While developing his new Disney XD animated series "Motorcity," New
Jersey native Chris Prynoski always knew he had to visit Detroit.What
the founder of the Los Angeles-based animation studio Titmouse and his
crew of art directors discovered during their trip, however, was a
series of unexpected themes that connected his electro-charged fictional
future with the spirit found in today's Detroit.
"I've been
working on this concept for such a long time that when I got there I was
just blown away by that sort of underground art scene, the city's
architecture and energy, and the passion of the people there,"
said the
40-year-old visual artist, whose credits include "Metalocalypse" and
"Beavis and Butt-Head Do America."The 20-episode first season of
Prynoski's "Motorcity," which debuts at 9 p.m. Monday, is an ambitious
adventure series aimed at young males -- specifically hot-rod-loving
cartoon addicts.
But with a heroic group of teenage freedom
fighters called Tte Burners doing battle with evil billionaire Abraham
Kane (voiced by "Star Wars" icon Mark Hamill) at the heart of
"Motorcity," there are universal themes and transcendent philosophies
that could appeal to just about anyone.
"You know, even though the
show is pretty rough around the edges and sort of grunge-y, it's
definitely a lot of fun," he said. "And maybe that message is for a kid,
where we're saying that something that's a little dirty and gritty can
be as cool as something all shiny and perfect."
The bad guy rules the world:
In the series, set about a century from now, eccentric evil billionaire
Abraham Kane has virtually complete control over Detroit Deluxe, the
automobile-free, sterile world he built on top of the original city.
Prynoski said getting Hamill (best known as Luke Skywalker from "Star
Wars") to play the big baddie of the series, the eccentric and
outrageous evil overlord, was a coup.
"Hamill's just perfect. He
has this ability to hit both sides: That classic evil stuff with the
creepy angry voice and wicked evil laugh, but he also can pull off that
whole fake politician infomercial voice of someone who's pretending to
be a caring figure," Prynoski said. "Hamill really pulls off Kane, this
ultimately really complicated bad guy who thinks he's actually doing the
right thing."
The Burners step on the gas: The show's
ragtag heroes are the Burners, a group of crafty hot-rod-building
teenagers committed to protecting their Motorcity, a subterranean refuge
just outside the reach of Kane's seemingly unlimited power.
"The
Burners want to be able to continue to drive their cars and live in
their city the way they want to,"
Prynoski said. "The main Burner, Mike
Chilton (voiced by Reid Scott, "The Big C"), used to work for Kane but
left because he had moral issues once he learned about Kane's evil plan
to control everything. So now he's leading the revolt, and these guys
are always messing up the evil billionaire dude's wicked plans."
The drive for freedom:
Although he was born and raised in New Jersey, Prynoski said he's
always been fascinated by cars, and that there'd be only one place to
set an animated series like this: Detroit.
"My father was a big
car guy, I worked in a garage during high school and I've always been
going to car shows and learning about that culture," he said. "When I
was conceptualizing the series, which I've been doing for a very long
time, where else would we want to set a futuristic world about cars? If
you wanted to scavenge old car parts or find dilapidated car factories
... there could be only one place, Detroit."
Kane has outlawed
cars and despises what the machines represent. "Kane doesn't have the
capability to tap in and control the Burners when they are in their own
custom-made cars. When you have your own car you have freedom and when
Kane doesn't have that control it drives him crazy."
Looking for landmarks:
"I have to think of the best way to say this so Disney doesn't get mad
(laughs): We were very inspired by what we saw when we were in Detroit
but you're not going to see any specific landmarks on the show,"
Prynoski said. "We wanted to actually have the series look like what
Detroit 150 years from now could naturally look like, which is not at
all what the city looks like today. Plus, this is Kane's world now,
where he's basically destroyed the old buildings and has built his
Detroit Deluxe on top of that."
But the visit to Detroit was an
inspiration. "The arts scene there is so cool that if things were
different for me, if I was just finishing art school for instance, I'd
move there right now."
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