Interview with Julian Glander: director of Blender animation Boys Go To Jupiter

I chatted with Julian about silly songs, the gig economy and the future of Blender

Last month, I sat down with director of the Blender-animated Boys Go To Jupiter film, Julian Glander, after watching his film for Glasgow Film Festival. Boys Go To Jupiter is a story following main character Billy 5000, who is a teenage gig worker with a rise-and-grind mindset, aiming to make $5,000. His quest is derailed by a gelatinous alien's appearance - what ensues is a memorably unique coming-of-age journey, soundtracked by a cast of Sarah Sherman, Julio Torres, Grace Kuhlenschmidt, Elsie Fisher, Eva Victor and more.

I asked Julian about the songs, the humour, the animation: everything that made this film one of my new favourite animated features and a project that made me, a non-animator, incredibly excited about Blender and its future.

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Jannat: Julian, I actually know you as the guy that made Karsten Runquist’s profile picture! He shouted you out for Boys Go To Jupiter in his August recap.

Julian: That’s right! He actually did a voice in my short film called Tennis Ball On Its Day Off, and plays a psychotic YouTuber, so fits the part.

Jannat: That’s a perfect fit. First off, I love the film. I’ve not been able to stop saying “Have a grubby day” for a few days but more to the point, Billy 5000 was such a great name for a character and I wanted to know: was that inspired by Andre 3000, was there always a character you wanted to call that, or was it just something random that came to mind?

Julian: It probably was partly inspired by Andre 3000 but I think it felt like a nickname that could be attached to any highschooler that gets a rap nickname like, J-Dawg or B-Swizzle, whatever it is. I thought it would be really funny if 5000 was his last name so Gail 5000 is his sister and as a little Easter egg, the mobile home he goes to, the address is 5000 and that’s actually where the name came from.

Jannat: Fits so well that a film that plays like a video game has Easter eggs. I assume the intention was to give that indie game feel, and from what I understand, you’re not a stranger to that medium either?

Julian: It wasn’t intentional but I think a lot of my creative method comes from working on games. Thematically, it makes a lot of sense with what’s going on with Billy as he works as an on-demand delivery driver and we’ve all experienced the weird gamified reality of work now. I think the look of it matches the gamification of gig work a lot.

Jannat: At points, you actually go through a lot of sympathy for Billy because you know, he wants that 5000 dollars and when he gets scammed out of it as well, you feel for him. On another note: stunning cast. Anyone that’s chronically online as I suspect the two of us are is going to feel starstruck. So funny as well, did you already have an idea of how you wanted this humour to manifest in the film, or did you let the cast kind of run with it?

Julian: Oh, the movie is definitely a lot funnier than when I wrote it because of the cast. For instance, Sarah Sherman, basically took a few lines I had written and went completely insane with that. She came into the booth just how you’d expect - a whirlwind of energy and was making stuff up rapid-fire. I would say when writing it, I wasn’t really thinking what’s funny, I was more thinking what’s unusual or compelling? Like you say, the cast are really the reason anyone is laughing at the movie at all.

Jannat: I think the way you’ve designed some of these characters lends itself very well to humour too. Like an aesthetically pleasing donut-shaped character works so well, you can’t get enough of him. That and the cast marry really well together, but out of everything you animated in the film, what was the hardest shot to animate?

Julian: The last shot I did, I had been putting that off for so long and it’s the scene of the orange growing over a time-lapse with about twenty layers of animation with the sun moving in the background and I guess I was kind of just hoping that over the process of animating the film, I’d get better or good enough to animate that scene. It was actually inspired by the 90s Dennis the Menace movie where Dennis makes Mr Wilson miss the blooming of a special flower, and it’s such a great stop motion sequence in a regular 90s comedy. I saw that when I was about five and it made my heart stop - a real core memory for me.

Jannat: Even having only watched Boys Go To Jupiter twice, I do still remember the shine on the orange in the scene you’re describing and the dimpling of the fruit when it changes. It’s impressive even when you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. You did an amazing job with a vision that’s clearly changed so much along the way, with what I imagine were a lot of constraints. Would you have wanted more time with this project? Or do you think that the pressure created what you wanted?

Julian: At the end, it just had to get done. I could have spent ages making it, I loved making it. But I was grateful to have the barrier of the strike impending over us because it did make us really motivated. We recorded everything in a month, most of the cast was in and out of the booth in an hour. Julio was there for an hour to record three parts. Jack, who voices Billy, was there for eight hours and within that he did his five songs and all of his dialogue. It was a whirlwind and when you look back, you’re like, wow, what happened?

Jannat: Eight hours must feel like nothing in the grand scheme of things. That’s insane. A bit more on the animation: you made this in Blender and to the non-animator, that’s a word cropping up a lot more now. We’re seeing a rise in short-form content on TikTok made in Blender - do you think this is a time for the software to thrive and do you think people will take bigger leaps with it?

Julian: You know, I started doing it ten years ago and it was a very different program back then. I’m so excited and impressed when new people try it and it would be awesome if people watched this movie and felt like they could give it a try, because honestly - it’s easy. It’s like playing the Sims, or Animal Crossing, even Minecraft. You’re kind of just clicking and playing around. It did really change my life.

Jannat: It sounds like the joy really is in the process of creation with Blender, and it could be open to the amateur, which is nice to hear for a change.

Julian: That’s me, I’m the amateur!

Jannat: A nice segway into what I do here for The Amateur’s Take, I talk about making cinema more accessible to those with different skill sets and this is a great example of that. The comfort and quirkiness that makes it unique comes from the amateurism and also the soundtrack, too. There are some hilarious lyrics in hauntingly beautiful songs. Loved Donut’s songs about his drinks he’d tried in Florida! I’d love to know if you had a vision for how you wanted the film to sound or if that was a very organic process throughout the project.

Julian: I knew if I was ever going to make a movie, it was going to be a musical - beyond classical Broadway of course. It became clear that the sound of the movie was the sound of a teenage boy in his garage: lo-fi music, a fuzzy guitar sound and a scrappy electronic sound - whatever I was listening to at that age. Again, massive credit to the cast because with Jack, he had zero singing experience and I had just seen a picture of him holding a bass guitar on his story and knew he’d be great. Same with Grace, her egg song is so funny.

Jannat: And it’s such a Grace song as well. Such a great fit. I’m curious if you’ve got anything else in the pipeline?

Julian: Still a lot of work to be done to get this movie out there, working on that every day. I’m chipping away at my next screenplay, but no-one should be waiting around for that yet.

Jannat: Can’t wait to see what you do next - thanks for your time, Julian.

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You can follow Julian on his Instagram and browse his projects here.