Andy Biddle:Any animated film is quite painstaking.
The style that Wes [Anderson] wanted was quite fast and character-based action.
It was quite involved.
I think it was a favourite book of him.
How many versions did it take to get the perfect Mr Fox?
Ian McKinnon:Mr Fox was probably one of the easiest characters to realise.
We suggested Felicie as character designer and she did these beautiful sketches.
It was supposed to have that debonair sophistication that someone like Rex Harrison had.
One of the things was the cider cellar.
you might even see some of the characters where theyve got exposed, twisted wire parts to them.
Which was the most difficult character to develop?
I think the Petey [character] with Jarvis Cocker went through quite a few [changes].
The fur was a challenge in itself.
How did you get it to move, or to boil?
Andy Biddle:Boling fur is not really an animators dream with fabric you try and avoid it.
But Wes wanted the boiling.
He likes the sort of life it gave to it.
We developed this style to just keep the fur moving and experiment with it.
Wes wanted to get away from this and go back to what stop-motion was all about.
He wanted to do it to really engage with that.
It took a while for us to get into that mindset.
You have to trust that the hair team will be able to recreate the actual features.
They did a great job.
It [the fur] lights very beautifully that it adds a new dimension to stop-frame animation.
How different was it working with the puppets in the small scale, to working within the hero scale?
Andy Ghent:Its quite tricky when you get to the really, really small-scale puppets.
For the Whack Bat scene I think we made 70 characters just to shoot that one shot.
Andy Biddle:It was me that broke them, I think!
Didnt the room temperature affect the sets didnt the cider levels go up and down?
Ian McKinnon:Wasnt there an exploding bottle of cider, as well?
Andy Biddle:That was a bit scary!
Fortunately, I dont think any bottles exploded after that.
How many puppets did you use and how many people worked on them?
Andy Ghent:You had quite a big crew working months and months before we even started.
The total number of people must be around 100 people working on puppets alone.
I think the end tally was 530 odd puppets for the whole filming in six [modelling] scales.
It was quite a big undertaking of characters.
Ian McKinnon:Luckily, the animals dont interact a huge amount with the humans.
Mr Fox the hero scale was about the same size as Mr Bean.
There were no rules, really.
How difficult is it these days to preserve this kind of puppetry art form?
Is it difficult to get younger animators interested in it again?
They [stop-frame animations] have found their feet again.
Disney has done its first drawn-animated feature for 10-15 years.
I think there has been a renaissance in stop-frame animation over the last few years.
There are three stop-frame animation features in production at the moment.
That would have been a dream 15 years ago.
It wouldnt have happened.
Do you think there is a gap in Europe for this kind of animation?
In the Czech Republic they use marionettes and people are saying, wow we havent seen that before.
Do you think Europe brings something to the table that Hollywood doesnt have that much of?
It is different to a new audience.
Andy Biddle:It seems there is always a place for these traditional ways of film-making and performance.
It still seems to be a valuable way of making films.
To have new people coming in is really exciting as you dont know where its going to go.
Its good from our point of view its exciting!
You cant go out and buy characters.
You cant go out and buy costumes, or sets, or props.
Everything has to be specially made for the film.
Its a great playground for directors to get involved in stop-frame.
How do you concentrate when you are modelling and designing?
Andy Ghent:Coffee.
Ian McKinnon:Its a big team effort.
Then we hand the puppets over to the animators.
Its like a two-year marathon, really.
They are really long hours, especially when it comes to the animation side.
The concentration levels keep the performance up.
Andy Biddle:If you dont love it, then dont do it.
Youve got to enjoy it.
Youve got to get into the mindset… We returned to it, as well, and carried on with some more changes.
It was quite a mammoth shot for one person to sit in a dark box and keep working to.
Andy Biddle:I didnt really think about it.
Andy Biddle:Yeah, Im telling the world now!
But the guys fixed it, the people in puppet maintenance.
Andy Ghent:Youve got to think of them as prototypes theyve never, ever been made before.
They are very practical things.
you’re able to see inside this head [shows puppet].
There are really mechanical thing inside beautiful, really, on the inside and the outside.
They are very, very strong things.
Andy Biddle:It is called puppet hospital in the studio, as well.
Thats the name for it.
Talking about the movement, Wes didnt want any blinking in the film how was that?
Andy Ghent:The blinking thing was more of a challenge for you [to Biddle].
Youd try and get away with putting a blink in and Wes would cut it out.
That must have been difficult when you are trying to recreate a puppet based on the actor voicing them?
Andy Ghent:Ive learnt a lot about hair gel!
How easy is it to source fur because obviously you have to be ethical?
Ian McKinnon:There are a lot of bald goats running around the East End of London!
We tried using lots of different products.
Synthetic, fake fur doesnt have the same quality, so we ended up using goat hair.
It dyes really nicely and looks good when lit.
It has strength to it.
It has its own natural oils.
It worked out really well.
We did venture to source some toys, as well, that we shaved bits of hair off.
What was the most difficult scene to do?
Obviously, what we were saying earlier about the small puppets that they would break a lot.
It was quite a test of stamina keeping it up with it all.
Who or what inspired you to take this job?
Andy Ghent:Im with one of mine Ian!
But Ray Harryhausen is amazing.
I knew from that moment, seeing that one stop-frame animated film that thats something I wanted to do.
How do you feel about London becoming the world hub for stop-motion animation?
Ian McKinnon:Bristol, London and Manchester have got this 30-year tradition of doing stop-frame animations.
Its like going to a sort of college.
You know, you get your first job helping out on a production and you work your way up.
What happens to the puppets after shooting the movie?
Andy Biddle:We release them into the wild and they live the good life!
Do you have one of your own?
Andy Ghent:Sadly, they are quite expensive, so they tend to be accounted for.
A lot of them have gone to the Fox museum.
Obviously Wes will have a selection of ones for himself.
Ian McKinnon:Also the Dahl museum, quite a lot of them are being set up there.
I think they are going to be part of a permanent collection there.
Its good that they get to be viewed.
After production they tend to go to some film and animation festivals.
Andy Ghent:We almost had to wrestle with George Clooneys security guards to get his fox back.
He was so keen to take it with him at the last press conference.
Bill Murray was quite successful.
He got his all the way back to his room before found out!
How was that for you having to adapt to his style, rather than the other way around?
Andy Ghent:Its very revealing.
But stylistically, that was something Wes was looking for, to break those things down.
But it gives it a certain look and a certain charm.
Andy Biddle:We went through a lot of testing with the micros.
He would laugh out loud to it, and you are like, really?
Is that really ok?
I can do it again, if you want?
but, no, he loved it.
It even got down to the way we recorded the voices.
Normally the voices are recorded separately in separate booths and added together later.
They went out [the cast and crew] and recorded as a group.
There is a spontaneity to that performance that the animator then has to capture in some way.
It gives it a bit more life than you normally get from a voice recording.
Fantastic Mr Fox is out on DVD and Blu-ray now.
