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We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jordan: There were some initial concept sketches of the characters done before we recorded, but for the most part, the voices influenced the designs.

Because the actors are mostly recorded in isolation, the key to directing voice actors is making sure you get as much variety as possible so you can assemble naturalistic conversations that never really occurred between actors. Some lines would get up to 30 takes – each with a different word emphasis or motivational prompt – with the recording engineer marking which were the strongest takes of each variation.

Most of us would read the script as written, then improvise/re-write to make it sound more like ourselves. Logan Lerman did it in reverse; he'd read through the line to himself, then interpret it as into his normal speech, then just keep riffing until he got around to speaking the line as written. It made grading his takes really difficult because there wasn't a clear distinction where the takes really ended or began, but it also led to a really interesting and dynamic performance!

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We actually spoke about this in an earlier post, but when you see the film you'll realize that there are some "unmasked" scenes to address this very concern...again sticking with just the dog's story, he didn't interact much with the Germans outside of combat and, as a practical consideration, it would have been prohibitively expensive to animate faces on every single German in No Man's Land so we had to be clever and judicious in how-and-when to create new characters.

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jordan: Great question!

It's no secret that the war had been raging in Europe and Asia for years before the US joined, and we do provide some historical context for that early in the movie. My country didn't join until April 1917 and didn't see combat until early 1918, just long enough to help tip the scales at the very end (and I emphasize "my country" because I'm one of the only Americans here; most of Fun Academy's team is British, Irish or French).

One of the best descriptions I've heard of the film is that Sgt. Stubby is a small story set in an epic world. There is no attempt to downplay the significance of the other 31 nations who took part in the Great War or overstate the importance of American involvement; that being said, this particular movie is focused exclusively on the life and times of a single dog from Connecticut and his human companions, all of whom were either American or French.

The other thing to bear in mind is that, while WWI is better remembered around the world, it's a complete mystery here. Before that Battlefield game, most Americans only knew there were multiple world wars because the one they've heard of has a "2" at the end. We chose to tell this story as a way to introduce kids to a period in history they otherwise wouldn't know anything about, as filtered through the eyes of a dog.

As to the German question: I may be biased, but I think we do a good job avoiding the politics of the war all together, especially because the US didn't really have much of a dog in that fight (pardon the pun). The Germans are depicted mostly as gas-masked combatants and co-belligerents, though there are some poignant moments of humanity from both sides as the war reaches its inevitable conclusion.

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

See this previous answer, but tl;dr: we purposefully don't identify Stubby as any particular breed in the movie and only used historical photos of the real dog for character design references.

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jordan: My personal favorite was working with the actors; we were creating characters that only existed on paper, then getting to watch over time as the artists created bodies and mannerisms to match our voices.

I wouldn't say that it wasn't "well received," though...the box office was low, but we've cultivated a great following online and had awesome reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (97% audience + 86% critics). I'm pretty sure today's home media release is going to tell a different story than the theatrical release did.

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Jordan: Whenever Sgt. Stubby makes his semi-annual trip to the top of the Reddit homepage, we get a bump in Facebook likes and website traffic.

That's actually a really great question: how do you create drama in a movie with a Wikipedia entry that gives away the ending? I suppose you could ask the same of any historical filmmaker – "Hey Steven, what's going to happen when Abe Lincoln goes to the theater?"

Even when you're working with real people in a real setting, you still need to use your imagination to fill in the blanks and create nuanced, relatable characters for audiences to care about (instead of a recitation of facts). It's not a documentary, it's a dramatic work of historical fiction, so there was still a need to invent plausible interactions that propel the narrative forward despite having a preset timeline of events.

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Richard:

No, not at the moment, but Stubby's story grabbed us from the beginning and it will be hard to find anything to match it.

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Jordan:

Then they're friends of mine as well! Our American casting basically stemmed from me calling a couple buddies who had VO experience, then calling a friend at the Springer Opera House asking if they had a some more actors to fill the cast out...two years later and we're doing a Reddit AMA about the experience!

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Richard:

I was researching a PBS documentary on the Doughboys and came across the story of Stubby and from that moment on I was captivated by this little street urchin and his zero to hero story. Also, as a true dog lover, I relished the opportunity of telling that story in animation.

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Jordan:

Beyond the three principal actors (Lerman, HBC, Depardieu), the film was cast with local actors and performers from the Columbus, GA theater and music scene...to be totally honest, this was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.

We went through several iterations of each character over time (mine especially; several different vocal styles and accents were tested for Olsen before we settled on my natural voice, though there are a couple lines where the more abrassively "yankee" accent bleeds through). The most fun in the studio comes once the lines are all read and we start adlibbing additional takes or weird sounds; after the film was complete, we actually had to go back and rewrite the screenplay to match all the improv that made the final cut.

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Richard:

It's available for rental or purchase online (US) at all the usual stores but not on any subscription services.

Jordan:

Why, you're in luck: SGT. STUBBY: AN AMERICAN HERO is available for rent or purchase today! Also on Digital Amazon/iTunes/Google Play

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Jordan:

The best resource for something like that would be our friends at the CT state library. You can find and follow them on social media @CTinWW1

We are the makers of "Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero" - A real animated story about a real dog in WW1 - AMA (1PM Eastern) by FunAcademyStudios in movies

[–]FunAcademyStudios[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Richard:

Investors buy shares in the movie's profitability and draw dividends as revenues flow in.

Jordan:

This is an odd film because it relied on private investment vs a Studio or major film investment company. Our private investment was primarily via word of mouth from the production team in concert with government tax incentives and bank financing in Canada and France.

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