James Farr (animator)

James Farr (born 1979, 44 years old) is a freelance animator and animation director based at present in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is known by the online community for his animated series Xombie and has spawned an illustrated novel, Xombie: Dead on Arrival, and comic book series published by Devil's Due, Xombie: Reanimated. His films are popular on Newgrounds, where they have over 1 billion views.

His portfolio includes work for Epic Level entertainment, New Line Cinema, GeekRescue.com and the Oklahoma City Blazers.

Also, he made an album in 2020 called Death Blow under the name, Doomwhale.

Projects

Xombie

Main article: Xombie (comics)

Xombie tells the story of a little girl named Zoe, who washes ashore years after a zombie plague has wiped out most life on Earth and replaced it with bloodthirsty reanimated versions of the planet's previous inhabitants. She is saved from a swarm of zombies by Dirge, a "variant", a zombie who has retained their conscious mind and the ability to think like a human. (According to the official website, the variants are called "xombies", but the term has yet to be used in the series itself, likely because it is pronounced the same way as "zombie".) Dirge takes it upon himself to perform one last good deed before his zombie body withers away and begins a journey to reunite Zoe with the few remaining live humans and save her from a gruesome death at the hands of the undead.

In 2007, Farr released a book displaying the events of the first saga of the series, entitled Xombie: Dead On Arrival. There is also a six issue comic book series called Xombie: Reanimated, the first issue was released April 2007. A third part of the intended Xombie trilogy, titled Death Warmed Over, was planned but put on indefinite hold due to an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign.

In March 2017, Farr began a new series on YouTube titled Xombie: Dead Ahead, which is meant to be a continuation of the series, proclaimed as "the next chapter".

A prequel named Xombie: Legends of Nephthys is currently in development hell. It will be about the Egyptian xombie Nephthys and the origin of xombies.

Call of the Cryptids

An animation series in production about the struggles of Kendra Call, a young cryptozoologist, haunted by ghoulish visions of her childhood, desperately searching for proof of monsters unknown to modern science. Upon discovering a note addressed to her and written in riddles, she is flung into a secret war of monsters, to which the rest of the world is seemingly oblivious.

EV

A 160-page manga from Tokyopop written by Farr. Released April 2008.

Pac-Man: The Movie

A live-action short film written and directed by Farr that imagines Pac-Man as a top-secret government project was released in April 2012.

Trainsformers

Trainsformers is an animated web series that is a mashup between Transformers and Thomas & Friends starring Farr's son Vector and Thomas the Tank Engine in the place of Optimus Prime. The series went on for four episodes until HIT Entertainment (later Mattel Television) sent Farr a cease and desist order for plagiarism due to Thomas & Friends having a strict copyright protection. A fifth episode, titled Trainsformers 5, was made involving what could have been the fifth episode being halted by the "Fun Police" mid-production causing Vector to go on new adventures around the movie lot to escape Scrapatron, a Deception who is an original character and thus is still active.

The series was replaced by The Sky-High City of Steampuff, which also featured trains that can turn into robots and lasted four episodes, with a fifth planned that has since been cancelled.

On December 31, 2018, a Christmas special was released, featuring solely original trains (whose names were Cole, Quazar, Quark and Clunk) instead of Thomas characters.

On April 19, 2019, TRAINS-FORMERS: Gauge of Extinction, a parody of a trailer for Transformers: Age of Extinction was made. In the video, a slightly-older Vector comes across a scrapped "Opthomas Prime".

Due to HIT Entertainment's loss of the Thomas franchise to Mattel, Farr would later on remaster all 4 episodes featuring the characters, with the first two having the original Thomas & Friends theme be replaced due to copyright issues. In the remaster of Trainsformers 4 (stylised as Trains4mers), Vector sends a message to the viewers saying that if James gets to 500,000 subscribers, Vector can "get Thomas back online". In July 2020, it was announced the series would return with a new episode, Trainsformers Reborn. The episode was released on April 1, 2021.

Blink to the Future

A mash-up of Doctor Who and Back To The Future, featuring the Eleventh Doctor, his companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams, the Judoon and Cowboy Daleks.

Super Mario Busters

A mash-up of the Super Mario video game series and the film Ghostbusters. It is followed by a sequel named New Super Mario Busters 2 that is a mash-up of the Super Mario video game series and the sequel film Ghostbusters II. Super Mario Busters: Reboot A mash-up of the Super Mario video game series and the reboot film Ghostbusters, and Super Mario Busters: Extra Life that is a mash-up of the Super Mario video game series and the sequel film Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Teenage Mutant Koopa Troopas

A mash-up of the Super Mario video game series and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, featuring Koopa Troopas as the Turtles, Mario as the Shredder, Princess Daisy as April O'Neill, Mouser as Splinter and Luigi as Casey Jones.

Super Smash Wars

A mash-up of the Nintendo video game series Super Smash Bros. and Star Wars. There will be nine episodes in total, with the first three being based on the Original Trilogy, the second three being based on the Sequel Trilogy and the remaining three on the Prequel Trilogy.

Released:

• Super Smash Wars: A Link to the Hope
• Super Smash Wars: The Empire Smashes Back
• Super Smash Wars: Return of the Hero of Time
• Super Smash Wars: The Triforce Awakens
• Super Smash Wars: The Last Hero

A.V.P.V.T.O.T. (Alien vs. Predator vs Trick-Or-Treating.)

A parody that features a kid dressed as a Xenomorph from the Alien series battling another kid dressed as a Predator from the Predator series on Halloween.

Wiivengers

A parody of various Wii video games and Avengers Assemble.

The Big Lebowser

A mashup of the Paper Mario series RPG games and the movie The Big Lebowski.

Pryamidhead

A parody of the game Cuphead and the Silent Hill series. It features Pyramid Head chasing down Heather Mason in an amusement park level.

Farr later released a sequel titled Pyramid Head 2: Splattered Memories. It features the titular character chasing James Sunderland through the town of Silent Hill. This was released around the time Pyramid Head was announced as a DLC killer in Dead by Daylight.

Jacksepticeye and ZackScottGames Animated

James Farr has animated many animated videos in conjunction with Jacksepticeye based on his documentation of the following games:

• Five Nights at Freddy's
• Five Nights at Freddy's 2
• Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and Five Nights at Freddy's 4
• Super Mario Maker
• Five Nights at Freddy's: Sister Location
• Sonic Mania
• Cuphead
• Resident Evil 2 Remake

Farr has also animated many videos in conjunction with ZackScottGames based on his own documentation of the following games:

• Dying Light
• Wolfenstein: The New Order
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Sims 4
• Mortal Kombat X
• Doom (2016)
• Splatoon
• Minecraft
• BioShock
• Watch Dogs
• Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2
• Paper Mario: Color Splash
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• South Park: The Stick of Truth
• Super Mario Odyssey

Interviews

• IGN Comics Interview: When 'Xombies' Attack

External links

• JamesFarr.com- Official Site
• Xombie
• Epic Level Entertainment
• Interview with Movie-Club.net
• Call of the Cryptids Official Site
• Doomwhale