Kevin Hart Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Cast: Kevin Hart, Kristen Schaal, Jordan Peel
Director: David Soren
Genre: Animation, Action
Rated: G
Running Time: 89 minutes

Synopsis: Based on the worldwide sensation and bestselling book series, and boasting an A-list cast of comedy superstars headed by Kevin Hart and Ed Helms, DreamWorks Animation brings audiences the long-awaited global movie event, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. This raucously subversive comedy for the entire family tells the story of two overly imaginative pranksters named George and Harold, who hypnotise their principal into thinking he's a ridiculously enthusiastic, incredibly dimwitted superhero named Captain Underpants.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Release Date: September School Holidays, 2017

 

About The Production

'George and Harold were usually responsible kids. Whenever anything bad happened, George and Harold were usually responsible." ― Dav Pilkey, The Adventures of Captain Underpants

DreamWorks Animation presents Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, a hilarious and zany animated feature based on the best-selling author and illustrator Dav Pilkey's beloved Captain Underpants book series. The film centers on the friendship between two creative and mischievous fourth-grade boys, who accidentally turn their mean principal into Captain Underpants, a bumbling superhero of their own creation. Directed by David Soren, the film's star-studded voice cast includes Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, Thomas Middleditch, Jordan Peele, and Kristen Schaal.

The first book of Dav Pilkey's 12 book series was published in 1997. The series has been translated into 20 languages and has sold 80 million books worldwide. The books center on the adventures of George Beard (Kevin Hart) and Harold Hutchins (Thomas Middleditch), two imaginative friends who spend hours in their treehouse creating their own comic-books featuring a wacky superhero, Captain Underpants. Then one day, when their mean principal threatens to break up the friends into separate classes, they accidentally hypnotize him and turn him into Captain Underpants (Ed Helms).

Kids all over the world have been delighted by the simple and expressive illustrations, the offbeat humor, and the clever plotlines of the books, while parents love the fact that the books inspired their children to read more. The film, which is DreamWorks Animation's 35th feature project, is based on the first four books in Pilkey's best-selling series.

The CG-animated movie is directed by David Soren, a longtime DreamWorks veteran, who directed the studio's inventive 2013 feature Turbo and two Madagascar shorts, Merry Madagascar and Madly Madagascar, as well as being a story artist on Shrek, Shark Tale and Over the Hedge. David Soren and his team relied on some of the most talented and popular comedic voice talents working in the business today to bring Pilkey's characters to animated life. 'This has been a great opportunity to work with people that I know well who I really love and respect," says Ed Helms of his co-stars.

David Soren has great memories of the first time he came across Dav Pilkey's books. 'It was twenty years ago, I had just moved to Los Angeles, and I discovered the first Captain Underpants book at a bookstore. I picked it up and read half of it right there in the aisle," he recalls. 'Years later, once I had kids of my own, we read it again together, then the next book, and the next, until we'd devoured the entire series and were sore from laughter. Needless to say, when I was approached to direct the movie, I was all in!"

The film's producer Mark Swift, p.g.a. was also a huge fan of the series long before starting the project. 'I used to read to my two older boys, and sometimes, I would find it hard to keep my eyes open after a long day at work," says Mark Swift, who has produced Madgascar: Escape 2 Africa, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Penguins of Madagscar during his successful career at DreamWorks Animation. 'Then we discovered the Captain Underpants series together, and everything changed. I was thrilled because these books were really funny, inventive, creative and subversive. It's rare that you read a book to your children that keeps you laughing as hard as they are. I became a big fan of the series and really looked forward to reading them with my sons."

For producer Mireille Soria, p.g.a., Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie offered a chance to celebrate artistic freedom. 'I am proud of the way the movie celebrates a friendship that is based on creativity and imagination. In a way, it's also about kids who say, I'm not going to accept conformity or restrictions on my creativity."

Swift and Soren share the same affection for Dav Pilkey's universe, where George and Harold spend hours creating their own comic books in their beloved tree house. David Soren points out that one of the most appealing aspects of the books is that they are told through the boys' unusual perspective. 'Although the books are called Captain Underpants, they really are about George and Harold and their friendship," explains David Soren. 'The boys are telling their story, it's their narrative. I wanted the movie to feel like they were the filmmakers. During the story process, we found this approach to be incredibly successful. So much so, that whenever we committed to that philosophy, the moments landed beautifully, and whenever we got strayed from that point of view, it didn't work nearly as well."

