Toon-In Talk

Hello and welcome to ninth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. American Dad is a popular animated sitcom from the deranged, talented mind of Seth Macfarlane-Family Guy creator. The show recently switched networks from FOX to TBS and American Dad is now free to explore more creative and lewd plots that push the envelope so far they are blinding the censors. At the New York Comic-Con, Whitney scored a roundtable interview with the American Dad cast: Dee Bradley Baker, Rachel Macfarlane, Wendy Schaal, and Scott Grimes and the producers: Brian Boyle and Matt Weitzman.

Show Notes

The first interview is with voice actors Dee Bradley Baker and Rachael Macfarlane.

Rachael Macfarlane and her brother Seth Macfarlane worked together for years and she is very complimentary about his work. Seth encouraged her to try voice acting.

The cast recorded the episodes a year before their release.

Rachael loves the freedom of being a voice actor, meaning it can go on forever and she is free to play anybody, anything, and from anywhere. Dee likes it, because it’s quick, air conditioned, and he doesn’t have to remember his lines.

Rachael and Dee both love the normalcy of being voice actors.

Dee wants to create an episode where Klaus and Roger start a fish stick factory.

The show is on TBS now, so the American Dad crew have more freedom to be creative.

Dee speaks German fluently.

Rachael’s favorite animated show is Pippa Pig and Dee loves Avatar.

The producers are well aware of the voice acting cast’s capabilites and limits. They are thrown voices during the table read to see what the voice actors can do.

The second interview is with producers Matt Weitzman and Brian Boyle.

The second interview features the producers

They never thought American Dad would be on the air for so long.

In the beginning the show was compared to Family Guy, but American Dad soon made itself distinct, such as time slot, dedication to story, and characterization.

They claim to be doctors of comedy.

With the move to TBS, they are allowed to cuss and show different forms of nudity.

Whitney explains how familial relations work.

Both are really happy where the series is going and hope it will continue. The “Chris” is Chris Robertson, an animator on the show and prior interviewee.

If Roger wasn’t an alien, he would be a duck because he is so adaptive.

The third interview is with voice actors Scott Grimes and Wendy Schaal.

Wendy loves the energy and attention American Dad is getting from TBS. Scott loves the advertising their giving the show.

American Dad has made 205 episodes and it is a lot of storylines for the actors to keep track of.

Kevin Bacon loves the show.

They don’t do group recording sessions anymore, because Seth is very busy.

Wendy and Scott discuss their favorite episodes.

Scott released a record years ago and the writers included those songs in the show as a joke.

Hello and welcome to eighth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. For animation fans, the release of a new animated film is always exciting. 2015 is going to have a lot of animated films showing on the silver screen, but yo have to wonder what will succeed and what will bomb at the box office. Whitney interviews geek financial analyst Tim Beyers to discuss what 2015 animated movies will be a success and what will fail.

Show Notes

Tim Beyers writes about geek financial news for The Motley Fool.

Last year, he and Whitney discussed which animated films would be successful in 2014 and they repeat the same theme for 2015.

Tim thinks that Minions will be this year’s success followed close by Inside Out.

Pixar films are still successful, but with the reboot of Disney Animation, the studio has taken the original Pixar magic and inserted it into their own movies.

Disney Animation movies have been more successful than Pixar lately, but this could be Pixar’s year with the release of two animated films.

Whitney thinks Pixar will do better than Disney.

Sequels have a better chance of earning more money than the originals, because the fan base is already established and audiences want to see more.

Inside Out has the classic Pixar formula, especially story, but Minions are extremely marketable.

Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud do the voice of the minions, not Dee Bradley Baker.

Tim and Whitney both love it with professional voice actors get to strut their stuff in feature films.

Tim thinks Hotel Transylvania 2 will be the least successful and the Peanuts movie has enough juice to pull ahead.

Whitney is optimistic about both. She thinks Monster Trucks will be the least successful and it might be copying the Cars.

It’s exciting what is happening with Disney with the number of properties they are releasing. The House of Mouse is becoming the mother of all studios.

When Disney does a great job they do a GREAT job, but Whitney doesn’t want the studio to get complacent. In response, Time says Disney is far away from doing that because they’re still competing with Warner Brothers.

Big Hero 6 was good, but it was predictable. Story still remains king.

Please note Pixar doesn’t make all 3D movies.

The Peanuts movie has historical fans, but the franchise is being reintroduced to a whole new generation who aren’t familiar with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the game. It’s a gamble, however, so were The Muppets.

Original ideas are becoming scarce, but they are around and they come from studios with money to burn.

