World Premiere of Talking Tom and Friends

I was one of the fortunate ones who was invited to the world premiere screening of the new YouTube animated series Talking Tom and Friends, featuring the voice of Golden Globe®-nominee Colin Hanks (“Fargo,” “Dexter”), Tom Kenny (“SpongeBob SquarePants,”), James Admomian (“Comedy Bang Bang!,” “Gravity Falls”), Maria Bramford (“WordGirl,”), and YouTube star Lisa Schwartz as Angela (“Not Cool”). Tom, played by Hanks, the lead character is a wisecracking, adventure-seeking feline. Tom is equipped with cameras, tech gadgets, tons of ideas, and an unfailing sense of optimism. The animated series follows Tom and his friends as they make their own show from the comfort of Tom’s garage that he turned into an app studio!

Premiere was held at the trendy You Tube Space LA

Bubbles at the premiere of Talking Tom and friends

The event was held at the very hip YouTube Space LA in Los Angeles on April 30th. YouTube Space LA is designed to help creators learn, connect and create content. Overall, the premiere was very festive. It included a red carpet, gigantic bubble machines, and schwag for all the visitors. The giveaway was a canvas bag custom made with attendee names on it and surprise… a selfie stick.

Customized Schwags

The first celeb that walked the red carpet was Tom Kenney (the voice of SpongeBob). When I asked him, what makes this animation different among others he said….

“The thing that I find the most interesting about this, and kinda unprecedented is we’re actually entering the era where a cartoon can be based on a phone app. You don’t get lots of animated series based on a popular phone app. Has that ever happened before? Oh.. maybe Angry Birds or something. These are amazing times. We are in this totally transitional time.

Traditionally cartoon series came from when somebody pitched an idea…then you put together a bible, and you put together a storyboard and you know two years later you have a cartoon if you’re lucky. But now you know, ‘hey the phone app is popular let’s take these characters…and broaden the characters and the personalities and put them in a house together. It’s like Seinfeld with fur.”

Posing with some of the cast on step and repeat

I asked Colin Hanks about being in the animated series. He said…

“It’s been fun. It’s been cool. Majority of times, it’s just me alone in the room making silly voices, but the other day we had not all of the cast but a large chunk of them together. It’s a fun experience.”