Have you ever wondered what the Wild West would look like if it were also home to a whole population of mechs? Well, you don’t actually have to wonder, because it actually exists in the delightful animated series known as MechWest. MechWest follows a girl named Pearl West, who, in contrast to many of the people around her, loves mechs and seeks to help them whenever she can. That leads her to an adorable little mech named Six, and the duo ends up on a rollercoaster adventure as they meet a host of unique characters along the way. MechWest is created by former Blue Sky Studios veteran Dave Gallagher (Ice Age, Robots) and his son Noah Gallagher, and also features work from the talented students and graduates of Gallagher’s AnimSchool. ComicBook had the chance to speak to Dave and Noah about how the show came about, who inspired Pearl and Six, and the fun new episodes on the way.
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We had to start with Pearl and Six, though, as their dynamic and evolving friendship is truly at the center of what makes MechWest so endearing. Their dynamic is also inspired by Dave’s daughter, who happens to be a magnet for dogs, just like Pearl is a magnet for mechs.
Pearl and Six
“Pearl is largely based on at least one of my daughters. So we would be out in public, and then there would be a dog, mostly dogs, and the dog would walk by everyone else and come right up to my daughter. It just seemed like she was sort of like a magnet for animals in general, but especially dogs, and they just seem to love her,” Dave said. “And it was just kind of weird. Like, why does that happen? You know, what can they tell about her? She really loves them, and so it’s this weird kind of hard to understand, mystical thing of why is this connection here?”
“And so, it’s kind of a silly idea, but what if Pearl is sort of connected to these mechs? And we don’t really treat the mechs like they’re machines in a way, because we don’t talk so much about how they’re made, and I know how they work and all that stuff,” Dave said. “It’s more like we treat them more like they’re animals or pets or children or something like that.”
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That’s also why Noah and Dave wanted to avoid going one particular route with Pearl. “And Pearl isn’t like a mechanic type character or anything like that either,” Noah said. Dave then added, “Yeah, we wanted to kind of avoid that, because I think the go-to, like, the first idea was that she’d be a mechanic, but instead we wanted her to be like a friend, like a psychologist. Just someone who has a sort of connection with the soul. So we want to create something different there.”
As for Six, the core part of the design was actually locked in pretty early, but it took a few tries to get to the adorable design we see in the show. “With Six, I guess the first idea was just that shape and then the eye. What would the eye look like if it’s behind one of those car headlights, the headlamps, and it kind of like breaks up the light in this interesting way,” Dave said. “It kind of makes it a little jewel or something. So the first concept I drew on a piece of paper, and it’s just sort of like it is now, but then we ran it by Noah, and he’s like well, that’s good, but maybe it could be better. So we involved Jake Parker, who we knew in New York, and he’s a designer. He took a pass at it and just took it way up. The design just became way more cute and interesting and adorable. From then we thought we really have something.”
From Idea to Reality
The initial idea for MechWest was hatched a while back, and the two main elements of the Old West and mechs were both in the mix then as well. It wasn’t until the pandemic that it started to move forward, and then the ball really started to roll from concept to reality.
“There was a call at one point, maybe like nine years ago, where a network wanted some ideas for animated shows, and so it just sort of popped in my head. It was like the idea of, well, let’s take something we haven’t really seen for a while, which is Western in animation. Not really a lot of it, and then what would it be like if we add robots to it? So it was just a quirky idea that came to me. And so during pandemic days, I guess the idea came that, what if we actually did this? And so that’s kind of how it started,” Dave said.
“We definitely start off strong with the independent spirit in ways that probably weren’t, weren’t the wisest, as far as we were just like, let’s just do it. Like usually you, in the creative world you have to wait and get permission and so many things have to happen and projects get canceled all the time and we just kind of decided we’re just going to make our project happen because we happen through Dave, we happen to have the resources and the talent network. So yeah, so we decided to do it,” Noah said.
There’s also a number of students from AnimSchool who have worked on the project in the years since, and that began from some of their excellent student showcases. “With the school, we produce these student showcases every year, and people would always say, oh, let’s make a movie of that,” Dave said. “So the idea was sort of inserted into our brains, like what if our graduates were able to work on something together, right?”
“Because they make just animations based on where they, they just pull like voice clips from various TV movies or something, just to have something to animate to. And we’ll take the best ones and put them in the showcase. Sometimes they’re, they’re really entertaining,” Noah said.
It’s also important to note that the students and graduates contributing to the project are being compensated. “We’re animating this with our graduates and students from AnimSchool, but it’s all paid,” Dave said.
Episode 3 and Beyond
The first two episodes of MechWest are available on the official YouTube page, and the good news is that episode 3 should be arriving soon. While there were some heavy things in the second episode, Dave and Noah are balancing things out in the next episode with a bit more lighthearted fun.
When asked what they could tease about episode 3, Noah said, “It deals with what we felt like was the next major kind of question for these characters, because if you watch episode two, Pearl and Pico team with Casey the salesman to travel to the big city up north to get Six fixed, but Casey is kind of greedy and has these maybe not super trustworthy intentions.”
“So that’s kind of what we’re going to answer next is, what’s he going to do? Because he was thinking he could take Six for his own and get rich quick. I think it’s a fun episode, and it irons out some of the next character developments between those three characters. But it’s, it’s a lot more fun than the first two episodes,” Noah said.
“So yeah, we’re in a new town. We have some new villains, and they’re just a little more comical, like Herkai, who’s the main bad guy in episodes one and two. Very straight villain, like, you never saw him crack a smile. He’s pure business, and this is very fun,” Dave said. “Every place we go to is like all these new mechs, and they have all these new functions and stuff, so we can’t wait to show you. There’s a bunch of new ones and they’re pretty fun.”
Dave, Noah, and the team at AnimSchool are committed to delivering eight episodes of MechWest as the first season, and after that, it would likely be a crowdfunding campaign to help fund future seasons. If you want to see more of MechWest, there are two ways you can help that don’t break the bank.
“Well, the number one way is to join the channel. So like a few dollars a month, and the coolest one is probably the early access so you can watch the episodes early, so you can join the YouTube channel. That’s the main way, and no problem if people, it’s almost as useful to just tell people about it, so that would be number two, where, hey, I don’t have any money, that’s fine. But if you could just share it on social media, tell people about it, ‘hey, have you heard this about this show?’, tell people the name. That’s what we really need is to get the word out, and get the community growing so that there’s a demand,” Dave said.
You can watch episodes 1 and 2 of MechWest right now on the official YouTube channel, and episode 3 is set to drop soon.
What did you think of MechWest? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things animation with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
