Louis Gonzales & Courtney Casper Kent Interview: Pixar SparkShorts
The second entry in Pixar's latest round of SparkShorts, Nona, takes a rather unique approach to exploring family bonds and small pleasures. When it premieres on Disney+ September 17, viewers will be introduced to Nona just as she has decided to indulge in one of her favorite pastimes, E.W.W. Smashdown Wrestling. But before the bell on Round 1 can ring, her 5-year-old granddaughter Renee is unceremoniously left on her doorstep for the day. From there, a battle of wits and wills between grandmother and granddaughter ensues for who can command each other's attention and which beloved hobby will win the day - all laced with familial affection, of course.
Pixar's SparkShorts program continues to spotlight up-and-coming storytellers who have grown in their studio, and director Louis Gonzales is no exception. A part of the company since the likes of Brave and Monsters University, he teamed up with first-time producer Courtney Casper Kent (who was art department manager on Coco) to bring Nona to life as the captain of the ship.
Gonzales and Casper Kent spoke to Screen Rant about the very personal inspiration for the characters in the short, and the important part music played in the storytelling.
Screen Rant: Louis, I thought it was really interesting how there wasn't really dialogue that was comprehensible, except for the wrestling matches, which were very vivid. What was behind that decision?
Louis Gonzales: Here's the thing, I had no want or desire to write dialogue. I didn't want that, actually - I wanted the pure animation experience of action, reaction, and pantomime. With the [vocalizations] of like, "Ugh," or "Hmph." You have to have that life in it, otherwise, it feels too silent. That was what was interesting to me; I felt like that was a purist animation way to go.
But when I went to write, Courtney and I were like, "Maybe we should think about heightening the wrestling matches." Because if the grandma's looking away when something happens, what's going to draw her attention back? Besides what we had initially, which was a bell going, "Ding, ding ding!" and a crowd cheering. It didn't quite have the same punch of someone going, "Man, you're never gonna see that one again!" So that when Grandma looks, she's like, "Are you kidding me?"
It was always salt in the wound. We needed to add salt in the wound, and that's why I had to write all this dialogue. And I wrote five pages worth of dialogue. Every recording session, it was like, "Can we try this one?" They were like, "Okay, Louis, I think we got as many variations we can," and I'm like, "No, no, no, hold on. Just a few more in there." This poor guy's voice is going dry, but he's like, "I could do some more." Everyone's like, "No, save your voice." Eventually, in my thick-headedness, they got to me and I [understood] I should stop now.
But it was fun. It was that salt in the wound; to heighten the wrestling, it needed that special spice.
Courtney, I believe SparkShorts is your first time producing. What does that entail for you, and what has it been like jumping into this whole new world?
Courtney Casper Kent: You have ideas of what you've observed from producers that you've worked with, and the things that you've really enjoyed about how they have run their shows, and my own personal ideas. But I didn't know. I had to figure it out as I went. We have a great team that will help guide you so that nothing, of course, can fall through the cracks completely. Like, "Don't forget that you have to think about music down the road."
But getting to meet Louis - we didn't know each other before this - was one of the biggest variables. Who is this person that's going to be the partner, and what is the vision that he has? How can I best partner with him to help bring that to life and get as much of that to the finish line as possible? I think that the first time that we met each other was kind of this face-off of us trying to figure out and get to know each other and understand each other. We realized that we're both actually pretty straight shooters, so let's just give it to each other straight.
I think that we ended up in a beautiful place, where it was easy to talk through things and understand what was hard and challenging. We knew how to push back on each other and give each other feedback along the way, and we have a lot of the same core values of how we wanted to run our show. The experience that we wanted our crew to have was to end up feeling like a family, and all of those things were things that came into it that were kind of priority for me. If I'm gonna produce something - I've never done it before - then these are things that feel like they would be really important to me.
It does feel like a family here. I mean, I would have thought you knew each other beforehand.
Louis Gonzales: Check this out. This is what I loved about me and Courtney, and this is how I knew that we were going to get along. In the first meeting, this is what we both did independent of each other: I did my homework on Courtney, and I asked people that she worked with, "Who's this Courtney person?"
Ironically, I thought I was all slick. I came in with my homework, like, "I know about Courtney now." And then she goes, "Yeah, I did my homework about you too." And I said, "Girl... What?" All of a sudden I'm trying to take it back. We did the same thing without even trying, so we're already on a similar page.
It was a beautiful thing to discover that we kind of think alike. Like, "Okay, there's really good potential here." And it was better than I could have imagined.
I know you did work on Incredibles 2, but what is it like to jump from one part of the process to then manning the whole ship?
Louis Gonzales: It was crazy overwhelming to think about because there's so many variables - and you have to do for the first time. But here's what's great about having experience: it didn't scare me in the same way.
What I had to do is rely on who I worked with and the shows I worked on before to give me a direction. And it really gave me a lot of direction, actually. It gave me [ideas on] how I want to run the team, how I choose to be - there's just so little things. Being a leader, I realized from someone I worked with, that it's a choice. Every day, how you lead is a choice. You don't get it for free; that's the same with art and the same with life. You don't get anything for free, although we take some things for granted.
As I'm getting into this, I'm like, "Wow, I actually can make this what I want it to be." Discovering that and getting to that realization was beautiful because now I can talk about it with Courtney and bounce off of her. "How do you see this? And how do we think we should build it?" Because I can't do [anything] without a good partner.
And Courtney was a great partner because - well, because she was, but - we had similarities. We had goals that revolved around the people that we were going to work with, and that is what mattered to both of us heavily. It wasn't story, oddly enough - because story's always hard and story sucks. Story is a crazy storm that never gets old, and it's always hard no matter how long you've been doing it.
That was the known entity. But it was the understanding of how to be a leader and be a good partner, to be clear and be present and happy with the team, that was all new. When you're a story artist, you're [on the] side with your team; you can kick back in your office and have a low profile. But when you're director, you're thrust into the light, and you have to be present in the light. You have to put on how you want to be as a human being, and I want to be a good human being. I want to be good to my team; I want to tell good stories that move people and entertain them.
I like entertaining and making people laugh, so it was this beautiful, sweet spot of putting all that together to try and make something beautiful. I feel like if your team is on board, if they're happy and feel a part of it, they're going to give you everything. Because we're all passionate artists; that's what we want to do at our core. Why get in the way of that? Why not support that? Why not try and be the best Louis I could be to bring that out or to find out how to bring that out?
That's what was really fascinating and interesting for me to learn as a director.
Nona is available through Disney+ starting September 17.