November 4, 2014

Bee and PuppyCat creator Natasha Allegri is very thoughtful about her work, has lots of energy, and a great laugh. The first season of Bee and PuppyCat, comprised of 10 six-minute episodes, will launch this Thursday, November 6, 2014 at 8 p.m. EST.

For the uninitiated, in 2012, Fred Seibert and his Frederator team did what they do best – took a chance on something they liked and greenlit the Bee and PuppyCat animated short. The 2-part, 10-minute Bee and PuppyCat short film went on to debut on Frederator’s Cartoon Hangover in July 2013 and had an immediate following.

In the fall of 2013 Frederator launched a successful Kickstarter to fund season one of Bee and PuppyCat. More than 18,000 backers pledged $872,133, making it the most-­funded animated project, most-­funded webseries project, and fourth most-­funded film/video project on Kickstarter.

Natasha sat down with the Frederator Times to talk about the series, her life and the amazingly creative staff that making Bee and PuppyCat. Is Natasha really Bee? Is her cat Pancake actually PuppyCat? Read on!

Frederator Times: Where did you get the idea for Bee and PuppyCat?

Natasha Allegri: The idea is rooted in magical girl anime, and Sailor Moon especially, down to, like, a cat falling onto the head of the main character.

But, the idea itself came from when Eric Homan, head of creative development for Frederator Studios and Cartoon Hangover, asked me to pitch. And the best part is he said that our audiences are male teens, and I remember thinking, “I don’t think I could come up for anything for that.” But if I’m going to pitch something, I might as well pitch something that I would be interested in working on for a period of time.

And that’s when one of the first things that popped into my head was a girl, mainly a girl main character because that was my favorite thing to draw, and a cat-like character because I had my own cat that I was really invested in, and I wanted to put my cat, Pancake, into as much stuff as I could. And if I was going to draw it over and over again, the best thing to draw would be a cat.



Is Pancake a girl or a boy?

She’s a girl!

Wow – look at her!! Pancake is running around going crazy.

When she hears people talking she tries to show off. Haha!

I have to say Pancake is kind of like a dog and a cat mixed into one! I’ve never seen a cat jump, dash and make like that over and over again – and be so vocal!

Yea – she’s crazy.



What is magical girl anime and what does it mean to you?

Magical girl anime to me is, like, a girl who thinks she’s ordinary gets magical powers bestowed on her, either by an animal or a trinket she finds.

Then she gets transformed into a heroine, and she uses her powers to learn how to…. It’s almost like a coming of age story because, through the magical powers, she transforms into a whole new person who’s magical, but, it’s also really interesting because it’s still her… and she’s learning all these new things from this new view point… like, to everyone else. She’s this magical girl, so she can kind of explore facets of herself freely.

So it’s a different version of her?

Yea, she’s kind of hidden. She can fight bad guys, she can do all of this stuff but it’s not her real self. It’s like a costume. So, it’s almost like she’s learning about herself through this different transformation of becoming like a stranger kind of?

I think what I’m most invested in – in magical girl anime - is this really large transition area from being like a girl to growing into an adult.

What is it about Sailor Moon that so intrigues you aside from the magical girl aspect? Is it the drawings? Is it the colors? Is it the creator?

This is going to sound horrible because this isn't the reason why most people like it, but I liked it because when I was younger, I didn't go out a lot. My dad is from a different country. Everything to me seemed really mysterious, and I didn't really completely understand it - like social etiquette, neighbors, stuff like that. I didn't know how to talk to people or why people did things?

But Sailor Moon felt like how I felt, and I didn’t realize it until later, because it was a really early anime that got brought to America, translated, and dubbed, and it felt like the people who were working on making an English version of it didn’t know what anime was? So it was really this awkward dub, things didn’t hook up? Like they would change storylines to make it more safe for American audiences. And these jokes would just like go over my head and I wouldn’t really understand it, but, it felt like the people who were showing it to me didn’t understand it either. So, there was this weird connection through that.

But, other than that I am really interested in multiple characters who have a lot of things the same, but like, two items that are special to them. So each Sailor Scout has a magical power that’s special to them, and a color that’s assigned to them, but they’re all girls, they all have something in common. And that’s something I was really interested in when I was younger- because you get to pick your favorite scout, and you get to pick your favorite element that goes with the scout!

Was Sailor Moon the first anime you ever saw?

Yes… actually I just remembered I watched super book and flying house first when I was little!!!

