Slop's World

Slop's World is an American animated television series created by marine biologist and animator Dallas Long for Fox Box. The series chronicles the adventures and endeavors of the title character and his various friends in the fictional city of Crazytown. The series' popularity has made it a media franchise, as well as the highest rated series to ever air on Fox Box, and the most distributed property of Fromero Corporation and Fox Networks. As of 2017, the media franchise has generated $12 billion in merchandising revenue for Fox Box.

Many of the ideas for the series originated in an unpublished educational comic book titled Slop's World, which Dallas Long created in 2010. He began developing Slop's World into a television series in 2012, and turned to Apple Fred, who had worked with him on that series, to voice the title character. Slop Peeyo was originally going to be named Sloppy Peeyomire, and the series was to be called Sloppy Peeyomire, but these were both changed, as the name was already trademarked.

Characters
The series revolves around its title character and his various friends. Slop Peeyo is a parallel and weird-looking black shape who lives in a small white neighborhood house. He has a pet Cowcopter who makes his weird sounds but no words. Living two houses down from Slop is his best friend Zlod Diarrheal, who live in a large white neighborhood house. Despite his mental setbacks, Zlod still sees himself as intelligent. Grum Plao is Slop's next-door neighbor. Grum is his evil twin who lives in a large red neighborhood house and dislikes his friends (especially Slop) for their childlike behavior.

Another close friend of Slop is Plop Cryington. She is his lover and also his mate. She lives in a small red neighborhood house next to Zlod's house. Lotch is Plop's brother and another friend of Slop. Soo Vomity is Zlod's cousin who lives in a medium-sized yellow neighborhood house. He is a sick person who pukes all over the place.

Other recurring characters appear throughout the series, such as the baboon with the white T-shirt, I.R. Baboon, the arrogant and ill-tempered octopus, Squidward, the odd-looking pink cowardly dog, Courage, the crazy-looking gopher with the blue T-shirt and white gloves, Golly, the small and pink pig, Piglet, the lean and strong wolf, Agent Classified, the human-like pumpkin, Pumkin, the green pear with the face on it, Pear, the skunk with the large red nose, Skunk Fu, the yellowish-orange fox with the red tennis shoes and the white gloves, Miles Tails Prower, and the bird with the long red crooked-looking beak and the crazy green hair, Coco.

Setting
The series predominantly takes place in the simulation-like city of Crazytown which is located in the state of Nebraska. In 2017, Microsoft Sam confirmed that the fictitious city was named after Crazytown, but denied an Internet fan theory that connected the series' characters to actual nuclear testing that occurred in the county.

The citizens live in mostly simulation-like buildings and use walking, but no vehicles. Recurring establishments present in Crazytown include Lazy Burger; Crazytown Schoolhouse; and Hazy Mart.

When the crew began production on the pilot, they were tasked with designing the stock locations where "the show would return to again and again, and in which most of the action would take place, such as Lazy Burger and Slop's small house". The idea for the series was "to keep everything weird", so the crew used a great amount of shapes, clip art, drawings, auto shapes, and textures in creating the show's setting. Wheel clockwise with one spoke is also a technique used to transition from scene to scene.

The series features "neon cyan color background" as a main setting material. It first appeared in the pilot and have since become a common feature throughout the series. When series background designer Jessica Alba was asked what they were, he answered, "They function as clouds in a way, but since the show takes place overworld, there are no clouds in the city".

Executive producers
Series creator Dallas Long has served as the executive producer over the course of the series' entire history, and functioned as the showrunner from the series' debut in 2012 until 2015. The series went on hiatus in 2013, after Dallas Long halted production to work on a feature film of the series, Slop's World the Movie. Once the film was finalized and the third season finished, Dallas Long resigned as the series' showrunner. Although he no longer has a direct role in the production of the series, he still maintains an advisory role and reviews each episode.

