May 20th, 2022 
Jackson Murphy 
Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller also produced 2004 animated short Gopher Broke (which earned him an Oscar nomination) and the two Sonic the Hedgehog films. Jennifer Yuh Nelson earned an Academy Award nomination for directing Kung Fu Panda 2. She also co-directed 2016’s Kung Fu Panda 3. The two team-up for the new third volume of Love, Death + Robots episodes, which you can now watch on Netflix. In this Animation Scoop Q&A, Miller (series creator) and Yuh Nelson (supervising director) discuss working with each other, the global talent involved, and what the show’s awards and fan attention means to them. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)
Jackson Murphy: Tim, Love, Death + Robots has won 11 Emmys, which is unbelievable — and four Annie Awards. How did you want to keep the momentum going and try to top yourself with this third volume?
Tim Miller: First of all, I’d like to point out that that’s more Emmys per minute than any other show on Netflix. By minute. Every season is unique and we really just try and pick the best mix of stories and find the best people to do them. So I feel like we get better every year. Jennifer, of course, doing Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, was a big help and it really elevates the material because she’s got slightly more sophisticated taste than I do. I think it’s a great batch of stories.
JM: It is. And Jennifer, we spoke for Kung Fu Panda 3 — great movie you directed. And you directed Kung Fu Panda 2 as well. What has this show given you and your career that you had never experienced anywhere else before or on any other project before?
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: I think what’s really unique about “LDR” is that it’s adult. Stories are adult and they’re challenging and they’re complex. And they’re things that we really should not be showing little kids because they’ll traumatize them. But that’s the fun part because you’re completely free to pursue what the story needs. As an artist, it’s incredibly liberating.
JM: Nice. Alberto Mielgo has an episode this season I screened called “Jibaro”. And he mentioned Love, Death + Robots during his Oscar acceptance speech for [animated short] The Windshield Wiper. Tim, that must’ve been cool to hear that.
TM: That was cool… about as cool as him winning the Oscar. He’s a genius-level talent. He really is. I thought “The Witness” was one of the best pieces of animation I’d ever seen, until I saw “Jibaro”, which is beautiful and traumatizing. I can’t wait for the world to see that. It’s really, I think, his best work yet.
JM: He’s an unbelievable talent. The other two episodes I’ve had the chance to screen are Bad Travelling and 3 Robots: Exit Strategies, directed by David Fincher and Patrick Osborne [respectively]. What impresses you the most about their work with these two episodes?
JYN: Well David Fincher is David Fincher. To be able to work with him at all is amazing and it was like going to film school for a lot of the crew members. But this was his debut animation directorial experience. This is David Fincher doing animation and being completely free to do whatever he wants, in a completely visual realm like this. I think he had fun. That was the best part about it. (laughs) And of course, 3 Robots is the return of characters people have loved. Fan favorites. People have tattoos of these characters. It was great to have the 3 Robots come back.
TM: [Shows his tattooed arms.] I don’t. I should! I should get some tattoos [of them].
JM: There you go! Add them to the arms. David Fincher’s movies have been some of the best released over the last 20 years. Tim, you were Oscar nominated in 2005 for the animated short film Gopher Broke. And you also executive produced the two Sonic the Hedgehog movies — and this second one is doing so well in theaters. How has your LOVE of animation evolved over that 17 year period?
TM: First I have to say: those three things you mentioned are all more related than you think because Jeff Fowler directed all of them. My nomination was just as a producer. [He quickly corrects himself.] Not *just* as a producer. I don’t want to diminish that. But, it was Jeff that did the directing. It was his idea. He’s done a fantastic job with the Sonic franchise as well. But Jeff came here [to Blur Studio] because we were a studio that loved animation. We hired Jeff right out of college. I’ve always had a love of animation and kind of stumbled into live-action late in life, literally at 50. That was when Deadpool happened. I’ve just loved animation since college. It’s what I wanted to do. And it just gets stronger and stronger every year as new techniques and new artists come about. It just increases my admiration for the art of it.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Tim Miller and Jackson Murphy
JM: Nice. And Jennifer, as the supervising director, you’re kind of observing everybody, right? You’re observing all the talents — all the different episodes. What amazes you about the global talent and global aspect that comes into this third volume?
TM: She’s doing more than observing. [We all laugh.] Steering the ship.
JM: It’s amazing.
JYN: The international aspect is really amazing, because you’re basically having access to specialists of incredible visualizations all around the world. They’re allowed to do things that are purely leaning into their strengths. You have Alberto, who’s sometimes in Spain working with animators there and all through Europe. He had a map of all the different animators working on it in his living room. We had animators in Japan, Europe and America. Everywhere. It’s just awe-inspiring to see the amount of talent that we can get a hold of. It’s beautiful. And they’re able to be so excited and having so much fun making all this stuff. It’s inspiring for me. Dailies are a joy. It’s so amazing what comes through.
JM: The talent is incredible. And you both each direct an episode this season. I haven’t screened them yet — I’m really looking forward to. If you could tease everybody just a little bit of your episodes, how would you describe them?
JYN: Stupid carnage for mine.
TM: Mine is intelligent carnage.
JYN: Yeah. His is much more intelligent. Mine [“Kill Team Kill”] is really… I think people will be surprised that I directed this one. (laughs)
JM: Really?
TM: I’m surprised. I’ve worked with Jennifer for quite a while now. If you put 10 stories on the board and [someone] said, “Pick which one Jen’s gonna direct”, I would get it wrong every time. She’s an enigma wrapped in a riddle surrounded by… talent. Mine is actually a study on evolution in the universe and a bit of a thinker. It’s one of Bruce Sterling’s short stories called “Swarm”, which comes out of his Mechanist/Shaper universe books, which I really love. Big sci-fi nerd. So it was an honor. I think it was Bruce’s first written material that was ever produced, which is exciting. I’ve been a fan since college.
JM: Nice. How many Emmys and Annies do you now wanna win for this third volume of Love, Death + Robots?
JYN: As many as possible.
JM: (laughs)
TM: Yeah, I think we’d be disappointed if we didn’t walk away with at least…10 more, I think.
JYN: We’re just grateful for whatever we can do. I think the key of it is: the awards mean that people are watching the show. The more people watch the show, the more chances we can get to make more things like this.
TM: And the admiration of animators who vote in these things is important, right? We want to impress our peers, so it feels good that they feel as if we’re doing something that’s moving the art form forward.
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