DreamWorks’ TURBO is about a small snail with a special dream! Turbo the snail wants to compete in the biggest race car competition around. He wants to win the INDY 500 and help his friend Tito save his Mexican food business, Dos Bros Tacos. With the help of his friends, Turbo tries to achieve his seemingly impossible dream of racing against the fastest drivers in the world!
THE MAGAZINE recently got a chance to sit down with the director David Soren and talk about what it was like to make such an inspiring movie.
So let’s start with something everyone is asking, ‘why snails’?
Why Snails? I have a yard full of them and I have a son who is obsessed with his race cars zooming around the living room. The combination of slow creatures in my yard and race cars on the living room floor was the reason for TURBO.
So you just decided to combine them one day?
Yeah, it was really just seeing these things in such close proximity everyday, something eventually just sparked. I started to think about this character… a snail who has an obsession with speed and the parallels between an underdog who nobody expects anything of, whose life is stacked with obstacles. A snail could kind of fit into that archetype you know? Being despised by gardeners, smushed by children and eaten by the French. Being the bud of slow jokes around the world. They’re sort of like the perfect underdog.
Turbo the snail joins forces with Tito who runs a Taco truck and stand with his brother Angelo, so there was a big focus on their company Dos Bros Tacos. This leads to another ‘why’ question. Why tacos? Why have them travel across the state in a taco truck?
Well, I live in L.A. I live in the Valley and snails are in my yard so it didn’t seem like it was necessary to invent a whole other location. You can’t go far in L.A. without coming upon a taco stand or a taco truck. Everybody loves Mexican food that lives there, myself included. I just love the way a taco truck looks. It’s just such an iconic funny vehicle. And I started to think of the story in terms of the duo brothers’ angle. It’s not really a story about a snail, it’s a story about a dreamer and this other dreamer that he meets… And that for me was ‘why the tacos.’
A lot of characters grow and discover new things about themselves and others around them. Who do you think grew the most, in the film?
Chet. He’s got the biggest arch in the movie. He goes from being extremely against Turbo’s desire to race to then going to extreme lengths to actually show his support.
You’ve worked on animations like SHARK TALE and MERRY MADAGASCAR, which also focus on animals. What is it about the animal kingdom that has you telling stories there instead of with people?
Animation in general lends itself to creating characters that aren’t traditionally characters you are able to bring to life. And the best thing about animals is nobody really knows what they’re thinking, so you can take liberties, give them personalities and tell stories about different types of characters you wouldn’t normally get to.
Some of the snail characters like Whiplash (Samuel L Jackson) and Smooth Move (Snoop Dogg) have movements that really fit the actors. They look similar…
Hah! They look similar? I don’t know how they’d feel about that!
Did you create those characters with the actors in mind?
Yeah, some of them. Snoop Dogg’s character was definitely somebody I had in mind. I was imagining Snoop as I was writing that character and was lucky enough to be able to cast him, which is a first for animation. Sam Jackson was somebody that I thought would be perfect for the character Whiplash. In some cases, the character was already designed when we casted them and in some we designed them after the actor was cast. In all cases, we film the actors every time we record them so the animators have access to all of that. Mostly we just try to capture the spirit of the performance.
What was the most challenging part of making the movie?
Just trying to figure out how to make these snails express themselves in necessary ways to let the audience empathize with them and root for them with such limited features. They have no arms, no legs, they don’t even have eyebrows… so all the things you’re used to using we couldn’t use. We were limited with what we had to work with but it forced us to come up with other alternative ways of having them move and emote. I think it makes the movie more fresh and satisfying creatively.
What was it like working with such a famous cast?
They were great! Honestly, it was such a thrill getting to work with every one of them, They’re all such talented actors and it was lovely that some of them had never done animation before. It was really nice working with some that hadn’t done it because it was a fresh slate. It was really fun to work with them and mold these performances. They’re all so good and properly cast for their parts, it was an easy fit for every one of them!
Any talks of a sequel?
My goal with the movie was to make sure that it worked on it’s own. I think it ends with a thirst to see a bit more of these characters, but we’ll see. The audiences are going to be the ones to decide.
What’s the one thing you want most for your audience to take out of the movie?
I just hope they fall in love with these characters!
Thank you, David Soren!
TURBO hits theatres July 17! We at THE MAGAZINE are sure that people will love the characters in TURBO. This charming movie is both exciting and funny! In the movie theatre, you might find yourself loudly cheering Turbo on as you watch him and his friends try to do the impossible.