Do they know each other?
Four years ago, William Josie’s six-year-old daughter Mary Catherine asked her father if Santa North and the Easter Bunny were friends. This question aroused the interest of the author and illustrator. After thinking for a while, he answered loudly "Yes!" and began to weave a wonderful bedtime story for Mary Catherine and her brother Jackson. The protagonist not only included Santa Claus. Si and the Easter Bunny, as well as Jack Frozen, Tooth Fairy, Sandman, Moonman and even Insect Eater. As the stories grew richer and richer, Josie began to discover their potential. "This is a legend that started in every family," Josie said. "I quickly understood that I had to use it as a subject because it was so interesting! I started to draw these characters and based on the information I found Created their respective basic myths," but he didn't find much data. Although there is "Christmas Eve" by author Clement Clark Moore, Josie still hasn't found much backstory about Santa North, and there are even fewer other characters.
"Superman and Batman have their own myths, but the group of characters we want our children to believe does not," Josie said. "I looked around and said,'Am I the only one who discovered this?' "Josie, a writer and director, won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film; his books include "Shrinked George" (which is adapted from the PBS children's show series) and "Bob the Dinosaur". Now Josie has collected 13 stories in the children's book series "Guardians of Childhood" (only 5 of them have been published). These stories describe the folklore of each character in depth. The audience will be surprised to find that these guardians More powerful than imagined. They were "cool, decent, great and heroic," Josie said. "They have a huge empire overseeing their work, whether it's sending gifts and Easter eggs all over the world in one night, or collecting baby teeth 365 days a year." Each guardian has its own uniqueness. Therefore, Hollywood is very interested in bringing Josie's rich stories and exquisite illustrations to the big screen, even if the entire children's book series has not yet been released. "Almost all Hollywood studios are rushing to make this film, but none of them can see the bigger vision I portrayed. These characters have too many stories to tell," Josie said. "I don't think this story can only be made into a movie or written into a book. It needs to be presented through various media."
It was not until the second half of 2006 that Josie had many meetings with DreamWorks Animation’s creative Bill Damaschi, only to find that he had found the right place for his story. "DreamWorks said:'We agree with your idea, make the story into a movie and write it into a book, so that the two complement each other.' This is the most interesting and exciting experience for me," Josie said. "I have made movies before, but I have never made a movie and wrote a book at the same time, and the theme is still the same, but there are still differences between the two." I
will soon cooperate with Josie to bring new things to the "Guardian". The senior production group of Life is also passionate about this film. The first producer to participate was Christina Steinberg, who had many years of experience in real-life filming and feature film production before joining DreamWorks Animation in 2005. "It was discussed before that Bill will do the book series, and on the other side we will do the film production at the same time," she said. "We like the core concept of this story very much. The profound plot described in the myth that Bill created is very exciting, and there are many stories to tell. In the movie part, we first move the time point to the future at the beginning. These characters have become guardians, and then describe why they have to form an alliance against the most evil force in the world, which is the insectivore." Josie added: "I don't want movies and books to fight against each other, let everyone I feel that'the movie is different from what is written in the book,' I don’t want readers to know the plot of the movie. I want to construct history for these characters, so that’s why the story in the movie happened 300 years later than the book series."
Peter Ramsey has worked as a filmmaker for many real-life films, such as "The Hulk" for several years. Before he was asked to direct "League of the Guardians", he directed the popular Halloween special "Vs Aliens" for DreamWorks Animation and also served as the story director of "Vs Aliens". He said: "The basic elements represented by these roles are equally important to children and adults, such as surprises, dreams and hopes. This is a significant story." "We and Bill had a lot of discussions about these roles," Mzi said. "About the relationship between Jack Dongren and other guardians, what the guardians stand for, and their personalities and roles. The most important conclusion we have discussed is that we know that these guardians really exist, and everyone believed and loved them when they were young. These characters. For me, this determines the way I present these characters in the movie and the layout of the plot."
This kind of true presentation is naturally also used in the visual design of this film. "Senior photographer [Roger Dickens] discussed with us as he did when shooting "How to Train Your Dragon" and helped us create vivid and realistic scenes," Ramch said. "Our team has very talented talents, whether it is in art design, animation or lighting and modeling, they are all perfect to create exquisite, unique and very real looks. This is another producer. The factory has never done it."
