@nick_crenshaw82 If I could have an updated image of Daniel at age 40, that would be nice. Thanks.
Larry King: Good evening from Washington. The Backstreet Boys' rise on the Billboard charts continues and they are just getting started. Last month, Fox launched a Saturday morning animated series based on the group called the
Backstreet Project. And my guest tonight is the man who helped bring the quintet to the screen. He's a 23 year veteran of the cartoon business, having started with the legendary Richard Williams in London at age 16. In two months, he will turn 40. His career has taken him from Southampton to Disney by way of Columbia, United Artists, Filmation, Hanna-Barbera and Paramount. Here in Washington tonight is Daniel Abbott.
Daniel Abbott: Thanks for having me on the programme. Although, I do wish the lads were here because the show was really their idea.
LK: Well, you're in luck because the Boys are touring right now and my producer says they're listening to our interview backstage at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. Their North American tour, by the way, kicked off last month with Gus St. Pierre opening up. Now, tell me how the show came about.
DA: It started with a chance encounter with their managers Johnny Wright and Lou Pearlman. Both men had made arrangements for NSYNC to appear in a feature film for Warner Bros. in which the group is to form an alliance with the
Looney Tunes gang. By this point, I had been working on
The Simpsons for four and a half years. I was told that Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and Screen Gems were each offered a chance to work with the Boys but each turned them down because of concerns over likeness rights and such. Without hesitation, I immediately raised my hand and said I'd volunteer to do the show, provided that the Boys get 3 million each, and Rachel joined me on the staff.
LK: How does this show differ from other series based on pop music icons?
DA: I remember as a kid being a bit disappointed that the Beatles' speaking voices on
Yellow Submarine were provided by different actors. When Rachel and I still worked together on the Movietoon revival shorts, she received an offer from DiC for a series based on New Kids on the Block. When she learned that they couldn't get the actual members do the voices, she chose instead to work with Steven Spielberg and Tom Ruegger at Warners. And because of those experiences, I felt like I needed to have the Boys provide their own voices to be as authentic as possible. But even in April of '97 when they came in to record their lines for the programme, I had to move quickly because they were finishing their current album and they had two music video shoots later in the summer. That, and Brian had to undergo heart surgery.
LK: But you did take the time to get the know the group, right?
DA: Yes. Nick was really the driving force in getting the lads behind the project. When Nick mentioned he liked comic books, that's when I brought in Stan Lee to help me develop superhero personas for each of the lads. Rachel has been mentoring Gus St. Pierre through his transition from teen heartthrob to adult actor and I didn't realize until then that he and AJ had appeared together on a few Nickelodeon projects several years ago. So when AJ lobbied to bring Gus onto the programme as a special guest, that was pretty easy to arrange. Howie replaced Greg Rhodes as Leonardo on the third Ninja Turtle picture because Greg's heroin habit had gotten out of control. Kevin had been a cast member at Disney-Fox Studios before he joined the group and I learned later that he and Brian are cousins.
LK: Was this a project you've been wanting to do for a long time, or did it fall on your lap?
DA: A little bit of both. I had been wanting to do a cartoon with a popstar since 1979. When I worked in Atlanta for United Artists, I was hoping Richard Williams could get Queen to do a feature film with us based on
Bohemian Rhapsody, but they had already made a commitment to
Flash Gordon. I sent demo reels to Aerosmith, AC/DC, the Stones, all of them turned me down. After I got settled at Disney, I tried to get Ozzy on board, but the best I could get from him was to do a DTV video of Crazy Train. A few years went by and I hoped to at least make a music video with Metallica, but the best I could get from them was a licence from their label to use Enter Sandman for another DTV video. I did manage to get the Jimi Hendrix estate and Soundgarden to cooperate on the clip that aired on VH1 a while back where I mashed up Are You Experienced and Rusty Cage with footage from The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
