Animation roundtable: ‘Nimona,’ ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,’ ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ ‘Trolls Band Together’
The directors behind several of the animated films that are looking to make their mark on the upcoming Oscar race sat down with Gold Derby and dished about several topics including the piece of animation that first inspired them to work in the medium, their favorite animated project they’ve seen recently and what their ideal music would be to play if they won an award. This was all part of Gold Derby’s Meet the Experts panel on Film Animation that included Nick Bruno (“Nimona”), Kemp Powers (“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”), Aaron Horvath (“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”) and Walt Dohrn (“Trolls Band Together”).
You can watch the film animation group panel above with the people who made these four movies. Click on each person’s name above to be taken to each exclusive interview.
More from GoldDerby
For Powers, the piece of animation that stuck out most to him in making him want to be a part of the artform was “Toy Story,” especially for what it accomplished from the perspective of storytelling. “It was so well-written. The characters have such wonderful arcs and for years after that, especially after subsequent films that I ended up loving like ‘WALL-E,’ ‘Ratatouille’ and ‘Monsters Inc.,’ I was describing Pixar as the house of master storytelling.” Bruno first became enamored with the idea after seeing “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” with his father. He remarked that he would love to work on making those effects some day and his dad simply said, “Why not?”
Things got much more loose when we started discussing what music they would most like to have play as they make their way up to the stage if they were to win a major award. Powers, without hesitating, said, “I guess probably [Ludacris’s] ‘Move Bitch, Get Out the Way.’” Horvath immediately followed that by jokingly saying “Milkshake” by Kelis before revealing that the actual answer for him would be “Peaches” from “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Dohrn was a bit more grounded in his choice of “Send in the Clowns.” “That’s definitely very fitting. I’m trying to get them to play it here when we screen things, but they’re like, ‘You’re gonna bring everyone down.’”
PREDICT the 2024 Oscar nominees
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
Best of GoldDerby
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
