Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1529871
WINTER 2024 23 2021-Present WHAT IF…? What If …? is the first animated TV show in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which consists of numerous movies and TV series set in a shared universe. It explores "what if" alternative scenarios from various MCU films. 2025 YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDERMAN Despite producing decades worth of superhero TV series, "Marvel Animation does not have a 'house style,'" says Supervising Director Mel Zwyer. "The creative vision for this show, like all other Marvel animated shows, is to be as differ- ent from each other as possible." For this upcoming Spidey series, the artists leaned on visual styles heavily influenced by the company's Silver Age comics (1961-1970), but putting them in modern-day settings. "It was a challenge to find that balance between going too retro or not enough," says Zwyer. Using 2D cel-shaded 3D, he adds: "Our goal was to make a show that looked like a moving comic book." BOB RICHARDSON Back in the late 1970s, DePatie-Freleng got into the superhero game, bringing on Bob Richardson to help the company with Marvel projects to sell to networks. He worked on Spider-Woman, and when the studio shuttered, Stan Lee kept him in Marvel's Spidey world, as an Animation Director on Spider-Man and Animation Director and Series Director on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. Although Richardson went on to work for other studios, he maintained his relationship with Lee, who reached out to him in the early 1990s to produce and direct 65 episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and to develop a new Marvel studio, which would provide a degree of autonomy. "In previous versions of Spidey, we had been forced to add some pretty silly stuff that other networks thought kids would like," says Richardson, describing elements like a high-tech lab that a kid like Peter Parker could never afford. Advancing technology also had an effect on the series. "We were able in a limited way to have CGI flying scenes incorporated into the regular animation, which previously hadn't been done," Richardson says. "And final editing was done digitally, instead of splicing pieces of film together." Best of all, he adds: "We were able to do the series the real Marvel way, and Stan was really happy with it." Page 28: Film Roman and Marvel Animation. Page 29: Marvel, Marvel Studios and Marvel Animation.