Born in Sydney in 1984, Daniel Pozo is an Australian animator who has contributed to many Hollywood blockbuster animated films from Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks. This includes Hotel Transylvania, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and now, as the Head of Character Animation for their newest flick, Goat.
The plot follows Will Harris (Caleb McLaughlin), an American Pygmy goat who dreams of being the first small to play professionally in Roarball. After earning a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play for the Vineland Thorns, he must prove himself to the team and his idol, Jett Fillmore (Gabrielle Union). Does Will have what it takes to be the ‘Goat’?
Supanova sat down with Pozo to discuss this exciting new release and his career. Firstly, when did his love for animation start? “It goes back to being obsessed with film growing up, having an older brother exposing me to movies that I wouldn’t have thought about watching,” says Pozo. “I was obsessed with Disney movies like The Lion King, and the Warcraft and Diablo 2 cinematics.”
“I investigated how I could learn animation and visual effects; I watched all the DVD bonuses like the behind-the-scenes of how the special effects were made on films like the Star Wars prequels. So, it was a mixed bag of being obsessed with filmmaking and then getting hyper-focused on animation specifically,” he concludes.
Pozo studied animation at TAFE and started in an entry-level position on the TV show, Erky Perky, after graduating. Desire for animation is one thing, but pursuing it is another, as he explains.
“After several years working in Australia, I went to London in the UK to work on some VFX movies over there. I decided to move back to Australia, and I had been in contact with this recruiting person, Samantha from Sony. She messaged me and asked if I was interested in interviewing for a VFX position for Men in Black 3.”
Daniel Pozo working on ‘Goat’
“I wanted to pursue more of the feature side of animation, so rather than like the live-action movies with a VFX component,” Pozo elaborates. “Sony Pictures Imageworks was working on a movie called Hotel Transylvania, so she asked me if I would be interested. She organised a meeting with one of the supervising animators, who liked my work, and they offered me a job. I packed my bags, leaving Australia for the second time. I came here to Canada, Vancouver, and I’ve been here ever since,” he smiles.
As the Head of Character Animation for Goat, what was the approach? “The process started with discovering what we wanted to achieve at first. It was a lot of early discussions with the directors and the creative team about their vision. It’s about executing this vision by utilising our large number of super-talented artists. We had anywhere between 80 and 120 animators on the film, which is quite standard nowadays for such a large production.”
He continues, “We wanted to make the audience just feel like they were in this high-dynamic world watching this version of basketball and to really make the basketball fans happy. We were taking all the tiny little details and the mechanics of basketball, translating it onto the big screen, but then exaggerating it because these characters weren’t human.”
Pozo gives an example, “We have a nine-foot-tall panther [Jett Fillmore], so how are they going to be able to play? They’re going to use all four legs; they’re going to use their tail to dribble the ball.”
“In those early conversations, we talked about animation style as well. We wanted the animation to support the look of a painted watercolour world.” He adds, “The initial idea was to make a moving painting, so we undertook more of a mixed frame approach, leaning heavily on 2D sensibilities. We used ones and twos [for frame timing and exposure], it’s a very similar approach to what we did for the Spider-Verse films and for KPop Demon Hunters.”
Out of the colourful anthropomorphic cast, who did he have the most fun animating? “I think Jett Fillmore was the best because of what she represented, and how we were able to make her feel very strong and athletic, while also including moments of vulnerability. She’s just the coolest,” he exclaims.
“I feel the animation team had the most fun with our Komodo dragon, Modo Olachenko, as he was a rule breaker. Every rule that was established for the universe, he could break it, and everyone was just having so much fun with that. We were able to just do so much with him, and the directors encouraged us to do the unexpected with him, to make his performance even funnier.”
What is he hoping moviegoers will take away after watching this hyper-stylish basketball flick? “I feel the message of the movie is to literally dream big and to not be scared, to really go for your dream and work hard to achieve it.”
“Teamwork is what wins championships, too; you can’t just rely on yourself. It’s a team sport, and I think that really encompasses the entire philosophy of how we made the movie as well.” Pozo emphasises, “It takes a huge village to make something like this. It requires a lot of teamwork, collaboration and communication.”
Goat is balling in cinemas now!
