Seth Green

Emperor Palpatine sits in his office, feet on his desk, telling his how-I-whupped-Yoda’s-ass-in-the-Senate story (again) to a couple of cronies. The phone rings. It’s Darth Vader — calling collect. "Vader! How’s my favorite Sith?" Then, after listening for a few beats, the prune-faced politician slams a tiny plastic fist on his desk in rage. "Whaddya mean they blew up the Death Star?" He unleashes a flurry of V-chipped expletives. "That thing wasn’t even fully paid off yet! Do you have any idea what this is going to do to my credit?" The conversation ends with a sheepish Palpatine grumbling, "I love you, too," before hanging up the phone.

That scene is just one nugget of Robot Chicken, the Adult Swim network’s hit series that’s about as far, far away from mainstream TV as you can get. The show’s 15-minute episodes are packed with silly superhero riffs and abundant fart jokes acted out by posable action figures. Yet since its debut in 2005, Chicken has helped the cable channel set ratings records and has enjoyed brisk DVD sales. When the Palpatine snippet found its way onto YouTube last year, it generated more than a million views, creating a flock of new fans — and eventually hatching a 30-minute Robot Chicken: Star Wars TV special.

So, what’s the secret sauce in Robot Chicken, a zesty hodgepodge of pop-culture in-jokes that took its name from a Chinese take-out dish? After all, parodies — especially of the goofy Star Wars variety — abound, especially online, where Darth Vader has been drolly recast as a super market manager named Chad and a contestant on The Apprentice. But Chicken serves up a unique, killer combo of stellar geek cred and exquisitely crappy stop-motion animation. "The show looks like what nearly every kid did: You got out your cars and G.I. Joes and smashed them together," says Chicken fan Mike Johnson, codirector of the 2005 stop-mo blockbuster Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. "The show works because it captures the joy of playing with your toys."

For Chicken cocreators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, playing with toys never got old. Green, best known to fanboys and -girls for his roles in Austin Powers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Family Guy, is an obsessive action-figure collector. He and Senreich, former editorial director of Toyfare and Wizard magazines, became friendly after Senreich did a story on Green in 1999. The two soon began collaborating, cooking up ideas for a series of satirical stop-mo animated videos. But they needed a studio. Enter Corey Campodonico and Alex Bulkley of ShadowMachine Films, childhood pals who had set up shop in Green’s former office space to create music videos. Campodonico and Bulkley had about as much stop-motion experience as Batman has with stand-up comedy, but Green and Senreich asked them to help shoot a batch of short vids to show online and air on Late Night With Conan O’Brien. "It started out as a hobby, a goof," Senreich says. "Then it turned into something." Five years and a slew of false starts later, Robot Chicken came to roost at Adult Swim, the edgy Cartoon Network spin-off for grown-ups.

Of course, stop-motion animation — the laborious process of moving 3-D props in tiny increments and shooting frame by frame — has been part of Hollywood filmmaking for years. Think of the original King Kong’s wobbly ascent up the Empire State Building, Ray Harryhausen’s 1950s fantasy flicks, and the claymation antics of Gumby and Pokey. But ShadowMachine has turned this old-timey technique into a 21st-century cottage industry by doing it faster, cheaper, and funnier than anyone else. The studio took home an Emmy in 2006 for its work on Robot Chicken and has received three more nominations this year (including one for another stop-mo series, Moral Orel).

With some 30 projects in development, Shadow Machine has expanded from a two-man operation to a staff of around 80. Green and Senreich’s production company, Stoopid Monkey, recently inked a two-picture deal with heavy hitters Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and ShadowMachine has signed on to handle production. "There’s a glut of CG right now, and they’re unique in the market place," says Matthew Stein, senior VP of production at the Weinsteins’ Dimension Films, who developed the deal. "Who’s to say there’s not an opportunity for stop-motion on the big screen?"

Just ask George Lucas, who was so tickled after seeing the Palpatine sketch that he gave Robot Chicken rare carte blanche to craft a half-hour Star Wars parody. He even voiced his own plaid-shirted Mini-Me for one skit and hosted a screening of the special at Skywalker Ranch. "George got really complimentary," Green recalls. "I leaned in and said, ‘I want to do two sequels and three prequels — if you’re cool with it.’" And why not? As Lucas himself might put it: Today Coruscant. Tomorrow, the world.