Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Paul Dini's got the coolest friends.
A little over a week ago, Dini invited me to stop by Warner Bros. Animation for lunch. They're in offices that are part of the newly-redeveloped Sherman Oaks Galleria complex, and there's a PF Chang's, a Cheesecake Factory, and a few other options right there for the animators to enjoy every afternoon. Before lunch, though, Paul asked me if I'd like to see what he was working on.
"This isn't mine, though," he said to me as we walked through the offices, past display cases full of Hannah-Barbera memorabilia. "This show came out of these two other guys. I'm just here because it sounds like fun. I want to make sure you don't call this a Paul Dini show, because that's not really true." In a town where people are constantly fighting over credit and nitpicking and arbitrating each other to death, Paul's attitude is a welcome surprise. I think he just genuinely loves working with Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone, the animators who are responsible for the possibility of a new animated series based on the Chuck Jones classic cartoon, "Duck Dodgers In The 24th ½ Century".
Can't say as I blame him. When we walked into their offices, they weren't there, but the walls and tables were lined with artwork, all of it part of their attempt to flesh out the world of that cartoon into something that could give them enough room for an entire series. There's Daffy, and there's Porky as his faithful cadet, and there's Marvin, everyone's favorite Martian. There's new characters, too, like the Queen of Mars and Dr. I.Q. High, but they're rendered in a style that complements, rather than contradicts, the style of the original short. All of Ted Blackman's design paintings for the world itself suggest the magnificent work of Maurice Noble, expanding on his ideas while honoring them.
When Spike and Tony came back to their office, I got a real treat. They sat down and walked me through the storyboards for the entire first episode, performing the character voices just like they would in any story pitch meeting. Even as a series of still drawings, the episode made me laugh very hard, consistently. Thanks to the ego of Duck Dodgers, he and his cadet end up stranded in deep space with a burnt-out power core. They spend years adrift before running across Marvin's ship. Duck Dodgers hatches a plan to distract Marvin long enough to steal his power core, and any fan of classic WB animation will be delighted to know that, yes, they manage to put the pig in a dress right away. If Bugs Bunny and his brethren have taught me anything over the years, it's that drag is funny. Billy Wilder knew it. Tom Hanks and Dustin Hoffman knew it. And Porky Pig certainly seems to know it. I was weeping as Daffy tried to convince Porky that he was a "hot pertater" in his dress, and I laughed even harder once Porky got carried away with the idea.
Harry and I have always disagreed over which Daffy Duck is the best of the bunch. He changed over the years as different directors worked with him. Harry's a fan of the early Daffy, the wild animal who bounced wildly around the room going "HOO-HOO!" There's a certain Harpo Marx charm to him in that incarnation, but for my money, it's the "happy miser" Daffy, the pompous windbag of "Duck Amuck," with his tragic case of pronoun trouble once Rabbit Season arrives that makes me laugh the hardest. There's something delicious about deflating Daffy, and Spike and Tony have tapped into that perfectly. There's no doubt whose influence looms largest on this project, and there was a sad irony that I was seeing this work less than a week after the death of the legendary Chuck Jones. Spike and Tony and Paul were actually working on Warner's tribute ad for the trades when I was there visiting that day, a sprawling calvacade of Chuck Jones characters designed to run across two pages. I was sorry Warner didn't want to use Paul's inscription, the fitting "Sooooper-Genius," on the ad, but the artwork said it all. Chuck's characters had life spilling out of them, and that same life appears to be present in this new extension of his work.
One of the best things about the way they're using Marvin and Daffy is that they're in the wrong roles. Daffy's the "hero" of the piece, but he's arrogant, vain, ego-driven, and never does anything right. Marvin's our "villain," but he's nice, sweet, and generally helpful whenever he can be. I love that they also brought back the Instant Martians, but they redesigned them a bit, souping them up and making them more robotic so that they can be blown apart in action scenes with impunity.
All of this got started when Spike and Tony worked with Dean Wellins (an animator who's now over at Disney) to create a trailer for a DUCK DODGERS movie. It's beautiful stuff, showing Daffy as he accidentally gets launched into space and frozen in a piece of orbiting junk. It's not until hundreds of years later that Dr. I.Q. High finds Daffy and thaws him out. Everyone thinks Duck Dodgers is some sort of hero, and he does nothing to correct their impression. He goes to work for the Galactic Protectorate, and the film version had him on one great adventure, somehow succeeding despite himself. When Cartoon Network saw the trailer, years after Warner Bros. Feature Animation passed on the idea, they immediately said, "Make us a show like that." At this point, it's been in development in one form or another for almost four years, and it deserves to find a place on Cartoon Network's line-up this coming fall.
Eventually, after much talk about favorite cartoons and favorite animators and common influences, Paul and I left for lunch, and Tony and Spike ran off to some meeting. I wish them well with their efforts on the show for one main reason: I really, really want to see it. I also thank them for the sneak peek. Pretty cool, guys.
"Moriarty" out.
