SYNOPSIS In Fairy Tale Land, we all know how the stories go: the Good Guys win, the Bad Guys lose, and everyone lives Happily Ever After. But for once upon this time, everyone's in for a surprise... You see, the Wizard who oversees Fairy Tale Land is feeling a bit run down. It's been a few hundred years since his last vacation, and he needs some time off. So he's going on a golf weekend and leaving his two assistants in charge. Which means that the Scales of Good and Evil, which control all the stories in Fairy Tale Land, will be in the hands of a twitchy wannabe hipcat (Mambo), and a well- meaning but slow "pig-hippo-thingie" (Munk). They promise to keep things running smoothly, but Mambo's got a few ideas ... Meanwhile, Cinderella’s story is playing out as usual: Rick, the palace dishwasher (her best friend), has just brought her and her sisters their invitations to the ball. Rick knows the Prince is a bit of a stuffed shirt; he's seen him consulting his Princely Rule Book, afraid to think for himself or stray from protocol in any way. To Ella, though, the Prince is her dream man, and soon, with a little help from her Fairy Godmother, she'll be with him. Of course, Frieda, her Wicked Stepmother tries to mess things up, but she's a Bad Guy, so she can’t win, right? Rick goes back to the kitchen and his friends, the Palace Cooks. He fumes at Ella for being taken in by the royal glamour boy, but his friends know the real reason he's mad: he loves her. As much as he denies it, she's his dream come true, only she's too busy dreaming about the Prince to see it. Back in the Wizard's lair, Mambo's getting a little frisky. He's bored with the status quo; he wants to mix things up a little – anything but these boring old Happy Endings all the time. Munk scolds him, but it's too late: Mambo's goofing around cracks the crystal ball the Wizard uses as a portal into all the various stories. And the timing couldn't be worse, because it opens up right in front of Frieda on her way into the ball. When Frieda makes her way into the Wizard's lair, she knows exactly where she is, and that this is her big chance to come out on top for once. Munk and Mambo are no match for her, and before you know it she's gotten her hands on the Wizard's magic staff. She's got a dream, too, and now she's got the way to make it happen: nothing less than to take over Fairy Tale Land, let the Bad Guys win, and turn the endings of all the stories to “Happily N’Ever After”! At the ball, Ella is just about to have her big moment with the Prince, when suddenly, everything goes haywire. Instead of romantically fleeing as the clock strikes midnight, she's shocked to see her clothes turn back to rags – and it's only 10:30. While the baffled Prince wanders off looking for the Princess he was just talking to, Ella runs in tears to Rick to tell him her troubles. As she tries to explain what's happened, they hear an ominous rumbling... Frieda's come back, and she's got some new friends with her. She's assembled a gang of all the baddest Bad Guys: the Big Bad Wolf and his posse, assorted Witches, the Giant (of Beanstalk fame) and some seriously scary Trolls. Together they storm the Palace, and take over Fairy Tale Land. Things are indeed looking pretty grim(m). But instead of caving in, Ella shows unexpected spunk. She knows this can't be right, and she won't stand for Frieda ruining things for everybody else the way she always has for her. Unfortunately, though, she's still sold on the Prince, and thinks he can save the day. She tells Rick they've got to find him, which makes Rick see red, and since he can't admit he's jealous, he tells Ella to take a hike. So she sets off to find the Prince on her own. While the Witch pulls her coup and Rick and Ella squabble, Munk and Mambo freak out. Wait till the Wizard finds out how badly they've messed up! They've got to fix this before he gets back! They, too, decide that the Prince must be the one to take Frieda on, and set out to find him. When they meet up with Ella, the three join forces – but they don't notice Rumpelstiltskin (another suddenly successful Bad Guy), spying on them. He goes to Frieda with his info, and now it's a race: can Ella find the Prince before Frieda catches up with her? Rick, meanwhile, realizes that, goofy over the Prince or not, Ella is the girl he loves, and he can't desert her. Stealing one of the Witches' broom-bikes – sort of a Harley on a stick – he takes off after her. And not a moment too soon... Ella's in big trouble. With Frieda's gang in hot pursuit, she, Munk, and Mambo stumble onto the hideout of the Seven Dwarves. Gruff at first, they're Good Guys, after all, and take the fugitives into their fortress-like den. But the relief is short-lived, because although the Dwarves have lots of ammunition and a really big gun to shoot it out of, even they aren't counting on the fairy-tale version of Armageddon that's about to hit them. The Witches roar in on their broom-bikes, and bombard them with blasts of magic. The Dwarves fight back for all they're worth, and Ella even shoots down a couple of the old battle-axes herself. It's no use, though: a final, magical blitzkrieg destroys their bunker. But, just in the nick of time, Rick swoops in and saves Ella, Munk, and Mambo. Frieda, who's watching through the crystal ball in the Wizard's lair, sees all of this – and is furious. "That's it!" she thunders. "I'm taking out Little Miss Goody-Two-Slippers myself!" Reunited, Rick and Ella are zooming along on the broom-bike, with Munk and Mambo in tow. But Rick still doesn't know how to pilot it, and when they spot the Prince below, Rick's attempt to stop results in a crash landing. Nobody's hurt, though, and the break gives Rick and Ella a chance to make up. While he still has doubts, Rick agrees to go back and find the Prince. Rick does succeed in finding the Prince, but getting through to him is another story. Meanwhile, Munk and Mambo are filling Ella in on how this whole mess got started – and what would have happened if it hadn't. And suddenly, what she's always dreamed of doesn't seem like so much. "That's all? I just marry the Prince?" she asks. Before Ella can contemplate this further, Frieda appears on her own broom-bike and snatches her up. Rick and the Prince arrive moments too late, and when the Prince goes after them, he's no match for the Trolls, who lock him up in a dungeon. So, even though it's not in any of the books, Rick hatches a plan to rescue Ella. He, Munk, and Mambo sneak past the doltish Trolls and not-so-wily wolves into the Palace, and find Frieda about to zap Ella into oblivion with the Wizard's staff. After a climactic struggle and some highly suspenseful moments, it's Ella herself who finally triumphs over Frieda and zaps her into the void. Free at last to return to her story, she discovers that she doesn't want to, and that this new life is more interesting than her dream ever was. "I thought you wanted a Prince," Rick asks. "I had one all along, I just didn't know it," she replies. So, while Fairy Tale Land rejoices, Rick and Ella make plans to open a restaurant with the Palace Cooks, and the Prince throws away his Rule Book and rides off to find his own adventures, Munk and Mambo welcome the Wizard home. "Any problems?" he asks. “No, no”, they tell him, “every story had... um... an ending." And they all lived Happily Ever After – except for Frieda, of course, who, somewhere in a vast expanse of frozen waste, fends off the advances of an over-friendly sea lion... The End.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Background Story Happily N'Ever After began life as a 2D feature film project, with 97 characters and 44 locations. As production began, however, a revolution was taking place in the animation world: the days of the 2D animated feature were numbered. A change in production companies gave the new team, BFC Berliner Film Companie, a chance to go back to the markets and reassess their approach, and the message they got was loud and clear: in every major market, from Europe to Asia to the U.S., 2D was no longer even considered for theatrical release. Faced with this new reality, the project's backers took a page from the HNA script itself and decided to "go for it!" They took a deep breath, refinanced the film, and re-envisioned it as a 3D, fully computer-animated movie. Because there were already international distribution deals in place, the new creative direction meant that BFC would have to establish a fully-functioning CG production pipeline from the ground up, while the film was in production, a task never previously undertaken. In order to meet the hard-and-fast deadlines to which BFC was committed while maintaining the highest standards in animation, BFC enlisted the services of several different smaller animation studios, one in Australia and five in Canada. BFC's Berlin headquarters thus became the Hub of a creative network, directing and integrating work across three continents. In order to coordinate the work flow to the subcontractors, a schedule was developed that put the Berlin Hub on a 22-hour workday (with 2 hours down-time for maintenance and back-up) with two shifts, dubbed "Australia" and "North America". The Australia shift came online in the morning, as the Australian studios were ending their day; the North America shift took over in the afternoon, as day came to their Canadian co-workers. As a result of this monumental effort, the total production time from the creation of the first models to the delivery of the answer print was a mere 15 months, unheard of for a first-class computer animated movie like Happily N'Ever After. The results speak for themselves. BFC has achieved the look and feel of the top American animation studios, in record time and on a fraction of their budgets. Which means that, the title to the contrary notwithstanding, Happily N'Ever After has ended happily after all.
