LEGENDARY ARTIST-ANIMATOR BRUCE TIMM DISCUSSES "WONDER WOMAN," THE
NEXT DC UNIVERSE ANIMATED ORIGINAL MOVIE
Ground-breaking animation legend Bruce Timm heads an impressive cast
and crew as producer of "Wonder Woman," the next entry in the popular
series of DC Universe animated original PG-13 movies due from Warner
Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation on March 3, 2009.
Warner Home Video will distribute the all-new film, which will also be
available OnDemand and Pay-Per-View as well as available for download
day and date, March 3, 2009.
Fans in the greater Gotham area will have a chance to see the premiere
of "Wonder Woman" at New York ComicCon on Friday, February 6 in the
IGN Theatre at The Javits Center. Timm will lead the post-premiere
panel and also be available for autographs during a midday signing
session on Saturday, February 7.
Timm is the creative force behind many of Warner Bros. Animation's
greatest modern-day successes, driving DC Comics' most recognized
super heroes to new heights of popularity as the focal point of
television series and made-for-DVD films. Timm's current mission has
been as producer of the DC Universe animated original movies, and the
first three – "Superman Doomsday," "Justice League: The New Frontier"
and "Batman Gotham Knight" – have met with both critical raves and
consumer success.
The three-time Emmy Award winner stole a few moments from his work on
the next DC Universe film to discuss the evolution of the made-for-DVD
movies, Lauren Montgomery's rise to stardom, his 20-year working
collaboration with Andrea Romano, and Wonder Woman's boots.
QUESTION: What progression have you seen through the first four films
in the DC Universe animated original movies series?
BRUCE TIMM: The thing I like most about this whole ongoing project is
that each of these movies really does have a different, unique feel.
It would have been very, very easy and frankly a lot simpler and cost
effective to stay in that TV series design style and world view. But
each of these movies really does have a unique feel – in the design,
the score, the cast, even the title sequences. We've been able to
expand creatively and that makes these productions fun.
QUESTION: You're known for revolutionizing the animated look of DC
characters in several landmark TV series. What was the thought process
behind the character design in this film?
BRUCE TIMM: We didn't want to do anything that even remotely looked
like what we have done with Wonder Woman on Justice League. She
presents a challenge because she needs to be drop-dead gorgeous, but
also very, very strong both physically and emotionally. She's a
powerful presence and we had to find that balance between athleticism
and glamour.
Lauren (Montgomery) really took the lead on the design of Wonder Woman
herself, and I think she came up with a very unique approach. It's not
like anything you've seen from the comics, though we did look at a lot
of the comics for inspiration. We liked the George Perez version and
Adam Hughes' version, and all points in between. But there are a lot
of the things that Adam and George brought to the character that were
so specific and detail-oriented that they wouldn't necessarily
translate to animation. We wanted to keep the number of lines down to
a minimum – to create a relatively simple and straight-forward design.
It was quite a challenge, but I think the design Lauren came up with
is exactly what it needs to be.
QUESTION: Were there any specific design elements you wanted to include?
BRUCE TIMM: A character like Wonder Woman is so iconic and yet, over
the course of her history, there have been lots of subtle changes. We
couldn't stray too far from the comic book look, but you do have a
certain amount of leeway in terms of how you interpret those elements
for animation. It sounds really insignificant, but one of the things
that we specifically liked about Adam Hughes' most recent take on
Wonder Woman was that he gave her kind of baggy boots – instead of
those super tight go-go boot-type things. They kind of flare out at
the bottom and they're flats, not heels. That made her more athletic –
it kind of planted her and gave her a solidity that we really liked.
It's a minor change, but it had an effect on her design.
QUESTION: What sets Wonder Woman apart from the first three DCU films
and prior incarnations of the character?
BRUCE TIMM: One of the things that really intrigued us the most about
the whole Wonder Woman mythology is the actual mythology of it. Her
character has distinct roots in classic Greek mythology, so we really
played that up. The movie actually starts with a fairly long, epic
battle that takes place in ancient times. It's swords and sorcery,
die-hard Amazon warriors versus monsters and barbarians. We worked
hard to establish the character design, the costume details, the
weaponry design and the background styling and I think, within the
first 30 seconds of watching the movie, you're going to think, "Wow,
this doesn't look anything like we've done before." It's noticeably a
quantum leap away from the first three movies.
