Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Cosmic Cafe, the companion podcast for the cosmic circus.com. I'm Eli Ruby, and we have an awesome chat for you today. I sat down recently over Zoom with Matt Youngberg from Skydance Animation. We talked about his new short in the Luck universe. Here's the interview I hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2 00:00:30 All right, so I'm Isla Ruby from the Cosmic Circus, and I'm here with Matt Youngberg. Uh, thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 00:00:36 Of course. Happy to be here.
Speaker 2 00:00:37 Um, can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 3 00:00:40 Well, I'm Matt Youngberg. I'm the director of The Bad Luck Spec. Short, uh, for Skydance. Uh, it's my first project that I was a, uh, able to do at Skydance. Uh, but previous to that I was a executive producer of things like, uh, ducktails, the Reboot, uh, band 10 Transformers Animated, you know, and director on Teen Titan. So, you know, I've had a long illustrious career <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:01:06 Yeah. So, you know, we're here to talk a little bit about your, your short, and you mentioned that that the bad luck spot, um, and it's a, it's a spinoff of, of luck. Can you, you know, tell me a little bit about, about the project. I watched it, it was so cute. Um, I'm excited to talk about it,
Speaker 3 00:01:22 <laugh>. Oh, great. I'm, I'm glad you were able to watch it. Uh, it, it was a really fun project to work on. There was a, um, so there was this kernel of an idea, uh, early on, uh, of following these bunnies, uh, after they get the, the spec off of the shoe of Sam from the feature mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So the, and there we thought there was a really fun opportunity to follow those hazmat bunnies right out of the feature and see where they go with that spec and to see what their kind of day-to-day operation is. <laugh> to get rid of a piece of bad luck. Uh, you know, it's this thing that, you know, when you're telling a story in the film, you're not able to actually diverge and tell that kind of story. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, um, so in the short, we, we took that as our jumping off point mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 00:02:04 <affirmative>, and then we just kind of sat around, come up, came up with gags and ideas, and the first thing we hit on was this giant hammer. And it was like, okay, so this is, that's their mechanism for getting rid <laugh> rid of bad luck was to smash that out of existence. So, because it's bad luck, uh, bad luck spec, just by virtue of being around it, something bad is gonna happen. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so that's, that was kind of our jumping off planes. So it, the idea was to just start there and then escalate the problems more and more and more and more <laugh> so that by the end of the short, even when you think they've succeeded, uh, it's, the escalation happens and things explode. <laugh>, and I don't want to get too far into it, uh, but if you've seen the film, things weave back into the film, uh, from our short. So yeah, it was, uh, that's, that's really kind of the, the, uh, the inspiration behind the short.
Speaker 2 00:03:02 So you mentioned that you guys came up with the hammer, but all of the, um, like all of the attempts to just destroy, you know, that bad luck spot, they're just super physical and the bunnies don't talk Yeah. <laugh>, they, you know, it's all, it's all in their faces and just all of the stuff they're dealing with. Can you, can you talk a little bit about that? 'cause it's just like, it's just a very physical, funny comedy that is super appealing.
Speaker 3 00:03:26 Yeah, I think that was part of the appeal of doing the short part of why we wanted to follow these hazmat bunnies was this idea that we could, because we're not telling a, a feature film story, we can tell something, uh, smaller. So we really were inspired by, you know, classic animation, classic cartoons, and it was like, okay, so we have these hazmat bunnies. We love the way they look. We love these, the way they have these little suits. And so the first idea was, okay, these suits can protect them from harm mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and they're, they're, they're gonna be more squishy and stretchy than, than any like, body would be. So it's like, okay, well we can really lean into that then. So we, when we hammer them, when we hit them, when we smash them, we can really lean into the cartooniness of it because they're gonna get squashed and stretched and all these kind of things.
Speaker 3 00:04:11 And even the sound effects is another wonderful thing mm-hmm. That we could lace into there. It's like, so instead of finding, instead of sounding like violent hits and things like that, it's that you have these squeaks like squeaky toys kind of like, and everything just gets more comedic that way. And so it, it really, uh, it was really fun to be able to take the, the, the film of luck stay in that land, but then to push what kind of comedy we could do there. You know, what, how physical can we get with these characters without breaking the rules of the world.
