**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
On a recent press
trip, to DisneyToon Studios, I was very fortunate to be in the very studio where they did a lot of the
character voicing for Zootopia. I learned the process of recording with Dialogue
Mixer Paul McGraf. With an animated movie like Zootopia, Paul was involved in
the recording room from the very beginning of the film through the very
end.
According to Paul McGraf “Even though
everything’s been digitized and things have become more computer generated,
animation and the process of animation is still done the same way that it was
back with Snow White where it starts with the script, then it starts with the
voice”.
Each of the major
characters, actors like the voice of Judy and Nick had 15 hours’ worth of
recording time. Smaller (no pun intended) characters like “Mr. Big” had about 5
hours of recording time. How many times do the actors have to read their lines?
It’s not uncommon for them to read the line 50 to 60 times. Easily! Has an
actor ever given up, and just did not want to try the line anymore? Surprisingly
for Paul this has never happened.
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
A bunny as a cop and a fox as a scam-artist…how can this possibly work?! It did and it was wonderful to watch. Walt Disney Animation Studio’s Zootopia is a movie that will suck you in and not let go. The premise of the movie is that a bunny Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) wants to leave her small rural town where her family runs a carrot farm and move to the big city of Zootopia and become of all things a police officer! She makes the big move and runs into a scam-artist fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) who gets the best of her on her first day on the force. A job that no one including her parents and her superior officer a water buffalo named Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) think she’s qualified for or can actually be successful at.
Without giving away any major plot lines Judy is determined to solve a mysterious case and is only given a few days to figure it out…she goes to uncover a nefarious plan and now has to enlist the help of her scam-artist friend Nick to help her get to the bottom of it. This is a great movie, and I know its been said a million times before about a lot of movies but this one is really fun for the whole family.
To see so many different animals represented on the screen and done so well that they look life like is a testament to the quality of animators that the Walt Disney Studio’s has. The art is an amazing aspect of this film, but the story is the real driving aspect of it. If the story stunk no matter how well it was animated it would have been awful, but this is a great story with a great message that tells kids to strive for goals and that with hard work and determination you can achieve anything you dream of. My family and I loved this movie so much!
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
While at the amazing Disney Toon Studios we got the chance to sit down and chat with, Raymond Persi, who Story Artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios and he is also the voice of “Flash” in Zootopia. Raymond Persi grew up in hills California right above DisneyToon Studios, growing up his dream was to one day work there and he eventually got to. Raymond is currently a story artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, he has worked on Wreck-it Ralph, Frozen, and then the two shorts Get a Horse and Feast. Raymond is also a voice for quite a few characters from Disney films and shorts.
Raymond told us that one of the great things about working for Disney is that when the films are being made, they will get to do the “rough versions of them first, and sometimes we don't know who's going to be cast yet, or we don't even know if that character will stay in past one screening of the film. So they bring a lot of the different people in the studio to do scratch voices. It's called just a temporary voice, just to tell the story. And every now and then, we keep some of those voices in”.
Some of Raymond’s test “scratch” voices made it into the films, including, Gene, the little jerk from Wreck It Ralph, and the Zombie, along with the little jerky horn from the short Get A Horse. On Frozen, he got to play a guy who, had one line, but his wife called after he said, Come on. Hurry up, Persi. Raymond thought that was pretty cool because that's was his name.
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
Have you had
the chance to take a journey with Alice through the Looking Glass yet? This whimsical
movie is great for the whole family. Alice Through the Looking Glass is currently playing
in theaters everywhere! To celebrate the release of this spectacular film, I
recently had a chat with the Director of
Alice Through the Looking Glass, James Bobin.
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com Mr. James Bobin is a talented writer and director most known for
his work as the Director of The Muppets and The Muppets Most
Wanted and as a writer for Da Ali G Show. He took time from his busy whirlwind
press tour where he traveled from England and Madrid, New York and then finally to California
to speak with us about his newest project Alice Through the Looking Glass.
