Storyboards are the foundation of every scene in any animated TV series or feature film. I don’t think I’m out of line when I say that the Silver Surfer storyboards were as original and creative as they come.
Like all the character and location designs, the boards were a homage to the original comic book art of Jack Kirby, who co-created the character with Marvel Editor-Writer Stan Lee. I think that the look of this show, with its combination of hand drawn art and CGI – is just as unique now as it was when it first appeared back in the late 1990s.
Kudos to a brilliant art team, led by Roy Smith and Dale Hendrickson!
And here’s the page of my script that the storyboard segment is based on:
THE SILVER SURFER
“THE ORIGIN OF THE SILVER SURFER: PART ONE”
TEASER
FADE IN:
EXT. THE UNIVERSE
As it literally EXPLODES ONTO SCREEN! We PAN ACROSS clouds
of interstellar dust spinning into galaxies, stars
coalescing, planets being born, and, OVER this we HEAR:
THE WATCHER (V.O.)
Behold the universe! Incredibly
complex, yet wonderfully simple,
it encompasses all creation while
racing toward its ultimate end.
Suns go nova and supernova, the planets near them exploding.
Black holes collapse in on themselves. We CONTINUE PANNING,
TO a group of galaxies — a Milky Way of Milky Ways.
THE WATCHER (V.O.)
(continuing)
Within this maelstrom of growth and
destruction blaze millions of galaxies,
billions of stars andplanets.
We TIGHTEN within the group of galaxies, so that we can see
various individual stars, with planets circling around them.
THE WATCHER (V.O.)
(continuing)
This sector of the universe alone
is home to uncountable civilizations…
EXT. SERIES OF SCENES INCLUDING:
EXT. FIRST PLANET
We SEE the COTATI, a species that resembles mobile plants,
living around a flowering oasis.
EXT. SECOND PLANET
We SEE the HWINNIM, a horselike but intelligent species on a
desolate planet, staring into space like house cats…Or Zen
masters.
EXT. THIRD PLANET
We SEE a radially symmetrical species made of gleaming
crystal, moving through a crystalline city.
Back to THE SILVER SURFER