I'm Breehn Burns, Writer and Director of Bravest Warriors. AMA you guys

Who is your favorite character and why is it Catbug?

Catbug, because

What's going to happen as Sam's voice changes? Did you expect Catbug to be as popular as he is? Will there ever be a Catbug spinoff??

There MIGHT be a catbug spinoff, I don't know. He's getting older, so yeah his voice will change. Catbug will become a baritone that smokes cigars and drives a flatbed

Is Pendleton Ward truly active in the production of Bravest Warriors? Or did he just "create" it, and allow others to work on it?

Pen isn't involved with the show anymore. He created it, made the pilot and then passed the show to me. Every now and then I ask him for advice but it's all unofficial

What is so impossible about Imposibear?

Impossibear claims to be an extremophile, who can survive in any environment. This might be exaggeration.

Also, he is multi-colored. He's old though, and when his color flaps went gray he started having to dye them back to rainbow colors. He's sensitive about it

I think it's because he's "impossible" in the sense that it's impossible for any normal person to deal with him (I mean, he made a BOMB, gave it to Wallow disguised as a present, and when Wallow accused it of being a bomb, he got all defensive, also he whacked Plum and Catbug with the Gas-powered Stick for no reason, not to mention he bought socks with Wallow's money.) I wouldn't be able to live with him for a day, personally.

Also a good answer

You mentioned Season of the Mitch is your last episode as director/showrunner. Will you continue working on the show as a writer or are you transitioning to something new?

I'm writing six 11-minute episodes for season 3 right now.

Are you going for longer episodes in the future? With the 5 minute ones (usually 3 minutes after the credits and social media stuff) my ramen noodles would barely be cooled down enough to enjoy while watching the show before it was over. 11 minute episodes is a big forward step! Great news!

For season four I'm pitching three 35 minute episodes, but I'm getting some pushback

I can actually see now how that might be a tricky pitch, given that the show is presumably ad-revenue supported. You guys could use some network backing, or a kickstarter movie ;)

Thanks by the way, for being such a huge part in such a forward thinking, risk-taking A-grade quality show! Every ounce of hard work that goes into it really shows!

You are a gem, Implausibilibuddy.

Can you please confirm that this and Adventure Time take place in the same universe? That Dimension Garden sure looked vaguely like a certain Candy Kingdom...

Happy father's day!

Dear Mr. Burns,

I loved Dr. Tran. That 5 year old doctor with PhD in kicking ass really made me smile. I really enjoy what you've done so far with BW. Are there any plans for another Dr. Tran episode or a crossover with BW? I saw the Dr. Tran doll but would love to see him kicking ass again! Thank you for doing this AMA!

well thank you GmShRkN. Yeah we hid a few Tran references in BW but that doll was something either a designer or board artist threw in. We haven't worked on Tran for a few years now, and there aren't any plans right now. maybe someday

Quick question, how much cocaine does hotel soap eat in a day?! I've always wondered this.

Three equal cocaine portions for breakfast, lunch and dinner

In the last minute of "The Dimension Garden", when Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips is watering his plants, there is a gourd in the background with the same band coloring pattern that Impossibear has. Is there any connection between Impossibear and this gourd?

The only thing I can tell you is, that plant is called the "Impossigourd."

what is the gas powered stick? and will we see more of the paralysed horse? http://imgur.com/zEcCpU2

• The Gas Powered Stick was an Emotion Lord tactic to get Chris to pay more attention to Beth.

• The Horse, yes.

What's the animation process of Bravest Warriors?

I don't have much experience as a board artist, so I tried to gear the process toward my strengths. After writing a script (usually about seven to ten pages) with my co-writer Jason Johnson, I have a character designer rough preliminary designs. I meet with a board artist and act out as much of the episode as possible, then talk to them about their layout needs, and start sketching backgrounds with them to get the lay of the land. That gets sent to the background designer who begins his roughs, and the board artist starts his five weeks.

The board process for season two got much easier since we hired James Burks as Creative Director. He's fantastic with boards, and keeps the artists on the right track.

