Turbo and his friends from Netflix’s first animated series for kids, Turbo F.A.S.T.
DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo FAST launches as first-ever NETFLIX original series for kids on December 24.
Burn, one of the characters from Turbo F.A.S.T.
With the terrific success of original series for adults, in both drama (HOUSE OF CARDS) and comedy (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK), Netflix is taking on the genre of animated cartoon series for children that is the staple of Saturday morning network programming. Rather than another go-round of the Rankin/Bass stop-motion animations, such as Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (which is now held by the DreamWorks Classics division of DreamWorks Animation) or Charlie Brown Christmas specials, they will premiere an entirely new series: Turbo FAST. Turbo FAST was produced by DreamWorks Animation Television with production services provided by Titmouse Inc., based on characters created by David Soren from the DreamWorks Animation motion picture “Turbo.” Families will be able to stream the first five episodes this holiday season, with additional all new episodes premiering throughout the year. Although the story lines are not specifically related to the holiday, the first two half-hour segments I previewed were filled with action and enough dramatic tension (or as much as a family-friendly series will hold) to keep children entertained, and, in the style of most current animated films, there’s enough humor for adults to make it fun for parents to watch as well. An obligatory fart joke makes its way into the last minute or two of the first episode, but this series will never make it to Adult Swim. The segments I watched reinforced the values of cooperation and teamwork—Turbo succeeds through the combined efforts of his family and friends working together, and he’s happy to share the glory of success with them. If the current pattern of binge-watching episodes of series holds true for this series as well, with the premiere of the show coming online Tuesday, December 24th at 12:01 AM PST for all Netflix territories containing the first 5 episodes, there’s the potential for a solid 2 1/2 hours of snail-watching to come for Christmas Eve. I spoke with Reid Scott, who voices the lead character in the series, Turbo, taking over the role from Ryan Reynolds in the original movie. Scott has recently been in the Showtime series “The Big C,” the cartoon series “Motor City”, and currently plays deputy director of communication Dan Egan on HBO’s Veep. Although I didn’t ask him about any of the technical details which might interest many VizWorld followers regarding animation and computer graphic techniques, he did bring out an interesting point about the visual side of being an actor in a cartoon series:
“On a camera series like “Veep”, it’s pretty much like you said – every week you’re knocking out an episode. But with animation, from start to finish, it could be months for an episode really. And we only do a couple of hours of work per episode. And so that’s quite a bit different to be able to knock out a whole episode in just a couple of hours of effort. But you’re using different muscles as an actor, and obviously different techniques, and not being able to rely on your physicality or any sort of visual representation of yourself; it is a very different style of acting.” – Reid Scott
The animation, done in 2D format with thickly-outlined characters and fast-moving, often gently blurred backgrounds to give the bokah effect of 3D, looks as if it was created using keyframe-based computer animation software. The visual effects all live within that world, without any live-action material thrown in or elaborate special effects. When a hoard of beetles runs rampant, it’s neatly done, the snails do some clever things using their eye stems to handle tools and other things that require hands, and the artwork looks fresh and bright. You can watch the Trailer below, and it looks like Netflix will continue to break the networks’ hold on episodic television. Are westerns next? [youtube url=”http://youtu.be/Cyi0Bidq23c” autohide=”0″ hd=”1″ rel=”0″ showsearch=”0″]
