Here atDen of Geek, were big fans of NickelodeonsTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtlescartoon.
How long have you been working onTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
I started pitching the show in early October.
I think I had my official meeting where they liked my pitch October 22nd, 2009.
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So thats just over 5 years.
When you approach it do you know youre making that size of a commitment?
I hoped I was.
You mean back when I first started?
Yeah, I had hoped to.
Its a hard way to plan your life, you know?
Its not very healthy.
So this has been great for me.
Its been very hard but at the same time its been very gratifying and rewarding.
Its kind of amazing.
What do you do?
Just because you have the title Executive Producer doesnt pigeonhole you into one punch in of job.
Theres all kinds of Executive Producers.
Theres ones that strictly want to write, theres ones that just dont even show up for work.
(laughs)
What I do is, Im drawing a lot of the concepts and supervising.
Im also Supervising Director so Im supervising all of the storyboards.
Right from that point I start doing doodles, how to design the sets and all that.
And then I do the last drawing at the very end.
Thats how I put them to sleep.
For me, regardless of how busy I get I always make time to do that last drawing.
So for me its like a coffin nail, its like goodbye.
Its my peace I can make with each show.
I really enjoy doing those.
How many of those are drawn at 2 or 3am?
Like, all of them.
Sometimes I get em done like a week early, though.
You know when theyre done late?
Its when theres special effects.
So its his fault.
Yeah, its his fault.
But its worth it, you know?
Theyre so hand made.
So, season three.
At this point youve already had more than 50 episodes, so thats a lot of stories.
There were already, what, four hundred episodes of variousNinja Turtlesbefore you guys came along.
There are hundreds of comics, six movies.
How difficult is it to come up with original stories?
Its never hard to come up with original stories.
The only hard thing about coming up with these shows is how do we do it with our budget?
Because having it be produced as CG becomes quite problematic.
But from a story standpoint, Brandon is brilliant and he has a very fertile imagination.
If hes ever at a loss, you throw us in a room and we can springboard anything.
Weve been working together so long that we share the same imagination.
Its kind of great that way.
I could probably knock out a hundred and thirty of these before I start to get bored.
Another of your frequent collaborators in Greg Cipes.
I dont so much have a question about him, but he is a dude.
Yeah, he definitely abides.
Cipes is kind of amazing.
He was always Michelangelo to me.
It was always Cipes.
Hes been in almost all of my shows.
I forget what he was doing at the time, he was really busy.
I think he was doing more on camera stuff during that period.
But hes always my hero.
And hes always dating Ashley Johnson in cartoons.
Season 3 you have Bebop and Rocksteady appearing.
I think thats out there, right?
Yeah, thats out there.
Its always the toys, isnt it?
Theyll find Toys R Us SKU numbers.
Youre only hurting yourself.
(laughs)
Weve had to crack down on it a little bit.
I think weve been a lot better about it since we had a couple of missteps.
But theres so many international partners sometimes stuff comes out by accident.
They do it a lot toAvatar, too.
Its kind of terrible.
Bebop and Rocksteady are characters that people have been asking after since the show relaunched.
And I wanted the beginning to be more about ninjas, you know, and stuff like that.
And I was waiting for Brandon, too.
Is that something youre consciously exploring?
If you go back even toStar Wars, thats always a big thing, right?
So its nice to play with that.
Theres some really basic stuff, too.
But the Shredder thing on the flipside of that is really crazy, too.
Thats been a lot of fun, just exploring that with Karai.
But when you have a show with Teenage in the title you kind of need that us versus them.
I think every kid can relate to that.
You guys have a really good balance, I think, in bringing back characters and introducing new ones.
Are there still characters that youre looking to bring in that we might be familiar with?
Yeah, for sure.
Some of its not.
(collective laugh)
So were not gonna get Ray Fillet?!?
Im not sure about Ray Fillet, but you know youve got Monty Moose?
Some of those guys are a little odd.
Whos the why am I spacing out?
I know who you mean.
(Ive looked it up since its Halfcourt!)
But therere guys who are really cool, though.
Like Antrax, Scumbug.
Theres some really good, cool guys, you know?
Muckman, I love.
You guys have aMuckmanposter in Mikeys room that makes me so happy.
I liked that you had theAce Duckthing recently.
Yeah, I dont know if well ever do a show about Ace Duck.
But we had to serve them all a little bit here and there.
Theres some really good stuff coming up in season 3.
You guys have a lot of horror in the show.
I imagine for kids it can be quite scary.
Im obviously not afraid as an adult, except for a little bit.
I dont think about it so much.
The thing that Ive gotten from adults who are parents is that they watch this show with their children.
I think this idea of family horror, its really bonding.
I grew up watching horror films with my family and I was never really scared.
Now, every kids different, so I dont know.
CGs been great in letting that play.
I bet you cant draw something that scares me.
And hes kind of right; its hard to draw something scary.
Lots of great John Carpenter moments.
But season 3, its heavy horror, the beginning of it.
I really enjoyed the Pizzaface episode.
I think thats my favourite one.
The pizza zombies look like the creature fromThe House by the Cemetery.
Oh my god, I cant believe you just said that.
I cant believe you pulled that out.
Yeah, Im a big Fulci fan.
I like Fulci too.
And the music in that one is awesome.
Its by Fabio Frizzi and I love Fabio Frizzi.
and Ill say Here, take this and itll be the vinyl soundtrack forPhenomena.
Hell call me up This musics amazing!
and Ill be like Okay, heresEl Topo.
I think music makes the show.
But yeah, I love horror soundtracks, too.
I love Death Waltz.
Do you know Death Waltz?
Yeah, the vinyl company?
Those guys are great.
How can you tell something like that is gonna play well?
Some of it was, well, a lot of it is Cipes, right?
Cipes delivery for that as Mikey is phenomenal.
We were just cracking up in the room.
And I would look over at him and hed say Buzz buzz.
As soon as Cipes got it he ran with it and it became so magical.
And now its going to be an action figure!