David Soria, who also worked with Mark Swift on the blockbuster Madagascar films at the studio, says she is especially pleased with the project's diversity of visuals. 'Here at DreamWorks, we don't have a singular house style," she notes. 'There is a great breadth and range of artistic vision, and our movies reflect the different voices our filmmakers bring to each project. For Captain Underpants, we were able to build on Dav Pilkey's hilarious and unique style and visuals. Everything about this movie"the characters, the designs, the sets, the animation, the storyline"has a mischievous note and a twinkle in its eye."

The film's production designer Nate Wragg, a longtime DreamWorks veteran, whose credits include Puss in Boots, The Croods, Mr. Peabody & Sherman and Home, says when he first joined the project in 2012 he immersed himself in Dav Pilkey's world to make sure he clearly understood the tone of the Captain Underpants universe. 'The big challenge was that the books' drawings are quite simple," he notes. 'They are absolutely charming and appealing in their own way, so we had to figure out how to translate them to a different medium. At first, we looked at the drawings and noticed that they're loosely drawn and fun, but then we really came to understand the language"this unique style that is consistent in all the books."

Nate Wragg was also very keen on preserving Dav Pilkey's particular brand of humor in the design. 'One of the things that stood out to me when I read the books is just how silly the world is," he points out. 'Things like cars, buildings, and store names are always silly and whimsical in the way they are drawn and portrayed in the books. Once we started using that logic as a base for all our designs, we really began to find the style of the world for our CG adaptation."

After taking a complete crash course in Dav Pilkey's universe and experimenting with different storylines and visuals, the DreamWorks team zeroed in on the best possible way to bring the characters to life. Their fresh approach and loyalty to the source material aim to put big smiles on the faces of die-hard fans of the books as well as general movie audiences.

From Page To Screen

'Dav Pilkey's books are a celebration of friendship," says producer Mark Swift. 'When you look back at your own life, it's wonderful when you find the friends you love to spend time with, the ones who look at the world the same way you do. The book series is also an unabashed celebration of creativity. Captain Underpants is a hero that the boys create on their own, and he's unlike any other superhero we have seen on the big screen."

The team was able to source various elements of the movie from different plot points in the book series. For example, the boys hypnotize Mr. Krupp in the first book. They face off against evil talking toilets that are featured in the second book. And the movie's villain Professor Poopypants doesn't make his appearance until the fourth book.

For the artistic team, one of the main challenges of the movie was finding just the right CG look that would retain the charm and whimsy of Dav Pilkey's original illustrations while blowing them up for the big screen. To help make that translation as smooth as possible, the filmmakers tapped Rune Bennicke, a veteran character designer and animator. Rune Bennicke, whose impressive credits include Mulan, The Tigger Movie, Lilo & Stitch, Asterix and the Vikings and Kung Fu Panda 3, delivered some astonishing early 2D animation tests that defined the tone of the characters right out of the gate.

David Soren recalls, 'We would constantly go back and look at those tests whenever we needed to show the actors or a new crew member what we were striving for. They also laid the groundwork for our animation style in general and were instrumental to the translation of the characters into our CG world."

One clear objective was to cut down the level of detail in the designs. 'When I first came on board, I discovered that we needed to look at these characters as symbols, and not worry about actual anatomical details," explains Rune Bennicke. 'They are cartoon characters. They have dot eyes. They don't need realistic hair."
The character designer recalls the very first two animation tests he put together for the project. The first was one of Principal Krupp turning into his alter ego Captain Underpants. The second one, which involved Professor Poopypants, turned out to be a revelation. 'It all happened very easily," says Rune Bennicke. 'The Professor asks the class what they think is the most exciting thing about robots, and Melvin, the teacher's pet, says it's the mathematics behind robots. The Professor gets so excited that he floats in the air, and as soon as he finishes talking, he comes back down and lands. It's a very odd notion, and it defies the laws of physics, but it works in a traditional cartoony world. I was a bit scared to show it to the team, but they loved it and we decided to go for it. It's a perfect example of how things moved very smoothly for us when we were on the right path."

Production designer Nate Wragg recalls a particular illustration in the Dav Pilkey's book that really helped him and his team get the right visual style for the movie. 'For me, that it was an illustration of Principal Krupp, looking angry as can be sitting as his desk," he says. 'What struck me as important about this image was that it has a memorable character in an important location"united by the same tone. If you look closely at the illustration, we don't see a lot of detail as it was pretty stripped down and simple, but it was impactful. We wanted to keep things simple, maintain the iconic details like the pencil and penholder sitting on top of Krupp's desk. We looked at his desk as more of a symbol of his disciplinary captain's chair and treated the space as more of an interrogation room. This was something that we would build on the illustration as we designed the set, all while staying true to the tone of the illustration and the story it was telling."