I did not realize
how many years it takes to bring a project like this to life, and to make it to
the big screen! James started working on Alice Through the Looking Glass in
2013. For a director it seems like you eat breathe and live the life of the
movie you are making. According to James Bobin, “it’s nice for me to sort of show the film to
people because I lived with it for a very long time by myself in a small room
in Burbank. So it's very nice to get to show it to people because it's a funny
thing where you live with it for so long, it's so a part of you. And to kind of
let it go and just show people the thing you’ve been doing all this time”. And
we were excited to hear about it too!
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com How did you get attached to
the project?
James Bobin: “I was working for Disney, I made some
Muppets movies for them back in the day. And that was really fun. I remember being on set, with my executive Kristen
Burr, she mentioned the word Alice to me. Of course I jumped at that because, I
grew up in England. Alice is part of your life. She's someone
who you know really well, she's just part
of your makeup. My parents read it to me, I read it as a kid. I did the
same with my children. We love Alice in our family. When I found out I was
really excited because, when you know something it's a quite good way
for starting it. You think you have a clear idea of who she's gonna be in the
film. Who I felt Alice was to me growing up. When I read Lewis
Carroll as a kid he used to make me laugh. He has a very witty way of writing”.
"I think
comedy is often about the specificity of language. For me, all my life
so far I've been making jokes and comedy. It felt like a very natural
thing to do is try and use that in this world because obviously Tim’s thing is
so beautiful and so beautifully constructed. That was a really good foundation
to start from. I thought if I came on that I could kind of bring some of that
British comedy back a bit. So it's a bit different. I mean it needed to be different. I
think sequels need to be different. It's nice to, pay tribute and make sure you
respect the origins of the story and the characters. But people want to see
generally something which is a progression or something new or if it has a
different sight, feel or tone”.
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com You worked with Sacha Baron Cohen in the past
with the Ali G Show. Was he your immediate first choice for the character of
Time?
James Bobin: “Yeah, I
mean obviously when you work with someone as brilliant as Sacha you always try
to think of ways of getting him back involved in things you're doing. So, he
and I worked years ago on Borat and Ali G and Bruno. To do that job you have to
create characters that live in the real world. And people aren't gonna say to
you I don't believe who you say you are. To his great credit they never,
ever did. I mean people throw us out of stuff for all sorts of different
reasons but never because they didn't believe who he was. And so I knew that if
you're going to create a new character for this world particularly whereby you
have iconic characters like the Mad Hatter and Alice and the Red Queen.
We
needed to create a character, which is Time. And then Time of course is Lewis
Carroll’s idea. It's not my idea. I only borrowed it from him. Lewis Carroll
talks about time as a person in the book Alice in Wonderland. Hatter says, when he very first meets Alice at the tea party, he's kind of stuck, I've been stuck here since last month where Time and I quarreled.
I thought that is a brilliant idea for a character. Sacha’s very
good at playing the sort of over confident idiot. That was a very good
character choice for him”.
What was the most challenging aspect of this movie for you?
James Bobin: “For me,
the story is challenging because it's not the story of the book. I
realized that it's quite an unusual because Lewis Carroll wasn’t that concerned
with narrative. He liked imagery, ideas. And the book kind of falls in on
itself deliberately. Things happen, and then other things happen. They seem
very consequential. It's only cause and effect. I knew for a film would make an
interesting avante guarde movie. I'm not sure I could do that in this
situation. I knew the story would be a new story. I knew Linda had an idea
about the time travel movie based on the characters from before. But at the
same time I wanted to pay tribute to the book.
I wanted to
take elements of the book like the backwards room and obviously the looking
glass and the characters and the spirit of Lewis Carroll. That was a
challenge to try and make a story, which is complex and interesting but not
overly so in a way which would be distracting for children”.
What was the transition like going from
directing live action and Muppets to a lot of CGI characters?
James Bobin: “It’s
kind of why I did this film because it's so different. The Muppets I dearly
loved and was really fun. With the Muppets you shoot where you shoot, you make
it the edit becomes, footage you have. With this what I found was you had much
more flexibility because you can basically keep pursuing ideas way longer than
you would be able to in live action because it's animated. You could have an
idea almost like a year later and put that into the animated creature’s mouth,
which is fun. It means you can be very creative for a long time. One of my
major objectives was to try and create a world where you’d be happy to spend an
hour and a half of your time because there's very few things in the world these
days you do for an hour and a half. There aren't many things you do for that
long. I really wanted to make sure
everyone was very happy and you sure must be sad to leave at the end. It's the
feeling I wanted to convey. I hope I succeeded in that”.
