Genndy Borisovich Tartakovsky

Genndy Borisovich Tartakovsky (born January 17, 1970) is a Soviet-born American animator, director and producer. Although his Russian name Геннадий is normally transliterated as Gennady or Gennadiy, he changed its spelling to Genndy after moving from Russia to the US. He is best known for the Cartoon Network's animated television series, including Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and Sym-Bionic Titan. In 2011, Tartakovsky has joined Sony Pictures Animation, where he directed his feature film debut, Hotel Transylvania, and is directing an animated film based on Popeye.

Craig McCracken acquired an art director job at Hanna-Barbera for the show 2 Stupid Dogs and recommended hiring Robert Renzetti and Tartakovsky as well. This was a major turning point in Tartakovsky's career. Hanna-Barbera let Tartakovsky, McCracken, Renzetti, and Paul Rudish work in a trailer in the parking lot of the studio, and there, Tartakovsky started creating his best known works. Dexter's Laboratory grew out of a student film with the same title that he produced while at the California Institute of the Arts. Tartakovksy also co-wrote and pencilled the 25th issue of the Dexter's Laboratory comic book series, titled "Stubble Trouble". Additionally, he helped produce The Powerpuff Girls and has directed many episodes, serving as the animation director for The Powerpuff Girls Movie. All three projects were nominated repeatedly for Emmy Awards, with Samurai Jack finally winning "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)" in 2004 – the same year he would win in the category for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or More) for Star Wars: Clone Wars.

Dexter’s Laboratory

Dexter's Laboratory is an American comic science fiction animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. The series follows a boy-genius named Dexter who has a secret laboratory filled with an endless collection of his inventions. He constantly battles his annoying sister Dee Dee, who always gains access to his lab despite his efforts to keep her out, as well as his arch-rival and neighbor, Mandark.

Tartakovsky first pitched the series to Hanna-Barbera's animated shorts showcase World Premiere Toons, basing it on student films he produced at CalArts. Three shorts were created and broadcast on Cartoon Network in 1995 and 1996 until viewer approval ratings convinced the network to order a 13-episode first season, which premiered on April 28, 1996. By 1999, 52 episodes and a television movie were produced. In 2001, the network revived the series under a different production team at Cartoon Network Studios since Season 1, and after 26 more episodes, the series finally ended on November 20, 2003.

Reception

Since its debut Dexter's Laboratory has been one of Cartoon Network's most successful original series being the network's highest-rated series in both 1996 and 1997. By 1998 the character Dexter was popular enough to be featured for the first time alongside many other iconic characters in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The show was also part of the reason for Cartoon Network's rating's surge over the summer of 1999. Dexter's Laboratory continued to be popular throughout the 2000s, and with it, on July 31, it scored the highest household rating and delivery of any Cartoon Network telecast in 2001. Dexter's Laboratory, along with The Powerpuff Girls, was also the network's highest-rated original series of 2002.

One of Cartoon Network president Betty Cohen's favorite animated shows was Dexter's Laboratory. Rapper Coolio has also said that he is a fan of the show and was happy to do a song for the show's soundtrack at Cartoon Network's request, stating, "I watch a lot of cartoons because I have kids. I actually watch more cartoons than movies. "In a 2012 top 10 list by Entertainment Weekly, Dexter's Laboratory was ranked as the fourth best Cartoon Network show. In 2009 Dexter's Laboratory was named the 72nd best animated series by IGN, with editors remarking, "While aimed at and immediately accessible to children, Dexter's Laboratory was part of a new generation of animated series that played on two levels, simultaneously fun for both kids and adults."

Danny Antonucci

Daniel Edward "Danny" Antonucci (born February 27, 1957) is a Canadian animator, director, producer and screenwriter who created the animated comedy series Ed, Edd n Eddy, Lupo the Butcher, Cartoon Sushi and The Brothers Grunt.

Antonucci dropped out of the Sheridan College of Visual Arts to take a job as an animator at Hanna-Barbera, where he worked on a number of series, including The Flintstones Comedy Hour, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Smurfs and Richie Rich. He continued his career in Vancouver, where he worked on animated shorts and television commercials for Rocketship Limited, and created his first solo work, the animated short Lupo the Butcher. At MTV, he work on a number of commercials, his series The Brothers Grunt, and the animation showcase program Cartoon Sushi, which he co-created with Keith Alcorn. He went on to create Ed, Edd n Eddy for Cartoon Network. In 2008, Antonucci signed to Wild Brain.

Throughout his career, Antonucci won a number of awards. Many of his commercials for Converse, ESPN and Levi’s won a number of awards. Lupo the Butcher was a successful short and is considered to be a cult-classic. Ed, Edd n Eddy, his work by which he is best known, remains one of Cartoon Network's most successful series to date.