Speaker 2 00:04:43 Now the music also really stands out for me, um, in that it just kind of pairs so beautifully with, with the Short. And it also fits in with the larger, you know, larger luck movie. Um, yeah. Did you guys, did you kind of start with that? How did that, um, how did you get the music? How did, how does that work, <laugh>? Oh, well,
Speaker 3 00:05:02 Yeah, I mean, uh, yeah, since we are telling the same story in the same land, you know, we did, uh, you know, we were inspired by the Music of the Short, but then we had, we went back to the Composer of the Short and asked him to, to revisit the film, the film Score for the Short. And so, you know, it, it, it was the same people working on it and, you know, and it was this amazing, yeah, it just sounds amazing. But then we were able to add these little, uh, new things like the, the theme song and the end credits, you know, these things that still fit the film, but was very specific to the short that you couldn't, you know, that that is still hearkening back to those old, uh, shorts of the, of animation yesterday year. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but having a modern sensibility to it. The,
Speaker 2 00:05:47 Um, just like the short, the opening, I think title card and the closing, closing credits seemed very much in line with, um, like the, the old animation, you know, Looney Tunes, all of that stuff, stuff. It just seemed very, um, I guess for lack of a better word, retro. And that was really cool. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:06:02 Yeah. It was a little bit of an homage there. Uh, and, but, but the, the amazing thing is it still sounded like the, the movie, so it's still, it was like, you have the film score, but you, you just added these little things in that made it feel like a short from yesterday or, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:06:17 Okay. So, you know, there, we, we talked a little bit about the comedy. Um, were there any like, specific shows or, or movies or anything specifically I guess that kind of influenced, um, influenced the Short besides, you know, the Greater Luck universe? 'cause even, even there's like this action sequence with the Pig, and I think I'm forgetting the name from the movie. Um, it just was like a really cool, it, it felt like it was, you know, kind of, um, inspired by something. And I'm curious about that.
Speaker 3 00:06:45 Uh, like the, the car chase you mean? Yes, the
Speaker 2 00:06:47 Car Chase.
Speaker 3 00:06:48 Yeah. Oh, um, yeah, like, uh, I don't know if there was a specific inspiration. It's, it's, it's mostly, it's probably my own influence there, <laugh> coming in because I, I, uh, I've, you know, my work, I've worked my whole career in kind of the action side of things, but I also, but I also always try to infuse it with comedy. Yeah. 'cause I, I, to me it's just like that. I love that, that combination and so, and so I think a lot of that influences me, like finding the most dynamic way of, of telling the story, but still making it funny. So it was like the, even though it looked very dynamic and cool, the, the, the gags were still kind of the centerpiece. We want to make sure that you never lost the joke within how the di the dynamic of something. 'cause there, there are times you could push it too far where it just becomes an action set piece. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and that's not what we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure that the, the comedy and the escalation of problems continued throughout the short. Uh, so keeping that the focus, but then adding that dynamic in that I enjoy it was just, you know, that's just how I think <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:07:52 That's awesome. So, so Luck is, is an original film. Right. And you've, you mentioned earlier, you know, you've had this experience working in the, the Ducktails reboot and, you know, you've worked in Benton 10 and all of those things have kind of this preexisting fandom and preexisting, um, like kind of, uh, I I guess IP to draw from. How Yeah. Like how was that? Because this is something, you know, it's still pretty new. It's still a new universe.
Speaker 3 00:08:18 Yeah. Uh, true. It is. Luckily the, the, uh, the feature film did a lot of the heavy lifting of Yeah. Of finding, finding what this, the, the world was and defining what the world was. Um, so we had that. Uh, so really this was just an opportunity to, to play in that world a little bit more mm-hmm. <affirmative> and just expand the ideas that were already present there. Um, and so it wasn't, you know, two different than, than adapting ip, but it's just, it's really fun to be able to hopefully, uh, create a connection to an audience with something new that they haven't seen before. And, you know, know these hazmat bunnies, they were a crew favorite mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so it was like, hopefully this will be fan flight favorites as well. <laugh>, you know, that because it really is, they're, uh, an opportunity there, I think, for the audience to connect with these characters further than they could from the feature, because, you know, they're only as bit part, but now they can be showcased.
