SSSSSPLENDID!

Rounding up the third installment of Happy Tree Friends Ka-Pow! Series is Splendid's SSSSSuper Squad! When we first sat down with Kenn Navarro (fearless creator of HTF), it was clear, since we were dealing with superheroes, that our main objective was to make this episode epic.

How could you not go epic with this logo?? (courtesy of Dean MacDonald)

Like the Flippy and Buddhist Monkey shorts, we were given a lot of creative latitude to design a new world for Splendid. I decided to try to give the the whole short a classic Hanna Barbera sensibility but with an edge. In reality, what that translated to was lots of crying over designs by masters like Benedict, Kellman, and Crawford.

Here are more snapshots of our step-by-step:

Initial beat sheet from Kenn, Kenn Pontac, and Warren Graff.

My tiny tiny boards.

We had a stellar crew. Many of whom have thrown punches for us before. Check out this all-star cast:

World's Finest Character Layout: Chris Battle

Fantastic BG design: Brad Gake

Uncanny BG color: Leticia Lacy

Invincible Cleanup: Kris Toscanini/Jamaica Dyer

And of course our All Star Animators without whom nothing would have moved: Sam Chi, Tony Cliff, Jayson Thiessen, Joel Reid, Kris Toscanini, and two yahoos named Alan and Brad.

Jim Lively (sound design) and Jerome Rossen (music) took both my ears and injected them with Power Cosmic.

And last but not least, our Ultimate Producer, Corrine Wong took our crazy whirlwind and focused it so that we could punch a mere piece of straw into a giant oak tree.

Couldn't have asked for a better crew or a more fun project. I hope we can do it again.

Excelsior!