Buffy The ‘Animated’ Slayer Lives?
Earlier this month I stumbled upon a 3-minute video on You Tube that showed us what the failed Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Animated Series looked like and I lamented the loss of such a cute idea for such a fun-looking series. Today, there is new hope that Buffy: The Animated Series might not be totally dead after all … apparently, that little You Tube video sparked a fire underneath fans of the animated Buffy and there is new talk that the series might actually make it to air:
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has been many things — so much so that creator Joss Whedon jokes, “I got to make a comic book out of the TV show out of the movie out of the T-shirt out of the opera of the song of the bumper sticker of the shoe line that I love.” One of the things he left out in the absurdly long list is an animated series — which was actually in the pipeline once upon a time, and looks to find new life once again. Back in 2002, Whedon and Jeph Loeb came up with the idea of doing an animated version of Buffy that would take place somewhere in season one. “We liked to call it episode seven-and-a-half,” Loeb joked. “It was a much simpler time. Angel had been introduced, but he was not yet Angelus. We could retrofit Dawn as a ten-year-old, so you can really play the older sister gag. Their mom is alive.” And because it was animated, “no one has to grow up.” “Buffy the Animated Series” was meant for a more general audience than just regular Buffy fans — you didn’t need to follow the show religiously to get what was going on. “It was a very simple entry point,” Loeb said. “There is a girl in high school who has been chosen to fight evil, and there’s a great deal of it in her town. Here are her friends, and here is her watcher.” With special effects costs no longer a concern, they were able to do in the animated series what they couldn’t on the regular TV show (and what they do now in the comics). “We could have thousands of vampires,” Loeb said. “They could fight an army of the undead. In the pilot, the vampires raised a dragon, a 120-foot wingspan dragon, and Buffy ends up riding it across Sunnydale, and as it’s shooting fire, she looks down and says, ‘Hey, I can see my house from here!’” With many original cast members such as Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendan, and Anthony Stewart Head aboard to do voiceovers, and Eric Wight aboard to do the animation, you might have thought this would be an easy sell. “We had an opportunity to do something about how animation changes and affects how things look,” Loeb said. “For me, ‘Batman the Animated Series’ drew a line where everything that came after would be compared to this particular show. ‘Buffy’ would have been the next generation of that.” But despite taking it to “every outlet in television” — including MTV — Loeb said, they had little luck. “We’d take to one network, and they’d say, ‘How can we make this more mature?’ Well, do you want more violence? To have the language like it is in the show? To have the actors do the voices so it sounds like the show? We had all that. We would say, ‘This is what we have: big piles of money and gold, and it’s sitting in the street and you can come out and take it.’ They would ask, ‘But you do have copper pans?’ No, we have money, and gold! But they would want copper pans.” Eventually, Fox Family signed on to air the show on Fox Kids — but when that collapsed in a Disney buyout, the show went nowhere. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, a three-minute version of the pilot just leaked to YouTube earlier this month. An online petition just started to get it on the air. Somehow, there’s fresh hope that this project may find a home after all — just as Buffy has found new success as a comic book series. “The best Buffy stories are ones of resurrection,” Joeb said. “Everything still exists — the designs, the scripts. It’s such a ‘no-duh’ project, so why the hell not? All you need is to draw it. Eight years ago, there was no fascination with ‘Family Guy’ or ‘Robot Chicken,’ but there’s an audience now that could drive to it. You can’t stand in the way of pop culture.”
Yes! I love the whole vibe of this new animated series. It’s meant to be cute, it’s meant to be fun … it will allow us to see the Scoobies in a different, more innocent light. I FULLY SUPPORT this new series and I really hope that it will eventually make it on air. After the jump, check out the *very cute* 3-minute You Tube vid (in case you missed it the first time or want to give it a second look) that managed to reignite interest in reviving this animated series …
So cute.
Zander: … the harder they what?
Leob is right … piles of PURE gold. How can they not want to make this show?
[Source, thanks Michael]
Tags: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Animated Series'
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August 27th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I would totally watch that!!! I hope things work out!
August 27th, 2008 at 9:12 am
i would die!
August 27th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Sorry Trent, but according to Simon one of the admins of whedonesque.com, the writer emailed to clarify: “Just to clear up any confusion, the story was more to set up the backdrop for Jeph Loeb’s upcoming issue of the Buffy comic, which was inspired by the animated series that never was.” So I don’t think this is a sign they are bringing back this defunct animated series, unfortch!
Check out our discussion of this article: http://whedonesque.com/comments/17404
August 27th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I WOULD SO watch this if they did it!!!
