Back To The 90s With The Atomic Ninja Rabbit You May Not Remember

You've probably heard of planting false memories in a person through the power of suggestion, but what about doing the same for an entire section of the public? How, in the modern internet age where everything and everyone seems traceable, do you go about slotting something into the past that doesn't belong there? While this may sound like the start of a quirky new Scandinavian detective series, in actual fact it is the basis for a project conceived by animator/director Wesley Louis of studio The Line, in London. After re-discovering the outlines of a comic book he drew at the age of 13, he was inspired to make a trip back to the 90s and bring his teen-self's imagination to life; and so was born Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit!

The intention of the project was to create a fake cartoon of STANR in the style of the 90s, thrust it onto the internet and see if people bought it. The hoax, however, went far deeper than that, with fake blog postings created and back-dated, lunchboxes (yes, lunchboxes) made and sold online, toys and a whole trail of fake paraphernalia to deceive any prying eyes. To top the project off a brilliant little VR film was made so you could pop the goggles on (we did and loved it) and be transported back to the 90s in fully immersive fashion.

After being blown away by the level of detail involved in the project, not to mention the brilliantly nostalgic animation itself, we decided to get in touch with Louis to chat about not only re-living his teenage daydreams but bringing them to a whole new level!
 

How did this project come about?
 

Tim McCourt (another member of the Line) and I had been working together for a couple years and were looking for a new project to do. I brought folders of work to the studio of random works from my younger self (comic ideas, old drawings etc), hoping to find inspiration. Tim saw Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit (STANR) and thought it’d be cool to do something based on that. I’d spoken about doing a fake intro sequence for a while but never thought to use STANR. Tim thought it felt authentic and had the innocence of the 90s. The kind of thing created by a child for a child. For me it was about doing something in animation I’ve never done before ‐ making the kind of visuals that inspired me to draw and animate in the first place. It’s weird because this is something I did when I was 13 and I never took it seriously. STANR is inspired by things I loved as a child. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the episode with Usagi Yojimbo specifically), Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure, Samurai Pizza Cats and anything with a long title.

The Line had a few ideas at the time that we pitched to Electric Theatre Collective (ETC) who represent us, and STANR along with Amaro and Walden’s Joyride, seemed to be the most feasible at the time. They've been really supportive of our self‐initiated projects and provided a much needed infrastructure for us to work in.

How did you manage to keep such a retro 90s look? Were you using modern digital technology for the animation or did you only use old‐school hand‐drawn techniques?

It was really important for us to try and get the look and feel of it right. We imposed lots of restrictions on ourselves, which was kind of frustrating, but we had to look at the bigger picture. No 3D, no hand held cam, or focus pulls. Even camera shakes for explosions or ground quakes were restricted to up and down only. We also used TV Paint. I initially wanted to use Adobe Flash to animate in as it's what I used to draw all the hero character Models. Max Taylor who was responsible for Compositing and graphic design is very meticulous and was adamant that we use TV Paint because of its range of brushes and pencils. It meant a few of us learning a new program. He was really keen to emulate all the imperfections you'd get with analogue using digital media. Animating with a (digital) pencil line, then treating the line to feel like it was photocopied and adding shadows to each frame giving a cel like quality. He also added things like film grain and noise and even a slight shake to the camera to give a 35mm film like feel. The first release of the film, Super Turbo Atomic MEGA Rabbit (STAMR) was put onto VHS for real by a friend, Chris King. All imperfections Max worked to create were kind of hidden by the VHS and although this might sound cliche, I think you feel it.

How did the making of it go and was there anything you wanted to put into the short but couldn’t?

The film actually is pretty close to the storyboards. Inevitably some things changed slightly in the animation but everything I wanted in there is present. Making STANR had its challenges. I’d never directed anything by myself before this point so it was daunting. It’s a very short piece but has 11 characters, (12 if you include the tank), so design work took a while.

Rina May came on board early on and is a very talented singer and songwriter; she pretty much had the melody of the song down from day one. Admittedly it wasn’t the direction I wanted initially. However, after hearing Tim hum the tune around the studio after one listen, I completely changed
my mind. Though we had the melody pretty early writing the lyrics and getting the timing right took a while. I had to write and design more material than was needed in order to provide Rina with enough to create lyrics. It was a lot of back and forth. I'm not a musician so communicating my ideas
to her was challenging but I think she was good at deciphering what I wanted. Box of Toys who produced Rina’s song and added sound FX were a lot of fun to work with. Chris Didlick really understood what I was going for in terms of anime gleam sounds and sword swooshes. It felt nostalgic and had a uniqueness to it at the same time. Magnus Arwenhed and Ben Laver worked to produce Rinas track and brought it to another level. All the guys were really gracious in letting me try things out even when they probably knew it wouldn't work. I'm grateful for it.

We loved the detail you went to in trying to trick the public that it was really from the 90s, particularly the thermos and lunchbox! How did you go about creating such an elaborate hoax?

My intention was to always do two films. The differences being in the titles (‘Mega’ instead of ‘Ninja’) 4:3 Ratio, VHS, and a censored nunchaku scene. It was a nod to the first series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We got ‘Hero Turtles’ in the UK and Michelangelo couldn't use his nunchucks as censors in the UK deemed the word ‘ninja’ and the use of nunchucks too violent. It was the same with Enter the Dragon and Thundercats.

