This is the translation of that review
Daniel alerted us too. It's pretty interesting! Oh, by the way,
Daniel, how did you change your username? I didn't know we were able to do that...!
I translated this using Altavista's Babelfish Translator. If you have trouble understanding the interview, from what I've learned:
The name of the French-dubbed Cinderella III is actually called The Magic Spell Of Cinderella. The first section talks about how Margot Pipkin started out, working with digital animation on Return of the Jedi in the Star Wars saga, some work on the early Simpsons episodes when it was still on The Tracey Ullman Show, and then work with Gábor Csupó, who, according to Wikipedia, is "a Hungarian-born animator and co-founder of the animation studio Klasky Csupo, which has produced shows like Rugrats and Duckman." Razmokets seems to be the French translation of Rugrats... She later worked on Disney's animated direct-to-video version of The Three Musketeers with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as the stars. The next section goes into specifics about Cinderella III, where we learn they really looked closely at, and perhaps "recopied" Cinderella's transformation into a ballgown from the original to do the other clothing transformations in the sequel. I think palate means palace. The interviewer thinks the Prince's expanded character is like Errol Flyn. That's
this guy. Franco DiFortunato is Lady Tremaine's evil fairy godfather in Twice Charmed, and that cruise ship show was similar to Cinderella III by pure coincidence, as confirmed by other sources. The artists either traced or looked very closely at Maleficent's magic for that of Lady Tremaine when she uses the wand. Then, at the end, there is some information about Tinker Bell's CGI movie, and the character of the little girl we saw in the trailer will apparently not be the main heroine.
Don't forget to check out
the original site of the interview for the pictures that go with it. The title of the interview is in bold. All that is said by the interviewer is in bold:
THE SORTILEGE OF CINDERELLA IN DVD: Discussion with producing Margot Pipkin
Everyone knows it from now on celebrates history of love which made of Cinderella and her prince one of the most romantic couples of the history of the cinema. But what many is unaware of still, it is that a terrible danger failed to break their happiness brutally, and that one year hardly after their weddings. It is this history full with black magic, spirit of revenge, but also - and fortunately - laughter and of suspense which this new film of the Disney studios reports quite simply entitled the Magic spell of Cinderella. That it acts of the decorations, the graphic precision or the fluidity of animation, all in this film rests on a true work of goldsmith. The Disney studios wanted to make this new adventure an event with no one another similar, an occasion to greet with the respect which it owes one of the florets of their cinematographic inheritance. If the characters somewhat evolved/moved in their mentality in order to stick more to the air time, they do not remain about it less the heroes that generations of children appreciated and venerated, with their forces and their weaknesses, their faith in the love and the friendship.
And to speak to us about creation about this very beautiful film, we accomodate in our columns producing Magic spell of Cinderella, Margot Pipkin.
ANY SAGA A A BEGINNING...
Your career started in 1983 with the Return of Jedi. How one of Wars Star passes: Episode VI with the Magic spell of Cinderella?
(laughter) As surprising as that appears, animation and science fiction have much in common. In both cases, it is truly a question of creating a world. To create worlds in which people would like to live. It is really the definition of the traditional animation of Disney. Many artists who unload in this field forget that. But it is really the gasoline of animation: you to make believe and give you desire for living in this world, of côtoyer Cinderella and her Prince. It is a marvellous world where to live! And it is the same in science fiction.
How did you arrive in the world of animation?
In fact, I never passed through a traditional fillière like Cal Arts or other. With the base, I have a training of illustrator. But I always liked the cinema. And as in my native Texas, there was no class of animation, I took courses of the evening. We did many experiments on the matter, and it was very amusing. At this point in time I started to animate the space shuttle for the documentary ones for NASA. Obviously, today, all that is done in computer animation, but at that time, it was not the case. I thus animated the shuttle taking off, taking objects with his hinged jib, landing, etc. It was not very exciting, but I learned much from this experiment. Then, I arrived to California, where I became cameraman. I learned the rudiments from the "scene planning". It is then that I worked with ILM on the Return of Jedi, because thanks to my course, I was familiarized with the technical aspect, even technological of animation. After that, I joined the rows of Klasky Csupo Inc, to work on Simpsons.
Of what did consist your work on the Return of Jedi?
I was stimulating special effects. We at the time did not have a computer. It was really the age of stone of the special effects. I thus drew many laser beams, and in particular that of Star of Death. The characters were rotoscopés and we animated all the sabrolasers. The actors clashed with small sticks. We were able then to create the beam of these sabres. Today, of course, all is made with the computer. But at the time, all was done with the hand. I also made the shade of the barge of Jabba the Hutt, bus, of course, it never had barge in the desert there!
Then, you produced the animation of Simpson.
