#Too Cool! Cartoons

[fredseibertdotcom]

Illustration of Eric Homan + Fred Seibert by Natasha Allegri.

Eric Homan.

Soon after I got to Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, my Fred/Alan colleague, Tom Barreca, joined up, running the Enterprises group (he developed our characters into award winning partnerships), and he introduced me to a recent hire in his group, Eric Homan.

And a wonderful 30+ year cartoon relationship began.

"The World of Hanna-Barbera" edited by Eric Homan

Eric and I played a lot of roles together, from animation art to Frederator-on-the-internet (he critical to the founding of Channel Frederator and Cartoon Hangover). But, really it’s the cartoons.

Eric is most known and successful because of his development of the entire Frederator slate from 2004 on, starting with the Nicktoons Film Festival, and on through Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Random! Cartoons, Too Cool! Cartoons, and GO! Cartoons. And, not for nothing, Eric and Kevin Kolde double handedly ran Frederator Studios when I lived on the East coast and was starting up our YouTube channels, among other things.

But he’s rightly most revered for his roles in Pendleton Ward’s Adventure Time and Natasha Allegri’s Bee and PuppyCat. Networks and streamers like Netflix, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Max, Amazon Prime, Cartoon Hangover, and Channel Frederator owe a lot to Eric Homan.

(And lest you be skeptical about the work that goes into the “development” of cartoons led by such stellar creators, remember that Eric personally sifted through at least 5000 shorts pitches for our 60+ creator led shorts and honed in on the creators that created the series that spun off. I might have founded the studio, but Eric carried the weight.)

By the way, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you the crucial role Mr. Homan played in Adventure Time’s life. As part of his constant search for special talent at Frederator, Eric visited end-of-semester student film showcases at CalArts outside of Los Angeles. In the early aughts, he caught a film of junior Pen Ward’s and introduced himself; the next year, they bumped into each other again and a month after graduation, Pen pitched his AT board. A few weeks later, Pen pitched me. 

And I turned it down.

At the end of a long day of not-so-great presentations, Eric, Kevin Kolde and I retreated to my office to review. I made the classic executive mistake of thinking I knew what was right.

“He doesn’t have any professional experience. His drawing is primitive. We don’t make student films here.“

Eric and Kevin were surprised, they loved Pen and his idea. They pushed. I pushed back. And then Eric delivered the zinger.

“You try to be polite, you usually have a fake laugh in our pitches. But you actually laughed with Adventure Time.”

Busted. Eric knew me better than I did, and he knew a great piece of work when he saw it. The rest is history.

There are more stories that I can tell you. It comes down to the fact that’s Eric’s role in the modern history in cartoons is unique. Bottom line, it’s been an honor to work with Eric Homan, and not for nothing, we continue to collaborate in the wide world of cartoons. Thanks bud.

PS: Eric doesn’t love having his picture taken, hence Natasha’s illustration up above. But, I thought I’d share this snap of Eric, Pen Ward and me from 2008.

I’ve posted often about my mentors, the people I’ve learned the most from. And I’ve noted how often how many of them beg to differ as to whether or not I should credit them as such. So, I’ve calmed down in my titling. But still...

[mrmeepsmadmind]

his horns (finials) (idk)(ears)(whatever) shaking... the jumping ??? the struggling 😭 the off center twitching ..he is PISSED. AWF !!!!!!

[whereismyhat5678]

I was scrolling around through Pinterest and saw something and I could not stop thinking about Peppino and Noise HELP-

Day 18393902 of Peppino trying not to snap to his villain era, been a hard challenge for him lately 🙏😔 Pray for him guys

Original under the cut 👍

[bogleech]

Every so often I think about what I'd wanna do next as some whole new different fiction setting from any I already have and just sketch and doodle for an hour or so before I file it away. I have dozens of them and they keep changing.

Maybe something about plants in a garden though??

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

Fun little wind downs. More like before!

[princehendir]

Finding out that buy and large what people mean when they say "it's dangerous to reheat rice!!" is that if rice is held at a tepid temperature for an extended period of time it tends to grow cultures that can cause food poisoning. A fact that is true about pretty much everything.

[luck-of-the-drawings]

"I think this is the most inhuman; and human, that I've ever felt.." MUCH CAN HAPPEN IN A YEAR. IN FIVE YEARS. A DECADE. imagine how much can happen in a century. just ONE (1). How will you grow? what phases do you find? even in 5 years, you will find patterns.

[killertoons]

THIS IS A YEAR OLD NOW BUT I FINALLY FINISHED IT!

I genuinely think wally would try to be friends with bendy, but bendy's not so trusting...and a lil rude.

[liquidstar]

another thing about adventure time is you can have characters say shit like "if you are the head that floats atop the ziggurat, then the stairs that lead to you must be infinite" and then like turn around and do a fart joke

[i-really-like-phrogs]

Franken-Lyds I conjured up a bit back. I loved this look—Well— to peices! (Bwahahaha)

[fredseibertdotcom]

Larry Huber, official Oh Yeah! Cartoons portrait, 1998

Larry Huber.

Starting out in the cartoon business at 40 years old was pretty daunting. I had worked on some very short form animation in my previous lives, but cartoons? Completely different. Characters, layouts, storyboards, voice acting... A whole new world. When I first met with Hanna-Barbera’s senior staff –veterans all– I told them the truth. 

