Kent Seki, the cinematographer of 2023 animated feature Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, has directed the new holiday short Chrome Alone 2 — Lost in New Jersey. Seki dives into the making of the short, which is Oscar qualified and will screen in theaters nationwide with The SpongeBob Movie: Search For SquarePants starting December 19th. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: First of all, how does it feel to have this short be in the theaters for the holidays, paired with the new SpongeBob movie?

Kent Seki: I think you couldn’t ask for a better release for us in that way. SpongeBob is an iconic property, the iconic Nickelodeon property. It’s very popular, so it’ll surely get a lot of eyeballs, and then to have the short in actual theaters on a big screen… That’s a dream come true. Not many shorts can have that extended play, and we are very excited about it. I’m personally very excited about it.

JM: Oh yeah, this will be seen by millions and millions of families over the holidays. And in October, I was at New York Comic Con, opening day, and I walk in, and I see this giant van with the giant slice of pizza on top. It was unbelievable!

KS: Yeah, it’s the Mutant Mayhem van back from the dead, because it gets smashed in the first film.

JM: And there was a screen which had the trailer for your short, “Chrome Alone 2”, playing, so that was awesome. Did you have any insight on the design of the van, or incorporating the trailer for the short? Did you know this was coming ahead of New York?

KS: We knew there was gonna be an activation for the toys that would involve the short, but we didn’t exactly know how it would happen, and so we actually had our writer, Andrew Joustra, who’s a very big Comic Con person himself, was at New York Comic Con and took plenty of photos. We were thrilled with that display, and it couldn’t have been more well-received by the Comic Con community.

JM: You were the head of cinematography on the “Mutant Mayhem” movie that came out in 2023. It was a big hit, critically, and for audiences. The sequel is on the way in 2027. Because you were head of cinematography, you know this Ninja Turtles gang pretty well.

KS: I’m really intimate with this version, the Seth Rogen / Jeff Rowe version that’s focused on the teen aspect of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I spent the first movie shooting that version of the Turtles, so I’m really well aware of it. Also, Jeff Rowe was a producer on the short, so he was really our North Star when it comes to all things of this universe and making sure we’re authentic to those characters. And it’s one of the things I love about this version of the Turtles. Every generation has their Turtles. I grew up with the original Eastman and Laird ones, which were a knockoff of the Frank Miller comic book style. And this new one is a new incarnation that really focuses on authentic teenage behavior and their take on life.

JM: What amazes you about these four actors and their voice performances, and the timing, and just the authenticity of having teenagers voicing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

KS: I think it brings a whole nother level to the performance that we did not expect when we first started recording them, and I think it was Seth’s idea to record them as an ensemble. And that led to comic gold. In fact, at that time, it was very challenging because COVID was happening, so we had to find the right combination of safety protocols to get them all together so they could react to each other. But that leads to that authentic dialogue — that feeling that you’re with a bunch of kids and that they’re just talking amongst themselves, and I think that’s really… the success of the writing, where it comes out… all of the improvisation that goes along with the great writing that creates this experience that we have in the current “Mutant Mayhem” universe.

JM: Obviously for a short, you have a certain amount of time to accomplish. Was there a lot of improv, even in a 6-7 minute short?

KS: Oh yeah. You have great writing from Andrew, of course, that becomes the basis, but in -between takes, or they have little things they do, and they have little words they pronounce in certain ways that add into the texture of that flavor of Turtles, and it’s pretty great.

JM: “Chrome Alone 2 — Lost in New Jersey”. This short is about the Turtles seeing a toy version that’s not really themselves, and then you have a lot of fun with different entertainment franchises and putting a certain knockoff-y spin on it. How would you describe “Chrome Alone 2” to the Ninja Turtles fans who are gonna go see this?

KS: What “Chrome Alone 2” does is it leans into the meta-narrative of toys, because toys are very much a part of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe. And it takes a unique outlook on AI and how that might affect toy generation and creative thought processes all over the world. And I think it opens a discussion about AI. That’s the subtext that’s really interesting about the short.

JM: Yeah, you have a lot of commentary paired with the comedy. And this is your directorial debut. What excited you about this experience?

KS: To come back to a franchise that I loved as a middle schooler, and to be able to direct a short based on something that I loved… when I was 14… If I could go back in time, I say this a lot, and talk to my younger self, and tell him… this is what I get to do when I’m older, I think I would say things have turned out pretty well for myself. I think also using comedy and satire to create an effective social commentary is something that’s often overlooked or dismissed as less sophisticated, but I do think we do a good job of addressing that and coming at it with a fun eye.

JM: You do. Part of the comedy, and part of why this works so well, is because you have the talents of Beck Bennett and Zach Woods, who [I have spoken to] in the last two years about their animation projects. How was it working with both of them?

KS: It was amazing working with both of them. Beck Bennett voices the commercial narrator, which is classic Beck Bennett there, and it’s really funny in how he leans into that sort of over-the-top excitement about toys. And then Zach Woods brings a whole nother dimension to the Chromedome villain character. He’s almost born out of a typical tech bro storyline, where the technology’s presented as benign, but then quickly devolves into a mess of unintended negative consequences. I think he does a great job adding to that character and making him multidimensional.

JM: The sequel to “Mutant Mayhem” is coming out in 2027. Do you have any insights? Are you a part of it? Any conflicts there involving that when it came to this short?

KS: Actually, it was pretty wide open for the short. We were very specific about what we wanted to do. And for the feature, I’m back as the head of cinematography for the feature, and I can say that it’s gonna blow people away. It’s gonna knock your socks off.