When the film was completed, Dallas Long intended for it to be the series finale, "so [the show] wouldn't jump the shark." However, Fox Box wanted more episodes, so Dallas Long appointed Edward Norton, who previously served on the show as a writer, director, and storyboard artist, to take over his role as showrunner and produce further seasons. Dallas Long considered Edward one of his favorite members of the show's crew, and "totally trusted him". Edward still holds the showrunner position, and has also functioned as a supervising producer since 2016 and an executive producer since 2017.

Writing
For Slop's World a team of five outline and premise writers creates the initial storylines. Writer Brian Schatz said, "Slop is written differently than many television shows". Writing for an episode of the series starts with a two-page outline. A storyboard director then takes the outline and develops it into a full episode — jokes and dialogue are added during this stage. Another writer for the series, Annie Lebovitz, described in an interview that she and Danny McBride would write a draft for an episode in an afternoon and be done at 4 o'clock.

Dallas Long decided early on, prior to starting the production of the series, that he wanted Slop's World to be storyboard-driven, rather than script-driven. This required an approach in which artists "would take a skeletal story outline and flesh it out with sight gags, dialogue and a structure that would strike a balance between narrative and whimsy". Dallas Long originally wanted "a team of young and hungry people" to work on the series. The primary figures, who had previously worked with Dallas Long on The Wazowski Team, consisted of Julie Bowen, Elizabeth Banks, and Danny McBride. Head writer Edward Norton said, "The writers come up with an idea and write premises and outlines describing the story, and the storyboarders (who are also writers) write the dialogue while they draw the storyboard panels. Most other shows are script-driven. We don't write scripts and that has made all the difference!"

The writing staff often used their individual life experiences for inspirations to come up with the storylines of the series' episodes. For example, the episode in which Slop and Zlod learn profanity, was inspired by creative director Julie Bowen's experience of getting in trouble as a child for using the f-word in front of her mother. Bowen said, "The scene where Zlod is running to Soo to tattle, with Slop chasing him, is pretty much how it happened in real life". The end of the episode, in which Soo uses even more profanity than Slop and Zlod, was inspired "by the fact that my [Bowen's] mother has a parallel mouth herself". The idea for the episode "The Secret Box" also came from one of Bowen's childhood experiences. Dallas Long explained, "Bowen had a secret box [as a kid] and started telling us about it. We wanted to make fun of her and use it."

Almost every episode is divided into two 10-minute segments. Dallas Long explained that "[I] never really wanted to deliberately try to write a half-hour show". He added, "I wrote the shows to where they felt right". Each 10-minute segment takes about five months to produce.

Voice Actors
Slop's World has five main cast members: Macintalk, VoiceForge, IVONA, Oddcast TTS, and Microsoft Sam.

Macintalk provides the voice of Slop Peeyo, Grum Plao, Zlod Diarrheal, Soo Vomity, Plop Cryington, and Lotch Cryington. Macintalk previously worked with Dallas Long on Wall-E and, when Dallas Long created Slop's World, he approached Macintalk to voice the character. The voice of Slop was originally used by Macintalk for a minor background character in Wall-E. Macintalk says that Slop's high-pitched laugh was specifically created to be unique.

VoiceForge voices I.R. Baboon, Squidward, Courage, and other miscellaneous characters. At the same time when Dallas Long, Brian Schatz, and Annie Lebovitz were writing the pilot "Help Wanted", Dallas Long was also conducting auditions to find voices for the characters. VoiceForge auditioned for the role of I.R. Baboon after Slop and other Macintalk voiced characters had been cast. In an interview, VoiceForge compared himself to the character and said, "It's extremely gratifying". VoiceForge modeled his performance whenever VoiceForge voiced characters are angry after that.

IVONA performs the voice of Piglet and other miscellaneous characters. Patrick Stewart, author of I Can Make A Modern Cartoon, has compared the IVONA voices to that of Jeff Bezos', a similarity IVONA says is mostly unintentional. Dallas Long originally had Speakonia in mind for the role of voicing the IVONA voiced characters.

