Watchingthe new movieScreamboat, I expected to see Steamboat Willie kill a bunch of people.
Where did the love of Disney come from?
Was there a line he wouldnt cross?
In this exclusive photo from Screamboat, you’ll see five women who just happen to be bounding as Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Cinderella, Ariel, and Jasmine.Image: Sklae Loran
How did the references come about?
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
But I didnt expect it to go so hard on the Disney fandom.
Screamboatdirector Steven LaMorte on set with his mouse. – Sklae Lorand
My question to start is, what is your history with Disney?
So Ive been living with this mouse since birth.
So Im a deep-cuts Disney fanboy.
Allie Seibold, Stephanie Bates, Kailey Hyman, Savannah Whitten, and Poonam Basu inScreamboat.– Sklae Lorand
I got into making movies sort of as a backdoor way to be an Imagineer.
Ive always loved effects and stagecraft and making sort of a spectacle, right?
Someone who always thought that nothing is impossible.
Terrifierstar David Howard Thornton as Willie inScreamboat.– Sklae Lorand
If you have a dream, you should go for it.
io9: So how did you decide on the balance?
I mean, we love this stuff.
This is something Im such a fan of.
So we had sort of these things.
And then we started looking for these opportunities.
Where do you incorporate these moments?
Where do you incorporate these jokes?
And some of them are very obvious and on the nose, like an actual line from the movie.
Thats the number 33.
Theres a thing in Disney, its a club, and dont worry about it.
Just double-check you get the 33 in the shot.
And I was like, Mission accomplished!
I didnt think anyone was going to get that.
So its really just, Im on the inside.
I wanted to make something that I loved and that people connected with.
And if you dont like Disney, I think youll have fun seeing the movie.
But if you do, and you get the references, I think the movie is even more fun.
And that was thats sort of what I wanted to do.
Are they Easter eggs?
But theyre also vital to the DNA of the flick, because thats what people are really connecting with.
io9: On the topic of references, I have one specific thing I have to ask about.
Am I totally off on that?
LaMorte:That is not who she is supposed to be.
io9: Okay, I figured as much but had to ask.
That would have been the deepest cut of all time.
LaMorte:So theres one in there that we had to change last minute.
Theres some that didnt make it into the movie, of course.
So theres some stuff that didnt make it in.
We had the name of the woman, but legal wouldnt clear it because shes a real person.
So we had to change it.
io9: But you did manage to get a very coolSteamboatWilly-esqueanimated sequence in there.
Hes been locked away for a long period of time.
And of course, were at an independent film.
io9: Another style question.
When I saw the trailers, for some reason, I thought Willie was a full-sized creature.
So I was a little confused watching the movie when I realized hes actually Mickey Mouse-sized.
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