And is it your favorite? Top, number one?

I want to say yes, but I really love Ranma ½ by Rumiko Takahashi. I think I like that one more because the anime is really good and the books are awesome. But with Sailor Moon the books feel a lot different from the anime, so the hookup is kind of odd if you like both. But, with Ranma it’s extremely faithful to the manga, and it’s cut exactly like it’s supposed to be. Ranma is SO FUNNY.

Why is the look of the Sailor Moon anime – characters and design – so interesting to you?

I like the characters a lot, but the aesthetic, I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say I think the aesthetic is as appealing. I tried to watch The Powerpuff Girls too when I was younger but it scared me. And later I realized why was because it was supposed to be meant for girls but then The Powerpuff Girls would rip apart someone’s face and there would be blood and guts and I remember when I was younger I would be think “Why is that happening!" and Sailor Moon, you know everyone got turned into stardust, and that wasn’t as graphic and I felt a little safer.

Anime focuses a lot on the eyes, the large round shape of the eyes and, which was unique to American audiences when it started airing here, there’s a certain flatness in it and color is different? Are those aspects that you used when you were creating Bee and PuppyCat?

What I was trying to go for was honestly, the simpler anime from the ‘90s, even like children anime, where everything’s really simple. Like in Sailor Moon and all those other anime, the eyes are the main focus and they’re all prismatic and they’re really beautiful. An example would be Doraemon. It’s really flat, it’s really simple, but every line is there for a reason, and it’s only there to communicate. Which is what I wanted to get with my designs. I didn’t want to have crazy layers of shading, I didn’t want to have elongated figures unless there’s a reason for it, and there wasn’t, because the story I wanted to tell was very simple.

When you sit down with a production staff do you say "These are the colors I want, these are the designs I want – I like this, but not that.” How does that get translated?

Yea, that’s with Efrain [Efrain Farias] and Hans [Hans Tseng], they’re just an amazing duo. Efrain’s the art director, and Hans kind of does everything now. Hans was only there for background design, but he and Efrain, since they live together, they are like this amazing, I kind of want to say machine, but they are just this amazing team. They have created the look of the show completely by themselves. I don’t know if it was helpful or not, but I would pick up photos of things that I thought had a really nice color scheme, or I would find photos of places that had a nice feeling that I wanted to replicate, and they are really good at translating what I want into the show. But there are small things like, if I get a color, I say oh change that color to this, and then they tend to make work in the scheme.



Hans did the logo, right?

Yea, Hans did the logo. (See the official Bee and PuppyCat logo above).

Was it a back and forth between on the logo - or was it an “oh my gosh - you got it!”?

There was imagery from the show that they tried to put in (note: see some of the early logo work above). And the font was kind of like … there was a little back-and-forth, but eventually there was this Sonic-like logo that I really loved.

Sonic the Hedgehog?

Yea there was a circle shape with these wings, and I asked could we have something like this and that’s how that logo came from it. But it’s not the Sonic logo. Hans knows how to take something and make it feel like something else.

You hired a lot of people you already knew to work on Bee and PuppyCat. How did you decide who to hire?

Well, I knew a lot of people because I was a fan of their stuff already. Efrain came from the original short. I got to him because of my roommate who was doing backgrounds at the time, and she said Efrain’s the best person to do color! And I was like yea, OK! Hans got hired through Efrain because Efrain said, if you want really beautiful backgrounds, Hans is the one. But I was already a fan of their stuff. Hans had done manga that I read, and Efrain had these beautiful prints that I loved. Lane is a friend of mine from college, and I always loved his color schemes and he’s doing background paint, Frank [Frank Gibson] and Maddy [Maddy Flores] are the writers, and I love Frank’s comics.

Frank does a lot of work with Becky?

Yes, character designer Becky Dreistadt came to the show through Frank because he was like she’s a great designer. And Maddy, I was a fan of Maddy’s comics for the longest time. Also Cory [Cory Holmes], I like Cory’s drawings a lot too. It’s really exciting because you ask people to work on the show, or ask friends to ask them, and when they agree you’re like amazing!

So you kind of have a dream team there.

Yea! I’m really lucky, and Baths! I’ve loved Baths’ music since they used it on the American version of Skins.

Baths (aka Will Wiesenfeld) scored the short, and he did he write the song in it? The PuppyCat song?

That’s all him! Baths writes all the music. A lot of it is digital music, but his voice is in his stuff and he manipulates his voice a little bit, and it’s gorgeous.

