“I’m so incredibly proud of ‘Finding Nemo,'” said Ralph Eggleston, the production designer of Pixar Animation Studio’s latest hit. “It is so close to what we originally wanted to do.”
Mind you, getting close to director Andrew Stanton’s vision for his underwater epic took years of effort. For example: Pixar’s talented tech team literally spent months trying to perfect the look of “Nemo”‘s CG waves and waters. And the studio’s editorial staff … well, they struggled for weeks to come up with effective ways to stage various sequences featuring the film’s finny cast (“How can you shoot an over-the-shoulder shot? Fish don’t have shoulders,” explained Eggleston.)
The end result of this effort has been thrilling audiences (as well as busting box office records. Late last week, “Finding Nemo” swam past the $300 million mark at the domestic box office. Making this Pixar production second only to Disney’s summer 1994 release, “The Lion King,” when it comes to top grossing animated films) since the film was released back on May 30th.
Now that the movie’s a certified smash, the folks at Pixar — normally a pretty secretive bunch — have begun talking a bit about what actually went on behind-the-scenes during the production of “Finding Nemo.” Most recently at “VES 2003: A Festival of Visual Effects,” a three day long event held at the LA Film School back on June 27-29th.
During their two hour talk on “Finding Nemo,” Eggleston and Oren Jacob (the film’s supervising technical director) revealed several secrets behind the making of this film. Among them were:
“Nemo” did NOT have a “Monsters” sized budget: Pixar’s 2001 theatrical release, “Monsters, Inc.” may have been a smash hit at the box office. But that film was not terribly popular with the studio’s accountants.
Why for? Because Pixar spent millions of dollars on visual development for “Monsters, Inc.” … only to have a 10th of that material ever make it up on the big screen. That’s why a decision was made at the uppermost levels at the company that — at the very start of work on “Finding Nemo” — that production of this particular Pixar picture would be kept under very strict control. The studio really wanted to make sure that this film stayed within its budget and was delivered on time.
“You’d think — what with all (of Pixar’s) successes — that it would have gone the other way,” said Eggleston. “But no. There was even more pressure from above for us to rein things in.” (Still, one has to wonder who Pixar was trying to send a message to by speaking in public like this about how fiscally responsible the “Finding Nemo” production team was. Wall Street’s movers and shakers? Pixar’s production partners over at Disney? Enquiring minds wanna know … Anyway …)
Finding just the right voices for “Nemo”‘s characters was key to the film’s success: As part of their VES presentation, Eggleston and Jacob screened the very first test for the Father Fish character from “Finding Nemo.” This brief bit of footage from July 2000 — which used grass that that had been borrowed from “A Bug’s Life” as a stand-in for sea weed — revealed a character that looked very much like the Marlin character for the finished film. But with one key difference.
“We used a different actor (for this version of the Father character),” said Jacob almost off-handedly. “But we didn’t stick with that actor.”
So who was the original voice for the Father in “Finding Nemo?” As part of their VES 2003 presentation, Eggleston and Jacob never revealed who Pixar had initially hired for this role … but additional research has revealed that veteran character actor William H. Macy (probably best known for his work in “Fargo”) was the first performer that the studio brought in to play this part.
So why was William H. eventually let go? Pixar insiders says that Macy was turning in a perfectly servicable vocal performance. The only problem was … this was back when “Finding Nemo” was still a fairly dark film. Back when the story’s narrative featured numerous flashbacks to the horrifying moment when Marlin’s mate and all of Nemo’s brothers and sisters (in egg form) were consumed by that barracuda.
After viewing the still-in-production “Finding Nemo” with all these flashbacks in place, a decision was made that the movie needed to be radically lightened up. Step One involved having the audience witness that traumatizing attack only once at the very start of the movie. Step Two involved letting William H. Macy go and bringing Albert Brooks, a stand-up comedy veteran, to revoice the part of Marlin.
“Admittedly, this probably wasn’t entirely fair to Macy,” said one animator who was familiar with the situation. “After all, he was the one who got stuck with trying to make the Father character entertaining and sympathetic back when ‘Finding Nemo’ had this real dark streak. But — that said — there’s no denying that Albert Brooks brought a lot of energy and humor to the part of Marlin. Stuff that that character just hadn’t had when Macy was doing the voice.”
Oh, speaking of voices for “Finding Nemo”: Guess whose voice Pixar’s animators used for the original animation test of Crush, the surfer-dude sea turtle? Sean Penn.
