That New Show Smell

I wanted to take a moment and welcome Mike Gray again as he starts production on his second Random! Cartoon, “Thom Cat”. Thom Cat is a very well spoken cat who walks like a human, talks like a human, and saves the neighborhood kids by blackmailing bullies (like a human). We’re very excited to see more from Mike Gray!

Mike has also co-created The Infinite Goliath with Erik Knutson, who in house for his second short, “Summerteeth”.

Congrats and welcome (again), Mike!

Get ready for “Ratzafratz”, everyone! Karl and Jim have entered the building with their animated short about a rag tag group of mall rats (literally) who are being hunted by the likes of an overzealous mall security guard, C.Rank (pronounced, “Crank”).

Karl Toerge has written and directed “Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries”, as well as the Tom and Jerry Short, “The Mansion Cat”. Most notably for Frederator, he is currently a storyboard artist on our preschool series, “Wow Wow Wubzy” for Nick Jr. Mr. Jim Wyatt is a partner and writer for Ink Biscuits Studios where he won an Annie in 1998 for Cartoon Network ’s “Late Night Black and White”. His material is published in Judy Brown’s “Joke Stew”, and he also is the Associate Producer of “Leap Frog: The Storybook Factor”.

Congrats guys! It was great seeing your re-pitch this morning, and we’re looking forward to seeing all of this come together.

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This morning I will begin with welcoming Adam into our Circle of Trust. He has created the short, “Sam Squatch” about a little big foot out to show a mean monster hunter the ways of the forrest…and avoid the off Broadway stage.

Adam was the last short we greenlit for this season. It was down to the wire, but he pulled through after cutting his storyboard in half (no storyboards were harmed in the cutting of this project…but we are sad he had to lose some funny stuff!), and here he is! Show Creator Number 39!

Adam, we are thrilled with this project. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

It’s official! Anne and I are the co-creators of our very own short, “Sparkles and Gloom”. It feels kind of weird to welcome myself, so I’m gonna focus on Anne for now [Read more…]

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a welcome post, but get ready for about 6 or 7 more in the next couple of days as we gear up to start production on all of the rest of the 39 shorts!

First up on the welcoming block, Erik Knutson! You may recognize him from his picture, as he is co-creator of another fabulous short for this season called “The Infinite Goliath”.

We just watched the re-pitch of his latest short, “Summerteeth” this afternoon, and I liked it as much as the first time we saw it (and the third, and fourth…RIP Butterface…Erik gets that referrence). Erik’s short has cowboys, dinosaurs, oragami, a cute little kid named Summerteeth, and a psychotic bully named Socko. The opportunities for atomic wedgies are endless.

It’s great to have you here Erik.

Although you can’t see it from this picture, there were about 20 of us standing around Leonora Yi as I snapped this picture last Thursday. Claudia, you and Han have produced a cute one! And hovering crowds of animation production people don’t even scare her!

Nora also appears to like sleeping. Smart girl. Ah, the joys of infanthood!

I think many have already seen Fred Seibert’s post on our fabulous “Flavio” creator, Mike Milo, but I wanted to throw in a pic that Mike gave me of himself yesterday, as well.

Mike was one of the first pitches we ever took this season (gasp) over a year ago, and also one of the last pitches we got this season. I don’t know what that means, exactly, but we were certainly happy to have Flavio pitched and sold!

I’m sure Mike might even be happier.

Thanks Mike, we’re very excited to have you on board.

Today Pen Ward recorded his second short, “Bravest Warriors” in the main building. I had the pleasure of attending 40 minutes of it, and manohmanohman–very funny. Favorite line thus far? Chris: “I can’t…I’m too much of a down in the dumps delilah…”

From left to right, here’s the lineup:
Pen Ward: Creator
Tara Strong: Hi-Five Alien and Beth
Rob Paulsen: Danny and Tickle Monster
Dan Finnerty: Wallo
Noah Nelson: Professor Brain Dog
Charlie Schlatter: Chris

It’s official! Niki Yang has just started her second short, “Victor”, and has just given me this “self portrait” to kick off production. We can’t wait to see what you can do again, Niki. If The Two Witch Sisters is any indication, you’ll have us singing another jingle in no time.