The Flames of Love and War

The Flames of Love and War
Directed by	Dana Terrace ND Stevenson
Produced by	Karen Ryan Julie Zackary Roy Lee
Screenplay by	ND Stevenson Dana Terrace Molly Ostertag Rachel Vine
Starring	Erin Kellyman Gabrielle Nevaeh Mads Mikkelsen Jeffrey Combs Sarah-Nicole Robles Zeno Robinson Dawnn Lewis Fra Fee Mae Whitman Kimberly Brooks Guillermo del Toro Bumper Robinson
Score by	Raphael Saadiq
Edited by	Tim Mertens
Production company	Annapurna Animation
Distributed by	Neon
Release date	November 22, 2024
Country	United States

The Flames of Love and War is a 2024 American hand-drawn animated romantic drama film directed by Dana Terrace and ND Stevenson in their feature directorial debuts, from an screenplay co-written with Molly Ostertag, and Rachael Vine. The film would star the voices of Erin Kellyman, Gabrielle Nevaeh, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Combs, Sarah-Nicole Robles, Zeno Robinson, Dawnn Lewis, Fra Fee, Mae Whitman, Kimberly Brooks, Guillermo del Toro, and Bumper Robinson, while Nami Melumad would compose the score for the film. In the film, the princesses of two kingdoms in war with each other must work together after getting lost during a battle.

Netflix would announce the film in 2021, with Terrace and Stevenson being set to direct the project, and Kellyman and Nevaeh set to star. The film would use hand-drawn animation because Terrace would feel "it gives the story a deeply artistic visual companion that complements it". Animation services would be provided by Titmouse, Inc; animators would use Disney fims such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Fantasia 2000 (2000), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and the works of Milt Kahl as inspirations for its visuals. The filmmakers would also consult with several former soldiers in order to show a realistic depiction of war in the film, as well as with the GLAAD in order to feature an adequate representation of lesbian characters in the film. Marc Okrand would be hired to develop the languages featured in the film.

The film would be released on November 22, 2024. It would became a critical and commercial success, grossing 1.2 billion dollars over a budget of 150 millions, and being praised for its direction, screenplay, themes, vocal performances (particularly Paquin and Page's), use of hand-drawn animation, visuals, depicition of LGBTQ+ characters, and musical score. The film would also have an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Picture and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Film, as well as a Grammy Award for Best Original Score.

Synopsis

In a far-away world, two opposite species are at war with each other: One made of fire, and one made of water, with each other seeing the other as a threat to their existence. However, the curious assistant of the water realm, Aqua, and the cold and hardened warrior of the fire realm, Phoenix, discover a mysterious danger that threatens the safety of both if their kingdoms. Now, the two must work together in order to save their homes. As the relationship between these princesses blossoms into love, the two realize how to finally end their kingdoms' war.

Voice cast

• Gabrielle Nevaeh as Aqua, an inhabitant of the water realm, who has lost her home and family due to the war and wanrs to join it in response. Director Dana Terrace said that her arc in the movie consists of "Aqua realizing that war is not the way to peace". Co-director ND Stevenson said Aqua provides "the civilian point-of-view of this war". Lauren MacMullen would serve as Aqua's supervising animator.
• Erin Kellyman as Phoenix, a soldier of the fire realm, who developed a distant and hardened personality due to the war and developed a hate against the water creatures because of it. Kellyman said the film would be "Phoenix' coming of age story. Througth the film she finds out what kind of person she will be thanks to her love for Aqua", citing the characrer's healing of PTSD as "the journey to that conclusion". Kofi Fiagome would serve as Phoenix' supervising animator.
• Mads Mikkelsen as Basileus, The king of the water kingdom, who despises the fire people. Terrace choose to have the character be "as unlikeable as possible" because she "wanted him to be scary. Villains are meant to be frighting and threatening and imposing. Not sympathetic". The character was inspired by villains from the James Bond franchise, as Terrace didn't wanted to hide his role as the villain but at the same time not making Aqua look unintelligent for assuming he cares for her, and she felt the "charisma and charm" of James Bond villains would allow the writers to accomplish both things. Writer ND Stevenson would describe his bigotry as "a reflection of how he truly sees himself as: A god who thinks he can determine good and evil based on what he likes". Spencer Wan would serve as Basileus' supervising animator.
• Jeffrey Combs as Calidi, Ghe king of the fire realm. Stevenson wpuld describe him as "cynical and paranoid", comparing him to Batman in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Director Dana Terrace would serve as Calidi's supervising animator.
• Alan Tudyk as Praelia, Calidi' general, servant, and personal bodyguard. Andreas Deja would serve as Praelia's supervising animator.
• Sarah-Nicole Robles as Amica, a scientist and Aqua's best friend. Co-director ND Stevenson would compare her to Rafiki from The Lion King in that "both are mentors with an un-mentor-y way to teach", througth the writerd didn't wanted the character to come off as a Rafiki copy, so they instead drew indpuration from Entrapta from Stevenson's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Eric Goldberg would serve as her supervising animation.
• Zeno Robinson as Sodalistas, Amica's brother and one of Aqua's friends who is a geek fascinated with conspiracy theories. Co-wroter Molly Ostertag said the producers didn't wanted the character to be "just the guy who says conspiracy theories" but a three-dimensional character in his own right, so they also gave him a mentorship role for Aqua and "an ability to act seriously when things go south". Jorge Rizo would serve as Sodalistas' supervising animator.
• Dawnn Lewis as Curat, Phoenix' therapist.
• Fra Fee as Caecus, Basilius' aide
• Mae Whitman as Whitner, Phoenix' late best friend and a member of her squad.
• Kimberly Brooks as Nichols, a late member of Phoenix' squad.
• Guillermo del Toro as Shatner, a late member of Phoenix' squad.
• Bumper Robinson as Avery, a late member of Phoenix' squad.

