ComingSoon Senior Editor Spencer Legacy spoke with director Ruolin Li about Abominable and the Invisible City, DreamWorks’ animated series that follows 2019’s Abominable. Li spoke about Chinese representation and the preservation of animated content following HBO Max’s recent removals. The series is now streaming on Hulu and Peacock.
“Abominable and the Invisible City is a comedy adventure series that continues the wild and wooly fun of DreamWorks Animation’s Abominable,” reads the series synopsis. “Though Everest the yeti, Yi, Jin, and Peng know that there’s a whole magical world out there, and now it’s even closer than they think! When they discover that their surroundings are teeming with magical creatures in need of their help, the kids will set out on extraordinary and heartfelt adventures throughout their city and beyond.”
‘
Spencer Legacy: There’s a lot more time to expand on the world and explore different elements in a TV show compared to a film. What was the most exciting thing about this format for Abominable?
Ruolin Li: It’s the opportunity to explore different creatures and expand everybody’s story. Flesh them out and see more of their lives.
There’s very authentic inclusion and representation found in the series. What does it mean to be telling stories about Chinese culture and having it done by Chinese and Chinese American creatives?
I think it’s really important — and this is part of the reason why I love working on this show so much — is that we get to bring authentic voices into the series and really showcase the best part of what we love about Chinese culture to a worldwide audience. I think that’s really great.
Music also plays a key role in the show. How did you decide what sort of songs to include?
This is probably a question more for our composer, George Shaw, but I’d say I’m always really impressed of what he can come up with in terms of capturing the flavor of Chinese culture, but also bringing a variety of musical styles into different things. I really like George’s music and also Jim [Schumann] … he plays a huge role of sitting through our music spotting sessions and having the ear to say, “Okay, this part, we want it to feel more emotional,” or “that part, we want it to feel more action and epic.” We really get that across.
We saw this with the recent Kung Fu Panda series as well, where Jack Black reprised his role. What did it mean for you to get Chloe Bennett back as Yi?
I just think it’s super awesome because she embodies Yi as a character so well. Her voice is very unique [and] very strong, but also has this vulnerability if we need it to. So she really plays up Yi’s complex character.
DreamWorks has been able to navigate this many times, and you also worked on Turbo Fast, but what challenges come with adapting a film into a series?
I think the challenge is probably more like understanding what makes the original film work so well and extracting those best parts of it, whether it’s character personalities or the character dynamics between different casts. Then it’s just that world where, in the original movie, everyone has a skin-to-surface introduction of what our world looks like. But then there’s so much potential of what could be more. So then we just take that opportunity and run with it and say “you’ve seen these beautiful sceneries and beautiful mountains and cities and all that, and then we’re going to give you more and make you just enjoy the process of living in this living, breathing world more.” So. I think that’s … maybe not so much of a challenge, but more like an opportunity, I’d say.
There’s also a great mix of comedy and adventures in the series. What was the key to that balance?
I think maybe emotional realism, because we are telling a story grounded in a city where it’s in China and then it’s Chinese culture, but at the same time, we’re bringing these fantastical legendary creatures and then pretending they’re in our lives — they’re real. We just have to open our minds and imagine that scenario and put our characters in those shoes and say, “Can you imagine when you are living your day-to-day life and then you see these magical creatures appear in front of you and they’re doing these cool, amazing things. How are you going to react? How are you going to feel?” And so we just go from there and then say, “How can we capture that magical and emotional realism and portray our characters reacting to those situations and not only [the] initial shock, but also getting used to them and then eventually having fun with them, and then feeling that bond and like your life can’t be without them.” So it’s that transition.
You directed several episodes of Little Ellen, which was recently removed from HBO Max. What’s your reaction to such a move where art is being stowed away rather than being accessible to everyone?
Oh, of course. That’s the biggest bummer ever because I feel like animation is just so, so awesome. Like, can you imagine your world without animation? Right? Millions of kids growing up, they’re watching these beautiful, funny, heartwarming shows on TV and they are influenced and they grow up wanting to be a good person because of how these animated characters basically role modeled for them of how they wanted to be. And someone comes in and takes that away from you, that’s a huge loss culturally. I really hope that never happens again.
Which legendary creature from the series were you most excited to implement and why?
That’s a really good question. I mean, they’re all so cool! I mean, I just … I can’t even, like they’re all my favorite children. I’d say out of the episodes that I have directed on, I’d say Todd the toad is the most funny and because of his existence, our characters’ lives have been turned upside down and it’s like a really, really fun episode to watch.