Dav Pilkey's shaky illustrative line was another key element the team pulled from the illustration as they began the design process. 'If you look at the chair, the desk, the pencil holder, there are no straight lines in what he draws," explains Nate Wragg. 'There is a wobble and shake to his line quality that we felt we needed to include in our modeling to get as close as we could to his illustrative style. So we built and modeled that wobble into every prop and asset in the film. If you look closely, you won't see any straight lines in the models, but you will see Dav Pilkey's shaky line in everything we designed and it really helped us adapt his drawings into the CG world. In many cases, if you look at a single prop in our movie on it's own, the prop often looks broken or too wobbly. But when composed in a set surrounded by all the other wobbly props, everything blends together to form a really charming and appealing style."

The creative artists wanted to avoid the rigid rules of the real world and step inside a more cartoony universe and found this very liberating. 'A lot of our sets are designed free of hardcore logic," explains the film's lead visual development artist Christopher Zibach. 'We always try to find the funniest joke for any given object or circumstance. The goal is to find out what makes a prop funny or childish. Of course, the audience still needs to recognise what the object is. A water gun should look like what people think of as a water gun, but we had to make sure it's silly and funny on top of it."

Many of the movie's sets and objects follow the loose logic introduced by Dav Pilkey in his books. As Christopher Zibach explains, 'When you look at the books, there is no rhyme or reason why certain gadgets do what they do. Let's say there's a time machine or a special ray gun that enlarges everything: You don't have to know how they really work. You just have to capture that playful spirit that you had as a kid, that your imagination has no bounds. That's what we tried to capture in our design work!"

With Captain Underpants DreamWorks Animation took the unusual step of animating the feature film in partnership with an outside studio, Mikros Image Studio. 'We had a script and concepts that the studio was in love with," said Mark Swift, 'and we all were eager to move forward immediately." At the time DreamWorks Animation was already deep into production on both Trolls and The Boss Baby, which would have delayed the film's start by a few years, but Mark Swift and the rest of the filmmaking team were able to convince the studio to consider an outside company for portions of the production provided they could duplicate the quality of work DreamWorks would provide.

'We searched for a studio that shared our artistic sensibility," says Swift. 'I came across the amazing work that Mikros Image Studio had done in recent years. I was very impressed with the work they had done on Asterix and Obelix: Mansion of the Gods (2014) and knew that they were working on The Little Prince (2015). The quality of their animation really drew me to them."

DreamWorks Animation did all of the front end work on the film including development, the script, the storyboards, the layout and editorial, and then collaborated on the animation with Mikros Image Studio.

Pilkey's Stamp Of Approval

Some believe that the best compliment an author or property creator can give a movie's director and producers is to leave them in complete charge of the adapted material. That's exactly what Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey chose to do.

'Dav Pilkey came around the studio a couple of times," recalls producer Mireille Soria. 'He has a very interesting perspective. He doesn't really like movies that are exact interpretations of books, word by word, and don't bring anything new to the mix. He had a really good connection with our director, David Soren. They both see the world in the same way. They felt like kindred spirits. Dav Pilkey felt confident leaving the movie in David Soren's hands."

David Soren says he and Dav Pilkey connected quite quickly because they had the same artistic influences when they were young. 'We both taught ourselves how to draw by studying the work of [Peanuts creator] Charles M. Schulz," notes the director. 'We both loved The Little Rascals. We shared many of the same influences. I think that's a big reason why the tone of the books and the movie feel in sync with each other. Dav Pilkey seemed very appreciative, even relieved, that we understood that the friendship and chemistry between George and Harold was central to the success of the series."

'When I first wrote the book, I had imagined it as a live-action movie in my head," says Dav Pilkey. 'But then I realised that nobody wants to see a real-life grown man running around in his underwear. That would look a bit creepy. So I think it was a much better movie to have it adapted as an animated movie. DreamWorks was my number one choice. The studio has had such an amazing track record and has been behind so many movies that I've loved throughout the years.

The celebrated author says he also immediately took a liking to David Soren and found him to be a kindred spirit. 'Animated movies aren't my area of expertise, so I really trusted David Soren and his team to do a great job with the project. We both grew up reading and making comic-books with our friends, and he really understood the characters and the property very well. I have to say that I was really blown away when I saw the rough cuts of the movie. My hopes and expectations were really high, and they managed to surpass them all. They really nailed it!"

