Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Exclusive Interviews

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Wimpy Kid’ Creator Jeff Kinney Reveals Who Greg’s Favorite Marvel Superhero (Probably) Is

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Wimpy Kid’ Creator Jeff Kinney Reveals Who Greg’s Favorite Marvel Superhero (Probably) Is

    Kids love superheroes. From their flashy costumes to their incredible powers, superheroes allow a measure of escapism while also teaching them traditional values and even offering them opportunities to be critical thinkers and problem solvers. While they’ve become more mainstream than ever with the rise of Marvel Studios, superheroes have been a part of pop culture since the 1930s and just about anyone, young or old, can name a favorite or two.

    That holds true even in the fictional Wimpy Kid Universe where Greg Heffley and his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, live. While the two are known for their misadventures, they’ve always had active imaginations and in the 2019 book Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson’s Journal, Greg even went so far as to create his own superhero: Intergalactic Man. Born in the unknown depths of space, Intergalactic Man was gifted with the incredible ability to have different powers emanate from each of his four fingertips: fire, ice, electricity and an undefined zapability.

    With Greg now part of the Disney family, where the live-action rights to almost all of Marvel Comics greatest characters reside, we wondered if he might have a favorite. Of course, nobody would know better than Wimpy Kid creator Jeff Kinney, who offered up a character who is certainly among the most beloved across the globe when we talked with him about the upcoming streaming release of Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever.

    “I think he would like Spider-Man,” said Kinney when asked who Greg’s favorite Marvel superhero might be. “Peter Parker was a bit of a weakling before he got his superpowers–I don’t think Greg would really relate to one of the big, tough guys so probably Spider-Man.“

    Peter Parker has remained one of Marvel’s most popular and beloved heroes since he first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962. With one of the greatest stables of supporting characters in all of comics, Peter’s Spider-Man has connected with people of all ages and his stories have been adapted into both live-action and animated adventures that are among the most popular superhero projects ever. If Spidey were indeed his favorite hero, nobody could question Greg’s choice.

    About Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever

    Get ready for the Wimpiest Christmas ever! The original animated adventure, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, the latest animated movie based on Jeff Kinney’s wildly successful book series, will premiere December 8, 2023, exclusively on Disney+. The film is a hilarious and heartfelt holiday tale centered around everyone’s favorite disaster-prone middle school student.

    The winter holidays are turning out to be especially stressful for Greg Heffley this year. After
    accidentally damaging a snowplow while making a snowman with best friend Rowley Jefferson, Greg worries he won’t get the new video game console he so desperately wants for Christmas. To make matters worse, he gets snowed in with his family, including his grumpy older brother Rodrick and annoying younger brother Manny.

    Directed by Luke Cormican (Teen Titans Go!) and written and produced by Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever features the voices of Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian), Spencer Howell (Ithaca), Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head), Erica Cerra (Power Rangers), and Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2).

    The Characters

    Wesley Kimmel (The Mandalorian) is the voice of Greg Heffley, the disaster-prone middle
    school student having a stressful winter holiday. He is trying to be on his best behavior so he will get the new video game console he desperately wants for Christmas but gets into trouble with best friend Rowley Jefferson when they damage a snowplow while innocently building a snowman.

    Spencer Howell (Ithaca) voices Rowley Jefferson, who enjoys spending the winter holidays
    inside sipping hot cocoa and singing Christmas carols with his parents, eagerly anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus on the big night. He is an unwilling accomplice to Greg Heffley’s snowplow cover-up.

    Erica Cerra (Power Rangers) is the voice of Greg Heffley’s mother, Susan, who lives for the
    Christmas holiday season and all its traditions. She is happiest when the family can celebrate the Yuletide season together.

    Chris Diamantopoulos (Beavis and Butt-Head) voices Frank, Greg Heffley’s father, who is so busy anticipating a massive winter snowstorm that he is missing out on the family’s holiday
    traditions that are so important to his wife Susan.

