Illumination is the animation studio behind the “Despicable Me,” “Sing” and “Secret Life of Pets” franchises, along with “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” But with “Migration,” the studio is trying something different. Not only does the movie look different, with a painterly aesthetic and more attractive character design, but it also feels different — it’s less frantic, more patient and takes great care to let its characters (a family of ducks who leave the comfort of their pond to travel south to Jamaica) breathe.
For instance, in a sequence where the characters — led by Mack (Kumail Nanjiani) and Pam (Elizabeth Banks) with Uncle Dan (Danny DeVito) — ascend into the sky, they careen through the big, fluffy clouds, throwing bits of cloud at one another to form hilarious hairstyles on their little duck heads. It’s a moment that serves no other purpose than establishing the playfulness and love among the various family members, and it would probably be something that a cost-conscious executive would remove immediately. But it’s in the movie and is one of “Migration’s” most memorable moments.
What makes it even more impressive is that it wasn’t even in the original script for the film, which was written by “The White Lotus” creator Mike White from a story by White and director Benjamin Renner (who directed the Oscar-nominated “Ernest & Celestine”).
According to Renner, the cloud scene was added because the filmmakers needed to lighten the mood after an intense and scary heron sequence that was based on a trip that he had made to Japan. (He and his girlfriend were taken in by a man who said he was a cook, and Renner was convinced that they were going to be eaten.) To follow the heron sequence, which was toned down but is still pretty intense, the filmmakers (also including director Guylo Homsy) decided “we need to reward them with something.”
That something was inspired by Renner’s constant flights between the production headquarters in France and meetings in Los Angeles. “I had an experience when we were taking off and it was very gray,” he said. “But when the plane went up into the sky, it was blue with clouds everywhere. I loved that feeling. That’s why we did this new sequence.”
Renner gives the credit to the artists. “I said to the animators, ‘We’re in clouds, let’s have fun,’” he said. “And I had seen an old cartoon with clouds that you can touch.”
As for how complicated the clouds were, he said that they were almost all volumetric, existing in three dimensions with flat paintings in the far distance.
“Coming from 2-D, they didn’t involve me in the technical aspect,” Renner said. “It was comfortable as a director to just see something and say, ‘We need it to be more like that,’ and they disappear and come back [having] fixed the problem.”
This story first appeared in the Awards Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the Awards Preview issue here.
Credits
Creative Director: Jeff Vespa
Photographer: Maya Iman
Photo Editor: Tatiana Leiva
Stylist: Kate Bofshever
Hair & Makeup: India Hammond
Leave a Reply