Owen Dennis | From "Infinity Train" to Paramount+'s "Among Us" | Inspirational Drives

[00:00:00] Owen Dennis: All I wanna do is just laugh with friends and stuff all day. It's the great- It's so, it's so, it's, it's kind of lame to be like, "You know what I really like? Laughing." But, like, it is, it's great.

[00:00:11] Announcer: Welcome to Story and Craft. Now, here's your host, Marc Preston.

[00:00:16] Marc Preston: All right, here we go, another episode of Story and Craft.

[00:00:19] Marc Preston: Welcome back. Good to have you. Uh, if this is your very first time stopping by the show, hey, welcome. Glad to have you as well. Thanks for, uh, checking out the show. Very much appreciated. Today, we are sitting down with writer, producer, director Owen Dennis. Uh, he did the animated series Infinity Train. He has his latest animated series called Among Us on Paramount Plus as we speak.

[00:00:43] Marc Preston: You can check it out. A great conversation. We talked about the animation process and kind of how this is creatively a little bit different than doing the, uh, traditional on-camera thing. Enjoy the sit-down with Owen. And do me a small favor if you would. Make sure to grab your podcast app or your phone or [00:01:00] whatever have you, and make sure to like Story and Craft.

[00:01:03] Marc Preston: Leave a like, leave a comment, follow the show. That way you get notified every time a new episode comes out, plus it helps people to find Story and Craft. Also, if you wanna learn more about the show, everything you could possibly wanna know, past episodes, uh, past guests, it is at storyandcraftpod.com. All right, so let's jump into it.

[00:01:24] Marc Preston: Today, we're talking animation. I'm sure you'll enjoy it because today is Owen Dennis Day right here on Story and Craft Now where are you at right now?

[00:01:34] Owen Dennis: I'm in North Hollywood.

[00:01:35] Marc Preston: Is that the, uh, is that where you originate from? Are you a Cali kid or...?

[00:01:39] Owen Dennis: No, I'm from, I'm from Minnesota.

[00:01:41] Marc Preston: Ah.

[00:01:41] Owen Dennis: Um, I, I, I grew up in Minnesota for the most part, and so that's where I generally say I'm from Minnesota.

[00:01:47] Owen Dennis: Ah. It's the easiest.

[00:01:48] Marc Preston: Whereabouts in Minnesota?

[00:01:49] Owen Dennis: Um, the center east. So I'm from, I'm from, uh, around the Stillwater area, about 25 s- minutes outside of Minneapolis.

[00:01:59] Marc Preston: Yeah, I had a good [00:02:00] friend of mine who was from, uh, Mankato. Mankato, Minnesota. Yep. And then, uh, a good friend of mine lived up, who's from, uh, Texas, moved up there to St.

[00:02:10] Marc Preston: Paul. It, it- How'd

[00:02:11] Owen Dennis: that

[00:02:11] Marc Preston: go? He, they, they loved it. He loved it up there. Okay, okay. Now he was in, in, he's, it was in investments. Now he's back in, in, uh, he's originally actually from Holland, but, uh, but anyway- Ah ... but no, he moved back, but when he went up there, he had a, uh, Ford Expedition. His wife did. Right.

[00:02:25] Marc Preston: And they were gonna sell it, and it was rear wheel drive, and they, the, every dealership they went to was laughing like, "Dude, that's, these are four-wheel drive." You know, two wheel, you know. Yeah. Um, so there's a whole thing. Yeah. And then he sent me pictures of, or a video rather, on his phone of his daughter throwing some water up in the air and it turned to powder before it hit the ground.

[00:02:42] Marc Preston: Yeah. I'm like, "Dude, you can keep that." God bless. I, I love my Minnesota people. I, I've never met somebody from Minnesota I didn't like. Uh-

[00:02:50] Owen Dennis: Another thing we used to do is, uh, we'd blow bubbles out when it was really freezing cold, 'cause then if you blow bubbles, the bubbles become a solid little ball that just falls onto the ground, and then you can pick it [00:03:00] up and just, like, hold it.

[00:03:01] Marc Preston: See, growing up in Dallas, we got the worst part of winter. Yeah. Like, we would get snow on occasion, but it would, it'd be cool for a day, then it would warm up, and it would kinda melt, turn slushy, then a hard freeze at night, so you got these blocks of gray ice- Yeah ... everywhere and... But down, down this way, we don't, we'll, we'll never see s- if we see snow down here, there's some real issues going on in the climate.

[00:03:22] Marc Preston: Yeah. You know. When did you make your way to LA? Was this, I mean, was it w- a work thing? Was, were you like, "Okay, I gotta get to LA for my career"? Yeah, I

[00:03:30] Owen Dennis: mean, I mean, basically what happened is I, I lived in Minnesota and then I, um, mm, when I was in college, I, uh, worked in Yellowstone for a summer. And when I was in Yellowstone, I met a bunch of students from China who then, uh, convinced me to move to China to become an English teacher.

[00:03:50] Owen Dennis: And then, uh, moved from China to Los Angeles after a couple years. So

[00:03:55] Marc Preston: yeah. Wait, wait, wait. Well, you gotta tell me where you lived in China, though. I'm curious.

[00:03:58] Owen Dennis: I lived in, uh, [00:04:00] Shenzhen for the first year and then Shanghai for the second two years.

[00:04:03] Marc Preston: Okay. I always talk food at least once in my show. I gotta ask, what is- Mm

[00:04:06] Marc Preston: your favorite dish that you encountered living? Because Chinese food there is- Yeah ... vastly different-

[00:04:12] Owen Dennis: Very ...

[00:04:13] Marc Preston: than Chinese food here. Very different. You know? You have a- Yeah. It's kind of the same thing with Italian, kind of got Americanized. Yeah. But I gotta know your favorite thing over there.

[00:04:19] Owen Dennis: I mean, the fact is Wikipedia has its own page for American Chinese food.

[00:04:23] Owen Dennis: It's its own cuisine.

[00:04:24] Marc Preston: It's like lately I've been talking about Anthony Bourdain at least once every show. Uh, he would talk- Mm-hmm ... about going, uh... They're fond memories of Chinese. See, I'm Jewish, so Chinese food's- Mm ... a part of our, you know, Christmas Eve. It's what we do. Um, Mm,

[00:04:37] Owen Dennis: right.

[00:04:37] Marc Preston: So, and, uh, but I, I... The good stuff, like I got a thing for mapo tofu, which is, you know-

[00:04:43] Owen Dennis: Yeah

[00:04:44] Marc Preston: anything with- Yeah, yeah ... tons of Szechuan peppercorn, you know, I'm like-

[00:04:47] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[00:04:47] Marc Preston: you know, that kind of thing. But what's your- This one- What, what, what was your jam?

[00:04:49] Owen Dennis: I was, I was really into, there's this food called sho zha bing, which was a, um, a sort of like a, a, a dough that they would fry on [00:05:00] a big griddle, and they'd put a piece of bacon on it and an egg, and then put, uh, basically hoisin sauce, uh, ketchup, and mayonnaise on it.

[00:05:08] Owen Dennis: Mm-hmm. And that was really good. And there was also, um Uh, I don't know. But yeah, I'm also a mapo tofu guy. Uh, and also over there was when I discovered, uh, 'cause I lived in Shanghai for a little while, that's where, uh, the soup dumplings are from. Oh,

[00:05:23] Marc Preston: oh

[00:05:24] Owen Dennis: yeah. Which I had, which I hadn't had before I went there.

[00:05:27] Owen Dennis: And, uh, I went there and had soup dumplings and these are, these are incredible you know? Um,

[00:05:31] Marc Preston: yeah, I get Yeah, it's so crazy that- I get ... my, my grandfather used to travel every six months to a year for business to Hong Kong. Mm-hmm. And I know when they said then China took over Hong Kong, they were worried about the influence that China has, would have over Hong Kong and kind of- Yes

[00:05:44] Marc Preston: the culture that had evolved. It seems like the rest of China's kind of adopted kind of the Hong Kong aesthetic of y- a little bit- Well- ... you know ...

[00:05:52] Owen Dennis: sort of, sort of what happened was, so that, that transfer was happening, right? And then Shenzhen, which was the city that I stayed in first, was the [00:06:00] city that was in between Hong Kong and the mainland.

[00:06:03] Owen Dennis: Um, so they decided, they were like, "We're just gonna make this city into a giant bustling metropolis that speaks a different language than Hong Kong." So Hong Kong spoke Cantonese, and then Shenzhen they were like, "We're gonna try capitalism in this one city. And it's gonna be called Shenzhen, and we're just gonna try it in this one little city."

[00:06:21] Owen Dennis: And I've seen pictures of what it looked like in 1990, and it's a fishing village. Mm. Like, your stereotype of what a fishing village looked like. And now it's got 15 million people in it. Um, so what they did is they made this city right there, and then people from all over China moved there because the, you know, jobs and stuff.

[00:06:39] Owen Dennis: They're just trying to get jobs. And then, um, that's also where, like, the first McDonald's in China was, and the first Ev- like, I went to the first McDonald's in China.

[00:06:48] Marc Preston: My daughter studied in Europe for the fall semester.

[00:06:50] Owen Dennis: Yeah.

[00:06:51] Marc Preston: And that was her second time. She did something else a couple years ago, but she has this thing, every country she goes to she wants to go to McDonald's to try, uh, McDonald's food [00:07:00] in that country to see what it's like.

[00:07:01] Marc Preston: Yeah. Like, she was, uh, next to Lake Como in Italy, and she got- Mm ... tiramisu from McDonald's. Mm. You know, so that was kind of- That's

[00:07:08] Owen Dennis: nuts. That's

[00:07:08] Marc Preston: fun ... and plus also they don't have all the preservatives and junk we have in our food over there, so. Well,

[00:07:12] Owen Dennis: it's, it's also they, they change the flavors and things for whatever localization stuff.

[00:07:16] Owen Dennis: Like, I really enjoyed KFC when I was over in China, but also KFC was, like- It was the only American food I could get for a while, so I basically ate at KFC like once, twice a week. And I remember my students and stuff would be like, "Oh, Americans, you love KFC." And I was like, "It's not that I love KFC- ... it's that I don't want to eat Chinese food right now.

[00:07:35] Owen Dennis: I just wanna eat literally anything that is not Chinese food." Yeah,

[00:07:39] Marc Preston: I-- Yeah, but the, the one thing Bo- uh, bringing up Bourdain again, he said you could go over there, you could literally be over there like every day of your life and just be knee-deep in the culture, and you're only gonna scratch the surface of what culturally it's all about.

[00:07:54] Marc Preston: So he's like, uh, and he- Yeah. There's no way around it ... every time he went over there, he said it, um, it always looked vastly different every time he [00:08:00] traveled back there- Yeah ... 'cause it was growing so fast. But, uh, like I said, my grandfather always brought back stuff, and I was always enamored as a kid- Mm

[00:08:06] Marc Preston: with the Asian, uh, the art, the culture, the vibe, you know, but of course Hong Kong was a little different, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, is that a g- good time of your life, or were you like, "Eh, that was a rough-"

[00:08:16] Owen Dennis: Oh, it was fantastic. It was fantastic. I mean, it was, it was, it was one of those things where it was rough mostly because I realized eventually that I'm like, "Oh, I'm just sort of, I'm running away from, like, life to go to China and do something else."