    Hunter Dillon (Deadpool 2) is the voice of Greg’s older brother, Rodrick Heffley, who is spending the winter holidays lazy and unmoving from the couch until he decides he will find the culprits wanted by the police so he can take the reward money for himself.

    Lisa Ann Walter (Abbott Elementary) voices Gabby, who drives a snowplow to make extra
    money for the holidays. She is a single mother to her son Tyler, who is the light of her life.

    Elfriendo is a homemade doll from Susan Heffley’s childhood who keeps watch over children and reports any bad behavior to Santa and his elves at the North Pole.

    The Filmmakers

    Jeff Kinney (Writer/Producer) is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a
    Wimpy Kid series and the Awesome Friendly Kid series. He is a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favorite Book and has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England, where he and his wife own a bookstore named An Unlikely Story.

    Luke Cormican’s (Director) numerous animated credits include over 78 episodes of Teen Titans Go, on which he served as writer, producer, and director, as well as The Penguins of
    Madagascar    , Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, The Buzz on Maggie, and Ren and Stimpy Adult
    Party Cartoon, among others. Cormican also served as head of story on Teen Titans Go to the Movies.

    John Paesano (Composer) is a BAFTA-winning, Emmy®-nominated composer with a range of credits that include The Maze Runner film trilogy, both of PlayStation’s Spider-Man videogames, 50 episodes of Marvel’s Defenders and Daredevil and 100 episodes of
    the How to Train Your Dragon series (for which he won an Annie Award).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A–mvyHQhcc
  • Jeff Loveness on the “Big, Sweeping” Epic He’s Creating for ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ (Exclusive)

    Jeff Loveness on the “Big, Sweeping” Epic He’s Creating for ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ (Exclusive)

    While he won’t be the sole creator behind the MCU’s version of Kang, it seems safe to say that Jeff Loveness will be the one most associated with the character. After introducing Kang the Conqueror and the Council of Kangs in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Loveness will bring the full might of everything Kang to life in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty which he’s currently writing. The Kang Dynasty, which is currently slated for a 2025 release, will be the first Avengers movie since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which means it will be one of the most anticipated movies in the history of film.

    For Loveness, the anticipation and excitement that fans feel is something he’s very familiar with and, as such, something he has taken to heart while writing the film. “I don’t take it lightly that I am writing the biggest movie in the world,” said Loveness of The Kang Dynasty. The opportunity to write “the biggest movie in the world” is something that caused Loveness to reminisce about his own experience with “big” movies from his childhood.

    I am from a very small town; I didn’t even have a movie theater in my town so we would have to drive an hour away to go watch movies. And I love small movies, Tar is the best movie of the year; Triangle of Sadness is so funny and innovative, but when I was a kid, I went to see Lord of the Rings right when school ended. I didn’t know what it was. Our movie theater was playing that. It was a BIG movie and it changed my life.

    And so now it is Loveness‘ turn to put together what will be the big movie of 2025 and what will ultimately be compared to prior Avengers films Infinity War and Endgame in terms of quality and ability to impact pop culture. Loveness says he’s up to the task and adds that he has a secret weapon in achieving the goal of creating an “American epic” that people will remember: star Jonathan Majors.

    I have this opportunity to write a vast, American epic–I’ll use American in a general term–but a big, American movie. I don’t take it lightly and I want to make it this big, sweeping and exciting, funny movie and I think we have the best actor in the world as the most complicated villain in comic books. So I can’t say too much, but we’re really swinging for the fences and I can’t wait for you to see what Jonathan does.

    Jeff Loveness

    Loveness and fans will have to wait a bit, however, as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty isn’t slated to release until May 2nd, 2025.

  • ‘Quantumania’ Writer Jeff Loveness on the Classic Marvel Comics Villain Who Inspired His Take on Kang (Exclusive)

    ‘Quantumania’ Writer Jeff Loveness on the Classic Marvel Comics Villain Who Inspired His Take on Kang (Exclusive)

    Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania introduced audiences to one of Marvel Comics’ most iconic and disruptive villains in Kang the Conqueror. Played by Jonathan Majors, who previously appeared in Loki as a Variant of the character known as He Who Remains, Kang is a man with a deep belief that the atrocities he’s committing are for the greater good though he’s found himself with quite a bit of time to reflect after being exiled by other powerful Variants of himself.

