woohoo

hopefully we get some official news soon

aapac | May 23, 13:15 CET

Works with some rumours, not with others, and bearing much similarity with the tale of me, that talking poodle, and that other me. Fingers crossed that it works out as well.

giles (yes, it is my real name) | May 23, 13:47 CET

Well if it does happen, we will need a new category. Animated series? Buffy cartoon? Hmmmmmmm. Decisions, decisions.

Simon | May 23, 14:04 CET

But way exciting decisions!

Apocalypse | May 23, 14:45 CET

Hmmmmm hopes once again are officially up. Although I’m very excited about the possibility of the series finally coming about but i do have my reservations. I trust in Joss wholly to give us something worth watching but that said...what is it going to be like? I don’t want it to be some kiddie apparition of a show i love, and something that ruins the Buffy mythos by throwing in stuff that conflicts with the show. Something that also worries me is how well it may do in the ratings, I know most of us here will watch religiously because after all slap the name joss whedon on something and we are there. But if the show is set back in season one that means no spike, and I really do feel that some people only watched the shows for spike/James. I know joss will have no problem with getting Aly/Tony/Nick to voice themselves because they have already said they did or will be doing so. But what about David? and charisma? seems to me David wont want to and charisma may still be pretty miffed about the whole getting fired thing. And Sarah, well I know for a fact she wont be voicing herself.I think Mark Metcalf and Julie Benz would return also. Does anyone else have any worries or points I didn’t raise? i'd love the here em...

willowzbitch | May 23, 17:12 CET

I know Nick Brendon said he recorded some of his voiceovers already, along with ASH, at the convention in Jersey two months or so ago. Looking forward to this very much.

Rob | May 23, 18:21 CET

Yes Nick told everyone in Cleveland that Alyson, Tony, and he did just rescently finished doing some voice overs for a new Buffy anmiated series. So it looks like it may be so, but it may be awhile before we hear about it cause I think the voice work was done before the animation.

RavenU | May 23, 19:40 CET

Went to the artsist's website.

They look fantastic. Oh this can only be good news!

Willowy | May 23, 19:54 CET

Oh, I hope it returns. I heard there's something about it in Entertainment Weekly, but I don't wanna register at their website. :/

Also, I wouldn't worry about it ruining Buffy's mythos. The animated series would probably work differently, like the Buffy movie was different from the series. Dawn is in it, anyway, so there.

Cabus | May 23, 20:58 CET

They said that Dawn was in it because they are Buffys memories from after the Dawn memories were implanted. Dawn will obviously be younger than she was when she showed up in season 5. I wonder if MT will do Dawns voice. Hmmmmmmmm...

HellFire4355 | May 23, 21:34 CET

As others intimated, any JW concept/project is worth considering. I'm betting that since it's being written by the Buffyverse writing superstars, it will probably surprise us and we'll lap it up.

Simon wrote:
"Well if it does happen, we will need a new category. Animated series? Buffy cartoon? Hmmmmmmm. Decisions, decisions."
RavenU above wrote "Buffy animated series," which inspired me to thing of Buffy, the Animated Series, BtAS, in keeping with BtVS. But maybe when the final show name comes out, you can take your title from that.

Drifter | May 23, 22:01 CET

OK my idea everyone:

How to get SMG to Voice Over The Apocalypse Way:

1. Take a Sarah Michelle Gellar
2. Add clothes, make-up and designer bag
3. Put your choice of Sarah Michelle Gellar in car/limo/helicopter where she will be transported to a studio
4. Put her in box with a mike
5. Get her to read the pre-written scripts in different tomes of voice
6. Digitally put voice in with other actors
7. At the end of the day your choice of Sarah Michelle Gellar can go home after completing work on the first series of Buffy Animated after reading all her lines in one go with different emotions
8. Remove make-up and/or designer bag
9. Get your choice of Sarah Michelle Gellar up again in the morning to appear in the Seven Crows mini-series with David Boreanaz, Marc Blucas and Ivanna Milvelic
10. Everyone is happy

And go Aly, Nick and Tony! Yay!

