Month: October 2019

A happy early Halloween everyone! We’re bringing you a special Q&A blog with the producers of Costume Quest. Based on the video games developed by Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts, Broken Age), Costume Quest follows the adventures of 4 children as they use their imagination to unlock the powers of their costumes to stop the evil forces from threatening their town. Check it out on Amazon Prime!

We had a chance to watch a few episodes, and it’s a neat animated show. Let’s start with introductions! Who are you and what is your involvement in Costume Quest?
BRYAN My name is Bryan Caselli. I am the Co-Executive Producer and a writer on Costume Quest. I was brought on at the start of season one to show run the series along with our EP, Will McRobb and Nick.
NICK I’m Nick Bachman, and I am the Supervising Producer on the show. 

Originally this was a video game. Can you tell us a bit more about how this spun off into an animated series?
Costume Quest was originally created by Tasha Sounart at Double Fine Productions. They made two video games, and with the release of the second game, they also put out a Costume Quest comic written and illustrated by Zac Gorman. From there, Frederator Studios developed the animated series with Zac and eventually sold it to Amazon Prime Video.

The story focuses on a group of kids using their imagination to unlock the powers of their homemade costumes. How did magical costumes become the premise?
The magic costumes came straight from the game, but the rules of how they worked and where the magic came from was never stated outright, so we had to come up with a lot of that. We wanted to show off that the kid’s imaginations are super strong and that’s why they can wield the costumes. Adults and monsters don’t have powerful child-like imaginations, so they can’t power up like the kids can. We wanted to remind any kid watching that their imagination is an important muscle that they have to keep strong, because who knows, maybe they can save the world with it some day. 

Was it difficult to translate the characters from the video game into the show?
In the game, the player chooses to play as either Wren or Reynold at the start. Whichever character isn’t chosen is kidnapped right away, so there wasn’t a lot there as far as their relationship goes. That was a big part of our story that we had to give a lot more detail too. Along with the kids we also added a lot more backstory and motivation to our adult characters: Bob, Oona, and Norm are all completely original to the show.

Which character and their costume stood out to you the most? Do you have any favorites?
BRYAN My favorite character is actually Norm. He has such an emotional story and some great reveals later on in the season. My favorite costume is probably Truck Everett. There is some really funny stuff in that episode where he has to sing to his dad through the truck radio.
NICK Hate to say it, but my favorite character is the villain Bob Dickerson. He’s really pompous and smug, so it’s extra fun to see the heroes knock him down to size. I really like Reynold’s alien costume; it looks super funny on him both powered up and powered down. 

Since it’s almost Halloween, do you all have any cherished costuming memories from your childhood?
BRYAN My mom always sewed my Halloween costumes growing up. At first we would always do it with the patterns from the fabric store, but when I got a little older and started getting into drawing, she would have me design my Halloween costume and then sew it from my drawing. It was a ton of fun. I would plan my costume for months leading up to Halloween.
NICK My mom also would sew Halloween costumes for my brothers and I when we were growing up. One year I was a big stuffed, fluffy owl. Another I was a big stuffed, fluffy Batman. The costumes were all stuffed and fluffy. 

More importantly, what are you Halloween costumes this year?
BRYAN This year I’m going as a Nougatown factory worker from our show.
NICK I’ll be donning my “store bought” Abe Lincoln Jr. polyester junk costume.

The animation feels like a good mix of 90’s Nickelodeon (Rocko’s Modern Life, Rugrats) and current Cartoon Network shows. What were the discussions like to settle on this style?
A lot of the style came from Zac’s comic. The hand drawn ink lines in the BGs and the main characters are in Zac’s style. Other shows that influenced us a lot over the course of the production were some of our favorites from our childhoods: Ninja Turtles, Batman The Animated Series, Power Rangers, and Peanuts for sure.

What is one of your favorite episodes or moments in Costume Quest?
BRYAN My favorite episode is “What About Norm?” It’s arguably our most emotional episode and it tells all about what it was like for Norm when he was a kid.
NICK I really love “In the Mouth of Badness” where the kids shrink down in bug costumes and go inside Bob’s mouth. It’s the most cartoony episode idea in the bunch and is a lot of fun. 

What do you hope people will get out of watching Costume Quest?
BRYAN All I want is for people to have fun watching the show. If people get some of our messages about the power of imagination, the importance of cooperation, and the beauty of friendship, that’s super cool too, but mostly I just want to put smiles on people’s faces.
NICK In addition to what Bryan said, I’d also love it if the show inspired kids to take on problems that seem too big to handle. Just like the kids in our show, they can conquer anything if they set their minds to it. 

Are there plans to make more episodes?
We are just about finished on a Costume Quest Christmas Special that will come out in November called “Heroes on Holiday.” We both got to write and direct the special so we’re very excited for it’s release. After that, it looks like there won’t be much from Costume Quest at least at Amazon. Amazon has recently decided to stop making new kids content and focus more on stuff for adults, which is too bad.

Is there anything else that you’d like for us to know about the show?
Yes. Our music is amazing! The Blasting Company did all the music for our show and they are just incredible. They also did all the music for Over the Garden Wall. If you’re watching CQ, don’t forget to listen to the music.

Where can people view Costume Quest and learn more?
All of season one is up now on Amazon Prime Video and the Christmas special will be up on November 22. Our crew run instagram page is @costume.quest. We put up a ton of behind the scenes artwork and clips on there. Give us a follow! 

A big thank you to Bryan and Nick! Check out Costume Quest on Amazon Prime.

Images provided by Amazon.