MAD Cartoon Network Show Promo

August 18th, 2010 | Posted in MAD Magazine

This short promo just surfaced for the new MAD show on the Cartoon Network this fall:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEEzuhFDcrE[/youtube]

Here’s another shorter one:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hlVYKw1sAg[/youtube]

Neither feature any of my work. As you can see the style of animation runs the gamut from traditional cartoons to collage and highly stylized stuff. Many of the “skits” will be only a few seconds long with a single, quick gag. Segments like the TV show parodies I’ve worked on, the movie parodies and some ad parodies are a minute or two long and not part of these short promos.

The show debuts on Mon. Sept 6th at 8:30 pm.

Comments

  1. Mark Engblom says:

    DVR: Set! Thanks, Tom….can’t wait to see it!

  2. Anthony says:

    Sort of reminds me of Robot Chicken. Though I guess this will be a lot less vulgar.

    • Mark Engblom says:

      That’s an interesting comment, since I think it kind of encapsulates the challenge of the “humor landscape” the modern MAD finds itself competing in. In my recollection, MAD Magazine was THE primary source of cutting edge humor and parody…since there really weren’t many other places a kid could go for subversive “Oh my God, I can’t believe they did that” humor (an enduring memory of one such example: the utter insanity of a Don Martin monster sticking a toilet seat on top of a volcano and taking a dump inside of it).

      But today? Stuff like “Robot Chicken”, “Family Guy”, and other “Oh my God, I can’t believe they did that” humor seems to go much farther than MAD is willing (or even allowed) to do…in effect becoming the PG-13 version of the R-rated stuff increasingly younger kids are exposed to and, depressingly, seem to prefer. It’ll be interesting to see how MAD navigates the increasingly vulgar and non-clever “humor” it must compete against.

    • Tom says:

      Since Kevin Shinick of “Robot Chicken” fame is head writer on the MAD show, the comparisons and similarities will be many.

      RE: Mark’s comment-MAD can’t and won’t go where shock-garbage like “Family Guy” will, so ultimately they need to be smarter. Trying to do the PG-13 version of that type of “humor” does not work because it’s the envelope pushing that makes that sort of thing work, if you can call it that.

      I will be as surprised by the content in the show as anyone, with the exception of the segments I have worked on. I really have no idea where the show will go or how far it will push the boundaries.

  3. Jeff Harris says:

    Two questions: Will the show have Traditional animation, along with other styles?

    And how many episodes will this show have?

    • Tom says:

      I’m not sure but there will be a lot of different kinds including claymation/stop motion, so traditional animation is probably likely.

      I believe there will be between 20 and 30 episodes.

  4. John Dorian says:

    What kind of animation is used in your segments, Tom?

    • Tom says:

      I am doing simplified line drawings with reference color of caricatures of actors that appear in the parodies, and then the animators are redrawing them in Flash or some similar type of animation program. I have yet to see more than a few seconds of footage of any of my work animated, so I have no real idea how it will look.

      • BoogieMan says:

        Well, this comment pretty much sums it up!
        The artist doesn’t know how the animation will look?
        Well, then it’s pretty safe to guess it will look like crap.

        Personally, I don’t like the “Flash” look in many of the clips here (I do like the look of Doggy-Phone though)!

        • Tom says:

          Really? I do a series of character designs as static images and because I’ve yet to see how the animators incorporate it into their work it’s “pretty safe to say it will look like crap”? I guess I’ve heard dumber statements than that before but I’m having trouble remember one that beats it.

      • BoogieMan says:

        If you knew anything about animation, you wouldn’t say it’s a “dumb” statement, Tom. Animation is an art in and of itself. It’d be like having another artist draw your print MAD pieces and expecting them to come out looking better than you could do yourself. I am looking forward to seeing the show, but comments like yours do not make me hopeful.

        • Tom says:

          I know plenty about animation, and your statement was beyond dumb. Why would one assume that a team of animators WON’T be able to take the character designs from any artist and not only do a great job with them, but make them better? That’s what they do.

      • BoogieMan says:

        Well, I guess we’ll just have to see when the show premieres! 😉

  5. Nicholas Kemp says:

    I think it’s great that the artists from the MAD Magazine are also working on the series.

    Long live MAD!

  6. BoogieMan says:

    PS: Do you know who did Doggy-Phone? It kind of has an old-skool Jaffee look?

  7. BoogieMan says:

    PPS: And they just removed the YouTube vid!!! BOOOOOOO!!!!!

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