{"id":3099,"date":"2018-07-23T16:31:13","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T16:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwolfepr.com\/dev\/?p=3099"},"modified":"2024-09-01T15:56:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T15:56:19","slug":"call-of-the-wild-mike-luciano-and-phil-matarese-talk-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwolfepr.com\/dev\/call-of-the-wild-mike-luciano-and-phil-matarese-talk-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Call of the Wild: Mike Luciano and Phil Matarese Talk \u2018Animals\u2019 | ANIMATIONWorld"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Season 3 of \u2018Animals\u2019 premieres Friday, August 3. Images courtesy of HBO.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

AnimationWorld Magazine<\/em> \u2014 July 23, 2018
Call of the Wild: Mike Luciano and Phil Matarese Talk \u2018Animals\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animals<\/em>, the darkly hilarious animated series on HBO created by Mike Luciano and Phil Matarese, is gearing up for its Season 3 premiere on Friday, August 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Executive produced by Duplass Brothers Television, the series explores the lives of New York\u2019s vermin, including rats, pigeons, cockroaches, and other animals voiced by a who\u2019s who of comedy guest stars such as Jason Alexander, Aziz Ansari, Fred Armisen, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Hale, Jonah Hill, Nick Kroll, Danny McBride, Ben Schwartz, Adam Scott, Molly Shannon and Wanda Sykes, among many, many others<\/a>. While Animals<\/em> definitely stands on its own with smart, incisive writing, and a rocking soundtrack, much of the fun of watching the series is guessing which character is voiced by whom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first two episodes of Animals<\/em> made their world premiere at the Sundance festival in 2015, which led to a two-season pickup from HBO. The series was renewed for a third season in May 2017, just ahead of the Season 2 finale. Starburns Industries<\/a>, the studio behind Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson\u2019s stop-motion feature Anomalisa<\/em> and Adult Swim hit Rick and Morty<\/em>, provides the animation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first season of Animals<\/em> — which explored themes like sex, parenthood and midlife crisis — was sweetly dark, bringing a touching sense of awkward innocence to the existential despair of a New York City overrun with base and degraded humans bent on destruction. In one of the show\u2019s best conventions, humans were rendered unintelligible, voiced only in grunts, while the often cutting and insightful dialog went to the animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season 2 played with that creative restraint, adding live-action sequences and opening up the dialog to the human characters as a horrific plot to sicken the entire population unfolds. Fun stuff, indeed. And yet, the sweetness still somehow remains. A love triangle between brainwashed rats stuck in an animal testing lab reveals empathy and resilience (and maybe the best musical cue ever). Two fleas ponder life. A teen pigeon goes on a wacky spirit quest to learn about courage and responsibility. All of it leading to Season 3, where after the apocalyptic events of Season 2 leave New York City human-less, every dog has his day — literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luciano and Matarese, the writers, executive producers and stars of the series, voice Mike and Phil, respectively. The duo appears throughout dozens of offbeat segments as a continually rotating cast of animals — rats, pigeons, cats, etc. — that nonetheless embody consistent personality traits. Mike tends to be the extrovert to Phil\u2019s introvert. Mike can be helpful and encouraging. Phil sometimes lies. There\u2019s a lot of cursing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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