[00:08:29] Owen Dennis: 'Cause basically I graduated, and when I graduated was the, the Great Recession, as they call it. Um, so, you know, none of my-- nobody had jobs. Like, anyone fresh out of college couldn't get a job. Um-

[00:08:42] Marc Preston: Was this like 2008 and 2009

[00:08:44] Owen Dennis: roughly? 2000, 2008, 2009, yeah. I graduated in 2009. Um-

[00:08:47] Marc Preston: Oh, yeah, my son and I just the other day watched the big, uh...

[00:08:51] Owen Dennis: Short?

[00:08:51] Marc Preston: The Big Short, yeah. We just watched that again- Yep ... the other night, and I, I forgot what a- Yeah ... debacle that was, but that was kind of like you pulled the rip cord, you went to China, you taught. What'd you, were you [00:09:00] teaching- Yeah ... English or were you teaching, uh-

[00:09:01] Owen Dennis: I was teaching English, yeah. I was teaching, I was teaching English.

[00:09:04] Owen Dennis: I was teaching conversational English, so the, the, um, the requirements were very low. It was basically like, yeah, you need to have, uh, a four-year degree of some kind- Uh-huh ... any kind. Uh-huh. They didn't care. And you need to be a native speaker from, a native, uh, someone who was born in, uh, Canada, the US, New Zealand, Australia, or England, and you need to take a two-week course, and now you are good enough to teach English in China.

[00:09:34] Owen Dennis: They were just like, they were just importing as many people as they could to teach English.

[00:09:38] Marc Preston: So did you have your cohort of, uh, expats? Like, 'cause, you know, everywhere you go in the world you can kind of find an expat bar or restaurant or-

[00:09:45] Owen Dennis: Right. I, I didn't really. Like, because at the first place that I lived, I was so-- I lived out in, uh, Yantian Gang in Shenzhen, which was a port.

[00:09:57] Owen Dennis: It was, it was the, it was, it's the fourth busiest [00:10:00] port in the world.

[00:10:01] Marc Preston: Really?

[00:10:02] Owen Dennis: I don't know if it is anymore. It might be, like, number two or three at this point. I don't know. But at the time it was the fourth busiest port in the world. So it was just a port that had a school, happened to have a school in it, and that's where I was teaching.

[00:10:10] Owen Dennis: So every, there were no expats there. It was, the only expats were people who would've been teaching in the same school as me, which was, like, you know, a couple, like three people. Um, but there was, otherwise it was a port that was filled with just, like, dock workers and stuff, and like, that's, that's, that's where I, that's where I was living for a while.

[00:10:30] Marc Preston: So y- that was, that was your crew. You were hanging with dock workers. Um-

[00:10:34] Owen Dennis: Yeah.

[00:10:35] Marc Preston: So-

[00:10:35] Owen Dennis: I mean, I was, I was hanging out with more of the English teachers, but that's mostly who was around town was, was a lot of, uh, dock workers and- Yeah,

[00:10:40] Marc Preston: out of context saying you hang out with dock workers could be misconstrued in so many ways.

[00:10:44] Owen Dennis: Right.

[00:10:45] Marc Preston: Um, so what, what, where'd you go to school?

[00:10:46] Owen Dennis: I went to school with Minneapolis College of Art and Design, uh, in Minnesota. Um, I went to school for, uh, animation.

[00:10:55] Marc Preston: Okay.

[00:10:55] Owen Dennis: Um, like, like many people. I mean, now it's very interesting 'cause at [00:11:00] the time there were, like, I wanna say We had like 12 or 15 students in our graduating animation class- Mm-hmm

[00:11:07] Owen Dennis: and now they've got like, like 50 or something. It's crazy. Um, but

[00:11:12] Marc Preston: yeah- So is that Minnesota's- That's, that's their one ... answer to kinda like RISD or a Rhode Island school? They, I, I think that's-

[00:11:17] Owen Dennis: Yeah, it's just, yeah, it's the, it's the school, it's the, it's the Minnesota art school.

[00:11:22] Marc Preston: That's gotta be kinda cool when you go to a place like that if you have an interest and you've got...

[00:11:26] Marc Preston: Y- did you feel like you found your tribe? Uh, your-

[00:11:29] Owen Dennis: Very much, 'cause I mean, you, I was, I was going to s- I was living and going to school out in, you know, rural Minnesota. Um, so I, you know, I t- I've told this story a few times, but it's like when I was, uh, when I was in high school was the early 2000s. Um, so and I started, that was at the same time that like 3D animation and stuff started becoming a big deal.

[00:11:56] Owen Dennis: Mm-hmm. You know, like Toy Story come out, that's like when Shrek started coming out, like all the movies [00:12:00] started turning into 3D movies, and special effects started to be all about like, "Check it out. Check out what we can do with computers." Like, that was the time. And so I was all about that, and I really wanted to get into it.

[00:12:09] Owen Dennis: Um, and so my dad would try his hardest to get me a computer that could even handle- Yes ... a, a 3D, a 3D image at the time, which was- Oh, no,

[00:12:17] Marc Preston: my, my son did something. He went to, um, he did a su- he was in high school, but he did a summer like, uh, oh, it was an animation, uh, thing like at, with the local community college.

[00:12:28] Marc Preston: You know, they- Mm-hmm ... it was a, I think he was in junior high maybe. Yeah, and they did this thing- Yeah ... where they got this, a student version of the software, so you, I'd forgot what it was- Mm-hmm ... but all I can remember is it was a fat, big old honking thing of a, a program, and, and- Yeah ... it sucked a whole... And I have a, you know, recording studio, so I got, you know, I got horsepower.

[00:12:46] Marc Preston: Yeah. But it really-

[00:12:47] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[00:12:47] Marc Preston: the stuff he was doing was so impressive, and I, name up-

[00:12:50] Owen Dennis: There, there was a point when my friends were jealous because I had a computer that had a whole two gigs of, uh, RAM, and so everybody was like, "Whoa, you can do like so much stuff with [00:13:00] that." And, and you could. Like, at the time, that was a lot.

[00:13:05] Owen Dennis: That was a whole lot. Uh, but you know, I was really pushing the limits, and I remember what I did was I would make like 3D images and stuff, and I would work on 3D animation stuff. That's what I wanted to do was 3D animation. And I remember I would make artwork of 3D, 3D image CGI artwork, and I remember I, I went to the local county fair, which was the Washington County Fair.

[00:13:27] Owen Dennis: I went to the local county fair, and they had a new, uh, category.

[00:13:31] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:31] Owen Dennis: And the new category was computer-generated imagery or something, computer-generated art, you know, which was a brand-new category they just had that year for the first time. And I was like, "Oh, cool. Yeah, I can, I could submit to that." So I wanted to submit to their art fair.

[00:13:46] Owen Dennis: And then I do it, and then eventually the fair comes and I, I, I see and, like, I find my piece up on the wall. I'm like, "Oh, I got third place. Okay, cool." And I walk around being like, "Well, I wanna see, like, who got first, like, or second." All that sort of stuff I wanna see. And I wasn't, like, [00:14:00] upset about getting third.

[00:14:00] Owen Dennis: I just wanted to know, like, who got, who got the other places. I walk around, I walk around, I can't find the... Any- anything else. I'm like, "Well, where's the, where's the other places?" And I eventually find, like- Were you, like, the only

[00:14:11] Marc Preston: one who did that?

[00:14:13] Owen Dennis: I eventually find a coordinator. I'm like, "Hey, where are the other, the other entries?"

[00:14:17] Owen Dennis: And they're like, "Oh, there weren't any. That was the only one." I was like, "But I got third place." And they were, and, and they were like, "Yeah, the judges don't have to off- don't have to give an award." And I was like, "I wasn't even good enough for second place against nobody?" And, uh, I remember that being one of those, those push moments where it's like, "I'm getting out of this town."

[00:14:40] Owen Dennis: Like, one of those kinds of things.

[00:14:44] Marc Preston: Well, I think it's gonna be first place, man. I'm sorry. I, I, I feel like I need to give you a hug now. I was like, "Come on, you're good."

[00:14:49] Owen Dennis: It's all right.

[00:14:49] Marc Preston: Um-

[00:14:50] Owen Dennis: It's all right ...

[00:14:50] Marc Preston: that you did that, and I know it's moving three d- uh, uh, kind of more 3D, a little bit richer kind of animation, but isn't there a, a movement now, uh, I forgot who it [00:15:00] was, whether it be Warner Brothers or Disney or...

[00:15:02] Marc Preston: They're trying to kind of move, move the needle back a little bit into animation we're kind of all thinking of when we think animation. Isn't there ki- I- is it a nostalgia thing? Mm. Is it just a workflow cost thing? You know, is that

[00:15:14] Owen Dennis: what's going on? Oh, there's a, there's a ton of reasons, I think. Uh, one, um, it's cheaper.

[00:15:20] Owen Dennis: If you do 2D animation, it's just cheaper.

[00:15:22] Marc Preston: Uh-huh.

[00:15:22] Owen Dennis: Um, and, uh, I think there's also a... It's a, it's a pendulum thing. Like, when things swing too much in one direction, people get bored of it, and then a new thing-

[00:15:33] Marc Preston: Man, isn't that true across all

[00:15:36] Owen Dennis: creative- People reach

[00:15:36] Marc Preston: out to other stuff ... I coach voiceover. I tell my students, like, "Yeah, man, uh, AI is gonna take a massive bite out of what we do."

[00:15:41] Marc Preston: But I think- Yeah ... Gen Z, they're all about authenticity and real, you know.

[00:15:44] Owen Dennis: Yes.

[00:15:45] Marc Preston: It's gonna swing back, and that's the reason why, like, millennials brought back vinyl, you know, for records, you know.

[00:15:51] Owen Dennis: Yep, yep.

[00:15:51] Marc Preston: Do you think it's gonna go back to creating, like, hand-drawn cells? Is it gonna be that kind of analog?

[00:15:56] Owen Dennis: I don't think it, um, I don't think it's gonna go all the way to [00:16:00] physical cells.

[00:16:00] Owen Dennis: That's way too expensive. But, I mean, the entire Among Us was entirely hand-drawn. Like, the show that we just made was entirely hand-drawn. We didn't do any... Like, you, there's, there's, there's different kinds of 2D animation you can do. One is, like, a 2D puppeting sort of animation where you build sort of- What's almost like a marionette - Mm-hmm

[00:16:20] Owen Dennis: inside of a computer or like a rod puppet inside of a computer Right, right And you sort of move it around. The computer interpolates between the different positions that you move it to. Whereas... And that's what a lot of things are. That's what, you know, that's what Rick and Morty is. That's what, you know, all kinds of adult animation is often where you see it the most.

[00:16:37] Owen Dennis: Um, but then there you can still do just, like, drawing one frame, then drawing the next frame and going on. It's not as common. It's very uncommon, in fact. Uh, but you can still do it, and that's what we did. It was pretty cool.

[00:16:49] Marc Preston: You know, I, I think the kings of going just basic, you know, uh, guys at South Park can clear over a billion.

[00:16:56] Marc Preston: You know, that's- Yeah ... there's something to be said for, you know, the content. [00:17:00] Yeah You know. Um, but I noticed w- I, I watched, uh, your show, I don't know, it was a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty famous Among

[00:17:05] Owen Dennis: Us.

[00:17:05] Marc Preston: Oh, Among Us, Among Us. Yeah. And I kind of like the way the hands aren't connected to the body, and that's just kind of interest- an interesting thing.

[00:17:12] Marc Preston: Yeah. I asked my son about it. He's like, "Oh yeah, that was like a video game during COVID, I think." I get keyed in on some current stuff from my kids. I have to ask them. It's like- Yeah, sure ... "Have you heard about this Among Us?" He's like, "Oh yeah, that was like some kind of game that was big." And then I told him I was talking to you.

