By KW Staff of Komikwerks.com
BUTCH HARTMAN entered the animation industry in 1986, first working on the cartoon series My Little Pony and then It's Punky Brewster. In 1990 he went to DiC Entertainment, where he worked on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Captain N: The Game Master and Gadget Boy. Later, he became a writer, director and storyboard artist for several Cartoon Network shows, including Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, and Johnny Bravo.Images (c) 2006 Butch Hartman, Nickelodeon, Viacom.
In 1997, he created The Fairly OddParents and Nickelodeon picked it up as a full series. The Fairly OddParents became a huge hit, second only in the ratings to SpongeBob SquarePants. Due to the success of 'OddParents', Hartman created another cartoon for Nickelodeon, Danny Phantom, in 2004. He also served as executive producer and screenwriter of Doogal, released in February 2006.WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? HOW DID YOU GET INTO ANIMATION?
I've been drawing since I was a little kid and have always had a strong interest in television and movies. I originally wanted to be an animator for Disney, and set out towards that goal early on. I attended Cal Arts right out of high school and got jobs on a lot of 1980's television shows---my first job was on "My Little Pony!" Yes! It was a dream, I made it happen!---but there really wasn't much going on, animation wise, in those days. Then "Roger Rabbit" hit big and suddenly everyone wanted animation again. I had mostly character design and development jobs at Ruby/Spears, Prod. Amblin Prod. - I worked briefly as an animator on the attempted tv series version of "Family Dog" - and Hanna Barbera where my dream of becoming a big time animator changed. When Fred Seibert started running H&B and introduced a new series of short cartoons called "What a Cartoon" and announced that he was taking pitches from anyone with an idea, I quickly realized that, rather than do 9 million drawings per day for one scene of animation, I'd rather do the same 9 million drawings and create my own stuff. It was there at H&B, for Fred that I created two or three short cartoons. All of them weren't very good, but each got better than the one before it and realized that this is what I loved to do. When Fred left H&B for Nickelodeon and was essentially doing the same thing---taking pitches for original ideas on a show he called Oh Yeah! Cartoons---he invited me to pitch here at Nick. The first thing I pitched was "Fairly Oddparents" and I guess the rest is history.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE ANIMATED MOVIES?
Toy Story. The Incredibles. Finding Nemo. Pretty much all of the Pixar stuff. I love Lady and The Tramp and Peter Pan, too. All because they've all got great stories. I don't care how great something looks, if the story isn't good, I can't respect the animation.
FAVORITE ANIMATED TV SERIES?
Probably The Simpsons. Then The Flintstones. I enjoy each on different levels. Simpsons because it's just totally hilarious, Flintstones for the imagination that initially went into it's design and, to this day, the originals are still pretty entertaining.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE LIVE ACTION MOVIES?
Hmmm…this is a tough one because there are so many. Obviously I love stuff with a fantasy element, but I love good writing no matter what form it's in. I'll make a list, but this is in no way a list of ranking. I'll just write them down as they occur to me:
1. Star Wars
2. Superman - The Movie
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Back to the Future
5. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
6. All that Jazz
7. Groundhog Day
8. Stripes
9. Animal House
10. Ghostbusters
11. The Matrix
12. The Shawshank Redemption
13. Grease
This is also, in no way, a complete list. I love so many movies for so many different reasons that it's impossible to list them all. I guess you could say the reason I like all the films I listed is because of good writing and great storytelling. Plus, each of the movies I listed left me with a memorable "film going experience". You know. where you walk out of the theatre and can't stop talking about or thinking about the movie for several days afterwards.
FAVORITE TV SERIES?
Again, I'll list, but this is just to show you my tastes:
Happy Days - a great bit of comic writing in it's heyday.
Lost - just an awesome concept.
Curb Your Enthusiasm - sheer hilarity
Arrested Development - sheer hilarity and tons of it
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE COMICS? BOOKS?
Too many to list, but I throw you a few off the top of my head: WATCHMEN - greatest comic of all time. Writing is unsurpassed. Awesome artwork to boot. ULTIMATE IRON MAN - a great re-telling of a pretty blasé' hero. STEVEN KING'S "THE STAND" - an awesome story. Unforgettable. ALAN MOORE'S "MIRACLE MAN" - a great re-telling of a lame-o 1950's English comic hero. PLANETARY - just a great, thought-provoking comic. THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH - a novel by Ken Follet about a medieval adventure centered around the building of a cathedral. I know it sounds boring, but trust me, it's awesome. KINGDOM COME - awesome writing and Alex Ross doing the art? C'mon! How can you miss?
DO YOU PLAY VIDEO GAMES? WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE GAMES?
I love "HALO", any "ZELDA" game and the old Nintendo 64 "DOOM" game. I love first person alien shooters because it's not something I can do every day in real life. That's why the sports games bore the heck out of me. You can play sports in real life! Not me, but some people can!
WHAT ARE YOUR ALL TIME FAVORITE COMICS?
Watchmen, Planetary, The Authority, Spiderman, X-men, Superman