    This particular Variant of Kang, known as the Conqueror, has all the qualities of some of the great villains of all time, both fictional and historical, and is the kind of character writer Jeff Loveness has been hoping to create for some time.

    While those historical figures provide a solid foundation for the character, Loveness also turned to one of Marvel Comics’ greatest villains for inspiration in fleshing out Kang.

    I’m a deep comic book guy, too, it sounds like you are as well. I took a lot from obviously Kang in the comics but to me, the best version of this is Chris Claremont’s Magneto. That is a man who is on a crusade and your morality does not matter to him because he knows the deeper truth. You have not lived his life, you have not been through the things.

    Jeff Loveness

    Claremont took over writing duties on Marvel Comics X-Men in 1975 and created the now well-known backstory of Magneto as a survivor of the holocaust. Suffice to say, whatever it is that most folks know about Magneto is what Claremont added to him. Like Claremont’s Magneto, it seems that once the MCU’s Kang sets his sights on something, nothing short of death will stop him especially when, in this case, he realizes that the problem he’s trying to fix was caused by him(s).

    There’s a line that Kang says, ‘When you can see time the way I do you don’t get to close your eyes,’ and there’s also a guilt to it as well because he says that time is broken. Janet challenges him and says well who broke it, and he says I did. And that’ll be something for Avengers or whatever, but he has almost this broken–he’s looking out the broken window of the multiverse and all of his Variants causing it, him causing it, and realizing…almost like America looking at climate change, ‘Oh boy, I think we left the A/C on a little too long. I think we better do something about this.’ He’s literally in a crusade against himself and his other selves didn’t like that too much, so they got rid of him.

    Jeff Loveness

    Quantumania served as a bit of an origin story for Kang, who Loveness seems to hint will return to face off with the Avengers despite the way things ended for him. According to Loveness, who is also writing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, that “origin” was a necessary part of the development of the character so fans get to know him before things get really wild. “Before it gets all crazy and multiversal, I wanted to spend a lot of time with the man” said Loveness, “because then I think we’ll be along for the ride a little more.” Given what was glimpsed in Quantumania’s mid and post credit scenes, it seems like it’s going to be one helluva crazy, multiversal ride.

  • Jeff Lovness Details the Challenges of Adapting Kang for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (Exclusive)

    Jeff Lovness Details the Challenges of Adapting Kang for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (Exclusive)

    Loki. Ultron. Thanos. These classic Avengers’ foes found their way into the MCU’s Infinity Saga and provided formidable and nearly unstoppable threats to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Despite their powers, their goals were fairly pedestrian and their means easily understandable. Marvel Studios certainly took a completely different path in selecting the big bad of their next saga, however. By choosing Kang, Marvel Studios took on the challenge of introducing a character that is inherently more difficult to adapt because…he’s not just one character. Moreover, he’s nearly as often at odds with himself as he is with the Avengers.

    Time travel, alternate universes and divergent selves make for great science fiction but can also be considered too high-concept to be embraced by mainstream audiences. Kang is all those things and more, yet he also belongs on Marvel’s Bad Guy Mount Rushmore with the trio of villains fro the Infinity Saga. So how do you adapt a character as complicated as Kang? That’s exactly the question I asked Jeff Loveness who joked that getting past “the thigh-high purple boots and the invisible bean bag chair he was always lounging on” were among the first obstacles he had to face.

    “That was the huge challenge,” said Loveness of bringing such a complicated character to the masses, “cause Thanos is pretty single-minded and pretty monolithic and pretty easy to get and so the challenge and the kind of the beauty of Kang is that he is this almost post-modernist, limitless guy.” The contrast between Thanos and Kang, as Loveness saw it, was stark and certainly proved troublesome, especially when the idea of the Multiverse came into play.