[00:17:25] Marc Preston: I'm just envious 'cause you had a chance to work with Patton Oswalt 'cause that's- Yeah ... of course, with animation you really, you know, it's like with everything else, it requires a script. But you got a wordsmith who can kind of riff. Did you ever work in any kind of, uh, improv into the flow at all, or were you able to do that?

[00:17:40] Owen Dennis: I always leave room for it. Like, I always, I always make sure, like, "Hey, this is the script. This is what exactly what we're doing." The thing with animation is that it doesn't leave a lot of room for improv- Yeah, yeah ... in general because you already have everything all storyboard out at minimum. And in our case, in Among Us, often we, the entire, the [00:18:00] entirety of Among Us was we did the voices after we did the animation because the r- right when we were making the show was during the actor strike.

[00:18:09] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:10] Owen Dennis: And so we weren't able to do the voices to the, do the animation to the voices, so we had to do all the voices after we animated it. Wait, you, wait, you

[00:18:17] Marc Preston: did that long ago with the actor strike? Mm-hmm. That was like two years ago. Is that roughly-

[00:18:21] Owen Dennis: Yeah.

[00:18:21] Marc Preston: Okay.

[00:18:22] Owen Dennis: Three years ago. I don't know. Something like that, yeah.

[00:18:24] Marc Preston: Let's see. That's daughter. Hello, daughter. She was outside tanning, you know. That's kind of what we do- Right ... I guess, down here this time of day. Um, I'm inside. That's why I'm so pale. I'm inside all the time. Um, with animation, are you kind of 360 degrees of it, or are you kind of, you're producing, you're directing it, you're writing it?

[00:18:41] Marc Preston: I mean, you're directing it as well, correct? I'm like- Mm-hmm. Yeah ... so you're, so you have... So really this is a lot more hands-on for the creative than, let's say, making a, uh, traditional, the two-camera series. You know, you know what I'm saying? Would that be an accurate

[00:18:53] Owen Dennis: statement? I mean, not just, not just hands-on, but quite literally hands-on.

[00:18:55] Owen Dennis: I have to draw it. Yeah. I have to draw it sometimes, you know? Um, [00:19:00] like, there, yeah, there's, there's whole shots that I had to personally animate, you know. That sort of stuff happens. Like the first reveal of the big alien, like that was, I did the big wide shot of the big reveal, like that sort of thing. But then, um, yeah, I, it's- I'm, I'm very hands-on with everything.

[00:19:19] Owen Dennis: Like, I'm in the writer's room. I wrote one of the episodes. I'm directing everything. I give notes on every single part of the process. I'm ... I helped write one of the songs. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm on all of it. Yeah.

[00:19:32] Marc Preston: So, uh, h- like, for a guy who does VO, kinda like I do- Mm-hmm ... I'm curious, do you have ... Did h- you have everyone, uh, kinda cutting their pieces individually?

[00:19:41] Marc Preston: Or did you ever have moments where you were able to get more than one, you know, actor in a, in a recording session in the studio?

[00:19:47] Owen Dennis: We had to do it all individually. Um, I, I've, I've worked with, uh, I've worked in times when we've been able to do group actors. Mm-hmm. But, uh, the actors that we have in this one are very [00:20:00] busy.

[00:20:00] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:01] Owen Dennis: So it was very much like whenever you have the chance. I've had, I've had times when I've had to get an actor, an actor's been like, "I can work. I can come do your project if you can do it three hours from now." I'd be like, "Okay." And then I'd be like record, like book an entire studio and like do all that sort of stuff in like an hour.

[00:20:17] Owen Dennis: Like, I've had to do that before. Um, but yeah, it's, it's ... We had to do them all mostly all separately. Um, some of them recorded from home.

[00:20:26] Marc Preston: I was about to say- I have an arrangement ... you know, uh, the times I've s- I've never d- I've done animation I think once, but I just ... It was a small piece- Mm-hmm ... I recorded to send it on, send it on its way.

[00:20:34] Marc Preston: Do y'all in the studio kinda have ... Are you able to play kind of the storyboards or the things so they can kinda get a sense of what they're voicing, or is it-

[00:20:42] Owen Dennis: Yeah. Yeah, we usually have the storyboard so they can see like what is the face that's being made when you say this. And w- we can also try and give context so it's not just like you saying, "Ah."

[00:20:52] Owen Dennis: You know? You can have like some context about like am I surprised, am I scared, am I s- jovial? Like, [00:21:00] "Ah." Like, w- like what kind of "ah" am I saying? Like, that sort of stuff is pretty, pretty important. So I think it's important for us to show the storyboards as we have them, 'cause then people can like go like, "Oh, that's me.

[00:21:10] Owen Dennis: I'm pretending to be that person right there. This is what I should sound like," which I think helps.

[00:21:21] Marc Preston: So I know Patton Oswalt, of course, he's, you know, Ratatouille, you know. So you got- Mm-hmm ... you got m- I think Ashley Johnson, I think- Yeah ... wasn't she in Growing Pains? Am I thinking of the wrong- She was in Growing Pains, yeah. Oh, she was. Okay, that's right. Mm-hmm. Okay. My memory's not as bad as my kids say it is.

[00:21:33] Marc Preston: Okay, so- Did you work with anybody on this project or ha- you know, that hadn't really done this before? This is a new process for them, or was everybody pretty much in the flow?

[00:21:42] Owen Dennis: Yeah, Liv Hewson hadn't done this before. This was a new one for Liv. Um, and they, uh, they were open about it when we, when they first got in the booth Um, but they're also, uh, Australian, I believe.

[00:21:55] Owen Dennis: Mm-hmm. And so I was guessing because I, the, when I first saw [00:22:00] Liv's work was in Santa Clarita Diet.

[00:22:03] Marc Preston: Yeah,

[00:22:04] Owen Dennis: yeah. And they were, just sounded like an American kid. Like, I never, never crossed my mind they weren't American. Um, and so I was like, "Well, if you-

[00:22:13] Marc Preston: Yeah, Australians are really good about that. Australians not an easy- Yeah

[00:22:16] Marc Preston: dialect to nail down, but Australians just knock it out of the park when it comes to doing the American dialect.

[00:22:21] Owen Dennis: I, I believe, I believe that if you come from another country that has a different accent than American and then you fool an American to believe that you're American, and I believe that you definitely have enough control of your voice that you can try out voice acting, you'll be fine.

[00:22:35] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:35] Owen Dennis: Because you've got, you've gotta have some- Oh, yeah, yeah ... amazing control of your voice. And then they did. They were, they were a big hit. They were... I loved, I loved Liv.

[00:22:41] Marc Preston: They're sneaky, man. Those Australians, you gotta be careful. Um, so h- how long, how long does it take you to knock out a whole, a whole episode of, uh, of the, of one of your- Oof.

[00:22:50] Marc Preston: 'Cause these sh- these, they're, these are 15 minute, am I right? Are they 15 minute? Okay. Yeah,

[00:22:54] Owen Dennis: they're quarter hours. Yeah. They're, um, they're all between, like, 11 and 15 [00:23:00] minutes usually. Uh, 'cause now they're, it used to be that I had to do, when I was making Fanny Train, it was all, like, you have to make each episode exactly 11 minutes and 22 seconds to the frame.

[00:23:09] Owen Dennis: And but now that it's streaming, it's like, ah, you can have a little, little leeway, which is, oh, thank God. Um, uh, it's, it's a, it's a waterfall, so I would say one episode, it's not that we work on one episode and then the other and then the other. We, like, do them all at different parts at different times.

[00:23:25] Owen Dennis: Um, but I would say it takes maybe 10 to 11 months to do one episode, somewhere in there.

[00:23:32] Marc Preston: That's pretty much a quick workf- like, you, we were talking about, you're not doing, like, 3D animation or anything, so that's a-

[00:23:37] Owen Dennis: Nope, that's all 2D. Yeah. The, the, the main, the big difference in 2D and 3D, like, 3D you have to build all these assets in 3D space and build everything before you even start animating.

[00:23:50] Owen Dennis: Um, whereas the process in 2D animation i- especially if you're just drawing 2D animation and not doing the puppeted stuff, uh, is much more [00:24:00] like I just have to draw it. So, so it takes a l- little while longer, but the amount of front-end work that you have to do in something with a 3D pipeline or a 2D puppeted pipeline is just much higher than you have to do with a hand-drawn pipeline.

[00:24:16] Marc Preston: Is it harder to pitch, uh, animation? Because some of the, y- like, if you talk about Rick and Morty and you try to pitch that to somebody. Mm-hmm. Uh, 'cause animation- Yeah ... you have way more, you know, you're not constricted by the world we live in, you know, the physical world Right ... seeing to it. Is it harder to pitch an idea or is it easier because people are like, "Oh, animation, you can do anything."

[00:24:36] Owen Dennis: It's, um, it's, I would say it's a bit- more difficult for a few reasons. One, when people think of animation, they think of specific genres. So there's an assumption, especially in the West, that it's going to be for children. And if it's not for children, then it must be for adults. And if it's for adults, it has to be extremely, like, adult-adult, so it's gotta be, like, drugs and sex and violence and all that [00:25:00] sort of stuff.

[00:25:00] Owen Dennis: And there's, like, nothing in between. And it's going, if it's for adults, it's going to be comedy, and if it's children, it's going to be probably comedy, and maybe you can do an action thing. But that's it. Like, it's very, very restricted in terms of genre. Um The other difficult thing about pitching animation is that if you think about, like, what, um, if I'm, if I were to pitch a movie to you and I say it's got Tom Cruise in it, you know what that looks like.

[00:25:30] Marc Preston: There's gonna be a lot

[00:25:30] Owen Dennis: of running. Right? There's no-

[00:25:31] Marc Preston: Yeah.

[00:25:31] Owen Dennis: Yeah, there's gonna be a g- a lot of running. Yeah, definitely a lot of chest-out running. Um, but also, uh, you know, you, you can visualize in your head, you know who Tom Cruise is, you know what he looks like. It's, you can visualize what it's gonna look like.

[00:25:43] Owen Dennis: Um, in animation, if I say, "Yeah, it's about a dog, a talking dog," the dog that's in my head is different than the dog that's in your head.

[00:25:52] Marc Preston: Yeah.

[00:25:53] Owen Dennis: And the dog, the style is different, the way it moves is different, the way the colors are different. Every single [00:26:00] thing is different. And

[00:26:00] Marc Preston: so- So when you go in to pitch, do you like to already have the storyboards out, like the, or at least the characters drawn out?

[00:26:06] Owen Dennis: I like, I like to at least have, uh, a rough style about what the show is gonna look like so that people can at least latch on to something visual when we're talking. Right.

[00:26:16] Marc Preston: Right.

[00:26:16] Owen Dennis: Because it's a visual medium, so you have to have something visual to latch onto, which makes it harder for ... I think it makes it slightly easier for me because I'm an artist, slightly harder for people who are just, who are just writers because they often have to hire an artist or find an artist friend or someone who can help them.

[00:26:33] Owen Dennis: Um, but yeah, that's, that's generally, I think, one of the harder ... Those, those are the two main issues I think you run up against with, with pitching animation.

[00:26:42] Marc Preston: Well, when you're sitting down, I know this seems like kind of a basic question, but where, when you think- ... of a character, you think of a look of a charac- look of an entire show- Mm-hmm

[00:26:49] Marc Preston: where, is that coming from something that you, uh, for lack of a better way of putting it, inspired by things you've seen? Or is it something that you're just like, [00:27:00] you see a shape and think, "Well, this would make kind of an interesting looking character," you know? And what, what is it that kind of fires up the creative juices for you?