Dav Pilkey points out that the main theme of the movie is the sincere friendship between George and Harold, and how this friendship and creativity gets them through school and life's challenges. He notes, 'Of course, there is a lot of craziness and adventure and a mad scientist and robots, but at the core of it, both the books and the movie are a celebration of friendship and creativity. When I first drew the comic-book as a second-grader sitting in the hallway of our school, it was just a superhero story, but after I turned it into a book years later, I added more of my own story and experiences as a misunderstood kid to the mix as well. It evolved to become a tale of two kids who have challenges in school, and they don't fit in, and their friendship and creativity get them through it all."

The author says he was especially happy that the filmmakers kept the central characters of George and Harold completely intact in the animated movie. 'I do feel that is the core of the series"the books are the celebration of the bond of friendship"and the movie has managed to reflect that beautifully."
Dav Pilkey was also happy with the fact that the DreamWorks artists understood his visual intent. It was also a novel experience for him to see that so many talented artists at the studio were drawing and playing with the characters that he spent so many years imagining and creating in a solitary way. 'He has been supportive of the movie in the best possible way," says Soren, 'He's trusted us."

A Comic's Voice

Popular actor and comic Kevin Hart (Ride Along movies, The Secret Life of Pets) who voices George in the movie, says he was especially excited to be part of this project. 'I really wanted to do this movie because Captain Underpants is such a great franchise, and it's also something my kids could really identify with. Both my son and daughter thought that I was the coolest person in the world for doing it."

Kevin Hart believes that one of the most powerful aspects of the movie is the way it celebrates creativity. 'Kids love to put their imagination to use and be creative. George and Harold are two kids that love to draw and to tell stories. Their stories become reality in their world. I love the fact that the movie doesn't frown upon their creativity.

The actor says he enjoyed great chemistry with director David Soren. 'I think it was important to allow him to stay true to his process. He likes to try different options. So with him, I made sure he understood that there is no ego involved. I love the work and enjoy perfecting the craft and giving it my all. So our sessions were about getting everything that we needed and walking out of there confident that he had everything he wanted to execute the scene. David Soren knows what he's doing and knows how to get what he wants."

For Kevin Hart, one of the most fun aspects of the job was witnessing the progression of his character. 'I really enjoyed seeing George go from a simple black-and-white sketch to more complete, color and CG-animated versions. To watch this character that you're voicing gradually become animated and moving is really a special experience. You literally see the things that the animators pick up"the facial expressions that they've included. I loved to see how they built this character step by stem and to witness George come to life!"

A Double Challenge For Helms

To play the challenging double role of Principal Krupp and Captain Underpants, the filmmakers went to comic actor Ed Helms (The Hangover movies, We're the Millers, Vacation). The actor says the movie gave him a great opportunity to work with Kevin Hart and some of his other comedy friends. 'Kevin Hart and I used to do stand-up comedy in New York back in the -90s, and I'm also good friends with Thomas Middleditch and Nick Kroll. So the making this movie felt like coming home, working with these talented people that I know, like and respect."

Ed Helms, who has participated in animated movies such as The Lorax before, says he loved playing the characters in Captain Underpants. 'With animation, you walk into a studio and jump into the fun part. You're performing, and it's broad, heightened and wacky. It's just fun every time. It's a joy to come to work."

He faced the special challenge of coming up with two different vocal variations for Principal Krupp and Captain Underpants. 'It was very important to find distinct voices for the two so that it was clear which character was on the screen at any given time, because sometimes Principal Krupp is wearing Captain's underpants, and sometimes Captain Underpants is dressed like Krupp," Ed Helms explains. 'But because they're both coming out of me, you also connect them as the same person. Principal Krupp was just a more angry and gravelly voice, with lots of rage and frustration, while the Captain is just broad and delighted with the whole world."

The actor also sings the praises of director David Soren and his team. 'One of the most fun parts of making this movie was the amount of collaboration involved," he points out. 'Most of the time in animated movies, you show up, deliver your lines and you leave.

David Soren took a more inclusive approach. He knew that the cast"Kevin, Nick, Thomas and myself"we were all friends and knew each other outside of the movie. He brought us together at times to either record together or watch scenes and give our thoughts and notes about them."

Ed Helms says he believes that the movie is quite ambitious and unusual in what it sets out to do. 'It really breaks the mold in many ways. It doesn't pander to children, and there's a lot going on that you don't often see in traditional family movies. I think both children and grown-ups are going to find something to latch onto, and the movie really delivers on all fronts."

Creative Approaches To Storytelling

One of the delightful ways Captain Underpants stands apart from other CG-animated movies of recent years is in how it utilizes several different visual styles and formats to capture the boys' adventures. The filmmakers have included various types of animation and even live-action sock puppets, just as the books incorporate comics created by George and Harold and Flip-O-Rama"a traditional 'flipbook" method that uses illustrations on consecutive pages.

