An adaptation of the award-winning book about one very special gorilla, Disney’s “The One and Only Ivan” is an unforgettable tale about the beauty of friendship, the power of visualization and the significance of the place one calls home.

Directed by Thea Sharrock, the film follows Ivan, a 400-pound silverback gorilla who shares a communal habitat in a suburban shopping mall with Stella the elephant, Bob the dog, and various other animals. He has few memories of the jungle where he was captured, but when a baby elephant named Ruby arrives, it touches something deep within him. Ruby is recently separated from her family in the wild, which causes him to question his life, where he comes from and where he ultimately wants to be.

Entertainment Affair recently joined Sharrock, Sam Rockwell (voice of Ivan), Angelina Jolie (voice of Stella the elephant and also one of the film’s producers), Danny DeVito (voice of Bob the dog), Bryan Cranston (the mall’s circus attraction owner Mack), and Brooklynn Prince (voice of baby elephant Ruby) as well as costars Helen Mirren (voice of Snickers the poodle), Chaka Khan (voice of Henrietta the chicken), Mike White (voice of Frankie the seal and also the film’s screenwriter), Ron Funches (voice of Murphy the Rabbit), Phillipa Soo (voice of Thelma the parrot), Ramon Rodriguez (trusty mall employee George), and Ariana Greenblatt (George’s kindhearted daughter Julia) for a virtual press conference celebrating the film’s upcoming release on Disney+. Check out a few highlights and watch the full video of the event below.

Angelina Jolie explained how she helped bring The One and Only Ivan to audiences: “One of my children read the book and said that they loved it,” Jolie explains. “And [so] I read it, and we kind of talked about why it was special and why it meant so much to them. I thought [it was] very, very important, and wanted to get involved.”

When asked what the process of filming The One and Only Ivan was like, Director Thea Sharrock admits it was a very unique experience. “It was very much like simultaneously working on two movies at the same time because of the technical aspect of it. So on the one hand, we started the whole process with the voice actors. Then we shot all of our live-action stuff, and then we went back in and shot the virtual aspects of the film—which was whenever we had just animals in a scene together.”

Phillipa Soo recalls practicing a parrot-style squawk: “I thought to myself, what do parrots do?” Soo laughingly admits. “Aside from Gilbert Gottfried’s performance in Disney’s animated The Lion King, I thought I’d look up some parrot videos… and then I tried to make my squawkiest, most parrot-y sound in my house for everyone else to hear. I actually asked my husband—I was like, ‘Does this sound parrot-y enough?’ And he said, ‘Totally! That’s great!’”

Chaka Khan claimed to have the strongest similarities to her The One and Only Ivan character: “When I first ran away from home at 16, I actually joined the circus,” she admits. “We went out to the Barnum & Bailey ‘Blue’ circus [for] about six or seven months; we took a train. I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going. But I’d met this lovely guy at a club, and he was with the circus—and he asked me to come along, [so] I went. I actually was a rope girl, and I rode the elephant… Doing this film really brought back memories of the circus.”

Spending time at home lately allowed Ramon Rodriguez to reflect even further on the significance of The One and Only Ivan’s themes of friendship and home. “We’ve all been sort of indoors [a lot lately],” Rodriguez explains. “And I think it’s allowed for a lot of introspection, right? Which is, I think, really similar to what Ivan goes through in this beautiful coming-of-age experience… I love the message that you get to find yourself even later in life. You know, we’re continually on this journey… [and] these moments actually allow us to hopefully come out of it maybe a bit more evolved. I think for Ivan that’s exactly his experience—and I think that’s a pretty powerful message, in particular [for] where we are right now.”

The One and Only Ivan debuts exclusively on Disney+ on August 21!