Clark Spencer
Wreck It Ralph has been one of the biggest animation movies of 2013 so far as Disney produced another gem of a film.
We caught up with producer Clark Spencer to chat about the film, the challenges of the movie and what lies ahead.
- Wreck It Ralph is about to be released on DVD here in the UK so for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet can you tell me a little bit about it?
It is a story of Ralph, a video game character from a 1980’s video game called Fix It Felix Jr, and he has been doing the same job for thirty years.
But he has started to wonder if there is more to life than just the wrecking that he does in the game. That launches him on a journey across the arcade to prove that he has more to him on the inside than just being a wrecker.
It is this amazing tale that takes us into the world of video games that we didn’t know existed. Many people have played games before but I don’t think that may people will have thought about the fact that the video characters, when the game is not being played, come to life and have a real life with real problems.
So we take you on this journey through three very different worlds as Ralph discovers who is actually is on the inside.
- Wreck It Ralph is a project that has been on the cards for quite some time at Disney so where did this movie start for you?
I came on to the film three years ago. The way that it works is the first year of development is it is just the director and the writer and they are building the basic story, the characters and building the outline for the film and then ultimately the script.
Then when the very first version of the script is written then a producer comes on as you bring on the story artists.
You are right the idea of doing a movie about video games has existed here at the company for many years but no one could really figure out how to crack a good story to tell until Rich Moore joined Disney four years ago.
He came from the Simpsons and Futurama and he figured out a great story to tell in this amazing world of video games.
- What was it about this story that particularly appealed to you?
I love movies where we take an audience to a place that they didn’t know existed, similar to Toy Story when you didn’t quite realise that when you leave the room your toys comes to life.
Wreck It Ralph has that same kind of twist to it; when you are not playing the games these characters have real lives and real problems. That to me was really intriguing.
The idea of working with Rich Moore, The Simpsons is a TV show that I love, and being brand new to Disney animation was really intriguing to me as well.
Then fundamentally as he started to pitch this story I really loved the message of it; to me the message is Ralph is being told to be true to himself and not to change for others for what others think that he is.
I think in today’s world a lot of kids have that pressure of trying to be something that they are not and so it was really nice to tell a story that says ’be true to who you are’.
- The film is set in a range of different video games and so you had to build very different worlds do each one so can you talk about that process?
It was really a very complex process- normally in a film you are building one world with one art direction style and one animation style. But in this movie we have three very different worlds; we have the 8-bit world of Fix It Felix Jr and that is a world based on squares - everything in that world is square.
The characters move forward and backwards and from right to left so they never move diagonal and the camera never moves at a diagonal and the lighting is very simple.
So you have one point of view for that world and that would be enough in one film to conquer what that would look at feel like. But then we go to the world of Hero’s Duty and that is one of the biggest contrasts possible.
We go to a world that is a first person shooter and it is a modern game so the animation is hyper realistic, in terms of human animation. The fire and the smoke are very realistic and the lighting is very dramatic and also very realistic to create that very modern world.
That would be tough to do it twice but then we go to the world of Sugar Rush - sorry the world of Hero’s Duty is based on triangles and everything in that world has an angular shapes as it is supposed to be a world that has a lot of anger in it.
Then we go to the world of Sugar Rush and that is whimsical cartoony world that is based on circles - so everything has a nice lyrical quality to it. So in that world the animation is cartoony, the dust that the cars kick up looks like frosting and the lighting has a very warm and edible quality to it to make it feel like a yummy world.
So it was a completely different type of world that had different challenges. So for us that is a huge task to create three very different worlds as it is almost like three very different movies - especially when you have to have your artist thinking about ‘which world am I in? And what am I trying to create for this world to be true to it?
- Did you consult with video game designers as you were created these three very different worlds?
Absolutely. The first eighteen months we did a ton of research and meeting with video game companies; we actually met with video game developers who created those original 1980’s 8-bit video games and talked about the technology that existed back then and the limitations that they had and how those limitations informed the story telling that we did. And we also talked about what made those games work.
We also met with designers here in Los Angeles who create some of today’s best first person shooters. We talked about where the industry is going, whether the limitations of technology and how has technology enhanced their story telling in the world of first person shooters.
And we also met with game companies that create racing games to talk about the philosophy of racing games and how we could make this game feel different than others. So there were a lot of meetings with developers to just talk about how they approach it.
Every industry has a point of view and they understand better than we would what an audience would want from a video game, so it made sense to meet with them.
- A terrific cast has been assembled including John C.Reilly, Sarah Silverman and Jane Lynch so can you talk a bit about the casting process? And what were you looking for as you were casting these voices?
When we are developing the characters we start to think who would be the right type of voice, even before we have hired them, just because it helps inform the writing of those characters.
From the beginning director Rich Moore and the writer Phil Johnston knew that they wanted John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Jack McBrayer and Sarah Silverman, they actually wrote those four parts for those actors.
The interesting thing is that Jane and Jack ad Sarah came on board immediately when we pitched it to them so we knew that we could continue to write for them as we developed the project.
John C. Reilly actually took a year before he said yes - for us that meant that we were always risking that he might say no, even though the only person that we had in our head for this character was John.
The reason that he took a year was because he had never done animation before and he was struggling with idea of going into a booth and recording lines by himself and not against other actors.
It took us a while to understand that that was what he was struggling with and so we changed our process and we said to him ‘we want you so much in this movie that we will record you with all of the other actors’ and that is when he came on board and said yes.
So we didn’t record out actors separately we actually recorded them together and in so doing we got John to be really comfortable with the process of animation.
- How have you personally found the response to this movie because it has been terrific?
It has been amazing. I have spent three years and Rich Moore has spent four years working on this project and you are in a building in Burbank California where you are away from the rest of the world.
At times you do wonder if the world is going to accept and embrace these characters and the story that you are telling and so to have it so well received is an amazing experience.
We really do pour our heart and souls into these films and there are nearly five hundred people involved in this process and you want them to be proud of what they have been able to do.
And while you can’t always take that based on how a movie does or doesn’t do at the box office because we cannot control those things but it is always nice thing when a movie is successful. So that has been amazing.
- Finally what is next for you?
Well I have just rolled off of Wreck It Ralph and I am doing the last bit of stuff for the DVD. I will have chance to take a break and then I will be looking at what that next project.
One of the great things that is happening at Disney animation right now is that there are a lot of different and diverse projects happening. In November here in the United States we will be releasing Frozen, which takes us back to that wonderful musical fairytale that Disney has great heritage of.
The movies beyond that are also pushing new envelopes, just like Wreck it Ralph, and we will always have musicals in there too.
So there is a great slate of films that I will get to sit down with the directors and figure out what the right film is for me to go and work on. It really is a partnership between you and the director as you spend three years with these people and so you have to make sure that it is the right fit.
So when I come back from some time off I will start to meet with people. But I am very exited about the projects that are happening here at the moment and I think that something good with come.
Wreck It Ralph is released on DVD & Blu-Ray 3rd June.
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