BUD'S PETS AND...

Every episode of 

Disney's Fish Hooks

opened with an

exterior shot of

Bud's Pet Store.

And in every episode

the sign changed.

Usually it had something to do with the plot

other times it was just something stoopid.

We usually didn't decide until

the show came back from
our animation studio,
Mercury Filmworks.

But just in case we were stuck,

we ran a whole bunch of ideas past

the Disney legal and standards team.

Here's a list of approved ideas,

most of which never made it into episodes:

Don't forget about the

sooper giant

FISH HOOKS FINALE

happening

TOMORROW

April 4th, 2014

at

9:00pm

(pacific time)

THE FISH HOOKS FINALE

<sob>
It's been a long time coming, but the end of Fish Hooks is upon us.
Sure, we finished up production 37 years ago. But this Friday April 4th 9:00 PM (Pacific time) the last and final  episode airs.
"The Big Woo"
Here's a little teaser of what's to come:

Not every show actually gets a true finale and this one gives Fish Hooks a sweet, heartfelt send-off. I unabashedly admit I got a little misty while we were making it.
Hope you do to.

BYE-BYE FISH HOOKS VOICE ACTORS

The last couple weeks have 

been filled with good-byes.

We knew 

Fish Hooks 

was coming to an 

end so

back in March

we brought all the 

voice actors in

to record the

final episode.

We even had a little party

and handed out diplomas:

Here's the ever swaggable

Kyle Massey

(aka Milo)

Steven Christopher Parker

(aka Jumbo Shrimp)

Atticus Shaffer

(Albert Glass)

Kari Wahlgen

(Shellsea)

Vanessa

"Donut Snob"

Marshall

(voice of Mouse)

Kimberley Mooney

(Finberley)

and best friend forever

voice director

Kris Zimmerman

We didn't

REALLY

say

goodbye,

though.

We still had

MONTHS

of smaller

ADR sessions

(additional dialogue recording)

to record after we got the shows 

back from being animated.

But then 

August and September 

crept up on us.

And one by one,

the actors 

came in for those last

couple lines:

Milo

Oscar

(rocked by Justin Roiland)

and of course,

Bea

(played by the always deliciously carbonated Chelsea Kane)

Shellsea came in for her last

"Giiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrl":

Albert gave his final turn:

 

Ironically,

the very last line of dialogue 

to be recorded

was a

"HELLO!"

from Clamantha

(by Alex Hirsch)

(of the Gravity Falls Hirsch's)

And then there were none.

Except that big dummy Maxwell Atoms.

(he played Bo Gregory)

I know every show says they

had the 

BEST

MOST TALENTED

cast

EVER!

But 96% of them are lying.

That honor

goes

to the

FISH HOOKS

cast.

FLOATING TO THE TOP

I've done something terrible.

Last Friday I helped deliver the final episode of FISH HOOKS.
Yes, after three seasons, and 60 half hour episodes we're done.
It may come as a surprise to you, but we've known for a long time that the third season would be our last. Disney Channel decided not to renew us any further than that. So... The writers left last fall. Then the storyboard artists. The designers. Even show creator Noah Jones left to make a new pilot for Disney XD.
And then it was just me and my  merry band of post production people. Over the last couple months I've often described myself as the hospice nurse  making the show more comfortable  before it passes on.
I owe it that.
Fish Hooks has been nothing but wonderful to me over these  past three years. But every show ends at some point. We had a great run. Some shows never make it this far. But it's time for new adventures. Can't wait to tell you about them!

MORE FISH HOOKS MUSIC!

Remember

when I 

rocked you 

a couple

Fish Hooks 

songs

I wrote

way back 

HERE?

Well,

ima rock you

some more!

Before I became

Creative Director

on

Fish Hooks

I storyboarded an episode

called

OSCAR MAKES AN IMPRESSION.

In the story,

Oscar does an impression of the

Queen of Fish England

that's so good he's forced to marry

a rich, old Duke.

But Mr. Muscles

(who has a thing for fancy British ladies)

interrupts the wedding to challenge the 

Duke for the Queen's hand in marriage. 

