Animating human characters has always been one of the toughest things to do in computer animation, with films like “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille” (both from Disney?Pixar) setting the standard for the art form.
Those films took a highly caricatured approach to human animation and introduced a subtlety and expressiveness that hadn’t been seen before. Under the direction of animation supervisors Glen Keane, Clay Kaytis and John Kahrs, the animation on “Tangled” represents another milestone for animating humans, as well as some very appealing animal characters. Supervising animators Lino Di Salvo and Mark Mitchell worked in concert with the trio of supervisors to keep the animation at a high level. In all, the animated cast for “Tangled” includes five main characters, 21 thugs, the king and queen and 38 townspeople.
Howard observes, “The first thing you want to make sure of in an animated film is that your characters are appealing. In ‘Tangled,’ the humans are caricatured just enough to be fun. It’s not too realistic, not too cartoony. They’re real enough for you to believe their emotions, yet broad enough that you can enjoy the comedy that is such an important part of animated films.”
“Rapunzel is one of the toughest characters we’ve ever had to animate,” says Kaytis. “The first step was to get the model looking good and then rigging it to move correctly and have the cheeks react to the corners of the mouth. But once you start animating the character, it’s a whole different world when she starts moving around. You have to figure out which angles make her look good and which ones don’t. When she doesn’t look good, you have to scrutinize every frame to figure out how to make her appealing. There’s something very deceptive about CG animation. It doesn’t automatically give you the right thing; you have to make it right.”
Kahrs, who came to Disney following a 10-year stint at Pixar as a supervising animator on such films as “The Incredibles,” “Cars” and “Ratatouille,” says, “This film is our ‘Incredibles’ in the sense that we had to get over this mountain of really good human animation and we had to match or exceed what had been done before. The human characters in ‘Tangled’ feel more real to me than on any other film I’ve worked on. Byron and Nathan were very clear about not wanting animation that just moves for its own sake. He wanted the actions to be driven by emotion. All of the animation principles are there—anticipation, follow-through and clarity—but they’re supported by truth in acting.
Click here to watch the "Tangled" trailer
“One of the things that John Lasseter always talks about is letting the characters breathe,” continues Kahrs. “And on this film, the thing that really makes the characters come alive is breathing. In particular, Mandy Moore uses breathing as part of her acting. You hear it all the time. It’s not just making the chest expand and contract. It has to do with the spine rotating and bending back, and the clavicles lifting up and dropping. It’s the core of the character inside. During dailies, John would tell us to do a breathing fix on an entire scene, and say things like ‘Think of the emotion of the character from the heart, from inside.’
“The animators have done such a fantastic job capturing all the depth of emotion and subtlety,” Kahrs adds. “There are times when we’d be sitting in the screening room and a finished shot would come on the screen and it seems like a real girl there. You forget you’re watching animation. And that’s really where you want to be. The goal is always to make the audience forget they’re watching animation, forget they’re in a theater, forget they’re watching a movie, and just get immersed in the story. The animators would bring me scenes that were so compelling I would get lost in the story. I’m really proud of the animation team and the work they’ve done.”
For actress and recording artist Mandy Moore, lending her voice to the character of Rapunzel was an eye-opening experience. She explains, “There’s a unique challenge in having to imagine a world that doesn’t necessarily exist, using story sketches and the directors’ descriptions to visualize the storyline. At the end of the day, all you really have to rely on is your imagination. The most enjoyable part of being involved in ‘Tangled’ has been tapping into a creative side of my brain that I’ve never tapped into before. You have to put aside all reservations and just go for it and have fun. I feel like it’s the ultimate experience of being a kid again, in a sense, because you do get to investigate what it might be like to live in this fantastical world and be this character.”
Howard observes, “Mandy has this great soul to her voice, along with an amazing clarity and purity. She also has this down-to-earth, girl-next-door quality that makes her everything you could hope for in a Disney heroine. Not only is she a fine actress who could deliver the dialogue, but she’s a great singer as well.”
Zachary Levi (NBC’s “Chuck,” “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”) says, “I have always been a huge fan of animation and have genuinely wanted to do a voice for Disney my whole life. Donald Duck was my favorite and I was convinced at one point in my life that I would try and get a job talking like him. There’s a level of energy that you have to bring to the recording process, and you really have to just let loose and put a lot of emotion into what you’re doing. I love that this film is such a great comedy adventure that takes you through a whole world with all kinds of different landscapes and characters. There are chases and fights and a little bit of magic. Mostly, there’s a real connection between Rapunzel and Flynn, some great one-liners and lots of heart, which makes the movie so real and memorable.”
Enter your name to the raffle to win tickets to the UAE premier of Tangled and get Rapunzel toys too! Just click here.
“When Zac came in to record, he immediately understood who the character was,” says Greno. “He was this likeable swashbuckling thief and he could really pull it off. Zac really helped us find the character. Once you’ve got the character’s voice going, you know exactly what to do with him in the next sequence. He was so effortlessly funny and clever, and it was exactly what we needed for Flynn. The character is kind of a bad boy, and yet you feel like you want to hang out with him. We were a little bit nervous when it came time to ask if he could sing, but he blew us away with his singing performance.”
For the part of Mother Gothel, the directors envisioned a character who could be wickedly evil and wildly entertaining at the same time. They saw her as more of a psychological villain along the lines of Cinderella’s stepmother.
Donna Murphy (“The Nanny Diaries,” “Lovemusik” [stage]) is “an amazing, all-around performer,” says Howard. “She has this great flamboyant, theatrical way of acting, and an incredibly strong voice that she really gets to showcase in ‘Tangled.’ We had a back story worked out for the character, but Donna came in with so many questions and wanted to know things that we hadn’t figured out yet. It helped us to flesh out the character. Donna became the character and gave every molecule of herself to the performance.”
Also lending their voices are Brad Garrett (TV’s “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “’Til Death”) as Hook Hand, Jeffrey Tambor (“The Hangover,” TV’s “Arrested Development”) as Big Nose, M.C. Gainey (TV’s “Lost”) as the Captain of the Guard, Paul F. Tompkins (“There Will Be Blood”) as Shorty, Ron Perlman (TV’s “Sons of Anarchy”) as a Stabbington Brother and Richard Kiel (“Happy Gilmore”) as Vladimir.
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