challenging and really took the most time.
Spellboundis available to stream on Netflix now.
