Editor’s note: This interview was conducted prior to allegations regarding Koala Man executive producer Justin Roiland’s conduct emerging online. It is understood that Michael Cusack is the sole creator of Koala Man, while Justin Roiland served as executive producer on the series. As of January 25th, Hulu has cut ties with Roiland.
It’s been a grand few years for Michael Cusack.
From YouTube and Newgrounds classics such as Damo and Darren, YOLO, and Rare at E3, to three separate TV shows across major networks, Dapto native and Adobe Flash animator Michael Cusack has come pretty far.
Cusack’s most recent passion-project series Koala Man is probably his biggest one yet, with the likes of Hugh “Huge Jacked Man” Jackman and Sarah “My Favourite Ranga” Snook lending their voices to the show and Disney+ taking the streaming reins here in Australia.
It’s pretty neat to see a pilot from ABC’s Fresh Blood make its way around the world, and I got the chance to have a chat with Cusack about Koala Man, as well as how his past work has led up to it.
So first things first, what’s Koala Man all about? And where did its inspiration come from?
So I’ve been animating for a while just doing like… I did YouTube cartoons for a long time. And I always liked the idea of doing a TV show set in a suburbia-type Australian town that I grew up in.
And a few years ago, I just thought what would an Australian superhero be like? It seemed to make sense to me that he’d have no superpowers. He would be like a middle-aged man going through a midlife crisis.
And it would just be in a small suburb like Dapto and his villains would be petty criminals, like the Damo and Darrens of the world, like what I used in Ciggy Butt Brain and kids that graffiti but also like, actual villains were funny too.
He does face true villains and like, creatures and things from out of space, like, Yeah, going weird is fun with it, too. But yeah, that was the genesis of it.
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, your last series Smiling Friends was definitely a bit more culturally ambiguous, kind of leaning more into the goofs and gags one would find on YouTube and Newgrounds. So what made you want to go back to your roots for Koala Man?
I think because Koala Man was just in development for so long. Koala Man was in development before Smiling Friends. So it kind of just has just, it’s just taken so long to come to fruition. Because you know, when you’re doing this kind of stuff, you have to have a few… What’s the word, eggs in the pot?
Eggs in the basket?
Yeah! Something like that. So like, because you never know when something’s going to go to production, especially when you’re a newcomer to it as I am, you don’t have that much to go off for proof other than YouTube cartoons.
So it was in development for quite a few years. And yeah, it was it just it shot off at some point, when, when we got the showrunners, Dan and Benji, who were very vital. So it’s been a slow, slow burn.
Yeah, of course. And I mean, like, obviously, as you mentioned prior, this isn’t your first time doing an animated series based on Australian culture, it’s probably the tamest, compared to like early YOLO and Damo and Darren, so how does it feel to showcase kind of both the yuckier sides of Australiana to international audiences as well as the more kind of mundane? But still weird, you know.
I think that’s the most fun part to me, like, because the whole project was trying to be a little bit, for lack of a better word, mainstream, because my normal sensibilities, if it’s just up to me, it’s gonna be pretty out there and not palatable which is, you know, that has its place.
But the great thing about this was collaborating, you know, the showrunners, and you know, the network’s 20th [Century Fox]. And Hulu was very integral to that process, too. And the writer’s room, which is split between, you know, Australia and America.
So our goal was to really make it so it is a grounded show with also surreal elements. So we can kind of have this sandbox to do whatever we want so we don’t have to stick to a certain tone. But the way we kind of got away with that is making it so that the characters have like, hopefully, you know, there’s a heart to the show.
And you know, there’s a motivation and wants and needs that are strong from the characters to ground it and anchor it into some sense of reality. But yeah, to answer your question, it was a big experimentation of collaboration to see if we could do something like this. Yeah, and I think we pulled it off.
And what’s it been like working with the huge jacked man himself, Hugh Jackman and Sarah Snook and co.?
Hahaha, Huge Jacked Man. Yeah, it was fantastic. I mean, that’s when it started to feel like a real show when we got proper actors and like, you know, especially at that caliber, they were amazing.
And like, if you watch the animatics of the show, which is like their pre-version, where it’s just the gruff drawings, I do all the voices so like, not only am I doing Kevin/Koala Man and all that, but I’m also doing the voice of like Vicki and all like the female roles.
It gets a bit tiresome, so we had to watch those versions a million times. So when we got like the Hugh Jackman’s and the Sarah Snook’s slotted in there, it just brought the show up to a whole new level and really made it like so much better. And they were amazing to work with too. I was lucky enough to direct them and they were the best.
It was really, really a thrill. The thrill of my life to do.
Yeah absolutely. And this is a personal question, but do you think we’ll ever see any more “______ At E3” videos on YouTube? It was a favourite series of mine.
Wow, that’s interesting. I haven’t heard anyone be a fan of that.
Really? I loved it.
Just because it was so long ago and that was the first cartoon I ever did, it was Gabe Newell At E3. It’s hard for me to watch now because I was really learning at the time and I’m not even the biggest gamer so like…
When I look at those I almost see myself as posing a little bit and trying to fit in because at the time there were a bunch of like video game parodies and videos like that so when I see those I’m like, I can see myself just trying to be like “Hey guys, I can be a cool YouTube animator too! Accept me!”
So when I watch the Ciggy Butt Brains and the YOLOs, I cringe less because they feel like they’re more from the heart. But you know, the E3 ones, there’s some merit to them. I’m pretty harsh on them though.
Yeah, don’t be so hard on yourself!
Yeah. I like the Rare one a little bit more than the Gabe one.
Oh, the Rare one is magnifique.
Going on to what you were saying about you know, early animation. How would you compare it to now? Because I know that you used to work with Flash.
I still do!
You still do?
Yeah, Flash isn’t dead for me. We used it on Smiling Friends and YOLO. Animated all in Flash. Koala Man was animated in Toon Boom, which is what they use for like Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites.
I think even like The Simpsons and Family Guy and all those half-an-hour-long traditional on-model animated shows usually go by Toon Boom or Harmony, they call it.
But I personally still use Flash. I don’t even know how to use Toon Boom. It’s so complicated. One day I’ll learn though. Sorry, I interrupted your question!
That’s okay! I was just gonna ask like, how would you compare the work that went into your early flash days versus now?
This is where I feel like a bit of a hack and a sell-out and a fraud. I don’t animate as much as I used to. A lot of what I do now is delegating, like getting talented animators around me and crews.
A lot of my work day is usually like spread from like voice acting to meetings about designs, meetings about storyboards, audio stuff, mixing, it’s like a lot of that kind of stuff. Now it’s become more administrative than myself animating.
So yeah, my kind of work has changed in that aspect. But I do want to go back and do some animation myself because I’m worried I’ll lose it. I don’t want to forget the skill. So I’m gonna brush up on it again.
But that being said, What do you prefer delegating or animating?
Oh, that’s a hard question. Right now I miss animating because I haven’t done it for so long. And I’ve been doing the delegation for a lot of the last few years with you know, Smiling Friends, YOLO, and Koala Man.
So I’m pretty keen to go back and just do animation again, that’s just purely myself because the best part about those? It’s kind of meditative.
You’re just by yourself animating, and you can put on a podcast or a TV show. And you just sit there, you have it all, all the audios done, the storyboards done, now you just do the busy work of just sitting there and just getting it all done and it takes a long time.
But if you get in the zone, it’s really a cozy spot to be in. Cup of tea, nice TV show playing to glance over to, it’s fun.
Koala Man is available to stream now on Disney+.
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