RR: Astroboy was a really big influence with Alex Kirwan, our art director, as well as myself, but I have to give Alex the lion’s share of the credit for how the show looks. Alex and Joseph Holt, who’s our background designer, and Seonna Hong, our lead background painter. They developed the look of Teenage Robot.

The most tangible thing that we took from Astroboy was the weird hairdos you see on everybody. It seems like in Astroboy every character has some sort of weird hairdo. We tried to translate that in for Nora Wakeman and Brad, and to a lesser degree, Tuck, but the most distinctive thing about the characters sometimes is the way the hair looks. It’s also the most maddening part when you have to draw them!

Robot’s look is inspired by Fleischer cartoons, especially Popeye, which is Renzetti’s favorite cartoon ever.

The Fleischer cartoons, especially Popeye, are probably my favorite cartoons ever, and we just love that 1930s look. We really wanted to do a 1930s type show that didn’t look totally 1930s, so we took that era’s elements and motifs and we kind of streamlined and flattened them so that we got a look that’s more stylized than you might see in an actual 1930s cartoon. One thing we’re doing for “Escape From Cluster Prime,” the one-hour special movie we’re doing this summer, is trying to use our computer to mimic the old 3D background effect that Fleischer had in their cartoons. They built these model sets that rotated behind the characters so you would see these three-dimensional cityscapes behind Popeye as he walked down the street.

We’re trying to get that effect for a couple of shots in the movie. They gave us a little more money to do some 3D shots, and rather than do something that stuck out as a computer shot we wanted to have something that looked different but would be integrated. We showed the computer guys old photos of how Fleischer’s machine looked, and they’ve recreated it on a computer. We’re very excited about it. I can remember being impressed and curious about those 3D effects when they would suddenly pop up in the middle of a Popeye cartoon.

As far as Buffy the Vampire Slayer goes, it’s a great influence on Teenage Robot. Buffy was my favorite TV show. I loved the richness of the large cast of characters and the way the show developed a heroine who is both strong and vulnerable. That was a big goal of mine, to have Jenny be strong and vulnerable. I didn’t want to give her all the weak characteristics that we sometimes associate with young girls, because I think that’s an unfair stereotype. I also wanted Jenny to have some of the strong, positive characteristics that Buffy displays. So, Jenny is emotional but she’s not weepy. She’s also stubborn, but honest and forthright, too. She’s committed to her friends, but at the same time she doesn’t mind trying to sneak around and get stuff past her mom. We tried to make Jenny a complicated and conflicted character somewhat akin to Buffy.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is another great influence on Teenage Robot. Renzetti tried to make Jenny a complicated and conflicted character, somewhat akin to Buffy .

DT: Speaking of influences on the show, it looks like some of your incidental characters are styled in tribute to John Stanley, the famous comic book artist who drew Little Lulu.

RR: I think that Jill Friemark, one of our character designers, is actually a Little Lulu fan. She loves the big dot-eyed characters with the puffy cheeks, so it definitely does come through. Any sort of that 1930s-styled stuff is an influence on Teenage Robot.

DT: The look of the show seems to have evolved. Since the pilot, Dr. Wakeman, Brad, and the Krust cousins Brit and Tiff have all changed somewhat in appearance. Do you feel that the show’s style has finally been set?

RR: Pretty much. Obviously, the show looks very different than it did in the pilot episode. In our first season, there was a lot of experimentation. I think in the second season we found our groove but we’re still constantly trying to expand the style of Teenage Robot. We bring in a lot of new villains, and that gives us an opportunity to expand what the show looks like. The color and background styling is also an area where we have the chance to experiment. Joe and our other background designer Chris Tsirgiotis both come up with some fresh, imaginative stuff on every show. And our color stylists Chris Hacker and Leticia Lacy always have different ideas for every color schemes in every episode.

Between the first and second season Alex took a pass at the main characters again after having drawn them for a full season. We redid all their models to update them and make them more appealing. Especially Jenny. Everyone was drawing her one way, but her turnaround (main model) looked a different way!