INDUSTRIAL LIGHT, MAGIC, & A LEGENDARY MOUSE: Leslie Iwerks on her new ILM documentary, and the family history that led her to it.

By Terry Keefe

Leslie Iwerks’ grandfather, Ub Iwerks, was the co-creator and designer of Mickey Mouse, as well as the pioneer of numerous special effects processes, and this lineage gave the Santa Monica-based filmmaker a pretty unique perspective on the subjects of her 2008 Emmy-nominated documentary The Pixar Story, as well as those of her just-finished doc, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, which premiered on Starz/Encore last month. ILM and Pixar picked up the FX and animation baton, created in part by Ub Iwerks, and launched it into hyperspace. Between the ILM and Pixar docs, and her first documentary, focused on the life of her grandfather, The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story, Leslie Iwerks has authored a significant history of the animation and effects in the American film industry.
























(Leslie Iwerks, above.)


Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible recounts the story of the legendary special effects house, beginning with its founding in 1975 by George Lucas to design the FX for Star Wars, up until their work today in tiny films such as Star Trek, Transformers, and the Harry Potter series. Along with rare behind the scenes footage, the film includes interviews with J.J. Abrams, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg.


The story beats of Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible coincide with each of the big effects challenges in their history, such as the CGI creation of the dinosaurs for Jurassic Park. What do you think the next such chapter of creation for ILM will be?

Leslie Iwerks: I think the big frontier now is 3D. (Effects legend) Dennis Muren has expressed his excitement about the future of 3D and what the industry can do to make it very believable and…almost an everyday thing.

A striking element of the ILM film, as well as your Pixar doc, was how some of the key figures have physics degrees and could just as easily be designing rockets. The opposite of the hard-partying Hollywood 70s producer stereotype.

It’s true. You look at Pixar and ILM, and the amount of brainpower under two roofs, all sort of spawned in the industry around the same time, the mid-70s into the 80s. They all sort of grew up together in that field, with Pixar sort of being an offshoot of ILM.





















(They Might Be Giants: Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, above.)


Did you ever have a chance to discuss effects with your grandfather while he was still alive?

I was 1 when he passed away, so no. But when I did my film and book about him, it was a passion project of mine to tell his story and to put him in the public eye a bit more, because he was always brushed under the rug for many years by the Disney Company. With that film, Roy E. Disney was very supportive in getting the company to fund it.

It was an amazing first film for me, because not only did it allow me to get to know my grandfather in a way I never would have had, but also to go through the history of animation and special effects, all in one fell swoop, because he was the early pioneer of the Mickey Mouse films but…when he returned to Disney in 1940, after leaving for ten years, he pioneered so many of the special effects for the film industry and for Disney’s movies, [such as] inventing the sodium traveling matte process, which was able to do live-action and animated combinations for Mary Poppins. He also did a number of pioneering inventions, [such as] the refinements of the optical printer. Optical printer No. 2 which is now on display in the Disney museum in the Presidio, only steps away from ILM, allowed for the split-screen processes for The Parent Trap and was also used on so many films at Disney, and for Hitchcock too, when he did special effects for The Birds. He did all the compositing work through that printer, to create the flock of birds.

When you look at his life and what he was able to accomplish in both special effects and animation, it was a huge inspiration for me. And it gave me the groundwork that I could go into the Pixar story and pick up where I left off, which was in the 1970s, and my grandfather and Disney, and join up with John Lasseter and Pixar today. I was able to do the same thing with the ILM film, beginning with Star Wars.


Leslie Iwerks Productions Website.

(This article is currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.)