Moving our blog.Bye Bye Blogspot.

So, it's come to this.

Nothing serious, but we're moving The Frederator Studios Blog onto our home site (and, for a while, we'll be calling it The Frederator Studios Blog 2.0). And after the production blogs our colleagues have set up for My Life as a Teenage Robot and Wubby, Widget, & Walden, we've become so blog smitten, we're starting up a major effort for Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Today (July 11, 2005) is the first day of production on the first of 39 short cartoons we're producing for Nickelodeon in the 4th season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Congratulations to Kyle Carrozza who's starting his first commercial cartoon, MooBeard, the Cow Pirate.

Aside from our excitement for Kyle (and for us; we're lucky enough he's creating his cartoon at Frederator), he's also the first of the Oh Yeah! creators to be beginning a full production blog of the entire experience of making his short. As each the creators comes on board over the next six months or so, each of them will begin his/her own blog. You'll be able to follow along with first timers and veterans alike, getting an insight to their thrills and anxieties, and probably the evolution of each of the films. If the Roblog and the Wubblog are any indication, each of them should be an enjoyable entertainment.

Anyhow, please join us from now on at the new home of The Frederator Studio Blog. Read along, keep leaving us your great comments, and hopefully, enjoy our ride.

Oh Yeah! Penn Ward.

I think Nickelodeon (our exclusive network partner) is pretty happy with the storyboards we've been seeing for the upcoming season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. It might be because the next generation of talents have been very present. Like Penn Ward.

Penn is a recent graduate of Cal Arts in Valencia, California, specializing in character animation. He also plays a mean guitar. His very original voice is evident in his cartoon storyboard called Adventure Time.

Thanks to Penn for his kind permission to post some frames from his storyboard.

Greg Eagles & David (dahveed) Kolodny-Agy. Oh Yeah!

Greg Eagles and David (dahveed) Kolodny-Agy came over to Frederator Studios to show us their unique cartoon Teapot, for possible production in the fourth season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Greg's a writer and voice over artist (we've worked together before on Buy One, Get One Free for What A Cartoon! Right now, Greg's famous for the voice of Grim on The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy). David's a storyboard artist who runs a company called Smorgasbord Productions.

Thanks to Greg and David for kind permission to post models from their cartoon.

Eric & Michelle Bryan.

I am not very smart. Or rather, I'm pretty careless.

In the post from June 28, in my rush to a mea culpa, I neglected to mention Michelle Bryan, who with her husband Eric, created a wonderful Oh Yeah! cartoon for our 3rd season: Skippy Spankerton, Nickelodeon's Hottest New Filmmaker. At the time (1999) Michele was a member of the Oh Yeah! production staff and Eric was an animation professional.

I always loved Skippy, and I'm sorry to have skipped by Michelle's contribution as the very first female creator of one of our Oh Yeah!s. Thanks Michelle (and Eric)!

Ryan Sias. Oh Yeah!

We met artist Ryan Sias through our friends at Silver Lining Productions. Ryan came over to our New York office to show us his storyboard for Courageous Critters for Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Thanks to Ryan for his kind permission to post a frame from his storyboard.

Grrrl Power!

It's been an incredible 13 years to be in animation. After 99 shorts (48 What A Cartoon!s and 51 Oh Yeah!s), countless sequels, and hit series, there's one thing I can tell you for sure. With great humiliation, I confess: We haven't made one short with a woman creator. And, believe me, not for lack of trying. We pushed, we prodded, we begged, but out of the more than 5000 storyboards we looked at throughout the years, I don't think we even had a couple dozen pitches by women; the industry just hadn't been hospitable enough to front-line female animators who wanted to step up.

Well, I'm here to tell you, the world's changed. Day after day, Frederator's Oh Yeah! Cartoons development team is seeing that metamorphosis first hand.

You can see it too, just take a look at our blog. On this page alone there are four woman who've come to us to show their ideas. There are dozens more on the other pages. And, take it from me, there are some fantastic cartoons in those ideas. Some great talent.

It's about time. Cartoons need to reflect the diversity in our modern world. It's the way our children are growing up. Women aren't the only reflection of that breadth, but they're the biggest tidal wave of the moment. Here's to Grrrl Power finding the next great cartoon hit. Or maybe it'll be somebody else we haven't heard from before. I'm sure of it.

Jill Friemark. Oh Yeah!

