ANIMATED SHORTS: MAXWELL ATOMS

[MattBrady]

THE CUTTING HUMOR OF MAXWELL ATOMS
STARZ SUES DISNEY, NEW SHOWS FROM IG, MORE

by Steve Fritz

To say there’s a strong and fanatical following for Maxwell Atoms’ Grim Adventures for Billy & Mandy is something of an understatement. As Atoms points out, it’s one of the longest running shows on Cartoon Network. It also never happened.

But it did, and Atoms is now enjoying the rewards of being on CN for seven years. This Friday we will see the first true Billy & Mandy movie, subtitled Big Boogey Adventure. It marks the return of one of Grim’s greatest rivals, the Boogey Man (voiced by Fred Willard).

As with all Grim shows, this 90-minute special works on its own logic. The basic premise is after being held captive by Billy/Mandy for all this time, the Grim Reaper has NOT been able to do his job properly. Now it's time for him to pay. He’s stripped not only of his powers, but more importantly his scythe. And does how do Billy and Mandy treat this? Why they dump him, of course. This is only the first few minutes of this special. You’ll have to watch to see how our hellacious hero manages to get his revenge on Boogey and all who sail with him.

Being we had the opportunity, we also thought it would be fun to grill Mr. Atoms about his past, present and future. He turned out to be a surprisingly frank and fresh interview with some interesting comments to make. Now you can see them for yourself.

Just one warning…there are some spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

Newsarama: What ‘toons really got you to become an animator?

Maxwell Atoms: Just about everything. I was just such a cartoon addict as a kid that I would do the entire six-hour marathon as a kid. A lot of the Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera stuff was fundamental though.

NRAMA: From what I gather, one of the first guys you worked for was Dave Fleiss on Cow & Chicken. What was it like working under him? Was that where you got your start?

MA: I got my start with Film Roman and Twisted Tales of Felix The Cat. I then worked on King of the Hill for about one week, where I chose to go on to the Blues Brothers show, which I thought would be where it was at. Of course, nobody ever saw that thing. I came on the second season of Cow & Chicken and then went on to I Am Weasel. I think I did way more Weasel’s.

Dave Fleiss was a lot of fun. It was kind of weird because he worked from Fresno. So I would only see him about twice a week. Otherwise we’d mail things back and forth. What was nice about that show is it had a lot of creative freedom. I was lucky. They felt I understood the show so they trusted me. I had a lot of free reign.

NRAMA: Before you went on to Billy & Mandy, did you work on anything else?

MA: I did some work for Wild Brain, but mainly I got to work on a pilot for Billy & Mandy.

NRAMA: And that was what won the World Premiere Toon tournament that year. How did it feel to see the fans liked that pilot?

MA: Yeah. Honestly, it was a little weird. Everyone at Cartoon Network and on the internet were all rooting for Robot Jones, and Greg Miller (ED—Jones’ creator) was a guy I went to school with. I honestly didn’t think Cartoon Network was going to go for it. I honestly understand they had a lot of meetings to see if what we were doing was OK. It didn’t look good for a long time and I was ready to work on Robot Jones at that point.

NRAMA: How did you think up the principles? When you think of cartoon characters, you usually don’t think of Billy, Mandy or Grim.

MA: Well, Billy and Mandy came from a college film I did, and I added Grim later. They were always dealing with monsters and strange stuff.

NRAMA: How did you decide on the Jamaican accent for Grim?

MA: That was just pure good fortune. When I was casting for the Grim Reaper, I was casting for a Dr. Smith/Lost In Space kind of voice. So we had a whole bunch of people come in and do that. Greg Eagles, the guy who does Grim’s voice, does sound a little bit Jamaican. So I told him to go all Jamaican and it just really stood out to me. It had a whole voodoo aspect that I really liked.

NRAMA: Did you always have Mandy being such an evil little thing?

MA: Well, the original Mandy I did in college did smile and laugh a bit. She’s a lot more wicked now than then.

NRAMA: How did you manage to land Richard Hurvitz for Billy?

