July 1st, 2021 
Jackson Murphy 
I first interviewed Peter Ramsey in 2012 for his DreamWorks Animation feature Rise of the Guardians. We met-up at the Critics Choice Awards a couple months later. In 2018, Ramsey co-directed Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which earned him an Academy Award. He’s one of the busiest and most respected guys working in animation today.
His latest project: directing the “Active Citizenship” episode of new Netflix animated series We The People (premiering this Sunday July 4th). Creator Chris Nee and executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama present ten short episodes from ten different directors and musical artists (with distinct animation styles) that spotlight what we (especially young people) can do to make our country better. Ramsey and I discuss We The People, Spider-Verse, 2021 in animation so far and his major upcoming Netflix series, Lost Ollie.
From “We The People”
Jackson Murphy: I talked with [Chris] the other day. She said you are “the top guy in our business”, “humble”, “a great leader” and “an inspiring collaborator”.
Peter Ramsey: Good lord. That’s so over the top. Chris is wonderful, but I don’t know what was going on with her when she said all that.
JM: She was very happy to talk about you and this show, which is so ambitious and successful and I think will be a big hit. Were you inspired by “Schoolhouse Rock” when you were young? When I watch these [“We the People” episodes, I think that this could be “Schoolhouse Rock” for a new generation.
PR: Yeah. That’s definitely in the DNA of what everybody’s thinking about this series. When I was a kid, “Schoolhouse Rock” was just there. It was part of the fabric as you were watching your Saturday Morning Cartoons. It was a weekly ritual and “Schoolhouse Rock” was woven into that. It definitely became a part of your life if you were a kid anywhere near that time. When this idea was broached to me, it seemed like a no-brainer. “Of course!” It’s putting two great things together again: animation and education – and this time with top recording artists doing it.
JM: I’m sure you have a lot of friends in the animation world and outside of it. Do you think a lot of people realize how much work goes into something that’s only four minutes long?
PR: No. Most people who consume animation without knowing much about the technical side would be absolutely shocked by how much work it takes to produce a minute – a second of good animation. It’s a craft. It depends on a lot of skill and talented people, and it’s kind of miraculous that any of it gets made at all.
JM: You’ve got something really special here with this “Active Citizenship” episode. It’s all about the power to make a change – and to make a difference in our society. How does that storyline speak to you and what attracted you to it?
PR: Most people who really know me know that I’m kind of a political junkie. That occupies a lot of my mental space. The opportunity to be a part of something that kind of reminds people that “Hey, our political system is only as good as all the parts working in it are”. We look at it as: There’s a government, and then there’s the people (us) and we’re outside it and we can’t do anything about it. When in reality, the way it’s designed is that an active, informed citizenry is an integral part of that system. The system doesn’t work if we’re not active citizens. It really doesn’t. I feel like we’ve seen proof of that over some of the last several years. There’s things that the mass of people are really interested in or concerned about [and] those concerns don’t get reflected. We had a great demonstration of that this past year in 2020 with so many people pouring out into the streets over things like the George Floyd case. There’s any number of things where you’ve seen people [peacefully] take to the streets and demand re-dress in the way it says in the Constitution. For me… it should be personal to all of us to see what active citizenship really means.
JM: And I think kids will understand that our choices matter and choices are so important. What were some of the most important choices you made when it came to making this episode?
PR: The choice to really… show that sometimes it’s just speaking up for the first time. There’s a great line from the song H.E.R. did, “If I’m just one person, does my voice even stand out?” That’s the fear all of us have when it comes to speaking out in public. “I’m just one person. What can I do? The world is so big. These problems are so big. How can I affect any of it?” That’s what everybody’s thinking. And everybody’s waiting for one person to come-up and say something to verbalize the thing they’re feeling, so then they can go, “Yes! That’s exactly how I feel!” And that brings people together and it creates forward motion. That was the biggest choice, I think, was to take that and make it the thrust of our piece.
JM: It’s so important. One person can make a difference when it comes to just about everything. I’m glad that that’s a core part of this. You and H.E.R. have something in common. You’re both Academy Award winners, which is fantastic!
PR: (laughs)
Peter Ramsey (left) and Jackson Murphy (at right)
JM: How was it collaborating with H.E.R.? I love listening to her voice.
