TV Animation roundtable panel: ‘#1 Happy Family USA,' ‘Secret Level,' and ‘Arcane'
The films of Disney, Pixar, and a cult-classic anthology film were brought up as defining pieces of animation when Gold Derby assembled artists behind three animated programs that are eyeing to score Emmy nominations next month. The types of stories they want to see told through animation and what episodes they might want to submit for Emmy consideration were also topics of discussion for our Meet the Experts: TV Animation panel. The panelists were #1 Happy Family USA cocreator and star Ramy Youssef, Secret Level creator Tim Miller, and Arcane writer Amanda Overton.
Watch the full roundtable panel above. Click each person's name to watch an individual interview.
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'Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games
'#1 Happy Family USA' co-creator Ramy Youssef reveals how animation was the perfect way to capture the middle school experience
Overton remembers loving The Little Mermaid when that came out but had a huge revelation when she saw Beauty and the Beast and how the film added 3D elements to its 2D animation style. 'When they started doing those, they just felt so immersive to me and I felt like I was being sucked into the world. And then when I saw Toy Story for the first time, I was like, oh my God, this is gonna change everything.'
Miller remembers watching Speed Racer and Ultraman as a kid but it was an infamous sci-fi/fantasy cult classic that made him see a path for himself in the medium. 'I guess Heavy Metal really made probably the biggest single effect because I would go with my friends at midnight movies and for the first time I wanted to be an animator and I realized I didn't have to do things that were for kids. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that I felt like maybe that wasn't my specialty.' He adds that he feels like he's seeing game-changing animation all the time now and specifically cited Arcane and joked that he was 'so sick of hearing people in pitches go, 'So, can you do something like Arcane?''
For Youssef, Disney and Pixar were highlights for him but the thing that really wowed him with animation was watching South Park (which he had to secretly watch since it was forbidden in his house) and being absolutely floored at what the show's characters would say. 'I can't believe they just said that! I mean, this is like the stuff that my uncle says at dinner and everyone tells him to be quiet and now you're watching these characters on Comedy Central saying it … and they're saying these things that are so loaded and I love the power of that and the subversiveness of that and just how insane it was.' This caused Miller to remember when someone first showed him a VHS tape of Trey Parker's short film The Spirit of Christmas.
This article and video are presented by Prime Video and Netflix.
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'Secret Level' creator Tim Miller explains how he gets writers to create short stories based on video and role-playing games
'#1 Happy Family USA' cocreator Ramy Youssef reveals how animation was the perfect way to capture the middle school experience
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