ABOUT THE PRODUCTIONThe initial concept for Son of the Mask possessed no shortage of components that would appeal to a filmmaker, including an established back story, the opportunity to dream up a world in which visual effects can quite literally stretch the boundaries of reality, and the chance to create a film which would appeal to the whole family. But for director Lawrence Guterman, it was another aspect of the story that most captured his attention - the way the film dealt with the universal issues of parenting. “My wife and I had three children over three years, so I was attracted to the notions in the movie – how do you cope with raising babies and raising toddlers?” says Guterman. “And the big ‘what if’ factor- what would happen if suddenly this baby had powers and could get up and sing and dance and do things that no baby could ever do? How would you deal with that? We have a lot of fun with that in the movie.” Guterman was also inspired by the near-endless possibilities that the special powers of the Mask afforded him as a filmmaker. “After Tim wears the mask to his company Halloween party he comes home to his wife—nine months later Alvey is born—but with extraordinary powers. Those developmental milestones babies go through, like mimicking, speaking first words, asserting themselves through hitting and banging stuff become comically exaggerated into moments like the baby’s head turning into a balloon, the baby singing, and the baby stretching his arms ludicrously long to hammer the bad guy. He suddenly has an adult awareness that no 8-month old could have, and the absurdity of it makes him a fun character.” An ability to convey the baby’s unique abilities on screen was one of the main reasons that producers felt Guterman was the right choice for the director’s chair. “From the time that Larry first got involved in the script, he really had a sense of what the physicality of baby Alvey was going to be like,” says producer Erica Huggins. “Coming from the world of animation, Larry is incredibly visual. He starts at a completely real place and then goes to the cartoon version.” Guterman also excelled at conveying his unique vision for the film to the rest of the crew. "Larry has a very unique process that requires everything to be articulated and manipulated and dealt with through conceptual art,” continues Huggins. “He knew exactly what he was making and was able to take what was in his mind’s eye and show everybody what he was looking for – there was no question he was making a comedy and there was no question that every scene had to have something in it that was funny.” Ensuring the comedic aspects of the film were far from the only challenge that the filmmakers faced when it came time to bring Son of the Mask to life. “When I first read the script, I was stunned because it was a very, very complicated movie,” says executive producer Beau Marks. “You had visual effects, creature effects and prosthetics all the way through it. And then you had animals – we have a dog as a main character. And to top it off, the main character in the film is a baby – a 9-month-old baby who has to perform very particular tasks.” The script called for an enormous amount of challenging visual effects work, including the complete creation of a digital, photo-realistic baby. Son of the Mask was the first film to undertake such a challenge and it proved to be one of the production’s most daunting tasks. “My initial conversations with Larry were about feasibility,” says visual effects supervisor James E. Price. “We had this great script and a very funny story. But it only worked if the digital baby worked, because the character had to do all these outlandish actions - and those actions had to be believable. Initially we talked about whether or not that would be achievable.” Once Price and Guterman came to the conclusion that they could pull off the ambitious effects plan, their conversation turned to the tone of the film. “One of the most important things for Larry was that the viewer get drawn into this very typical scene of a family dealing with a new baby, and then suddenly have their whole world turn upside down as the baby inherits the properties of the Mask,” continues Price. “So we began to talk about how, with effects, we could create those changes in the story and have them deliver the most dramatic impact as possible. We discussed how best to suddenly choreograph the baby dancing from a normal baby to the Mask baby, how to dramatize Tim’s awareness of the change in the baby, and how to communicate that to the viewer.” Ultimately, one of the biggest inspirations for the film’s presentation of the Mask’s effects came from the classic cartoons that so many of the effects creators grew up watching. “One of the main story points was that the baby learn from some of the actions he uses to befuddle his dad and he learns from watching television, from watching some of the classic cartoons that we all grew up with,” says Price. “So the images in these cartoons began to really influence, or really became the style that the baby was going to use in his actions later in the film.” But transforming classic animation into new “reality” was no easy task. “One of our biggest challenges was how to translate essentially 2-D animation and those gestures into a 3-D environment – it’s not as simple as you might think because when you look at those cartoons you see that the characters do a lot of very outlandish things,” says Price. “There was a lot of squashing, stretching and very rapid movements that we couldn’t create in the real world. Our challenge was to find out how to keep that extreme energy in the film but make it believable to a viewer who is in a real world environment.” Making things more difficult, the production team had to walk a fine line between cartoonish hijinks and going too far. “One of the things we found was that in incorporating some of those very dramatic, very extreme gestures that are in the cartoons into live action, we had to walk a very fine line because in some cases it became grotesque,” said Price. “If you distort the baby too much, it’s not funny or appealing. It’s not a cute baby anymore. We had to find very specific poses and very specific actions that kept the baby cute and appealing, but at the same time showed off a more wild cartoony side to the baby.” Although the effects used in Son of the Mask brought with them their share of challenges, the end result is a unique film