[00:27:09] Owen Dennis: It comes from a lot of different directions. I generally latch onto themes and concepts, and then I start moving into what things actually look like. So for me, I'm very much a, you know, what is the story I wanna tell? What are the ideas I wanna cover? What are the, you know, themes and, and, and topics I wanna get into?

[00:27:32] Owen Dennis: And sometimes I even into, like, what are some big set pieces that I think would be fun in that? How do you, how do you sort of, um, how do you throw little rocks at that theme with every character? You know, that sort of thing. I'm very much focused on figuring out what the characters are even thinking about and doing.

[00:27:51] Owen Dennis: And then eventually I will ... And bec- and during that process, I tend to think about, like, you know, it just comes up in my brain, like, what does this actually look like? And sometimes it looks like a human [00:28:00] being walking around, and sometimes it looks like a orange blob. You know? Hmm. There's like no ... It's, it can go any direction.

[00:28:06] Owen Dennis: Um- Uh, and that's, that's generally how I start with characters and stuff. I'm not a huge character designer myself. I like to have other people do it for me because I'm just like, I find my work to be kind of like, eh, it's fine, but not interesting. Um Uh, but even, like, the character One-One in Infinity Train was just, it was straight up just me drawing a circle in my notebook and not knowing what to do, and then putting a line in the center of it and being like, "Oh, sure, I can do that," and that's it.

[00:28:34] Owen Dennis: That was that was a circle with a line in it.

[00:28:36] Marc Preston: Um- Well, when you were in high school, were you that kid who had that- Yeah ... spiral notebook that was just full of all kinds of, uh, drawings and, uh- Yep ... pencil drawings and ideas and, you know?

[00:28:45] Owen Dennis: Yeah. I, I, I, I drew all the time. All of my, all of my papers always had doodles on the side.

[00:28:52] Owen Dennis: I used to make flip books inside the textbooks. So, I would, like, I'd take the corner of whatever the textbook I wasn't supposed to be drawing in, because everybody had to borrow the same [00:29:00] one.

[00:29:00] Marc Preston: Yeah.

[00:29:00] Owen Dennis: I'd, like, make a flip book out of the corner pages down the corner so you could, like, go, phew, it would make a little, a little animation or something.

[00:29:06] Marc Preston: Yeah. Okay, whatever kid got that book after you the next year probably appreciated that greatly and wondered, like, "Who is this legend whose book I have?" Yeah. Um-

[00:29:14] Owen Dennis: Or, or was very annoyed by it. It could be, it could be, could be one or the other. Any direction.

[00:29:19] Marc Preston: When you were back elementary, junior high, high school, were you, were you, you know, always, uh, angling towards art or were you up to other, other things?

[00:29:27] Marc Preston: Yes. And-

[00:29:27] Owen Dennis: I was, I was always, I was always into art. Uh, it, things, you know, again, because the time period was so, it was such an interesting time period because, um, I was also into making my own, like, video game levels, and so at the time there were games that you could sort of take them apart and you could make game levels for, like, Counter-Strike or, uh, Unreal Tournament or things like that.

[00:29:51] Owen Dennis: And so I made game levels. I tried to make my own video games themselves. I tried to, um, shoot little movies in [00:30:00] my backyard, all that sort of stuff. And I did, I was always painting and drawing and working on art all the time, um, from many different angles. I was making music. I was just all over the place.

[00:30:11] Owen Dennis: I'd alwa- I'd been, I'd been doing art since I was a child. Like, I was always doing art.

[00:30:15] Marc Preston: Was this coming from your parents? I mean, were, were they creatives, or

[00:30:19] Owen Dennis: w- My, my mom, my mom, uh, my mom was an artist. She, I mean, she didn't go into art as, like, a career or anything. Um, she was, she went to, like, she was a botanist and then she was, like, a stay-at-home mom.

[00:30:34] Owen Dennis: But my grandmother on my mom's side, she was a muralist, uh- Okay ... in Missouri, and she actually opened the first, the first art store in St. Louis. Uh, and then, um, my grandfather on the other side was, did, like, stage play background- Okay, okay ... art stuff, that sort of thing. So it was like, it was, it was, it was fed through, it was, like, art was a value [00:31:00] in my family.

[00:31:00] Owen Dennis: Like, we all- Right, so this

[00:31:01] Marc Preston: wasn't a total- Yeah ... anomaly when you, when you sat down-

[00:31:03] Owen Dennis: No ...

[00:31:04] Marc Preston: and you were starting to draw. Yeah.

[00:31:05] Owen Dennis: No. So I was, I, it was really lucky 'cause it meant that my parents both understood when they saw that I was a kid that was just gonna constantly be drawing monsters and dinosaurs and stuff like that.

[00:31:13] Owen Dennis: They were like, "Okay, well-" We know, we know where this is headed. Yeah. So they had a rough idea of how to, how to be able to help me in that journey.

[00:31:20] Marc Preston: What kind of st- what kind of stuff did your dad do or does?

[00:31:23] Owen Dennis: Um, my da- my dad, my dad's currently retired, but he was a, a copyright attorney. Like he did-

[00:31:30] Marc Preston: Okay ...

[00:31:30] Owen Dennis: he did pat- patent law at like 3M and Medtronic and stuff.

[00:31:33] Owen Dennis: Okay. And so that was, that was what he did. Nothing- Hey, that's- ... even remotely related ... that's kind of helpful to have a,

[00:31:37] Marc Preston: have a, a patent law attorney there, you know, for-

[00:31:39] Owen Dennis: Yeah, I would say it, it did, it did teach me a lot about like rights.

[00:31:44] Marc Preston: Uh-huh, yeah.

[00:31:44] Owen Dennis: And it was very, and definitely made, uh, dinner conversation was a lot of, um, a dinner conversation had a lot of questions.

[00:31:52] Owen Dennis: Why do you think that? Why do you think that? What is about this? And a lot of like, because he was a lawyer, right?

[00:31:57] Marc Preston: Yeah.

[00:31:58] Owen Dennis: And so there was a lot of questions at [00:32:00] dinner where you had to sort of, uh, question your own beliefs on why do you think this thing, why do you think that thing? Well, I think that's kind of cool and da, da, da, da.

[00:32:06] Owen Dennis: Like that sort of, that's the conversation.

[00:32:08] Marc Preston: I think in our world right now, I think more parents should be challenging their kids to do that. Oh, it's- Challenge their own thought process as opposed to being... Uh, there's a Mark Twain quote I was trying to, I'm gonna jack it up. I was telling my son about it.

[00:32:19] Marc Preston: But he didn't worry too much about people that didn't know much. He worried about the people who thought they knew everything. You know, that kind of thing. Oh, yeah. So-

[00:32:27] Owen Dennis: 100%.

[00:32:27] Marc Preston: And I think that's a big issue- My, that's- ... in our world right now, you know? Yeah,

[00:32:31] Owen Dennis: definitely. Uh, that was, but that was, I don't... I'm not saying it was bad.

[00:32:34] Owen Dennis: I am, I'm really glad that that's how I was, that's how I was raised. But it was a lot in the way of like interrogating your own beliefs and thoughts and stuff, which helps a lot when I'm directing stuff because it's a lot of like people will come to me and go like, "What about this? Can we try it this way or this way?"

[00:32:49] Owen Dennis: And then if I have a gut feeling of like, I don't wanna do that, or I do wanna do that, I then have to question myself on like, why do I feel that way? What's leading me to that conclusion? [00:33:00] Is it, is it something where I'm just feeling that way because that's what I'm used to? Is it something that I'm feeling that way because I don't like the person that's telling me?

[00:33:09] Owen Dennis: Like what is it? Yeah, yeah. Like why am I, why am I feeling inter- reacting

[00:33:13] Marc Preston: this way? It's kind of like going into an audition- ... and, and like, you know, you could be, uh, for an actor you could be doing the most rockstar performance, but if you remind the casting director of, uh, their ex-brother-in-law that they couldn't stand or something, you know?

[00:33:25] Owen Dennis: Yeah.

[00:33:26] Marc Preston: Um-

[00:33:26] Owen Dennis: Yeah, yeah.

[00:33:27] Marc Preston: So like conceptually, uh, when you, when you're coming up with ideas, uh, again, you're not constrained by our world, you know? Uh-

[00:33:36] Owen Dennis: Mm-hmm ...

[00:33:37] Marc Preston: do you ever challenge yourself to really go out there? Like, okay, 'cause, uh, you know- It's like, where do the ideas come from? Maybe that's a better question to ask.

[00:33:45] Marc Preston: Where do you typically find your source material?

[00:33:48] Owen Dennis: Um, I find it in the world, like anybody else. It's sort of, um, I like to, uh... There's a thing I like to do every year that I haven't been able to do in a couple years, but it's a thing I like to do every year where I, [00:34:00] um, take my phone and my computer and I leave them at home and I just go drive in a direction.

[00:34:06] Owen Dennis: Um, and then I drive in that direction for a few hours until I find some place to stay, and then I stay in a random hotel or something, or a parking lot, or, uh, whatever. I've live- I've stayed in Walmart parking lots. I've stayed in, like, I've stayed in, like, you know, corn fields and stuff. I just drive until I find a d- place that I want to s- sleep, and then I just, the next morning I just keep doing it, and I just drive around until I find stuff.

[00:34:37] Owen Dennis: And then I'll, I'll, maybe I'll be at a campsite, I'll do whatever. But just, like, going out and exploring the world and seeing what happens, which is a very, uh, you know, very white guy thing to be able to do. I would say my, my wife isn't a fan of me just leaving without my cellphone. But, you know, it's, it's a, it's a thing that happens sometimes.

[00:34:55] Owen Dennis: So this is, this is a

[00:34:56] Marc Preston: solo endeavor, I... Okay. So, so this is not

[00:34:58] Owen Dennis: like, you know- Oh, yeah Okay It's just me by myself.

[00:34:59] Marc Preston: [00:35:00] Okay.

[00:35:00] Owen Dennis: Yeah, I mean, I, I just go out and I do it. And I actually came up with, like, there's a, there's a villain in Infinity Train where it's a, it's this big tentacled monster thing that I drew when I was out on the road and listening to music.

[00:35:12] Owen Dennis: Like, that's, that's just a character that I just drew in my sketchbook 'cause I was just like, whatever, just drawing it, and then it became a giant villain in the show. Like, that sort of stuff, it helps. It works. It's also a great way to, like, meet people. Like, I've always really enjoyed staying at, um, hostels.

[00:35:31] Marc Preston: Uh-huh.

[00:35:32] Owen Dennis: Um, I really enjoy staying at a hostel by myself, uh, because it forces you to interact with a bunch of people that you don't know and are from other places. Um, and, uh, sometimes sharing a room with these random people you don't know who are from other places. I remember I used to travel across China that way.

[00:35:51] Owen Dennis: I'd always stay at these weird little hostels that are... Like, it's a hostel inside of someone's, like, house, or it's a hostel that's, like, beneath a [00:36:00] bunch of brothels. Like, like, whatever. Um, there's, there's, uh... And, you know, I would meet someone in the hostel and be like, "Hey, do you wanna go get some, like, borscht?

[00:36:10] Owen Dennis: Some Chinese ver- Chinese borscht?" Mm. And they'd be like, "Yeah, right." And then we'd, that's what we'd do. Uh, it was, you know, it was a fun... It's just a fun way to, like, just do something else. Yeah. 'Cause I think if you don't-

[00:36:20] Marc Preston: Yeah, like, that's probably what they're doing also, you know? They're staying at a hostel- Yeah

[00:36:23] Marc Preston: and they're kind of expecting that experience.

