Brother Bear (2003)
Bärenbrüder
Das Interview mit Ruben Aquino, Supervising-Animator
» Die Einleitung
» Das Interview auf Deutsch übersetzt
OutNow: First of all, I would like to thank you for the opportunity of this interview. It's really a great deal for me.
Ruben Aquino: No Problem. You're welcome.
ON: Congratulations to the movie. It's beautiful. Finally the animals are talking again. How many times have you seen it?
RA: I've seen it many times, during the course of production. The finished movie, I have just seen once in a theatre with a regular crowd. But at the final party we had, they showed us a lot of scenes. That was by the end of october 03. A week before it came out.
ON: Are you satisfied with your work? With your character? Or do you see things, that you could have done better?
RA: Oooh, always... I always see things, that I wish I could have done better. I really don't like to see my own scenes. Even many years after I animated the characters. Because I can always see things, that I could have improved. It does seem to get less so with more pictures under my belt. You would think, after a few pictures, I would pretty much have figured it out... but there's always something I wish I could change. But I did enjoy watching the movie. It's such a beautiful movie.
ON: Where does it come from? Where does the story of Brother Bear originate?
RA: It's loosely based on native american myths. Mainly the transformation, which is very common in a lot of the native american cultures. It's not necessarily a bear, but basicly people turning into animals. Eagles, bears, wolves. Animals like that. And those kind of myths infect also other types of cultures, in europe or africa, for example. I think it appeals to us as people. Because we humans don't do a lot of things really well. We don't run the fastest, we don't fly, we don't swimm all that well. So turning into animals is like a fantasy. Especially kids fantasize about flying like an eagle. Or being very big and strong like a bear.
ON: How do you start a project like this? Does someone come to you and ask you to draw a character? Or do you have characters to choose from?
RA: Well, I was asked by the directors and the producers what kind of character I would be interested in. Originally I said, that I was interested in doing a bear. Because they have the main part. Even the movie itself is called Brother Bear. So I said, that I would like to draw a bear. I've done a lot of humans in the past few pictures. Including Lilo & Stitch and Mulan or Pocahontas. The last time I did an animal was for The Lion King. That's almost ten years ago. So I thought it would be nice to do an animal again. But the directors asked me if I wouldn't mind doing Denahi, the middle brother. Actually, in the beginning, the character of Denahi was not Denahi yet. It was actually the father. They asked me to do the father. I've done several father figures, like Chief Powhatan in Pocahontas and Maurice of Beauty and the Beast. And they thought I was very good at that. Since I've done a lot of humans they trusted me to do a good job. Only later did that character envolve to be the middle brother. Before that, the story was the father chasing his own son, not knowing that the bear he was chasing was his son. And so they did some story changes and "my" father became the middle brother. Well it's a story about brothers, so it made more sense.
ON: Where do the looks of Denahi come from? Where did you get the inspiration?
RA: It's a very collaborative process, as you might imagine. The way we do these characters is supervised by the Supervising Animator the whole way. And there's a team of animators working together. So my job was to come up with the final design. But in the process of designing the character, I had to closely work together with the other animators, the directors and the producers. To make sure, that all the characters look similar. Well, they are brothers. And they have to look distinguishable. So we all had to come up with a design very similarly. You want to see on the screen immediately, who's who. When you see action scenes, you want to be able to identify the characters. There where basic graphic shapes and the colors. With Sitka, the older brother, Denahi and Kenai they all have slighty different hairstyles. Also the color of the clothing is different. Sitka is basicly red, Kenai is more golden, like the bear he's about to become and Denahi is more blueish. So you just can tell immediately, who's who. But we had to do a lot of research as well. For the costumes especially and the hairstyles. The customes look like the ones from the 1800's and 1900's. But we wanted to make sure, that our characters look special, because the story was set thousands of years ago. After the last ice age. So we changed the costumes to a more primitive look. We took the basics of those costumes and made them more "less finished", to look more primitive. More like furs. Something between a caveman-custom and the more modern ones. We had to do a lot of research for the clothing. Luckily there have been a lot of photographs from the late 1800's of traditional customs and houses of that time. Weapons, tools and stuff like that.
