Fred Seibert's Blog

The guys from Charged –Alex Cohn, Adam Pierce, & Kevin Maher– came into our New York office early last week to show us their animated/puppet short called AstroNuts in Outer Space.

Thanks guys-from-Charged for kind permission to post your art.

Lee Corey was by our New York office to pitch his short called Loyd & Floyd. Lee’s studio has lately been concentrating on animated content for mobile phones. He was his usual friendly self, and I must give him personal thanks for his patience in letting my 10 year old son sit through his pitch and give target audience notes.

Thanks to Lee for his kind permission to post some of his storyboard.

They’re moving in for number 2.

Manny & Alan aren’t the first and they won’t be the last of this season’s creators to try for a second short. Yesterday they came by with the unique sci-fi comedy Dogstar.

Everyone better hurry, we’re down to the wire.

We’ve started 21 shorts in this season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons, and I met 9 of the 15 creators in their pitches over the last year or so (that’s 60% for the mathematically inclined). I only mention this statistic to counter the impression I sometimes leave on this blog that I’ve known everyone forever. I love meeting and working with new people; it’s the lifeblood of how I do what I’ve done for my working life.

Now, the other side of this startling fact is that once I become a fan of someone it’s great to work with them over a long period of time, through various phases and ebbtides of life. I try to be a loyal collaborator; I think it has served everyone well.

All of which leads to my full disclosure that I’ve worked with Alan Goodman for 35 years, and now he’s making his first Oh Yeah! cartoon with Nickelodeon New York animator and comic book artist Manny Galan. I won’t bore you with all the details, but suffice it to say that I met Alan in college radio, did my first moving picture work on his student films, was partners with him for several years, and he’s my brother-in-law. Along the way he’s been a journalist, ad writer, TV series creator, and my most constant creative confederate.

I’m thrilled beyond description that Alan and I have found another great way to work together.

Photography by Elena Seibert. Hand coloring by Candy Kugel. See, I was too skinny once.

Frequent, careful readers of our Frederator blogs might recognize Steve’s name as our most frequent fan commenter. Turns out he’s also a hopeful cartoon creator, and because he lives north of New York, he came to my office to pitch his short Moonlife for Oh Yeah! Cartoons, before we’ve greenlit all 39.

Thanks Steve for kind permission to post your artwork.

You’ve all been asking me –and with good reason– “When are getting the new name for the shorts show formerly know as Oh Yeah! Cartoons?” And I can’t say as I blame you.

I mean, it has been since September 27 since we asked you all to come up with our new name.

Easy answer? Pass the buck to the network (ooooh, shake, shudder).

Slightly clearer answer: the network. Sure enough, it’s in their hands now. They’re considering the options, and I’m sure you’ll get your money in January.

Happy Holidays.

Regarding our post on Alex Kirwan our loyal fan Stephen Levinson comments: “Is 16 the youngest age someone has been in the animation business?”

I can’t answer for the history of the animation business Stephen, but as for Frederator and Oh Yeah! Cartoons, believe it or not, the answer is an unequivocal “No!”

In 1998 Butch Hartman came into the office and introduced Larry Huber and me to 11 year old John Reynolds, a friend of a friend of the family, who had written his own cartoons. In and of itself that wasn’t too unusual, but the interesting part was that he also had worked out a complete storyboard and character designs. We were very impressed with Johnny’s initiative.

We liked his Terry & Chris best, and Butch agreed to supervise and direct the short. Johnny would become our creative consultant and come in Fridays after junior high in Simi Valley (and any other day he could squeeze it in). We finished John’s (and Butch’s) short in 1999, and it debuted in the second season of

So Stephen, there you you have it. John Reynolds, the youngest Frederator Studios creator.

Here’s another of my irregularly appearing features on composers who are working in cartoons, one of the unsung (bad pun intended) areas in animated filmmaking.

Geoff Levin is the rare artist who’s made a career for himself in a multitude of areas. Of course, he’s composed for cartoons, but also for live action feature films, TV series, and documentaries. And he’s a songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist to boot. In fact, he’s scored the Academy Award nomiated animated short The Janitor as well as James Cameron’s Last Mysteries of the Titanic.

We first met Geoff on some projects at Hanna-Barbera in the 90s, and then again as the guitarist and mixer on our original seasons of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. And most recently he did over 20 episodes of the Bill Burnett & Larry Huber creation ChalkZone, where he worked overtime to compose each score with a completely unique style suited to the individual theme of an extremely diverse series (unusual by any standards of TV production).

Thanks Geoff, we look forward to hearing your work on our productions again.

Pages 46 & 49, Original Cartoons: The Frederator Postcards

Alex Kirwan was one of the first creators signed up for the original season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Executive producer Larry Huber reminded me of the 16 year with the dyed red hair who should have taken 2nd Place in our Hanna-Barbera storyboard competition (he was too young!), who we’d then hired right out of high school to draw props on Johnny Bravo. Larry thought his boards showed incredible promise. I agreed and Alex started his first cartoons.

Carlos Ramos is one of the best artists I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. So we’re all thrilled that he launched his first series as a creator –The X’s, on Nickelodeon– this past Friday night.

Carlos was one of our first hires at Oh Yeah! Cartoons (Larry Huber to Fred: “Are you nuts? Why haven’t you hired him already?!”). He designed the Oh Yeah! logo, art directed and designed the original ChalkZone, and stepped up and created two incredibly distinctive shorts.

Congratulations Carlos. We’re proud to have worked with you.