[00:36:24] Owen Dennis: Yeah.

[00:36:25] Marc Preston: You know?

[00:36:25] Owen Dennis: And I find that it's like you, you spend so much energy creating, but you have to refill the bucket. You have to f- have stuff to pull from, you know? You have to keep putting stuff back in the, back in the bucket, otherwise there's nothing left in the bucket to pull from, you know?

[00:36:39] Owen Dennis: So that's, that's how I kinda, that's how I kind of think of it. I think of it as, like, you know, part of Part of being creative is going out and doing stuff so you have something to be creative about. 'Cause I've had, I've had so many times when I've ... I get frustrated sometimes when I see comics online or something where somebody would draw a comic, I mean.[00:37:00]

[00:37:00] Owen Dennis: Um, and the comic starts with, like, somebody sitting in front of a computer and being like, drawing on their tablet in front of a computer. I'm always like, "I don't care about this." This isn't... I don't care about you sit- I'm sitting in front of my computer. Why do I wanna wa- Why do, I don't wanna read about you sitting in front of your computer.

[00:37:15] Owen Dennis: That sucks. You know?

[00:37:17] Marc Preston: But isn't, isn't the great thing about animation that you can tell a story, or let's say you've got something to say about society. Maybe not highbrow, but you know- Oh, I

[00:37:26] Owen Dennis: would never

[00:37:27] Marc Preston: You know. But you can do it in a way where you're getting at a, you're kind of coming in a back door to get some, to get a message across.

[00:37:35] Marc Preston: Yeah. You know. Um- Yeah ... do, do you enjoy the writing process? Do you enjoy writing the scripts? Or is it- No ... the anim- But which, which part of it do you really kind of dig in on and enjoy the most?

[00:37:44] Owen Dennis: I, I, I very much enjoy the writing process. Like, I'm, I, I like all parts of it. Um, the writing is the part where I feel like you get the most information down, where it's, like, the most, like, getting the most information out of my head is [00:38:00] the writing section.

[00:38:01] Owen Dennis: And then after that, it's mostly like, how do we, how do we color this writing? It f- it feels like, it feels like putting the writing down is, like, the sketch of, like, roughly what you're doing, and then after that it's all, like, just figuring out the tiny little ... It's fir- sort of figuring out the details in a way.

[00:38:18] Owen Dennis: Um, and, uh, yeah, I love, I love the writing part, 'cause that's also something, you know, I, I would love to get into writing some more live action stuff as well, because I feel like there's, that's an interesting thing I haven't really done much of, that I'd like to try out. I like, I also like the directing part a lot.

[00:38:33] Marc Preston: Yeah, I was gonna

[00:38:34] Owen Dennis: ask you

[00:38:34] Marc Preston: about that. I like- What are, what are your thoughts on directing? 'Cause especially when you've got a cast- I- ... like, you know, what you've got here in Among Us, it's-

[00:38:39] Owen Dennis: I, I, I, I love the directing part. Because the directing part is basically I've hired on a bunch of people that I trust.

[00:38:48] Owen Dennis: I trust their artwork, I trust what they do, the th- the thing that they specialize in. I trust these actors, I trust the background artists, I trust, you know, the editor. I trust all these people because that's what they, their [00:39:00] thing that they specialize in. And then my job is purely to, like, take the energy that they have and just guide it in a certain direction.

[00:39:09] Owen Dennis: And it's trying to make that person, help that person be, like, the best version of whatever they can be, um, in that position. I gener- I generally view it as, like, uh- Almost like bowling, where it's like you take a ball and you're sort of just, like, throwing to- throwing, rolling that ball down there, and then sort of trying to, like, hope that sort of makes it towards the pins roughly and, like, help it, help it g- get there.

[00:39:34] Owen Dennis: I guess it's more like curling uh, with, like, little brushes or something. Um, but yeah, that's how it's... I, I love the directing part. That's a... I'm a big fan of that. I get so sad when I'm not doing it.

[00:39:46] Marc Preston: Yeah. Like, uh, uh, Patton Oswalt, watching him, watching him, you know, just kind of riff. Yeah, w- with comedy it's all- Yeah

[00:39:54] Marc Preston: you know, you've worked it out, you know? Yeah. And you finally have your show, and then you tape it and okay. [00:40:00] But what's it like as you're, as you're working with someone like Patton Oswalt, who you're kind of working out an idea? Is it... Any, any interesting anecdotes of kind of how you, you know, how you found the right read- Well, something, something-

[00:40:12] Marc Preston: as it were, you know, with, with

[00:40:13] Owen Dennis: Patton? Something that really helps with comedic actors, um, especially, is that comedy actors are so obsessed with timing. Like, they know, "Hey, it's funnier if I say this faster. It's funnier if I put a slight pause here versus here." Like, they're really, really good at timing.

[00:40:34] Owen Dennis: And there's a reason that people are always have this, um, sort of stunned reaction whenever there's like, "Oh, that comedy actor was in this drama and they're really good."

[00:40:44] Marc Preston: Yeah.

[00:40:45] Owen Dennis: And lo- it's like, well, it's because they're, they work on timing all the time. Like, that's, they're all about timing. And so getting comedy actors into something is so helpful because you can say like, "Hey, we're gonna have to pace this one up a bit."[00:41:00]

[00:41:00] Owen Dennis: And they're like, "Got it." And they, they know exactly how to keep the comedy timing even though we have to speak fast for this one line. Or like, they know, they're very good and very intuitive on that because they're, they're very intuitive because they're also so, you know, skilled on it. They know they got it.

[00:41:14] Owen Dennis: Um, and so that's, that's always, it's always a joy when you have people, like the whole cast that we have on the show, I'm just like so happy and thankful for them.

[00:41:22] Marc Preston: Well, it's cool because they don't have, well, faces where there's facial expression you can re- lean on, you know? So it's kind of-

[00:41:28] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[00:41:28] Marc Preston: you're, it's still, I don't wanna say theater of the mind's not right, but you're, you're s- you're leaning a little more on the, the kind of how it comes out of them and you, you know, you really-

[00:41:37] Owen Dennis: Mm-hmm

[00:41:37] Marc Preston: it,

[00:41:37] Owen Dennis: it's very- It is, it is something where a lot of the time when you're, when you're directing the actors, you're just closing your eyes. Like, I think that's- Yeah ... something that is, is different, a big different thing between live action and, uh, and, and animation is often whenever we're directing them, I'm sitting there with my eyes closed.

[00:41:54] Owen Dennis: I don't even look at the actors while it's happening- It's so- ... because I just wanna hear-

[00:41:57] Marc Preston: It's so funny what, what I- ... what

[00:41:58] Owen Dennis: they sound like ...

[00:41:58] Marc Preston: when you close your eyes, [00:42:00] you're kind of seeing, you know, you're the animator or you know- Mm-hmm ... what it's gonna look like, so probably that's a little bit of discovery for you as well, I'm assuming.

[00:42:08] Owen Dennis: Yeah, 'cause there are definitely times when it's like, I know what the storyboard is gonna be, and then because they also surprise you sometimes, you're like, there have been times when I've said like, "We're gonna note that take, and then we're gonna have to go back. We're gonna have to change the animation somewhat because I like that take.

[00:42:22] Owen Dennis: It's not what I expected to do. Um, but we should do that."

[00:42:26] Marc Preston: You know what I would love to do? I would love to see, uh, you know, 'cause there are outtakes of course. I mean, you cannot- Mm-hmm ... do this without there being a ton of outtakes. But just for fun to animate the outtakes. I thought that would, you know, the, just

[00:42:39] Owen Dennis: kind of fun.

[00:42:39] Owen Dennis: Something I've always wanted, something I've always wanted is I've always wanted to hear a long take of just the parts where people go

[00:42:50] Owen Dennis: Just those little breaths that get taken out- Yeah ... whenever we're recording something. I just wanna hear, I just wanna hear an entire version of, like, Christina Aguilera just being like, [00:43:00] just, just that, 'cause I think it'd be, I think it'd be great to listen to.

[00:43:03] Marc Preston: I, I had someone come to my studio and do some ADR once, and all it was was reaction stuff.

[00:43:09] Marc Preston: I just edited it together, and it sounds hilarious when you just have all these reactions- Mm-hmm ... but in a very fast sequence, you know? Um- Yeah.

[00:43:16] Owen Dennis: I had, I had a library for when I was in, working on "The Fan Train," I had them build a library of just reaction sounds for one of the characters, 'cause we often end up needing, like, someone to go, "Ah, ooh, ah, ah," like, whatever.

[00:43:26] Owen Dennis: And so I just had a whole library of, like, "Shocked, ah," "Surprised, ah," like, just, like, all, all these ahs, and you could just, like, click through and go, "Ah, ah, ah, ah," Of, like, whoever the actress was and stuff. It was great.

[00:43:39] Marc Preston: Well, who do you think hasn't done animation, hasn't done animation voiceover, you maybe ha- or just not aware of something they've done, that you would love to work with because you think they got the chops for it, that they would make a really good animated character?

[00:43:52] Owen Dennis: Um, I, you know, I, I very much believe that all, many actors can become, uh, [00:44:00] voice actors and stuff. It's purely if, if they, if they're just... Like, I was, I was so happy when Dan Stevens hopped on board, 'cause I love Dan Stevens. Um, like, I was super happy when he joined. Robert Pattinson's somebody that I'm like, he's done, as far as I know, just, like, one voice acting role.

[00:44:16] Owen Dennis: But I saw him in, I think it was Devil All the Time, and, uh, he played a preacher, like a Southern preacher. And, you know, I've seen more and more in different things of his work now where he does voice, he sort of changes his voice into something else. And I'm like, "This guy was-" Kind of a chameleon.

[00:44:36] Marc Preston: Yeah.

[00:44:37] Owen Dennis: Yeah. I, I've, I feel like, I feel like Robert Pattinson's one of those people that was a born voice actor, but he was unfortunately born very handsome, so he has to be- He has to be a, he has to be, like, an actor, like a, like a face actor.

[00:44:49] Marc Preston: He was unfortunately born very handsome.

[00:44:52] Owen Dennis: Yeah. Poor guy. Um, so he has to be a face actor.

[00:44:57] Owen Dennis: Uh, but yeah, like, I've had... You know, there's a, there's a [00:45:00] book I've always wanted to adapt called The Rat Man's Notebooks, which has this, like, sort of weirdo guy who, uh, it was based, it, the, it got turned into a movie called Willard-

[00:45:11] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm ...

[00:45:11] Owen Dennis: in, like, the early '70s.

[00:45:13] Marc Preston: Oh, the, oh, Willard. Wasn't there a movie with, was it Elijah Wood?

[00:45:17] Marc Preston: Is there, I don't know. There was a, there was a dog, uh-

[00:45:19] Owen Dennis: No, it was, uh, there was, but there was another, there was, they did a movie in the early '70s, then they did another one in, like, 2002 with- Uh-huh ... um, I can't remember. I mean, but yeah, they, they did a remake of it. But, like, the book I really loved, and I wanna do, like, an animated version of the book, and I'm like, "Oh, Robert Pattinson would be, like, perfect for this, perfect voice for this book," and, like, all that sort of stuff.

[00:45:37] Owen Dennis: Like, I've, I've often, I've often thought about him, doing stuff with him. He'd be a lot of fun.

