Jul 1, 2005 12:00 PM

Making of a Remix: Robot Chicken

Action Figure Meets Sketch Comedy

Is that really Dubya suited up to fight asteroids in Armageddon? Or Batman and Robin, the Dukes of Hazzard, and Vin Diesel on the same raceway in Cannonball Run? They're action figures, modded and stop-motion animated in Cartoon Network's weekly laff riot Robot Chicken. Here's how creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich puree TV history.

1. Writing: The show's four writers gather in Green's living room, emerging with a script that includes a dozen or more sketches. They submit the script to an army of attorneys, who make sure it meets the legal standard for parody. The lawyers' requests can be baffling. Says Green: "Once we had a conversation about the difference between someone getting their neck snapped and their throat slit."

2. Dubbing: Recording voice-overs comes next. Green, whose Hollywood credits include playing Dr. Evil's son in Austin Powers, goes about casting as though he were throwing a party: "We sit around thinking, Who do we want to play with?" So far, the guest list has included Scarlett Johansson, Ashton Kutcher, and Rachael Leigh Cook.

3. Construction: Robot Chicken employs a full-time "toy wrangler," whose sole task is to procure plastic effigies on a moment's notice. Still, most action figures aren't active enough. "They don't have sufficient range of motion," Green explains. So the team's eight puppet builders modify some dolls and construct others from scratch, while eight set builders are busy working on backgrounds.

4. Animation: Fourteen animators bring the script to life on 14 separate stages, all operating at once. The animators ready the set, pose the characters, position a hi-res digital camera, and snap video frames one at a time. Production goal: 10 seconds of animation per stage per day.

5. Postproduction: After stringing the sketches together, Green and Senreich edit the pieces into a 15-minute whole. "If we have a joke that needs a bit of time to tell, we have to decide whether to save a different clip for the DVD," Green says. When the cut is just right, it's time to add the finishing touches: sound effects and music.