After graduating from the Film and Media Studies program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Ryan Crego got his start in the animation business at DreamWorks Animation, starting there at 2004 and earning credits on Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda 2, and multiple Shrek projects. He has also written and developed animated features for Sony and ReelFX and was the supervising director on Nickelodeon’s Sanjay and Craig.
His latest project is Home Adventures with Tip and Oh, an animated series spin-off of the 2015 DreamWorks Animation movie Home, centering on the ongoing adventure of young teen Tip and the alien Boov Oh. We were able to talk with Ryan Crego via e-mail about his latest project.
TOONZONE NEWS: How exactly did you find your way to working on Home Adventures with Tip and Oh?
RYAN CREGO: I started my career as a Storyboard Artist on a number of DreamWorks Animation features and TV specials, which is where I met Thurop Van Orman (The Misadventures of Flapjack, Adventure Time). The two of us had just come off of Directing/Producing Sanjay and Craig for Nickelodeon, and were out developing and writing on a number of projects. When Peter Gal called us up and asked us to come to DreamWorks TV to check out a potential project, I was thrilled. When he pitched us Home it felt like like someone had gifted us a wonderful present. We got to develop a buddy comedy, with weird little aliens and space travel, and it had so much heart. We were in!
TOONZONE NEWS: There was a pretty short gap between the release of the movie to the announcement of the series to the release. How long ago did you start working on the show, and did you overlap with the production of the movie?
RYAN CREGO: I’ve been working on the show for about two and a half years now. We were actually in the fortunate position of developing the series while the Feature team was in their final year of production, which worked out great because we were able to collaborate with the Director and Producers during our development process, as well as pitch ideas and jokes for the movie.
TOONZONE NEWS: Did you guys get access to a “bible” of the movie in creating the series bible for Home Adventures? Were there rules that were set down on what you could and couldn’t do in the show? Can you think of any particular moments where you consciously decided to break with a rule-of-thumb that the movie set down?
RYAN CREGO: I don’t think we really had any hard rules. We really just set out to make the best/funniest series we could while staying true to the characters of Tip and Oh. We had access to a lot of the artwork and exploration from the Feature, but some of the most influential materials were in Adam Rex’s book, The True Meaning of Smekday. I think the approach we took was to find the stuff that we considered the best of both worlds, between the book and the feature. We knew for the series to be successful we needed to open up the world a bit more, so the original source material was a real key to the development of the series, it’s incredibly inspired.
TOONZONE NEWS: Some of DreamWorks’ series after a movie are done in CGI and some are hand-drawn. What were the reasons for opting for hand-drawn animation for this show?
RYAN CREGO: The reasons were two-fold. First, I feel that we have much more creative freedom in the hand-drawn medium. In CG you have to build assets (characters, sets, props) which can be costly and time consuming by comparison. So if we want to explore a Candy Planet or and Alien Petting Zoo within an episode (like in “Get Me to the Gorg”), we are much more free to do it from a production standpoint. We would still need to design the location, but it can be done a little more easily. The second reason is purely about style. I’m really a fan of comedic 11-minute cartoons. I think what our Art Director, Sue Mondt, did with the cutout inspired backgrounds is magical. And I love the fact that we can push our character animation further in 2D.
TOONZONE NEWS: Somewhat related to that, the series feels a lot crazier and looser than the movie did (I’m thinking specifically of stuff like Oh’s oversized sneezes in the “Boov Flu” episode). Is that impression something you were aiming for?
RYAN CREGO: That definitely came from our choice to go with more traditional hand-drawn approach. I’m a huge fan of pushing acting and expressions for comedy. I love breaking the character’s model and surprising the audience with unexpected moments. DreamWorks supported us one hundred percent when it came to the sometimes shocking and extremely funny interpretation of these characters. I give them a lot of credit for trusting our vision and taking a chance. It’s a wild show, but I think it retains the heart from the movie, in that it never strays from these two great characters who really need each other to be the best version of themselves.
TOONZONE NEWS: Tip seems to be skewing younger in the show than she did in the movie. Is that something you were going for in the show, or is it just the difference between Rachel Crow and Rihanna?
RYAN CREGO: In my mind she’s the same age as she was in the movie. Although, I suppose it is fair to say that Rachel’s voice does have a more youthful quality than Rihanna’s. I think, for the series, we really wanted to play on the upbeat, fun, and vibrant qualities of Tip’s character, so that may play a role in the perception as well. The stakes are pretty high for her in the movie, searching for her mother after aliens have taken over the planet, but in the show I think we usually take a lighter more sitcom approach vs. the big drama of the Feature. In the end I think the series is maybe a little more playful in a certain way.
TOONZONE NEWS: Is there more coming? Or can you talk about what you’re working on now?
RYAN CREGO: My lips are (optimistically) sealed as far as the series is concerned. But, I can say there are a lot of really exciting things happening over here at DreamWorks Animation TV, and I hope to have a long term impact on the growth and success of this studio.
Toonzone News would like to thank Ryan Crego for taking the time to talk with us, and to the fine folks at Click Communications for making the interview possible. The first season of Home Adventures of Tip and Oh is available for streaming now on Netflix.
I can see this being fun