[00:45:48] Marc Preston: Before we wrap up, I always do something I call my seven questions. A little fun, little- Sure ... kinda, you know, I mentioned it before we talked food, talked Chinese food, which now I'm hungry 'cause I have not had good- Mm ... Szechuan in a [00:46:00] long time. But, uh, I, the other night I did something with tofu, by the way, and it was h- heading in the zone of mapo tofu.

[00:46:06] Marc Preston: I was like, "Why don't I- Mm ... just go get a, a, a, a, uh, a recipe for this?" And, you know, 'cause that's one of my, that's one of my favorite all time, uh, things. But, um-

[00:46:15] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[00:46:15] Marc Preston: yeah, I always do this before I have lunch. But first question, though, what is, uh, if you think about your favorite comfort food, what would that be for you?

[00:46:24] Owen Dennis: Oh, oh, oh. I, I, my, my mom is from Missouri, and so there's a food from Missouri called, uh, ooey-gooey butter cake, which

[00:46:39] Marc Preston: is- I, I lived in New Orleans for over 20 years. I'm very familiar, and that is... When you say butter, there's, it, it is impossible how much butter they can fit into that. Yes.

[00:46:49] Owen Dennis: Yes. Uh, it's, it's one of those foods that's like, oh, this just remains, this just remains shelf stable

[00:46:58] Marc Preston: because it's just butter and sugar. People- Um- It's one of those things when you eat it, and [00:47:00] it's like, listen, you can't think of the recipe as you eat this. Just enjoy it- No ... because if you think of the recipe, it's gonna, it's gonna mess you up emotionally for the rest of the day.

[00:47:07] Owen Dennis: Yeah. '

[00:47:08] Marc Preston: Cause it's

[00:47:08] Owen Dennis: just- The classic, classic plain ooey-boo- ooey-gooey butter cake is just, like, one of my favorites.

[00:47:14] Owen Dennis: I absolutely love it.

[00:47:14] Marc Preston: But you throw that with some coffee, oh, it's good

[00:47:17] Owen Dennis: stuff. I eat it, I eat it maybe once every two years because otherwise I'll have a heart attack.

[00:47:22] Marc Preston: Yeah. They have a, there was a, there is a gas station chain called, uh, what is it? Danny and Clyde's in New Orleans, and, uh, they all, at the...

[00:47:29] Marc Preston: When you're checking out at the register- Mm-hmm ... they have somebody locally who makes that, and then they package it up. Mm-hmm. They have a little basket of it. So as you're checking out, you're just like, you know, if you go in there, you know, you're, you're inside- Mm-hmm ... uh, they also make really good po'boys, by the way.

[00:47:43] Marc Preston: It's a whole different thing. But you see that there- They're wonderful ... it's like, "You know, I shouldn't, but it's been a while since I had one." And you get it, and you get, you get halfway through it, and you're like, "Why did I do that? But, you know, I'm halfway through it. I might as well finish the game." You know?

[00:47:53] Marc Preston: It's like- Yeah ... they're so- And then you

[00:47:55] Owen Dennis: take a nap.

[00:47:56] Marc Preston: Yeah. But it's... But, oh, a friend of mine had one for the, uh, had a bunch, uh, they [00:48:00] made up some for Thanksgiving. That, those, that, that is so good. That is, uh-

[00:48:04] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[00:48:04] Marc Preston: it, but it's, it's a, it's a definite decadence. Um-

[00:48:07] Owen Dennis: Yes ...

[00:48:08] Marc Preston: the next question I got, like, if you're gonna be sitting down, you got three people, uh, you're gonna be having a good afternoon, having coffee, whatever have you.

[00:48:15] Marc Preston: Living or not, who would those three people be you would love to sit down with, uh, for the, for the afternoon?

[00:48:21] Owen Dennis: Hmm. Um, uh, maybe Phil Tippett might be one. Um, he's the, he was the stop motion special effects guy in, uh, Star Wars and a bunch of '80s, uh, movies.

[00:48:36] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm.

[00:48:36] Owen Dennis: Um, and, um, I probably... Oh, man. This is basically just, like, who my heroes are, basically.

[00:48:44] Owen Dennis: But also, I'm trying to figure out who would make the best conversation. That's, I'm torn between the two of these. I probably... So Phil Tippett My friend Toby Jones.

[00:48:53] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm.

[00:48:55] Owen Dennis: And who would make things fun? Larry David. [00:49:00]

[00:49:00] Marc Preston: Oh, okay.

[00:49:01] Owen Dennis: Let's stick, stick those three. Like an animator, a, a friend of mine, and a awkward comedy guy.

[00:49:09] Owen Dennis: They're not the people that I look at and go like, "Oh, these are the heroes that I wish I could, that I wish I could interview all the time," but they're three people that I look at and go like, "I bet this would be fun to listen to."

[00:49:17] Marc Preston: Yeah. So you're talking about Toby Jones the actor- Mm-hmm ... or is it another Toby Jones?

[00:49:21] Owen Dennis: No, Toby, Toby Jones, my roommate from college. Oh,

[00:49:23] Marc Preston: oh, okay, okay. So, um, the, the, the, the... See, that's the thing. You bring people together who you think would be interesting just to observe their conversation, you know? Yeah. That's, that's part of the fun, where you can kind of hang back and you feel like you're learning something.

[00:49:38] Marc Preston: You know, you're, you're-

[00:49:38] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[00:49:39] Marc Preston: getting a taste of life you wouldn't nor- otherwise have, you know. Um, now the next question I got is y- when you were a kid, going back in the day, who was your very first celebrity crush?

[00:49:49] Owen Dennis: Oh, um, uh, oh, shoot, just a second. Karen Allen. There it is.

[00:49:54] Marc Preston: Karen Allen. Uh, Indiana Jones, right?

[00:49:57] Owen Dennis: Yep.

[00:49:58] Marc Preston: Yeah. Yep. I thought the same thing, yeah. She... [00:50:00] Okay. Karen

[00:50:00] Owen Dennis: Allen.

[00:50:00] Marc Preston: You know, anyone that can drink a, uh, drink someone under the table in the middle of a, wherever they, they... That was how we were introduced to her, right? She was doing shots of something. Yes. The first- Yeah ...

[00:50:09] Owen Dennis: the first thing she did is she was doing shots.

[00:50:11] Marc Preston: Yeah.

[00:50:11] Owen Dennis: Uh, yeah. Uh, Karen Allen, uh, was definitely my first celebrity crush, yeah.

[00:50:15] Marc Preston: Next question. If you're gonna be living on an island, let's say. No, it's a great island. You wanna be there. It's beautiful. It's exotic. You're gonna be, uh- Sure ... nice digs, but no streaming. Okay. So if you're gonna be there for a whole year, you can only bring one CD or a box set.

[00:50:28] Marc Preston: Uh, and, and you can only bring one DVD. So it's music you can listen to over and over again for a year, and a movie you could watch over and over. What would that be for you?

[00:50:37] Owen Dennis: Um, I'd probably bring music. I'd probably bring The first self-titled Gorillaz album

[00:50:47] Marc Preston: Oh, yeah

[00:50:47] Owen Dennis: Um, so one of the things I really like about Gorillaz- That

[00:50:51] Marc Preston: was about 1996-ish,

[00:50:54] Owen Dennis: roughly That, that was maybe...

[00:50:56] Owen Dennis: I wanna say it was like 2000. Like, it was like exact- it was somewhere in [00:51:00] there

[00:51:00] Marc Preston: Okay, okay

[00:51:00] Owen Dennis: It was when I was in junior high-ish, I think. I remember, I remember I listened to it, the first time I heard that album was also at my first party where, uh, there weren't adults and there was some beer, and we were definitely underage, and like, it was one of those things.

[00:51:13] Owen Dennis: Um, and uh, I just, I remember really enjoying that album 'cause there were so many different styles of music on it

[00:51:21] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm

[00:51:21] Owen Dennis: And I remember I read some interview with Damon Albarn that I've very much... He was the, one of the people from Gorillaz, um, the lead for Gorillaz. Uh, I remember I read some interview with him that I've taken to heart very much in like all my work, which is, uh, that he was like, "Nobody knows Blur."

[00:51:41] Owen Dennis: Like, he made, he was the head of, the lead singer in Blur as well

[00:51:45] Marc Preston: Oh,

[00:51:45] Owen Dennis: really? Okay He's like, "No, all these, all these kids that are listening to Gorillaz, they don't know who Blur is. They don't know-" Yeah. W-

[00:51:51] Marc Preston: wasn't Gorillaz sort of a- Um- ... quasi supergroup? It was like some guys got together who had done other stuff- Yeah, it was-

[00:51:56] Marc Preston: other bands

[00:51:57] Owen Dennis: Yeah, it was basically Jamie Hewlett and [00:52:00] Damon Albarn got together and made this cartoon band

[00:52:02] Marc Preston: Right

[00:52:03] Owen Dennis: Um, but what Damon Albarn was talking about is he was sort of like, you know, he wanted every song to start in one genre and then turn into a different genre at some point- Mm ... midway through and do something else.

[00:52:18] Owen Dennis: And basically what you're doing is you're ending up introducing, you know, kids that would be listening to only rock music or only country music, suddenly they've got hip hop in there as well and sort of mixed in, and you end up with all these different, bizarrely different experimental music genres all sort of mixed together.

[00:52:36] Owen Dennis: And so I've always sort of want- I do that, like in my work I'm always like, "Yeah, I wanna do this thing, but also I wanna mix it with this other thing midway through and change the genre and do something else," so it feels surprising and feels fresh, and you always have this sort of fresh thing going on.

[00:52:49] Owen Dennis: So, uh, probably that album

[00:52:52] Marc Preston: Oh, very cool. Um- Now, now what movie would you, uh, what DVD would you br- hey, and I'm all about DVDs, especially now I keep hearing these stories about, you know- ... all the [00:53:00] digital stuff people bought, like, "Oh no, you don't have that anymore," you know? So-

[00:53:03] Owen Dennis: Yeah. ...

[00:53:04] Marc Preston: let's bring back those DVDs, yeah.

[00:53:05] Marc Preston: So what would you bring?

[00:53:06] Owen Dennis: Um, well, I'm torn because if we say what movie would I bring, I'd probably bring like, I don't know, like The, The Matrix or something. But if we were to say what DVD would I bring, I'd probably bring the Terminator 2 special edition DVD. Because This special edition DVD, if I remember right, this is the one from like 2001 or something, 2002 in there somewhere.

[00:53:28] Owen Dennis: They had like a couple of DVDs in it, and they were all about every single special effect and every single thing they did. So there are all these documentaries in there that are just like go super, super in depth about how they made the different effects and things like that. And, uh- Yeah, aren't those com-

[00:53:43] Marc Preston: It was very fun to watch

[00:53:43] Marc Preston: like when you turn on the commentary, the director's commentary or the actors. That's-- I- Yeah ... I always, I think that's something we miss from the DVDs. That's so cool

[00:53:50] Owen Dennis: when you listen- Oh, I love that stuff.

[00:53:51] Marc Preston: Yeah, you hear it-

[00:53:52] Owen Dennis: I, I feel, I always feel a little bit, um, I always feel a little bit sad that I feel like I've reached this point in my career [00:54:00] where I can, I would, if this was the year 2004, be doing DVD commentaries and stuff, which I'd always wanted to do because I was a kid at that time, and now I'm like, "Oh, now I don't get to do them?

[00:54:11] Owen Dennis: That sucks 'cause we're not doing them anymore." It was f- I wanted, I always wanted to do it, you know?