Each board artist is different. Some of them offer new lines and ideas, others work strictly from the script. Since we're a script driven show, we stick to its structure but try to take advantage of visual opportunities in the board. There's always room to grow, and thinking in a tactile, experiential way is important in making the world real. When live actors get on a set, they bring it to life and unpredictable things start happening. As much as possible we embrace that concept, and try to think like real people in a real place, and interact with it.

I have a makeshift recording booth in my closet at home, so as soon as a rough board is complete I record all the temp voices myself. Our editor uses these to cut together a rough animatic. That stage is the most important for me, and where I usually find the film. I'm tweaking and rewriting jokes, changing timing, adding temp scores and just letting the whole thing come to life. Notes are given to the artist who incorporates changes.

With a final storyboard, we cast any new parts that may crop up and get our actors into the recording studio. I record the actors one at a time, pick the best takes, and later their voices are cut into the final animatic. There's track reading, sheet timing, character designs are finalized, props and effects drawn, backgrounds cleaned up and the whole thing gets sent to Dong Woo studios in Korea for animation.

While they're animating (on paper!), a couple weeks later we send characters and backgrounds fully colored, as that's the last stage of Dong Woo's process. They send back fully animated shots, we call any retakes we need, and I work with the composer and sound designer who spend about two more weeks working on the five minute short.

Our final day is on the mix stage, where sound is married to picture and the short is complete. The process takes around seven months.

Dude I am too excited about you being here, thanks for doing this! Two quick ones:

1. Will we ever find out anything about Beth's mom?

2. Would you rather fight 1 horse sized duck or 100 duck sized horses?

Thanks again, it's awesome that you're here.

Beth's Dad carried her himself in a transgenic womb. In the future, men can apply for a pregnancy license. Mr. Tezuka doesn't believe in love http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BmMkxbOIMAEfk8Y.jpg:large

I was just slightly saddened by the absence of Chris in the season finale. I take it he's going to make a big comeback in the season 3 premiere, yeah? YEAH? please say yeah Also are we going to see more of that plot with plum and the timeline in season 3?

I considered our S2 finale a three-part episode. Part one showed what Chris was up to while the others were fighting Pickle Chips. I wanted Beth to have a chance to face her dad without Chris around.

The Season three premiere is a Chris episode, picking up right after he escapes the Parasox Pub. I'm working on a Plum timeline script for the sixth episode

Two questions! One, will we ever truely know why it has always been Wankershim? And two, in season three will we get to better understand the Concierge and Plum mystery? BTW love the show! And thank you for doing an AMA!

Clester07 asks the big questions. The answers are yes.

Will we see more episodes with Catbug and Impossibear? What secrets can you spill about the next season? And finally: Do you have a favorite episode and character?

• Yes, when next we see them, Catbug is dressed as a cowboy. It will blow your mind.

• Wallow gets a very special arm. Beth becomes leader. Hamster Mitch writes a bestseller. Catbug gets angry.

Is he a commodity?

It's spelled, "maccodity."

What's the inspiration/etymology for your name?

I'm named after a hooker. There's this 1971 movie called Klute, and my mom liked Jane Fonda's character name, Bree

Did it feel weird having Issue #20 release after the first part of the season finale because of the canon? Or is it just something that comes with the territory?

I never expected the timing to work out so well. It was just a coincidence it worked out at all. Hard to plan that kind of thing

What is your favourite moment in the show?

Favorite moment may be in Ultra Wankershim, when both Chris and his older self are looking at Beth, and seeing her two completely different ways.

It's always been Wankershim.

That's the spirit!

I would just like to say that I like Bravest Warriors because of how quickly episodes tell their stories. Even filler episodes turn out extremely fun to watch, and there aren't any bits that are used to just fill up time. How far ahead have you written episodes, and are you already sure what direction the show is headed for?

I should have season 3 written in a couple weeks, but boards and production take much longer. We have ideas about the longer story arcs, but it can be hard to fit that stuff into such short cartoons. I had so much of it I started putting it in the comics, issues 17-20

First of all Mr. Burns loved the fact That beth will face her dad and danny had his chance to save his friends, I think I was feeling somewhat depressed the typical secondary character who waits for the primary do everything. [i love danny, not because I'm latina too. danny is great] What about the worm? beth was not pregnant now or anything like that, right? And all the things that happened on the last episode was the original timeline or chris alter the future?