Beyond the mythology, Wonder Woman gets to play with several
dichotomies. It's Amazon culture versus man's world; ancient
mythological times versus the contemporary world; and, of course, all
the male and female issues. All of those conflict themes run
throughout the entire movie – in the script and visually – and I think
it all comes together and gels unlike anything we've ever done.
QUESTION: How did Lauren Montgomery earn the opportunity to sit in the
director's chair?
BRUCE TIMM: Lauren is one of the fastest rising artists I've ever
worked with. When we first started working with her on Justice
League, she really hit the ground running. She was still relatively
inexperienced – she'd only had a couple of jobs in animation at that
point – and even today I seem to forget that she's actually still
quite young. But on Justice League, we could see she had a lot of
potential and her stuff was really good. Every time she would turn in
a new storyboard, we'd be like, "Wow, who did this? This is really
good." And every month, she just kept topping herself. She was
really paying attention and obviously on this really fast-tracked
learning curve – she was teaching herself, absorbing everything around
her. She was this sponge, sucking up all of our perspectives and
developing her own unique sensibilities. Within a really short period
of time, she became our best storyboard artist. Those are the people
we recruit to become directors.
QUESTION: What does Lauren Montgomery bring specifically to Wonder Woman?
BRUCE TIMM: Just from a purely practical standpoint, having her as a
director means that I don't have to worry about things. I know she's
looking at the storyboards – and I know she's going to catch all the
little things and fix them. If a storyboard isn't up to speed with the
caliber of the rest of the film, she's going to stay late and re-draw
it herself – and plus it and to make it a thousand times better.
She's smart and very detail-oriented, and very well-rounded in terms
of her areas of expertise. That was important on this film. Some
directors are really, really good at directing action, but they don't
really care so much about the drama, other directors are the exact
opposite. Lauren is excellent at both. She knows how to push the
envelope on an action scene, and she's probably the best director of
acting that I've ever work with. She's the complete package.
QUESTION: Can you give an example of Lauren Montgomery's expertise in
directing animation "acting"?
BRUCE TIMM: We rely on our storyboard artists to really inject acting
into the storyboard drawings as a key for the overseas animators.
We're blessed with really, really excellent vocal performances on
these films, but you need a very good storyboard artist to act out the
character's motions and emotions in simple drawings.
There's a short sequence in Superman Doomsday where, after Superman
has died, Lois Lane goes to meet Martha Kent for the first time. It's
a very simple, subtle scene – just two women meeting and commiserating
with each other over the loss of Superman. It's shot very simply with
two-shots and close-ups. The thing that makes this scene so powerful
is the very clear emotion on the character's faces, and that was the
sequence Lauren storyboarded. When you look at it on the screen, it's
as though we got really good actresses giving performances charged
with emotion in their specific facial expressions and body language.
Ultimately, it was Lauren's storyboard and direction that really
brought that scene to life.
QUESTION: Can you define the greatness that is Andrea Romano.
BRUCE TIMM: What can I say about Andrea that I haven't said a zillion
times before? She's brilliant. It's actually tough for me to even
compare because I've been blessed with Andrea on every single project
that I've done as a producer since 1990.
She knows me so well that half the time I don't even have to give
notes during a recording because she's already anticipated what I'm
going to say. And if do have to say something, I barely get half the
sentence out before she finishes the sentence for me.
The main aspect of Andrea's job is that she needs to get performances
out of the actors that the producers and directors want. It has to fit
our vision of the scene and the film. As dialogue is written on the
page, you could have 30 different line readings of any individual line
– it really depends on what else is happening in the scene or the
intent of that specific line of dialogue. But Andrea has an obvious
natural instinct for the meaning of the line. Most importantly, she
knows how to translate that information into actor-ese to get that
performance. She can put our thoughts into words so that the actors
can understand where she's coming from and what's needed for the
scene. Simply put, she's great.
QUESTION: Andrea Romano's resume speaks for itself. Does she have a
virtue we don't normally hear about?
BRUCE TIMM: I'll tell you this – one of the things I love about Andrea
is that she's fast. She just cuts right to the chase, never goes down
blind alleys, and she physically talks fast. It's funny because when
I first started working with her, I didn't think I was going to be
able to keep up. She's just so full of energy, it's like she must've
been main lining Red Bull before every session. But that's great for
me, because I'm very ADD myself. She doesn't equivocate, she's just
right to the point – attack, attack, attack, get it done. For me,
that's perfect.
Please visit the film's official website at www.wonderwomanmovie.com