Spud Zine

Interview By: rockogirl

Hi ya’ll! Today Spud Zine has interviewed Lydia Fama (aka Llydia Llama)  , who happens to be a 15 year old animator who just so happens to make Adventure Time fanimations(aka fan animations)! Specifically, her very popular Marshall Time!

Spud Zine: I have to say- I’m surprised at how great Marshall Time is. I am especially surprised by the humourous jokes sprinkled throughout the episode. How did you come up with those jokes?

Lydia Fama:  I actually can’t take all the credit for the jokes and writing! My brother, Boggy (boggycomics.tumblr.com), wrote the first draft, and my whole family and I added in as many jokes as we could. Fun fact though: the boogers joke at the end was actually an honest question one of my brother’s friends asked him.

Spud Zine: How did you get the idea for turning Fionna and Marshall Lee into ghosts?

Lydia Fama: My brother and I were tossing around ideas for a fan-episode featuring Marshall Lee and Fionna, and he came up with this practically 3-episode long plotline about Gumball and Marshall competing with each other and I was like, “Okay, you get to take ONE idea from this book-long plotline for the episode.”

Spud Zine: Although Marshall Lee had screen time in the official genderbent episode, he didn’t have a single line. How did you come up with the personality of Marshall Lee?

Lydia Fama: I gotta say, the Adventure Time team did a great job with just those few seconds of his screen time that it felt like Marshall Lee already had a well-defined personality, and he kind of wrote himself. And of course we tried our best to put some of Marceline’s personality onto a boy.

Spud Zine: On your FAQ page, you said that you might make another Marshall Time episode, and that you definitely have more art in store. What more can your fans expect from you?

Lydia Fama: I can say for certain that my fans can expect me to stay home animating and goofing around on Tumblr instead of going to high school parties.

Spud Zine: Why do you favor the “Fiolee” shipping?

Lydia Fama: Gumball had his chance!

Spud Zine: Besides Fiolee, what is your favorite Adventure Time shipping?

Lydia Fama: BMO x Lorraine all the way.

Spud Zine: What’s your least favorite AT shipping?

Lydia Fama: To be honest, I’m not a fan of Finn x Flame Princess, and I don’t really understand ships of characters with their genderbent selves, but hey, ship and let ship!

Spud Zine: How do you feel about Frederator praising your Marshall Time animation?

Lydia Fama: I don’t think “honored” would even cover it. Ever since I was a kid, “Frederator!” is what the TV shouted at me at the end of my favorite cartoons, and I suppose Marshall Time turned out to be my way of shouting back.

Spud Zine: How do you manage animating with other commitments, such as school?

Lydia Fama: Well, the sad truth is I actually kind of don’t manage both school and animation. High school just really sucks up all my time. We started work on Marshall Time way back in January, and because of school, most of the work only actually got done this summer when classes ended. Even so, I try as hard as I can to animate with whatever free time I have: on weekends, and after finishing homework. Or even before finishing homework.

Spud Zine: What are your inspirations?

Lydia Fama: Hoo boy, I could go on for ever with this answer! Of course I’d say Adventure Time to start, for its endless entertainment, constant new jokes, and fantastic visuals. I also really admire old cartoons like Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop for their unique style. Also I gotta admit the anime Fullmetal Alchemist (the first series) is a huge inspiration for its characters, plot and writing.

Spud Zine: Who are your role models?

Lydia Fama: You’ll probably get this same answer from any animation-obsessed person, but I’m still not ashamed to give the cliche answer of Walt Disney, Hayao Miyazaki and all those big guys being my role models. And then of course there’s the Adventure Time crew, and most importantly my family.

Spud Zine: Any advice for future animators out there?

Lydia Fama: Keep at it! I know that at first animating is a little intimidating, but nothing ever starts out perfect. Stretch your abilities, animate whenever you can and practice practice (but if you’ve discovered animation is your calling, I don’t think I even need to tell you that!) And of course most importantly: always upload your videos as “private” first because Youtube WILL screw up your animations.

  Thanks again to Lydia Fama (Lydia Llama!) for taking the time to be interviewd by Spud Zine!