Online fundraising platforms, however, do allow creative individuals to raise money for their projects. The Internet allows more creators to put their work out there, but there is a lot more competition.

The hardest part of making a creative property is making the actual property.

Tim declares that the next three years in animated entertainment is a new golden age of cartoons, animation, and more.

Just for fun, this interview rounds out with Tim’s interview from last year.

Hello and welcome to seventh episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Mortal Kombat X is the latest game in the legendary fighting series and Whitney scored a interview with the voice of the villainous Quan Chi. Ronald M. Banks is the extreme opposite of the villain roles (meaning he’s a swell guy) he tends to get cast for in his extensive musical and theater career. In this interview, he discusses his journey into voice over and how he plans to grow his career.

Show Notes

Ron’s famous voice over role as Quan Chi in the Mortal Kombat series: Mortal Kombat X, Mortal Kombat, and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

He also played Jafar in the Aladdin Musical Spectacular at Disney California Adventure. On stage, he is most famous for playing the king in the King and I as well as Sweeny Todd in Sweeny Todd.

Ron loves playing the bad guy and finds it very cathartic.

Ron describes Quan Chi as a sorcerer, who is evil but is not an epic villain.

He used to be a gamer and his game of choice was World of Warcraft, but he found that he needed to devout more time to real life.

When he voiced the role of Quan Chi, Ron is still learning what the character’s role in the game is. As Jafar, Ron understands the menacing sorcerer’s mind quite well.

Whitney got the reference right (though it’s sweat, not silver blood).

The game has over the top violence and he thinks players will find it more humorous than gory.

Ron thinks that when CGI gets too real it won’t appeal to people.

He’s also been in some movies: No Connection and Sentimental Over You. For Ron, when he acts on TV or in movies, he has to back off with his voice. He’s used to projecting his voice.

Some of the challenges Ron faces is the newness of being a voice actor and keeping a show fresh when he’s on stage.

It’s important for actors on stage to be in the moment to keep their role fresh for the audience.

Ron is a vocal coach and he shares some advice on keeping your voice strong and healthy.

Whitney wants to know some funny theater stories and Ron reveals a whopper.

Both share their thoughts on Andrew Lloyd Webber.

SPOILER ALERT! Ron explains Quan Chi’s fate.

They discuss the wonders of technology and the trouble of finding silence in a house. (Whitney recorded this episode in her closet.)

Voice acting is a very competitive market.

During the day, Ron works as a Disney guest relations host, he teaches voice, and works with kids.

Hello and welcome to sixth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. If you grew up in the 1990s, you most likely watched Nickelodeon and were a fan of their Nick Toons. The 1990s have become known as the Golden Age of Nickelodeon Studios and nostalgia always comes into play when that decade is mentioned. Mathew Klickstein felt the same way, so he wrote Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Age chronicling the adventures of cast, crew, and other cool people from the “only kid’s network.”

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Toon-In-Talk Episode 06: Interview with Mathew Klickstein

Toon-In-Talk Episode 06: Interview with Mathew Klickstein

Podcasts Toon-In-Talk April 24, 2015 Whitney Grace

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Hello and welcome to sixth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. If you grew up in the 1990s, you most likely watched Nickelodeon and were a fan of their Nick Toons. The 1990s have become known as the Golden Age of Nickelodeon Studios and nostalgia always comes into play when that decade is mentioned. Mathew Klickstein felt the same way, so he wrote Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Age chronicling the adventures of cast, crew, and other cool people from the “only kid’s network.”

Episode 6

Show Notes

• Whitney tells Matt she had been searching Nickelodeon’s history herself. He tells her that a lot of people told him they wanted to write a book on Nick, but they never got around to it. He affirms there are a lot more stories to tell about “the only kid’s network.”

• He recommends reading the academic book Nickelodeon Nation by Heather Hendershot.

• Matt discusses details about how it was published and why he decided to write an oral history of Nickelodeon.

• Whitney asks questions about why Matt formatted the book the way he did, especially when it comes to information about his interviewees.

• Matt interviewed over 250 people for the book. He also had to leave out a lot of material.

• To track people down, it was actually the easiest getting Melissa Joan Hart, Kenan Thompson, and others. It was extremely difficulty getting people who worked on only one show, like Richard Price.

• Six degrees really comes into play for rounding up the interviewees.

• Slimed was more like producing a documentary than writing a book. Matt loves oral history, but he wants his next book to be in prose.

• In the early days, Nickelodeon licensed cartoons to air on the station. Nickelodeon made Looney Tunes popular again. When the licensing came up again, Warner Brothers wanted more money from Nickelodeon.