David Lindsay-Abel, a playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama Muqi and Sternberg enlisted them to write the script for "League of the Guardians." Steinberg said: "He loves superheroes and fantasy stories very much, and he is the best candidate for screenwriter in our hearts." David Lindsay-Abel visited DreamWorks shortly after the "Shrek The Musical" began on Broadway. Animation, he recalled: "I met with Bill Damask and Christina Steinberg, they threw me a few simple ideas, let me see the best concept I have seen in my life Art, gave me a lot of books written by Josie. A few days later, I will write scripts by hand." Lindsay Abel quickly became fascinated by the guardian world. The playwright said: "These stories have high entertainment value." His script was adapted from Josie's original work. "Josie wrote the stories of these legendary characters, endowed them with flesh and blood but at the same time retained their magic. He reproduced the whims of childhood, reminded us adults of long-lasting memories, and once again experience the wonders of childhood at this moment. This is a kind of magical power."
Josie had collaborated with Lindsay Abel in 2005, so he was relieved to hand over the screenwriting of "League of the Guardians" to him. "David is very agile and can observe every detail very cleverly," Josie said. "The difficult thing about this story is that it has a very large format. We have to weave every main character and legend into the same plot. For every movie, the hardest thing to do is to use a concise and clear way. Telling the story, while achieving entertainment effects, that is, to find the emotional core of the story and the point that can resonate with everyone. David’s intuition will tell him how to simplify the story and focus on the characters. At the same time You can also replace every character and scene at will. The whole movie feels huge, but every story in it is very close to people’s hearts and reality.” Producer Steinberg said: “David combines the plot of the movie to show these The heart and spirit of the character creates a great fantasy adventure story at the same time. He can find the opinions they want to express for each character, reflect the facts and sense of humor, and make everyone deeply agree. "
Multi-awarded system Pian Gremore De Toro was the creative consultant of DreamWorks Animation and the executive producer of "Kung Fu Panda 2." He once again collaborated with DreamWorks as an executive producer this time, adding a unique perspective to the "Guardian League." "This movie has a lot of similarities with my work in the theme," Dai Toro said. "I think the production team showed great ambition, huge scale, dazzling visual effects, and broad mind. I very much agree with the value they are creating." How does
Santa North's voice sound like?
According to Josie’s original work, Santa North, as everyone knows, is actually the leader of the Guardian League, but he is the guardian chosen by the Moonman centuries ago. Ramch said that the man in the moon is a "wise world watcher." Josie said: "The Mid-Moon decided to select a special group of people to protect the children on the planet from being harmed by insectivores, and the first person he found was Nicolas Sannos (Santa Nos )." He imagined that North was a Cossack who couldn't leave his sword in his early years. "He is Russia's most unruly young fighter and thief," until his life goal changed to protect children. North speaks harshly, has a tough attitude, and has tattoos of "troublemaker" and "good boy" on his forearm.
The production team agreed that the legendary hero role of Da Lala must be dubbed by enough actors, and who else is more suitable than the Oscar-nominated Alec Baldwin? "Alec Fu and North Humanity," Ramsey said. "He loves to be funny and funny, and a bit pretentious. When the audience looks at North's eyes on the screen with Alec's voice, it will be clear whose soul this character has injected." He added: "No one can interpret North's character as brilliantly as Alec."
Baldwin put forward his views on this role: "For me, North is a complex of multiple personalities. He is a magic trick. The teacher is like the wizard of Oz. He is very loving, just like your favorite teacher, and always puts the children he protects first in his heart. He also has a very human side, as if he doesn’t care about it. He wants to get the appreciation and approval of others for everything. He wants to let everyone know that Santa North is the decision-making boss, and Christmas is the most important. He always quarrels with the Easter Bunny about whose holiday is more important. "The role of North resonated with me. He is very similar to the producer. He must be made out of nothing, even if he doesn't even know whether these actions can be realized in the end," said producer Steinberger. "He sincerely believes that everything can be done according to his wishes. We always describe him as a hell angel with a noble heart, full of joy, surprise and hope, but at the same time he is also difficult to deal with and caress about, and vaguely treat him. Said it is unacceptable."
As the story unfolds, North (and a lot of snow monsters, they make all the Christmas toys, and the elves that can be seen everywhere, they will only get in the way) saw the shadow of an enemy , And he thought this enemy had disappeared long ago. Insect-eaters invaded North’s magnificent fortress in the Arctic, which was also his workshop, and unkindly covered North’s globe with black sand to show the children’s beliefs. There are millions of luminous dots on this huge globe, and each dot represents a child who believes in the guardian of the world. As the globe becomes dimmed, it means that the insectivore is starting to make trouble.
