Nick Releases “Legend of Korra” Prequel Webseries “Republic City Hustle”

Nickelodeon is releasing online a three-part Legend of Korra webseries called “Republic City Hustle,” presumably to help build buzz for the second season of the TV series, which will debut next month. The webseries takes place three years before the events of Book 1 and tells the backstory of two of the show’s central figures—brothers Mako and Bolin—and how they ended up with their sidekick Pabu. The first two episodes have already debuted online and can be viewed below:

Besides the obvious redesign of the characters, things were also done differently behind the scenes. This webseries was produced out of Nickelodeon’s on-air graphics department in New York instead of the regular Los Angeles crew. The animation was created in After Effects.

CREDITS
SVP Brand Creative: Matthew Duntemann
Executive Producer: James Stephenson
Producer: Eric Collins
Written by: Tim Hedrick
Directors: Chris Papa and Rob Kohr
Character Design: Evon Freeman & Rachael Hunt
Storyboards: Matthew Robinson
Backgrounds: George Berger and Alexandra DiTullio
Animation: Scott Kennell, Ross Norton, Christine Chen, Alexandra Ditullio, Brett Underhill and Mike Liu
Sound: Beatstreet

(Disclosure: The co-director of this piece, Rob Kohr, provides technical support/maintenance for Cartoon Brew.)