Home Media Magazine - Agent DVD - July 2008 - (Page DVD39) *TVFILES ‘CHICKEN’ ROBOT CHICKEN: STAR WARS Available July 22 on DVD ($14.97) ROBOT CHICKEN: SEASON 3 Available Oct. 7 ($29.98 two-DVD set) Warner Home Video GAME OF © Adult Swim “Star Wars” special, he said, took 14 weeks to finish. For his efforts, Green won the Annie Award for directing an animated television production. Senreich says the creative team is open to doing more themed specials for other franchises. “We’d love to do another ‘Star Wars’ special,” Senreich says. Robot Chicken: Star Wars wasn’t Green’s only “Star Wars” spoof last year. As the voice of Chris Griffin on “Family Guy,” Green was part of that show’s hour-long parody of Episode IV, titled “Blue Harvest.” “‘Family Guy’ was more linear storytelling in the context of A New Hope and different things specific to that,” Green says. “And ours was more about observing in-between the moments you already know.” The highly rated “Blue Harvest” episode also became a top seller on DVD. Green says he was pleasantly surprised upon reading the script to find the episode ended with an homage to “Robot Chicken.” “It was a really sweet compliment,” Green says. “Seth MacFarlane’s whole approach was that we couldn’t pretend the ‘Robot Chicken’ episode didn’t happen.” In fact, Green acknowledges a tacit collaboration between the shows. “There’s a camaraderie,” Green says. “It’s playful without being competitive. I think that helps both shows.” AgentDVD.com WHAT’S IN BY JOHN LATCHEM A NAME? “Robot Chicken” co-creator Matthew Senreich says the show’s name was inspired by the menu of a Chinese restaurant down the street from the production office. “When we were developing the show, we gave 60 titles to Cartoon Network, and they rejected them all,” Senreich says. “There was a Chinese restaurant down the street from our office we would eat at all the time, and Robot Chicken was one of the dishes. We thought it was hilarious, so we threw it in as a joke. And the network went for it.” AGENTDVD W orking with George Lucas isn’t so bad, according to Seth Green. The “Star Wars” creator agreed to play himself in a special episode of “Robot Chicken” spoofing the legendary saga. “We’re in the studio, and George asks me, ‘Do I get to be the asshole actor?’” Green recalls. “I was like, ‘That’s great, as long as you know I’m going to be the asshole director!’ “Then he’s like, ‘Can I rewrite these lines?’ And I said, ‘You can, but then I’d also like to pick it up the way it’s written too.’” Adds “Robot Chicken” co-creator Matthew Senreich: “You could tell [Lucas] was having fun.” Doing a “Star Wars” special was a natural move for the duo, who met when former magazine editor Senreich interviewed Green. “These were the movies that informed our childhood and somewhat shaped our creative direction,” Green says. The pair has shared executive producer duties on “Robot Chicken” since the popular Adult Swim series debuted in 2005. Among an assortment of pop-culture gags, the writers would occasionally throw in a “Star Wars” scene. A second-season sketch featured Seth MacFarlane, creator of the Fox animated comedy “Family Guy,” as Emperor Palpatine hearing the news that the Rebels destroyed the Death Star. These efforts attracted the attention of Lucasfilm, sparking the idea of a special episode devoted to “Star Wars” that would include not only the earlier parodies, but also new ones. “I think my favorite character in the special is the Emperor,” Senreich says. “What Seth MacFarlane did was so unique.” The special also features the voices of Malcolm McDowell, Hulk Hogan, Conan O’Brien, Robert Smigel, Donald Faison, Abraham Benrubi, Joey Fatone, James Van Der Beek and co-writer Breckin Meyer. The Robot Chicken: Star Wars DVD offers fans an in-depth look at the making of the show, with onscreen commentaries, production meetings, deleted storyboards and featurettes about the stop-motion animation process used on the show. Finding time to produce the special was no easy task. A typical season of “Robot Chicken,” which airs in 15-minute blocks, takes 11 months to film, Senreich said. The half-hour 38 AGENTDVD JULY 2008 http://agentdvd.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.