Rat Race
DreamWorks legend, Jeffrey Katzenberg, talks exclusively to RT-UK.
On paper, it seems like the perfect partnership; a license to print money. DreamWorks Animation – the creators of Shrek – and Aardman Features, those nice people behind Wallace & Gromit. But just lately they’ve been having a hard time convincing audiences to support their product where it counts – at the American box office.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, although embraced by critics with a whopping 95% on the Tomatometer, disappointed commercially in the States, while Flushed Away, their latest offering, has been perceived as another “money-loser.”
It cost an estimated $142.9 million to make and boasts an all-star cast led by Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet and Sir Ian McKellen, not to mention Bill Nighy, Jean Reno and Shane Richie. But after just two weeks of release in the States, it had only amassed $40 million, prompting talk of a premature end to the partnership.
For Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO/Director of DreamWorks Animation SKG, that couldn’t be further from the truth – and he remains pleased with the progress the two companies are making.
Speaking to Rotten Tomatoes UK in London, he said of the working relationship: “It’s good. We’ve been together now for 10 years. This is our third feature.
“We have not picked the next movie yet. I think – after the first of the year, we will sit down and look at the opportunities we have, what they want to do, what we want to do and make a decision. But the fact that we haven’t made a decision yet has made some people feel as though it’s at an end. Neither of us has come to that conclusion. So I think anything is possible.”
Animation is a notoriously difficult nut to crack and just lately it’s become a very competitive playing field. Flushed Away is an effortless crowd-pleaser, the sort of film the kids will be asking to see again and again, and Katzenberg remains rightly proud of it.
But he is also aware of the commercial implications of a film’s performance, particularly as head of one of Hollywood’s biggest film studios.
“It’s not the first time,” he continued. “It happened to me last year with Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit which went on to win the Academy Award. So, you know, we’re always sort of balancing two things here – art and commerce. If you’re asking about the art of the movie, I couldn’t be happier or prouder. I love what they’ve done and what we’ve done together. Flushed Away is a superb movie and people that go to see it are enjoying it a lot. But on the commerce side of it, we’re a company and we’re required to try and look ahead and have some insight into how things are doing and make sure that our investors are kept current.”
Rather than appearing defeatist about what this might mean or about the sudden glut of animated movies, Katzenberg is relishing the challenges provided.
“For us, what we need to do is adjust how we work in that kind of environment. It used to be basically two companies doing this – Pixar and DreamWorks – and now there are six, seven or eight companies working in the genre. Competition has always been good, I’ve always thrived with competition and I think it makes us better at what we do and strive to continually be the very best that we can be. I have no fear of it. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite – I think we’ll have opportunities.”
The latest opportunity is ensuring that Flushed Away does well with its UK audience %u2013 something that shouldn’t be difficult. The film maintains a distinctly Aardman feel and has been described by co-directors David Bowers and Sam Fell as “a love letter to London”.
It follows the misfortunes of a pampered pet mouse (or rat) named Roddy St James (voiced by Hugh Jackman) who thinks he has it all… until he finds his plush Kensington home invaded by a sewer rat named Sid (Richie) who promptly flushes him down the loo.
Once underground, Roddy discovers a vast metropolis where he meets Rita (Winslet) a street-wise rat on a mission of her own. He enlists her help to get home but only if they can both escape the clutches of a villainous Toad (McKellen) who despises all rodents and has plans for their extermination.
The ensuing adventure is a rollercoaster ride of fun that’s packed with enough gags to fill three movies. As ever, the attention to detail is meticulous even though it marks the first time Aardman Features has abandoned its trademark clay stop-motion animation in favour of going fully computer-animated.
As Katzenberg explains, however, that decision wasn’t as hard as some may have anticipated…
How easy was it persuading Aardman Features to do their first computer-animated movie?
JK: I think the story is what persuaded them. It couldn’t have been done in clay animation because of how much action there is in it and how big the world is. When you’re dealing with clay animation, people forget that every single set is built to scale and by hand. So, to do the kind of film that was called for in this, it just wasn’t possible. I think they were excited about the challenge of trying to maintain the very unique and singular things that are so much the signature of Aardman, and yet be able to do it in computer animation.
What was it about this pitch that grabbed you, given that its central characters are essentially rats?
JK: There’s a great, long tradition in animation of mice and rats that have become quite popular. The thing that was very compelling for this was the design of the characters and the look which came from Aardman. I think Aardman is incapable of designing a character that isn’t charming, no matter what it is. An aardvark would be charming if it was designed by Aardman. They have a way of putting a smile on our faces. So I think from the outset I thought it was a very clever idea for a story and to take the great look and sensibility of Aardman and use state-of-the-art computer animation to make this movie was both a challenge and a great opportunity for us.
What, for you, were some of the biggest challenges of making Flushed Away?
JK: I think the opportunity and the challenge was to preserve what is so wonderful and unique about Aardman. We ended up bringing 16 people from Bristol to the States for several years really to make sure that the creative leadership of the film stayed the course.
I’d imagine it was it easier for you in terms of planning set visits…
JK: [laughs] Yes it made it a little easier for me. I didn’t have to come this way quite so often.
How involved were you on a day-to-day basis?
JK: I was more a cheerleader than anything else. But that’s been true now for the past couple of years on all of our movies. We’ve got great directors, producers, storyboard artists and writers. My job is to create an environment in which they can do their job. So it’s not so much my hands in there doing it. It used to be, years ago, but not for the last couple of years.
Did you have any input or notes about certain things you felt might have worked a bit better?
JK: Truthfully, this is our third collaboration and [co-writer] Peter Lord was really intimately involved in it, from the development of it and the look of the characters to recruiting these guys to direct the movie. Frankly, they were great from the outset and it’s a movie that was a pretty happy production.
As always in the process of previewing the movie, you learn from what the audience reports back. I think there were things that surprised us as to how well they worked – such as the slugs. They were a perfect example of what the audience really, really responded to – so we just did more.
Also, in terms of adjusting along the way – some of the adjustments that were made to Hugh’s character came as the result of feedback. It was all about giving the audience the best ride that we could.
Was Nick Park involved in Flushed Away at all?
JK: A little bit. From time to time he came in and watched the movie and gave notes on it. He’s a good team player.
What makes him so special in your opinion?
JK: He’s a great storyteller. He is unique. He has a completely wonderful, singular sensibility and he lives, breathes and loves Wallace & Gromit.
The cast is another great one. What was it that appealed to Hugh Jackman about playing Roddy?
JK: I think the idea of doing an Aardman movie was very appealing to him. I think he liked the story a lot. And ultimately it was about doing something that he could share with his son, Oscar.
When he saw the finished film with his wife and his family and saw how excited his son was, he said to me, “I have to say, it really was one of the greatest days in my entire career, seeing how happy and proud my son was.”
Finally, going into 2007, Shrek The Third is obviously the big one for you. How excited are you about it and how’s it progressing?
JK: Very excited. We’re in the last six months of finishing it off and it just looks sensational. I think there’s something that’s in the water we drink. We seem to know how to really make those movies great. It’s the same creative team that made the first two movies and they’ve done really, really good work.
Flushed Away is out now in the US and comes to UK cinemas on Friday 1st December.
