For our readers unfamiliar with your work, can you please introduce yourself.
I’m Jim Capobianco and have worked in animation for something like 35 years and my latest film is The Inventor, which I wrote and directed. I got my start at Walt Disney Studios working in their story department, and my first work was with The Lion King–I stayed there for five years. Afterwards, I moved to the Bay Area to work at PIXAR (for 19) and have credits on many films, from Bugs Life to Coco.
One movie I’m particularly proud of was Ratatouille, where I wrote the first draft of it with Jan Pinkava, the director, and we were honoured with an Academy nomination. I left PIXAR in 2016, and then it’s proven pretty good. I worked on Mary Poppins Returns and directed the 2D animation segments, and then followed that up with a project called Philharmonia Fantastique–which was kind of a Fantasia piece, and directed the animation for that. And that plays with a live symphony orchestra.
During that time, The Inventor was a project I’d been tinkering with for about a decade. After PIXAR, I wanted to see if I could get this thing made, because I needed to. I now have the freedom. It really took about 12½ years in total. It took a decade to find money and the right partners, and then about 2½ years to make the film itself–which was actually quick for a film like this.
I had so many drafts. But once we met Foliascope Studios, where we made the film, that really got things going. Ilan Urroz really embraced the idea and guided us through in co-production. He knew how to micromanage so that everything could neatly fall into place.
Who are you inspired by?)
The film is inspired by old 30’s Hollywood films as well as George Pal’s animation, the films of Czech animators Jiri Trnka and Karl Zeman as well as the 1960 / 70’s Rankin and Bass holiday specials and Michael Bonds Paddington Bear. All of which have these very minimal sets, not a lot of camera moves and designs based on more simple shapes. Also UPA animation’s modernist and stylised aesthetic also inspired me. A more modern inspiration is the work of Los Angles based Screen Novelties, their Buddy the Elf Christmas Musical especially. They too pull from the above references and have a sensibility of 2D animation movement in stop-motion. There is also inspiration from Peanuts comics, Calvin and Hobbes and the Belgian cartoonists Morris and Albert Uderzo.
I find a lot of stop-motion today, a lot of animation in general are designed with too much in the frame. My eyes don’t know where to look. I really wanted to pair that down to just what was necessary to convey the story and give you a sense of the world. This had the added benefit of supporting our budget.
Did you know early on about how you’d want to present this story?
The short film I made prior to this, Leonardo, was all hand-drawn–that’s my background. But at the time, nobody wanted to make a feature film that way; everything was CG. Stop-motion was sort of coming into vogue because of The Fantastic Mr. Fox. And Studio Laika was really getting noticed. Even Aardman Animation (Wallace and Gromit) was pumping them out–stuff was happening. And I thought using stop-motion would be neat. I believe a film about Leonardo da Vinci should be made with hand-crafted animation, not a computer.
Because of the limitations–you have to work with the puppets you build, and you have to deal with gravity–that’s the real world. And the flights of fancy could be animated to represent all his ideas and dreams. Many people have complimented the film on how those transitions are seamless. [What you see] is not arbitrarily moving to different forms.
When did the decision to bring Tomm Moore in happen?
Well, Tom and I have been friends since Leonardo. His work, Secret of Kells came out the same year, and our work actually travelled around together through festival circuits. We connected over the Internet, and since then we’ve been really good friends. I was a story consultant for him and vice versa. He did some artwork and provided moral support more than anything else, and he also helped introduce us to Foliascope and Ilan.
What was one of the greatest challenges during production?
It was staying on budget. We had a tight one for what we were trying to pull off. We were limited to what kind of camera movement was possible, which was okay for me. I wanted the film to have an older feel. When you look at older movies, the video camera is often static.
Here’s a story: we got a unit that often failed when we took a shot. In the final sequence, where we pull out from Leonardo, yelling to the heavens, the recorder would jam. Everything would shut down, and it was the last day of production. When it finally moved, there’s a little jitter; it’s unnoticeable because he’s shouting, but it worked. There are a lot of moments that we lucked out on to get done.
How important are the musical bits to the narrative?
Originally, I didn’t know I would have songs in it. Alex Mandel, who I knew when making the short, Your Friend the Rat, developed the music. He’s really versatile, and we had a lot of ideas early on that I could seed as I was developing the story reels and the animatics.
