Cartoon Saloon -- whose debut feature, The Secret of Kells, remains one of the 21st century's most stunning animated films -- has been on a hot streak for the last decade. They've produced impressive pieces of animation like The Breadwinner, Wolfwalkers, and their latest co-production, My Father's Dragon. The sweet-natured film focuses on the efforts of Elmer (Jacob Tremblay) and his newfound friend, Boris the Dragon (Gaten Matarazzo), to save the island they're trapped on and confront the true perils of growing up in a dangerous world.
During an interview with CBR ahead of My Father's Dragon debuting Nov. 11 on Netflix, Director Nora Twomey spoke about the common thread that runs through Cartoon Saloon's animated output. She also addressed what drew her to the adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett's children's book and how coming-of-age stories affect audiences of all ages.
CBR: What was the process of adapting My Father's Dragon from such a unique piece of children's literature to film?
Nora Twomey: I mean, I had adapted The Breadwinner, which was also based on a young adult novel. So I had some kind of experience with adapting... With My Father's Dragon, I was just so taken with the original novel. About 10 years ago, I was first approached by Julie Lynn, one of the producers on this project. She had gotten the rights to book a few years before that, and she had seen The Secret of Kells. She just wanted to meet with Cartoon Saloon and see if we could work together. On the way to that meeting, I read the book, and there was a particular page that really struck me, where Elmer gives shelter to a cat, and his mom gets really angry with him.
I just thought that there was such potential in that because there are so many layers to a moment like that. I always thought it was going to be such a refreshing idea to see for parents who see a mother as they generally are not allowed to be in family films. I just loved the idea that we had the opportunity to put a child on screen who's going through a real issue and to deal with that in a very imaginative, painful, playful way -- to put friendship at the heart of it. So by the time I came on board... We started looking at themes of fear, coming of age -- those thresholds of friendship, the complications of human emotions. What happens when you try and protect somebody else?
[The book's author] Ruth Stiles Gannett, I've met her a number of years ago just to ask her about Elmer, why she wrote the book, [and] what did she think was most important about what she had written? What kept generations of children coming back to the book? The book has been in print [since] 1948. There's something about childhood resilience, really, that's in there that I think is really timeless. Ruth never really talked down to children at all. Nevertheless, she takes imagination extremely importantly. She places so much importance on children's imaginations, on children's resilience. So those are things that we kept and really dug into and made sure that they were the backbone of the film.
There's an undercurrent to many of Cartoon Saloon's films -- The Secret of Kells, The Breadwinner, My Father's Dragon -- that speaks to the trials and tribulations of growing up. They're all ultimately coming-of-age stories. As a creative, what is it that you find so compelling about that kind of story?
I suppose for me, anyway, I feel that I'm continually coming of age, you know? I've been learning all the time. I'm trying to work through emotional issues. It's like, the more I learned, the more I realized the things that I don't know. I think we all, with a film like My Father's Dragon, I think we speak to the child in all of us and maybe the parts of us that might have unresolved issues. Working with child protagonists a lot in our films is a way of simplifying the outlook that we have because, oftentimes, things can get extremely complicated.
If you look at The Secret of Kells and the kind of broader issues that were being discussed or in Wolfwalkers or The Breadwinner... They're all dealing with large issues, but when you look at them through the eyes of the child, it takes the judgment out of it, in a way, which is something that I think... Everybody in Cartoon Saloon, we're storytellers. We're really attracted to that idea. I think that's why it is -- I'm not really sure. I'm attracted to a story or an idea 00 that's really what draws me. Sometimes I'm not really able to articulate it, and sometimes I don't want to look at it too deeply in case I overanalyze it. There is just something, particularly about childhood experiences, because the more everybody grows up -- whether you are a child or whether you're older -- you can identify with this.
One of the film's most fascinating elements is the portrayal of Ian McShane's Saiwa. He's the clearest antagonist of the film, but he's never necessarily portrayed as a villain. He has genuinely good motivations, carried out in less-than-ideal ways. How do you approach an antagonist like Saiwa without making him too villainous?
Yes, absolutely. I love the character. He's honestly probably the character I identify with most in the film because he feels the weight of responsibility. He's trying to help all the animals on the island. He's trying to keep everyone alive, trying to keep the island from sinking. Yes, there's a huge cost for that and a cost to the dragon, but he doesn't know what else to do. He's so backed into a corner where he can't tell the truth, [and] he can't admit that he doesn't know what to do. I love characters with that kind of complexity to them because I'll relate that to that.
Boris is kind of an antagonistic force at times because he refuses, [and] he's unable to step up and transform and take the responsibility that he should take. So that there is a complication to all the characters... I can understand them all, but they don't always act out of their best nature, which is the good stories have that. All stories are conflict, and the more that you can explore that and explore how characters respond to fearful situations where they're not sure what to do next, these certainly were where we were developing the characters.
We wanted to look at how each character reacts to a really difficult set of circumstances where they don't know what's around the corner. They don't know what's next. They don't know whether they're going to survive. They don't know what the answers are. I really got that sense, from Ruth's book, that Elmer was really just trying to figure out what to do, how to be resourceful, how to really rely on his own autonomy. You know, these are all the themes that we're kind of coming from the book that we really wanted to explore in the film.
Given your experience in this industry and the evolution of Cartoon Saloon over the last decade, what would you say has been the greatest lesson you've learned -- and how did you bring that to My Father's Dragon?
It's a really good question because the more films we make, the more we realize there are always new mistakes to make. There are always new things to explore, and what you learn on the last film doesn't necessarily translate into the next one. It's always a huge learning experience. You can never take for granted that -- filmmaking is difficult. It's always an exercise and exploration. You really have to rely on your team a lot. I mean, we made My Father's Dragon during the pandemic, which meant that everybody was trying to animate from the corners of their kitchen table.
It's always hard work, but if you are able to really emotionally connect with the story that you're trying to tell and love the characters in the story that you're telling, then you can sustain yourself and sustain your entire group over the years that it takes to develop and produce a film. I think if I've learned anything, I guess it's that I'm really privileged to work with an amazing team of brilliant people. When energy might be low in the middle of production, there are always people to pick you up and re-energize you. So I just love the fact that we get to animate together. I think we're really, really lucky to be in this position, and I just really look forward to helping more stories get told from Cartoon Saloon.
My Father's Dragon debuts on Netflix on Nov. 11.