Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1343869
IF YOU'VE EVER ROAD- TRIPPED THROUGH THE AMERICAN WEST, YOU'LL INSTANTLY RECOGNIZE MO'S OASIS CAFÉ. IT'S ONE OF THOSE OFF-THE- BEATEN-PATH JOINTS, SET BACK FROM THE HIGHWAY, SURROUNDED BY A FADED LANDSCAPE AND FREQUENTED BY A WES ANDERSON-MEETS- BUCKAROO BANZAI CAST OF REGULARS. SEEING IT ON YOUR TV SCREEN, YOU'LL FEEL CERTAIN YOU'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE—A NOSTALGIC SENSE OF FAMILIARITY THAT GIVES KID COSMIC ITS APPEAL. With the full season premiering globally on Netflix on February 2, Kid Cosmic is the latest 2D TV show from Craig McCracken, following a string of successes including The Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and Wander Over Yonder. The latter ended in 2016, and in the years following, McCracken developed a new show that is his most personal yet. While the concept began its fermentation process in McCracken's imagination in 2009—an odd kid in love with superheroes, living in the desert and hanging out at a truck stop—its influences date back to his childhood. They are rooted in reality (the death of his father when he was seven) and escapism (his love of comics). "When I was growing up," he says, "I was a big fan of Tintin. It was cartoony, but it felt like he was going on these real-world adventures. He was surrounded by broad, eccentric characters, but you could still see them as human beings." The problem in pitching his "odd kid" story back then was that McCracken could not envision Kid Cosmic as a typical cartoon with standalone episodes. It needed to be serialized, and networks weren't interested in doing that, he says, so he shelved it. Jump forward a few years. McCracken saw shows like Gravity Falls and Steven Universe, and realized the time might be right for his idea. He shared it with his friend Francisco Angones, who had worked as a writer and story editor on Wander Over Yonder, and his wife, fellow animator Lauren Faust. The threesome created a script and animatic. They pitched it to Netflix, and soon they were working on ten 22-minute episodes. According to Rob Renzetti, who has worked on all of McCracken's shows and serves as Co-Executive Producer on Kid Cosmic, "There's not one aspect of the show that has needed to be altered or compromised because of a 'note from the network.' Their notes are almost always on target and are never mandatory." The freedom that resulted can be seen in everything from the characters and the artwork to the soundtrack and the serialized storyline. McCracken explains, "[We're] telling a story about a character going through something, and turning out to be different at the end than they were at the beginning. That's something I've never been able to do in any of my shows, and it's been really exciting to be able to explore that." Images courtesy of Netflix. SPRING 2021 39