The directors of “Zootopia,” Byron Howard and Rich Moore, talk about their new film, which is the latest offering from Disney Animation. They were in Dallas recently to promote the movie and I had an opportunity to talk with them briefly.
James McDonald
You both work in the industry, primarily in animation, is live action a field either of you would like to eventually move in to, or is animation your thing?
Byron Howard
I would never do, I mean, I’ve gotten asked that before, but I’ve had friends who’ve gone into live action from animation and it’s like a totally different world and I think there are things that I know that Rich feels this way too, I don’t want to speak for Rich, but I think we appreciate the fact that we have something that we’re so passionate about. I don’t know if I would be as passionate about live action. Because we get to work with amazing artists and the fact that movies are kind of like a repertory theater in a way because you have people who you’ll work with again and again over a period of years on these films. Then you’ll bring in new people that you meet and kind of get inspired by and it’s such a tough job, I don’t…this is going to sound weird because we work with up to eight hundred people but something about animation feels intimate to me, and that’s so crazy. When we work with that many people it feels like a little family where I don’t know if live action has that same dynamic to it. I went to school for animation, I’ve worked in it my entire career, less a couple of storyboards I did for a couple live action movies a few times. I don’t know, I like the film making style of animation, I like the stories we tell.
Rich Moore
It offers us so much. I think especially as directors, I think we have the best jobs on the film because we get to experience every step of this bizarre process as it takes shape. Everything from where it’s a nebulous idea to where it’s a little spark that people are sort of like letting up to “That’s Cool!” and then it starts to get ground and then the art gets done and you go “Oh, now I can see what this is really is.” There’s all these points where you start to get really excited about what’s going to happen. Even to the fact that when we bring your composer on, like Michael Giacchino is our composer for this film and so when we got him to agree to do the film and then you step into the sound stage with a hundred piece orchestra and then you hear the first notes of the score for this movie we’ve been working on for three or four years together, everything, it keeps beating itself as far as how great the experience is and it’s very, very enriching and I’m not sure if live action directors are as involved as we are in every step of the way. That’s why it’s a longer process for us.
Byron Howard
But there is something nice about crafting it over time and it allows you to really kind of dig deep into the themes and what you’re trying to say and wrestle with the story and where sometimes it seems like live action could use a little bit more of that.
Rich Moore
I agree. I like our process, by the time we’re finished making the movie it’s like we’ve really fully committed to it. We made it, we really made that movie. We made it over and over and over. You can say this is the best that’s it’s going to be. We pretend, “Oh, it could be better” but I think when it’s done it’s done.
“Zootopia” hits theaters March 4th