I sh*t you not, folks. As part of their VES 2003 presentation, Eggleston and Jacob actually ran the test footage for this particular character. It showed the laid back sea turtle moving in perfect sync to a vocal track that Pixar’s animators had harvested from Universal Picture’s 1982 release, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Crush swimming along with stoner character Jeff Spiccoli’s voice coming out of his mouth.
So one has to wonder: Did Pixar actually approach Sean Penn about providing the vocals for this part in “Finding Nemo?” Sure, everyone knows now that that director Andrew Stanton EVENTUALLY ended up providing Crush’s voice. But was the film’s director actually the “Finding Nemo” production team’s first choice for the sea turtle?
One thing is certain: Pixar doesn’t casually produce these expensive pieces of test animation. They usually do so only when they’re in hot pursuit of a name actor to provide the vocals for a particular character in one of their films. Witness the “Woody” test that you can view on the “Ultimate Toy Box” DVD set, where the cowboy character is animated to vocals that Pixar’s animators had pulled from Touchstone Pictures’ 1989 release, “Turner & Hooch.”
Or — more tellingly — how about the Buzz Lightyear test footage that can be found on this same collector’s edition DVD set. This particular test was done to vocal tracks that the guys at Pixar pulled off of “When Harry Met Sally” (1989 MGM/UA). Back when the studio was trying to convince Billy Crystal to come do the voice of Buzz.
Crystal (to his eventual regret) ultimately decided to take a pass on the Lightyear part. Which is how Tim Allen eventually ended up providing Buzz’s vocals for both of the “Toy Story” films. But Billy was smart enough not to make the same mistake twice. Which is why — when Pixar came a’ knockin’ and offered him the role of Mike Wyznowski in “Monsters, Inc.” — Crystal immediately said “Yes.”
Mind you, the folks at Pixar — as they were putting together the “Ultimate Toy Box” DVD set — made sure that the version of the Buzz Lightyear test that’s featured on the collector’s edition DOESN’T feature any Billy Crystal vocals (so as not to embarrass the veteran comic any further for having turned down such a plum role). But if you’d like to get some sense of what this test footage was originally like:
1. Put a copy of “When Harry Met Sally” in your VCR. Fast forward the video to the scene where Billy gives his speech about the wagon wheel coffee table. Then pause the tape.
2. Put the appropriate disc from your “Toy Box” set in your DVD player. Find the original Buzz Lightyear animation test.
3. Set up your home entertainment system so that you’re getting picture-but-no-sound from your DVD player and sound-but-no-image out of your VHS recorder.
4. Hit the “Play” button on your DVD remote at the same time that you’re hitting the “Play” button on your VHS remote.
5. Witness a little bit of animation history. What could have been. (You see? NOW does it finally make sense as to why Buzz Lightyear makes his exit in this test footage by walking under a wagon wheel coffee table?)
Okay, admittedly this little VHS / DVD curio isn’t quite up there with what happens when you sync up “The Wizard of Oz” with Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon.” But you have to admit that it’s still pretty cool. Anywho … let’s get back to today’s “Finding Nemo” story, shall we? (Which is already in progress …)
Various scenes in “Finding Nemo” were restaged because of questions of taste: Particularly the inside-of-the-whale sequence. Or — as this scene was better known in-house at Pixar — ‘Half Full.’
According to Eggleston and Jacob, this was the sequence in “Finding Nemo” that Pixar’s animators found most difficult to pull off. Due to the lighting issues as well as having to constantly deal with all that CG water that was splashing around inside the whale’s mouth.
Mind you, it may intrigue JHM readers to know that — as this sequence was originally envisioned — Marlin and Dory were trapped inside of the whale’s stomach. NOT the whale’s mouth. So why was the location of this particular setpiece changed? Well, as Oren Jacob oh-so-delicately put it: “There were only two ways out.”
These are just three of the great “Finding Nemo”-related stories that I heard while attending this year’s VES Festival. In the weeks ahead, I’ll be revisiting this material … sharing even more of the info that I learned about this particular Pixar Animation Studios production. Not to mention additional stories about the various other seminars I attended at “VES 2003: A Festival of Visual Effects.”
So — in the not-so-distant future — look for additional film related stories here at JimHillMedia.com. Behind-the-scenes articles about the effects work done on “The Matrix Reloaded,” “Hulk,” “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” “X2: X-Men United,” and “The Core” as well as a historical retrospective on “Tron.”
For further information of the Visual Effects Society, head over to the VES web site.
Your thoughts?