Frederator Studios

**Frederator Studios** is an American animation television production studio which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was founded by Fred Seibert in 1997 with its first series launching in 1998. Seibert resigned from Frederator in August 2020 after 22 years and on February 23, 2021 announced a new cartoon production company, FredFilms.) The studio focuses primarily on artists who write their own shorts, series, and movies. Their slogan is "Original Cartoons since 1998." The studio has locations in New York City, where Frederator Digital is based, and Burbank, California.

## History

### 1983–2012

Before Frederator, in 1983, Fred Seibert founded Fred/Alan, Inc. in New York City with his college friend Alan Goodman; in 1988, Fred/Alan partnered with Albie Hecht in Chauncey Street Productions to produce television programs for Nickelodeon, MTV, A&E, and CBS. The Fred/Alan firm closed down in 1992.

Seibert became the president of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons in 1992, and created *What a Cartoon!*, a showcase consisting of 48 shorts that aired on Cartoon Network. In 1996, when Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting (owner of Hanna-Barbera), he left the studio.

Frederator Incorporated was formed in January 1997 (its first cartoons were released in 1998), and was housed at a temporary location of the Nickelodeon Animation Studio, in North Hollywood, California. Frederator's debut production was the cartoon short incubator, a television series called *Oh Yeah! Cartoons*, which later Slapstick second series: *The Fairly OddParents*, *ChalkZone*, and *My Life as a Teenage Robot*, in addition to 51 original short cartoons by a group of creators including the first films by creators like Butch Hartman, Rob Renzetti, Tim Biskup, Larry Huber, Pat Ventura, Seth MacFarlane, and Carlos Ramos. *Oh Yeah! Cartoons* was based on Seibert's *What a Cartoon!* series of shorts from Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and Cartoon Network, which brought Hanna-Barbera its first hit series in 10 years, *Dexter's Laboratory*, *Johnny Bravo*, *Cow and Chicken*, *I Am Weasel*, *The Powerpuff Girls*, and *Courage the Cowardly Dog*. Frederator has produced a total of 16 television series, and over 200 miniseries, including webisodes. As of 2013, the company was in a producing partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment, and YouTube.

In 2002, Frederator created a joint venture for preschoolers named Bolder Media with producer Susan Miller's Mixed Media Group, Inc. and produced their first preschool series created by Bob Boyle for Nick Jr., *Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!*.

Frederator Studios created a television series and competition *The Nicktoons Film Festival* (now known as the *Nicktoons Network Animation Festival*) for the Nicktoons Network, which debuted October 24, 2004.

In 2004, David Karp interned at Frederator Studios at its first Manhattan location, and built their first blogging platform. In 2007, he launched Tumblr from a rented desk at Frederator Studios' Park Avenue South offices, with chief engineer Marco Arment. Seibert was one of Tumblr's first bloggers.

On November 1, 2005, Frederator launched what it called "the first cartoon podcast." Named Channel Frederator by David Karp (who also structured and edited the initial episodes), this weekly animation network features submitted films from around the world, and quickly became one of the top video podcasts on Apple Inc.'s iTunes. In quick succession, The Wubbcast was launched for pre-schoolers in January 2006, and *ReFrederator* featuring vintage public domain cartoons in April 2006. Channel Frederator became the model for Seibert's media company Next New Networks and reaches almost 4,000,000 video views monthly.

On June 25, 2007 *Variety* article announced the studio had formed Frederator Films, dedicated to creating animated feature films budgeted under $20 million. Frederator's first feature is set up at Paramount Pictures, co-produced with J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. They have also set up their first two animated features in a first look production arrangement for Sony Pictures Animation.

The studio produced its first original internet cartoons with independent animator Dan Meth. *The Meth Minute 39* launched on September 5, 2007, featuring 39 of Meth's original character shorts. (The first cartoon was "Internet People," a video on the viral video sites YouTube and MySpaceTV that featured some popular Internet memes and internet people.) A spin-off, *Nite Fite*, debuted in October 2008. These series have totaled over 35,000,000 video views to date.