But yay anyway

[ edited by Apocalypse on 2004-05-23 20:31 ]

Apocalypse | May 23, 22:24 CET

"Also I'm just a little suspicious (but I don't want to be)because JW has not mentioned it once in any interview"

Yes he has. There was one about a week ago, where he mentioned his upcoming plans. Dig through the archives.

Invisible Green | May 23, 22:28 CET

Ok the overwhelming excitement it building up
I'll just be editing that post then

Apocalypse | May 23, 22:31 CET

I really don't think Sarh will be on the show, hopefully they got the girl who does Buffy's voice in the video games to step in as Cartoon Buffy (for those of you who haven't played either of the 2 Buffy games, she sounds so much like SMG it is scary). Also, I really hope this show picks up where Buffy left off, I don't want to see rehashed episodes of seasons 1-4 drawn out so that we can see what dawn was doing. I mean the only reason to revisit these seasons in a cartoon form would be to fill in the spaces between seasons, or show Buffy after the movie, but before season 1 started. Well whatever Joss has decided will probably work out for the best...doesn't it always? It would be nice to see Charisma and David back in Buffy as well, but they are pretty much finished, at least thats what they say. I mean really its not very difficult to do voice-overs, the entire Buffy cast should gladly come back and get a check for just talking into a microphone. I mean they are all "so" busy. I wonder if the cartoon would be a prime-time deal, like the simpsons, king of the hill, etc. That would make more sense than putting it on Saturday mornings.

Gio | May 24, 00:17 CET

Gio
I think the reason that they are doing it back in Season One is because there were very little arcs in terms of character development/love/lifechanging events. You pretty much have any stand-alone story and put it in Season One so thats why they're doing it

Apocalypse | May 24, 00:37 CET

The way the animated series was conceived was that it would (at least at first) take place about halfway through the first season, and it would be the memories of the characters, so there would be an alternate continuity.

But the stories wouldn't be rehashed, they would be original, and the series would be much more episodic.

It was originally intended to be part of FOX's Saturday morning cartoon line-up, but after FOX got rid of that a few years ago, the series was proclaimed dead.

Invisible Green | May 24, 00:40 CET

I seem to remember reading somewhere that 'Him' was adapted from one of the scripts for the animated series.

Simon | May 24, 00:44 CET

Apocalypse, I found the quote I was talking about, from Entertainment Weekly:

ANY SPIN-OFFS IN THE WORKS?
At present, theres only one: an animated Buffy, filled with "all the things we couldn't afford, and all the jokes that were much too silly."

You can read the full transcript here.

Yes,"Him" was originally a script for the animated series. Joss originally hired Drew as a writer for the animated series, but Drew was offered a job on the original during one of the periods when the animated series was out of development. Drew wrote 2 or 3 animated series scripts. Jane Espenson completed two scripts ("Teeny" and "Food Fight") and had finished a writer's draft of a third before the series went out of development until recently. Joss wrote a few scripts, and some of the other writers did too. It's possible that Jeph Loeb also wrote a script or two, as he was hired as an executive producer for the series. Jeph has written many Daredevil and Superman comic books, and he was also a writer for the Maurice Sendak ("Where the Wild Things Are") series "Seven Little Monsters."

Invisible Green | May 24, 01:02 CET

Gio, I think you'll like the animated stories if you think of it this way, the video games are really an animated story that we can play. I thought the plots for the games were good, especially the second one. I also thought the girl voicing Buffy in the games did a good job, she sounded great in the first game and really picked up the playful tone that Buffy had in the earlier seasons.

When I first heard of this years ago I wasn't that interested but since then my opinions have changed and I'm very happy to hear this is going to happen.

Firefly Flanatic | May 24, 01:52 CET

blwessels-Hmmm, when you put it that way I probably will like it. I also hope that some of the comic book storylines could be made into episodes, for anyone who has read the comics, the story arc ones really deserve to be episodes.

Gio | May 24, 02:18 CET

I don't think the comics will be plot fodder, aren't they mostly later seasons?

Joss wanted to go back to high school with this because he still had so many stories to tell.

