Almost 18 years after her debut film Nocturna won the Goya Prize for Best Animated Film, Adria Garcia returned to animation with “The Treasure of Barracuda.” The film, sold by Filmax, has been world premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival (September 19-27), and employs from a book named after Llanos Campos, and accidentally follows a young Orphan girl on a pirate ship led by the Captain of Ears.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the Basque Festival, Garcia gives a long break between two animation features (who directed the live action “My Family and the Wolf” in 2019) in the time it takes to get such a project off the ground. The idea for “The Treasures of Barracuda” came from Valerie Delpierre, a producer known for his Initiative films (Summer 1993, 20,000 Bees).
“Even if the original idea came from Valerie, it was a good opportunity for me to jump in,” he observes. “It was material I enjoyed. We approached the story with a lot of freedom, but wanted to preserve the world building for the book (the original artwork) was falling in love with the project.
Originally, Del Pierre thought about making a live-action film. “They had never worked on animation before,” the director recalls. “When they came to me they were already working on a version of the script, but I didn’t know if they wanted to go to animation. I felt that was right because the book already has illustrations and fairytale pirates.
Film treasures can only be found by following the book’s instructions. And while one pirate is illiterate, the young orphan, lovingly and affectionately called Spark name, is conveniently educated by the nun and assures him that he will stay on the ship by teaching a new crew how to decipher words on the page. Here, the beautifully animated “Treasures of Barracuda” is about the Pirates, but a moving f story about the power of reading to promote connection and the importance and value of selected families.
Commenting on what attracted him to the story, Garcia says he found the idea of how pirates interact with children in this world with “very special.” “These are not realistic pirates. They’re not doing real pirates,” he continues. “It’s an image that grew up through literature and film, pirate literature and film, like the children themselves. On the other hand, the concept of reading and how to integrate it into a story, how pirates learn to read, and how words go. In this world, everyone can find ways to connect.”
Courtesy of “The Treasure of Barracuda” Initiative Film
When putting together his team, Garcia emphasized adopting creatives from outside the animation world. Art Director Enrique Fernandez is a comic book designer whose director began working years ago.
“He built a career as a comic book artist, and even if he hadn’t had the opportunity to work on this kind of project, I really liked what he was doing,” he says. “Because of this, I wasn’t sure he wanted to do animation, so I approached him with some spares, but he really made it his own.
When asked how much the animation world has changed, especially in Europe, Garcia says it has changed in nearly 20 years since “Nokruna,” and it has “a whole new thing.”
“When I first started working in animation, there were only big American studios like Disney,” he says. “Now, at least here in Europe, it’s very rich and different. I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity to find different ways to create things and different audiences. It’s really encouraging. You can’t see all of these projects.
Filmmakers emphasize that there is always a crisis and there are “not as many jobs and opportunities as we want” and that there are always “many interesting projects.” “And it’s not just one or two big French projects we had,” he adds.
Will García take another 20 years for him to release another animation feature? He doesn’t want, but for now he’s been exposed to the “big relief” that he’s finished with his latest one.
“I want to move a little further from the project and see the reaction. There’s no hope. All I have is a sense of accomplishment because I wanted to do what we wanted. I want to enjoy the moment.
“The Treasure of Barracuda” was produced by the Initiative film Valerie Delpierre, and is produced by Alex Cervantes and Alvaro Garcia at Hampa Studios with Rafael Ingberg of Belize, Belgium.
