Hulu recently released all ten episodes of the first season of the hilarious new animated adult comedy Crossing Swords which follows the adventures of young squire Patrick as he realizes that his kingdom is full of corruption, death and lots of oddball characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the series, binging through the first season in a single sitting, so I was excited to be invited to participate in a virtual press day for this hilarious series.

The trailer below is NSFW, but since work is home for most folks these days, that may not be an issue!

First up was a virtual set visit, where series creators John “Harv” Harvatine IV and Tom Root provided some commentary over behind-the-scenes footage of the sets and sound-stages, followed by a short Q&A. The video showed a massive wall of cards where each of the day’s shots were broken down into detail, with a column for each animator. The crew utilizes 30 sound-stages, split across 3 buildings, creating their own mini backlot in Burbank. The team of 20 animators are often working on 5 different episodes at the same time. Everything is done with time-consuming stop-motion, so each animator only produces around 6-18 seconds of footage a day! Almost everything is done with practical effects, so any tiny props, outfits and sets all need to be built and animated by hand. The one exception are the scenes that involve water, which gets added digitally. The series creators decided to use peg people because they wanted the world to feel like it could be a well-used playset come to life. And to this end, most of the characters and props are made out of wood, along with some fabrics and metal. However, the creators also wanted to give the series a very cinematic feel, and so they filmed it more like a traditional movie. (It is an amazing looking show!)

After the set tour, we got the opportunity to speak with the creators and some of the cast. First I spoke with stars Tony Hale & Adam Pally, who play Patrick’s alcoholic clown brother Blarney and Patrick’s dim-witted best friend/fellow squire Broth. It was a quick but fun conversation, and the first time of the day that an Adam commented that with my headset, I looked like I should be in the control both at a sports game. Next up was another entertaining conversation with stars Adam Ray, Alanna Ubach & Tara Strong, who voice Patrick’s Robin Hood-like bandit of a brother Reuben, the ever-horny woman on a prowl Queen Tulip, and Patrick’s Pirate Queen sister Coral. Finally, I got a chance to speak with the series creators, which was great because there wasn’t an opportunity to ask any questions during the virtual set visit.

This was the first time I did interviews via Zoom, but it actually worked out quite well. Below you can find my three exclusive interviews, plus a fourth video comprised of footage provided by Hulu. This fourth video contains interviews with four additional cast members who were present for the virtual press day, but had limited availability for interviews. Nicholas Hoult voices the main character Patrick, Seth Green voices wizard Blinkerquartz, Yvette Nicole Brown voices squire bootcamp trainer Sgt. Meghan, and Breckin Meyer voices Patrick’s father Glenn.

This show is hilarious, but certainly not for younger viewers. I highly recommend checking it out on Hulu.

Exclusive: Tony Hale (“Blarney”) & Adam Pally (“Broth”)

Exclusive: Tara Strong (“Coral”), Adam Ray (“Ruben”) & Alanna Ubach (“Queen Tulip”)

Exclusive: John “Harv” Harvatine IV & Tom Root (Series Creators)

Nicholas Hoult (“Patrick”), Seth Green (“Blinkerquartz”), Yvette Nicole Brown (“Sgt. Meghan”) & Breckin Meyer (“Glenn”)