'We wanted the comic-book sequences in the movie to be hand-drawn, our version of what a couple of fourth graders would draw," explains David Soren. 'That meant limiting our tools to better resemble those used by a child. Using a cruder, limited animation style, colored with markers or pencil crayons, all composited in a simple way that could have been taught in an Animation 101 class. The idea was to start the comic book sequences using primarily still imagery, and the deeper we go into the actual adventures within the comics, the more immersive and graphic we get."

A more graphic and stylized type of 2D animation was also used for the sequence that shows Professor Poopypants trying to get rid of the boys' Huffaguffawchuckleamulus" the enigmatic part of the brain that appreciates humor! 'This section is more fully animated and rendered than the comic-book sequences," explains David Soren. 'So we feel like we're actually inside George and Harold's brains."

The film moves into its Flip-O-Rama sequences when there is a major fight scene or confrontation involved.

'There's a battle scene between the giant Turbo Toilet 2000 and Captain Underpants, so George and Harold rush in and pause the madness," says the director. 'They say, -The following sequence has scenes that are so intense, complicated, and expensive, that we can only show it using a technology known as, Flip-O-Rama,' then Harold's CG hand comes in and flips the pages back and forth to create the illusion of movement. It couldn't be more basic. Ironically, animated movies are really just incredibly time consuming, elaborate, expensive Flip-O-Rama's."

Another visual treat is the use of live-action sock puppet animation, created by acclaimed Los Angeles-based studio Screen Novelties for a scene that illustrates how Harold imagines their lives would be if Principal Krupp manages to put them in separate classes. 'The boys are in their treehouse, traumatized by Krupp's threat. It's raining outside. Their shoes and socks are lying around. The sock puppet fantasy came organically from the situation they were in. It was the perfect way to visualise their fears. It also opened to door for all the other playful techniques we use in the movie," notes David Soren.

A Hair-Raising Experience

Among the major challenges of delivering CG versions of Dav Pilkey's illustrations was creating Harold's hair"which is usually drawn as this big yellow cloud-like squiggle in the books. 'We needed to bring the looseness and cartoony feel that the hair has in the original illustrations, and that took us a lot of research and time to achieve," says producer Mark Swift. 'I love how the hair turned out in the end. It really captures the fluffy mess. You can cheat the details in 2D, but in CG, it's a lot more complicated."

The design team knew from the very beginning that they needed to come up with a unique and creative way to deliver the characters' hair in the movie. 'We were aware of the fact that we couldn't do realistic hair," notes character designer Rune Bennicke. 'We tried it in the beginning, and it wasn't pretty. We also knew that we couldn't opt for the helmethair approach, like some other recent CG animated movies had done. It had to be something in between, and I think we found an interesting middle ground. It keeps the design and actually represents cartoony hair in a believable way."

The team at Mikros used grooming material to simulate the hair using their proprietary hair system. 'We used the same workflow we used for another recent movie we did"Asterix and Obelix: Mansion of the Gods," explains CG supervisor Guillaume Dufief. 'There was a lot of back and forth about the look of the hair, but in the end, we were very happy with the way the CG version echoed the original drawings. It was cartoony, less realistic, and definitely not easy to do!"

The Ultimate Superhero Soundtrack

The soundtrack from Captain Underpants is an eclectic mix of original songs from such artists as 'Weird Al" Yankovic, Andy Grammer and Coldwar Kids, as well as containing various covers performed by Adam Lambert and cast members Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch and Ed Helms.

Director David Soren wanted the music in the film to parallel the whimsical heart of the story and characters. "This is a film that celebrates unbridled creativity and deep friendships," he notes. "I wanted the raw energy and extreme fun in these characters and the film's obvious love of artistic non-conformity to be reflected in the song selections."

Original song highlights include, the 'Captain Underpants Theme Song" performed by 'Weird Al" Yankovic, 'A Friend Like You" performed by Andy Grammer, which is based on Harold and George's friendship and 'Saturday Song" performed by Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch, as their characters George and Harold, in the body of the film with a full version of the song performed by Nathan Willett of Cold War Kids featured during the credits.

Notable covers include Adam Lambert performing a high energy toe-tapping version of Aretha Franklin's popular hit, "Think," in addition to a cover of 'Hallelujah" performed by Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, and Ed Helms which is featured in the film and on the soundtrack.