    “In a Multiverse story, you’ve always gotta be careful about pulling the rug out of people with stakes,” Lovesness explained, “cause if there’s a thousand Doctor Stranges, who cares? You know you run into that with Rick and Morty or Everything Everywhere All at Once touched on that too. Like what’s the point if it’s just limitless? How do you create stakes in that?” As much fun as it may seem to be for a writer to have a character who can do whatever he wants whenever he wants, Loveness understood that the audience will quickly lose interest in those types of shenanigans. So he took a much more grounded approach in creating the MCU’s Kang.

    So for me, a lot of it was like stripping Kang down because in an Avengers movie, even before I was the one writing it, I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of Kang stuff there’s going to be plenty of doing lasers and time travel and monologues. So I think the movie really started to take shape when I realized let’s just actually focus on him as a singular human being. He doesn’t have powers. He’s not a big purple space alien with motion capture. Let’s really focus on the vulnerability and humanity of this guy. And so that’s where the idea of him being almost like marooned in the Quantum Realm [came from].

    Jeff Loveness

    The idea of the exiled conqueror allowed fans to meet one of the most powerful villains in the history of Marvel Comics, as Loveness explained, as nothing more than a man. Of course, it’s not going to end there as the mid-credit scene revealed, but in order to really create a villain that would resonate with audiences, Loveness turned to history for examples of failed conquerors.

    And I’m just a big history guy so I thought about Julius Caeser. What if he got assassinated by 50 other Julius Caesars? Or like Napoleon in exile after he had gotten defeated in Europe, turned back from Russia…defeated in Waterloo. Kang is a non-linear character; he says “I don’t live in a straight line”, so let’s show that and let’s meet him almost after a major defeat and let’s meet him kind of in this lower, more vulnerable stripped down place because if we do that, we really get to know the guy…we don’t get lost in all the multiverse and the time travel stuff. You can fish food it a little bit, which we did, but I think the best parts of that movie are when you’re just on Jonathan Majors’ face.

    Jeff Loveness

    Majors, of course, has been at the center of the praise for the film and according to Loveness, the real key to adapting Kang and “beating Thanos” is really the incredible amount of talent possessed by the man behind the character. “In my head, the competitive part of me is ‘That’s how you beat Thanos,’” said Loveness of having Majors on board as Kang. “Thanos is fantastic he speaks for himself; an iconic villain. But, man, we have the best actor in the world and a camera that’s right on his face and so you get to really see the pain, passion and crusade in this guy’s voice.” And as Loveness said, there’s plenty of “Kang stuff” to come which means plenty more Jonathan Majors.

  • Jeff Loveness on the Crazy Fantastic Four Villain That Didn’t Make the Cut in ‘Quantumania’ (Exclusive)

    Jeff Loveness on the Crazy Fantastic Four Villain That Didn’t Make the Cut in ‘Quantumania’ (Exclusive)

    Kang and M.O.D.O.K. made for a formidable one-two punch as the villains of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Jonathan Majors‘ tormented and desperate Kang paired deliciously with Corey Stoll‘s demented and deformed Darren Cross to stack the odds pretty heavily against the Ant-Family until a reformed Cross helped turn the tide against Kang. As crazy of a character as M.O.D.O.K. was, however, there was a time when another, potentially crazier villain was on the table for an appearance in the film.

    While explaining to Hank and Hope why they were never able to discover the Quantum Realm cities brimming with life, Janet mentions that interference from The Void and Sub-Atomica prevented them from being able to see things clearly. Though it’s never mentioned again, Sub-Atomica has an interesting history in the comics as it is its own star system and is home to a number of planets and interesting species all of whom are ruled over by Fantastic Four villain Psycho-Man.

    Psycho-Man from the pages of Fantastic Four #283

    Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1967, Psycho-Man often clashed with Marvel Comics’ First Family over the years after deciding to conquer Earth. Using his Control-Box, a weapon that induces emotional responses in humans at his whims, Psycho-Man actually presented a pretty major threat to the Fantastic Four and the Marvel Universe on occasion. During my interview with Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness, I asked him if there was ever any conversation about including Psycho-Man in the madness especially given director Peyton Reed’s love for the Fantastic Four and admission that he turned to their stories for inspiration for his Ant-Man films.

