Adult Swim's Yule Log Director Reveals How It Got Made Without Warner Bros. Discovery Finding Out

As you might expect, Adult Swim's Yule Log presentation descended into madness pretty quickly, and was far more than just a static shot of a picturesque holiday fireplace. The special aired following the season six finale of Rick and Morty, and with that powerful lead-in obviously got a pretty significant number of eyes on it. Still, management at Warner Bros. Discovery seemingly never signed off on the special, and were likely as confused as anyone else when the traditional Christmas entertainment suddenly went sideways.

According to Casper Kelly, who made the Yule Log special, which transformed into the network's first feature-length live-action movie. It involved aliens, home invaders, and a haunted fireplace, and feels like it owes some of its manic energy to things like Too Many Cooks...which Kelly directed. He also made the sitcom Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell.

"I've worked with Adult Swim for a very long time. We're friends," Kelly told IndieWire. "For a lot of these things, I can just pitch the premise."

Per the IndieWire story, it is not clear whether this kind of production could happen again. It was created without any kind of corporate approval by dipping into a fund Adult Swim had to fund smaller, cheaper projects without having to go to their bosses every time. That setup may (or may not) have changed given the recent moves by WBD corporate to merge Cartoon Network Studios with Warner Bros. Animation. 

"Part of the trick is doing it cheaply enough enough that they don't have to go hat in hand and ask for a lot of money," Kelly explained, with sources saying that such projects generally cost less than $1 million.

You can see the Adult Swim Yule Log on HBO Max. No word on whether it might get a physical release. Despite becoming a phenomenon on the internet, Too Many Cooks never got a physical release -- but the Yule log being both a feature film, and a holiday-themed outing, seems like something Warners could easily package for resale beyond this month's window of virality.