Jill Friemark's been a valued Frederator colleague for years, on ChalkZone and, most recently, on My Life as a Teenage Robot. (Check out the iconic MLaaTR poster she created in her first week on the show!) Not only was Jill nice enough to introduce us to many of her talented friends, but she came over and pitched Oh Yeah! her cartoon The Silver Spatula. Thanks for everything Jill.

And thanks to Jill for kind permission to post some of her beautiful frames from The Silver Spatula.

Oh Yeah! Jay Morales.

From our Hollywood development colleague Melissa Wolfe: "Jay is a very talented (and young!) artist/creator. So young, in fact, that she has one more year to go in art school, and was commuting from San Diego to intern two days a week on Cat Scratch when she decided to pitch to Oh Yeah! Cartoons."

Thanks to Jay for kind permission to post a page from her pitch.

Andrew Dickman. Oh Yeah!

This post is overdue. Andrew Dickman has been in a number of times showing us always improved variations on his very funny Ivan the Unbearable. Andrew is working over at Warner Bros. Animation as a character designer.

We're very lucky that Oh Yeah! Cartoons keeps getting so many excellent pitches. Keep 'em coming!

Thanks Andrew, for kindly letting us post some of your Ivan models.

Original Cartoons:The Frederator Postcards.

Our book has just been listed on Amazon, reminding us to remind you that it'll be officially published by the Easton Studio Press in November. In the meanwhile, as many of you know, there's a free (large) PDF preview we posted a few months ago. Keep your eyes glued, because we'll be offering early, signed copies here as early as September.

Oh Yeah! Larry Huber!

Larry Huber is the unsung hero of the modern animation business. He's my hero. Without Larry Huber, my whole approach to cartoons would have been derided as Fred's Folly.

Now that we're moving into the fourth season of Oh Yeah!, I wanted to give Larry his well deserved props.

Larry and I have been the co-executive producers of Oh Yeah! Cartoons since it first went into production. Before that he oversaw our shorts at What A Cartoon!/World Premiere Toons! at Cartoon Network and Hanna-Barbera. Between the two he was responsible for developing the teams that created 100 original cartoon characters, 11 hit series (including his own ChalkZone), and 3 feature films. Geez Louise!

Think about it. Larry guided the now recognized talents of Genndy Tartakovsky, Craig McCraken, Butch Hartman, Rob Renzetti, Bill Burnett, David Feiss, and dozens of others through their first professional, solo films and series. His tutelage virtually populated the cartoon industry with its new generation of star talent.

Excitement, optimism, hope, animation skills and talents, and an unerring sense of story have been the hallmarks of Larry's bag of tricks in these enterprises. Don't underestimate how challenging it is to balance the needs of all these filmmakers, each with a laser-like focus on doing a picture just their way, and that way happens to be completely different than the person in the next office. It requires a fortitude that few people have. Larry's got it.

Clearly, our production teams, led by Debby Hindman and Sherry Gunther, had the patience of Job themselves. And Buzz Potamkin, who identified Larry as the right guy in the first place, deserves more than a little credit here in believing that our approach could make a difference. But Larry was the man.

Whenever you write and thank me for our cartoons and what we've been able to do for the industry, remember, it's Larry who made the difference.

Thanks bud, I'm looking forward to another wild season.

(By the way, regarding the illustration up above: Butch Hartman, then a 'fist' in the Hanna-Barbera bullpen, proved his unique ability to capture a personality in a flash with this 1990 sketch of Larry hard at work.)

Oh Yeah! Hiroshi Chida & Shuzo John Shiota.

Shuzo John Shiota is the Executive Producer & President, and Hiroshi Chida is an award winning director, at Polygon Pictures in Japan. Polygon is a 25 year-old CG animation house based in Tokyo; they've done everything from commercials to TV shows to feature films. They've pitched Oh Yeah! Cartoons the very funny Boneheads.

Thanks to Shuzo for his very kind permission to post these frames from Boneheads.

Elanna Allen & Dimitri Ehrlich.

Elanna Allen is an animator and artist and Dimitri Ehrlich is a writer. Together they came in with a very nice, fun, picture book called Captain Fun and Tiny Special Pants for our Bolder Books for Boys & Girls project with Random House.

Thanks to Elanna & Dimitri for kind permission to post am illustration from their book.

Last Chance! 5 days left!

That's right, last chance. There are 5 days left to enter and get the $10,000 first prize.

And maybe more importantly, it's the last chance to get your animated film in front of a large, national, discerning audience. (And remember, this festival is for your completed films.)