• We can thank the FCC for putting an end to 30 minute long toy commercials. Networks were also finally allowed to produce their own cartoons.

• The original three cartoons were: Doug, Ren and Stimpy, and Rugrats.

• Nickelodeon found six shows they made pilots for. They found potential shows by literary going to animator’s garage.

• Whitney mentions the yearly Nickelodeon writing and animation contest. Both discuss how Nick has changed its content and yet remained the same.

• Whitney brings up Ren and Stimpy and Matt discusses its heated history.

• The creator John Kricfalusi had an ill reputation, though he is a creative genius.

• Whitney and Matt talk about making something new and original. Neither wants to repeat the creative past.

• Money is a necessary evil. Whitney mentions some of her hopes before she got her book contract. Matt recommends people use a publisher and gives his advice about self-publishing and YouTube.

• Matt’s favorite NickToon is Ren and Stimpy and Whitney’s is Aah! Real Monsters.

• Matt declares the episode over!

Hello and welcome to fifth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. In December 2014, I had the honor of interviewing the animator Monty Oum of Rooster Teeth. Monty Oum was one of the creative leads for the American anime RWBY. He was an entirely self-taught animator, specializing in online cartoons and videogames. This interview was originally meant to air in the same month, but the sound quality was very poor. In January 2015, Monty Oum had a severe allergic reaction to a medical procedure and he passed away in February. Please join Whitney as she honors Monty’s memory.

Show Notes

Monty is a self-taught animator and never formerly attended a school.

When he was a kid, he used to watch cartoons, mostly anime, and he loved to count frames and learn animation tricks.

He describes RWBY as an emulation of an emulation. It emulates anime and anime emulates early Disney cartoons. Ironically, Monty’s career more or less started when he made fan videos based off Final Fantasy and Dead or Alive.

All stories are copies of copies. There are originally ideas, but they are usually inspired by something else. The creator takes the inspiration and makes something new.

Whitney is curious about the Rooster Teeth animation process and Monty explains how coding is involved, how they use skeletons, and how there’s a lot of copying involved.

They both geeked out over Pixar’s The Incredibles and discuss Universal Man.

RWBY is about a group of four girls who are fighters and how they attend a school to become stronger warriors. They discuss more about the world of RWBY.

Whitney confuses stop motion for motion capture, but she’s still impressed that Rooster Teeth is using it.

Whitney gushes over RWBY’s fighting scenes, which was Monty’s main speciality.

Most of RWBY’s characters are female, in order to animate their feminine qualities they sometimes have women put on the motion capture suit or they male animators have been known to wear heels.

Monty equated fashion and high heels with powers.

He also points out that having actually items to hold when you’re in a motion capture suit makes it a whole lot easier to animate later.

In season three of RWBY, expect the characters to grow physically and mentally.

Contrary to popular belief, Monty never watched Dragon Ball Z, but he was still a large fan of tournament arcs in anime.

Rooster Teeth has many other new projects in mind and they’re dedicated to making great cartoons.

Hello and welcome to fourth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. When you think about animation, you most likely think about a US studio. In fact, a lot of animation is made in other countries and there are a lot of fantastic studios overseas. Whitney had the luck to interview with Richard Thomas of One Animation, a Singapore studio, and discuss new animation projects, like in Asia, and what they love about animation.

Show Notes

One Animation is based in Singapore and is six years old. Richard is their creative director.

One Animation is more known for Rob the Robot, Oddbods, and the Insectibles.

Richard is originally from Manchester, England, but he’s worked all over the world and his animation background is predominantly game based.

Animating videogames is more piecemeal, but with television requires more prep work. On the end product you receive more feedback with games, but with television you have to wait. The end result is always the same for both: trying to create a great visual.

As a creative director, he’s more involved with the creation process, which he also considers to be more holistic.

On his current job, he draws a lot less than he did working on videogames. On television he loves working to constrain budgets on shows. Stress and deadlines remain the same, however.

Richard believes that CG is a modern trend and it’s popular because it is more accessible to people. CG animation is strongly routed in traditional animation principles. One isn’t better than the other and there is room for both.

Richard joined One Animation when he received a call from an associate and was shown the source material for a preschool show he felt had potential. It was a huge success and his career with the studio and expand into other projects.

One Animation got its name from when they higher ups needed to register with the government and they basically came up with it spur of the moment.

Working in Singapore is like working in England, except the weather is better and people are hungry for work. The biggest problem is that it’s hard to find local talent for animation.

Whitney is curious about the animation industry in Asia. She asks about Oriental DreamWorks and about animation factories.

