- 6 weeks ago
'Captain Underpants' stars Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms .
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Carolyn Giardina, and you're in studio with The Hollywood Reporter.
00:08Today I'm with David Soren, who directed this year's film, Captain Underpants.
00:13And David, for starters, this was based on a book series, a children's book series, by Dave Pilkey.
00:21How did you come by the material and start your journey with these characters?
00:26You know, it's funny, I actually stumbled across the first book 20 years ago at a bookstore in L.A.
00:33I had just moved here, and I remember seeing it and picking it up off the rack,
00:38and I actually think I leafed through about half of it right there in the aisle
00:42and just thought, this is fantastic, I wish I came up with this idea.
00:47Which, you know, then sort of 20-odd years later, when DreamWorks had acquired the rights to the book
00:53and they were making the movie and they approached me about it,
00:57I, by that point, had actually had kids and had read the book to the kids,
01:01and it was kind of a no-brainer.
01:03I mean, I was just, I was very immersed in that world and loved it,
01:06and it was a very quick yes for me.
01:10And this DreamWorks film earlier received three Annie Award nominations.
01:15You were nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Music, and Best Voice Acting for Nick Kroll.
01:24So congratulations on that.
01:26Thank you. That was very exciting.
01:26Did you speak with him when you got the call?
01:28Nick Kroll.
01:28I haven't gotten to reach out yet.
01:31I spoke to our composer and he was thrilled.
01:33Great.
01:34Yeah.
01:34Great.
01:34So this was, the look was, again, based on the book series.
01:41Talk a little bit about how you translated these images onto the screen.
01:45Yeah.
01:46Well, look, I mean, Dave Pilkey is a writer and illustrator,
01:48so we had the benefit of a wonderful range of illustrations that he had done
01:53and very fleshed out, iconic characters that he created.
01:56So our goal was not to reinvent the wheel because people love the books
02:01and know these characters so well.
02:03It was to figure out what is the most, what is the best version of these characters
02:08that we can bring to screen and to the point where a kid can,
02:14who's read the book, can look at the movie and be like,
02:17well, they've just made that leap from book to screen and it's seamless.
02:21So that was our goal.
02:23And we studied Dave Pilkey's illustrations meticulously
02:28and our production designer, Nate Ragg,
02:31has an almost encyclopedic knowledge now of all things Pilkey.
02:37Everything from the kind of wacky storefronts that he has in the books,
02:42like John's House of Toilets and his brassieres and all these crazy things,
02:47to even his line quality, you know, just this sort of slightly shaky, hand-drawn look
02:54and finding ways to translate that to CG without losing any of the appeal.
03:00Well, the story is told through the eyes of two fourth graders
03:03who were voiced by Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch.
03:06And they like to draw cartoons in the treehouse.
03:13So could you talk a little bit about just getting the nature of this art project,
03:20if you will, onto the screen?
03:22Right.
03:22Because that very much informed the production.
03:24Yeah.
03:25I mean, honestly, it was the thing that excited me the most about coming on the movie
03:29in general was just this friendship that George and Harold have,
03:32these two fourth graders who are wildly imaginative
03:34and have a creative friendship,
03:38which is not something you see handled in movies very often,
03:42but it struck a chord for me because most of my close friends growing up
03:47have been creative in their nature, in the nature of our relationships.
03:52And it was just really exciting to be able to explore that kind of specific friendship
03:57where two kids, you've got a white kid and a black kid,
04:01it doesn't even matter what colors their skin are
04:03because they're just bonded over this thing they have in common,
04:06which is making comics and trying to make each other laugh.
04:09So that was really the window into the movie.
04:13It was, you know, I tried to treat it like this was George and Harold's movie,
04:16not my movie,
04:17and let them dictate the styles of the different scenes.
04:24And if we needed to get inside their heads and understand how they were feeling,
04:27that could happen through their creativity.
04:29So it was really a chance to explore different medium,
04:34everything from sock puppets to their comic books coming to life,
04:38to being hand-drawn, kind of paper cutout techniques,
04:42whatever these two could potentially pick up in their treehouse and make
04:47was fair game for the movie.
04:48Did you have a treehouse when you were a kid?
04:50I wished I had a treehouse.
04:51I didn't have one.
04:52I think we all did.
04:53I wished I had one.
04:55But that was actually our goal in designing it,
04:56was like trying to make the ideal, you know,
05:01aspirational treehouse that we all wished we had.
05:03Right.
05:04How did you cast Kevin and Thomas?
05:07They, fortunately, they were on very early.
05:11There was a table read that happened where we were trying out a bunch of different actors,
05:17and ironically, almost the entire cast was at that table read.