MA: At the time, it wasn’t that hard. Then everyone was going the Tom Kenny route, and I didn’t want Tom Kenny for that reason. I mean I love what Kenny does but I was trying to get people who weren’t used a lot. Another thing was everyone was doing Rugrats when we were auditioning.

I guess what really mattered was everyone I finally hired all came with unique takes on their character. For instance, Richard pretty much IS Billy.

NRAMA: Where did you think up the references inside the show? I mean how many people realized that episode you did where in the future Mandy is a giant worm is based on Frank Herbert’s God Emperor of Dune?

MA: Sometimes I think it up or sometimes they just come out of the story. One important thing is we don’t employ writers in the traditional sense. We actually prefer board guys. I like it when the story guys can actually do their outlines on story boards. It’s more personal and I have more fun with it.

NRAMA: Now that you mention it, I can see it. That’s actually very old school. A lot of the classic Golden Age animators worked directly off the boards instead of written scripts.

MA: Right. That’s always the way I liked to work. I admit sometimes it’s tough because it’s hard to find people who can both do boards and create good stories. The story guys usually can’t draw, but somehow it manages to all work out. We were definitely lucky in that we got a pool of really talented people who can work like that.

NRAMA: What was it like trying to put together Big Boogie Adventure? Did you have problems trying to come up with something that was 90 minutes long?

MA: This was the first time I had gone over an hour on anything. That was a challenge in itself. At the same time it was certainly fun. The other real challenge was doing this on top of our regular season. It added a lot of extra pressure on everybody. I’m really happy with what came out though.

NRAMA: How did you pick Boogie as the main antagonist?

MA: Well, Billy and Mandy don’t have too many traditional villains for starters. They have their share of foils and antagonists like Eris and Nergal, but none of them are really bad people. When we started this whole project, I remember talking to Jay Bastian, my contact at Cartoon Network, about doing a Wrath of Khan-type story. It would be fun to do something like some obscure villain from Grim’s past coming back for the long form Billy & Mandy. Boogie was one of the few. Also he had a good relationship to Grim. I know I truly regretted not being able to get Fred Willard in for more of Boogie.

NRAMA: Of course, the main story is about Grim losing his powers. Actually, considering all the years you’d been doing the show, I was surprised it took the Underworld so long to strip him of them.

MA: Yeah! Part of that was Cartoon Network not really understanding what I wanted to do with the Underworld. For years and years they just rejected anything with the world “underworld” in it, for fear of getting objections from more religious organizations. Cartoons about the afterlife just get under some peoples’ skins. What I finally made them understand was it was a place where monsters lived. When I said that it was totally fine.

NRAMA: If you consider that when the Reaper does his job, he’s collecting souls. That’s implications of an afterlife no matter what.

MA: Sure. What we had to do was just imply that but never directly show what was happening. We couldn’t make it seem like a punishment or reward.

The whole idea was to have Grim’s powers taken away, and that would mean he’s no longer useful to Billy and Mandy. So they dump him. After all, it was always his powers that were the catalyst for their adventures. Once his powers and all the artifacts in his trunk were gone, the real question was how useful he was going to be. What really matters is in this one Grim really redeems himself in the end.

NRAMA: How did you get Tom Warburton to agree to let you use #3 from Kids Next Door?

MA: Well, originally, where #3 shows up it was originally supposed to be Pamela Anderson, but we didn’t wind up getting her. Then I thought #2 would have been good being he’s so sweet and innocent. It was actually his suggestion that we use #3.

We’d known each other for a long time. We had both done our first pilots at the same time. He was doing Kenny and the Chimp back when we were both at Warner Bros. with Seth MacFarlane, Genndy and all those other people. There’s actually a full-on Kids Next Door crossover we’re working on. In fact, I’m flying out to New York to check that out later this week. In fact, the appearance of #3 in this episode is sort of a preview.

NRAMA: I find it really interesting that #3 really savors her part in all of this.

MA: Yeah. Well, if you look at the Kids, she really has the most psychotic episodes.

NRAMA: So you guys are working on a Grim/KND crossover?