ON: Where did you get these pictures from? Museums? Books?
RA: Yes, mainly books, movies or museums. We watched a lot of documentaries, old black and white films, where we could learn about their iglus or kajaks. There were nice close-ups of their clothing. Skins, furs and so on. So we could see, how that worked in three dimensions. We also looked at other movies that people have done over the years. As we where doing production, we watched a movie called The Fast Runner. It was done in that part of the country. It was a little bit late to use for our design, because it came out after we started production. But it helped us to get a feeling for the people and their life. You know, how the move, how they do regular things in their daily life. Like eating or prepare clothing. And we have a few scenes in the movie, at the beginning, where we show the villagers doing similar things. Preparing firewood, children playing with each other and things like that. That was very useful.
ON: Who is your favourite character of the movie. Is it the one you designed?
RA: Well, of course I like my character. *g* But for the humour, I like the Mousse. Rutt and Tuke, of course. They're very funny. And for appeal I love Koda. I think he is a very appealing character. I don't think the movie would be as good as it is, if it wouldn't care so much about Koda. And we wouldn't care about Koda, if he wasn't appealing. He can be a pain in the butt sometimes, as "Kenai" finds out in the movie, but he comes across very likeable and of course, he's funny, too.
ON: When you checked the Box-Office reports, was the result of Brother Bear satisfying? Or did you expect a higher result?
RA: Well, between my friends and myself, I said, that the movie deserves a 200 Million-Result. But we're not gonna reach that, I think. But it's a film I'm proud of and I would not have been surprised if the movie really hit that number. We're expecting something close, after the DVD and Video Sales. But we do the best we can. I personally thought it was a very good picture and I'm really proud to have worked on it. We had fun making it, so what more can you ask for. And we hoped that the audience embrassed the movie. Either theatrically or on DVD. The final numbers aren't in yet, so we'll see what happens.
ON: The last few Disney movies, like Treasure Planet or Atlantis were not as successful as expected. What's the reason for that? Is the time of Animation over?
RA: I wouldn't say it's over. Of course the story ist the most important thing. Maybe we weren't targeting the right audiences with these pictures. It's a combination of things. It's also Computer-Animation becoming better and better. Because it's new. And that's something the older kids connect with. It has an appeal that 2-D doesn't have. It looks different. But then, Lilo & Stitch came on pretty well. That went over 200 Millions.
ON: But that was not a "Disney classic". You know, in Switzerland, there's always a Disney movie before christmas. Lilo & Stitch was released in summer...
RA: It's funny you mentioned this. Because we didn't think of Lilo & Stitch as less important than Atlantis, for example. It may have cost a little less in terms of the special effects. Because in Treasure Planet, there were a lot of really complicated shots. We definitely tried to simplify the movie of Lilo & Stitch. But in terms of quality of the story, I think their both strong. It is a bit "untraditional", but that's why it was successful. It's just different from other Disney movies. It's definitely different from Treasure Planet and all the musical fairytales.
ON: Does the studio learn from things like that? Can we expect more "freaky" movies in the future?
RA: I think it has. I hope it has... Maybe the movies will going in this direction in the future, I don't know. But you have to know: you'll get into a trap when you try to just repeat successful films. You can do it to some limit, but then you have to look for new types of movies. It's a balancing act. You don't wanna go out there and try something that's too strange. But you still want to give the audience something it hasn't seen before. It's kind of tricky. And especially as an artist, I would like to work on different kind of movies and characters. I don't want to work on the same thing for years. It's fun to do it once, but then the whole act of researching and learning is missing. And that's what I enjoy. Like in Lion King, I learned much about animals. And for Lilo & Stitch I did a lot of research in Hawaii. Polynesian people and worms. Because I not only did David (the surfer) in the movie, but also Pleakley, the alien with one eye. And Pleakley was based loosely on worms. He has no internal bones. So the way he moves is distinctive. It reminded me of working on Ursula of The Little mermaid. She was a part octopus and her tentacles move the same way. So I tried to put some of that into Pleakley. Plus he had three legs, so I had to invent a walk for the him. So, that's always interesting. And I would not like to do people all the time. Or only animals. As an artist, I find it more interesting and stimulating to create new things. And when you're having fun, animating a movie, the senses that. It seems fresher, I think.