One Animation’s mission statement is to continue their current progress, keep building their skill set, and eventually make a feature film.

Rob the Robot is preschool show about the explorations of a spacefaring group and the lessons they learn. Oddballs is an in-house show with completely silent characters and each one will resonate with you.

The Insectibles is about a boy and a grandfather who are shrunk down to the size of insects and they befriend bionic insects as they try to return to normal size.

Whitney and Richard both like intelligently written cartoons. They might consider making web toons in the future and they are working on a show that might appeal to an older audience, but Richard dislikes assigning age groups.

Richard and Whitney discuss old cartoons, the current industry, and where animation is going.

Whitney explains her master plan to one day interview John Lasseter.

Hello and welcome to third episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Whitney decides to interview a special part of the animation industry with her special guest Britni Brault, a talented and prominent paper artist. Britni has created paper sculptures for the Walt Disney Company and it’s possible you have seen some of her work at the parks. She also makes pieces for other studios and clients. Britni and Whitney discuss everything from what a paper sculpture is to copyright laws.

Show Notes

Britni details her background as a wife, mom, and a professional, freelance paper artist.

Britni explains there are different kinds of paper artists and what type she is.

While in art school, Britni discovered that paper was the only medium that made her feel satisfied as an artist.

People contract her to make a piece. Sometimes clients know exactly what they want and other times they ask Britni to use her imagination to create a piece.

She discusses her creative process when designing a client’s project.

A maquette is a simplified version of the larger piece Britni will sculpt.

Whitney and Britni talk about different paper artists, their careers, and how they work with clients.

Disney is one of Britni’s biggest clients, but she can’t discuss any of the projects she currently has them.

She got her job with Disney by entering a D23 contest and winning with a Mary Poppins sculpture. People started contacting her and since then she has been networking and working.

All of her Disney projects have been very inspiring and she has to work a bit harder to please her other clients.

Britni uses many copyrighted characters in her pieces. According to copyright law she is allowed to use the characters in “one-off” pieces. Translated that means she can’t make more than one copy.

They both share their views and experiences with copyright law and fans respecting intellectual rights.

Artists usually incorporate their influences in their own unique style.

Whitney can’t help but mention her favorite paper artist Lotte Reiniger.

Britni has considered making her own stop-motion short, however, she considers storytelling to be her weak point. She is a work horse, however.

Both agree that paper is a versatile medium and would love to see a movie using entirely paper.

Britni shares some views on the Disney Renaissance and how a lot of creative ideas come out times of desperation.

She’s not a very big fan of 3D movies and she has a neat idea for something that can replace.

They discuss how creepy Coraline is and how much they love Jim Henson.

In November she worked on a Disney villains project for Van Eaton Galleries.

Britni is an inspiration for not only paper artists, but other artists as well.

Hello and welcome to the second episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. This episode features the animation jack-of-all-trades Scott Christian Sava, who is currently writing and directing the brand new animated feature film Animal Crackers. Scott is known for his animated work for such studios as Cartoon Network, Disney, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Universal, Lucas Film, and more. He’s also written the excellent webcomic The Dreamland Chronicles. In episode two, Whitney and Scott talk about his career

Show Notes

Whitney gets some housekeeping out of the way: check out the new Toon-In Talk Website and feel free to contact her about suggesting or being a guest on the show.

Naybeth Díaz designed the extra cool Toon-In Talk logo and cover art.

Whitney shares some details on her new book about Lotte Reiniger and the first animated movie ever created.

Scott is storyteller. He writes the thrilling webcomic The Dreamland Chronicles and recently he started production on a full length animated movie called Animal Crackers.

Another of his books The Luckiest Boy was put into production buy another studio.

In 1990, became an intern at Sega and tried his hand at being an animator. He worked animation jobs during the day and worked on comic books at night.

He never had any groundbreaking training in animation, just tried his hand at many things.

Scott was doing A LOT work for Haim Saban Entertainment’s Power Rangers. Because he received so much work, Scott decided to form Blue Dream Studio to keep up with the input.

Blue Dream kept growing and it has done work for Spider-Man, X-Files, Alien vs. Predator, and more.

Blue Dream speciality is character animation. They’ve fleshed out TV pilots for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon as well as animation for videogames.

The Dreamland Chronicles is inspired by Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland.

Scott draws his inspiration from other people’s work and says his own creations are amalgamation of them.

Before he started Animal Crackers, Scott didn’t think he could write a script. Through encouragement, he wrote a script and some animation contacts helped him get production started.

During the process, he learned that he had to become to producer to get the movie made.

