Last week I swung by Hollywood-based Titmouse Studios to have lunch with Shannon and Chris Prynoski, or Chris P as he’s known in animation circles. You know his work from ‘MTV’s Downtown’ and ‘Megas XLR’ and the awe inspiring hallucination sequence from ‘Beavis and Butthead Do America.’ You’ve also seen Chris’ stamp on Velvet Revolver’s recent music video and in ‘The Osbournes’ title sequence. And now he and his wife Shannon have added Flash into their production pipeline.

Their expansive, still-being-fleshed-out studio is now home to Brendon Small’s (‘Home Movies’) Adult Swim show – ‘DETHKLOK: Metalocalypse The Prophesy Of Metal A Metal Dynasty Operation Metal,’ as it’s tentatively titled. The show was co-created by Tommy Blacha, who wrote for ‘Conan O’Brien.’ Adult Swim is touting it as “Spinal Tap meets Scooby Doo meets Norway.” Yeesh! Talk about formula. All kidding aside, from what I saw while touring Titmouse, ‘Dethklok’ looks hysterical and abundantly metal.

Chris and Shannon seem to have built their studio for exactly this type of project. They’ve got a brand new recording studio, a comfortable Final Cut editing suite and some of the best Flash talent in the city. It’s this type of all-under-one-roof method of production that allows Titmouse to keep the animation state-side on a 20-episode series.

Beyond animation, Titmouse is also about breakin’ shit. If you’ve ever attended a Titmouse Smashing Party, you know of what I speak. It’s random destruction as an excuse to have a party, and the video from last October’s event says it all. And I also have it on good authority that the Prynoski duo are planning an Animation Studio Ping Pong league. The plan is to pit LA animation shops against eachother in a battle for the coveted Titmouse Table Tennis Trophy. Okay, I made up that last part, but it sounds like a perfect excuse for a t-shirt competition.

If you’re interested in more ‘Dethklok’ info – check out Brendon Small’s MySpace site, his metal MP3′s, the Film Force article and an article in the Daily Nebraskan where Small breaks it down.

If you’re in the market, Titmouse is actually looking for Flash animators. Email Keith@titmouse.net for more info.

‘Squidbillies,’ the new Flash-animated series from the Williams Street team, premiered last night on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. It’s a fast-moving, highly-entertaining romp through the mountains of Georgia, where a giant, man eating snake lives next door to a squids. While the animation is simple, the gritty, hand-drawn character line work set against the almost sloppily painted backgrounds give the show a refreshing and new look.

The opening title cards of the first episode walk us through the ‘Squidbillies’ development stage.

SQUIDBILLIES PRODUCTION TIMELINE
“Squid” and “hillbillies” combined to make “Squidbillies”
Pilot made
Pilot revised
New Pilot made with 6 producers
(The number ’6′ then counts down to ’2′)
We like it!
Greenlit to Series
6 episodes ordered
20 episodes ordered
(the number ’20′ then counts down to 16)

Can’t say I’ve seen a show that recounted the rocky road it took to get to air even before a frame of animation goes by. Very clever.

‘Squidbillies’ feels like a late-nite, animation mixture of ‘Mr. Show’ and the Coen Brothers’ classic film ‘Raising Arizona,’ complete with what appears to be an homage to Nick Cage’s character – the show lead is named ‘Early’ Cuyler. And the humor is on par with ‘Arizona.’ In the first episode, titled ‘This Show is Called Squidbillies,’ the sheriff is in Early’s house getting a haircut, and he confronts Early’s sister, Lil, about what appears to be a moonshine rig:

SHERIFF
Did you know that moonshine is illegal here in this county?

LIL
Oh, that’s just my meth lab.

And Early’s mom, Granny, is confined to a home, but comes correct with unrestrained dialogue:

GRANNY
It’s God’s honest truth. When Jesus was president, he ate babies all the time.

It all goes by extremely fast, like most Adult Swim shows, so it’s almost imperative to watch this show repeatedly. You don’t want to miss Early’s sexual passion for pumpkins, the Space Baby, Early’s ‘Breathe if You’re Horny’ hat or the title cards at the end of the show that explain how graphic sex made it into the first episode.

If you missed last night’s show, you can check out a clip from an episode at the Adult Swim site.

Starting this month, Adult Swim has unveiled ‘Stroker & Hoop,’ a new Flash-animated series from the talented Atlanta-based Williams St. studio. The show follows Stroker, “a private eye still mastering the art of sleuthing, and his partner Hoop, self-proclaimed master of disguise. Together with their disobedient talking hatchback C.A.R.R., they’ll help anyone dumb enough to respond to their 1/8-page ad in the yellow pages.” The show is written and created by Casper Kelly and Jeff Olsen, and 6 episodes are currently in rotation on Adult Swim, with 6 more on the way in November. Three short episode clips are currently available for viewing at the Adult Swim website.

(UPDATE – AWN posted an article stating a September release of ‘Squidbillies.’ Six episodes are reportedly on tap.)

You may already know that the ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force‘ creators, Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro have been hard at work preparing a theatrical version of ‘ATHF.’ But what you may not know is that this same duo has been called upon to create a second original show for Adult Swim – ‘Squidbillies.’ This project has actually been in the works (first announced in March 2004) for quite some time, but all signs point to a July 2005 release for this Flash-animated show set in the North Georgia mountains.

A ‘Squidbillies’ pilot aired back in November 2004, and you can get a glimpse of the show’s unique look by downloading two promo clips from the Adult Swim Fruitcake site. The loose, folk-art background style looks amazing, and the character design seems like a mixture of refrigerator art and ‘Beavis and Butthead.’

The original announcement at the 2004 upfronts gave the following synopsis of the show:

Five million years ago, the Atlantic Ocean covered North America all the way to the Ohio Valley. As the ocean receded to form our present-day geography, a family of squids was stranded in a remote setting in the North Georgia mountains. This motley melange of mischievous mollusks, influenced by the rural ways of the redneck locals, quickly “adapticise” to a world of fighting, feuding and fornicating with a Faulknerian flambé of ferocious sea creature livin’. The humor lies in the “adapticization.”

It was only 2 years ago, we must remind ourselves, that Flash barely had a toe-hold in any major US animation studios. There was ‘Mucha Lucha’ at Warner Bros. Animation, the Disney Channel shorts ‘The Proud Family Shorties,’ and the ill-fated ‘Kid Notorious’ at Comedy Central.

But check this out – as of today, there’s at least 9 Flash animated shows on (or soon to come on) US television.

1 Mucha Lucha – Warner Bros. Animation

2 Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Show – Cartoon Network

3 Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends – Cartoon Network

4 Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law – Adult Swim, Cartoon Network

5 Atomic Betty – Cartoon Network

6 The Venture Bros. – Adult Swim

7 Katbot – Disney (coming soon, I hear)

8 Omega Dome – Noodlesoup (coming soon)

9 Maggie – Disney TV Animation (coming soon)

I’m not positive on Katbot or Omega Dome, but the rumors are leaning that way. Regardless, it’s been quite an impressive run for ol’ Flash TV animation, once pronounced dead on the floor of the big internet bubble. That being said, most of these are being animated overseas or up north in Canada. But, as studios are quickly learning, the ability to do on-the-fly retakes, and maintain extremely strick on-model accuracy throughout a production is a huge plus.

Long live Flash animation!