ABOUT THE VOICE CAST THE CAST OF VOICES - OVERVIEW Frieda (Sigourney Weaver), Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Prince (Patrick Warburton), Mambo (Andy Dick), Munk (Wallace Shawn), Wizard (George Carlin), Rumpelstiltskin (Michael McShane)
Sigourney Weaver | Voice of Frieda Sigourney Weaver has created a host of memorable characters, both dramatic and comic, in film and theater ranging from Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in Mist, to Tawny in Galaxy Quest and most recently the “adorably bumbling” title character in A.R. Gurney’s new play Mrs. Farnsworth at The Flea Theater downtown. Sigourney Weaver made her motion picture debut in 1979 in Ridley Scott’s blockbuster Alien. She reprised the role of Warrant Officer Ripley in James Cameron’s Aliens in 1986, for which she earned a Best Actress Academy Award nomination, and in David Fincher’s Aliens 3 in 1992, which she also co- produced. In 1997, Weaver brought Ripley back to life in Alien Resurrection for director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Most recently Ms. Weaver played Mrs. Farnsworth opposite John Lithgow, which is scheduled to return to The Flea later this summer. Weaver also originated the female lead in Anne Nelson’s The Guys at The Flea, where it was commissioned and directed by director, Jim Simpson. The Guys tells the story of a fire captain dealing with the aftermath of 9/11. Last year Weaver performed in the off-Broadway world premiere of Neil LaBute’s play The Mercy Seat, opposite Liev Schreiber, which John Lahr of The New Yorker described as offering “performances of a depth and concentration that haven't been seen in New York for many seasons.” Also in 2003, Weaver played the cold-blooded, red-headed warden in the hit comedy Holes, directed by Andy Davis. The film version of The Guys, with Ms. Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia, directed by Jim Simpson, was released by Focus Features. Weaver has starred in a number of strikingly different and successful films. She gave a galvanizing performance in A Map of The World, Scott Elliott’s powerful drama based on the novel by Jane Hamilton, which earned her universal critical praise and a Golden Globe nomination for best actress. She delighted audiences with her flair for comedy, along with crewmates Tim Allen and Alan Rickman, in the science fiction comedy Galaxy Quest directed by Dean Parisot, which proved to be a hit of the 1999 Holiday season. She followed this with the popular comedy Heartbreakers, playing opposite Gene Hackman and Jennifer Love-Hewitt. In 1997 Weaver joined the ensemble of Ang Lee’s critically acclaimed film The Ice Storm playing alongside Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci. Her performance garnered her a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe nomination and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1988 Weaver had starring roles in three back to back hit movies: Gorillas in the Mist, in which she portrayed primatologist Dian Fossey, the Mike Nichols comedy Working Girl, and Ghostbusters II. Weaver received her second and third Academy Award nominations and was awarded Golden Globes for her performances in Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl. Other films include the thriller Copycat, Paul Rudnick’s comedy Jeffrey, Roman Polanski’s gripping film adaptation of Death and the Maiden, Half Moon Street with Michael Caine, Ridley Scott’s 1492, One Woman or Two with Gerard Depardieu, Eyewitness with William Hurt and Showtime’s live-action film Snow White, based on the original Grimm’s fairytale, which earned her an Emmy nomination and a Screen Actors Guild nomination. Born and educated in New York City, Weaver graduated from Stanford University and went on to receive a Masters degree from the Yale School of Drama. Her first professional job was as an understudy in Sir John Gielguds production of The Constant Wife, starring Ingrid Bergman. Weaver started out on Off-Off Broadway in Christopher Durang’s The Nature and Purpose of the Universe, Titanic and Das Lusitania Songspiel, She and Durang co-wrote Das Lusitania which earned them both Drama Desk nominations. She has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway productions in New York, working with such writers as John Guare, Albert Innaurato, Richard Nelson and Len Jenkin. In regional repertory, she has performed works by Pinter, Williams, Feydeau and Shakespeare. She also appeared in the PBS series The Best of Families. Weaver received a Tony Award nomination for her starring role in Hurlyburly on Broadway, directed by Mike Nichols. She played Portia in the Classic Stage Company of New York’s production of The Merchant of Venice. In 1996, Weaver returned to Broadway in the Lincoln Center production of Sex and Longing, written by Christopher Durang. Weaver was recently seen in M. Night Shamalyan’s The Village and received rave reviews for her performance in Imaginary Heroes written and directed by Dan Harris. Next up, she will portray an Autistic woman opposite Alan Rickman in Snow Cake which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, Babe Paley in a film on Truman Capote entitled Infamous and she most recently finished playing president of the TV Network in Jake Kasdan’s The TV Set. All three films are due out this year.