The score is composed by Theodore Shapiro, whose credits include Tropic Thunder, Ghostbusters, Spy, and Trumbo. Included in the soundtrack is Shapiro's original music, 'Comic Book Opening," 'Saving the Day," and 'The Prank for Good.' Beyond composing the score, Shapiro played an integral role in also co-writing some of the original songs in the soundtrack, including the 'Captain Underpants Theme Song," where he shares credit with Al Yankovic, Adam Anders and Peer Astrom. Utilising Shapiro's score, the filmmakers created a fun, dynamic tone that furthered the film's narrative.

The soundtrack will be released by Virgin Records and Deep Well Records on June 2nd.

Main Characters

George and Harold
George Beard and Harold Hutchins are the goofy, mischievous centers of the Captain Underpants universe. The friendship between the two boys is the heart and soul of the books and the movie. George is the writer and Harold is the artist. Together, they hang out making comics in their tree house as an escape from the drudgery of school.

'They may be pranksters but they're good kids at heart. They only stand up to authority when the authority in question is, well… questionable. And nobody is more deserving to be pranked than Principal Krupp," explains director David Soren. George (voiced by Kevin Hart) is a more of the instigator, while Harold (voiced by Thomas Middleditch) takes a little more convincing, but he gets on board quite quickly. 'In their minds they are the last line of defense against the injustice of their terrible principal," adds David Soren.

'George doesn't have a mean bone in his body," says actor Kevin Hart, who voices the character. He's a good person that just wants to enjoy being a kid to the fullest. He wants to laugh and I think that's very important as a child. When things do get a little rough in this world that they've created, he bands together with Harold to try and fix it for the good of everyone."

The character designs of the two boys were obviously inspired by the books' illustrations. 'The challenge was to adapt Dev Pilkey's drawings into CG without losing any of their appeal," says David Soren. 'Our goal was not to change things, but to take cues from what he has created. We felt strongly that the designs should retain the same graphic language as the illustrations in the books. Rune is incredibly gifted at translating the appeal of Pilkey's drawings and actually elevating it for our CG world.

Bennicke says when he looks back at the early sketches of the boys for the movie, he notices a great evolutionary arc. 'They have gone through a little bit of a transformation from the first few takes," he notes. 'I can definitely see how they have changed in the process, and I love the fact that there's evolution in the design. It's like when you look back at one of the long-running animated TV shows, like The Simpsons. You change things around until you get the right proportions in the end."

Principal Krupp

The first time readers meet Principal Krupp in Dav Pilkey's first book, he is growling at the boys through his office window. He is described as 'the meanest, sourest old principal in the whole history of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. He hates laughter. Hates singing. He hates the sounds of children playing at recess. In fact, he hates children altogether!"

Of course, Krupp hates George and Harold most of all. 'He is probably the worst principal of all time," says director David Soren.

'He desperately wants to make the school a drone-like beehive and saps all the fun out of it. He cancelled the school's art and music program so that he could install a magnetic automatic door closer to his office."

'Principal Krupp is a repressed, angry individual," explains actor Ed Helms who voices the character. 'He is lonely, but he has a good heart. There's a kernel of goodness in him and that's what we see in his Captain Underpants alter ego. But unfortunately in his life, he's drift. He's an angry kind of unhappy person."

The boys, however, discover the secret side of their favorite antagonist in the movie. 'Underneath all of that, there's a deep loneliness that we discover after the boys visit his house," notes David Soren. 'From the outside, the place looks like a house of horrors, but then on the inside, it looks like a sweet, old lady's home. It's a revelation that humanizes Krupp in their eyes. He's not a monster; he's just lonely. "

Krupp was a tricky character to design because he also has to become Captain Underpants, and then a third variation, which is Captain Underpants disguised as the Principal " the secret identity the boys assign him so he doesn't wander around the school in his underwear.

Captain Underpants

George and Harold first created Captain Underpants in their homemade comic book. George came up with the idea first saying, 'Most superheroes look like they're flying around in their underwear…Well, this guy actually does!

How can anyone not love an egg-headed superhero that is faster than a speeding waistband, more powerful than boxer shorts, and able to leap tall buildings without getting a wedgie? Not to mention that his catch phrase is an infectious 'Tra-La Laaaa!"

As director David Soren explains, 'Our first reveal of Captain Underpants is through George and Harold's point of view. Their comic book pages are swirling around the principal's office. As the pages settle, we reveal that their creation has come to life. The boys think it's amazing, hilarious… but it's all downhill from there. Captain Underpants turns out to be a well-meaning trainwreck, always doing the wrong things for the right reasons."

Completely delusional, he believes the planet is now safe under his watchful eye. Lending credibility to the character arc of Captain Underpants is Ed Helms, to which David Soren offers, 'Ed Helms has been such a huge help in defining not just the voice, but the personality, and utter stupidity of this character."

