Mark: First, I
want to thank both of you for taking the time to chat with me for a little
bit. Your fans and our readers appreciate it. Let’s get started with an
easy one. When can fans catch the all new special?
Seth: November
16th is when it will premiere.
And is that in
the US Only?
Seth: I believe
so. It will air outside of the county. We just don’t have any of those
outlets or dates yet.
Matt: That’s not
to say Adult Swim won’t have them.
There have been
some rumors about the title. We have it listed as Robot Chicken: Star Wars
Episode II and other sites list it as 'Robot Chicken: Star Wars' Attack of
the Sequel - 'Episode II'. Can you let us know it's correct title?
Seth: Robot
Chicken: Star Wars Episode II is correct.
Lucasfilm has
been known to employ a rigorous approval process before officially
sanctioning anything related to Star Wars. Reporting in the Collectibles
field, we always hear about what can and can't be done. Can you walk us
through the approval process with Lucasfilm regarding the new special? Was
it easier since this was your second time doing it or was it just as
rigorous?
Matt: It was a
lot easier this time because we knew from our first special what we could
and could not get away with.
Seth: Also, they
had a clear understanding of what it would look like when we did what we
did. Hearing about something, or hypothesizing about it or reading it,
verses actually seeing the execution of it. I feel we proved to them that
we love the brand and the jokes that we are making and we both gained a
lot of comfort and trust from the last experience.
So the process
was still there, it just wasn’t as in depth as it was last time.
Matt: We are
probably more critical about what goes in, then they are.
What kind of
compromises had to be made-either on your end or Lucasfilm's end to make
everyone happy?
Seth: It was
such limited exclusions. The one thing we talked about doing was an
opening crawl and we opted against it because we have better cold open.
You’ll see the cold open and it’s awesome. I’m really excited about it.
From early
reports you guys have said this one will be focused more on bounty
hunters, can you let us know a little more about?
Seth: Let me be
clear here. The format is still the same where you’ve got long form
sketches and short form channel flips, what we did was, we have a linear
story so there is story that continues from beginning to end that is
broken up with several channel flips that jump all over the cannon, all
over the timeline.
Matt: The way I
like to say it is that there are something like 25 to 30 sketches in it
and I would say about 10 of them…
Seth: …6 or 8.
Matt: All tie in
to the bounty hunters and a linear story that will jump back and forth.
In addition to
Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams and Ahmed Best, are any other actors
from the Star Wars Movies lending a voice this time around?
Matt: Fisher
like you said, Billy Dee plays pretty prominently. Especially in the
second half of this special. And Best does reprise his role for us as Jar
Jar.
Is Lucas playing
a part this time around?
Matt: You know
he…
(Laughter)
Matt: He’s not
this time, we didn’t have a sketch for him really.
(Laughter)
The first
special was around 22-minutes, can we expect the same this time or is it
longer/shorter?
Seth: Yes. 22
Minutes. It’s more new material. In the first special, we re-used some
sketches that had previously aired like the Emperor phone call and with
the exception of one less than 2 minute sketch that we are re-purposing,
everything is completely original.
Matt: And it
actually factors in, we are re-purposing that dinner sequence that we
played in our third season.
Seth: Because it
plays into the bounty hunter timeline.
A fan favorite
last time around that wasn't in the show was the promo with George Lucas
at his therapist discussing his hatred for The Holiday Special and he has
now made the same mistake with letting Robot Chicken do Star Wars. Any new
promos planned with George this time and will he have a part in this one
like the first?
Seth: Nothing
that is unique like that. We had a little more time with the organization
and promotion of the first special to film new content.
Matt: This one
we cut 4 new trailers that will start to air.
Seth: They are
cut from material in the show. We are doing them sort of like cinematic
teasers for the special.
So the content
in the teasers is actually content from the special.
Matt and Seth:
Yes.
Matt: Each of
the four teasers will focus on a different character.
