September 4th, 2019 
Jackson Murphy 
Eric Fogel, creator of the beloved stop-motion “Celebrity Deathmatch”, is the executive producer of DreamWorks’ new series, “Archibald’s Next Big Thing”. The 13-episode first season debuts this Friday, September 6th, on Netflix. “Archibald” is based on a popular 2014 children’s book co-written by Tony Hale. The “Veep” actor created the show and voices the title character. Fogel talks about working with Hale, crafting the nifty episodes and cinematic influences.
Jackson Murphy: What impressed you the most about the “Archibald” book?
Eric Fogel: It was really all about the character, for me. Archibald is a chicken who lives in the moment. And he meets every experience with this wide-eyed optimism that is really fun to play with because it opens up any situation into some sort of crazy adventure that we find ourselves in in each and every episode.
JM: And I love the fact that Archibald has a picture for every adventure he goes on and new person that he meets. He prints them out and puts them up on a wall. What do you think is the significance of that through the character, and how does that element really speak to you?
EF: The Memory Wall is something that we introduced early on as a way to show the expanded world that Archibald lives in and that these adventures are meaningful to him. Each experience is unique, and he wants to preserve those memories by creating a wall. Hopefully this inspires kids to do something similar. I think we’re hoping to really inspire kids to put down their phones and pick up their heads and just look around – experience the world and take it all in and live in that moment.
JM: You actually directed the first half of Episode One (“Chicken at Sea”), and you wrote the second half (“The Keymaster”). They’re both very fun. When you go into working on this show, how did you determine, “Okay – I’m gonna direct this episode. I’m gonna write this episode.”
EF: I got hired early on to direct what was at that time the Pilot that became the episode “Chicken at Sea”. Very early on I got really invested in the show and thought that i could be useful in the directing aspects as well as some of the writing aspects. I talked with the head writers at the time, Jake [Moffat] and Drew [Champion] and pitched this idea that I had about Archibald becoming a superhero for the day, and what if he got this magic key that could unlock any lock? And that became our version of a superhero adventure. And that became the second episode out of the gate, “The Keymaster”.
JM: And Tony Hale has had a heck of a year – not only another Emmy nomination for his work on “Veep”, but also his terrific voice performance as Forky in “Toy Story 4”. What do you see in his enthusiasm for voice work and animation in general?
EF: Tony is amazing. He has a gift for comedy, comic timing and finding those turns – whatever character he’s playing… he just understands where to find a joke or where to put a joke if there’s not a joke. Working with him on this show has been such a gift because we’ve had incredible access to him. He’s really been very present in all aspects of the production. Having him available in that way is just enormous. He brings all that heart and all that character to the show. I don’t imagine how we could’ve done it any other way.
JM: And there’s some great humor and back and forth banter between him [as Archibald] and the Narrator. Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”) is really in on all of Archibald’s adventures. How was it crafting her dialogue and shaping that Narrator character?
EF: It’s been really fun to write the Narrator because we use her as a shorthand to get, sometimes, a lot of exposition out of the way. But like you said, there are other times where she actually becomes a little more involved in the storytelling and has this really fun back and forth banter with Archibald. One of the things that we decided with using her was that we didn’t want her to be too helpful in how Archibald navigates these stories. We have two characters that sort of help Archibald along. One is the Narrator, and the other is Bee. Bee becomes a little more helpful and actually becomes more of a physical presence in his world. But we like keeping the Narrator more omnipotent… and teasing or hinting at how the episode is gonna go without giving him too much.
JM: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Hale’s co-star on “Veep”, voices a space monkey on an episode. Did you get to work with Julia, and how was it with the two of them reuniting?
EF: I had the honor of actually writing that episode, and I did get to work with Julia in the record booth. What more can you say about her. She’s a treasure. And to have her and Tony reunited in this “Archibald” episode is fantastic. I’m super proud of the episode. She’s hysterical. They’re both hysterical together in the episode. I can’t wait for people to find that one. It’s one of my favorites.
JM: The animation is so happy. What were some of the intentions with the designs of the characters and taking them from the book to the screen?
EF: From the outset, we definitely wanted to make the show feel different than other animated shows you’d find on TV. We definitely wanted to have it look like a storybook come to life. One of the ways that we’ve tried to achieve that is in using a lot of texture and color – and giving the world a vibrant warmth… and also a hand-crafted quality. There are a lot of painterly treatments that we’ll do on the environment. Archibald also has a very tactile quality. His sweater is very intricate and has a lot of detail in it. And we wanted to create a very rich, vibrant world to tell the stories in.
JM: I think you did. And one of the first things that we see in the first episode is his house. It’s a giant egg, and it looks like a doll house/toy house. I think so many kids would want to play with that. When you saw that completely finished for the first time, what was your reaction?
EF: I was thrilled because I actually did some of the original design work on that house in the Pilot episode. I got to help craft the look of that house. We took a page from Wes Anderson in terms of the inspiration for doing these cut-away views that we go to here and there in the series. And that house really did set the precedent for how we wanted to do that in that invisible, fourth wall, cut-away view. And it… creates such an inviting world to bring-in the viewer and also, like you said, give it this doll house quality where you wanna go in there and play in there. You wanna spend some time exploring that house.
JM: When I watched the screener, I hit the pause button a few times to look at all the details. It is so cool. And you’re right about the Wes Anderson influence. I can totally see that. I think “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is one of the best animated movies of this century.
EF: Yeah. We definitely looked at some of his films for inspiration. “The Life Aquatic” has a beautiful sequence in the submarine. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is also one of my favorite animated features. And there’s something really fun… simple but also really beautiful about that linear storytelling, where it almost feels like a side-scrolling game or something like that… almost like looking at theater. It’s very appealing.
JM: “Mr. Fox” is certainly different than a lot of other animated movies out there. And I think you’re right that this show, “Archibald”, is different than a lot of other animated shows. It’s simple to follow, but there are a lot of surprises in there. There’s a song in “The Keymaster” that I can’t get out of my head. You put a lot into this.
EF: Thanks. We definitely wanted to create something special – something that’s sometimes cinematic. Sometimes it’s goofy and weird and just funny and strange. For me it’s been an absolute adventure helping build this world and create this unique show.
JM: I gotta ask you about one of your Next Big Things. Is it true that “Celebrity Deathmatch” is coming back and that you’re working on it with Ice Cube?
EF: (laughs) Really good question. There have been some talks about bringing the show back. I’ve had some conversations with Ice Cube. We’re trying to put a plan in place. There’s nothing that I can announce officially. But there have been conversations.
JM: I feel like there’s so much material that you can use that we need this show back in our lives right now.
EF: Oh, tell me about it.
JM: (laughs) Where do you see the future of “Archibald”? To me, the possibilities seem endless.
EF: I feel like we could continue telling Archibald stories for a long time. I truly hope that he has a long and robust life span. It’s tough out there. There’s a lot of competition. I just really hope that kids, adults, whomever find the show and love what I love about the show and keep coming back to it.
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