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There's a new character introduced that isn't in the book: The Soup Genie.

Ross: There are a lot of things like that. We also reimagined Ratworld. In the book it was just these dark corners of cells, and we created this huge civilization for it that was a lot more similar to Mouseworld than the way Kate wrote it. Sometimes a movie just wants a little bit of adventure, and a sense of size and scope, and that was a character that we just had fun with. There's a little bit if whimsy involved, and it's the kind of thing that works really well on the screen, probably even better than it would on the pages of a book. So like I said, what we're trying to do is to maintain a sort of buoyancy and fun, and to maintain the spirit of Kate's book. She understands that everything isn't literal.

The title character in his youth

You wrote this screenplay, and you produced this film. Why didn't you direct it?

Ross: We all share a lot of roles on the movie. I directed all the actors, and I did all the sound work in L.A., but I didn't feel comfortable taking a directing credit when these guys [directors Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhagen] were on the ground in England the whole time, on a daily basis. It doesn't really matter how the credits shake out. It matters that we ended up with the movie we want, and that people enjoy it. And it was also a way of letting Sam and Rob have it to themselves a little bit, but we all shared the duties a lot. There was more than enough work for everyone.

So were you involved with the casting of the voice actors?

Ross: Yeah, I cast all the parts.

What's that process like?

Ross: Well, a lot of these actors are my friends, you know? Like Sigourney, and Kevin Kline, and Frank Langella, I did the movie Dave with them, so it goes all the way back to that. And William H. Macy did my last movie [Seabiscuit]. In terms of other people, Dustin Hoffman was in my mind for a long time; the chance to work with someone like Dustin is a wonderful opportunity. Whenever we'd record Dustin, there was probably an equal amount of time spent just asking him to tell stories about the variety of wonderful movies he's made over the years as there was doing the work.

There's a sort of out-of-time quality to this movie that's really different from a lot of other family movies. It's not like, say, Shrek, where you have a lot of pop culture references.

Ross: Yeah, Kate wrote a timeless movie. It's not rooted in any time. It's not rooted in pop culture or in the moment, and I think that's what makes it lasting. I think there are people reading this now as a 9- or a 10-year-old who are going to read it to their kids, just as I my give things that I read as a child, just like my wife gives Charlotte's Web to our child.

Princess Pea and Despereaux

There are things about a fairy tale that are just so epic, and so human, that they really sort of transcend that. There's nothing wrong with those pop culture movies—I mean, I go to them—but this was a chance to make something that's hopefully very rich and classic, with a lot of wonderful themes that are going to last. That's what Kate did, and that's what we tried to do.

So did you intend to make a "different kind" of family movie?

Ross: Sure we did. I think we're very aware that we're different. First of all, we're not a pop culture comedy, and that's what most [recent family films] have been. We're kind of a classic fairy tale, almost a throwback to the vintage days of Disney. We're aware that it's a little bit retro in that respect, but at the same time, we're using a lot of new techniques, and I think we're taking the genre places it hasn't been, or at least hasn't been in a while. So we're definitely aware that we're different from other movies. There's no question.

You mention "vintage" movies. Are there any that you held as an example or a model for this movie?

Ross: I love all the old classic Disney movies. Pinocchio. There are obviously tons of them that anybody growing up on that stuff takes with them their whole lives, and I'm an admirer of a lot of classic animation and fairy tales. I grew up on a book of Grimm's fairy tales that I kind of wore out again and again. That's all stuff that lingers with you.

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