AF: How long did it take to complete the film?

EM: The whole project took seven months from idea through execution.

AF: What was the inspiration for your film?

EM: There were many inspirations, but the main one was that [co-director] Olivier Delabarre saw an illustration of two octopi by Peter de Sève. Olivier then threw out the idea that we could tell the story of two octopi in love, who got separated, then tried to reunite. We agreed that there was a lot of humor that would come through in that story.

And the octopus isn't a common protagonist, so our story would be unique in that regard. We're all influenced by a lot of current animation, too. The "Scrat" shorts by Chris Wedge of Blue Sky are a pretty big inspiration. Anything that's really driven by character.

AF: Was it difficult to make your characters expressive and appealing given the restrictions of the octopus body?

Oktapodi. © Gobelins.

EM: The lack of mouth made it harder for the characters to emote, but we agreed that we wanted to stay true to the real animal, what it is, and what it can do.

Actually, in our research, we found lots of things that octopi can do that people don't realize they can do. Everything that they do in our film, like leaving their tanks, launching themselves -- those are things that they can do in real life, to an extent. We actually left some of their skills out of the film, since we didn't want the audience to think that we were being unrealistic.

With the design, everything had to come from the eyes. We had to make the eyes big, and very expressive. We also needed to make the creatures empathetic, so that the audience would care about them. Usually, when you see an octopus in a movie, it's all tentacle-y and slimy, and is some sort of monster or alien. Creating empathy for them is a challenge.

AF: How many short films have you directed in the past?

EM: Most of us had directed at least one animated short before. I'd done one live action short by myself prior to this.

AF: Do you have any interest in experimenting with other forms of animation?

EM: We incorporated some 2D into Oktapodi, in the scene where the chef was chopping up the octopus. The story lent itself to using 2D for that scene, and we're open to using whatever is best for the story.

In the future, we'll probably stick with 3D, since that's what we've trained in, and we really want to see how far we can push the envelope. I think we know 3D well enough that we're more comfortable pushing the boundaries in that style.

AF: What have been the highlights of the AWN tour so far?

EM: The whole tour's been a highlight. We got to go to Pixar and show our film to Brad Bird, Ricky Nierva, Andy Jimenez and Dylan Brown. We spent the night at Skywalker Ranch, and spent the next day at the THX labs. We met George Lucas -- that might be the highlight.

And we just went to the Disney Archives, and saw artwork from Steamboat Willie, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White... it was very inspirational, and we all wanted to head right back to our studios and start animating.

AF: Will you be attending the Academy Awards? Whom would you most like to meet when you're in Hollywood?

EM: Yes, I'll be attending. Because I live in L.A., I was able to go to the nominees' luncheon, so I already got to see some stars. I wanted to talk to Danny Boyle, but he had a mob of people around him constantly.

The other guys want to see Penélope Cruz. [laughs] And Sean Penn. And George Clooney, who does espresso commercials in France. I'd like to talk with some directors, personally. Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, Steven Spielberg, Wes Anderson. It should be really fun.

AF: Have you begun work on any new projects since the completion of Oktapodi? Is there a lot of pressure on you due to the success that Oktapodi has achieved?

EM: I've still got my senior thesis to work on. I could have submitted Oktapodi, but I wanted to make sure that I'd have to do at least one more film by myself.

All of us want to work together again, and it's going to be different this time, because we'll have to find a producer, and deal with financials. But we're looking forward to it. We really want the opportunity to do the kind of film that we'd really like to make, with no time or subject restrictions.

The pressure is there, but it's not our main concern. Sure, we want our next film to live up to Oktapodi, but mostly we want to work together and make the film that we really want to make.

Andrew Farago is the gallery manager and curator of San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum and the creator of the weekly online comic serial The Chronicles of William Bazillion.