The superhero genre has grown over the years as it has grown in popularity with the general public. With this growing popularity, the genre expanded into stories, like The boys, which challenge and question what the reality of a world full of superheroes would look like through a more cynical lens. Comics are at the heart of superheroes, making animation a perfect medium for these stories, and lately, more mature animated superhero stories have found their way onto the screen.
A perfect example is The Boys Presents: Devilish which takes the same gore, violence, farcical humor and cynicism as the live-action series, but explores it through multiple animation styles and storylines. The Illuminerdi had the opportunity to participate in the WonderCon 2022 roundtable The Boys Presents: Diabolical interviews with Executive Producer Simon Racioppa and Supervising Director Giancarlo Volpe. We asked Simon Racioppa, who is also an executive producer on Invincible, what the animated medium can bring to the superhero genre that live action can’t, and he talked about how this medium enables certain things that can be too much for live action.
“Scope, I think that’s a big deal. Obviously like Diabolical or Invincible, to do either of these shows live, the budget would have to be ridiculous, too high to do them. Even with budgets like you see on The iron Throneand other great shows I just feel like we should change the subject so much to fit Invincible in a TV show if it wasn’t animated. Animation was really the only medium to tell this story and do it right. So I think that’s what it does. It’s making a truer adaptation of certain material than you could if you were to do it live.
THE BOYS PRESENT: DEVIL EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND SUPERVISING DIRECTOR EXPLAIN HOW ANIMATION CAN MAKE GORE MORE ENJOYABLE FOR AUDIENCE
Considering the violence and the blood in The boys live-action series, it’s hard to imagine what lines they won’t cross, especially with the “Herogasm” episode promised in season three. However, Racioppa’s point on Invincible and even some of the most disgusting ideas The Boys Presents: Devilish, like the Awkwafina episode, are a strong argument for animation allowing for more violence and grotesque story beats. Simon Racioppa was then asked if he thought animation made this gore and violence more palatable to audiences.
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“I feel like if you had the budget and took a few Diabolical episodes or you took episodes of Invincible and you shot them live, I think they might be nasty. Since you can’t, they would just be grotesque gores. But because we were able to do it in animation, there’s a bit more detachment between them, so you can take it in a different way.
This is probably a question for a psychologist to dig up an answer to. But I feel like you can watch something that’s animated and experience it in a different way than if it was live action. And probably someone much smarter than me could answer that question on a better level. That’s my kind of reading about it. So it allows us to push the limits a little further than you could in live action.
There is a certain level of detachment of animation from live action, which allows for crazier possibilities that would probably be too much for live audiences to handle. This question was also posed to Giancarlo Esposito who has worked on many animation projects over the years.
“One of the things I found out, I’ve said this before, is that I’ve never been terrified of a cartoon. It’s interesting because there are people who say that “They were. But I’ve watched movies where I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to end this.’ You feel like you’re just making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end So there’s clearly something a little softer or safer about animation.
We were trying to overcome that. Especially on gory scenes. But there’s a certain point where there’s only so much more blood I can add to the shot. I said to our designers, for example, when this poor woman got her jaw ripped out, I was like, ‘I’m not going to insist on somebody pulling a reference to draw this. And, I’m not going to check, I have no desire to, I’m actually quite disgusted. So, it was like, as long as it looks okay, let’s go.
Animation is a great medium for the superhero genre, even outside of the horrific, gory, and more disturbing nature of series like The Boys Presents: Devilish and Invincible. projects like Into the SpiderVerse and What if…? proving that this medium can be the perfect way to fully show the possibilities of superheroes. This brings us back to Simon Racioppa’s point about animation allowing for truer adaptations. That’s not to say live-action movies and TV series aren’t fantastic and integral to the genre’s popularity. Hopefully with projects like Into the SpiderVerse, What if…?, Invincibleand The Boys Presents: Devilish prove what animation can bring to the table more superhero stories will be explored through animation.
The Boys Presents: Devilish is available now on Prime Video. The boys Season 3 is slated to premiere on Prime Video on June 3, 2022. Do you think the gore, violence, and loathing are more palpable in animation than in live action? Do you want more animated superhero movies and series? If so, which ones do you want next? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or on our social media and check back with The Illuminerdi for more on The boys.
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