Vicky Jenson and Skydance Animation’s new, original fairy tale take on a very real contemporary family dynamic, with a princess struggling to keep up appearances while hiding the fact her parents, the king and queen, have been turned into massive, rampaging monsters, debuts November 22 on Netflix.
The lonely days.The sleepless nights.
The mess.The moods.The attitudes.
The constant fights.The guilt.The stress.
The helplessness.The doubt.The shame.
The fear. covers it all in its 3DCG musical about a young girl – so good, so strong, so sweet and so brave – who's trying to keep her kingdom and family together while hiding the fact that her parents, who no longer love each other, have been turned into monsters by a dark magic spell.And, despite her best efforts, 15-year-old Princess Ellian eventually collapses under the pressure that never should have been placed on her shoulders to begin with.And it’s up to her parents-turned-monsters to mend the mess they’ve made. “While we were developing the film, almost all we did was share personal stories of experiences with divorce,” shares ’s director Vicky Jenson.
“We wanted to make sure what we were expressing was not just honest, but also something with common ground for people who have gone through this.Those talks almost became therapy sessions for the team.” Debuting today, November 22 on Netflix, Skydance Animation’s is set in the kingdom of Lumbria, a world of magic, where its princess – voiced by Rachel Zegler – has been trying for a year to hide the fact that her parents have been transformed into monsters.After learning the origins of the dark magic responsible for the King and Queen’s transformative spell, Ellian sets out with her monster mom and dad to “chase the light” and set things right.
But the family’s happily ever after may not be what Ellian envisions.Check out the trailer: “We worked with Dr.JoAnne Pedro-Carroll, author of the award-winning book ‘Putting Children First,’ which is a guide for families going through divorce that helps make sure kids feel seen,” says Jenson.
“That became the key to finding this fairytale for us, to help us sort through the way kids feel in these situations and how parents, who the kids start to view as monsters, tend to react.It was exciting to touch on that and create a new fairytale, starting with a king and a queen and a spell and all that, these familiar trappings, to talk about something very real.” Jenson, who’s known for directing and as well as art directing on , has not worked in the animation scene since 2008.But coming back to direct felt almost like kismet. “I never really intended to go into animation, because I'm not an animator,” notes Jenson.
“I was a painter and a concept artist, but it became all about story for me.I went back and forth between animated movies and live-action because, to me, it’s all filmmaking.The story at the heart of is this family, what they're going through and how they come out the other end.
It wasn't going to sugar coat anything and make it all wrap up in a big bow.The story was honest and, as a filmmaker and someone who has been through a divorce, that attracted me.” The director adds that she, her ex-husband, three daughters and his new wife all holiday together and notes, “It’s just one big extended family.Even if a family appears broken, it doesn’t mean that it is, if there’s still love.” Just because something changes, doesn’t mean it’s gone. “I’m writing that down,” adds Jenson. But, in the end, it’s up to the parents to show their children that love is still there, though it has changed, and that the love they have for their child never changes or wavers.
Unfortunately, Ellian’s parents are not able to give their princess that reassurance for a large portion of the story and it takes a toll.Ellian’s line, “If you can fall out of love with each other, you can fall out of love with me,” is what makes her parents realize they need to act and prove their love for their daughter after more than a year of neglect. “We had other directors sit with us to talk about these ideas and everybody shared their experiences of feeling alone and how they struggled for a long time,” says Jenson.“One person’s parents couldn’t be in the same room with each other and ended up not attending their child’s graduation because they knew the other parent would be there.
Another person shared hearing voices arguing on the other side of a closed door and the only word they could make out was their own name, which made them feel like the parents’ fight was their fault.Meanwhile, the parents are trying not to disturb the kid but end up unintentionally doing the exact opposite.A lot of that made its way into the story.” When Jenson first joined the project, the movie’s script involved two kingdoms at war with a king and queen who were already separated.
The story had Ellian traveling back and forth between the kingdoms.Though the story illustrated the strain of a child living with a divided family, Jenson and the team wanted to illustrate the fear that is bred in a normally happy child when their parents begin to lash out at each other and their behavior becomes unrecognizable. “From a kid's point of view, it’s like, ‘Why are they such monsters? Did I do something wrong? Maybe I can fix this,’” explains Jenson.“That became Ellian’s allegory, where she thinks something crazy happened to them and figures, ‘If I can break the spell, I’ll fix it.
I’ll fix it.’” But Ellian’s desperation attracts the same dark magic that turned her parents to monsters and a large tornado of black wires tries over and over to ensnare Ellian during the family’s journey to find the pool of light. “When it came to getting emotions on the screen and finding ways to embody them, we had a lot of help from our fabulous mentor, who I love: Joan Scheckel,” notes Jenson, referring to the writer, director, producer and teacher known for creating, “The Technique,” a filmmaking practice that focuses on emotion told through action.“She helped us visualize that swirling anger in a way that an audience would feel.Then our sound team up at Skywalker Sound added in these knife noises because that anger is cutting.
It’s painful to be in it.” She adds, “We're not trying to say, ‘Don't get angry.’ In that song toward the end where Elian sings, ‘What about me?’, she's very justified in her sense of anger and feeling unloved and betrayed by her parents because they didn't talk to her or include her.But getting lost in that turmoil, giving into it, that's the villain.That's the danger.
Getting lost in that sadness, loneliness, depression, and not voicing it, that's the problem.And you have every right to voice how you feel.” is not just a film for children of divorce or parents who have been or are going through a divorce.It’s also for the children of those children, their half-siblings, friends, step-parents and anyone who's connected to someone going through these circumstances.
It’s also a film, Jenson hopes, that will help anyone in domestic turmoil feel seen and understood.” “I think it'll spark some conversation,” says Jenson.“And a lot of the themes in it sort of transcend the actual family situation.Everybody feels alienated from or by their parents at some point.
We want them to know that you can find a way back to each other, if you listen and really see each other.If children can feel seen and loved by their parents, then you can get through these things.” Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime.She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment.
Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
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