Eddie Alcazar Hits the Target with ‘Bullet Time,’ a Clever Homage to Outrageous ’90s Toons

Bullet Time, a new animated short premiering at Montreal’s Fantasia Festival this week, is a hilarious homage to the fun cartoons that entertained us on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network in the 1990s. It took writer-director Eddie Alcazar four years to create this hilarious short, which was inspired by his own lovable bull terrier.

The short follows Bullet, an unstable bull terrier, as he battles through a bizarre digital gaming universe. Featuring the unmistakable voice of Emmy-winning actor Eric Bauza and a perfect score by Danny Elfman, the short was produced by Alcazar and Javier Lovato, with animation direction by none other than Bob Jacques (Ren & Stimpy, SpongeBob SquarePants). We had the chance to chat with Alcazar about his new toon to find out more about this clever new short.

Animation Magazine: Congrats on the debut of Bullet Time on the festival circuit. Can you tell us a bit about why you decided to make this short?

Eddie Alcazar: Bullet Time follows Bullet, a bull terrier who is named and based off of my dog, who I loved very much. The character is addicted to video games and junk food and at the center of this wacky hyper real world where he finds adventures and challenges through each video game he plays. A bit like Beavis and Butt-head but with video games instead of music videos. At its core, the show is a warped reflection of our own societal dysfunction — told through degenerate cartoon animals who treat toxicity like a lifestyle brand. Bullet, for instance, genuinely believes Red 40 is a food group. And in his world, it probably is.

When did you begin work on the short?

I started working on Bullet Time in 2021 when my dog Bullet was sick and on his last days. I had an idea of doing a ’90s style cartoon for some time but figured it would take a long time and needed to connect it to something meaningful for me to stay motivated with it. I felt my dog could be that driving factor and now after four years we are here!

How many people worked on it and which animation tools were used to create it?

About 30 people, and a variety of tools were used: Toon Boom, TVPaint, Dragonframe, After Effects…

Who are your big animation heroes?

Fleischer Bros., Ralph Bakshi, Mike Judge, Bob Jaques.

When did you become interested in working in animation?

My background before getting into film directing was 3D animation it’s what I went to school for and I worked in the video game/VFX industry for seven years before directing, and now it seems to come full circle with stop motion and 2D.

How did you get animation and music heavyweights Eric Bauza and Danny Elfman involved with the project?

Like most of my projects, after I get an idea I headhunt for the dream team and see if they would be into doing something fresh and innovative but staying true with what they do best. Sometimes that takes a while but as we start creating the project, step by step we have more stuff to show and then people also start gravitating towards it. It’s a special thing that I’ve seen happen multiple times in my career, if you just start doing it and creating, like-minded people will come.

The short has a wonderful retro ’80s/’90s Nicktoons and Cartoon Network vibe. Was that intentional?

Yes, definitely! It was inspired by what I feel was the golden age of cartoons. The ’90s! Cartoons like CatDog, Cow and Chicken, Ren & Stimpy, Bevis and Butt-head were all huge inspirations growing up, and the creation of Bullet Time stemmed from the idea and curiosity of why these types of expression animations don’t exist these days and how we could bring them back.

Do you think you can possibly expand the short as a regular series?

Yes it’s more of a pilot than a short. We have been developing and continue to push towards a full series to expand the world and adventures of Bullet and his friends.

What do you hope audiences take away from Bullet Time?

I hope that people appreciate the hard work this talented team put into it and the beauty of just watching funny characters express themselves in wacky ways. Having a narrative story is great but I hope a new generation can appreciate just being entranced by over the top expression driven memorable animation.

Bullet Time makes its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal (July 16-August 3).