What has been your favorite part of working on Bee and PuppyCat?

I loved writing with Maddy and Frank, because we would come in and watch YouTube videos and then Frank would eventually wrangle us into writing. And it was great working with them because together they both brought different things - Maddy is super funny and Frank is really thoughtful and could tie everything together. We got put in a room for two months and that was like the best two months I’ve ever had.

Did it happen naturally or did you decide there are certain things you want to tell about Bee’s life or PuppyCat’s life but let’s not tell them now, let’s tell them some other time.

Frank really wanted to push PuppyCat’s back story, but it was really important for me to build them as characters first before pushing forward with that story. Because I want you to like Bee. Like, all right, plot, plot, plot…but you need to have these really nice moments where you can almost sympathize with your characters, or you can see yourself in them… because if you don’t, you don’t care about this big epic story they’re living through. But other than that, Maddy was so good at writing Bee, because I feel like she brought a little bit of herself into the character which was great.

Obviously it changes as you enter other people into the process, but is Bee a lot like you, are you Bee?

No. I don’t think so, I didn’t write it that way, and I don’t see, like I try to put things that everyone goes through into her character - but I didn’t write her thinking like, “Yea this happened to me” or “Yea this is what I think about stuff.”

Bee gets fired in the original Bee and PuppyCat short. Have you ever been fired from a job?

Kind of? I think almost everyone goes through that or something kind of like that. Yea, I got fired from a few places, I got put down from a position once, and I think that was the worst. But I used to be a cook at a Thai restaurant; I got fired from that because I couldn’t lift this wok. When you cook in a Thai restaurant it’s really fast and you have this big wok and when you put a whole meal into the wok you have to turn it to evenly flip it. But I had to get this small wok that didn’t fit over the fire furnace correctly, so I would singe my knuckles and eventually they were like yea. My name just disappeared from the schedule and I was like “Oh god!”

What has changed from the Bee and PuppyCat short to the series?

The backgrounds are gorgeous now. The backgrounds are more organic and they have stories in all of the backgrounds. Which is mostly because we had more time planning. With the original background I thought – make it sparse because I don’t know what I’m doing and it needs to be done. But with these backgrounds, everything that Hans puts in is something special.

And are they brighter?

We’re using a brown line weight now, instead of a solid black, which is something I was super against in the pilot I was like “I want everything black lined out! I don’t like color line.” But I’ve learned to appreciate it now.

Why did you change Bee’s character design from the short to the series?

So, Bee’s design changed… cuz… I wanted it to. I wasn’t happy with how the animation studio interpreted the original design, so i counteracted the choices i made and hoped it would animate better… but also I redesigned it cuz i wasn’t happy with how I designed it either!! If you honestly look at them side by side, the original design is super super awkward, doesn’t have any real character to it…. the proportions are unattractive… etc etc…. Becky, Hans, and Efrain all did a really really good job at drawing her how i wanted her to look, I’m really happy with it now. I understand why people are mad, but honestly… it’s better. you gotta open your heart and look again, it’s way way way better now!! Before and after! How long did the shorts take to make?

If you just count working and not the period of time where I had a break and I didn’t want to listen to anybody, I think it took 5 months? I’m not exactly sure because there was a point where I hated the short and I didn’t want to touch it.

Did you just go work on other stuff or did you just shut down entirely?

I had another job, and this was something I was doing with Frederator. When the animatic came back, I thought this isn’t good, I don’t know what I’m doing- I think this was at the same time where that I was questioning everything I’d ever done. But luckily, Producer Kevin Kolde was pushing me forward and was like “Finish your shit!” and it got done.

You were at that moment where you were like “Oh I hate it, it’s not what I want,” and then, things got better?

It wasn’t that, because everyone did such a good job with their stuff- but it got to the point where, I tried to do my own design but at that point I had no confidence in my drawing ability. I’d push out a design and I’d be like “waaah.”

With the series now, Hans is doing a lot of the humanoid designs and Ricky’s doing the animal designs, and it’s so much better. Because I tried to do as much of the design as I could with the pilot and what came out was there’s someone better to do all the stuff that I’m not good at doing. And it is learning to let go of that.

These 10 episodes that we’ve got are going to be so much better than the short. We got some new designs, we got a bunch of negative feedback. Then I pulled up the new ones and I would put it next to the old ones and they were like What? The old ones are so bad? And I couldn’t understand why people liked it?

