As a spooftastic blaxploitation flick, the 2009 movie Black Dynamite hit
us in all the right places. Thankfully, we'll be getting more of the
eponymous hero via a new animated series.
We attended the Black Dynamite panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 to
get a sneak peek at the new show and hear from the stars of the 2009
film: Michael Jai White, Tommy Davidson, Kym Whitley and Byron Minns,
all of whom will be contributing voices to the animated version. Here's
what we learned:
- The panel included executive producer Carl Jones, director Scott Sanders, and stars Michael Jai White, Byron Minns and Kim Whitley.
- White said he had the idea for the character while filming Undisputed 2 in Bulgaria and listening to James Brown's "Superbad." He came home, did a photo shoot and showed it to Sanders, who was instantly hooked.
- While Black Dynamite is a meta-movie, about making the movie Black Dynamite, the cartoon world is played much more straight. While there are intentional mistakes in the movie, all the mistakes in the cartoon are actual mistakes.
- Some of the movie's mistakes are intentional, others aren't, such as a car rolling off during the donut shoot-out.
- White put over Minns as an encyclopedia of Blaxploitation.
- Minns says that The Mack is the best Blaxploitation movie, while Kim went with Superfly.
- White said that while on one hand you had The Mack, which still holds up, you have the ridiculous, cheaply made Dolemite on the other, and in Black Dynamite they attempted to do it all.
- Sanders said that there are jokes in the movie that he didn't even notice or intend, but fans have since picked up on, like a ceiling fan in a Vietnamese hut.
- Minns first saw Black Dynamite on a bootleg copy while on the third season of the Boondocks.
- The show's animation studio is Titmouse and looks like a more dynamic Boondocks.
- The episode we saw had Black Dynamite run up against some nefarious puppets and was a great hybrid between action and humor, making use of a classic Western animation aesthetic as well as copious anime elements.
- Another awesome part of the episode was how varied all the character designs were. From more realistic humans to completely cartoony villains, everything blends together perfrectly.
- Sanders made fun of the first fan-question because the guy sounded really white when complimenting the film.
- Whitley was delighted by how skinny her character is in the cartoon.
- When asked what the Mexican version of Black Dynamite would be named, they said "Machete."
- For the Pimp Council scene, White sent Arsenio Hall a scene, and when he read that there's a Captain Kangaroo pimp, he was instantly on board. The scene pays homage to a movie called Wooly Dynamite, which had a dead serious, but hilarious Pimp Council scene.
- A date for the live action sequel? Sanders said "Hopefully soon - we all want to do it."
- Sanders thinks the film has to be done on a somewhat limited budget in order for it to work, but they'd happily take a big check for promotion and marketing.
- Jones put over a new sketch comedy show he's working on, In the Flow.
- Jones wanted to do some good character-based stuff, with crazy plot elements behind it, so they extended the show from 11 to 22 minutes, which allowed for a lot of fun stuff, including episodes about Jackson 5 and Richard Pryor.
- The team that did the music for the film is also doing the cartoon's theme and the rest of the music.
- Will there be a Boondocks movie? Jones doesn't know.
- A
fan was wondering whether any of the satire would disappear as the
franchise gets more extreme, and Sanders said that they would cross that
road as they get to it.
- Black Dynamite will appear on Adult Swim in Spring 2012! Watch it!