June 17, 2005, will be the last day we're is accepting submissions for the second annual Nextoons: Nicktoons Film Festival.

Last year, Frederator Studios proudly started The Nicktoons Film Festival. We had literally hundreds of submissions from all around the world, selected almost 100 for the actual festival, and screened six hours of cartoons for an audiences of millions across America on the Nicktoons digital animation channel. We had two incredible winning films: Timmy's Lessons in Nature, by Mark Simon and Travis Blaise; and Welcome to My Life, by Elizabeth Ito.

It's amazing to me, after 25 years of looking at literally tens of thousands of films, to see the great quality of expression that continues to come in to our offices every day. Nextoons is really becoming one of the most interesting venues for recent animated pictures. My fellow festival directors, Eric Homan and Rita Street, and our colleagues at the wonderful Nicktoons channel, are waiting with baited breath for your new cartoons.

Enter and win! The Nextoons Film Festival. (Did I mention there are only 5 days left?)

Bill Burnett & Jaime Diaz. Oh Yeah!

Bill Burnett and Jaime Diaz are great friends of Oh Yeah! Cartoons, both of them being contributors to the original three seasons; in fact, Jaime's son Bill was part of our original production team. Bill, of course, created ChalkZone with Larry Huber, and Jaime joined their directing team.

Together, they created and pitched Oh Yeah! the very funny Dr. Froyd's Funny Farm. Thanks guys.

Thanks to Jaime & Bill for permission to post Jaime's original cartoon that inspired their idea.

Oh Yeah! Mikhail Shindel, Slava Ushakov, Glenn Buswell.

Mikhail, Slava, and Glenn were nice enough to come and show us Shapito for consideration in the fourth season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

Mikhail Shindel founded Kinofilm in Los Angeles in 1996. The new company quickly landed a deal to produce Mike, Lu, and Og on the Cartoon Network.

Since 1998, Slava Ushakov has been based at Kinofilm in Los Angeles, where he works as a director and storyboard artist.

Glenn Buswell started working at Kinofilm in 1997. He moved to development where he, Slava, and Misha continue to create projects from animated series to features. Currently he is the Production Coordinator on Nickelodeon's Catscratch which bows July 9th at 8:00 pm.

Thanks to Mikhail, Slava, and Glenn for kind permission to show a storyboard frame from Shapito.

Last chance! 10 days left.

That's right, last chance. There are 10 days left to enter and get the $10,000 first prize.

And maybe more importantly, it's the last chance to get your animated film in front of a large, national, discerning audience. (And remember, this festival is for your completed films.)

June 17, 2005, will be the last day we're is accepting submissions for the second annual Nextoons: Nicktoons Film Festival.

Last year, Frederator Studios proudly started The Nicktoons Film Festival. We had literally hundreds of submissions from all around the world, selected almost 100 for the actual festival, and screened six hours of cartoons for an audiences of millions across America on the Nicktoons digital animation channel. We had two incredible winning films: Timmy's Lessons in Nature, by Mark Simon and Travis Blaise; and Welcome to My Life, by Elizabeth Ito.

It's amazing to me, after 25 years of looking at literally tens of thousands of films, to see the great quality of expression that continues to come in to our offices every day. Nextoons is really becoming one of the most interesting venues for recent animated pictures. My fellow festival directors, Eric Homan and Rita Street, and our colleagues at the wonderful Nicktoons channel, are waiting with baited breath for your new cartoons.

Enter and win! The Nextoons Film Festival. (Did I mention there are only 10 days left?)

My heroes. Postcards, Series 5.

It's postcard time again! The bottom one's pretty obvious; as you probably know, we're taking pitches for 39 new shorts for the fourth season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons.

The other two? Well, frankly, they're indulgences of a nostalgic, sentimental producer.

The top one is my grandfather, Pancho Nakashev, pharmacist, linguist, nationalist, inventor. It's been said from him I got my eyebrows and entrepreneurial spirit. The other, American Gothic in the 50s, is my parents posing in their Long Island pharmacy for a magazine article (hence, the photographer posing my dad in a goofy smock he really disliked). From them comes a love of hard work, fair play, and creativity. Thanks everyone, I love you.

Click here to see all our Frederator card series from the past seven years.

Jim Flora.

I'd to point out the fantastic classic art of one James Flora.

