EW chatted up Stoller to get his take on his first time up to the animated plate.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Coming offNeighbors 2, what was the genesis of your idea here?
And then our second child, we ended up having a lot of trouble.
Credit: Warner Bros.; Todd Williamson/Getty Images
Then, we fortunately were able to have a second child, soStorksis really about that.
That sounds far more personal than the target audience might realize.
I had a different experience with her.
It really put into perspective how short your kid is a kid.
Thats kind of the genesis of it.
Is that why you opted to direct instead of just write the screenplay?
The movies Ive directed have all come from a deep emotional place.
Its almost like a form of therapy in a way.
I couldnt imagine handing it off.
What ground rules helped you define the world of these storks, who have moved on from babies?
The best animated movies all have a comedy premise.
Even something as serious asWall-E.
The idea with this was basically, storks used to deliver babies and they now deliver for essentially Amazon.com.
And that disappeared when, really, Google Glass disappeared.
And the other thing was, we had him dress as Steve Jobs during a presentation.
But we were like, You know what, thats a joke weve seen before.
What did you learn about animation here?
Its the most visual kind of film.
Youre constantly thinking visually because it doesnt exist; you have to draw everything.
Its been a cool process.
I also brought a lot of the improv and stuff that I do in my live-action movies.
I always tried to record with both actors in the booth at all times.
Did that freak out Doug?
Everyone was really excited!
I came into it with that idea.
Its the most collaborative medium, really.
All the actors and producers were like, Wait, we dont have to follow the script?
They were all very excited to get to explore that way.
Actor-wise, who was the most formative at the beginning of the filmmaking process?
And Warner Bros. were like, Yes, keep her, her voice is special.
So she really created the character of Tulip from the beginning.
She was a big part of it.
So we kept him as well.
Whats someone like Kelsey Grammer, whos an animation veteran, like in the recording booth?
And he was awesome.
That was his only concern, and I think the character was pretty different.
Oh, thats funny.
I dont think there was any crossover!
The themes are similar.
they all share an essential sweetness that I think I aspire to put in every movie.
Storkshits theaters on Sept. 23.
