Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Cluster Prime time


This week various alumni from Teenage Robot will be submitting work to be considered for Emmy nomination. There was only one episode eligible for submission this time around, and happily it's "Escape from Cluster Prime", one of my very favorites. Our crew has always worked very hard to put the "special" into a special, and as our longest episode, this was no exception. We had discussed the idea of Jenny on a robot planet almost from the very beginning, and Just to make sure it would truly capture the imagination, our design crew was sequestered to conference room several days for visual development and group brainstorming sessions, something extremely rare within a hectic tv production schedule.


I loved conceiving my first ever "movie-title" sequence. Rob actually had to fight a few battles to get front-end credit for nearly the whole crew, who were surprised by the results at the premiere screening.

This sequence was meant to evoke Disney's world-war II era propaganda films. Kudos to Bryan for winning the most disturbing Jenny contest.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite episode too.
Thanks for sharing those great image.

Brian Growe said...

Yeah that was a good one! Thanks for posting these, great stuff!

Anonymous said...

An excellent episode of a particularly fascinating animated series (both visually and story). I must admit that after viewing the first few episodes, I thought the Jenny's saga would end rather quickly and sadly. A sensitive robot that had virtually no hope of becoming accepted among her human peers seemed destined to quickly become frustated and embittered. A perfect recruit for the Cluster! It was, therefore, fascinating to to see her personality and self-confidence evolve despite being considered by many to be just a freakish machine. I hope "The Teenage Roblog" continues on despite the premature termination of the series. The behind-the-scenes information regarding the various activies, skills, and artistry involved with bringing this series to life is amazing. Great job!

The Great One said...

Cmartel seems have stated what I was trying to say for months. Bravo!

The show truly shows the survival of the spirit, whether in a person or a robot. Jenny is an individual with a soul, mechanical or otherwise.

Her indefeatable charm and winning personality make her find the postive in any situation, so she becomes a heroine in both the human and robotic worlds.

I give full credit to alll those who went to such great detail to make even the background and characters of the show so well tuned to the great gestalt of fine animation.

The use of "Truck", "Shell, and "Braid" as Vexa's companions was truly inspired, as was the golden crystals that gave them the powers they were lacking. A real "Disneyeque" storyline.

I thought the opening looked familiar, but I couldn't place it. Well done!

This fine show must continue, somehow!

wichobot said...

Great designs!
Especially the BG designs.

The "3D-View" of Cluster Prime world and the Vexus' Palace in the movie are awesome.

PD: Could you use some VFX techniques like "bullet time" and the "16:9" screen display effect in more episodes? ;) these rocks!

wichobot - Watch More New episodes on www.teenagerobot.tk !!!

Anonymous said...

Chant with me...emmy...emmy...Emmy...EMMY...EMMY...EMMY!!!

Anonymous said...

Whoo! Check the cloven-hoof feet on the propaganda-Jenny! I missed those when I first saw the special, talk about details!

Anonymous said...

Hey folks, I really would like to know who is the composer of the original soundtrack of MLAATR. I wonder if you could help me. My email is: MrSanches@gmail.com
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

This in from the Nicktoons Network: When you’re metal on the outside and teenager on the inside, sometimes life seems so unfair. This Nick series comes to Nicktoons Network beginning Monday April 3rd. "My Life As A Teenage Robot" airs Monday thru Friday at 3pm & 3:30pm, weekends at 9am.

Anonymous said...

Disney, huh? It all makes sense now.

The Great One said...

Emmy Nominations again! It had to happen.

I even went to the top and petitioned Viacom, the parent company of Nick, to see if they could reverse the lack of a fourth season of MLaaTR. I doubt that I wll get even a "boilerplate" response, but at least it told them that someone out there is annoyed.

Sometimes you can only rail at the "beancounters"

Perhaps the squeaky wheel will get the grease!

Anonymous said...

Keep drawing and posting please, CandyRobot!