As is often the case with things visual, I knew Flora's work because it was in my molecules, in the air, rather than in my head. Then, my colleague Tim Biskup* came to work on my show Oh Yeah! Cartoons as a creator, background designer and (fantastic) painter, and started bringing in truckloads of his LP collection for reference and inspiration. He politely exported his passion and excitement for Jim's work, and, me being me, I became a huge fan. Being a huge jazz fan too didn't hurt. And somehow, it's fitting to me that on my Amazon.com page, Tim's books come up when I search Flora.)

*Check out the fantastic postcard Tim painted for us at Oh Yeah! And, his own cartoon, too.

The Teenage Roblog.

There is some unbelievably cool stuff going on out there on the internet, and luckily, some of it's happening to Frederator productions. Over at the blog for My Life as a Teenage Robot (aka The Teenage Roblog), webmaster XJWriter has been posting some of the neatest fan art in creation. Today's crossover for The Powerpuff Girls (developed by yours truly back in the day) and MLaaTR particularly caught my eye. MLaaTR creator Rob Renzetti was a prime mover on Craig McCraken's show, so it's particularly satisfying to see the fans loving them both.

Oh Yeah! Aliki Theofilopoulos.

Aliki Theofilopoulos has been a friend of Frederator's since before there's been a Frederator (she was an artist/intern with us at Hanna-Barbera, and she's worked on a number of our productions). Yaki & Yumi is the charming and funny cartoon she asked to have included in Oh Yeah!'s latest season. Aliki also does voice acting on the side, and her vocal characterizations gave a unique character to her pitches.

Thanks Aliki for permission to post your artwork.

ChalkZone's done it again!

Those wacky guys in ChalkZone...

Right on the heels of their prestigious Annecy nomination, for the best TV series of 2005, comes the news that CZ's been honored by the distinquished Imagen Foundation, for their postive portrayal of hispanics. Created by The Imagen Foundation, the Imagen Awards competition has brought out the best and most talented portrayal of Latinos in television and film since 1985.

ChalkZone was nominated along with two other of our sister Nickelodeon series -- Dora the Explorer and Nick News with Linda Ellerbee -- along with PBS' Maya & Miguel, and the WB's ¡Mucha Lucha!

Everyone at Frederator has always been proud to be associated with the great work that goes into ChalkZone. And we want to congratulate the whole team on this episode: EP/creators: Bill Burnett & Larry Huber, Producer: Debby Hindman, Director: John Kimball, and Writer: Ford Riley.

Oh Yeah! Jeff DeGrandis.

Jeff DeGrandis is a director-producer-writer highly respected in today's cartoon industry. That's why we're so proud he chose to pitch his really funny cartoon, Finster & Finster, to Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Given that he's so busy running the show at Nick Jr.'s Diego, after running Dora the Explorer, one of the world's biggest success stories, we're doubly proud that he found a way to fit us in.

Thanks to Jeff for permission to show one of his storyboard panels.

Oh Yeah! George Escobar & Bob Lizaraga.

George Escobar is an editor of television series, and Bob Lizaraga is an animation artist. Spaghetti & Meatball is their very clever, very well drawn cartoon storyboard pitch.

As you can see, the Frederator development team's been seeing dozens of cartoons that would like to be a part of the 4th season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Sometime in the next month or two you'll be seeing our choices for the first shorts in this round of the series. I can tell you right now, the quality of the work has been high enough that we're going to have a hard time of it.

Thank you George and Bob, for kind permission to show some of your storyboard pages.

The hits just keep on coming. Postcards, Series 5.

Frederator launched the shorts from Oh Yeah! Cartoons in 1998. In the first season alone we had Larry Huber's and Bill Burnett's ChalkZone, and Butch Hartman's The Fairly Oddparents. (And, not incidentially, the first film from Bob Boyle, who went on to be the FOP art director, and creator of Wubby, Widget, & Walden). Second season, Rob Renzetti's My Neighbor was a Teenage Robot, which, of course led to the series My Life as as Teenage Robot.

So our latest round of limited edition postcards remind me of how much everyone has accomplished. I see in last week's New York Times that FOP is in the top 15 of cable programming four times (more than any other show of any kind); Teenage Robot is producing its third season (a total of 40 episodes); and, ChalkZone is stripping daily on Nickelodeon. (Not to mention the beginning of production of Wubby, Widget & Walden). I'm incredibly proud we're associated with such amazing talent.

Click here to see all our Frederator card series from the past seven years.