MA: Actually, working on it isn’t quite right. It’s almost done. Right now it’s called The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door. It’s going to air in the Summer sometime. Basically, Mandy takes over the Kids Next Door for her own sinister purposes. Like he usually does, Billy starts it all when he gets trapped in his dad’s pants and using Grim’s scythe to cut himself loose.

NRAMA: The two styles seem to blend.

MA: Well, we hope. We didn’t try to do any mediating or change anything.

NRAMA: But the scenes where #3 shows up see fits in pretty well.

MA: I was actually pretty happy with them.

NRAMA: So, overall, how are things going with Billy & Mandy?

MA: We’re finishing up what is our final season. There’s the specials and that’s about it. There is a big crossover arc that Cartoon Network is doing called The Invasion and it will all end on Billy & Mandy. We are also doing a one-hour final episode.

NRAMA: Got anything in the works?

MA: This year I got an untitled pilot. I’m also working on a Halloween special that’s a spin-off of Billy & Mandy.

NRAMA: No more Evil Con Carne, eh?

MA: I don’t think so. Evil did well on the ratings, but at that time we were kind of over-extending ourselves. It’s just been so long now.

NRAMA: So you got a five years out of this?

MA: It’s been longer than that. We’ve had some very strange pick-ups, counting the pilot. I think technically we are kind of the longest running show to ever be on Cartoon Network. It all comes to about seven when you add it all up.

NRAMA: So what do you think it takes to get a series to last this long?

MA: Well, there’s certainly a lot of luck involved as well as determination. For me it’s always been about always trying to surprise myself. If I can think of something that even catches me off guard, then I find that other people tend to like it.

STARZ SUING DISNEY OVER ITUNES

Starz Media announced it is suing Buena Vista Television for breach of contract and copyright infringement over the latter’s decision to set up downloads with iTunes and Wal-Mart’s.

Despite this prohibition, the suit notes that Disney has “begun to sell over the Internet via services like Apple Computer Corp.’s iTunes and Walmart.com the very same Disney films licensed to Starz.” Such conduct, the suit adds, constitutes “a blatant breach” of the licensing agreements between BVT and Starz. The suit notes that over the life of the contract Starz has paid “over one billion dollars” for periods of exclusive rights to the films.

Starz Entertainment Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Robert B. Clasen said, “Disney has been a great partner. We hope to continue our relationship. But our agreements clearly prohibit them from selling their movies by electronic download over the Internet while they are exclusive to Starz. If Disney is permitted to violate our contract in this manner, it will undermine the integrity of copyright in general
which is a cornerstone of our industry.”

“The film studios have been very aggressive, and quite rightly so, in protecting their copyrights, particularly with regard to the Internet. Starz must be equally aggressive in protecting the value of the deal it made. It is especially disappointing to see one of the largest studios ignore so blatantly its own contractual obligations to protect the copyrights it has licensed to Starz.”

Clasen pointed out that Starz has been a pioneer in Internet delivery of films, investing millions of dollars to develop, launch and market its Internet service last year. Starz delivers more than a thousand movies per month– including the Disney films – to subscribers via broadband Internet connections. “We want to encourage consumers to have every opportunity to access a wide array of films over the Internet,” Clasen said. “But we cannot allow Disney to sell those rights to us on an exclusive basis and then sell the same rights to other parties.”

The suit notes that the licensing agreements do allow Disney to distribute its films on a pay-per-view or on-demand basis defined as “the viewing of a motion picture by a consumer who is charged a fee to
view the film over a limited period of time.” It also permits home video distribution where consumers may purchase or rent “a motion picture embodied in a video device which is a physical entity (including, without limitation, video cassette, laser video disc and DVD).”

But the suit points out that -- other than these clearly defined exceptions -- the agreements prohibit BVT from licensing its films “for exhibition in any form of television or electronic delivery.”

The suit seeks to prevent BVT “from continuing to infringe on Starz’s rights” and asks for all profits BVT has realized from its infringing activities.

IG CELEBRATES 20TH WITH TWO NEW PROJECTS

As part of its ongoing celebration of its 20th anniversary, landmark animation studio Production I.G. two new projects sure to keep fans interested.

