Fred Seibert's Blog

“IF YOU’RE TOO ADULT TO WATCH CARTOONS, PLEASE BE assured that the one ray of optimism in this hellish world today is that this frivolous medium of children’s entertainment has recently reversed its nearly half-century slide into ever-diminishing returns to finally become the subversive, literate and irascible art form it was meant to be. If you’ve kept an eye on toons, you can surely understand our unmitigated delight when we learned that the innovative animation studio Frederator had decided to collect their rare inventory of industry-insider promotional postcards into a single volume, Original Cartoons: The Frederator Studio Postcards 1998-2005. More than just a vital testament to how a company’s faith in an artist could revolutionize the way kids think, it’s an opportunity to find out how Fred Seibert, owner and founder of Frederator Studios, ushered in the brave new anime of The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly Oddparents, ChalkZone, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo and Dexter’s Laboratory.

“Beginning his umpteenth career at the nadir of Hanna Barbera, Seibert admits that ‘It was depressing to me to see how cartoons had evolved into animation.’ With a back-to-the-future approach, Seibert learned from the old masters what had somehow been lost: ‘How could anybody but the artist be the primary talent? If you can’t draw, you can’t write.’ In a world where the state of the art was Smurfs reruns, Seibert just followed the advice of an 86-year-old Joe Barbera. ‘He told me Fred Quimby was a great producer because he did nothing. I thought, “Yeah, I can do that.”‘ Yes, kids, it’s that simple: ‘Trust the talent and stay out of their hair.’”

By Carlo McCormack, Paper Magazine.
Artwork from ORIGINAL CARTOONS: THE FREDERATOR STUDIO POSTCARDS 1998-2005 (EASTON)
TOP AND BOTTOM RIGHT POSTCARDS: DESIGN BY ADAMS-MORIOKA