Channel Frederator Blog

Animator (and superdad!) Mike Salva gives us the details on his short film “Back to Life” and the extremely cool stuff he has coming up (keep an eye out for his film “Max the Hero” screening at this year’s San Diego ComiCon!).

Channel Frederator: Where (if at all) did you study animation?

Mike Salva: Technically, I studied animation at the Film & Video Dept. of Rochester Institute of Technology, but they taught me next to nothing in the classrooms. Really. Nothing. Not even by accident. Since they weren’t teaching me anything, I watched horror movies and played video games with my buddy Stew for four years. Pretty much everything I know (which isn’t much) I learned on my own, and from watching far too many cartoons.

CF: What gave you the idea for “Back to Life”?

MS: An executive at Adobe asked me to make several funny “monster-themed” videos. I wanted at least one of them to be a cartoon. “Back To Life” was the result. Since then, it’s been playing at a bunch of horror film festivals and scifi “cons.” I just like making retarded little cartoons.

CF: I love stand-up - why did you use comedians Sean Parrot and Ryan Williams for your VO talent?

Comedians Ryan Williams and Sean Parrott

MS: Nashville comedian Ryan Williams is a good friend of mine, he is one of the funniest people I know, and one of the few people I know who can actually make me laugh. (Ryan, if you’re reading this, then everything you just read is a lie. You’re not funny at all! You’re a horrible and bitter man!) Ryan introduced me to Sean Parrott, another standup comedian here in Nashville. Ryan and Sean provided voices for all of the monster videos. They’re both very talented, and Sean is a real natural at doing cartoony-type voices. I’d love to use him again.

CF: Do you have any upcoming projects that you can tell us about?

MS: I am working on several cartoons with comedian Jonathan Katz (from the show “Dr. Katz Professional Therapist”), the first of which is about a convicted murderer on death row who is doing Weight Watchers. I also made a cartoon called “Max the Hero” that I wrote with Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, and Michael J. Nelson. They were writers/performers from “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ and now they are doing “Rifftrax.” Bill, Kevin and Mike did all the voices. “Max the Hero” is about a super hero who is kind of a jerk and he doesn’t really save anybody.

Can I have some money?

CF: Deceased person you’d like to have a beer with and why - go!

MS: I don’t drink, but as long as you’re arranging meetings with the dead, perhaps you can resurrect my best friend Eric who died a couple of years ago. On second thought, don’t resurrect him. He’s in Heaven, and he’d only start complaining about being brought back to life, like the monster did in the “Back To Life” cartoon.

Seriously, this interview is all just a distraction so you can repossess my car, right?

CF: Yeah. Sorry ’bout that. But thanks for the interview!

You can check out “Back to Life” right here on Channel Frederator along with Mike’s daughter Emily’s film “Odysseus and the Cyclops!

-Bailee DesRocher