November 3rd, 2022 
Jackson Murphy 
Cartoon Saloon’s Nora Twomey was Oscar nominated for her phenomenal, Annie Award-winning 2017 animated feature The Breadwinner. Her follow-up is a sweet, moving and timely interpretation of the classic story My Father’s Dragon. Ahead of the film’s Netflix release on November 11th, I spoke with Twomey about her commitment to this project. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: You’ve been involved with My Father’s Dragon since mid-2016. So were you really thinking about this as you were still making The Breadwinner?
Nora Twomey: Yeah, absolutely. I first came across the project back in 2012 when Julie Lynn, one of our producers, came to Dublin. She was just finishing a live-action film there and she had seen “The Secret of Kells” and wanted to meet-up with Cartoon Saloon and see if we could work together. We were in a kind of slow development all that time and every now and again we’d pick the project up with some artwork and have a look at the story. Meg LeFauve, the writer of “My Father’s Dragon”, was also very involved before I was. She already was looking at ways to deepen the story arcs that reflected Elmer’s emotional journey through the film. When I finished “The Breadwinner”, and its promotional tour, I pretty much went straight onto “My Father’s Dragon”.
JM: Wow. This is inspired by the classic 1948 children’s story. How did you want to give this new generation of kids an immersive experience?
NT: I went to visit Ruth Stiles Gannett, who wrote the book, to talk to her about Elmer and Boris because the book is so beloved, and oftentimes read by children who then grow up to read it to their children. There are themes of resilience and truth and honesty and childhood autonomy in that book that are resonant no matter what decade it is. For Ruth it was very important that Elmer came across as a child who really thought for himself and somebody who had a resilience to him. Even though in the book there’s pages where Elmer’s mom gets really angry with him — she’s the catalyst who makes him run off on this adventure — those are the kind of moments I really wanted to dig into because there were ways of layering the story by focusing on those moments that made Elmer feel like a real child with real issues and real things going on at home. And on top of that, you have this big, magical, epic adventure he goes on. But it has a real heart of truth to it and I think it’s quite easy to identify with a character like Elmer, or Boris.
JM: Yes. And I love the aspect, particularly early on, with Elmer’s relationship with his mother and this struggle they both have of, “Well, who should be responsible for what? And should they really be responsible for each other?”
NT: Yeah, certainly looking back on my own childhood, there were things going on that my parents weren’t able to tell me the whole truth about because parents try to protect their children. I’m a mom. I’ve also looked into my children’s faces and I’ve told them not entirely the truth because I’m trying to protect them and seeing in their faces that they can see beyond what I’m saying and they can tell from the tone of my voice that they’re not getting the full story. We all deal with complicated situations and human relationships all the time. It was exciting to explore that with all the characters — they’re all really complex and when we were crafting the story for the screen, we really wanted to dig into how each of these characters are not bad people. They’re just trying to do their best with the set of circumstances they have. Elmer has to navigate all of this and has to be honest with himself no matter what that costs.
JM: The dynamic between Elmer and Boris is so fun and will make kids who watch this learn how to make a friend and the complexities of what a friendship can be.
NT: When Gaten Matarazzo and Jacob Tremblay who play Boris and Elmer came on board, it was really clear to me that there was an absolute magic between the two main characters. They’re fantastic actors and were able to get a really genuine rapport. It was really beautiful. I love how the characters are written in that Boris is not just a funny character for the sake of being funny. At his core… to Elmer, “Don’t pay attention to me. I don’t know what I’m doing. Can you look after me? I don’t have enough confidence to look after myself.” On the surface he comes across as a funny guy, but he reminds me of myself and aspects of people I know that are insecure. That’s who he is. Elmer, sometimes out of his own fear and love of his friend, tries to control things. I love dealing with characters that have that complexity to them. And no matter whether you’re a young child watching this or much older, human relationships are pretty much the same when you’re 3 or 83. Those kinds of things don’t change that much, really.
JM: Between this, “Luca”, TV work and the upcoming “Little Mermaid” movie as Flounder, Jacob Tremblay is becoming one of the busiest voice actors around! So glad you were able to showcase him in this lead role. And you assemble this star-studded supporting cast to voice the animals. Who really enchanted you with what they were able to do?
NT: It was incredible seeing each of these amazing actors come into the recording studio and give it their best. We had an amazing casting director, Amy Lippens, who put together the cast in such a brilliant way — and listened to how the voices would work against other members of the cast. I thought Rita Moreno was fantastic as Mrs. McClaren. She’s so playful with her performance. Her sense of timing is something we didn’t edit very much because she has such a fantastic sense of comic timing. And she’s so energetic and giving in her role even though she stays quite deadpan. She really enjoyed herself. I also love Ian McShane’s performance. He was able to get a sense of depth into the character of Saiwa where you felt the burden he had on his shoulders. I’m in awe of our cast. Each and every one of them did such an incredible job tapping into their characters. The actors really locked into what it was that they could get from their own imaginations and bring that forward so our animators could work on it.
JM: That’s great. Elmer very much has a business mindset because of the store with his mom and the hopes for a new store. Besides the creative, you have to sort of be in a business mindset on your movies when it comes to budget and other things, right?
NT: Absolutely. I’m one of the owners of Cartoon Saloon, so I see everything from a producer perspective as well as a director perspective. I know I can’t be too indulgent with the filmmaking. I always have to be practical at the same time. I remember times in my own childhood where I got worried about my parents’ finances and I didn’t have any sense of it, but I felt fearful of it. Not being on solid ground. A lot of children have a sense of… not feeling completely secure. That’s what we continually do with Elmer in the film. He’s never on solid ground until he [has this] friendship and is generous. Even though he doesn’t know what’s around the corner, he’s able to deal with that in a way that has a little bit more maturity to it.
JM: Is there an animal that, when you were young, you maybe wanted to run away with — or had a dream about running away with?
NT: There’s something about girls and horses. (laughs) I was lucky enough to live in the countryside, and oftentimes I got to interact with horses. All animals have an immediate calming effect on human beings. For me it was horses. They seemed so majestic.
JM: Very nice. I’ve always loved elephants. I think they’re so majestic. And this film also has a powerful environmental message. What do you hope moviegoers of all ages take away from this aspect?
NT: A lot of the animals aren’t really paying attention to what’s going on. They’re just trying to cope day to day and not really taking a step back to embrace what needs to happen on the island. People losing their homes, and our animals losing their homes, is a very strong theme in the film. The need for transformation is something quite strong in the film as well. There are a lot of layers to this story, and it really is up to the audience now as to what they want to take away, but I just hope that they enjoy it.
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