Pet Alien combines classic Looney Tunes-style gag comedy with state-of-the-art CGI animation-''the best and funniest of all possible worlds (in my humble opinion)'' says producer Bill Schultz, a ''Simpsons'' alum; Schultz available for interviews with college reporters
HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Jan 20, 2005--Animation producer Bill Schultz knows funny when he sees it. As an Emmy-winning animation producer on ''The Simpsons,'' he helped bring to audiences each week one of the most critically acclaimed, most loved, most quoted, most watched and most imitated animated series ever to hit television.
Now, as Executive Producer of Pet Alien, a brand-new animated series making its debut on Cartoon Network on Sunday, January 23 at 10:00AM EST/PST, Schultz gets to combine everything he loved about Saturday morning cartoons as a kid with everything he knows about 21st century animation.
Once upon a time, Schultz was a pre-law poli sci undergrad from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. On his way to Law School at the University of Pennsylvania, Schultz instead took a left turn (actually a right from Chicago, if you`re going south on the 57) and headed to L.A. to become a filmmaker and songwriter. He ended up in TV animation, working at Marvel Animation with the legendary Stan Lee, creator of ''Spider-Man.''
Today, Schultz is one of three principals in Mike Young Productions (MYP), one of the leading independent animation studios in Hollywood, and producers of such recent TV phenoms as the action-adventure ''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' as well as the ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' series for younger audiences, produced for Scholastic for PBS KIDS. With Pet Alien, Schultz brings classic cartoon storytelling into the living rooms of modern-age CGI-hungry audiences.
''It`s a totally absurd, skewed, wacky character comedy, with all the physical gags and non-sequitur humor of the classic ''Looney Tunes'' cartoons, combined with state-of-the-art CGI animation, breaking ground in many ways,'' Schultz says. ''The story is that these five aliens (each with unique offbeat personalities) from the Conforma Dimension�where everyone must be exactly the same�end up on Earth, where they go wild for the unpredictability of life here. They land in the home of an ultra-normal `under the radar` kid, who wants nothing more than to not be noticed, and decide they�re going to `help` him, whether he likes it or not. We have a lot of fun playing with accepted earth societal norms as understood (or not, as the case may be) by the well meaning, but slightly dense aliens.''
To capture that classic Tex Avery-style zaniness, the CGI animators begin with old-fashioned hand-drawn character design, complete with ''squash and stretch'' expressions, and use all hand-painted textures for characters and backgrounds. ''When added to the 3D CGI production process, the look is unique,'' says Schultz.
To see a clip from the show, visit www.petalien.com. Schultz is available to speak with a select number of college reporters regarding the show, careers in animation, or the process of developing a cartoon series.
Pet Alien debuts on Cartoon Network on January 23 at 10:00AM EST/PST with repeats on Sundays at 3:30PM EST/PST and Saturdays at 1:30PM EST/PST.
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