Kappa Mikey

Kappa Mikey
The main cast of Kappa Mikey
Genre	Comedy Fantasy Adventure Slapstick Satire
Created by	Larry Schwarz
Directed by	Sergei Aniskov
Voices of	Michael Sinterniklaas Stephen Moverly Annice Moriarty Kether Donahue Sean Schemmel Gary Mack Jesse Adams Carrie Keranen Dan Green Wayne Grayson Bella Hudson
Opening theme	"Hey Hey Look Look" by Beat Crusaders
Composer	John Angier
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Producers	Larry Schwarz Sergei Aniskov Sean Laher Christopher Fauci Michael Gold
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Animation Collective Kanonen & Bestreichen, Inc. Nicktoons Network Original Productions
Original release
Network	Nicktoons Network
Release	February 25, 2006 (2006-02-25) – September 20, 2008 (2008-09-20)

Kappa Mikey is an American animated comedy television series created by Larry Schwarz. The show is Nicktoons Network's first original half-hour series, bought during the same period as other Animation Collective series. The series premiered on February 25, 2006 and ended on September 20, 2008.

Plot

The series is a satire of Japanese anime, featuring a guy named Mikey who travels to Japan to star in a tokusatsu show, where he discovers his new co-stars are all basically walking anime clichés.

Each episode follows a specific formula. A typical episode starts with the cast filming a LilyMu segment, but the take is ruined, sometimes revealing the conflict that the characters deal with through the rest of the episode, with a minor subplot running beneath the main plot. After the problem is resolved, the LilyMu segment will be shot again and successfully completed the second time, often rewritten to incorporate whatever lesson was learned during the main story.

Deep into season 2, Kappa Mikey has stopped showing a LilyMu sequence at the end of an episode whenever it would make the episode too long, when the characters are in their LilyMu uniforms enough as it is, or when they successfully film a sequence without any mistakes before the ending.

Production

The show's title is a play on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that the show was the inspiration for naming the title character "Mikey" and used the prefix "kappa". Like Mikey, who is a "fish out of water" in Japan, the kappa itself is a water demon creature who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode "Mikey, Kappa" on August 5, 2007, where the origin of the title was explained. Coincidentally, Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice.

Kappa Mikey is different from other cartoons produced at the turn of the 21st century, in that the property was owned by the studio instead of an agency, the animation was not outsourced and the episodes were written by a full-time staff. After producing Internet-based projects and television spots, the series became Animation Collective's first television series. The series was produced in New York City starting from the summer of 2005. Production for the two seasons wrapped in September 2007.

Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was running Rumpus toys, a toy design company in New York City, but they folded before any storyboarding could commence. They resurfaced years later as Animation Collective, and produced an early test pilot for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Adult Swim series Perfect Hair Forever, and the humor was also more adult-oriented. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. MTV declined the deal, and Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project. The series was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible" and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?" and the songs from "The Karaoke Episode".

The series was animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators was assigned to the anime characters, and another group was in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc., were created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds were modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds were added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds were inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allowed animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than on many other Flash shows, and they did not always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes and bodies becoming smaller. Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which was one of the show's running gags, but cannot due to being drawn in an American style.

Characters

Main article: List of Kappa Mikey characters

• Mikey Simon (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas)
• Gonard (voiced by Sean Schemmel)
• Guano (voiced by Gary Mack)
• Lily (voiced by Annice Moriarty)
• Mitsuki (voiced by Carrie Keranen)
• Ozu (voiced by Stephen Moverly)
• Yes Man (voiced by Jesse Adams)
• Ethel (voiced by Kether Donohue)

Episodes

Main article: List of Kappa Mikey episodes

Kappa Mikey
The main cast of Kappa Mikey
Genre	Comedy Fantasy Adventure Slapstick Satire
Created by	Larry Schwarz
Directed by	Sergei Aniskov
Voices of	Michael Sinterniklaas Stephen Moverly Annice Moriarty Kether Donahue Sean Schemmel Gary Mack Jesse Adams Carrie Keranen Dan Green Wayne Grayson Bella Hudson
Opening theme	"Hey Hey Look Look" by Beat Crusaders
Composer	John Angier
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Producers	Larry Schwarz Sergei Aniskov Sean Laher Christopher Fauci Michael Gold
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Animation Collective Kanonen & Bestreichen, Inc. Nicktoons Network Original Productions
Original release
Network	Nicktoons Network
Release	February 25, 2006 (2006-02-25) – September 20, 2008 (2008-09-20)

Kappa Mikey is an American animated comedy television series created by Larry Schwarz. The show is Nicktoons Network's first original half-hour series, bought during the same period as other Animation Collective series. The series premiered on February 25, 2006 and ended on September 20, 2008.

