May 15th, 2024 
Jackson Murphy 
Starting this Friday May 17th on Netflix, the whole family can enjoy the new animated music comedy feature Thelma the Unicorn, based on the books by The Bad Guys author Aaron Blabey. Here’s my Animation Scoop Q&A with directors Jared Hess and Lynn Wang. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: Congratulations on this. And Jared, congratulations on “Ninety-Five Senses”, the excellent, Oscar nominated short from this year. When it comes to that and this, and you worked on the “Napoleon Dynamite” animated TV series as well, how has animation inspired you throughout your life?
Jared Hess: It’s been a long time coming. I’ve always loved animation. To finally get the chance to do it as a feature has just been a dream come true. I love everything about it. As everyone knows, it’s limitless what you can do in animation and bringing to life characters through design and animation… there’s nothing like it. It’s been an amazing experience.
JM: Nice. Yeah, there are some very cool characters in “Thelma the Unicorn”. Lynn, you were showrunner and producer of the “Unikitty” television series and directed episodes of that, as well as “Teen Titans Go!” Those are such energetic shows, and this movie, “Thelma the Unicorn”, is also very energetic. How did you prepare for this movie off of the work you did on those shows?
Lynn Wang: I think it’s a layering thing with the history. Taking what I’ve learned from directing those shows and showrunning those shows… I think you just subconsciously bring those into what you’re doing next. We can’t help but make it energetically funny. With Jared’s sensibilities and my sensibilities kind of combined, that’s “Thelma”. We made “Thelma” where it’s really wacky and funny and also has oddball humor — and the characters are also very lovable. So that’s really what we kind of strived for.
JM: You succeed with that. Thelma the pony becomes an instant music superstar as a pink unicorn. Jared, I love the comedic commentary on fame. What did you really want to zero in on when it comes to some jabs at becoming a superstar and being in the biz?
JH: I just wanted to be able to work with Jemaine Clement again and have him voice Vic Diamond, who has very shallow ethics, if any at all. Thelma doesn’t believe that anyone will see or hear her unless she changes who she is. And so she pretends to be this unicorn so that people will hear her music. And then along the way, her authentic self gets corrupted by fame. There’s a lot of parallels with what kids and adults experience with social media. They’re all constantly questioning if they’re good enough… if they’re talented enough. And so people go to outrageous lengths in order to be seen and heard, and you don’t have to do that. It’s better to be true to who you are.
Jared Hess and Lynn Wang – and at right, Jackson Murphy
JM: In the first third of the movie, Lynn, we see the loyalty that Otis the donkey has to Thelma. They are friends. That loyalty aspect gets more emotional and trickier for the two of them as this movie goes on. What did you want to focus on when it came to that aspect and kind of the heart of this film?
LW: Otis represents everything that I think people strive for — those friendships that people look for throughout their life, where someone really sees you for who you are and really has your back and loves you for who you are. Otis, honestly, is such a grounded character and someone that I think everyone should strive to be for as a friend and also strive to have as a friend.
JM: Definitely. And Will Forte does a great job. There’s a fantastic ensemble voice cast. Jared, Grammy winner Brittany Howard voices Thelma. And how did it feel working with her, especially when it comes to the songs like “Fire Inside”, which I think is going to be in a lot of families’ heads swirling around for good reason all summer long.
JH: Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, we really wanted to create songs that felt authentic to Brittany as a performer because early on in the film, we really have to establish what her unique voice is through music and see how that changes as she goes on her wild journey. We spent a lot of time with that. We’re such massive fans. When she agreed to come on and voice Thelma, we just felt like we hit the jackpot. She informed every aspect of the character — the character’s design… Anytime that we recorded with her, we were like, “Brittany, how would you say this line? How would you personalize it?” And every time it was so much better than any of the garbage we’d written. It was amazing to work with her at every stage of the production. And she connected with the character on such a personal level. When we gave her the script, she was like, “Did you guys know that I worked on a farm growing up and I hauled manure?” We were like, “What?” And then she said that a lot of people had told her growing up that, “We don’t think you have the right look to be a lead singer”, which is totally insane. But the fact that she connected with the character on a personal level just means everything as a filmmaker.
JM: That is fantastic. I love that this movie is such a visual splendor. There are a variety of locations that we go to, indoors and outdoors. We’ve got the farm, we’ve got a recording studio, we’re on a boat, it’s music videos, we’re at award shows. There’s so much here, Lynn. What attracted you to the locations and the visual aspect of “Thelma the Unicorn”?
LW: A lot of it was pulled from the book illustrated by Aaron Blabey. We took a lot of cues from that —the quirkiness and the oddball characters and the textures from the books. We worked really closely with our production designer Trevor Dahmer and our art director Paul Sullivan to bring that into the movie. We wanted to make sure that we were celebrating all the quirkiness that you see in everyday life — like people’s hair, people’s teeth and the way they dress. And Thelma herself, with her fur, we wanted to make sure that was really textural and her hair was really iconic.
JM: Aaron also wrote “The Bad Guys” books. He’s having a good time with animated motion pictures adapted from his books. Kind of a hands-on process as far as working with him and, and seeing this vision come to life in this way?
JH: He’s been amazing. He really kind of trusted what we wanted to do with the book and how we wanted to expand the world and the characters and the story. We really were collaborative with him early on when we were coming up with the characters and the narrative of it all. And then he just kind of let us run with everything, and he’s been supportive every step of the way, which has been great.
JM: Nice. Lynn, how would you do with a game called “Dungeons and Wagons” in real life?
LW: (laughs) How would I do with that game? Probably not very well. I’d probably die in the first round. (laughs)
JM: That’s a fun little aspect of this movie as well. And Jared, I have to ask you, because “Napoleon Dynamite” turns 20 next month, and you’ve got Jon Heder in this movie, voicing the character of Reggie. That performance of his in “Napoleon Dynamite” was fearless. How do you think 20 years ago Jon Heder was fearless with that, and 20 years later he can be fearless in the recording booth with this character?
JH: He’s great. He’s a big dork. I’m just gonna put it out there. And that’s what we wanted for the role of Reggie, the drummer… an amazing, lovable doofus who just kills it on the drums. So it was so much fun to be able to work with Jon after all these years. He’s so talented. So funny. Has such an amazing sense of humor and a really iconic voice, as we all know. It was fun to get the gang back together.
JM: Nice. Before we go, I have to ask both of you, since a unicorn is unique and special, how do you feel that this experience of making “Thelma the Unicorn” will always be unique and special in your minds?
JH: Wow. Well, we started this thing in 2020 during the pandemic. So this was a movie that we made almost entirely over Zoom, which is insane. So all of our artists were spread throughout the world. We had animators in Montreal, India, France and spread out throughout the U.S. as well. It was an amazing experience to make something meaningful and funny during the hard times of the pandemic.
LW: And I’m going to say something cheesy, but honestly, I think it’s working with the people that we got to work with. Such a great experience. Our producer, Pam Coats, was excellent in bringing the whole team together during the COVID times when everyone was so super busy. And working with our production designer, all the leads, all the production people, all the animation people, the voice recorder, the voice artists… everyone. I think it just came together so smoothly, which is very rare.
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