If you’re a monstrous Disney fan like I am, there are times where you go off into a daydream thinking how great it would be if you were able to take part in some way, shape or form on the latest and greatest animated feature from the House of Mouse. But who would think that one day they would end up directing one of those adorable animated features? Not Don Hall and Stephen Anderson, that’s for sure.
The two directors lead us all back into the adorable world within the Hundred Acre Woods where Winnie the Pooh and his friends get into all sorts of cute little adventures. They talk about how great it is to work in 2D, splitting up the directing duties between each other and why everyone loves Winnie the Pooh so much after all this time.
ShockYa: Would you ever have thought you’d direct a Winnie the Pooh movie one day?
Stephen Anderson: No. I would have told you that you were crazy, if you told me that a few years ago. I think the idea of Winnie the Pooh coming back into the building was something we wouldn’t have anticipated. But, once (executive producer) John [Lasseter] sat down with us and said, “Hey, here’s an idea I’d like you guys to consider,” suddenly it was a really exciting proposition because these characters are so beloved, they’re so well-defined, and they’re just fun to work with. They’re fun to draw, they’re fun to write for, and they’re fun to work with the animators to bring them to life. It became a real joy.
ShockYa: Since there are two of you, how do you divide the labor on a project like this?
Stephen Anderson: In a weird way, we didn’t. I know a lot of directing teams do that and say, “You take these sequences, and I’ll take those sequences. You deal with animation and layout, and I’ll deal with this.” We worked together from the very beginning. We’ve both been here, more or less, the same amount of time, so we’ve worked together on so many projects that we just have a good working relationship. So, when we started, we didn’t feel like we needed to divide it up. In fact, I think it was better for us to be in the room together so we had that back-and-forth, as opposed to doing it individually, and then coming back together and having to have that step and process. You’re adding another step that you don’t really need. If we can just be in the room together, in the moment, we can come to our consensus then, and everybody knows what direction to go in. It worked really great for us just to be together, the whole way.
ShockYa: What was it like to get to work with 2D animation for this?
Don Hall: It was a blast. We basically inherited the Princess and the Frog crew. They had just come off of that. I had worked with them a little bit ‘cause I was head of story on that. Not in the same capacity, obviously, but we all worked together on that film. We saw what they could do on that film, and they’re the masters of animation. It was like a dream team. Having all these wonderful animators felt like whoever coached the Dream Team all those years ago, with all those great basketball players, and having them so excited to put their stamp on these character. They were so into it. It was a joy to work with them.
Stephen Anderson: Because these characters were born in the pages of a children’s book, their roots are in drawing, in two dimensions. And then, Disney brought them to the screen in hand-drawn animation, back in the ‘60s. It’s the perfect thing to get to be continuing the hand-drawn animation legacy with today because you want them to live in that kind of simple, loosely drawn, two-dimensional world. It’s perfect for these characters. It’s really the way that we want to see them, and we believe the rest of the world wants to see them as well.
ShockYa: What is it about Pooh that makes him a strong character that’s spanned through generations?
Stephen Anderson: We figured out early on as we were breaking it down that each one of them represents a different facet of human existence. You have ego with Owl, and fear with Piglet, and you have optimism with Pooh, and Pessimism with Eeyore, and you have control with Rabbit, at any given point during the day you can relate to these characters. Today I feel like Eeyore, and when I go home tonight I’ll feel like Tigger. There’s a universality that makes them appeal to everybody. Each one represents something about being human, and that’s why they’ve lasted.
Don Hall: And human nature doesn’t change, so they have never needed to be updated.