Ed Helms believes the genius of Captain Underpants is that he is this funny character that is delighted to walk around in his underwear and a cape. 'So how do you sell that?" asks the actor. 'Who could be like that? Well, he has to be pretty dumb and out of touch with reality. That opens so many doors of playing this wide-eyed, happy character who has this benevolent approach to the world."

The actor adds that he simply loves playing this unconventional superhero. 'I love the guy," he continues. 'He's like just a cue ball with underwear on"this big, round kind of blob. He looks ridiculous and wonderful. He could probably stand to lose a few pounds. But he just has such a positive outlook that brings a smile to everyone."

Of course, the boys are constantly having to do damage control to either prevent Captain Underpants from getting hurt or getting themselves into more trouble. In terms of design, as Krupp and Captain Underpants are the same person, the artists needed to work on posture and attitude changes. 'Captain Underpants is super confident," says David Soren. 'Krupp's toupee comes off, and he goes from being hunched over to a more upright posture, chest out, and full of hot air! He grabs the curtain off the wall of his office and uses it as a cape."

There is a third variant to the persona, which is basically Captain Underpants disguised as Krupp, when the kids have to make him look normal. 'He wears the toupee, but it's kind of askew," says the director. 'He wears the same shirt, but it's buttoned incorrectly. It seems as if his clothes look a couple of sizes too small for him for no reason; he finds clothes in general to be restrictive and unnecessary. That's where the design challenge was. We had to make sure the audience could easily tell that this wasn't Krupp. It's Captain Underpants playing the role of a principal."

Production designer Nate Wragg is very pleased with the results. 'This is, after all, a grown man in his underwear," he notes. 'It was crucial to make him fun and lovable. CG can take on a more realistic approach, and we had to make sure that the end result didn't look weird or creepy. When you look at the books, you just laugh and don't question the logic. You have a fun character that you simply want to hang out with, and I think we were able to pull that off with our CG version."

Professor Poopypants

Every superhero needs a mad scientist to cause some havoc in his world, and in the twisted Underpants universe, it's the unfortunately named Professor Pippy Pee-Pee Poopypants from the country of New Swissland. Voiced by comedian Nick Kroll, the professor despises anything that has to do with laughter because of an unfortunate event in his past: He was about to receive a Nobel Prize, but lost it because the committee changed their mind after they found out about his name and deemed it too ridiculous.

The mad genius inventor of a special shrinking and enlarging machine called the Sizerator provided the design team and the animators with the opportunity to have a lot of fun. 'It was a perfect marriage between the unforgettable voice Nick Kroll created, and Rune Bennicke's drawings and animation style," says director David Soren.

Poopypants is Rune Bennicke's favorite character in the whole movie. 'I think he is going to steal the show," he says. 'Besides his funny name, he is such a classic cartoon character.

You feel like you know this character"he looks a little bit like a mad scientist. He is a complete design dream: No eyes, that crazy hair. Of all the characters in the project, he is the one that you can really push. When he gets angry, smoke comes out of his ears. You can have fun with the wrinkles and the pinch lines when he gets upset. I had so much fun with Professor Poopypants."

Melvin Sneedly

Every school has its share of annoying nerds, and Melvin Sneedly (voiced by Jordan Peele) is the thorn in George and Harold's side. He is a brainiac, super snitch and lover of Principal Krupp's mandatory Saturday Invention Conventions. Melvin becomes Professor Poopypants' sidekick thanks in part to his complete lack of a sense of humor.

'Poopypants discovers that Melvin has no Huffaguffawchuckleamulus, the part of the brain that understands jokes and humor." notes Soren. 'Melvin goes from being an annoying tattletale, to the missing link in Poopypants' evil plan to rid the world of humor once and for all."

Edith The Lunch Lady

Edith the lunch lady is the only new character created especially for the Captain Underpants movie. She's a wallflower, who spends most of her time admiring Krupp in secret. Her messy hair covers one of her blue eyes at all times. Voiced brilliantly by Kristen Schaal, Edith is Principal Krupp's hidden love interest. 'They are painfully awkward," says director David Soren. 'They clearly like each other, but their wires have been crossing for a long time. They try to get together, but neither has the social skills to make it work."

In the earlier versions of the movie, she was more of an annoyance to Krupp, but it soon became clear that it would be more fun to have Edith and Krupp share a weird, unresolved affection for each other. 'They are the perfect match for each other," explains David Soren. 'As socially inept as they are, we can't help but root for them to get together.

Once George and Harold see how lonely Mr. Krupp's life is, they decide to pull their first ever 'prank for good" and help bring the two very strange lovebirds together.