Is Frederator a good place for a creator to work?

Yes, I think that they trust their artists a lot, they trust their creators. At least that’s my experience. I think that the only note I’ve ever gotten is hook-up notes for continuity. Frederator has never made me change a story, or change an idea. They’re really supportive. They really trust people, which I felt, at least from working in Cartoon Network, I remember there being notes that would come back and I’d be like “Whoa! That’s a crazy note!” or “Why!?” I don’t think I’ve ever gotten anything like that.

So does anyone sit down and say “Ok lets take a look at these boards” – you need to make changes?

I mean, I love working with people. I grew up drawing fan art, so I want to make something that people like, and I’m willing to change things to make something better that someone thinks it needs, No- Eric doesn’t try to change too much, Kevin doesn’t try to change too much. The only thing they’re worried about is making something that I am proud of and I am willing to share with people, and is good. I mean I may be wrong, if the first episode goes up and no one watches it and everyone hates it I’m going to be like “Nooo! It’s all my fault.”

Well that’s not going to happen! Just use caution in reading comments that people post.

I mean I don’t love them but it’s good to know why people don’t like something.

Even when I get comments that are kind of out of left field - like when I get personal attacks, it kind of makes you think, hmmm, this is how someone views something that I said or something that I’ve done. Negative comments about Bee and PuppyCat I’ve read, sometimes I understand them, sometimes I’m like hmmmm interesting, I don’t think they’re dumb. If someone feels so strong about something that they feel like they have to tell you, it makes you stop a little bit and think about it.

So, as an artist, how do you keep your self-confidence about you?

I mean, I try to think about what this person is saying. I let it affect me, I mean don’t put up a wall and say, “They’re wrong they don’t know what they’re talking about!” It’s hard to explain, but they do make me sad for a little bit. I don’t get mad or angry. But it’s really easy to get past that. A part of it is what can I do about it? What was the worst comment I’ve got? Sometimes I get “You’ve ruined this show, you made it terrible!” And you think, well, I barely did anything. What can I do about it. And the answers usually- I can’t do anything! Maybe they don’t exactly know what they’re talking about- but even if they’re right, you can’t do anything about it. You can’t get too wrapped up in it.

Did you always draw as a kid, and when did you realize you could draw?

I’ve drawn since I watched Sailor Moon in the 3rd or 2nd grade. And I would try to make my own Sailor Scouts. I thought that I had invented some, we didn’t get later seasons, but they had Sailor Scouts for every planet. I’d say “I’m going to make Sailor Pluto!” because I didn’t know there was a Sailor Pluto? And I drew it and I was like “This is mine!” and then later it turned out it looked a lot like the actual Sailor Pluto, which is weird. I put three buns in the middle of her head and the actual one has one bun and all the hair, and I remember thinking “Oh it’s so spooky! They kind of knew!”

Do you still have that drawing?

No, I lost everything from high school on. It’s all lost.

So you started out doing mostly fan art?

Yea, I would make Sailor Scouts up because I was giving them to my friends. I would make a little packet for this Sailor Scout, staple it, and give it to them. When I make stuff, it’s always for someone. Like comics, drawings, are for people who like stuff. I guess that’s everyone. Everyone does that.

Were you a doodler? In class? Was there something in particular that you always doodled?

It was always girls, I always drew girls. I always wanted to master drawing women and girls. So that’s all I drew until college, when I had to do a still life. The first time I walked into a model drawing classroom, I didn’t know that I had missed a couple classes, and there was like a naked dude in the middle, and I was like “This is the first time I’ve seen a naked man!” and I was really horrified because I think his leg was out and then the other leg was bent ….. and I remember being like “Uhhh! I hate drawing men!” and was like horrified.

Did you take drawing classes in grade school and high school?



I took art classes because you had to. My senior year art class was the worst because every single day for like a month, two months, the teacher would play that Beatles “Yellow Submarine” video EVERY DAY! I think that’s why I volunteered to paint a mural at the school, and I couldn’t wait to leave and work on it just to escape that video.

Did you go to college specifically for art?

I went to the University of Arizona for graphic design. I wanted to do comics and the closest that they had at the time was graphic design. In your second year you submit a portfolio to be accepted into Visual Communications, which is even more like comics. But at the end the classes weren’t what I wanted or weren’t helpful? Or I was a brat, I think I was a brat and didn’t want to take these stupid classes - like … I didn’t want to paint an apple with the light on the left side and a light in the front – I thought “Ugggh I don’t want to learn this! I don’t want to learn how to paint. I want to learn more about how to make good comics.” I was a little brat in college.

