Every year come Awards Season The Hollywood Reporter holds roundtable discussions with the contenders in a number of key categories. These include, directors, actors and screenwriters- and of course those behind the year's top animated features. The Oscar nominations haven't been announced yet, but THR gathered representatives from the films currently being seen as the the front-runners. These were:
Tomm Moore, director of Song Of the Sea,
Don Hall, director of Big Hero 6,
Jorge Gutierrez, director of the Book Of Life,
Travis Knight producer and animator on The Boxtrolls and LAIKA CEO,
Dan Lin producer on The Lego Movie
Bonnie Arnold, producer on How To Train Your Dragon 2.
It's a fascinating watch, where the directors and producers offer some real insight into the unique challenges of producing animated film, be it CG, Stop-motion or hand-drawn. There's particularly interesting revelations of the real-life inspiration for the stories from Moore and Guiterrez. There's also more general animation topics covered, such as the huge success of Frozen and the growing reliance on sequels. Travis Knight was particularly vocal on the latter, declaring that "sequels are killing our industry" and stating that LAIKA will never make a sequel. Watch the full 40 minute video below, or read the interview on the magazine's website.
