Plus, the film remains a flat out family treat.
Turns out he didnt do too badly.
Do you remember much about that night?
I dont even know if I was there!
Isnt that awful?!
I dont recall being at a London premiere.
Is it a blur, a bit of a whirlwind?
Its a blur from the moment you deliver your film to the moment its release.
A lot of the time youre in a country a day to be quite honest with you.
But not really having a sense of where you were.
Really, all youre seeing is the inside of hotel rooms.
Its a blank for me!
Images pop into my head.
Singing a song that I had never heard before!
A song that was nothing to do with your film?
[Laughs]
Did you get a sense in that whirlwind that you had something here?
I got a sense of it, honestly, when we were filming.
It didnt feel like anything Id worked on before.
The crew all felt energised I think by the material.
Then we did two test screenings, and thats when we knew, I think.
What I kept getting from folks was I didnt expect to like this.
That they didnt come in with the expectation that it was Disney classic in any way.
Almost to a person I heard I loved it.
And I think that comes from the uncynical attitude that the movie takes.
Giselle [played by Amy Adams] as a character embraces purity and joy.
The movie has a timbre that isnt at all cynical.
We felt that while we were making it.
I love Disney animation a lot, and always have.
But coming intoEnchanted, it felt like watching a film that Disney had forgotten how to make.
The feel of the film watching it, I never saw it coming, to be honest.
Well there was a battle in the making of the movie I have to say.
Disney had been developing the movie for nine years before I got involved.
It had to perform asShrekperformed so that connect.
Lets embrace who we are, and make it a love letter to Disney.
There are hundreds of thousands of people who love this material.
Lets not wreck it for them.
Lets show them we love it as much as they do.
That became the guidepost as we moved forward, to rewrite the movie.
All accomplished in this area of movies to various degrees.
Did you talk to any of them when you signed up?
I came to it fresh.
It was what I wanted to do since I remember first proclaiming a career choice!
And then I did go to Disney, and I did make movies at Disney.
There were a couple of writers in between.
And we pulled together the version that made it to the screen.
Then she wouldnt strip, so the guys were getting angry.
It had that kind of darker tone, because I think they were afraid of the material.
Were they trying to edge towards the darker shades ofWho Framed Roger Rabbit?
I dont know what their thinking was.
I find that very much.
It makes it very difficult now to make films that have a pure heart.
And oddly, those are the movies that connect.
Theyre the ones that last, too.
Did you get pushback on the story decisions you made?
Thank you for noticing!
[Laughs] Ive said often that Enchanted did it first!
You didnt part the Red Sea before her, though.
But someone else did part the Red Sea before she did!
[laughs]
I got absolutely no pushback.
They had an eye on every decision I was making, but I think that they did cautiously believe.
Dick Cook, who was head of the studio at that time, he was in full force.
I did not have to convince him about anything.
They thought the only way to make a movie successful was to hire a star.
And they were nervous about that.
Dick Cook, I have to give him credit, saw her screen test and said yes, immediately.
At the very top, there was someone who believed, someone who came from old-school Disney filmmaking.
Did it help that it was a transitional Disney behind the scenes at the time?
I think what kept it on track was perseverance and perspiration.
I covered an entire floor of a production building with artwork.
I put together a beatboard of the entire movie.
It was hallways worth of art.
All the inspiration, drawings, storyboards for the animated segment of the movie.
I walked the executives through that.
On a tour of the movie.
I think once they saw that they were convinced this could be something.
The marketing department was very hard to convince.
They were not behind the movie from the beginning to the end.
They didnt understand how a movie about princesses could be successful in the marketplace.
But I think the creatives were on-board once they saw that pitch.
Nina Jacobson, the head of production at that point, after that pitch she was absolutely convinced.
She became a warrior for the movie, basically!
AndFrozentoo, of course.
Frozenproved it to them in a giant way, but at the time they were nervous.
And yet, again, youd got there first.
But you had to outsource the animation work to another company I understand.
What was the story there?
Its true, its true.
I dont know if theres a big story.
It came down to cost, to be quite honest with you.
On the budget we had, we couldnt afford to re-staff 2D animation at Disney.
We went looking for the next best thing.
Not only at Disney, but in Hollywood.
We really lucked out, to be quite honest with you.
Theyve always carried a few 2D animators, and a few who could switch back and forth.
Eric Goldberg being one.
Mark Henn being another.
But they just didnt have the warriors, the team together.
It turned out beautiful.
It was a back and forth the entire time.
We did all the work of designing the live action world first.
There was a lot put into communicating between the two.
Making sure there was no doubt that one was the other.
Were there points where you felt you were losing the film at any point?
No, I felt very good about where we were at, constantly.
While we were shooting, James Baxter was sending me animated scenes.
And Amy would see them, and then itd influence her performance.
To see what she was creating being adjusted and filtered into an animated character.
It gave her this lift, I think.
I shared the footage with everyone on the live action on the set as well.
It created this excitement amongst everyone.
[Laughs]
I also have an advantage too because I grew up in animation.
I understand what those individuals do, what they need.
That they are, after all, actors, theyre not just people who draw!
I knew that they would somehow feed each other in a way that was bigger than them both individually.
Its not the most comprehensive Blu-ray they gave you.
But in the smattering of extra features, theres something I didnt know.
Id heard of getting people to look at ping pong balls for reference, but not to hold something.
I think I stole that fromRoger Rabbit!
That Bob Hoskins had to remember his eye focus.
