March 7th, 2023 
Jackson Murphy 
The Magician’s Elephant is the latest feature film adaptation of a book by beloved author Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux, Because of Winn-Dixie). It debuts Friday March 17th on Netflix. Director Wendy Rogers and producer Julia Pistor share how the saga of Peter’s quest to find his sister, and the magician and elephant whose actions guide him, changed their lives. And Rogers and Pistor also reveal how they believe this movie will alter the perception of what you can present in family films. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: It’s a really heartwarming story of the power of believing. Wendy, how were you attracted to this story and the really strong themes this movie brings out?
Wendy Rogers: When Netflix was looking for a director and they pitched me, just an elevator pitch, I got chills thinking about the idea of this boy wanting to find his sister and the absurdity of needing to follow an elephant to do it. When I read the book, it captured my heart, and I knew I had to help him find his sister — but also the amazing, surreal qualities of this fable. And I met Julia and the rest is history! (laughs)
Julia Pistor: A great partnership.
WR: And it is about believing in the impossible… that anything is possible. But it’s also about taking action — and the determination — to make that happen. That’s a really inspiring message, personally and for the world.
JM: Peter goes on quite a journey. Julia, I know this film has been a long time coming and you’ve been with it through many steps of this process. How does it feel that it’s finally here — and that Netflix is the home for it?
JP: I totally think things happen for a reason. The movie shouldn’t have been made before meeting Wendy Rogers and her vision for it — and also having Netflix’s support. They really are trying to make movies that can be creator-driven and specific to the material and not trying to turn a property into their brand. I also think this movie was meant to be told now. The themes of empathy and making the impossible possible really resonate with people today — after the last few years of what we all have been through. I’m so happy. I’m pinching myself, actually! (laughs)
JM: The perfect time for “The Magician’s Elephant”. There are so many layers to each of the characters. Let’s start with Peter. Wendy, tell me about how you wanted to approach the layers of Peter and how we see him grow over the course of the film.
WR: One of the things that’s a really important theme for me (and obviously from the book) is this empathy… his connection he forms through the elephant and also with the townspeople and his neighbors. We had a long time talking about who he is and the life he’s led. There’s core qualities he has, despite the life he’s led. And those qualities lead him to believe that his sister is still alive. He can do this most improbable thing of following this elephant that doesn’t exist to find his sister. As he builds upon… succeeding in some of the tasks and learning to stand up for himself… he grows through his own journey and becomes this strong young man. He shows such grit and determination and kindness and empathy for others. He really has such an amazing set of core values. He gets to be sweet, kind, strong and funny. And Noah Jupe really embodied all of those qualities for us in the vocal performance, just beautifully.
JP: There are not a lot of heroes I think are fully empathetic, determined and brave. What’s great about him is he’s a kind person who’s also brave and full of grit and inspires the whole town as a role model.
WR: He reconnects the town because they have lost hope and belief. They follow him and start talking to each other and start reconnecting and believe in themselves.
JM: The Magician is a complex character because he also has a lot of weight on his shoulders. Julia, what fascinates you about The Magician? I found him fascinating in how he perceives people and how people perceive him.
JP: In the adaptation from the book to the movie, The Magician was the hardest character. We wrote, rewrote and rewrote The Magician until a week ago. (laughs) And Benedict Wong was so gracious. He was recording new lines in the hotel bathroom just to help us get it right. It’s hard because he’s an inspiring changemaker — somebody who’s at a point in his life where he doesn’t care anymore. He’s given up, but that giving up empowers him to try something that he’s never had the nerve to try his whole life, because he doesn’t really care. But his arc is that he immediately regrets it. He does this amazing thing and then he doesn’t want to get into trouble, which is kind of funny. He’s sort of lying and dodging it.
Left: Julia Pistor and Wendy Rogers; Right: Jackson Murphy
JP:And seeing Peter doing these amazing tasks. Peter doesn’t have FOMO. He doesn’t care what anybody thinks about him — he’s just going to get it done. The Magician reconnects to who he was as a boy and a young man and becomes the person who really brings it home that this town has forgotten to believe in magic. And that is why the clouds have rolled in. That is why the war started. He really owns it.
WR: He did this thing thinking he wanted to change the town. And then he sees this boy changing the town.
JP: And he had no idea what was going to happen! He’s a great character and very nuanced and very complicated. Martin Hinds did a great job writing him because he’s one of Kate’s most complicated characters.
JM: Some of the shots where he’s in the jail cell and he looks out the window and sees Peter’s actions — those are very interesting. Wendy, the elephant has always been one of my favorite animals — the majestic nature and their knowledge/intelligence. How did you want to present the presence of an elephant here?
