ANIMATED SHORTS: GREG WEISMAN, II

[MattBrady]

GREG WEISMAN – SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN
ON COHORTS & FELLOW CONSPIRATORS

by Steve Fritz

In yesterday’s interview, Spectacular Spider-Man supervising producer Greg Weisman talked with us about getting the show off the ground, what sources he used and his own opinions about what makes a good Spider-Man. Of course, anyone with the slightest knowledge of animation knows it isn’t done alone. This time Weisman sings the praises of his cohorts and co-conspirators on the series, and a little more at that.

Here’s what he had to say in this concluding half of our interview:

Newsarama: How is it working with [Supervising Director] Vic Cook?

Greg Weisman: We first worked together on Gargoyles. We partnered on a number things after that. We developed a lot of stuff together; nothing that sold. But when I was brought onto this show, and they asked me who I wanted as my partner, there was no hesitation. Vic was my first and only choice, and I was thrilled we were able to get him. It’s great working with Vic.

NRAMA: Besides your long friendship with Vic, what would you say are his particular strengths as a director?

GW: Vic and I share an eye to both the big picture and the small detail. Vic also has got a strong design sense and understands every aspect of the animation process, since he's been an animator himself.

NRAMA: What did he do for Gargoyles?

GW: He was a board artist back then. We were also on Atlantis, the show that was pulled and turned into Milo’s Return. On that show I was the voice director and story editor. We both worked for Tad Stones on that show.

NRAMA: I interviewed Dave Bullock (Justice League: The New Frontier) recently, and he said that he was working on an episode. What's he doing?

GW: Dave is directing four episodes this season, including the episode airing this Saturday (March 15), "Natural Selection," which introduces Lizard. He's an incredibly talented guy and he did great work on the series.

NRAMA Is there any other crew that you are particularly pleased to have working with you?

GW: Pretty much everyone on the crew is an all-star. I've got a phenomenal writing staff, the amazing Jamie Thomason as our voice director, we're blessed with great directors, and, of course, we've got character designer Sean Galloway. Our background guys Vince Toyama and Kenny McGill are outstanding and then I'm fortunate to have Randy Jandt and Kevin Hopps, my right and left-hand men.

NRAMA: You know, it was amazing to me to look at the Atlantis TV show and look at the talent involved. I mean we’re talking Tad Stones, Mike Mignola, Hopps, Cook, yourself. Even the voice cast was pretty amazing, and Disney did not have the foresight to go with it.

GW: This is just my opinion but if we had managed to hold out six or so months later after Disney bought Fox Family and turned it into ABC Family, and they so desperately needed programming, it would have been very different. The timing on Atlantis was just as bad as it could be. It’s a damn shame as there was so much great material being done. Milo’s Return just barely scratches the surface of what the show was going to be.

NRAMA: I still say it could have been a hell of a show.

GW: It WAS a hell of a show. It’s just they pulled the plug on it.

NRAMA: I've got to say, with this show it looks like you are getting a ton of promotional support. How does it feel to have that kind of backing?

GW: It feels great. I don’t deny there is a double edge to that. Obviously, this isn’t one that is going to sneak under the radar. That’s a great thing but it’s a little scary. We got a lot of people looking over its shoulder.

I mean the response from WonderCon was terrific. Prior to WonderCon people were saying people who hadn’t seen anything were saying it was a bad idea, we shouldn’t be doing it. All I could say was at least look at it before coming to a judgment. There was a lot of second and third guessing going on, which was tough enough.

The other thing is when you’re reading on the net and you’ve read one person saying ‘I just worry they are going to do this’ and then the next person acting like it is going to happen. It wasn’t right with the first post. Then you get this whole argument about whether we should be doing it, and we never said we were doing it. They go off on these riffs and those are really scary.

I’m probably being a little overconfident, but I think once it goes on the air, that people actually see it as opposed to guess about it, they’re going to be happy. I mean everyone can find something to pick on, but I can’t see any real Spider-Man fan not being pretty damn happy with what we’ve done.

NRAMA: Production-wise, it looks like you went more traditional with pencil, pen and ink. Was there any scanning for the show?

GW: We have some vehicles that are CG, and most of the work is toon shaded, but otherwise all the animation is traditionally animated. Yes, the coloring is done by computer, but other than a helicopter here or an ambulance there, the drawing is all by hand. Lots of pencil mileage.

NRAMA: That’s nice. I personally believe there’s still lots you can do with pen and ink.

GW: I agree. I’ve worked in both and am a great fan of both, but I think you have to know the place and the strength of using one over the other. For us there wasn’t much doubt that Spider-Man works in 2-D. We’re loving what we’re seeing. We really are. Maybe we’re kidding ourselves but we’ll find out on Saturday. Then again, I’ve been in this business long enough to know the difference between.