*Random! Cartoons*, the latest Frederator series of short cartoon series, began airing on Nicktoons in 2009; it spawned two TV series, *Fanboy & Chum Chum* and *Adventure Time*, as well as the web series, *Bravest Warriors*.

### 2012–present

Frederator announced its new YouTube funded channel and adult production label, Cartoon Hangover in February 2012. At launch, Frederator produced three animated series for the channel: *Bravest Warriors*, created by Pendleton Ward; *SuperFuckers*, created by James Kochalka; and *Too Cool! Cartoons*, an incubator featuring content from different animators. *Bravest Warriors* premiered on November 8, 2012 and *SuperFuckers* premiered on November 30, 2012.

In July 2013 as part of *Too Cool! Cartoons* Cartoon Hangover premiered the first part of the 10-minute short film, *Bee and PuppyCat* created by Natasha Allegri. Due to its popularity, in November 2013 Frederator launched a Kickstarter to fund a first season of the series, which was successful and raised $872,133 toward more episodes of the show. The project was the most funded animation and web series Kickstarter at the conclusion, and the fourth most-funded Film/Video project.

In 2013, Frederator launched a digital-only ebook company, Frederator Books. Frederator Books published its first title, "The Lieography of Babe Ruth" in March 2013.

In 2014, Frederator announced the launch of The Channel Frederator Network, a Multi Channel Network (MCN) of independently owned animation channels on YouTube. Since its start, Channel Frederator Network has generated more than one billion views, and averages more than 30 million views a month, across its network of more than 200 channels. Some of its leading channels are FilmCow (just over 1 million subscribers), Cartoon Hangover (over 1 million subscribers), and *Simon's Cat* (over 2,800,000 subscribers), which is YouTube's #2 animated channel. Once part of the network, Frederator handles all advertising and distribution for its channels on YouTube, promoting the show and its licensed merchandise.

As of 2016, Mexican animation studio Ánima Estudios and Frederator Studios have launched a new YouTube network, called Átomo Network, focusing on Spanish-language content.

In December 2016, Wow Unlimited Media, Inc. acquired Frederator Networks.

In August 2020, it was announced Fred Seibert would resign as CEO of Frederator Studios and Michael Hirsh would take over.

## Productions

### Television series

For Nickelodeon:

* *Oh Yeah! Cartoons* (1998–2001) (with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
* *The Fairly OddParents* (2001–2017) (with Nickelodeon Animation Studio and Billionfold Inc.)
* *ChalkZone* (2002–2008) (with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
* *My Life as a Teenage Robot* (2003–2009) (with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
* *Fanboy & Chum Chum* (2009–2014) (with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)

For Nick Jr.:

* *Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!* (2006–2010) (with Starz Media; as Bolder Media)

For Nicktoons:

* *Nicktoons Film Festival* (2004–2009) (with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
* *Random! Cartoons* (2008–2009) (with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
* *Ape Escape* (2009) (with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)

For Cartoon Network:

* *Adventure Time* (2010–2018) (co-produced with Cartoon Network Studios)

For Treehouse TV:

* *The Ferocious Beast Show* (2022) (with Nelvana)

For Teletoon:

* *Bravest Warriors* (2017–2018) (Produced by Nelvana Limited in Canada in association with Frederator)

For Netflix:

* *Castlevania* (2017–2021) (co-produced with Powerhouse Animation Studios, Shankar Animation, Project 51 Productions, Mua Film and Konami)
* *Bee and PuppyCat* (2022) (co-produced with OLM Inc.)

