By: debbie lynn elias
Kelly Asbury is no stranger to the Elias household and, in fact, to my princely nephews Eddie and Tommy, he may even be regarded as hero. And while many of you may not recognize the name, you know his work…how about a little film called “Shrek 2” for example? A lifelong artist and animator, Kelly Asbury is the stuff that dreams are made of…and particularly Disney dreams…as he now helms what is sure to be one the biggest animated films of 2011 – GNOMEO & JULIET. I sat down with Kelly to talk about art, animation, GNOMEO & JULIET and, of course, Elton John.
So, here you are. Disney’s doing the film and Disney was so instrumental in you becoming an animator and an artist thanks to Don Duckwall.
Yes. Don Duckwall. Way back. The production manager at Disney when I was 17 years old, answered a letter and told me, if you want to work at Disney, here’s the steps you take. And I took those steps. From age 17 to 6 years later, I had a desk at Walt Disney Studios and I was working on “The Black Caldron.” That’s the beginning of the dreams all coming true. To now be directing a film that is being embraced by Disney and released as this first G-rated film by Touchstone or whatever they’re calling it, that’s all just milestones. I pinch myself! I might as well have said I wanted to be an astronaut and go to Mars. And I did it! (Laughing) I came from Beaumont, Texas. In those days there was no internet. There were three television channels. Waiting for an animated film to come out was waiting forever. Nothing came out. Every 7 years Disney would release something. But all those things led to me just being fascinated with the art form. And now look at us! We’re sitting in the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.
And you just did a film with Elton John!
I DID! I DID! (laughing) And not to mention, SIR Michael Caine, SIR Elton John, SIR Patrick Stewart, DAME Maggie Stewart, DAME Julie Walters. I’m working with royalty.
Kelly, you are the kid ripping his presents open on Christmas morning! I have never seen a director so ebullient and ecstatic over a project. It is wonderful.
You are exactly right. You got me exactly. That’s what it feels like.
So, GNOMEO & JULIET. What came first? The music or the script? This script is so reliant on Elton’s music.
The only way I can answer that is to tell you how it happened for me. Producer Baker Bloodworth, who I have known for years, called me one day about 5 years ago. He said, “Kelly, we’ve got a movie here called ‘Gnomeo & Juliet.’ It’s Romeo & Juliet with garden gnomes using the music of Elton John somehow.” That’s all he said. And I said, “Well, can Bernie Taupin also be involved.” And he said, “Yes, Bernie Taupin can write all the songs and it will be catalogue, we’d like some new stuff.” It took awhile, but’s all evolved. But they came together simultaneously – three different incongruous elements. For me as a filmmaker, I said, you know what? What better thing to do than to see if we can stir this pot and come up with something. So we sort of started from scratch and I was one of the writer of rewriting the script. We had other writers work with us. It took about three years of story development. But the music and the script were always on parallel paths. Elton was always involved in story meetings. We would talk to him. His partner David Furnish was also was one of the producers with Rocket Pictures. It was also incorporating the music and finding a way to do it. They went hand in hand. Fortunately, we had Elton. I would have Elton John calling me and saying, “Kelly, I’m going to play something for you” and I would be on the phone listening to Elton play a new song. And I would think, “Wow! What do I say to Elton John? Luckily, I liked it.” It was always simultaneous. It’s in the fabric of the film. It was real important to do that.
Having seen it, without the music the music, there would no film. And without the animation, it wouldn’t matter what music was there. That’s the other really critical part that I believe is so spectacular, the animation. How difficult or laborious was it in developing the animation for this film? You’ve got the gnomes that are so texturized.
Yes.
You use the primary colors only on the gnomes, which is tradition in gnomemaking.
Yep.
Then you expand the color palette and give us the glossier texturization with the gardens and the other aspects. Was this conscious as you were going along?
Very much so. Starz Animation in Toronto has a staff of incredibly talented people that came on board to help us as animators. Out animation supervisor, Henry Anderson, and I worked really hard discussing how can these gnomes and keep the integrity of what they’re made of? The pink flamingo is plastic. He has limitations on what eh can do. He has metal rods for legs. Every character that’s made of plaster, stone, rubber, like Nanette the Frog, they all move within the integrity of how they might be able to move. So there were limitations. After awhile, once you introduce the audience to that, they accept and but it and you can get away with a few things here and there but, it was a big challenge. And the textures on the characters were a big challenge.
Those are impeccable.
That goes a lot to, again, Starz, and the texturing department and what they did to give us all the great weathered textures. Our production designer, Karen Dejong – she and I worked very hard to say, “Okay, let’s keep the colors simple. Let’s make color a character in the movie. The Red Garden. The Blue Garden. The overgrown garden is wild and green and unkept. The alleyway is a little more hot and neutral and threatening. The outside world is more washed out and hazy and it’s an alien landscape for these gnomes. So, we really paid close attention to give a different character to the different environments of the movie. You’re in a different place when you’re in that overgrown garden than you are in the red garden or the blue garden. It was a lot of fun. From a design standpoint, for me, it was fantasyland to be able to be able to create all of that.
