Aaron Blabey, The Bad Guys (MOVIE OUT TODAY!)

[0:01]Hi, this is Vivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast.

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[0:40]Hi, so this is a special sneak peek five-minute episode about the movie, The Bad Guys.

[0:47]I got a screening of it early, which is really exciting, and was offered the chance to interview Aaron Blavy,

[0:55]who is the best-selling author of The Bad Guy series, and also the director, Pierre Perryfeld.

[1:02]So your kids undoubtedly will want to see The Bad Guys, and they absolutely should.

[1:07]And I'm going to read you quickly a little bit about the author and also the director.

[1:12]And then you can listen to our quick chat, and hopefully this will arm you with some fun stuff when you're watching the movie.

[1:19]Okay, so Aaron Blavy, who, by the way, is also the executive producer,

[1:23]who is a number one New York Times best-selling author with around 30 million books in print.

[1:29]He is the creator of three globally popular book series, The Bad Guys,

[1:34]Pig of the Pug, and Thelma The Unicorn.

[1:36]His series, The Bad Guys, has spent well over 100 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

[1:41]I also got a chance to interview at the same time, Pierre Perryfeld, the director,

[1:45]who is making his featured director-or-old debut with the release of The Bad Guys.

[1:50]Most recently served as head of character animation on the short film to Gerard and his director of the short film, Bill B.

[1:56]He was DreamWorks in 2007.

[1:58]He worked as an animator on Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, Shrek Forever After,

[2:03]and then stepped up into the lead character animation and supervising animator on the film Rise of the Guardians.

[2:09]In addition, he directed the short film The Building in 2008.

[2:13]He received an annual award for best character animation and a television production short-form content for his work on Kung Fu Panda, Secrets of the Furious 5.

[2:22]He is a native of Leon France, and a graduate of the prestigious Goblin, Lecho D'Limage in Paris,

[2:28]and as a member of the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Scientists.

[2:33]So I hope you enjoy my chat with the two of them.

[2:37]Play it for your kids, go watch the movie DreamWorks Animation presents The Bad Guys.

[2:43]Well, it's so nice to meet both of you. I'm Zibi Owens. Nice to meet you.

[2:47]And thank you for providing us with amazing Saturday afternoon entertainment.

[2:52]My daughter was home with COVID. We were stuck in the house.

[2:55]So we were all masked with her, like, you know, really far away watching this movie, and it got me through.

[3:00]So thank you.

[3:01]Oh, great. I hope she's getting better.

[3:03]She's totally fine.

[3:04]She had no symptoms.

[3:05]In fact, she has the most questions for you.

[3:07]And she really wants to know about Diane Foxington.

[3:10]Why was she different in the movie than from the books?

[3:14]Different in the movie from the books.

[3:16]I think.

[3:17]Good, Aaron.

[3:18]Well, she's, I think in spirit, she's the same.

[3:22]She has a different name.

[3:24]And I actually can't give you a decent answer as to why she has a different name.

[3:27]It just happened.

[3:28]But yeah, her character is very true to the books as far as I'm concerned, because she is a character who is the opposite of the back.

[3:39]Guys in many ways at the beginning, who they everybody's judging them because they seem scary.

[3:43]In the books, you get a sense that she's kind of perfect.

[3:46]But in fact, she has a really complicated backstory that makes her very similar to Wolf in many ways, which is why they bond.

[3:54]So that's been preserved really beautifully.

[3:56]But yeah, no, she has a different name.

[3:58]I can't explain.

[4:00]Okay.

[4:01]I think that'll do the trick.

[4:03]She's also, I mean, in the book, it's true that in the book, in the movie, she's a former.

[4:07]She's the greatest villain.

[4:09]You know, the greatest bad guys, bad guy, sorry, bad girl.

[4:13]And reformed in the book.

[4:15]She's like, she's crazy that league of superheroes.

[4:18]That's also a little bit of a difference.

[4:20]You know, that, that was kind of, but the idea was just for her to make her like sensationally cool and bad.

[4:27]Yeah.

[4:28]And that, that's something you wanted to keep.

[4:30]I love that.

[4:31]Excellent.

[4:32]Okay.

[4:33]Another question from my kids.

[4:34]I hope you don't mind.

[4:35]How do you direct animated characters?

[4:38]Do you just like yell at them and hope that they hear you?

[4:40]Yes, exactly.

[4:41]That's the way, no, of course not.

[4:43]We can't really do that because it goes like to create the performances that you see on screen.

[4:49]You go through two different steps.

[4:50]The first one is recording the actor.

[4:52]And so all the actors, you know, so we do that in just sound stage.

[4:56]They have a script.

[4:57]They read the script.

[4:58]They read the lines.

[4:59]I ask them to read them different ways.

[5:00]They read through the sequences.

[5:02]We play together until we find the right tone for each line.

[5:05]Then we get that together.

[5:06]And then those lines, those recordings, you know, based on shots.

[5:10]We send those shots to the animators.

[5:12]And those animators have virtual puppets, you know.

[5:16]And so imagine like what hasn't grown it, you know, like clay puppets.

[5:19]Well, they are not clay.

[5:21]They are CG puppets in a computer.

[5:23]But they have a skeleton and they have ways to move them.

[5:26]We have ways to move them with a software.

[5:29]And that craft is being given to animators.

[5:32]And so they use the voice.

[5:34]And then based on that voice and based on my instruction and what I want to see for that shot.

[5:38]When I want to see how I want to see the characters remote and move,

[5:41]they start, you know, creating frame by frame, you know, performance

[5:45]and make those characters pop to life.

[5:47]So it's kind of two steps.

[5:48]Okay.

[5:49]One of the things I loved was the overall message of the film.

[5:51]Right?

[5:52]It just feels so good when you're good.

[5:54]You know, the tail, the tail leg.

[5:56]It does.

[5:57]It really does give you that tingle and feeling.

[5:59]What was the last thing that you did that gave you that tail wagging, good feeling?

[6:04]Oh, oh my God.

[6:06]That's, that's a good question.

[6:08]Well, I made a massive surprise to my kids.

[6:10]Nothing.

[6:12]Nothing, you both are bad guys.

[6:14]No, no, no, no.

[6:15]Careful.

[6:16]No, I got tickets for them for Coachella.

[6:19]And they were so f***ing hot.

[6:21]Sorry.

[6:22]You were jumping around and I think that made my tail wag big time.

[6:27]You know, seeing between the eyes is like great.

[6:30]So we can go.

[6:31]You know what?

[6:32]I have to say it was, it is, it's movie related.

[6:35]I took my boys to the Australian premiere of this.

[6:38]And they've grown up with this obviously.

[6:40]because it was written for them, you know, and, and that was so big.

[6:44]And I was worried actually because that was written when they were six and eight.

[6:47]Now they're 14 and 16.

[6:49]So I was worried they might, the eldest especially might be a little too cool for it now.

[6:53]But they were like six and eight again.

[6:55]It was so beautiful.

[6:56]So yeah, that was the last time I told it was wagging.

[6:59]Amazing.

[7:00]Well, thank you again for delighting my whole family.

[7:03]And it was a pleasure to meet you.

[7:04]Thanks for all of your amazing work.

[7:06]Take care.

[7:07]Thank you, Zibi.

[7:08]Thank you.

[7:09]Take care.

[7:10]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

[7:14]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zibi Owens

[7:17]and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

[7:19]Also sign up for my newsletter at Zibi Owens.com and sign up for my virtual book club

[7:23]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.

[7:26]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan.

[7:27]Heck, texture sound for the sound editing.

[7:30]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.