05:21They were just hand-chosen and perfect almost right out of the gate.
05:27And we did that table read in the recording studio at DreamWorks and recorded it,
05:32and we ended up being able to use bits and pieces from it
05:35as we were putting our early screenings together.
05:37But you could really tell the chemistry between the two of them
05:41was there right from the get-go.
05:44And then on top of that, Ed Helms was there
05:46and was nailing Captain Underpants right out of the gate.
05:51And Ed actually had two characters in a way.
05:53And Ed had two characters, yeah.
05:54Because in the story, they hypnotized their principal.
05:57Right, Principal Krupp.
05:58Who becomes Captain Underpants.
06:00Right, right.
06:00Yeah, so he had double duty.
06:03And Principal Krupp was a tricky one, actually,
06:05because he's a guy you need to love to hate.
06:10And it's hard to make a guy hateable but also likable at the same time.
06:14And I think Ed found that line with him
06:17where he was kind of a monster in the boys' eyes at the beginning,
06:22but over the course of the movie, we learn more about him
06:25and find out that he's actually just a lonely guy and needs a friend.
06:29And ultimately, the boys have their first ever prank for good
06:32and pair him up with the lunch lady, Edith, voiced by Kristen Schaal.
06:37Right.
06:38Tell us a little bit about the voice recording.
06:41Were the cast members all together or did you record them separately?
06:45Mostly it was separate,
06:46although we did have a couple sessions with Kevin and Thomas early on,
06:51which really helped just, you know,
06:54develop that friendship and chemistry between the two of them.
06:57And actually, that Saturday song,
06:59there's a moment in the movie where they think it's Saturday.
07:03They know it's Saturday.
07:04They wake up in the morning and they're all excited to spend the day together
07:07and go to their treehouse and be in their pajamas all day.
07:10And, you know, one of their moms reminds them
07:12they have an all-day invention convention at school.
07:14But they're singing this crazy, made-up-on-the-fly Saturday song,
07:20how great it is to be The Weeknd.
07:22And that was made up.
07:23That was improvised by Thomas and Kevin entirely.
07:27Really?
07:28And then we created a music track to support it afterwards.
07:31But, yeah, no, they were really funny
07:34and, you know, I think would be the first to admit
07:36that they're not Broadway-bound.
07:40But that was part of the charm of it
07:41was that it felt like a couple kids
07:43just making up a song.
07:44Overall, was there quite a bit of improv involved?
07:47Huge, huge.
07:48Yeah, more than any DreamWorks movie we've ever done.
07:52And I quickly realized
07:54in the early rounds of recordings with these guys,
07:57they're, you know, clearly great comedians,
07:59but they're also a lot of them great writers.
08:02And I just, I knew I'd be a fool not to take advantage of that.
08:06So we, you know, I would get in the booth with them
08:08and I'd explain the parameters of the scene
08:11and what we were trying to accomplish
08:12and we'd read through the scripted version a couple times,
08:16but then really just let them play
08:18and find their own way into it.
08:20And I think because we did so much of that
08:23and they were there from the very beginning,
08:26they defined their characters through their improv
08:30in a lot of ways
08:31and were more invested in the movie
08:34and their characters because of it
08:36to the point where we actually even,
08:39and this is like unheard of for an animated movie,
08:42we brought them into a very, very early,
08:45very uncooked storyboard screening
08:48to get their opinions
08:51because they were such creative partners on this thing.
08:54And it was terrifying
08:55because, you know, normally actors come in at the end
08:59when the thing's fully lit
09:00and you're just trying to get their buy-off
09:02and, you know, their support
09:03so they can go and talk to the press
09:04and hype the movie.
09:06But this was like way early,
09:08so I was, you know, the risk was
09:10they're going to walk off
09:12because this is not working.
09:14What sort of things did you talk about?
09:16And as a result, did you add any scenes?
09:18We just, you know, oh, yeah,
09:19they were huge in their help.
09:21Yeah, we were very up front
09:24about where we were at in the process
09:26and that this is how animation works
09:28and it's an iterative process
09:30and that we knew we had things
09:33that needed to be resolved
09:34and wanted their input on how to, you know,
09:37how they would go about fixing it.
09:39And they were great.
09:40They rolled up their sleeves.
09:41They pitched in.
09:43A lot of their suggestions led to some solutions
09:47that ultimately really made the movie click.
09:49And, you know, in subsequent recording sessions
09:52when they would come in,
09:53they'd always ask how things were going
09:54and what we had done to, you know,
09:57to improve on things and how they could help.
09:59And, yeah, they really were much more
10:01than just doing voices on this movie.