Sarah Michelle Gellar | Voice of Ella Determined and accomplished are two words that best describe Golden Globe nominee SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR. Beginning her career as a child actress, Gellar has remained a leader on the road of success. A veteran of television, theater and the big screen, Gellar is currently filming The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing, in which she plays a Manhattan book editor who finds her take on the game of love changed after she attracts the attention of an influential older man. The film stars Alec Baldwin and Maggie Grace. Gellar can soon be seen in The Grudge 2 and the Focus Features film Revolver, about a successful young businesswoman who starts having nightmares about a young woman who was murdered 25 years ago. Gellar also stars in the upcoming musical comedy, Southland Tales by director Richard Kelly. Southland Tales is an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles on July 4, 2008, as it stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. Sarah stars opposite The Rock and Sean William Scott. This film will be premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Gellar recently filmed The Air I Breathe, a drama based on an ancient Chinese proverb that breaks life down into four emotional cornerstones: happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love. Gellar plays the role of Sorrow alongside cast mates Kevin Bacon, Julie Delpy, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, and Forest Whitaker. Gellar’s other film credits include The Grudge, Scooby Doo and Scooby Doo: Monsters Unleashed, I Know What You Did Last Summmer, Scream 2, Cruel Intentions, and Harvard Man. Gellar is best known for her role as ‘Buffy Summers’ in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” She wrapped her seventh and final season of the critically acclaimed drama in May of 2003. Gellar’s career in the world of entertainment goes back much farther than “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, her career has spanned nearly 22 years - quite a feat for a young woman. She won an Emmy in 1994 for her role on the ABC daytime drama “All My Children” and completed classes at the High School for the Performing Arts in New York one year ahead of schedule. Her credits include; television “An Invasion of Privacy” (CBS/MOW), “A Woman Named Jackie” (CBS/Mini-Series), and “All My Children” (ABC); film FUNNY FARM (Warner Bros.), OVER THE BROKLYN BRIDGE (Cannon Films) and HIGH STAKES (Vidmark); theater Jake’s Women opposite Matthew Broderick at Circle in the Square, and The Widow Claire at the Old Globe Theatre. Gellar has also participated in much off-screen work as a volunteer for many charitable organizations. She is an advocate for breast cancer awareness and participated in Ford’s 2003 ‘Tied to the Cause’ campaign benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Sarah was also an honoree at this year’s Young Survivors Coalition. She has donated her time and talent to the ‘Make-a-Wish Foundation’ and has spent time in the Dominican Republic working as a volunteer for ‘Habitat for Humanity.’ She helped those affected by the recent California Fires by visiting shelters and handing out clothing and supplies to families who had lost everything. Additionally, she has been involved with ‘Project Angel Food’ for the fight against hunger, the ‘Starbright Foundation,’ ‘Planned Parenthood,’ and the ‘Los Angeles Free Clinic.’ A New York native, Gellar resides on both coasts.
Freddie Prinze Jr. | Voice of Rick Assuming the role of the youngest executive producer in ABC’s history, Freddie Prinze Jr., currently stars on the television sitcom, “Freddie,” on which he also serves as co-creator and writer. This Spring, Prinze will be seen on the big screen in the comedy, “Brooklyn Rules,” co-starring Alec Baldwin, Mena Suvari, and Jerry Ferrara. Prinze recently completed production on, “Pool Hall Prophets,” opposite Ving Rhames, in which a street-smart pool player falls in with a pack of hustlers. He will next lend his voice to the animated comedy feature “Happily N’Ever After” for Vanguard Films’ alongside Sigourney Weaver and Sarah Michelle Gellar. “Happily N’Ever After” is inspired by classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales and is based on Greenlight’s European animated television series “Simsala Grimm.” In addition, his voice will also be featured in the action-adventure animated film, “Delgo,” which also features the talents of Val Kilmer, Anne Bancroft, and Chris Kattan. Prinze was last seen on the big screen in the smash-hit franchise, “Scooby Doo,” and “Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed,” as “Fred,” opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar and Matthew Lillard. Prinze left his hometown of Albuquerque after finishing high school and moved to Los Angeles to focus on his acting career. After making his feature film debut in “To Gillian on her 37th Birthday,” Prinze went on to star with in “The House of Yes.” The box office smash “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” followed, ushering in the return of the teen horror genre. Prinze reprised his role in the sequel, “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.” Other film credits include “Down to You,” “Boys and Girls,” “Summer Catch,” “Head Over Heels,” and “She’s All That.” He also recently appeared as a guest star on ABC’s, “Boston Legal.”
Patrick Warburton | Voice of Prince Humperdink You know him from the hit NBC comedy “Seinfeld,” as Puddy, the laconic, enigmatic, quirky Saab salesman and Elaine’s boyfriend, who broke up with her at least a dozen times in one episode. He’s Patrick Warburton, and he now stars on the ABC hit comedy “Less than Perfect,” as Jeb Denton, an opinionated on-air pundit and Lydia’s (Andrea Parker) love interest. Warburton was most recently heard as the voice of The Wolf in the animated hit HOODWINKED. He also starred opposite Martin Lawrence in 20th Century Fox’s REBOUND, where he plays Larry Burgess, a junior high basketball coach who has one of the best teams in the league and takes on Lawrence’s character’s team. He played the character Rip Smashenburn in the new UPN animated series “Game Over,” the first primetime series to use CGI (computer generated imagery) technology. Warburton also lends his vocal talents to several other projects, including the voice of Brock Samson in the animated adult series “The Venture Brothers,” slated to debut on The Cartoon Network this summer -- as well as the voice of Mr. Barkin on the Disney Channel’s “Disney’s Kim Possible.” He also provides the voice of Joe on Fox’s popular animated series “The Family Guy.” Warburton’s voice can also be heard alongside that of Sarah Michelle Geller, Sigourney Weaver, George Carlin, Andy Dick, and Freddie Prinze Jr. in the animated feature film HAPPILY N’EVER AFTER, from the producers of SHREK, where he plays the voice of Prince Humperdink. Warburton recently finished shooting the independent film THE CIVILIZATION OF MAXWELL BRIGHT, a dark comedy where he stars as a vicious and self-destructive anti-hero who desperately needs to save his soul. The film is essentially a modern re-telling of “Beauty and the Beast,” that explores what happens when a modern Neanderthal is locked in close proximity with a kind and loving woman. Written and directed by David Beaird (SCORCHERS, PASS THE AMMO, MY CHAUFFEUR) and produced by Steven Wolfe’s (CIRCUIT, TWIN FALLS IDAHO, RELAX, IT’S JUST SEX) Sneak Preview Entertainment, THE CIVILIZATION OF MAXWELL BRIGHT co-stars Jennifer Tilly, Marie Matiko, Simon Callow and Eric Roberts. Warburton started his television career appearing regularly on the CBS sitcom "Dave's World," with Harry Anderson and Meshach Taylor, and originally guest-starred on “Seinfeld” as the painted-faced New Jersey Devils fan and Jerry’s mechanic, only to become one of the show’s funniest fixtures. He also did commercial spots for American Express (as the voice of Superman alongside Seinfeld), Cadillac and M&Ms. Warburton starred in THE WOMAN CHASER, which received critical acclaim at the prestigious New York Film Festival and The Sundance Film Festival, as well as THE DISH, opposite Sam Neill, an Australian production about the first man on the moon. His is the voice of the “Savior of the Universe” in Disney’s animated Saturday morning TV series, “Buzz Lightyear,” and Warburton’s voice graced the big screen in the popular Disney animated film THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE, currently out on video. Barry Sonnenfeld directed Warburton in the Columbia Tri-Star half-hour comedy, “The Tick,” which has a huge cult following since its release on DVD. He also paired up with Tim Allen in Sonnenfeld’s feature films, BIG TROUBLE and JOE SOMEBODY, as well as SCREAM 3 and in MEN IN BLACK 2. A native Californian, Patrick grew up in Huntington Beach and currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and four children whom he describes as the ultimate joy and love of his life. With what little spare time he has, Patrick gets in a game of golf or tennis, sails on his boat along the California coast, and spends time with his family in their cabin on the Rogue River in Oregon.
