Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I recently spent some time in Orlando to interview some folks behind the upcoming Zootopia. I had two days of screenings and interviews, but extended my trip (at my expense, before you all start screaming sell-out) and brought along my nephews for a little family Disney Park fun.
I bring this up because I talk a little about my movie mentor relationship with my nephews with directors Byron Howard (Bolt) and Rich Moore (Big Hero 6) and also talk about our experiences with them at the Hollywood Studios Park the day before. Trust me, it makes sense in the context of the interview.
One of the best surprises of Zootopia for me was how it was structured to lay the foundation for future movie geeks, so my favorite part of this chat was discussing the rather adult influences on this Disney animated tale about a Rabbit Cop and Con Artist Fox trying to solve a mystery.
I hope you enjoy it!
Quint: I went into Zootopia anticipating that it was going to be quality because of the level of detail you both have put into your work...
Byron Howard: Sorry to disappoint you.
Quint: (laughs) You didn't. I went in expecting that, but what I wasn't expecting was the messaging of the movie. I don't want to say it's politically charged, but a lot of animated movies talk about inclusion, but not really showcase exclusion. That was something that I thought was actually really powerful in the movie.
Rich Moore: That's a good way to put it.
Quint: Was that the core concept you locked in on as you were developing the story or was it something that had always been there?
Byron Howard: It kind of evolved organically, honestly. We started talking about animals and trying to figure out how to push a pair of characters as far apart as possible. When you're doing an animal movie, one of the things that we learned in our 8 or 9 months of research was that the mammal world, and we say this in the movie, is about 90% prey animals and 10% predators. That's a really interesting fact.
So when you think about these animals that have evolved and have put this eating thing behind them a thousand years ago...
Rich Moore: That little thing.
Byron Howard: Remember when we used to do that? Just don't worry about it. (laughs) But they have completely let go of that mistrust of each other and that gave us some really interesting social things to think about. You never go into these things going “it's going to be a message movie” or “we're going in with a political agenda.” It's all about making the most emotional story.
Rich Moore: We thought that was just a cool story. If predators and prey lived in one of these kinds of hand-made worlds that we can imagine animals living together side by side.
Quint: A utopia, if you will.
Rich Moore: (laughs) Yeah, a utopia. What if that social contract broke down? What if suddenly they were back in that mindset from thousands of years ago in their history? What would happen in that city? What would it be like? That was, I think, the genesis of it. We thought there was a really good story in there. It feels honest, it feels compelling as a story.
Quint: And it's a good background for this kind of film. It's not exactly a noir, but it's undoubtedly a detective movie. There's a mystery to be solved.
Rich Moore: And unearthing something bigger than what seemed like an innocuous, small potatoes kind of case.
Quint: So you're saying this is a family friendly Chinatown.
Byron Howard: We did look at Chinatown a lot. We looked Chinatown and L.A. Confidential...
Rich Moore: It's kind of a convention of those films. A detective gets involved in something small and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Quint: You guys should program a series of adults only Zootopia influence films. “Don't bring your kids to this one, but if you want to see Zootopia and understand it let's start with Chinatown.”
Byron Howard: (laughs)
Quint: I love that aspect of the movie, though. Seriously. You pepper in a lot of references that will hit home as the target audiences grows. For instance, there's a Breaking Bad joke in the movie. My nephew asked me why I was laughing at the mention of “Walt and Jesse.” He'll remember that when he grows older and starts watching that stuff. So the level of detail in the world is incredible. Every sign and storefront had a different joke attached to it. It looked like a huge amount of thought and work went into that.
Rich Moore: Who was the guy who did all the signage?
Byron Howard: His name was Marty. If you look at the signs around the city, he did two to three hundred signs. He went crazy, pun-wise. It was almost like, “Okay, Marty. Enough!”
Quint: There was an Uber one early on...
Byron Howard: Zoober. There's Zoogle Maps.
