“Safari Heist” (Genndy Tartakovsky's New Series) In Development

[JMTV]

Genndy's back again, guys!

Genndy Tartakovsky Teases Plans for Animated Comedic Heist Series

Tartakovsky’s announcement, made at an Annecy studio focus for Adult Swim, was greeted with late enthusiasm by an Annecy audience.

variety.com

The premise:

The robbers are three brother frogs, control freak James, neurotic Issac, and little George, who thinks he’s brilliant but is actually not. Estranged, they meet up at their father’s funeral, where they are informed that they will only inherit his fortune if they pull off a bank heist, stealing the contents of a bank’s vault numbered 881.

Trouble comes when all three cut side deals for help in the form of a Japanese yakuza tiger, a Russian mafia hippo and an Italian gorilla mobster. The police are wunderbeasts.

The structure:

Every episode is one shot, but they will not be told in chronological order. The whole has an EDM score, said their creator.

The remarks and reactions:

Given Tartakovsky’s remarks came at a packed Adult Swim studio focus at this week’s Annecy Animation Festival in France, they came off as an effective pitch for backing from Adult Swim, which produced and aired the final season of “Samurai Jack” and “Primal.” They were made, moreover, in the presence of an Annecy audience, the most knowledgeable of animation publics, who reacted with applause and enthusiastic laughs.

Thoughts?

 

[Red Arrow]

My favorite director is doing a cartoon about my favorite animal, I must be dreaming.

 

[Nobodyman]

Dang, Genndy, slow down. Three series at once? Unless Unicorn: Warriors Eternal has been cancelled.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

There was no news about it at Annecy, so I think Unicorn is done.

Glad he’s making a new series though.

 

[Conttactt]

Dang, Genndy, slow down. Three series at once? Unless Unicorn: Warriors Eternal has been cancelled.

UWE was stated from the start that it would only be 10 episodes. It’s not cancelled, it just never was intended for more to be made.

Still don’t think he should have two active projects at once. Primal needs to have a powerful start to get people back on board after the end of S2 soured them.

 

[Light Lucario]

UWE was stated from the start that it would only be 10 episodes. It’s not cancelled, it just never was intended for more to be made.

Was that confirmed? The season ends with a pretty big cliffhanger, so it doesn't really feel like Unicorn was designed to be a ten episode series. Plus, I remember some comment from either Genndy or another person on the staff praising the premise allowing them to go forward or backwards in time with different characters.

Although, with multiple active projects going on and no news for about a year, I'd be shocked if Unicorn wasn't over. I'm just doubtful that it was planned to be a single season with the way the series went.

 

[Yojimbo]

Was that confirmed? The season ends with a pretty big cliffhanger, so it doesn't really feel like Unicorn was designed to be a ten episode series. Plus, I remember some comment from either Genndy or another person on the staff praising the premise allowing them to go forward or backwards in time with different characters.

Although, with multiple active projects going on and no news for about a year, I'd be shocked if Unicorn wasn't over. I'm just doubtful that it was planned to be a single season with the way the series went.

Idk, last I heard he said he was prioritizing work on Primal over Unicorn season 2 but it's been nebulous if a season 2 was already ordered or not. Then this came out of the blue. A Genndy heist show sounds really interesting. It's not the first case of a producer working on two shows at once but agreed, hope that doesn't affect quality of both shows but on the other hand, I think/hope he can pull it off with his crews.

 

[Conttactt]

Was that confirmed? The season ends with a pretty big cliffhanger, so it doesn't really feel like Unicorn was designed to be a ten episode series. Plus, I remember some comment from either Genndy or another person on the staff praising the premise allowing them to go forward or backwards in time with different characters.

Although, with multiple active projects going on and no news for about a year, I'd be shocked if Unicorn wasn't over. I'm just doubtful that it was planned to be a single season with the way the series went.

Way back when it was revealed as a CN project it was stated to be a 10 episode miniseries. The ending I have to attribute to Genndy’s biggest weakness, pacing. We saw it in Jack, Primal and UWE. Genndy can have a strong start, a strong middle, but when the end is coming up, he fumbles every time.

I believe the backwards/forwards thing was for Primal. After S2 Ep5 it was suggested the series could do single episode stories of people in different times dealing with a “primal” individual. Maybe that’s what S3 will be.

 

[Light Lucario]

Way back when it was revealed as a CN project it was stated to be a 10 episode miniseries. The ending I have to attribute to Genndy’s biggest weakness, pacing. We saw it in Jack, Primal and UWE. Genndy can have a strong start, a strong middle, but when the end is coming up, he fumbles every time.

