Apparently the folks working on the animations at MST3K.com think so too, because last Saturday one “SHAD,” a member of the production team, decided to speak up after the first couple of cartoons got reviews that ranged from mildly to strongly negative.
He supplied some interesting behind-the-scenes info, to wit:
I wasn’t going to post because y’all scare me but these comments are bumming out my studio so I want to make an appeal that you don’t write off the animated bots right away.
The site and first animation “Reel Livin'” were finished and then Jim brought us on board. We gutted the site and have a bunch of talented folks working to make the animations better. (Max, the guy who animated the first one, is actually super-good but busy working on his graphic novels.) The bug-me-less version of the site will be up soon and our first animation goes up on Monday. You’ll see improvement from each one to the next. I swear.
While Jim, Paul, and the new comedians are feeling out how to write and act for animation, we’re working on making it look better. We figure that things will really start coming together around episode five. We got the audio of the bots talking on the site-front page for Thanksgiving and it’s pretty funny.
If it doesn’t get a heck of a lot funnier…we’re out of here too. No one wants to spend day in and out animating garbage. We all love MST3K and as geeks and Minnesotans feel like it’s in our blood and we not going to let it get spoiled.
Yep.
Shad – PUNY / Big Time Attic
Oh, and a couple of notes that maybe I’m not supposed to say:
-The bots were designed to be flat and use puppety animation so that they stay…puppety (by a really cool guy named Steve). He tried to boil them down to their essence. I think this was a good plan but we’re going to flesh them out a little over time without going all “Saturday Morning Cartoon” on them. Plus they have to be fairly easy to animate, Jim wants to keep the episodes coming despite no network $$.
-The bots are on SOL instead of on Earth/Continuity because animation gives them a really cool opportunity to explore the Satellite without building huge sets. These are short bits that folks should look at as expanding the show and having some fun in this new medium..not replacing it.
-Paul especially didn’t want to put up “Reel Livin'” first but it was the only one done and everyone figured that if we waited until really good ones came along,..then who knows when the site would launch. All the MST3K guys have a DIY “show the warts and all” mentality that made the show so great in the first place. So…we went ahead and threw up the site as is, that animation, and then a quick store to help pay for hosting and stuff.
-There will for sure be new videos, behind the scenes bits, and I sat in on a brainstorm that had a lot of Internet-centric ideas that cracked me up. They still got it.
Thanks!
Hmmmm…. [Hat tip to our buddy Mike]
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
Thanks for sharing. That does put things in perspective a bit.
Hopefully Jim will post the host segments to K01-K04. Seems unlikely though.
I don’t mind the animation style. I do find Crow’s new beady little eyes kind of disturbing, though.
It’s mostly the writing that could use improvement at this stage, but I’m hopeful they’ll soon get up to speed and find new things for the ‘Bots to do.
I’ve lost all faith after that first cartoon. it feels so gutted. gutted of all the mst3k satire, writers, voice actors, movies. it feels hollow. soulless. And the guy who is voicing crow is awful i have to say. I’m as big of a mst3k fan as you will find but i dont think this cartoon series is a good idea. I like the new website, love to see clips of the show, behind the scenes, and some never before seen stuff but the original cartoon is a bust in my opinion.
Tom Servo’s own words in the latest cartoon:
“It wasn’t funny to me to begin with, and it certainly hasn’t gotten any funnier as you continued speaking.”
Here’s hoping it starts getting funnier. I would really honestly like to see this succeed.
Are they going to riff movies? What’s the point?
It’s all about the laughs for me and I’m not laughing…yet.
I, too, was strongly disappointed with the first episode. I mean, the first impression’s the most important, right?
But I wasn’t going to completely write them off after only or shot. Or two.
Just checked back recently, and HUZZAH! this site was updated. Pretty cool. Hopefully, all of the other pages are in for the same treatment.
Yeah…I didn’t like the animated shorts. Prehaps you shouldn’t look at it as writing for animation as you should look at it as writing a host-less episode for the original. In the beginning, there were quite a few segments where Joel didn’t come in until the end…so maybe you should just write it like you would write a host segment, baring in mind that without a human character the bots will have to create their own punchline.
To be quite honest, the first one sounded more like you had sold the rights to the ‘bots to an infomercial company than it did an animated short. What kept me coming back was the possible addition of new host segments. I don’t know why, but the new Crow really freaks me out. I look foward to seeing improvements in the future.
Yeah, especially consitering that K01-K04 have been lost for years and, as far as we know, were never VCR-recorded.
I hear some fans on here saying good things and bad things about the new cartoons…..Me I like them,I have waited for a long time for something new for the MST3K crew or the Bots.
and I know it will catch on…. I am just glad to see any new form of MST3K and will continue to follow the Bot’s adventures…..Honestly I would like to write an episode and have it made by the MST3K.com staff.
Yes, I too feel so ripped off by the first cartoon.
What a scam, uploading a substandard cartoon that people pay no money for, coercing them to watch it and then putting a gun to their heads to make them bitch about it on various chat boards like this one.
When will the shameless exploitation by free websites that charge nothing for their totally free product end?
Randy
I just saw the new cartoons — of course I’m not impressed! What does impress me is the thought that went into being unimpressive. That’s the whole point! Comedy. Right there.
Anyway…what I like best is that the original people are involved. It’s their baby and I trust them to raise it. And now you can too!
Thanks for bringing the robots back. They deserve it.
John.
It’s certainly not great yet, but the second cartoon was better than the first. With all the entertainment the Brains have given me, I’m willing to give them some time to get back on track.
Hey R.A. Roth. its not about paying for something. Its about taking something that was once the high point of comic genius, and then dragging it through the mud. It’s the show, which we as fans care about. not an overall bang for our buck. if mst3k is coming back then it should be done right, not some little cartoon, without the original writers (or any writers at all) and with no real production value. I speak as an mst3k fan.
Compare it to what TV F is doing with Cartoon Dump. The first episode of that decidedly did NOT suck… hmmm. talent? anyone?
Christmas is just around the corner and while I feel this is not a pair of sock’s or a can of Simonize mabey Santa can bring something better in the future!!!
Happy Turkey-Day!!!!!
The first episode was pretty lame. The second one, actually, I found laughing quite a lot at. Like, in the humor way, not in the ‘gee, that was pathetic’ way. The whole thing about animating the robots to look like puppets, honestly, makes sense to me. They are, after all, puppets. And, I like Tom’s new voice.
Compared to most others, I actually found the first one more entertaining than the second, but not by much.
I’m certainly not going to put down the animation– it was great, especially given the look and feel they’re going for, and more than aptly captures the characters.
Long-winded speeches-turned jokes never did it for me on the bits they did on the show, and they really don’t work for a 3-minute animated short. They need to go with a more rapid-fire pace, which I know they can do.
I’m definitely cutting them some slack, but right now I’m only checking when the site here sends me notice they’ve updated. More old videos and perhaps even setting up a flash-based chat to talk with mst fans– or even joining up with a site like Inventing Situations or Caption Crack to allow caption riffing could definitely bring in a crowd.