Superhero Shorts: Disassembled

Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m talking with Junaid Chundrigar and his animated short film Disassembled. While the Avengers movie was all about how the heroes assembled together to form their team, this is what happens on a bad day when they get disassembled. It’s very Robot Chicken-esque with a bunch of very quick mini-scenes. And it’s not just the Avengers that were featured in the movie, it also features several other famous Marvel characters, many of whom I believe were also Avengers at some point in time. As always, you can watch the short right below, or you can watch it at Junaid’s YouTube Channel

When I first watched this short, I wasn’t entirely sold on the animation style which painted several of the characters as extremely stupid looking with vacant expressions and dumbly open mouths, most notably the Human Torch and the Silver Surfer. But I’ve watched it well over a dozen times now and it has really grown on me. I still think those two I mentioned are a little bit too far out there, but the goofy looking expression on Venom’s face is just hilarious. There’s all sorts of great little touches, I find it endlessly funny that Sue Storm is in the background vacuuming while invisible. The showdown between Doc Ock and Spider-Man is pretty great too. It’s rather impressive how quickly the jokes work, all the heroes and villains are so iconic that it doesn’t take more than a quick second to recognize who the characters are and how they fit together, then it’s on to the next scene. I think my favorite scene is the snakes falling onto Nick Fury, that gets a laugh out of me every single time. On top of all that, the fact that it got picked up by Stan Lee himself so quickly is frankly amazing, and really gives hope to all those fan-filmmakers out there. Enough from me, let’s hear what Junaid has to say for himself.

Bubbawheat: Can you tell me a little bit about how you got started in animation?

Junaid Chundragar: I started a study in animation at the Utrecht School of the Arts in 2007 and graduated in 2011 with my short film Sheeped Away. During that time, I also met fellow animator Davor Bujakovic with whom I now started ‘KLOMP! Animation‘.

BW: I enjoyed your animation, it has a very hectic style and reminds me a bit of Ren and Stimpy. What would you say your animation influences are?

JC: Thanks! I understand the comparisons to Ren and Stimpy but most of my influences come from the the classic Looney Tunes shorts and the Cartoon Network 90’s stuff (Dexter’s Lab, Cow & Chicken etc). I’m also a big fan of the old school 2D adventure games (Monkey Island, Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle), they’re the reason I started drawing. And of course, both me and Davor are huge Disney fans.

BW: Cow & Chicken! That makes a lot more sense, that has such a unique style to it, I really enjoyed that and all of the early Cartoon Network stuff. How did you end up working with Stan Lee and his World of Heroes channel?

JC: I made “Disassembled” just for fun, nothing more. After I saw the second trailer for Avengers, I got the sudden urge to draw some Marvel characters. But since I can’t really do the American comic style, I decided to make them really cartoony while still staying true to the characters. After doing the drawings I really wanted to animate them so I made a storyboard and started right away. I was planning to release it at the same day Avengers came out, but decided to wait a bit. A good choice, as I was able to quickly include the little shawarma gag with the Stan Lee cameo last minute.

Within a week things got crazy. One of the emails I got was from Stan Lee’s World of Heroes. They asked me to do a webshow for them. Of course I couldn’t say no so I started the studio with Davor to work on this, but also to work on other projects at the same time.

Left to Right: Davor, some guy I don’t recognize, and Junaid.

BW: That’s so crazy how quickly that short got the attention of the right people. I’m glad to see great fan work pay off in that kind of way. Your initial short was all Marvel properties, who made the decision to spread out to DC and Dark Horse characters?

JC: That was one of the first things we discussed with World of Heroes.

Because it’s a parody, we basically can use anybody we want. I’m a big comic geek myself so I love the thought of coming up with stories for the DC characters and others like Hellboy.

BW: Can you tell me a little bit about what Bad Days is going to be? So far I’ve only seen the trailer for it and it looks like a step up from Disassembled.

JC: There are going to be 12 (+/- 2 minute) episodes, starting this fall. Each episode will focus on a different superhero/villain that tries to get through the day. The trailer previewed some of the characters we’re going to do. Subscribe to World of Heroes so you get notified right away when the episodes go online!

BW: You mentioned that you started your studio to work on that as well as other projects, can you tell me what some of those projects are?

JC: Yes, we’re also doing a show for Mondo Media called ‘Fanboy Rampage’, about three kids who dress up like their favorite actiongame/film characters and cause mayhem in and around the house.

BW: That’s pretty awesome too, I was a big fan of Happy Tree Friends.

JC: We’re also working on our own short film called ‘The New Kid’ (working title), which is about a little green swamp monster trying to make friends in a school. For New Kid, we’re working together with Dutch animation producer il Luster and the Netherlands Film Fund.

And last but not least, I’m working on a “little” Dutch pet project called “Gerard & Stipje door de Tijd” (“through time”). It’s a 6 episode action drama musical miniseries I’ve been working on for a while now. I don’t think I’ll be finishing it anytime soon because of the other projects but I hope to put it online sometime before 2036.

Information on all the projects can be found on www.KlompAnimation.com

BW: I have to ask, what’s your favorite superhero movie?

JC: Oh wow, that changes every week…

Right now I’m still very hyped by The Avengers and I’m looking forward to Marvel’s Phase Two. I really like the idea of Edgar Wright directing Ant-man and I’m curious to see how they’ll pull of Guardians of the Galaxy.

And despite its flaws here and there, I also really liked The Amazing Spider-man.

Other recent superhero movies I liked: Iron Man, Captain America, Batman Begins, Hellboy 2, Watchmen, Kick-Ass, X-Men First Class…

And like the rest of the world. I’m going to see Dark Knight Rises on Friday.

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I have yet to see it, but I will be today with luck. You’ve got a great running list too. Thanks so much for talking with me and good luck with your current and future animation projects, I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more from you in the future. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.