'Turbo' Director David Soren Talks Movies and Family

'Turbo' director David Soren, far right, with the animated movie's stars.

Turbo, the 3D animated pic from DreamWorks Animation and Fox, has been a big player in the kid-friendly summer movie space this season. (See what CC and I thought here.)

Director David Soren, a dad who hails from Canada, chatted with a few bloggers, and I got my hands on his insights into the film.

When it came to inspiration for the underdog snail racing story, Soren didn't have to go far. In fact, it started in his own home.

"It was twofold," he said. "It was in part my now 6 1/2-year-old son who, since before he could even talk has been obsessed with all things fast, zooming his little race cars around my living room; and my front yard, which had a snail problem."

And while snails seem an unlikely animal to choose to topline a racing movie, Soren admitted that was kind of the joke.

"Who is more unlikely to be in a racing movie than a snail?" he asked.

"And the story is ultimately an underdog tale and focuses on dreamers and realists," he added. "So it wasn't so much that it was necessarily a talking animal movie in my mind as much as a more universal thing."

As Los Angeles denizens might have also noticed, there are tons of references to the city itself. After all, most of the "action" takes place in the San Fernando Valley.

Soren, who lives in the Valley, said that was what made sense, given that DreamWorks Animation -- and his own house -- are in the Valley.

"There's such an iconic look to the San Fernando Valley," he said. "and there's really a great history of racing movies and car culture here. So it seemed like the perfect location to set a racing movie and also an underdog story, since the Valley is sort of never quite considered the most desirable location to live."