At the time, it was not even a series, but some spots very short during Tracey Ullman Show. For these court-measurings, we tried to stick as much as possible to the original design of the data base created by Matt Groening. But that did not function, and for the first season of the series, we rounded the characters and gave them a form a little more traditional, easier to animate. I liked this period much. I worked with a marvellous group of artists, and Matt is somebody with whom it is very pleasant to collaborate. All, we were surprised by the popularity of this family dysfonctionnelle-except Matt, which was always sure. It was very amusing; there was not nothing like it with television at that time. In fact, I constituted all the team of animation for the first season. In Klasky Csupo, Inc, we started with a team of five in a confined space. We then had to move for more important buildings, with a more important team. We did not have anything and it was necessary, for Gabor and me, to buy of only one blow of the hundreds of tables of animation. Very happened at an incredible speed, but it was unforgettable. We were young and enthusiastic, it was fantastic. I left Simpsons when I fell pregnant. If it had not been for my son, I would have remained. But we had interminable working days and I needed to preserve me. I thus took a one year leave and half to occupy myself of my son - certainly the best year of my life!
You made your beginnings with Gabor Csupo and the chances of the life make that you leave the Magic spell Cinderella at the time even where it leaves the Secrecy Terabithia, that it realized, him also, for Disney!
Isn't this incredible? You know, Gabor and me, it is a little as if we had always known each other. It has talent enormously and did a really splendid work on its film!
Which was your role on Razmokets?
Klasky Csupo, Inc worked almost simultaneously on Simpson and Razmokets. I thus took part in their creation, even if I were not the producing one. It was a series very attaching. My husband, Ben Herdon, and me, we wrote the treatment which made that Nickelodeon agreed to produce the series, then Ben and Paul Germain (creative of the Court of Récré for Disney) wrote the script of the pilot. Razmokets is really the baby of Paul; it created its characters according to his own son.
How did you arrive to Disney?
I left Klasky Csupo, Inc to go to Dreamworks because I wished to work from now on on longer formats. A half an hour episode does not allow a real development on the emotional level, and I thus learned how over there to manage feature films. Then, I produced a series called God, the Devil and Bob before gaining the Disney studios to produce Mickey - the Three Musketeers and the Magic spell of Cinderella. I also worked a few times on Tinkerbell, which enabled me to improve as regards computer animation.
Which are your memories of the Three Musketeers?
It was complicated bus Mickey, Donald and Dingo had been put never in scene like that in a full-length film. We worked much with continuity and with the emotional development of this film because these characters were known only through court-measurings. The result is a true success, and I think that that is due much to the approach of the realizer Donovan Cook, who took the party to treat them like children. In fact, Mickey, Donald and Dingo release a true tenderness and a true naivety which really make it possible to the spectator émotionnellement to be implied in this history. I never adhered much to this representation which to a certain time of Mickey a such schoolmaster gave Disney, a little pedant, explaining what is well or not. I prefer of much the character that it was in the Forties, childish and player. It is in this Mickey-là that we returned, and I think that that really helped film. Our heroes do not include/understand all that arrives to them, which places them in problematic situations, but always diverting. The music revêt, it also, a great importance in film. The lyric writer of the songs, Chris Otsuki, was also one of our artists of storyboard. We used musics of opera because it thought that it would be very amusing. Thus it created the new words of Habanera de Carmen at the same time as the storyboard of this scene implying Clarabelle and Dingo, and it was really given some to c?ur joy. Donovan adored, and it then asked him to write the words of all the other songs of film. From there, Steve Bartek carried out arrangements of large traditional airs, gave to Chris which wrote its texts while being inspired some.
NEITHER Completely The SAME One, NOR Completely Another...
The Magic spell of Cinderella seems to take again the same principle: to join again with characters of traditional Disney, all in their bringing a new dimension. Did you make historical research on the matter?
We made research, indeed, in the files of Disney. It was such a pleasure of finding these hidden treasures, all these?uvres of arts, these preparatory drafts, in particular of Mary Blair. It is it which was an artistic director on Cendrillon; it is it which created the design of film, and we wanted to really preserve this same visual appearance. Bob Kline made some menus changes, but it is really the style of Mary Blair which is found in our film. It had an incredible visual vocabulary. We thus took as a starting point considerable original decorations, and we also found and studied the original drawings of animation, we photocopied them and sent in Australia, at the organizers of film. Take the scenes in which Cendrillon and Anastasia change magic dress of way. It is exactly same animation as that of original film, recopied for the needs for our film.
The changes which you evoke notice in particular around Cendrillon itself.
Absolutely. The Cinderella of 1950 is a heroin created in the Forties and one could not join again exactly with this type of character at our time. What there was of good in it, it is that it incarnait positive values which could generate positive things around it. It is what we kept. We ensured ourselves that Cendrillon and her Prince always incarnent these positive values no matter what it arrives to them. It was important for us to preserve this traditional aspect. For the remainder, the Cinderella of 1950 was relatively passive. Today, the Prince comes to save it, but afterwards, it is it which comes to save the Prince! It is a modern heroin: it is able to save itself. And it is what occurs at the end: it escapes from pumpkin with her two friends mouse to join the palate.
