“I will meet George Lucas one day” is a thought I honestly never had. At least, not realistically. The man was a hero of mine growing up, and not unlike many of you reading this, the original STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES trilogies were on constant rotation for about 15 years of my life. (And, occasionally, they still are.) So learning I’d get a chance to talk to him, if only for four or five brief minutes, provided a different kind of excitement than these interviews normally do.
No, we weren’t meeting up to talk STAR WARS, although I can hold out hope that day is yet to come; this was going to be a conversation about STRANGE MAGIC, Lucasfilm’s new animated musical being distributed by Disney. Lucas came up with the original concept for the film – a literal fairytale about a fairy who unexpectedly falls in love with a hideous creature called The Bog King – over 15 years ago and produced it for director Gary Rydstrom. It’s a sweet little movie, definitely aimed at kids, and about as different from anything Lucas has been involved with as you can imagine.
I spoke to Lucas – who was paired with actor Elijah Kelley – about the genesis of STRANGE MAGIC (which he says is primarily a movie for 12-year-old girls), how involved he was in the project and what’s on his plate moving forward.