Tim McCourt and Max Taylor thought we should take it further and actually make people believe it's real. We created a backlog of items on the internet roughly 6 months before the film's release. A badly drawn lunchbox we sold on Japanese Ebay, an animation Cel Painted by Max and Tim which took 3 days and 11 attempts to get right. A photocopied Model sheet which we added Japanese text to from a Thundercats Model Sheet. I also had to create a Tumblr blog called Geeky Goodness Gold and upload old cartoon intros on my YouTube account under the pseudonym Mr Geeky God. Finally we uploaded STANR to my YouTube account anonymously. It was very difficult and frustrating keeping that quiet for almost 5 months.

Right until we finished it I wasn't entirely convinced our ruse would work. I was surprised that it did.

How did the public react when you released it, did the word spread quickly and did they buy it?

The reaction was really good, some people actually thought it was a real show, a few claiming they’d remembered seeing it when they were younger. I think my whole thing is that we wanted people to laugh and celebrate with us. We at the Line are all fans of this stuff so that's why we made it. A love letter rather than a parody. A couple of people on YouTube seemed cheated but actually came round after I spoke to them. We even got some fan art and interest from some “Furries”. A sub culture I was never aware of.

Were you caught out in the end?

Yeah. There were a few holes in our story so people began debunking it. Mostly on 4chan. Someone after a week was actually spot on and traced STANR to The Line animation based on where it was shared (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit) and particularly the types of people who shared it, but for some
reason he was completely ignored. People continued to look.

The biggest give away was the date of the fake cel blog post on http://openyoureyelyds.blogspot.co.uk/ (a blog that belongs to Tim's girlfriend Lydia) The post says 2008 but her actual join date is 2009. Also a post of a trailer for Howls moving castle which is dated 2011. Obviously these were mistakes but I actually think this was a good thing. It sparked up a discussion. I learnt things I never knew.

The story and characters in the original (brilliant!) comic look so detailed and thought out even though you were only 13! Are you tempted to go further and make a full series based on this (hint hint)?

Thanks I really appreciate you saying that, I think I adopted thinking like a child to make STANR. “How about a pirate Giraffe, a cool Cockerel or an Evil Cow?” (I think I’d have a lot of fun with that one hahaha.) I believe as a child no thought you have is silly and everything works. You then try to
legitimise those ideas as an adult. That's the approach I took.

As for a series….. we’ll see what happens.

We loved having a go with the VR side of the project at your launch event a few weeks back and were impressed by how true‐to‐genre the graphics were. Did you always plan on having a VR side to the project?

The VR thing was never planned but a massive bonus. I'm so fortunate to have it. I was actually looking for someone to make a model or marquette of the tank for drawing reference. Tom Flavelle came on board. I didn't want to use any 3D in STANR as modern techniques would be a big giveaway, but vehicles are difficult to draw so having a guide really helped. When he finished I asked Tom if he was up for modeling one of the characters. He asked if it was okay for him to do them all (I wasn't about to say no). He then came back a few weeks later and asked if I'd be ok with a VR game with his team now known as NoGhost. Again, it was a no brainer for me. I had a lot of designs and concepts ready, Tom already had made most of the models so it was a very logical progression.

Though I agreed to making the game, I never really understood what I was getting. It was intangible to me but when I played the first build of STANR VR I was speechless. I didn't give any feedback as I didn't know what to say, I was completely gobsmacked and blown away. Characters that started out in my sketchbook, I’m now sitting next to them.

You teamed up with NoGhost to create the VR, were you involved in the design and making of it too or did you hand it over to them?

With all the models there was a lot of back and forth between Tom and myself in terms of making the characters look like my drawings. Translating 2D to 3D is not easy and but Tom really nailed it. With the animation, I gave a loose guide to the personalities of the characters and what I thought they should be doing. Harland (the Cockerel) is a bit of a Han Solo‐ish, Mal Reynolds sort of guy. Carefree very laid back and cool. I think the characters personalities really come across. Bjorn Erik‐Aschim and another Line member really helped with the art direction providing colour scripts and general mood of the piece. He actually did a few storyboards for the intro sequence. Its incredible when the tank first drives up to you. You get a real sense of its scale. Bjorn also went in and really tried to tweak game moments slowing down or speeding up parts and making suggestions on the user interface. Max Taylor provided graphics for the screens on the dashboard. Rina May, who wrote and performed the STANR theme lent her voice talents to the tanks ‘AI’ and Box Of Toys provided the sound. It was really nice to get all the same people involved on what's essentially 2 projects. NoGhost were so open to the idea and tried anything and everything. They're a great bunch of guys and ridiculously professional. I really hope this isn't the last time I work with them.

Do you think this is how VR would have been if it existed ‘back then’?

I don't think it would have been anything like this. A lot cruder, lower frame rates, less resolution etc. Probably would have made you sick. It is the type of technology that seems to go with the 80s or 90s though. I thinks what NoGhost have achieved is how you’d imagine VR back then. You feel an incredible amount of nostalgia from playing STANR Experience even though nothing that sophisticated existed back then.

What was your favourite part of making this huge project?

That’s a hard one. Making this ticked a lot of boxes on my ‘dream come true list.’ As I said before, it’s everything that inspired me to be draw and become an animator rolled into one. The great part for me is being able to collaborate with guys and girls that have strengths that I don't. It really forces you to push yourself. Seeing any characters I create come to life is always exciting for me.

Finally, what’s next for you and the team at The Line? Any more atomic rabbits?

Well there are a couple of things in the pipeline which we’re excited to show. As for STANR I’m working on it. Who knows where it could go.