Andy Dick | Voice of Mambo Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Andy Dick learned early in life to use his sense of humor to gain friends and to keep the attention centered on him. His love for the theater quickly grew after he saw his first stage production. By the end of high school, the young theater fan was president of his drama club and on his way to Illinois Wesleyan University and Columbia College in Chicago, where he began his studies with Del Close at Second City, where he eventually became part of the company. Andy’s early career started with television commercials. This exposure helped Andy meet fellow actor/writer Ben Stiller, who cast him in the short film Elvis Stories, leading to a role in the Emmy Award winning The Ben Stiller Show. Though he has had a long career in television, audiences have most recently enjoyed Andy for four seasons on the ABC show Less Than Perfect, playing office geek “Owen Kransky”. Some additional television credits include a five-year role as accident-prone reporter, “Matthew Brock, on the critically acclaimed comedy News Radio. Soon after News Radio success, Andy was offered a self titled hit show for MTV, The Andy Dick Show, which he wrote, starred in and directed. Rolling Stone Magazine hailed it as "the funniest thing on TV." Following the success of The Andy Dick Show, he renewed his relationship with MTV by creating a reality based show “The Assistant” where contestants competed for the coveted assistant position. Recently Andy completed his feature directorial debut entitled Danny Roane: First Time Director, which premiered at the South By Southwest Film festival. He wrote Danny Roane... and plays the starring role in this semi autobiographical “mock-umentary”. Additionally pending for Andy is the recently wrapped production on the 2007 release of “Employee of The Month” also starring Dane Cook and Dax Shepard. Additional feature-film credits include For the Boys, Inspector Gadget, Reality Bites, Best Men, Road Trip, Looser, Zoolander, The Cable Guy, Old School and the hilarious independent film The Hebrew Hammer. Andy currently resides in Los Angeles.
Wallace Shawn | Voice of Munk Wallace Shawn is one of the film industry’s most recognizable character actors with a long list of movie and television credits. He has appeared in over 50 films in a career that began, and continues, as a writer. Shawn, a New York City native, was actually once a schoolteacher, having taught Latin and drama in New York, and English in India. A life long writer whose playwriting career began in 1967, Wallace translated Machiavelli’s play “The Mandrake” for a Joseph Papp production in 1977, and was asked by the director to appear in it, marking his acting debut. Since then he has appeared in “Uncle Vanya,” “Carmilla,” and other plays. Other plays written by Wallace followed, including “Aunt Dan and Lemon,” and “The Fever.” The National Theater in London produced the most recent Shawn play, “The Designated Mourner,” featuring Mike Nichols and Miranda Richardson. Those two stars reprised their roles in the BBC Films production of “The Designated Mourner” released to critical acclaim in the summer of 1997. His play “The Fever” was recently produced as a cable film for Showtime starring Vanessa Redgrave and his play “Marie and Bruce” was produced as a feature film starring Matthew Broderick and Julianne Moore. In the spring of 2006, Wallace will have two plays opening in New York.: off Broadway, “The Music Teacher”, an operatic play co-written with composer brother Allen, will premier and on Broadway, his translation of Bertolt Brecht’s “Threepenny Opera” will be staged starring Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. Casting director Juliet Taylor saw Wallace in “The Mandrake, then recommended and ultimately cast him in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan.” Allen later used him in “Radio Days”, “Shadows and Fog” and “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion”. Shawn went on to appear in four films by Louis Malle, “Vanya on 42nd Street,” “My Dinner With André,” “Atlantic City” and “Crackers.” Wallace has appeared in Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless”; Blake Edwards’ “Mickey and Maude”; Rob Reiner’s “The Princess Bride”; Stephen Frears’ “Prick Up Your Ears,” James Ivory’s “The Bostonians”, Rebecca Miller’s “Personal Velocity” and “The Haunted Mansion” starring Eddie Murphy. Other notable credits include “My Favorite Martian,” “Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills,” “The Hotel New Hampshire,” and “The Moderns.” Most recently, Wallace concluded an enormously successful run off Broadway starring opposite Ethan Hawke in David Rabe’s “Hurlyburly” In addition to having a recognizable face, Shawn’s distinctive voice fueled the performance of the nervous dinosaur, Rex, in “Toy Story” as well as its sequel “Toy Story 2.” He can also be heard in the animated feature films “The Incredibles”, “The Goofy Movie” and “Teacher’s Pet: The Movie”, as well as on the animated television series’ “Family Guy” and The Disney Channel’s “Stanley.” Wallace has regularly appeared in such highly regarded television series’ as “Murphy Brown,” “The Cosby Show” and “Taxi”, along with special appearances on “Desperate Housewives”, “Clueless,” “Ally McBeal”, “Crossing Jordan” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”. Movies made for television include “Monte Walsh” starring Tom Selleck, “Mr. St. Nick” starring Kelsey Grammer and “Blonde” with Poppy Montgomery as the legendary Marilyn Monroe.
George Carlin | Voice of The Wizard To date, George Carlin’s 12 HBO specials have garnered three Emmy nominations and won six CableACE awards, and thus far eight of those HBO shows have been released in two separate DVD packages. Carlin picked up two additional Emmy nominations in the early ‘90’s, playing the part of Mister Conductor in 45 episodes of the critically acclaimed PBS children’s show, “Shining Time Station.” In 1997, Carlin ventured into a new field as Hyperion published his first book, Braindroppings, a collection of original routines, one-liners, commentaries and essays. In hard cover and paperback, the book spent a total of 40 weeks on The New York Times Best-Seller list and has sold 850,000 copies. The “book-on-tape” version, read by Carlin himself, won the 2001 Grammy in the Best Spoken Comedy category, the latest of his three Grammys. A second book, Napalm & Silly Putty, written in the same style as the first, was published in April 2001, reaching the Number One spot on the New York Times Best-Seller list in its second week. The combined hardback and paperback editions have sold over 500,000 copies. A third book, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, published by Hyperion came out in October of 2004 and went to Number 2 on the New York Times Best-Seller list as well as being banned by Wal-Mart. When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? and George have both been nominated for two Quill Awards and the paperback comes out in October 2005. This book’s format echoes the first two books: long and short format essays, observations and commentaries ranging from serious to silly, and will include many of his trademark observations on the American language, one of his notable comedy strengths. While all this goes on, Carlin still manages to perform 90 concerts each year around the country, selling nearly a quarter of a million tickets. Eight weeks annually at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas rounds out a very full road schedule. At the present time, Carlin’s concert shows serve as the preparation ground for his 13th HBO Comedy special, GEORGE CARLIN: LIFE IS WORTH LOSING, which will air live on November 5, 2005. A CD of the show will follow, bringing his album total to 25, including compilations and books on tape. Meanwhile, in March of 2004, the Kevin Smith movie, Jersey Girl, was released, where Carlin had a substantial role as Ben Affleck’s father. It was his 11th feature film, and easily the most significant role he has had thus far. In addition, Carlin has been doing extensive voice-over work in three animated films: Tarzan II, The Wild Life, and Happy N’Ever After.