The feel of the original
classic is here in this version. In Alice Through the Looking Glass there are
even tributes to the classic Lewis Carroll book. The chess match is in the
original looking glass book, the chess game in progress in the book is the same
chess game in progress in the backwards room. The mantel piece clock in the
room is the same mantel piece clock that John Tenniel drew in 1871. For James
Bobbin those little touches in this movie meant a lot to him. Being the
director of 2 Muppets films, what Alice character did James Bobin think would
be a good fit for Miss Piggy? Well the Red Queen of course! “She’d
have a gigantic pig head. It would be so great!” Ha ha, yes I would have to
agree with him there…
Now that is a movie I would love to see, a Muppets Alice
movie! A fun fact that we learned about Helena Bonham Carter’s character the
Red Queen… The amazing costume was designed by Collen Atwood.. designed down to
even the smallest detail.. the bloomers that Helena wore had hearts sewn into
them!
Only Helena knew about them, it is pretty great to go through that much
detail for a character, even though no one will be able to see it. It goes to
show how much was given to detail in this fantastic film. Alice Through the
Looking Glass is playing in theaters everywhere! Why not take the family this
weekend and go on an amazing journey through the looking glass!
Be sure to stay social with Alice Through the Looking Glass:
Visit the official Alice Through the Looking Glass site here: http://movies.disney.com/alice-through-the-looking-glass
Like Alice Through the Looking Glass on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyAlice
Follow Alice Through the Looking Glass on Instagram: https://instagram.com/DisneyAlice
Follow Walt Disney Studios on Twitter: https://twitter.com/disneystudios
Alice Through the Looking Glass is playing in theaters everywhere!
Disclosure: The reviews and or opinions on this blog are my own opinions . No monitory compensation was received. I was not required to write a positive review. Your experience may differ. The opinions I have expressed are my own I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsement and Testimonials in Advertising .
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
To learn more about the animals and what goes into making the world of Zootopia, I recently sat down with Renato dos Anjos head of animation on Zootopia & Chad Sellers animation supervisor on Zootopia to learn more. Have you ever wondered what goes into making the animals you love in this movie? Well it turns out there is a lot of hard work and many hours (years really) to craft an amazing movie like Zootopia.
To get up close to the animals the animators went on several
trips to study animals up close and in person. From visiting the San Diego
Safari to visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom to get as much information as they
could to get the right feel for the animals in the animation. They even brought
animals into the office when they could, like rabbits and sloths. When they
wanted an even more authentic view of animals they planned a trip to Africa!
Now that is really paying attention to details, to travel all the way to
Africa, to get a better animation that is pretty cool.
According to, Renato dos Anjos “Multiple species were needed to get the proper behavior. Each animal is
specific to its species. We had to study how an elephant behaves versus how a mouse
behaves. Why does this animal move this way”? “Animals move in herds and we
wanted to have the species move together in crowds. The drawings each have
their own personalities”.
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
Recently during a fun Zootopia media day I was very
fortunate to sit down and have a chat with the extremely talented Directors and
the Producer of Zootopia. These guys have been working at Disney for many years
and have also been a part of some of your favorite Disney Hits.
Byron Howard, was the Director of Disney's 2010 world-wide
hit feature Tangled, and the popular short Tangled Ever After.
Rich Moore was the Director of Walt Disney Animation Studios
2012 Oscar nominated feature Wreck-it Ralph!
Clark Spencer, was the producer of Walt Disney
Animation Studios 2012 Oscar nominated feature Wreck-it Ralph. A role for which
he was a Producers Guild of America winner for, best animated film.
What was it
like sitting down to chat with these Disney big wigs? Was it intimidating?
