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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
People from the early-2010s may know of YouTube animator and voice actor, Zach Hadel, famously known as “psychicpebbles”. He has put out popular animated comedy videos such as “Kony 2012” or a cover of Frozen‘s “Let It Go”. For years, the online personality has tried to break into the industry, and now he’s met his opportunity.
Hadel has partnered with Michel Cusack — as well as a continuing collaboration with Chris O’Neill (or “OneyNG”) — for their Adult Swim animated comedy series, Smiling Friends. The show follows a small company that brings happiness to clients. Its pilot episode, titled “Desmond’s Big Day Out”, was released on April Fool’s Day 2020. You can find it on Adult Swim and wherever it may exist on the Internet.
I was fortunate enough to not only view the first three episodes of the series’ first season. I was also grateful to speak with the series co-creators, Cusack and Hadel, on Friday afternoon of December 17th, 2021.
How Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack Got Their Start In Animation
I started my interview by asking how each of these individuals gained an interest in animation.
Cusack has loved the film medium since he was a child. According to him, he saw the Kevin Smiths and Quentin Tarantinos of the world and wanted to follow in a similar path. He started to animate using Adobe Flash and saw the rise of animators such as psychicpebbles and OneyNG when YouTube first started.
Hadel has always had a passion for drawing and animating. He gets his style and taste from television animated series such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Dragon Ball Z, such as trying to animate the character Goku. Unlike Cusack who started with Flash, Hadel used Microsoft Paint during his adolescent years. Later, he compiled his pictures on Windows Movie Maker. From there, he then went on to use Macromedia Flash and transitioned into other means of animating, and moved from Newgrounds to YouTube.
Something to Keep an Eye Ear Out For
Long-time fans of Hadel may recall a special element to his psychicpebbles videos: the screaming. During the interview, this is what he had to say:
We have some screams like that in ‘Smiling Friends’. We had some in the pilot, but we have some in the series, too. I have no idea what I’m doing with that, and it just ends up wrecking my voice. … I don’t know what I’m doing, and there’s nothing really going through my head. It’s just me trying to find a funny noise. Like if I could do that perfectly and it would sound the exact same and it wouldn’t hurt my throat, I would love to do it.
We’re just trying to make somebody laugh, and that’s what’s great about Michael, too. Working with Michael, our sensibilities are so similar. His stuff has some screaming in it, too, but it’s a different kind. The energy level and the tone of what we find funny is really similar.
Zach Hadel, co-creator and main voice actor of Adult Swim’s ‘Smiling Friends’
He mentions how he would scream (for voice acting purposes, for the most part) in apartments that he’s lived in. Luckily, he never received any noise complaints.
Cusack also gives credit to the “stress-induced kinetic energy” prominent in the early-2010s era of animation.
Inspiration from (and Homage to) The New Millennium of Animation
From here, I asked the co-creators what prompted them into wanting to pursue their respective careers in animation.
Hadel cites television channels Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, along with television series such as SpongeBob and Looney Tunes, as some sources of inspiration; just anything that could bring him laughter. His aim is to recreate the type of feeling that they hold for audiences that might be in the same shoes. Although, he states that Smiling Friends is not necessarily for people of all ages, as many will soon see.
Cusack cites how they both grew up watching South Park and The Simpsons, with Hadel also adding Family Guy, Futurama, and Home Movies to the list of animated shows that reached popularity in the late-1990s and early-2000s. According to Hadel, this era of animation “opened up a whole new world, where you can tell stories and you can push the envelope a little bit but you could still be funny at the end of the day.”
How Smiling Friends Got Lifted Off the Ground
For years, Hadel has tried to transition from the YouTube/ online medium to the cable television side as an outlet for putting out his animated works. He talks about pitching many television series ideas to Adult Swim and establishing a relationship with Cartoon Network’s adult-oriented nighttime programming block. He and Chris O’Neill had initially pitched their online series Hellbenders to the television channel twice within a couple of years. Unfortunately, this never came to fruition. Eventually, Adult Swim brought Hadel and Cusack together to work on what soon became Smiling Friends.
Cusack praises Adult Swim as a huge step up from YouTube and the online medium of animated storytelling. After the Smiling Friends pilot was written as a teleplay and made into a television episode, it garnered a lot of success.