At some point you’re sitting there in college and you’re posting your fan art and that kind of stuff, and how do you make your jump to Adventure Time?

I did journal comics, which were these short little comics about things that would happen in my day, and for a while Pen Ward [creator of Adventure Time and Bravest Warriors] did journal comics, and his were like what I wished mine were like. So I tried to learn his narrative, tried to simplify my drawings to be more like his. I was doing them in high school- and I would email Pen and I was like “Your comics are what I wish my comics were! Why are they always funny? Why are they always good?” And we kept in contact that way. And then at some point after he had graduated Cal Arts, he was developing Adventure Time and then he asked me to take a test during my last year in college, and I said yea!

The first test I took was a board test and it was horrible! I didn’t know we had to write and it would say something in the script like “PB and Finn have witty banter” and in my witty banter I would write in parentheses “Insert witty banter” and that was for pages, like “Insert banter, insert greeting.” I would send that in and they said “Nope.” And then I got a design test and when I look back on it, it was insane. I can’t believe they hired me based on that because it’s a terrible design test, it’s not for animation. It’s not interesting, it’s really horrible. I think later I heard that they were super desperate for someone, like anyone, and that’s how I got the job. That’s kind of like a lot of things have happened in my life. I’m literally the last person to look for, only if they’re desperate, like anyone.

I don’t believe they said “we’re desperate hire her!“ Noooo. Was Pen helpful - or did he simply just email you back?

He emailed me back, he was mostly funny. We would talk about artists we liked together. He would tell me about his day, because he was in college and I was about to go to college. And I think I remember emailing him "I don’t know where to go!" and he said "Go to Cal Arts!” But I wouldn’t have made it into Cal Arts, and at that point, my college was super desperate for art students.

So you left school, you didn’t finish and you went to California?

Yea

And was that a hard decision to make?

Um, no. Because I really wanted to make comics, and I had already turned down a few comic deals while I was in school. I had gotten a book offer and said “No, I have to focus on school” because my dad was like

“Focus!” And my grades were really poor in school, my dad said “You have to do better! You can’t do this, you have to study, you have to learn.” And I was like “I know but I’m really terrible at everything!” and I had turned down a second book deal. And then Adventure Time was the 3rd offer and it felt like it would be the last one, and I thought there is no way I can say no to this. I remember calling my dad and saying “I’m gonna drop out of school!” and he was like “Noooo! Think about what you’re doing!” And I did think for a little bit, but I was packing while I was thinking, and yea - I moved. My boyfriend, at the time, helped me move.

I remember I didn’t have a place when I got to Burbank, and I was just walking with all my stuff up and down all the streets near work, because I couldn’t drive. And I was like “Yea I could walk these streets every morning to work!" And I found this horrible studio apartment and I lived there for a few years. I knew that this was an opportunity; it was a step in the direction I wanted. It would never happen again, I’d only get to do it while I was still young and stupid and brave.

So, your dad got over you leaving school?

He got over it. It took him a really long time, I think he thought I was dealing drugs in California. I think he got over it when he visited the studio. And he met everyone. And he was like "Ok, it’s a real job she’s not lying to me!” I think the time that he finally and truly got over it was with the Bee and PuppyCat short. He read a bunch of YouTube comments and said “People like what you make! And I’m so proud of you!” I think I might still have the text, a screen grab of it.

What was your first job on Adventure Time?

Designer, I did first and second season design. I wanna say a little bit of third.

And how did Fionna and Cake come about?

Fionna and Cake happened because I did a drawing on a message board. People were gender-swapping things and I thought “Oh I’ll gender-swap you know Finn and Jake! And I’ll make them girls, I like to draw girls! And I’ll make her a cat because I have a cat.” First I drew Fionna and Garfield as Jake, and then I was like oh, I can make it an Adventure Time-looking cat instead of a Garfield. And that’s how it turned into Cake.

And they saw it and they liked it?

I posted it on my Tumblr at the time. And then Fred told Pen - you should make an episode with these drawings.

How did you go about casting Bee’s voice, and how did you choose to go with a vocaloid.

