Nearly two decades ago, Brent Dawes created the popular Jungle Beat animated TV series. Now he’s the writer/director of the franchise’s new feature film. Sandcastle Studios’ Jungle Beat: The Movie, made in collaboration with Sunrise Productions, is a selection of the 2020 Annecy International Film Festival and is available on VOD for families to enjoy starting June 26th.

Jackson Murphy: You created the TV series that this film is based on about two decades ago. When did you realize it was finally time to take this TV show and make it a feature-length film?

Brent Dawes: The Jungle Beat brand has always had a life of its own, and it’s always been leading us rather than us leading it. It was never meant to be a TV show in the first place, to be honest. We were taking our first steps in CG animation, and we needed to do a test animation to see if we could do what we thought we could do. So we made one animated short. It was five minutes long. And that was it. That was all it was meant to be. And it was a story about a monkey and the weather. We could sit here and say, “Oh, we knew exactly where it was going to be 20 years later.” But not at all.

Brent Dawes: We sent that to some festivals, and they really liked it. A distributor saw it and said, “Hey – do you have more of these? I could sell these if you had more.” Phil [Cunningham], our producer, being the quick thinker that he is said, “Yes. Of course. We’re planning more.” And I had a call with Phil and he said, “Brent! I need you to write more of these. Give me the ideas by tomorrow so I can tell this guy what we’re doing.” And here we are 20 years later starting Season 8 and with a feature film under our belt. It’s amazing.”

JM: Wow. One of the major differences between the series and this movie is that the animal characters can talk. It’s a sudden shock for them. How was it for you – after being with these characters for so long and suddenly they talk – incorporating dialogue for them?

BD: I loved it. But it was really important for me because they haven’t spoken… I always love to remain true to what the brand is. Our audience is gonna be surprised that they speak. And I was like, “We can’t just have them speak and pretend like nothing has happened.” So I love the fact that we made that part of the story. And that’s what led me down… the story unpacked from Munki waking up. He can’t speak. He’s never spoken before, and it’s a surprise to him. And… I love the symmetry of the fact that the very first episode was Munki waking up and he’s breathing out smoke because there’s snow all around him, and he’s surprised by what’s coming out of his mouth. And he smacks his mouth and falls out of the tree. That’s the first thing that happens in this movie as well: Munki wakes up, speaks, is surprised by what’s coming out of his mouth, smacks his mouth and falls out of the tree. I love the symmetry there.

JM: You cover a lot of ground in the first 10 minutes of the movie. We’re introduced to Fneep, the purple alien. What inspired you to go in this direction with the story?

BD: It comes back to, “How could I justify that these animals could suddenly speak?” Is it some sort of mad scientist who’s invented this thing? And I just settled on the fact that there’s this alien technology because this alien needs to be able to communicate with the planets he’s going to. So that was the start of it.

JM: The themes and the messages in Jungle Beat: The Movie are not just saved until the end. There are themes of acknowledging others for their strengths and that friendship is so much better than being alone. How was it for you placing and sprinkling them in throughout the movie?

BD: It happened very naturally because that’s a part of Jungle Beat that’s really important for me. I’m a father of four kids, and I’ve really paid attention… my oldest is now 15… from when he was starting to watch things. My wife and I really paid attention to what he watched. We wanted it to be wholesome and inspirational to them but also we’ve wanted to enjoy it as well. With parents of young kids, you end up watching what they watch. With Jungle Beat, I wanted to make something that parents would actually enjoy watching if they were watching it with their kids. But parents would also really appreciate that at the heart of it is a genuine kindness and acceptance of other people. It’s a genuine desire of mine that this brand is something that parents will look at it and say, “Jungle Beat – that’s safe.” And more than safe – it helps kids to actually believe the best in someone even if on the surface it feels like they shouldn’t.

JM: This is one of the rare big animated movies to come out in recent years that is G-rated. It seems like most major animated movies get a PG rating for something, whether it’s a little language or a little violence. But clearly I can tell from you that’s a huge importance to have this film be G-rated and good for everyone to watch.

