Interview No. 4

Interview By: @The-Great-One

Today's artist is one who has captured our minds through violence and blood as well as simplistic cartoon work. His flash submission Chuck's New Tux! has won the Daily Feature award as well as the 2008 Newgrounds Tank Trophy. His other works include titles such as Irving, which has won the Daily Feature and the Weekly 5th Place awards. Chris & Harry, which has won the Daily Feature, the Weekly Users' Choice, and the Review Crew Pick awards. And as we have recently seen Saturday Morning Watchmen, which has won the Daily Feature, the Weekly Users' Choice, and the Review Crew Pick awards. This one and only artist is none other than Harry Partridge better known as @HappyHarry.

Q: Your 2nd flash submission entitled Batman Lives was a short parody of Batman. I for one found this funny and would like to know the process of creating this flash and will there be a longer parody in the future?

A: Oh man, way to dig up the past! Well I was still learning Flash at the time and had intended to make an ambitious 3 minute or so Batman tribute. I was animating as I went along and had gotten to the moment where Batsy dramatically spreads his wings creating that cool silhouette against the moon and then... then I really couldn't be bothered to continue! I don't think I'll be returning to the dark knight any time soon.

Q: Your first Daily Feature award was for the flash movie Irving. A story about a socially awkward bee. A funny flash, but where the fuck did this idea come from?

A: I had just moved away to university and I suppose I missed my friends from home. The short was dedicated to my friend Nathan "Poss" Tuffin who I share a joke with based on a drawing of a bee he once did when we were teens. To put it kindly - he's no Da Vinci, and I mused that if there was ever a creature resembling his drawing in it would be socially ostracized by the other bees and thus Irving was born - The Joseph Merrick of the insect world. An elephant bee if you will...

Q: Your next Daily Feature would be just as random as your first one. 50 Llamas Day. Is this basically a parody of office fun events or just something you decided to write?

A: Even though it was an original idea It was intended to be sold off. It was my first ever commission and the deadline was missed by a just a couple of hours due to hardware failure so I kept the rights in the end. I don't know what I was thinking with the idea for this one in hindsight, the gag is ridiculously dumb and I don't like the animation. I do like the song however, and this marks the first time I would do my own music, a trend I've continued.

Q: One flash that has given me intrigue would be "A Slice of the Action". You took the obvious and shocked everybody with something else. After viewing this I believe you implemented the same effect in your flash Chuck's New Tux!. Why did you write these flash movies this way?

A: Just to note - Nathan Tuffin actually came up with the idea of Chuck's New Tux and is credited in the animation, but both are pretty defining of my sense of humour. I guess I love anticlimaxes and antijokes, it's not that I'm setting out to gross out people, or even make them laugh necessarily (though that is a welcomed side effect), I really just want to surprise them with something crazy and I love playing on people's abilities to second guess an ending.

Q: Chris & Harry was your first time hitting the triple crown here on Newgrounds by receiving a Daily Feature, Weekly Users' Choice and Review Crew Pick all at the same time. How did it feel providing a voice for this flash movie and what's the behind the scenes look on it?

A: Let me just say that any glory that movie received should all be directed towards Chris O'Neill as all I did was lend my voice after all. Chris was already way in to production before I knew anything about it but he kept me well abreast after that. I recommended he use the music you hear at the very beginning and I originally suggested we do each other's voices (Chris as myself and myself as Chris) and then ham it up for comedic effect, he wasn't having any of it unfortunately. It was very flattering to be animated by him nonetheless.

Q: Your recent flash movie Saturday Morning Watchmen was so successful that people begged for the song so you gave them the Saturday Morning Watchmen Flash Theme, which made many users feel that nostalgic feeling from TV superheroes. What was the experience in making this flash movie and song?

A: Again, a commission! I had come up with the idea because I believed it could be a big viral hit and because I'm a huge fan of the graphic novel and kids shows from 15-25 years ago, however this time round I decided I didn't want to sell the animation and so I maintained the rights out of choice. The experience was pretty damn tiresome, I churned the thing out in about 3 weeks, song and all. I'm glad people got a kick out of it.

Q: Although you are a wacky and zany cartoonist you have a gift for making great audio submissions. One being Heroes March. Do you plan to return to the audio portal and grace us with more great music such as this?

A: Heroes March was the first piece of synthesized music I ever made and it really really shows. I uploaded it out of excitement I guess. That said, I love music and songwriting, almost as much as animation, I've made hundreds of pieces since then which I haven't uploaded and I feel I've improved a lot. You'll be getting some more by me soon including the music to a game I scored and some from an up and coming animation.

Q: What can we expect from Happy Harry Toons within the near and/or far future?

A: I'm currently working on quite an ambitious project I've talked about on in numerous news posts called 'STARBARIANS' which should be uploaded in the summer, I have another Happy Harry Toon finished which will be up before then and will possibly be collaborating on a game as well...oh and I really want to make something for Christmas this year too :)

After interviewing HappyHarry I must say that he certainly is an interesting animator. He holds the true values of the cartoonist as well as captivating many users on Newgrounds. I seem him as one who is not held up in glory. By receiving a Newgrounds Trophy I can only hope that he will get the recognition he deserves.