Rick and Morty Is an Animation Challenge Like No Other

Rick and Morty concoctions like "Pickle Rick" may make for wonderfully preposterous TV, but they likewise brand things very, very difficult for the people tasked to go information technology done. Photograph: Adult Swim

On a recent episode of Adult Swim's popular animated sci-fi comedy Rick and Morty, a nefarious robot programmed by mad scientist Rick Sanchez using an algorithm derived from the plots of heist movies orbits an alien planet in a spaceship half the planet's size, disguised as a construction worker. In a bid to "example" the planet the way a con creative person might scope out a big score, the robot drops a comically oversize hidden camera on the planet'due south surface, leveling a city and killing tens of thousands. As the planet's bewildered alien residents scramble in terror, the robot transforms into a pizza guy, and blithely proceeds to deliver a continent-size pie. The pizza turns into an enormous drill; the drill digs to the centre of the planet; the robot makes off with the planet's core, as the planet itself collapses. "I call up we got away with information technology," declares the robot, fleeing as pieces of the broken world bladder around information technology.

This entire sequence spans well-nigh 60 seconds, beginning to end. In improver to the transforming spaceship, the heist-loving robot, the camera, the pizza, the drill, and the molten planetary core, the scene includes an alien news program, a collapsing beach, a tidal wave through a dying metropolis, a menagerie of terrified animals, a huge origami calling card left behind by the robot at the scene of the crime, and of course an entire alien species never seen before on the prove, which has its ain original and interesting features. The idea of an evil robot capable of heisting whole planets is so hilarious and cool that it's possible to spend this infinitesimal-long scene in a fit of outrageous laughter. But then it occurs to y'all that someone had to brand all this — not simply dream it upwardly, which is amazing enough, but actually breathing this madness from scratch.

"I'm sort of fighting myself when I watch an episode," Nathan Litz, animation director at Bardel Entertainment, told me recently from his studio's headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia. "You encounter all the great activity go by and it looks fantastic. But yous look at information technology and you lot recollect, That took four weeks to do, and information technology played out in one infinitesimal."

Litz heads the team of nearly 50 artists and animators responsible for realizing the vision of Rick and Morty's co-creators and showrunners Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland week later week. He knows better than anyone how much work goes into making information technology happen — and how swiftly Rick and Morty dispatches even its most elaborate flights of blockbuster fancy. "The people at abode have a nice laugh and they enjoy information technology," he says. "But you just don't go the total feeling of how much try goes into every episode by watching the 22 minutes fly past on the TV."

Rick and Morty is i of the strangest and most consistently audacious comedies on television. A scientific discipline-fiction caricature that routinely involves interdimensional travel, world-invading aliens, and planet-hopping adventures, it follows the ludicrous exploits of the then-called smartest man in the universe, Rick Sanchez, and his hapless, plucky teenage grandson, Morty, equally they pursue obscure quests, run afoul of galactic law, and otherwise riff on the conventions of mainstream genre fiction, such as the heist motion picture. One of the nearly appealing things about Rick and Morty — and what has endeared it and then intensely to so many fans — is that whenever it introduces an intriguing concept, it goes on to explore its ain limits, often pushing ideas to their logical farthermost. Simply while that creates some wonderfully preposterous Television, such as a dear episode in which Rick turns himself into a pickle, information technology makes things very, very hard for the people tasked with getting it done.

"If you work on a burn-rescue show, you lot've got burn and water and smoke to deal with," Litz explains. "On Rick and Morty, yous've got burn down, water, smoke, lasers, ship trails, explosions, everything you can possibly think of. The overall telescopic of things is what makes it the challenge that information technology is."

This is, Litz points out, basically the opposite of how every other TV show works, especially in animation. "I tin't even recollect of a direct comparable because every other prove is concerned with keeping information technology as conservative as possible, in terms of character count, locations, and so on. Whereas this evidence, they dear to send someone off to another universe, and give them iii seconds with fifteen different scenes, unlike groundwork angles, different characters. Evidently every dissimilar planet and dimension has to be populated by original and interesting characters. Everything's as lively every bit possible."

This attitude accounts for why Rick and Morty doesn't look and feel like annihilation else out there right at present. "TV is very time- and upkeep-witting, and they simply desire to get the to the lowest degree amount onto the screen equally possible while still telling a story and making information technology funny or dramatic," Litz says. "On Rick and Morty it's well-nigh making it the biggest spectacle that it can be — which takes an atrocious lot of work to bring to life."

As Rick and Morty finishes the first half of its fourth season, it'southward obvious that the serial is getting more aggressive. Litz has seen the evolution firsthand. "It's absolutely gotten a lot bigger," he says. "The ambition of the writers and designers but seems to grow. On the ane mitt that'southward fun to do. Only it tin be a real struggle to maintain the level of quality while still trying to get these episodes done on time."

Bardel Animation director Nathan Litz says that when he was brought on to develop the 2012 Rick and Morty airplane pilot, he "knew how much work it was going to be, and how much of a problem that could become." Photo: Bardel Amusement Inc.

Interestingly, Bardel's bread and butter as an animation studio has not been this kind of huge, ambitious adult content, but rather cartoons for piffling kids. It has been very successful over the concluding several years in the preschool and historic period 6-11 spaces, developing a slate of DreamWorks spinoffs for Netflix, including All Hail King Julien, Kung-Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny, and VeggieTales in the City. Although Tina Chow, caput of development at Bardel, is quick to emphasize that Bardel "tin work in any genre," Rick and Morty certainly stands out amongst the Bardel animation roster. Litz himself had never worked on animation for adults earlier he was brought on to develop Rick and Morty'south airplane pilot episode, in 2012. He says that while he "knew how much work it was going to be, and how much of a problem that could go," he loved the show right away, and was eager to be involved.

"It's a big divergence to work on a project that yous really enjoy the final product, as opposed to when it's just a task," he says. "As an animator you tin can of form even so take a lot of pleasure in doing a scene that looks good, merely if that scene comes in the middle of a testify that you don't really enjoy, yous don't become the same level of satisfaction. Working on a bear witness like Rick and Morty, that's not simply fun and entertaining but also high-profile, that everyone is watching, is extremely satisfying."

Chow also credits the animation team's appreciation of the serial for the endeavor and passion they put in: "We have people giving more than 110 percent to work on Rick and Morty," she says. "We take people approaching the states just considering they desire to work on that. It's smashing to rent big fans, because they're going to requite information technology their all."

For Litz and the team, the enormous amount of labor that goes into the project pays off when it's all done. "It'southward ever great when we terminate an episode and gather and picket it with the team," he says. "You tin can e'er hear everybody whooping when their scenes come upward. They have so much pride for this show."

Rick and Morty Is an Blitheness Challenge Like No Other