One of the
things that we talked about in the chat rooms and forums after the last
special was the little details you guys always toss in, like how both of
you seemed to immortalize yourself by inserting your names on the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial (as well as other involved with the show), was that
something that was discussed in a big meeting or did you two sneak that in
so that some of the crew was just as surprised as the fans were?
(Laughter)
Seth: We do
stuff like that all the time. One of my favorite things about stop motion
is because it’s photographs, actual elements. We will sneak in pictures of
cast and crew members or pets or babies. Fun stuff in all the background
of sketches. We like to say that our show is really DVD pause dense. If
you watch the show on DVD you can pause every frame and see jokes in the
margins.
So we can look
forward to doing a lot of that with this new special?
Seth: Every
frame is so dense.
Matt:
(Laughter)
Seth: Let me say
this, we are huge fans of Star Wars and we feel the fans of Star Wars. You
have to know that this is a show by fans for fans.
I think a big
part of the success of the show is how on-hands you are with the fans and
how open you are to speak about the show at the Comic Con conventions,
doing press with fan sites such as ours, and not being afraid to get out
there with the fans and actually interact and know the same inside jokes
that most of us do, and that it really is a passion for you guys as much
as it is a job.
Matt: I think,
if you don’t get it, like the Billy Dee Williams joke...
Seth: Every
single joke we make on the show is meant to be accessible
Have you been in any talks about a possible third special?
Matt: We are so
focused on this one right now. I am sure we will talk about a third one as
soon as this one is out and the DVD is finished.
Seth: Right now we are concentrated on the work at hand.
Understandable, especially with the lengths it takes to
bring the stop motion from start to finish.
Seth: This is a specifically difficult project to make.
Matt: We always like to joke that George teases us about
doing…
Seth: I put him on the spot. He said maybe you guys will do
a continued series out of this and I said I would like to do 2 sequels and
3 prequels.
Matt: To which he smiled and seemed to agree.
That’s pretty cool that you can even joke like that with
him. Is that something you have build over the last few years?
Seth: It’s been a remarkable thing over the last several
years we had occasion to meet him socially and actually get to work with
him and the company in the last couple of years has been an pretty
incredible experience.
He is such a profound influence on both of us both
creatively and as a businessman. Just what he has built and what he has
accomplished and how he deals with it all, that is all very impressive and
informative. Getting to form even the most superficial of relationships is
an incredible treat.
Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me today,
we really appreciate it and can’t wait to see it!
Seth: And we can’t wait to show it! Honestly, I don’t want
to seem overconfident but I just feel that everyone who worked on this
production was swinging for the fences from the writing, to the effects,
to the mixing. Everyone was just working really, really hard and I think
this special is better than the first one and I can’t wait for people to
see it.
Here is what I have been saying about the first special
verses the second special. In the first special we were so stunned to have
the opportunity that we threw in every nerd and water cooler conversation
from the last 25 years, and that was the show that we made. All of those
intellectual hypothesize about the universe and when we were presented
with the opportunity to make second one, we really said alright guys here
is our chance to play with Star Wars, what do we want to do.
So we tried a little bit more of a storytelling approach
and just kind of got inside some of the characters that we were fascinated
by. And just tried to expand on it. I am thrilled with the result and I
really can’t wait for you guys to see it.
Matt: The best thing about this second one also is the fact
that we knew the voices coming in and what they were capable of and what
kind of performances we could get from them. Seth McFarlane as the Emperor
he developed into his own unique character. Breckin Meyer as Boba Fett has
developed as his own character.
Seth: Abraham Benrubi as Darth Vader, it’s like he invested
a persona to Darth Vader that is different than what you see in the films
and yet completely in keeping with everything you know about him.
Matt: It’s kind of a “what if” reality world of Star Wars.
We wish you all the best, keep it up and Thanks Again!
Matt and Seth: Thank You again very much, we’ll talk to you
soon.