Latest news with #SuperTeamCanada
Toronto Star
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
Life advice: hilarious Kids in the Hall legend Kevin McDonald shares the best and worst advice he's gotten — and the beautiful moment he'd live in forever
The new thing: He plays a hapless world leader in 'Super Team Canada,' Crave's first original animated series, which follows the antics of a low-rent assortment of Canadian superheroes. McDonald says his character 'because I'm inept and I know nothing about politics … so I would say my character is exactly like me if I was prime minister: vain, afraid, doesn't know what he's doing. It's totally me.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cobie Smulders on 'Super Team Canada': 'Cool to be part of something that is made by Canadians, for Canadians'
Cobie Smulders has expanded her superhero experience, going from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to voicing the superhero Niagara Falls in the animated Crave series Super Team Canada. In the show Niagara Falls, described as the "mighty maiden of moisture," stops bad guys by controlling water. The 10-episode show, created by Emmy-winning brothers Robert Cohen (The Big Bang Theory) and Joel H. Cohen (The Simpsons), is about a team of six Canadian superheroes. Unlike what we see in the MCU, these superheroes are definitely not famous, but they still come together to save the world from evil threats. Other stars voicing superheroes include Will Arnett as Breakaway, Charles Demers as Poutine, Brian Drummond as Sasquatchewan, Veena Sood as RCM-PC (Robotic Crime Management Polite Computer), Ceara Morgana as Chinook, and Kevin McDonald as the voice Canada's Prime Minister, who oversees the work of the superheroes. Smulders highlighted that she agreed to participate in this show "pretty much immediately." "I just loved it from the get go. I think it's such a great group of characters. It's such a funny concept, and I was excited to jump on board," Smulders told Yahoo Canada. Instead of this being a show with Canadianisms, as Smulders described, the entire "landscape" of the series is Canadian. "It's cool to be part of something that is made by Canadians, for Canadians," Smulders said. "The references in the show, ... they hit me pretty hard, because there are jokes and references from my youth that I thought only I knew." One thing that had to be sorted out is exactly how Canadian each character should sound, with some superheroes having a more aggressive Canadian accent than others. "We had discussions about, how hard do you want to push it as Niagara Falls. Because I feel like Breakaway, ... that accent is strong," Smulders said. "And I think we decided somewhere in between, which is maybe my voice, the way I talk after I've had like two beers, and really just kind of letting the accent be a little loose. And maybe there will be a word or two that sounds different, but not trying to make it sound too comically Canadian. But just having a little colour to it." What's interesting about working in animation is that Smulders gets to see the final product almost like an audience member herself. While the script isn't completely new to her, she gets to see how similar, or different, the show looks, compared to what she imagined in her head. "It is truly so fun to see the finished project product on a project like this, because it's just all existing in your mind," Smulders said. "You're going through the scenes and you're kind of imagining what it looks like, but when you really get to see the amount of art and talent and creativity that goes into the drawing of this, it's really quite magical." Notably, Super Team Canada is being released during a particularly tense time between Canada and the U.S., from the existing tariffs to U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to tariff movies produced outside the U.S.. That has caused some Canadians to think local a little bit more, and that can extend to entertainment. While Smulders found great success in American productions, including How I Met Your Mother and recently appearing in the Apple TV+ hit Shrinking, the Vancouver-born actor still loves working in Canada, and hopes there are more Canadian projects made in the future. "I have always been a very proud Canadian," Smulders said. "I've always wanted to work up here and love working with the crews up here, and love the content that comes out of Canada." "So I hope that when the show comes out, which is the first original animated series that's been on Crave, I hope that just means that there's more coming."
