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  

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. 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.

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 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.

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. Later, 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.

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.                                                                           

 Works 

 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. 

Other websites

References

Category:1965 births
Category:Living people
Category:American animators
Category:American screenwriters
Category:Writers from Michigan