Family Bonds and Unifying Laughs - Jeff Kinney Discusses "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw"
In what has become a holiday tradition of sorts, the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid animated film The Last Straw is set to stream on Disney+ tomorrow (December 5th). To celebrate the release, Benji had a chance to chat with Jeff Kinney — the creator of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series and the screenwriter for the film.
Benji Breitbart: Congratulations again on this fourth animated adaptation of your books. What have you heard from your fans about these films becoming sort of a holiday tradition?
Jeff Kinney: Yeah, that that's something that's really special is that we get to put these out once a year or once every two years during the holidays. That's a great time to release a film like this because the stories are about the whole Heffley family, which is kind of rare to have a story about a whole family and then they're watched by the whole family. And so I'm really imagining families across the world sitting down at this time of year and turning on Disney+ and enjoying the movie. Maybe it'll spark some common understanding across the generations and hopefully some laughs as a family.
BB: Absolutely. Now, sometimes when you see an author is adapting their own work for the screen, you get a little nervous because they're not necessarily the same medium and they might be a little too loyal to their original version. While this definitely feels in the vein of your books, you really made it ensure that it worked as a film. What was your approach in that regard?
JK: Yeah, I think it's been really developmental for me because when the first live action movies came out, I wasn't qualified to tell those stories. I didn't know how to be a screenwriter. And by the time Disney+ was conceived of, it was the right time. I think I'd learned enough about filmmaking to start to tell my own stories.
But you're right, as a screenwriter, you can't be too precious about your own work. You have to make changes for the screen and you have to tell a story that resonates emotionally. Like my books, sometimes I subvert the reader's expectation, but you can't really do that in the films. Especially for Disney, you need to tell a story that's really wholesome and that feels like its own thing.
BB: The heart of this movie is really the relationship between father and son and it really hits home in a lot of ways. You might get annoyed, you might get frustrated, but at the core, there's still love and wanting to be spend time together. What was your vision in making sure that that through line happened?
JK: Yeah, it's funny because the way that these movies get made is they often start off with conversations between a few of us. We have a pretty small team on the production side at Disney and they start off as just conversations between all of us. We're laughing the whole time, we're talking about our own kids, about our own parents. And a lot of times those really pure moments make it into the film. In fact, this movie kicks off with a scene where Greg can't figure out how to work a key and his father is really frustrated by this and he's also horrified that maybe he hasn't taught Greg how to use a key. And that came from my real life. I remember telling the Disney team about that and they were laughing. Then the head of development said, "Yeah, put that in the movie." and I was like, "That's like really straight out of my own life." And she was like, "Yeah, put it in the movie." And now it's how the movie kicks off and it's probably one of the most impactful scenes in the whole film.
BB: I noticed that the movie is dedicated to your father. What was your relationship like with him that might have influenced your storytelling — not just necessarily with this film but with your broader storytelling?
JK: Yeah, you stayed till the end credits. Thank you for that. I did.
My father and I weren't very similar in some ways. He was a military man. I was more of a creative kid, a computer programmer, and a game developer. So in some ways we didn't really understand each other, but our common language was actually comics. My father, every morning, he'd go downstairs and he would clip the comics from the Washington Post that he wanted me to see or he'd circle them or something like that. He's the one who got me into cartooning. And that was the common ground that we shared.
I think overall this movie really is about finding that common ground and I think that Greg and his father do find it.
BB: When you watch the movie, you feel bad — when things go wrong, they go spectacularly wrong. And you can almost sense it coming. Do you ever just feel bad for the situations you're putting Greg and the gang through?
JK: I never feel bad for Greg because I feel like he makes the choices and he pays the penalties for those choices. The stories definitely aren't moralistic, but they're a little bit cautionary. Greg, he usually gets what he deserves, I would say.
BB: This is the fourth animated adaptation. Do you look forward to making more? Do you have more stories that you want to bring to the screen?
JK: I'm really hoping so. That's definitely the goal. You know, what happens is sort of out of my control, but it's definitely something that we're all keeping our fingers crossed. Of course, a lot of it depends on the performance, how people receive the movies that we make.
BB: You obviously work hand in hand with an animation director on this one. Matt Danner from Legends of Three Caballeros, Muppet Babies, etc. What have you learned from your partners about the art of animation?
JK: Matt's brings a lot of comedy to the scene in animation and he uses the world of animation as a tool. Like he thinks and speaks in the language of animation, which I think is really additive. But one of the things that Matt's taught me is the game of a scene. Basically, every scene usually has a game within it, even if there's dialogue over it, there's usually some sort of objective or something that's being played out. And I've definitely taken that away from him and I try to always remember it when I'm writing.
BB: Well, thank you very much. It's always a joy to get to talk to you but also get to see these films pop up. They're great to watch with your family over the holidays. So thank you so much for the time and thanks for the film.
JK: Thank you very much.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw will debut on Disney+ December 5th.