{"id":1087,"date":"2008-08-04T09:16:30","date_gmt":"2008-08-04T16:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=1087"},"modified":"2008-08-04T09:16:30","modified_gmt":"2008-08-04T16:16:30","slug":"animating-buffy-words-with-jeph-loeb-circa-2002-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=1087","title":{"rendered":"Animating Buffy: Words with Jeph Loeb Circa 2002, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I’ve mentioned enough to seem like a clinging namedropper, I used to write for the Official Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine. I think I mention it a lot because it was really cool and really fun and maybe the best job ever right out of college, but maybe I mention it so much because I’m desperate to hang onto a slight wisp of geek cred that’s well past its sell date.<\/p>\n

This is a piece I wrote in 2002 for the mag after it was sold off to Titan over in the UK; I freelanced for them for a good while, before moving on to other things. As long as I don’t get a C&D, I’ll post occasional bits like this until I run out of them. Inspired by the YouTubeing of the Buffy Animated demo reel (or part of it?), here’s a piece I wrote about Buffy Animated when it was young and possible, featuring quotes aplenty from exec producer Jeph Loeb.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow: The interview leftovers that never saw print.<\/em><\/p>\n

Just as the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, so also is the road to television success paved with the ink and paint-drenched corpses of pathetic cartoon spinoffs. Usually, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because those who did the spinning couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave well enough alone. When Fonzie and the Happy Days gang became a cartoon, did they need to hang out with a time-traveling babe in her spaceship? Or when Laverne and Shirley got animated, did they need to join the army–with a talking pig as their superior officer?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer joins the ranks of live-action shows adapted to animation, there will be no time-traveling babes or talking pigs–well, unless you count Anya or the late, lamented Principal Flutie. Buffy Animated will rely solely on what has made Buffy so successful in live-action for the past six seasons–humor, horror, and heaping gobs of character.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As with everything with Joss [Whedon], it begins with character,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Jeph Loeb, who shares executive producing duties on Buffy Animated with Whedon. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interested in telling a story–and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s generally about Buffy–about how Buffy feels about a particular subject. From that comes the metaphor–which monster, demon, vamp or situation best allows us to exploit that character moment?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n
\nThe animated series will also return Buffy and the Scooby Gang back to the glory days of the Slayer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first year in Sunnydale–what the production team calls \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Buffy: Year One,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d referring to Frank Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Batman comic book series about the first year in the Caped Crusader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be telling half-hour stories in which Buffy is a reluctant Slayer trying to balance her duties and her dating life, Willow is a quiet geek with a penchant for the library, and Xander rattles off one-liners while pining over Buffy. The return to Buffy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s earliest era has provided some unbelievably fertile ground in which to plant the seeds of stories.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably a hundred, hundred and fifty stories that we have,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Loeb jokes. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153After that, I think we might have to worry about year two. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not real concerned about whether or not there will be stories to tell. Whenever Joss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 eyes light up and he gets that mischevious smile that he has, and he suddenly says, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWe were gonna tell this story,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost like a campfire tale. In other words, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that opportunity to tell an episode of Buffy he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a chance to tell because Buffy graduated. So now we get to go and do that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

When it comes to design, the production team has aimed at a lofty standard–Batman: The Animated Series, which premiered in 1992. The show exhibited a few characteristics uncommon in children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s animated series: It told compelling stories that could easily draw in adults, and it told those stories using stylized, gorgeous animation. Though Buffy Animated will have its own look, Loeb and Whedon aim to set a new standard for television animation through similar means–strong storytelling and bold visuals.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When Joss and I first sat down to talk about the show, one of the first of many things that we agreed on was that animation on television–and I mean this with no disrespect to the people who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done fine work through the years–it tends to fall into two camps,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Loeb explains. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There was a benchmark that was set, if you can believe this, ten years ago by Batman Animated. That, in turn, spawned Superman Animated and Batman Beyond, and now Justice League. All that stuff is great, and then everything else is The Smurfs. We all have a great affection for Papa Smurf, and some of us have a great affection for Smurfette, but we try not to talk about that. What Joss set his sights on was to set that benchmark again, to let people say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWe should have a show that looks as good as Buffy Animated.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

To reach that benchmark, Loeb and Whedon have turned to the very people who have brought the live-action Buffy to the screen for the past six seasons. Most of the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cast will be performing their character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voices on the show, with the possible exception of Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz, both of whom may be too busy with their commitments as stars of Buffy and Angel. Also on board are the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writers, who have relished the opportunity to sink their teeth once again into Buffy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s high school career.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because our writing staff is the Buffy writing staff, a lot of folks–Jane Espenson, Steve DeKnight–who came on the show in later seasons never got a chance to work with some of these dynamics,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Loeb says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They never got to do stories where Willow likes Xander, Xander likes Buffy, Buffy has a crush on Angel and Angel hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reciprocated yet. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the fun–to be able to go back and do that sort of thing. The golden rule around here is that Buffy writers do Buffy Live first, which works out fine. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enough writers around here, and everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cool, and because the animated series is only a half-hour, a script can be written in less time. For me, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been the wheel of fortune; I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lose.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Though the show will draw on Buffy talent and will plant its feet firmly in the Buffyverse, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also designed to stand alone as a show that can be enjoyed whether you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re new to the characters or whether you can recite entire scenes of dialogue from Buffy in your sleep. All the familiar characters will be present and the Hellmouth is still in Sunnydale, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to wear its continuity with the live-action Buffy too blatantly on its sleeve.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There will be some things that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be able to draw a line from A to B and say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThey used that character because that fits right in with this particular episode,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Loeb says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to do that so much that people who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never seen the show are going, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand. Why did they just say that?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a big believer in making something for a brand-new audience that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accessible. But if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to make something that has as loyal and terrific a following as the Buffy following is, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to make sure you deliver a show for them that makes them feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a companion, part of the legend.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

For Loeb, a successful and critically-acclaimed comics writer who has delivered groundbreaking runs on characters from Batman to the X-Men, the appeal of working on Buffy Animated wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just the chance to work with Joss Whedon–though that was a draw–or the opportunity to play in the Buffyverse. Loeb was also drawn to Buffy because of what she represents to pop culture, and what he believes her adventures can do to the realm of television animation.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can go back to when I first started on the show and I was walking around Westwood with my wife,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Loeb says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I remember saying that aside from everything else that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s involved, it was also an opportunity to add to the mythos of a character who has become a modern pop icon. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had that opportunity to do that with Superman and Batman, and Daredevil and the X-Men. But you get around to working in television in the last five years, and you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find a lot of characters that really defined the way that TV is made the way that Buffy has. It defined the way that people were going to look at one-hour teen dramas from that point on. What we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re hoping is that the animated series does the same thing for animated shows. Right now, everything is compared to Batman Animated, particularly if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the superhero genre. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re always going to have to use that as your benchmark. Well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to have something else.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I’ve mentioned enough to seem like a clinging namedropper, I used to write for the Official Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine. I think I mention it a lot because it was really cool and really fun and maybe the best job ever right out of college, but maybe I mention it so much because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}