Heroes of the Golden Mask is a new animated action comedy adventure from Canada-based Arcana Studio and longtime animation director Sean Patrick O’Reilly. It debuts on digital platforms June 9th, through distributor Gravitas Ventures. The film, about a young man and some new friends on a quest to defeat evil, features the final performance from legendary actor Christopher Plummer, who passed away in 2021. O’Reilly and I discuss Plummer’s impact, the film’s other stars and important messages, as well O’Reilly’s dynamic career. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Let’s start with the impressive opening scene with skilled choreography. What goes into bringing us into a movie with a cool action scene like this?

Sean Patrick O’Reilly: Thank you. The more I start watching certain movies I love, including “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, I love that opening hook. This is, I believe, the 11th movie I’ve directed, and as I do more in the later stages of my career I really want a strong opening. I believe this one is. I like throwing the audience in. Our animation director Skylar Zerr was responsible for a lot of the camera work. Working with a talented team definitely helps on the openings.

JM: Are you excited for the next “Indiana Jones” movie?

SPOR: 100%. I think it just played at the Cannes Film Festival. And it’s funny, that’s not necessarily the one you open a commercial movie on.

JM: True. I’m looking forward to it too. What you’ve established is an incredible career of animated movies from Arcana — an impressive catalogue. What speaks to you — and attracts you — in terms of stories and storytelling?

SPOR: Thank you. For me it’s always the characters. Coming from comic books, you know who your Batman or Spider-Man is. Once you understand that character, I find it a lot easier to weave in serialized storytelling. A lot of the movies I’ve done really revolve around one character and then a team around them. “Heroes of the Golden Mask” is more of an ensemble one, but Charlie is our main protagonist. A little bit of a fish out of water. You feel sorry for him. A reluctant hero type. And then you have his buddy, the big Aesop (Patton Oswalt). It creates that buddy dynamic. It’s about the relationships and the characters.

JM: We get a good arc of Charlie. He goes from homeless to hero. I noticed how expressive the characters’ eyes are. How important is that to you?

SPOR: To be honest with you, especially for me, they say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and I totally believe it. When I [look at] movie posters, especially in animation, you can watch the same movie poster and the eyes are just slightly different and I’m like, “You just lost it for me.” Skylar did such a good job. And he’s worked with me before. He knows I look for that. In animation, I have a very hard time NOT looking at the eyes. It’s the evolution in me. I always lock onto the eyes. It’s how I relate to a lot of things.

JM: I like the Mud Monsters that come in. They’re fun characters. You do a lot with the animals of the Zodiac. Visual treats.

SPOR: The 12 animals of the Zodiac was a great idea in pre-production. In the middle of production, we were kind of like, “Wow, that’s a big mouthful.” And we did it. So that was cool.

JM: Let’s talk about the voice cast. You mentioned Patton Oswalt as Aesop. He has one of the most distinct voices, and he has built a career in the business with “Ratatouille” and this and “The Goldbergs” narration for 10 years. What could you tell, in working with him, [was significant] about that voice?

SPOR: Super professional. Was dialed in. Knew exactly what he wanted to do and how to do it. But what was kind of cool: he has a professional-level sound booth in his house because of “The Goldbergs”. Awesome person. Super easygoing. He goes, “What about this? Let me try this.” A great guy to work with. Love him.

JM: Ron Perlman voices the villain, Kunyi. You’ve worked with him before. What a personality, right from that opening scene. How did you build out this character with Ron?

SPOR: His voice is so prominent. He’s got that deep, raspy, gravelly voice. It’s funny… I have worked with him a lot… and I always have him as some sort of antagonist. I think he’s just so good at it! It would be fun to have him as the good guy. His voice is fantastic. He really speaks from the diaphragm.

JM: You gotta have him as a good guy in the next one of these that you do!

SPOR: Right?! I have to! Challenge accepted!

JM: (laughs) Christopher Plummer passed away in February 2021. This is his final role, as Rizzo in this movie. He’s in a couple of key scenes. What is your strongest memory of working with Christopher on this film?

SPOR: It elicits three quick memories. One: I met him when he was the Pixie King in “Pixies” and he literally said, “Us Canadians gotta stick together.” He is such a sweetheart. He is such a good guy. Greatly missed. [Two:] On this one, he came in. He was like, “Good to see you again, Sean.” We started chit-chatting. He loves Shakespeare. He said, “I wanna try something for you.” And then he does this Italian mobster voice. I always love the natural voice — of just Ron Perlman and Patton Oswalt. And he wanted to do something different, and I was so happy to hear that. He had put thought into it and was pitching it to me. I was like, “Oh Chris. This is amazing.”

And lastly — he was in Vancouver shooting something else and he sends me this random text and was like, “Can we meet at this hotel?” I show up, and I had three or four glasses of red wine with Christopher Plummer. He just wanted to hang with me and talk, and it was one of the highlights of hanging with him for sure.

JM: Wow. That’s a memory not too many people can say. What did you talk about?

SPOR: A glass of wine happens and we start talking about Shakespeare. Two glasses of wine happen. And then by the third one, it was like the best conversation I’ve ever been a part of. We talked about acting, his background, “The Sound of Music”, you name it. It was an evening with a legend — a masterclass. We covered a lot.

JM: Wow. That’s amazing. What this movie really showcases is this theme of family and finding your family. With all these movies you’ve been a part of, you’ve built a family. What does this theme mean to you?

SPOR: “Fast & Furious”. No, I’m kidding. (laughs)

JM: (laughs)

SPOR: [in Vin Diesel voice] “It’s Family!” (laughs) Because it does take so long… you start with models and then storyboards. Storyboards turn into blocking. Blocking turns into layout. Layout turns into fine animation. Fine animation turns into lighting. Lighting turns into rendering and compositing. You’re always growing on top. You’re with each other for a very long time. And someone’s hopefully improving your work at every stage. I’ve brought it to this level. You want your team to improve upon it. For some people it may be a bump to the ego, but I think once you have that family trust, if you will, you all know you’re working towards a goal of making a great movie.

JM: This is a fun movie. What’s next for you? What are you working on… and how can we get Ron Perlman to be the good guy in it?!

SPOR: I know, right? Right now in animation we are 40-50% through an animated feature called “Ultraduck”, based on the graphic novel. It is exactly what you’d think. It’s a super-powered duck who fights a super-powered rooster!

JM: That sounds so fun!