Tiger Producer Roy Conli On Crafting The Story Of A Nature Documentary

Summary Screen Rant interviews Roy Conli about his work producing Disneynature's new documentary Tiger.

Conli ensures Tiger remains family-friendly, showcasing the beauty and struggles of tiger life tastefully.

Release date is set for April 22 on Disney+, with a companion documentary Tigers on the Rise highlighting tiger conservation efforts.

Big cats are coming to Disney+ with Tiger, a new documentary from Disneynature that follows a family of tigers as they navigate life in the jungles of India. The documentary was directed by Mark Linfield and co-directed by Vanessa Berlowitz and Rob Sullivan, with Sullivan simultaneously helming a companion documentary called Tigers on the Rise. Tiger follows Ambar, a young tigress, as she raises her cubs and survives territory shared with powerful bears, deadly reptiles, and other tigers alike.

Tiger was produced by Roy Conli, a filmmaker who has lent his talents to other Disneynature documentaries and fiction movies alike. Conli helped shape the narrative of Tiger, though he is quick to point out that even the best laid plans change in the face of nature’s will. Conli’s prior work with Disney includes the 2022 animated film Strange World and the Disneynature documentary Elephant.

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Screen Rant interviewed Tiger producer Roy Conli about shaping the story of the Disneynature documentary. Conli also discussed the possibility of future iterations of projects he’s worked on in the past such as Big Hero 6 and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Roy Conli On Crafting The Story Of A Nature Documentary

Conli is an expert on crafting compelling stories in the real world and fictional ones alike and has prior natural history experience with documentaries including Disneynature’s Polar Bear. Though narrative arcs are key to fiction and documentary filmmaking, working with animals is a different beast entirely. When asked how much his work on fictional projects informs his documentary story crafting, Conli said the following:

Roy Conli: Essentially, we're all storytellers—even the guys out in the field shooting these things. I've got a long history in animation [where], essentially, you start with a blank page. You start creating stories and, slowly but surely, they form and come together. With natural history, you go in with an idea of what the story might be, but as you get images coming back from the field, you start seeing behavior that you never expected, and that gets woven into the story. Somewhere in the middle they kind of merge, and you start telling your story. I'm always amazed at how sentient and present animals are, and what intelligent beings they are. On the whole, I don't think we give animals the credit they’re due. When you look at [their] stories, they kind of hand it to you in a way.

Tiger Is Very Deliberately G-Rated

Disneynature projects like Tiger stand apart even from many of the best nature documentaries in the way they tastefully present nature’s more tragic or brutal moments. The life of a tiger is not always an easy or peaceful one, but Conli and the rest of the team behind the documentary take steps to ensure the whole family can enjoy their work. Conli was quick to admit the importance of keeping the project family-friendly:

Roy Conli: We're very cognizant as we go into this story. I think the beauty of this film is that you see the behavior, [but] we're very careful that we don't get into the gruesome. You understand that these are, in fact, carnivorous animals who hunt. We track several hunts--we just make sure that it's always family-friendly. But we're not going to cheat the audience in terms of what the reality is.

Roy Conli On A New Big Hero 6 Movie And Live-Action Hunchback Of Notre Dame

As Conli stated earlier in the interview, he has a long history with animation, with two of his best-known projects being Big Hero 6 and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. A live-action Hunchback of Notre Dame was announced in 2019, but the status of the project is in question as updates have been nonexistent. Conli spoke about the live-action Hunchback of Notre Dame, and on whether or not he knew anything about the movie:

Roy Conli: I too have heard rumor of that. I don't have any solid information on that. But I do think it's interesting. I would love to. I think that could be a stunning one. I think that's Alan Menken's most beautiful score. I absolutely adore that score. But I also think Treasure Planet would make a great live-action film, and that's another one that I did [about] 20 years ago.

Conli also spoke on the possibility of a Big Hero 6 sequel movie:

Roy Conli: You know, we're celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Big Hero 6 this year. A great movie for myself, Don Hall, and Chris Williams, who put that together. It's interesting because it is really up to Don whether he wants to make a sequel to that. It was Don's concept and idea. I always secretly urge him to do it, but we'll see. He loves working on new property. So we'll see what happens.

Don’t Forget About Tigers On The Rise

Like other Disneynature documentaries, Tiger will be released with a companion piece called Tigers on the Rise. It goes deeper into the state of tiger conservation and paints a broader picture than the single-family view of Tiger. Conli expressed his excitement about the project, which releases the same day as Tiger:

Roy Conli: Tigers on the Rise is the companion piece to Tiger. We do a making-of with each of these films, and it's always fascinating. Tigers on the Rise is a real testament to the conservation effort that's going on in India right now, through the government, through communities, and through individuals, who have literally brought the tiger back to India. About 20 years ago, there were 1,400 tigers in the country. There are now 3600. It's more than doubled. It’s really an amazing piece of documentary filmmaking that was directed by the co-director of Tiger—a guy by the name of Rob Sullivan. It’s narrated by Blair Underwood who, I think, is the velvet voice of these things. I would urge people to go see that as well when it comes out on April 22. It’ll blow you away.

About Tiger

Disneynature’s “Tiger” will launch on Disney+ this Earth Day, April 22, 2024—exactly 15 years after the label’s first release, “Earth.” Priyanka Chopra Jonas will narrate the compelling story, which lifts the veil on our planet’s most revered and charismatic animal, inviting viewers to journey alongside Ambar, a young tigress raising her cubs in the fabled forests of India.

Check out our interview with Tiger director Mark Linfield and co-director Vanessa Berlowitz.

Tiger will be released April 22 on Disney+.