WR: The world is very physically grounded, and that’s by design. I wanted the magical realism moments and the surreal qualities that could play against [this world]. But the elephant always needed to be more physical — like it was from somewhere else. And it needed to be recognizably elephant. We had an elephant consultant, Dr. [Joshua] Plotnik, who we spent a lot of time working through and a lot of references. We shared a lot of the animation work and design work with him to get his opinion. We wanted a character that could emote and could connect with Peter and the audience. A big part of the book and the film is Peter’s empathy for the elephant because they’re sentient beings. All creatures are.
WR:We wanted to have enough emotion where you could connect and see that in both the eyes of the elephant and in moments between Peter and the elephant to register that connection. We didn’t want to anthropomorphize the elephant at all. We wanted to keep it very physical — the weight of the elephant. Animal Logic, who did the animation, did an amazing job with all of the muscular turns. The sound effects that were created in the elephant’s voice. All of that to give it personality and character but still keep it recognizably this majestic, noble creature from somewhere else.
JM: And Leo becomes more than just a neighbor for Peter. He’s a friend, a companion, a guide. He’s voiced by Brian Tyree Henry — Academy Award nominee this year for his great performance in “Causeway”. Julia, what did you enjoy the most about what Brian brings to another complex character?
JP: I love his kindness and his strength. Brian did such an amazing job in his performance. He is the one who asks “What if?” He is the one who really inspires Peter. Without Leo, I don’t know if Peter would’ve asked that question, and it’s really powerful and insightful. “What if it is true?” He’s a really eccentric, big thinker. If you look at his apartment, it’s filled with all sorts of modern things. He’s the one who represents the main idea in our film. Ask “What if?” See what happens. And you get what you wish for if you’re willing to open yourself up to the vulnerability of asking “What if?”, which I think is really important.
JM: Take that chance. Ask that question. There’s such an artistic, painting-like quality to the animation. You notice it right away. It’s the characters, the buildings and the sky — how the clouds are. Wendy, take me through some of that design a little bit.
WR: We had an amazing production designer (Max Boas) and art director (Iuri Lioi). I love clouds. I think clouds are amazing. It always reminds me that we all live together on this planet, under the same sky. The clouds were a pretty important element for me as a metaphor for the loss of hope and that settling — not looking up and being curious. Max and Iuri did an amazing job of not making the world feel dreary, gray and drabby — working through a lighting design that would allow the clouds to change color based on time of day and absorb sunlight. An artist I’ve loved for a long time, Rebecca Dautremer, does a very guash style. We were conscious of leaning into imperfections and finding that textural quality in all of our texturing.
WR: We wanted the world to feel physically grounded but we didn’t want it to be a particular place or a particular era. We took inspiration from southern Europe, southern Spain, Portugal and northern Africa and build a world that had a lot of different architectural styles layered in and populate that world with complex diversity, as though people could come from anywhere through those towns.
JM: It is a cool look, and you’re so right about the texture and the lighting. Julia, you have produced a number of films over the years — many of them with Nickelodeon, including “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie”. What I find so interesting — and one of the reasons why I think “The Magician’s Elephant” works so well is — you have a bunch of tones in the film. We have lighter moments and then we suddenly go to dramatic moments in really interesting ways. How do you feel, as a producer, being a part of a movie that celebrates the idea of different tones being presented for children and for families to experience in a movie, as opposed to a movie that’s solely a comedy, a drama or an action film?
JP: It’s incredibly exciting. Like Guillermo del Toro [said], “Animation is cinema.” It’s unfortunate that in years past, sometimes people think movies need to fit into just to fit in a comedy-forward box. And I think animation is such an incredibly evocative and emotive form of storytelling that it really lends itself to making stories like this. And when this was first developed, it was developed as a live-action movie, with incredible people at [20th Century] Fox. And we considered, for a minute, that we’d do it animated, but years and years ago we felt like it would’ve been put into that box. It’s great that places like Netflix are making films that can tell stories that are a little different.
And I would also say, because I have a big background in kids — yes, at Nickelodeon and other places — I think we make the mistake of thinking kids only want funny things. If you look at children’s literature and children’s stories, kids want to know about the dark and the light because they want to learn how to function in the world. And they want to know that it’s okay to think big and that they’re going to be okay. So stories that talk about light and dark and have all of these tones I think are the winners for families.
JM: You are right about that. That makes a lot of sense. And you look at Kate DiCamillo’s work — “[Because of] Winn-Dixie”, “Despereaux” and “Edward Tulane” — and they dig so deep and are dramatic with lighter parts. It all works and kids relate to it so well. And that’s what you do here with “The Magician’s Elephant”. And you have the theme of hope really coming through — and that ended-up being the real end journey for this: It’s finally here. You had the hope to make this movie happen, and it’s finally here!
JP: Yes! The movie, in and of itself…
WR: It’s very meta! (laughs)
JP: It’s a metaphor for the movie. It’s all about hope. You can’t give up. And that’s what we would say to filmmakers and storytellers out there. Things need to be made when they’re made, but never give up on the stories that mean something to you.
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