This year to celebrate First Contact Day, Simon and Josh sit down to chat with the Trekkies of Mukpuddy. 2:08 ~ Dane and Lannie talk about 'Next Generation' and imagining a future beyond consumerism. 39:19 ~ Ethan talks about 'Voyagers' highs and lows. 1:11:05 ~ Nix shares their unusual 'Next Generation' rarepair and we chat about our favourite cou…

Simon and Josh have been busy this year but they're never to busy for a quick catchup to discuss all the great TV and movies they've been enjoying, such as the new Mr and Mrs. Smith series, Academy-Award winning oddball Frankenstein flick 'Poor Things', Nathan Fielder's 'The Curse', divisive darling 'Saltburn' and the middling return-to-romcom 'Any…

Nix is an animator at Mukpuddy and a multi-discipline artist. Nix chats with us about when animating clicked for them, mixing the macabre and the cartoony in their work, overcoming irony and embracing cringe and their many, many hobbies which includes but is not limited to painting, astronomy, fur-suiting and niche music genres.Follow Nix on their …

Teahi Maiau is a character and effects animator at Mukpuddy, as well as comics artist behind the webcomic 'Dawn Chorus'' and in her spare time customizes dolls and creates cosplay! We chat with Tea about growing up in Tahiti, changing studies from graphic design to animation, moving countries with her partner and the demands of producing a webcomic…

We start the new year with an interview from last year with Background artist Zoe Roberts about working regular jobs while persuing a career in the arts, their love of digital painting, their beloved pet Plum the cat, watching The Wire for the first time and Simon and Josh piece together their vague recollections of one of Zoe’s favourite franchise…

2023, we hardly knew ye! Tim Evans chats with us about the projects Mukpuddy has taken on this year and the expanding crew before Josh and Simon bring this podcasting year to a close with reflections on the great guests we've spoken to and with Bryn safely hospitalised, there's almost zero chance of a painful, punchy, Christmas segment. Follow Josh…

Josh and Simon are finally together again to recap Josh's visit to the United Kingdom, Europe and most importantly, Disneyland. Follow Josh @joshuamartian_art on Instagram and @joshuamartian on Twitter Follow Simon (Crane) @sickyfondue on Instagram and Twitter Follow Sisko the Dog @mr.siskodog on Instagram Follow Mukpuddy Animation @Mukpuddy on Ins…

Josh and Bryn surprise Simon with a surprise interview about his creative journey that lead him the charmingly named Stabville, Ireland to Mukpuddy studios, New Zealand. We dive deep into Simon's varied artistic and professional turns as a poster child for beans, radio performer, make-up effects amateur , hotel night porter, ceramics student and so…

Just a quick word from across the pond to let you know what’s happening with the MukPod.

Stacey Has worn many hats over his extensive career in animation, from directing, animation supervising and rigging to name just a few. In this episode Stacey joins Josh and Simon to chat about how he got his start in the industry and some of the many shows he has worked on. We also talk about his traveling and working abroad leading teams in China…

Today we welcome three new faces at Mukpuddy; Storyboard artist Del Hahn, supervising producer Polly Fryer and production coordinator Daisy L! We chat with each of them about their new roles at the studio and what lead them here. All three have joined the crew for Mukpuddy's new series 'Badjelly'. Follow Del on Instagram @delartstuffs and visit the…

Kale De Wild is a rigger and prop artist at Mukpuddy, Genue was recently hired on as a character designer and they create comics and illustrations, together and independently. It takes us 3 minutes to bring up Star Trek which segues into a game show which allow us to discuss the phenomenon of fandom and tropes both bizarre and problematic. We also …

Josh Nelson is background artist at Mukpuddy, art director at Auckland Zinefest and freelance illustrator. We chat with Josh about jumping into the background department with no experience, volunteering as a social activity, sharing a name with someone you work with and the challenges of being a fan of the sketch show 'I Think You Should Leave with…

Robert Hartley is a professional Dungeon-master, Game-master, Streamer, Actor and Mathematician. Rob chats with Simon and Josh about Dungeons and Dragons and the world of Tabletop Roleplaying Games at large, plus comparing our respective crazy nicknames, studying mathematics on the road to becoming a professional Game-master and we talk about our f…

Simon and Josh chat with the creative leads behind Mukpuddy's new original kid-friendly horror-comedy series 'Night Eyes' Ryan Cooper (Writer, Creator, Voice Artist) chats about the inception of the series, finding inspiration in bad ghost-documentary shows and colourful '80s horror, the fun of casting local comedians as the Night Eyes crew. Alex L…

