As Man With The Plan would say -- "In the spirit of full disclosure" (usually a code for "put your boots on", but not now...)

Alright, so it all started, like many things, after a heavy night of boozing. I was at a new year’s eve party thrown by one of the actors, Vincent Nesci.  After a few cordials, I leaned over and proclaimed, “I’m gonna shoot something.  Want to be in it?”  “Sure, make it a western” he replied inexplicably.

The next evening I went to work on my crime thriller (What the hell does Vinnie know anyway? He's Australian).  For shits and gigs, I jotted down six character traits I personally see in myself.  As follows –

1.) AMBITION

2.) METHODICAL

3.) SPIRITED

4.) HEEDLESS

5.)  PUMPED

6.) SCREWBALL

There were a few more traits I'm sure, but I figure once my parents get the drift of this internet thing, why give myself the grief?

Keep in mind this was the year 2009, and the world was at the mercy of the worst recession in seven decades.   A lot of blame and finger-pointing were directed at a variety of targets, but all resonated with one common theme:
GREED.  

The ultimate game changer.  Greed can make a pleasant little hayride through apple country into a psychedelic mindfuck with that ass-clown Gene Wilder warbling “There’s no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going” as your right foot thrusts down on some imaginary brake while scrambling for your seatbelt and screaming at Veruca to shut her pie hole. 

Greed affected everybody back then (still now) and there was no avoiding it.  JANKED became a hustlers ballad told from the point of view of some pretty extreme characters.

AMBITION became Angel Eyes.

METHODICAL = Man With The Plan.

SPIRTED = Smitten Kitten

HEEDLESS = Hot Shot Scott

PUMPED = Pollyanna

SCREWBALL = Sam-I-Am.

The movie was constructed like a music album (you remember those, don’t you?).  Characters would brew their scenes together (the mix), then later we arranged everything like tracks on a CD (the master), with the sanguine expectation that the theme of greed would thread everything together (hope hope). 

Rehearsals were like playing jazz. Each actor would recognize, rehearse, then reshape their parts. This meant I had to customize each character to the actors who reshaped them (meaning rewrites and storyboards), but this is what my background in music taught me:  Give the musicians time to find their riff, THEN push record. 

Animation and music are pretty prevalent throughout the film. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did to create it. There was one time I almost went to the hospital because my sides were hurting so bad, only to realize it was from all the laughing on-set.

- Dakota Aesquivel, 2011