Butch Hartman

**Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman IV** (Born January 10, 1965, Highland Park, Michigan) is an American cartoonist, animator,screenwriter, and voice actor. He is known for being the creator of _The Fairly OddParents_, _Danny Phantom_, T.U.F.F. Puppy and Bunsen is a Beast. He also created the Christian children’s cartoon The Garden https://gardencartoon.com/

## Childhood

Hartman was born in Highland Park, Michigan to Elmer Earl Hartman III and Carol Davis. He got the nickname "Butch" as a kid and still calls himself Butch as an adult. https://www.hourdetroit.com/community/animation-domination/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 then went to an art school called The California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.https://www.hourdetroit.com/community/animation-domination/

## 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". https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=owGf3et5aQUShortly after graduating from 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 had not done before) and as quickly as he was hired, he was fired.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-vgdxqnwVx4

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 & Heather".

He was also a video reference crew for the Disney movie Pocahontas. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NFyfV33KDHELater, he became a writer, television director and storyboard artist for 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 _Oh Yeah! Cartoons_.

He's also a friend of Seth MacFarlane and worked on MacFarlane's animated short "Zoomates" and "Dan Danger" with Steve Marmel. MacFarlane also has a character on Family Guy named after Hartman named Dr. Hartman.

## _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.) Hartman created _Danny Phantom_, in 2004. 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 British/French animated film _The Magic Roundabout_. Butch Hartman revealed in a 2017 interview during the Weinstein scandal that the film was originally supposed to include a live-action frame story similar to _The Princess Bride_ but it was scrapped due to budget costs and therefore replaced with Judi Dench's narration. Hartman even revealed that the original U.S. movie poster had his name and his production company Billionfold Inc. on it, until they were removed in later posters in copyright favor of both Pathé and Action Synthese's credits. He later expressed long-harbored remorse for his involvement where he revealed that most of his actual script was actually rewritten without his consent by producer Harvey Weinstein and his distribution and production company The Weinstein Company with a screenplay by Hoodwinked! co-director Cory Edwards; he also claimed that only 3% of his original script made it into the final film.

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 and getting 7% on Rotten Tomatoes.http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1156283-doogal/

## Other and future works

Hartman created a cartoon series _T.U.F.F. Puppy_  on Nickelodeon in October, 2010. It starred Jerry Trainor as the voice of the lead character, Dudley Puppy. The other shows that he created are _Bunsen is a Beast_, HobbyKids Adventures, and The Garden.

Hartman currently lives in Bell Canyon, California, with his wife, Julieann, and daughters, Carly and Sophia.

### Animated series

- _Police Academy_ - models (1988)
- _Dink, the Little Dinosaur_ - storyboard artist (1989)
- _Piggsburg Pigs_ - model designer (1990)
- _Tom and Jerry Kids_ - storyboard artist (1991-1993)
- _Droopy, Master Detective -_ (designer, 1993)
- _What a Cartoon!_ _-_ (1995)
- _Jumanji: The Animated Series_ - (1996)
- _Timon and Pumbaa_ - (1996)

- _Dexter's Laboratory_ - (1996-1997)
- _The Spooktactular New Adventures of Casper_ - (1996-1998)
- _Johnny Bravo_ - (1997-1999)
- _Cow and Chicken_
- _I Am Weasel_
- _Oh Yeah Cartoons_ - (1998-2002)
- _Family Guy_  - Jonathan Weed (1999-2002)
- _The New Woody Woodpecker Show -_ (1999-2002)
- _The Fairly OddParents_ - (2001-2017)
- _The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius_ - (See Jimmy Run, 2002)
- _Danny Phantom_ - (2004-2007)
- _T.U.F.F. Puppy_ - (2010-2015)
- _Bunsen is a Beast_ - (2017-2018)
- _Hobbykids Adventures_ - (2019-2020)
- _The Garden_ - (2019-present)
- _The_ _Big Blue Book_ - (2024)
- _The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish_ (2024-present)
- _The_ _Buglys Show_ (2026) -
- untitled **Butch Hartman** animated series (TBA)

## 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_, _SpongeBob SquarePants_, _Rugrats_, _Drake & Josh_, and _Avatar: The Last Airbender_.