Latest news with #stopmotion
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Celebrity Deathmatch' Creator Thinks Show Would Be Even Bigger Today — with These Celebrities in the Ring (Exclusive)
"Celebrity Deathmatch" ran from 1998 to 2002 Eric Fogel combined some of his favorite things into a risky show that earned itself a place in MTV history. The creator of Celebrity Deathmatch first pitched the idea 28 years ago, during his time working at the network. "As a kid, I always had love for stop-motion animation. I was just sort of taken by those Ray Harryhausen films and some of the claymation that you would see on TV at the time," he tells PEOPLE. "As I grew older, I became aware that there was maybe a market for a more adult animated content, and I thought that stop-motion animation in that adult space felt like unmarked territory." "I started thinking of all the things that I loved — professional wrestling and making fun of celebrities. I thought if I could sort of mix that with that claymation style, you could have something really special." The idea didn't immediately appeal to everyone, but Fogel was persistent in what he believed had real potential. "The MTV execs, they weren't quite seeing it, and it took about a year of me and my producing partner at the time, a guy named John Lynn, sort of repeatedly whispering into the ear of the president of MTV. After about a year of annoying him, he said, 'Yeah, let's do it,'" he laughs. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Celebrity Deathmatch started as "sort of an experiment" with an original short that premiered on Cartoon Sushi. The matchup was Marilyn Manson versus Charles Manson. "That was the original celebrity deathmatch, and that was our experiment to test the technology and see if this was something that could work in a larger format," he explains. Bringing that short to life, at the time, consisted of "taking over a conference room" at MTV Animation's offices in midtown Manhattan. "It's not really set up to film stop-motion animation. We set up some janky lighting and some, at that time, free chip digital video cameras. We were sort of figuring it out as we went along with those early episodes," he says. "Then, there was an opportunity to go bigger. MTV was doing a Super Bowl halftime alternative, and they approached us and asked if we could do a Celebrity Deathmatch halftime show." Despite being "only like three weeks out from the Super Bowl," Fogel told them that they "could do it, but we'd have to keep it really simple — limited characters, nothing too crazy." "They said they'd think on it and come back to us. They came back to us and said, 'Okay, and we know who we would like to feature in the deathmatch,'" he recalls. "It was The Spice Girls versus Hanson, so that was like a total of like eight characters in there, which was exactly what we didn't want." Still, they "locked in" — literally. "We were in that conference room for, I think, three weeks straight, morning, noon, and night, getting that thing finished," he says. "It was a labor of love, and it kind of paid off. That was what launched us into a series format." Fogel says the success of the show was "what animators dream of." "You take everything that you love and you put it out there in the world and hope that other people love it too. And when they do, that's sort of that magic spark. It was a dream to realize that we had found an audience and that we could keep making these," Fogel shares. Week after week, writers would scour through entertainment magazines "to see who was in the zeitgeist that week." "We would just create these lists of celebrities that we thought could be interesting and then try to figure out the pairings, and sometimes you know it was a little tricky because you had to have layers, a series of gags you could build a deathmatch around," he explains. "Some celebrities were a little more fertile in that way, while others were were not. So it was tricky to choose, and, and then sort of figure out what would make the funniest, most entertaining deathmatch. That was always the challenge of putting those matches together." Fogel enjoyed orchestrating some of the more "elaborate matches" that included different settings than the basic ring. "For one match, we built this Tower of Terror, and we had Russell Crowe against Charlton Heston, and it was sort of this gladiator match, but it was in this tower that had all these booby traps and things that made it really fun and insane," he recalls. "There was the Dome of Devastation. We had Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins versus Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters. It had musical instruments on the walls of the dome." "It was really fun finding those clever, gimmicky deathmatches," he adds. "We had a time machine too, so we could bring people from ancient history, and pair them with modern celebrities, and that was always exciting." While the humor was definitely on the riskier side, Fogel says that many of the celebrities featured "were really good sports about it." "I was nervous at times thinking we had maybe pushed things a little too far," Fogel admits. "I remember in one instance, we had a match, a three-way match between Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal. Whoopi Goldberg contacted us after that match," he reveals. "She sent us flowers and chocolate, and she was such a huge fan that we then approached her directly and asked if she would actually come back and be featured as a guest commentator on the show. She said yes and she did provide her own voice for that." In 2002, Celebrity Deathmatch came to an end, but briefly returned from 2006 to 2007 without Fogel's involvement. Despite "a few false starts," it hasn't returned to the air in 18 years. However, Fogel thinks that the possibility is there — and always will be. "That's the beauty of the show — it's timeless. These matches are iconic. You could literally open Google and type a few words, and you'll get a whole bunch of new Celebrity Deathmatch ideas. It's an evergreen concept," he shares. "I was just browsing this morning. Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel hate each other. You know, Will Smith and Chris Rock probably still hate each other? Taylor Swift and Kanye West is still a match I'd like to visit in the ring," he shares. "It feels like there are still some unresolved issues there. It's such a fertile, fertile environment. I feel like you could bring it back tomorrow, and people would tune into it." With the introduction of social media, Fogel says he "would love the opportunity to just see what would happen." "To me, that would be even more entertaining, to have that interaction where now, celebrities are so vocal and you can get that sort of real-time reaction," he says. "I think that would make it even more exciting." "Politically? We don't even have to go there, but you know... Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg would be a very fertile environment for a celebrity deathmatch. And then, you know, just pivoting back to the social media angle, you know, MrBeast and Logan Paul would be insane, right? You have a whole new sort of stomping grounds that you could play in, and it's just unlimited." Laughing, he adds, "Let's do it. Let's make it." Read the original article on People
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Celebrity Deathmatch' Creator Thinks Show Would Be Even Bigger Today — with These Celebrities in the Ring (Exclusive)
"Celebrity Deathmatch" ran from 1998 to 2002 Eric Fogel combined some of his favorite things into a risky show that earned itself a place in MTV history. The creator of Celebrity Deathmatch first pitched the idea 28 years ago, during his time working at the network. "As a kid, I always had love for stop-motion animation. I was just sort of taken by those Ray Harryhausen films and some of the claymation that you would see on TV at the time," he tells PEOPLE. "As I grew older, I became aware that there was maybe a market for a more adult animated content, and I thought that stop-motion animation in that adult space felt like unmarked territory." "I started thinking of all the things that I loved — professional wrestling and making fun of celebrities. I thought if I could sort of mix that with that claymation style, you could have something really special." The idea didn't immediately appeal to everyone, but Fogel was persistent in what he believed had real potential. "The MTV execs, they weren't quite seeing it, and it took about a year of me and my producing partner at the time, a guy named John Lynn, sort of repeatedly whispering into the ear of the president of MTV. After about a year of annoying him, he said, 'Yeah, let's do it,'" he laughs. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Celebrity Deathmatch started as "sort of an experiment" with an original short that premiered on Cartoon Sushi. The matchup was Marilyn Manson versus Charles Manson. "That was the original celebrity deathmatch, and that was our experiment to test the technology and see if this was something that could work in a larger format," he explains. Bringing that short to life, at the time, consisted of "taking over a conference room" at MTV Animation's offices in midtown Manhattan. "It's not really set up to film stop-motion animation. We set up some janky lighting and some, at that time, free chip digital video cameras. We were sort of figuring it out as we went along with those early episodes," he says. "Then, there was an opportunity to go bigger. MTV was doing a Super Bowl halftime alternative, and they approached us and asked if we could do a Celebrity Deathmatch halftime show." Despite being "only like three weeks out from the Super Bowl," Fogel told them that they "could do it, but we'd have to keep it really simple — limited characters, nothing too crazy." "They said they'd think on it and come back to us. They came back to us and said, 'Okay, and we know who we would like to feature in the deathmatch,'" he recalls. "It was The Spice Girls versus Hanson, so that was like a total of like eight characters in there, which was exactly what we didn't want." Still, they "locked in" — literally. "We were in that conference room for, I think, three weeks straight, morning, noon, and night, getting that thing finished," he says. "It was a labor of love, and it kind of paid off. That was what launched us into a series format." Fogel says the success of the show was "what animators dream of." "You take everything that you love and you put it out there in the world and hope that other people love it too. And when they do, that's sort of that magic spark. It was a dream to realize that we had found an audience and that we could keep making these," Fogel shares. Week after week, writers would scour through entertainment magazines "to see who was in the zeitgeist that week." "We would just create these lists of celebrities that we thought could be interesting and then try to figure out the pairings, and sometimes you know it was a little tricky because you had to have layers, a series of gags you could build a deathmatch around," he explains. "Some celebrities were a little more fertile in that way, while others were were not. So it was tricky to choose, and, and then sort of figure out what would make the funniest, most entertaining deathmatch. That was always the challenge of putting those matches together." Fogel enjoyed orchestrating some of the more "elaborate matches" that included different settings than the basic ring. "For one match, we built this Tower of Terror, and we had Russell Crowe against Charlton Heston, and it was sort of this gladiator match, but it was in this tower that had all these booby traps and things that made it really fun and insane," he recalls. "There was the Dome of Devastation. We had Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins versus Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters. It had musical instruments on the walls of the dome." "It was really fun finding those clever, gimmicky