August 27th, 2008 at 10:07 am
I would like to use this blog to respond to Simon at Whedonesque.com (I cannot do it at whedonesque.com as you can’t register there). I don’t understand how you can say that it is not a good sign for the continuation of the animated series.
Firstly, there is not even a mention about the Loeb’s Buffy comic, so is this article about something if it doesn’t talk about it ? I mean, come on !
Secondly, even if the article is about the comic, you can stay objective and just quote Loeb : “Everything still exists — the designs, the scripts. It’s such a ‘no-duh’ project, so why the hell not? All you need is to draw it. Eight years ago, there was no fascination with ‘Family Guy’ or ‘Robot Chicken,’ but there’s an audience now that could drive to it. You can’t stand in the way of pop culture.” Does that sound like “The animated series are dead to you” to you ? To me, it means, maybe there is a chance to bring them back.
Finally, the fan campaign to get those series back is not as stupid as Simon seems to think, as it has generated a lot of reaction (well, mostly two, but Nick Brendon and Jeph Loeb aren’t small players).
I hope Simon will, in his great wisdom, dignify this post.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:18 am
[...] To Fly Commercial! [Dlisted]Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson Bikini Pictures [Egotastic]Buffy The ‘Animated’ Slayer Lives? [Pink is the New Blog]Pamela Anderson Promotes, Frightens [Bauer-Griffin [...]
August 27th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Gold, indeed. I love cartoon Willow is so adorable! “Am I panicking outloud?” LOVE IT!
August 27th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I just want to clarify: I am not Simon. And calm down. I was not calling anyone stupid, neither was Simon. I was just letting you know what I heard. Sure, maybe with all the publicity there is a chance to bring back the show, and it would be great if it happened (big fan right here!).
Of anyone, we Whedonists know the kind of impact fans have (hello? ever hear of Serenity, the feature film of a cancelled TV show because of the fan response).
So stop being so defensive. We are all just trying to interpret this article.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:10 am
[...] To Fly Commercial! [Dlisted]Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson Bikini Pictures [Egotastic]Buffy The ‘Animated’ Slayer Lives? [Pink is the New Blog]Pamela Anderson Promotes, Frightens [Bauer-Griffin [...]
August 27th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
SIGN THE PETITION PLEASE!
Visit SlayAlive.com for any additional info on this noble cause!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/slayalive-we-want-buffyanimated
August 27th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
This would be awesome! My nieces and nephew would watch this! I’d watch this!
August 27th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Linnea1928 -
To be fair to Leo, the current attitude by some Buffyverse fans over this issue is very pessimistic. Regarding the example you just quoted of the Browncoats - in the same Whedonesque topic discussion regarding this MTV article, certain posters are adamant that the Browncoats affecting the creation of SERENITY is a load of propaganda.
So if Leo is coming off as defensive in response, I think it’s because his fan efforts and vision have been effectively labeled as foolhardy and doomed to fail while raising false hope for the fans. My efforts as well as one of the proponents of the petition to show fan support of this project that never saw the light of day. Seven completed scripts collecting dust…
Being too jaded to open yourself to the possibility of influencing others with your passion and your actions means you’ve given up on proactive and creative change. You’ve lost belief in the power of your own voice and by not believing, you’ve doomed yourself to this fate through your own lack of action. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Good things don’t just happen out of the blue. You make them happen.
For anyone who doesn’t believe they have the power to effect change. You’re right - you don’t. But it’s your lack of belief that makes it so.
The naysayers of the world are good at one thing - crushing the hope for effecting change. I’m glad they weren’t around during the Women’s Rights movement - looking at those insurmountable odds, they would have packed up and gone home. And I wouldn’t have the right to vote this coming November.
~Emmie
Slaylive.com
August 27th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Oh man. My hopes are all up and out of control now…
August 27th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Linnea1928, I am really sorry if I sounded a little defensive, and Emmy has well explained why I am a little annoyed.
For the rest, I wanted to say, as always, that you have to read carefully what I wrote. I didn’t say, because it would not have been true, that Simon has said, or even you, that we are stupid. That would be very stupid of him, as it is a general assesment on a group of people. But, by saying that our efforts are pointless and misguided, he is saying our campaign is stupid. That’s not very nice of him, as it is really easy to criticize but hard to achieve.
Maybe we can do something, so let’s try. And I present again all my apologies, between Buffy fans.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:26 am
YES PLEASE! :)
February 21st, 2009 at 4:54 pm
How are they gonna play the series out, will they still have Angel leave and have his own series or what. I WOULD DEFENITELY watch that. I think that they should bring Connor and Don into a series together even if it only made half a season as long as they go out with a Bang