The first is entitled Guardian of the Sacred Spirit. It’s based on a novel by Nahoko Umehashi and will be directed by Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost In The Shell: SAC) with a score by longtime Ghost collaborator Kenji Kawai. The series tells the tale of a sacred spirit who comes once every century. Naturally, when this spirit lands this time, it’s going to have more than its hands full.

The second series is the creation of manga superstar Shirow Masamune (Appleseed, Ghost In The Shell proper) entitled Ghost Hound. The rest of the talent attached to this one sounds especially intriguing, including Serial Experiment Lain’s Ryutaro Nakamura as supervising director and Chiaki Konoka as scriptwriter, along with Mariko Oka (Jigoku Shojo for character design. The manga this series is based on will be released this week.

According to I.G. the series will make its television debut on WOWOW this Fall. Expect more news on this and other I.G. productions in the near future.

ZATCH BELL ADDED TO JETSTREAM

Viz Media announced that its series Zatch Bell has been added to Cartoon Network’s Toonami Jetstream. The streaming net already has three episodes up for access, with new ones being added every week. If you want to check this out, the URL is http://ToonamiJetstream.com.

ANIME NETWORK ADDS WIDE OPEN ACCESS TO SYSTEM

The Anime Network announced its SVOD service is now available on WOW!, a cable system mainly in Michigan, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio. This now means that Anime Network has achieves a robust 95% penetration of the VOD market.

NEXT COLUMN: Got a call at 10:00 p.m. from Hong Kong the other evening, and it was from Kevin Munroe, director of TNMT. He had a lot to say. We also will be Meeting the Robinsons and the people behind this latest Disney adventure real soon. Lots and lots more, too. I might have to force Matt to going to three days a week if this keeps up.

The groans and swearing you’re hearing in the background is my beloved editor and boss…See you Thursday no matter what..

[Spaz_Monkey]

The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door

I drool in anticipation!

seriously.

It's making a hell of a mess on my desk.

[Awake1313]

I cant even begin to express how much this show kicks @$$. The best thing on Cartoon Network next to Aqua Teen Hunger Force......(unless you live in Boston)

[Black Beetle]

Billy & Mandy is ____ing awesome. I'm sure I'll be watching the movie with my little brother.

Oh, and The Grim Adventures of the Kids Next Door will rule all.

[Franklin Harris]

I didn't see it mentioned in the interview, but Maxwell has also said that a season 1 DVD box set of "Billy and Mandy" is in the works.

[Kal-El577]

FINAL SEASON OF BILLY AND MANDY???

NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!

[Spade]

Originally Posted by Franklin Harris

I didn't see it mentioned in the interview, but Maxwell has also said that a season 1 DVD box set of "Billy and Mandy" is in the works.

i wonder how they going to do it. Is it going to be a grim and Evil box set and them grim adventures?

[tiso_spencer]

I just dont see how KND and Grim can work together in the same universe. I guess it will just be one of those fantasy type crossovers. Shame this has to be the final season of the show. Both shows were amazing have fanatical followers.

[FallenFate]

"Billy and Mandy's Big Boogie Adventure" is also going to be the one that debuts the new Voltaire song in it (about the Lord of the Underworld). Considering that "Brains!" is probably one of the best Billy and Mandy episodes ever, I'm looking forward to it based on that alone.

And Billy and Mandy could very easily work well within the confines of the KND universe. There isn't really anything that dicatates them being in separate universes. It would be like saying that John Constantine can't exist in a world with a Superman. They very obviously can, but they very rarely interact since they deal in different aspects of the world.

[GrimmGargoyl]

In the words of Fred Fredburger....


YES!!!!!

[Steve Magnum]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

THE CUTTING HUMOR OF MAXWELL ATOMS
STARZ SUES DISNEY, NEW SHOWS FROM IG, MORE

by Steve Fritz

To say there’s a strong and fanatical following for Maxwell Atoms’ Grim Adventures for Billy & Mandy is something of an understatement. As Atoms points out, it’s one of the longest running shows on Cartoon Network. It also never happened.

