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Cartoon Network Studios Icons McCracken, Tartakovsky, Sugar, Quintel, Ward and Muto on The Studio, State of the Industry and What Inspires Them
In an intimate and candid discussion at this year's Annecy Animation Festival, the biggest names behind some of television's most iconic animated series met with Variety to talk legacy, change and the shifting landscape of the medium they helped define.
Creators Craig McCracken ('The Powerpuff Girls' 'Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends'), Genndy Tartakovsky ('Dexter's Laboratory,' 'Samurai Jack'), Rebecca Sugar ('Steven Universe'), Pendleton Ward ('Adventure Time,' 'The Midnight Gospel') and J.G. Quintel ('Regular Show') and 'Adventure Time' executive producer and showrunner Adam Muto opened up about the origins of their work, a new era of creation and what it means to still be pushing boundaries after decades in the business.
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The conversation ranged from nostalgic memories of Cartoon Network Studio's golden era – Annecy hosted a celebratory 25th anniversary panel for the studio on Tuesday afternoon – to bold speculation about the future of animation. At its core was the recognition that while technology, audience behavior and corporate structures have transformed dramatically, the creative spirit that fueled their iconic shows still drives the creators, and likely the next generation, too.
'There are people who are making independent animated shows themselves,' McCracken said, pointing to projects like Vivienne Medrano's hugely popular YouTube pilot-turned-Prime original series 'Hazbin Hotel' as evidence that a new wave is possible, though likely through free online platforms such as YouTube first, not television. 'You almost go the independent route first, get noticed, get an audience, and then the channels and the streamers.'
Sugar and Muto were quick to praise Green Street Pictures' 'Scavengers Reign' and 'Common Side Effects' as other examples, the former having started life as a short that gained significant recognition online before resulting in a series greenlight.
Tartakovsky wasn't so sure about the scalability or reliability of those models to result in long-term commercial successes, though. 'IP is the only word now,' he proposed, lamenting studios' current focus on rebooting existing franchises. 'It's harder for a new generation to break out like this again when [the studios] are just trying to do things that already exist,' echoing a plea Mudo made during the anniversary panel for studios and broadcasters to 'start greenlighting things, please.'
Quintel added a silver lining: while short programs and incubators may be on pause, the mentoring tradition is alive. 'We're hiring people straight out of school. They've never done it, and they're learning on the show how to board, how to do premise-driven animation.' Several of the speakers emphasized that the animation industry has long been subject to cycles, and more original content could break through in the future.
A recurring theme during the afternoon's discussion was how arbitrary past constraints now seem in the age of digital distribution. 'The reason our shows are 11 minutes is because that's how you divide 22,' McCracken said. 'But who says a show has to be seven minutes or 11 minutes? Why can't it be two minutes? Or an hour?'
When it came to audience impact in the modern distribution ecosystem, the room was somewhat split between creative independence and audience-driven development. 'When you put something online, you can see how the audience reacts and adjust based on the feedback… just sharing with the people viewing,' McCracken mused. Tartakovsky pushed back: 'Maybe this is an antiquated way of thinking, but if we follow the audience, it's really dangerous. I want to give the audience what I think is going to be good. I want to do something original and unique that can stand out.'
The assembled artists acknowledged the massive transformation of global collaboration thanks to new tools and technologies as well as the prominence of social media platforms and portfolio sites. McCracken now runs almost his entire show, a preschool 'Foster's spinoff' out of London, working remotely from Los Angeles. 'It's exactly the same job. It's just remote. It's no different than being back at the studio,' he said.
Tartakovsky's teams are similarly international. 'I have a running list of Instagram people I want to work with,' he said. 'That's how I found the studio that did 'Primal,'' he explained, surprising some at the table. 'They had a short film based on one of their comic books, and I didn't want to do things the old way, so I contacted them at their very small studio in Paris, and they agreed to do it. And what they did was incredible.'
Most of the creators use social media and video platforms to find inspiration and potential collaborators, while Quintal and Sugar said they've made transformative connections at comic conventions. Muto argued that individual portfolio sites, popular in decades past, have been making a comeback, and Ward pointed out that 'the Women in Animation website is a great resource for finding artists.'
But for all the changes, some things have stayed the same, especially the camaraderie that has kept this group linked for decades. 'You hook onto talent that you like,' said Tartakovsky. 'My art director from 'Samurai Jack' has done pretty much everything with me. I have a background designer who worked with me all the way back on 'Dexter' who I just started working with again. You love these people.'
McCracken agreed. 'It takes a very special, insane brain to do this job… It's bananas that we do this,' he laughed. 'So if any of us pull it off, we're like, 'Great job,' and we want to work with those people again and again.'
'It's so hard to build a crew,' admitted Mudo. 'Every time you have to lay off everybody and completely reconstitute, which is something that is a bigger part of the modern streaming cycle, it feels like you have to make a new show, even if it's just a new season of the same show. That explains a lot about why we end up working with the same people.'
Each having varying degrees of experience working on more mature productions, the creators celebrated the freedom that adult animation now offers. Sugar recalled, early in 'Steven Universe's' broadcast run, that she would often be told that smaller fandoms of her show were insignificant to the network, as it was more interested in capturing a wide TV audience of all ages and demographics. With adult animation, she argued, fandoms are now more important than ever, and smaller groups of dedicated viewers can have a much more significant impact on a show's success.
'It seems like now we can start something where that is what matters most,' Sugar said, referring to the specificity and passion of modern fandoms. 'That can matter the most.'
Even with a billion-dollar global success like the 'Hotel Transylvania' films under a filmmaker's belt, in the case of Tartakovsky, getting original ideas greenlit remains difficult. 'Three 'Hotel Transylvania' movies, almost $2 billion, and I still have a hard time getting an original greenlit,' Tartakovsky said. 'Every time I pitch, I hear that they love it, but that somehow they also don't love it.'
After three decades, these creators aren't just surviving in an ever-shifting industry. They're still experimenting, still mentoring, and still hungry for what's next.
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