The Cartoon Network green lit this pilot intending to include it in the Adult Swim lineup, based on optimistic estimates for cost and completion time. It wound up costing twice as much and taking much longer than expected to produce, resulting in the project being abandoned at that point. As a result, we only got this one glimpse of a series that might have been. But that one glimpse was glorious.
This was no basement production made on spec by college kids. Creator Aaron Springer assembled an all-star lineup of his buddies from Dexter's Lab to work on the pilot including that series' show runner Genndy Tartakovsky, who served as animation director. None of the technical gremlins that so often plague animation startups are visible here - framing, character sketches, background art etc. All have the professional look of a high end fantasy magazine such as Conan Saga. And the camerawork is superb, faux cinematically swinging slowly around to take in the detailed fantasy landscape in a way one rarely sees in 2-D animation. This is an impressive piece of animation.
Most importantly, this is a comedy and it succeeds beautifully. There is violence and splatter galore, way over the top, and all played for laughs, with a fast pace to keep things lively plus lots of silly dialogue to maintain the mock heroic tone. The script has plenty of surprises too.
This was a fun 22 minute adventure. We should have gotten many more, and might have had the suits at Cartoon Network not cheaped out.
This was no basement production made on spec by college kids. Creator Aaron Springer assembled an all-star lineup of his buddies from Dexter's Lab to work on the pilot including that series' show runner Genndy Tartakovsky, who served as animation director. None of the technical gremlins that so often plague animation startups are visible here - framing, character sketches, background art etc. All have the professional look of a high end fantasy magazine such as Conan Saga. And the camerawork is superb, faux cinematically swinging slowly around to take in the detailed fantasy landscape in a way one rarely sees in 2-D animation. This is an impressive piece of animation.
Most importantly, this is a comedy and it succeeds beautifully. There is violence and splatter galore, way over the top, and all played for laughs, with a fast pace to keep things lively plus lots of silly dialogue to maintain the mock heroic tone. The script has plenty of surprises too.
This was a fun 22 minute adventure. We should have gotten many more, and might have had the suits at Cartoon Network not cheaped out.