‘Robot Chicken’ hatches ‘Walking Dead’ spoof
Chickens clucking the doleful “Walking Dead’’ theme offer up an early hint that what’s ahead will be offbeat and funny.
“The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who’s Walking’’ (which airs Sunday at midnight Eastern time on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim) teams “Robot Chicken’’ masterminds Seth Green and Matthew Senreich with “The Walking Dead’’ creator Robert Kirkman and showrunner Scott M. Gimple along with “Walking Dead’’ stars voicing action-figure versions of their characters that, in classic “Robot Chicken’’ fashion, spoof the AMC zombie thriller.
“It’s a massive collaboration by AMC and (Adult Swim parent) Turner that typically isn’t possible,’’ Green said during a conversation alongside Senreich earlier this week. “It’s awesome they let us do it.’’
Green: “I walked out of the writers room for less than five minutes and when I walked back in they go, ‘We’ve got it!’ The idea was: a retrospective look at everything the ‘Walking Dead’ characters had been through. It’s set well into the future, after the walker apocalypse has been cured, and we’re reflecting on the mythology about that era, with some of the mythology pretty garbled.’’
Senreich: “Then we got to play with all the actors from the show!’’
Green: “I don’t know that this has ever been done, where you have the entire cast of an ongoing successful drama series
playing a comedic version of their characters in a parody of that show.’’
Carl, the eyepatch-wearing teenage son of series hero Rick Grimes but now an old man, serves as a narrator of sorts, with Chandler Riggs, who plays Carl, also voicing him in that elderly state.
Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick, recorded his lines over a Skype hookup.
Senreich: “You saw the joy he had in doing this: He would do a take and then say, ‘Hold on,’ and he’d give us another version, and then go, ‘I’ve got another idea, hold on!’’’
Michael Rooker, who played the racist roughneck Merle, reveals a lovely singing voice as Merle, chained to a rooftop, serenading a zombie lass.
And the villainous Negan (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is on hand, barbed-wire bat in hand, as his action-figure Doppelganger, performing a song-and-dance number.