The only episode that takes place in the original original timeline is the first episode, Time Slime. Once the Emotion Lord showed up, everything changed.

I was, have been, still, wondering for FOREVER what the hell is going on in Roybertito's? It is all 34 flavors of insane.

That was me trying to create the worst possible sequel for Here Comes Dr. Tran.

First can I just say, you've done an amazing job with Bravest Warriors. I count down the days until each new episode comes out. The characters are so great and the art style and animation is flawless.

My question is, in your head, is there an "endgame" for Bravest Warriors? We're getting more and more "over-arching plot" type episodes, so is there already a destination decided for where all the main plots have to go?"

Thanks rssotrn! Some of the stories do have ends planned, but the whole series doesn't have an end point. It just keeps going.

I see some random references to your previous work on Dr. Tran, namely in the parasox pub episode and the obvious voice of the timelord, do you find yourself thinking about jokes from tran? Follow up was will there ever be more tran? Also I hit a flock of geese today and i just feel awful about it jesus. Will you please lavish my unclean body in your baby oil of truth?

That's just something trying to force its way into OUR WORLD

1.What is the ETA for Season 3? 2. Also in season 1 when you made Chris envision all those flashes in "Ultra-Wankershim" Did you already have an idea as to what you wanted in season 2 in terms of Wallow losing his arm, or was it made up a long the way?

1. After Bee and Puppycat's first season

2. Wallow has an AI on his left glove named Pixel. Back in season 1, I'd planned a story arc where Pixel turns bad. He runs away, but feels empty without his owner. Since he can't have all of Wallow, Pixel returns and cuts off Wallow's arm. Wallow was eventually going to just let his glove keep his arm and be cool about it, because Wallow's a chill fellow. Anyway, we never got around to telling that story, and the severed arm thing found its way into the finale.

Why is the hamster and teak midget both named Mitch?

Plum's teak midget is named Midge, after Barbara Bel Geddes' character in Vertigo.

Hey Breehn, love the show. I have a few questions.

1. Is Wallow ever going to get his own plot or development?

2. Can the secret hideout talk? Is it sentient?

3. BW often blurs the lines with sexual content and language. At any time will there be outright swearing or implications of sex?

1. See S02 Ep09 "Dimension Garden" for why Wallow loves little aliens. Next season, he falls in love. Again.
2. Sometimes.
3. Probably not outright swearing. Implications, we've got all kinds of those

Who is your favorite member of the Bravest Warriors?

Wallow

You have stated elsewhere that you write the show with Jason Johnson. How do you work together?

Jason and I hang out and try to make each other laugh. We keep doing this until we realize we don't have a story yet.

So we stop, and start writing story ideas. After a while we realize we aren't laughing. So we switch back to jokes.

Eventually we've done this so much, we have a pile of jokes and a pile of story ideas that just collapse in on each other. We steal from both piles until we have something we like.

Hi Breehn. Is Pen your father and is your role in the show nepotism? Thanks!

Pendleton Ward is his roommate.

Pen moved out. Our new roommate is Ryan Pequin http://www.threewordphrase.com/

Any chance of seeing a Gender/Species Swapped version of Bravest Warriors where we might see Catbug as Pupbug or Chris as Christina?

There was something like that in the comic

Hi Breehn First off I want to say thank you for all you've put into Bravest Warriors dedicating the entirety of three years to it. It's all pretty insane and you sure as hell deserve a break. I'm kind of obsessed with Bravest Warriors to the extent that even I think I should maybe take a break from it. I won't though, because quite frankly - fck that. What's been eating away at me is that in issue #20 of the comic, Beth Confesses her love for Chris. Obviously I flipped my sht when all that went down, but after re-reading it I saw that before it all happened Beth said to Plum "Don't worry - My PLAN is going to work". Was the whole confession of love just part of a plan to get her team-mate home by using the fact that she knows he has a crush on her, or was it a genuine outburst of emotions in an attempt to get her soulmate to follow her? Even though I'm supporting Chris and Beth all the way, I'm kind of liking the ending of Season of the Mitch. With Chris not being there for her so soon after she embraces her emotions after all these years of ignoring them, I guess it kind of makes sense her hugging it out with Danny when he saves her. SUPER HYPED for season 3, budman!