“I watched, and loved, cartoons as a kid. I don’t know much about making them. But, the good news is that you do. So I’ll listen to you about what we ought to do.”

At least, I thought it was good news. But honestly, pretty much only Larry Huber stepped up to help. And he’s been stepping up in my cartoon life ever since.

Larry’s a complete pro. He came to Los Angeles and studio art and animation, started in the business in the early 70s. He knows everything about the actual making of cartoons, which is great. But, better yet, he’s got great judgement, and though he would like to convince some people that he’s a curmudgeon, he’s one of the most caring and generous professional a newby, or a professional, could have as a colleague.

And that’s what he’s been for me. Actually, and more importantly, it’s what Larry has been for dozens of folks who made short films and series at my productions. Starting as the supervising producer on What A Cartoon! (he even designed the opening titles), coming on as my co-executive producer on Oh Yeah! Cartoons and Random! Cartoons, and continuing to help filmmakers on individual shorts at Too Cool! Cartoons and GO! Cartoons, and series spin-offs like Bravest Warriors and Bee and PuppyCat.

Larry’s got the obvious skill set –art, animation, storyboarding, directing, producing– but, I have to say what’s always blown me away is his instinct for filmmaking story. Obviously, there are a lot of ways to tell a story, whether it’s a short story or a novel. But, a film story has it’s own logic. And honestly, Larry is one of the few people I’ve met over the years that really gets it. I’m jealous, because I don’t really. At least, not like Larry.

And wow, what a mentor. My instinct for years has been that if you can pair a veteran professional, with the right first time wanna-be, usually young, professional, the results could be spectacular. Larry is the absolute proof. From Donovan Cook/2 Stupid Dogs, Genndy Tartakovsky/Dexter’s Laboratory, Craig McCraken/The Powerpuff Girls, Butch Hartman on all the shorts he did that led to The Fairly OddParents, Rob Renzetti/My Life as a Teenage Robot, Pendleton Ward/Adventure Time... I could write a whole post on just the young’uns he’s mentored. Including me (though I’m only a few minutes younger than him), I didn’t even know what a layout was before Larry filled me in.

With all the help he’s given others, it would remiss of me not to mention Larry’s co-creation, with Bill Burnett, of the fantastic ChalkZone, his series that ran on Nickelodeon for 40 episodes in the 2000s.

OK, I’ll spare you on the warm person that Larry is, a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, collector of HO trains and a cowboy and Civil War fan/scholar.

To me, Larry Huber made my professional life worth it. Thanks bud!

I’ve posted often about my mentors, the people I’ve learned the most from. And I’ve noted how often how many of them beg to differ as to whether or not I should credit them as such. So, I’ve calmed down in my titling. But still…

Larry Huber illustration by David Feiss

[spectrumspace]

Cringetober Day 25: Gacha Life Kids' Games

not familiar with Gacha Life, tried to approach the prompt more generally!! everyone has their "posting low-quality footage of a game to youtube at an age far too young for youtube" phase. solidarity.

[txxxciii]

Yk NSR games made me kinda hate Liu Kang (it's too complicated to explain).

For me, I prefer his movie versions better (especially Ludi Lin's Liu since he's a whole new take on the character and I dig that)

[mikatoonist]

another drawing of my zoey redesign!

i feel like if she was a kinda cringey hipster obsessed with moustaches, indie cinema, thick glasses etc it’d be rly funny

why were we obsessed with moustaches in 2012?

[lirarey]

On Saturday, I went to a symphony concert of music from the films of the eighties and nineties. There was the "Addams Family" theme, but not "Beetlejuice". Yes, I have interesting associations, but think about this. Even before the twenties, we couldn’t have imagined that one day we would see Lydia as an adult in the official media. And could we have imagined that the adult Lydia would be played not by just anyone (there could have been the joke about Christina Ricci as Wednesday), but by Winona Ryder herself? I still can't imagine how exciting it must be to return to an old role after so many years. You may ask where I am going with this? Let's start with the fact that Lydia, the child (animated series), Lydia, the teenager (the first film and musical), and Lydia, the adult (the second film), are slightly different people. The relationship (in general, the specifics aren't important here) with Beetlejuice will also be different.

In the cartoon series, they're best friends (you probably saw something similar in "The Ghost and Molly McGee" from Disney). Although I have seen the opinion that the writers seem to periodically forget that they aren't a couple, and it sounds funny, but not quite canonical. In the first film, they're more like partners in fulfilling each other's wishes. Yeah, I don't think Beetlejuice had any romantic interest in Lydia in the first one. I haven't seen the musical in its entirety, but as far as I understand, their relationship there is somewhat similar to that in a cartoon series.

And the second film. Now that Lydia is a grown-up, we can really suggest a further development of their relationship. But for now, I'll focus on the romantic part. Yes, the feelings that Beetlejuice has developed over the years. I think the writers did a pretty smart job of showing us exactly it on his part. Beetlejuice is a romantic. He has this soft and sentimental side that only shows to Lydia. Perhaps we will see more of this kind of behavior from him in the third film. And even more, I want to see how Lydia gradually realizes her feelings for him. All these looks, jokes, touches...

We're waiting for the third film, Tim Burton.

[dorkspine]

Wow. I can’t believe the Paint Path is canon in the 2013 shorts.