Ed Edd n Eddy

Ed, Edd n Eddy is a Canadian-American animated comedy television series created by Danny Antonucci and produced by Canada-based a.k.a. Cartoon. It premiered on Cartoon Network on January 4, 1999. The series was designed to resemble classic cartoons from the 1940s to the 1970s, and revolves around three adolescent boys, Ed, Edd "Double D" and Eddy, collectively known as "the Eds", who live in a suburban cul-de-sac. Unofficially led by Eddy, the Eds constantly invent schemes to make money from their peers to purchase their favorite confectionery, jawbreakers. Their plans usually fail, leaving them in various predicaments.

Adult cartoonist Antonucci was dared to create a children cartoon; while designing a commercial, he conceived Ed, Edd n Eddy, and approached Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon with the series, but both channels demanded creative control, which Antonucci did not agree to. A deal was ultimately made for Cartoon Network to commission Ed, Edd n Eddy, after they agreed to let Antonucci have control of the show.

Ratings and Reception

Ed, Edd n Eddy attracted an audience of 31 million households, was broadcast in 29 countries, and was popular among both children and adults. It was Cartoon Network's most popular show among boys ages 2–11. In 2005, it was reported that Ed, Edd n Eddy was the number one rated show on Cartoon Network and basic cable with huge awareness, being known to 79% of children age 6–11. The series ran for nearly 11 years, making it the longest-running original Cartoon Network series and Canadian -made animated series to date. It is one of the longest-running United States animated series.

Ed, Edd n Eddy received generally positive reviews from critics. David Cornelius considered the Eds to be adolescent equivalents of The Three Stooges, believing that "the series revels in the sort of frantic, often gross humor kids love so much, and there's just enough oddball insanity at play to make adults giggle just as easily." Cornelius also wrote that the "animation is colorful and intentionally bizarre; bold lines forming the characters and backgrounds wiggle and morph in a delirious haze. This is animation that's, well, really animated."

Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. series of theatrical cartoon shorts. It was produced from 1930 to 1969 during the Golden Age of American animation, alongside Warner Bros.' other theatrical cartoon series, Merrie Melodies. The series featured some of the most famous cartoon characters in the history of animation, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Tweety Bird among many others. The characters themselves are commonly referred to as the "Looney Tunes." The name Looney Tunes is a variation on Silly Symphonies, the name of Walt Disney's concurrent series of music-based cartoon shorts. From 1942 until 1969, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were the most popular cartoon shorts in theaters, exceeding Disney and other popular competitors.

Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, Looney Tunes has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television series, films, comics, music albums, video games and amusement park rides. Many of the characters have made and continue to make cameo appearances in various other television shows, films and advertisements. The most popular Looney Tunes character, Bugs Bunny, is regarded as a cultural icon and has appeared in more films than any other cartoon character. Several Looney Tunes shorts are regarded as some of the greatest animated cartoons of all time. Many of the shorts were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, with two of them winning the award (For Scent-imental Reasons and Knighty Knight Bugs), and the short Porky in Wackyland has been inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

In the beginning both Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies drew their storylines from Warner's vast music library. From 1934 to 1943, Merrie Melodies were produced in color and Looney Tunes in black and white. After 1943, however, both series were produced in color and became virtually indistinguishable, with the only stylistic difference being in the variation between the opening theme music and titles. Both series also made use of the various Warner Bros. cartoon characters. By 1937, the theme music for Looney Tunes was "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin; the theme music for Merrie Melodies was an adaptation of "Merrily We Roll Along" by Charles Tobias, Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor.

Ken Harris

Ken Harris was born in Tulare Co. California. His first job as an animator was for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, where he worked from 1927 to the 1930s. Harris's best remembered work was at Warner Bros. Cartoons under the supervision of director Chuck Jones; this association began in 1936 and lasted until 1962. Jones described him as "... a virtuoso. Ken Harris did it all."

After Jones left Warner's, Harris worked with former animator Phil Monroe on two cartoons before Warner Bros. closed its cartoon department. In 1963, Harris worked briefly for Friz Freleng on the titles of “The Pink Panther”, then for Hanna-Barbera on their first feature film “Hey There It's Yogi Bear!” Then rejoined Jones at M-G-M for three years. After work as an animator on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” Which was directed by Jones, a longtime friend of Dr. Seuss — Harris came to the studio of independent animator Richard Williams in London? There he served as William's mentor as well as his employee. Harris's credits with him included “A Christmas Carol” as animator of Ebenezer Scrooge, the opening titles of “The Return of the Pink Panther”, and the still-unfinished animated feature “The Thief” and the Cobbler (animating the Thief of the title, which is very reminiscent of Harris's earlier work animating Wile E. Coyote for Jones).