10:03They were creative partners.
10:04Generally speaking, you often hear stories
10:06about how, you know,
10:08you're constantly, you know, editing,
10:10so to speak.
10:11Yeah, always.
10:12And revising and improving on the stories
10:15as the production occurs.
10:17Could you give us an example of something
10:19either that you added or an outtake
10:21that maybe we never had a chance to see?
10:26Gosh, yeah.
10:26I mean, there's tons.
10:28We had...
10:29We had a really...
10:31The trickiest part of the movie
10:32was trying to figure out
10:33our kind of...
10:35our end of act two low moment,
10:39you know, because these boys,
10:41the big threat,
10:41the stakes for them as characters
10:43was that they were going to get separated
10:44and their lives were going to be miserable
10:46when they were put in separate classes.
10:48Separate classes.
10:48Right?
10:49Which is sort of ridiculous low stakes
10:51for a movie,
10:51but, you know,
10:52for a couple fourth graders,
10:54it's actually pretty real.
10:57And we wanted to make it feel that way.
11:00And for the longest time,
11:01we had this song at that point
11:04where they were in their separate classes
11:07and they were miserable
11:08and they would just start singing.
11:10And it was a bit like a parody of Magnolia.
11:14You know, the Amy Mann song in Magnolia.
11:17And all the various characters
11:19kind of had a verse
11:20and were chiming in.
11:22And it was very funny,
11:24but it was also a little glib
11:27and hurt our general believability
11:31of how they were feeling.
11:32So that was a case
11:34where we really, you know,
11:36had a few kicks at the can
11:38trying to figure out
11:38what the best version was
11:39where people would really feel
11:41like they were invested in this,
11:43you know,
11:44in this problem for the boys
11:46and feel what they were feeling.
11:49So we got,
11:49we ended up changing it
11:50to this more emotional,
11:53through their point of view
11:54of what it feels like
11:55to be in separate classes,
11:56which is sort of in separate planets
11:58circling the universe
11:59and ultimately disappearing from each other.
12:01So that really helped
12:03because it tied into
12:04the other creative aspects of the movie.
12:06It put us in their headspace
12:08and it was kind of heartbreaking.
12:12So these movies,
12:14and with all these changes
12:15and the work take years to make,
12:18but yours was actually
12:19a pretty quick schedule.
12:20Super fast, yeah.
12:21So when did you come on board,
12:24start talking about the story?
12:25I came on about two and a half years
12:29before the movie was in theaters.
12:31Which was last spring.
12:32Which was last spring.
12:33So, yeah,
12:35we really had about two years
12:36to make the movie.
12:38And we, you know,
12:40there was a few solid drafts
12:42of the script that had been done,
12:44but it still needed a lot of work
12:47and we really just rolled up our sleeves.
12:50And I think what was unique
12:52about this movie
12:53and, you know,
12:55I will miss
12:56was that we had a crew of people
12:58that really were all
13:00serving the same master on this thing.
13:03And we all connected with material.
13:05We all were making the same movie.
13:07And there wasn't much time
13:09to waffle
13:11in our decision making.
13:13You know,
13:13it was really kind of
13:13a go with your gut
13:14and trust your first instinct
13:15and put it up fast
13:17and then put it up again
13:18as fast as you can
13:19and again and again.
13:21And we pretty much
13:22did the same amount of work
13:24that would normally be done,
13:27but in way less time.
13:30And then we also had
13:32the difference of
13:33working with a vendor
13:35in Micros.
13:36Right.
13:37So Micros in Montreal.
13:38In Montreal and Paris.
13:39Yeah.
13:39Right.
13:40Which was another factor
13:42driving the speed
13:43because we needed
13:44to lock our story
13:45earlier
13:46to be able to
13:47come in on budget
13:49and do it in a way
13:52that they could manage
13:53and be successful.
13:55So that also
13:56forced us
13:57to get everything made quicker
14:00and be more efficient
14:00with our decision making.
14:02And also just
14:04kept the studio
14:05accountable
14:05to that process
14:07as well,
14:07you know,
14:08and all the notes
14:08kind of were front loaded
14:09as opposed to
14:10consistently rolling out
14:13the entire time.
14:15Which was hard for them,
14:17but they held up
14:18their part of the bargain too.
14:20Well,
14:21I think we're going
14:22to be wrapping up,
14:23but thank you so much
14:24for joining us.
14:25We're so glad
14:26you were able to join us today.
14:27Thanks for having me.
14:27And talk about your movie.
14:28Yeah.
14:29Thanks.
14:30Thanks for watching.
14:35Thanks for having me.
14:36Thanks for having me.
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