We noticed that not only is there 15 minutes of brand-new footage, but there's 90 minutes of bonus features on the new Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II DVD. There's more bonus feature footage than actual show. That's a lot of extras!
Seth: We really don't turn off the camera. We just couldn't air it all.
Of the brand-new footage featured on the DVD, which is your favorite?
Seth: There's so much that had to get cut out for time. There were so many extra gags we wanted to put in the show, and we even produced animatics for, but we had to cut them to meet the broadcast time. So when the opportunity came to do our DVD, we convinced Adult Swim to let us do our animatic as exclusive content for the DVD. It's a 35-minute, uninterrupted program now with Zuckuss, IG-88, and Bossk....
Seth: We also have Boba Fett outtakes at the end of it. We just let Breckin go in the booth and he gave all this stuff that we couldn't possibly use it all. So we cut together some outtakes and showed Boba Fett in the Sarlacc pit as though it was for a movie he was shooting.
Breckin: It's kind of the greatest way to see outtakes. It's like a re-imagining of a new scene.
Seth: I had seen in Toy Story that they animated specific outtakes like Buzz Lightyear flubbing his line. I thought it was so clever and funny. And we had great recordings of Breckin breaking character and then jumping right into Boba Fett and then breaking character again.
We just figured Breckin went back and forth between himself and Boba Fett all day long anyway.
Breckin: I think I've become pretty much 90 percent Boba Fett anyway. (laughs)
There's also a feature on the DVD called Accepted/Rejected -- what kind of content can viewers expect there?
Matt: We got all the writers from the writers' room to tell the camera what they were most excited to pitch for the day. So you end up seeing at the beginning of the day what they're pitching and then at the end whether or not it made it into the sketch. It's very interesting to hear the pitch.
Of the rejected material, which created the most debate on the writing staff?
Matt: All the rejected material is rejected for a reason. (laughs)
Breckin: There's a lot of time with the writing where I'm really grumpy about it. So I'll pitch something and if they don't like it I'll just send them hate emails. And they'll be like, "We like the idea, just rework it." And I'll be like "No, you didn't like it, you don't get it reworked." And then there's other writers like Kevin who is so good at finessing a skit so it's a final perfect tasty morsel, and it'll get on the show. I don't have that level of professionalism. And it's weird because I have two Emmy nominations and he only has one.
So why did you guys decide to include an animation meeting in the bonus material?
Seth: Ya know, everyone likes to make me look silly.
Matt: What people don't know is that Seth acts out the entire special in front of a camera, with the occasional guest star from Breckin, to give the animators an idea of how things should move and act and be.
Seth: Sometimes we map something out in the writers' room very specifically as far as timing and organization and where this character's hand is. A lot of comedy is really scientific, and if something doesn't match exactly, you just won't get the laugh. So especially with the Star Wars special, every detail was so specific, and you go through it during the animation meetings. That way if there's something you really care about is protected. We don't get the opportunity to reshoot, so it's got to go right the first time.
