Dan Harmon made his return to the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, though not to promote his return to Community, but rather his new series, Rick and Morty. Created with Justin Roiland, Rick and Morty is an upcoming animated series for Adult Swim with a Doc and Marty-like teenage boy/crazy scientist duo going on amazing adventures together.
When an early question asked how working in animation differed from live-action. Harmon was quick to deadpan, “You can make a banana purple. You can put three hats on a cowboy.” But while he and Roiland said it was great to not be able to put in any sort of world they imagined, Harmon noted some of the limitations were still similar – and that doing a big explosion in animation can be time consuming and pricy just as it can in live-action.
While Back to the Future informed the initial character set-up, Harmon noted there was also the influence of “British sci-fi I grew up reading,” including The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Harmon also said Doctor Who was certainly an influence on Rick and Morty.
Harmon certainly had high praise for Adult Swim’s Mike Lazzo, calling him “a bona fide actual genius, especially in the world of network executives.” He said he admired Lazzo for being able to “Take a script and see it as a document and give you his reaction as an individual.” Harmon noted while Lazzo will explain when a script may have felt muddled to him or lost the story thread, “He never says ‘I don’t think people are going to like this.’ He never considers it. He never branches out into the business of speculating about this biomass for which we are creating it, this opiate. You know, he never goes, ‘People are going to respond this way when this happens.’ And he also never confuses the script for the finished product.’” Harmon couldn’t resist adding, “On the NBC side, it’s even better!”
More seriously though, despite his conflicts in the past, Harmon said he felt that when it came to both Sony and NBC and their interaction on Community, “In general, relative to other networks and studios, they were incredibly permissive. I think NBC knew it was in the business of critical darlings and was always encouraging me early on, like, yeah, go crazy. And Sony has always been in the business of syndication and, you know, wants this show to succeed.”
Roiland said he loved working with Harmon, describing him as “A talented, genius writer, who writes some of the best dialogue that I’ve ever read, and I think that’s more important to Hollywood than anything else.”
A veteran in animation (he voices characters on Gravity Falls, Adventure Time and other series), Roiland described Rick and Morty as “Little mini movies” filled with “homages to various sci-fi tropes.” While the duo at the center (Roiland voices both characters, with Chris Parnell and Sarah Chalke as Morty’s parents) will often be traveling, Roiland explained, “It’s not always Rick and Morty going somewhere,” with some episodes about what happens when Rick’s latest sci-fi device is introduced into the home.
He went on to say that Rick and Morty was “Very ambitious for an animated show,” with very little re-use of elements to be used as a cost-cutting measure.
On the show, Rick and Morty’s adventures and how bigger than life they get aren’t kept a secret, which Roiland said was by design. Harmon said he felt that as long as the emotions in a scene rang true, you could get away with any kind of scenario. He used the example of how someone reacts when something is taken from them, saying, “It doesn’t matter if the thing that was taken from them is a talking banana and was taken from them at laser gun point,” as long as they act realistically distraught that the thing was taken at all.
Circling back to Community, Harmon spoke about what it was that caused him to say yes to coming back to the series. He explained it thusly – If he hadn’t come back, “The worst case scenario is 30 years of wondering what would have happened if I had gone back. If I go back, the worst case scenario is one sh**ty season. Who cares?”
Harmon was asked if he’d be up for doing another series with the major networks, once Community is over, given the constraints he might find working in that scenario. He replied, “The constraints you’re describing are the same as iambic pentameter, are the same as haiku or the same as the constraints that come with a different way to reach an audience. I grew up on network sitcoms. If those are gone when I’m 65 years old I would never forgive myself for not stepping up to that plate as often as possible.”
Rick and Morty premieres in December on Adult Swim. Community: Season 5 will debut midseason on NBC.
Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar