We were joined on the Popternative show by best-selling author and illustrator Jeff Kinney to discuss the new film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever, based on Kinney’s hugely successful Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. The film premiered December 8th on Disney+, and the synopsis reads: “The winter holidays are turning out to be especially stressful for Greg Heffley this year. After accidentally damaging a snowplow while making a snowman with best friend Rowley Jefferson, Greg worries he won’t get the new video game console he so desperately wants for Christmas. To make matters worse, he gets snowed in with his family, including his grumpy older brother Rodrick and annoying younger brother Manny.”
Directed by Luke Cormican (Teen Titans Go!, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules) and written and produced by Kinney, it features the voices of Wesley Kimmel (The Book of Boba Fett, WandaVision), Spencer Howell (Ithaca), Chris Diamantopoulos (Invincible, Pantheon), Erica Cerra (The 100, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules), and Hunter Dillon (Holly Hobbie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules).
When asked about creating an animated film compared to live action films, Jeff Kinney says, “This one is really special for me because way back when, ten years ago we started talking about making an animated Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie or kind of a special for television, and it was a big jump because we’ve never seen the two dimensional Greg become a three dimensional Greg in this way. We needed to make sure it looked right, but it’s really cool because of course in the live action movies the kids get a little bit older and you run out of time, and here it’s like well we can keep doing these forever or as long as people want to see them.”
Jeff also discusses creating a movie centered on the holidays but one which he describes as an “inverted holiday story.”
Watch the full conversation below.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever is streaming on Disney+