The Bob’s Burgers Movie is only days away set to hit theaters this weekend and fans of the Belchers will be able to join the family on a whole new adventure. The Bob’s Burger Movie will see the Belchers on a bigger adventure than ever and reveal long standing mysteries of the series perhaps most notably why Louise wears her famed bunny ears.
The Illuminerdi had the opportunity to attend The Bob’s Burgers Movie virtual press conference with the cast, co-writer Nora Smith, co-director Bernard Derriman, and creator Loren Bouchard. During the press conference the creative team talked about including not only music, but choreography in the movie and the challenges of simultaneously working on an animated series and movie. Nora Smith shared her initial disbelief at the idea of making both Bob’s Burgers and The Bob’s Burgers Movie.
“It was hard. When Loren first was like, “So I think we’re gonna do a movie,” I was like, “No, we can’t-we shouldn’t do that. Just tell them no.” But I’m really glad we did. But yeah, I mean, making the show is like a full-time job. And then we were making a movie along with it. And also, we want to keep working on the show in a way where we were focused on it, and it was still good. And the movie, we didn’t want one to suffer ’cause of the other.””
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Although Smith’s concerns are understandable the team proved to be up to the task with both the movie and the series hitting on all cylinders. Co-director Bernard Derriman revealed his lack of understanding over a decade ago when The Simpsons Movie came out and shared his new empathy of the nearly impossible task that The Simpsons creators took on.
“We used to hear it. I remember 15 years ago, we’d hear in press conferences all the Simpsons creators, when they talk about making their movie, and everyone’s just pissing and moaning about how hard it was to make a show and a movie at the same time. And I’m like, “Can’t they just, you know, can’t you just hire more people?” And then we worked that, no, it’s really hard. Like, now I feel sorry for making fun of them back then.”
Loren Bouchard, creator of Bob’s Burgers as well as co-writer and co-director of The Bob’s Burgers Movie, talked about his hopes that the series and movie would feed into each other. Given the Easter egg in the series, the ever growing crack in the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, leading to the sinkhole in The Bob’s Burgers Movie it seems his hopes came to fruition.
“We were always hoping, though, that…I agree with what Nora and Bernard are saying. And I will add only a whiff of optimism. We kept thinking this one will speak to the other. That instead of, hopefully, in success instead of taking from, that if maybe the movie was taking from the series, we were hoping that the movie was also at the exact same time feeding the series, and vice versa. And that we were gonna somehow come out the end of this feeling like we made the right decision.”
The Bob’s Burgers Movie was initially greenlit back in 2017, during the press conference Loren Bouchard was asked about whether or not the initial idea and script had changed in the five years since the film was first announced. Interestingly it seems the script didn’t change drastically, although he did say they were working on the movie right until the end
“We worked on this movie until just, it feels like last week. We were determined to take every moment they gave us and keep working on it. So yeah, it changed. It wasn’t like it drastically changed, it was more like any time we had, we were excited to take advantage of. Tweak jokes, change picture, fool around with the sound. It was not just the script, just everything was in our hands until they tore it from our little fingers.”
THE BOB’S BURGERS MOVIE CREATORS TALK ABOUT INCLUDING DANCE NUMBERS IN THE FILM
Music has become an integral part of Bob’s Burgers with original songs featured in the majority of episodes and albums with these original songs released for fans to purchase. Unsurprisingly The Bob’s Burgers Movie is a musical that keeps the unique musical style that fans love, but what sets it apart from the television series is the inclusion of choreography. The Bob’s Burgers Movie is able to incorporate choreographed animated dance numbers into the film, which are as perfectly awkward as fans would expect from the Belchers. During The Bob’s Burgers Movie press conference Loren Bouchard revealed that his co-wrier Nora Smith would film herself doing the dances for Bernard to use as references.
Loren Bouchard explained, “One of the things we knew early on with this movie that music was gonna be part of it. We knew it was a big lever we could pull to make it feel big, make it feel like a spectacle. And one of the things we wanted to do in addition to songs was dancing. And these two next to me here had a very surprising aptitude. Nora would videotape herself dancing in her kitchen and Bernard could take that and draw it so beautifully. And so, all the dancing you see comes from these two right here. No training.”
Nora revealed, “I forced a lot of me dancing on people. I’ve filmed a lot of videos of me dancing and I sent them all. And I try not to watch them again ‘cause I was like, oh, wow. A lot of people say that.”
Bernard added, “And I’ve got quite a library, which it’s good. And it’s basically all of Nora placing the phone on the bench, backing up, a little move, and then going back and pressing stop. There’s like, plenty of those.”
The musical element of Bob’s Burgers is one of the most unique and fun elements of the series so to see it fully explored in the movie is endlessly entertaining. And with how hilarious the dance numbers are knowing that Nora Smith filmed herself doing the dances adds an extra layer of entertainment.
The Bob’s Burgers Movie will hit theaters May 27, 2022. Are you excited to watch The Bob’s Burgers Movie? Are you looking forward to choreography being a part of the animated musical numbers? Did you spot the sidewalk crack Easter egg in Bob’s Burgers? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or on our social media and check back with The Illuminerdi for more Bob’s Burgers.
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