Frank PaurToon Zone: Craig, how has Nicktoons been as a partner in doing Wolverine And The X-Men and Iron Man: Armored Adventures?
Craig Kyle: Nicktoons has been an amazing partner. Keith Dawkins has been incredibly supportive. The whole team is great, and I'm not just saying that. I'm someone who is very outspoken and I just don't BS about it. But they're someone who allowed us to bring the characters to the screen as they were meant to be. They are really allowing us to do our best work, and they're only there to support us. So its a very rare opportunity where our shows get to be shown the way they are meant to be and its a wonderful experience. There have been times in our past people have demanded that we change series to fit their demographic, thinking that their kids can't handle the comics and the characters as they were meant to be shown. It's just foolish -- look at a show like the '90's X-Men series which built the franchise. Without that, the larger populace wouldn't know that it could've been a film franchise and become what it is. So the short answer is that they are incredibly supportive, true partners in this, and we're thrilled to be at a home that does everything that they can to make sure people know where they can find this so I'm thrilled with the relationship.
TZ: Frank, I saw the trailer for the animated Planet Hulk movie. It looks very violent and intense--
FP: But its a really great story above all that, its a really great story. Everything else is just kind of flavor.
TZ: What studio did the animation for the movie?
FP: Well it was under the authority of Madhouse Productions, the same studio that did Hulk Vs.
You did Hulk Vs. before. You did Planet Hulk now, what is your obsession with green men?
FP: Well its big and its green, and he wears tight pants.
CK: I would also just say that Hulk is a much-loved character. He's just one of the greats. He just is with Spidey and X-Men and Thor and all those, but he's just someone that fans can not get enough of. And he's someone that rules don't apply to. I think that's part of his huge appeal. And all the films you talked about are different variations of what can appear to be a very simplistic character, but he's just now. And that's the fun, these allow us to show us the full range of Hulk, and Planet Hulk specifically is probably going to show you the complete Hulk experience that you can have.
FP: Its literally a Hulk you have never seen before in animation or feature. I mean we really do bring the Hulk -- since the Ultimates and Hulk Vs. we really have got the entire range of the Hulk. This is like you've never seen him before. You seen an evolution from monster into basically a man. When we see that he's intelligent when he's not in a rage, so its a very complex individual . . . The other shows were a lot of fun, but this is the first thinking Hulk that's ever been done. And I just had a lot of fun putting that together with these guys because it is a new thing -- so we're breaking new ground with animation. That's the catch in the big purple pants.
TZ: Hulk's voice sounded a little different than the usual veteran voice actor, Fred Tatasciore. Did you use a different voice actor for this feature since it is a different Hulk?
FP: Yeah, actually that's a good question. We were very specific about how Hulk should be Hulk. Fred is definitely the Hulk that we all know and love in these shows, but we also wanted to add another level of dimension to his personality -- we wanted to make sure that we show that the right way, to get the emotional response that we needed.
Obviously, in the comics, Planet Hulk led into World War Hulk, have you considered anything along those lines?
CK: I've said this repeatedly, but the fans are the ones that decide if there's a second and a third. When we approached it, we knew what a huge story it was . . . we had to look at a first chapter and see what was essential, what do we need to maintain to become a full and complete story. One that is so satisfying, hopefully, that people will want to step into the next chapter. But it can't be a cliffhanger. You can't let people feel like they've been given two thirds of a movie. It's just not fair to them. But Greg, you had a pack in that job, so how did you go about it?
Greg Johnson: Yeah it was a difficult chore actually to figure out which of the mini-story threads we needed to scale back on in order to give time to the Hulk and his journey. They are there. We are introduced to a lot of these characters. Some of their back stories are revealed, and a lot of these are resolved by the end of the movie, but a lot of them continue on to their own path if you want to continue on to part 2. But at the end of this, you feel like you've watched a movie that has ended, but with enough fuel there to ignite a sequel if you wanted
Was Greg Pak involved at all?
CK: He was. When we began the process initially, you know we were looking at those pages every day, you know visually we had to decide what would be the best to kind of translate this and even push the limits of what we could do in animation. Greg was looking for the best moments of what was going to be crucial, and at the end when we kind of decided where we landed with a draft of the script which was close to what we thought we could achieve, we wanted to see where Greg stood with our choices. And there were a lot of tough choices that had to be made. And he was great. He read the script and gave us a lot of great feedback, helped Greg with how to get a lot of the names--
GJ: Yeah. He actually knew how to pronounce a lot of the names. And you know we guessed it, and had our own versions in our head every time we read it that's usually different than the way they were intended.
TZ: The sales figures for a lot of the Lionsgate DVD releases have looked great. So has there been any interest in making a sequel to any of the prior projects, or will it stay at Ultimate Avengers 2 for now?
CK: When we started this, we decided to do 8 films, and I think we would immediately look at the films we already made to decide where our next ones come from. I think films like Planet Hulk will be supported. Doctor Strange was just the beginning of his journey, that could go on. All of these have potential to keep going, but if its what the fans want to see, that will help us make our next choices.
TZ: Deadpool movie.
CK: I think it's safe to say we all enjoy Deadpool, and a Deadpool Vs. would be fantastic. So as long as Frank does it -- but we'll see. Right now we don't have the plans for the 2, 8 whatever it will be. Once we round out these two, we'll have to decide what's next.
You're releasing a lot of the animation in conjunction with a lot of the features that are coming out. Is there anything you have in the comics or want to develop for a long time but you have to hold on to because of a potential live action picture coming out?
CK: Well yeah. If you look at our series like Avengers, that's well under way, and there's a good chance we'll have the bulk of that series finished before Avengers [the live action movie] hits. And we're doing that so the moment the film is over we can launch that series so we can support the fans that are going to be created by that film. So we're trying to get ahead of the curve right now because so often we're chasing the various franchises. Tales of Asgard is something people have been talking about for a while now, but we wanted to show people a glimpse of what's coming. So because we know what our film slate is, not everyone knows exactly what's on it, we're kind of able to plan on the animation front to how do we keep people talking about it? How do we keep the experience alive for the fans? So its very strategic and we do at times find ourselves holding things off just to make sure they're there when demand will be the highest.
Has there even been a time you've seen a live action feature and said our animation was better?
FP: Well, we're Marvel. Like I said, there's a lot of great work that's been done at Warner Bros., and a lot of people that worked over there, worked on our features. So there is that kind of cross-connection that they all love these characters. They love Marvel characters. They love DC characters. So you're going to get that in whatever show you watch. But I've always been a Marvel fan, and I've always been more inclined toward Marvel.
CK: When it comes to our own family business, I think Iron Man and Hulk were exceptional, so nothing I'm saying includes those two films, but yes there are things we [Marvel Animation] have done that have kicked the Hell out of other peoples' work.
TZ: Like Deadpool.
CK: I will not name names, I will not say anything specific, but I do believe we are very passionate, we have talented people, and there are times we have got things right that -- one of those they got it wrong -- and I'm always proud of those successes. I also understand how hard it is to do that job, so I don't necessarily look down at those who didn't quite hit the mark. But yeah, we kicked some ass in our time.
FP: I'm very happy with our writers. I'll put it that way.
Planet Hulk will be due out in 2010. Thor: Tales of Asgard is due for release in 2011. Iron Man: Armored Adventures and Wolverine And The X-Men are currently broadcast on Nicktoons which will also soon air the entire run of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes written by Craig and Greg.
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