Oh man, you're paying attention. I wasn't prepared for a hardcore analysis.

Yeah, Plum told Beth, "Say whatever you have to say. Convince him to come with us!" But you have to ask yourself why Beth went ahead and said "I love you" when she was going to punch Chris out anyway. Season 3 will get more into how Beth really feels.

How would you recommend going about becoming a voice actor? I've always wondered if most people who do voices for projects like this do dedicated vocal work, or are they involved with the animation side of things as well?

I don't have any great advice. I have a lot of close friends that want to do it, and I always wanted to do it. The only way I got to was by doing voices in films I made myself.

Even though you're still involved with the show, having stepped down from your director position, will you be working on any new projects, whether they're with Frederator/Cartoon Hangover or something else entirely?

I don't have new projects planned yet but I'm sure I'll be doing something. After the season 3 scripts are written, my writing partner Jason and I are going to start developing show ideas, or comics or something. I would like a break first, though. I've been totally living this show for 3 years straight

What inspired you to create Catbug and did you ever expect him to be as popular of a character as he is on the show?

From an old AMA:

In 2001 I was staying at a friend's place in Santa Cruz, CA. One morning I was in bed, and outside I could hear a dog barking. Suddenly there was a loud BOOM, and the dog stopped barking.

About five minutes later there was another big BOOM, and the dog started barking again. I realized the dog must have teleported violently to another dimension, then returned. That day I drew a character called Time Pug in my sketchbook, and years later he turned into Catbug.

Do we ever learn more about Pudding Town or any other emotion lords? I'm still a bit vague on what an emotion lord is, exactly, and it was interesting to see another one.

Emotion Lords are members of any species who have transcended the normal range of emotions. Chris will be the first human to become one. Once they're full emo-lord, they feel every emotion ever felt by everyone in history, every day for eternity.

[deleted]

Gargamel

What's going to happen with Catbug as Sam Lavagnino gets older?

Sam doesn't age.

What's going to be ratio of mythology episodes to stand-alone episodes in the next season? I must admit I wasn't super enamoured with the Emotion Lord stuff and how much time it got.

My goal for season three is to make megazver super enamoured

How long do you expect the Bravest Warriors to last?

forever, of course

Why will you be replaced as the director of Bravest Warriors?

Scratch that, someone already asked you that. How many characters have you lent your voice to? Can you name some?

P.S. it's my birthday on the 17th. I would really be happy to get some sort of shoutout, tweet, mention, whatever. Thanks! ^{_____^}

We hired Tom King, board artist from season 1, as the new showrunner for season 3.

I have voiced a shitload of characters. Here they are, and ignore that megacheerful photo of me http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Breehn-Burns/

Happy birthday kabudelz07

I recognized the voice actor who played the Aeon Worm. Is there plans to bring in famous voice actors for cameos in the future?

Tony Todd!

Yeah if we can. There were several guest stars in season 2.

Holy crap! Somehow I forgot to watch the Parasox Pub!! I JUST WATCHED IT AND I'M SO EXCITED NOW!!!!! About the comics though, do you know if Joey will be returning to write the Bravest Warriors comics again? And do you plan on writing any future issues?

New BW comics team is Kate Leth and Ian McGinty. Joey Comeau is on to other things, as far as I know. No plans for me to write any more issues, but I'd like to http://multiversitycomics.com/news/kate-leth-and-ian-mcginty-joins-the-bravest-warriors-with-issue-21/

I was talking to someone you know recently and they said you were thinking about working on some of your more undeveloped characters like Hotel Soap and the furious little cinnamon bun. Would you be doing one off cartoons or trying to make a series? Honestly the furious little cinnamon buns is one of my all time favorite cartoons.

