Celebrate Halloween With Your Favorite Yellow Sponge
Written By: Nicole Hakim
The newly designed Nickelodeon Animation Studios opened on Jan. 11 in Burbank. As soon as you go through the gate, you’ll be greeted with a large, grassy area with chairs, benches, a blue Spongebob statue and other artwork dedicated to Nickelodeon cartoons. The main lobby is large and open and features a Ren and Stimpy inspired café with a sign that reads “Happy Happy Joy Joy,” where guests and employees can enjoy Powdered Toast!
Doug Lawrence—professionally known as Mr. Lawrence—is known in the cartoon industry for his work on Nickelodeon shows such as Rocko’s Modern Life and Spongebob Squarepants, as a writer, a director, a storyboard artist and a voice actor. Mr. Lawrence has provided his talents once again by writing the new stop-motion Halloween Spongebob special—which will air appropriately on Friday the 13th—and by voicing Plankton.
Q: What inspired you to get into the cartoon industry?
Doug Lawrence: I drew as a kid. It got more serious as I got older. I became obsessed with cartoons and went to art school for a while.
Q: How did you come to work for Nickelodeon?
DL: I worked with Phil Roman to stalk John K and work on Ren and Stimpy, which I did. I started at Rocko as a storyboard guy. After my first board, I was promoted to director. Filburt was my first time doing voices; they couldn’t find anyone, and I threw my tape in. I keep coming back to Spongebob because it’s great physical comedy. It’s been more hands-on, and it feels like a new show because we’ve approached it in a different way.
Q: How do you come up with fresh ideas?
DL: Characters have become complex over time. It’s not just how they relate to Spongebob, but how they relate to their own universe. We write about things that happen in life, so it’s universal. Sometimes somebody will have an idea that keeps collecting. We pound it, give it a structure, find a place for jokes.
Q: What is your favorite part about working on Spongebob?
DL: Making up characters I play is great. It’s an outlet to get my aggressions out. Also, the times I’m with the group are never boring.
Q: What was the decision to make the special stop motion?
DL: It’s our second time doing this with Screen Novelties. We love their homemade way of doing stop motion. There are many fun things, and the Flying Dutchman is my favorite. I can’t wait.
Q: How was writing a song?
DL: We planned for a musical soundtrack, but it needed a song. I decided the type, wrote lyrics and got with Evan Shelder. I sang a scratch track, he tweaked it, and there was the final song everyone sang.
Q: What was different about going into stop-motion instead of a traditional episode?
DL: The difference was in storyboarding/writing. There are things we can get away with it in 3D. Going down a corridor in a mine car with things passing you in perspective is easier to do when you’ve got the sets there.
Q: What was the hardest thing about doing this special?
DL: It’s 22 minutes, which is trickier. 22’s have more story, and sometimes they can have too much, so there isn’t much bang in the joke department. We approach them in the way we do 11’s. There are different levels of difficulty.
Q: Can we expect more stop-motion the future?
DL: Yeah, if there’s the right story.
Q: Can we expect more “My Leg” jokes?
DL: It’s creeping its way into everything. It came from a crowd walla where they said, “You’re in pain.” We’re moaning, and for some reason, it died down, and I yelled “My leg!” way too loud. I did it whenever I could; if a script says “My leg!” it’s me.
Q: Have you guys thought about what you will do for Spongebob’s 20th anniversary?
DL: We’re working on season 12, and trying to figure out what’s going to happen.