deathmatches," he adds. "We had a time machine too, so we could bring people from ancient history, and pair them with modern celebrities, and that was always exciting." While the humor was definitely on the riskier side, Fogel says that many of the celebrities featured "were really good sports about it." "I was nervous at times thinking we had maybe pushed things a little too far," Fogel admits. "I remember in one instance, we had a match, a three-way match between Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal. Whoopi Goldberg contacted us after that match," he reveals. "She sent us flowers and chocolate, and she was such a huge fan that we then approached her directly and asked if she would actually come back and be featured as a guest commentator on the show. She said yes and she did provide her own voice for that." In 2002, Celebrity Deathmatch came to an end, but briefly returned from 2006 to 2007 without Fogel's involvement. Despite "a few false starts," it hasn't returned to the air in 18 years. However, Fogel thinks that the possibility is there — and always will be. "That's the beauty of the show — it's timeless. These matches are iconic. You could literally open Google and type a few words, and you'll get a whole bunch of new Celebrity Deathmatch ideas. It's an evergreen concept," he shares. "I was just browsing this morning. Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel hate each other. You know, Will Smith and Chris Rock probably still hate each other? Taylor Swift and Kanye West is still a match I'd like to visit in the ring," he shares. "It feels like there are still some unresolved issues there. It's such a fertile, fertile environment. I feel like you could bring it back tomorrow, and people would tune into it." With the introduction of social media, Fogel says he "would love the opportunity to just see what would happen." "To me, that would be even more entertaining, to have that interaction where now, celebrities are so vocal and you can get that sort of real-time reaction," he says. "I think that would make it even more exciting." "Politically? We don't even have to go there, but you know... Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg would be a very fertile environment for a celebrity deathmatch. And then, you know, just pivoting back to the social media angle, you know, MrBeast and Logan Paul would be insane, right? You have a whole new sort of stomping grounds that you could play in, and it's just unlimited." Laughing, he adds, "Let's do it. Let's make it." Read the original article on People
The Verge
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Soak up the sunflora this September.
Posted Jul 22, 2025 at 1:27 PM UTC Soak up the sunflora this September. Pokémon Concierge , the adorable stop motion Netflix series, launches its second season very soon. The show, about hospitality worker at a resort exclusively for 'mon and their humans, returns with new episodes September 4th. The announcement came during today's Pokémon Direct and included a brand new trailer featuring all the new poké-friends you'll make.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The 10 Most Outrageous ‘Robot Chicken' Sketches
As we approach the premiere of Seth Green's 'Robot Chicken: Self-Discovery Special' to honor of the animated adult stop-motion sketch comedy series' 20th anniversary, we wanted to remember some of show's most iconic sketches. When Seth Green launched 'Robot Chicken' alongside Matthew Senreich on Adult Swim in 2005, it became an instant hit that fans stayed up late to watch. While some sketches may not hold up today due to some of the crude jokes, let's just say 'Robot Chicken' isn't afraid to stretch the limits of comedy, no matter how dark the gags become. More from TheWrap The 10 Most Outrageous 'Robot Chicken' Sketches 7 Best Superhero Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now Eileen Fulton, 'As The World Turns' Star and Broadway Actress, Dies at 91 7 Best Prestige Dramas Streaming on HBO Max Right Now Check out the best sketches we chose below. 'Jason Vorhees at Home' In this quick sketch, viewers get a behind-the-scenes look at Jason Vorhees's life when he's not out and about murdering people. He's a normal guy who does his own laundry and enjoys a good puzzle every now and again. 'Voltron Got Served' Paying homage to dance battle culture and the film 'You Got Served,' 'Robot Chicken' shows Voltron showing off his best moves. 'Care Bear Cleansing' The Care Bears turn a new, murderous leaf when they decide to launch a genocide on the Care Bear Cousins in an effort to save their race of Care Bears. 'Tooth and Consequences' While visiting a child to drop off their earnings for a tooth, the Tooth Fairy overhears an incident of domestic violence happening between the child's parents. That's when she takes matters into her own hands. 'Pokemon Outtakes' After years of putting on a show for kids, Squirtle has an emotional breakdown and breaks character. But Pikachu warns him of the consequences if he doesn't get his act together. 'The Emperor's Phone Call' Just when Emperor Palpatine was having a good day, he gets a bad phone call from Darth Vader about the status of the Death Star. 'M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Twist'' This sketch takes a hilarious jab at filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan's tendency to incorporate unexpected plot twists in his films. 'What a twist' became a running joke throughout 'Robot Chicken' seasons. 'Delicious Gummy Bears' In one of the darker sketches a gummy bear gets caught in a bear trap and is forced to chew herself out of it. 'Mario and Luigi Go To Vice City' When iconic video game characters Mario and Luigi can't cross their bridge in Mushroom they take another route through Grand Theft Auto's Vice City 'Bop It … or Else' The popular '90s kids toy turns out to have its own killer ulterior moment in this hilarious one-minute sketch The post The 10 Most Outrageous 'Robot Chicken' Sketches appeared first on TheWrap.
