The Unusual Universe of Morphers/Transcript

## Part 1: The Universe of Morphers

*[2017 in Morphers font pops up, the 0 gets replaced with a Morpher eyeball that looks around. The banner “New LEGO, 1001 Spears, and Adult Swim property” surrounds it.]*

**Narrator:** In 2017, a new LEGO theme arrived on the block. But it was more than just a LEGO toy, it was the result of a partnership with 1001 Spears and Adult Swim.

*[Cut to a LEGO Creator designer marching through a hallway with Morphers on the shelf next to him.]*

**Narrator:** It was also an animated series from 1001 Spears, on Adult Swim.

*[Cut to a designer making a CGI model of Kueffner, moving an arm around. Cut to designers sketching.]*

**Narrator:** Let me clarify. After working together to make the next family of Morphers, builders at the LEGO Group in Denmark, *(Morph splash to cut to a storyboard meeting of the show)* and bringing the Morphers to life is what occupies the 1001 Spears team helping Adult Swim in Atlanta, Georgia. *(Cut to Lexi Cosgrove outlining the static art for the doctor Morphers. Then cut to another artist sketching an academy hall.)* But wait, you might ask, what are Morphers?

*[Fade to black. The Morphers logo spirals onscreen before stopping. The title “Part 1: The Universe of Morphers” forms. Cut to Billie Hamer.]*

**Billie:** Morphers is an extremely basic concept of entertaining, wacky, colored characters. *(Cut to parts of the original intro.)* They eat, breathe, live, sometimes poop creativity. They feel the need to morph stuff together.

**Tyler Heenan:** *(Begins to talk before the camera cuts to him)* The Morphers have unique characteristics, superpower, and qualities. Basically, some are flame-based, some are ice-based, some use goo, and they have these special superpowers they can use with one another.

*[Cut to a stop-motion of Fletcher's set being built.]*

**Hal Reichel:** *(Begins to talk before the camera cuts to him)* You take the Morphers, you crumble them to pieces, and you morph them to make new characters.

*[Cut to a Gletcher and Fletcher Morph made using their Minifigures.]*

**Tyler:** So you can morph a booger Morpher with a bonfire Morpher and make a new sort of character.

*[Cut to Trevor Frederich with a graphic design board that has a concept drawing of Paladio by him.]*

**Trevor:** They’re just a bunch of insane characters who kind of go together.

*[Cut to a scene from Ultimate Humor Quest.]*

**Florence/Tess Morph:** Let the Morphing start!

*[The Morph throws a sizable handful of Morphers Wheels at the audience. Chuck catches a Frost/F. Ganesh wheel, Kristian an Ingrid/Christian one, and Sid a Frost/Ingrid one. The camera pans to Zoe grabbing an Ingrid/Ernest one, Ted a Frost/Fleming one, and Vincent a Christian/Ernest one.]*

**Zoe, Kristian, Vincent, Sid, Chuck and Ted (inconsistently):** Morph! Morph! Morph!

*[The Morphers Morph while many Morph splashes appear. Pan up to the sky, a huge robotic cloud hovering from propellers zooms in. Cut back to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** The Morphers belong to families, so they either are in a fire family, like the Ingrids, or a snot society like the Glenward Cortez.

*[Cut to the Meet Glender scene from Calling All Morphers. Cut back to Billie.]*

**Billie:** They have to face off against these invaders called Norphers.

*[Cut to a scene from Another Norpher.]*

**Norpher 3:** Norph. *(Salutes.)*

**Norpher 2:** Norph. (*Salutes.)*

**Norph 1:** Norph! *(Hits Norpher 2 while doing a salute.)*

**Major Nixel:** *(Uses a pole with a pointing hand to point at a chalkboard with a poorly-drawn Zak, Sebastian, and Morpher Wheel on it.)* If we are going to get serious about preventing the Morphers from Morphing, we have to start by shattering all of their Morpher Wheels!

*[Cut to the scene of the Morphers getting Norphed in Ultimate Humor Quest.]*

**Billie:** The Norphers, they shun originality and inventiveness. The Norphers hate the Morphers more than you could imagine, but it’s an enjoyable universe of morphing. You can make them friends, if you wish to.

*[Cut to a scene from Changing a Light.]*

**Vincent:** When the hell will WE ever need to know that!?

*[The lightbulb shatters. Cut to a different storyboard session. Cut to Hop Indiana.]*

**Hop:** Time and again they come out with another family of the minifigures. *(Cut to the camera panning across the LEGO Morpher sets.)* When they do, we build them into the cartoon.

