We’re thrilled to have very special guests join us for an interview: Bryan Caselli and Nick Bachman, who produce, write, and direct the animated series Costume Quest!

Costume Quest, based on the popular video game series, is about a group of kids who find their favorite Halloween costumes already sold out in all the stores. They decide to DIY their own costumes for trick-or-treating, and soon discover that wearing these homemade costumes grants them the superpowers they need to defeat dark forces invading their quiet little town.

Sounds like a show we can get behind.

Costume Quest kicked off its second season this past week. You can stream all the episodes on Amazon Prime Video.

What drew you to the Costume Quest game as source material for your TV series?

The Costume Quest animated series was fist developed at Frederator by Zac Gorman based off his comic that he made following the original video game. We were brought on after the show was greenlit by Amazon. As big fans of Charlie Brown, Power Rangers, and all things Halloween, the show was an easy fit for both of us from the start. We really like the classic, Saturday morning cartoon vibes that the show has. It’s fun, silly, character-driven, and approachable for anyone.

What challenges did you face adapting a video game to television?

We definitely stuck with the established personalities and looks of the four main kids from their source material, but for the series, we came up with a whole new villain for the kids to go up against. We wanted the monsters plans to steal the nougat candy to more directly affect all the characters in our town, so we updated the CQ monster mythos quite a bit. More than anything, we just wanted to hit the sweet and unique tone of the games while still re-inventing the story to work as a TV show.

What shows or games influenced your creative direction with Costume Quest?

Oh man, so many! As mentioned, Power Rangers and Charlie Brown, but also a lot of the cartoons we grew up with like Ninja Turtles, Batman Animated Series, X-Men, and just about everything out of 90’s era Nickelodeon.

What were your favorite cartoons as kids growing up?

Bryan: Along with the shows mentioned above, I was also a big fan of classic Disney and early Pixar movies. Top of my list would be Peter Pan, Toy Story, and Incredibles.

Nick: I was really into the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon, as well as Pee-Wee’s Playhouse if that counts. As I got a little older, I fell in love with Home Movies and Mission Hill.

Lastly, what are you planning to dress up as this Halloween?

Bryan: I’m going as a Nougatown factory worker straight out of Costume Quest.

Nick: I’ll be donning my “store bought” Abe Lincoln Jr. polyester junk costume.

To celebrate the second season of Costume Quest, we’ll be featuring costume guides for the kids this coming week, including Wren, Reynold, Everett, and Lucy. You can find them all here.