Cow and Chicken creator David Feiss and Open Season senior animator Cinzia Angelini are the directors of the new energetic animated action comedy HITPIG!, starring Jason Sudeikis and Lilly Singh, which opens in theaters nationwide on November 1st. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity. Images Credit: Viva Kids)

Jackson Murphy: David, I love the well-defined lead character that you have here in Hitpig, a bounty hunter pig. What were your goals with defining this character so well for families to enjoy?

David Feiss: That’s something Cinzia and I discussed early on. It was trying to make a gritty guy likable. So that was the trick. That was the fine line. How do you make this guy have a bit of an arc where he starts off one way but you have to like him in the beginning too. Otherwise I don’t think you could earn it at the end because he is such a likable guy, really. What really helped ultimately is Jason Sudeikis. He has a likeable voice. He is so friendly, no matter what, even when he’s saying something aggressive. You got, “Oh, come on, Jason you’re Ted Lasso, right?”

JM: And what’s great about him is the comedic timing. My favorite line of his, and I won’t spoil the context of it, but at one point in the movie, he’s in disguise and he says, “I’m a work in progress”. That scene is really funny. Cinzia, there’s a look to Hitpig and there’s a look to his… van. Tell me about bringing the design aspects to life and the distinct nature of both of those things.

Cinzia Angelini: I originally pitched this idea of going to a cyber punk-ish kind of world — imagine the ’80s, but in the future — and finding a very fresh and new kind of look for these characters to live in. And, I pitched it to Berkeley Breathed early on. He really liked it. So we started from there. A lot of neon. So for the van in particular that you mentioned there are a lot of neons, but it is also a flying van because we are in this dystopian kind of world. So everything and anything is allowed that serves the story and the characters. So it was a lot of fun to design. Really fun.

JM: It looks great. The whole film looks fantastic. There’s so many cool sequences. This is really a journey film. It’s about finding a family. It’s about finding friendship. And David, this is partially adapted from a book, but you guys added a lot more to this story, right?

DF: Yeah, the original book is 25 pages. Pete and Pickles. And it’s about a friendship between a pig and an elephant. He wasn’t a hit pig, and Pickles was a different kind of a personality, and it was for children. It’s beautifully painted. It’s really sweet. There’s one [important] moment that’s in the book that got into the film.

JM: And Cinzia, what did you learn about nature and animals even more? Pickles the elephant, voiced by Lilly Singh, who does a terrific job, is a sweet character… who want to find the family members that she wants to be with. What did you discover about nature and all the different animals that you tackle in various ways?

CA: We did a lot of research because we knew what the main characters were going to be, a pig and an elephant, but the secondary characters were up for casting, basically. So we did a lot of research and we also wanted some characters that were a bit different and new. That’s why Paul Katz came along. I know you know a bit more about that animal for sure.

JM: The Super Rooster is quite a character — an iconic television and movie character that we have within this universe, and I’m sure for both of you, you had to be inspired by classic hero figures in entertainment and you capture that really well.

CA: “The Professional” and “Midnight Run” were a couple of films that were like inspiration for the characters and the events and the kind of style and pace.

DF: That was like the template — “The Professional” and “Midnight Run”. Charlie Adler and I go way back. And we’re still close friends. He brought such life into that Super Rooster character.

JM: Someone else who has done a lot of voice work, and a lot of energy with his voice over the years, is Rainn Wilson, who voices The Leapin’ Lord of the Leotard. David, you create fast sequences. The climactic sequence is wild. This Vegas show.

DF: And it didn’t start off as energetic as that. Rainn brought so much to it. He’s a unique character, that guy. In real life, he’s just so unique, a different type of guy. You present him with some lines and these great actors bring so much more to it than you’ve written. He’s still likable, even though he’s mean, but he’s still likable. Going over the top on a Vegas show. And the idea of him having this family heritage of animal acts, but he has no talent, but he’s going to prove everybody wrong, that was so much fun.

JM: Cinzia, in the film are some of music’s greatest hits of all time. The next scene would come in and I’d be like, “Oh my gosh, this is another one of my favorite songs of all time!” So for adults and kids, this soundtrack is awesome.

CA: That was a want from the beginning because it was based on the ’80s and once everybody was on board, it was like, “Okay, what is the soundtrack going to be like?” It took a lot of research and some various lists, but I think we found a great combo people will enjoy. And some people discover songs and some will get some memories back. It will be a fun experience. That’s the family experience that we wanted.

DF: We had Mary Ramos as the music supervisor on this, and she was Quentin Tarantino’s supervisor. I’m not sure how we got her. We did. She had a lot of awesome suggestions.

JM: I think Hitpig might actually be pretty fun in a Quentin Tarantino movie.

DF: (laughs)

CA: (laughs) For sure! Absolutely.

JM: For both of you, how has your friendship grown over the course of this movie and what you’ve been through together, as far as bringing something like this to life that now families are just going to love all over the country?

DF: Cinzia and I go way back to Sony. She was in the animation department on… “Surf’s Up”?

CA: “Open Season”.

JM: Wow.

DF: That’s 2003 / 2004. I was the head of story on that film. And I met this person at the ping pong tables.

CA: Dave is way better than I am. He’s fantastic at ping pong.

DF: You had just gotten married and I think you were expecting your first child. So we go way back. And then later at Illumination. And then through “Hitpig!” during the pandemic.

CA: We both have met so many great people that work with us. And probably we’ll work with them on future projects. That’s the beauty of our animation family is to keep it growing.