Zendaya: Working with Channing Tatum on Smallfoot ‘was wonderful’
Zendaya is a self-confessed "sucker" for animated movies.
That made her involvement in Smallfoot a no-brainer. Fresh off the success of her performance in last year's musical movie The Greatest Showman, the 22-year-old US actress-singer is now bringing her vocal talents to the big screen by voicing Meechee, the "powerful and intelligent" daughter of the Yeti village leader.
Currently showing here, Smallfoot follows the adventure of Migo (voiced by Channing Tatum), who joins a group of Yetis led by Meechee to prove the existence of humans.
What are the challenges of working on an animated film?
Most people don't understand how hard and exhausting it can be to work on an animated feature. You have to convey emotion and feeling with only your voice. That is really challenging.
For most of our voice recording sessions, we don't have an actor to work with, so you must rely heavily on the director.
Luckily, (director) Karey Kirkpatrick is amazing and helped us find those emotions and chemistry, even when we didn't have an actor to work with.
What was it like working with Tatum for one day?
It was wonderful to have Channing there and bouncing off each other's energies. We ad-libbed quite a bit, telling each other, "Hey, just go back and forth and see what comes out."
But it was hard not to step on each other's lines - in animation, film-makers need clean lines. Overall, it was fun and added another layer of energy.
How does Wonderful Life, the song you perform in the film, help tell the story?
Wonderful Life comes at a time when Migo is a little hesitant about going after the truth because he has always been told there is only one way to live.
Meechee is trying to open his eyes to this idea that there is another world out there. She takes him on this musical journey, telling Migo having questions is a good thing - and it is important to figure things out. That is what Wonderful Life is really about - the wonder of life.
What do you hope audiences experience?
An animated movie has to tell a real story, have heart and a message and be fun for the entire family. I saw a screening of Smallfoot with my family, and my nieces loved it.
I brought my older sister and my parents to another screening, and they loved it. Smallfoot has humour and fun for everyone.
It is so magical to watch the movie and see how it all came together. When I left the theatre, I felt happy.
That is what animated movies really do for people - leave them with a smile and wanting to hug someone. They will feel warm and fuzzy inside, like, I guess, the Yetis.
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