Additionally, director Dana Terrace would provide the vocal effects for Amabilia, a creature that Aqua finds in the forest and eventually befriends. Co-writer ND Stevenson would voice Auditor, Aqua's assistant. Stephen J. Anderson makes a cameo as a Water librarian. Armin Shimerman makes a cameo as a bartender, in reference to his role as Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. John de Lance, Carlos Alazraqui, and Gabrielle Ruiz make cameos as characters in a TV series wayched by Sodalistas.

Production

Writing

Terrace worked with ND Stevenson and The Owl House writers Molly Ostertag and Rachel Vine on the screenplay. The writers sought to make the film to have a dark and serious tone, so they put an emphasis on war and its effects after early screenplays underused that concept. The writing team used as a primary basis for the war the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. They also decided to give the film a slower, more character-based pacing after watching Lady and the Tramp (1955). In order to include proper worldbuilding within the film, the writers created two bibles for each realm over 200 pages long in order to plan out their culture, technology, and society.

Regarding Phoenix' arc, Terrace wrote her as "a hardened soldier who gets softer", describing her arc as "learning to love again". She worked closely with experts on PTSD to potray the condition as accuretly as possible througth her. During talks with psychiatrists, Terrace realized Phoenix' PTSD could also be used as a way for Phoenix and Aqua to bond while furthering both of their arcs, so she incorporated scenes of Aqua learning of and helping Phienix to deal with her PTSD. For the scene where they realize their feelings for each other, Terrace was inspired by the "Can You Read My Mind?" sequence from Superman.

While Terrace wanted to explore the mental focus aspect of the film, she also wanted the lesbian relationship to be "something that just happens" and the leads being girls never being brought up in the film. Terrace also said the film's focus on war and mental health made it darker than most modern animated films, describing it as more in line with films of the 90s. However, she said replicating those movies wasn't the intention, and that the dark tone was "simply the product of what we explore in this film".

Animation

Animation services would be provided by Flying Bark Productions. Director Dana Terrace wanted the film to be made entirely in hand-drawn animation due to her love for traditional animation. In addition, Terrace would hire previous collaborators such as Stephen Wan and Kofi Fiagome to work on the film. The animation for the action sequence would draw inspiration from Terrace's show The Owl House. For the film's underwater sequences, the animators would study the work done in The Little Mermaid in order to fully capture underwater movement, while the Fire Kingdom would be modeled after the Kingdom of the Brine from Warner Bros.' Aquaman. Additional inspirations for the film's art style would be Star Trek, Ghost in the Shell, and the works of Hieronymus Bosch, particularly on how the film's asthetic would have a "idealistic appearance while also having a bit of a dystopian feeling to it", while the more surrealistic edge to the art style would allow it to stand from other science fiction projects.