Among the many scenes Harris has animated: Mama Bear doing an outrageous tap-dance (which Chuck Jones, who directed the cartoon, and who was Harris' longtime collaborator, has said was inspired by Mike Maltese, "who could really dance that way") in A Bear For Punishment; Wile E. Coyote consuming earthquake pills in Hopalong Casualty; as well as the lengthy dance sequence in What's Opera, Doc?.

The animator died on March 24, 1982, from Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles, California.

Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated cartoon films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, centering on a rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases involved comic violence. Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote, produced and directed 114 Tom and Jerry shorts at MGM cartoon studios in Hollywood from 1940 to 1957. The original series is notable for having won seven Academy Awards, tying with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies as the theatrical animated series with the most Oscars. A longtime television staple, Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience and has been recognized as one of the most famous and longest-lived rivalries in American cinema. In 2000, Time magazine named Tom and Jerry one of the greatest television shows of all time.

The series features comedic fights between an iconic set of enemies, a house cat and mouse. The plots of each short usually center on Tom's numerous attempts to capture Jerry and the mayhem and destruction that ensues. Tom rarely succeeds in catching Jerry, mainly because of Jerry's cleverness, cunning abilities, and luck. Despite this, there are also several instances within the cartoons where they display genuine friendship and concern for each other's well-being. Other times, the pair set aside their rivalry in order to pursue a common goal, such as when a baby escaped the watch of a negligent teen babysitter, causing Tom and Jerry to pursue the baby and keep it away from danger.

The cartoons are infamous for some of the most violent cartoon gags ever devised in theatrical animation, such as Jerry slicing Tom in half, shutting his head in a window or a door, Tom using everything from axes, firearms, explosives, traps and poison to try to murder Jerry, Jerry stuffing Tom's tail in a waffle iron and a mangle, kicking him into a refrigerator, plugging his tail into an electric socket, pounding him with a mace, club or mallet, causing a tree or an electric pole to drive him into the ground, sticking matches into his feet and lighting them, tying him to a firework and setting it off, and so on. Because of this, Tom and Jerry has often been criticized as excessively violent. Despite the frequent violence, there is no blood or gore in any scene.

Gene Deitch

Eugene Merril "Gene" Deitch (born August 8, 1924) is an American illustrator, animator and film director. He has been based in Prague, capital of Czechoslovakia and the present-day Czech Republic, since 1959. His film Munro won an Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 1961, the first short composed outside of the United States to be so honored. Since 1968, Deitch has been the leading animation director for the Connecticut organization Weston Woods/Scholastic, adapting children's picture books. His studio is located in Prague near the Barrandov studios where many major films were recorded. In 2003, he was awarded the "Annie" by ASIFA Hollywood for a lifetime contribution to the art of animation.

In 1960, Deitch and Rembrandt Films, after collaborating in a pool of producers that made the Popeye 1960's season for television by King Features, arranged a deal with MGM to revive the Tom and Jerry franchise overseas in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Deitch states that, being a member of the UPA, he has always had a personal dislike of Tom and Jerry, citing them as the "primary bad example of senseless violence - humor based on pain - attack and revenge - to say nothing of the tasteless use of a headless black woman stereotype house servant." Štěpán Koníček, a student of Karel Ančerl and conductor of the Film Symphony Orchestra, and Václav Lídl provided the musical score for the Deitch short, while Larz Bourne, Chris Jenkyns, and Eli Bauer wrote the cartoons. The majority of vocal effects and voices in Deitch's films were provided by Allen Swift.

Since the Deitch/Snyder team had seen only a handful of the original Tom and Jerry shorts, and since Deitch and Snyder produced their cartoons on a tighter budget of $10,000, the resulting films were considered unusual, and, in many ways, bizarre. The characters' gestures were often performed at high speed, frequently causing heavy motion blur. As a result, the animation of the characters looked choppy and sickly. The soundtracks featured sparse music, futuristic sound effects, dialogue that was mumbled rather than spoken, and heavy use of reverb. Fans that typically rooted for Tom criticized Deitch's cartoons for never having Tom become a threat to Jerry. Most of the time, Tom only attempts to hurt him when he gets in his way. Tom's new owner, a corpulent and grumpy middle-aged white man (with serious temper problems, often going red in the face similar to Deitch's earlier "Clint Clobber" character at Terrytoons), was also more graphically brutal in punishing Tom's mistakes as compared to Mammy Two-Shoes, such as beating and thrashing Tom repeatedly, searing his face with a grill and forcing Tom to drink an entire carbonated beverage.