Filmmakers Talk Netflix’s ‘Ultraman: Rising’

Directors Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima on adding their personal experiences into the story. “I always want there's a certain vulnerability I think you have to have as a filmmaker if you're telling a personal story,” said Aoshima.

'Ultraman: Rising'. Photo: Netflix © 2024.

‘Ultraman: Rising’ is a Netflix animated feature based on Tsuburaya’s ‘Ultraman’ franchise. The story finds baseball sensation Kenji “Ken” Sato as he moves back home to Japan to face the onslaught of Kaiju attacks as Ultraman. Little did he know, he would cross paths with a baby Kaiju and ultimately protect it from the cunning KDF (Kaiju Defense Force).

The movie stars the voice talent of Christopher Sean as Kenji “Ken” Sato, Tomlyn Tomita as Mina/Emiko Sato, Gedde Watanabe as Professor Sato/Ultradad, Keone Young as Dr. Onda, and Julia Harriman as Ami Wakita. ‘Ultraman: Rising’ premiered on Netflix on June 14, 2024, and is currently available for streaming.

1. ‘Ultraman: Rising’ Was A Project 23 Years In The Making

'Ultraman Rising' directors Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima. Photo: Wendy Lee Szany.

Director Shannon Tindle says the idea for ‘Ultraman: Rising’ came to him in 2001. At the time, Tindle was working on ‘Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends’ as a character designer. So why did it take 20-some years to make the movie?

Shannon Tindle: I was doing other things at the time. It wasn't like I was constantly trying to hammer and make this home. I was sporadically, you know, it spent some time at some other studios before it landed at Netflix.

After Tindle worked on ‘Lost Ollie’, he got the opportunity to rework the plot of the film to fit within the Ultraman lore.

2. The Personal Stories That Inspired Ken and Emi’s Relationship

When Ken Santo unexpectedly took on the father role for baby Kaiju Emi, he had to learn very quickly how to be a parent. This includes managing Emi’s ever-changing eating habits, sleep schedule, and temperament changes. All these moments were inspired by Tindle’s personal experience as a new dad. Tindle’s daughter Katie, played a significant role when it came to shaping parental challenges Ken faced in the film.

Shannon Tindle: When Katie was born, it really changed the perspective on it, what it's like to be a parent, the difficulties and the challenges, challenges of not knowing what you're doing. There are a lot of phone calls with my mom and dad.

One particular scene between Emi and Ken was pulled directly from Tindle’s experience as a new dad. In the movie, Emi first meets Ken when he is Ultraman. The moment that Ken was no longer in his Ultraman form, Emi didn’t recognize him and began crying. The scene goes on to show Ken switching back and forth between Ultraman and himself to teach Emi that he is the same person. The director showed photos of his daughter Katie crying in one photo and laughing in the next:

Shannon Tindle: These photos were taken within seconds of one another, mad at me, then she's laughing at me, then she's crying and upset. If you have kids, you know what that's like. So that became a big part of this. Again, I want to put this here because it was another one of those educational milestones as I was making the film off my knowledge as a parent was increasing, and then all of those things folded into into movies. I've said this before on other projects I've been involved with films take a long time to make, especially animated films, so I can't make anything that I don't care about.

3. A Song From ‘Dumbo’ Was the Inspiration For Tindle’s Cut of the Teaser

'Ultraman Rising' director Shannon Tindle. Photo: Wendy Lee Szany.

When it was time to pitch the film, Tindle made his own cut of the teaser to present, “I always like to cut my own teaser, something I feel like represents the tone of the film.” He teamed up with composer Scot Stafford and mentioned that he was inspired by “Baby Mine” in ‘Dumbo’, and the teaser would have to highlight the parental aspect of the film.

Shannon Tindle: To me, the most iconic song ever written about a parent and their child is “Baby Mine”, from Dumbo, one of my favorite films. So I said, ‘Scott, what if you did “Baby Mine?” But as if Vangelis arranged it.’ and so I showed him the beats, and then we cut the animatic. While we were playing it, I sang over like I timed it. I never knew that, but I was like, I know exactly how I want. Then Scott delivered that beautiful arrangement.

4. The Deeper Meaning Behind the Meeting Between Ami and Ken

In the scene where Ken Sato and reporter Ami Wakita sit down at a noodle shop for an interview was inspired by a co-director, John Aoshima, and his experience of growing up between two countries and cultures. During the interview between Ken and Ami, the two went back and forth about why Ken never disclose anything other than his baseball stats and success to the press.