THE FILMMAKERS - OVERVIEW Director (Paul J. Bolger), Producer ( John H. Williams), Executive Producer (Rainer Soehnlein), Co-Producers (J. Chad Hammes), Written By Rob Moreland, Music ( James L. Venable), Line Producer (John McKenna), Production Designer (Deane Taylor)
John H. Williams | Producer John H. Williams started Vanguard Films in 1981. His first production was Steppenwolf Theater’s “True West” with John Malkovich and Gary Sinise, followed by “The Grapes of Wrath”, and “Rocket to the Moon” starring John Malkovich and Judy Davis. Vanguard then went on to produce A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room” with Bill Macy, G.B. Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” with Rex Harrison and Amy Irving, and “The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket” with Tom Hulce. Vanguard then went on to produce commercials through a joint venture production company with Virgin Records. Commercial directors included Tim Pope (“The Crow” sequel), The Brothers Quay (“Streets of Crocodiles”) and Reggie Hudlin (“House Party”, “Ladies Man”). Vanguard has also produced documentaries on John F. Kennedy, Aretha Franklin, George Gershwin, The History Of The Blues, and live performance pieces with Spalding Gray. Segueing into the feature film business, Vanguard went on to produce the Miramax release of Erroll Morris’ feature documentary, “The Thin Blue Line” with American Playhouse and Channel Four/U.K, “Sarafina” with Whoopi Goldberg. Vanguard’s more recent film credits include, “Seven Years in Tibet” with Brad Pitt, the Academy Award-winning, “Shrek”, “The Tuxedo”, starring Jackie Chan, the ESPN cable movie “The Junction Boys”, and the Academy Award nominated “Shrek 2”. Williams was the first producer to get an overall first-look deal with DreamWorks in live-action eight years ago, which is the longest deal the studio has ever had with a producer. Vanguard Animation just released the full CG animated feature, “Valiant”, featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, John Cleese, John Hurt, and Jim Broadbent. Vanguard Animation is also producing, in conjunction with the Berlin Animation Fund, the CG animated film “Happily N’ever After” with voices by Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Michelle Geller, and Freddie Prinze Jr., and will be released in 2007.
Rainer Soehnlein | Executive Producer For more than 30 years, Mr. Soehnlein has worked in many different aspects of the media industry. Beginning his career in television and film production while still a student in Germany, he ultimately wrote, developed, and directed numerous TV series and films that won some of Europe’s most prestigious honours. In the 80s, he came to the U.S., setting up shop in New York and developing a network of connections in the American marketplace as he helped to build bridges between European sources of funding and U.S. producers and filmmakers. In the 90s, Mr. Soehnlein moved West to Los Angeles, becoming involved in various ventures, including Picture Fund, Inc., a partnership with Moritz Borman that developed and produced motion picture and television projects for the U.S. and Europe. From 1994 to 2000, Soehnlein acted as President of U.S. Operations for Telepool, a subsidiary of the German television network, ARD, further developing his personal contacts with senior executives of both major and mini-major studios; most notably, he was "point man" on Telepool's output deal with DreamWorks SKG. During his tenure with TP, Mr. Soehnlein began the shift in focus that led him to his other current position as Executive Media Advisor to Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, moving into the field of entertainment and new media technology. Over the past eight years, while carrying out his other functions, he has concurrently acted as an independent consultant for a variety of clients in Germany and the U.S. For example, he worked closely with Deutsche Telekom on several ventures, including the development of a concept for a German digital platform for television and on-line services. In 2002, Mr. Soehnlein became President and CEO of BFC Berliner Film Companie Productions GmbH and BFC Berliner Film Companie Distribution GmbH, a role that pulls together the many threads of his career. His goal is to employ his close personal ties to both the business and creative ends of the entertainment industry in Europe and the U.S., and his strong interest in bringing European and U.S. forces together in the areas of media and technology, to help create a new and unique entertainment production and marketing entity.
Chad Hammes | Co-Producer J. Chad Hammes has worked in the CG (computer graphics) film industry for over 15 years. Prior to establishing his career in the Hollywood film business, Chad earned a university degree from the school of Computer Science and the school of Cinema Television, at the University Of Southern California. Chad has worked with leading companies such as Sony Columbia/TriStar Pictures, and top directors like Tim Burton on “Mars Attacks!”, and Paul Verhoeven on “StarshipTroopers”. Chad has been on the productions of more than 7 Hollywood feature films, he has held positions as a CG Supervisor, Unit Production Manager, Line Producer, Co-Producer, and Producer. Chad’s most recent CG feature film accomplishments were on “Valiant” distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, and “Happily N’Ever After” currently in Post Production for a 2006 release. Rob Moreland | Screenwriter Rob Moreland graduated with honors from Williams College, where he majored in English, played in the jazz ensemble and wrote a senior honors thesis about James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” A fluent Spanish speaker, he was a finalist for a Fulbright Scholarship to study magical realism in Latin America. Moreland is also a musician who plays keyboards and clarinet, as well as a published cartoonist. As an MFA filmmaking student at UCLA, Moreland was the first recipient of the Lew Wasserman Fellowship for directing. His student film enjoyed success on the festival circuit, was screened at the DGA and was the first featuring actress Téa Leoni. While at UCLA Moreland also co-wrote an ABC movie of the week, GROUND CONTROL, as well as a script that was a finalist for Sundance. As a professional screenwriter, Moreland wrote the original live action feature comedy PINK SLIP for Dreamworks. He sold his feature adaptation of the sci-fi classic novel THE LEGACY OF HEOROT to MGM/UA. His script for THUNDERPIG, an animated piece produced by Nickelodeon Creative Labs, won the “Best Pilot “ category at 2001 WAC (World Animation Conference). He optioned his original series REDNECKS IN SPACE to Sony. Moreland wrote and did additional voice direction for the animated feature film HAPPILY N’EVER AFTER, currently in post production. The film features the talents of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sigourney Weaver, Andy Dick and George Carlin. Rob Moreland most recently wrote the live action feature script TED, basec on NY Times best-selling author Tony DiTerlizzi’s book, for Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies. Also for Nick/Paramount, Moreland adapted Peter Glassman’s book MY DAD’S JOB. Moreland’s current projects include revising the screenplay for SPACE CHIMPS (an animated feature to be released by Fox in 2008) and directing his original feature screenplay, THE LOCAL YOKELS. As an associate producer, Moreland’s credits include IMAGINING AMERICA, an acclaimed hour-long episode of PBS’s American Playhouse series. In recognition of his work on the program, Moreland was awarded a Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival. Paul Buckley | Composer Paul Buckley graduated from Pomona College in 1992 with a degree in Media Studies and began his professional career by joining Jonathan Wolff's Music Consultants Group in 1993 as an engineer and arranger. Within a short time Paul was composing there, establishing a business model for Music Consultants Group which engendered a half-dozen more composing partnerships for Jonathan. In 2001, with almost twenty network television shows to his credit, Paul left Music Consultants Group to create Paul Buckley Music, a new banner under which to continue his composing career independently. Paul Buckley Music will start its fifth television season with four network series: Will & Grace, Less Than Perfect, Living With Fran, and Twins. Paul is married to Leticia Rhi Buckley, director of marketing for the Los Angeles Music Center. They have an adopted daughter, Liliana, who was born on January 24th, 2005. John McKenna | Line Producer A consistent theme of John’s career has been his leading teams of creative, artistic, technical and production professionals, and melding them into a cohesive unit able to succeed creatively and deliver major productions, including six animated feature