Bonnie Arnold has had some career.
Can you fill in some of the blanks there?
Well, it wasnt really a writer as such.
I studied journalism, but I actually started in publicity.
I did unit publicity writing, so thats how I started really.
Really it was in film, film production stuff.
But I was writing press releases, bios, that kind of thing.
But it served me in good stead!
I dont consider myself a great writer, but I can recognise great writing!
Isnt that effectively part of a producers job?
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Youre right, right.
To recognise the brilliance in others, and then to recognise when others arent being so brilliant?
Thats the hard part.
From our side of the fence, it looked a breeze!
But thats what were good at!
Making it look like a piece of cake!
That cant have been an easy day, and I assume that was on your plate?
Can you talk a little about that time, and going through it?
I think two things.
It feels like it definitely is history.
I dont want to put across that we got rid of him.
I tell you what the challenge was with the story though.
We had this amazing book from Cressida Cowell.
We loved the book, loved the characters, thats why I came on board the project.
I just loved the story.
Sometimes a book isnt always exactly the film.
Should it ever be though?
Well, theres theHarry Potters.
I think people were pleased with those because it felt likeHarry Potterwas true to the books.
Thats what the discovery process was.
And they were more true to the book.
We loved the characters still, but we needed a little bit of scope beyond the book.
Thats the struggle of the first movie.
Yeah, pretty quickly.
I think sometimes when you have a limited time, you kind of get down to it.
I think also based on… there were some financial concerns.
If we had to completely reinvent the wheel, we would have had to change release date.
With those constraints, I think Chris and Dean did a great job of smartly working within those parameters.
And tell a good story, which was the most important thing.
I wasnt, in truth, expecting too much from How To Train Your Dragon.
The sea change of How To Train Your Dragon for me was it didnt talk to kids as kids.
It didnt dumb down to them.
Kids are so much more sophisticated.
Even my daughter, whos 20, even now you’ve got the option to tell with everything.
Kids attention span has changed, theyre on this and then on that.
You have to be able to move at their pace.
My husband and I are big film fans, we have a daughter, and weve shared films.
We were like we have a daughter, were going to let her watch all our favourite movies!.
And I realised some of these movies that we liked, the pacing was so different.
Sometimes it was hard for her to adjust.
I agree with you.
Dean was a part of Mulan too.
They were involved in really classic movies.
There are two animated movies youve been involved with in the past that feel monumental looking back.
The obvious one is the first Toy Story, and number two was Tarzan.
I think Tarzan never gets the credit for some fairly pronounced technological advances that are buried in that film.
But we also have California North.
We have two units!
Thank god for video conferencing!
Very specific notes too, right down to a small head movement here.
Good notes, that they could understand, and with our new tools, re-render these things.
By dailies in the afternoon, the note was done.
How did you keep hold of it all when you didnt have such sophisticated tools?
We did have some form of early video conferencing.
We had this unit in Paris, specifically Glen Keane, the guru of all animators.
We wanted him to do the character of Tarzan, and he wanted to do it living in Paris.
From the Paris studios, with that team.
It was an amazing team of people.
One of the biggest problems with that one was the time of day.
We were leaving and exhausted, and Paris was arriving at work, and vice versa.
Someone was always half asleep, someone was more awake!
Chris Buck was one of the co-directors of Tarzan.
Im very flattered, but I have to say they are very talented people!
So going back to how you approached coming into producing in the first place.
You said before that you’ve got the option to spot brilliant writing.
But how does that transfer to directors?
First of all, I love movies.
Ive loved movies since I was a little kid.
I lived in Atlanta, Georgia.
Los Angeles, even New York, was way far away.
I dont consider myself an artist at all.
I can recognise good movies.
I think that has translated.
And what I actually enjoy is that I love working with artists.
I love creative people.
I think Ive taken the good things that they did, and learned from them.
That doesnt just work with the director, but with the art director…
I can help guide them, and suggest how to handle a situation.
And I feel that I am the protector of the movie.
To protect the integrity of it.
Because in animation, youre creating every element of every frame.
So many of the artists youre working with every day are trying to create every little element.
I feel like I need to step back a little bit.
They may go in once a day, I go in once a week.
And Dean and I will talk about that.
I feel like my job is also looking out for what the studio is looking for.
The movie were making, theyve investing quite a bit of money into.
Its interesting times for DreamWorks at the moment too.
But its not quite been that way.
Of late in particular, lots of films are coming out with very pronounced, different styles.
But I have to say thats what makes us different.
I feel like yes, there are some movies that feel DreamWorks.Shrek, Madagascar, comedies.
But then I feel like there isnt a real studio style, otherwise we wouldnt haveDragon.
I mean I thinkHow To Train Your Dragonand what were doing now is starting something.
Then we hadRise Of The Guardians.
We have other movies where our directors have different sensibilities.
Some from animation, some from live action, some from theatre.
Its fair to say that theyve not done, commercially, what the studio would hope they would.
This one arrives at a point where DreamWorks films arent the absolute sure-fire 100% hits they once were.
Also, its the sequel to the studios best film.
[Laughs]No pressure!
Your role as a producer, as youve said is twofold.
Number one, this is your film to protect.
How do you marry those sides up, especially when making two Dragon sequels back to back?
The thing is, Id be not telling the truth if I said we didnt feel the pressure.
I mean from the fans!
you’re free to say that people dont go to theatres as much as they used to.
For Dean and I, its making a movie that we feel good about.
We know that theres an expectation.
Believe me, were completely aware of it.
Theres expectation on the studio, theres expectation by the fans.
But theres expectation from us too.
We love the material.
We love the characters.
I cant predict how its going to be received, but Im feeling good and very proud of it.
And we ran out of time!
[Laughs]You never finish it, you just have a release date!
Can we finish by going back to your work on Dances With Wolves.
Your job, though, was more outward facing than inwards facing.
How did you sit in the midst of that that was your first huge film as producer?
Well, I had worked on huge films, but I didnt have the responsibilities of a producer.
Also, we had very little money.
So elements were definitely different.
This is what I want to accomplish.
You have to put on noise cancelling headphones which didnt exist then!
and do the best job you’re free to do.
It was like a family.
And I think people were shocked in a good way, that we pulled it off.
People still ask me, did Kevin really direct that movie by himself?
Bonnie Arnold, thank you very much.
How To Train Your Dragon 2arrives in UK cinemas on Thursday.