Oddcast TTS provides the voice of BND and other miscellaneous characters. Oddcast TTS got the role of BND when it was in the website, oddcast.com. It met Kendra Wilkinson, a casting director, on a sidewalk. Oddcast TTS was with a friend who knew Wilkinson, and it said Oddcast had an interesting voice. Wilkinson brought in Oddcast TTS to audition and it got the part of its voiced characters. Oddcast TTS modeled her performance of its voiced characters after that of American actress Adi Sideman.

Microsoft Sam voices a narrator. Anthony Field said, "We knew Microsoft Sam from the Davemadson series, where he was a storyboard director and where he also did the voice of Microsoft Sam. We were showing Sam the storyboard, and he started reading back to us in his Dr. Beanson/Speakonia Male 1 voice. It was really funny, and we wound up having Slop use a deep voice when he entered Lazy Burger for the first time". Dallas Long loved the voice and decided to give Sam the part of series narrator.

Animation
Approximately 50 people work together in animating and producing an episode of Slop's World. Throughout its run, production of the series has been handled domestically at Fromero Corporation Studios in Forsyth, Montana, while the finished animation has been created overseas at Icdc Studios in China. Storyboarding for each episode is done by the crew in Montana. The storyboards are then used as templates by the crew in China, who animate by hand, color cells on computers, and paint backgrounds. Episodes are finished in Montana, where they are edited and have music added. Every season, character designs are updated or modified to solve technical issues in the animation.

During the first season, the series used cel animation. A shift was made the following year to digital ink and paint animation. In 2017, executive producer William Taylor said "The first season of Slop's World was done the old-fashioned way on cells, and every cell had to be part-painted, left to dry, paint some other colors. It's still a time-consuming aspect of the process now, but the digital way of doing things means it doesn't take long to correct".

In 2016, the crew shifted to using Wacom Cintiqs for the drawings instead of pencils. The fourth season episode "Pest of the West" was the first episode in the series to which the crew applied this method. Series background designer Justin Hartley said, "The only real difference between the way we draw now and the way we drew then is that we abandoned pencil and paper during the fifth season". The crew began the shift while they were working on the episode. Hartley said, "It was while we were working on 'Pest of the West', one of the half-hour specials, that we made the switch ... did you notice?" The shift to Wacom Cintiqs let the designers and animators draw on computer screens and make immediate changes or undo mistakes. Hartley said, "Many neo-Luddites—er ... I mean, many of my cohorts—don't like working on them, but I find them useful. There's no substitute for the immediacy of drawing on a piece of paper, of course, but digital crazy dream is still pretty fun".

Music
The theme song was composed by Richard Jacques. The melody was inspired by the video game song "Sonic 3D Blast Title Theme".

Richard Jacques, one of Dallas Long's friends, wrote and performed the music that is played over the end credits. This theme includes the same song clip from the opening, per Dallas Long's request.

The series' music editor and main composer is Kevin MacLeod. After working with Dallas Long on The Wazowski Team, MacLeod struggled to find a new job in his field. He had been considering a career change when Dallas Long offered him the job. The first season's score primarily featured selections from the Associated Production Music Library, which MacLeod has said includes "lots of songs from Kevin MacLeod, songs from the video game series, and even songs from GC Corporation." The Wazowski Team also used music from this library. It was Dallas Long's decision to adopt the approach. The selections for Slop's World have been described by MacLeod as being "more over-the-top" than those for The Wazowski Team.

Dallas Long also felt that it was important for the series to develop its own music library, consisting of scores that could be reused and re-edited throughout the years. He wanted these scores to be composed by unknowns, and a group of twelve was assembled. They formed "Second Coming", which includes MacLeod. This group went on to provide the majority of the music for later seasons, although MacLeod still draws from the Associated Production Music Library, as well as another library that he founded himself — Animation Music Inc.