One thing I always love in stop-motion is where objects just pop on. So I thought, well, what if Leonardo orchestrated it? I said that’s a moment for a musical montage; So I asked Alex what if this was a song? And of course he said, “Yeah, let’s write a tune.” This takes place when The Maestro arrives and builds his home in Colosseo. Instead of him lugging in stuff and moving in, the house assembled around him.
There are nine compositions in total. I wouldn’t say this movie is a musical. It’s not structured like one. What I’ve made is comparable to Pinocchio (original)–it’s a movie that has songs in it.
In terms of casting, was it hard? Some people may want to compare. As I recall, there’s Aidan Turner from the 2021 television series, but for me, I always think of John Rhys-Davies as the hologram version from Star Trek: Voyager. He brought the character to life. And Stephen Fry’s performance measured up to that version.
It’s interesting you bring up John because he has that really great baritone, right? That big booming voice; I think that’s the go-to you think of with Da Vinci or a wise sage with the beard, like Ian McKellen or Brian Blessed too. But here, I really wanted a lighter voice and more of a non-comedic tone that is not high-pitched.
I chose Stephen because of an interview I saw on YouTube. He jumped from so many different subjects like religion, politics, science and art, with ease–he’s a polymath! We sent the script to his agent and he agreed. At this point in time, I didn’t know if we’d put music in our movie. Stephen doesn’t like to sing, but he did it, and still jokes about it to me to this day.
And how did Daisy Ridley get involved, to play Marguerite?
I was introduced to her through Star Wars, and I could hear her voice in that role. I just liked the way her voice showed strength and vulnerability. When we contacted her agent, they often didn’t even want to listen. As an independent producer, we’re not on their radar. But when the pandemic happened, they had to get work for their people. They called us back and said, “Hey, didn’t you have a job offer?” And because they represented Matt Berry (who played Pope Leo X), we got him too!
When we learned she could sing, everything came together! Alex’s daughter, Sequoia, who also provided a lot of tracks in our film, showed us this YouTube video of Daisy singing with Barbra Streisand and when she went on camera to say, “This girl can sing!” we were really stoked. We asked if she would do that for our film, and I believe she was honoured. She doesn’t get to harmonise enough, and I’m sure she wants to perform more.
One thing I didn’t notice until my rewatch is that the dialogue has a pleasant rhythm to it. You don’t limit the film’s lyrical elements to just moments, but keep it flowing throughout. Was that intentional?
Yes. That’s the way I write, and I like to put little rhythms in things. I appreciate you picking that up, and I feel that every time you and your readers watch this film, there’s going to be something different. You’ll find more things [i.e. Easter Eggs –Ed].
In terms of releases, people can either stream it online or purchase the DVD. However, I’m surprised there isn’t a Blu-ray.
I didn’t even know it was out until I saw an Instagram post Blue Fox made recently. I like to see a Blu-ray release too. My dream is to have a Criterion release. If you want to write to them and request it, that would be great. And I love the effort they put into the beautiful DVD sets and packaging design. I hope it can be like the one I have released of the short film version (Amazon link) that you can buy. Since this includes a lot of interactive content, you can spend some time looking around.
Were there challenges to make the puppets faithful to your character designs from your animated short?
Most people who see the feature probably have never seen the short so we could have redesigned the character. But, of course, I just liked the charm and simplicity of his design. For the supporting characters and incidentals I was given something like 3 different body shapes I could use as a core for these character designs which I took as a challenge to see what I could create from them.
And I see owners can also keep a diary like Leonardo too, and not worry about finding a writing implement. This package includes a pencil. In closing, do you have anything you like to say to our readers?
The one thing I was going for in The Inventor is that it will appeal to all audiences. It’s not just for children. It’s there to experience it on one level, and when you revisit it later, like you said before, you’ll catch things you hadn’t seen before.
And there’s also the message: we have the power in our lives to help change things and make a change, to be curious, and to pass on those ideas to future generations from what we’ve learned and pass on those ideas to the next. That’s what I was aiming for. I hope that comes across to people, and they can take that away with them.
The Inventor Movie Trailer
