Academy Award nominee Chris Bailey (of iconic Disney animated short Runaway Brain) is the director of the new animated film The Great Wolf Pack: A Call to Adventure. Bailey and the folks at popular indoor water park chain The Great Wolf Lodge are taking their beloved characters (Wiley Wolf, Violet Wolf, Oliver Raccoon, Sammy Squirrel and Brinley Bear) and transforming and transporting them into animation. A Call to Adventure is available at all 19 resort locations starting this Labor Day weekend and on YouTube this Monday September 5th. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: I love that The Great Wolf Lodge indoor water parks are getting into the world of animation. How did you first get involved with them and this movie?

Chris Bailey: I got into it through [animation studio] Six Point Harness and Brendan [Burch, the CEO]. Brendan and I have been acquainted for years and we’ve always talked about doing something together. His studio has done a wide variety of work. Much of it is very indie-oriented. I’m a Disney guy, Alvin and the Chipmunks, X-Men 2 and Kim Possible — I’m that solid family guy right down the middle. We’ve been looking for a project to do together and when this crossed his desk he said, “Oh my God. Maybe this is the opportunity to work with Chris.” He reached out, and I was sent a script and did the traditional meetings and it all fell into place.

JM: I have to imagine that going to some of The Great Wolf Lodge resorts and researching them must’ve been an awesome research trip of a lifetime.

CB: Well getting paid to go on vacation, that’s awesome. I’m a water guy from way back. The ocean, the pool… it doesn’t matter. You add water slides to a resort vacation and I’m there.

JM: Did working on this movie really bring you back to your childhood, going on trips/vacations/resorts and nature?

CB: Who doesn’t love going on vacation? I love camping, going to hotels, pools — all that stuff. Whenever I go on vacation I kind of feel like a kid again. I usually work on more family-oriented projects, so I always kind of tap into, “What would the 15 year old or 10 year old me be entertained by?” I always think in those terms.

JM: The film is fun. What were your goals in wanting to bring these characters together and to put them on this adventure that allows them to work together and really bond?

CB: Like any great group of characters on screen, they’re really different aspects of one brain. You have Kirk, Spock and McCoy, or Mickey, Donald and Goofy. They’re all these different parts and personalities. So I think we have that with Wiley, Violet and Brinley [and the others]: the baby, the responsible one, the impetuous one, the smart one… But it’s really about the fun you have as a kid when you’re on summer vacation or a weekend and you’re hanging out with your friends and you have an adventure. To you, it’s life and death or it’s really serious business. But really it’s a slice of life and it’s about the friendship you have with these other characters. It’s taking these wonderful characters that Kent Redeker brought to life from the park and realizing them and putting them together in a believable way.

JM: Kids will enjoy their interactions, and I was definitely getting some Scooby-Doo vibes while watching this. You’ve got this gang together. There’s a little bit of mystery involved. Even some of the music choices you have. And I know you’ve worked with the Mystery Machine gang a little bit. What do you think is so appealing for kids about watching animated ensembles?

CB: (laughs) Gosh, I think whatever Scooby-Doo influences you see may be unintentional, except the fact that there’s a little bit of a mystery to solve and they’re helping people and it is a group of kids. Any stylistic references are probably, like I said, unintentional. But they’re all good! Hanging out with your friends and solving a problem — what could be more fun than that? With Scooby-Doo you’ve got a group of friends and their dog. With this you’ve got a group of friends and their magic water fairy and these crazy fantasy creatures. You’re away from your parents, so you’re feeling empowered and independent. All that stuff is wonderful and all wish fulfillment, I think.

JM: Yes. And these characters are not just friendly with each other, they’re friendly-looking. I know there was a bit of a transition process in how they’re used in the parks and then how they look in this movie.

CB: What the original characters were missing in the park was a sense of story. They have these characters and park walkarounds and kids like them, but there was no real character or story to tie them together. Those were existing, still illustrations. When The Great Wolf people came to us, they understood that the characters would need to go through an evolution to be animated and they were open to a new interpretation. My team and I looked at the script and what was there and were like, “Who are these people? What’s a nice variety of sizes and shapes? How human do we want them? How animal do we want them?” And then we jumped into it. I always love classic Disney and Warner Bros. design, so I brought influences of that — and the influences of my team.

JM: The warmth and the friendliness really shine through. And in The Great Wolf Pack, there are a lot of sequences involving constantly running water. Was that one of the more challenging aspects in the animation?

CB: Animating effects is difficult. But we tried to put a formula to it. So once we did a couple of keys the animators would be able to follow it. I don’t think it was hard to work into shots. I think it was a fun thing to do because water is such an important part of The Great Wolf Resorts. We wanted water to be a part of the world. It’s not really a commercial. We have a Great Wolf Lodge in the Great Wolf movie, of course, but it’s not a hotel. It’s where the residents get together. But there are waterfalls and streams and rivers. And our characters get from place to place through underground water tunnels. It’s meant to evoke a waterslide but not technically be a waterslide. We wanted that familiarity of the resorts without looking like a commercial.

JM: Right. Without hitting you over the head. But inserting little things that will remind kids and parents about what they can experience at The Great Wolf Lodges. Very smart in how you do that.

CB: Right? And it’s a pretend thing. You have this movie and people are going from the forest and the realistic world where their parents live and they’re coming out the other side in the fantasyland with the Froglands and the Borples… you want to jump through the slide at one end as a kid at the resort and you want to pop out the other side and pretend that that’s where you are.

JM: Not only is this movie going to be on YouTube, but it’s going to be an option for families to watch in their rooms in the resorts. That’s one of the most unique ways an animated movie has ever been presented to families: being right there in your rooms. That’s pretty cool.

CB: I know. I love it. You walk into the room and they told me there’s gonna be a little display with popcorn and programs. You can have a movie experience in your room, and then you can go outside your room and live it in the broader context. And as a filmmaker, it’s incredibly gratifying to know that people are gonna have this kind of access to it.

JM: And for a long, long time. What do you now want to do with these characters? I think this opens up the portal for more opportunities.

CB: These characters could probably go anywhere. And they are going to some new places in the future. So you can look forward to some more Great Wolf Lodge soon. Through those magic water tunnels underneath the world, I think you could pretty much end-up anywhere. You could go [on a] journey to the center of the Earth. You could end up in outer space. As many creatures and different worlds we can imagine they can interact with.