The Fairly Odd-Blog

Ernie Gilbert

Now that you’ve had time to absorb the fine details of the lives of Messrs Worthy and Conrad, we swing over to meet Fairly OddParents character designer, Ernie Gilbert.

Frederator: Where did you grow up?

Ernie: I was born in Chicago, but grew up in Flint, Michigan.

Frederator: Flint? Do you –

Ernie: No, I don’t know the rabbit lady from Roger and Me.

Frederator: Her loss, I suppose. So what made you realize you wanted to go into cartooning?

Ernie: As a kid I wanted to do three things: sing, act, and make cartoons. That way, if one career ever falls through, I have two equally unstable fall-back plans. I was fascinated as a kid with how cartoons were made… how the drawings worked. I had a Fisher-Price Movie Viewer which was one of the best toys ever invented. You could advance the frames backwards or forwards, at speed or slow-motion, and study how it all worked. After high school, I studied theatre at UM-Flint, but took art classes on the side. I kept relating everything to animation, and finally my teacher (Guru) brought in a CalArts catalog, and told me I should apply.

Frederator: What was your animation education like?

Ernie: Hmmm – it was very mixed. I had some terrific teachers – Ken Bruce and Kevin Johnson in particular. In general, it was a very mixed bag. Our character design teacher flew the coop after about a month, and wasn’t replaced. Our equipment was horribly outdated and prone to breaking down. One of the greatest resources we had at CalArts, though, was our fellow students… seeing how we all found different ways to solve the same problems. Seeing strengths and weakness in each other’s work was very enlightening. Of course, we were all terrified that we would never be able to get a job and pay off our student loans. Fear is a good motivator.

Frederator: What was your first job in the cartoon business?

Ernie: I went to work for a company called Creative Capers Entertainment. At that time, they had just secured a contract to animate games for Disney. Every time Disney came out with a film, we would be animating video games, animated storybooks, the occasional commercial, title sequence…. it was very small at the time. I was the first animator they hired there. The company grew considerably over the next five years I worked there.

Ernie’s pregnant Cosmo

Frederator: How’d you get the job on The Fairly OddParents?

Ernie: I was working as an A.D. at Sony, where I first met Bob Boyle. One day my director asked me to bring in my portfolio, and as it happened Bob stopped by the office that day and looked through it. Some time later, I was working at Warner Bros, and Bob called me up and asked me to come in to pick up some freelance and meet Butch Hartman. Butch was very complimentary and said when they needed a full-time character designer they would call me. Lo and behold, when season two started, they did just that, and I’ve been working for Butch almost straight through for the past eight years!

Frederator: Eight years is a lot of characters. How many do you design per episode?

Ernie: Right now, we’re averaging somewhere around a hundred models per eleven-minute cartoon. Maybe a bit more. A model can range from a cat, or Cosmo-as-a-tractor, to a stadium crowd. Lots of crowds for some reason!

Frederator: So, really, after 4,000 episodes, hasn’t every conceivable character in Dimmsdale been designed?

Ernie: You might think so, until you looked at my list for my last show, which had 136 models! Never underestimate Butch Hartman’s imagination. There’s always something new. The good news is it means they still need designers!

Frederator: Any favorite characters or episodes?

Ernie: An episode called “The Good Old Days” was special to me for several reasons. That’s one where Timmy meets his Grandpa, and they wind up in a 1920’s-style Fleischer-esque cartoon. I love those early cartoons, and it was fun to try to replicate the style. Also, Dave Thomas’s storyboard pitch was hysterically funny. I got to art direct and design on that one, which I enjoyed. Plus, I got to sing and play ukulele in that episode, which was an extremely cool opportunity.

[To listen to Ernie strum his ukulele and sing “Doo Boo Bee Doo” from “Good Old Days!”, click below.]

Parlor characters from “The Good Old Days!”

Frederator: So that’s your uke-playing. Good to know. How many musical instruments do you play?

Ernie: Just ukulele, so… I guess you could say about 1/2? I’m trying to learn blues guitar on my own, but there isn’t much time to devote to it, so it’s a looong-term goal.

FOP character designer Ernie Gilbert by FOP character designer Gordon Hammond

Frederator: Tell us about your involvement with the theater, please.

Ernie: Well, I was very fortunate to receive a full theatre scholarship to attend UM-Flint, and that’s where I got my bachelor’s degree. I took one break from school during that time, to tour the country with a children’s theatre company, and during the summers I performed at various summer-stock theatres around Michigan. When I moved out here to attend CalArts, I took a twelve-year break from theatre, but a few years ago I became involved with Glendale’s community theatre group, the Stepping Stone Players. Now I sit on the board of directors. Our focus group is to turn kids on to theatre, and give them a chance to be involved in high quality productions. Exposing kids to the Arts is something that I feel very strongly about, and that’s a really good group of people to work with. I have a pie-in-the-sky idea of opening a Youth Arts Academy one day, where kids can take classes in theatre, music, art, animation… That would be incredible.

Ernie, lower right, with the Red Hot Vegans

Frederator: You worked on both Sammy and Eight Crazy Nights. Who’s funnier, David Spade or Adam Sandler?

Ernie: Ha ha! Well, I met each of them once. I actually only worked on Eight Crazy Nights for a week! I started on a Monday, and put my notice in on Wednesday after reading the script, and finished up on Friday. The Executive Producer called me a “Conscientious Objector”. I never saw the finished film, but I heard the script was toned down quite a bit by the end. The scripts for Sammy were actually very funny, and the records were sometimes hilarious. The problem was, they were about 45 minutes long for a 22-minute show, so by the time it was pared down for length, most of the pure comedy had been cut. It’s too bad. I think they aired only two episodes of that show.

Ernie’s basketball team, with Aiden, Kean, Race, and Asher

Frederator: You update your blog about once every six months. Where do you find the time?

Ernie: Thanks for noticing that… that’s pure discipline, Eric. I set aside three seconds a day to work on the blog, and that means an update every six months, whether it needs it or not. I don’t want to over-saturate the web with my work, because that could only lead to job offers and opportunities. Hey, wait…

Hahahaha. That’s just a little of my “gotcha journalism”, Ernie. Thanks for the time. Now, back to drawing (for you, not for me).

– Eric