Dec 14, 2023

Los Hermanos Calavera on the Animation of Wrestling's Strongest Masked Luchador in "Rey Mysterio vs. the Darkness"

Cartoon Network's Rey Mysterio vs. the Darkness is a highly stylized action-adventure series starring Rey Mysterio, the greatest masked luchador (Mexican wrestler) of all time.

In the show, Oscar, an 8-year-old Rey Mysterio superfan, is accidentally given super powers and joins his hero in a battle against evil supernatural beings led by the malevolent fighter Ouroboros.

The series debuted earlier this month on HBO Max and Cartoon Network in much of Latin America, with a U.S. release planned for sometime in 2024.

Rey Mysterio vs. the Darkness was animated by Mexican studio¡Viva Calavera. The studio is headed by three anonymous artists called Los Hermanos Calavera (the Skull Brothers), who wear lucha libre masks everywhere they go. No, really, look at their Instagram.

We recently interviewed the trio and asked them about building the world of Rey Mysterio vs. The Darkness, incorporating real-life wrestling moves into animation, and the rules of animating childhood heroes.

Cartoon Brew: How did "Rey Mysterio vs. the Darkness" begin - where did the idea come from and how did everyone get involved?

Los Hermanos Carabella: Los Hermanos Carabella: The genesis of this series Los Hermanos Calavera: Well, actually, it was sort of a coincidence. The three of us have been wrestling fans since we were kids, and of course we were Rey Mysterio fans. We were attracted to him for two reasons. One was his fighting style. He was very acrobatic, explosive, and above all, he was much smaller than his competitors. The second reason, which we didn't really understand, was that it was very important for us as kids to see someone like that from Mexico on TV. It was incredible to see a masked luchador doing spectacular things on the other side of the border and making a difference.

For us as adults, the idea of doing animation in wrestling was always appealing. We wanted to do something spectacular, huge, with lots of Mexican flavor. On Ray's part, he had always wanted to do something animated. He had played small roles in the past, but never had a project of his own. He had had offers, he said, but none that fully paid homage to Lucha Libre. Next to his family, Rey loves wrestling, so he wanted to do something that would show his admiration for it.

The last coincidence came from Cartoon Network Mexico, which was looking for a project that had local features but could reach a worldwide audience. They found that in our program.

There must have been a great deal of pressure to do justice to the character of Rey. 21]

From the earliest stages of development, one of the main rules was that the Rey Mysterio of the show was the real Rey Mysterio. He already has many of the traits that make a hero interesting. He is noble, an underdog, and genuinely cares about others. We first thought about how we could incorporate those virtues and create something new. We wanted to emphasize the underdog story, so we added this child protagonist to our narrative. He is a little novice who is clumsy in everything he does and follows Ray around. In the first episode, we also showed that Ray's size would be an important factor. He fights this huge, imposing character, which was actually inspired by the famous photo of Rey Mysterio with the Great Kali.

The show takes place in two different settings: our bright, vibrant world and a world of superpowers where everything is lit up in dark neon.

Colors were highly emphasized. On the one hand, Mexico is known for its colorfulness, and on the other hand, we wanted to distinguish between the two works: the ley as a luchador and the ley with supernatural powers. The lighting also made the difference. In the arena, when Rey has super powers, everything is neon, but when she is fighting in the ring, she uses the lights of the arena and people's cell phones.

The show's aesthetic borrows a lot from anime, but the colors, backgrounds, and characters are Mexican. Can you talk about the influences that defined the look of the show? One is from the world of Mexico and lucha libre. Another is from the world of Japanese animation, which we all grew up watching. And in the third corner, we recognized that it was going to be a Cartoon Network show, and we wanted to include the visual language of the Cartoon Network shows that we love so much. So those were the three things that defined our aesthetic. And we needed to balance those elements. With the original character designs, we were not very happy with them because they tried too hard to fit our idea of a Cartoon Network show. Fortunately, the network was not so happy and asked us to rework it. So the three of us discussed it again and decided to do what we wanted to do, not what we had seen on TV.

One of the things that fans love about Ray is his constant change and evolution. I wonder if Rey's appearance on the show will change over time -

Constantly changing colors and styles is one of the innovations Rey has brought to the wrestling world. Traditionally, in lucha libre, a mask was a mask and never changed. After Rey, other wrestlers began to modify their masks, and we wanted to respect that in the show. Early on, we wanted to have Rey change his look periodically, but later realized that if we were more careful about when we made the changes, it would create opportunities to use the changes metaphorically. I can't say more because it would be a spoiler, but I can say that the logic was certainly helpful in how it was presented on screen. It also means that while the episodes can be viewed in isolation and out of order, there is something to be gained by viewing them in chronological order.

Most wrestlers have their signature moves, but no one does them better than Ray, and moves like 619, the hurricanrana, Eddie Guerrero's frog splash, and the springboard senton can be seen by fans who know his in-ring career. We often discussed 619 in particular. For example, we had to figure out how to use the 619 without ropes, since he doesn't always fight in the ring. We also had to decide how it would look in the world of super power. It was a lot of fun figuring out how to represent these techniques in a different world. We were heavily influenced by Hong Kong films, which make traditional martial arts moves extraordinary.

Ray has been wrestling for over 30 years and has some of the most legendary feuds and friendships during that time. This series is not biographical in nature and does not attempt to document Rey's legacy, but uses his history as a reference and a place to find the pivotal point of the story. His allies and rivals are an element of this. Any fan of Rey Mysterio's wrestling will recognize such references. It may not be a specific wrestler, but it is a reference to a rival or ally. Again, I can't say much because it would be a spoiler, but Rey is not the only real-life fighter whose mask, name, and voice appear in the series.