Allyn Rachel’s voice! When I wrote Bee and PuppyCat, I had Allyn in mind because she had done this really funny eBay jeans ad. And I loved her voice. I tried to model Bee’s voice after how Allyn was in this commercial. Then it took so long before boarding and voice casting, that I had completely forgotten. And we had an open voice call for Bee. And then I thought they’re all really nice, but it’s not what I want. And then I think she had a Lucky Charms ad and I was like “Aaah I can’t believe I forgot! This is who I wanted this whole time,” and her audition was perfect. The best part was that we got a voice audition from the woman who did the dog for Sailor Moon that I watched when I was little! And she auditioned. It was so hard to not pick her, because I was so biased. But I knew she was not it, it was made for Allyn! But, I do still listen to that recording and I’m like aaah… so good.

So why go with a vocaloid for PuppyCat, rather than a kid or a woman with a high voice?

It was either PuppyCat wasn’t gonna talk at all, or it was going to have a computer voice. I think at that time me and my best friend Patrick and I were obsessed with vocaloid, because they had just had a vocaloid concert and we were learning about vocaloid and trading vocaloid music videos, and then I learned oh you can buy vocaloids! And I remember thinking that if I ever had to have a voice for the cat, it’s gonna be a vocaloid. And at that point Oliver had come out- that vocaloid, which was my favorite one because it was so different from the other vocaloids.

For folks who don’t really know anything about vocaloids – how is the Oliver different from others?

A vocaloid program is like a digital instrument except you can have it say words and you can adjust it in the program to make a song. For the most part they’re Japanese made, and they speak Japanese, and they’re supposed to be idols - like each vocaloid has it’s own anime character that’s associated with it. They sell stuff with the character on it, or the music videos are photos of the character. And when they started having concerts they would project holograms and the character would like dance while it did this concert.

So for the most part Japanese vocaloids are this certain kind of girl- cute, peppy, this very specific voice. But Oliver was one of the early American speaking ones, and they stocked it with a young boys voice, so it was totally different from all the other ones. It felt more genuine than the other vocaloids and it had a really nice tone to it. And it could speak English!

You can see sometimes what PuppyCat is saying on the screen, but it there always something written that he’s actually saying. Is PuppyCat a she, he or something else?

I think PuppyCat is a he. There’s no set language, we just use gobbledygook.

They’re like little kid sounds?

Yea like baby talk!The sounds that I like are “PA, BO, and YU” like those kind of sounds because those are the cutest sounding ones

Is PuppyCat more cat, more puppy, more human, do you ever think about that?

Yea, I think I got a lot of questions when the pilot happened- “How is he a dog he looks nothing like a dog?” And I sat down and I tried to figure it out, and I think he’s maybe 70 percent cat and 30 percent dog. And the things about him that are like a dog is that when you pick him up he’s not like fluid like a cat is. He’s maybe stiff like a dog, he smells like a dog, and so that’s only 30- and the 70 he looks like a cat is. He likes to knock shit off the table like a cat, so it’s kind of uneven.

Were comic books a big thing for you growing up?

Yea!

What were your favorites?

See I had a bunch of the Rumiko Takahashi books. My sister and I would like trace her work, because Rumiko does this thing where she draws the full body in lots of single panels and I was like “Ahhhh that’s genius!” and I would trace and try to draw like her. And other than that when I was in high school I read a lot of James Kochalka (SuperF*ckers) and I wanted my journal comics to have that kind of aesthetic, lots of Kochalka, lots of Jim’s Journal, I was really into that, and I had Calvin and Hobbes, and oh! Garfield, because Garfield - the book store that my dad would take me to, they combined the manga with the comics - oh it’s the same thing - so it’d be like, manga, and then just rows and rows of Garfield and I would just read all the Garfield they had when I was done with the manga.

Is there any Garfield influence in Bee and PuppyCat?

Yea! I tried to draw the lasagna that Bee gets in the short to be like Garfield. I was like let’s try to make it as Garfield as possible. Super Garfield.

Earlier we were talking about stories and that you don’t like stories that are too gory. How do you feel about gore and violence in your work?

I like, gore, I mean I’ve grown to like - more dark stories. But too much violence is something that I try to avoid. Because I’m not too interested in it. I like simple stories I guess? I like stories that feel very human. I did journal comics for the longest time so like - really “slice-of-life” stories like that. But, violence to me, I mean now I can handle it, but when I was younger, violence to me terrified me, like if I saw flesh ripping I would be like “Nooo! Go away!”

Do you like sad stories?