Forbes
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Why ‘The Tiny Chef Show's' Cancellation Hit So Hard
Canceled red ink cancellation stamp. Before June 25, 2025, I'd never heard of Nickelodeon's Tiny Chef Show, but after watching this green stop-motion character react to the news that his show was cancelled and that he didn't know what would happen to his many friends and castmates, my heart shattered into a million pieces. If you had asked me a week ago who Tiny Chef was, I couldn't have told you. Now, all I can think about are the tears that fell from this fictional character's beady eyes as he sat on his bed and wept over the news of his end. This moment, which tugged at my heartstrings, resonated with others across social media, as the video of Tiny Chef receiving the phone call about his cancellation went viral on X, TikTok, and Instagram. This was more than just a weekly update for the stop-motion character, who has previously gone viral for his short covers of Beyonce's 'TEXAS HOLD 'EM' and Kendrick Lamar's 'Not Like Us.' It was a full-on mic drop. The message was clear. Instead of issuing a press release about the cancellation, the people behind Tiny Chef captured the genuine heartbreak and devastation that news of a cancellation brings to those who work on shows like this. The Issue with Using a New Platform BATH, UNITED KINGDOM - AUGUST 01: In this photo illustration the logo of US online social media and ... More social networking site 'X' (formerly known as Twitter) is displayed centrally on a smartphone screen alongside that of Threads (L) and Instagram (R) on August 01, 2023 in Bath, England. On the top row the logo of online video sharing and social media platform YouTube is seen alongside that of Whatsapp and TikTok. Along the bottom row Facebook, Quora amd Messenger are displayed. Elon Musk recently revealed the new logo for Twitter, which constitutes the letter 'X' as part of a rebrand of the company. (Photo by) The virality of this moment, while touching, sparked a separate conversation. Why does an Emmy Award-winning show with multiple viral moments, along with other feel-good shows that have faced similar ends, still face cancellation? Shows getting canceled isn't exactly a new phenomenon. Anyone reading this can probably name at least one show they loved that was canceled long before its natural end. Still, The Tiny Chef Show is another example of creators who go viral, get picked up by bigger companies, and then face constraints and challenges they didn't have when they had full creative control. Not to mention the higher production costs, the constantly changing market for what's 'in,' and how virality doesn't always lead to success when its medium changes. This has happened to many shows over the years that started on the internet and then moved to long-form content under a larger company. The Annoying Orange, Lucas the Spider, and other shows that began online are prime examples of programs that struggle to keep their momentum once they switch to a different platform. Even in a pool of his own tears, The Tiny Chef Show has its own silver lining. A follow-up video was made where the Tiny Chef made additional phone calls, still resulting in him crying, as he asked other studios to pick up his show, for his sake and for his friends. In just under three days, following the multiple viral videos and a showcase of old clips, fans have managed to band together and raise nearly $200,000 to prevent the show from being canceled. So many good shows are cancelled day after day, each for different reasons, so, for once, it's heartwarming to see people come together in a singular mission, to keep the content we love alive, and all of this was the result of the creators of Tiny Chef refusing to let their show go without at least showing the world how it made them, and their character, feel. Sometimes, things don't work out for the shows we care about, but sometimes they do.
