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Summary
- Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow is an animated noir mystery set in 1934, featuring an intricate web of lies and a brilliant huntsman spider detective.
- The film draws inspiration from classic detective and noir stories, including Agatha Christie novels, Poirot films, and The Maltese Falcon, blending humor and mystery to maintain a lighthearted tone.
- The movie’s main message revolves around the importance of nature and the significance of even the smallest creatures in changing and saving the world.
Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow is an animated noir mystery set in 1934. When Inspector Sun, a brilliant huntsman spider, boards a plane on his way to vacation, things take an unexpected turn when an enigmatic millionaire’s life is threatened. Inspector Sun will take on the case as he parses through a web of lies to discover the culprit.
Inspector Sun stars a powerhouse voice cast led by Ronny Chieng, Emily Kleimo, Jennifer Childs Greer, Rich Orlow, Iain Batchelor, Scott Geer, Jeanette Grace Gonglewski, and Paul Louis Miller. The animated myster is directed by Julio Soto Gúrpide from a screenplay written by Rocco Pucillo. The movie is produced by Adriana Malfatti Chen, Julio Soto Gúrpide, Karl Richards, Peter Rogers, Rocco Pucillo, and Jason Kaminsky.
Screen Rant exclusively interviews Julio Soto Gurpide about his new animated movie, Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow. He shares the iconic movies from both animation, including Hotel Transylvania, and mysteries, including The Maltese Falcon, that were important inspirations for Inspector Sun. Gurpide also discusses casting and the message he wants people to take away from this animated adventure.
Julio Soto Gurpide On Inspector Sun
Screen Rant: The film is fantastic; Inspector Sun feels like an old-school noir mixed with an Agatha Christie novel. It’s a good old-fashioned mystery. Could you share any insight into some of the inspiration behind Inspector Sun and how the concept of the animated film came about?
Julio Soto Gurpide: Sure, we became interested in the script written by Rocco Pucillo a few years ago when he won the Samuel Goldwyn Award. Which was the first time for an animated movie, and I don’t think they gave the award to any other animated film. So I was aware of the script, but it was optioned by Tim Burton for a while.
Oh, wow I didn’t know that.
Julio Soto Gurpide: He was going to make a movie out of it, but for some reason he dropped the project. Then we jumped in, and it took a while to get the finance, and then we started the project. I found fascinating, the world of insects, since I was a child I was always in love with insects. I was never afraid of spiders or anything like that, like a lot of people do. So one of the challenges of the movie was to actually make the spiders cute and nice so that everybody would love them and everything. So that was the biggest challenge of the movie.
Yeah.
Julio Soto Gurpide: And it had some dark aspects as well because there was a crime, and it was a detective story with femme fatales and mobsters and all kinds of 1930s cliche characters. So I found the whole universe very original and very fascinating. The moment I read the first ten pages I was like, “Yeah, I want to make this movie.”
I also love the way that you handle the insect species in this, because they’re very true to the species that they’re based around. The ants will be doing the ant things, you know what I mean? I thought that was really cool. Now, this film draws from Hollywood’s Golden Age with the detective and noir stories. Did you use any inspiration from films from that era or tone for this film, Inspector Sun?
Julio Soto Gurpide: Sure. There’s a lot of references, everything from the Agatha Christie movies… I mean books, like you said. Also, the Poirot films made later on. Also, the more recent movies like Naked Gun and stuff because the detective is sort of a clumsy know-it-all kind of guy, and he’s lucky, but then he’s also talented. So we drew a lot of inspiration from all kinds of movies, books, and everything. Even comic books. Charlie Chan movies from the 40s and 50s as well. There’s a lot of that.
Amazing. Now, Ronny Chieng-
Julio Soto Gurpide: And… Sorry, the Humphrey Bogart movies, The Maltese Falcon, and stuff. Yeah, exactly.
Incredible. Now, Ronny Chieng is a superstar. He’s my favorite comedian right now, and he’s appearing everywhere. The MCU, The Meg, that horror film M3GAN, everywhere! What’s the most exciting aspect of collaborating with Ronny for the voice of Inspector Sun, and did his performance influence the character’s development at all?
Julio Soto Gurpide: Absolutely. He has a very unique tone of voice. He has an accent, so that that fit really well with the character because he’s a detective from Shanghai.
Yeah.
Julio Soto Gurpide: And he has an amazing voice. I was aware of his acting, but I wasn’t so much aware of his voice work. And working with him was wonderful, he’s very down to earth, very modest in a way. So, there’s none of that Hollywood difficultness.
Right. Now, as far as the animation, this film seems very distinct and visually captivating. The animation is beautiful in this movie. Can you discuss the artistic choice to bringing this unique world to life?
Julio Soto Gurpide: Sure, there was a lot of… I would say that 25% of the movie you make while you’re working on the artwork, right?
Really? Yeah.