Yea, sad stories are my favorite. I feel like a sad story…. I try to make everything sadder, because it feels more genuine.

Were you a video game kid?

I think I mentioned earlier I didn’t know how things worked… Video games were super mysterious to me. I think the only games I played when I was young was Bonks Adventures, Bonks Revenge and Crash Bandicoot. And I would play them like all day, and because I was focused on one thing and I would think that they were secrets that didn’t exist in the game. So I would play those, and we only had those games because my dad would take it apart at night to know how it worked. It was the only reason I had a PlayStation, because he wanted to know how things went together.

What are your current favorite video games?

Mario Cart. I don’t have a Wii U, my friend does, I’m trying to get good at the Wii one, but I love the DS one - Mario Cart 6 or 7 maybe? I was actually just playing it. I also really into Animal Crossing. I still play it everyday. I play it on my DS. I have an Xbox - but all I used to play was Guitar Hero - I still play Guitar Hero. I am still stuck in the early/mid 2000s. I’m not like a huge gamer. Right now I’m playing Goat Simulator and I’m thinking about re-activating my World of Warcraft account. I try and talk myself out of it … I’m like “ehhhh.”

Sounds like you watch a good amount of TV - did you always? What were your favorite shows when you were a kid?

My Dad wouldn’t come home until like 6 or 7, and I would come home at about 2-2:30 and I would just put it on UPN and it was just reruns of older sitcoms. I grew up watching The Golden Girls, Fraiser and I think I went through a Dharma and Greg phase. I would watch King of Queens. I didn’t really know how to talk to people. So, I kind of learned how to talk, have conversations, from these horrible sitcoms. I still kind of try to talk like that… like “ahhh there’s gotta be a punchline nowwwww” and it’s not a good one.

So, you didn’t watch cartoons on TV - like cable channels?

We didn’t have cable for a while. But, I would buy SpongeBob DVDs, and I was really into The Simpsons. There was a year in high school where I thought Family Guy was the funniest show in the world and “this is the height of comedy.” Now I realize that a lot of the jokes are mean. We got PBS so I would watch - I really too old to be really into Arthur - but I was really into Arthur. There was also this horrible math cartoon, but I would still watch it - the whole thing. Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat was a show I was into. I would also watch The Jackie Chan Adventures.

What do you watch now?

I watch Netflix and I download shows.

What do you like to watch?

I’ve gone from like sitcoms to reality shows. I watch all the Real Housewives – all the spinoffs of the Housewives – all the Bravo shows. (Ed note: in the photo above Natasha and Garrett Jackson visit Andy Cohen on the set of his show Watch What Happens Live, which airs on Bravo).

I know food is an important part of getting ready to work. What is your favorite hamburger?

Oh, a Big Mac. I know that’s a disappointing answer, but I think the Big Mac is like the perfect burger. I met someone in Detroit who used to work for McDonalds and I tried to get them to tell me how they did the onions, and what I learned is that I think the onions come freeze-dried and they have to re-hydrate the onions in a vat of water over night, and when the onions are soaking in this water that tastes like onion it makes them this perfect, diced onion flavor?

I’ve asked lots of your crew about work rituals and food – so what do you do to get ready to work and what are your foods of choice when you working?

When I worked at home, I’d put Netflix on, and it would have to be a show that wasn’t subtitles, like I didn’t have to pay attention to it I’d just focus on work. And I would chug a jug of Diet Coke, and work. It’s changed now, because now I work in the Frederator office and they have little cans of diet Coke, and I’ll just take six, and I’ll drink the little cans, and I work, I found that I work better when my friends are in my office and they’re working on their own thing, and I’ll put the Simpsons on iTunes, and we’ll work together. It feels better, because every time you feel like you’re about to not work- you’ll look at them and they’re working really hard and you’ll get kind of inspired and try to work more. But food wise, I think if I’m having a rough day, I’m working really hard, I will go get McDonalds - number one, Big Mac and large fries.

To see more about Natasha - head on over to her Bee and PuppyCat Tumblr, or this Tumblr, and Twitter - go take a look and follow her.

Thanks Nat!

Don’t forget to join us for the premiere of Bee and PuppyCat: The Series, which goes live Thursday at 8 p.m. EST, exclusively on Cartoon Hangover. But first, join us for our 24-Hour Livestream Countdown, featuring Natasha and other great guests, games, and giveaways aplenty, kicking off Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST!

Gwen, Joe, Lisa