By: debbie lynn elias
In creating OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, although a “prequel” to the famed 1939 MGM Wizard of Oz, and with the theme of how the Wizard came to be, there are certain iconic touchstones to not only the classic film but the original Baum books which are mandatory in any incarnation of Oz. While copyright law mandates a Sam Raimi twist on certain distinctive and specific elements, it doesn’t prevent him from and, in fact, encourages him to introduce us to new characters and adventures. One of those new characters is Finley, an adorable flying monkey in a vintage bellhop suit. Looking much like the movie theater attendants of days gone by and serving as the faithful assistant to the “Wizard”, Finley steals both the show and your heart, thanks to the not only the voicing of Zach Braff, but the magic of Disney animators, “human” animators that is.
Braff not only tells an emotional story with the expressiveness that comes across through Finley’s eyes, but through his vocal tone and inflection. Quick to credit Raimi for the excellence of the performance, Braff comments, “It was really Sam and I. We found it together.” Admitting Raimi “had me at hello”, he recalls “When we met he said, ’I want to create this character together. He isn’t fully figured out yet. It’s important that he be Oz’ conscience.'” Given the fleshing out to be done, Braff then met with James Franco, the Great and Powerful Oz himself.
On meeting with Franco, he and Braff found “this friendship” and figured out the character and the relationship between Finley and Oz together. “I didn’t think on a movie this scale there would be time to do something like that but Sam made it a priority. With James and I, we became friends. Sam would allow us to riff a little bit and improv. And that’s where it came [from].”
In a rarely seen move in animated film today, Raimi took things a step farther, electing to humanly animate Finley as opposed to the now often used, motion capture. According to Raimi, by using human animators, Finley’s animation is not a “straight translation” or “carbon copy” of Braff’s movements and tics, but rather the very essence of who Finley is. ” Zach really is a great actor and he has real emotion. That was our guide. That’s why we didn’t want to do motion capture. . .it doesn’t capture emotion. It’s through a computer, it translates it into a three dimensional avatar or puppet or character or monkey. But we didn’t want that. We wanted to capture the essence of what he had done.”
Initially surprised that motion capture wasnft going to be used in the film, Braff took his own trip, this one down memory lane. “I remember seeing old footage, vintage footage of animators studying baby deers when they were drawing Bambi and it reminded me of that. Sam was like, ’I don’t want to do that dots on the face thing. I want the animators to really study what your face does and then draw from that.'” Very conscious “that there were these three video cameras usually on my face and body. . .I realized that those video cameras were on me all the time so I really had to do [100%] every single time as best as I could. Fortunately the animators, really really grabbed what I did and animated my facial expressions.”
Thanks to the “humanness” of the animators, we are gifted with the emotional essence of Zach Braff, be it the playfulness, laughter, tears, sarcasm, fear, devotion, loyalty and yes, even love, all making Finley fly off the screen and into your heart.
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