Director Bret Haaland is mostly known for his work on animated properties like Futurama, The Simpsons, and Madagascar. His most recent project released on Netflix this week, and exists in the Fast & Furious universe.
Fast & Furious Spy Racers: Sahara follows Dom Toretto's cousin and younger racers who look up to the mainline series characters, even though they aren't quite ready to measure up.
In support of the newest season, we shared our exclusive chats with creators Tim Hedrick and Bret Haaland, but we also wanted to spend some time on the latter's Futurama work. When we asked about the episodes he worked on, he spoke about directing Nixon as a robot and Bender as a human, and how that whimsical humor contrasts with the Fast & Furious project he helped create.
"I was involved with a lot of development on Futurama visually. I did all of the characters' hand-drawn turns as we were gearing up for the season and then directed several episodes, including the one where Bender gets the chance to be a human. And he pigs out and becomes so incredibly obese that he dies. And that was fun. There was one where Richard Nixon gets to be a robot, even though he's just a head in a jar. So I had fun with all of that.
I guess what I would take from that to apply to Fast & Furious is keeping an open mind and trying something that might not seem possible. Futurama is very whimsical. So you try to pour that into our world, which is more grounded in physical reality. And I think we do some of that a little bit. When you look at us, our 2D graphics that the characters have in their spy devices, they're fanciful. So yeah, this is a different type of show because my background has been more comedy. So it's been fun to sort of balance it up."
Hear our full conversation with Tim Hedrick (Avatar, Voltron) and Bret Haaland (Futurama, The Simpsons) using the podcast player below. We've also included the trailer and synopsis for Fast & Furious Spy Racers: Sahara, so be sure to share your thoughts in the usual spot!
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
When Ms. Nowhere and Gary disappear while on a mission in the Sahara, the Spy Racers must step up to the plate and finish what Ms. Nowhere started. Get ready to speed under the Saharan sun in the all-new season of Fast & Furious: Spy Racers.
Dreamworks' Fast & Furious Spy Racers: Sahara is now available on Netflix on.