As the film's producer Mireille Soria points out, due to Edith's social awkwardness her charms are somewhat hidden. This presented a challenge since the film's artists needed to create a new character design that fit perfectly in Dev Pilkey's quirky universe, while at the same time highlighting her likability underneath her misfit exterior.

'If you are not familiar with the books, you'll have no idea that Rune, our character designer, invented this character from scratch. She really reflects the author's sensibilities and is the perfect love interest for Krupp. I think the audience will be rooting for these characters to end up together"despite the fact that Krupp is the boys' nemesis, and Edith"well, she is so painfully shy."

The Teachers

Although there are lots of wacky, browbeaten teachers at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, who do not receive a lot of screen time in the movie but they do make memorable cameos. In Dev Pilkey's world, they all have hilarious names. How can you not laugh out loud when you hear names such as Ms. Tara Ribble, Mr. Meaner, Miss Edith Anthrope, Mr. Morty Fyde, Mr. Rected, Miss Fitt, Ms. Guided?

'Even though Principal Krupp is the worst of the worst," director David Soren says, 'The rest of the teachers aren't far behind in terms of their general uninspired approach to teaching. 'None would win teacher of the year. And they all deserve a good old pranking!"

The drawings of the teachers in the books also provided the design team with a wealth of inspiration for the movie. 'We used the teachers as the model for a lot of our background characters and townspeople," notes production designer Nate Wragg.

'Our generic characters are based on those designs," he explains. 'That's how we managed to include them in the movie without having them as bigger characters. So when we needed a random guy walking down the street, we used Dev Pilkey's illustrations. We were able to mix and match all of these familiar shapes that are constant in the books. There's also a sequence that is a montage of all of George and Harold's many pranks…and we made sure the school librarian Ms. Singerbrains was included. She is on screen for no more than two seconds, but it was important for us to include her in the movie even if it was for a brief moment or two!"

A Brief, Yet Essential Glossary Of Very Important Captain Underpants Terms!

Anti-Humor Boy. How the boys depict their nerdy adversary Melvin in their comic-book.
Captain Underpants. Originally a superhero created by George and Harold in their comics. After the two hypnotize Principal Krupp with the HypnoRing, he thinks that he believes that he is Captain Underpants. His powers include superhuman strength, flight, the power to overcome Spray Starch, Wedgie Power, and 100% cotton-powered vision.
Flip-O-Rama. The way certain action-packed sequences are depicted in the movie and the books using flip-book sketches and limited 2D animation.
Green Toxic Sludge. The green toxic leftovers from the cafeteria which accidentally give Captain Underpants his superpowers.
Hypno-Ring. A toy item discovered by George in a cereal box with which he manages to hypnotize and transform Principal Krupp into becoming Captain Underpants.
The Hahaguffawchuckleamalus. The purple lobe inside the brain, which according to Professor Poopypants, holds the entire human capacity for laughter. The humorless professor would like to destroy this area of all human brains.
Jerome Horowitz Elementary School. The name of George and Harold's prison-like elementary school, which has oppressive brick walls and feels very oppressive, very much like a Russian prison.
Piqua. This Ohio town, which is also known as the underwear capital of the world, is the regular American town in which George and Harold live with their families.
Pee-Pee Diarrheastein Poopypants Esquire. Yes, that's Professor Poopypants's complete name. And no, it's not funny at all!
Poopagedon. Professor Poopypants and Melvin's plan to use the giant Turbo Toilet 2000 to get rid of all the world's Hahaguffawchuckleamuls and sense of humor.
Sidekicks. What Captain Underpants likes to call George and Harold.
Sizerator. Powerful tool invented by Professor Poopypants which can enlarge or shrink any object.
Tattle Turtle 200. A nanny camera-like spying device, shaped like a turtle which was created by Melvin for Principal Krupp.
Tra-La-Laaa! Captain Underpants' famous catchphrase, which he bellows in a sing-song voice, as he swings in the air.
Tree House Comix Inc. This is the name of the handmade comic-books George and Harold create in their free time. George is the writer, and Harold is the illustrator. They sell their comics in the playground for 50 cents. They use the school secretary's office to make copies of their comic books.
The Turbo Toilet 2000. A giant toilet with automatic wiping claws created by super-nerd Melvin in the movie. In the books, the boys create the toilet and it turns into a villain.
Uranus. The planet that was discussed in kindergarten, whose funny name made both George and Harold immediately burst out laughing. That's how the boys discovered that they were destined to be best friends forever.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Release Date: September 14, 2017 (QLD)
September 21, 2017 (NSW/ACT/VIC/WA)
September 28, 2017 (SA/NT/TAS)