    Oh man, yeah…I don’t think it made it too far. I certainly like Psycho-Man. I had–I can’t remember–it was so long ago. I mean MODOK was always in the cards and I was a big proponent of MODOK as well. Peyton and I from Day One…Peyton had the idea of making him Darren Cross, which was just incredible, I just jumped on that.

    Jeff Loveness

    Psycho-Man was indeed a possibility for the film but was ultimately left out as they developed M.O.D.O.K. That seems to have been for the best as M.O.D.O.K. is frequently mentioned in conversations about the best bits of Quantumania. Loveness went on to explain how he found inspiration for this version of M.O.D.O.K. in a classic episode of The Simpsons.

    Are you a Simpsons fan at all? Did you ever watch that episode “Homer’s Enemy” with Frank Grimes and all that? I just thought there’s such a Frank Grimes quality to M.O.D.O.K. in the way of if you had not seen Scott Lang in 10 years, he’s [M.O.D.O.K.] missed so much! There are more of those jokes in the movie but he didn’t even know Scott was an Avenger. He doesn’t know he time-traveled twice with Captain America. He’s in love with Hope. Hank Pym respects him. All this stuff has happened and Darren is just this big, fat floating head and to play the broken man quality of that I thought was really fun.

    Jeff Loveness

    Loveness then returned to the idea of Psycho-Man, revealing that discussions about his potential inclusion in the film went as far as crafting some jokes around his Control-Box. “Psycho-Man, I’m a fan of him, but that does seem maybe that’s someone for the Fantastic Four to deal with and that’s in their wheelhouse.,” said Loveness. “There were some jokes that there was a big button that said AFRAID, SAD, HORNY,” he added referring to the ridiculous-looking and deadly device the character uses to control the emotions of the humans he hopes to conquer.

    Though he didn’t make the cut for Quantumania, it’s fun to hear such a wild character was considered for the film. Given Marvel Studios’ penchant for revisiting ideas that didn’t make it into different projects, there may yet be hope that fans will see Psycho-Man realized on the big screen one day!

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Strange World’ Directors Reveal Much Darker Version of Film

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Strange World’ Directors Reveal Much Darker Version of Film

    Strange World, Disney’s next major animated film, is almost in theaters, and it promises to be another joyous, family friendly ride from the House of Mouse. However, according to directors Qui Nguyen and Don Hall, there was almost a version of the movie that was much darker. Speaking exclusively with Murphy’s Multiverse, the veteran creatives were asked if there’d been any unused ideas they wished could have stayed in the movie, or that they hoped people might one day see. Nguyen answered the question first, revealing an early take on the story that involved a lot more violence:

    We had so many. That’s the joy of making one of these films. We get to play with a lot of different ideas, especially in the story stage. We had a series of deaths that were – like we were murdering different characters throughout. There was a version of the movie where, like, the whole crew is dead and you have a feral Callisto at the end who’s like “I’m enraged! I will destroy this place no matter what I do!”

    Qui Nguyen

    Strange World revolves around the Clade family, as they explore an unknown world in search of something that might save their homeland. The farmer Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal), his adventurous son Ethan Clade (Jaboukie Young-White), his proactive wife Meridian Clade (Gabrielle Union), and his larger-than-life father, Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid). They are joined on their journey by Callisto Mal (Lucy Liu), the President of Avalonia and leader of an exploration group assigned to help the Clades on their mission. As Nguyen described, Callisto was almost a villainous presence in the film, and apparently, Jaeger was originally a bit scarier as well:

    We had a much more barbarian type of Jaeger who like killed a giant caterpillar monster with his bare hands, which was really cool. So, there’s a lot of iterations of this film that were really fun to do…like, what if Jaeger was a lot more barbaric or Callisto was a lot more angry or something like that.