Globe and Mail
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Finally a superhero, Cobie Smulders joins Crave's Super Team Canada
Niagara Falls, one of Canada's newest superheroes, walks into a drab room in Bell Media's downtown Toronto headquarters looking, to use an old expression, like a tall drink of water. Cobie Smulders – who voices this hydro-powered hero on Crave's new animated show Super Team Canada – is dressed in a cream pant suit and high heels and her star presence is much too much for a small space normally used for HR meetings. The Canadian-American actor's powers, fictional and otherwise, are well deployed in this new series created by Calgary-born Hollywood comedy writers Robert Cohen and Joel H. Cohen (both The Simpsons veterans), which begins with all other superheroes, including the ones in the United States known as The Righteousness Club here, slaughtered by invading aliens. Niagara Falls must band together with an egotistical hockey-puck shooting superhero named Breakaway voiced by Will Arnett, plus a super-jacked French-Canadian lumberjack named Poutine, a Hulk-esque prairie creature called Sasquatchewan, and a weather-controlling Inuit superhero named Chinook to save the planet. (The latter heroes are voiced by less household names, respectively, Charles Demers, Brian Drummond, Ceara Morgana). 'These are all underdogs who aren't great at what they do and their superpowers are very questionable, but they have to band together to thwart these villains who are also questionable,' explains Smulders. 'It's poking fun at ourselves and the genre in general.' It seems right that Smulders, whose career seamlessly straddles the border (her Canadian psychological thriller Sharp Corners is currently in theatres), is playing a character named after a natural feature that is world famous and flows between Canada and the United States. Born in Vancouver and raised in White Rock, B.C., her original dream as a teenage girl was to work in this very building on Queen Street West. It was home to MuchMusic then and she yearned to be a VJ on a Canadian music channel. 'Jessi Cruickshank was a friend of mine growing up,' she says of the former MTV Canada host. 'I was like, 'I'm so happy for you, but that's my dream, I'm so jealous.'' Of course, Smulders went on to live a dream bigger by many magnitudes – breaking into Hollywood seriously 20 years ago by landing the role of reporter and one-time Canadian teen pop star Robin Scherbatsky in the long-running CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Since 2012's The Avengers, Smulders has also been a part of the mega-blockbusting Marvel Cinematic Universe as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill – in both live-action and animated form. So the 43-year-old mother of two with impeccable comic timing is far from new to the genre she's spoofing or the cartoon voice-over business. 'In Marvel, I was calling the superheroes – so it's cool to be the one who arrives to save the day,' she says. Smulders, like many Canadians celebrities based in L.A. (where her house burnt down in the recent wildfires), knows Super Team Canada Emmy-winning co-creator Robert Cohen from being part of his 2015 documentary Being Canadian. It didn't take much for him to sell Smulders, who recently bought property in B.C., and still votes in Canadian elections including the one last month, on participating. 'These shows are like a love letter to Canada,' says Smulders. 'I'm sort of in the same generation as Rob and Joel and the references really hit home.' Jokes about ketchup chips and hockey tickled her funny-bone – but Smulders was particularly attracted to an episode where an Anne of Green Gables Heritage Museum is attacked by a foreign invader. The 1980s TV miniseries of Anne of Green Gables – Smulders calls it 'the Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst production' – is very important to her. She had the six VHS set as a kid, then upgraded to DVD copies and still watches them multiple times a year – when she gets sick or over the holidays. Speaking of foreign invaders … While Super Team Canada, which has been in the works for years, was certainly not meant to be a parable for Prime Minister Mark Carney's attempts to break down interprovincial trade barriers and resist the U.S. President's exhortations to become the '51st State,' it is hard not to see it as such, as the Super Team Canada superheroes squabble among themselves before finally employing their powers together but separately as what they call 'a mosaic' to fight off threats. Whatever they may feel privately, however, it's difficult to get Canadian Hollywood stars to say much on the record about any of these real-world Canadian issues – even when they're playing superpowered Canucks in a show that starts by killing off all American superheroes, some impaled by the Statue of Liberty, turned upside down and used as a weapon. Mike Myers, wearing a Canada's Not For Sale shirt on Saturday Night Live, has been the noticeable exception. On social media, a GIF of Smulders as Sparkles dancing in front of a giant maple leaf has become a meme used frequently in #ElbowsUP discussions. 'I'm happy to be a meme,' she says, expressing her love of Canada while deftly dancing around saying anything more specific about threats of annexation. As for Arnett, who also co-produces Super Team Canada through his company Electric Avenue, his team simply changed questions that I was invited to send over by e-mail for this piece to omit any of my references to how the show intersects with the issues of the day. What I got back were answers to questions such as: 'What would you like people to take away from the series?' 'I'd like them to take their frowns away and turn them into smiles,' Arnett responded to the latter. To be clear, I don't fault Arnett or Smulders or their personal teams for trying to steer them safely through genuinely politically dangerous times – but it is, of course, a reminder that actors aren't necessarily what they play on television.