Pen keeps telling me to do a Hotel Soap show. Not sure how that would work yet, but I'll try

I've got a few... How many new characters can we look forward to in season 3? Will you implement the sleeping astronaut from Chris's future vision from Ultra Wankershim? Or was it just meaningless? Just how many characters have you voiced on Bravest Warriors to date? Personally, I'd like an episode where they free their parents or something, but that's just me.

Wish you guys the best over at Cartoon Hangover!

• Almost every episode will have new characters in it.

• The Passenger is hidden in every episode, and will eventually play into the story. The character has already shown up in the comics.

• Not sure, lots

• Me too

What's your favorite Bravest Warriors comic NOT written by you?

There's so many good ones. I'm partial to Ryan Pequin's little backup stories.

Mr. Burns, thank you for doing such a great job on BW I just need to ask you, what's a good insult for someone who steals your jokes for their own glory?

"you HAVEAGAPINGANUS" is a good burn

Hi, big fan of a lot of your works! I was wondering something- how did you get into the animation industry originally? I'm trying to do research on different careers relating to writing, and I've always wondered how some of the writers of my favorite shows get to where they are.

Also, very excited for S3! Probably shouldn't do two questions in one post, but any teasers you can give us?

I started writing and directing independent animated shorts and entering them in festivals. A friend and I created a series of films called Dr. Tran that toured around, and did well on Youtube. We made DVDs and sold them through mail order. Those films got me other work.

I chose animation because of the level of control. You can make it feel and look and sound exactly the way you want it. Nothing like my old live action films, out there under a freeway overpass with a video camera and my high school buddies, killing ourselves over something that's going to suck.

None of those films suck... I would kill to have some of those old films on a DVD to watch and remember... Los minutos? The barf thing? Muppets dancing to Michael Jackson? Hells yes

haha - you are a true fan, dillpunk. I'll have to give you a dvd one day. Hey at least I made that music montage thing

Sir, Inquiring minds must know. Why does Jelly kid randomly ditch the gang? and where is his destination?

Jelly Kid is made of Luck Slime. But what Danny doesn't know is, the slime is negatively charged. When Jelly Kid's around, bad things happen. So to protect the people he cares for, Jelly Kid must live the life of a ramblin' man

Will we ever get to see the wise and ancient personality living in Plum's other brain in action in the actual show, or is that something we'll just have to read the comics for? P.S. Thanks for running the best show on the internet. You're a hero.

Aww thanks 42_Ghabdef. I'd love to work Plum's other personality into the show -- I'll try to fit it into the script I'm writing now.

That would be the coolest thing ever! Thanks for responding. Your response made me so excited I jumped into the air and promptly hit my head on a door frame! It hurts so good!

Same thing happened to me when I heard E.T. was still alive

In the Parasox Pub, were the multiple Emotion Lords just different versions of him throughout his own timeline, or different iterations of the same guy, sent to the pub for the rest of their lives since after they changed the timeline? Or to put it a different way, if we had a timeline, would it be more of a straight line with each EL in the Pub being some point on that line, or would the line branch out, with each branch ending with one of the Emotion Lords?

Gosh I hope this is easy enough to understand.

Good Question! This is one of those things that had to get cut out of the episode for time.

The Parasox Pub imprisons Emotion Lords for a short time. First, an Old Chris creates a Parasox, which is a paradox that only an Emotion Lord can cause. It's more damaging than normal changes in time.

After creating the socks, Old Chris is pulled into the Pub. It's like a space-time penalty box. The socks are removed and given to Puddingtown. Puddingtown washes the socks in his little laundry room, which cleanses the timeline of damaged temporal energy. Then each prisoner is released to a repaired universe, where he returns to Chris's timeline and probably just goes off to cause another Parasox.

You can see the moment Emotion Prime gets pulled into the Pub in issue 18 of the comic.

Is Puddingtown an emotion lord? If so, how were the emotion lords going to expect to kill him with out the emotion sword?

Puddingtown is an Emotion Lord, but Old Chris didn't know that. He thinks Puddingtown is "A nasty law of nature that imprisons us when we fiddle with the timeline"

Thanks! That's a lot of information.

