Am 24. März 2022 soll bei uns mit Die Gangster Gang ein neuer Film aus dem Hause "Dreamworks" in den deutschen Kinos starten. Im Kern geht es dabei um eine Gruppe antrophomorpher Figuren, die wider ihrer Intuition als Ganoven auf die gute Seite wechseln wollen, indem sie versuchen zu helfen, wo sie nur können. Leider ist das leichter gesagt, als getan, denn der Truppe scheint das heldenhafte Dasein nicht zu liegen. Am 14.12 erschien nun der erste deutschsprachige Trailer zum Film und verspricht eine Art Heist-Movie für Klein und Groß zu werden, das in einer Mischung aus 2D und 3D Animationen daherkommt (moviebreak berichtete hier). Wir hatten die Möglichkeit dem Regisseur Pierre Perifel und den beiden Produzierenden Rebecca Huntley und Damon Ross ein paar Fragen zu ihrem neuesten Film zu stellen. 

Maximilian: Pierre , you called the movie a "Tarantino for kids". How can work something like this?

Pierre Perifel: Of course we had to cut off the bloody factors. You can´t do that in a movie for kids. It is about the spirit that he created. For example the humour in his dialogs or the very specify characterization of each person in the film. Also his unique taste of music inspired us. It has this specific flavor and doesn´t have plastic box sound. Even his camera work inspired us. We worked with this kind of long shoots he has too. After all our film is more a heist-movie than a pure Tarantino. All the Ocean´s 11s and Baby Drivers of this world were influences for our work. 

Maximilian: When you talking about heist-movies and (self-)referential humour. Which other films have inspired you? Do you think there are other movies for kids which are also in this type of genre? Where they role models to you?

Pierre Perifel: Of course films like The Usual Suspects, The Italian Job, Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. So the heist-movie with all his motives was a big influence. When it comes to the animations Japanese TV-Shows and movies have influenced us massively too. 

Damon Ross: Yeah, we also have references to films that aren´t heist movies. So we have a touch of 4th-wall-breaking and self-aware-humour you know from movies like Deadpool. Also there is a reference to My Fair Lady with a Makeover Story in the middle of the movie. But you see the references. They are very clear. 

Pierre Perifel: We used this and the style of our dialogues to create a movie for everyone. For young and old. To the question whether it´s the first movie for kids in this style or not...I don´t know. Is it?

Damon Ross: We are hoping!

Pierre Perifel: Yeah. At least we hope there aren´t that many. That would be great. 

Maximilian: You all worked during the Covid19-crisis. How can one imagine a production in a time where one has to social distance?

Rebecca Huntley: Honestly it was pretty remarkable. In computer animation there are work-stations anyway. So our team was really able to adapt quite easily. I mean, we had the technology and the opportunity to use virtual meeting rooms. Also we had a silver lining: many, many people can join a web meeting. But there can only be ten or twenty persons in a physical. So more people participated and saw what´s going on. We had a greater communication in many aspects. It worked out for us. 

Pierre Perifel: It was very interesting. We freelanced people from around the world before the pandemic situation started and so we just were expanding on this concept of course. Recording the cast together is something we can´t really do when we are physically here because you have to isolate the tracks right on the actors. But in this case it was allowed to us that many actors in different studios around the world record the sequences like they were together. It felt more natural. So there were quite a few benefits. 

Damon Ross: Unexpected benefits for sure!

Maximilian: The animations of your film seem to be classical like out of a cartoon book and reduced in a good way. They gave me an old-school 2000s-vibe and I think that could work out for young and old. How you came to this style? And which stylistic elements were necessary to create this new experience?

Pierre Perifel: We went for a different look. The idea was to try an illustrated and very playful style at the same time. The movie is going away from classical CGI-films and has definitely a oldschool-feeling. That´ s because I tried to bring all the influences of my youth together. I blended and mixed them. So in this movie are elements of French graphic novels, paintings and movies. Also one can find aspects from animated films from Japan and from the big studios like Disney in the USA. 

Wie gefällt euch der Trailer zu "Die Gangster Gang"? Werdet ihr euch den Film ansehen?