No... Not at all, I have to say these were some of the most down to earth guys
who really loved their job, and were excited to share their love of their
newest project Zootopia, which will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 7th
2016. Did you ever wonder how Disney movies get started?
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
What is it like making Alice Through the Looking Glass? Well no one would know better than the
producer of this great family film, the person who supervises the
making of the film from start to finish, from having input on
who is cast, to what the direction the film will go in, the
producer plays an essential role in getting the best movie
out to the audience. We were very fortunate to have a sit down chat
with Producer Suzanne Todd Producer, of “Alice Through the Looking
Glass”. She is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood. Her
films include the Austin Powers films, G.I. Jane, Memento, Across the Universe
and the upcoming film Bad Moms.
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com
At the Disney
Media Moms Conference earlier this month, I got
a back stage look of the making of Alice Through The Looking Glass, while
we were there, Suzanne Todd, gave us a look into the new movie. It is
amazing how much is special effects. We got to see a scene as it was filmed,
before the special effects are added. It was neat, you may not appreciate all
that goes into making of a film. It may seem like they just film and add a
special effect here and there but a good deal of the film is digitally added
after production.
Before we start off on what the interview entailed, I have to tell you a
little bit about the moments before the interview, Suzanne told us a story
about a wonderful charity Maria
Shriver's Move for Minds. This is a charity that supports the research of women’s
brains and Alzheimer’s disease, that Suzanne was raising money for. Friends and family
donated and someone she did not know and had never met also donated, in honor
of her grandma. This happened to be a blogger in our group.. Suzanne was
so touched, she brought this blogger a gift some amazing Alice shoes.
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are
100% my own **
What was it like to play the iconic character "Alice
Kingsleigh"? Recently myself and 24 awesome bloggers got to sit down and
have a chat with the star of Alice Through the Looking Glass, the amazingly
talented actress Mia Wasikowska. Mia Wasikowska is known for her roles in
Crimson Peak and popular period pieces such as Jane Eyre and Madame Bovary
among others. Her breakthrough role was in Tim Burton's "Alice in
Wonderland" and returning in the sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass.
We tackled the tough questions like how it is being a role model for young
girls and was it like working with Johnny Depp? (Okay that one was not that
tough), but it was a fun interview with a down to earth actress who was just as
beautiful in person as she is on the big screen. Mia was soft-spoken and very sweet, we were
excited to ask this star of the movie a bunch of questions and she was eager to
answer all of our great questions, here are a few of my favorite from the
interview.
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com
Question: Alice, has gotten more
independent... How did it feel stepping
back into the role with those changes, with the years that have gone by?
Mia Wasikowska: It was great, I really love Alice and I like seeing her
journey. In the first film, she
was a little uncomfortable and trying to bridge that gap between, knowing who she is on the inside and being able to be that on the outside.
I think that was her journey in the first film. She's just
spend years as the captain of her own ship, and she has a really strong
sense of who she is. Despite the fact that,
expectations of her are really low in in her society she manages to hold on to that sense of being worth more than what people want of her. Which I
think is really great and important for young girls and boys everywhere.
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
Are you looking to go on an adventure? An adventure unlike any other? To a magical place where just about anything can happen? Well, I have an amazing place you can visit, take the family on an adventure with Alice Through the Looking Glass in theaters today!
My family and I are huge fans of Alice in Wonderland, from the cartoon, to the live action movie, to the classic books we have always loved the iconic characters and the zany story line. There is just so much going on and these fantastic tales keep your attention and really transport you to another place and time.
I have to admit we never read the continuation of the story, and boy were we missing out! With the movie adaption of Alice Through the Looking Glass, Disney brings you through more of "Wonderland" and gives you more of a back story of the characters you love, from the Red Queen, to the Hatter and all the favorites in between. For this movie you will also get introduced to a spectacularly interesting character "Time" played by Sacha Baron Cohen. "Time" was hilarious and stole the movie for me.
**Disney provided an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this event, all opinions are 100% my own **
Taking a break from real life is just a great thing, sometimes it is nice to just get away. Imagine going far, far away to a magical land where anything can happen. Well, I recently had the pleasure of going on a magical adventure just like that, the red carpet premiere of Alice Through the Looking Glass! With my job, I have been very fortunate to have walked a few red carpets in the past, but let me tell you it gets even more awesome each time you do it. I love my job!
Every aspect of attending a red carpet event is amazing. From the changing red carpet colors, no not all “red carpets” are actually red they can be any color! This cool carpet was red and black, a neat paisley type print. To the star watching, to the spectacular events on the carpet, you just never know what is going to happen at these events and that is what makes them even cooler in my mind… Surprises are always wonderful!
