In 2004 I was working on the DreamWorks movie "Shark Tale". During the production I found myself being cast as the one responsible for the animation of a small side kick character, "Crazy Joe", a schizophrenic hermit crab that lives in a dumpster, talks to a sock puppet and watches Benny Hill...
It was typecasting.
Short after the end of production some of us where asked to come up with some ideas for a short film, or anything funny to put as an Extra on the DVD.
Unfortunately at the time of presenting my silly Idea I had to be back in Italy, so I never actually had the chance to pitch it.
So here it is:
In "Shark Tale" there is a lot of hip-hop references, bling bling, and MTV Parodies, including a reference to “MTV cribs”.
So my idea was simple, he is a hermit crab,
So he takes the MTV camera crew for a tour of his own Crib,
His Shell.
I guess the whole fun of it would have been in the actual animation, the claustrophobic clumsiness of this psycho crustacean rolling around in his trash.
“Yo, MTV! Welcome to my Crib!” “Let me show you around…”
He’d be all exited and proud of his crap.
“Check out my entertainment system, I got TV, CD…
VD, ADD...”
I was boarding him as not being able to find anything, his TV, his sock puppets, his toilet, his Mom… so he would have to actually roll his whole shell around, with all the trash, cans and bottles rattling around until he’d be satisfied with whatever he found.
All trough the short I imagined Crazy Joe looking up every now and then, reaching for a broom and start banging it on the top of his shell, and then, completely psychotic, complain about “the noisy lady upstairs”.
So my idea was simple, he is a hermit crab,