films. For 14 years, he served as a producer, director and actor in the professional theatre in England, and made the transition to animation in 1989, when hired by the Walt Disney Company to set up an animation studio in London. As well as equipping and crewing that studio, he had responsibility for the delivery of Ducktales the Movie, numerous episodes of well-known television series, like Winnie the Pooh and Tale Spin, and prestige assignments such as the Title Sequence for Disney Afternoon. After Disney, he served as Executive Producer for Cologne Cartoon in Germany, helping to deliver a television series to WDR, the national broadcaster, as well as television commercials and promos. In 1995, he was hired by Warner Bros., to set up their London feature animation studio, where he oversaw a team of 140 people, delivering sequences for Space Jam and Quest for Camelot, and pre- production designs for Iron Giant. He was also responsible for coordinating all the London and European studios that contributed services or sequences, including the all-CGI basketball game environment for the Space Jam finale. In 1998 he moved to the U.S. to manage the Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, responsible for the delivery of Bartok the Magnificent, a direct-to-video sequel to Fox’s Anastasia, and the 2D/CGI composite, Titan AE. From Fox he joined former Warner Bros. Feature Animation President Max Howard at his nascent production company, Melwood Pictures, where he was responsible for operations and the development of several animation properties. In 2005 he joined BFC Berliner Film Companie as Line Producer on their CG-animated feature film. INTERVIEWS Sigourney Weaver (Voice of Frieda) a) On what the audience will respond to “I think that what they'll love about the film is that you see these fairy tales that you love and that you know so well, like Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty, and you'll see them sort of turned inside out, I think in a very delightful, funny way. It’s kind of very cathartic to see what happens when all the darker figures start running things. They turn out to be very human, too. They want to get drunk and sit around, not have to work so hard. Frieda has to really make them get up – she has, you know, help problems. So, I just think that it's very refreshing. It's a very original story, and very contemporary in its way, and I think very well written, and I can't wait to see it.” b) On the screenplay “Well it's so funny. There's so much humour and, I think, humanity in it. I've been offered a lot of scripts where they want me to play the wicked queen or something, and it hasn't been very interesting to me because they're just sort of relentlessly, irredeemably wicked all the time. In fact, I loved the character of Frieda, and I could relate to her. It wasn't that she was just evil, or hated Cinderella, she was just bored out of her mind, tired of doing the same story again and again. She has this opportunity to switch things around, have a little power, and she goes for it. She really enjoys herself. There's something really human about Frieda that I really related to. And it's a great cast and a very ingenious and imaginative story.” c) On the character of Frieda “I think it's such a well written script. You're introduced to Frieda as not the typical wicked stepmother, but this woman who's just fed up with these girls who are, I guess, so ugly and unattractive, and no matter what she does they're always falling apart. So she has the opportunity to seize the moment, and seize control, and to be the star of the movie and make things go a different way. I just found it really exhilarating to see her have fun. Frieda loves having fun. She has this one day where she gets to create havoc and she really goes for it.” d) On working in animation “I had never done an animated film before, or not a full-length one. So the second time I recorded it I actually got to work with the writer. One of the things that I think is surprising is that you're not on a sound stage with the other actors. Maybe you see a couple of cartoons of what you might look like and so you kind of have to just take it from there and have to just wing it. I felt Frieda was definitely from New York, and I just felt like I knew Frieda, I've met a lot of Friedas in my life and I just found her very likeable, and it's rare to find a villain, especially in an animated film, who is not just sort of evil.“ 9.2. Freddie Prinze Jr. (Voice of Rick) a) On his interest in the movie “The main drawing point for it was the reversal of roles, and the fact that they systematically destroyed every happy ending and allowed the bad guys to win. So that kind of switch was the initial attraction to it.” b) On the character of Rick “The great thing about Rick is that he's the anti-hero. He really tries to fly under the radar, and is very reluctant to fight the good fight. He's sort of like Indiana Jones in that regard, like: “Yeah, all right, I’ll stop the war!” He's a dishwasher, you know what I mean, he's the every-man. He doesn't want to have any part of any movement, he doesn’t have a soapbox to stand on. But when push comes to shove he does make the right decision. He has help along the way, but he has these leadership qualities that I think he tries to hide and bury to avoid responsibility. When the time comes, he makes mistakes, but eventually he does the right thing.” c) On working in animation “Voice work is always fun. I've done it quite a few times now, but this was one of the first times I ever did it, and the experience was so much fun, because you just get to go crazy. You can try anything you want, and they encourage you to try anything you want.” Question: What is the challenge between voice animation and regular acting? “There's restrictions in the real world. In animation you can just shout and your actual word goes into someone’s ear, picks at their brain, comes out the other ear and slaps you in the face, and they really do that! There are no restrictions; it's just a free universe. In the real world I can't make my words go in your ear and smack you.” d) On working with his wife “It's fun, because we obviously have a natural chemistry or we wouldn't have hooked up in the first place – hopefully! For us to be in the room – we got to do our ADR sessions together – her character gives my character a hard time and doesn't take any lip, and Sarah's very similar in that regard (and so am I). So, when they're at odds we have a lot of fun, because we know the tricks that we've played on each other, and we know when it's time to give one of us a hard time, and we have a lot of fun doing that. And there's a lot of that in the script, of her just not agreeing and he needs her to get on board and she's not going for it, because she thinks she's supposed to be with this prince who is just a stooge and can't get it right, and I'm trying to do the right thing and she's not going my way. So we can have a lot of fun and explore that." a) On his interest in the movie “I like when the expected turns into the unexpected. I like overturning the applecart, upsetting the applecart. My comedy is full of that sort of thing, some of it a little more edgy than others, but it is all about disturbing the order of things, and this is clearly a great switch. The premise of the movie just takes things we expect and tries to turn them around for us. I like that.” b) On working in Animation “Well, you don't have to get dressed up. It's like the years I was in radio: it always felt good not to have to present yourself. I enjoy the challenge of working with a director behind the glass, and getting readings from him. I know a lot of actors don't like you to give them line readings; I don't mind that, because I'm really not a trained actor. But I am a good mimic, and in the case of these voiceovers I can say “Okay, well, I did 5 of them and they're not working. How do you hear it?”