Cartoons

By Fred Seibert, President

I hate animation. There, I’ve said it.

I’m in the cartoon business, and I’m proud of it. I don’t do

“animation.” To me “animation” suggests high tone words like
Florid, Orchestral, Large, Classic. There’s nothing wrong with
any of that. It’s just not me.

I make Short, Funny, Energized, Character Driven, Bursts of

Entertaiment. The kind that Chuck Jones and Friz Freling and
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera and Tex Avery made. The kind the
industry was built on.

Let’s take a look at that definition:

• Short―Cartoons are meant to be short, the same way hit

songs are meant to be three minutes long. There’s just
something about shortness that gives cartoons the
freedom to cut loose and express themselves. Bugs
Bunny doesn’t want to wander around in a bloated 90
minute extravaganza. He wants to pop out of his hole,
chomp on his carrot, pull down somebody’s pants, and
get out of there. And that’s what the audience wants, too.
• Funny―Cartoons touch our hearts by way of our funny
bones. They are irreverent and unpredictable. Cartoons
are not about learning life lessons, they are about living
and laughing at life.
 • Energized―Cartoons are physical and active. Too much
talking weighs them down. Just as hit songs almost
always involve an element of making you want to dance,
cartoons pack a wollop. If they don’t, they tend to fade
away.
• Character driven―Think ‘cartoons’ and you immediately
think ‘character’: Spongebob, Daffy, Scooby Doo, Bugs,
Betty Boop…the list is phenomenally long. But you
don’t find yourself listing too many big ideas among the
great cartoons. Ideas are best explored in other forms.
• Bursts of entertainment―Cartoons are not quiet or self
effacing. They burst onto the screen and grab you by the
collar. They knock your hat off, they twiddle your adams
apple. Cartoons go for broke.

This is what I do and what I love. Sure, there are exceptions to

the rules above. But following this vision of what we in the
cartoon business do and what makes what we do great is how I
do it.

And I’m still producing. If you have original cartoon ideas, I

want to hear about them.

If you have an idea for a Short, Funny, Energized, Character

Driven Burst of Energy, I’d like to hear about it. I’ve been
making successful cartoons since 1998, and I don’t want to stop
now. Get in touch with me at:

fred@frederator.com
646-274-4601
www.frederator.com

Frederator Studios
231 West Olive Avenue
Burbank, California 91502

Frederator Studios
419 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10019

Frederator Studios: Original Cartoons since 1998