*[Cut to Lexi designing the concept art of Paladio. Cut back to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** Morphers is all about creativity, it’s about these heroes who can essentially pop together and rebuild and remix into new characters. *(Cut to a boy sitting at a table building Chilo's set.)* LEGO is about being inventive, but this is such an amazing experience, it's about reconstructing, it’s about children making their personal ideas while they play.

*[Fade to black. The Morphers logo twirls in again and gets topped with the chapter's title again. Zoom out of the logo.]*

## Part 2: The History of Morphers

*[Iris into a girl playing with a Snow Minifigure and building Krock's set.]*

**Narrator:** So Morphers are the excited, customizable superheroes from The LEGO Group.

*[Cut to the Party Time cutscene from Calling All Morphers.]*

**Narrator:** But they are also an animated show on Adult Swim. Just when you thought it couldn't get any more lit! But how did this cartoon happen? Whose idea was it to make these silly toy characters in the first place?

*[Cut to shots of the LEGO studio.]*

**Narrator:** As with almost all the LEGO Group's new ideas, their super-secretive product design team in Billund, Denmark, made many concepts. This laboratory is so confidential that remarkably few LEGO employees are even let in.

*[Fade to black.* *The Morphers logo spins into the frame. The title "Part 2: The History of Morphers" forms. The title explodes as a transition. Cut back to the LEGO workshop.]*

**Narrator:** This group is known as Concept Lab and that is where the idea "New-Per Heroes" started. These figures hooked the Adult Swim creatives.

*[Cut to a modified scene from Hamanossi Conveyor Belt Craziness. The words "Concept Lab" rise on the wall of the facility. The Hamanossi dispenser has the word "Confidential" on it. The dispenser discharges and cuts to the LEGO Website's 3D animation of Gowin. Cut to Andrew.]*

**Tyler:** The Concept Lab is a LEGO subdivision that deals with potential play experiences that LEGO could offer in the future.

*[Cut to a desk. Someone places many New-Per Heroes on the desk.]*

**Tyler:** This was when we called them "New-Per Heroes". The sets were somewhat smaller-scale than they are now but the figures had these extremely superhero-like designs, hence the name "New-Per Heroes."

*[Cut to Hal, then cut to many shots of the LEGO studio.]*

**Hal:** I mean, it is a genuine friendship. Because when they began it, I know that Michael Ouweleen and some of the executives strolled through LEGO and they were like, you know, it is like being in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with them showing off the latest designs.

*[Cut to Billie.]*

**Camilla:** People from Atlanta rarely come to Denmark, but we want to show them cool things when they do.

*[Cut to the Morph from Fruit-Nut flying. The words “Billund, Denmark” appear in the background. Cut to Michael Ouweleen. Many scenes from the LEGO studio appear at random points when he talks.]*

**Michael:** So we got on an airplane, flew to Denmark, and we offered the concept of working on a project mutually. They showed us their developing toy lines and stuff that was in different stages of becoming product concepts and there was one group that came in with a dozen LEGO guys.

*[Cut to Hal. Cut to many shots of the LEGO studio, including the McPhees getting built.]*

**Hal:** "Well, what the sam heck do you do with these guys?" and they said, "oh, you know, you take the Morphers, you crumble them to pieces, and you morph them to make new characters." And then one of the other executives said "Well, Morphers! Name them Morphers!" And that is where the concept began.

*[Cut to a Morph splash. Cut back to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** It is great working with Adult Swim. It's probably because we co-created this between us, it is a novel connection. But we have conferences most weeks, lots of emails going back and forth. We go and visit Adult Swim a handful of times every year, too.

*[Cut to Hal.]*

**Hal:** They ask us what we would love to see and why.

*[Cut to a scene of Ultimate Humor Quest.]*

**Krish:** What will we do? WHAT WILL WE DO-O-O-O?!

*[Cut to Hal holding Krish's Minifigure. Cut to many shots of storyboard meetings throughout.]*

**Hal:** They will take a dude, like this, and they will show us a crude LEGO version of it, and then we will say "Aw, that is awesome!" and then study the character, give them a name, come up with a concept like "Alright, who is this chap, what could they be?" and we connect characteristics to each of them. We send that to LEGO, they are like "Aw, they're perfect!", so then we take it to the next level and begin penning our episodes.

*[Fade out to black. Cut to a scene from Changing a Light.]*

**Tess:** How about you calm down, grow a pair, and look for a light bulb?

## Part 3 - The Toy Design of Morphers

*[Cut through many shots of the Adult Swim Studio.]*

**Narrator:** The universe of Morphers is very astounding. Before we learn about the animated side of Morphers, let us take a deep look into the creation in Denmark. *(Morph splash to shots of the LEGO Company.)* How does one design a Morphers set? And, do people get a salary for playing with LEGO building blocks daily? Now we will go behind the curtain at the LEGO Group offices in Billund, Denmark, to learn about the team that has probably the most awesome occupation on the planet.

