Teo is a plucky young tiger and one of the last of his kind. Found abandoned and wearing a mysterious crystal necklace, he is adopted into a big, boisterous kangaroo family of travelling wrestlers. After receiving visions from an unfamiliar land, Teo must suddenly embark on an epic quest to reconnect with his heritage and save his homeland from the clutches of destruction.
The Lost Tiger is the first feature film from writer/director Chantelle Murray and is the first Australian animated film to be written and directed by an Indigenous female filmmaker. And leading up to the film’s cinematic release, Nick L’Barrow spoke with Chantelle about using animation to tell Indigenous stories, and the excitement of creating dynamic action scenes with these animal characters.
Nick: The Lost Tiger is such a fun and beautiful film that is exploring themes of identity and finding that through history and heritage. How did exploring those themes in an animated format help you tell this story?
Chantelle Murray: Animation is just mind blowing! I mean, it’s so exciting to be able to capture the things that we want to capture through animation because we can’t do this in live action. Like, you can have special effects and things, but unless you have a Disney budget, it can be quite trash.
And there’s so many different forms of animations. I’ve just started to dip my toe into it, but it’s just a really cool medium in order to tell the stories I want to tell and bring out the magic that I want to bring out.
I’ve done live action before, so I was petrified coming into animation. I came in and I was like, “Hey guys, I know nothing about computers”! I know lenses, I know cameras I want to shoot on, but I don’t know nothing about animation. But they were all like, “You bring the story, and we can help you through the whole process.”
It was such an interesting experience because you have to storyboard, watch that, and then animate from there. Whereas, live action, we shoot everything first and then we mould it to the story. So, it was cool, and a luxury, to watch the film kind of before we ever started making the film. We could find these jokes, and the story, and perfect it and strengthen it as we went. And I think it’s strengthened the way that I write stories now.
Nick: While we’re discussing the animation process, the way you animate the wrestling and action scenes in the film is so exciting. The way you move the camera around the action is so dynamic and not usually seen in animated films. What was the process of making those set pieces so dynamic?
Chantelle Murray: Well, I mean… we’re in animation! We can do it! We don’t need, you know, $150,000 to hire a crane for four hours. We can push it, and we went to town. I wanted to push it far, and I kept sending references to some of the greatest action movies possible. And I tried so hard to stay away from like a direct reference to The Matrix, but… God, it’s impossible not to! But that’s the best thing about animation, we can make things look super cool with no budget.
Nick: The characters in The Lost Tiger are obviously animals, but there is a lot of humanity in their physicality, not just their personalities. What were the things you felt were essential to get that humanity across through these characters?
Chantelle Murray: I had a lot of references on specific characters, and then we developed them from there. I didn’t want them to be like the big-eyed, animated, cute things. I wanted them to look semi-real, and I wanted people to feel what they were going through.
So, I made sure with their facial structure that we had the right mouth movements, with these little dimples, and real eyes. I wanted them to have flaws, because to me that’s what makes them human. We’re so attuned to each other’s faces, and we learn a lot about the psychology of characters through picking up cues from their faces, so I really wanted to focus on that humanity.
This team was amazing. They would get me to film how I wanted their faces to move, and then they would put that in the animation so we could bring out those emotional expressions, which is super hard to do unless you have that foundation. But it’s an exciting process being able to build a character from the inside out.
Nick: There is also so much personality in Australia and the landscapes that are animated for the film. How much importance went into making sure the location of Australia itself is just as much of a character in the film too?
Chantelle Murray: I’m from the Kimberley’s, so I grew up with red rocks, super white sand, and this aqua coloured ocean, and it looks just like a painting. And it wasn’t until I left Broome and came back, and went, “This country has such a juxtaposition.” One minute you can be in the desert, and then you walk into a rainforest with these waterfalls.
I wanted to make sure it truly reflects our Australian heritage, because we’re so blessed, but we’re also kind of so used to it.
Nick: Then on the other hand, the dreamscapes in this film feel just as magical as the Australian landscape! How much of what you visualised as the dreamscapes ended up looking the way you intended on screen?
Chantelle Murray: Yeah, I mean I feel we go into dreaming all the time as an Indigenous mob. I feel like when we are truly channelling that, or when we need to speak to our ancestors, or get some advice or protection, I just close my eyes and feel like I’m in this magical place.
So, it was all about how I can pull this out of my mind. And I knew there was the bioluminescence to it. And I don’t delve to deep into AI, but I put a paragraph of what I was seeing in my head just so I could see these images and use them as a reference, because I can’t draw! My 3-year-old can draw better than me and he’s 3!
Nick: I’ve spoken to a few Indigenous filmmakers over the years about how storytelling is such an integral part of, not just preserving history, but continuing cultures and traditions. As a filmmaker, do you see film as a continuation of Indigenous storytelling?
Chantelle Murray: Oh, 100 million percent! For us to be able to capture what we know and what we feel is super exciting. But even for non-Indigenous people, it’s a way to see into our world a bit. It’s only been within the last 10 or so years that we’ve been able to tell our own stories, or experiment, or find our own voices through the film medium. So, the fact that we are dominating the Australian landscape when it comes to the film world, doesn’t surprise me.
We need new things, and it’s coming from us, not through a non-Indigenous lens anymore. It’s truly through our lens, and through the strength of our people. I feel very blessed and honoured to be a part of this movement. I’m very grateful.
Nick: And then telling Indigenous stories for children, and fostering that creativity that might inspire them as well must feel quite important too…
Chantelle Murray: Honestly, I’m tearing up just thinking about it. I didn’t have anything like this growing up. I had the things that reinforced the horrible narratives of Indigenous people globally. So, to have something there for the next generation, representation means everything. That’s the whole reason I stepped into this space, because we wanted to inspire. For the next generation to see a whole entire film about themselves written and directed by an Indigenous person. And hopefully they will go, “If she can do it. I can do it.”
Nick: I think that speaks to the power of art and the connection we have with it. I might be reaching into the dark here, but in the same way the crystal at the centre of this film connects people, it feels like stories have that same power…
Chantelle Murray: I am so glad you picked up on that! It’s true. It’s our central heartbeat – art, music, even sports. The thing is that we are all connected, we are all one. We all feel that, and we need to protect that, and foster it, rather than rip it away from each other.
Thank you so much to Chantelle for her time, and to Maslow Entertainment and NixCo PR for organising the interview. The Lost Tiger is in Australian cinemas from February 27.
