Behind the captivating animation of Marvel’s ‘What If…?’

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Once upon a time, there were Marvel comics. Then there were live-action Marvel films, followed by TV shows, and now these iconic stories go back to their roots with the animated storytelling of What If…? on Disney+.

Mashable spoke to series animation supervisor Stephen Franck about the challenges and joys of animation and marrying Marvel’s established mediums in this new series.

“Animation is its own medium. It has its own way of telling stories,” Franck says. “We’re sitting at the convergence of different inspirations, different forms and traditions of storytelling. One is comics obviously, which the DNA of these stories come from, but not just that — also a sense of exaggeration, a sense of boldness, of bigger than life.”

The animators also draw inspiration from illustrators like J.C. Leyendecker, whose images Franck describes as bold and exaggerated, but with a sense of sophistication. And then, of course, there’s those cute live-action indie films — the MCU.

“We’re putting these two things together, to try to imagine animation as its own artistry and its own kind of poetry,” Franck says “…to bring these two things together seamlessly in a way that doesn’t encounter any sort of limitation.”

But there are limitations, to animation and to live-action, as each medium presents specific difficulties and strengths. It might seem obvious, but not having the subtleties of an actor’s visual performance is a major hurdle for animators. Every action, every facial expression, has to be created from scratch — just as actors may struggle to convey complex emotion with only their voices, animators pull from these performances to fill in the rest of the story.

“The actors always made a lot of really great choices in terms of what they mean, what they don’t mean — like what’s the subtext, are we holding back some information? Are we being earnest, are we being sarcastic?” he says “The animators need to receive that performance, understand it, and build on it.”

(L-R): Nick Fury, Hawkeye/Clint Barton and Agent Coulson in Marvel Studios’ WHAT IF…? exclusively on Disney+. Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Credit: Courtesy of Marvel Studios

Franck analyzes all of his team’s shots to make sure they’re nailing those beats. If they’re not, he pushes them — either through conversations and meetings or by adding his own drawings to literally illustrate a point.

“Just like you can’t tell somebody ‘Make it like 12% more funny,’ you cannot say ‘Make it 12% more exciting’ or ‘Make the pose more dramatic,’ you know?” he says. “You have to at that point just [be] like ‘Okay well, draw it more like this, and now see it’s a little bit more dramatic and matches where we need to be for in this moment.'”

Because they create the performance, Franck describes animators as the actors of a series like What If…? That makes him the de facto director, pulling those moments from the visuals. One thing he loves about live-action Marvel films is the moments between spectacular battles and action sequences.

“Sometimes it’s the small moments that are literally so true to life and so natural that almost are the hardest ones to do.”

“The superhero stuff is so superhero-ey in a way that until the MCU, never thought you’d ever seen a movie,” he says “But at the same time, they can be sitting and having a conversation and eating dinner, and there’s something extremely human and natural in those performances.”

With What If…? he wanted to create something just like that: As exciting visually as in story. That meant pushing the animators to absolute precision about action, fighting, and poses as well as conversation or something as simple as how a character walks.

“Getting that stuff right, like a character looking at their watch — those are the moments that we all know so well, but you get that just a little bit wrong, and then it feels wooden and unreal and it pulls you out of the moment,” he explains. “So sometimes it’s the small moments that are literally so true to life and so natural that almost are the hardest ones to do.”

There’s nothing new about an animated TV show, especially one about superheroes, but What If…? is about forks in the road. These are the critical moments in characters’ lives, and the series itself comes at a pivotal junction for the MCU between Phases 3 and 4.

“It definitely feels like animation is having a moment,” Franck says. “What I’m really really happy about is that we get to finally tell stories like this. I grew up loving comics and loving animation, and dreaming of a way where the two together are to be able to tell the magic of those stories.”

What If…? streams Wednesdays on Disney+.

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