Tony Bancroft will be co-directing the movie with Scott. Tony was a Disney animator who worked at the Mouse House during the Disney Renaissance.

Dean Lorey will be the writer and he’s worked on Arrested Development, My Wife and Kids, and Major Pain.

To find a character designer, Scott did an IMDB search of movies he like. He signed Carter Goodrich for the character designer and he’s worked on Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and The Croods.

To create the Animal Crackers short, Scott put on his producer hat and persuaded his animation friends to make it.

The movie is about a guy named Owen who inherits a circus and a box of animal crackers from his uncle. He learns that the animal crackers are magical and transform the eater into whatever animal the shape of the cookie is.

Whitney and Scott talk about magical animal cookie logistics.

Scott is also the art director for his film and might even do a voice.

It’s a small budget film, so he’ll be doing a lot of jobs on the movie.

Scott explains what a bondsman is and Whitney wonders if he’s taking lessons from The Thief and the Cobbler.

Whitney is curious about who will be providing music for the movie and Scott wants to see if he can do a rock n’ roll cover of Shirley Temple’s “Animal Crackers.”

Scott’s sons and his extended family want parts in the film.

The movie is projected to come out in fall 2016.

Whitney tries to guess who the film’s distributor is.

Welcome to the 2nd episode of the new FanboyNation podcast: Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Toon-In-Talk is hosted by Whitney Grace and is dedicated to bringing you great stories straight from the animation industry. In the premiere episode, Whitney interviews famous voice actors Jim Cummings and Carlos Alazraqui. Jim has a resume as long as it is fantastic. He has voiced Winnie the Pooh, Darkwing Duck, Raymond from The Princesss and the Frog, and more. Carlos Alazraqui is known for voicing Rocko on Rocko’s Modern Life, Mr. Crocker from Fairly Oddparents, and many live action roles.

Show Notes

Carlos got started in voice acting from his stand up comedy career, where he did a lot of character voices.

Nickelodeon loved his Australian character voice so much they cast him as Rocko in Rocko’s Modern Life.

Carlos is extremely proud to have worked at Nickelodeon during its Golden Age.

He also confirms that the Nicktoon was written for a more mature audience and is very happy that there is still a very big fan following.

A fan comes up and compliments Carlos on his performance in Reno 911, which is quite the opposite of of the innocent Rocko.

Daniel Tosh doesn’t have a vendetta against Carlos for taking his job away as the Taco Bell mascot. Carlos was the voice for the “Yo quiero Taco Bell” chihuahua.

The Fairly Oddparents character Denzel Crocker combines Gene Wilder, Montgomery Burns, and Richard Dreyfus in one kooky voice.

He says he’s recycle voices for different roles but altered the voices a little bit for each one. He’s a genius at playing different accents.

Having worked at many of the major studios, Carlos says Disney is more familial, Nickelodeon is more subversive, and Cartoon Network is the most “out there.”

When he’s working, Carlos prefers group recording sessions because they’re fun.

Carlos came up with the Al Pacino voice for Ernesto the penguin in Happy Feet and he also did his own singing.

Carlos explains Lazlo’s character from Camp Lazlo and what happened to Rocko when the series ended.

John DiMaggio and Carlos were riffing in a session one day and created an entire improv cartoon series on Mondo Media from it.

He loops voice for Billy Crystal.

Compared to the 1990s, Carlos thinks cartoons aren’t as subtle and are made weird for weirdness’ sake.

He plays El Chupacabra in Planes and General Posada in The Book of Life.

To hear about how Jim Cummings started in voice acting, check out Rob Paulsen’s Talkin’ Toons Podcast.

Jim is most well known for voicing Darkwing Duck on the Disney Afternoon.

He doesn’t collect voices, but he does a lot of impressions of people.

Jim became a Disney go-to voice actor, because he started out around the same time the Disney Channel and the Disney Afternoon started.

He never got the chance to meet Sterling Holloway, but he did encounter him in a restaurant from a distance. He now follows in Holloway’s footsteps by playing Winnie the Pooh.

Jim discusses his take on villains and sometimes they’re a bit more fun for him to play.

Whitney asks what would happen if some of his characters faced off.

He discusses voice Scar’s singing voice on The Lion King and his character Ray on The Princess and the Frog.

He loves working with Rob Paulsen and considers him to be one of the voice acting greats.

If he was stuck on a desert island, he’d want Darkwing Duck to be

with him.

Welcome to the brand new FanboyNation podcast: Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Toon-In Talk is hosted by Whitney Grace and is dedicated to bringing you great stories straight from the animation industry. In Toon-In-Talk episode zero, Whitney explains a little bit about herself and what you can expect from the show.