When “Star Wars: Visions” debuted in the fall of 2021, it felt like exploring a genuinely new part of the galaxy far, far away.
A collection of nine animated shorts from some of Japan’s most storied studios (including Production I.G., Studio Trigger and Kinema Citrus), they were brilliant and, living up to the title of the collection, visionary – full of Tatooine rock bands and epic lightsaber duels. For the follow-up (now on Disney+), the team has taken a more international approach and recruited studios from all over, including Ireland (Cartoon Saloon), England (Aardman), France (Studio La Cachette), India (88 Pictures) and more. The results are, much like the first batch of shorts, exhilarating – they each have such a distinct perspective and cultural specify that make the stories come alive. They’re emotional, thrilling and unique, while still being undeniably “Star Wars.”
TheWrap spoke to Jacquie Lopez, James Waugh and Josh Rimes about the process of bringing the shorts to life, their new international take on the material and whether or not they ever asked Studio Ghibli to join the “Star Wars: Visions” universe.
How does the process work? Do you go after studios? Do certain studios pitch you?
Jacqui Lopez: As soon as James made the pronouncement that we were going to go global, I think the three of us had some studios that we are big fans of and that we were like, “Okay, let’s try this one or this one and see if they can take this on if they’re interested.”
Besides that, we did a lot of research. We had some filmmakers we wanted to work with. We had studios we wanted to work with. We saw some shorts that were super strong and thought, Oh, this … And we also wanted to make sure we had global representation. When we basically cold-called each studio to see if they would be interested, one of the satisfying things is that for a lot of them “Star Wars” meant a lot to them.
And you could say, “Yeah, sure, of course they did,” but you don’t know when you go to a different country or a different culture to know if it had the significance it did on so many of us here in this country. But they did. And they got it. They got what “Star Wars” was about, and they had a story coming from their cultural perspective that fit and made beautiful “Star Wars” stories. From there, we had them pitch what their story was. Some studios pitched one story, others pitched several.
From there, we curate the nine shorts in the anthology and then go from there.
James Waugh: I would just say we work with them closely at every step of the way, to the point where we call them as fans because the truth is we’re big animation fans as well. And so obviously, a lot of these studios are storied studios and we loved the fact that we got to engage and build stories with them. But we also wanted to make sure that we had newer studios and studios that were more upcoming, whose work we were really impressed with. What we’re always looking for is the story that’s about something, the story that has sparked from a creator that has something to say, something timeless that if you could strip all the “Star Wars” out of it, it’s a human story.
And then we, through the development process, are hand-in-hand helping them shape their story in a way that it expresses their theme and the things they want to say as best as possible, using the best elements of “Star Wars.” Our goal is to help them make the best story as possible, and it’s continuously like that throughout the process. It’s very hand-in-hand, but the goal, the vision comes from each of them.
Where did the idea to go international come from?
James Waugh: I would say that we always looked at “Visions” as having the potential to go beyond anime. That’s where we started. But as a framework, as a lens, I think we saw it as is this potential to have really masterful creators come in and celebrate “Star Wars,” celebrate all the elements of the galaxy from the 40 years of storytelling that’s been out there across medium – what did “Star Wars” mean to these creators? We saw that pliability of it and that potential of it, but anime was definitely the form that we were all super engaged with at the time. It meant so much to our animation team. It meant so much to a lot of the ways we think about animation. And so we knew that there would be a really great combination with “Star Wars” and anime. We wanted to bend our development process to the Japanese creative community for volume one.
The thing that was really apparent was their specific cultural perspective gave them a very different bedrock of storytelling values and interesting historical insights, religious insights, things that were outside of the normal Western perspective of “Star Wars.” And through that cultural lens we realized was the story. Just as much as it was the celebration of animation and “Star Wars,” we realized that really the beauty here is a celebration of this culture looking at this thing that has become this massive global phenomenon that has currency globally.
Volume 2 was really one of those things of seeing the incredible work happening all over the globe, whether it’s advancements in style and form and medium or new techniques, and wanting to showcase that and thinking, Let’s take “Visions” and really test that idea that it can be this broader label that can showcase different talent from all over the world. And so that’s really where it came from. And then we decided, “Here’s a list of creators that we love, studios that we love. They probably don’t have time to do a short, but you never know. Let’s give them a call.”
Was there ever anything that was pitched that was too far outside the realm of “Star Wars?”
Josh Rimes: Yeah, but I mean, usually when we know we’re working with these studios, they know that too, which is the nice thing. It’s a safe space. They know that, “Hey, here are a bunch of ideas. We know not all of them are going to stick. Let’s have a conversation.”
Every once in a while some of them come with just one they’re really excited about or two, and we’ll work with them if it’s not quite right. But usually they’re pretty close. And these are master storytellers in their own right, telling big mythical stories in their regions and through their studios, through the artists in house. And so many of them have grown up on “Star Wars.” It was a pretty easy process all in all.
James Waugh: Yeah, I mean, look, Aardman is a good example – they had several directors that came and they wanted to pitch different takes. And of course, it’s Aardman every time. The first three pitches were hilarious. We were laughing at the pitches and they were so great. But the final pitch, the one we went with, “I Am Your Mother,” the creator, Magdalena [Osinska], had something to say. She really had a mother and daughter story at the heart of it. And her being Polish, coming to England and being raised in a different climate, feeling a little embarrassed of her mother later in life, coming to terms with that and so admiring her mother, that was a story. That was a human story to chase down. That’s what we were looking for.
Just to back up to you the earlier question, the one thing we did put in our riff as we went out to the studios is we really wanted the various studios to look at their own mythology, their own culture, look at things that were inherently, they’re Indian or they’re Celtic, and lean into those aspects because that’s what we were looking for. When we met with Aardman, it was definitely the moment of, “Are you sure you want all these Northern English accents in this?” I was like, “Absolutely. This is great.”
Lucasfilm famously teamed with Studio Ghibli for a Grogu short (and have teased an additional short in the works). Did you ever talk to them about doing something longer for “Star Wars: Visions?”
Jacqui Lopez: Ghibli is such an entity unto itself and I think they have a very sacred place in our hearts and they have a long-established relationship with Kathy. I don’t think we ever thought of them being one of an anthology.
I think just doing the little Grogu short with them was so exciting that they wanted to dabble in “Star Wars,” at least to that degree. But no, I don’t think we thought of them as part of this.
The second batch of “Star Wars: Visions” shorts is on Disney+ now.