For HBO Max:

* *Adventure Time: Distant Lands* (2020–2021) (co-produced with Cartoon Network Studios)
* *Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake* (2023) (co-produced with Cartoon Network Studios)

For Paramount+:

* *The Fairly OddParents* (reboot) (2022)

### Online series

Channel Frederator:

* *The Meth Minute 39* (September 5, 2007)
* *Cartoon Conspiracy* (April 24, 2014)

Cartoon Hangover:

* *Bravest Warriors* (November 8, 2012)
* *SuperFuckers* (November 30, 2012)
* *Too Cool! Cartoons* (April 4, 2013)
* *Bee and PuppyCat* (November 6, 2014)
* *GO! Cartoons* (November 7, 2017)

Amazon:

* *Costume Quest* (2019)

#### *Too Cool! Cartoons*

Main article: Too Cool! Cartoons

* *Our New Electrical Morals* created by Mike Rosenthal (April 4, 2013)
* *Rocket Dog* created by Mel Roach (May 2, 2013)
* *Ace Discovery* created by Tom Gran and Martin Woolley (May 30, 2013)
* *Bee and PuppyCat* (Part 1 July 11, 2013, Part 2 August 7, 2013)
* *Doctor Lollipop* created by Kelly Martin (September 12, 2013)
* *Chainsaw Richard* created by Chris Reineman (July 17, 2014)
* *Dead End* (June 26, 2014)
* *Manly* created by Jesse Moynihan and Justin Moynihan (July 31, 2014)
* *SpaceBear* created by Andy Helms (August 14, 2014)
* *Blackford Manor* created by Jiwook Kim (August 28, 2014)

#### *GO! Cartoons*

*GO! Cartoons* premiered on November 7, 2017. Frederator is partnering with Sony Pictures Animation for the series.

* *The Summoning* created by Elyse Castro (November 7, 2017)
* *Boots*: created by Alison & David Cowles (November 21, 2017)
* *City Dwellers*: created by Grant Kolton (December 5, 2017)
* *Rachel and Her Grandfather Control the Island*: created by Jonni Phillips (December 19, 2017)
* *Nebulous*: created by Brent Sievers (January 2, 2018)
* *Welcome to Doozy*: created by Kate Tsang & Jennifer Cho Suhr (January 16, 2018)
* *Both Brothers*: created by Juris Lisovs (January 30, 2018)
* *The Bagheads*: created by D.R. Beitzel (February 13, 2018)
* *Tyler & Co.*: created by Gabe Janisz (February 27, 2018)
* *Kid Arthur*: created by Joel Veitch & David Shute (March 13, 2018)
* *Thrashin’ USA*: created by Rory Panagotopulos (March 27, 2018)
* *Pottyhorse*: created by Damien Barchowsky & Jeff Drake (April 17, 2018)

### Television films

* *Globehunters: An Around the World in 80 Days Adventure* (2002, produced in 2000, co-production with Nickelodeon Animation Studio)
* *The Electric Piper* (2003, produced in 2000)
* *Abra-Catastrophe!* (2003)
* *Channel Chasers* (2004)
* *Schools Out!: The Musical* (2005)
* *Escape from Cluster Prime* (2005)
* *Wubbzy's Big Movie!* (2008)
* *Wubb Idol* (2009)
* *Wishology* (2009)
* *A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!* (2011, co-production with Billionfold, Inc. and Pacific Bay Entertainment)
* *A Fairly Odd Christmas* (2012, co-production with Billionfold, Inc. and Pacific Bay Entertainment)
* *A Fairly Odd Summer* (2014, co-production with Billionfold, Inc. and Pacific Bay Entertainment)

## Frederator Films

**Frederator Films** is an animation studio founded by Fred Seibert as part of Frederator Studios, with producers Kevin Kolde and Eric Gardner on June 25, 2007. The studio's goal is to create animated genre features. They planned to release two films a year, but since announcing their first films in 2007, have yet to release their first film. In 2020, Frederator had set up their first animated feature film for Cartoon Network Studios, titled *Adventure Time: The Kingdom of Ooo*. The film was released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures on July 7, 2023, which marks the first animated feature under their "Frederator Films" banner.

## Feature films

### Released films

* *Adventure Time: The Kingdom of Ooo*, an American animated film produced by Pendleton Ward and Chris McKay. It was based on the animated television series of the same name. Co-produced by Cartoon Network Studios.