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Craig Bartlett

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Craig Bartlett
Born
Craig Michael Bartlett

(1956-10-18) October 18, 1956 (age 68)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
EducationThe Evergreen State College
OccupationAnimator
Years active1985–present
Known forRugrats (1991–1994)
Hey Arnold! (1996–2004)
Dinosaur Train (with The Jim Henson Company; 2009-2013)
SpouseLisa Groening
Children2

Craig Michael Bartlett (born October 18, 1956) is an American animator best known for writing for Rugrats and creating the television series Hey Arnold! and Dinosaur Train. He also voiced various recurring characters in Hey Arnold!

Career

His first job, after graduating from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, was at Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon, where he learned the art of stop-motion animation, working on movies such as The Adventures of Mark Twain. Bartlett moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to animate the "Penny" cartoons, with assistance from Nick Park for Pee-wee's Playhouse on CBS. He later made an animated ID for NBC with Klasky Csupo.[1] In 1994 he made an animated music video for "Jurassic Park" by Weird Al Yankovic, from the studio album Alapalooza.

He later worked at BRC Imagination Arts directing projects such as Postcards and Mystery Lodge for Knott's Berry Farm.

File:Snee-oosh inc.jpg
Snee-Oosh's logo (a totem pole) and a vocalization (which was later added) of the company's name can be seen at the end of every Hey Arnold! episode.

Bartlett met the Nickelodeon execs while story editing Rugrats in its first seasons. He pitched Hey Arnold! to them in fall of 1993, produced a pilot in spring of 1994, and the series was greenlit in January 1995. Hey Arnold! was in production continuously from 1995 to 2001, made by Bartlett's own production company, Snee-Oosh, Inc, which he founded in 1986. The series culminated in a TV movie originally titled "Arnold Saves the Neighborhood", but Nickelodeon decided to release it theatrically as Hey Arnold!: The Movie, in June 2002.

A dispute over a second planned Arnold movie then resulted in Bartlett leaving Nickelodeon to write and produce a TV movie for Cartoon Network called Party Wagon (also produced by Snee-Oosh), a story originally intended as a pilot for an ongoing series. It ended up being the first Cartoon Network movie-length pilot to be broadcast, but not picked up until Underfist: Halloween Bash, which was created by Maxwell Atoms, who created The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne.

In 2005 Bartlett returned to BRC to make a multimedia simulator attraction for NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, called the Shuttle Launch Experience. In the course of the 3-year project, Bartlett interviewed 26 astronauts to gather their experiences from launch to orbit. One of the astronauts Bartlett interviewed was four-time shuttle flier and commander and current NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr..

After developing various pilots and feature scripts, Bartlett moved to The Jim Henson Company, where he co-wrote the computer animated film Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby. Bartlett stayed at Henson to work as story editor on a PBS Kids preschool show called Sid the Science Kid with PBS executive Linda Simensky, whom he had worked with at Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

In September 2008, a show for preschoolers called Jim Henson's Dinosaur Train was picked up by PBS Kids; produced by Brian Henson, this was the first show created by Bartlett to be picked up since Hey Arnold!.[2] The series debuted on PBS stations on September 7, 2009.[3]

In April 2015, Ready Jet Go! (formerly Jet Propulsion) was picked up by PBS Kids; produced by Wind Dancer Films, the series premiered on PBS stations on February 15 2016.[4]

In November 2015, Viacom announced that Bartlett will be returning to Nickelodeon to write Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie.[5]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1985 The Adventures of Mark Twain Calaveras Miner (voice) Claymation artist, voice actor
1985 Return to Oz Claymation artist
1986–1990 Pee-wee's Playhouse Animator for Penny cartoons
1987 A Claymation Christmas Celebration Claymation artist
1988 Meet the Raisins! Writer
1988 Arnold Escapes from Church Producer, director, writer, animator
1990 The Arnold Waltz Producer, director, writer, animator
1991 Arnold Rides His Chair Director
1991–1994 Rugrats Story editor, writer, director
1995 The Ren & Stimpy Show Director
1996–2004 Hey Arnold! Brainy, Abner the Pig, Ned, Miles, others (voice) Creator, developer, executive producer, writer, voice actor
2002 Hey Arnold!: The Movie Brainy, Murray, Grubby, Monkeyman (voice) Producer, writer, voice actor
2004 Johnny Bravo Writer, story editor
2004 Party Wagon Romeo Jones, Ferryman #2, Cheyenne #1 (voice) Creator, producer, director, voice actor
2008 Unstable Fables Co-writer
2008–2013 Sid the Science Kid Story editor, writer
2009–present Dinosaur Train Spider (voice) Creator, voice actor
2015 Wabbit Writer
2016 Ready Jet Go! Creator
2017 Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie TBA Executive producer, writer, voice actor
TBA Frog and Toad Director
TBA Sky Rat[6] Creator

Personal life

He is married to Lisa Groening, sister of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, after whom Lisa Simpson is named.[7] They have two children, Matt and Katie.[8]

References

  1. ^ http://www.klaskycsupo.com/press/animationmagazine.html
  2. ^ The Muppet Newsflash: "Henson Moving Forward with "Dinosaur Train" and "The Skumps"", 9/17/2008.
  3. ^ Official site for "Jim Henson's Dinosaur Train"
  4. ^ http://kidscreen.com/2015/04/10/pbs-kids-intros-ready-jet-go/
  5. ^ "'Hey Arnold' TV movie in works at Nickelodeon". Chicago Tribune. November 23, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  6. ^ http://www.animationmagazine.net/events/craig-bartlett-offers-inspiring-keynote-ottawa/
  7. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080820020800/http://donthaveacowman.com/Simpsons/Cards/Inkworks2001/page2001.70.html. Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2009. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Craig Bartlett, Maggie Groening, Richard Bartlett: Hey Arnold!, Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 144 [1]
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