A young hero…
An epic journey…
An epic struggle of good versus evil to redeem two worlds: the real world where he was born and the cartoon world that he visits…
Given the fact that I was an autistic kid who is strangely obsessed with Dexter’s Lab or Samurai Jack or whatever, however, like James Cameron, the filmmaker behind Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), I, Timothy McKenzie, wanted to create a familiar type of epic adventure (and epic Avatar-esque love story) across two distinct worlds connected to each other by portals (especially those inside TV screens) allowing free passage between the two worlds (as is the case of Oz, Narnia, and Wonderland)–by telling the epic coming-of-age saga of a live action human teenage guy and his adventures back-and-forth between the real world where he was born and the animated cartoon world that he visits as well as the live action human guy’s unlikely yet cute love with an animated cartoon teenage Japanese female, as well as his epic struggles against the evil, demonic, god-like sorcerer (presumably based on Samurai Jack’s nemesis Aku), Khan Morgo.
I had always dreamed of making a movie or a series of movies like all that–set in two worlds: one representing real-world live action reality; the other representing animated Genndy Tartakovsky (and presumably Samurai Jack-style) cartoon fantasy–ever since I was presumably fifteen years old or younger.
Well, this may sound like every other Chosen One/Hero’s Journey story in existence, but here is the plot summary:
“Brandon Robertson is a seemingly normal teenage guy living in small-town Maryland with his father and mother (Arthur and Mary) and two brothers (Stuart and Martin, aka Stu and Marty), who on his seventeenth birthday discovers that he really isn’t normal at all, for his father, Arthur Robertson was the eleventh ToonTalker—a human who can talk to, communicate with and interact with cartoon characters as well as bring balance to the two worlds and protect the two worlds from Khan Morgo, the dark lord of the cartoon world—and that Brandon might as well be the one who can finally defeat the godlike demon wizard and restore order to the real and cartoon peoples.
And so begins Brandon’s adventures back-and-forth between the human world and the cartoon world, where he meets all kinds of characters ranging from a boy genius (patterned after Dexter’s Laboratory’s Dexter himself, but less arrogant than he!) to three ethnic girls (patterned after Dexter’s Laboratory’s Dee Dee (white and blonde) Mee Mee (African American) and Lee Lee (Asian)!) to a brave samurai swordsman (patterned after Samurai Jack himself!)
He also falls in love with Lillian Taiayaki, an animated teenage Japanese female toon who aided Brandon the most in his many adventures back-and-forth between the real and cartoon worlds.”
In addition, and this may make someone think of the changing aspect ratios in Douglas Trumbull’s 1983 science fiction vehicle Brainstorm, I also planned to separate reality from fantasy, the human world from the toon world by showing Brandon’s live action home in Maryland in primarily in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio:
…and by showing Lillian’s highly stylized Samurai Jack-style animated Genndy Tartakovsky-esque cartoon domain by widening the screen to the scope aspect ratio of 2.39:1:
As for the animation in ToonTalker itself, not only I wanted it to be mostly 2d and largely drawn by hand (even though computers as well as some Flash and some CGI will still be used), but, as far as Hollywood feature animation quality standards go, I also wanted the animation (and especially the animation quality in ToonTalker) to look as though you as an audience are watching something or someone out of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack (which I cite as one of, or if not, my favorite TV show and cartoon of all time), but on the big screen and in a big screen rectangle aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and on a bigger budget than the actual series of Samurai Jack that aired between 2001 and 2004.
Even though I didn't know whether or not I have seen Ralph Bakshi’s Cool World (1992) except for on what is now SyFy Channel so many years ago, some of you guys more recently pointed out to me that what I envisioned for what might become the ‘ToonTalker’ saga might be just like Ralph Bakshi’s 1992 swan song (Cool World, which is yet another—but more perverted—variation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) (which is itself the ultimate animated cartoon-meets-live action reality fantasy)—certainly as far as the concept of a live action human guy (in ToonTalker’s case, a teenage white guy) going to another dimension where cartoons (or, in another case of ToonTalker, highly-stylized Genndy Tartakovsky/Samurai Jack-style (and Genndy Tartakovsky/Samurai Jack-influenced) animated cartoon characters) live and has a forbidden or unlikely love with an animated female (or an animated teenage Japanese female, as is yet another case of ToonTalker) is concerned—but not only would it be told this time as something of a colossal, (and presumably multi-chapter), dinosaur-infused animated Genndy Tartakovsky/Samurai Jack-style cartoon-meets-live action reality coming of age saga as well as an epic, James Cameron’s Avatar-esque love story involving a live action teenage human white guy and an animated teenage Japanese female toon, but ToonTalker might also hopefully be—even in its final, finished form—far cooler, far more effective, and far more endearing than Ralph Bakshi’s Cool World (1992).
