MAD Takes on Avatar, Star Trek and Dark Knight! - IGN - EU-Vietnam Business Network (EVBN)

IGN TV recently had a chance to speak with MAD producer, and former

Since 1952, the iconic MAD magazine has been satirizing all aspects of popular culture, politics and entertainment. Those who didn’t grow up reading the magazine might still recognize the MAD brand from the popular MADtv comedy sketch-series which ran for 10 years on FOX. Well now MAD is back in animated form and will debut an all-new series on Monday, 9/6 at 8:30/7:30c on Cartoon Network called…well, MAD.IGN TV recently had a chance to speak with MAD producer, and former Robot Chicken writer/producer/performer/creative director, Kevin Shinick, along with MAD producer/animator Mark Marek, about their new series, new movie parodies and honoring the “old guard” characters.

IGN TV: The first thing I noticed when I had a chance to look at some of this new MAD series was that there were many different styles of animation.

Mark Marek: I think our take on it is that we wanted to make it like MAD magazine editors were putting on a show, just as they did with the magazine, and they’d want to pull a lot of different styles together and a lot of different artists together. And animation is a great medium to work with because, aside from the movie and TV parodies being a certain way – in what we would call long-form – the rest is 11 minutes of high-speed variety that just doesn’t allow you to get bored.

Kevin Shinick: The great thing about the magazine was that it was a collection of different writers and different artists and styles and, if anything, we want to honor that. Other shows pick one particular style and go with it. I was on a series called Ugly Americans and it had a very specific style. You know, Robot Chicken has a very specific style. But we’re trying to incorporate all of that and be a hub of cartoon chaos and comedy. You will see so many different styles from photo-collage to flash to stop-motion and for each one of those styles I just mentioned we have at least three companies that just do that style. So you’ll get three different styles of stop-motion and three different styles of photo-collage and so on. It’s like an animation film festival.

MAD parodies Bambi with…Zombie.

A lot of these shows nowadays would not have existed without MAD existing from 1952 on. There are so many shows out there who talk about how MAD was such an inspiration. The Zucker Brothers talk about how it influenced them to make Airplane! and all their movies. Even Robot Chicken owes a debt. We all know where we developed our comedy roots and those roots really took shape as kids and a lot of them had to with MAD. So it really just felt right, at this point, to move the spotlight back to the mother of all comedy mags.

IGN: What were some of your fondest recollections of the magazine from when you were a kid?

Kevin Shinick: As a kid I wasn’t allowed to go see

IGN: What’s the balance on this new series between parodies, segments, fake ads and such?

Kevin Shinick: We’ve tried to mimic the magazine where, if you remember, every magazine started with a movie parody, ended with a TV parody and in between it had fake ads and Spy vs. Spy and all that. Every episode we do will start with a movie parody and end with a TV parody. Those will be our anchors. But in between we’ll have fake promos and fake shows and just like you might expect we’ll have Spy vs. Spy, a Don Martin section and a Sergio Aragones section.

Mark Marek: And speaking on that balance, between the old and the new, any of those characters we use who you would consider old or from the “old guard” of MAD are going to feel current because MAD is about current humor. Any issue you picked up or anything with the MAD branding has to be current. We’re not going to use Sergio Aragones if he’s not current. And, of course, he’s very current with humorous topics. It’s all going to feel as fresh as it ever has felt.

IGN: What kind of parodies can we expect to see?

Kevin Shinick: Well, we try to hit the big ones first, so right out of the gate we have Avaturd. We’ve got Trans-BORE-mers.

Mark Marek: Star Blech. CSiCarly on the TV side. Batman Family Feud.

Kevin Shinick: Grey’s Ananime. We’ve got a ton so chances are there’ll be something you like because with 26 episodes there’s a lot out there that needs to be skewered.

MAD‘s 2012 spoof.

Mark Marek: And Kevin usually mashes them a bit which is great because it’s not just one thing – like with CSiCarly. It’s not just one TV show. He takes a couple, or three or four, and mashes them together it really speaks to our culture in a great way.

