Rich Moore

Rich Moore is perhaps most famous for his work on The Simpsons. He has worked as a director on many of 20th Century Fox's best animated shows including Futurama and The Critic. He has also directed many new cartoons featuring the classic Loony Toons characters. In addition to acting, he has done voice-over work, writing, and storyboarding. Rich is also Sr. Vice president of Creative Affairs at Rough Draft Studios.

<!--**If anybody wants to use this somehow, here you go. Summary for those with ADD: History of Rich, History of Futurama, Bender's Game talk, ** My involvement with Futurama, it started... god, it was about 10 years ago. I've known Matt Groening since the beginning of the Simpsons. I was a director on the Simpsons from season one through five. That's how I met Matt and we both enjoyed working with each other... or I say, I enjoyed working with Matt, I don't want to speak for him. Maybe he hates me, I don't know. But back in 1998, well, way back, like in season two of the Simpsons Matt and I had spoken about this idea he had. About a new show which was going to be a science fiction show, kind of what that Simpsons were to say like the Flintstones, this new show would be like, his take on the Jetsons. We talked a little bit about it and I was real excited about it back then and it just kind of went away because we were so busy on the Simpsons and then in 1998 he called me again and he talked about this idea and he wanted me to come back and I talked with him and David Cohen about it and the show turned out to be Futurama. I just started working at Rough Draft, which is owned and presided over by a friend of mine from Cal Arts, where I went to college, his name is Greg Vanzo, he started this studio and I came on board after the Critic and we were trying to establish this business and Matt had heard we opened a studio and he... me and Greg over to talk with him and David Cohen and I was very excited about it because I had always wanted to work on a science fiction genre based animated show and here it was right in front of me and it was also a comedy, so... Long story short, we ended up producing the show and I was the supervising director on the three seasons that was on the air. But I think I... or was it four? Uh... Yeah, technically...  I always forget, was it three that got stretched out to four or four that got stretched out to five? I think it was four that got stretched out to five, but they didn't all air on... I'm getting old, so... son of a bitch. The memory goes and then... all I can remember these days... the short term memory's gone, but the long term memory is all Star Wars. No I'm kidding, but, so... Yeah, we did four that got stretched into five seasons of Futurama. Great experience. It was great for the studio, it really established us. There were huge challenges in Futurama that I feel like we really pulled off. You know, huge, kinda, nuts to crack or whatever you want to use, your own analogy. You're speaking technically, I assume right? Technically, you know it just "What's it gonna look like?" You know. How can we do something that's funny, that's telling the jokes, that the characters are getting across and, but also satisfies a sci-fi fan, if you know what I mean. That they don't watch it and feel cheated out of it. "Well, this looks like crappy..." You know bad space ship animation. Above all, it needed to be funny and I think we kind of had the ground covered in that department as long as I just kept focus on "Okay, the things I learned in the Simpsons, just stick with that." and so the new problem to be solved was how to keep it lush and satisfying for people that really love science fiction and technically combining... now you see it so much, you know, combining 2D and CG animation, but at that time is was still a problem to be resolved and I think the result was really fantastic. It looks like Matt's style, the characters weren't standing in front of a "highly rendered CG space ship," they looked like they belong in the same world. So I consider that a really... it was a big success. So now, here we are today and it was cancelled, Futurama. After 2001? Was it 2001? And I think everyone from Matt to David Cohen to myself lot of the writers a lot of the animating directors at Rough Draft felt there was no closure on Futurama. To me it was like the show and the characters were very alive in my head and I can only say... or think that that feeling was being felt by a lot of the other principals on this show and I would say executives at Fox, people that make those kinds of decisions and they wanted to give it another try. So what was your involvement in Bender's Game, the film that's coming up in November? Again, a supervisor-y position, looking at story boards, giving some notes to the director, who is Dwayne Carey Hill on that one. Looking at animatics, just trying to help it feel like Futurama, trying to keep it rooted in what we started back in '98. Just being true, keeping it true to it's origins and what it was, but also trying to take it into a bigger arena, like a feature film arena without compromising on the quality. You know, because we had to make these on a TV episode schedule and budget. I was going to ask you, are there any difficulties associated with making the feature length films that you didn't experience for the television series? No, it's pretty much the same, but I guess when you think "Oh, it's going to be a movie," you want it to feel like a movie. You can't just say "Oh, it's just on TV." Not that I do that or anyone does that, but there is, if you have the two that compare against, "oh, it's a TV show, that's a movie," then it's like "Well this is a movie. It's gotta be better than we did for television. It's a movie!" I was wondering, is there anything you can tell us about Bender's Game, plot-wise or any special guests or returning characters that you can tell us about from that before it's released? Well, I'll say that... I'm a huge Dungeons & Dragons fan. I grew up playing D&D as a teenager and many, many, many hours in friends' living rooms and dining rooms, being a dungeon master... 'cause I'm good at D&D. I've told people that I work with, you know, I think that I learned more about directing and animation from being a dungeon master, DM means D&D game... than I did from Cal Arts. It's the same thing, it's like telling a story. Well basically, what I'm trying to say is that this episode is about D&D. About fantasy role playing games. So if you like role playing games, I think you're really going to like this episode because it really... there's very inside things from people who really know that genre, they will really love it. If you're a fan of sexy cyclops centauruses, you will be very happy. So if that's the thing you like, you'll love this movie. So this particular movie means something to be on that level. There was definitely a place I goto that really I love for that type of thing. And that's what, but also what I think is great about Futurama, not for me personally, it's not just space ships, it's not just explosions, but it's fantasy, but it really kind of runs the line from... as much as I like space ships and explosions, it also dips into the D&D world too. That's like a perfect fantasy project for me, that's the kind of stuff I love. So you directed Bender's Big Score, yes? No, that was, um... I was unable to... Oh, I'm sorry, you executive produced. Yes. Whatever they wanna call it, yeah. I, but, yeah. Overseeing, notes, that type of thing. What have you thought to the fan response to the Futurama movies so far? And I was wondering if there's anything you can say about the sales. Well, the sales I think were very good for the first one. I'm not quite caught up on what's going on right now with the new one. For me, I consider it a success. If it's just what I think is good about it translates to the fans, like you said. If the things that I love about it, if the fans are responding to also, then I think I did my job well. I did it... through animation, through story telling, ***second half incomplete*** -->