CBC
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
In Super Team Canada, Marvel star Cobie Smulders plays 'hydro-powered' superhero named Niagara Falls
Social Sharing When Cobie Smulders began working on Super Team Canada two years ago, she didn't expect the goofy cartoon to align so perfectly with the current political landscape. Billed as Crave's first adult animated series, the half-hour comedy follows six overlooked Canadian superheroes who are called into action after the world's top heroes are taken out. In the premiere, the U.S. president and other global leaders laugh at the Canadian prime minister's claim that his country has caped crusaders of its own. The plot now plays like a cheeky metaphor for Canada pushing back against U.S. economic attacks and "51st state" jabs from U.S. President Donald Trump. "It is funny timing," Vancouver-born Smulders says while in Toronto last week. "For me, I've always had a very strong sense of Canadian pride in my life. I live in the United States right now, but my heart is still in Vancouver," adds the L.A.-based actor. "(The show) is sort of like this love letter to Canadiana and our culture and poking fun at our culture. It's really just there to entertain and to make people laugh, which I think we could all use right now." The series is stacked with Canadian talent, including Calgary screenwriters Joel H. Cohen of "The Simpsons" and Robert Cohen of "The Ben Stiller Show," with Toronto film and TV star Will Arnett starring and producing. Smulders plays S.H.I.E.L.D agent Maria Hill in Marvel Cinematic Universe Smulders voices a hydro-powered superhero called Niagara Falls. She cracks that it's a new experience for her, alluding to her decade-long stint as the mortal S.H.I.E.L.D agent Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "I'm finally a superhero with superpowers, which is exciting," says Smulders, whose Marvel character largely works behind the scenes to co-ordinate the Avengers' missions. Arnett plays puck-slinging ex-hockey player Breakaway, comedian Charles Demers is Quebecois crimefighter Poutine and Kids in the Hall member Kevin McDonald is the Prime Minister of Canada. Together, they take on various foes, including giant evil robots, "geriatric aliens and a trash pile," says Smulders, who shot to stardom in the mid-aughts as Robin Scherbatsky in the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." The actor says it's "wonderful" to see Canadians feeling more patriotic amid tense relations with the United States. "Our country has so much to offer and I'm grateful that I grew up here. It has shaped and moulded me as a person, so I have only ever felt pride for my country," she says. "I guess the good thing that's coming out of this time is that other people are too. They're feeling that even more now." Smulders says her national pride is why she gravitates towards Canadian projects, including Nova Scotia director Jason Buxton's thriller "Sharp Corner," currently in theatres. She stars as a therapist whose life unravels as her husband, played by Ben Foster, becomes obsessed with the frequent car accidents at a tight turn near their home. Smulders wants to see "more content that is just for Canadians." "You'd still enjoy watching (Super Team Canada) if you didn't grow up in Canada, but I think if you grew up in Canada, you would really love it," she says. Smulders "almost fell over" when she read the script for an episode inspired by the classic Canadian book series "Anne of Green Gables," noting she grew up watching the CBC miniseries. "At some point, I would love to play Marilla Cuthbert," she says, referring to Anne's stern but loving guardian. Smulders lost her L.A. home in the January wildfires Screen production has suddenly become politicized with Trump vowing last week to slap a "100 per cent tariff" on all films produced outside of the U.S. But Smulders sidestepped the issue. "I don't think I'm going to go down a tariff conversation because honestly, it changes every day," says Smulders. "I don't know what's real. I don't know what's going to happen but I just hope that we can keep making content that's good and funny and makes people laugh and feel things." As much as Smulders is proud of her Canadian roots, she's also found a strong community in Los Angeles, where she says neighbours rallied after wildfires devastated the area in January. She says her home was among those destroyed. "It was pretty rough," she says, "but I have seen the city come together in a really beautiful way." Smulders has been doing her part, partnering with charity Save the Children to support families affected by the fires and volunteering weekly at a soup kitchen in Venice. She credits her Canadian upbringing for an inclination to help others. "I think the way our country is set up, there is always an energy of giving back, of taking care of the planet, of looking outside yourself," she says. "That probably rubbed off in a good way on me."