[00:54:16] Marc Preston: I think, you know, that Gen, Gen Z may bring back the idea of DVDs, you know, or maybe there's a way of doing that. Well, I know my son, what he does is he goes on, whenever he watches a movie, uh, he'll go on, uh, YouTube and check out- Yeah

[00:54:29] Marc Preston: the kinda that behind-the-scenes stuff. We watched the most recent- Oh, yeah. I love that stuff ... Avatar the other day, and he did that. Mm-hmm. So that's sort of the same thing. But yeah, when you got a DVD, man, you had it all right there, you know? So I'm a-

[00:54:40] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[00:54:40] Marc Preston: I'm a big fan of that. It

[00:54:41] Owen Dennis: was, it was a lot, but it was also they were trying, they were trying really hard to push people to buy movies, especially movies that they already, they had already bought.

[00:54:47] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm.

[00:54:47] Owen Dennis: And so they were like, "Well, how do we get people to buy these movies?" And they were like, "Well, we'll just pack a whole bunch of extra junk in there." And they would have, they would have documentaries that just went so in depth. Like a lot of the, a lot of the behind-the-scenes things you see now are [00:55:00] really pretty surface level.

[00:55:01] Marc Preston: Yeah.

[00:55:02] Owen Dennis: Um, it's sort of somebody just talking about what's happening or showing a computer screen of something happening. But, uh, the ones from the 2000s and stuff, you can find some in there that are just like, "Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna watch this person, uh, stop motion animate a skeleton across a screen."

[00:55:18] Owen Dennis: And it's just, you're just gonna watch somebody do that, and it's great.

[00:55:22] Marc Preston: Yeah. Plus, you know, I'm a big fan of outtakes also, so that's, that's another benefit there. Mm-hmm. But now the next question, if you were to say, uh, you're gonna have a, get to the end of your day, and you go, "God, that was a perfect day," what are the component parts- Mm-hmm

[00:55:34] Marc Preston: or the ingredients for you for a, a perfect day? Or what would they be?

[00:55:42] Owen Dennis: I think a perfect day would be one, the temperature is about 60 degrees, maybe 55. Um, starting there.

[00:55:51] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm.

[00:55:52] Owen Dennis: I would probably like there to be snow, um, because I live in a snowless place and I miss it.

[00:55:59] Marc Preston: Um- [00:56:00] You are very much in an incubator.

[00:56:01] Marc Preston: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That's, that's one thing when I lived in LA. The only, the only thing I remember from LA that was really different was June gloom. I remember that. The whole-

[00:56:10] Owen Dennis: It's a, it's a very strange thing going, going from a place that has a lot of seasons, like Minnesota, to here, where there aren't any seasons.

[00:56:16] Owen Dennis: It really messes with your memories where you realize, like, "Oh, I didn't realize how many of my memories were tied to seasons." Um, and then I come out here and I'm like, "I have no idea how much time has passed. I don't know when that happened," or whatever. Um, anyway, I'd probably do something with snow or even I'm saying with snow and it's also 50 degrees.

[00:56:34] Owen Dennis: Eh, we'll see. Um, but I would want to be about that temperature, and I think I would, uh, probably have just watched a movie, eat some Korean barbecue, um, and just, like, be hanging out with my friends and making a lot of jokes. Like, that's the main thing I wanna do every day is just, like, hanging out with friends and making [00:57:00] jokes.

[00:57:00] Marc Preston: I agree. I

[00:57:01] Owen Dennis: mean, like, friends and family, and that's, that's kind of it. I like it. It's, it's a good time. That's- Like, if I get to do that for the rest of my life, and then whenever I wanted to go direct something, that'd be a perfect life.

[00:57:12] Marc Preston: Friends make it, you know? It's who, who you're around I think- Yeah ... is what you remember.

[00:57:15] Owen Dennis: All I wanna do is just laugh with friends and stuff all day. That's the great... It's so, it's so, it's, it's kind of lame to be like, "You know what I really like? Laughing." But like, it is, it's great. That's all I wanna do all day. When,

[00:57:25] Marc Preston: when you, when I think about the things, when I look back at time, like if I were go, I'm gonna go back to my 20s or even early 30s, let's say.

[00:57:30] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm. When was I enjoying myself the most? Before I had my kids, you know, 'cause that, that adds, adds a new paradigm. It's just one of the friends, I'm laughing. Things are lighter. There's more levity, you know? And when you're laughing- Yeah ... it can even be a rough time in your life, but you're sitting there laughing about it.

[00:57:44] Owen Dennis: It's, um- But some, some of my favorite moments are, like, when I was in college at 2:00 AM going to McDonald's with my friends and eating in the parking lot and talking about girls. Like, it was fantastic. I loved that. It was great. It

[00:57:56] Marc Preston: all comes back to McDonald's, no matter what country.

[00:57:58] Owen Dennis: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um- Back to [00:58:00] McDonald's, yeah.

[00:58:00] Marc Preston: Now, uh, last couple questions. If you weren't doing this, if somebody said to you, "Okay, Owen, uh, this animation thing, this writing creative thing that you're doing is just not available to you any- it's not available to you anymore," what, what would be the next vocation for you?

[00:58:16] Owen Dennis: I've always wondered that, and I've thought I remember I, I know that there's this alternate life that I have where I am a pastry chef, not because I like making pastries, but because when I was in junior high, they had us take, like, one of those career test things- Uh-huh

[00:58:35] Owen Dennis: where it's like, "What can you... What are you gonna go do as a career?" Your aptitude, vocational

[00:58:39] Marc Preston: aptitude test thing. Yeah.

[00:58:40] Owen Dennis: Exactly. And I was like, "I really wanna go into art." And they're like, "Well, take this test." So I took the whole test, and they were like, "You should be a pastry chef." And I was like, "I don't-

[00:58:49] Owen Dennis: know what that is, nor do I want to do that." But I, I can see a part of my li- a part of me being like, "I guess that's what I have to do," and that's what I would end up doing. It also turns out, I [00:59:00] remember that test that we took was sponsored or, or put on or something by the local community college. So the whole point was to just- Oh, okay

[00:59:08] Owen Dennis: get kids to go to that community college for whatever majors they had.

[00:59:10] Marc Preston: So they were pushing some- It

[00:59:11] Owen Dennis: was all, it was all just a scam.

[00:59:13] Marc Preston: You were in an in- indoctrination zone and didn't even know it.

[00:59:15] Owen Dennis: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:59:16] Marc Preston: Um-

[00:59:16] Owen Dennis: A total, total scam.

[00:59:18] Marc Preston: But pastry, now I mi- hey, you know what? I, I'm more of a freeform... I like cooking.

[00:59:21] Marc Preston: Anything I can throw in a skillet, make things happen, you know. Oh, yeah. Uh, but my daughter and I, I had those quintessential bunch of bananas that went, you know, south. I'm like, "We're gonna do banana bread." Sure. We say we're gonna do it. We did it. We did it. I'm like, "Damn, that came out okay." I was kind of proud of myself.

[00:59:36] Marc Preston: Mm-hmm. The house smelled more welcoming, you know? Yeah. So I need to get into- I recently- ... a little bit of baking, I guess ...

[00:59:41] Owen Dennis: I recently did a bunch of, you know, fried tofu with, like, an orange sauce. And I was like, "This is fantastic." Like, "Why am I even doing this? This is great."

[00:59:48] Marc Preston: That's, that's the... You gotta... You know, there's a place in New Orleans where I w- I haven't found any place here, but they did the, they have...

[00:59:54] Marc Preston: It was a real deal Asian market, and they made real deal tofu. And it reminds me when I was- Yeah ... little, my [01:00:00] father had an office right down the way. I remember it was called Shin Shin Grocery. It was a little grocery- Mm-hmm ... and it was just down this strip shopping center thing, and a guy actually showed me how they made tofu.

[01:00:10] Marc Preston: And I remember- Oh, cool ... I was, like, trying to be helpful. I was, like, eight or... No, I was, like, 10. I was 10, 10 or 11. Yeah. And so I go in there- Yeah ... and I, and it's a press, and I'm like, "I'm gonna help him out." I'm like, and I turn the press, I turn the wheel, and you have these stacked palettes of all this tofu.

[01:00:23] Marc Preston: Yeah. And it all started oozing out, and he's like, "Oh," you know, whatever. He was speaking in Cantonese or whatever. He's like, "Oh, no, no, no, no." Yeah. And I felt so bad. He's like, "No, no, no, not a problem, not a problem." Then they, uh, took the tofu, and he had different kinds of tofu. Like, one he would-

[01:00:37] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[01:00:37] Marc Preston: it was, like, baked or, but it was all firm, and it was really...

[01:00:40] Marc Preston: It w- I don't know, man. I like real deal tofu. You know?

[01:00:43] Owen Dennis: I, I, when I was, when I was, when I was, uh, four, when I was four or five, something like that, uh, my dad used to take me to this donut shop, um, in, 'cause I was living in Illinois at the time- Um, my dad would take us to his, take me to his donut shop, and they took a liking to me because I was the only [01:01:00] kid who's, who was being taken out and about by his dad, which at the time was a rather unusual thing.

[01:01:07] Owen Dennis: Um, and so I was a little baby and I was a little kid and stuff, and we went to this donut shop all the time, and the donut shop owner had this big waxed mustache. And, and, um, they liked me so much that they eventually, at one point, I, I had like one of those long johns that I sucked all the s- all the, all the filling out of a long john.

[01:01:25] Owen Dennis: And, uh, I had sucked it all out and I, I had... was sort of like, "Oh man, I sucked all the filling out. I don't know what to do." And the owner, like, was like, "Oh, come here." And then he took me by the, by the shoulder and, like, led me into the back of this donut shop where I got to see the entirety of this- ... Willy Wonka-esque, like, donut, uh, making machines that he had in his, in the back of the donut shop.

[01:01:51] Owen Dennis: Then he went over to this big press and just squeezed a bunch of extra filling into my donut like a little cup- ... and then gave it back to me. And I was like, "This [01:02:00] is incredible." Like very memorable for a, for a four-year-old.

[01:02:03] Marc Preston: Oh, that's- It was wonderful ... see, those are great memories though. You can kinda go back and it was sort of like that, 'cause that stuff was magic back then, you know?

[01:02:09] Marc Preston: It was like-

[01:02:10] Owen Dennis: Yeah ...

[01:02:10] Marc Preston: you know. Yeah. And I, I vividly remember being in, uh, second grade and they took us on a tour of the kitchen of, of, of, uh, Burger King at one point in time. Great. I'm thinking, I'm thinking, "How dangerous is that to take a bunch of second grade?" Yeah. I mean, I'm a Gen X kid. That's kind of nuts.

[01:02:25] Marc Preston: I mean, they just like, you know, whatever. It'll be fine. Just don't touch that. I can

[01:02:27] Owen Dennis: see a lot of, a lot of kids getting boiled alive or something. Yeah.

[01:02:31] Marc Preston: You know, stealing french fries and, you know- Yeah ... out, right out of the oil or something. Um- Yeah ... but, uh, but the last que- question I got for you, if you were to jump into that DeLorean and you could travel back to- Sure

[01:02:41] Marc Preston: when you were 16 years old and you, you got a few minutes with you and you could offer a piece of advice to make that moment of your life somehow better or to get you on a different, little bit different traj- trajectory, what would that piece of advice to 16-year-old you be?[01:03:00]

[01:03:00] Owen Dennis: Uh, 16-year-old version of me?

[01:03:02] Marc Preston: Oh, yeah.

