Kim Yuan Xu is an award-winning 2D animator and designer based in New York City and was born and raised in China. Her personal short film The Button has won Best Animation in Los Angeles Film Awards, New York Film Awards and ONIROS Film Awards 2019. She is one of the main artists of the production teams that brought you amazing animation shows such as SpongeBob 360, SpongeBob Reimagined, Magical Girl Friendship Squad, Office Ladies (produced by Cartuna), Wolfboy And The Everything Factory (produced by Bento Box Entertainment) and more. She’s here to talk about some of her favorite characters and scenes that she helped bring to life.
HorroBuzz: Who’s your favorite spooky character that you’ve ever drawn?
Kim: It’s very difficult to pick just one! When I was working on Magical Girl Friendship Squad –an adult animated comedy series about 2 millennial women who are given the duty of protecting the universe while getting their lives together and paying rent – there is this very cute barista who gets possessed by a “CBD monster” in episode one. She has beautiful green hair and green nails and stuff. I had a really fun time animating her! She shows up as a very chill, sassy, and sexy coffee girl at the beginning. And then all of a sudden she turns into a giant green monster with a super long and bloody tongue and like a hundred eyes, that was the highlight of the episode! I mean, of course, she is defeated by the Magical Girls in the end but she is definitely one of my favorite characters!
HorroBuzz: What do you like about the spooky characters?
Kim: Another show I worked on is called Wolfboy And The Everything Factory. It’s a super cute children’s fantasy animation show on Apple TV+. But actually, it is so much more than just a kid’s show that even I am astonished by the plots’ depth and complication. In the story, the creators introduced us to a magical “factory” that makes everything, clouds, trees, dreams, hiccups, memories, and even time. There’s this mysterious, spooky character in later episodes who I animated during the production. She approaches the main character, the Wolfboy, and tries to mess with his head with doubts, fears, and insecurity. I think this is what makes the show awesome and unique because first of all the designs of the antagonists are really cool, second of all we don’t usually see in kid’s animation that sometimes an 8-year-old might be facing panic attacks or emotional insecurities just like adults. The spooky characters represent the dark side of our minds. It’s very normal and we all need a little help sometimes from friends and family! The show gets an 8.6 rating on IMDb and thousands of positive reviews online for a good reason.
HorroBuzz: Any favorite Halloween episodes?
Kim: I’m a huge fan of the classic American sitcom The Office. And it was such an honor to be an animator on the Office Ladies animated series created by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey with Comedy Central. In the episode “Jenna Fischer Met Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes, Thanks to Amy Adams”, there’s this scene when Angela talks about the Halloween traditions at her household that’s my absolute favorite. She said she really hates being startled or scared and she would literally hurt people out of instinct who tried to scare her. And every Halloween her husband and kids would “surprise” her with a fake arm or something. It’s hilarious that we tried to recreate the scenes in animation where Angela screamed and hit her husband with her phone when they tried to scare her from behind the sofa. I love these two actresses so much and I could talk about the show all day lol! Office Ladies has received more than 2 million views on YouTube and I can’t be more grateful to be a part of the team.