And given that, according to DookyIKRDooky’s tumblr, “The closest an animated / live-action love story came about was Ralph Bakshi’s original plan for Cool World before Paramount and Kim Basinger nerfed it, and it was going to be a black comedy horror movie that would have dealt with a inter-racial bastard off-spring”… I think it is not really surprising that an “epic, Avatar-esque” love story of a live-action human and a cartoon, just like what my ToonTalker idea have laid out (considering that the live action human in my ToonTalker idea would be a teenage white guy and the cartoon that the live action human falls in love with in my ToonTalker idea would be a teenage Japanese female), would actually be the last thing that any animation producer in Hollywood would want to make. Especially with the tonal shifts my idea would probably bring. And just like DookIKRDooky have said, it would all come back to when Hollywood animation attempted to be dramatically epic and failed in past movies like Pocahontas (1995), The Prince of Egypt (1998) and most recently The Leafmen (also known as Epic) (2013).
Therefore, it looks like I might well have to wait then until I would determine the time will be right someday for me to someday make this idea for an “epic, Avatar-esque” love story that I call ToonTalker, which invovles a live action teenage human white guy and an animated teenage Japanese female cartoon, but I could still pay homage and tribute to Genndy Tartakovsky’s Cartoon Network work (mainly Samurai Jack but also Dexter’s Laboratory) in ways best suited to Genndy’s talent and genius.
But hopefully, ToonTalker should stand as one of the fantastic cinema’s most epic achievements, an epic fantasy that might reveal greater depths with each and every viewing, and it will also be something of a landmark in animated movies whether be hand drawn or CGI: not only would the junction of live action and animation should surely be well handled a little like Robert Zemeckis and Richard WIlliams’ Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), but the creativity of ToonTalker’s animation will also equal and will be on a par with that for Genndy Tartakovsky’s Cartoon Network show, Samurai Jack (2001-2004), even though it might also be part live action movie with highly-stylized cartoon characters and creatures harking back visually (and in terms of visual style, design style, and drawing style) to those from the Samurai Jack cartoon show looking as if they’ll threaten to spill out of the screen and into our laps in 3-D: the climactic epic battle scenes during which–starting at the stroke of midnight–the highly stylized Genndy Tartakovsky/Samurai Jack-esque cartoon characters were dumped from their home-world to our world should merely be confirmation of what has been happening throughout the movie leading up to the epic war that pits humankind and toonkind against the maleficent Aku-like Khan Morgo and his threatening hordes of evil minions in service to the demon. I always wanted many or most all of the animated cartoon character creations to look as though again, once in a while, you all will be watching something or someone straight out of Samurai Jack but on a big screen rectangle/widescreen ratio of approximately 2.39:1. And plus, there will also be many wise allusions to Jim Henson’s 1982 puppet movie, The Dark Crystal (in the case of the main character healing a giant, floating, crystallized monolith with its missing shard in order to destroy evil forever as the sun rises over Downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor at cockcrow), to James Cameron’s Avatar, especially as the characters traverse through a colorful forest (but this time inhabited by dinosaurs), and in terms of the epic sweep of the climactic battle scenes which continues during the so-called Great Collision of the Two Worlds that dumps the cartoon characters and creatures into our human world, and to the respectful opening sequences of respectfully Disney’s The Rescuers Down Under (1990) as well as Disney’s The Lion King (1994)–complete with an opening musical sound that should set the musical tone and musical identity of my movie as the sun rises above Downtown Baltimore, Maryland–and something just like the opening musical sound of Lebo M.’s African chant that accompanies the opening African sunrise that opens Disney’s The Lion King (1994)–and culminating in the romantic shade of a small cottage-like house in a small-town Maryland suburban neighborhood near the outskirts of Maryland’s state capital, Annapolis–rather than that of Ayers Rock as in the case of Rescuers Down Under’s opening scene. The depiction of the Cartoon World itself will also be of interest even for those who are fans of Samurai Jack:
from artwork looking as though yet again, and once in a while, you are watching something straight out of Samurai Jack (especially the artwork of Scott Wills, a former Ren and Stimpy artist who work on Samurai Jack) shall arise a complete other world that is completely realized and also rival the worlds of the Lord of the Rings and especially James Cameron’s Avatar, as far as the intricate sense of detail is concerned.
As for the music in ToonTalker, I wanted the music score for ToonTalker to be THIS sweepingly lush, ambitious if unusual and bizarre blend of epic, cinematic (and at times romantic) music (primarily for pure, acoustic, symphonic orchestra), some bits of toon music (for some of ToonTalker’s more comedic bits) and world music employing a huge variety of unusual ethnic musical instruments from all around the world–whether it’s East Asian or Native American flutes, or a didgeridoo, which is an Australian Aboriginal woodwind instrument, or even a taiko drum, which is a big-ass type of Japanese musical percussion instrument.
Hopefully, even if my live action/Genndy Tartakovsky cartoon animation crossover idea ToonTalker will ever be hailed as a great visionary masterpiece with a bold concept, even in its final, finished shape, then hopefully I’ll be hailed as an unsung visionary genius as well!
And so, what would you think of all that?
