Creativity, Passion and Humor are the driving forces behind Dreamworks' new animated film, Mr. Peabody and Sherman. I was invited to a special media preview event for the film, and it was such a special and inspiring day. I arrived at the Dreamworks Animation Campus in Burbank and after a fun green screen photo shoot in Mr. Peabody glasses and bow tie we were shown the film. I am not allowed to say to much about the film yet, but it’s fabulous - kids, parents...everyone is going to love this funny, smart and heartwarming movie. When the movie was over we sat in the screening room as the credits rolled and rolled and rolled. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people that worked on this film and we were about to go speak with them and learn more about what went into the making of Mr. Peabody & Sherman.
We met with the Visual Effects, Production Design, Character Animation, and Story Board teams, then the producers and actors in the film. Each team transformed the rooms and themselves into a character from a scene in the movie; there was the French Revolution, Ancient Rome, Renaissance Italy and Ancient Troy. We learned how all the teams work together and collaborate to bring the film together.
The Director of Visual Effect explained how his team of over 300 animation experts converted the ideas and sketches into 3D images. He showed us clips at different stages of a scene, and how adjusting the speed of the water to the color of a brick had a huge impact. The visual effects team also got to create what it would be like to travel thru time. They spent hundreds and hundreds of hours creating over 500 million particles to make 1,440 wormholes that the WABAC (Mr. Peabody’s time machine) travels through. It is amazing how they imagined and created this life like idea of time travel. I think it might have actually been easier to invent a time machine and have a real life talking dog surf the underground canal!!
The art department, production design teams and character animators are responsible for everything from the size and shape of a doorknob to a huge explosion. Mr. Peabody and Sherman has a huge cast of characters - there are 58 unique and historical characters, plus hundreds of background characters. They start with sketches and ideas and use the computer to play with shapes and proportion to get the perfect balance of fun and believability. We also got a lesson on how to draw Mr. Peabody. Mine is below.
I always knew there was an enormous amount of work that went into the making of animated movies, but meeting the teams and hearing about their passion and love for the project was so inspiring. They really love what they do and it shows. They work long hours but it seems like they also have a lot of fun, like when they need to “act” out the scenes to see how a character would move and get the timing right. I feel so lucky for this special peek inside the magical creative and fun environment that went into making Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and I can’t wait to finally be able to take the kids to see the film when it opens on Friday, March 7th (I’ve been quoting the movie since the event and they don’t get it yet).
Here is a trailer for the film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMl2tTVwsZA&feature=player_embedded
To end the day we took a big group picture and Jeffrey Katzenberg just happened to be walking by and jumped right in. 