[01:03:02] Owen Dennis: Um, one, you're gonna be fine. Two, cut the ego. Like, there, there you go. Like, you don't, you don't need to have this ego, man. You're fine. Um- Really ... it was, it's, it was one of those equal things where I was like, I was so sad when I was that age 'cause I didn't know anybody who was like me.

[01:03:19] Owen Dennis: And so what it would do is I think it led to a lot of sort of defense mechanisms going up, where if I had something that I was good at or did have some knowledge of, I wanted to be like the perfect person at it. I wanted, I was like- Yeah, yeah ... I was, I knew about it, you know? I know about this thing, so I'm the best at it.

[01:03:37] Owen Dennis: And it's like, that's just wrong.

[01:03:38] Marc Preston: You had that feeling like you cracked the code on something nobody understands.

[01:03:42] Owen Dennis: Exactly. Yeah. And it's classic 16-year-old behavior that didn't go away for me until I was like 21-ish. Um, you know, later than that honestly. But, uh, I still, still I'm sure have it. Um, but it is, that's, that's something that just like

[01:03:59] Owen Dennis: [01:04:00] So I, I, I always wanna just be like, "It's okay. You will be happier. I promise you will be happier-

[01:04:05] Marc Preston: Well, that's good. No, I know that feeling ... than you are right now." It's like that feeling all the academic types or all the sporting types where there's the, the, their skill set is evident, you know, because they're out on the playing field or they're getting their grades and...

[01:04:18] Marc Preston: But you know this- Yeah ... thing that is a little bit more subjective and it's, uh, it's... You

[01:04:25] Owen Dennis: know, I'm also saying, you know- Yeah. At the, at the time, at the time it felt very, um, out- outcasty. You know? It was a lot of pushing away, and I also, I didn't have ... You know, I wasn't the same religion as my peers at the time, so that was a whole big thing as well.

[01:04:39] Owen Dennis: And so there were always these sort of ways that I got sort of pushed out. And I do- Well,

[01:04:44] Marc Preston: up there

[01:04:44] Owen Dennis: everybody's,

[01:04:45] Marc Preston: is Lutheran, right? Is that the- Yes ... that's

[01:04:47] Owen Dennis: prevailing? Yes. It's a lot of Lutherans. Ah. A lot of Lutherans and Catholics and yeah, that's, that's kinda it. Um, but my family was, uh, we were ... I am an atheist really.

[01:04:57] Owen Dennis: Mm-hmm. Um, and so, [01:05:00] you know, you end up with people who treated you, treated me poorly because of that. Um, and I ended up hanging out with the other kids that were in that sort of zone. Um, and I did have, you know, I had good friends and stuff, but I definitely felt constantly like sort of pushed away a lot as a kid by, by people around me.

[01:05:21] Owen Dennis: Um- who were often even sometimes often by adults. Like, it was just, it was ridiculous. It was, it was terrible.

[01:05:28] Marc Preston: Yeah. Oh, no, no. I remember vividly. I remember- ... a Jewish kid growing up in the buckle of the Bible Belt. I remember being in second grade- Mm-hmm ... and being told I'm going to hell- Mm ... because I'm Jewish.

[01:05:36] Marc Preston: Uh- Yeah ... it was the first time I ever- Yeah,

[01:05:37] Owen Dennis: same.

[01:05:38] Marc Preston: I was like, "What a, what a..." You know, uh, I always say that some people will crack a little bit on, uh, uh, uh, uh, um, LDS, uh, uh, a Mormon. I'm like, "I've never met a Mormon person- Yeah, yeah ... I didn't like," you know? I remember they did the quintessential thing, knocked on the door.

[01:05:52] Marc Preston: They wanted to talk to me. I was like, "Hey man, I'm Jewish, but I appreciate it." And we just had this nice little conversation. And, uh, but I've had other people knock on the door and they're, you know, they, they say, "Can we [01:06:00] talk to you about whatever?" And this is back home in Dallas when I was a little kid.

[01:06:02] Marc Preston: I'm a, I'm a little kid- Yeah ... answering the door. You know, I'm a Gen X kid 'cause, you know. And they're like, "Do- Yeah ... you don't wanna go to hell, do you?" I'm like, "You know, I'm, like, 11. What, why are we having this conversation?" kind of a thing, you know? Yeah.

[01:06:13] Owen Dennis: Yes. Uh,

[01:06:13] Marc Preston: uh, and so-

[01:06:14] Owen Dennis: Yeah, that happened, that happened a lot when I was a kid.

[01:06:16] Owen Dennis: Like, I remem- One, one of the things that I was actually, again, very lucky with my parents and my family is that they, um... M- I remember my house ended up being sort of one of those refuge houses for, like, kids who were being treated poorly by their parents- Yeah ... in various ways, where they're, where... You know, like, I had friends who were...

[01:06:36] Owen Dennis: I had, I had a friend who was, you know, kidnapped in the middle of the night and taken to a camp, like, to re- s- re-educate him into the faith. Like, one of those kinds of things. Um, and he was, like, 17 when that happened, and it's like, dude. It was like, it was... And then, then I remember they had, when he finally came back, like, kids had to sign things saying they'd never speak to him again.

[01:06:59] Owen Dennis: Like, all kinds [01:07:00] of crazy shit like that. Um, so I would basically be like, "Hey, you know, these people around you have their own insane lives that are not y- you don't worry about that. You're never gonna have to deal with them later- Yeah ... once you find your group. Yeah. You will find your group, and you're not gonna have to deal with these people anymore.

[01:07:18] Owen Dennis: You have to deal with them-

[01:07:19] Marc Preston: I always thought of- You know- I always thought, boiled down

[01:07:21] Owen Dennis: like that- ... in, in greater ways, but- It's

[01:07:22] Marc Preston: like, why does somebody wanna push- ... not

[01:07:24] Owen Dennis: necessarily personally ... y-

[01:07:24] Marc Preston: I always thought, like, why does somebody wanna push so hard on you? It's like, "Hey, if you do the thing that f- you find that makes you feel good and happy and you're a better person- Yeah

[01:07:31] Marc Preston: in the world, I don't care what that is." But it's- I remember- ... you know, just l- live

[01:07:35] Owen Dennis: and let live ... I remember sometimes I was, I remember sometimes I had to be, like, the, um, the ideal atheist, which is a weird, weird thing. The ideal. But I had, I had friend, friend family, f- family friends who I'd, like, go over to their house, and they didn't believe that I was an atheist because I was a good kid.

[01:07:53] Owen Dennis: And so they were like, they would tell my friends, like, "Oh, no, he's Christian." My friends would be like, "No, he's not, he's atheist." And like, "No, no, he's not." And they [01:08:00] just, like, wouldn't believe it. Um, so I always had to, like, be very, like, putting on a good face for, I don't know, lack of, lack of religion. It was a very strange, very strange thing.

[01:08:12] Owen Dennis: But anyway, to talk to a 16-year-old version of me, I'd be like, "It's gonna be okay." That's mostly, I th- it's gonna be fine. You'll be fine.

[01:08:19] Marc Preston: Well, man, no, I appreciate you taking some time out with me today. This was fun. I, I really enjoyed it, and I'm, I've, I'm enjoying get- digging into the, uh, l- 'cause I'm a VO guy.

[01:08:27] Marc Preston: I love digging into the-

[01:08:28] Owen Dennis: Mm-hmm ...

[01:08:28] Marc Preston: voice acting, you know, and listening to- Yeah ... the, to the folks. But-

[01:08:31] Owen Dennis: Well, this is- You know ... this is also just a great, uh, this is a great conversation. I like that we're just talking. It's great.

[01:08:36] Marc Preston: This is my three-hour drive into animation, and I'm- Yeah ... we're in a corn field right now, or y- which just does- Yeah

[01:08:43] Marc Preston: not sound, it sounds very scary, actually, when you say. But I appreciate that, you know. It's kinda like, uh, doing a, doing a little walkabout. And I, I enjoyed learning-

[01:08:52] Owen Dennis: Yeah. One time I stayed in a corn field, just to add another onto that. One time I stayed in a corn field, and I was sleeping in the backseat, and some cops pulled up and [01:09:00] were, like, knocking on my window.

[01:09:01] Owen Dennis: And they're like, "Hey, are you alive?" And I was like, "Yeah." And they're like, "We, we got a report of a dead body in the back of a car." I was like, "No. I'm alive. I'm just playing my Game Boy." They're like, "All right."

[01:09:14] Marc Preston: You know, I gotta tell you, though- "Could you go somewhere else?" I mean, it's not often- I was like, "Yeah"

[01:09:16] Marc Preston: people can say, at one point in time in my life, you know, somebody thought I was a dead guy in a car, you know? That was- Yeah.

[01:09:22] Owen Dennis: Yeah.

[01:09:23] Marc Preston: But, uh, well, my friend, well, you t- you take care, and, uh, man, I, I, I appreciate you spending some time with me. Uh, it's, it's fun. I'm, I'm, uh, like I said, look- looking forward to digging in.

[01:09:33] Marc Preston: I haven't had a chance to watch Infinity Train. I'm gonna go dig into that as well, you know. So I'm gonna- Oh, yeah,

[01:09:37] Owen Dennis: go for

[01:09:38] Marc Preston: it ... I'm gonna have my own Dennis-athon. So, but, uh- How

[01:09:40] Owen Dennis: old are your, how old are your kids?

[01:09:41] Marc Preston: Uh, 23, 21, and 20. Okay. So they're all kinda right, right in there. I think my s- my son is the one I think who would probably enjoy it the most, you know?

[01:09:49] Marc Preston: So-

[01:09:49] Owen Dennis: Yeah. They're like, uh, I feel like Infinity Train is meant for, like- teens-

[01:09:55] Marc Preston: Uh-huh ...

[01:09:55] Owen Dennis: pretty much. But I've found a lot, a lot of people in their early [01:10:00] 20s really like it a lot.

[01:10:01] Marc Preston: My friend, well, you have yourself a, a, a, a, a really killer rest of your week, and, uh, and hopefully we'll have an opportunity to, uh, catch up down the line, I hope.

[01:10:09] Owen Dennis: Thank you very much. This has been great.

[01:10:12] Marc Preston: Okay, there you go, Owen Dennis. Very cool, uh, to sit down and talk, uh, the world of animation. It's always fun. Learned a thing or two. Enjoyed it. Of course, Owen's show, the latest animated series, Among Us, is available right now on Paramount+. And do me a small favor.

[01:10:29] Marc Preston: Uh, just head over to your podcast app, make sure to follow Story and Craft, leave a like, you know, leave a comment. Hey, it's always appreciated because that way it helps people to find this show, and I appreciate you doing that. Also, everything, uh, about the show you would like to learn, like past guests, past episodes, it is all on the site.

[01:10:49] Marc Preston: Just go to storyandcraftpod.com, and it's all right there for you. So yeah, I'm gonna head on out and go grab myself a little lunch. Have a great rest of your day. Uh, as I always [01:11:00] say, thank you very much for making what I got going on here part of whatever you've got going on. So come on back by. Got another episode coming up, and I look forward to talking to you then right here on Story and Craft.

[01:11:11] Announcer: That's it for this episode of Story and Craft. Join Marc next week for more conversation right here on Story and Craft. Story and Craft is a presentation of Marc Preston Productions, LLC. Executive producer is Marc Preston. Associate producer is Zachary Holden. Please rate and review Story and Craft on Apple Podcasts.

[01:11:33] Announcer: Don't forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. You can subscribe to show updates and stay in the know. Just head to storyandcraftpod.com and sign up for the newsletter. I'm Emma Dylan. See you next time, and remember, keep telling your story.