Hotel Transylvania Director Genndy Tartakovsky Uses Looney Tunes Logic To Push Animation Envelope

You’re doing Popeye next?

I’m developing Popeye next, hopefully for 2014. We're just now getting into it.  I'm also developing one of my own original ideas.

What is it about Popeye that appeals to you?

I think it’s the animation. He’s really not timeless. When you look at the old cartoons, they feel dated, but for me, it’s the animation: the absurdity, the exaggeration. The whole reason I did it was that I wanted to make a physical animated comedy in which 90 percent of the jokes are based on physical gags and the animation. Rather than a movie that is 70 percent is dialogue driven and 30 percent physical humor.  There’s nothing that wakes you up more than when you’re sitting with a test audience that consists of a bunch of kids and all of the dialogue jokes fall flat.  Kids are big into physical humor. You know, in Hotel Transylvania when Frankenstein dives off the tentacle into the pool, that’s a really old joke. You’ve seen that kind of thing before, but man, every time, the kids and adults go crazy.

Are you ever going to revisit Samurai Jack or the Powerpuff Girls?   Cartoon Network is not what it used to be anymore. And I think your absence has a lot to do with that.

Well, thank you, but there’s definitely a new crop of creators that came in. When I was doing Sym-Bionic Titan I met them,  and they definitely have a very different point of view and different type of storytelling. And it made me feel kind of old in a way. I was like, wow, look at this type of storytelling and drawing.  It was a really weird transition for me.  You know, in film and in music, you can feel out of date. And so, I didn’t think I was, but seeing what people were buying made me kind of question myself, you know?

But as far as revisiting stuff, for sure, I want to make a Samurai Jack movie or do miniseries — finish the story.

I would like to encourage you to do that. The visuals and the storytelling were so original, with a touch of retro.  

Every year, someone gets interested in making a Jack movie whether it be live action or animated, or whatever. And, you know, they came to me with things that they love about the show. And then as soon as they try to make it a movie, they take those very things out. And I always point out to them: the reason you like the show is the reason it works.  I feel like I have a very clear vision of what Jack could be as a movie, and ideally it’s a 2D movie. We’ll see.  The one really surprising thing is that doing these interviews for the movie, I would say that 70-80 percent of people ask me this question. And I feel like Jack is more popular now than when it was on the air.

What’s in your pantheon of animated films.

For me it’s definitely Tex Avery, Warner Brothers, some Goofy shorts, animation from UPA [United Productions of America]. Miyazaki — some of the older Miyazaki. That, combined with my love of Sergio Leone and Hitchcock and The Godfather and Apocalypse Now and Animal House and a little John Hughes. All of that stuff melted all together is where my style came from — I think.  It’s hard to analyze, but I know what I like.

The Godfather, Part I or II? What’s your favorite?

Both of them. It’s hard to choose.  They’re both so great.

If there’s every going to be true convergence of video games, movies and animation, you seem like a guy who could be at that nexus.  What video games do you like?   

I have an 11-year-old son and he plays Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed, and all of those games. And the graphics are incredible and very realistic. And then I pull out Robotron (LAUGHS) or Galaga or some other games I grew up with, and there’s something so much more appealing in the game play. What's funny is I can’t play his games, and he can’t play my games.  I’m a pretty coordinated person, but I still have a hard time with those first-person run around and shoot-em games. I don’t know, maybe I just haven’t played enough, but I always kind of quit. At the same time, my son has a harder time with Joust, where it’s the simplest hand-eye coordination mechanical thing. It’s a really interesting dynamic so for me. I haven’t been involved in the modern video games as much. I haven’t found that middle ground for me. Yet.

Do you think you like the older games because you have such a fertile imagination and the older games require you to use it more? 

Maybe. That’s an interesting point. But I remember when the first Call of Duty games came out . I’m actually a World War II buff, and [on World at War] you can play the Battle of Stalingrad. You could be a Russian sniper. I was so excited by that, and I bought it and I tried playing it — and within half an hour I was bored. It wasn’t what I wanted it to be. Maybe you’re on to something that I want to picture a world rather than have it completely expressed — even though I love to get a movie and escape into a world.

What about comics?  Are there any titles or illustrators that you like? 

I’m definitely a comics fan, but I haven’t bought any new comics for a long time.  In comic books, I always follow artists.  So, I bought everything Frank Miller , John Byrne and George Perez did. I bought anything that they drew, and sometimes the stories were great. Sometimes they weren’t.  But I really loved the art.  Nowadays, the drawing styles have changed and I’m not super into this super overly rendered stuff.  I’ll go into comic book stores, and I ‘ll look at all the different comics, and 80 percent of the time, I don’t end up buying anything. I also haven’t had the time to really get into anything new.   But look, times have changed and they’ve gotten more detail-oriented and something about it holds me back.

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