Interview: Aardman Animation Founder Peter Lord Directs ‘The Pirates! Band of Misfits’

Submitted by BrianTT on April 23, 2012 - 10:26am

CHICAGO – Peter Lord may be the most important and influential animation producer of the last fifty years that you probably haven’t heard of. In the ’70s, he co-founded a company with Steven Broxton that would go on to change the form of stop-motion animation — Aardman Animation. From legendary music videos to commercials to a series of short films about a cheese-loving inventor and his loyal dog, Aardman deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Studio Ghibli and even Disney when it comes to the history of animation. “Wallace & Gromit,” “Chicken Run,” “Flushed Away,” and SO much more — Aardman Animation is a factory of brilliant entertainment.

The company’s latest endeavor is the clever, fun “The Pirates! Band of Misfits,” a rollicking adventure featuring voice work by Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, and many more. It’s another fun Aardman flick and Lord takes director credit on this one for the first time since “Chicken Run.” He recently spent some time in Chicago, bringing a few of his awesome stop-motion models with him to show off, and we got a few minutes with the animation legend to talk about themes across Aardman, his favorite project, and even what happened with “Chicken Run 2.”

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: What was an interesting question or response from last night’s Q & A? Or a memorable one from an earlier one?

PETER LORD: There’s always something. Somebody asked if I thought that the captain’s journey was the same as mine in making stop-frame movies. What they were saying was that the captain was sort of delusional and backwards-looking at the same time. Swimming against the stream. It was interesting. It had never occurred to me at all but it was interesting.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: I was there last night at the special screening where they played some Aardman shorts beforehand and as I was taking in “The Wrong Trousers” (the Oscar-winning “Wallace & Gromit” short), I thought to myself, “Is this my favorite Aardman?” So then I have to turn that on you. I know it’s hard to pick a project but if they’re coming to you and asking what goes in the animation time capsule to represent the company what gets your vote?

LORD: [Thinks.] Wow. I chose “The Wrong Trousers” for yesterday for that reason. There’s something about it, some happy accident…it wasn’t Nick [Park]’s first album, it was his second, but everything came together so well. It’s a beautiful, elegant shape. It’s very simple storytelling. I do like it very much. Personally, it would be “Morph.” People in the States don’t know Morph at all but he was a popular character on kid’s TV for some time [in the U.K.] and he was my first character. I do like him for that reason.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Photo credit: Sony

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: I also noticed the tonal similarities between “Wallace & Gromit” and this. Mr. Bobo [a character from “The Pirates!”] is not too distinct [from Gromit] in terms of being a silent commentator on what’s happening. And he’s not alone. How is that tonal consistency maintained across Aardman projects or does it just happen?

LORD: You’re right, you’re right. But we don’t consider it. In fact, only as a negative.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: I didn’t mean that.

LORD: No, no, no. But I do sometimes like with Mr. Bobo. Because he’s mute and because of what he is — a chimpanzee — and he hasn’t got a hat, he’s got a brow rather like the classic Gromit brow. And he’s mute but has to comment occasionally so, inevitably, he ends up rolling his eyes like Gromit. We were aware. [Laughs.] “We can’t do this very often. It will look like we’re milking the Gromit thing.”

The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Photo credit: Sony

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: Wait, wait. I don’t know if it’s milking. Don’t ALL great musicians, authors, filmmakers reincorporate themes?

LORD: Thank you, thank you. You’re right. I feel better already. We were aware. It’s funny because that’s Bobo, who’s mute, but the Captain’s “Gromit” is “The Scarf,” the second-in-command, who’s not mute. It is a classic of comedy to have the master and servant whereby the servant is smarter than the master. It is a classic.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: That’s true. Let’s do a little bit of history. How does the book on which this is based come to you? You must get submissions ALL the time.

LORD: We do. We do. We’re always looking for new projects and they’re very hard to find. One way to look is to get children’s books in. In fact, we employ various people to look for books. We had a meeting and there were 20 books on the table — graphic novels, teen books, kid picture books — and this “Pirates” book was there. In fact, we had been considering it for a TV series. It was there on the table.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: It was a hit book in the U.K.?

LORD: Cult. Never huge. Cult hit. And the TV guys said “It’s very funny, but we can’t do it.” I picked it up and glanced at it and thought the first six pages were really striking.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: What grabbed you?

LORD: The comedy. In six pages, you’re not going to get character or story.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: The world.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Photo credit: Sony

LORD: Yes, the world. Obviously, it is a pirate story. Almost in line one, I thought, “I’ve never read anything quite like this before.” It’s rather hard to talk about tone. It’s sophisticated but it also has a cheerful innocence about it. When the Captain first appears, it says something like, “If you were to compare the Captain to a tree…and comparing the Captain to a tree was one of the crew’s favorite things.” I’ve never heard this world before. It was funny and full of little, witty twists and turns. I took it away and zipped through it and thought it was great. I wanted to take that tone and put it on the screen — more than the story. Now that I think about it, people ask how it changed — in the book, there’s virtually no piracy. They’re pirates but they’re taken out of context almost all the way through. I made efforts to put them in context in the first act.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: At what point do you start considering voice talent?

LORD: All of your attention is focused on getting a green light. To do that, you present a page — a list of mug shots for who MIGHT be the Pirate Captain.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: Was Hugh on there?

LORD: Hugh was on there. Well, they were ALL on there.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: Everybody of the right age group.

LORD: Yeah, yeah. Everyone. There were others. Salma Hayek was on there early on. Martin Freeman very early on. I think David Tennant, Hugh as well. With Hugh, we wanted a star. It’s helpful to sell the movie. But, also, it was a “starring role.” It’s such a lead, a scene-stealing, show-hogging lead. I wanted a comic British actor and that wasn’t such a big pool. There are great comic actors from TV.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: But you needed a leading man too. As great as Freeman is, he wouldn’t fit in that boisterous leading man type.

LORD: No, no.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: Or Simon Pegg. And Tennant, who I love.

LORD: Yeah, he was great. People like that, they give you so much.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits
Photo credit: Sony

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: The family film market is SO dominated by sequels. There’s a third “Madagascar” and a fourth “Ice Age” this summer. Why haven’t we seen “Chicken Run 2” or another “Wallace” movie or “Flushed Away 2”? Why doesn’t Aardman make sequels? Do you purposefully avoid it? I’m sure it’s come up.

LORD: It is interesting, isn’t it? Why don’t we do it? Are we crazy? “Chicken Run” was heavily discussed a long time ago. But not for a long time. Rather tragically, there was a moment where we were all gearing up and were working on the story and we had a fire and all the assets were lost. That was dispiriting. All I can tell you is that I’m already thinking of a sequel for this. We’re working on the treatment. It’s a commercial decision whether they want to or not.

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.COM: What else is Aardman working on?

LORD: Nick’s got a project but not “Wallace & Gromit.” He swings between loving “Wallace” and desire for change. It’s understandable. “I must do something different…I must get back to Wallace & Gromit.” He’s currently in “something different” mode but, sadly, it’s a bit of a way off.

“The Pirates! Band of Misfits” opens in theatres on Friday, April 27, 2012. Rent or just buy every Aardman Animation project you can to prepare.