John Aoshima: I wanted there to be sparring up top where Ken is trying to keep it about his statistics and his success as a player, but Ami wants to understand him as a person better, and so, they're lobbying back and forth, but that bit where he finally gives her just a little bit.

The part that Aoshima eludes to is where Ken talks about how kids will make fun of how you look, talk, or eat no matter what you do, so “you give them something else to talk about.” This line was inspired by Aoshima’s personal experience when he first came to the United States.

John Aoshima: It has to do with going through this journey that I went through, of like cultural identity, and when I came to the United States, I had to kind of figure out how to adapt at age eight. My first day of school, my mom made me a bento, beautiful, classic Japanese bento box, and I didn't know anyone, so I was out in the field and eating by myself. A bunch of kids walked by, and they didn't know what I was eating, so they started pointing and made fun of me. I was so embarrassed, and I didn't know what to do, so I ended up throwing the lunch away in the trash.

Aoshima understood the character and story Tindle was writing and how meaningful it would be to add a touch of realism and personal experience, “Shannon adapted it really beautifully.”

There’s more to the scene than just word sparring between Ken and Ami. The way Ken ate his noodles also had significant meaning. In the scene, Ken is seen pouring the sauce over his noodles. Traditionally, the noodle is meant to be dipped into the sauce. When the Japanese animators saw this, they noted to Tindle that it was not the correct way to eat the noodles. The purpose of this was for Ken to throw Ami off her game.

Shannon Tindle: Let's make it a point where he's doing it to distract her. He's throwing her. He certainly wouldn't do that if his mom were in the room. Again, his mom was in the room, she'd be like, “You dip it in the sauce. You know better.” But he's doing it to kind of throw Ami off her game. So again, it was taking personal experience and turning it into something that helped feel like a little bit more of a volley back and forth.

5. The Beach Cabin In the Movie Was Pulled Directly From John Aoshima’s Grandparents’ Cabin

'Ultraman Rising' director John Aoshima. Photo: Wendy Lee Szany.

Ken, his dad, and Emmi decide to travel to their lakeside cabin for a bit of a break. There, Ken and his dad have a heart-to-heart conversation about how much they miss Emiko and the fact that Professor Sato did put forth the effort to search for her.

Directors Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima talk about wanting to showcase a traditional Japanese home. The filmmakers ended up pulling their inspiration directly from Aoshima’s grandparents’ real-life cabin.

John Aoshima: My uncle lives there now, and I had him send videos. ILM and our department really absorbed that, and like, everything they could to recreate that whole space. So definitely my family recognizes and loves seeing it in the film.

Adding more to the personal touches in this scene, Aoshima says:

“In that scene, along with the campfire, they talked about the meaning of Ultraman and, or at least that's the idea that we wanted to hit in that in those two scenes, is like, what is that Ultraman spirit and it's woven in in a way where it highlights, sort of the gift that humans have. Also Sato telling Ken, you know what Ultraman means, it's not about fighting, it's about heart and it's really about what is it that that that's special within us as people. So it was really like infusing that Ultraman element into what's what's been part of the entire theme of like parenthood, father and son."

6. ‘Ultraman: Rising’ Is the First Film on Netflix to be HDR

Did you know that ‘Ultraman: Rising’ is the first film at Netflix to be HDR (High Dynamic Range)? Vibrant colors play a huge part in the movie, and Visual Effects Supervisor Hayden Jones talks more about the process that when in to ensure the film’s overall look.

Hayden Jones: The version you stream on Netflix, that is the kind of gold standard of color, and HDR not only gives you contrast, it not only gives you super bright highlights and super deep blacks. But what it does is it expands the color palette, and as you've seen through the whole presentation, color is a huge, huge, huge theme in ‘Ultraman: Rising’. So, making sure that all the lighting, all the comp dailies, we were always in sync, we always had two, you know, kind of sessions running, either in London, Vancouver or Singapore and then in Burbank with the directors, but we were all watching it in High Dynamic Range all the time. That's a first. Normally, that's done as a separate pass act of the grade; this was kind of done from its core. It was always HDR from the offset.

