Hoppers is the number one film in the world this week! For those who have had a chance to see this terrific Pixar comedy, one of the most noteworthy things you’ll have noticed would likely have been the gorgeous animation straddling the line between pure Pixar magic and realism of beaver habitats.
After 30 years of entertaining us, the question always remains, how does Pixar do it? The answer lies in the incredible work of Hoppers Production Designer Bryne Imagire and Visual Effects Supervisor Beth Albright.
As they say in the movie “we’re all in this together.” That’s a motto that genuinely seems to define Pixar on any project their filmmakers work on. That was something we discovered during the early press day, where we met with the story artists, editors, animators, and more.
Among the team members we met, were Albright and Imagire. While we got a glimpse of the amazing work they brought to Hoppers in their quick presentation to all press members, we were really lucky to sit down with them personally and intimately to further discuss their work and how their contributions genuinely enhance the film’s themes.
GoC: My first question to you is this: You guys have done water before, fire before, trees before, woods before. What was it about Hoppers that served as a challenge for this movie?
Imagire: I think, for me, it was Daniel’s vision of the comedy that really pushed us into different places where we haven’t been for. And, you know, his sensibility of…cute animals. And stylized cute animals. And so that really challenged us to think of ways to make nature, equally as cute, and that lies.
Does that go for the production design as well?
Albright: Well, I think the thing that was interesting here – you mentioned we’ve done water before, and fire before, and that’s true. But it’s always different, because each film kind of has its own lens on those things. And so, stylistically, there are differences, but also just the way you’re telling the story, the director has their point of view, and so forth. So even though there were things that were like, ‘Ah, we’ve done that before,’ it’s pretty dangerous to ever say, ‘Oh, we know how to do that. We’ve done it before.’ Because you will immediately learn how this is not gonna be the way you did it before.
Which is one of the things I love, because you guys really give every Pixar movie that unique look. You can’t say that this is the same look as Soul. You can’t say this is the same look as Incredibles. And that’s one of the things I really like about Hoppers, is how different it was. Did you envision how you were going to do things a little bit differently from everything else at that point, or did it all really just come down to the conversations that you’ve had with Daniel?
Imagire: We did know that it was going to try to look different. I think every project, based on the story that you’re telling, does have to look different. And I think that having a different team and [a] first time director, here at Pixar, he did bring a different perspective to the studio in the greatest way, and it challenged us.
Albright: And we also have a bunch of super talented people that have worked on many movies here. And when you get a new kind of recipe or a cocktail of people together, just naturally, people want to do something different, because you don’t want to retread what you’ve done before. So, we all want to push it to some other place, too.
Imagire: It makes it so much more fun.
I love that. I wanted to ask a personal question, I suppose. One of the things I love about Hoppers, thematically – there’s a scene, one of the best scenes that I’ve seen in the Pixar movie, where a character says they’re angry all the time. They feel powerless all the time, and they want to do something about it, but they don’t know if they can. And I think right now, especially, we are all feeling that. I wanted to know, when you guys started working on this, was that something that you felt, too, and did you see yourself taking those themes and infusing how you felt about them into the work that you put into it?
Imagire: Well, when we started, it was – I’ve been on for about five and a half years – so the world was tiny bit different back then. And so, I don’t know what it is, but Pixar…when [movies] come out, it’s amazingly current, and aAddresses all of these things that are happening. And I feel like most of the time, it’s not as conscious.
Albright: Yeah. I mean, on the other hand, maybe that just points to the fact that there are these sort of undercurrents, and sometimes you’re feeling you’re responding to it. When Daniel was originally conceiving of that, there might have been something else going on that was coming up for him, and it’s kind of cyclical. I started the movie about three years ago, and something that really attracted me to this project was the way he was presenting the super entertaining and hilarious story, with just, like, absurd twists and turns. Super surprising. But there was this core that was sharing a message without it being, ‘This is a message driven movie where we’re telling you all that we need to do, X, Y, and Z.’ It’s more just like, this is a feeling we can relate to. This is something that’s kind of in the ethos.
It absolutely speaks to not only the power of the storytellers here at Pixar, but what you guys contribute to contribute to it, as well, because you make these timeless classics that never feel outdated, that always feel relevant, and yet, we are laughing our butts off. every moment of it. I just want to say thank you so much for the hard work that you put into this, and I literally can’t wait for people to see this, because it is classic.