which offers plenty of things audiences have never seen before. “Nobody’s ever done this before, nobody’s ever tried to make something as real as we wanted to make the baby look,” says producer Erica Huggins. “We didn’t just create a CG baby; we wanted a real baby in front of the camera. There’s nothing as magical as seeing a baby look into the lens of a camera and smile or cry or have that glint in their eyes. You cannot reproduce the cuteness of a real baby. So the challenge for visual effects was to take something that exists in this world and to match it exactly.” Visual Effects Supervisor James E. Price adds, “I think the average moviegoer is going to be thrilled at what they see because the change is so dramatic. You often don’t know what to make of it when you first see it. Even I was shocked, because it’s not something that you would expect to see. We were able to create some images that people haven’t seen before… these very cartoony actions that we have in our memories from watching cartoons as children. Except now we’re seeing it in real life.” The cartoon imagery extended to the artwork and characters for Animagine, the company where Tim Avery works. Larry Guterman relates how one key set piece came to be – “the statue of Lincoln with mites in his head at the reception area is based on a cartoon show the fictitious company has celled ‘Lincoln’s Mites.’ It was originally going to be called ‘Einstein’s Mites,’ about the mites that live in Einstein’s head and give him romantic advice. But we couldn’t get the rights to use Einstein’s image from his estate, so we had to settle with the public domain figure of Lincoln.” When Guterman relayed this story to comedian/actor Steven Wright, who portrays the head of Animagine, Wright found the story extremely intriguing, odd and funny.” “Which is what you might expect from that master of the dry delivery,” adds Guterman. While the effects used in Son of the Mask were a tough challenge, casting the film proved to be a much easier task as the filmmakers knew from the outset that Jamie Kennedy was the man for the role of Tim Avery. “Right from the beginning we wanted Jamie Kennedy to play Tim,” says producer Erica Huggins. “He felt so fresh, and from his TV show “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment” we knew he could do physical comedy, which was a big part of the film. There’s a lot of reacting to the baby doing crazy things. And Jamie seemed like he could show us physically what it’s like to be tormented by a baby who has super-human powers.” Kennedy knew exactly what he was getting himself in to. “I knew this movie was going to be a challenge because it's always difficult to work with babies and dogs, let alone both." For Kennedy, the movie ultimately comes down to a story about facing your fears. “Tim’s biggest fear in the movie is becoming a father, so this is a movie about a guy who’s not sure he wants to be a father, and who’s scared of that,” he says. “But when he puts the Mask on he is able to become a very confident, caring, responsible dad. I can relate to what Tim’s going through even though I’m not married.” It didn’t take long for director Lawrence Guterman to realize that Kennedy was right for the role. “Jamie has this natural sympathy, you want to hug the guy,” he says. “No matter how apprehensive he may be about his baby, you can understand what he’s going through and you really want to see the baby win him over.” Kennedy was also drawn to the film by the opportunity to work opposite Alan Cumming, who plays Loki, the Norse God of Mischief, who has been sent by his father Odin to retrieve the Mask. Cumming loved the possibilities of the role. “Loki was a wonderful role to play because he changes into so many different people and has lots of disguises,” says Cumming. “It was quite fun to look forward to playing any one of a number of crazy characters. What struck me immediately was what a great role it was.” Lawrence Guterman says it was obvious on set that Cumming was having a blast in the role. “Alan just chews up the scenery as the villain,” he says. “He takes those great moments and really milks them.” Cumming also found the story’s father-son dynamic interesting. “I liked the parallel that was drawn between the two stories – Tim and Alvey, and Loki and Odin – and the message of how important it is to have a good open relationship with your offspring,” says Cumming. Taking on the role of Loki’s father, Odin, is veteran British actor Bob Hoskins. Although Hoskins had fun with the role, he found the necessary special-effects makeup to get into character slightly less enjoyable. “It was murder!” said Hoskins. “Odin is supposed to be blind, so I had to wear this little thing over one eye. Then the other eye was covered by something with a tiny hole in the middle and it was like looking through a blue pebble. And that costume weighed a ton! By the end of the day I felt a little bit faint.” Traylor Howard, best known for her role on TV’s “Two Guys and a Girl” (and who will next be seen co-starring in the USA Network series “Monk”), jumped at the opportunity to play Tonya Avery, a role that was very different from anything she had played before. In particular, Howard was drawn to the relationship between her character and Tim. “In the beginning of the movie you see that these two people are really in love and they have a great time together, but they're just at that point where they really want different things, and they're both feeling the pressure,” says Howard. “I'm this career woman; I'm basically more successful than he is. And then when I do get pregnant, he's completely freaked out. But then by the end of the movie, because he has to fight for his son, he realizes how much he loves him and how he wants a family. He wants to be the protector. And he realizes he doesn't need the Mask to do that; that he's a great father and a great husband. By the end of the movie, I think I look at him differently and we're all happier because of it.” Director Lawrence Guterman has high praise for Howard’s work in the film. “Traylor really anchors the movie in reality, but she’s also very funny and has a great sense of comic timing,” he says. Having assembled a cast of actors whose talents meshed incredibly well, the filmmakers then turned their attention to casting two of the most challenging roles in the film – that of the baby Alvey and his nemesis, the Avery’s dog.
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