Director Ramsey said: “The most uncomfortable thing about insectivores is that children love and believe in these guardians. The children put a lot of emotions on the guardians, and their parents encourage them to believe in these characters, but to eat them. Insect people are not the same thing. Parents always say: “There is nothing in the dark”, “You just had a nightmare”, “Insect-eaters do not exist.” The whole story can continue to develop because of eating The bug man is tired of this situation. He represents fear, and his ultimate goal is to make his own existence be believed by erasing the children’s belief in the guardian." "The guardian represents hope, joy, surprise, and dream. "Steinberg said. "If insectivores defeat them, they will be destroyed, and the values they represent will disappear, and the world will be dominated by fear." One of the ways insectivores implement his evil plan is to destroy one of the guardians. Tool. "He's totally fed up with being driven under the bed
for hundreds of years," said Jude Law, who voiced the Insect Eater. "He found a way to capture the Sand Man’s Mengsha. Mengsha is a positive pure golden sand that can give everyone happy dreams. But the insectivores turn them into nightmares (they appear as dark horses and follow Insect-eater’s order) makes the children fearful.” Ramch said that the evil method of insect-eater is very convincing, and the production group is deliberately arranged like this. "We thought about a lot of ways to make fear have an impact in the real world, and the logic behind it. If you think,'I want to go out, but there are some dark clouds in the sky outside, it might rain; if it rains, I might catch a cold; If I catch a cold...' Soon you will decide not to go out and miss all the best things in life, because you let the fear roll more and more like a snowball, and eventually close your world. So we know to Let this character be alarmist and make everyone mistakenly think that being afraid is the only normal thing."
Steinberg agreed, she said: "These classic legends need an opponent who can match them. Me and Ram Qi, Josie, and Lindsay-Abel spent a lot of time discussing our favorite villains in the past movies. We all missed the "Wizard of Oz" before hiding behind the bedroom door, only showing one head secretly watching the west Bad Witch. She is scary, but at the same time very exciting and has a unique charm. We want the insectivore to feel the same way, so he won’t be a horrible-looking bad guy with a moustache. He has his own. His personality is evil, funny and smart."
Lindsay-Abel added: "Insect-eaters have a human side. He is a lonely soul like our hero Jack Jongren. He just wants to be believed by everyone. Unfortunately, he uses the method of creating fear and threats. To achieve this goal." "When Jude Law's name appeared in the voice of Insect Eater, everyone was a little bit suspicious," Ramsey said: "We listened to his voice, and then added some animation tests. , Knowing that he is the right person. Insectivores shuttle between the shadows and move along the edges of objects that people can see. Jude’s voice has a great quality, which we call'velvety smooth 'Voice', you will want to listen to this voice all the time, even if he is telling some unkind words." "The story of the insectivore is very fascinating," Ramsey continued. "He has lived at the bottom for a long time, and now he finally finds a way to fight back and grab power. Jude has successfully presented the character's layers of granularity. You will unconsciously hear his voice. Goosebumps, it's really great." "Our dubbing lineup is really good and nothing to say," executive producer Gremory De Toro said. "Jude brings out the fragile, elegant, intelligent and cunning face of this character, and there are many traits that cannot be revealed in his lines. Jude perfectly expresses the feeling of isolation and loneliness of
the insectivore." "After the Arctic fortress, North summoned his guardian companions: the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Sandman to the North Pole for a meeting. They haven't been together for a long time. Guardians do not often work together, because each of them has their own "too powerful task" to perform. Ramsey said: "North is going to give gifts to children all over the world in one night. This is an extremely difficult task! So is the Easter Bunny. He has to do a lot of preparations to give the eggs to children all over the world; Yayahe Shasha is very busy every night, so they only get together when there is an emergency." And now is the time. In Josie’s original book, E. Esther Rabbit, also known as the Easter Bunny, is a Pooka. He is the only descendant of the ancient giant fighting monk rabbit family, whose mission is to protect lives. Brother Rabbit has the ability to open a magical tunnel, allowing him to instantly move around the world to deliver bright and beautiful Easter eggs. "The Easter Bunny will be the coolest character you have ever seen,"
Said Hugh Jackman, who was the voice of Brother Rabbit. "He is a ruthless character. You can imagine Indiana Jones with Steve Owen's tone. He protects nature, is an excellent martial artist, and very strong. He can jump high, of course, needless to say, on the ass. He is also hung with two boomerangs instead of the six-shot ××××××, which is his best weapon. The great thing is that the production team asked me to portray him as a grumpy Aussie; he is very difficult to entangle, He has a bad temper and is unreasonable. He doesn’t do nothing all day long. He has important work to do, and he will do his responsibilities no matter what happens.” Ramsey said: “From a certain point of view Seeing that he is a cowboy at all, it feels a little bit like this. He is another replica of North, and he will overturn everything as soon as he enters the door, because he is too tall." Steinberger agreed: "In He can be a brave warrior when necessary, but he also has a gentle side. He is a patrol and breeder who takes care of spring, hope, new beginnings, and the eggs he takes care of." "Hugh Jackman has mastered the essence of this role." One is the competition between Brother Rabbit and North," Ramch added. "Jackman thinks this is very interesting. He improvised a lot of the voices and words that Brother Rabbit made when he was provoked, because North always wanted to take away his brilliance and belittle the importance of Easter, but Brother Rabbit would always defend Easter when he died. The status. Hugh Jackman showed this vividly."