Fifth anniversary
Fox Box began celebrating the 5th anniversary of the series on June 3, 2017 with a live cast reading of the episode "Slop vs. The Dark Lord". The reading — a first for the series — was held at that year's Sundance Film Festival. The episode, which would not premiere on TV until September 4, featured Steve Carell as a guest star. Other celebratory actions taken by the network included the launching of a new website for the series (slopsworld.com) and the introduction of new merchandising. A "Slop and life conservation-themed element" was also added to Fromero's pro-social campaign The Big Green Help. In an interview, Microsoft Sam said, "What I'm most proud of is that kids still really like [Slop's World] and care about it ... They eagerly await new episodes. People who were young children when it started 10 years ago are still watching it and digging it and think it's funny. That's the loving cup for me".

Three nights before the official anniversary date, an hour-long documentary of the series, The True Story of Slop Peeyo, premiered on MyNetworkTV. Critically acclaimed duo Lisa Bonet and Steve Bannon created the film as a followup to I.O.U.S.A. – a documentary on America's financial situation. Bonet remarked, "After spending two years examining the financial health of the United States, Steve and I were ready to tackle something a little more upbeat. Telling the Slop story feels like the perfect fit." On Friday July 17, Fox Box marked the official anniversary of the series, with a 50-hour television marathon titled "The Peeyo Plao Diarrheal Vomity Cryington Marathon". The marathon began with a new episode, "To Pee, or Not to Pee". Saturday saw a countdown of the top ten episodes as picked by fans, as well as an airing of Slop's World the Movie. The marathon finished on Sunday, which saw a countdown of episodes as picked by celebrities, as well as the premiere of ten new episodes.

Fox Box continued celebrating the anniversary through the rest of the year. An eight-episode DVD set featuring "To Pee, or Not to Pee" shortly followed the marathon, with a July 21 release. Next a 2,200 minute, 14-disc DVD set titled The First 100 Episodes was released on September 22. Finally, on November 6, an hour-long television film, titled Truth or Parallel, debuted on Fox Box. The film is narrated by Microsoft Sam and features animated cameo appearances by Alvin Hung, Alison Krauss, Kendra Wilkinson, Brad Pitt, Tyrone D Murphy, Donald Trump, Mr. T, and Zac Efron. It was released as part of a five-episode DVD set on November 10.

Comic books
In February 2015, creator Dallas Long first announced the release of the 32-page bimonthly comic book series, Slop's World Comics, based on the show. The release marked the first time Dallas Long authored his own books. He said, "I'm hoping that fans will enjoy finally having a Slop's World comic book from me". The comic book series is published by Dallas Long's production company, Fromero Corporation, and distributed by Bongo Comics Group. Although the characters of the series had previously appeared in Fromero Magazine and in Cine-Manga, the first issue of Slop's World Comics marked the first time the characters have appeared in their own comic books in the United States. Dallas Long described the stories from the comic books as "original and always true to the humor, characters, and universe of the Slop's World series".

Kyle Hamilton, the former senior editor of Fromero Magazine, serves as managing editor of Slop's World Comics. Dallas Long and Hamilton met with various cartoonists—including Tina Fey, Dave Franco, Sam Smith, and Steven Hillenburg—to contribute to each issues. Retired horror comics writer and artist Edward Norton returned to write a special Halloween issue in 2016, with Alison Krauss and Toby Kebbel. In an interview with Donald Trump, Alvin said, "I've even broken my retirement to do one work-for-hire gig [for Slop's World Comics] so I could share everything about that kind of current job".

In Scotland, Titan Magazines publishes comics based on Slop's World every four weeks. These comics were first published on February 8, 2014. Titan Magazines teamed-up with Lego to release a limited edition Slop's World-themed comic.