*[Iris out to black. The Morphers logo spins into the frame. The title “Part 3: The Toy Design of Morphers” forms. Cut back to the LEGO Company, where designers build Morphers sets.]*

**Narrator:** LEGO and Adult Swim have different phases when creating these builds: a concept phase where they develop whole ranges of families. They make giant ranges, so they have tons to pick from. Then, they pick the most powerful one that has the most potential in their eyes.

*[Cut to a scene from Morpher Moon Madness.]*

**Nikolai:** Bogus!

*[Cut to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** Once we're done with that, we then begin to make sets of some sort. There is a giant team of builders here who just make a ton of different characters and builds. We then the structural durability of these models and we test them with tons of children across the Earth to see if they can tell what they are and whether they love them and think they are worth playing with. Then we get access to several pieces extremely easily, so we can build a super speedy concept model within a matter of minutes.

*[Cut to a scene from Morpher Moon Madness.]*

**Bernard:** Heh heh, that is messed up.

**Melvin:** Seriously.

*[Cut back to the LEGO Company. Kueffner is having his set built in a 3D program.]*

**Tyler:** And then we put the sets in our digital designer that we use. We do this to check things such as the cost and what type of pieces we use or color change if we use any new bricks. But we also use the PC program as a way for us to share that precise set with others in the department. There are dudes that are not using the models in real-life like we are, so there is building instructions and other departments that can have effortless access to this model when it is in the digital form. We need to make sure that a ten-year old child can put these bricks together and make a Morphers set. So that is where Building Instructions Art Department saves the day.

*[Cut to Kueffner’s side-build being constructed on the desktop screen. Cut to Jenna-Calli Dozier.]*

**Jenna-Calli:** I'll break the model into pieces; try to find out a great way to begin a plate that is painless to build on. Then I'll create an image of these steps on another designer.

*[Cut back to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** And we work close together with them. Going pretty much step-by-step to work out what is the best way for that young tween to put together this Morpher's side-build.

*[Cut to scene from Morpher Moon Madness.]*

**Nikolai:** Impressive, good sir!

*[Cut to Hal.]*

**Hal:** Their dev team immediately comes up with the cleverest—it is just fantastic, quite frankly. Their developers are just astounding.

*[Cut back to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** People want to marry the models they develop. It is like being a child yourself to some degree. It is a job that is nigh-always the highlight of my day, which I think is something absolutely extraordinary to have.

*[Fade out to black.]*

## Part 4 - The Animation of Morphers

*[Iris into shots of the LEGO Company.]*

**Narrator:** After the gang at LEGO designs the new families of Morphers, they send them over to Burbank, California *(Morph splash cut to scenes of Cartoon Network Studios.)*, where the guys, gals, and non-binary pals at Adult Swim do their wizardry. From character development to background design, to storyboarding. These are just some of the roadblocks Adult Swim has to tackle when making the animated universe of Morphers.

*[Cut to a scene from Lift. The scene runs through the next narration.]*

**Morphers:** Happy Birthday to Baylee!

**Narrator:** Let us hear from these cool cartoonists about how animation works.

*[Fade out to black. The Morphers logo spirals on-screen. The title “Part 4: The Animation of Morphers” forms. Cut to Michael.]*

**Michael:** Unlike almost every TV studio, 1001 Spears had Morphers get driven by artists and not writers in the early phases.

*[Cut to Morpher Moon Madness intro, Michael still narrates.]*

**Michael:** 1001 Spears has about a dozen different productions they are working on and Brendan never begins with a script. The artists are conceiving visual stories, their storyboards, they draw out the movement and fighting and graphically tell the stories, the writing team comes in after that.

*[Cut to Hal.]*

**Hal:** Each special we write a story that includes all nine dudes.

*[Cut to Hop.]*

**Hop:** We take our four to five-page outline, write in gags, we fill it out, like in this one, it is children in a Morpher classroom. So we make the headmaster and the tutors and the kind of crap, the bourgeois that happens that we hope tweens can relate to.

*[Cut to a Morpher Moon Madness scene, the talking goes on in the background during narration. Cut to Michael.]*

**Trevor:** Some scenes you have to extend. Like if there is a battle it is way more than just a stab to the head, you know the idea, you have to work all of it out, you know, make it work together seamlessly. On this one, I have bugaboos hunting all over the place, Horizon Zero Dawn inspired me with the mech dinosaurs.