    Qui Nguyen

    Not all of the abandoned concepts were so gloomy, however, as Hall chimed in to discuss his favorite deleted scenes. The former Big Hero 6 director explained that one of the creatures in the film, lovingly referred to as a “Poop Pickle”, was intended to play a much bigger role. Unfortunately, time didn’t allow this to happen:

    Yeah, and the creatures that show up, sort of, a little way through the movie in the acid lake. Those kind of green, blobby things we call “Poop Pickles”. We had storyboarded scenes where those creatures were explored more extensively and they were all very funny and kind of wonderful. We just didn’t have time to support that much. We needed them to do what they do in the movie, which is help them get out of a jam. But who knows? Maybe in the future we’ll get to explore some more about the world of the Poop Pickles.

    Don Hall

    Strange World is now in theaters.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Strange World’ Director on Naming the Clade Family

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Strange World’ Director on Naming the Clade Family

    Strange World, the latest entry in Disney’s massive film collection, is set to introduce audiences to a whole new batch of wonderful characters. Brought to life by a wide range of talent, including Jake Gyllenhaal and Jaboukie Young-White, the movie will revolve around an adventurous family known as the Clades. Gyllenhaal portrays Searcher Clade, a humble farmer, while Young-White plays his wanderlust-fueled son, Ethan. The patriarch of the Clade clan, a world-famous explorer named Jaeger, is brought to life by Dennis Quaid, while Searcher’s wife Meridian, a skilled pilot, is voiced by Gabrielle Union.

    The crux of the film’s story, which sees the family journey through an unknown world, is the relationship between Jaeger and Searcher. While the former is fully on board with his exciting way of life, the latter could do without, causing an emotional rift between the two when Jaeger tries to impose exploration on his only child. Their names, obviously, are reflective of this, something co-director Don Hall says came about at the very beginning of the creative process. In an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, Hall and co-director Qui Nguyen were asked how the film’s protagonists got their monikers, and Hall explained that, like everything else in the movie, it really came down to jumping off of Jaeger:

    I think it was very early on, maybe before Qui got on. Really, Jaeger is the planet that everything orbits around. The desire to examine that overly heroic adventurer and deconstruct that character a little bit. That’s where it started. Then, y’know, thinking about how interesting it would be to tell the story through the perspective of his son, who didn’t want to be that. Who rejected pretty much all of that. That felt like a more interesting angle to watch the movie through.

    Don Hall

    He continued to reveal that, with this plot point in mind, what to call Gyllenhaal‘s lead fell into place naturally. Hall even offered an alternative option for the character’s name, before giving the final thought on why they went with ‘Searcher’:

    It made sense that Jaeger would name his son ‘Searcher.’ It just felt like it was in the same vibe – and obviously ‘Jaeger Jr.’, probably. I could see that too. If not ‘Jaeger Jr.’, then ‘Searcher.’ I just liked what it evoked, I just liked that feeling of not knowing everything and that you’re still seeking, and that’s what this character was doing.

    Don Hall

    Strange World is now in theaters.

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘Strange World’ Director Teases Film’s Easter Eggs

    EXCLUSIVE: ‘Strange World’ Director Teases Film’s Easter Eggs

    Walt Disney Animation Studios has been making movies since 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. With such a long history, and so many projects to pull from, it’s not a surprise that each successive production from Disney is filled with an increasing amount of Easter eggs and hidden references for fans to find. Strange World, the upcoming 61st animated film from Disney, is apparently no different. During an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, directors Qui Nguyen and Don Hall were asked if audiences should expect to see any familiar objects or contraptions snuck into the background of their movie, and according to them, the answer is a resounding “yes“.

    Nguyen was especially excited to answer the question, revealing the film has everything from the classic “Hidden Mickeys” to full-blown cameos from previous Disney characters :

    There’s quite a few hidden Easter eggs throughout the movie. I’m not gonna name the places, because that kind of spoils the fun of finding them, but there’s references and there’s actual, full-on characters from Big Hero 6, Raya and the Last Dragon, Atlantis, there’s definitely Hidden Mickeys. Winnie the Pooh, even. So, it’s out there for you to find and to hunt for, but it’s in there.