The voice of Tooth Fairy is Ella Fischer. The half-human, half-hummingbird guardian collects children's teeth all year round. "She is petite but has dazzling blue-green wings and big watery eyes," Fischer said. "As for her personality, she is a typical type A. She has to make sure everything is done on time and is correct. Her method of collecting teeth is very militaristic, but she also has a soft side. She saw the pearl-like teeth It will be very excited." "We think of her as a hummingbird because she is always working," Ramsey said. "She always flies over, and there are thousands of things waiting for her to do all the time. Her thoughts can be placed in countless places at once, talking and communicating anytime, anywhere." But she is not alone. fight. "Yaya has many babies to help her, and these little fairies are like a reduced version of her," Fischer said. "They flew around to collect teeth and left small gifts and money." Lindsay Abel said: "Ya controls all air traffic, manages the children and their teeth in every country." "Tooth fairy has a long time. Time has always been a conceptually difficult role to interpret," Ramsey said. "But the animator did some tests with Ella’s voice at the beginning, and we were amazed when we heard it, thinking that the tooth fairy’s voice should be like this. Ella is an excellent comedian, she puts emotional scenes It is handled very well, with a wonderful balance to interpret the tooth fairy's strength and fragility in place, and the audience can feel why her work is so important to her. Ella presents every appearance of the tooth fairy wonderfully Out."
To keep Yaya quiet for more than a minute is as difficult as climbing to the sky. On the other hand, Sha Ren, nicknamed Sha Sha, can create and bring beautiful dreams without saying a word. Ramsey said: "He fills you with infinite imagination, and enters all possible whimsical dreams at night." So it doesn't matter if the sandman doesn't speak. "It's nice to have a character at the center of the storm," Ramch added. "Shasha has become a key character in many acts. He may not say a word, but his role in the story makes him infinitely powerful in battle, and his importance in the Guardian League cannot be underestimated. His ability The power of dreams makes him one of the strongest guardians." "He communicates through the dream image on his head," Steinberg said. "He is like a Buddha, very mellow and calm, but he also has a very different side. When necessary, he will defend himself and protect his children. He is actually a brave fighter who can only exert his strength in times of crisis. He can use sand to create and control any object in trouble, and he usually wins a big victory."
When the guardians gathered together, the moonlight shone on them, telling them something amazing. News. In order to defeat the insectivores, they need an unexpected helper to help them: Jack Frozen. "They know that Jack always likes to cause trouble and is not mature at all," Ramsey said. On the surface, this is also true. Jack is a troublemaker who has lived in the body of a 17-year-old boy for 300 years. He has the ability to make frost, wind and snow. He loves sabotage, and he can control the winter with just a wave or touch of his ice stick; for him, the way to evaluate success is how many snowballs he has lost, how many windows are fogged, and how many schools are because of him. And announced a snow holiday. He doesn't need to be responsible to anyone, and doesn't need to respond to anyone's request. In the end, he thinks that he has no purpose for existence. "This thing bothers him very much," Ramch said. "Except for knowing his name is Jack Dongren, he doesn't know anything about himself, let alone know what he should do in this world."
In Jack’s dubbing part, Ramsey and the "Guardian League" production team knew that they had to find an actor who could show the protagonist style. After all, the "Shou" movie was a story about Jack in many ways, but at the same time he still To be able to express Jack’s various emotions in a mischievous and fragile and innocent way, Chris Pine is the right person they are looking for. "We admire Chris' performance in "Star Trek"," Ramsey said. "He is funny and smart, you can feel it when you see him on the screen. His eyes are shining, you can hear it from the sound, and he also has the vitality, charm and playfulness that the protagonist should have. It's all Jack's characteristics of freezing people." For Paine, Jack's dilemma is what attracted him to dub the role. He said: "The focus of this film is on Jack's journey of finding family, friendship, belonging and meaning of existence. Jack sparked the snowball fight because he desperately wanted the children to have fun, and at the same time noticed his existence and ability. ; they are so happy to have him because he and others hope to generate a link, and find him on the raison d'être of this world, which is in line with the demands of human nature. ".
Highlights
* the film based on William Josey series" childhood "The Guardians of Childhood" (The Guardians of Childhood) adaptation, William's previous work "A Day with Robinson" was filmed by Disney in 2007 as a 3D cartoon "Future Boy".
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