Butch Hartman
Butch Hartman (Born January 10 1965, Highland Park, Michigan) is an American animator, creator of The Fairly Odd Parents, Crimson Chin, Crash Nebula, and Danny Phantom.
Childhood
Elmer Earl Hartman IV was born in Highland Park, Michigan to Elmer Earl Hartman III and Carol Davis. He received the nickname "Butch" as a youth and continues to use the name professionally as an adult. Hartman spent his childhood in Roseville, Michigan and his teen years in New Baltimore, Michigan.
He graduated from Anchor Bay High School in New Baltimore in 1983. He subsequently attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He also spent his childhood for 1 year in New Zealand because his dad got a new job there.
Early career
While still attending the California Institute of the Arts, Hartman received the chance to intern as an in-between animator on the Don Bluth film, "An American Tail". Shortly after graduating for the California Institute of the Arts Hartman was hired as a character designer for the animated series "My Little Pony". Instead, they had him working on storyboards (which he hadn't done before) and as quickly as he was hired, he was fired.
Soon after Hartman found work with Ruby Slash, where he worked on "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog", "Captain N: The Game Master" and "Gadget Boy". Later, he became a writer, television director and storyboard artistfor several Hanna-Barbera shows, including Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, and Johnny Bravo.
After his contract with Hanna-Barbera finished up he went to work with former co-worker Fred Seibert on the Oh Yeah! Cartoons show.
He also worked on Seth MacFarlane's animated short "Zoomates" and "Dan Danger" with Steve Marmel.
The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom
His biggest success came in 1997, when he created The Fairly OddParents. (The idea came to him during the drive from Hanna-Barbera to Nickelodeon to pitch an idea to Fred Seibert.) It was originally a series of made for TV shorts on the anthology show, Oh Yeah! Cartoons. In 2001, Nickelodeon picked it up as a full series. The Fairly OddParents became a huge hit, second only in the ratings to SpongeBob SquarePants. Due to the success of "OddParents", Hartman was asked to create another cartoon for Nickelodeon, (Hartman says the President of Nickelodeon asked him if he had an idea, and before he could say the title he was given a contract.) Danny Phantom, in 2004. The Fairly OddParents ceased production in 2006, but it was announced on Hartman's website on February 2, 2007 that 20 more episodes will be produced. On July 11, 2007 The first new episode of Danny Phantom was aired on Nickelodeon. Danny Phantom ended production on August 24, 2007.
Doogal
Hartman was asked to serve as executive producer and screenwriter of Doogal, the Americanized dub of the Franco-British animated film The Magic Roundabout. Seeing that the movie itself was lacking, Hartman proposed that in addition to dubbing, extra scenes be filmed in live action to fill up empty spaces in the story. While the idea was originally received with praise and was essentially given the okay, budgeting was pulled from it at the last minute and the only changes made were in the dubbing.
The film was then dubbed by The Weinstein Company, and was released on February 24, 2006. However, Doogal was poorly received by critics, and did poorly in the box-office, grossing only $7 million dollars and getting 5% on Rotten Tomatoes. Hartman states that he feels no responsibility for its failure and that he did all he could to save a dying beast.
Other and future works
Hartman is currently working on two new projects for Nickelodeon: one, a live-action series and the other, animated. It has also been stated that 20 more episodes of The Fairly OddParents are currently under production and if possible, he may decide to go ahead and work on a theatrical feature film The Fairly OddParents Movie, but with him selling "The Fairly OddParents".
His other TV work include voicing various characters on the animated series Family Guy, and playing the character Sean Masters on the short-lived series Generations in 1991. He was also a recurring character on the popular NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives (1988 - 1989; see [1]).
Hartman currently lives in Bell Canyon, California, with his wife, Julieann, and daughters, Carly and Sophia.
FOP looks of other Nicktoons and Shows
On an edition of Nick Magazine, Butch Hartman posted FOP looks of Nicktoons and other Nick Shows such as Zoey 101, Rugrats, Drake and Josh, and Avatar the Last Airbender.