Wild Robot is directed by “Playful” director Pedro Pascal, who voices Lilo and Stitch

A lot of elements had to be aligned to make it Wild robot A success, not least of which involves maneuvering the busy schedule of vocal star Pedro Pascal.

Director Chris Sanders’ DreamWorks Animation film topped the box office on its opening weekend and held on to second place this weekend. Based on the book by Peter Brown, the animated film focuses on Rose (Lupita Nyong’o), a robot who is delivered to an uninhabited island and must find ways to interact with animals that don’t want her there. The voice cast also includes Kate Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, and Catherine O’Hara.

During a conversation with Hollywood Reporter Which took place at the Annecy Animation Festival shortly after the film was shown there, Sanders and producer Jeff Herman discussed assembling major stars, the possibilities for a sequel, and tackling themes that include the creep of technology amidst an animated landscape dealing with artificial intelligence. Additionally, Sanders is excited to return as the voice of alien Stitch in the upcoming Disney film Lilo and Stitch Live action movie.

I’m impressed that you caught Pedro Pascal Wild robotBecause he might be the busiest person in Hollywood.

Chris Sanders It absolutely is. We have to give full credit to our casting director, Christy Soper, who suggested Pedro and many of these actors. We feel so lucky that he signed up to do this, and oh my gosh, he’s amazing. He was very innovative and funny and had a very playful nature. As we developed his character, that was really the path we took. In a recent recording session, he said that this character was more like him than many of the characters he plays, and he really enjoyed it.

Jeff Herman Going into it, I thought we were looking for more of what he was actually doing on screen – with The Mandalorian, The last of us, game of thrones -And we kept bringing him back to his character. Once he realized this, he became very excited and hugged him. We got it before it all blew up The last of usFrom that point on, his schedule became very busy. We are very lucky to have Lupita, Pedro and Kate, who are strong actors with very distinctive voices. They’ve all done voiceover work in their careers, but not to the extent we ask them to do now.

Hollywood is facing the increasing impact of technology on the industry. Did you have this theme in mind with this story?

sanders The gist of the story written by Peter is that high technology conflicts with nature because Rose is where she shouldn’t be. Rose has her own programming, and she soon learns that the animals on the island have their own programming, and that their programming is relentless. It is a life or death situation they live with every day. But all the characters have to transcend that programming to get to the end of this story, which is a really great message. It is so inspiring and aspirational, that even if we feel stuck in our path, we can have the power to learn, grow and change.

Herman In this growth, the story also suggests the idea of ​​community in which, in each of us beyond our programming, we can find commonality in each other and form something greater. In essence, he uses technology and nature together as an example for all of us.

sanders One of the most important parts of bringing the story to screen and making it resonate as fully as possible is that the environments are all hand-drawn. When you look at the sky and the backgrounds, they are matte paintings made by humans with brushes in their hands. We always talk about backgrounds in [Hayao] Miyazaki’s films and the backgrounds in them Bambi.

Do you have thoughts on where AI in animation is headed?

sanders All I can say is that it was the human element in this film that made the difference. There is, and will never be, an alternative to that.

Since there are so many books, is there a chance for more movies as well?

Herman Sure, we hope. We were very aware that this was an ongoing story that Peter was telling, and in trying to stay true to the essence and basic structure of what he had established in the first book, we were trying to create something that could serve as a stand-in. On our own in the event that we are unable to move forward, but certainly leave the possibility open to pursue it, as we would very much like to do.

Chris, what was it like to revisit Stitch after voicing the character Lilo and Stitch?

sanders I keep doing his voice for different things. Every now and then, I go to one of the booths and do some recording, and it’s always nice to hear how he’s still there, and people still know who he is. They really like him as a character, which is great. How do you describe it?

Is there anything you can tease about voicing Stitch in next year’s live-action movie?

sanders I was able to see some things, and I can’t tell you what I saw. But they let me see some sneak peeks of what they wrote too, which is really cool.

What are your hopes for the future of animation?

Herman Hopefully what this movie can do is pretty similar Spider verse and [Teenage Mutant Ninja] Turtles And other things – it is pushing the visual boundaries and reopening the floodgates, so to speak, in terms of the limitless possibilities of animation. But also, we hope that the subject matter, issues and emotions that this film addresses will remind everyone that these films are not just for young children. It’s for everyone, and anyone at any age can enjoy an animated movie. That’s definitely something we plan to try to do with this.