Speaker 2 00:09:15 I, um, so I, I have a six year old daughter who's who loved Luck and the bunnies were one of the things that that stuck out for her, obviously, along with the Cat <laugh>. So I'm, I'm asking this partially for her, and are also because of her Girl Scout troop, because they're now also obsessed with luck. Is there, you know, are there plans that you can talk about for any more? Um, anything more in the Luck universe? 'cause
Speaker 3 00:09:37 Uh, unfortunately nothing that I could talk about. No. Okay. Um, but it, I will say that it is, it was really fun to be able to revisit that world. It was just this really, uh, fun opportunity. It, and it, I, I feel like it did a great job of, of expanding, uh, the stories that we can tell no matter what kind of film that we make. The idea begins at Skydance is to always create a world that we can revisit mm-hmm. <affirmative> or that, or that we would want to revisit or that that audience would want to go back to rather. Uh, and so, um, hopefully with any of the films that we make, we can, we can find opportunities to expand those worlds and, and have the audience continue to be drawn in.
Speaker 2 00:10:19 Um, now, so you were the director of this short, but you've made, um, you know, you've made a couple of transitions in, in your career before you were, I think, a storyboard artist I read and then a writer. And now you've, you've done an a ton of amazing directing work. Can you talk about, um, like what that transition's been like and how it's been, maybe how, like how directing this is different than your, you know, writing?
Speaker 3 00:10:42 Um, well, it, I think the, at the core, I'm always still just trying to tell the best story that I can tell no matter what, what position I'm in. Uh, I, and for me, uh, I always love a new opportunity and, and a new challenge. That's kind of what drives me in my career. That, that, um, and so being able to come to Skydance and jump into this new medium, which is the computer animation, whereas most of the stuff had been, uh, two D and to do it, uh, in a more feature like way, you know, this short is, was crafted much more like a feature than, uh, a television series might be. Um, but my approach is still always like core telling the best kind of story that I can tell given the medium that I have. Uh, and so that's, that makes the transition easy. But the fun and the fun of the challenge is learning a new way of doing it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know, like at Skydance it was really wonderful to be able to work with the, you know, a lot of veterans, uh, at Skydance and Veterans of CG animation. Um, and to learn from their experience and to kind of just, you know, get our mind melded so that we could kind of, uh, make the best short we could make. Um, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:59 Um, is there anything else that, you know, what we haven't talked about, about, uh, bad luck spot that you kind of want people to know about or that you wanna point out?
Speaker 3 00:12:08 Um, I don't know if we, we hit on this at all, but, uh, I think there was a real fun challenge in it that it was, uh, a fully pantomime mm-hmm. <affirmative> short, you know, there wasn't any, uh, any acting in terms of voice acting and dialogue to, to go off of. So we really, the, the, I think there was a really, really fun challenge of telling the story purely from the visuals alone. And, you know, uh, that was a really fun challenge. It was a really, really, that's like a pure way of trying, of doing animation, of just like making sure the audience can connect with these characters without telling you anything about 'em. And I think we hope, I hope we pulled it off
Speaker 2 00:12:51 <laugh>. I think you totally did. Um, now can you share at all what you're working on next or anything like that?
Speaker 3 00:12:57 Unfortunately, no. I, uh, you can, yeah, you can write down T b d <laugh>. Uh, so we'll, we'll see what happens from here. Um, but, uh, suffice it to say I'm excited to be working at Skydance and, uh, whatever happens next, I hope, uh, I'll get to continue to connect with audiences. So.
Speaker 2 00:13:15 Well, I'm sure it's gonna be awesome, and thank you so much for being here and chatting with me.
Speaker 3 00:13:20 Of course. Thank you.
Speaker 0 00:13:23 Thank you for listening. You can find the companion article for this podcast, along with all the other news for those who like superheroes, science fiction and fantasy films, TV shows, and other
[email protected]. Have a great day.
