‘Ultraman: Rising’ interviews: The creatives behind the film talk nostaglia
Bringing an iconic story to life is never easy. Especially one as beloved as Ultraman. I was lucky enough to go to Lucasfilm and Skywalker Ranch to see how a film like Ultraman: Rising came to life and talk to the creatives behind it!
It has been a lifelong dream of mine to see Lucasfilm and Netflix brought us to the studio that helped a movie like Ultraman: Rising come to life. Getting to talk with composer Scott Stafford, VFX artist Hayden Jones, and directors and producers Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima about the project showed me just how much they all cared about the story they were bringing to life. More than that, we got to see how so many breathtaking decisions came to be.
While the feeling of being as Lucasfilm was enough for me, I also got to sit down with everyone to talk about their roles in the film and it brings a beautiful perspective on filmmaking and Ultraman: Rising!
Creating a perfect score for a Kaiju movie
One of my favorite things I learned on this trip was that there would be small musical variations on the same theme to make a new score. Composer Scott Stafford explained that a scene between Ken Sato (Christopher Sean) and Emi might have a similar chord progression that another piece in the film does but a note or two differentiates between them. That simplicity was beautiful to me and in talking with Stafford about it, he explained how he wanted the score to reflect the heart of the story itself.
“It’s not just about being clever. In fact, cleverness is often the enemy of good storytelling and art. You gotta keep things really simple and if it doesn’t work against visual against animation, if it’s not working in the story, you gotta throw it out,” he said. Stafford went on to explain that the core of Ultraman: Rising is a simple story about family and so he wanted to keep the musical simply to match the simplicity of the story itself. “That’s why I chose having one instrument play a lot of the kind of storytelling role, which is not the instrument you would think of using for a big kaiju superhero action movie, which is the harp.”
You can see our full chat here:
The art of nostalgia
VFX supervisor Hayden Jones gave us a lot of insight into the little things that made Ultraman: Rising come to life. But he also talked about the nostalgia of the piece. He admitted to us that he was a Doctor Who fan and so he looked at a series like Ultraman and the film Ultraman: Rising as new fans coming into Doctor Who with the 2005 reboot series. I asked him about the comparison between the two and how nostalgia played into the visuals of the film.
“It was really interesting being able to kind of like deep dive into the history of a new show that I really had very little kind of breadth of knowledge was just great,” Jones said about the research process for the film. “It’s always great at the start of a show where you do that kind of research period. And this one was fantastic. I had a stack of DVDs and I just started working through them all. And it was really interesting, you could see some of the important themes, like balance is a really big theme in Ultraman and the balance between the Kaiju and the Ultras. But also as well, there was some really interesting takes on how they were achieving their special effects and especially the lensing and the way that they really shot these things and dealing with scale was a really, really interesting concept.”
You can see our full conversation here:
Sometimes, you need a good dad movie
Ultraman: Rising is a film about family but also is just a movie about fatherhood. And I love that about it. We see Ken’s struggle with his own father and then his relationship with Emi and raising her as his own when she needs someone. In talking with Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima about it, they wanted to honor how challenging and frightening fatherhood is while still making a perfect Ultraman story.
“I think it’s to present an honest perspective on the challenges of being a parent and feeling like you don’t have the first idea of what it means to bring a life in and kind of guide this little person that’s forming,” Tindle said. “So, I think that not only the funny bits of one of the things that where ideas would stem from, for example, when Emi escapes from the house and she’s running through the city, I just said, you know, as a parent, a lot of parents have had that experience of a kid running into the middle of the street. And it’s hilarious for the kid. They’re having the time of their life. But for a parent it is terrifying because they know what the threat is that the kid doesn’t yet see that’s coming. And now the baby is 35 feet tall and she could accidentally kill people whenever she gets into the city. So there’s that added level. It was to take something that is a basic experience that many parents have had and trying to be truthful to that in the middle of this very fantastic world.”
Aoshima went on to talk about they wanted the movie to grow with its fanbase. “I think that kids are more observant than you think. I know I was and I watch adults handle certain things or behave a certain way and just sort of kind of have these flashes of memory. Of how they kind of taught me, raised me and also how they handle certain situations that didn’t relate to me. And so, I think it’s showcasing moments like that in the film kind of helps kind of age them up. Of course we have all the fun popcorn stuff in the film and fun stuff, action stuff, that the younger audience will eat up. But I think it’s okay to give them some others and give it that flavor. So that if they were to rewatch it as an adult or when they get older as a teen, that there’s some new discoveries and connections.”
You can see our conversation here:
Hopefully you’re all inspired to now go back and revisit the beauty that is Ultraman: Rising! And if you haven’t seen it yet, what are you doing!? Go watch it now on Netflix!
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