Another inovation is due to the fact that it is Cendrillon itself which is addressed to the public at the beginning of the film, and which looks at it.
Indeed, we passed the third dimension! It is something which came to us rather naturally. We sought an effective film opening. That and the song of Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary enabled us to plant the decoration and to plunge the public in our history in a mimum of time. Both are young composer-songwriters, and with Perfectly Perfect, they succeeded in exposing the essence of the situation: that of Cinderella and the Prince, that of the Beautiful-Mother, the desire of love of Anastasia and the fact that Anatasia manages to recover the magic wand of the Good Fairy Godmother. All that in a song!
One feels a great care in general esthetics of film, and in particular compared to Cendrillon.
The artistic direction of film is the?uvre of Bob Kline, which did a splendid work, while animation was produced by the studios of Disney animation of Australia. The latter closed since. It is very sad because some of these artists precisely reached the full possession of their talent. I think in particular of the supervisor of Cinderella. You know, to animate a pretty girl or a pretty boy, it is very difficult. With animals, one can make much "squash and stretch", to take much freedom, and they remain despite everything a fawn or a mouse or another thing. But a blow of awkward pencil on a character like Cinderella, and it passes from a pretty girl to something of odd. It is a exercise which requires control enormously, which makes me say that the teams which worked on it did a remarkable work. They knew to very animate a Cinderella fémine and adorable.
Precisely, can you speak to us about the work of animation on Cendrillon?
It is necessary for that to pay homage to its supervisor, Ian Harrowell. It was given completely in this work. It is a true artist who included/understood Cendrillon perfectly. Its movements were to be almost those of a ballet dancer, without returning it distance or guindée. With this intention, Andrew Collins, the Australian realizer of film, made come from the actors in the studios, of the actors who had wearing of dancers. Nothing was rotoscopé, but these films were used as references for the movements. The postures of the hands, the placement of the feet, a such ballet dancer, all that was included in the animation of Cinderella. There was also a dance played by the actors, to appear the Prince and Anastasia. For that, they had rented costumes, in particular one with shoulder pads for the Prince. And it is by chance that the actress who played Anastasia in tore off one while falling. Andy then immediately invited to say to us that it was absolutely necessary to add that in the storyboard, and it remained in film! I was pleased to meet these large artists in Australia, and I was dazzled by their work!
How happened discuss them in connection with the psychological evolution from the principal characters, of their modernization?
There were many discussions on this subject, not only on Cendrillon, but also on the Prince. It should be said that it hardly makes more than of the figuration in original film, with the voice of an actor of the radio of the time. We wanted to tell a history of love opposed, with a romantic hero. It was very delicate to find good balance between the self-confidence, the insurance, the lapse of memory of oneself and humour. And of course, Cendrillon was also the object of all our care and all our attention. It was necessary to keep this softness that she has in original film, without making of her a perpetual victim. Our discussions turned around the fact that, no matter what it can arrive to him, it remains faithful to itself and will never do something of evil. In the same way, the Prince, even when it discovers the truth on Anastasia, remains always polished and does not wound anybody. Cinderella and her Prince are always people well!
There is a side Errol Flynn in this prince!
(laughter) more exactly, we took as a starting point Douglas Fairbanks, in particular for the scene where it unloads on the boat which takes along Cendrillon, slipping along the grand' veil by slowing down its fall using a knife! Our Prince is a romantic hero, and we turned to the romantic heroes of the Forties, Erol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks. We wanted this personality and this athletic side to make it tempting.
From the point of view of the history, the scenario recalls the booklet of Twice Charmed, a musical produced for Disney Cruise Line.
It is true, more especially as they are the same type-setters who created the songs of film and the musical, Michael Weiner and Alan Zachary. The two projects in fact were developed simultaneously. To be exact, it should be said that Frank Nissen and me arrived on the Magic spell of Cinderella in the course of project. It is another team which occupied itself of the c?ur intrigue, this inversion of time - Frank and me simply gave him more body, more substance -, and the producer of the development of the time knew the musical of Disney Cruise Line. But I do not know any more about the relationship between the two reciprocal projects, and their influences.
That explains that the godfather of the Beautiful-Mother is not found, Franco DiFortunato, in the Magic spell of Cinderella.
Indeed, because at the time where our scenario built itself, the booklet of the musical was not finalized yet. The two projects were built in parallel, without intention to nourish one of the other.
The Magic spell of Cinderella takes again not only elements of the first opus, but also of Cinderella 2, in particular through the presence of Prudence, the régisseuse one of the palate, and the appearance, in the credits of end, of the small baker with which Anastasia finally will fall in love.
