May 7th, 2018 
Jackson Murphy 
Moose and Squirrel are back! A modern reboot of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle will arrive on Amazon Prime Video this Friday, May 11th. The fearless leader in charge of reviving the classic ’50s-’60s series is executive producer Scott Fellows (The Fairly OddParents”, Johnny Test).
Jackson Murphy: One of the most recent times people got a chance to see Rocky and Bullwinkle was the 2014 short that was part of the Mr. Peabody & Sherman DVD. Do you know if that short was a testing ground for the series?
Scott Fellows: I did not know that. I know DreamWorks has worked with Tiffany Ward, Jay Ward’s daughter, and all the great properties that he has and… everything that Jay Ward did is worthy of a reboot. I was not aware of that or involved in that, but I know anytime you can get Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris and Natasha out there for people to watch is a good thing.
JM: Tell me about working with Tiffany on this show. This must’ve been a dream come true for her for this series to come alive.
SF: Tiffany is a very, very special lady. We love her here. She really was a guiding light when it came to making this series. And she couldn’t be prouder of it – of Rocky and Bullwinkle getting another shot. It was just terrific because… Jay Ward is one of those iconic heroes in animation, and so to be so close to Tiffany, but also for her to tell the stories and the background, it was all really valuable to have. And not only that: she’s just so effervescent and fun to be around. Anytime she comes around there’s smiles everywhere.
And of course it was just terrific for her to approve all this stuff and to laugh with us and really enjoy it. It was really just terrific to have her. And the one really neat thing I remember was: we had a screening – the first really big screening. We had all the sound effects and everything was mixed. We had a nice screening with the cast and the crew, and Tiffany came, and we had a great time. But at the end of the screening, we all had lunch and had some laughs and took some pictures.
But Tiffany came over to the cast and the directors and said that her dad would’ve really been proud and laughed like crazy, and that was really terrific for all of us to hear. We were kind of blown away, and that was a neat moment. That was very special.
JM: Probably one of the biggest complements you’ve ever gotten in your life.
SF: You know what? It might’ve been one of the biggest. I gotta say – if I thought I cracked up Jay Ward, you could shut it down after that.
JM: So this is “Rocky and Bullwinkle” for a new generation, but what are some of the strongest elements that you took from the classic series and applied to this new show?
SF: I think the insanity and the playfulness of it. These are characters that are so lovable and fun to watch. This is a cartoon that doesn’t just have one superstar: it’s got four superstars. You’ve got Rocky, Bullwinkle and the most notorious and hilarious spies in cartoon history: Boris and Natasha. So that is all a treat. But what we really wanted to do was just keep, again, that sort of evervescence and really silliness of the original Jay Ward production team and Bill Scott and June Foray and all that stuff.
So we were really excited to use the narrator and all those silly self-referential ways, break the fourth wall, make fun of ourselves. It’s a really unique cartoon for a writer and a writing team, and the board artists could go so many places and have so many opportunities to make the audience giggle. So we tried to bring in all that stuff, and we wanted to have those cliffhangers and recaps… which we all remember watching growing up. And then, it was a lot of extra work, but we all decided we really wanted to keep the silly two possible titles at the end, in the sort of classic radio serialization: “Tune in next time for Silly Title A or Silly Title B!”
That took a lot of extra work for our artists to draw these great title cards, but I can’t wait for the audience to see them because the artwork is just spectacular. And I can’t take any credit for the artwork, except I loved every time the stuff came in for review or approval, and it was just fantastic.
JM: I love that narrator – Daran Norris. He is just terrific.
SF: He’s not that great, actually. (laughs) I’m kidding. I worked with Daran, of course, on “The Fairly OddParents”. And Daran was actually on every one of my live-action shows on Nickelodeon. So I didn’t even know Daran was the narrator when I came in. DreamWorks has their own amazing casting department, and they cast all these great voices. But when I came in and saw Daran Norris, that was a real treat. I couldn’t wait. And he is absolutely spectacular: his delivery, his energy, his irony – he makes me giggle constantly. What a great, fun person and voice to have on your show.
JM: And when it comes to the silliness, how closely did you study the original show?