*[Cut to Hal.]*

**Hal:** Lexi Cosgrove is our character creator and she is unbelievable. She has a great eye for sort of making *(Holds up Krish's Minifigure.)* this super strange-looking blocky, little man, into an attractive character that still does not look exactly like he is just copying the Minifig.

*[Cut to Lexi.]*

**Lexi:** The storyboards begin with, you know, depicting the story visually, with petite portions of talk and pictures that they tack up, almost like World War II with all the pin-ups. And then if something pops up where they are going “Hey, we need to know what this person looks like” or “We need a riff on how this setting would look”. Then Drake and I get entangled in it and we begin to band with the storyboard fellows on what would, like, be the S-tier design for a dude in a specific scene.

*[Cut to Drake Rogers.]*

**Drake:** So I work with the character creator, prop maker, other background developers, layout pimps, to make certain that we have one consistent look for the series.

*[Fade out to a black screen, many rainbow Morphers Wheels pop on the screen and then pop out.]*

## Part 5 - The Voice of Morphers

*[Play through a scene of Ultimate Humor Quest while the narrator talks.]*

**Narrator:** Tunes and sound effects are beyond critical, too. Take an ear to all the zip and zap that makes each episode so exhilarating.

*[Florence and Tess leap up and seize the Morpher Wheel. Balloons come out of the Morpher Wheel and explode into the Morph splash. The narrator continues.]*

**Narrator:** Making the Morphers’ universe is not just about the animation. So much goes into making a Morphers episode. Each Morpher has a name, a nature, and a distinctive voice.

*[Cut to Lucas Grabeel working in the recording studio. A clip from Mission for the Lost Morphzmo is on the wall.]*

**Narrator:** This is the recording studio where people make all the wacky Morphers' voices. Shall we take a closer look?

*[Iris out to black. The Morphers logo spirals into the frame. The title “Part 5: The Voice of Morphers” forms. Cut back to the recording studio.]*

**Hal:** *(Offscreen, then cut to him in the booth.)* Uh, could you try that a lot more shocked with “the key”? “The key!” Like, what is happening here is, it is a pursuit for it. Everyone has been like, going for the baton. This is our fifth take.

*[Cut back to Grabeel.]*

**Guri:** *(Voice recording archive.)* –Blue Ragazzo with the key?

**Grabeel:** *(In Snow's voice.)* Yahhoodleleedoo! Hididdleleedoo!

*[Cut back to Hal writing notes on the script.]*

**Hal:** That was beyond decent. We should just do one more. Let us watch it over with that last take.

*[Cut to Michael.]*

**Michael:** We knew we needed to get involved with LEGO in a comedy. We had been in business with LEGO on their Venturian Battle theme, both 1001 Spears and us at Adult Swim, and we desired the chance to make something that would be a new universe, with new people, something funny.

*[Cut to Hal.]*

**Hal:** I just feel there is so much potential and vigor in it. I have not seen a LEGO figure more imaginative-looking than these.

*[Cut to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** Well, the major thing for year three, of course, is that we are going into a metropolis.

*[Cut to Billie.]*

**Billie:** It is gonna be something awesome, it is an untried place. It is somewhere called “Morphemburg”, so the Morphers are joining a city setting, and almost anything could occur.

*[Cut to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** A freight of brand new families, frankly really fun families, in fact. And tons of brand new enjoyable, fascinating tales.

*[Cut to a scene from Ernest Stoners.]*

**Sheldon:** I am greatest.

*[Cut back to Tyler.]*

**Tyler:** Going into a municipal setting has authorized us to explore the universe of Morphers wide open. So the number of families and the variety and differentiation is giant now. I think the possibilities for this city to come to life are enormous.

*[Cut to the Morphers Intro playing. Hop talks over it, and then cut to him.]*

**Hop:** So, a half-hour-minute-long piece requires a change in the characters, so the viewers can connect to them. We need a crisis, a problem, a metamorphosis, and a resolution in the central characters. So we take aches to make sure all of those are in the product. The audience gets invested in the character that way moreso than any other, I think.

*[Morph splash cut to Hal.]*

**Hal:** We love the randomness of what the team envisions.

*[Cut to Drake.]*

**Drake:** It just so happens that we are a very great group when we unite!

*[Cut through many shots of the LEGO Group and Adult Swim headquarters. The screen goes to black and the “Le Fin” title from Norphers appears. A Norpher dashes in and destroys the logo by firing a twelve-foot double-edged flaming Lightsaber sawblade at it with a recoilless rifle, spraying red blood everywhere and getting reduced to a metal skeleton with organs before running around, regenerating his "skin shell", and falling on his face.]*