A young boy named Oscar join forces with his favorite luchador in Rey Mysterio vs. La Oscuridad (Rey Mysterio vs. The Darkness), one of the most high-profile, recent animated series produced by Cartoon Network Latin America and Mexican studio ¡Viva Calavera!. The 2D-animated show, which premiered last December, features the voices of lucha libre star Rey Mysterio, as well as Ellie Rodz and Jocelyn Robles. It follows the adventures of Oscar as he discovers a hidden world of Mexican wrestlers with superpowers. Oscar teams up with his idol to face supernatural beings and fight against the Uroboros (an evil fighter) and other forces of darkness in this colorful and highly original project.
\We recently had the great pleasure of chatting with Los Hermanos Calavera (The Skull Brothers), who always wear lucha libre masks and like to remain incognito! Here is what they told us about their hot property:
Animation Magazine: First of all, congrats on the success of your animated show. Can you tell us a bit about how Rey Mysterio vs. The Darkness came to be?
Los Hermanos Calavera: Work on the series started almost 10 years ago. It’s been quite the journey. On one hand, Rey Mysterio was off contract and not tied to any wrestling company, so we saw the opportunity to approach him about potential projects. On the other hand, Cartoon Network opened offices in Mexico and were looking for local creators to tell original stories. It was the perfect moment for this to happen. Then, it took a few years of figuring things out in terms of licenses and to polish the story to the point where it could work in a short format but have potential for growth. Pablo Zuccarino, Jaime Jímenez, Humberto Cervera and of course Rey Mysterio himself were all fundamental to reach that point. We first started working on one-minute shorts (available on YouTube for Latin America) and then worked on the pilot, which evolved into a 10-episode season, which is now available on Max and Cartoon Network in Latin America.
What were the big inspirations for the show?
There’s a few. The obvious one is of course our love of lucha libre. As kids, we watched lucha libre every weekend, bought masks and stickers and magazines, wrestled our cousins … we just loved it. And Rey Mysterio was one of our idols. We’d watch his spectacular style and be amazed at how he was making a name for himself in the U.S. As we started growing as creators, we wondered what would be the Mexican version of the action series and movies we loved. We had superhero versions of the U.S. view of the world, and of course fantastical approaches to Japanese legends and Chinese martial arts. What did that look like for Mexico? What was the origin point? And we concluded it had to be lucha libre and the masked luchador, which now seems kind of obvious. Another important source of inspiration has been of course anime. We grew up watching Dragon Ball, Saint Seya, Captain Tsubasa … we loved the high intensity, the drama and crazy action; and wanted to bring that to whatever we created, but of course with a Mexican touch that could connect with people with ties to Mexico, but also with everyone in the world.
Where is the animation produced?
The bulk of the animation was produced in Mexico. Our studio ¡Viva Calavera! handled the more complex scenes, Mighty Animation in Guadalajara worked on the largest number of shots, and other studios like Alex Torres’ KaiserCrew and Aska Animation handled specific shots. We also had help from other LatAm studios like Lucy Animation and Formidable, as well as some other great creators with no previous ties with LatAm, like Jamie Vickers.
Overall, how many people work on the series?
Since the project has been so long, and the production spread out, it’d be hard to put an exact number to it. In ¡Viva Calavera! at it’s highest we were probably around 25 people working, but that’s a fraction of the total crew involved in the project overall between animators, background artists, character artists, production crew … It took a village for sure.
Can you talk a bit about the animation style?
We put a lot of emphasis on this. We wanted an animation style that paid tribute to our anime inspiration, which also had the advantage of, if done correctly, being relatively cheaper. We’ve come to call it “limited sakuga” [from the Japanese term for cinema-quality animation], where we work really hard on making sure we have very powerful and well executed character layout, which then means we don’t necessarily need as many in-between drawings but still manage a very powerful snappy animation. This was the norm for the action shots and we tried to replicate that logic for all scenes. Eder Luna and Andy Alcaraz were instrumental in making the show move like we wanted.
What do you love about the show?
We love the fact that we were able to make it. To make a story about one of our idols and some of the things we love. We absolutely love the crew that came together to make it. In terms of the show itself, the action scenes were really where we placed our bets and we think they turned out really well. Also, the overall art direction we feel has a very clear Mexican touch, but also is unique; Gaby Galvan, Andrés Escobedo, Crosby Gonález and Misael Gil, with our support, were responsible for that. A very pleasant surprise were the characters and their relationships; when the animation and voice over brought the scripts to life, we were so happy to see these were actual people with personalities, flaws and wants … We love them.
What was the most challenging aspect of it?
Without a doubt working at such a scale proved a huge challenge. The three of us are used to working out everything by ourselves and communication is easy amongst us, the result of a lifetime of figuring things out together. Scaling that up to produce a whole season is a huge challenge. We were helped by the great people at Cartoon Network and our production crew, Gabriela Pérez, Karen Chavez, Axtli Jimenez, Adriana Alvarez, Esmeralda Malagón, Luis Peña, the team at Mighty Animation; but also advice from Mike Rauch, Magdiela Duhamel, Eric Robles. So many people helped us navigate and find ways to convey our vision while leaving room for people to contribute.
What have been some of the most memorable responses to the series?
It’s been great to hear from people who have been excited about the fight scenes, the art; those elements we were trying to achieve. Hearing that we achieved some of what we set out to do is incredible. A lot of people have responded well to Oscar, Leo and Amanda, the three kids who star in the show alongside Rey Mysterio. That is very rewarding. And also other characters, like the bad guys, have been very well received. However, the most memorable response for us has been Rey Mysterio’s. Watching his reactions to the early designs and animatics, and seeing his willingness to improve his voice over work because he believes in what we’re doing has been absolutely amazing.
What is your take on the growing animation landscape in Mexico?
It’s exciting. There are a lot of different studios with different voices and creators less and less afraid to tell their stories. Whereas for many years studios mostly positioned themselves as service providers for U.S. and Canadian studios, and of course this is still an important part of the industry, now there’s a push for original creations. The overall environment in the industry globally is not the best right now, but Mexicans are known for their ability to make something out of nothing, so we’re confident the industry will find a way to keep growing.
What are the plans for the future?
We see a great future for Rey Mysterio vs. La Oscuridad. We have mapped out a continuation to the story that we think is very exciting. We also are working very hard to get the show to as many people worldwide as possible as well as finding new avenues for people to connect with the show. As a studio, ¡Viva Calavera! is exploring other possible avenues of collaboration with Rey Mysterio and new projects to develop in the short and long term. The future certainly looks promising. Booyaka!
You can find out more about the studio at www.vivacalavera.studio.