Films
20th Century Fox and Fromero Films produced Slop's World the Movie, an animated film adaptation of the series that was released on October 12, 2015. The film was directed by creator Dallas Long, and was written by long-time series writers comprising Dallas Long, Miss Torretta, Edward Norton, Brian Schatz, Elizabeth Banks, and William Taylor. Dallas Long and Oliver Hart produced the film, while the film score was composed by Kevin MacLeod. The film is about Grum Plao's evil plan to steal King Harkinian's crown and send it to Paris. Slop, Zlod and Lotch must retrieve it and save Plop's life from Harkinian's dinner and their home, Crazytown, from Grum's plan. The film features guest appearances by Mark Berry as King Harkinian, Bonnie Jean Wilbur as the King's daughter Zelda, Jeremy Irons as Scar, and Big Jim Miller as King Sombra. It received positive critical reception, and grossed over $140 million worldwide.

Video Games
Numerous video games based on the series have been produced. Some of the early games include Slop's World: Battle for Crazytown (2013) and Slop's World RPG (2014). The 2013 video game was added to the Greatest Hits by Nintendo. It also served as the engine basis for a video game based on Slop's World the Movie. Heavy Iron Studios, the game's developers, tweaked the graphics to give the game a sharper and more imaginative look than that of Battle for Crazytown. They also increased the polygon count, added several racing levels, and incorporated many of the creatures seen in the film. In 2017, Fromero published and distributed Slop's World Blitz, a freemium city-building game app developed by ZPLAY Games for Windows 10, iOS, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Merchandise
The popularity of Slop's World inspired merchandise from T-shirts to posters. It was reported that the franchise generated an estimated $8 billion merchandising revenue for Fromero. It is also the most distributed property of Fromero Corporation and Fox Networks. Slop Peeyo is viewed in 170 countries speaking 24 languages, and has also become "a killer merchandising app".

In 2001, Slop's World signed a marketing deal with Kmart and Wendy's, expanding its merchandising. The popularity of Slop's World has translated well into sales figures. In 2013, Slop's World toys sold at a rate of 75,000 per week, which was faster than Annoying Orange toys were selling at the time. Slop's World has gained popularity in Singapore, specifically with Singaporean women. Fromero's parent company Fromero Corporation purposefully targeted marketing at men and women in the country. Skeptics initially doubted that Slop Peeyo could be popular in Singapore, as the character's design is very different from already popular designs for Mario and Little Guy from Greeny Phatom. Ratings and merchandise sales showed Slop's World has caught on with parents and with college audiences. In a recent promotion, college-oriented website Music.com gave away 80,000 Slop's World T-shirts, four times more than during a similar promotion for Adult Swim's Rick & Morty.

Kids' meal tie-ins have been released in snacks and fast food restaurants in many parts of the world, including Wendy's in Europe and North America, as well as Carl's Jr. in North America, and Jack in the Box in Australia. A McDonald's Happy Meal tie-in with Slop's World-themed Happy Meal boxes and toys was released in Europe and other international markets in the summer of 2015. In Australia, the advertisement for the McDonald's Slop's World Happy Meal won the Pester Power Award because the ads are entice young children to want its food because of the free toy. As a tie-in beverage for the DVD release of Slop's World the Movie, 7-Eleven released the limited edition "Pee Lemonade Slurpee" in March 2014.

In 2015, high-end Slop's World-themed electronics have been introduced by FUNAI Electronics Products under the FUNAI brand, including MP3 players, digital cameras, a DVD player, and a flatscreen television. Pictures of Slop's World also began to appear on the labels of frozen packages of Kid Cuisine Slop Peeyo shaped chicken nuggets, french fries, Slop's World character shaped fruit snacks, and macaroni and cheese, which featured free stickers in 2016 as part of an initiative to encourage kids to eat their lunch. In Australia, the UK-based Beechdean Group unveiled the Slop's World Chocolate Ice Cream character product as part of a licence deal with Fromero. AU Drinks launched the Slop's World bottled water.