Despite the issues I had with Samurai Jack, that still felt like a complete story. It wrapped up the overall storyline, even if it wasn't executed well in some areas. By comparison, Unicorn doesn't really have a conclusion. The main threat is still active and the show just stops. I can't compare it with Primal, but if Unicorn was genuinely designed to be just a ten episode miniseries, that would make the ending, as well as the show itself, much worse. They spent way too much time on lore for a miniseries.

I'm still pretty sure that it wasn't supposed to be a miniseries or at least that the plans changed once it became an Adult Swim show. Given some of the jokes and violence, I'm sure that they made some changes to the show once they were informed that it would air on Adult Swim instead.

I believe the backwards/forwards thing was for Primal. After S2 Ep5 it was suggested the series could do single episode stories of people in different times dealing with a “primal” individual. Maybe that’s what S3 will be.

I could have sworn that it was referring to Unicorn, but I could be mistaken since I haven't seen any of Primal.

 

[Yojimbo]

I'm still pretty sure that it wasn't supposed to be a miniseries or at least that the plans changed once it became an Adult Swim show. Given some of the jokes and violence, I'm sure that they made some changes to the show once they were informed that it would air on Adult Swim instead.

I could have sworn he said he had multiple season in mind for Unicorn.

I could have sworn that it was referring to Unicorn, but I could be mistaken since I haven't seen any of Primal.

No, it was for Primal. He suggested season 3 might be an anthology series that jumps ahead in the timeline similar to the episode mentioned but in a later interview it seemed like he was surprised at the positive reactions to Spear's daughter and the fans wanting a series about her and Fang's progeny.

edit: here's one

So is the show specifically about Spear's daughter going forward? Or do you see Primal as becoming more about Spear's family?

I see it ending. [laughs] I don't want to do this story further. I feel like this season we've done it all, in a way. I want it to almost become an anthology show, where season 3 would still be called Primal, but with a different subheading. Low-dialogue, high-emotion, survival, rawness, visual storytelling: All that stuff, but with different characters. There's more things I want to do with Primal, not necessarily Spear and Fang. Maybe if there's a giant outcry, we'll continue the story with his daughter and Mira and the dinosaurs. I'd have to really think about it.

Pushing it into a season 3 of Primal, if it gets there, what's different? What can I do that I haven't done?

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal Creator Teases Multiple Season Plans (Exclusive)

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal has finally made its debut with Adult Swim and HBO Max, and it turns out [...]

comicbook.com

Yes, Primal is going to have to do a timeskip, but Gendy also mentioned the idea for later seasons of Unicorn. It seems like his way of getting out of a status quo if he gets bored with it.

He did originally pitch it as a multi season thing but they only ever ordered ten episodes. I agree the ending was very sudden. But it’s a common tactic to try to get more seasons by creating audience demand to see a cliffhanger resolved.

They don’t seem to air it very much on AS. Superman just got renewed for a third season. Even Primal currently airs after Toonami. Unicorn doesn’t seem to be a priority for AS right now.

 

[Darklordavaitor]

It sounds like Unicorn is indeed done for, which I find conflicting. On the one hand, it doesn’t feel like a complete story and probably needs some kind of closure. At the same time, it wasn’t a series I really gravitated towards, to the point that I’d probably consider it Genndy’s weakest project. I didn’t care for most of the designs and found the story lacking, a little too dialogue heavy for its own good.

It does seem like his more vocal works tend to be his less-appealing- I’d consider Sym-Bionic Titan his next-weakest series for similar reasons, although that did evolve into something a little more appealing. To be fair, it had twice as many episodes, so it had the chance to do so. It’s also worth noting that Genndy was only one of a couple of creators for both series, while his stronger works- Dexter, Jack, Clone Wars, Primal- have him largely in control by himself.

So far, this sounds appealing and unique, I hope it delivers. It is kind of surprising to have him work on this and Primal at the same time, and after finishing his feature, too, but I’m grateful that one of the industry’s greatest talents is able to make projects on his terms, even given the animatiin industry’s current state.

 

[PicardMan]

Genndy doing adult comedy? Genndy doing his first pure comedy since Dexter's Laboratory? This makes the show notable. He's been known for artsy and unorthodox stuff with action cartoons, so maybe he'll be doing the same with this. It probably won't be a Seth McFarlane copycat show, at least I hope. Let's see how he does with a genre he hasn't done before.

 

[J'onn J'onzz]

Does the premise remind anyone else of the Dreamworks film “the Bad Guys” about animal thieves?