JJ Villard's Fairy Tales might be a brand new series on Adult Swim, but it has brought with it some heavy hitting talent. The creator, JJ Villard, is known for his work in animation on movies such as Shrek 3 + 4 and shows like King Star King and Uncle Grandpa, and he put together a remarkable cast of legendary horror genre icons for his new series.
Plenty of actors and actressses are a part of the series, such as Alan Oppenheimer (Neverending Story, He-Man), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Linda Blair (The Exorcist), Warwick Davis (The Leprachaun, Harry Potter), and countless more. We recently had the chance to chat with Robert Englund, the legendary actor who brought Freddy Krueger to life for many years. Check out what he had to say about his role in the new Adult Swim show.
Joe: You’re going to be appearing in the upcoming Adult Swim animated series JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales. Can you tell us about the character you are voicing in the series?
Robert Englund: Well, I’ve done a lot of voices and tons of roles in my life. Along with a couple of my early TV jobs and I think I was a confrontational robot once in a play called RUR at a Great Lakes Festival where Tom Hanks is from. But my resume from JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales for my show which is the Goldilocks and the Three Bears episode. I play Porridge Daddy, Pipehead, and Toilet. Those are my characters. (Laughs)
Joe: So you actually have three characters?
Robert Englund: Yeah, and Pipehead is one of the three bears. But when I did Porridge Daddy he was actually like a gob of snot that Goldilocks’ father was turned into which is pretty gross and raw and twisted stuff and the toilet too. But I love it because its going to look so good on my resume on IMDB.
I love that because you know I’ve done a lot of starring roles and even in supporting roles with famous actors but its always fun to have those. You get these weird roles like Bad Guy #2 in Charlie’s Angels on your resume so it kind of keeps you real.
But I really loved it. I got to work with a kind of rough pencil storyboard and that was the first time I’ve ever done that on an animation voiceover gig. I usually do it alone and you just have a picture of the character. And sometimes you come in after you’ve done it to add like getting punched or hit or a scream. You’ll come back when you get the rough cut and you match that to the image’s animation.
But for ours I got to do a kind of rough storyboard which is really fun because it kind of moved along and you got a sense of how it was going to go. And because they were rough, punk, sort of Beavis and Butthead style affected the roughness and the animation that I use.
And then JJ would come and hang out in the booth with the actor. Or with me he certainly did, and that’s kind of something that I’ve never done. You have your own little personal notes and your cup or coffee or your glass of water but I kind of liked it, you know, JJ’s a lot of fun.
He’s real rock and roll and lose and we had a lot of fun doing it because he’s right there and so right off the top of his head he would say try it this way or do it this way so we got a better variety of takes because there wasn’t that distance where you’re in your own kind of fishbowl booth with sound engineers and everybody there in their own little glassed off area. You kind of see them across the studio, almost like in our aquariums and it was kind of fun having JJ in the room right next to me.
What do you guys think of these comments from Robert Englund? Share your thoughts with us in the comments and be sure to check out the trailer and synopsis for JJ Villard's Fairy Tales below!
A new, twisted, fun take on the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White. The charm and cuteness of the original stories remain, but now they've been updated and packaged into a ball of raw, visceral, gross weirdness.
The animated quarter-hour series is created, and executive produced by JJ Villard (King Star King) and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. Voice talent this season includes Linda Blair, Warwick Davis, Robert Englund, Corey Feldman, Alan Oppenheimer, Jennifer Tilly, and Villard himself among others.
In the premiere episode titled, “Boypunzel,” a long haired boy is trapped in a tower by a witch.
JJ Villard's Fairy Tales airs Sundays at 12:15 am on Adult Swim.