“We Were Breaking the System: Cartoon Network Pioneers Celebrate Studio’s 25-YEAR Legacy

Cartoon Network Studios Celebrated ITS 25 -YEAR Legacy at Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Reuniting Two Generations of Creaters Whose Work Reshamped The Landscape of TV.

Tuesday’s Panel Broughther Industry Pioneers Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai jack) and Craig McCrackn (The Powerpuff Girls, Foster’s Home for Imaginal Friends) with Second -Generation Voices Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time), Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe), Jg quintel (Regular Show) and adam muto (Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake).

Tartakovsky Reflected on How Drastikally the Creative Landscape Has Changed, Noting That Wen He And McCracken Were First Coming Up-Both Goot Their Start at The Aseoried Hanna-Barber.

“WHEN WE GOT to HANNA-BARBERA, EveryBody Was Beaten Down. They Were Like Survivalists,“ He Recalled. “WHEN WE CAME IN, they DIDNN’T EVEN PUT US IN THE BUILDING, They PUT US IN THE TRAILER OUTSIDE The BUILDING by the Highway.”

“IT WAS A DIFFERENT BUT ONE THAT WAS GREAT About Hanna-Barbera Was We Learned the Trade of Animation,“ SAID MCCRAKEN. “We Learned the Business of It. A Lot of Mechanics of Making Cartoons, A Lot of the Stuff I Still Use Today, I Learned at Barbera.”

The panelists recalled the Early Days of Making Dexter’s LaboratoryWHICH WAS A HIT OUT OF THE GATE, ITS FIRST SHORT EARNING AN EMMY NOMINATION.

“We Were Still Learning and We Didn’T Know Anything, So All I Had Was My Instinct, My Gut,“ SAID TARKOVSKY. “No Focus Groups, Nothing. We’re Just Making the Series, and It Was Super Hard. And Half of the Cww Is High … They’d Go to The Roof And Get High and Come. I’m there from 7 in the morning, loming my mind. [I was] SO WORRED ABOUT Getting Fired. ”

Both McCracken and Tartokovsky Highlightned the Incredible Creative Freedom aty Given at Cartoon Network. WHEN AN EARLY TEST GROUP OF 11-YEAR-ELD Boys Trashed The Powerpuff GirlsMccracken thorough the show was done. “They said this was the worsst Cartoon Ever Made and Whover Made It Should Be Fired,“ He Recalled. IT WAS CARTOON Network Executive Mike Lazzo Who Talked Him Off The Cliff. “Lazzo Calls Me Up from Atlanta and Says, ‘Hey, I Hear You’re Changing The Powerpuff Girls. Don’t, they’re great, ” ‘said mccracken. “This is from an Executive. HE HAD NO REASON to DO THIS. HE COURCE HAVE Just SAID ‘THAT ONE SUCKS. Get Rid of that. We’re not gonna work with this guy. ‘ But he saw potential in it. ”

The Conversation Shifted to the Next Wave of Cartoon Network Creators, All of Whom Spoke Candidly About their Own Anxieties and Fights for Editorial Independence. Muto Said of the Debut Season of Adventure Time“The First Season We Thought We’d Get Canned Every Moment… Our Shows Had to Be Hits.” Quintel echoed that sentiment: “[We thought] If these are bad, then we’re getting in Trouble. ”

For Sugar, As The First Nonbinary Person to Independently Create a Series for the Network, The Focus Was “LESS ABOUT COMPETION AND MORE About Protection [of the creative vision]. ” Sugar Recalled Pitching Steven Universe to tartakovsky, who immediatally outfered to direct an episode. “I CRASHED MY Car Into a Pole On the Way Home,“ She Said.