Our associated producer brought the history (the storyreel) at his place and showed it to his/her five year old daughter at the time. It was large a fan of Cinderella 2 and it asked its dad: "that did it arrive to the baker? "We thus added the table of the credits of end in which it appears at the sides of Anastasia, while thinking of all the small girls who could put the same question!
I adored the sequence of the escape from pumpkin! How did its design occur?
This sequence existed already in the first version of the scenario written per daN Berendsen, like a covering joint of?il to original pumpkin. I would like to greet here the remarkable work of Bob Kline for this sequence, with this thorny forest which they cross at any speed, with all these special effects, in particular those that one sees when the pumpkin grows bigger gradually. _ it there be also this scene when Cinderella manage to leave of pumpkin, and one see the wind agitate its hair and its dress, make of it a genuine heroin modern.
DISNEY CLASSICS
The magic of Tremaine Lady pointed out to me that of Maléfique in Sleeping Beauty.
Absolutely. We deliberately took as a starting point that. With this intention, we are also turned over towards this film and we recopied the effects of magic created at the time by Eyvind Earle.
You are felt really invested, just like your team, by the history of Disney.
All the members of our team adore traditional Disney, and we tried to as make our film "traditional" as possible. For us, there is not a greater model and not of greater ambition. And if we could bring us closer a way or of another, that will represent one of the tops of our careers.
Precisely, what does that represent for you to have prolonged kind the history of such traditional?
I am extremely honoured with it. Cinderella is such an icon for the small girls. As a feminist, I found formidable to be able to take again this traditional image of the woman and being able to give him a small modern side, more current. Without cutting down on the values: if you remain faithful to your positive values, then the things cannot completely badly turn. But this time, to arrive at its ends, Cendrillon is not passive: she takes her destiny in hand.
That very strongly feels as of the second song, More Than A Dream.
Indeed. Cinderella does not remain at it to be waited only one saves it. She leaves and one sees the castle of the Prince in the content. With through this plan, Bob Kline wanted to really mark that Cendrillon takes the things in hands. From there, the realizer of the Australian team, Andrew Collins suggested that the camera turns around Cendrillon, to add to the intensity of this scene.
How did the production occur from the Magic spell of Cinderella?
That occurred between California and Australia. In America, it was outside the Disney studios, on the side of Glendale, in the buildings of Disney Toon Studios. We smelled ourselves there very well. Moreover, Frank Nissen and me went to Australia, to work in particular with the director of the Australian unit Andy Collins, and the producing one of this unit, Danielle Legovich. You know, sometimes, it is difficult to thus work, with several teams, but there was such a unity of view between us all that this time, it was very easy. Each one knew what that required to create traditional Disney. We did not want to be Shrek, but of authentic Disney. And this team, which also did a formidable work on Bambi II, gave best itself. It is all the more regrettable as they had to close these Australian studios, at the time they were on their best level...
Do you have projects?
My contract with Disney being finished, I left the studios and I am with research new projects for the moment, while appreciating this return to a state of calm!
Which memories will you keep this experiment?
On the Magic spell of Cinderella, we had a so welded team, so much sympathetic nerve. With each stage, each artist completely devoted himself to the task with the smile, and I think particularly of the realizer, Frank Nissen. It is so talented, and has such a direction of the team work. Not only, it encouraged people to give their opinion on each aspect of film, but it used it for the largest good of film. We were in an atmosphere in which each one was a high aware of the value that we want to reach in this film and tried to be with the height. I remember a gag that the authors had imagined, and one of the artists of storyboard declared: "Cinderella would not do that". It was like us all, eager as well as possible to return justice to the Cinderella whom we all love. They were ideal working conditions, a perfect alchemy between all the actors of this project.
PIXIE HOLLOW
You mentioned Tinkerbell. Which was your role on this very awaited film?
The producing one of this film is Jeanine Roussel. During the production, it had twins. It thus had to take a leave maternity, and it is me which replaced it for this period.
Where is the production?
We returned to the starting point, with the writing of a completely different scenario, and I can say to you that it is much better than the first. I all the more regret now not being able to be part that there is such an enthralling history! The film will be much more disneyen that envisaged in the beginning, a traditional truth as I like them - nothing to see with Shrek or other!
The heroin which appears in the trailer card and the artistic direction will be the same ones in spite of these changes?
Yes. Only, the girl that you see is not really a heroin. She makes just an appearance. It is really Clochette, heroin.
Which are the relationship between film and the book, Poussière of Fairies and Magic Egg, published lately in France?
The film will not be an adaptation of the book. Néanmois, one will find the same characters, and the same type of universe.
Difficult to have patience until 2008 discovering this film full with magic!
I include/understand you, but that will be worth the sorrow. It is a much better film which prepares, and one can thank John Lasseter for it.
