Two highly anticipated animated series had “first look” presentations at the virtual New York Comic-Con today. First up: Disney TV Animation’s The Ghost and Molly McGee. The virtual panel of the upcoming Disney Channel series included the animatic version of the title sequence, a scene from the second episode and previews of some of the songs.

Co-creator Bob Roth described the story. In a nutshell: a family moves to a new town and buys an old house. 13-year-old Molly wants to turn the attic into a super fun loft space. But “a ghost is already living there”, and “they butt heads about it.” The ghost, named Scratch, gets upset and decides to put a curse on Molly. He’ll follow her everywhere she goes. But the optimistic Molly decides “We’re best friends now.” “The show is about the curse of friendship.”

Dana Snyder voices Scratch. “What’s not fun about being a ghost?” Snyder said that, “every episode has absolutely ridiculous moments”. However, “There’s so many layers to it.” Ashly Burch, the voice of Molly, agrees. “There’s a lot of optimistic young girls in cartoons… but she’s also layered. She has a franticness and a desire to connect to people and love them. And she has a randomness to her. Her intentions are always pure and good, but she’s also trying to be a better friend. She’s really three-dimensional.”

Roth revealed that, “We did a search for [the voice of] Molly. We needed somebody who could go toe-to-toe with Dana.” Before COVID, Burch and Snyder recorded their dialogue together. “It’s so funny, but I’ve also fully teared-up and cried in sessions,” Burch said.

“We’re huge fans of quirk,” executive producer Steve Loter said. But “this show has Disney at its heart.” Loter explained that “every 11 minutes has one song burst.” All genres of music are on the table. “We didn’t start out in development thinking we would have a song in every episode,” said co-creator Bill Motz.

For Roth, “this has been a passion project for Bill and me for a long time. It’s kind of the story of us. Bill’s a wide-eyed optimist and I’m a grumpy ghost.” The Ghost and Molly McGee will premiere sometime next year.

And Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. is the latest series from stop-motion giant Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. Patton Oswalt serves as co-creator, writer, executive producer and the voice of M.O.D.O.K., a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Oswalt and fellow creator, writer & EP Jordan Blum consider themselves to have encyclopedic knowledge of comic books and were thrilled to team-up for what Blum calls “very much a Marvel project” with “a comedic slant.”

Oswalt describes M.O.D.O.K. as a “supervillain that not only hates all the Marvel superheroes… he hates all the supervillains because he wants to be the top alpha.” Blum went into the plot further during this virtual panel by revealing that M.O.D.O.K. has run his evil organization A.I.M. “into the ground.” A Silicon Valley tech giant “comes in to save the day”, but that forces the main character into a lot of boardroom meetings. “He’s a control freak who loses control.”

At night, M.O.D.O.K. goes home to a family. Wife Jodie is voiced by Aimee Garcia. “She’s unapologetic and has a trajectory which we never see” when it comes to moms in animated TV shows. Garcia is proud that Jodie “stands up to her supervillain husband because he does not like change.”

Ben Schwartz voices son Lou, who was invented in the lab. Schwartz describes him as “out there and weird” and “nothing like anybody else in the family.” But “you want him to succeed.” And Melissa Fumero lends her voice to daughter… Melissa. Fumero believes she’s “a glimpse of what M.O.D.O.K. might’ve been like in high school. She wants to impress her father and be a supervillain like him.”

A few clips from the series were shown, along with behind the scenes photos with the animators at Stoopid Buddy. Oswalt and Blum are amazed by all that the studio has accomplished, including what Blum describes as an ambitious “handheld shooting style with phones” that they invented.

Oswalt’s goal with this series was to “take all the stuff we wonder about superheroes and apply it to a supervillain.” He was also surprised that the folks at Marvel allowed certain characters and situations to be included, especially those from the “X” saga. “We’re pushing the boundaries of what the Marvel Universe is.” Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. is coming soon to Hulu.

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Jackson Murphy

Jackson Murphy is a movie critic and entertainment columnist. He is the creator of the website Lights-Camera-Jackson.com, and has made numerous appearances on television and radio.

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