SF: I actually went out and got the whole original series of “Rocky and Bullwinkle” – I think the package is called “Total Bull…”, and then when you turn it around, it finishes “…winkle”. So I wanted to watch everything just to dive back in and remember all the stuff that I really loved.
Fearless Leader in this series is voiced by Piotr Michael, who was on “MADtv” and does a lot of voices and some live-action performances on “The Thundermans”. And he just brought an amazing performance to this character. Fearless Leader is an insane person who wants to take over the world. We’re hoping that 6-11 year old kids are really loving this series, so we can’t make this character something that’s so terrifying that it makes kids run for the kitchen. And Piotr just has the magical tone to make a character so ridiculous, so evil, that it’s funny – and you know off the bat that his plans are never gonna work, so you’re never too afraid of him. Piotr just walked an amazing balance of insanity and comedy that just giggles.
You talk about Daran Norris and the rest of the cast: Rachel Butera, Ben Diskin, Tara Strong and Daran. We had to stop the record sometimes because everyone is just cracking jokes. Piat was particularly good at getting Daran to laugh where I had to get re-takes, because Daran just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
JM: This show is serialized, the season is divided up into thirds with three main storylines over 13 episodes. Was that the game plan immediately going in?
SF: It was a decision that sort of evolved and developed, but… I was actually really excited about the idea. The execution is actually pretty tough because normally when you’re working on a cartoon, you have one story – one set-alone story that a directing team can grab and a boarding artist… that’s sort of stand-alone. So we really had to coordinate between directors and board artists and our composers. And everybody really came together to make sure all these… chapters come together to tell one large story, but also each chapter can be watched alone to tell one specific story. We made sure to wrap-up individual stories, but then they had to connect to make a much bigger arc… or adventure.
And I was excited about it because you know, Jackson, that the landscape is changing as far as how people are watching. I’m excited to see how the audience enjoys this cartoon because I thought we did a great job of… you can sit for 22 minutes and get plenty of the hilarity and then get back to your homework. Or I’m really hoping that families bake some cookies and popcorn and food kids shouldn’t eat – and all sit together and watch because this is a cartoon, unlike a lot out there, that a lot of generations know it and can really enjoy it.
JM: Amazon is becoming a big fixture in the animation world. “Tumble Leaf” was just honored with a few Daytime Emmy Awards. How has Amazon been to work with?
SF: It’s been a great partnership because they were really committed to bringing these characters back to life and giving them the animation they so long deserve. And it was not difficult because we really all love these characters and want to see them succeed. And really with the great team that DreamWorks put together: not only the artists here in Glendale (California), but the animators at DHX in Vancouver… did such a great job and always went above and beyond.
We were really trying to find the right mix for this character, to bring all the humor and jokes to our younger audience but also really honor June’s original performance… that takes a while to find that balance and nuance. Around episode five, when we started doing ADR, we had to go back and fix some of the original takes. Tara was like, “I gotta do that again! We gotta do that again!” because around episode five, we were really finding a groove, and so we went back to [episode] one. Our engineer was just terrific. And this just shows that… everybody’s attitude to make sure that we really do the best we can to honor, celebrate and pay the correct homage and bring these legendary, lovable and silly characters to a new audience.
With a property like this that’s so valued, Jackson, we knew we had to really nail it. In working with Amazon, they were committed like everybody. When we finally watched the cartoon, we all laughed. What else can you ask for?
JM: And this property is especially so valued because of June Foray, the original voice of Rocky. Was there any involvement from her on this series before she passed away last year?
SF: I don’t believe so. I didn’t work with June, but I do know that she was with us in spirit because she passed away just about when we started recording, which was kinda wild. And Tara Strong, I can’t imagine anyone else stepping in those legendary shoes. And Tara’s preparation with studying the original “Rocky and Bullwinkle” and honestly, just her respect and love for June Foray, which we all have. There isn’t anybody greater.
I love the way Tara really wanted to honor her performance of “Rocky and Bullwinkle”. But, again, we also had to bring this cartoon to a new, modern audience, so the humor has changed and stories have gotten a little bit bigger, and I thought that Tara just did a phenomenal job. And she wouldn’t stop until she was satisfied with doing that voice.
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