Roy Conli does a bit of everything. He’s a voice actor, a producer, and oh yeah, an Academy Award winner. He’s produced such Disney classics as Treasure Planet, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Tangled; he also won the Oscar for Big Hero Six. Over the last few years Conli has been instrumental in producing Disneynature films like Born In China, Penguins, Elephant, and Polar Bear.

His latest soon-to-be-classic is called Tiger. I sat down with him to talk about the film, from what’s it been like to work on Disneynature films for fifteen years, to working on Tiger for 1500 days, stopping a couple times due to COVID. Oh, and we even spoke some Treasure Planet! Read some highlights from the interview here and check out the complete interview below.

Conli on working with Disneynature for so many years and what making Tiger meant to him:

“Disneynature turns 15 this year. I joined the team in 2015. With Born in China… I did a little straw poll at the animation studio asking people what is the favorite animal that you have. And it hands down was tigers. I’ve since learned that universally it’s tigers. People throughout the world love this animal. And it wasn’t until just recently in the last five years that we felt that there was the equipment, the camera technology, to capture this amazing behavior, because tigers are the most elusive animal in the wild to capture.

So with the advent of movie carbon, which is a camera that can be controlled from a mile away, and camera traps and GSS stabilized cameras off of jeeps with long lenses that you can film from as much as 300 yards away, that was a boon. So we were able to actually capture tiger behavior that no one has ever seen on screen before.”

– Roy Conli

ABOUT TIGER

Narrated by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Disneynature’s Tiger lifts the veil on our planet’s most revered and charismatic animal, inviting viewers to journey alongside Ambar, a young tigress raising her cubs in the fabled forests of India. Curious, rambunctious and at times a bit clumsy, the cubs have a lot to learn from their savvy mother who will do all she can to keep them safe from pythons, bears and marauding male tigers.

Directed by Mark Linfield, co-directed by Vanessa Berlowitz and Rob Sullivan, and produced by Linfield, Berlowitz and Roy Conli, Tiger is the groundbreaking culmination of 1,500 days of filming.

Combining fast-paced action with remarkably intimate moments, Disneynature’s all-new original feature film streams on Disney+ beginning on Earth Day, April 22.

Meanwhile, for more Disneynature updates, check back to THS.

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