Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538315
26 KEYFRAME a show, so he storyboarded the pilot thinking that it would be a good reel to get another job. "Then, of course, the rest was history," he says. That history, Dexter's Laboratory, aired as part of Cartoon Network's new shorts showcase in 1995, and it became the first original series for the channel's Cartoon Cartoons programming. From there Tartakovsky went on to work as a Director and Producer on McCracken's The Powerpuff Girls. McCracken, in turn, was a Storyboard Artist, Art Director, and Director on Dexter's Laboratory. These collaborations were a natural result of their time together at CalArts where "students organically start sharing ideas," says McCracken. "Whenever Genndy might need some design or gag ideas, he would come to me, and when I needed some help with animation or storyboards, I would go to him. This dynamic grew over time and became the way we worked together." As his time on PowerPuff was coming to an end, Tartakovsky found himself veering in a new direction. He knew he wanted his next project to be different from what he'd done on Dexter's and PowerPuff, which had abundant dialogue and art with thick black outlines. He says he spent a lot of time complaining about Western action animation—not just about what was wrong with it, but about how he'd do it differently. "Finally, I'm like, maybe I need to do an action show," he says. A big fan of samurai and ninja culture, Tartakovsky landed on his next subject matter. But because it was going to be a kids show, he had to figure out how to do action with a sword that would be suitable for a young age group—meaning, no blood. "The idea came to me that I could dismember and kill robots and substitute oil for blood," he says. That's how Samurai Jack began, followed by the concept of transporting Jack to the future where he could logically fight said robots. For the look, "I was a big UPA fan," he says, referencing the midcentury animation studio behind classics like the visually graphic Rooty Toot Toot. "I thought, could I do an action show that feels like a UPA cartoon?" In what would become a familiar move—throwing down the gauntlet for himself—he started drawing. "I wanted a very graphic approach and basically boiled down the concept," he explains. White colors for the good guy, black colors for the bad guy, and red colors for the background. He pitched it as a highly-stylized action show with lots of action and minimal dialogue. "One thing I noticed time and again was [Genndy's] ability to stick to his guns and protect his vision against weird studio notes … where good and bold ideas are slowly ground down into something bland and derivative," says Bryan Andrews, who worked as a Writer and Story Artist on Samurai Jack, as well as Primal and Sym-Bionic Titan, on which he was also a Co-Creator. "He doesn't ever lose sight of the radness, the potential, the kick ass, the cinema… The shows and characters he's created over the years have had a major impact and influence on generations." This is especially true of Samurai Jack. In its original incarnation, it went on to win a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program and three Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. Not only did it make a massive leap from the heavy "cartoony" lines of Dexter's Laboratory, but its style also showcases Tartakovsky's flexibility as an artist. The artwork, in fact, had no outlines at all, and that, along with the abstract backgrounds and inventive camera angles, changed ideas about what was possible with animation. Samurai Jack images courtesy of Cartoon Network Studios. 26 KEYFRAME F E AT U R E