The_Hollywood_Reporter__February_07_2018

ANIMATED FEATURE
‘Simplistic but
Complicated’
These nominated animated films introduced audiences to five
female characters who could tame a bull, protect their families
and handle a bossy, suit-wearing infant By Carolyn Giardina
The five nominees for animated feature have a slew of memorable characters, and, it
turns out, many are female. They range from a brave 11-year-old girl living under
Taliban rule in Afghanistan to an intimidating Mexican great-great-grandmother and
a bossy therapy goat. When it came to creating this band of colorful characters, the
filmmakers had to decide how they would look (including expressive eyes and lovable underbites),
dress (such as a buttoned-up mom and a matriarch with an affinity for Victorian-era clothing)
and sound (thanks to voice cameos by an Oscar-nominated actress and a Saturday Night Live comedy
queen). Creators reveal how they built these characters from the blank page up.
I
’m here to calm you now so you
can maim and gore things later,”
Lupe the Calming Goat tells the bull
Ferdinand when they meet in Fox/
Blue Sky’s Ferdinand, an animated
tale about a pacifist bull who’d
rather smell the flowers
than fight in the ring.
Director Carlos
Saldanha says the
Saldanha
quirky goat started out
as a male character, but
the filmmakers changed direction
to create a strong female character
who could stand up to the bulls.
(They kept the big eyes, underbite
and exposed teeth.) “We didn’t
want a ‘princess’ goat,” he says.
“We wanted her to be sharp, edgy
and confident. We gave her an inyour-face,
explosive personality.”
Saturday Night Live’s Kate
McKinnon was cast to voice the
character because she “could
be strong, funny and warm at the
same time. I met with her, and I felt
she was a perfect match.”
In the film, Ferdinand is sweet and
earnest, but based on his size, he’s
considered a fighter. Ferdinand’s and
Lupe’s storylines tie into the film’s
“don’t judge a book by its cover”
theme. Says Saldanha: “Lupe’s a goat
that people don’t care about; she’s a
companion to a bull, but she wanted
more. She needed to be the opposite
of a calming goat.”
Ferdinand
The Boss
Baby
A
s in many real-life households,
the mother of Boss Baby
(the suit-wearing infant voiced by
Alec Baldwin) is the foundation
of her family and as such “has her
head on straight. She’s soft and
sweet but also firm and authoritative,”
says director Tom McGrath,
who adds that for this character, he
“wanted to do something
very stylized and
be more cartoony”
to fit the film’s style
McGrath
yet give her enough
range so that the
animators could create an emotive
performance. “Simplistic but complicated,”
he says.
Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s
The Boss Baby is a period film that
merges aspects of the ’60s, ’70s
and ’80s, but McGrath didn’t want
to overdo trendy clothing. “We kept
her in pants and with her hair up
because she’s a working parent,”
he notes. “When we were designing
the family, we also created a sort
of ‘Sears portrait’ to see how the
[characters] play off of each other.”
Lisa Kudrow completed the
picture by voicing the character.
“The goal was to be charming,
not ruthless. We wanted her voice
to feel real,” McGrath says, adding
that sometimes the actress would
improv the lines: “She has great
comedic timing and can play the
serious bits just as well.”
Loving
Vincent
FERDINAND: COURTESY OF BLUE SKY STUDIOS. BOSS: COURTESY OF DREAMWORKS ANIMATION. BREADWINNER: COURTESY OF GKIDS (2). VINCENT: COURTESY OF GOOD DEED ENTERTAINMENT. COCO: DISNEY/PIXAR. SALDANHA: STUART C.
WILSON/GETTY IMAGES. MCGRATH: FREDERICK M. BROWN/GETTY IMAGES. WELCHMAN: JEFF SPICER/GETTY IMAGES FOR BFI. TWOMEY: JON KOPALOFF/FILMMAGIC. UNKRICH: MICHAEL KOVAC/GETTY IMAGES FOR MOET & CHANDON.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
70
FEBRUARY 7, 2018