I really should get around to reading the comics, since they seem to come up a lot in these answers. Is there anywhere where I can buy a downloadable .pdf of them? It doesn't look like that's an option from Boom!.

https://www.comixology.com/Bravest-Warriors/comics-series/8792

Hey Breehn, Huge fan of the show! My favourite episode is Cereal Master, despite it's lack of Catbug dialog. I think it's because although it doesn't seem like an integral part to the larger storyline, Chris uses his powers for the first time, there's cute stuff going on with him and beth and it has gourmet breakfast foods involved! My question is can you attempt to create a real life equivalent Double Dolphin Smacks with Seahorse dreams recipe? or at very least describe how they'd taste?

They taste like corn, partially hydrogentated oils and refined sugar

What are some inspirations when making an episode? (Series, cartoons, books, etc.)

Some of the inspirations for Bravest Warriors:

• Cowboy Bebop

• Star Trek The Next Generation

• The Twilight Zone

• Achewood

• Sam Raimi

• The original Total Recall

• Ninja Turtles

• MegaMan

• Miyazaki

• The Cosby Show

• Dragon's Lair (video game)

• Back to the Future 2

• Demolition Man

• and of course, Dawson's Creek

Do the sticker pets match the color of the stickers?

Yes.

Any idea when the next season is going to air?

We expect Bravest Warriors to start next year after Bee and PuppyCat is over.

I think Bravest Warriors is a great cartoon not only for its entertainment value but for how unique it is- especially in its dialogue. How in the world do you or the writers come up with such crazy phrases like, "Quit spooning in the bouncy house" and "Just get down to biz my ninja"? I find it incredibly beautiful, funny, and trendy.

Thanks! We just like to play with words, words can get boring otherwise

Hello, Breehn, I have an idea for a Catbug hoodie, and I would like to have your opinion on whether you think it's a good idea. So basically, it's a light-blue zipper hoodie, with Catbug's face on the fromt, but on the back, there's a pair of ladybug wings that open up with another zipper, so it's basically a Catbug hoodie with a built-in backpack. What do you think? Good idea?

That's awesome Haseeb20

So whats up with the vague references to historical figures? Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips? Ralph Waldo Emerson? Hans Christian Teet-Phanters? Hans Christian Anderson? Probably more I missed but yeah.

Would you believe total coincidence?

Hi! Who's your favorite character in Bravest warriors? Personnally, for me it's Danny xD And I guess Danny will not be with Beth because of the time line or something. But will he have a girlfriend? Because he was rejected by Plum and I think he likes Beth.

Me too, Danny for sure. Word.

Hey! Huge fan!

With Chris creating a new path, will we still see you return to voice more of Emotion Lord?

I'll come back for voices on season 3 if they need me

I hear you are an October baby. Do you love pumpkin fudge? What's your favorite scary movie?

• Yeah I love pumpkin fudge, you must be psychic. We should date

• Evil Dead 2

Is there some kind of governmental system in bravest warriors? I'm just curious about the infrastructure of their society, world building is always fascinating.

Yeah, at least on Mars. The planet is run by a corrupt Fish Head President who secretly worships the Aeon Worm

What are some big creative products that you are wanting to do in the future? Is bravest warriors something you want to grow or are you seeing it more as a rung in the ladder to get you onto something else?

I love Bravest Warriors and want it to keep growing forever

Does Plum have "xray" vision, or was she clued into chris' peeking by other means? (concierge)

Plum has special knowledge that she receives from her second brain, which houses an ancient, wise personality

Oh, I didn't think that could provide that kind of knowledge. Well this changes everything.

She also gets info about the future from The Concierge

Is plum a future traveler?

Plum is not a time traveler, nor is she an emotion lord

Will the worm ever return? Do you ever doubt the worm?

Yes. No.

I am a HUGE fan of the show!

I got hooked as soon as I saw the Catbug mini-episode. I even bought a shirt.

CAN CATBUG SIGN MY SHIRT??

He's teleporting to you asap

Which Warrior's power would you like to have and why?

I would like a Totoro sticker pet