Another Voice
Charter Member of The Element
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2000
To kind of focus the threads here, Ive created this thread just to talk about the creative aspects of Lilo and Stitch from a question by Sgt. Bstanley
Do you know if the 'watercolor' choice of media for the background was made before they shifted the story to Hawaii or after? It just seemed so 'correct' for the setting.
I dont know all the behind the scenes on this one, but I think the watercolors were an artist decision from the very start. They wanted Lilo to look very different from the recent films both the hard surfaces of the Pixar CGI films and the sharp edges found in traditional films like Atlantis and Emperor. And they also wanted to make Lilo look much more like earlier, pre-Xerox films like Bambi and Dumbo. From the very beginning the filmmakers wanted this to be a very Walt film in terms of looks, story, and characters.
The directors on this film had a much greater degree of freedom than other recent Disney animated films. Its much closer to the old school production technique were the creative directors oversaw all aspects of making the film. This allowed Lilos directing team the freedom to go with things like watercolors, the Elvis music and the quirky characters.
One of the few bad changes that Jeffrey Katzenberg brought to Disney Animation was the traditional Hollywood model of film making. Instead of one or two people driving the film, the new model is one more like assembling the movie the writer turns in the script, the animators create the characters, the music guys come up with the songs to insert, the talent goes off on their interpretation of the characters and the producers is the big boss to make sure everything fits together.
Its a subtle difference, but an important one. The old way requires that just a handful of people be expert in everything (which is never the case), but allowed a good idea to be incorporated in all aspects of the film. The new way allows experts to work on their specific roles in the process, but sacrifices a true unified vision for the movie.
I think the old way works better for animation just because everything in an animated film has to be created from nothing. Thats very hard to do and requires someone who can see how everything will fit together. Theres much less true blank page creation in a live-action film you cast Tom Cruise in a role and youve created 95% of the character right then. The creators role at that point is merely to get Tom to say the right lines at the right time. The creators of Lilo had the task, and the freedom, of creating each and every nuance of the character.
Do you know if the 'watercolor' choice of media for the background was made before they shifted the story to Hawaii or after? It just seemed so 'correct' for the setting.
I dont know all the behind the scenes on this one, but I think the watercolors were an artist decision from the very start. They wanted Lilo to look very different from the recent films both the hard surfaces of the Pixar CGI films and the sharp edges found in traditional films like Atlantis and Emperor. And they also wanted to make Lilo look much more like earlier, pre-Xerox films like Bambi and Dumbo. From the very beginning the filmmakers wanted this to be a very Walt film in terms of looks, story, and characters.
The directors on this film had a much greater degree of freedom than other recent Disney animated films. Its much closer to the old school production technique were the creative directors oversaw all aspects of making the film. This allowed Lilos directing team the freedom to go with things like watercolors, the Elvis music and the quirky characters.
One of the few bad changes that Jeffrey Katzenberg brought to Disney Animation was the traditional Hollywood model of film making. Instead of one or two people driving the film, the new model is one more like assembling the movie the writer turns in the script, the animators create the characters, the music guys come up with the songs to insert, the talent goes off on their interpretation of the characters and the producers is the big boss to make sure everything fits together.
Its a subtle difference, but an important one. The old way requires that just a handful of people be expert in everything (which is never the case), but allowed a good idea to be incorporated in all aspects of the film. The new way allows experts to work on their specific roles in the process, but sacrifices a true unified vision for the movie.
I think the old way works better for animation just because everything in an animated film has to be created from nothing. Thats very hard to do and requires someone who can see how everything will fit together. Theres much less true blank page creation in a live-action film you cast Tom Cruise in a role and youve created 95% of the character right then. The creators role at that point is merely to get Tom to say the right lines at the right time. The creators of Lilo had the task, and the freedom, of creating each and every nuance of the character.
