How Everything Works
The ins and outs of making great entertainment.
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Yakkos World.Wakkos America.And, of course,that earworm of a main theme.
The classic gags, so reminiscent of Looney Tunes!
The pop-culture references, skewering everything fromSlick Willies scandalstoMartin Scorsese films!
But the shows most memorable showstoppers wereits beloved musical numbers.
The result is Catch Up Song, a Yakko Warner number.
Its a trick that we applied across a lot of the songs.
In fact, they auditioned with a draft of it.
Which character is singing the song, and how do we make the lyrics fit the character?
Is it an educational song, and if so, what information needs to be packed into it?
How do you convey that information in two minutes, and with humor and clever rhymes to boot?
Yakko is the smart one and the smart aleck, Nash says.
He gets more million-dollar words, so hes one of the most fun characters to write for.
/ Cell phones got smarter, the oceans got hotter, the global economy collapsed.
Enter Clyde Lawrence and Jordan Cohen, of the soul-pop band Lawrence, based in Brooklyn.
The composition, in other words, is meant to be illustrative.
That means it needs to be storyboarded, and then, after a long and complex process, animated.
But the harrowing schedule, Swarr says, helped keep everyone focused.
We couldnt overthink the storyboards or be too clever, because the lyrics are so fast, he says.
We had to just illustrate whats in the lyric in whatever way allowed for the fastest, easiest read.
Still, storyboarding songs comes with its own challenges.
But with a song, youre locked into a rhythm, and you cant break it.
But even for experienced voice actors, there are challenges.
Then theres concerns of character.
But as Yakko, he sings right in the middle of a note.
We dont want Yakko to miss it by a quarter tone, Paulsen explains.
We want Yakko to sing really well.
Hes a smart-ass, and he gets the joke.
And he doesnt mind being the butt of the joke.
But he can sing rapid fire, and he has to sing well.
Paulsen had another challenge to contend with this time around, as well.
Being able to sing in character actually frees me up from having to worry about not hitting a note.
The whole scenario reminded him of Yakkos World, the first song he recorded for the shows original run.
