Talking with the directors of College Humor’s “Furry Force”

by Patch O'Furr

Interview series:  Artists, animation directors, DJ’s and event organizers, superfans, and more…

Furry Force just released it’s second episode. It stars super gross furry heroes, who bring sexy justice to villains like Victor Vivisector. Here’s Rich, the talented animation director at it’s Toronto studio. (It’s written by Brian Murphy and Adam Conover, who says “This video shouldn’t even be legal”.)
victor

Patch:
How fabulous is Furrancis! How did he get abs and a collar in the womb, and what’s his super power? And all the furries want to know- can you make more?

Rich:
Hey I can comment on the animation, but anything involving the character creation/writing is for the writers at College Humor. (We contracted on it).

Patch:
Do you have any fun story from the studio about animating it? And what research did you guys do at the studio? (Hope you didn’t scar your eyeballs.)

Rich:
I found some stuff that made me squeamish for sure, as we explored the style directions on the initial Furry Force. But the creators Adam Conover and Brian Murphy very specifically wanted to riff off of Captain Planet, TMNT (’85) and those 80’s cartoons. We also used Thundercats as inspiration, and then boosted the anatomy and hair in the important areas.

The most shocking and interesting thing for me has been learning that a really good friend of mine is a secret furry, and I have many questions, all of them very typical for furries, I bet.

Patch:
Being secret furry is like being in a fight club 🙂 If you had a fursona what would it be? Did you (or fellow animators) get to know that furries are a “thing” after the job came to you, or earlier? Reddit furries are giving a super positive response. (Adam posted there about his “a non-zero amount of time involved in furry culture.”)

Is there anything you’d say to the furry world, like if they nominated you for the annual furry award for best short- the Ursa Major? Want to share anything else about you or the studio?

Rich:
I’d be a Cheetah because super speed is my bag. Don’t read into that too deeply… I’m going to stop there.

The animators and designers had heard of Furries before this project, but we didn’t know Furries as intimately as we do now. We have learned: The animal sexuality within us, makes us squeamish.

To the Furry community I say: Thanks for all the hugs, we hope to see the Furry Force at a con in the near future!

_______
Adam adds a final comment:

I’d be incredibly honored to be nominated for an Ursa Major award! The furry community knows what they want and what they like, so I’d consider that a real honor as a writer. And yes, I spent my middle- and high-school years immersed in dozens of different online subcultures, and the furry community was one of them! I didn’t stay part of the fandom, but I did enjoy my time hanging around on FurryMUCK in 1998 or so, and everything I learned there informed the script we wrote.

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