The Province
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Province
Super Team Canada is a true Canadian cartoon celebration
Cobie Smulders, Will Arnett among famous Canucks who lend their True North comedy to all-Canadian superhero team Niagara (voiced by Cobie Smulders) is the de facto team leader. Bell Media 2025 Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Super Team Canada is a new animated comedy series for adults about an all-Canadian superhero team. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Produced by Vancouver-based studio Thunderbird Entertainment's Atomic Cartoons and Will Arnett's Electric Avenue, it premieres on CRAVE on May 16. The all-Canadian show was co-created by Emmy Award-winning Alberta siblings Robert and Joel H. Cohen, whose long list of writing credits includes such enduring TV hits as The Big Bang Theory and The Simpsons, as well as films such as Austin Powers and Shrek. The cast includes Will Arnett, Cobie Smulders, Kevin McDonald, Charles Demers, Brian Drummond, Ceara Morgana, Veen Sood and guest star Jay Baruchel. No less a legend than Bryan Adams wrote and performed the Super Team Canada theme song for the 20-episode series, which will air two new 11-minute episodes every Friday following the two-part Victoria Day weekend premiere. The show centres on a group of most certainly not famous Canadian superheroes overseen by the prime minister, who is both running the country and working a second job at a big box store. The team takes on everything from giant robots to alien space curmudgeons, becoming 'Earth's last and most maple syrup-powered hope.' Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Anyone old enough to recall classic Canuck animated shows such as Rocket Robin Hood or Comely Comics characters like Captain Canuck will recognize a lot of the look and feel of Super Team Canada. And the jokes are non-stop. 'We wanted a delightful mix of the cheap animation style we all watched as kids and make it as fast and funny as possible,' said Robert Cohen. 'Hopefully, with some characters you will see in coming episodes.' 'Obviously, we were influenced by shows like Super Friends and the beloved all-Canadian Rocket Robin Hood,' said Joel H. Cohen. 'We wanted it as lo-fi as possible to salute those kind of shows and their Scooby Doo-style pacing.' The two also wanted heroes that came from across the country to present a plethora of opportunities to bring provincialism versus federalism into the mix. The six-member team reads like a schoolroom gag session selecting who would have what powers. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Rob Cohen, who is the showrunner, said the cast came together quite naturally. After initially approaching Arnett to be involved, Smulders came next and the roles all came together quickly. The brothers still can't believe they were able to bring in so many talents, as well as Adams, to make a silly, super pro-Canada comedy cartoon. 'This amazing cast are all hilarious in their own individual ways, which made writing for them so easy,' said Joel. 'They take our garbage and turn it into funny garbage. Everything was fully scripted coming into the studio, but then there was a lot of room to play and add-lib. Because that's what you do when you have people that can knock it out of the park.' Super Team Canada (L-R) Chinook, Niagara Falls, Breakaway, RCM-PC, Sasquatchewan and Poutine. Bell Media 2025 The final Super Team Canada lineup includes: • Breakaway: Voiced by Will Arnett, this hockey stick-wielding doofus decked out in Maple Leaf leotards thinks he's the star attraction but the gap in his assessment is bigger than the one between his teeth. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Super Team Canada's Niagara Falls is voiced by actor Cobie Smulders Bell Media 2025 • Niagara Falls: Voiced by Cobie Smulders, this husky-voiced water being is the de facto team leader due to her reasoned handling of internal team disputes. But she can become a tsunami when the right emotional triggers are pulled. • Poutine: Voiced by Vancouver-based comic and author Charles Demers. A French-Canadian bûcheron (lumberjack) who foils foes by firing streams of hot cheese curds from his arm-mounted potato guns. • Sasquatchewan: Voiced by Brian Drummond, this sasquatch from the Prairie province pretty much sticks to the 'Sasquatchewan smash' directives coming his way. Oh, yeah, his body odour is an adjunct power. • RCM-PC: Voiced by Veena Sood, this is a Robotic Crime Management Polite Computer cyborg inside a decommissioned Canada Post mailbox. A 'Canadian Swiss Army Knife,' she defeats danger while always maintaining proper etiquette. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. • Chinook: Voiced by Métis actor Ceara Morgana, she's a 12-year-old First Nations hero from Winnipeg who can summon the power of snow, ice and wind to whip baddies butts. She is probably the smartest and most powerful member of the STC. • The Prime Minister of Canada: Voiced by Kids in the Hall's Kevin McDonald, this Trudeau V. 1-style world leader juggles the United Nations, the Canadian nation and his big-box job with politeness and a Maple Leaf pocket protector. 'We wanted to represent as much of the breadth of the country as possible, to get as many perspectives of it in as we could in both the stories and the characters going forward,' said Robert Cohen. 'We missed a few, of course, but there will be time to work them in.' 'Ideally, this both builds on the stereotypical views that people outside of the country have of it, but also to lovingly make fun of those stereotypes in a way that someone outside of Canada won't get,' said Joel H. Cohen. 'There are so many inside jokes.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Spoiler alert: One of the subtle inside jokes that Joel gives away is a shot of the team sitting around reading such titles as Captain Canuck, Alpha Flight and Weak Imitations Magazine. 'We knew the landscape that we were playing and had to, at the very least, call that out,' said Robert. 'Coming up with character powers that were both cheesy but sweet, a part of our fabric, was a lot of fun for us.' sderdeyn@ Read More Local News Vancouver Canucks CFL Local News NHL
