DreamWorks Trolls at San Diego Comic-Con

By Mr. JJ King

​Comicon San Diego is the biggest nerd party on Earth, and after experiencing such an electric atmosphere, I have some things to share with you all. While Comicon is notorious for its unique merchandise, photo ops, and outstanding cosplay of all sorts, I was attending to experience the best aspect; the panels and presentations of Comicon. As a lot of us know, DreamWorks is always putting out great animated movies, whether it's Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, or How to Train Your Dragon; to name a few. 

​During DreamWork's Hall H presentation, a lot of information about their upcoming titles "Trolls" ( starring Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick ) and "The Boss Baby" ( starring Alec Baldwin ) was released to the public, including some exclusive clips that showed promise. Further into the day, me and a few others were granted the opportunity to sit down with the cast and creators of both films; where none of us shyed away from asking the tough and rather humorous questions. 
Here are some highlights from those interviews: 

​​Dreamworks Trolls

• Animated movies are looking more polished and crisp as years go by as new methods and technology is discovered to put incredible displays on screen. This is what director Mike Mitchell had to say about the technology used in DreamWork's "Trolls": "The technology of CGI and computer animation now allows us to build anything in a computer and make it look realistic. It's great that things look realistic, but we took this newer technology and did something different. We built a very realistic forest, but then we applied different textures to it, like felt and carpet, and made our trolls look like gummy bears. And it was really exciting for us to take natural fibers and create this look we had not seen in any other films."
• Despite not working with each other in the past, many of us felt as if Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, and creators Walt Dohrn and Mike Mitchell had outstanding potential and chemistry after watching the clips shown during the presentation. Here's what Justin and Anna had to say about everyone's chemistry: "Anna and I got to collaborate on the recording of the music" said Justin, "It's kind've the same thing as making a live action film, once you're committed, that's it, and you just dive into it and help fill in your role." Anna continued that topic by saying "When we're working with Mike and Walt, it's like we're working with half of the cast anyway because they do these weird impressions to sound like the other voice actors we're working with, so we caught on to how they would sound during certain scenarios." 
• A lot of us wondered what exactly Anna, Justin and other cast members brought into the film besides voice acting, in regards to improvising and adlibs. Here's what Justin Timberlake had to say: "Because you're not at the mercy of live action, you can try a bunch of different things. And because that's one of the greatest parts about making an animated film, you can really go back and tinker with your character. For instance I brought up concern for my character being extremely cantankerous. And because of how hilariously optimistic Anna made her character, Mike and Walt agreed that our two different characters actually worked in an intriguing way. "Anna prolonged the response by saying" Every time I recorded something, I imagined a six-inch fuzzy, pink creature saying it, and would go on hilarious rants about things." 
• DreamWork's "Trolls" is a very polished film that has been in the making for a little over half a decade, here's what the creators say was the most difficult process of the movie's development and where they received their design inspirations: "The hardest part is we are writing the script as we're making the movie" said Mike Mitchell "That can be very great, but also strange because we have to adapt to the changes as we watch our work come to life." Gina Shay then spoke on the inspiration to the colorful world by stating "We based our design on Scandinavian modern, so our shapes are big and round. And our characters are round, but then we implemented the trolls hair and added that style into most of the landscapes, it all has a kind of 70s feel." 
• The soundtrack to DreamWork's "Trolls" has a lot of people talking because Justin Timberlake's massive involvement in it's development. Here's what Justin said in regards to piecing the soundtrack together:  "When I first came on board there were songs being cleared such as True Colors, Sound of Silence, and Lionel Richie's "Hello." So great songs were pitched in specifically for comedic moments. True Colors fits so perfectly because it made us all emotional, and there's so much you can do with music, you can really transform anything in a movie with music. Also, we wanted to make a modern approach, so with something like Can't Stop the Feeling, I wanted to release it as soon as I finished it because maybe it would get people excited for the movie. Even though were doing remakes of older songs there's three more originals on the soundtrack with Gwen Stefani and Ariana Grande. Looking at this movie, the first word that comes to mind is "pop. " The colors pop, the vibe of the movies pops. Literally, our hero's name has the word "pop" in it. So I just felt like I wanted to make the soundtrack and everything in the movie feel like something you could hear on pop radio."

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​The Boss Baby

• ​Alec Baldwin is vastly known for playing a smug and in charge-esque figure no matter what the role may be. When we asked how the producers of the film knew to cast Baldwin as Boss Baby, here's how they responded:  "Well, before we even talked about casting and pitching the movie, we both looked at each other and said "Alec" at the same time, just because we had worked with Alec.", said Tom Mcgrath, "Jeffrey Katzenberg ( CEO of DreamWorks animation ) loves Alec and I had worked with him on Madagascar 2. It was a perfect match, there was never anybody else in mind, it wouldn't be Boss Baby if Alec wasn't involved." 
• Further into our round table interview, Alec Baldwin touched bases on what pulled him back to DreamWorks to play Boss Baby: "I think that whenever people ask you to do a job, ninety-nine percent of the time it's who's doing the asking. In the modern world, that can even mean about money. Some people will say, "Well were going to a movie and it's this very powerful drama." But they have a real micro budget and a very tight schedule, and fortunately, with companies like DreamWorks who have the resources to do great things, the people they have are the top people. They just don't give these enormous amounts of money to just anybody to make these films. You know you're working with the best people, that is a big part of it. It's the role and do I think I can bring something to the role?"
• While Boss Baby may seem to be very sinister and manipulative, Alec added his input to make sure his character didn't come off as too mean or grumpy, this is what Tom Mcgrath said to further elaborate on that: "Alec was very sensitive about how he didn't want his character to come off as too mean spirited or grumpy. What's great about the relationship between Boss Baby and his older brother is that even though the Baby is the adult in the relationship, they learn how to depend on each other and rely on each other. So although he comes off very bossy and domineering through the course of the movie, you discover their vulnerabilities together and their dependency, just like a family should." 
• The biggest concern for family films is how appealing it'll be to the older audience and family members watching it with the youth. Here, director Tom Mcgrath explained to us how he created a balance between adult's entertainment and the reach to children: "We're aspiring to do what animation was in the 40's and 50's, very cartoony, physical and slapstick. But because we're doing family films, the goal has always been to entertain families, and I think there's a lot of movies where it's either one of the other. Sometimes parents taking their kids to a movie pay close attention to their watches to see when it's close to finishing. So I think if you can laugh together, that's the main goal. Or if the parents laugh at something and the kids learn why that's funny, giving families good conversation after the film. We like to offer two different points of view that apply to the older and youth sides of the family."

DreamWorks Trolls swings it's way into theaters on November 4th, while Boss Baby is scheduled to release on March 31st, 2017. From what we've seen so far, both films have the potential to make a fantastic night out with your family, so mark your calendars!

Learn more about each movie visiting the websites below:

​Trolls Official Website
http://www.dreamworks.com/trolls   
 
The Boss Baby Official Website
http://www.dreamworks.com/thebossbaby/

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​​Mr. JJ King is not a novice to entertainment writing,he has covered everything from movies, video games, and tech-savvy products for the last four years. When he is not On the Scene with Mrs Kathy King, he is off dominating the gaming world, studying, or hanging out with friends.