- Doctor Who Season 2 section 2 will be a Live-Action Animation Hybrid
- Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu explain how they were preparing to play animated characters in ‘Lux’
- The chapter has a fully animated villain called Mister Ring-A-DING
Doctor WhoTwo main stars have revealed the unusual homework they were assigned to prepare for Season 2’s next episode.
In a speech with Techradar, Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu discussed the exciting but challenging process of bringing the doctor and Bel to life in animated form. That’s because if it wasn’t clear, the iconic sci-fi series’ next episode will be a live-action animation Hybrid-a that will see the show’s leading duo turned into animated characters.
The second episode of Doctor Who Season 2, entitled ‘Lux’, will see the dishonest time traveler and his new companion travel to the 1950s Miami. Once there, they will find that a local theater is hiding a scary secret. It becomes mister ring-a-ding, a fully animated villain who, as teased in Doctor Who Season 2’s first trailer, kidnaps people and turns them into cartoon forms by themselves.
Losing Ring-a-ding’s appearances in that teaser and Doctor Who Season 2’s official trailer immediately reminded me of the rubber snake’s animation style from the American ‘golden era of comics. It is an art form that was primarily used in the 1930s, with companies, including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Fleischer Studios and Walter Lantz Productions that meet their animated offerings with its surrealist qualities.
While this form of animation affected some of the visuals in ‘Lux’, Gatwa and Sethu told me that the style used to bring their character to life actually draws his inspiration from another famous animation study in Hanna-Barbera. When the legendary Time Lord and Bel were transformed into cartoon versions by themselves in Disney+ Show’s next post, they were put some curious homework by Showrunner Russell T. Davies before filming this season’s second rate.
“It was so funny!” Replied Gatwa enthusiastically. “The [filming ‘Lux’] was a highlight of shooting this season.
“In the manuscript, every animation style had been noticed for us to see, so we knew the animation style to be used on our characters. It was like a Hanna-Barbera-type cartoon so we spent our mornings watching SCOOBY-DOO.
“We are serious actors – we do our research!” He continued with a laugh. “But we needed it to get in the right headspace to perform these scenes. We filmed them in person so we had to find out all of our animated form movements ahead of time. How does a cartoon think? How is it moving? When and how can we gesticulate as an animated human?”
“It’s much more increased than how normal people communicate,” Sethu added about one of the best Disney+ Shows’ next chapter. “Then we were told to see SCOOBY-DOO To repeat these exaggerated movements. These were animated later by our amazing crew. It was so fun to see how the whole process worked and we were so happy to see what our comics looked like when the episode was over. “
For more Who-based cover, read my review of Doctor Who Season 2 section 1. Alternatively, find out when Season 2 will premiere on Disney+ International and BBC One/BBC IPlayer in England, or learn more about how the Doctor’s Dynamics with Bel differ from the one he enjoyed with Ruby Sunday.
