When it came to working with the actors — you have a fantastic voice cast with Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine — was there anything that you discovered about a character through the voice-acting performance?
Buck: Probably Asha — the quirkiness of Asha and the humor. Ariana …
Veerasunthorn: She has so much energy.
Buck: She’s got so much energy, and she’ll give you these certain lines [where] you’re like, “I did not expect that or how you would do that.” But it brings that great believability and individuality to the character that only Asha would do or say.
Veerasunthorn: Wherever she goes, she brings joy into the room. That transcended onto the screen.
“Wish” changes up the traditional Disney 3D animation approach we’ve seen with “Frozen” and “Encanto.” How do you hope “Wish” continues to inspire the next generation of Disney animated films in terms of pushing those boundaries for what you can do in the medium?
Buck: There are so many things that we’ve done here, but in the recent past, the shorts we did were “Paperman,” “Feast,” and “Far from the Tree,” which did play with this 2D-3D kind of look. We were inspired by that. The challenge for us was to do it as a feature, to do it for a full 90 minutes. That was incredible. It’s handing the baton to the next directors, the next generation … Go for it. Keep pushing the innovation just like Walt Disney would’ve done, because that’s what he did his whole career.
“Wish” releases in theaters on November 22.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
