Kelly Asbury is a self-professed animation geek. After being captivated by a Disney movie as a child, he followed his passion and even got some advice from Disney on how to get hired at Disney! He’s come a long way from his first job there; now Kelly Asbury is a director of big-budget animated feature films, including “Shrek 2″ and this month’s “Gnomeo & Juliet.”
Here’s his take on getting into the animation business, casting big stars as big voices and why he thought a movie about garden gnomes just might work.
My biggest question and I think what everyone else wants to know, (and I was a film major so I’m embarrassed that I don’t know this), but as a director on an animated feature, what do you do?
Well, you’re involved from the very beginning to the very end, in every creative aspect of the movie. From the writing of the script and the storyboard phase…you cast the voices, you direct the actors, you work with sound engineers, you work with the composer. All the different elements have to have someone who’s going to decide what the creative decision’s going to be and you sort-of shepherd the entire creative project entirely from beginning to end. It’s the same job as the director of a live action film; it’s just very much slower and takes a lot more time and costs a lot more money.
It seems like you’ve been into animation your whole life, and I read a story about you so I was wondering if it was true; that you sent a letter to Disney when you were seventeen asking for advice on how to get a job there?
I did, I was seventeen years old and I wanted to work for Disney from the time I was really young. I saw “Snow White and The Seven Dwarves” when I was six and I remember thinking, how do you make those drawings move? How’d they do that? And I was a cartoon lover and an animation lover; you know a self-professed animation geek, really. So I wrote Disney when I was seventeen and they wrote me back, and they told me what kind of work I needed to learn to do and where I needed to focus my skills…I ended up going to CalArts and being trained to specifically work on animated films in the Disney style, and then I was hired out of school to Disney, shortly thereafter; and I’ve been in the animation business since 1983.
Well since there’s been so much technological advancement since you were trained, what kind of advice would you give young people that want to do the same thing as you? How do they get started?
What I would say, always be open to the change, because a lot of changes have taken place since I got into the business, and some people roll with it and some don’t, and you have to roll with it if you want to stay up with what’s going on. Learn all the specifics of animation, learn everything you can about what you need to know about filmmaking and story, but also keep in mind that technical issues do change, and you have to change with them. From my perspective, it’s still storytelling, because it’s still movie-making. No matter what the technique is, the story and the emotions have to be there or it doesn’t matter.
Considering that, what convinced you that garden gnomes had the heart to tell this story? It’s such a hilarious spin on the age old story, I was wondering who sold you on the idea, or did you love it and sell it to everyone?
I read the first script I was given, and I laughed and there were things I loved about it, and I thought, you know what? This is just silly enough that it just might work. I started researching “Romeo and Juliet,” and I watched “West Side Story,” and that was very interpretative, then I watched Baz Luhrmann’s version with Leonardo DiCaprio, and then I watched Franco Zefferelli’s very literal version of it from the ’60s, and then I started watching other versions of it. You know “Bonnie and Clyde” is very much a Romeo and Juliet story, the “Twilight” series is very much Romeo and Juliet, and I just realized, you know, this has been interpreted all different ways, it’s time for garden gnomes! And there hadn’t been a garden gnome movie made yet, so those little guys need some respect. So I did it.
Well they’re so adorable, it totally works. And the music really made it work, and I was wondering why you chose to use Elton’s John’s classic songs, rather than having him compose all new material which he’s done in the past?
Well I wanted to do both. You know the movie “The Graduate,” the way they used Simon & Garfunkel’s songs, I really enjoy those emotions that cue you in. When you hear a certain song that you know, you get a certain emotion that you feel, and I thought the classic stuff from Elton John and Bernie Taupin really worked well, that very recognizable music. And then when Gnomeo and Juliet meet each other for the first time, that was appropriate that something new be there, because they’re new to each other. So it really was just a matter of folding in those classic songs and the new songs within the fabric of the story and making it all work. The music is almost a character in this movie, and in a way it’s almost our narrator to some degree.
I loved Ashley Jensen (as Nanette), absolutely loved her! Is there any character that you think will steal the movie away from Gnomeo and Juliet for audiences?
That’s hard for me to say because I’ve of course fallen in love with all the characters, but I have a certain soft spot for Featherstone, I love what Jim Cummings did with that voice. But I also love Gnomeo and Juliet and I want people to like them the best. Certainly Nanette is a really funny character and Benny is a hilarious character by Matt Lucas. I love what Jason Statham did with Tybalt, Ozzy Osbourne’s hilarious… I mean you know it’s really hard to pick one I’m so proud of the entire cast. I’m not saying it to be diplomatic, I’m saying it because it’s true.
I also loved the rest of the cast and I know we’re so used to seeing big names in these animated films, but this must be the most star-studded cast we’ve seen so far!
Well what’s great about that for me too is while they are stars, and they’re great voices and they’re great actors, I was able to cast the film as what was appropriate to the character and not really have to worry about the box office name. No one came to me and said ‘OK you have to use so-and-so’ for this part. I was able to cast what was right for the movie, so the movie came first before the voice.
The ending of the movie is not your typical Romeo and Juliet, tragic, bloody end. Do you think the audience will absolutely love the change and accept it; it’s what they expect? Or do you think it’s going to surprise them?
I hope we surprise them and I love that our Gnomeo and Juliet were able to sort-of take their destiny in their own hands and change these prophecies they hear about from Shakespeare himself, but I’ll tell you, it’s a tradition really in animated features. If you read the original “Snow White and The Seven Dwarves” by the Grimm Brothers, or if you read “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, those endings are not quite the same Disney version. In fact they’re quite tragic, almost more tragic than Romeo and Juliet so we knew we couldn’t have poison and daggers and suicide and blood in this story, we chose not to, (laughs) but I really am very happy with the ending that we have, and I hope it surprises people and satisfies them.
Touchstone Pictures’ “Gnomeo & Juliet” in 3D hits theaters today February 11th! You don’t want to miss this amazing animated feature! For more info, check out http://www.gnomeoandjuliet.com
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