‘Spellbound’ Director Vicky Jenson Details Making the Animated Musical: ‘The Feelings Are So Big’

variety.com:

Carolyn Giardina Veteran director Vicky Jenson, best known as one of two helmers of Oscar winning “Shrek,” returned to the storybook world for her latest project: Skydance Animation’s sophomore feature, the musical “Spellbound,” which is now available on Netflix.

But it was its contemporary theme that attracted her to the project. “The story was about a family going through a very difficult time and coming out on the other end with love and better understanding — even in a hard situation, the family itself, it’s bound by love, regardless of whether they end up together or not by the end of the movie,” she says.

In the story, a spell transforms the King and Queen of Lumbria (Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman) into monsters, and their tenacious daughter Ellian, voiced by Rachel Zegler, take on the responsibly to save her family. “She is the hero,” Jenson says of her young protagonist. “She believes that it’s up to her to break the spell, and in that allegory in real life that it’s often true with kids, they feel like [for instance] if I just do better in school, then things will be better at home. … It falls on their shoulders, and the rest of the family doesn’t realize that’s happening. “There’s a danger in putting the responsibility on the kids to pull the family together.

And that was a big challenge for us, the story really is asking the parents to do the work,” she continues, emphasizing that the movie isn’t created to vilify anybody in this situation.