... And let them do it and then I do that, and it's fun to just challenge yourself. I do like, obviously, using the voice. I've been rewarded for it all my life, so this feels like what I do.” John H. Williams (Producer) a) On the popularity of Fairy Tales “I would say fairy tales are the goldmine of family stories, and have been when they have met the critical test that they have stood up as an iconographical story that survives the ages. To do that it has to be about characters in a situation that's unique, resonant, and relatable to audiences throughout the ages.” b) On the Screenplay “Rob Moreland, the writer, and I worked on the conceptual ideas for this, starting from its very foundational log line, which was 'The Wizard's away on vacation, and the assistants are left in charge, and Cinderella's delusionally focused on a prince that isn't really the right source of her affection.' That was, at its basic foundation, that little bit of a logline gave the bones and the evidence of what could be a driving through-line for the movie. What we wanted to do is set up the expectation that it was going to be played out as a traditional, classic fairy tale, and then tell it in a very different way, each character in each situation.” c) On producing in Berlin “Berlin was always the hub and the source of how this movie was going to be made, and it turned out to be a great attraction to many different animators from a lot of different parts of the world. Berlin's been a very culturally active, politically, financially it's been a hub, and was able to attract a lot of great animation talent to it. I've actually had a great experience spending time in Berlin and getting to see a different part of the world I never had spent time in before.” “The market has been very friendly to family-oriented films. We've been making a lot of movies in that direction because there's a fantastic home-video market for it, there's a fantastic appetite amongst families, and actually it's one the least served markets by what the studios traditionally make in their schedules.” Rainer Soehnlein (Executive Producer) a) On finding Talent “To create characters that fit in this kind of setup, one has to bear in mind it doesn't matter so much where they are born, it is more important where the artist has been educated, and where he has learned his craft. So, for example, we have talent that came from Luc Besson, went to London, and came to us. These are French people, they come from the French High School System, the French University System, but they are part of an international western style, which is very important, because if you do the facial expression of an actor, to do English language right, you have to understand what these words really mean. It sounds very simple, but it is an important point: The “th” looks silly if the artist, who does the animation of the mouth, does not know how the tongue moves to speak really correct English “th”. Furthermore, many gestures with the hands, for example, have different meanings in different countries. In some countries, like in China that (crosses fingers) does not mean good luck. However, a Chinese artist might use such a gesture for different expressions. So therefore, you want to be in an environment where you can be absolutely certain that your artist does things – with the hands, with the feet, with the eyes – with all movements – that fit a Western, i.e. American, culture.” b) On the unique Challenges of this Project “It's the first time that I know of that a movie with a CG production methodology has a hundred characters, out of which roughly twenty are humanoids, human characters, which has never been done before in the animation field of CG. The biggest challenge here is to make them behave convincingly, yet make sure that no one asks the obvious question “Are they so close to human face and close to human body that you could have chosen live actors?” The balance, the fine line between being realistic as good as you can, as convincing as you can, as human as you can, yet keep the cartoon character in such a way that no one would say: “Why is Sarah Michelle Gellar not playing herself live? ” or “Why is Sigourney Weaver not playing Frieda, the bad girl, herself?”. Rob Moreland (Screenwriter) a) On the Fascination of Fairy Tales “I'm fascinated by fairy tales because they give us all the basic human archetypes. All the archetypes you find in movies, in classic stories are there in the fairy tales. It's like a complete guide to movies, to literature, to drama. It's all there in the Grimm Brothers' Tales.” “Fairy tale characters are timeless, because we can imagine ourselves as those characters. They're fantastic in a fantasy world and yet there's something so relatable about every one of those characters. Every one can find themselves within the fairy tales. We're all there, inside those characters. I think that's what makes them the only stories that will never get old. They're always fresh.” c) On the Influence of The Brothers Grimm “The amazing thing about the Grimm Brothers is that they didn't just write those tales out of their imaginations, they gathered them! They talked to hundreds if not thousands of people over their lifetimes. And it wasn't just people in Germany; it was people in other countries, other cultures. They are a repository of folk culture and folk information that they distilled into these wonderful stories. And I think that's part of the reason they have such a powerful appeal to this day. Because they are folk stories that are repeated, they've already been told, generation after generation of people have been telling those tales until the Grimm Brothers did us the favour of writing them down so brilliantly. A lot of people don't know that the Grimm Brothers themselves changed the endings of their tales – kind of like we are doing in the movie! The Grimm Brothers wrote one version of the tales, and over their lifetimes, as they heard more, they collected them, they edited them... some of the tales shifted around a little bit, too. There is a kind of layer of morality that got imposed on the tales, where they became more like Aesop morality tales as they evolved. But there are different versions, where different things happen to some of our beloved characters. A lot of people would be very surprised, number one, to read the different versions of the tales, and number two, to see what actually happens in those stories. We're all used to a very gentle kind of Cinderella, that's our cultural myth – but if you go back to the story, those stepsisters, in order to get their feet in the glass slipper, are cutting off their heels! The stepmother has to dance around in pants made of metal, that are extremely hot! So there are a lot of surprises there, and I think our film captures that spirit of surprise and of a twist on the familiar. Even the original stories had a twist. I think our film fits in to that.” J. Chad Hammes (Co-Producer) a) On joining the Project “I chose to come to Berlin and be a part of this project for a couple of reasons. One was the incredible artistic style of the film. It has a feeling of Gaudí meets Wizard of Oz meets HR Pufnstuf, a very unique style that I hadn't seen before. It had a really strong cast, the deliveries of the dialogue and their performances were fantastic. They were a lovely group of people to work with. But Berlin I found also to be really a best-kept secret in production. It's a very international city; the city has a lot of strengths in art and in music, which generates a very very fun nightlife. You get that international community, and an opportunity to work with an international crew, and it's very different than working in the American studio system.” b) On working with Mental Images “Having Mental Images located in Berlin has been a great advantage, to not only BFC, but the project we've been working on. We have a special relationship with them; we have custom cuts of software, when we run into certain problems we have their ear very close to us. It is only a taxi cab ride across town to go visit them or for them to come visit us. We have found on numerous occasions where we've run into practical real world situations, when making a feature, that need to be addressed on our floor, currently in our facility. They are very quick to send people over, work with us on a problem, and find a solution. Often it's a matter of procedure that solves the problem, not any sort of technical fix or anything like that, but I will say that it's been a great advantage that I do not think I can get in America working with some of the other major studios: I can pick up the phone and call the President/CEO Ralf Herken of the company in five minutes and I know he'll return my call within a couple of hours. It's just a fantastic relationship.” c) On the Advantages of producing in Berlin “Another advantage to producing in Berlin beyond the vast artistic talent pool is its geographical location. Berlin is sort of at the centre of the world, in my opinion, in the sense that if I, say, work with a company in Tokyo or Sydney, Australia, when their day ends, my day begins. So I can take all the information, the data, the solutions, the problems, whatever it may be from them and incorporate it into the beginning of my day. Similarly, when Los Angeles and New York begin their day, Berlin’s day is starting to end. So if you can keep the information seamless between all the different divisions and time zones, you actually can create a twenty-four-hour-work-day. That is very powerful, you have three shifts, they are always working and they are all fresh.” Paul J. Bolger (Director) a) On the Inspiration for the Characters “There wasn't really any particular person per character that I based it on. There are some good references that we used. The most important thing for me was the personality of the characters, not