How Hamsters and Squids Inspired ‘Spellbound’s’ Adorably Mischievous Sidekick Flink

What’s in a name? For “Spellbound” director Vicky Jenson, it’s a simple portmanteau.

In an early sketch of Flink, Princess Ellian’s adorably mischievous animal sidekick, Jenson wanted him to flash and blink as he energetically flitted about. “I have a tendency to squish words together,” she tells Variety. “So I was like, ‘He just has to flink!’”

In creating the “rascal” Flink, character art director Guillermo Ramirez drew inspiration from hamsters, raccoons, squirrels, weasels, and even an aquatic animal: “I also explored cuttlefish or squids – because of the movement, not because of their appearance,” he says with a laugh. “They were not that cute!”

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Luckily, Flink is that cute. The rodent-like purple creature has a tendency to store everything from acorns to magical devices inside his deceptively big cheeks – a habit that was born from one of Ramirez’s early drawings. “I just did Flink with a mouth full of things, and it was very funny. So we managed to put that in the movie!”

Jenson hopes Flink’s cheek-hiding will ring true for parents of rambunctious dogs: “Any puppy owner knows: ‘What do you have? What? Give it to me! Drop it!’”

After a magical mishap early in the film, Flink and the posh royal advisor Minister Bolinar (John Lithgow) magically swap bodies in a moment that’s both adorable and functional for the plot. “We came up with the idea about halfway through the production,” Jenson says. “It was just a great suggestion from one of the other directors at Skydance. Ellian gets to interact with someone, rather than be alone with monsters who can’t talk. And how funny is it to see little Flink in Bolinar’s body?”

“Spellbound” is now streaming on Netflix.