This episode we're having a special chat about 'Project Nought', a new young-adult sci-fi graphic novel written and illustrated by Mukpuddy's own Chelsey Furedi. We chat with Chelsey and Matt Haworth about the story origins as a web-comic, the benefits and burdens of working with a publisher and go-through the book's design and narrative, discussin…

Compositor, Author and Futurist Aleks Sakowski joins us again to chat about the hot topic in artistic communities: Artificial Intelligence. We discuss what the term AI even refers to (turns out, quite a few different things), the speed with which this technology is progressing and how it will affect artists and other industries for good or ill. Che…

Andrew Kepple is an Animator at Mukpuddy with a prolific catalogue of independent work under his handle 'TooMuchSpareTime' Andrew joins us to chat about how not being allowed to watch cartoons spurred him to start making his own, moving back from Canada to join Mukpuddy and his short film-turned-series 'Pupper Paleolithic' which has been described …

It's the final instalment of this year's Star Trek special as Simon and Josh compare their ranked lists of every Star Trek television series. We find the good aspects of our lesser favourites and the weaknesses in our beloved favourites. Josh plays contrarian on the best episode of the original series but sides with conventional wisdom on the best …

Still at the mercy of the Borg, Simon and Josh continue to discuss Star Trek (against their will of course), this time ranking all thirteen feature films from best to worst. Josh also pitches his rewrites for the Next Generation films as well as his theory that fan-favourite supervillain Khan is ruining the franchise. Make sure to listen through to…

It's time again for Simon and Josh to let themselves loose to their favourite topic: Star Trek. This year, we begin by sharing and discussing Trek-themed clips from animation history. As you can imagine, there are also plenty of parodies and Trek actors lending their voices to animated shows ranging from primetime sitcoms to saturday morning cartoo…

Animator, voice actor and gamer Diego Soriano joins us to chat about heir ongoing collection of tattoos, the importance of play in acting and improv, the distinction between original characters and OC's and the extremely popular animation they've made for their TikTok. Plus a look at the state of superhero movies and video game adaptions. We also s…

Róisín Kelly is storyboard artist at Mukpuddy and multi-talented visual artist. Róisín Kelly chats with Simon and Josh about the fantasy genre and it's disreputable cousin urban-fantasy, the challenges of growing up with aspergers, the astrophysics of tidally-locked planets and Terry Pratchett's long-running Discworld series and the various attempt…

Simon Ward is the *other* Simon at Mukpuddy and one of the studio's primary producers. He shares with us the creative and practical aspects of this often misunderstood but crucial role. We discuss his long career writing and acting on stage and screen, early collaborations with Alan Parr on the 48hours team 'IdiotVision', his partners job as Nation…

Dane Jacobs is a compositor at Mukpuddy and wears many hats as an independent creator but paramount amonst all his achievements, is hift to the world: and most importantly, the genius behind the MukPod theme song! Simon and Josh chat to Dane about his new video-game-inspired concept album Super Golyhedronland, the difficulties of studying and teach…

It's our last episode for 2022! Ryan and Alex join us to reflect on the incredible number of projects Mukpuddy has worked on this year including service work for overseas productions Dead Sea Squirrels and Juju Brain, music videos for Drink Bleach and Chris Lam Sam, ad campaigns for Electric Kiwi ads and Google, original Mukpuddy series Night Eyes …

Matt is a London born, kiwi raised, visual development artist, illustrator and drawing tutor currently based in Auckland, NZ. Matt chats with us about finding a consistent paycheck as a recent animation graduate, working as a lead background artist at Mukpuddy, teaching and learning from students as a drawing tutor and teases their new pitch for a …

Rick Sweden is a production design and concept artist for such diverse projects as Bro Town, Monster Beach and even Shortland Street. Yeah, THAT Shortland Street. Rick currently lives in Australia and has recently been working for Princess Bento, a new Melbourne based animation studio, a collaborative effort between American and Australian producti…

Do you dare listen to our ghoulish guests spin terrifying tales of All Hallow's Eve in the Land of the Long White Cloud? In case you hadn't noticed, Mukpuddy loves Halloween! Which explains why this episode clocks in at nearly four hours. If you make it through this podcast alive - you're already dead!! EPISODE SEGMENTS 00:01:08 ~ Josh and Simon we…

Liam Maguren is a self-described 'human movie radar' for Flicks, New Zealands go-to film and streaming guide, as well as a filmmaker, animator and friend of Mukpuddy. Liam joins us to chat about working as a film critic in the age of streaming, animating with limited time and resources and making his own independent short films. Watch Liam's films …

Bryn Kettle is an animator turned storyboarder at Mukpuddy, as well as a multi-talented character designer and writer. We chat with Bryn about their unique animation philosophy, developing concepts just for the fun of it, the right and wrong ways to break-the-fourth-wall and dragging Josh for constantly mentioning his holiday. But that's not all fo…