Kevin Shinick: Like we’ve got one called Dark Knight at the Museum. And you get the feeling of

: I think our take on it is that we wanted to make it like MAD magazine editors were putting on a show, just as they did with the magazine, and they’d want to pull a lot of different styles together and a lot of different artists together. And animation is a great medium to work with because, aside from the movie and TV parodies being a certain way – in what we would call long-form – the rest is 11 minutes of high-speed variety that just doesn’t allow you to get bored.: The great thing about the magazine was that it was a collection of different writers and different artists and styles and, if anything, we want to honor that. Other shows pick one particular style and go with it. I was on a series called Ugly Americans and it had a very specific style. You know, Robot Chicken has a very specific style. But we’re trying to incorporate all of that and be a hub of cartoon chaos and comedy. You will see so many different styles from photo-collage to flash to stop-motion and for each one of those styles I just mentioned we have at least three companies that just do that style. So you’ll get three different styles of stop-motion and three different styles of photo-collage and so on. It’s like an animation film festival.A lot of these shows nowadays would not have existed without MAD existing from 1952 on. There are so many shows out there who talk about how MAD was such an inspiration. The Zucker Brothers talk about how it influenced them to make Airplane! and all their movies. Even Robot Chicken owes a debt. We all know where we developed our comedy roots and those roots really took shape as kids and a lot of them had to with MAD. So it really just felt right, at this point, to move the spotlight back to the mother of all comedy mags.: As a kid I wasn’t allowed to go see The Omen because I wasn’t old enough. But I was able to read about it because of MAD magazine. And I always use that as an example because it sticks in my memory because sometimes the kids at school would talk about a certain movie and I wouldn’t know what it was, but then I could read MAD and have a safe filter where I wasn’t going to be scared or scarred. And it was funny because I begged my mother to take me to see Omen II because Omen I was so hilarious according to MAD. And then I saw it and I was scared out of my wits.: We’ve tried to mimic the magazine where, if you remember, every magazine started with a movie parody, ended with a TV parody and in between it had fake ads and Spy vs. Spy and all that. Every episode we do will start with a movie parody and end with a TV parody. Those will be our anchors. But in between we’ll have fake promos and fake shows and just like you might expect we’ll have Spy vs. Spy, a Don Martin section and a Sergio Aragones section.: And speaking on that balance, between the old and the new, any of those characters we use who you would consider old or from the “old guard” of MAD are going to feel current because MAD is about current humor. Any issue you picked up or anything with the MAD branding has to be current. We’re not going to use Sergio Aragones if he’s not current. And, of course, he’s very current with humorous topics. It’s all going to feel as fresh as it ever has felt.: Well, we try to hit the big ones first, so right out of the gate we have Avaturd. We’ve got Trans-BORE-mers.: Star Blech. CSiCarly on the TV side. Batman Family Feud.: Grey’s Ananime. We’ve got a ton so chances are there’ll be something you like because with 26 episodes there’s a lot out there that needs to be skewered.: And Kevin usually mashes them a bit which is great because it’s not just one thing – like with CSiCarly. It’s not just one TV show. He takes a couple, or three or four, and mashes them together it really speaks to our culture in a great way.: Like we’ve got one called Dark Knight at the Museum. And you get the feeling of The Dark Knight mixed with the characters from Night at the Museum . It stops it from being dated. Because it’s not necessarily the movie you saw, it’s its own creation. There’s going to be a lot of variety in it. And that’s the great thing about the show. And we’re officially on Cartoon Network, not on Adult Swim. But the idea was that Adult Swim was to expand its hours to 9:00pm, which is already done, and they wanted MAD to bridge the gap between and really set the tone for what the shows were on Adult Swim. That way MAD is one of the last things you see on Cartoon Network before it becomes Adult Swim. And I think it’ll be a nice transition.

MAD premieres on Monday, September 6th at 8:30/7:30c on Cartoon Network.