NRAMA: Did you have much involvement in the voice casting?

GW: Oh yeah! Vic and I divide the tasks. I’m in charge of the writing and the voice. He’s in charge of the visuals. We do the post together. We also both kibbutz on each other’s stuff. But Jamie Thomas, who is our voice director, and I easily did about 2,000 auditions.

NRAMA: What made you settle on Josh Keaton?

GW: He just was right. A lot of people wanted to be on the decision of who would play Spider-Man, and I’ll admit I went into the meeting making these decisions ready for a fight. I mean Jamie and I both agreed that Josh Keaton was the best for the job. So I was ready to fight for him.

So we had 11 roles to cast and we started with Peter/Spidey. When they asked who did I liked for the role and I said Josh, they said that’s what they thought, too, all around the room. I think when you get that kind of consensus coming from all points of view saying Josh is the guy, well Josh must be the guy. I think it’s been proven true, too. It took less than one episode to prove that Josh is Spider-Man. Also, Josh is Peter Parker.

What’s important is he’s playing a 16 year-old kid and when he’s Spider-Man he’s acting like he’s not a 16 year-old kid. He wants the world at large not to know that Spider-Man is not a teenager. He wants the public to assume Spider-Man is a man. He plays both aspects of the character wonderfully.

NRAMA: From what I understand, it looks pretty secure you’ll go on to a second season.

GW: That’s right. We’re way into making the second season. There will be at least 26 episodes and I’m hoping to do this until I die.

NRAMA: What about with the whole transition at Kids WB and 4 Kids?

GW: I don’t have an answer for that. With the Kids WB going away, I know we’re talking to the CW and 4 Kids, as well as all the obvious suspects; Cartoon Network, Jetix, you know who. I know I probably should be more worried about it, but the truth is I don’t have that much to do about it. I also think someone is going to want to put this show on the air. So I’m not really that worried about it.

All I know is right now we’re posting our first 13 and in pre-production on our second which, by the way, is brutal. I’m tired. I’m very, very tired!

WARNER HOME VIDEO ON JUDAS CONTRACT

One quick news bit that couldn’t wait - one of our best sources at Warner Bros. Home Video has been reading. They wanted you all to know the following about the planned Direct-to-DVD release of Teen Titans: Judas Contract.

“Teen Titans: Judas Contract is one of a number of stories in development within the DC Universe Animated Original Movie series,” said our source. “We'll be announcing future plans as titles begin production over the next few years.”

So kids, be patient. You dream shot of Terra in a nightie might still happen.

NEXT COLUMN: We take a gander at the latest version of Horton Hears A Who…Tomorrow..

[Tom Daylight]

That's a pretty good looking Lizard!

[Cicero]

I made this mistake of watching this cartoon (which I was moderately enjoying) while looking up some information on X-Men: The Animated Series. One theme tune later, and a bright new cartoon was spoiled for me.

::sad and chagrined::

[Shinlyle]

I just hope the other 11 episodes are as good as the first 2! They actually rocked!

[BUMP]

Originally Posted by Cicero

I made this mistake of watching this cartoon (which I was moderately enjoying) while looking up some information on X-Men: The Animated Series. One theme tune later, and a bright new cartoon was spoiled for me.

::sad and chagrined::

Don't get your comment. I thought the theme was actually fairly decent. It's no '60s Spider-Man does whatever a spider can, but entertaining none the less.

Good show, and perfect for the new gen of young Spidey viewers.

[funjoe]

Originally Posted by BUMP

Don't get your comment. I thought the theme was actually fairly decent. It's no '60s Spider-Man does whatever a spider can, but entertaining none the less.

Good show, and perfect for the new gen of young Spidey viewers.

I don't get it either. He was enjoying the show, then he wasn't? huh?

Anyway, I agree that the first two episodes were very well done. Obviously geared towards kids (my 7 year old niece was transfixed and stressing out as Electro was going off) but I enjoyed it as well. I like how they're handling the characters, the action scenes are great, and there are some genuinely funny moments (a must for anything with Spider-Man, in my opinion).

[darylwing1]

Very happy to here that they are still planing on doing the Judas contract

[Question86]

I thought the faux-anime Titans did the Judas Contract fairly well. Sure they changed the source material quite a bit, but it kept the basic concept. I didnt expect Terra to be in the toon at all. Considering it takes place during the Wolfman/Perez era

[Spaz_Monkey]

I talked to a couple of the DC/WB animation people at WonderCon, asking about Judas Contract.The both told me the same thing when i asked if we'd ever see it --

At cons, everyone wants to see Titans. Everyone else who has any comment at all asks for Superman & Batman. And those people FAR outnumber the people who ask for The Judas Contract.

So if you want to see Wolfman & Perez's tale come to DVD the right way, make your voices heard!