Channel Frederator Blog

Rob Renzetti has been a steady companion of ours for longer than he would like to admit. He created Mina at Hanna-Barbera as part of our original shorts laboratory What A Cartoon! Having always loved it, when we started Oh Yeah! Cartoons at Nickelodeon in 1998 it was the first show I wanted to do. “The Vampire…” was one of six shorts we did.

When asked what inspired him to write “Mina”, Renzetti says, “When I was a small child I was able to get over my fear of Nighttime Monster Attacks by convincing myself that I could convince any lonely monster that came my way that I would make a better friend than a victim. This mental security blanket from my childhood was the start of the idea for Mina and the Count.”

Of course, Rob’s legions of fans know him as the creator of the hit series My Life as a Teenage Robot, but how [Read more…]

Many of you probably know Tim Biskup as one of the great lowbrow artists of the decade.

Well, before his breakout in the art world, Tim created Freddy Seymore’s Amazing Life, a cartoon short at Frederator Studios and Nickelodeon. It features his trademark style and unique approach to character. Take this rare opportunity to get some insight on his early ambitions.

In addition to his cartoon creation, Tim was also the artist of choice for dozens of our Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Route around and see if you can figure out which of the dozens of our films he had a hand in.

Remember, you can watch all the Channel Frederator episodes by subscribing to the series over at iTunes or by downloading them from our website.

Thanks to Tim and to Nickelodeon for letting us show Freddy to the world.

I’ve been getting emails wondering about Seth MacFarlane’s Zoomates coming on Channel Frederator.

Yes, it’s true. Tuesday’s Episode 19 will feature Seth’s Oh Yeah! Cartoons short from 1998, directed and designed by Butch Hartman, and featuring the voice of Jennifer Love Hewitt. It was his last project before starting Family Guy for Fox. We’ll post some more of the background after the short airs.

Pass it on.

I am really happy to lead off our first-ever holiday episode with one of the funniest of the original Oh Yeah! Cartoons, Mike Bell’s Super Santa in South Pole Joe.

We first met Mike at Hanna-Barbera when he pitched us his short Commander Cork (which we stupidly did not make), and then he joined our OY! team as a writer on Dave Wasson’s Goose Lady fairy tales. And that led him to a handful of solo cartoons for us, Super Santa being the first.

Mike’s gone on to develop a live action Santa film for Paramount and Nickelodeon, and boarding and writing for (among others) Spongebob Squarepants and My Life as a Teenage Robot.

And as Eric always reminds, you can see all the Channel Frederator episodes from our Website, or subscribe to the whole series through iTunes.

–Fred

Earlier tonight Fred mentioned he saw my comment on an earlier post distinguishing the difference between what makes an Oh Yeah! cartoon and a Channel Frederator cartoon. Here’s a slightly different take.

As you probably know by now, we’re making Oh Yeah! shorts with and for our friends at Nickelodeon. Here are the rules: character-driven, funny, seven-minute shorts for kids between the ages of six and eleven. We want that 10-year-old to fall in love with a character, like how I fell in love with Scooby, and the way kids (and adults) are falling in love with SongeBob today. And we want to work with the filmmakers who can pull that off.

Channel Frederator shorts are a much different ballgame with much fewer rules: they’ve got to be animated. It really helps if they’re funny and tell a story, but neither is necessary. They can be something you’d find on Nick Jr or at a Spike and Mike festival. In our first two [Read more…]