7. The Final Spacium Beam

A bit of a spoiler for those who have not watched ‘Ultraman: Rising’ yet. The ultimate team-up comes during the final battle between Ultraman and Onda, where Ken and Professor Sato unite for the final Spacium Beam. The moment of reveal that it was both Ultraman and Ultradad crossing arms to create the Spacium Beam pose together was quite epic. Director Shannon Tindle goes into detail about creating that moment.

Shannon Tindle: In that shot where you drift to reveal, the original shot was at low angle, which is the second shot, that drift around, and this is why I love ILM - is Kim Ooi, who is our animation supervisor of the Singapore team. He said, “Hey, I know you had that long angle, but I have another idea for a shot,” and he had that drift. I was like, done, in the movie, and we’re keeping the low angle.

8. Main Characters’ Musical Themes All Tied Into Each Other

'Ultraman Rising' event at Industrial Light & Magic. Photo: Wendy Lee Szany.

Composer Scot Staffard understood how important the theme of family is in ‘Ultraman: Rising.’ He went to great lengths to create interconnect themes for each character, making each one slightly different by using a different instrument or changing one single note. Stafford said,

“What if all of the themes actually interconnected in an interesting way to kind of reinforce this idea of family?”

He goes on to give an example of the difference between a protagonist’s theme and the antagonist's theme while still connecting them to the same melody. Stafford played a short clip for the journalists.

Scot Stafford: Now let's just take, for example, how might the antagonist Dr. Honda, who's one of my favorite characters. How might that relate to the family theme? So you're gonna hear the evolution, you're gonna hear just a little bit of a motif of a family theme, and then you're gonna hear the same thing with one note changed, and that note is changed by the smallest possible amount. I change an E to A flat. Otherwise, it's the exact same theme as the family theme, and then you're gonna hear it's all the harp, then you're gonna hear it played in a slightly different technique.

Stafford adds,

“It's amazing to me how changing one note by the smallest amount is everything. It's one of the things I love about music and about storytelling, and it just so happens to be changing it from a major key to what's called the “in scale” in Japanese music, and to me, even more importantly, it just kind of takes this really happy theme, elevates it gives it all this gravitas, turns it inward, and makes it more complex, which is what Onda was to me.

9. Difference Voices of the Kaiju

Ultraman is no stranger to protecting his city from Kaiju. With so many giant monsters in the movie, how do they create a unique sound for each Kaiju? Composer Scot Stafford dives into the topic:

Scot Stafford: A lot of that was inspired by the work of the series. We really try to go back and figure out a way to honor all the Kaiju that had been portrayed before. With Gigantron being a new Kaiju, kind of all bets were off.

They wanted Gigantron to sound bigger than life. When she screeches, there’s an element that nods to the original sound designers, says Stafford:

“Back in the day, they used a lot of sheet metal and dry ice on metal and things like that to create the monster. So we did a nod to that by including that as layers of her roars and screeches. But also incorporated other animals to make her more organic.”

10. Will There Be A Sequel To ‘Ultraman: Rising’?

The story may not be over for Ken Sato. Director Shannon Tindle already has an idea for a sequel,

“It would explore now Ken being exposed to – he thinks his dad doesn’t understand him being an outsider at all, but his dad is actually not from Earth. So his dad understands better than [Ken] knows. We would explore that - Ken being rooted back to another culture he doesn’t know.”

What would be the title for the potential sequel?

Shannon Tindle: “Ultraman: Fallen”

During the 2024 Lightbox Expo, Tindle revealed a bit more about the story he’s working on. It would open with Ken’s mom Emiko Sato (Founder of the KDF) marooned on Ultraman’s home planet. The sequel could see her return home as well as new threats Ultraman will have to face.

Ultraman: Rising

"Big hero. Bigger responsibility."

PG1 hr 57 minJun 14th, 2024

Showtimes & Tickets

Watch Ultraman: Rising Online

What Is ‘Ultraman: Rising’ about?

Baseball sensation Kenji “Ken” Sato (Sean Christopher) is on the verge of winning the championship, but when multiple Kaiju start to attack his hometown, he is forced to return to Japan. After taking on the Gigantron, Ken unexpectedly cross paths with a baby Kaiju.

The official synopsis is:

When Tokyo is threatened by giant monsters, an all-star athlete reluctantly returns home to take on the mantle of Ultraman, and become a legendary hero.