The 'Aladdin' thing - that's not work; that's just fun. Three days in the recording studio going mad, then the animators do all the work. Not a bad way to cash a large check, my friend.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It's like, the more you commit, the happier the animators are; if you're at all iffy and concerned, then it doesn't free them up to do as much fun stuff, so you have to just go for it and, again, trust the people around you and not be seemingly guarded and numb. Throw caution to the wind a bit.
To direct a genuinely animated film, you're really having meetings and discussing what you want with animators who then go off and produce one shot at a time that you look at and comment on.
My livelihood depends on the art of animators.
You have to work to be relevant. If you don't, then people will forget, and the studios won't want you because they won't remember the last thing you did that made money.
When you do an animated movie - at least the ones that I've been a part of - you never see any of the other actors. It's all done separately with headphones in a voice booth.
All studio movies are the middle of the Bell curve. The only way to do something is to do it yourself. And the only way to do that is to not take any money from anyone or take as little money as possible from anyone and that's it.
I just want to make sure that I give the animators everything they need, so they have plenty of choices to match their animation.
My respect for animators and animation directors has gone way, way up and it is just not something you can phone in.
Look what Disney's done to their animation department. There wasn't an animator in charge of their animation unit!
Every time I do a movie, especially an animated movie, I just seem to scream and shout and hyperventilate for money.