The Absurdity and Unexpectedness of Adult Swim’s Smiling Friends
I would advise fans of animation to go into this series knowing nothing and with very low expectations. You’ll be surprised at what you might see in this show. Cusack talks about their approach to the series’ animation.
I feel like that energy is just coming from Zach and I making each other laugh. Our whole thing is that we really love seeing stuff we’ve never seen before. That’s why the show is mixed media, getting 3-D elements and the stupid detailed shots [from] old school cartoons.
Our thing is how to keep it fresh. … We always talk about how ideally, we can cut up the show into clips and they can stand alone as YouTube videos, the same way we used to make YouTube one-minute [or] two-minute clips that were funny .
Michael Cusack, co-creator and main voice actor of Adult Swim’s ‘Smiling Friends’
Hadel adds:
If people liked the Pim painting at the end of the [pilot], which we really try to — like Michael said — put as much mixed media in here to surprise the audience … I hope and I think that by the end of this season, people will realize that you can have literally anything happen art-wise, like you can have anything jump into the show.
Our hope is that by the end of it, people will also realize you just stop trying to predict what’s going to happen. You go, “I’m gonna turn my brain off for ten minutes and just enjoy it because I have no idea what’s gonna happen.” That’s the goal, at least.
Z.H.
He says a couple of episodes will end in twists, similar to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense.
Mood for the Viewing Experience; Teasing Smiling Friends
I asked Cusack and Hadel what we should look forward to in this first season. They answer, “Laughs, screams, crazy times, cartoon insanity”. Cusack discusses keeping each episode fresh so as to avoid repeating the same narrative (structure, format, etc.). He says that one way they go about this is by using different genres for the show.
Hadel’s healthy viewing advice for watching the series:
Don’t look into any of it. Don’t watch any clips of it on YouTube or Twitter. Just watch the episodes as fresh as you can. Get some friends around. Get some soda pop– [jokingly] No, get some water. Some filtered tap water. Get some reverse osmosis water and some nice healthy popcorn, and just enjoy it with your friends.
Z.H.
Having seen the first few episodes of the series, I can tell you that you are all in for a wild and bizarre ride. Hadel asserts, “There is one episode that people will really enjoy. It does not go the way you think it will go”. He says that nothing huge will be revealed in television spots and promotions, so as to keep the freshness of what awaits new viewers.
The Purpose of the Show
Cusack argues for what their goal is for the show, reasoning why it is the way it is.
Zach and I were approaching the show like it was that one shot we were never going to get again, so we just try to pack in every kind of element that makes us either laugh or get surprised or shocked or scared. Anything like that. I think that’s why you get the weird moments…
M.C.
Hadel adds:
We really try to make it so that — and ideally, I don’t think this is the case — if this is the only ‘Smiling Friends’ that ever exists, we try to make the first season feel like each episode’s a little movie, and you’re getting a lot in there and everything’s packed.
…
In terms of the first season, in my opinion, every episode, I don’t think it’s better. There’s really good stuff. I think the back half is really strong. [In the first three episodes], there are episodes that are as good or better. … In terms of the show’s future, if we were to do a Season Two, Michael and I always talk about it. We wanna do the show as long as we feel like we’re topping ourselves every year. If we were to do a Season Two, our goal would be to make it to blow Season One out of the water to make Season One look like stick figures, like it’s nothing. That’s the goal.
Z.H.
I believe many people will be surprised at what these two are able to put together. I believe something about the show that is Emmy-worthy, and that is just what I told them!
Voice Actors of Smiling Friends
At the end of the interview, Hadel speaks about voice appearances in the series. Some voices in the show’s first season may be people you might know. In the pilot episode, Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard makes a voice appearance. Cusack adds, “A lot of the time, we actually were writing with voices in mind, so it was a nice marriage of voice and character for the people we got”.
Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel’s animated comedy series Smiling Friends premieres on Sunday, January 9th (technically January 10th), 2022 at midnight ET/PT!
Stay tuned for our review on the first two episodes, “Mr. Frog” and “Shrimp’s Odyssey”.
Will you be seeing this television series? Let us know! For more animation and comedy-related news and reviews visit and follow The Cinema Spot on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
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