(Above: Behind-the-scenes video of a remote control helicopter used for a several shots in “Enchanted Forest,” piloted by Tabb Firchau of Freefly.)

The spot appears to be heavily based on folklore and fairy tales. From what did the designers draw inspiration from in conceptualizing the piece?

During our pitch phase, we were drawn to the darker tonality of “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” or Pan’s Labyrinth, with a forest that was quiet and calm, but beautiful and esoteric. Ultimately, the aesthetic became more merry and whimsical.

Great work on the character design! Who designed your family of characters?

A good portion of our time in design is working collaboratively, and this process was really key to coming up with the aesthetic of the FedEx characters. One designer would bring an interesting set of aesthetics to the table, and another would riff from that and come up with something new. This led us to a more eclectic set of characters whose clothing design draws from Victorian, to turn of the century, to 1960s jazz. Every character was given its own look and feel. The key to unifying them and making them feel a part of the same world was to make the proportions of all animals a little offbeat and unusual, at times making the proportions so traditionally wrong that they actually felt right for this spot: The bunny’s waist is impossibly small, or the mice are so fat they are basically ballsacks with small hands and feet.

Were there any technical challenges to this piece that were unique from any of the studio’s previous CG epics?

This project was challenging on every level. Our first challenge lay in the location. We wanted to shoot an area that would work as a foundation for our magical world. We were immediately drawn to Hoh Rainforest, which is one of the few rainforests that exists in the United States. It took us a long time to even find this place because it was a very, very remote location. We were questioning at the beginning if it would even be possible to shoot in this part of the forest.  Our producers had to constantly check weather for the sky to break minutes at a time. 

When we finally made it into the location, we needed to use remote-controllable helicopter cams, which cannot fly if there is a single drop of rain in the air, in order to maneuver between all the trees. The forest floor was extremely soft and uneven. So laying of dolly tracks was not an option and all the equipment had to be carried. Therefore, we were being limited to only two lights, but thanks to the great Fred Elmes we still were able to make it beautiful.

For the post there was a very short turnaround, a process that included CG fur, CG trees with leaf simulation, live action integration, tracking, etc. The team had to carefully plan every step of the process, because there was no room for errors. We needed to put all our experience from past projects together to create a pipeline that would incorporate all those factors. Fortunately we had an elite team of artists on the job that pulled it off and brought it to a place that was beyond everyone’s expectations.