Billy and Mandy in Trepanation of the Skull and You (found prototype short of "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy" Cartoon Network animated series; 1995)

From The Lost Media Wiki
Revision as of 19:36, 1 May 2016 by Bman78 (talk | contribs) (just did an update on the article)
Jump to: navigation, search
OriginalCel 1996.jpg

An unlockable still test from the original pilot found in the 2006 The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy video game.

Status: Found


In 1996, while Maxwell Atoms was still in college, he created a short animated film titled Billy and Mandy in Trepanation of the Skull and You. This short would go on to form the basis of Atoms' hit Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. The character designs differ quite a bit from the end result. In the original pilot, Billy appears lankier and with a small nose than his final design while Mandy has pigtails, a nose (which she loses in the series), and a black jumper with overalls.

The plot involves Billy wanting to release his inner demons and doing so by drilling a hole into his head. Atoms described it as being "completely inappropriate for Cartoon Network," but felt that the characters were too fun to use only once, which led to the development of the series. In need of a straight-man character, it was eventually decided to add the Grim Reaper as the third protagonist.

In Atoms' 2013 RebelTaxi interview with Pan-Pizza (of thatfellowinthecoat.com and partner of Channel Frederator), he mentions the short in some detail, revealing that he has it stored away on film, even suggesting that he should have it digitally transferred "at some point".


Edit March 15 2016

on RebelTaxis's Podcast It was announced Maxwell Atoms recently found the old short and will be Showing it at the Troma Animation Festival on April 30th at the Lucky !3 Saloon in Brooklyn. So it should be out soon.

Edit April 30th 2016

At TROMAnimation Festival The short was shown and recorded. So far bootleg Recordings are currently on youtube, Here is the highest quality as of writing this.

Edit May 1st 2016

On May 1, 2016, a day after the short premiered at the TROMAnimation Film Fesitval, Maxwell Atoms uploaded the short to his YouTube channel in High Quality.

Gallery

RebelTaxi interview with Maxwell Atoms.

A video of the short from TROMAnimation Festival, taken directly from the live stream archive

Billy and Mandy in Trepanation of the Skull and You, uploaded by Maxwell Atoms in High Quality!