When Lima joined the production of the film, Disney had already been working on it for nine years, and the director said the process was a "battle."
"I think there was this feeling that in order to succeed in the current marketplace, there had to be this level of cynicism," he told Den of Geek in 2017. "It had to perform as 'Shrek' performed in order to connect."
Lima instead wanted to do something that embraced the classic Disney tropes and stereotypes — something that genuine fans would love and appreciate.
"When I came in, I said, 'let's not do that, let's not make fun of who we are. Let's embrace who we are, and make it a love letter to Disney,'" he added.