The Bad Guys 2 | Interview with director Pierre Perifel
© DreamWorks
Summer blockbuster season is a sequel-rich section of the calendar, and DreamWorks is getting in on the fun. The Bad Guys 2 has seen a relatively quick turnaround for animation (especially when compared to the Spider-verse films) coming three years after the first, a sign of how much the studio believes in the franchise and its director, Pierre Perifel. Perifel had been a DreamWorks alum since 2008 before making his directorial debut with The Bad Guys, surviving through some of the companies most tumultuous periods to arrive at the ongoing DreamWorks renaissance.
Skwigly caught up with Perifel to chat about the approach to the new film, referencing anime and the structural changes at DreamWorks.
What lessons did you take from the first film to this one?
I think there’s a naivete when you do a first film and you get sucked into trying to solve a puzzle of 10 million pieces without knowing that you have 10 million pieces to solve. It’s so complicated. Going on to this, I knew it was going to be hard and new so I was much better prepped. What was a little tricky was the pressure that you put on yourself of, “I’m in charge of making a sequel now, and I want to make sure it’s as good as the first one.” What I practiced more and more is the ability of looking at the macro and diving into the micro, constantly going back and forth between the bird’s eye view and going to detail, never losing sight of the big picture, because that’s literally the job of a director, having the big picture vision.
You maintain the same visual style from the first film, was there a temptation to go full Puss In Boots with it?
I don’t think we could have done what Puss In Boots has done. First of all, the identity of the first one was pretty strong, and we’re quite happy with it. Also, reinventing a style demands a lot of time, effort and money, and we wanted to put that into a bigger-scoped film. But also, I don’t think it would have been relevant to change the visuals of this one the way Puss in Boots reinvented the first one. Bad Guys 1 and 2 are coming so close to each other. Puss in Boots 1 and 2 are almost like two different adventures. In our case, it’s a continuation of the story, but at the same time, what we did was try to push and plus the visuals. Going a bit more graphic, a bit more painterly in the matte painting, a bit more rough on the brush strokes and those transitions between light and shadows, a bit more line work here and there, more to the effects, reshaping the characters a little bit. The cool thing with the visuals of The Bad Guys is you have that stylised character design with a stylised background and those brushstrokes and everything, but we have realistic cameras, realistic lens flares and and light distortions and lens effects and bokehs, all of that stuff is taken from live action. So it’s a really interesting layering of graphic illustration and cinema techniques and camera techniques.
© DreamWorks
How much of an influence is Lupin III on these films?
Massive, man, I grew up with that. You’re one of the rare ones that’s really putting your finger on it. That rocket scene, riding on that rocket or driving in the streets of Cairo with all those cops on a scooter, that’s literally Lupin inspired. The car driving on a wall is coming from there. And in that rocket scene, climbing up, those silly poses that our characters have, like Lupin jumping from that rooftop, are so funny. It’s in everybody’s mind. That’s the charm we were trying to capture here, never taking ourselves too seriously, even though it’s a very sophisticated type of filmmaking. There’s always that layer of humour that connects with the kids, but also connects with animation fans so well. Did you notice the Mind Game reference when they run on the ice?
I still haven’t seen Mind Game…
You should check it out. It’s an old, crazy anime. We have a few shots that’s literally from Mind Game where he runs on fish.
I watched a DreamWorks documentary you contributed to where you talked about three projects in a row being cancelled and the toll it took on the staff. Do you think the studio has moved on from that being an issue?
I think it’s a completely different time now. What was happening at the time was that the company was independent, and there was no possibility for DreamWorks to have another movie not do well at the box office. They were easily doubting themselves as they were putting these movies out. Now Universal is our parent company, and they have shareholders and they are also going through a process that’s much more calibrated. The studio and the filmmakers come out with ideas, try to put a movie together as a presentation, and then we show it to Donna Langley and her team, and they’re reviewing this, and we’re looking at all all angles, and then once we all love it, we shake hands and from there on it’s gonna go. So movies are a lot less likely to be stopped halfway, and that’s awesome, because it really helps us be confident and trust in the project all together.
© DreamWorks
Once we decide to go and push some of the boundaries of what we’re doing visually, or story wise, we have the blessing of DreamWorks executives and Universal executives. Margie Cohn is the president of Dreamworks Animation, and Kristin Lowe is our chief creative officer and they’re really good at letting the movie be filmmaker-driven, you know. They have their own ideas about a story, but they are trying as much as possible to let the filmmakers and directors achieve their vision. This is why you see a Bad Guys, a Puss in Boots, a Wild Robot and a Dog Man and they are all vastly different, very cool visually and honestly good movies. We are in a renaissance at Dreamworks thanks to all these conditions, and I’m super proud that Bad Guys is part of this renaissance, being the first movie that Margie greenlit.
It’s a great time to be an animation fan!
Definitely. DreamWorks is now a very strong contender and leader in animation, and just trying to push the limits a little bit. In particular in the US, there’s a vast array of projects right now and it’s very exciting. The box office is not always here, but at least people are trying things.
The Bad Guys 2 is out today in UK cinemas