Julio Soto Gurpide: And the artwork is very important for us. We were working with very talented artists from all over the world. Sylvain Deboissy is working for Warner Animation. Maxim Kostenko is a very talented guy. And all kinds of people from Dreamworks and stuff. So once we set the look of the movie, we had to work on the art. There was a lot of art deco influence. The characters, like I said before, they are spiders, but they are sort of anthropomorphic in a way.
So we had to make them appealing and nice. So there was a lot of work on the art. And so that was the basis of the movie, and then everything from storyboard to music. There was a lot of a lot of work on the soundtrack by Fernando Velázquez, who’s a very famous musician in Spain. And he’s done some of the big Hollywood movies as well. So everything was very delicately put together for this movie.
Now, I know that animation takes a long time. But for anybody that wants to get into animation, how long did you start on this project to its completion? How long was that duration of time?
Julio Soto Gurpide: Sure. A lot of people get very surprised when you tell them, like 165 people I think worked on this movie for a number of years. And they’re like, “Wow, really, is it that complicated to make an animated movie?” Yes, it takes a lot of talent, a lot of people, with different voices, different ways of doing things. To actually put all of that together into one direction, which is the movie. There’s a lot of egos, a lot of different opinions. So it takes a long time to build this universe. I would say from the day we optioned the script to the final movie took about four years.
Oh, wow.
Julio Soto Gurpide: But this is a short time for an animated movie sometimes people take ten, fifteen years to make an animated movie.
That’s incredible.
Julio Soto Gurpide: Production itself was less than two years, which is very short for this medium.
And it looks so gorgeous, that’s incredible. Now, speaking of, when crafting this film style and look for the animation, did you look at any animated movies in the past, to kind of inform the look of this film? Maybe A Bugs Life, or whatever it may be?
Julio Soto Gurpide: Sure, there are references to Ants and Bugs Life, like you said. But the one movie I would say that set the tone for the animation was probably Hotel Transylvania.
Oh, okay.
Julio Soto Gurpide: Because it’s very much based on posing. Posing, you get a pose, and then you move very quickly to the next pose. Everything happens from pose to pose, which is something that for us became very economical. Our budget was small, so that’s an easier way to animate rather than doing a very smooth, very sort of human-like animation, which takes longer and is more complicated. But it really suited the style of the movie.
Absolutely. Now, currently whodunnits and murder mysteries are hot, with Knives Out, Poker Face, Only Murders in the Building. This see this film seems to blend elements of comedy and mystery. How do you balance these aspects to maintain a lighthearted tone while keeping the audience engaged in the detective plot?
Julio Soto Gurpide: Well, I think humor is the key here. We were very aware all the time that we had to make this movie as humorous, as hilarious as possible. It’s very tricky to work with humor. You may think when you read the script, that something is funny, but once you see it acted it may not be as funny. So humor is a very, very tricky thing. And because, like you said, with the dark tone, the mystery, the murder, the only way that I could conceive to make this movie special was humor and I thought in some areas we nailed it. In some other areas I guess you could say… You could make it funnier. But I’m pretty proud, I’m pretty happy with the humor that we managed to achieve.
Yeah, and I think… I attributed to your amazing cast as well, they bring such a great performance. Speaking of which, Janey, Inspector Sun’s would-be sidekick is played by Emily Kleimo, who’s had a breakout performance in this film. Can you talk about casting Emily and what qualities she brought to the role of Janey?
Julio Soto Gurpide: It was tricky because this happened during the COVID confinement, or whatever you call it. So everybody was at home, we had to find people from different places. I think Emily was based in Philadelphia, if I’m not wrong. So we saw each other, but we were never in the same room together which was really, really bad. But her voice, I loved. Iit was a casting that we did for a number of months, and eventually… I wasn’t really concerned about big names or anything like that because it’s not that kind of movie. Of course we got Ronny Chieng, but I was more concerned about performance and the right timbre of voice, the right tone. And I think Emily had that. So I was sold [on] her right away.
Yeah, and she plays off of Ronny Chieng so well in the film, I think it’s brilliant. Now, Inspector Sun touches on important themes and life lessons. Could you share the main message and morals you aim to convey through the storyline and characters in Inspector Sun?
Julio Soto Gurpide: Sure. I’ve always been very interested in nature, and I think all my movies, even from the documentaries that I make, they’re always about the environment, nature. Even my previous animated film, Deep, was about the not so well-known creatures from the deepest part of the ocean. In this case it’s insects and particularly spiders. We neglect them in a way, because we don’t think they’re important, but I think every insect, every animal, every creature, as small as they are, they can have a great significance, and they can actually change and save the world. This is the case with our characters. They’re very tiny, but they actually save humanity in a way.
About Inspector Sun
Inspector Sun boards a seemingly normal plane for a much-needed vacation, but when an enigmatic millionaire receives a threat on his life, Sun is back on the case. Trapped in a web of lies, Sun must find the culprit before it’s too late.
Inspector Sun is in theaters now.
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