We Can Be Heroes is a sequel (of sorts) to Robert Rodriguez's cult classic super-hero film from 2005, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D, which starred Taylor Lautner. The new film stars Pedro Pascal and Priyanka Chopra, and recently dropped on Netflix.
As the film is tailored to a new generation of viewers and heroes themselves, the children in the movie all have abilities that emphasize the zany nature of the story. One of the hilarious powers belongs to the aptly named Facemaker, who is able to stretch and alter his features to make any funny faces he wants to.
We spoke exclusively with Dan Macarin, the VFX Supervisor of We Can Be Heroes, about how they brought that particular character to life, and Animation Supervisor Stephen Clee also weighed in on the process. You can listen to Dan and Stephen's conversation in the clip below and read this portion of the transcript, included under the podcast.
"There were always a lot of discussions on, 'how do you tell that that idea without making it a super complex thing?' You don't want to make it an endless tech project of getting a child's face to do a lot of things. And keeping it silly and funny actually worked better, and doing little things to disguise it, of just moving the hand over the face like that, of something like a parent would do to their child is pretty much like it's a basic idea to tell a very funny thing. The simpler we made it, the funnier it became."
Animation Supervisor Stephen Clee added, "With what Dan was saying, with the hand revealing the face like that; I think that's the brilliance of working with somebody like Robert Rodriguez. He understands how he wants to get all of these things in-camera. So it was really fun being on set and watching how he was shooting some of these things and being able to collaborate in some respects with that because he would come up with really interesting ways to shoot things. And he really kept us in mind when he was on set and getting things in-camera."
Be sure to check out the trailer and synopsis for We Can Be Heroes below and share your thoughts on the movie and this interview in the usual spot! We have also included our other chats with the guys about their work on Thor: Ragnarok and Okja.
Dan Macarin and Stephen Clee talk about how Marvel films prepped them for We Can Be Heroes:
Stephen Clee discusses the Hela fight scene in Thor: Ragnarok:
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
When alien invaders kidnap Earth's superheroes, their kids are whisked away to a government safe house. But whip-smart tween Missy Moreno (Yaya Gosselin) will stop at nothing to rescue her superhero dad, Marcus Moreno (Pedro Pascal). Missy teams up with the rest of the superkids to escape their mysterious government babysitter, Ms. Granada (Priyanka Chopra Jonas). If they're going to save their parents, they'll have to work together by using their individual powers — from elasticity to time control to predicting the future — and form an out-of-this-world team. Full of action and heart, WE CAN BE HEROES is directed by Robert Rodriguez (SPY KIDS, THE ADVENTURES OF SHARKBOY AND LAVAGIRL) and also stars Boyd Holbrook, Christian Slater, Chris McDonald, and Adriana Barraza.
We Can Be Heroes is now streaming on Netflix.