You, as an artist – you’ve done animation and been a story artist for years on so many pictures, how is it for you – do you actually sit there and start doodling yourself?
Absolutely. Some of the earliest designs for the gnomes [are mine]. I flew to Las Vegas to meet with Elton John for the first time. And once I got over that initial reaction which, you know, I am very star struck. Elton, I’ve been a fan of since I was in junior high school. To meet Elton – oh! And then we talked about the movie and he asked me to direct it and I got on a plane back, and in that 40 minute flight I drew on a cocktail napkin just little gnomes. Already I started thinking, now what would they look like. How can you make a Romeo and Juliet gnome that people are going to care about. So, I doodle all the time and sketch. I storyboarded right along with the story team. I work very much doing drawings. I had a team of story artists who also helped me. All of us – we draw. That’s how we communicate. For every department, I would sketch things I needed and wanted. That’s part of how I do it.
Sitting here with you, it is clear where the energy of GNOMEO & JULIET comes from – you.
Well, you know, it comes from me with a lot of people working with me and helping me make it. The hard part about animation, being a director, is it’s very difficult for me to take credit for something that so many people were involved in. My producers, Baker Bloodworth, Stephen Hamilton Shaw, they were right there with me. David Furnish, right there with me. Igor Khait, and our team of story artists, our head of story, David Stoten, our character designer, Gary Dunn…we were this team and we had to go out there on the field and move the ball. Hopefully, we did. I don’t know if it’s a touchdown, but it feels like a touchdown!
So important here is also the voice casting.
Very.
The animation of the gnomes is reliant on the character the actor brings. I know James. I know Emily. I know Sir Michael. And I see so much of them in each character. What was your process for matching up the voicing with the character and then making the character?
Well, we very carefully choose the actors based on what the script called for their character to be like. Then we hear various actors. I’ll just use Emily Blunt and James McAvoy [as examples]. Their voices were exactly the youthful energy I wanted for the characters. They are also kind of unusual voices. They’re not typical animation voices. When I get with the actors, I like to work with them. I read the cues with them. I’m on the page reading with them. And we sort of act together and try different things. I like as much improvisation as they feel they can give me. I like as many spontaneous ideas. They help with that. We videotape those actors faces while they’re doing all this. The animators can look at that videotape of those actors delivering those lines and what gestures they made and what they did. That helps them then say, “Oh, okay. James did something really cool with his eyes when he said that. And he cocked his head a little bit when he talked. Or he snapped it.” And the animator can incorporate that in with what they are doing with the animation. They go hand in hand. The animator brings what they want, this sort of other half of the actor if you will, brings something to that, and the two come together. So it really is a dual process. The actors give us so much with their facial expressions and their gestures and their posture. The things they do with their body influences what the animation looks like on every animated film. So the actors, they just as well be on screen as far as I’m concerned. It’s not just someone coming in and recording a line. It’s acting. I think a lot of times, it’s more difficult and more challenging than they thought it would be. But we all have fun. We have a lot of fun on those stages. We laugh a lot. James brought a lot to the movie in just coming up with a little line here, a little nuance there. So did Emily. So did all the actors.
One thing that really stood out for me, that I so appreciated because I think it’s so missing in films today, is that you actually incorporate quite a few lines directly from Romeo & Juliet and other Shakespearean works. Was this a deliberateness on you part – because I really think this will inspire kids to take an interest in Shakespeare they wouldn’t normally take.
Yes, it was [deliberate] in regards to that we wanted to do a version of Shakespeare with a twist while still using the beats of the actual play. We wanted to get little nods to Shakespeare all through the movie, not just “Romeo & Juliet” but there’s “Macbeth” in there, there’s “Hamlet.” When I watch “West Side Story” and I watch the parallels of “West Side Story” with the original “Romeo & Juliet”, or when I watch “Clueless” and I watch “Emma” and I see the parallels that they are the same movie. When I see “Kiss Me Kate” and I realize it’s “Taming of the Shrew”, I find that clever and fascinating and fun and it makes me want to read the original play to see those similarities. You learn more about it. If kids do that watching this movie, fantastic. Did I set out to that? Maybe a little. I try not to be too self conscious about that. I try to just make a good movie. But I certainly hope that kids draw from that and they learn a little more about Shakespeare. It would be great. Did I do it to make an educational film? Not necessarily, because I really just try to make a good story. Fortunately, “Romeo & Juliet” is a built-in good story…even though we changed the ending a little.
GNOMEO & JULIET needed to reach a point where they had to realize that you can take control of your own destiny. You are in charge, no matter what anyone else is telling you to do, there’s a certain point where you cross a line in your life where you are in charge of that destiny in some way. And that’s what we wanted to make it and that is how we wanted to take the ending in the Third Act.
Debbie, I would love to sit hear and talk to you all day.
Oh, thank you. I haven’t smiled this much at a film in so long. As soon as it ended I wanted to see it all over again.
Beautiful! (Laughing) You are so sweet. Thank you so much. That touches my heart.
I already told the guys from Disney, as far as I’m concerned, this is already my pick for Best Animated Feature for next year’s Oscar.
(Laughing) Oh my gosh! That I won’t even go to. Oh, thank you.
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