How 'The Walking Dead' 'Robot Chicken' Special Came to Life

Hollywood Journal

The creators behind 'Robot Chicken' discuss the making of their 'Walking Dead' special episode.

Transcript

00:00I do an annual dinner with Robert Kirkman at Comic-Con, San Diego Comic-Con, and we

00:05were joking around and he said something about us doing a DC special with Geoff Johns and

00:11he was like, where's the love?

00:13And I was like, I can do this, I would love to do this, I don't believe you really want

00:17to do this.

00:18And he was like, I want to do it.

00:19And it just spiraled into the fact that we were doing this and making a Walking Dead

00:24special.

00:25The cool thing about the show is it takes the walkers so seriously, you know, zombies

00:33in general have become kind of a joke trope and it, you know, went back to kind of the

00:40origins of old, you know, I walked with a zombie and Night of the Living Dead and just kind

00:45of took that and ran with how terrifying that would be.

00:49And they were one of the first to do the no one's safe.

00:52Like, if you have a favorite character, tough shit, because he might die.

00:56Seth and myself and a lot of the writers were all fanboys, I mean, we're still fanboys from

01:00that comic book world.

01:01So, yeah, it was just, it became a passion project for all of us just knowing this world.

01:11Looking for something, friend?

01:15Yeah.

01:16Gas.

01:17Early on, I think we were, you know, we were all kind of just throwing stuff at the wall

01:22until we kind of hit what felt like the right tone for the show.

01:25One of the things we do in the first week or so of writing is you get out everything that

01:31everyone else is going to make fun of, too.

01:33You know, every parody, you know, get rid of all the stuff that's kind of low hanging fruit,

01:37and then get into it.

01:46Production-wise, it was just a real challenge to try to make it look like The Walking Dead

01:52and less like Robot Chicken.

01:54I had a lot of conversations with some of the producers who were sort of in charge of

01:57the handouts to directors on, you know, what lenses they use and how they set up shots and

02:02when they show the ceiling and when they don't.

02:05And so there was a lot of, like, technical stuff that I just wanted to download before

02:09we shot a frame of it or even storyboarded it.

02:11So this is a musical member parodying the Terminus scene in The Walking Dead where the heroes

02:18come upon Terminus and they're greeted by the cannibals doing a musical number.

02:24The amount of specific characters and head sculpts that had to get built for this special was

02:41probably more so than any other episode because it's all human actors as opposed to characters

02:47that we've done in other type of specials or shows.

02:50You know, whether we do a DC and it's Superman or Batman, these are human faces that we have

02:55to get the sculpting to be exactly right.

02:57And between the sculptors and our digital 3D printing department, they did an amazing job

03:02to capture the likenesses.

03:04I'm working on Glenn from Walking Dead, so we have his normal version and then we have

03:11his slightly bastion head version.

03:14So that's using reference images from the show itself and whatever we can find online

03:21to just go in and sculpt as close as possible to what it looks like in the show.

03:27Some of the work the puppeteers and the animators do on our show is insane how detailed it is

03:33and how much love and dedication is put into it.

03:40I wouldn't want to do it for a minute.

03:42They are so good at it and so crafty at it.

03:44Even Sethi with the way he directs voiceover records or Shepard, how he does it.

03:49It's a lot of work and I am in the fortunate position of it's like my night job.

03:55I get to come play and I get to leave.

03:58Some walkers came.

03:59I drew them off and Sophia hit here, right?

04:01Sophia.

04:02Yeah mama, Mr. Rick saved me.

04:04Rick, what the fuck?

04:06Rick, what the fuck are you doing?

04:13The best way to be a successful director is just hire really great people and let them

04:19make you look good.

04:20I can't do any of those things that our crew does.

04:24I mean, you know, they're insanely talented.

04:28It's so impressive to get to guide them.

04:32Everybody takes ownership of the show which is kind of a beautiful thing and jumps in.

04:37It's time consuming to direct the show but it's really just a lot of answering a couple

04:42of questions here and there and just letting people run with their talents.

04:47Let me know when you're ready for me.

04:48I'll sit.

04:49Sorry.

04:50I was laughing.

04:51I'll sit.

04:52Sorry.

04:53I was laughing.

04:54Do an outtake.

04:55Sorry.

04:56I was laughing.

04:57Do an outtake.

05:01Do an outtake.

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