How?

With a

SLOW JAMS RAP BATTLE 

of course.

Deejay...

Hit it:

Tiny Lister (voice of Mr. Muscles) tore that jam up! That same episode had  a montage with a song I wrote called IT'S GOOD TO BE THE QUEEN:

This was a cute number called FIERCE from KOI STORY:

Writing

lyrics for

Brandon Bubbler's

pop songs 

was always fun.

My all-time 

favorite is

definitely

SNAP GIRL!

Andy Sturmer

knocked the music out of the fish tank
on this one and

we put it in a ton of episodes

including

LITTLE FISH SUNSHINE:

Sometimes

writing a song was as simple as

 writing a couple words:

And lastly,

here's one 

I love
that

Maxwell Atoms

wrote

(and storyboarded)

called

GO FISH:

That's 

the sooper

heavy metal

power

of

Jess Harnell

singing

right there!
He's so much fun
to work with!

Man,
I've been sooper lucky to get to
write so many songs and get
to work with such
talented musicians!

FISH HOOKS MUSIC

One of my duties as

creative director 

on

FISH HOOKS

is to supervise the music.

Once we're done animating an episode,

we have to 

LOCK PICTURE

(a fancy term for cutting it to the right length)

Once it's locked,

I go through and 

SPOT PICTURE

(a fancy term for giving notes on how we'd like the music)

Here's an excerpt

from 

MILO'S MILKSHAKE:

16:11 – let's have some cheesy high school play piano happening with bea's bad acting

(you can probably steal it from a previous show).

Build it up when bea goes in for the kiss and then cut it off when milo shouts her name.

16:42 - start up the piano again before it gets cut off by steve jackson's reaction.

Play bea's annoyance in the transition.

Keep it going until we finish trucking in on oscar and co.

17:22 – show some excitement when the store opens!  

The kids charge forward but then STOP when they get stopped

17:35 – yet another transition to oscar and bea in the hall.

18:04 – and another.

18:18 – let's put some very light new age music in this intervention sequence.  

Very caaaaaalm.

Ramp it up a bit when jumbo starts talking about his movie at 19:00.

But then cut it off once albert alerts him.

19:31 – change up into the REAL confrontation between milo and his friends.  

I don't think the temp music does the scene justice.  Get emotional!  

They're trying to break up milo and his milkshake!


Our composer,
Andy Sturmer
(who used to be in a band called Jellyfish)
takes the notes and
turns them into the beautiful music
you hear on the show.

It's NOT as easy job.
He's has to score almost 11 minutes of music a week
in a variety of genres.
He has to play moods.
Accent jokes.
And make catchy pop songs.

Sometimes there's a montage

or a small section that needs 

a song to cover it.

So I'll write up some lyrics for Mr. Sturmer to work with.

Here are two

from 

Milo's Milkshake:

NUH-UH by tom warburton

I was like, 

no way

Gotta say 

not today,

Love you still

But had my fill.

So now I'm all like,

No way, jo-se, no way

No no no

No thank-you, frank, no thanks,

No no no

Nuh uh, uh uh, uh uh…

MILKY by tom warburton

(start out with some guttural "uh's" and such)

(female vocals)

Milky milky milky,

You're so thick,

Drink too much and ya gonna get sick

Shakey shakey

I need a straw

Cause when I'm with you all the ladies say

(male rapper)

AAAAAAAAAW…. Yes! I gotta shake

To go with those fries.

The answer to your question is 

sooper size!

When you see me with my shake

Man, you know I get illa,

Might be straw-berry

But it could be vanilla.

Cut it off with a record scratch at 14:46 (or we can SFX one)

Of course Andy will often
need to change lyrics here and there.
But they always come out good.

Check 'em out:

The first one is sung by
the sooper talented

Susanna Benn
(who does the vocals for most of our songs)

and the second by the mighty

Kevin Michael Richardson.

NO ONE
ad-libs
lyrics
better
(and funnier)
than
KMR.

It's fun hearing these songs again.
I'll post more soon!

