The More Intimate You Make It, The More Universal It Becomes

Seven creators reveal what inspired everything from the stagestruck critters in Sing to the search for happiness in Trolls and the existential dread of the R-rated outlier Sausage Party.

- Carolyn Giardina

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” veteran animator John Musker jokingly asked Seth Rogen as the masterminds behind some of this year’s eclectic lineup of animated features began to assemble at the Line 204 stages in Hollywood to talk shop. Not that anyone resented Rogen’s presence, since Sony’s saucy Sausage Party, on which he served as a writer, producer and voice actor, added some unusual R-rated spice to the mix. “That taco was amazing,” laughed Mike Mitchell, 46, director of DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls, as the group welcomed Rogen, 34, to their unique fraternity: filmmakers who can spend five years or more, sweating thousands of tiny details, to bring their visually inventive movies to the screen. Nor was Rogen the only newbie. Having attracted attention with his indie, live-action 2007 movie Son of Rambow, Garth Jennings, 44, made the transition to animation director with Illumination Entertainment’s Sing. And though he’s no newcomer to stop-motion animation — he’s president and CEO of Portland, Ore.-based Laika and has served as an animator on several of its films — Travis Knight, 43, took the director’s reins for the first time on Kubo and the Two Strings. They, in turn, were joined by experienced hands Musker, 63, whose credits range from The Little Mermaid and Aladdin to Disney Animation’s just-released Moana; Bolt and Tangled helmer Byron Howard, 48, who was one of the directors guiding the anthropomorphic critters through Disney’s Critics’ Choice Award-winning Zootopia (which also is nominated for a Golden Globe award, along with Kubo, Moana and Sing); and Mark Osborne, 46 (Kung Fu Panda), who helmed the screen adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince, appearing on Netflix.