BD: Yeah. And one of the things we really tried to do is pick our lane and stay in it. We knew we weren’t trying to compete with the massive blockbusters. And we had no aspirations to try and be that. We knew what the brand was. We knew where we were targeting it, and we were like, “Okay, let’s be faithful to that. Let’s not try to be something we’re not.” And that’s one of the secrets for why it holds together so well. We let it be what it was meant to be.

JM: The core team on the film was in Mauritius in East Africa. And this is the first animated movie to be produced in Mauritius.

BD: We’re so proud of the fact that this comes out of Africa. It’s kind of like the little movie that could. Working in Mauritius – it’s hard not to make a fun and vibrant movie when you’re in a place like that. It’s a tropical paradise. It’s amazing. And I think there’s something in the fact we made it in Africa. The pace is a little different. It feels like there’s a little more optimism in the air. I certainly felt that when we were operating in Mauritius. I grew-up in Zimbabwe. And it reminded me a lot of that. A time and a place where things feel a little simpler – a little more innocent.

JM: One of the subplots involves the wildebeest, who don’t want to hear a certain word [stampede] or else they’ll go crazy. How many different things did you come-up with to follow ‘stamp-‘?

BD: There’s quite a few. The interesting thing about the wildebeest is that they didn’t exist for the first half of production. Usually when you write a script, the rule of thumb is that a page a script is a minute on screen. So it was a 94-page script but as we were making it, it wasn’t translating. We realized we’re making a 64-minute movie, not an 84-minute movie. So the producers and our distributors were like, “Brent, we need 20 more minutes in there.” And I spent a week or so thinking about it, and I came-up with these wildebeest characters. They had been in but they were a very small thing the animals walked past. But I dug in there. My challenge there was to make them feel like they needed to be in the movie. You don’t want to try and shoe-horn something. And with the stampede thing, I came-up with as many things as they are in the end.

JM: The prestigious Annecy International Film Festival is a virtual one this year because of everything that’s going on. But Jungle Beat: The Movie was still selected to be a part of it, which is fantastic. What does this honor mean to you?

BD: I was genuinely surprised when we got the nomination, not because I don’t believe in the movie. I fully believe in our movie. I’ve been to Annecy, and I know the level of competition there, and it’s super high. And also what I find is it’s often a little more serious. They enjoy things that are a little bit more arty. And not to put them in a box, but I think they’ve got specific high quality tastes. And I thought, “G-rated movie about animals.” I didn’t know that we’d make it. And the fact that they responded to it the way they did, I’m blown away and so grateful to them.

JM: I think part of it is not only that the movie’s good but also because it’s based on a long-running TV series. When you look at South Park, The Simpsons, SpongeBob – animated TV series that have translated to big screen movies – they always attract attention. It’s giving fans a new angle.

BD: Yeah, we’re exactly the same as The Simpsons. (laughs)

JM: The film is gonna be on VOD on June 26th. Most of the indoor theaters in North America are closed. What do you think of families having true access to this movie on their TVs to sit at home on a Friday night and watch this together?

BD: I think it’s amazing. When this whole lockdown thing happened… the producers decided very early on: “No we’re not gonna delay the release of the film for when cinemas open.” There’s gonna be such a backlog and traffic jam of things waiting to go on the big screen that I think we’d just be lost within all of that. And it seems to be one of those serendipitous things where it’s like, “Man, this is actually better for us.” On one hand, all of our marketing budget could go to an online approach as opposed to spreading it.

My wife and I, 10 minutes before this call, were actually discussing, “How are we gonna watch the movie?” And I said, “I’d like to watch it like how the rest of the world watches it: on Friday night, Family Movie Night.” We’re gonna get burgers and popcorn. There’s a booklet on the Jungle Beat: The Movie website where parents can download. They can make a Fneep smoothie and this and that. That’s how I’m gonna watch it, and I’m so thrilled that families around the world are going to be watching it at the same time as us. It feels poetic to me because that’s exactly what I wanted from this movie, and that’s how the world’s gonna see it. It’s amazing.