Plot

The series is a satire of Japanese anime, featuring a guy named Mikey who travels to Japan to star in a tokusatsu show, where he discovers his new co-stars are all basically walking anime clichés.

Each episode follows a specific formula. A typical episode starts with the cast filming a LilyMu segment, but the take is ruined, sometimes revealing the conflict that the characters deal with through the rest of the episode, with a minor subplot running beneath the main plot. After the problem is resolved, the LilyMu segment will be shot again and successfully completed the second time, often rewritten to incorporate whatever lesson was learned during the main story.

Deep into season 2, Kappa Mikey has stopped showing a LilyMu sequence at the end of an episode whenever it would make the episode too long, when the characters are in their LilyMu uniforms enough as it is, or when they successfully film a sequence without any mistakes before the ending.

Production

The show's title is a play on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that the show was the inspiration for naming the title character "Mikey" and used the prefix "kappa". Like Mikey, who is a "fish out of water" in Japan, the kappa itself is a water demon creature who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode "Mikey, Kappa" on August 5, 2007, where the origin of the title was explained. Coincidentally, Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice.

Kappa Mikey is different from other cartoons produced at the turn of the 21st century, in that the property was owned by the studio instead of an agency, the animation was not outsourced and the episodes were written by a full-time staff. After producing Internet-based projects and television spots, the series became Animation Collective's first television series. The series was produced in New York City starting from the summer of 2005. Production for the two seasons wrapped in September 2007.

Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was running Rumpus toys, a toy design company in New York City, but they folded before any storyboarding could commence. They resurfaced years later as Animation Collective, and produced an early test pilot for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Adult Swim series Perfect Hair Forever, and the humor was also more adult-oriented. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. MTV declined the deal, and Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project. The series was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible" and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?" and the songs from "The Karaoke Episode".

The series was animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators was assigned to the anime characters, and another group was in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc., were created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds were modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds were added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds were inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allowed animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than on many other Flash shows, and they did not always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes and bodies becoming smaller. Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which was one of the show's running gags, but cannot due to being drawn in an American style.

Characters

Main article: List of Kappa Mikey characters

• Mikey Simon (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas)
• Gonard (voiced by Sean Schemmel)
• Guano (voiced by Gary Mack)
• Lily (voiced by Annice Moriarty)
• Mitsuki (voiced by Carrie Keranen)
• Ozu (voiced by Stephen Moverly)
• Yes Man (voiced by Jesse Adams)
• Ethel (voiced by Kether Donohue)

Episodes

Main article: List of Kappa Mikey episodes

Home media

A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under the Starz Home Entertainment brand, and includes the episodes "Lost in Transportation", "Easy Come, Easy Gonard", and "The Man Who Would Be Mikey", all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a fictional music video of "I'm Alright" taken from the episode "Battle of the Bands", wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-to-Draw-Mikey tutorial.

In 2008, the Animation Collective site advertised a second DVD that was scheduled be released sometime later that year. However, the announcement was removed from the website, leaving the exact release date to be unknown. The DVD was intended to include the first season in its entirety, with DVD extras, and would have been considered more of an "official" volume than the last one. No further announcement has been made as the status of this DVD. As of 2009, this release is shelved.

Season 1 (Episodes 1–13) was released on DVD on September 12, 2007 [1], and Season 2 (Episodes 14–26) was released on DVD on March 12, 2008 [2] by Anchor Bay Entertainment in Australia.

The soundtrack for "The Karaoke Episode" is available as a downloadable album on iTunes. Both seasons of the show itself were also available for download from iTunes before they were later taken down from the online retailer.

External links

• Kappa Mikey at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show

Home media

A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under the Starz Home Entertainment brand, and includes the episodes "Lost in Transportation", "Easy Come, Easy Gonard", and "The Man Who Would Be Mikey", all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a fictional music video of "I'm Alright" taken from the episode "Battle of the Bands", wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-to-Draw-Mikey tutorial.

In 2008, the Animation Collective site advertised a second DVD that was scheduled be released sometime later that year. However, the announcement was removed from the website, leaving the exact release date to be unknown. The DVD was intended to include the first season in its entirety, with DVD extras, and would have been considered more of an "official" volume than the last one. No further announcement has been made as the status of this DVD. As of 2009, this release is shelved.

Season 1 (Episodes 1–13) was released on DVD on September 12, 2007 [3], and Season 2 (Episodes 14–26) was released on DVD on March 12, 2008 [4] by Anchor Bay Entertainment in Australia.

The soundtrack for "The Karaoke Episode" is available as a downloadable album on iTunes. Both seasons of the show itself were also available for download from iTunes before they were later taken down from the online retailer.

External links

• Kappa Mikey at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show