---
title: Dreamworks' THE WILD ROBOT IMAX Interview with Writer/Director Chris Sanders
publisher: "IMAX"
canonical: "https://www.imax.com/the-wild-robot-imax-interview-with-writer-director-chris-sanders"
date: 2024-09-23
last_updated: 2024-09-23
---

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![THE WILD ROBOT Director Chris Sanders and star Kit Connor (Brightbill) in the recording booth. ](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2Fc4ucztjx9pmu%2FMeWh4Btgmg8t1DcZtJIzY%2F4b91f90716b5cd9d65408f9fb8455169%2F4.png&w=512&q=75)

September 23, 2024

I, (Wild) Robot
===============

_In conversation with Writer/Director of Dreamworks' THE WILD ROBOT, Chris Sanders_

_The year is 2000. A quiet, dark auditorium suddenly lights up in soft cerulean clouds as the room booms with the first familiar notes of Beethoven’s 5th. Orange splashes hit in time with the music, eventually transforming into a rainbow burst of bright, fluttering colors. Audiences sit entranced, bearing witness to something historic, something new, something game changing. This is a screening of FANTASIA 2000, and it is the very first full-length narrative feature film to be experienced in IMAX._

_IMAX's relationship with animation started earlier the previous year. While famous for documentaries and live action up until then, IMAX funded_ [_painted-on-glass animated short OLD MAN AND THE SEA_(opens in new window)](https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-old-man-and-the-sea-is-a-tremendous) _which went on to become IMAX's first OSCAR®-winner, taking home 1999's Animated Short Film honor. Since these early turn-of-the-millennium forays into the medium, IMAX has closely treasured its relationship from animation cel to cinema screen._

_Cut to today. Enter writer, director, and voice actor Chris Sanders. You'll know his work from modern classic LILO & STITCH, which he co-wrote/co-directed alongside creative partner Dean DeBlois and also provided the voice of the titular extraterrestrial. Since then, he's worked on such recent favorites as THE CROODS and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. Now, he returns with an adaptation of Peter Brown's beloved children's book, THE WILD ROBOT._

_We sat down with Chris to chat about following your talent, working on both sides of the booth, and why big screens really are better._

* * *

![Sketch of Roz (Lupita Nyong'o) and Brightbill (Kit Connor) from THE WILD ROBOT](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2Fc4ucztjx9pmu%2F54y1VddtpigpYu0E4fyd1%2Fab4fba51cc00d3e548b7a19631a95590%2F1.png&w=1920&q=75)

### **1\. THE WILD ROBOT already has some built-in fans from Peter Brown’s book series of the same name. How familiar were you with the source material? How much did the book influence your approach to the visual language of the film?**

You know, I was Peter Brown adjacent and didn’t realize it; my daughter read the book when she was at Chandler. She was in middle school, and I’d seen the book about, but I had never read it myself. Years later, not many years, but a few years later-- when I was at DreamWorks, looking for my next project, it was amongst the development properties that they had to offer. I immediately gravitated towards that particular book when they described it. Just based on the description I was like, ‘That sounds like it’s perfect for me. Please let me read that!’

I took the book home, and I read it. My daughter immediately said,’ oh that book, I read that book!’

I’m like, wait? She pulled her copy out and I was like _‘I do remember that!’_

So, I had never read Peter Brown before I agreed to work on the project. Jumping into this project was my first experience with Peter Brown’s work.

I think that his descriptions, as I read the book, the imagery in my own head was fairly sophisticated. I think imagery from BAMBI and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO were the types of things that I was seeing as I read the book. I realized that the look of our movie, became suddenly very critical. One of the biggest challenges that I laid before the visual artists was, I needed THE WILD ROBOT to be visually sophisticated.

DreamWorks had already made great strides visually, getting away from that CG look that we’d all become so habituated to. We were locked to that look not by choice, it originally was just because that was as far as the engineering would let us go. And we have been striving for decades to get that look to be more organic.

![Still from THE WILD ROBOT: Roz (Lupita Nyong'o) runs as Brightbill (Kit Connor) takes his first flight with other migrating geese.  ](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2Fc4ucztjx9pmu%2F6NZ0MMpjZU5Nq9n07NL2LD%2F052328725c16f19e935e032cefc3600f%2Fwr_flying_still.png&w=1920&q=75)

### **2\. There’s just so much public discourse these days about the intersection of our lives and technology. What do you hope viewers take away from this film regarding the relationship between technology and the natural world?**

I think the story behind the film is the main thing that we want people to really pay attention to. In a film that is arguably, possibly, about a robot that is run by AI- the reason this film is resonating with people is largely because it’s a handmade film. This film is more handmade than any CG film that has come along in decades. Every surface, including the surfaces of the characters, is hand-painted.

So _the human element_ in this film, is far, far more prominent than other films around it. And I think that’s the curious thing about this film; it is so much more human than any film I’ve worked on since LILO & STITCH.

### **3\. You’re also a voice actor, famously voicing Stitch from LILO & STITCH (in addition to writing & directing of course!). Seeing as you’ve been on the other side of the booth, does it inform how you work with performers?**

Absolutely. The experience of having recorded an animated voice makes me very aware of how exhausting and taxing this whole process can be. When you are on a live action set, you do one scene and you can really pour yourself into that one singular moment. But in an animated voiceover recording session, you might be doing six, seven scenes or more, so you’re really being put through an emotional rollercoaster, and it is exhausting.

So, my job, as a director in these sessions is to look at them as a marathon and not a sprint. My thing is to try to get the actor to the place we need them to be as efficiently as possible so that they can pour everything into that performance and not be too taxed by the end of the session. I also try not to overdo it. I have definitely had the experience of producers that, once we get the line right, they just want more as “coverage”, and I’m not a fan of that. If I hear the line, if we’ve got it, we move on.