FISH PROM IS ON!

Did you go to  PROM?
I didn't.
I took the train into downtown  Philadelphia to skateboard and buy punk rock records like these:

To be honest,  I don't feel like I missed  anything.
But I would have TOTALLY MISSED OUT on prom if it had  been like THIS:

That's right! The  FISH HOOKS season two finale is this Friday night May 17th at 9:30/8:30c
Getcha fancies on and  WATCH!

MIXING IT UP

Fish Hooks Creative Director's Log

Fishdate: April 29, 2013

Every two weeks we board the 

starship: 

ADVANTAGE AUDIO

to mix an episode of 

Fish Hooks.

General Maxwell Atoms and I 

immediately head to the bridge

of the ship where

Navigator Melissa Gentry Ellis

and 

Weapons Control Officer Fil Brown

await us.

Communications Officer Huy Luong

is also there ready to make sure

everything happens on schedule:

As you can see,

the bridge has many buttons and dials 

to get us where we need to go:

Mixing the audio for a show involves

three things:

DIALOGUE

MUSIC

SOUND EFFECTS

(this includes FOLEY which we talked about over HERE)

But if all three of these things 

are played at the same volume

at the same time,

all you'd here

is a 

MESS!

So it's Melissa and Fil's job

to ride the volume up and down

so the dialogue is crisp and clear,

the music is driving the action,

and the SFX are accenting the right points

all without drowning each other out.

It's no small task.

That's why there are

snacks and cookies:

General Burton and I watch the two episodes

Melissa and Fil have mixed

and take notes.

We ask for some dialogue to be clearer...

For some music to be softer...

(or completely removed)

Some monkey SFX added here.

A fart added there.

And then we watch the shows

AGAIN

only this time over 

small computer speakers.

Why?

Because not everyone has an 

eleventy billion dollar sound system 

like the 

Starship: Advantage Audio.

Most people have a regular TV

with regular speakers.

And we wanna make sure

Fish Hooks

sounds great on

EVERYONE'S

TV!

I heard a story that Ric Ocasek of The Cars

used to transfer all his songs to cassette tape 

and then listen to them in his car

before approving the mix...

because that's how most people

heard his music!

Troy Underwood,

our

Series Executive

from Disney Fleet Command

(not pictured for security purposes)

attends the small speaker pass

to give us another set of ears.

After the mix is done,

it's outputted and sent back to Disney

where we prepare the last and final step

of production:

PLAYBACK!

That's our one last

viewing to make sure

everything looks and sounds

PERFECT!

And now you know everything 

you need to know about mixing!

Captain Warburton,

out.

THE FISH HOOKS LOOK-ALIKE WALL

The

FISH HOOKS

LOOK-ALIKE WALL

is

evil.

It's cruel.

And 

yeah,

It's 

FUNNY!

No one on the crew is safe from it.

Some comparisons are eerily dead-on.


And some are just

plain mean.

Here's my piece of real estate 

on the board:

I wondered why people kept singing

LIFE IS A HIGHWAY

every time I walked by.

McKinley?

Really?!

And then
there's this
guy:

I know, 

right?

DISNEY MICRO ART SHOW (part deux)

Remember 

THIS

POST?

About the 

Disney TV Animation 

Micro Art Show?

Where everyone got a 

4x4 canvas

like

this:

Well,

the

show

done

happened!

It's

REALLY

cool to see

what people come up with

for these shows.

And it's not just artists

that represent.

Folks from

production,

legal,

operation

dove in!

Some high-powered

executives even got artsy with it!

I already showed 

ya'll what I done did:

But mine wasn't the only  piece featuring plant life:

Bill "I Have 4 Katz" Reiss:

:

The mighty Joel Trussel:

Daron Nefcy, creator of Disney Channel's  next sooper huge hit series, STAR AND THE FORCES OF EVIL

FISH HOOKS 

creator Noah Z. Jones:

Sooper FISH HOOKS  production princess Carolyn Roach:

Maxwell Atoms

aka

Adam Burton:

I love these shows! Can't wait to find out  what the next theme is!