It is almost time for my red carpet adventure with Alice Through the Looking Glass, and I have so much to do, I feel like the classic white rabbit… I'm late, I'm late, I'm late. But before I am off on my adventure I wanted to share some fun new clips and some cool activity pages! Simply click on the activity images below and print out the activity and have fun!
In Disney’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” an all-new spectacular adventure featuring the unforgettable characters from Lewis Carroll’s beloved stories, Alice returns to the whimsical world of Underland to save her friend the Mad Hatter.
Directed by James Bobin, who brings a unique vision to the spectacular world Tim Burton created on screen in “Alice in Wonderland,” the film is written by Linda Woolverton based on characters created by Lewis Carroll and produced by Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd and Jennifer Todd and Tim Burton with John G. Scotti serving as executive producer.
****Disney is providing an all-expense paid trip for me to cover this great event ****
On a cold and rainy
day here in Philadelphia I was greeted with a sunny amazing email from Disney,
I was being told I was invited to the Red Carpet premiere of Alice Through the
Looking Glass! I tried as best as I could to not jump up and down, I had to be
professional I was at work at the time! But I did do a little dance and a
silent squeal of joy at my desk. I will go on an amazing Alice Through the Looking Glass adventure from May 22nd –May 24 to cover the release of Walt
Disney Studios’ Alice Through the
Looking Glass, in theaters everywhere on May 27th!
I will be walking the
amazing red carpet for this spectacular event! The RED CARPET! What awesome
thing, I cannot wait.I have been an
Alice in Wonderland fan since I was a little girl, I could relate with a girl
who was different and had different dreams than others.Along with the red carpet premiere we will
also be interviewing some of the talent and the filmmakers. I do not know who
they interviewees will be as of yet, but I will share as soon as I know.
“Alice Through
the Looking Glass” reunites the all-star cast from the worldwide
blockbuster phenomenon, including: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia
Wasikowska and Helena Bonham Carter along with the voices of Alan
Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen and Timothy Spall.
We are also introduced to several new characters: Zanik Hightopp (Rhys Ifans),
the Mad Hatter’s father and Time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen), a peculiar
creature who is part human, part clock.
While we are there we will have a special press day for the in-Home release of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootopia! Zootopia will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on June 7th.
At this press day we will interview members of the creative team behind the making of the movie including Directors Byron Howard & Rich Moore and Raymond Persi (Story Artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios and the voice of “Flash”) and get a chance to step into the recording booth and voice a character from the film! I was very fortunate to be able to voice Olaf from Frozen a few years ago that was such a fun experience.
I hope I can do a better job this time, let’s just say voice acting for animations is not one of my strongest points, but it was super fun. I hope I get to voice Flash, that would be.......................sooooo………………………………..cool.My family and I were huge fans of Zootopia, and I am looking forward to chatting with the creators of this fun movie. Be sure to get you copy, and Pre-Order Zootopia on Amazon today.
Our hotel will be the Sheraton Universal this is a great hotel, in a lovely location. I am so excited to be able to go on this fun journey. Be sure to follow along with me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to follow along live from the red carpet, and information about this fantastic family movie, Alice Through the Looking Glass along with the fun coverage of the home release of Zootopia! I will have more info about this event soon!
Follow along with the special hashtags, #ThroughTheLookingGlassEvent and#ZootopiaBluray. Stay tuned I will have more information about the trip soon!
Alice Through the Looking Glass opens in theaters everywhere on May 27th!
Zootopia Blu-ray and DVD Arriving on June 7th!
Do you have any questions you would like me to ask the stars of Alice Through the Looking Glass?
Or any questions for the creative team behind Zootopia?
Disclosure: The reviews and or opinions on this blog are my own opinions . No monitory
compensation was received. I was not required to write a positive review. Your experience may differ. The opinions I have expressed are my own I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsement and Testimonials in Advertising .
Disclosure: The reviews and or opinions on this blog are my own opinions, . No compensation was received. All opinions are my own. This is a unofficial fan site that is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company or Disney theme parks.