He had to hit a focus in depth half way between himself and a wall.
And I thought thats fascinating, and thats what I started doing with the actors.
Id put Pip in the scene and Id puppeteer him.
I absolutely believe that came fromRoger Rabbit.
Its a very physical filmEnchanted, though.
Theres a sheer physicality at the heart of it.
Was that where filmmaking was at that point, or was that a deliberate choice?
I think the movie is about a character who becomes real.
At its core, its about discovering yourself under different circumstances.
The real-world part of the movie is not fantastic until the end.
Her journey, her discovery of who she is takes place in what I would consider the everyday.
It didnt make sense to me to create a digital world for her to exist in.
Pip is really the only character who is computer generated.
There are some rats.
If I couldnt get the acting I wanted from a real world animal, I would substitute.
But even those scenes, a lot of the animals are real.
The birds flying in the rooms, the rats running around, theyre all real animals.
Is that where you directing102 Dalmatianshelped?
[Laughs] Maybe!
Maybe I learned not to be afraid of working with animals, doing that movie.
Can we talk music?
When he and Steven Schwartz first played theThats How You Knowsong to you: what do you remember?
I dont remember the very first moment.
The drafts I was originally involved in didnt have any songs at all.
It had an opening song actually, and that was it.
The characters gave up music as they came into the real world and I though thats too bad.
I thought there was an opportunity with a character who sings by the very nature of her existence.
I remember the song coming fully formed.
It was the entire number.
Which was absolutely overwhelming.
It showed up, and that is what we made.
The difficult piece of making the song, as I remember, was actually the orchestration.
The gathering of sounds as she moved through the park.
That took a very long time to happen.
It went through the hands of three orchestrators to get to where we get to at the end.
But yeah, I remember it coming fully formed!
I sit and really analyse, and when I heard that song I just said theres nothing to do.
How many times have you said that in your career?
I have to ask!
Maybe three times in fact!
One of the other ones would beYoull Be In My Heart[fromTarzan].
We talked about that number, and Phil [Collins] went away and wrote it.
He sent it in, and it was as it is!
The other time would be onA Goofy Movie…
Ive not seen that for a long time!
Its the reconciliation of their relationship in the movies arc.
That was another song that happened very quickly.
Did you ever get an unusual reaction to the film from an audience?
Something you just werent expecting?
I dont think of myself as being a comedy director, and being actually that funny.
When I watch the movie, I honestly dont see it being humorous.
I dont think its a drama by any means, but its not a laugh out loud comedy.
When I watch with an audience, Ive seen a very vocal reaction.
I think thats fun.
I take it all so seriously in the moment.
But read Steve Martins book on stand-up comedy, and the serious nature of the work behind it.
Yet at his peak, he was possibly the funniest man on the planet.
Its interesting, because with Patrick Dempsey, everyone else was getting the laughs in the movie.
And it made him, I think, incredibly insecure.
He asked why arent I getting any laughs?
Its going to be your reactions to the situation that brings on the comedy.
He couldnt wrap his head around it.
But when he saw the movie, he came to me and said I totally get it.
That was nice, and nice to hear.
But he really struggled.
Not bad for someone whos not a comedy director!
[Laughs] I dont know.
I have a tough perception of myself perhaps.
Its taking Giselle seriously, right?
Shes not playing for comedy.
This is her world.
Its real for her.
The only pushback I ever read againstEnchantedwas that we didnt get enough villain in the film.
Ive never heard that criticism, thats interesting!
Ive heard other criticisms, but Ive never heard that one!
Personally I never thought that we needed more.
There was a little bit more at one point.
She has a purpose, but the story is driven by the character herself, and her realisation.
But it feels like hes in it more than he is.
I think its the same if you go back to the old princess movies specifically.
Theres very little wicked queen, theres very little Maleficent.
You want her to drive the plot more than the emotion of the piece.
I never found that there was a need for more.
What happened post-Enchantedfor you?
When did you appreciate how much itd soaked in, once you were past the release window?
I got the sense in the moment that it was liked, and people were surprised by it.
I didnt get the sense that it was any kind of classic really until the years went by.
But I didnt get a sense of that until years and years afterwards.
It had a voice, and it felt like Id accomplished making something in the mould ofMary Poppins.
I felt a lot of pride.
Over the years, its been confirmed to me that it just continues on and on.
When I tell someone I directedEnchanted, they seem to light up!
One isEnchanted, the other isIn Bruges!
I am so honoured!
I feel so honoured, you just made my day!
I should ask the sequel question.
In fact, sequels have been made to a couple of your earlier films by someone other than you.
They made aTarzan IIwithout you.
I always find that Im heading off into the world looking for new adventures.
The idea of making a sequel isnt the most intriguing to me.
Im sure if I was forced to stick my nose to the grindstone I could work something out.
I dont have a story that feels compelling, though.
Nothings come to me.
I tend not to dwell on it.
I keep thinking whats next?
What other stories can I tell?
Theyve been trying for ten years to pull together a story, and havent come up with anything satisfying.
DisEnchantedits up to at the minute, isnt it?
Thats what theyve called it.
And Ive read it over the years.
[Lets out a sigh that words dont do justice to].
The soul of that character is very difficult to hold onto.
When, then, do we see another film youre directing?
None of which have made it to the screen.
Brenda and I wrote a script together, that weve also sold.
Its a hybrid live action/animated movie.
Fingers crossed this one happens!
Kevin Lima, thank you very much.
Enchanted is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
