I feel the time is right to push the medium further and explore an arena previously untouched by stop-motion animation – the action/adventure genre. Havoc will potentially be the first film of its kind, a stop-motion action film. Havoc is a lone warrior, forced into battle against a legion of vicious mutants. At stake: his survival AND the fate of humankind! Part human, part genetic mutation.

To realize this dream I’ve recently launched a Kickstarter campaign. Investment in this project will go towards the production of a three minute film which will introduce Havoc, the character, as well as the tone and visual style of the world he lives in.

The Olsen Twins go apartment hunting. (Starveillance, 2007)

It seems like a contradiction -- one is spontaneous, invented on the spot while the other requires countless painstaking hours to create.  Yet when unscripted audio is met with the appropriate animated imagery, the results are often hilarious, heartwarming and highly entertaining.

Question: What are some of the positive responses from celebrities who got skewered on the Celebrity Deathmatch?

As Celebrity Deathmatch grew in popularity, it became en vogue for stars to be parodied on the show. Whether they were up and coming “flash in the pan” type celebs or bona fide Hollywood Icons, for some, seeing their name on a Deathmatch fight card was acknowledgement enough that they had made it in show biz.

Howard Stern, who at the time was in a real life feud with morning talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford, was tickled by our clay-animated version.  He described the battle blow by blow on his national radio show as it played in the background: “So I defeat Kathie Lee Gifford by farting…and there’s green noxious fumes coming out of my ass, and she melts down.  So it was pretty good.” 

Jennifer Lopez vs. Dolly Parton

“Has a celebrity ever come after you for making fun of them?”

Over the years this has been one of the most frequently asked questions put to me, regarding Celebrity Deathmatch.  I am happy to report that there has never been a lawsuit filed by a celebrity against me or MTV Networks -- at least none that I’m aware of.  That’s not to say that a few celebs weren’t a little pissed off from time to time.

1633 B’Way, home of Celebrity Deathmatch

Building a stop-motion animation studio can be a challenging endeavor.  Especially when that studio is located on the 31^st floor of a corporate office building right smack in Midtown Manhattan.  As MTV animation VP John Lynn, animation supervisor Greg Pair and I imagined the logistics of producing a stop motion TV series, there really was no other choice.  There was no model for how to do a show like this because nothing like it had ever been attempted.  So we took the basic template for making the original Deathmatch shorts and expanded it out.

With the success of Deathbowl ’98 a symbolic battle had been won.  But the war to get this stop-motion slugfest on the air as a regular series still remained.  Three major obstacles needed to be overcome for this to happen:  1) We needed a production staff.  2) We needed a production facility.  3) Most importantly, we needed an official greenlight from MTV and an order for episodes which we had yet to obtain.

Still frame from "Mutilator."

Before “The Head,” “Celebrity Deathmatch” or “Glenn Martin, DDS” I had no idea I would grow up to become a working animator.  But I knew animation was something I had to try.  Growing up, I was a latch key kid, often coming home to an empty house after school.  My babysitters’ names were Popeye, Tom, Jerry, Bugs and Daffy. I was literally raised on those old school cartoons with their over the top slapstick violence and impeccable timing.   They would leave an indelible mark on me.

Stop motion animation can be back-breaking work.

Convincing an MTV exec to greenlight a couple of Celebrity Deathmatch shorts seemed like a herculean task.  Turns out that would become the first of many battles to get “Celebrity Deathmatch: The Series” on the air.

It was the Fall of 1997 and we were hard at work on the third of three Deathmatch shorts – Howard stern Vs. Kathy Lee Gifford.  By “we” I’m talking about myself and one other animator, Greg Pair, handling the all of the stop motion duties.  We worked out of 1633 Broadway, home of MTV Animation and puppets were being fabricated up the street by Karl Paolino Studios.   To say that the puppets were of an inferior quality would be an understatement.  They were fabricated using cheap foam latex that was filled with air bubbles and wire armatures that broke constantly.  In addition, the puppets had unusually long “gorilla” arms that were off model and looked nothing short of ridiculous.  But we made do with what we had, happy to finally bring our “clay boxing show” to life and often working late into the night to make our deadlines.