The same philosophy for me applies \[to the animators\]. If the animator has succeeded in fulfilling the requirement, even if it’s not the way I saw it in my head, I will not ask the animator to redo it because it doesn’t match what I saw. I want them to be actors in their own right and to interpret the scene the way they see it. I talk about what the scene needs, I never talk about how I want it to move, because that’s for them to decide.

![Sketch from THE WILD ROBOT- Roz (Lupita Nyong'o) encounters Fink (Pedro Pascal)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2Fc4ucztjx9pmu%2F3dgq57GkltbNsy337ENruP%2F4088e2caa2e8f29cb25e33400e07a24d%2FWR_2.png&w=1920&q=75)

### **4\. Can you talk a little bit about how you got started? Do you have any advice for young fans who hope to work in the animation space?**

Oh wow. The most important thing, I’d say is ‘follow your talent’. I wasn’t much of an animator. I tried, and I can do it, but I’m not really very good at it, I don’t think. I’m good _enough_, but not good enough. _\[laughs\]_ I’ve really gravitated more towards story, because I think that’s where my skill set really was and that worked very well for me. I went to the story departments, and I was with the story crews and I learned about what goes into crafting and shaping these narratives. I don’t think I would have been very good as an animator, so my first advice is following your talent.

If you feel like you’re more of a layout artist or an animator, go with that, follow your talent. There’s no secret to how you get into these studios. At Comic-Con, somebody approached me and said _“so how do I do this?”_ It kind of feels like they want me to tell them a secret, like “well, if you go to a certain lamp post at midnight on October 15th and say these words a portal will open and you’re going to get into the studio.”

The fact is, it’s pretty straightforward. A lot of times, it’s submitting a portfolio, showing them your work, and that’s how I got in. That’s how everybody I know got into it. Whatever your craft is, a studio will have a way of showing you what you need to do. A lot of times it’s a portfolio.

There’s no secret. It’s all about honing your skills and getting to a point where the studio would like to hire you.

### **5\. I don’t know if you know this, but you’re sort of an important part of the IMAX story, because FANTASIA 2000, on which you are credited with concepting the Pines of Rome segment, was IMAX’s first ever foray into narrative features in general. Why do you think animation as a medium is so suited to the cinematic experience?**

There’s always been a graphic nature to animation, and I think that we relate to it differently than anything else. I know that a drawing or a painting communicates in a very, very direct way. One of the things we’ve noticed about animation early on, is that it’s very effective, to put it clinically. It’s very efficient.

It communicates so powerfully and so clearly, you can do things in animation a lot of times more quickly than you can, I think, in live action. Animation has also always had an endurance. It really endures with our audience.

I would say that old animation is probably watched a lot more regularly than maybe live action films from the same era by-and-large. So, it endures, it communicates and of course, there’s something intangible about it that I myself have always loved. It’s just always been my thing.

![Director Chris Sanders of the WILD ROBOT at Air Studios in London with composer Kris Bowers](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdownloads.ctfassets.net%2Fc4ucztjx9pmu%2F4XnGW12Yz2l74vvqlqmjWY%2Fff15cb679ecba5929accbed04814a11f%2F10E58_LC_D001_0129R.jpg&w=1920&q=75)

### **6\. So much of how people, especially young people, are accessing entertainment these days is through mediums like tablets and phones. For obvious reasons, we here at IMAX are a little biased towards the biggest screens out there. What would you say to someone on the fence about taking their family to experience THE WILD ROBOT on the big screen?**

Absolutely. It’s something I’ve heard with other films, but it could not be more true than with THE WILD ROBOT. Officially, this film is like nothing they will ever see again. It is absolutely groundbreaking, and the scale is part of the experience. If they go see this on a big screen, they will not regret it.

They will be very thankful for that. Part of the power of the experience is the scale of the whole thing, and not just the visuals, but the sound. Kris Bowers' score for this film is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. He blew the doors off of the score. As we went to the mix it just got bigger and bigger and bigger and more and more sweeping. So not just for the visuals, I would say, but for the sound, too, seek this out in the theater.

### **7\. If there was one movie you could watch again for the first time in IMAX, what would it be?**

Immediately BACK TO THE FUTURE comes to mind. I will never forget the experience of that film and having rewatched it very recently, the climactic sequence in that film is one of the most skilled, sublime things I’ve ever seen. It just keeps topping itself and topping itself. Cinematically, it’s absolutely thrilling.

* * *

_This interview was transcribed from a Zoom conversation. It has been edited for clarity and length._ Send us a line about future questions or topics you’d like to see at [fandom@imax.com(opens in new window)](mailto:fandom@imax.com?a=11533&campaign_id=163&campaign_type=newsletter&message_id=325&utm_medium=owned&utm_source=email&uuid=%7B%7Bcustomer.id%7D%7D).

[Enter Dreamworks' THE WILD ROBOT Page to Screen IMAX Sweepstakes here](/the-wild-robot-sweepstakes)

_Sweepstakes is sponsored by IMAX Corporation. No purchase necessary. Entry period begins 3:00pm PT 9/23/24 and closes 11:59pm PT 9/30/24. Open to legal residents of the U.S. at least 18 years or older. Limit of one entry per person. Official Rules located_ [_here_](/page/official-rules-imax-dreamworks-the-wild-robot-sweepstakes)_._

[Experience Dreamworks' THE WILD ROBOT in IMAX](/movie/the-wild-robot?activation=the_wild_robot_interview&utm_source=news&utm_medium=web)