I love the idea of making drawings and seeing them become real. It's really like heaven to be able to draw something and then see it as a reality, even strange moments such as fire.
If you pretend you're completely mad, people believe it. The only thing I wanted when making the film was to have fun.
I tried to take advantage of the fact that I was not used to making a movie. Movies are still so new to me so I had to use my fascination, and the fact that I'm almost a teenage filmmaker, to my advantage. And that's why I don't pretend to have made a good movie... but one that people are able to feel the love I have for this industry.
We have the talent, just not the money and not the audience. People in France don't really like fantasy. You need to go to Spain, England and Germany for that. Many of the people from my crew come either from Spain or England. But I hope to be able to work with them again and I wish to create European cinema on that scale. It could happen and attitudes may be changing. Animated fantasy movie Despicable Me was made entirely in France, so there is the talent here and now maybe the desire too.
Preparing the animation is close to the comic book process but there are plenty of problems. It's very interesting, but it's also sometimes a pain in the arse, especially because it's so very long. Something that takes 10 minutes in comic book form can take 10 months in film form. But I love the results.
