When DreamWorks decided to take their hit movie Home and make an TV version, it opened up the Home universe. With new characters, new lessons and new adventures. One of the new characters is full of personality and her name is Sharzod. We were able to sit down with Executive Producer Ryan Crego and the voice of Sharzod Ron Funches to learn more about the role Sharzod will be playing in the new episodes.
Tell us more about yourself and your part in the new show:
Ryan Crego – We developed the show about two years ago. The studio approached us and said “we have this movie, and we’re doing this TV thing (which hadn’t been announced) and we want you guys to take a look at this movie in progress.” At first it was us doing this show and we had these strong lovable characters so we had a good jumping off point. We surrounded ourselves with this amazing voice talent and that’s been our last two years.
Ron Funches – I play Sharzod, I say Dang a lot. I’m on Undateable, I’m in that Trolls movie and a bunch of things. I was really drawn to this character. She’s just super fun, and really great and also it’s more fun as a guy to play a more feminine character and play a lady. It’s really fun for me. It gives me a chance to be sassy and out of control and really funny. They’re really good about letting me improvise lines, try funny things if I feel like it and at least make me think they’re going to use it.
How do you you like playing this part compared to your other roles? This is a completely different role than what you do on Undateable.
Funches – It is and it isn’t. The part I play on Undateable is Shelly, who is also kind of a sweet weirdo. I’d say Sharzod is also a sweet weirdo, but more aggressive and a bit boy crazy. Which a lot of people can be at that time. I just get to wake up and go out of control, and then they reign me back in a little.
Are you patterning the girl inside after a sister or aunts?
Funches – It’s a lot of my mom, basically. It’s a lot of attitude in my house. I was raised with a lot of women, I grew up in a household with my sister, my mom, my aunt and her daughter. So it was a lot of “Boy you better do what I say” type of things going on in the house, and I bring that into Sharzod. Who is a lady very sure of herself, who doesn’t take a lot of crass from anybody and just very sure of herself and confident. I like that. I love that in a female character even if it’s played by a man.
Crego – What I love about Sharzod is she tells it like it is. And inspite of that, she can maybe be abrasive or inssensitive, you still love her. She still has this sweetness and this joyful nature.
Funches – She’s all emotion. She’s all about love and her emotions switch at the drop of a hat. She’s very in love or very angry, very sad or very loud. Whatever it is, she feels it 100% and I love that about her.
It’s interesting that other than Oh, most of the Boovs seem to have very little emotion.
Crego – it’s true, the Boov started out as this hive mind type of group When we bring them down in this series and bring them down to Earth, some of them start to find more personality than others. There’s still a big group of them that clump together up in Boovs land that have this hive mentality. But then you have Oh, for example who has Tip for a reference he gets to learn from her. If you’ve seen the movie, we took a lot from from the moment of “Sad Mad”. How can you be sad and mad at the same time. Oh didn’t understand that. That was this huge thing for us, it’s this moment where the character begins to experience complex emotions for the first time. It courses through his body. I think Sharzod is a similar character she’s excited about what she finds on earth. She’s excited by dance parties and fashion and all this stuff, social media and selfies.
Funches – She’s all about the human condition. Anything that humans have to offer.
Crego – So you see a whole spectrum of Boov characters. You get to see what it’s like with the more traditional Boovs, to have a Boov who doesn’t approve of others who hang out with humans. These very sort of traditional ways, and that’s a big part of the show. You have two different cultures that are learning about what the others eat, what their cultures are, what they’re traditions are. It’s not a preachy platform, but it’s about acceptance and getting along in the modern society – it’s a big part of the show. That and Family are the two big tenants we keep going back to.
What was the inspiration for the style for the show?
Crego – Candyland! We got the characters to the point we wanted them, and then placed them on a bunch of different story books. And then we spread them out on the table and were like “Oh that’s really cool” How can we bridge those together? We found inspiration in stuff we really liked, and that had a huge impact. The color pallette, so much of that is Sue Mondt and we were just blessed to have someone with her talent and vision working with us.
So how did you come up with the character Sharzod? I don’t remember her from the movie
Crego – She wasn’t in the movie. It was late one night, I owed DreamWorks a bunch of work. I drew this Boov with high heels on. It was the funniest thing to me, all the high heels on the pods. We didn’t really know much about the character. We wrote some lines and DreamWorks sent it out for a casting call. We got one back that was mind blowing, and it was Ron.
Funches – When I saw the character, it was easy for me to get behind. It was all about the ladies. I grew up playing Pretty Pretty Princess repetitively. With the tiara.
You didn’t hesitate playing a girl character?
Funches – Not at all. Most importantly she was fun and had a lot of heart and a lot of attitude. She’s a lot of fun. There’s a sort of sweetness to her under all the yelling.She’s very sparkly. She’s a firecracker of a character. I have fun, it’s like having a cup of coffee when I go in.
Crego – There was a time that Sharzod was going to be Captain Smek’s daughter. So she would have been a princess. Then we realized Boov don’t have families so we couldn’t do that. She can be a princess, but the family thing threw us off. She’s got this beautiful crystal palace house in the middle of these old brownstones. It’s this big pink crystal house. There’s a dance floor on top, there’s a dance floor inside.
I think this show is in the same wheelhouse as Adventure Time. We do story board driven stories . And we bring a lot of comedy and weirdness and fun to it. So there are similarities to it, Sponge Bob, Ren and Stimpy. We have a lot of heart and layered humor.
What is the age range you think the show is targeting?
Funches – I feel it has a wide range, I feel my son who is 13 would like it. 6,7,8 year olds would like it. But maybe not too too young – it’s very colorful. There’s something for everybody. The story has a lot of heart and on top of that there’s other references. It’s not like if you don’t get the reference you don’t get the jokes. If you get the reference, you get a feeling of “Oh I’m let in on a little secret”. I think those are very fun to me.
Crego – I think the target age range is 6-11. But I’ve worked with DreamWorks for a long time. I worked on Shrek, and it’s one of those shows that bridges all age ranges. Little kids love it, it doesn’t matter what age you are. There’s something for everyone and that’s important to me. That’s the idea, everyone gets something out of the show.
