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