Simon and Josh immediately break our own rule and discuss a lot of Star Trek at the top of show. Jump to 25:00 to skip the Trek Talk. We look back at the previous months guests before jumping in to discuss all the movies, comics and even radio dramas we've been enjoying. We also celebrate two of our favourite actors: Nichelle Nichols and David Warn…

Joel Spencer is an animator for Mukpuddy but is perhaps best known as JoelyMoley for their independent, conversational and absurd animation. We swap tales about the minimum wage jobs we quit in order to join Mukpuddy, the uphill battle of being a YouTube Animator and learning Flash on the job. We also discuss our favourite superheroes: Batman, Spid…

Chris Maguren is a self described 'animation generalist' who like his family, works hard and plays hard. As a team leader at Mukpuddy, he manages a team of animators, on top of his regular animation duties. He also does regular freelance work and still makes time to play sports and enjoy his other hobbies. We chat with Chris about the first nationa…

Aleks is back (already) to chat with us in person about the Vision Feast Film Festival, which has just celebrated it's sixth year recognizing, celebrating and cultivating the creative community in New Zealand and around the globe. Festival Founder Aleks explains the origins, ethos and potential future of Vision Feast. And after about 2-hours of tha…

Alan Parr is a writer and animatic editor at Mukpuddy, in addition to writing his own kids book 'Wilbur's Cosmic Cone' (illustrated by Mukpuddy's own Anna Lee). Despite technical difficulties recording this episode (We suspect Alan is cursed or perhaps bewitched), we discuss the process of writing, publishing and distributing a children's book duri…

Simon and Josh sit down for an informal catchup to look back on the podcast so far and let you know what you can look forward to in future episodes. We also chat about the comfort movies we've watched while both sick this winter and (because we know you can't get enough) we round out the show with a Star Trek discussion, conveniently placed at the …

Doug McFarlane is an animator, actor, artist and singer for his all-ginger metal band BLOODNUT. He chats with us about what it's like being a jobbing extra for film and TV, how there's never been a better time to be a vegan and how fanart mashups are art too. We also spend time yarning about Mike Flanagan, Orson Welles and Betty White. Now THERE'S …

Aleksander Sakowski phones in from Down Under (or slightly further up, for us) to explain why compositing animation is like a sandwhich. We chat about his futurist opus 'The Mecha Genesis', the incredible work he's made through his own production company and even such lofty ideas as the possibility of being able to look into the past (for example, …

Mike Glasswell, alias David Gleesman, chats with us about his many odd jobs before becoming an Animation Supervisor at Mukpuddy and finding creativity in his personal life. He also tries to explain the basics of Twitch streaming to Simon, how to play it cool when meeting your heroes and by some disturbance in the Force, there's hardly any Star Wars…

Kurt La Roche chats with us about his vital role at the studio in drawing, building and organizing digital assets for animation. He talks about his background in traditional fine arts and relearning how to draw in lead character designer Alex Leighton's signature style or as we like to say, studying Alextology. No, it isn't a cult. Josh and Simon t…

In our longest episode yet, we chat with TWELVE guests from around the studio about that inescapable force in pop culture, Star Wars. We chat with people who love the series, others who love particular parts and even a few who don't get what all the fuss is about and are sick of all the nerdy references. Maclunkey! Yub-Nub! Ootini! 5:11 - Mike Glas…

Becky Kuek is a Writer/Director/Actor and the creator of Tales of Nai Nai! In this episode, we chat about her incredibly diverse career, leaping from different roles to different mediums. We also find time to discuss soap operas, stuffed toys and quarter-life crises! Follow Becky @beckykuek on Instagram and Twitter For updates on LONG x XIA and DAT…

Tim Evans is a founder of Mukpuddy and creator/writer of original animated series including The Barefoot Bandits, Jandal Burn, The Drawing Show and The Adventure of Tumeke Space. In this episode, we chat with Tim about his knack for putting together creative teams, being unable to mentally visualise and how that relates to personal creativity. Also…

To celebrate First Contact day (May the 4th for Trekkies) Simon and Josh sit down to answer burning questions non-Trekkies need answers to, such as what is Star Trek? Which one is Spock? Why don't you get a life? Is There in Truth No Beauty? Who Mourns for Morn? Now you too can understand these in-jokes and many more! Simon recommends these channel…

Ryan Cooper and Alex Leighton are two of the founders of Mukpuddy Animation and creators of original animated series including The Barefoot Bandits, Jandal Burn, The Drawing Show and The Adventure of Tumeke Space. In this episode we chat about the realities of living their childhood dreams, the hustle of pitching and selling their original ideas an…