Creating Tinkerbell And The Legend Of The Neverbeast

Oh yes!  Today we’re getting to go inside the minds of Tinkerbell And The Legend Of The Neverbeast story artist Ryan Green and animation supervisor Mike Greenholt.  I have been wanting to share this with all of you for two weeks!  I’ll post a bit of our interview with them also.  This was so super exciting for me!  I never knew, before my first trip to Disneytoon Studios last year, how much goes into “just a Tinkerbell movie”.  Well, I can tell you, after reading this, you will have a much better appreciation for the creativity behind the movie.  I wish I could take all of you with me into the room to hear Ryan and Mike talking about creating the characters for Tinkerbell And The Legend Of The Neverbeast, especially the Neverbeast!  It is simply amazing!

Sitting and listening to these guys talk about how they created the Neverbeast was awe-inspiring.  You think there’s some great *mystical* thought process that goes into creating something as magical as a Neverbeast, but the creation of him is actually very scientific; yes, scientific!

Question: From the beginning to end of the NeverBeast, how many different I guess NeverBeasts were there?

Mike Greenholt: There was only one but there were maybe seventy variations of it. Where, you know, you build something, you screen test it and, well he looks weird, can we shorten this, bring the eyes farther apart, closer together, fine tuning. We try to make him move, but the range of motion is limited. We just keep tweaking it until he’s production ready and we must have had seventy some variations. Subtle changes, but different.

Photo credit: Coralie Seright, Lovebugs and Postcards

Question:  Is there anymore research besides for Gruff? Anything else new introduced that you had to develop and research?

Mike Greenholt:  The scout fairies were new in this movie.  We didn’t have them before and they were cool, because they were like action heroes.  They’re tough, they’re brave, they’re more athletic.  The fairies that we’ve seen in other movies are more influenced by ballet or gymnastics and they’re graceful and like figure skaters, but the Scouts,  we were looking at Parkour, and just that sport. A lot of Olympic athletes, pole vaulters, long jumpers, that really are active. That was a big inspiration for how those characters moved.

Be sure to get Tinkerbell And The Legend Of The Neverbeast on Blu-Ray, Digital HD, and Disney Movies Anywhere March 3!