Chatting With The Directors Of The New Disney Plus Film Togo! ⋆ Brite and Bubbly

Chatting With The Directors Of The New Disney Plus Film Togo!

By: Vanessa Diaz | 0 comments

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Hey All!

I recently had the amazing opportunity to chat with Director Ericson Core and Producer, Kim Zubick about their amazing new Disney + film TOGO. This film is epic and is based on a true story. “Togo” is the untold true story set in the winter of 1925 that takes you across the treacherous terrain of the Alaskan tundra for an exhilarating and uplifting adventure that will test the strength, courage and determination of one man, Leonhard Seppala, and his lead sled dog, Togo. When a deadly epidemic strikes the town of Nome, Alaska, and the only cure is more than 600 miles away, the town looks to champion dogsled musher Leonhard Seppala to help transport an antitoxin serum.

“It’s a beautiful story,” says Ericson Core, director and director of photography for the film. “I knew about the serum run of 1925—like a lot of people, I knew about Balto and his heroic run. While Balto deserves due credit for being one of the lead dogs on the final team that brought the serum into Nome, he ran the last 50 miles. Togo ran the vast majority of the run. He was arguably the brightest and strongest sled dog ever
raised.”

It was so incredible to sit down with them and learn all about the film.

First and foremost, they shared that the dog who plays TOGO in the film is actually a direct descendant of TOGO. That’s why he looks so much like the original TOGO. The original TOGO lived a few years after this event took place and he had a lot of offspring during that time. It was by luck they found a descendant of TOGO to play the role.

Kim Zubick shared that she’s a huge dog lover and was thrilled for the opportunity to get to produce this film. She also shared that she was thrilled a wider audience would get the opportunity to see the film through Disney +.

They also shared they shot entirely on location and used as minimal special effects as possible. They wanted to make the film feel as real as possible, so they shot in the winter in Canada. They only had 6 hours of daylight a day to shoot. That was just one of the challenges in making this movie! There were a number of challenges during the filming. The biggest challenge was the weather and the tight schedule they had. They had a very short shooting schedule (something like 80 days to shoot) and they luckily got everything they needed during the shoot. They didn’t have to do reshoots.

Ericson both directed and shot the movie himself. It’s the way he likes to make movies and he can’t see himself doing it any other way. He also shared that he used to own a wolf himself and has a deep love of dogs and wolves. He designated himself as lead belly rubber of the dogs on the set. The dogs loved belly rubs each time they would have a good take.

The film works for both adults and kids. The main take away that Ericson wanted to convey from the film is that it is OK for men to show emotion. He was thrilled to showcase Seppala’s relationship with this dog that he always thought of as the runt of the litter, but who ended up saving his life with his fierce loyalty and work ethic.

Seppala apparently always felt TOGO never got the tribute and credit he deserved. Ericson hopes this film will finally do that for Seppala.

I think it does and I think TOGO and Seppala would be very proud of this movie. It’s visually stunning and such an incredible story of love and heart.

I highly recommend you watch it now on Disney +! You will definitely enjoy it. You may even shed some tears like I did!

Check out the trailer below!