Bringing Trolls in to the Modern World: A Conversation with Director Mike Mitchell and Co-Director Walt Dohrn
From DreamWorks Animation, TROLLS is a funny and irreverent musical adventure, starring Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake. Kendrick is the voice of Poppy, the feisty and fearless leader of the Trolls, who are naturally cheerful and optimistic. They love to sing and dance, and they have rainbow-coloured hair. Timberlake voices Branch, a gray and fearful troll. He is convinced that the Trolls’ mortal enemies, the Bergens, will track them down in their forest Utopia and capture them. The Bergens are miserable monsters and they are only happy when they eat Trolls.
The gifted comedian Russell Brand joins the cast as the voice of Creek, a wise, Zen-like, but rather arrogant, yogi Troll, who is captured by the Bergens, along with a group of Poppy’s best friends. They await a terrible fate. Unless Poppy and Branch can save them, they will be devoured.
The upbeat and exciting 3D film, from the creators of the SHREK movies, was directed by Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn. Timberlake is the executive music producer.
In our interview, Directors Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn discuss DreamWorks' Trolls and why now was the right time to bring them to life on the big screen...
Troll dolls have been around since the seventies, why did you think now was the right time to bring them to life?
MM: Now was the right time because the media presents sad, scary stories…
WD: There’s a lot of social unrest, a lot of violence today in the world and we’re all witnessing it because of the way we receive information.
MM: Personally, I want my kids to grow up in a world that they’re not fearful of, that they love, that they’re happy in and so we decided to make a film that would make, not only adults, but children, really happy and embrace life. And have a good time. And to leave the theatre as if you’d just attended a rave party!
WD: We wanted to capture that feeling – the way those parties are so intense. We wanted to make something that wasn’t just pleasant, it could cause a discussion from people who go to watch it – how do we make ourselves happy in these uneasy times?
MM: How can we stay happy…
WD: You’ll meet those characters in the film, whereas regardless of what kind of conflict they’re in – you can be happy, you don’t have to let that define you.
MM: And maybe it’s about connecting with other people rather than your phone device. Just sayin! I’m not judging!
WD: We came across in our research about happiness, that emotional connectivity came up a lot. But even more than that, they’re saying it’s all in you – sometimes you just need someone to help you find it but it’s there…
MM: I need Walt to help me find my happiness!
WD: It’s worn me out…
What was the hardest bit about working with all that ‘felt’ as animators? Because that gave everything another texture, didn’t it? Is that a silly question?!
MM: No, not at all. It was a huge challenge and we there was a lot of discussion early on and thankfully we had an amazing production designer called Kendal Cronkhite, and we really wanted to take the technology [further]. CGI has become so sophisticated they can and they have made films that look photo real. And to me, that is fantastic but instead of going photo real let’s use that technology to maybe, instead of making a realistic tree, let’s make it realistically shaped but add these textures, and this felt… and where the ground is carpet or the houses are made of hair…
WD: … they have that whole kind of fuzzy immersion, we call it. It feels like you’re sat down on your comforter, a nice bed – it helps give that feeling of happiness. But it was a challenge because [the animators] had all these extra technical things they had to do to figure it out. Not to mention every time a character steps on the felt and the fur, there was another kind of technical issue.
MM: The dust and everything was made out of a different material - rather than dust it was cloth bits!
WD: So it was a challenge for them but [the animators] were all so in to it and they made this extra effort to create this world.
MM: Years ago I worked at Skellington Studios, it was run by Tim Burton and we made Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, and everything was built by hand and really there and photographed and lit. So this was just a great opportunity since everything’s behind a TV screen now - we really got to hire people who would build this stuff and cut felt. And we had materials around so it was really nice... even though it was computers that ultimately put it together…
WD: It was nice to have that tactile appearance...
MM: Yeah, totally, it makes a difference. And I think that also informed the way the characters moved, so the animators made a kind of loose, rough, fun type of movement.
WD: I think it has a more intimate relationship with the audience too because it’s not all plastic and perfect – it has a richness to it, a roughness to it, that invites the audience in a little bit more, that feels like a hand was in there making it.
Trolls Film Page | Trolls Review
DREAMWORKS TROLLS IS AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY™ AND DVD FROM 13TH FEBRUARY, FROM TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
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