BH: We always ask the animators to animate from the inside out, like that king and queen moment before the lanterns are released. We talked to the animator and asked about the first time he ever saw his father cry. What did that do to you? What does that feel like? Or have you ever been in the hospital with someone who is at the end of their life? Is there something that you can bring to this that is so real and so true on a human level that it will reach everybody in the audience? And what's so great about that scene is the choices the animator made are so subtle and in context it means so much and it makes the end of the movie pay off so much more.

NG: After a while, some of these animation sessions were turning into therapy sessions. You walk out of there and you're so exhausted talking about your experiences, but the way Byron and I approached this movie is that it's a world we created and these are characters that popped out of our heads, but in order to make the movie work, the world has to be believable and those characters need to be relatable, and so we took our own experiences and the crew's experience and we put that into the movie to better engage the audience.

BD: In terms of 3-D, I really think the lantern sequence justifies it. What was the importance?

BH: When one of our story artists pitched that idea of doing this lantern ceremony, we thought it would be perfect for CG, so it was always in our heads. So to see it finally done after all the layers and layers and layers of work that had to make that happen. To be able to reach out and almost grab the lanterns is incredible to us.

NG: Yeah, and the thing is, with 3-D, we've all seen movies where we've gone out wondering why we paid the extra money to see something that doesn't serve a purpose. And so early on we knew this was going to be a 3-D film, and Byron and I wanted our 3-D to have a purpose. It gets you involved in the story.

BD: One of the best analogies was by Megamind director Tom McGrath, who said it makes you a better voyeur.

BH: That's true -- it really gets you into the movie more. And you can't find a better example for why this movie is in 3-D than that lantern sequence. It's this moment she's had in her head for 18 years; she's finally there and surrounded by this and she's got all these new emotions and her world has completely opened up and you're right there with her and see all of it right in front of you.

Bill Desowitz is senior editor of AWN & VFXWorld.