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<\/a>Phil Johnston<\/p>\n\u201cThe book is only about 76 pages,\u201d Johnston tells Cartoon Brew ahead of the film\u2019s streaming release on October 17. \u201cIt\u2019s really a series of sketches; the Twits being horrible to each other and to animals. So for me, the fun was taking these two hateful, fantastic characters and building a world around them. It\u2019s really more inspired by than adapted from the source material.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dahl\u2019s Meanest Couple Deliver A Modern Morality Tale<\/p>\n
In the new film, Mr. and Mrs. Twit, voiced by Margo Martindale and Johnny Vegas, are still the meanest, smelliest, nastiest couple alive who also happen to own and operate the world\u2019s most idiotic amusement park. When they rise to power in their city, two brave orphans and a family of magical animals must outwit the vile duo to save their home. It\u2019s classic Dahl chaos that fans of his writing will appreciate, but also, Johnston says, \u201ca story for our times, about cruelty and empathy \u2014 and how we can fight one with the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
That moral edge is baked into Dahl\u2019s DNA, but Johnston was equally drawn to the mischief. After years of writing and directing at Disney, he was eager to test limits. \u201cI could not have made this movie in a million years at Disney,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to flex some stranger muscles, darker ambitions, a tone that\u2019s highbrow themes and lowbrow comedy. Netflix actually let me make a strange baby, and I wake up every morning surprised they\u2019re releasing it.\u201d<\/p>\n A New Kind Of Dahl Universe<\/p>\n Johnston\u2019s Twits also carries the distinction of being the first major project in Netflix\u2019s Roald Dahl storytelling universe, following the streaming giant\u2019s 2021 acquisition of the Dahl estate. But he downplays the \u201ccinematic universe\u201d idea. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s going to be a Marvel-style shared world,\u201d he says. \u201cI love that each filmmaker can interpret Dahl differently \u2014 animated, live-action, dark, silly. Hopefully, this movie reminds people that Dahl\u2019s tone is naughty and sharp-edged. The satire has teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n The Art Of The Grotesque<\/p>\n That \u201csharp-edged\u201d tone permeates the film\u2019s aesthetic. Production designer R\u00e9mi Savva and the visual team faced the daunting task of creating an environment that\u2019s \u201cugly, but cinematically attractive.\u201d The solution was to lean into chaos.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the book, their house has no windows,\u201d Johnston explains. \u201cSo we thought, what if their light comes from walls of stolen televisions? What if they\u2019ve built the place from whatever they could steal, refrigerators, toilets, entire trucks of junk? That collage, that maximalist approach, became the language of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n The result is a mosaic of stolen parts and a treat for detail-obsessed viewers. \u201cIf you pause in their bedroom,\u201d Johnston grins, \u201cthere\u2019s a bathtub with a motor, a toilet next to the bed, a dead fish, taxidermy\u2026 It\u2019s disgusting, but also kind of beautiful. I wanted it to feel alive, like a living, moaning creature.\u201d<\/p>\n The sound design backs that up, with subtle industrial groans inspired by David Lynch\u2019s Eraserhead. \u201cEvery time you\u2019re in the Twits\u2019 house,\u201d Johnston says, \u201cyou\u2019re in a different world.\u201d<\/p>\n Designing The Twits \u2014 Beautifully Repulsive<\/p>\n Visually, the film honors the sketchy, anarchic energy of Quentin Blake\u2019s original illustrations, while allowing Johnston and his team to add layers of depth and character. \u201cQuentin\u2019s linework, that beauty in roughness, was essential,\u201d he says. \u201cWe wanted the Twits to be repulsive but also appealing. Beautiful and hideous at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Twit, for example, is no longer just a hag. Johnston imagined her as a frustrated performer, \u201ca diva or rock star who never made it.\u201d Her design forms an upright triangle, while Mr. Twit\u2019s is the inverse, all beard, belly, and shoulders on top of spindly legs. \u201cThe shapes themselves tell you who they are,\u201d Johnston notes. \u201cHe sprawls out, unconcerned. She\u2019s sharp and ambitious. The animators nailed that balance between grotesque and gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n