PR: Yeah, she’s amazing. We actually didn’t meet during the making of this. We got the song, and the song had everything in it that we needed. The lyrics are clear and straightforward. The vibe of the music lends itself to a particular style – a flowing style of animation we wanted to use. Really, I collaborated with H.E.R. in the form of her songwriting and her singing. That gave me everything I needed. We just did a little press thing not long ago where we met for the first time and we were able to tell each other, “Oh! Thanks so much for what you did!” And I was happy to hear she thought it was a good complement to her song and her songwriting. She’s just phenomenal, and so young, man. Oh my God. There’s gonna be so much amazing stuff she does in the years to come.
JM: Oh yeah. And with “We the People” debuting on July 4th, which is great, what are you especially grateful for this July 4th?
PR: I’m really grateful that we have real hope that this pandemic is starting to recede. I think everybody still has to be careful and mindful but it really does seem like all the sacrifices and the efforts of the past year are having an effect and we can get more and more back to normal. Super grateful for that. And grateful that there’s other things happening in the world politically that seem to point toward some kind of forward motion – at least starting to grapple with some of these issues that have held us back as a country for so long. It’s really tough sometimes. There’s a lot of things to still get angry about, but the fact that some of these things are coming to a head now means that things are coming out into the open that we all need to deal with. Ultimately I’ve got to look at that with a sense of hope that things continue to move forward.
JM: Yes, hope and positivity for sure. Now, the last time we saw each other was about eight years ago [at the 2013 Critics Choice Awards]. BUT I did see you in-person from a distance at New York Comic-Con for the first 35 minutes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in October 2018.
PR: Oh yeah!
JM: I was covering it for Animation Scoop! Obviously it was before the movie came out and before you swept the Best Animated Feature categories that awards season. How were you feeling that day when the audience – we all got to see that first 35 minutes?
PR: We were kind of ecstatic. That was one of the first couple of times we had shown stuff to an actual audience. This was a big audience. And wow, the way it was received – we were blown away, man. You watch these things over and over and you work on them so hard in smaller groups. It’s you and the people working on it. To see what it does to people who didn’t know about ANY of the things we were doing or planning and to see THEIR response, it’s everything you could hope for. That was an absolutely incredible day.
JM: It was a fun one. Everybody in the crowd was so into it. And everyone was in different sections. I remember security was there and walking around. They didn’t want anybody filming anything!
PR: (laughs)
JM: They didn’t want anything getting out there! The reaction was huge and obviously you had quite a year with that. And Sony Animation and Netflix this year – already a [few] movies together: The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Wish Dragon and Vivo. What have you loved in terms of animated movies or even series that you’ve seen so far this year?
PR: I’m kind of ashamed to admit that my time for movie watching of any kind has kind of shrunk down because I’m knee deep in another project for Netflix. So that’s keeping me really busy. But I really enjoyed The Mitchells vs. the Machines. I’m looking forward to Wish Dragon because I’m friends with [director] Chris Appelhans. Super-talented. Enjoyed a bunch of “Love, Death and Robots”. I have friends who did some of that for Netflix. That was great. So animation-wise, not as much as I would like. I hope that as the year starts to wane, I can get back into movie watching because it’s a lot of work making one! (laughs)
JM: I talked with Chris for Wish Dragon, and he was fantastic. And I enjoyed the movie.
PR: He’s great. He’s a super-talent. He’s gonna do incredible things.
JM: Now that Netflix project you were referring to, is that Lost Ollie? What can you reveal, as of this moment, about that?
PR: We’re deep in the works! We’re bringing Ollie and the world to life. It’s a challenge and a pretty unique show. It’s a hybrid show. There are animated characters and live-action characters. Lost Ollie is a story that kind of goes along two tracks. It’s a story of two friends who are separated and they go to great lengths and against great odds to find each other. It’s kind of a big story told on a small scale… but it’s also a large scale depending on who’s perspective you’re in. I’m talking around it a lot, but it’s pretty magical, and we’re working really hard to bring it to life as best as we can. Shannon Tindle who created the show based on a story by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg. Shannon has taken it and pushed the story out into all kinds of interesting directions. So we’re really hoping to make something special.
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