    Qui Nguyen

    The selection of films supposedly referenced in Strange World makes sense, considering the creatives behind it. Big Hero 6 is one of Hall‘s great achievements, and Nguyen recently broke out co-writing Raya and the Last Dragon with Adele Lim. Neither was involved with Atlantis: The Lost Empire, but referencing that project makes sense, considering the similarities in content. Strange World revolves around the Clade family, as they embark on an adventure into an unknown world in hopes of discovering something that might save their home. Jake Gyllenhaal, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, and Dennis Quaid star, with Lucy Liu and Alan Tudyk in supporting roles. None of these performers are playing Winnie the Pooh in the movie, but as it turns out, he might still be in there somewhere.

    Strange World hits theaters on November 23rd.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Director Don Hall on Casting ‘Strange World’

    EXCLUSIVE: Director Don Hall on Casting ‘Strange World’

    Strange World, the next entry in Disney’s long history of animated projects, features an absolutely stellar voice cast. Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal headlines a group of performers that also includes Twitter icon Jaboukie Young-White, former Jaws 3-D actor Dennis Quaid, one-time Love & Basketball breakout Gabrielle Union, and Charlie’s Angels standout Lucy Liu. With such an insanely talented cast, one would likely not be alone in asking the simple question – “how did they pull that off?“.

    During a recent interview, Murphy’s Multiverse got the chance to question co-director Don Hall on just that. The veteran filmmaker, known for previous works Big Hero 6 and Winnie the Pooh, began his answer by crediting casting director Amy Roberts, revealing she had these specific casting choices in mind from the very beginning of the creative process:

    We had an amazing casting director named Amy Roberts who, after reading – I think – the first draft of the script…it could have just been the treatment, probably, kind of suggested these actors and we were blown away. Y’know, of course. We’re fans of all their work, we love all of their films and everything.

    Don Hall

    Hall continued to explain how the team locked Gyllenhaal and company in, allowing them a real chance to impact their characters and the film’s final product:

    We just fell in love with that idea, pursued that idea, met with them, tried to give them an insight of what we were trying to do, and then open up a real collaboration. So that it wasn’t just, they’re coming in and reading some lines and leaving. It was about investing in the character and letting them shape their character as well.

    Don Hall

    Strange World hits theaters on November 23rd, and is set to follow the Clade family of adventurers as they traverse an unknown landscape in search of something that may save their home. Hall and co-director Qui Nguyen have promised character relationships are central to the story, so it sounds like the cast will have plenty of room to flex their creative muscle along the way.

  • EXCLUSIVE: Director Don Hall Reveals Word That Defines ‘Strange World’ Design

    EXCLUSIVE: Director Don Hall Reveals Word That Defines ‘Strange World’ Design

    Strange World, the upcoming 61st film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, looks like it will deliver on its pulpy title. Trailers for the film, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role, have promised a grand adventure through an unknown landscape, with plenty of gorgeous visuals to aid in the excitement. Of course, designing a brand-new world is not easy work, and the visual development team likely went through several iterations before landing on the final product. During an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, co-director Don Hall was asked how the creatives decided upon their look for the “Strange World” presented in the film, and his response was far funnier than anticipated:

    It’s a very broad aesthetic, which is just organic and round. There’s just not a lot of hard edges or straight lines. Everything’s very organic and kind of goopy. One term that kept coming up, and it became a term for all of the vis dev, but it started with the Venture. When the Venture was being designed, it was like you took an air ship and just went [mimics squishing]. It kind of made it ‘chonky’, and so that became our word for everything in the strange world. ‘Just make it chonkier’. ‘Can you up the chonky?’. “A little bit more chonky’. It’s like everybody knew what you were talking about.

    Don Hall

    “Chonky” might not be a word in the English dictionary, but it’s certainly one everybody understands. Adorably plump cats come to mind, as well as large babies and, apparently, fictional airships flown by an animated Gabrielle Union. Hopefully, the film’s “chonky” aesthetic lands with audiences when Strange World hits theaters on November 23rd.