Vicky Jenson co-directed the first Best Animated Feature Oscar winner, DreamWorks’ 2001 Shrek. She followed that up with 2004 nominee Shark Tale. 20 years later she’s helming the new Netflix animated musical Spellbound, debuting tomorrow. It’s about 15-year-old princess Ellian, whose parents have been cursed for a year. They were transformed from humans to monsters. How will they finally return to their old form, and what other changes might be in store? Jenson shares what she loves about the story, songs, cast and themes in this Animation Scoop Q&A. (Questions were submitted via email. Answers were edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: You [also] co-directed “Shrek”. What did you enjoy about the parallels of unconventional monsters and princess stories?

Vicky Jenson: Interesting question. I always feel that great stories need to surprise. Delight, certainly, but also surprise. So if I’m surprised in reading or hearing a pitch for a story, I’m in. But I think both stories have a lot of heart to them. They really lead with the meaning of the story… something that we will carry past the screening experience. Monsters and princesses are wonderful, familiar trappings to help you tell a story. If the story itself is so different, then it’s kind of useful to have something familiar to do it with.

JM: How did you decide on structuring when and how magic could be used in the story?

VJ: It’s always what’s in service to the story. What will help tell the story best? There was actually a lot more magic in the first draft that I read for this movie. Every character had magic. The mom had one kind of magic. The dad had another kind. They were of two different kingdoms and then Ellian was born not knowing which kind of magic she was gonna have. And that was supposed to represent which parent she took after, something like that. But ultimately it kind of got in the way of what was important in the story. So we all thought [about] using magic delicately, carefully… let it be what could guide you to a truth, but the truth had to be grounded. Magic had to be in service to the story’s needs.

JM: This is a grand musical. What were the goals you and Alan Menken had for the songs?

VJ: I learned so much from working with Alan and Glenn Slater, our lyricist. [With] the whole story team, we learned so much about how you tell a story with songs in a musical. What are the rules? Now, what I love is that Alan broke rules in this movie. He was really a partner in how we tell this very unique story. Who could better be our guide for how songs work in a musical? We learned you don’t just stop the movie and drop a song in and then keep going with the movie. The songs need to push the characters onto the next moment.

JM: Did you already know Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem were Lucy and Desi [in “Being the Ricardos”] before they were cast as Ellian’s parents?

VJ: Yes. It was really fun to watch that knowing that we wanted to cast them both. So I actually watched the movie a second time knowing that. But really, we cast them because they’re such great actors. I’d been a fan of theirs for so, so long. And it was just really lucky that we got them both. But that was independent of the fact that they had worked together before.

JM: It’s a Lord Farquaad reunion, with John Lithgow voicing Bolinar. What makes him a great voice actor?

VJ: John is a very present person and a very present actor. He doesn’t just speak without thinking. He wants to understand his character’s role in how the story works and how his character facilitates the changes that happen to the story. He does all of this work with me early and then goes into the scenes to just be. But he will try things. He’s very open to trying lots of different approaches to a scene, as long as he understands what the scene needs to do. So he’s very, very generous and just loves it. On “Shrek”, he was the only actor to come and visit our animators in Northern California. And that was not just sweet but a loving thing to do. And that’s just the way he is. I’d work together with him again in a heartbeat.

JM: The third act really explores the struggle the main trio faces about how they behaved in the past and how they’d like to be in the future. What do you want families to take away from this aspect of the film?

VJ: All three of them… their feelings are valid. The parents aren’t the villains here, even though to Ellian they sure are acting like it. Her feelings are valid in feeling that way. She’s angry. She’s hurt. She felt alone. She felt abandoned. She felt unloved — and they needed to hear it. Everyone’s feelings in this third act are justified. How they move forward together as a family is where their strength in themselves and their love for each other gets them through to the happy ending, even as the situation changed. Somebody told me, “Just because something changes doesn’t mean it’s gone.” And I love that. That’s exactly what’s happening here. The family’s changing, but it doesn’t mean it’s gone.

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Jackson Murphy

Jackson Murphy is a movie critic and entertainment columnist. He is the creator of the website Lights-Camera-Jackson.com, and has made numerous appearances on television and radio.

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