just the look. What are they going to think about, how do they react, how do they walk, how do they talk, all this kind of stuff... So, when you look for reference points, Ella was Audrey Hepburn, for example. Because we had made the choice early on for her to have short hair, we wanted to find a nice look and a nice mannerism for her. We videoed some of the people here in the studio for reference, so we got some nice stuff from that. Munk and Mambo, the two cartoon characters, I call them, are very much in the classic animation mold. They are very much the mischievous, catalyst, springy character and the slow, more assured dumpy pig character. They are quite cartoony. So there are many contrasts. By accident they looked a bit like the actors, which wasn't intentional... “ b) On working with the Voice Talent “Working with the voice talent was really cool, really interesting. We did it in New York and Los Angeles, and then Sigourney Weaver did a session with Rob Moreland, the writer, I think in Philadelphia or somewhere. It was a pick-up session, which was quite cool as well. I first went to Los Angeles for the first session and we had a voice director, also working with me, who could "speak the speak" as it were, with the actors to get them in tune. I come more from an animation background, but I caught on pretty quick. It was good fun, it was great to work with them, and they were all great people and they really love the film. We had great experiences with a couple of actors in particular who came back like that (click) without any trouble, wanting to do new lines, wanting to help. It was very, very good. It was interesting to see how they work because it's not their faces you rely on, it's their voice. But having said that, we videoed a few of the sessions, so we used some of that as reference in the animation. Particularly Sarah Michelle Gellar was used quite a bit for Ella; the way she moved, some of her facial expressions were used. Again, it's not a copy of it, it's just that we used it for reference.” c) On the Look and Style of the Movie “I felt that the film should be a bit more stylized, less realistic, so I brought in Deane Taylor to help me, and between the two of us we came up with this idea that there's no straight lines in the movie. We used reference points like Gaudí for architecture, my own interest in design for character, and the team of character developers and designers that we had really help bring that to life. So the whole feel of the world felt like it could have been a theme park, like somebody had built this place. If you walked up to a tree it may not even be real; you could touch it, it could be fibreglass. So there's a whole feeling of hand-made quality about this world, in everything. The same for the characters, they're slightly caricatured, the humans, they're not realistic, and that was in the lighting, the staging, everything. So the whole look of the film was very much trying to capture, to put an illustration into 3D, a kind of a quirky illustration, but without being too far away from what people are used to looking at. So I tried to keep it familiar. Basically we used Gaudí, comic books, graphic novels... I mean I could mention ten artists that we used as a reference. But the biggest reference is just our own brains and our own team and what we pulled together with colour and light... And in the end we had all this fantastic artwork that the CG crew took and turned into what it is. It was amazing, because it turned out exactly like the drawings, except it just has form; that's all. So it's very organic and very rooted in classic book illustration, fairy tale book illustration.” Deane Taylor (Production Designer) a) On artistic Style “I think the artistic style of this picture is a blend or a real good mix of some very strong theatrical and old cinematic influences. I think we've got everything in there from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari through some of the modern classics.” b) On the Colour Palette “The colour palette in the film is an interesting beast, as it is, I think, in any film. However, in this particular case, I think the biggest difference is that all the colours are rich, all the colours are strong. They would fall into the world of edible, for me. They're not just colour for the sake of it, the colour is actually very much part of the cinematic choreography.” John McKenna (Line Producer) a) On producing in Europe “I've always believed that Europe can make a wonderful animated film, because I know the people here, I've met them, I've worked with them, I've seen what they're capable of; they are fantastic artists. And even in the days of computer animation, we still think of them as artists, because although they need a lot of technical skills, just as a good artist has the technical ability of how to mix paint and how to use a brush, for a computer artist it may be a slightly different technical ability, which is how to manipulate code, how to access menus, how to work with certain applications, but at the end of the day they're artists. However technically proficient they are, it doesn't really matter unless what they can put on the screen touches you in your heart. So I've always believed that Europe has a huge, long history and tradition of story telling, of folk tales; It has great literature tradition and it has a great tradition in the arts. And so therefore I've always believed that this has to be able to be brought to bear in animated films. Unfortunately, just the practical scale of making these films in the past has meant that the films that came out of Europe didn't compete on the same level as the films that came out of America.” b) On working on animated Feature Films “The reason that I'm in this particular branch of the business, and that's animated films, is that I love the effect that films have on children. I have two children myself, they are a little old now for animated films, but I remember very vividly and it's a very fun part of my life, when they were small and we used to go and watch animated films. Once the film is made I don't see it as this piece of work that I spent two years on, which I am now glad to have gotten out of my history. It's more something beautiful, I hope, that is out there, and every time you watch it you hear reactions from the audience and you see young people in the audience taking in this film for the first time, which is why I am very passionate about what these films are about and that we are not in any way emphasising the wrong sort of values to children through these films. So all the positive messages and the good news that these films are for young people are very important to me. So, yes, I could work on these films for three years, get exhausted making them, go through those long, dark nights of the production process, when I think “It's never going to get made” or it “It's just not good, we haven't done it well enough. It's not going to turn out okay.” I can live through one of that and still afterwards want to see the movie over and over again, but particularly in the cinema with other young people. I shouldn't say other young people (laughs) ...” Dino Athanassiou (Animation Director) a) On the classic Look of the Movie “It is more of a classic look; I think we've also gone for a simplistic approach to the animation. Not to have it too busy, I think although CG animation is not so long, in terms of a medium, or not as long as, say, traditional animation, maybe fifteen or twenty years at the most, but with a lot of the CG-movies that we see they tend to have an over-animated feel. I mean, there's a drifting, a kind of "swimmingness" to the animation, where everything is moving too much. I think our approach was to simplify and make very clear, direct performances. So, in particular with the humanoid characters, they're not over-animated at all, and there are some nice, subtle performances there with Frieda, with Rick and Ella... The Prince, as a character, is more cartoony; he's broader and the comedy is in his performance and his delivery of lines. Then you have Munk and Mambo, and the dwarves, and the witches, that are even broader still, and they kind of lend themselves more to the Warner Brothers/MGM style of animation from the 1930s and '40s. So I think there's a nice mixture, but collectively the whole thing has its own style, which we feel is quite unique.” Happily N’Ever After ~ Production Notes © 2006 BAF/BFC Made at BFC Berliner Film Companie Studio GmbH, Berlin Pixels created with the help of mental ray® from mental images® from Alias® from Apple® Special thanks to Angstrom Microsystems Angstrom Titan64 QuadraBlades powered by AMD Opteron processors The events, characters and firms depicted in this motion picture are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual firms is purely coincidental. ©2006 BAF Berlin Animation Film / BFC Berliner Film Companie
