Interview with Superworm Producer Barney Goodland
For over ten years, Magic Light Pictures have adapted Julia Donaldson’s acclaimed picture books into award winning animated short films with The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, Zog and The Snail and the Whale just to name a few. Superworm is the next of Donaldson’s books to get the Magic Light treatment, featuring the voices of Matt Smith, Olivia Coleman and Rob Bryson just to name a few.
I had the opportunity to ask producer Barney Goodland some questions about the making of the film as well as career at Magic Light Pictures.
Barney Goodland
© Magic Light Pictures Ltd
How did you start your career within the animation industry and how did it lead you to become a Producer at Magic Light Pictures?
I joined Magic Light Pictures in 2008 when we were producing a couple of live action feature films, and starting work on ‘The Gruffalo’ with the animated feature ‘Chico & Rita’ in development. So I began by watching ‘The Gruffalo’ animatic and animation tests, setting up the voice records, assisting with production pipeline and seeing the film through post production and delivery. It was an amazing first experience working with really talented people. Since then I’ve been involved in all our animated films working my way up from assistant to producer on ‘Superworm’.
After crafting award winning films based on Julia Donaldson’s picture books, why did you and the team pick Superworm as your next adaptation?
‘Superworm’ is an wonderfully inventive and imaginative story – an action adventure about a worm and other garden creatures! The story is rooted in a tender friendship and beautiful sense of community. All of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s books are unique with strong and relatable themes and our long-time colleagues, Max and Suzanne Lang, gave us a fantastic script that developed a relationship between Superworm and Butterfly which underpins the whole film. We then started work with directors Jac Hamman and Sarah Scrimgeour who delivered an animatic that was high energy, fun and touching. One of my favourite things about the story and its world is that a child can view it and imagine it happening in their own back garden, park or a patch of grass anywhere close by and that to me is really special.
Superworm (Matt Smith) rescues beetle from the well.
© Magic Light Pictures Ltd
For over ten years, you have produced many successful films for families around the world. What makes this new film different to you in comparison to your studio’s previous hits?
This story is different because it takes place in a macro world, the like of which we’ve never created before. The team at Blue Zoo Animation Studio in London have done an incredible job going into such close detail, designing rich and textured environments and characters, whilst staying true to the look and feel of Magic Light’s previous specials.
However, although the creatures are small this is definitely one of our biggest films! It features one of our largest all-star casts and the sound design and René Aubry’s score have had to balance a huge community of characters and bring to life the intimate world, whilst delivering the emotional moments and tense action sequences.
Throughout the production, what was the biggest challenge you or your team faced and how did you overcome it?
The Coranavirus pandemic of course posed a huge challenge. It took hold right at the start of the project’s development, which meant we were working remotely with a team spread across London, Dublin, New York and Los Angeles. As we started pre-production our directors, Sarah Scrimgeour and Jac Hamman, were both able to make it home to Cape Town, but they then had to quickly get used to connecting with the animation studio in London. Although we were already working with Blue Zoo Animation on our animated pre-school series, ‘Pip and Posy’, this was our first special together so it required a completely new creative approach and pipeline. Given all these factors and a production crew based around the world, who have all had to live with the pandemic, I think it’s incredible that we’ve been able to produce a film of the quality of ‘Superworm’ on schedule and entirely remotely.
Wizard Lizard (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) and Crow (Rob Brydon) look menacingly over Superworm (Matt Smith)
© Magic Light Pictures Ltd
Without spoiling the film, what was your favourite scene to produce?
If it’s ok I’m going to choose three!
The first is a long sequence that was called ‘Rainy Day Bees’ during production and includes Superworm acting as a skipping rope for some bored bees, becoming a fishing line to rescue a tiny beetle stuck in a well. Superworm receives so much admiration from all the garden creatures for his feat that his ego explodes. It was a challenge sequence to get right because it contains a number of key story points and several shifts in energy and tone.
My other two favourites are Wizard Lizard’s magic flower dance where he casts a spell over Superworm so he can use him to search for buried treasure, and Crow taking delight in taunting all the garden creatures about Superworm’s plight from his moonlit perch above the garden. Both scenes look gorgeous, feature incredible cast performances and music cues and are very atmospheric and lots of fun!
You also had an award winning cast to work with as well. What was it like to collaborate with them on their roles?
It was amazing! We were overjoyed to get our first choice cast and are indebted to our casting director, Karen Lindsay-Stewart, for making it happen and the cast brought our macro world to life wonderfully.
Having to conduct the recording process remotely meant that it was a different experience for us all, but the quality of the cast and the skills of our sound team meant that it all went smoothly. All of the early records were Zoom calls but were wonderful treats and I remember them all fondly.
Olivia Colman’s narration delivers the story perfectly, taking us into the world alongside the characters, beautifully underpinning the comedic moments and deftly raising the tension when required.
Patricia Allison gave us a warm and resolute Butterfly, Rob Brydon’s Crow is a menacing and imposing presence, but also great comedic foil to Kobna Holdbrook-Smith’s villain, Wizard Lizard. Kobna is deliciously menacing and mysterious and his performance means you can’t take your eyes off Wizard Lizard.
Matt Smith was perfect as Superworm. He gave the character such incredible depth and we subtly feel Superworm’s ego growing. Matt brought a great energy to the role and mixed comedic delivery and hubris brilliantly.
Superworm (Matt Smith) lands on top of a mole, while the other insects and critters cheer him on.
© Magic Light Pictures Ltd
What advice would you give to anyone who wants to become a producer themselves and get their first steps into the animation industry?
Immerse yourself in stories, think about how their constructed, how they are telling the story and engaging an audience (as well as how they’ve reached their audience). Watch animated films and explore their behind-the-scenes material so you can begin to understand the process. Look to meet animators, writers, directors and producers so you can collaborate and make films together. There’s lots of courses that train up animators and writers, who will want to make films and need a producer. I’ve been to animation networking events where 80-90%% of the people there are looking for a producer to work with.
Now that the film is nearly released, what would you personally like to see adapted or made at Magic Light Pictures?
We’re actually already working on a couple of animated projects that originate from material I was excited to see adapted. We’re looking forward to announcing these in 2022.
This current year has also been an incredible one for Magic Light Pictures – as well as ‘Superworm’ we’ve also just wrapped on our first animated series, ‘Pip and Posy’, which has been premiering on Channel 5 Milkshake! and Sky Kids.
We have new animation and drama projects for young audiences in development, while our international licensing programmes for ‘The Gruffalo’ and ‘Pip and Posy’ continue to grow strongly. Alongside ‘Superworm’ we have 8 other animated specials (including ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘Stick Man’, ‘Zog’ and ‘The Snail and the Whale’) which have now been distributed to close to 200 countries.
Butterfly (Patricia Allison) cheers on Superworm (Matt Smith)
© Magic Light Pictures Ltd
Magic Light Pictures presents Superworm, an animated comedy for all the family, based on the picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
Voice cast include Olivia Colman (Narrator), Matt Smith (Superworm) and Rob Brydon (Crow), Patricia Allison (Butterfly) and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (Wizard Lizard).
Superworm will air on BBC One, Christmas Day at 2.30pm and will stream on BBC iPlayer the same day.