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Alison Rowat talks to Pixar director Mark Andrews about the making of a Caledonian caper
Then there are the bagpipes at home, the heritage, and not forgetting the tales of what happened in the Wee Bunkhouse in Kintail.
Just as well the resident of Piedmont, California, knows his Skye from his elbow. As the director of the new Pixar/Disney animated film Brave, he's about to be at the eye of a publicity storm that will make the fuss around Braveheart look measured.
"I was the unofficial aficionado at Pixar of all things Scottish when the movie was starting up," says Andrews, who was in London to unveil the first 30 minutes of a film that VisitScotland, which has joined Disney on a global marketing push, hopes will perform more heroically than Local Hero in bringing tourists in.
That's for others to worry about. Andrews's job is to deliver a film that will keep Pixar ahead in an increasingly competitive, and lucrative, animation market. DreamWorks, makers of How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda, are chasing Pixar hard. Then there is Pixar's multiple Oscar-winning reputation to think of. The long-haired Andrews might look like a surfer dude who has just breezed in from the Golden State, but there's a lot riding on those designer T-shirt-clad shoulders.
The film's Scots voice cast includes Kelly Macdonald, playing Merida, the young, headstrong heroine who defies custom and pays a high price, Billy Connolly as Merida's father, Emma Thompson as her mother, and Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, and Kevin McKidd as clan chiefs.
As part of their research, Andrews and some of his team toured Scotland from Edinburgh to Skye, taking in "castles by the dozen", Highland games, and sights including the Callanish Stones. The animators didn't just study pictures of Clydesdale horses, they rode them. As for the dazzling red hair of Merida, new software was developed to get it just right. "We get nothing for free in animation."
Some things came as added bonuses, such as the cast's contribution of Scottish words and phrases to the dialogue. Kelly Macdonald brought "manky". Connolly kept the cast going between takes. "We were just in stitches, then we'd start back up again. He just wants to hang out." One video conferencing session turned into a near gig. "We scheduled two hours and it was like 30 minutes and he was done. But he stayed with the guys in the booth for another two hours just chatting and having a good time."
With the accent on authentic accents, will there be subtitles when the film shows in America? "No way!" he shouts. Sometimes, though, he had to ask the cast to put the brakes on. "We'd have to tell Billy Connolly and Craig Ferguson and Robbie Coltrane – ok, now for Middle America, let's slow that down just a hair, and enunciate just a little bit more. They understood. At the end of the day it has to be clear and understandable."
Though Brave is Pixar's first film with a female heroine, Andrews, who took over the project from Brenda Chapman, resists giving it a feminist label and says its more a coming of age tale. "It's for everybody." There was no point, he says, when it was decided the studio had to have a strong female character, or make its first female film. "Nothing is by that kind of design."
That said, Andrews is a father of four, three boys and one girl, and he was keen that the story didn't follow ye olde route of a prince swooping in to rescue a princess in distress.
"You don't need some guy to chop through thorny vines to rescue you. That's kind of the thing that we were going after in the story, that you have to solve your own problems."
Andrews' parents can trace their roots back to Scotland. Like all Americans, he says, he's a "mutt" with lots in the mix. "The Scottish wins out because it's on both sides of the family."
Given its setting, the film has been embraced by the Scottish Government like a lost £50 note. Not that you will find anyone among the filmmakers wanting to get within a mile of the independence debate. Hollywood studios feel about politics the way Superman does about Kryptonite.
So ask Mark Andrews if he his worried the film will be hijacked by the nationalist cause and you get a smile, a shrug and a strictly noncommittal, positively New York-esque, "What am I going to do?" He'd be delighted though, if more people want to visit Scotland having seen the film. "What Braveheart did for Scotland was great and if we are helping each other out that's fine."
If they do come, some might stay, as he did, in the Wee Bunkhouse at Kintail. "What happened in the Wee Bunkhouse shall remain in the Wee Bunkhouse," he laughs.
After six years in creation, the film is two months away from completion, with the Uddingston-born composer, Patrick Doyle, who worked on Harry Potter and Henry V, finishing the score. "He's a pro," says Andrews. "I barely have to do anything, he's bringing everything to the project. Everything he's written has just been fabulous." Also on the soundtrack is Julie Fowlis, the Scottish folk singer.
One thing Andrews did ask of Doyle was that the music not be "overtly Scottish". In other words, haud yer wheesht when it comes to too many bagpipes. So the director of the biggest Scottish film since Braveheart has something against the pipes? Is this a dagger of scandal I see before me? Alas, no.
"I love bagpipes. I have bagpipes at home and a chanter, but I can't play worth a bean because it's getting that air through those reeds. I'm much more a penny whistle man."
A penny whistle man sounding a fanfare for Scotland. Strike up the band.
Brave has its European premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 30, and goes on general release on August 17. Alison Rowat reviews this week's new releases in tomorrow's Herald,
