What’s in a reputation? For “Spellbound” director Vicky Jenson, it’s a easy portmanteau.

In an early sketch of Flink, Princess Ellian’s adorably mischievous animal sidekick, Jenson wished him to flash and blink as he energetically flitted about. “I tend to squish phrases collectively,” she tells Selection. “So I used to be like, ‘He simply has to flink!’”

In creating the “rascal” Flink, character artwork director Guillermo Ramirez drew inspiration from hamsters, raccoons, squirrels, weasels, and even an aquatic animal: “I additionally explored cuttlefish or squids – due to the motion, not due to their look,” he says with amusing. “They weren’t that cute!”

Fortunately, Flink is that cute. The rodent-like purple creature tends to retailer the whole lot from acorns to magical units inside his deceptively huge cheeks – a behavior that was born from considered one of Ramirez’s early drawings. “I simply did Flink with a mouth stuffed with issues, and it was very humorous. So we managed to place that within the film!”

Jenson hopes Flink’s cheek-hiding will ring true for fogeys of rambunctious canine: “Any pet proprietor is aware of: ‘What do you will have? What? Give it to me! Drop it!’”

After a magical mishap early within the movie, Flink and the luxury royal advisor Minister Bolinar (John Lithgow) magically swap our bodies in a second that’s each lovable and practical for the plot. “We got here up with the thought about midway by the manufacturing,” Jenson says. “It was only a nice suggestion from one of many different administrators at Skydance. Ellian will get to work together with somebody, relatively than be alone with monsters who can’t discuss. And the way humorous is it to see little Flink in Bolinar’s physique?”

“Spellbound” is now streaming on Netflix.