For the scenes where Phoenix is the main focus, the film's art style wpuld change to "something more threatening and gothic". According to Terrace, this would be to showcase how she perceives the world as following her war esperiences, since she wanted to "explore the insecurity and feeling of danger that soldiers with PTSD have" wothout having her repeteadly say it, so the animators resolved to have the art stylechange to showcase her emotional state, inspired by the successful use of multiple art styles in Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. For the art style during those sequences, Terrace would be inspired by Tim Burton's depiction of Gotham City in Batman.

The animators were inspired by the Borg Cube's interior in Star Trek: Picard for Basileus' room, deeming it a fitting inspiration due to Basileus' controling nature. The character was also designed to "seem geniunely affable" because she felt such looked made the character creepier due to the dissonance between hus appesrance and behavior, an affable appearance worked for the character's deceptive personality, and worried giving him a villanous appearance would contradict the film's anti-prejudice themes. Terrace also wanted green coloring and lighting to be promenient during the scenes in his room to further the homage, througth with care to not to make it "too promenient". She also wanted the scenes featurkng him to have "smaller, more claustrophobic backgrounds", in contrast of the largers used througth the rest of the film, "to give this feeling of helplesness. Of being trapped with an abuser and without a way out". In contrast, Terrace wanted the scenes with Phoenix and Aqua to promeniently feature golden colors to "give them this feeling of beauty and freedom" as a way to showcase their healthier relationship between each other.

Music

Score

Raphael Saadiq would compose the film's score. Saadiq would say that the film's plot would require for him to create a score that could "combine war, romance, and wonder, perfectly as one". Saadiq would call the Phoenix's theme as "a hard nut to crack", as the character would require a "hardened, warrior theme that could be used in a romantic light", througth he would describe Aqua's theme "easier to do" than Phoenix, as the character's theme would requiere a "sense of curiosity that also work as a romantic theme". Saadiq also wrote a romantic letimof that served as the film's main theme.

Track listing

All score tracks composed by Raphael Saadiq

No.	Title
1	Bombastic Opening
2	Bad Dads Before Pals
3	You're One Hot Soldier
10	Fiery First Meeting
15	Do Fire Princesses Dream Of Explosions?
20	(In)Filtration
21	Spaghetti Has In Me Some Volatile Reactions
29	Angry Dad
30	Breaking Up the Relationship
31	The Root of War Evil
32	Following Your Burning Feelings
33	It's a Small War, After All
34	Burning With Hatred
35	Family Fight
36	Victory Romance
37	Wed You Be My Partner?
39	I Have The Hots For You (The Flames of Love and War Suit)

Songs

Saadiq would also curate and produce the film's soundtrack. Director Dana Terrace would hire him due to his work on the Disbey/Marvel series Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, which convinced her to hire him due to its high quality. Saadiq would be hired for the project during early development in order to give him "plenty of time" to work on the songs for the film and allow him to develop the soundtrack in a way that could stay close to the film's tone abd story.

Track listing

No.	Title	Performer(s)	Writer(s)
1	Starting All Over	Diamond White	Raphael Saadiq, Taura Stinston, and Brook D'Leau
2	What I'm Looking For	Taura Stinston	Taura Stinston and Myriah Summers
3	Hardened Warrior	Eli "Paperboy" Reed	Raphael Saadiq
4	This Feeling	Eli "Paperboy" Reed	Halima Lucas, and Charles L. Liston
5	Whispers of the Heart	Jane Handcock and Diamond White	Raphael Saadiq
6	You Make My Flame Shine	Jon Batiste	Jon Batiste
7	Won't Stop Now	Loly Bea	Kurt Farquhar
8	Dog Days Are Over	Jane Handcock	Florence Welch and Isabella Summers
9	...Baby One More Time	Michael Bolton	Max Martin
10	I'll Be With You	Rhianna	Tara Stinston, and Halima Lucas
11	Love Power	Ziggy Marley and the Melody Markers	Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil

In other media

Television series

A television series set after the events of the film, titled FireWater, would premiere in August 14, 2029. Kellyman, Nevaeh, and Alan Tudyk would reprise their roles from the film, while Melissa Etheridge and Matthew Gerrard would return to write songs for the series. Set after the events of the film, the series would focus on Aqua and Phoenix struggling with both married life and their attempts to keep their kingdom unified as they face several threats. The series would be created by Dana Terrace.

Trivia

• According to director Dana Terrace, the reason there would be a third-year-gap between the climax and the film's ending was because she wanted a "realistic" time for Aqua and Phoenix to marry each other.