Should be great in any case!

Willowy | May 24, 03:32 CET

I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope I hope this happens! *runs around in circles with hopes up *way* too much*

Flair | May 24, 05:33 CET

I'm so glad this is getting back on track! Any Joss on TV is better than no Joss at all, and it's a good point that these animated stories will be able to tackle visuals ME couldn't have afforded to put out there any other way.

Although I'm not crazy about Dawn, I'm still looking forward to it (and hoping all the stories don't end up revolving around her because she's the youngest character among the Scoobies). And while DB might not care to do any TV movies at this time (which I think has more to do with the idea of them being done by the WB, and the possibility they'd be crappy because of a lack of respect for the legacy, than any extreme disinterest in revisiting the character; he's stated he loved playing Angel).

Doing voice-over work is different. No super-long hours or late nights away from the fam, plus a paycheck. They could replace him with another voice actor, of course. I just don't think it would be as effective. DB's got a very distinctive voice, very rich and expressive, and Angel wouldn't be Angel without it. The role would also allow him to emote in a more comic tone than he could get away with on a live show.

He's got a kid now. Maybe he'll realize how much Jaden would enjoy hearing his daddy and seeing him as a cartoon on Saturday mornings, and reconsider?

Wiseblood | May 24, 07:25 CET

cant wait. Ive been hearing about this since the summer of '01(before the swicth to UPN) I think I heard that other than season one, it'll take place during 2 and 3; ALL the High School years. I hope that's troo, because Id looove to see souless bad Spike, that character just wreaks of cartoon quality.I do hope, however, that this cartoon has some sort of an arc to it, some sorta continuity. And I hope its geared toward us- the adults. whatever the case is I trust Joss and all the others. Theyve never let me down. However I hope this isnt the ONLY Buffy-Verse show we see on TV in years to come. Im still aching for some Spike movies and of course, the long overdue, overrumoured and anticipated "Ripper"

PuppetCancer out

Puppet Cancer | May 24, 07:45 CET

Good points Wiseblood, maybe DB will do the Angel voice! And Puppet Cancer, I too would enjoy Spike here!

Does anyone know if everyone else is on board? I know about Aly (of course) and Nick and ASH, but what about Charisma? And we all hope they get the video-game sound-alike for Buffy. What's her name, anyway?

Cuz of course Sarah is waaay too busy with her amazing and culture-enriching Scooby Doo movies to deign to lend her pipes. (Sorry blwessels, I do run on...)

Man, I hope we all aren't getting our hopes up too high too soon. Can't help it though, can we?

Willowy | May 24, 08:06 CET

i'm crossing my fingers, too!
but like Puppet Cancer said (i love you say 'Puppet Cancer Out' btw, that cracks me up) i hope it is geared towards adults, but i do trust joss to do the best thing.

buffyfanatic18 | May 24, 08:12 CET

I'd say it's almost definitely non-arcy and not geared toward adults. I think it's gonna be very episodic, and have minimal, if any, character development.

It was meant to be a saturday morning cartoon, and anyone who's seen the character sketches can tell that it's not an "adult" cartoon at all. Not by a longshot.

I'm still interested in seeing how it turns out, though. If it retains the humour of the original series and some interesting additions to the myth in the form of monsters and demons, it should be cool.

SimonM7 | May 24, 11:58 CET

Many cartoons are directed towards children but contain subtext that only adults will understand. If they're still planning on making this a Saturday morning cartoon, then I see that being the case for this as well. Also, if it's not going to be a primetime show, there's still the possibility that it will be a Cartoon Network show. Regardless of what route they take, I think they'll play it child-safe, with adult subtext.

There are lots of cartoons, a good portion of them, that have major arcs going on. But keeping with the idea of the 'Scoobies', then this series could be episodic. Just like Scooby Doo was/is. Monster of the week. The only kind of arc would be little bits of continuity, like where people stand in relationships and little mentions we've come to love, such as Snoopy dances and crayon breakage.

All speculation... we'll see. I know I've been waiting for this to happen for two or three years now.

Greyflowers | May 25, 11:09 CET