Interview: Chris Butler on creative freedom, animation's future, and "Missing Link"
Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 8:00AM by Nathaniel R
Chris Butler (Paranorman, Missing Link)
When I met the talented Chris Butler earlier this year for the release of his second film Missing Link (2019), I was buzzing while he was crashing. I was thrilled that he’d just proved his Oscar nominated horror-tinged comedy ParaNorman (2012) was no fluke with his sophomore effort, a hilarious adventure comedy which wore its Victorian literature and adventure film influences all over its fussy colorful sleeves. He was suffering from a cold and ready for a much needed vacation after wrapping his second feature and hitting the publicity grind immediately thereafter.
As writer and director, he plays two very different roles on each film, one a solitary pleasure, but in the other surrounded by hundreds of people daily. He jokingly feared that he’d become misanthropic. “I need some space! ‘Chrisanthropic’ -- that’s what they call me!”
I flashed back to that interview recently given that year end awards and “best of” lists are upon us. If there’s any justice, Missing Link is being rediscovered right now on FYC screeners and Butler will be surrounded by hundreds of people again on red carpets. Here’s hoping that well-earned vacation was rejuvenating!
[The following interview has been condensed for clarity]
NATHANIEL: Audiences rarely think of animated films in terms of directors but studios… but your films originate with you.
CHRIS: Our process is probably different from the biggest studios. You know, I originally went to Laika to work for six months and that was 13 years ago! So yeah, clearly there was an opportunity there that was worth pursuing. What it was was absolute creative freedom...
And by that I mean there are no tiers of executives; It’s Travis. It’s his studio, his sensibility. And luckily he and I see eye-to-eye, taste-wise, on a lot of things. I've had the ability to give him a script, say, ‘What do you think? And he says, ‘Yeah, make it,’ and that's really it! Laika is director driven. I think we approach it in much more the way of live-action movie where you have a script and the director's take on that.
It does feel closer to live action. I think that’s one of the reasons I love stop motion so much and you’re the only studio doing it all the time, barring Aardman and they don’t make as many features. When you're writing, how much of the visuals are you already seeing in your head? You’ve been a storyboard artist in the past on great films like Coraline and Corpse Bride.
It's part of my process. When I'm writing, I see it. I'll do little thumbnails and I'll sketch characters and sometimes I'll do a drawing of a character and that will inform the script. There is obviously something larger than life about animation and you should write that way too. If you've got an action sequence in animation, you have really no excuse not to go bolder and more surreal because you can create everything.
Animated movies are usually very reliant on visual gags but this one has so much dialogue humor in Missing Link. The first huge laugh at my screening was a Hugh Jackman line reading during the pre-title sequence with the Lochness monster. Sir Lionel is taking notes so nonchalantly... “carnivore”. Such a great moment. Little character and dialogue beats like that… do these things come early on? Animation is so time intensive so one assumes you have to lock things down very early.
You're always making adjustments. I think you make an animated movie twice. You storyboard it all first and you cut all that together with dialogue and sound and [a temp score]. Just to make sure it's working! You know, if someone was filming a live action movie the director could have a conversation, and say, ‘actually move the camera here’. And it's not like that for us. It takes days. You cannot make off-the-cuff decisions.
Hugh Jackman recording Sir LionelBut with the actors…
You get some of that in the recording. Certainly when I'm recording the actors, I will be amending the script. Quite often I'll be rewriting lines in the booth because maybe Zach will say something funnier than I wrote, which happens all the time. Then it might have a knock-on effect.
But that's before the animation.
Yes. Always. We have to fake spontaneity -- that's the truth of it. And it is difficult when you're doing something with jokes in it. I think it's funny when I write it, but then when I've heard it 400 times, it's not funny anymore. You know? You gotta go with your gut.
Missing Link is very reminiscent of classic adventure movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark. And you even have a cold open like a James Bond movie.
My favorite movie of all time is Raiders. I think that was the spark of the initial idea -- I wanted stop-motion to have its own action hero, kind of like Indiana Jones. So really the initial idea was Indiana Jones meets Sherlock Holmes. I'm a Victorian nut, and I love those old classic tales, the Jules Verne, the Conan Doyle stuff. They are of a time and that's what I was trying to do. Those movies are told with, you know, the blatant sexism and this machismo -- I’m gently poking fun of that. Sir Lionel is a very flawed character. Hopefully likable, but very flawed. That genre is just so tantalizing for me. I love it and I think we can have fun in it, you know?
How involved were you in the casting?
Very. At the start of an animated movie, you basically get a blank piece of paper and it's like, ‘well, who could do this role?’ You usually write down a wishlist, and you [and the designer] will cut together snippets of dialogue from that actor, from different movies, your play different actors against each other to see how they sound.
So they're auditioning without even knowing it?
Basically, yeah.
In truth I'm a bit allergic to celebrity casting in animated movies but the voices were really great. Emma Thompson!
[Enthusiastically] Like who gets to have Emma Thompson as a Yeti? I do! Hopefully we're not casting just because of celebrity. A lot of thought goes into it -- early drawings that I did of Sir Lionel were based on Hugh long before he ever agreed to do it!
One thing I love about Laika in general is that your movies are a little bit more adult than your rivals. With ParaNorman you got a little press because you had a gay character in it, which was huge for an American animated movie. Are you hoping animation move forward? This isn’t true overseas but in America, animated movies are always for kids.
Butler and co-director Sam Fell at the premiere of ParaNorman in 2012.
CHRIS BUTLER: I want the medium to move forward. I love animation. I'm a fan and I think there's room for all of it so I definitely don't want to bash other studios because I love their stuff. But what I think is important is that we try and do different things. And part of that is having a different voice. [At Laika] we're trying not to mimic or ape the other studios. And I think because we're slightly more fringe in that sense, we can tell stories that may be a little more irreverent, perhaps a little more subversive, certainly with stuff to say.
My dream is for animation to be as diverse as possible, to have adult animation, to have stuff that is for kids, for preschool. I want musicals. I want westerns. I want romantic comedies. You know, I want the whole thing and I want them all to feel and look different.
Yes! And that’s why I look forward to Laika movies so much. How many more movies do you think you have left in you?
The disappointing thing about animation is it takes five years to do one. I always said I wanted to make my first movie before I was 40 and I did. But then it's like, really? Now I'm 45? great. Watch out for me when I'm 50, you know? [Laughing]
Reader Comments (6)
Keep the beard. Will read the interview now ;)
Great interview! I've been meaning to watch this, and you just convinced me to move it up in my queue and watch over Thanksgiving. :)
I like how you have a screen cap with the movie's worst line of dialogue. Other then facilitating an empty "dual sided spectacle chase", why does she persist? I mean, why not "Oh, they escaped? Well, if they managed to escape, they're good enough to leave. They don't have to know this was really just a test." That changes what we thought we saw without making her look like a moron? And is a VERY "Oh, right, Emma Thompson" moment?
Volvagia -- we will never see eye to eye taste wise. That line is one of the funniest llines of the whole year... not just in this movie!
Well when my own blog gets going you can visit me when you see eye to eye with my content.
Good interview and yes I agree with Thurston on the beard