Robot Chicken Producers talk toys, guests, and much more at NYCC

 

It has been said that you should never meet your heroes as not to destroy the mysticism behind the character they’ve created in your minds eye. Most od the time these actors and musicians are pompous, self-righteous assholes anyway, so why ruin it for yourself? But recently I got a chance to sit down at a roundtable discussion at New York Comic Con with Breckin Meyer and Matt Senreich from the wildly popular stop motion based show Robot Chicken to discuss the show and other general tomfoolery.  Having grown up in a household where cartoons were always on the TV as both a form of entertainment and a way to keep the kids corralled in one centralized location, I’ve seen and grown to love my fair share of claymation and stop motion specials. So when Robot Chicken dropped I was an instant fan. I can proudly state that I own all the DVDs, specials, and currently have the back catalog just clogging the hell out of my DVR. Am I a bit obsessive? Probably, but when I know what I like I can’t get enough. We were only given about ten minutes between the eight or so of us to ask questions, but I’d be damned if at least one of my questions didn’t get answered! Special shout out to Ya Boy (@Achilles_word) for sitting with me on this interview. You may just see his name pop up in some of the transcript as well! ::winky face::

So for those who aren’t too quick on the uptake, MS- denotes a line that was spoken by Matt Senreich and BM- is Breckin Meyer. Easy enough, right? So let’s drop a terrible pun and see how the conversation SPARKED, shall we?

How much drugs do you guys have to do to do a show like this?

“BM- Surprisingly not that much! MS- I was gonna say, probably of the main core I can only think of one that does a little bit. BM- It’s surprisingly a drug-free show. I think it’s the release of we’re getting to play with the characters, the toys; we don’t have to do the drugs. MS- I think it’s also the fact that a lot of us are very socially awkward; it gives them an outlet to project that. That’s probably what ends up happening. A$- So you’re really keeping people off drugs with your show? BM- That’s really what we do at Robot Chicken. MS- Although I understand, according to my twitter account, that a lot of our fans think we’re on drugs. BM- And some of our fans, it seems, don’t hate drugs.

Get it? Sparked? I figured if you’re reading about Robot Chicken that you’d be quick to pick up on the weed humor. Amateurs… Next the questioning took a bit of a turn towards the voice cast.

It seems like celebrities are beating down your door to get on the show.

“MS- First season was not that case. First season we were begging people, Seth was calling in every favor he had in Hollywood to get people on that first season. And then once it actually came out and people understood what our show was and saw the list of people we actually had do it, that’s when it turned around for us. We had, first season, the whole cast from Scooby-Doo, Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise. BM- Anyone who would work with Seth did it. MS- Ryan Seacrest did it and I’ll never forget it because it was the greatest line that he ever said he’s like ‘Look, I understand that I’m a tool and that it’s my job to be a tool, but I’m gonna be the best damn tool there is.’ BM- Mission accomplished. MS- I was so impressed because I really didn’t know what to think of you and now I love you, in a weird way, because you’re not my cup of tea on TV but that’s ok. You’re not for me.”

At least Seacrest has a good head on his shoulders, because I always pegged him as one of those pompous, self–righteous assholes from paragraph one. The questioning then took a turn towards the future…

This season, who can we expect?

 “MS- Um, we got George R. R. Martin. BM- I was gonna say, speaking of people who come to the show and it’s gotten so big, in a good way, that sometimes the people coming in don’t know what the show is. Their reps have told them ‘Go do it. It’s a kid thing. They got a big kid audience and all this.’ George R. R. Martin shows up, captain hat and all, and we’re like ‘Do you know what this is?’ and he all ‘Nope.’ Fuckin awesome.”

So clearly we can expect a Game Of Thrones sketch or three within next season. And then the roundtable shifted to me. All the years of watching the show and wondering had brought the world to this. I was standing at the edge of the volcano, the question I had loaded up was akin to The Ring from Lord Of The Rings. So I threw my question, as I assume they threw the ring in the moves. I don’t know. I don’t watch that shit. I turned to Breckin Meyer and spoke…

Boba Fett’s an iconic character that you’ve literally voiced to life. Is there any other stereotypically silent character that you would want to take on?

BM- This is a good question! I’m trying to think of the popular silent characters of our era. Um, no, honestly I think doing Boba, there’s certain characters on Robot Chicken that I get to do that this is really the only place that I’ll get to do it. You know, Superman, Jesus, and Boba Fett. Boba Fett, it’s one of everyone’s favorite characters. As a boy growing up, every boy is like ‘I wanna be Boba Fett.’ I don’t remember if I wrote the first Boba Fett sketch, but whenever the first Boba Fett sketch came down the pike it was like ‘No No, there’s not a question of who’s doing it, I will literally fight you people to get to do the voice. And it just became so much fun. It is, by far, my favorite role I’ve ever done, on screen or off screen. I have so much fun with that. I’m thinking of that red, evil robot from, what’s that, Black hole? MS- Oh my god! BM- It’s the only silent character I can think of now that I’d be like ‘Maybe I’d voice him.’ MS- Maximilion. Like that? BM- No, I don’t like that you know that. But yea, he’s kinda the end all, be all.”

BOOM! Take that 8^th grade guidance counselor! Who’s not going to amount to anything now?! I always knew that Meyer brought his A game when he was voicing Fett, but I never realized it was his fave character of all time. That’s friggin cool! My excitement was further piqued by the next question that came across the bow…

Has there been talks of doing a Marvel special?

 “BM- We can talk about it all day, it’s all we wanna do! MS- Yea we’ll do it if they say, again, the thing with specials that people don’t realize is that companies come to you. So George called up and was like ‘Wanna do a special?’ and we were like ‘Yea!’ and DC, Jeff Johns called up and said ‘Wanna do a special?’ and we were like ‘Yea!’ So if Marvel calls up and says ‘Wanna do a special?’ we’ll be like ‘Yea!’

So there ya have it, kids. Get out your notebooks and start writing letters to Marvel so we can get this ball rolling! With that question we were given the one-minute warning and it was time for the last question. I hope it’s a doozey!

Has there been any negative response from any celebrities from the show?

 “MS- Ya know, the only weird one, and I feel guilty for it, was Stevie Wonder. BM- What, did he watch the show? ::Audible groan from the table:: You guys know he’s blind. MS- His reps called up and said they didn’t like how he was portrayed. And it made us feel really bad. BM- And then we got over it super quick. MS- Na, we still fell the guilt. But the sketch still stays on the air. BM- What was the sketch? MS- It was ‘Blind Double Dare.’

Blind. Double Dare. Remember at the beginning of this when I said it was best not to meet your heroes? If anyone ever tells you that, they are blatantly lying to your face because that was fucking awesome! The new season seems to be shaping up great, so I suggest you begin to prepare because the laughter is on it’s way and if this was any indication as to how funny this season is going to be, I feel as if we are all grossly under prepared for what’s about to happen.

(@chefrichBB) can be seen writing his normal #WebsDay column here on Bubbleblabber or in your front bushes. But he’s slightly tougher to see and drastically more coherent in your bushes.

PS. (@Achilles_word) thinks he’s pretty hot to trot because he got his snapshot with Brooke Hogan at the China, Illinois panel. But let me tell ya this, Jack, Breckin Meyer and I are BFFL! And you can’t fucks with BFFL, ya heard!