July 23rd, 2021 
Jackson Murphy 
San Diego Comic-Con is once again @Home for its 2021 edition. More than 20 major animated series are presenting virtual panels this weekend for fans to enjoy. Here are the highlights from the Friday batch:
Paramount+ kicked it all off with a look at two new shows. First up: Star Trek: Prodigy, a CG “Star Trek” series from Nickelodeon premiering this Fall. The moderator was Jerry O’Connell, who’s very much in the Paramount family, through his voice work on Star Trek: Lower Decks (which also presented a trailer for Season 2, premiering August 12th) and his new gig as co-host of CBS daytime staple “The Talk”.
According to O’Connell, “Prodigy” is “the first ST series aimed at younger audiences. It will follow a motley crew of young aliens who must figure out how to work together while navigating a greater galaxy in search of a better future.” Co-EP Dan Hageman added, “This is the very first Star Trek series that’s actually going to be through the eyes of characters who are outside of Starfleet.” Director Ben Hibon was also part of the panel: “It’s not just designed for kids. It’s designed for lovers of animation. For lovers of sci-fi. Kids should watch it with their parents and vice verse, and we wanted to really make sure it has that kind of visual impact.”
And coming September 16th to Paramount+ is the hand-drawn adult series The Harper House, from creator Brad Neely. It stars the voices of Rhea Seehorn (who was terrific in recent Netflix thriller “Things Heard & Seen”), Jason Lee and Tatiana Maslany (who was not part of the panel). Seehorn, who voices mom Debbie, is a big fan of this ‘family moves into a new neighborhood’ comedy: “A lot of the marriages in animation and the relationships between parents and children don’t always get to be as authentic and sincere as Brad is allowing in his scripts.” Lee (star of “My Name Is Earl” and the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” franchise) really likes that “these people are just who they are.”
Next up… from Adult Swim… Tuca & Bertie. New episodes of Season 2 air Sundays at 11:30pm. This panel was moderated by Adam Conover, host of truTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything” and the partner of “T&B” creator, Lisa Hanawalt. Before debuting a clip from this Sunday’s episode, Hanawalt shared some thoughts on making S2. “It’s awful being on Zoom sometimes. You don’t want to be on it for more than an hour. So I would limit the writers’ room each day to a couple hours and I had to be a little more organized about what we were doing each day.” She later added, “I feel like the show is unique. I made the show I wanted to see in the world.”
Three Adventure Time: Distant Lands specials have already premiered on HBO Max. When asked if Part 3 “Together Again” (which debuted on May 20th) was truly the end of Finn & Jake, John DiMaggio (who voices Jake) said, “Anything is possible. I’ve seen so many shows come back to life because somebody found a way to tell more stories. It wouldn’t surprise me, especially with the creative team of this show.” Special No. 4, “Wizard City”, is coming later this year. EP Adam Muto unveiled some key art and said, “Nobody’s ever done anything about a wizard school. So we thought that would be cool.” He then laughed. In all seriousness, he believes this is “a chance to explore the lure of that place and see more of it.”
The first five episodes of creator Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revelation are now streaming on Netflix. Smith, a Comic-Con legend, moderated this panel and discussed his passion for this series. “Animation really penetrates when you hear performances that are as good as what you’d see in live-action.” One of them is from Sarah Michelle Gellar, who voices Teela. “When I was younger, cartoons were really aimed at boys – and aimed at girls. It was very divided. He-Man was definitely sort of a male-centric cartoon. When I first read the script [I] realized that Kevin was bringing this into a whole new generation – to girls, boys, adults, kids and to everybody in between. It doesn’t matter how you identify. There’s a part of each of these characters that you can identify with in the story.”
Teenage Euthanasia is a new Adult Swim animated series coming this Fall from co-creators Alyson Levy and Alissa Nutting. Nutting explained the show’s genesis and plot: “I’m always thrilled by the universe’s ability for people to find whoever’s on their uniquely weird frequency and just come together… against all odds. It’s about a teenager. Her full name is Euthanasia. People call her Annie for short. She was abandoned at birth by her teen mother, Trophy, who unfortunately killed herself. Her body was shipped home to the family funeral home for burial, but thanks to an accident with Florida lightning and some of Baba’s homemade embalming fluid, she was resurrected. [Trophy and Annie] have a second chance at mother/daughter-hood.”
Two-time Emmy and two-time Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth voices Baba. She revealed that she was looking for a voiceover gig during the pandemic. Her agent reached out to her about this. After reading the script and finding it very funny, Neuwirth auditioned and was “fortunate enough to be cast”.
The second season of Duncanville currently airs Mondays at 9:30pm on FOX. And the makers are already hard at work on Season 3. Co-creator and star Amy Poehler discussed voicing both Duncan and Annie. “We kind of got a nice system down where I do all of Annie’s stuff first because Annie’s stuff is always really driving story and very energetic and… you really need a good voice for that. And then Duncan you need nothing. You could do it lying down. (Laughs) When Duncan’s talking, all he’s doing is thinking about when he can stop talking. The more trashed my voice is at that point, the better.”
Rick and Morty is in the middle of its fifth season, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 11pm on Adult Swim. The makers got into talking about Rick’s relationship with Summer. Showrunner and EP Scott Marder began: “Season 5 definitely explores some friction between Rick and Morthy, which leaves some openings for Summer to jump in, and she’s super capable when called up. It’s not fair how little [Rick] looks to her because when he does, she’s normally more with it than Morty.
Creator Dan Harmon jumped in: “It’s kind of an older sister thing where you become a babysitter if you have a little brother. Rick entrusts her with a lot of stuff that he wouldn’t entrust Morty with and yet he doesn’t, plain and simple, go on adventures with her. It’s kind of a backhanded compliment.” Spencer Grammer (the voice of Summer herself) added, “I don’t think [Rick] can exploit Summer as much as he can exploit Morty.” Towards the end of the panel, Rick and Morty actually called in, briefly interacting with moderator Brandon Johnson.
And finally… it’s the new CG anime series Blade Runner: Black Lotus, premiering this Fall on Adult Swim. Executive Producer Joseph Chou translated for co-director Kenji Kaniyama: “As far as the timeline goes, this series actually falls in between an event called the Black Out at the end of the first movie… and the chaos that starts from it in the second film, Blade Runner 2049. We’re thinking maybe 2032 but we were laughing because – hey! – 2033 sounds much better.” Chou added, “We’re trying to anchor it from the perspective of the replicant that’s hunted, but also a female hero [Elle] who happens to just be trapped in this world…” The makers unveiled a key art poster and trailer featuring a song from singer and “The Willoughbys” voice actress Alessia Cara.
Look for more SDCC@Home coverage all weekend right here on Animation Scoop!
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