“Everyone agreed our dialogue should have a more spontaneous feel,” adds Branagh, “so Kevin and I had a lot of fun bantering back and forth. In theory, that off-the-cuff quality might be harder to achieve in an animated movie, where the process is so technical. But one of the most impressive things about this production was that the technical aspects didn’t exclude imagination and invention from the process.”

High Priest Tzekel-Kan. “He believes that Tulio and Miguel are his key to taking over the kingdom,” says Armand Assante, who provides his voice. “His mistake!”

The result, though, is far from being just an animated version of Branagh talking to an animated version of Kline. “I can see where the animators dovetailed certain expressions or gestures into the character,” points out the latter, “but I never feel like I’m watching myself when I’m watching Tulio. He has a life of his own... he’s just sort of borrowed my voice!” Equally innovatory was the combination of traditional and computer animation. “Normally,” explains digital supervisor Dan Philips, “your main and middle-ground characters are traditionally animated, and only the background characters are computer-generated. In this film, we have brought CG characters centre-stage, which is something I’m really proud of. We were very meticulous in modelling them so they would appear identical to the traditionally animated characters, and not look like they exist in different formats. The facial expressions and the performances of the CG characters are so much better than what was done in the past.

“One of the most impressive things about this production was that the technical aspects didn’t exclude imagination and invention from the process” Kenneth Branagh, seen left recording with Kevin Kline

They are all stepping stones to bringing the 3-D character animation to the forefront.” The score was approached in much the same way. “We wanted the songs sung by Elton to be the heart of the movie,” says Katzenberg, “not only helping to tell the story but revealing what’s happening beneath the surface. Having Elton, Tim and Hans together again on a movie is a dream for me. To get to work with these guys is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I feel extremely lucky that it’s happened to me twice!”

The Chief. “You might have a preconceived notion that he’s big and dumb,” says voice actor Edward James Olmos, “but you soon discover that he’s very perceptive, not to mention very graceful.”