How Hamsters and Squids Inspired ‘Spellbound’s’ Adorably Mischievous Sidekick Flink

variety.com:

Katcy Stephan What’s in a name? For “Spellbound” director Vicky Jenson, it’s a simple portmanteau. In an early sketch of Flink, Princess Ellian’s adorably mischievous animal sidekick, Jenson wanted him to flash and blink as he energetically flitted about. “I have a tendency to squish words together,” she tells Variety. “So I was like, ‘He just has to flink!’” In creating the “rascal” Flink, character art director Guillermo Ramirez drew inspiration from hamsters, raccoons, squirrels, weasels, and even an aquatic animal: “I also explored cuttlefish or squids – because of the movement, not because of their appearance,” he says with a laugh. “They were not that cute!” Luckily, Flink is that cute.

The rodent-like purple creature has a tendency to store everything from acorns to magical devices inside his deceptively big cheeks – a habit that was born from one of Ramirez’s early drawings. “I just did Flink with a mouth full of things, and it was very funny.

So we managed to put that in the movie!” Jenson hopes Flink’s cheek-hiding will ring true for parents of rambunctious dogs: “Any puppy owner knows: ‘What do you have?

What? Give it to me! Drop it!’” After a magical mishap early in the film, Flink and the posh royal advisor Minister Bolinar (John Lithgow) magically swap bodies in a moment that’s both adorable and functional for the plot. “We came up with the idea about halfway through the production,” Jenson says. “It was just a great suggestion from one of the other directors at Skydance.