There is a lot riding on Vicky Jenson’s upcoming musical animation Spellbound about a princess on a mission to reverse a spell that has transformed her beloved king and queen parents into rampaging monsters.
The film is the third animated feature for Skydance Animation after Luck and Blush and its most ambitious production to date as it attempts to grow into a company rivaling its head of animation’s John Lasseter’s former home of Pixar.
The work also marks Jenson’s first major animation feature in two decades, after Shark Tale (2004) and Oscar-winning Shrek (2001).
Jenson and the film’s Head of Story Brian Pimental hit the Annecy International Film Festival on Tuesday to give a Work in Progress presentation.
“We’re really excited to finally bring you a peak into Spellbound. Sky Animation is a pretty cool place to work. One of the reasons is that they really want to do stories that resonate and really mean something. That’s what drew me,” said Jenson.
The bulk of the animation is being done out of Sky Animation’s Madrid-based unit, which has fed into look of the film’s fantasy kingdom backdrop of Lambria, inspired by the “architecture of ancient Spain with its Moorish arches and domed rooftops”, she revealed.
The high profile voice cast features Rachel Zegler as the princess and Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem as her parents as well as John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, and Nathan Lane in other key supporting roles.
Jenson revealed that the production had approached Zegler prior to her achieving fame in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.
“I kind of like to think we discovered her because we saw her videos on YouTube around the same time that Steven Spielberg did and he cast her… But we were right there too”, she joked. “She is just fantastic. She’s a delight, she’s funny and such a pro.”
A highlight of the Annecy presentation was the unveiling of originql songs written by long-time collaborators composer Alan Menkel and lyricist Glen Slater, whose past cinematic credits include Oscar and Golden Globe nominated hit I See The Light hit from Tangled.
“You guys are going to be the very first to hear several of our songs,” said Jenson announced to applause. “They’re at the demo stage. Most of them are with the final singers, including Rachel Zegler. A couple of them are Alan Menkel’s actual voice which no-one ever gets to hear.”
“These are completely original songs. We haven’t heard anything from Alan Menkel and Glen Slater in a long time. A lot of great movies have come out recently but a lot of it’s a couple of decades old. I’m really excited we’re going to have brand new original music.”
The presentation unveiled a big opening number setting the scene for the story as well as a nostalgic ballad in which the princess laments the loss of her parents as she knew them and her old life.
The latter has the same heartstring pulling potential of I See The Light to break out as a hit in its own right, judging by the enthusiastic reponse from the presentation audience.
“After six years on the movie, it makes me want to cry,” said Jenson.
Spellbound will be distributed by Apple under its multi-year deal with Sky Animation but there is no news on launch date or on whether the will get a theatrical release as yet.