Rich Moore: Trader Doe's.
Byron Howard: Snorts Illustrated, which was a pig sports magazine. Everything everywhere. Things like the Breaking Bad thing... There were villains that have this lab where they're creating something I won't spoil, but it started becoming more and more like Breaking Bad.
Rich Moore: “This really reminds us of Breaking Bad.” Then it just became us describing it that way. “Then they go to the Breaking Bad style lab.” Why don't we just go for it?
Byron Howard: We just embraced it. We said, “What if the guys were named Walter and Jesse?” We just made a spelling change to them. The nice thing about it is the world that we all created together encourages that. It encourages the self reflective, meta contemporary jokes. Even our own films. We could make fun of our films. It's expected and sort of encouraged, I think.
Quint: What's really awesome about that is it seems like you're laying the foundation for a future generation of film geeks. Is that something that you actually think about it?
Rich Moore: When I would read Mad Magazine... I learned more about contemporary movies from the Mad Magazine satires when I was a kid than even seeing the movies because I couldn't get in because they were rated R. When you're 9 you don't see Raging Bull.
Byron Howard: Or The Exorcist.
Quint: Well, unless you have a cool Uncle, like me!
Rich Moore: That's right and I didn't.
Quint: I'm so sorry.
Rich Moore: Yeah, Unk. Where were you, man? (laughs) I love that kind of thing. When I'd finally see the movie I'd go “Oh, that's what that meant! Oh, that's what that joke was about.” We wanted to make sure, though, that it'd play on the level of a younger person who might not know, for instance, The Godfather and would just think it was funny that Mr. Big, this person everybody's afraid of, is just this tiny shrew. But for the film buffs or older people in the audience there's an extra layer in there. We're not excluding anyone comedy-wise, it's just embellishing on layers for people.
Quint: Well, I love that aspect of the film and it's weirdly a Disney tradition and that's something I only fully noticed yesterday. Before the screening of Zootopia I took my nephews to the Hollywood Studios park. We did the Indiana Jones Stunt Show and then The Great Movie Ride. I adore that ride. I get to show Rocco a lot of stuff... we've watched Abbott & Costello movies, early Spielberg...
Rich Moore: God bless you. I haven't heard anyone in a long time say that they're showing a younger person Abbott & Costello. Thank God. You are a good Uncle!
Quint: I try! But being on The Great Movie Ride really hit something home for me. The kids on the ride probably know Alien and The Wizard of Oz, but...
Rich Moore: “Who's James Cagney?”
Quint: Exactly. I show Rocco a lot of stuff, but on that ride he started asking about other movies, like Casablanca. “What's this from? What's that from?” After we got off the ride he asked me when we were going to watch Singin' In The Rain.
Byron Howard: Oh, neat. That's really cool.
Quint: I don't know if there's a question in there, but it really struck me hard yesterday the reverence for film history on display going from The Great Movie Ride right into a screening of Zootopia.
Rich Moore: I'll just say I love that kind of thing. I loved it as a kid, like in Warner Brothers cartoons that there were always references thrown in. It made me want to know and learn about and see the movie. “Why is Humphrey Bogart that way? Why is James Cagney like he is? He must be a gangster...”
Quint: It makes it accessible. I saw Casablanca when I was 15 and a black and white love story should have bored me out of my mind at that age, but I was hit with all these lines that had been referenced all throughout my childhood and it made something click.
Byron Howard: That's great. Good Uncle!
Rich Moore: We're happy to help you!
Quint: Good filmmakers make it easier to be the good Uncle, so thank you guys very much.
Byron Howard: Thank you.
Rich Moore: It was great talking to you.
That was my chat with the directors. I have one more Zootopia interview to drop, this time Ginnifer Goodwin who voices the lead character, a bunny cop with a can-do attitude named Judy Hopps. I actually got my nephew, Rocco, to help me with that one, so keep an eye out for that one.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
Follow Me On Twitter
