Strange World Directors Don Hall And Qui Nguyen On Its 'Lucious, Epic Score' And That Big Reveal [Exclusive Interview]

Disney Animation's "Strange World" is now in theaters, and the movie about three generations of the Clade family finding themselves in a land unlike anything they've ever seen makes for a delightful film to see with your own family over the Thanksgiving holiday.

If you've seen "Strange World," you also know there's some surprises in store for the Clades as well as for the audience. I talked with director Don Hall and writer/co-director Qui Nguyen about that major reveal (and where they got inspiration for it), the movie's score and its "Raiders of the Lost Ark" feel, and how the game in the movie actually exists in our not-so-strange world. I also got to ask Nguyen about another Disney project he's working on with Ryan Reynolds.

This interview contains spoilers for "Strange World" and was lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

During our first interview, you obviously had to keep the movie's twist under wraps, which you should have. But I wanted to ask, now that of I know the whole story, if there's any other specific inspirations for the movie for that twist at the end?

Hall: Obviously there are certain films that have done that. It's a really tiny, tiny subgenre — Dennis [Quaid, who voices Jaeger Clade in "Strange World"] was in one, "Innerspace." But I have to say it was less of a cinematic inspiration and more of a thematic one.

That was really what guided it, because obviously the film was: "Imagine you discovered that you're living on the back of a living thing and what you're doing is harming that. What would you do?" That was the first pitch I did. And then that idea of it was discovery and the idea of going down, "Journey to the Center of the Earth" was a big inspiration. But the idea of going and exploring the inside of a living thing, it just felt like a nice metaphor for our planet, and in addition made a visually stunning and cool environment. So it was less a cinematic one and more of a thematic one.

Nguyen: I would just add that we did want to make sure that when you discovered the truth of the Strange World, it impacted the story. It wasn't just like the ending of "Men in Black" where it was like, "Oh, we finished the whole story and then suddenly they're in a marble and you're like, 'Oh, that's cute.'" But here, much like in "The Matrix," we want that revelation that this wasn't what you thought it was to suddenly change their perspective on how they were going to treat this world.

It wasn't just about them trying to save a crop that they could use that would benefit them in the immediate term. They suddenly had to worry about their world in the long term. When Don first pitched it, he was like, "What if you discovered you were living on an actual living thing? Not in a hippy dippy way, but in a real, tangible way."

Hall: I did say hippy dippy, too.

Nguyen: And so that has always played in our brains as we were, as a team, crafting it together.

It reminded me — obviously the large tortoise myth comes from a few indigenous cultures.

Nguyen: Yes, absolutely.

But there's a similar conceit in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series ... I don't know if you know those books.

Nguyen: Yes.

Hall: I've never read it, but I've been informed by many people who have.

Another thing I really loved about the movie was Ethan. I think he's my favorite character, and I wish I was as with-it, now as an adult, as Ethan is a 16-year-old kid.

Hall: I know.

What I really loved is that he's gay, he has a crush on boy, and no one cares. It's just completely natural. His dad's still an embarrassing dad. And his grandfather gives him unhealthy dating advice. I'm so happy for all for kids who get to see that representation — was that always part of the story as well?

Hall: Yeah, from day one. When we first started conceiving the characters, Ethan was going to be a gay kid from day one and we pursued that. And we're very fond of Ethan as well for all those reasons, and really can't wait for the world to see him and embrace him.

That's great. Another thing I thought was a fun but also played well into the story was the game Primal Outpost. Is there an actual Primal Outpost game?

Nguyen: Well, the artist that put that together, Cory Loftis, we just needed him to design some cool cards, but he actually ended up designing a game that had rules and is completely playable. There's more cards that we don't show, just so we could put it together, but he has a playable version of it. The impetus of the game was we wanted something for Ethan to feel like a very modern teenager thing. And obviously in a world that we created, we didn't have video games or the Internet or anything, but kids today are gamers. There's a ton of gamers, from tabletop gamers to video gamers, and that was the huge impetus to have him have a language that felt different than something Searcher or Jaeger would understand.

Hall: Also, what it gave us was a way to weave in the environmental theme without it being super heavy-handed, because the game itself, if you really listen to when Ethan breaks down the rules, it really is kind of an environmental game because it's about living in harmony with your environment. That's the ultimate goal. So it was a way for us to keep that theme going.

I'd also love to hear more about how the voice cast informed the characters, and vice versa.

Hall: We can only go so far in terms of developing a character. You start with a broad idea, and then it gets shaped in the writing, and then the storyboarding shapes it even more. But we can only take it so far because really, it's not until the actors get involved that the character really comes alive. And it does evolve over time because that's our process. It's iterative. We don't go record the script once and done. That first session, sometimes we don't use anything from it, but it's more getting to know them, letting them start to develop that character, and then it gets a little more specific over the course of the five, six, seven recording sessions we have.

Nguyen: I think the voice actors [are] always surprised because I think they're used to just doing the script. That first recording session is really them just dipping their toes into it. And then beyond that, they start to realize they're hugely influential as collaborators, not just the voice talent in it. I made a joke once that is like, "Oh, I barely have to do much of my job as a writer because they do so much of it for me."

Another thing I also really loved was the score, which was truly fantastic. I'd just love to hear a little bit more about how the score with Henry Jackman came to be.

Hall: This is my third film with Henry. He did "Winnie the Pooh" and "Big Hero 6," so we're very familiar with each other and have a great collaboration. I have to give Henry 100% credit for this score. He saw a relatively early story reel. I don't think there was any animation, but he got so excited and he got the movie, and I think got excited for the opportunity to swing for the fences, and this score swings for the fences.

Obviously there's moments of subtlety, but it is big, it's orchestral. It evokes movies like "Raiders of Lost Ark," "Empire Strikes Back," "Superman." It is a big, luscious, epic score. And we drafted off of his enthusiasm, to be honest. The first thing he did was, "Here's a suite that I worked on." And I was in tears with joy because it just felt like, "Yes, that's the movie."

Nguyen: Yeah, talk about making our jobs easier. Also, as a writer, it made me realize I could just lean on his music and what we were seeing on screen. So during the third act of the film, there's maybe two to three pages worth of dialogue. The rest of it is really just our animation, the direction, and his score that's really driving the important part of the movie.

Before we go, Qui, my husband is a big theme park nerd, and he's very excited about the feature you're doing with Ryan Reynolds on S.E.A. I know you probably can't talk much about it, but is there anything you can tease, any characters you might see or anything like that?

Nguyen: I can't share anything, but I will say that I think that people are going to be very delighted by Ryan Reynolds in it.

"Strange World" is now playing in theaters.