Iron Man 2 draws inspiration from drawn inspiration Samurai Jack

The all important battle scene between (spoiler time) Iron Man, War Machine and Justin Hammer’s drones in the upcoming Iron Man 2 movie originated from drawings done by Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky.  This is according to Ben Snow with industrial light and magic in an article from io9.com.  Snow stated:

“In terms of a particular scene, I agree the fight where Iron Man and War Machine team up to battle the Hammer drones was a big challenge. We started with some terrific pre-visualisation that had been created by Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Samurai Jack and the original Star Wars Clone Wars cell animated series.”

This is a really cool connection between two masters of craft.  Samurai Jack is one of the most stunning animated series to ever run on television.  It really was animated poetry.  To back up this statement here is a “making of” video clip of Samurai Jack for those unfamiliar with the series that ran on “Comedy Central” from 2001 to 2004:

Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau had alot to say about Tartakovsky’s involvement and influence:

”…I was very, very lucky to have gotten somebody to collaborate with me on that stuff and teach me a little bit more of the animation approach to action. I had Genndy Tartakovsky. I’ve always liked Samurai Jack and I loved his Clone Wars vignettes that he did. I’ve always liked his work… and the way that he acknowledges the same cinematic masters that I really love the work of, like [Akira] Kurosawa and [Sergio] Leone.

So in this process as we’re storyboarding and designing sequences he and his team have come in and I’m working with them and they’re working on collaborating with us on the project and that’s a new wrinkle and it allows me… I feel like I’m really learning a lot from collaborating with this guy.”

That is some well deserved high praise and acknowledgment from Favreau and added juice to those who are excited to check out the latest Iron Man installment.  Iron Man 2 opens on Friday May 7th.  Starcasm.net has been all over Iron Man 2 so feel free to search our site for past articles (here is a direct link to some stunning Scarlett Johansson – Black Widow pics).