The Walt Disney Family Museum’s most recent Happily Ever After Hours event was with an artist who didn’t work for Disney long, although it was a dream of his. Butch Hartman has been an animator, writer, director, and producer for Marvel Productions, Don Bluth Studios, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon. As the creator of The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom, Butch is an expert on creating and running aniamted productions that last for years. Here are ten things we learned from this Q&A with Butch Hartman.
1. The Jungle Book Was A Big Inspiration
Butch grew up in Michigan in the 1960’s where movies and TV felt untouchable to him. He grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons like Wacky Racers, but recognized that there was something special about The Jungle Book when he saw it in theaters. It wasn’t until high school that he started to get serious about wanting to be an animator, inspired a by an upperclassman who dabbled in animation and got accepted to CalArts, passing along a brochure to younger Butch.
2. His CalArts Roommates Changed Disney Animation
Arriving at CalArts in 1983, Butch lived in the dorms and one of his suite mates was Kevin Lima, director of A Goofy Movie, Tarzan, and Enchanted. He was good friends with Kirk Wise, co-director of Beauty and the Beast, and even though Rob Minkoff had already graduated, the future director of The Lion King would pop in to hang out. Even though his Disney connections didn’t get him in the door, his advice to artists is to make friends with other artists in the same field because you can inspired and support each other along the way.
3. Marvel Productions Wasn’t What He Thought it Would Be
After graduating in 1986, Butch’s first professional animation job was for Marvel Productions. He was exciting, thinking he would be working on Spider-Man or the Incredible Hulk, but he was assigned to the original My Little Pony. He did well as a character artist, but when his talents were needed in the story department, he found it difficult to transition and was fired. The lesson taught him to diversify his toolbox and he soon found he loved working in the story department on his next job.
4. He Was There At The Dawn of Cartoon Network
After a few other jobs, Butch Hartman was hired by Hanna-Barbara in 1991, the same year Ted Turner bought the company and started Cartoon Network. Having diversified into story, he spent most of his time on the creative end of shows like Dexter’s Laboratory (1996–97), Johnny Bravo (1997–99), and Cow and Chicken (1997). While there, he made a close connection with the head of Hanna-Barbera, Fred Seibert, a connection that helped him transition to his big break.
5. He Worked with Seth McFarlane on Johnny Bravo
By the time he got to Johnny Bravo, Butch was a writer and director. Another writer on the show was Seth McFarlane, creator of Family Guy. Butch recalled an episode they wrote together called “Johnny Bravo Meets Adam West.” Butch Hartman sold his series to Nickelodeon around the same time Seth McFarlane sold Family Guy to Fox. They would sometimes call each other to bounce ideas off one another, but have lost touch over the years.
6. He Was The Live-Action Reference For John Smith in Pocahontas
In the early 1990’s, Butch Hartman did some acting on the side in a few soap operas and sitcoms, including Days of our Lives and Growing Pains. One day he got a call for an audition as a live-action reference model for Disney, which was perfect because he knew exactly what animators would be looking for. He was cast as Kocoum, but the actor providing reference for John Smith had to leave the project early and Butch filled in for the remainder of the shoot. The best part was that many of the animators working on the film were former CalArts classmates, who would come in and egg him on while he was working.
7. Cartoon Network Turned Down The Fairly OddParents
Because he was under contract with them at the time, he was obligated to pitch any ideas he had to Cartoon Network first. After developing his concept for The Fairly OddParents, he brought it to Cartoon Network who passed on it. The former head of the network, Fred Seibert, was now working with Nickelodeon and he instantly saw the potential for the show, which is how Butch left Cartoon Network and ended up producing several shows for Nickelodeon.
8. Danny Phantom Was Sold Over a Dinner
A year into production on The Fairly OddParents, Nickelodeon executives took Butch out for a celebratory dinner to break the news that they were picking the show up for another season, which went on to run for ten seasons. He already knew that they were looking for a boy’s action show and on a drive from Las Vegas with his mom, he was brainstorming names. Inspired by Johnny Quest, he thought of a cool name for a character; Danny Phantom. Originally conceived as a Ghostbusters-type character, Butch changed him to a superhero and had the concept all fleshed out just waiting to be pitched. During that dinner, the executives asked if he had any other ideas and he pitched it on the spot without any artwork to show. They picked it up then and there and the show ran for three seasons with fans still begging for more a decade later.
9. The Move to Internet Programming
After twenty years at Nickelodeon over the course of several executive changes, Butch was craving the opportunity to be his own boss. He created the Noog Network, an app full of over 30 animated pilot shorts that allow Butch to test ideas on an audience quickly. He’s currently making a YouTube series for PocketWatch called Hobby Kid Adventures. He’s also developing his own streaming service called OAXIS, which has already raised $250,000 through crowd funding initiatives.
10. He’s Writing a Book About How to Pitch a Show in Hollywood
With decades of work in television animation, Butch Hartman is well versed on how to package and pitch an animated series to a network. The book doesn’t yet have a title or a release date target, but he shared some of his wisdom with the Walt Disney Family Museum audience. The concept should be simple and well defined, easy for executives to understand and trust in your vision. It’s best if you can sell the show with just one piece of artwork, although he recommends bringing a “Leave behind,” a 4-5 page document with character descriptions. He also stressed the importance of doing your homework to find out what networks are looking for, cautioning pitching anything similar to a show already on the network. Lastly, having a backup pitch that’s equally developed is smart. A pitch is only twenty-minutes and if they don’t seem interested, you can switch to the other idea. He shared an anecdote of Steve Hillenburg, a biologist who walked into his pitch meeting at Nickelodeon with an aquarium with a yellow sponge inside, his only visual aid that was memorable enough to sell them on Spongebob Square Pants.