Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ben. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Ben, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
The biggest challenge I’ve faced is putting together a feature film. A project I’ve been working on since 2019 is a movie titled Van Dragonsing. What took me so long to figure out what the story was going to be was finding the right story and script, and there was some red tape here. There were some crazy experiences of mine I went through during those five years plus we had the COVID19 pandemic, and once Retro Podcast grew I was able to come back to my project I started and find the story that was the right fit.
The title of this passion project is Van Dragonsing, and it’s part of this universe I started when I was a Junior in high school and finished my Junior year of college. It was a mini-series called Lakeside. The original story for the Lakeside movie was called Timothy’s Revenge, which was initially titled as a Christmas film. When we launched our first campaign to promote the movie, there wasn’t success, so that idea was scrapped. The movie was still going to be titled Timothy’s Revenge, but not as a Christmas movie, and the original story was about Santa Claus and his family taking a vacation the week before Christmas. A killer robot is on the loose; that was the original idea. The second idea was about three stuffed animals and a toy robot going against Timothy, who is on the loose, and they needed help from a doll named Jake Johnson, who is meant to be a vampire slayer. The concept for both movies was humans and animatronic toys interacting. Think of a human going to the movies with a Small Soldiers action figure and a Teddy Ruxpin that can walk. Another way to think of it is to imagine if, instead of the Toy Story characters coming to life, they were AI robots, but as toys. Years ago, Hasbro released a voice-activated Optimus Prime robot toy like Small Soldiers, except they can’t walk with you to the park, store, or the movies.
Sadly, that idea was also scrapped, but then the third idea for Van Dragonsing was about the doll, Jake Johnson. He tries to stop Timothy before he takes over Lakeside by replacing humans with robots. Jake needs help from two girls who are like Woody and Buzz Lightyear. The idea of that duo came from watching Scream 6, and they were based on Mindy and Anika, played by Jasmine Savoy Brown and Devyn Nekoda. The fourth idea came after going to Vegas for the first time, and that is when the story and concept of Van Dragonsing were born. Van Dragoning is about a little robot dragon played by Neil Fanning, the voice of Scooby-Doo from Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2 (2004). The little dragon teams up with a werewolf to go after a masked murderer wearing a Timothy robot costume. Think Scream meets Scooby-Doo meets Five Nights at Freddy’s. So far, we are recording voices, and Neil was the first person we recorded. Working with Neil was fun; he was kind, funny, and a great friend to work with. Working with the man reminded me of working with my Uncle. The live-action scenes won’t begin until October 2025 later this year, when I mention in one of the original drafts there were two characters I did based on Jasmin and Devyn from Scream, we did reach out to Devyn Nekoda a while back to see if she was interested in playing the love interest to the werewolf character in the film but she took a pass. Still, we had the best wishes from her manager; she was not the first pick. My friend Valaria Nalani was the first pick, but she would only play the part if it were a voice-over. Sadly, it was live-action. Maya Hawke was another interest, but she wasn’t available, so we put out an audition sheet for the character. The other challenging part was finding an actress to play the love interest to the werewolf character.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have been creating art ever since I was in elementary school. I started my business Retro Cartoons when I was in college and that was when I started my brand and created my first logo, after creating illustrations the idea of Retro Podcast came because I wanted to meet artists my dream since I was eight was to meet artists and celebrities so that was when the idea of creating a talk show podcast started. Trying to build the podcast initially wasn’t easy, but I was lucky to have two celebrity guests: Crobin Bernsen from the hit show L.A. Law, and Greg Sestero from The Room (2003).
By the time season 2 arrived, the podcast had grown to include Kevin McNally from the Pirates of the Caribbean saga and Kate Isitt from the hit BBC show Coupling. We also had the privilege to interview Andrew McNee, who played Coach alone in Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) and the sequels. In Season 3, our first celebrity guest was Robert Torti from Starlight Express. For our following celebrities, we had Riley Griffiths and Joel McKinnon Miller from Super 8 (2011), and then the list of celebrities we can get for the talk show has been growing. I’m most proud of interviewing Edward Glen, who voiced Thomas the Tank Engine in Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), and also got to interview Diamond White, who voiced Moon Girl in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Interviewing the two was a blast. I also interviewed Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finaln from their show Ghosting, and both of the men are very funny and kind, and they make me laugh. If you haven’t seen season 2 yet, watch it; they are hilarious. For our next Retro Podcast season, Patricia Valesquiz from The Mummy (1999) and Michael York from the Austin Powers Trilogy and Logan’s Run (1976) will be the first two celebrity guests for season 4.
For the future of Retro Podcast, I will be leaving after season 4 for another job opportunity, and a new host will take my spot. I’ll still illustrate and animate for the show, but I won’t be able to interview. My goal for Retro Podcast and Retro Studios is to become more of a CEO, at the moment while filming Van Dragonsing and seeing where that future goes my goal is for all the guests I’ve had on Retro Podcast and actors and actresses I’vemade connections with is to work with them on projects if it’s something they are working on or a project I have an idea for and see if they have interest collaborating.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
I’ve been wanting to start a freelance business for a long time. The the company was going to be primarily illustrations and comics but then want to add film and video because when we live in a world with Ai you want to make sure you have multiple talents that can be used, being an artists yes is a complex industry to get into because you have to know and figure out your style, when I was at Columbus College of Art & Design my major was illustration. Still, I took multiple classes to have other talents as a backup.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
My advice would be to get an education, education is critical, and take as many internships as possible, because that is how you gain experience. My other is advice is go to events, start a podcast of your own, be bold and confident to reach out to artists on social media and my other advice is go to agency websites and lets say if there is a celebrity you want to interview, go to their agencies website and reach out to the by crafting an offer letter. It’s hit or miss, you will have those who say they are interested and want to be interviewed, those who wish to be interviewed but it’s terrible timing, and those who have zero interest.
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Image Credits
Ben Cena has created all these images and artwork for Retro Podcast, books, short films, and Van Dragonsing, his first feature film.