![]() I mean, sometimes I just walk around, and there's a tune in my head because I can't play a musical instrument. I had a tune in my head, which rarely happens. OK, here's a song I'll write about kids wishing things were easier back when they were 10 or a kid. Like most of the songs in this movie, that came out of the plot of the story. ![]() How did this minute-and-a-half-long thing come together, Robert? You've got the Phil Spector Wall of Sound kind of production.Īnd you've got the Rankin/Bass-inspired imagery. It captures so many elements of what make the season great. It's the time of year to remember and reflect upon the beauty of “Christmastime for the Jews.” I love that song. I would do impressions, draw cartoons of kids, and sometimes I would just make up little jingles about kids and then it grew into on “SNL,” occasionally I would write like “Christmastime for the Jews.” I was like, "Let's do a jingle." I wrote that one, and within a year, every character sketch all started with jingles and montage. At that time, every sketch started with, "And now another episode of Short-Term Memory Man." It was like Don Pardo. It almost was like a pox on “Saturday Night Live” because at the time of that sketch, which was Conan 's idea that we did for Tom Hanks but we all wrote it together. It hits so many of your sweet spots because it's animation and music. “Oh my God, this is the worst thing that's ever happened.” The eternal problems of childhood and tween-hood or pre-tweens. It's about childhood and the eternal problems of childhood. He's like, "Oh, no, that's like Michael Jakovich in 1963, and he figured out a way." It was one of those ideas that came pretty quickly, and usually the best ones do. I thought of combining those anxieties with this class pet who's seen everything, every type of kid in the last 75 years. ![]() Whether it's just not being invited to a party or somebody looked at me the wrong way, anything incredibly trivial. I remember this as a kid, your problems seem so important, but they're so minor in the eyes of adults. I have kids in elementary school and I know their friends. What if we made this about the class pet? That sort of set me on this “Leo” idea, which I kind of talked to David and Robert about. At the very end, it was revealed that it was a snake that was in the room. There was a narration just a couple of times in the movie. The kindergartners, that idea came from that script, and so did the kid who has the drone following him. We took a few things out of that script that are in this movie. Me and the other two directors who ended up on the movie, Robert Marianetti and David Wachtenheim, we all kind of thought the script was missing something that needed a reason to be an animated movie. Let's make a movie." At that time, I was doing something with Triumph, and then I moved right into directing “The Week Of,” which was a movie Adam did with Chris Rock. We both have kids, and they both go to school. Tell me about “Leo.” It is charming and funny and witty and weird - all the things that a movie should be.įive or six years ago, Adam Sandler said, "Smighty, we've got to do a musical, like 'Grease' for kids. Michael Che talks comedy boundaries and why he's staying on "Saturday Night Live" You can watch my full "Salon Talks" interview with Smigel here, or read the transcript of our conversation below. In a recent "Salon Talks" conversation with me, Smigel opened up about his button-pushing eras in late-night comedy, his current transition to family fare - and the "SNL" sketch that shocked even Dave Chappelle. And now, he's a co-writer, co-director and costar of Netflix's animated feature "Leo." Starring Adam Sandler as a seen-it-all septuagenarian tuatara, the film is a multigenerational "Saturday Night Live" reunion of sorts, with Cecily Strong, Rob Schneider and Heidi Gardner also lending their voices. After co-writing the first two "Hotel Transylvania" movies, he's carved out a new niche in family entertainment. Smigel still isn't putting limits on himself - and he's never left behind his cigar-chomping canine alter ego - but these days he's pushing himself in different directions. The man behind the bawdy, brazen Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and " Saturday Night Live's" iconic Ambiguously Gay Duo simply says, "I did set out to be satirical," adding, "and I didn't put limits on myself if Lorne Michaels didn't." "I never set out to be dangerous," says Robert Smigel.
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