But it did, and Atoms is now enjoying the rewards of being on CN for seven years.

Um Steve... do you mean "It ALMOST never happened."? Instead of "It also never happened"?

[Steve Magnum]

Hey Steve,

I thought you were going to have an interview with the Avatar co-creators. What happened? Is that still coming?

[Cliffdowns]

the humor, the spoofs and the great charactors... I really hope DVD box sets are out soon. The Invasion crossover is going to be a nightmare to TIVO, hopefully CN will release a schedule.

[KyleCowstar]

With the Disney suit, I hope that Disney wins here. It could really screw over a lot of companies and growth in the industry if Starz! wins.

[darrenmdr]

I am a 33 year old married chap with a daughter just coming up for 17 months. I love Grim Adventures and I am currently using Mandy as a role model for my daughter. My wife isn't happy about it, but c'mon wouldn't any father want a daughter like Mandy.

Oh and the Boogie film has already been on TV over here and it is brilliant.

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by Steve Magnum

Hey Steve,

I thought you were going to have an interview with the Avatar co-creators. What happened? Is that still coming?

Yep. I have the interview on tape already. I'm just trying to do things according to timeliness. The interview with Steve DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko has lots of time to it. Same with my interview with Chuck McCann. My interviews with Kevin Munroe and the creative people behind Meet The Robinsons are more time sensitive. -s

[wjclark01]

The Grim Adventures of The Kids Next Door....

Ooooo boy, will this be fun or what?

I'm sorry to to see both KND and Grim in their final season. Both are hilarious, but what has me intrigued "The Invasion"? What's the deal with that and what characters besides Billy, Mandy and Grim are involved?

C'mon, Steve - spill it....lol.

[deathshead2]

Im rather disappointed in B and M. I liked it during its first few seasons back when it was mix of creepy and potty humor. Now its 100% potty humor. Which after the third fart and booger joke it gets a little old.

[Doc Nero]

The Billy & Mandy movie was shown recently on the UK Cartoon Network channel and it is brilliant!

[Doc Nero]

One of the episodes of GBM (cant remember which one) has a computer screen which mentions that GBM started out as an internet cartoon.

Anyone know anything about that?

[vbartilucci]

I've always thought the perfect crossover would be Kids Next Door and Recess. They both have that "secret lives of kids" vibe to it.

I always imagined the kids of Fourth Street School were like an experimental team of KND. Sort of like the Named Daleks from the recent Doctor Who - left on their own to create new methods of dealing with adults.

Quite often the back-up feature on a show is funnier than the main character's portion, a syndrome we call "B-Side-itis" in our home. Dial M for Monkey was regularly superior to Dexter''s Lab, and Super Secret Secret Squirrel regularly kicked 2 Stupid Dogs' ass. I.M. Weasel was the always the funnier part of Cow & Chicken, and when Billy and Mandy was first on, we found Evil Con Carne to be the better part of that show. But B&M found its stride a couple seasons in and it's now a favorite in the household.

Steve, I'd love to see an interview with the folks behind the new Nick cartoon El Tigre. The spanish/Mexican art style is becoming quite popular (and with El Santo coming this fall, that'll just get more so) and I'd like to hear what they think of the explosion. (And yet ironnically, Eddie and Lili, the folks who started it off with Mucha Lucha can't get arrested)

[SeamusMcClernan]

.....Fred Fredburger.


Sorry, Cheese is Nº 1!

[Scavenger]

The Grim Adventures of The Kids Next Door....

Oh good...I thought I might have missed this!

[sfritz]

Originally Posted by Doc Nero

One of the episodes of GBM (cant remember which one) has a computer screen which mentions that GBM started out as an internet cartoon.

Anyone know anything about that?

No history on that. As Atoms states, B&M started as a college project when he was at the Philadelphia Inst. of the Arts. No word on an internet version. -s

[Wellness]

I love Billy & Mandy, despite hating the pilot episode and most of the Good vs. Evil episodes. I found the episodes of GBM to be some of the few saving graces of CN, along with Foster's.