Comic-Con@Home: First Look at YOLO: Crystal Fantasy

Adult Swim welcomes new blood to it’s animated lineup, though this blood has quite a bit of vegemite in it. YOLO: Crystal Fantasy is Adult Swim’s first internationally produced comedy, coming from Australian animator Michael Cusack, likely best known at the moment for the Rick and Morty April Fool’s short, “Bushworld Adventures”, which put those characters in a land down under. That apparently was popular enough for Cusack to land his own series to show more of his unique comedy stylings, which has now had its first Comic-Con Panel. A shame about the timing, though he probably saved a ton on travel.

The panel was moderated by Zach White, an apparent fan of the show despite only seeing rough cuts, and brought together Cusack with Tod Manojlovic and Sarah Bishop, who play Rachel and Sarah on the show, respectively. Cusack got into the origins of the series, namely how Justin Roiland called him up, praising for his animation work on Youtube, and bringing him on to create what would become Bushworld Adventures. Mike Lazzo, then Senior VP of Adult Swim, enjoyed the short quite a bit and suggested that Cusack make a series like that with his own characters. From there, he got Manojlovic, a longtime friend from middle school and fellow comedian, and Bishop to voice the lead roles and the rest isn’t a knife, THIS is a knife. Okay, last Australia joke.

Short clips from future episodes were shown to give a taste for the show’s wacky, silly, and just plain weird style of comedy. Cusack went on to explain that a lot of this humor comes from a lot of nonsense he and his friends would joke about or make songs about, along with things from his life and Australian lore and inside jokes. This leads into Michael and Tod reuniting their old band to play the twenty second beach song from one of the clips and another song from a future episode. Zach White jokingly asks if Cusack would consider making a cinematic universe around his characters, though partly because they all give their own personalities that feel like they could all carry their own shows.

Crystal Fantasy premieres August 9th on Adult Swim, though the first episode is available on AdultSwim.com. Watch this panel on Comic-Con’s Youtube here.