ON: You mentioned a lot of characters you did. Can you name all of them?
RA: I did Ursula in The Little Mermaid. Jake the kangaroo-mouse in Rescuer's down under. A lot of people don't remember him.
ON: Well, I do... He was like the Crocodile Dundee of Animation, right?
RA: Hehe yes, you're absolutely right. That's how we named him in the studio. Funny, you said that... Then I did Maurice of Beauty and the Beast. He was Belle's father. I did the adult Simba in The Lion King. Chief Powhatan of Pocahontas. He was my second father-character. On Mulan I did Captain Shan. He's the captain of Mulan, when she's trying to become a soldier. David and Pleakley in Lilo & Stitch. And finally Denahi in Brother Bear.
ON: Who's your favourite of all the characters you created?
RA: Ursula is my favourite. She's not necessary the best work of me, but she's the most well-known, I think. Simba, too. But he shares the movie with "Cub-Simba". But I had the most fun in animating Ursula. Also because of the voice. Pat Caroll was her voice and did a fantastic job. I had a lot of fun, animating this character. But I still hope, that my best work is still to come...
ON: How do you think about competition in amination-movies. There are computer-animated pictures like Finding Nemo or anime films like Spirited Away. What's with them? Do you even care? Do you like them or are they a pain in the butt of the company you work for?
RA: Oh, I like them very much. I like computer-animated films, too. Not all of them, but was Pixar does is fantastic. I really enjoy watching them. It's a different kind of movie, from what we've done with Brother Bear. They do things better than we do, but on the other side, there are things, that we do better than them. Our characters have more soul or our backgrounds have more a painted look. And you see that the movie is drawn by hand. There's a human touch computer animated films don't have. And basicly the requirements are the same for every kind of movie. Good story, good characters, humour, and things like that. And the japanese films are great, too. They're 2-D, too, but they have more detailed character-designs, which a lot of people like. On the other hand I think that our animations are better. It would be great to combine the best of both and do the perfect animated film. A movie that knocks everybodies socks off. And they are usually very good with effects and and they are excellent storytellers. And they have a very long tradition of graphic design. A lot of their movies are set in the future, and that's a thing I like. Sci-fi-Animations. We tent to do more sweet stories, with heart and soul. For younger people in general. So there's a slightly different audience also.
ON: There are a lot of studios in Hollywood producing Animation-movies. Like Dreamworks, for example. But their animations are never as successful as Disney's. How come? What's missing there?
RA: A lot of it is heart. Our films have a lot of heart. I'm a little on our side here, of course, but when I look at the other studios' animations, I don't connect with the characters as much. A part of it is just not good. It's a matter of quality. There are no feelings for the character. In case of Lilo & Stitch, we had a lot of warm scenes in it between the sisters. A lot of heart, as I'm always saying. The dialogues are much more real in our pictures. Not fake. And in Brother Bear, the scenes between Koda and Kenai, where Kenai has to confess that he did something horrible and Koda's mother is not coming back, that's very touching and sincere. You can't fake that kind of stuff, you know. And I don't get that same feeling from a lot of other animation-pictures. Not that they're insincere, but I think we do it best...
ON: What's next for you? What's next for Disney? What kind of movies can we expect?
RA: Well, there is Home on the range. Due in april 04. It's a story of a group of cows, that proof that the cows were the hero's of the wild west... And Chicken Little, a computer animated film. They work on that in California.
ON: From Pixar?
RA: No, this time, it's in-house.
ON: And anything else?
RA: Well, the problem is, that we can't really talk about things like that... There are movies in the pipeline, but in here in Florida, it's not yet decided, if we're involved in any of those.
ON: Is there a chance of seeing Brother Bear 2?
RA: It seems like, altough our studio is not involved in sequels. Disney does produce a lot of sequels of the movies we make. But not here. That happens in California. We're having mixed feelings about that. Because we put a lot of care, quality and time in the movie and the characters and the sequels tend to be made on a lower budget and you see that. The people who do sequels, usually don't have the time we had. They're under pressure to deliver animations and that's were you see that the quality is not the same. But they have their place in our "library of films". So, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a sequel to Brother Bear. I don't think it's gonna be a feature film, because we haven't really done that a lot. We did it with Rescuers down under, but it didn't do that well and now, sequels normally to directly to DVD-Sale. And the audience expects more from a feature film in the theatre and it is not so picky when it comes to DVD. But we here in Florida prefer to do new things. New stories, new characters, new features.
ON: Are you ready for some keywords? Well, even if you're not, I'm gonna ask them anyway...
Hollywood
RA: Film industrie tinseltown. Glamour, Glitzer.
ON: Bears
RA: Wonderful animals, amazing, scary
ON: Mousse
RA: Funny in the picture, likeable, interesting, herbavarous. I think they're not scary. But pretty nasty sometimes...
ON: Internet
RA: I can't imagine what the world would be without it. I use it every day.
ON: Silly questions
RA: Are you gonna ask me one? Well they just come...
ON: Favourite cartoon character
RA: Ursula of my own. And when I was a kid, I loved Pinocchio.
ON: m&m's
RA: I love them. I'm addicted to them. I honestly eat them every day.
ON: Switzerland
RA: Chocolate. I've been to Zurich once. Very civilized country. Very clean, very efficient, very nice people.
ON: Rest of your day
RA: To be honest, I probably gonna relax a bit, because I'm between assignments. But I might do some experimental working on the computer. You know, we do training in things like that to become flexible...
ON: That's it! Thank you very much for your answers and your time.
RA: It's been a pleasure. Thank you for those interesting questions...
Nachdem das Interview vorbei war, sprach ich Ruben natürlich noch auf das Zeichenbrett an. Ob er mir was zeichnen könne, fragte ich und schwupps, sass er auf dem Stuhl und begann mir eine Ursula zu zeichnen. Während er so aus Kreisen und Skizzen eine Figur zauberte, fragte ich ihn noch ein bisschen aus, wie er denn zum Zeichnen gekommen sei. Er erzählte mir, dass er eigentlich Architektur studiert hatte, aber dann keinen Job fand und so durch Trainingsprogramme zur Animation kam. Das könne man übrigens auch heute noch machen, da Disney ständig solche Lehrgänge anbieten würde.
Und auf meine Frage hin, ob ich denn, als kleiner Schweizer, auch mal so eine Figur synchronisieren könnte, meinte er, dass in Amerika ohne Agent und Sprechprobe gar nichts gehen würde. Und um eine Figur schlussendlich sprechen zu können, müssen man gewaltig viel Glück haben und zur richtigen Zeit das Richtige vortragen können. Das sei aber mehr eine Lotterie, als was anderes...
Als er die Ursula schon fast fertig gezeichnet hatte (und ich mir bereits ausmalte, wohin ich das signierte Stück in der Wohnung hinhängen sollte), fragte er mich, ob es mir bewusst sei, dass ich das Teil nicht heim nehmen könne. Denn "whatever I draw, is property of the company. I can not give drawings out."
Tja, schade. Wäre noch cool gewesen. Aber immerhin hats noch ein paar Fotos gegeben und ein von ihm signiertes Disney-Magazin. Auch nicht schlecht, oder?
