Black Dynamite crew (left to right) Cream Corn, Black Dynamite, Honeybee and Bullhorn.
Photo Courtesy Adult Swim
Animation series Black Dynamite is back for their second season on Adult Swim. Premiering October 18, Black Dynamite is currently in a three week rotation, putting the dynamite back in television. Created by Michael Jai White, Byron Minns and Scott Sanders and produced by Ars Nova, Jon Steingart and Carl Jones (Boondocks), the series is based on the film Black Dynamite (2009), which follows infamous and reprised characters Michael Jai White as Black Dynamite, Byron Minns as Bullhorn, Tommy Davidson as Cream Corn and Kym Whitley as Honeybee.
On how it feels to be back for the second season, “It feels great, the first season we got a chance to get our feet wet and we’re now at the second season,” said Bryon Minns. “We have a show to produce and I’m happy.” “It’s difficult to stay on air. You see a lot of shows come and go, they like what we’re doing and the fans are responding,” states Carl Jones.
Black Dynamite airs on Adult Swim, where cartoon series are often viewed as risqué and unorthodox. “It’s probably the only place it could be done,” jokes Minns. “I absolutely agree, there are very few things that we try to do that the network won’t let us do and I think we get spoiled sometimes, they definitely let us push the bars as far we can go,” Jones on the level of content distributed.
Black Dynamite spoofs and pays tribute to the Blaxploitation film era during the 1970s. “The film was a spoof and homage at the same time, but the animation is its own animal, now it’s an exploration of those characters in its own world,” states Minns. “It really doesn’t even reek of Blaxploitation, it becomes one entity. White who plays the main character feels the cartoon is a tribute to the movie. “It’s not too much to the Blaxploitation era in the cartoon as it was to the film, because the film making process was a part of the Blaxploitation era.”
On growing up watching films like Coffy and Shaft, “Those weren’t just Black films, they were films airing every Saturday,” Minns recalls. “It was the first time we ever saw Black actors other than Bill Cosby who played in I Spy, they were characters that I actually grew up around, there were people with those clothes and cars that were in my neighborhood I talk too, sat down with and look up to. Now they were on screen, so there was a lot of influence.” “I came into a little backwards, I started listening to Richard Pryor albums which led me to The Mack (1973), leading me to the Dolemite record”, said Jones. “Everyone one of our characters are influenced and comprised by what existed in those movies, my character is comprised of Jim Brown (Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off), Jim Kelly (Enter the Dragon) and Fred Williamson (Black Caesar),” said White on action heroes of Blaxploitation encompassing his role. “Cream Corn is based off of Antonio Fargas (Foxy Brown), he was the man of that character in a lot of the films.”
Black Dynamite Season 2 cast NYCC Comic-Con (l to r) Tommy Davidson, Michael Jai White, Kym Whitley, Carl Jones and Bryon Minns.
Why this genre? “It was probably the first and only time in Black film, where we had someone like Jim Brown, a strong Black male in character,” acknowledges Minns. “A lot of those movies then weren’t exploited, Blaxploitation was coined a lot later and there were very strong alpha male figures,” said Jones. “This was the world that these people lived in even after the 1970s, you’ll find a correlation of kids that look up to the hustler in the community, they were the people who took their lives into their own hands and made something out of nothing, that aspect of it is what spoke to us as children and we like the fact they were fearless and took control of their own destiny.” “It’s very easy for someone to look at these films and say why are you portraying us as prostitutes, pimps and hustlers, its important to put it into context and really understand it from that perspective of the era and the people in that position at that particular time.”
White used martial arts in the film and the cartoon is an accomplished martial artists “I grew up on martial arts, Kung Fu is a main stay in a lot of the movies, whether they knew or not,” said White.
Davidson on going from Oscar Proud on Proud Family to Cream Corn on Black Dynamite, “What I’m doing is the same, but just different characters,” states Davidson. Film producers knew I could go from line-to-line and change lines and still stay in the concept of the character. Oscar Proud came in as a very wirey guy who loves his family to death, has Proud snacks and would try anything. It was the same way with Cream Corn, just being able to bring the essences of what I would bring to a character and fashion it specifically for that character.”
On Black Dynamite time traveling, “We want to give a pure voice to something, we want to offer fresh milk to the formula that’s out there. Something that’s a little more pure and has its own point of view,” White on episodes going beyond 1970s era.
Black Dynamite airs Saturdays at 10:30 pm on Adult Swim.
shonassee@lasentinel.net
