Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman (born January 10, 1965) is an American animator, executive producer, animation director, storyboard artist, voice actor, occasional singer, writer, and actor. He's the creator of the animated series The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy. He heads the production company Billionfold, Inc., which produces the three aforementioned programs.
Hartman was born in Highland Park, Michigan to Elmer Earl Hartman III and Carol Davis. He received the nickname "Butch" as a youth and continues to use the name professionally 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 subsequently attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.
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 for 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-Spears, where he worked on It's Punky Brewster and Dink, the Little Dinosaur. He was also a part of the video reference crew for the Disney movie, Pocahontas.
In the mid-1990s he was hired at Hanna-Barbera Studios and created the shorts Pfish and Chip and Gramps for the What a Cartoon! Show. Eventually he became a writer, director and storyboard artist for several of the "What a Cartoon!" shorts that got turned into series, including Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel and The Powerpuff Girls. After his contract with Hanna-Barbera finished up he went to work with former co-worker Fred Seibert on the Oh Yeah! Cartoons show.
While working at Hanna-Barbera, he became friends with future Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. Hartman later designed and directed MacFarlane's 1998 animated short "Zoomates", for Oh Yeah! Cartoons. MacFarlane also has a character on Family Guy named after him: Dr. Elmer Hartman.
His biggest success came in 1997, when he created The Fairly OddParents. (The idea came to him during the drive from Hanna-Barbara 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) which would later become Danny Phantom. To produce that show, in 2004, Hartman created Billionfold Studios. Billionfold also produced another Hartman cartoon for Nickelodeon, T.U.F.F. Puppy, which premiered on October 2, 2010.
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1985–1986 | It's Punky Brewster | models | |
1987 | Growing Pains | Robert Jordan | Episode 3.5: "Michaelgate" |
1988 | Just the Ten of Us | Rod Grossman | Episode 1.4: "Close Encounters" |
Police Academy (TV Series) | models | ||
1988–1989 | Days of Our Lives | Henry Jake |
|
1989 | Dink, the Little Dinosaur | storyboard artist | |
1990 | Piggsburg Pigs! | key model designer | |
1991–1993 | Tom & Jerry Kids | character designer | |
1993 | Droopy, Master Detective | designer | |
1995 | What a Cartoon! | creator: "Pfish & Chip" and "Gramps" | |
1996–1997 | Dexter's Laboratory | storyboard artist/background designer/layout artist | |
1997–1999 | Johnny Bravo | writer/director | |
1997 | Cow and Chicken | models | |
1997 | I Am Weasel | models | |
1998 | The Powerpuff Girls | storyboard artist/layout artist | |
1998–2001 | Oh Yeah! Cartoons | creator: "The Fairly OddParents" and "Dan Danger", director/storyboard artist: "Zoomates" | |
1999–2002 | Family Guy | additional voices | |
2001–present | The Fairly OddParents | Dr. Rip Studwell | creator/executive producer |
2003 | Pet Star | Judge | Episode 1.11 |
2004–2007 | Danny Phantom | creator/executive producer | |
2010–present | T.U.F.F. Puppy | Agent Weaselman Agent Rodentski |
creator/executive producer |
2013 | Big Time Rush | guest star |
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1986 | An American Tail | in between artist | |
1992 | California Hot Wax | Eddie | |
1995 | Pocahontas | video reference cast | |
1997 | Annabelle's Wish | storyboard artist Direct-to-video film | |
1998 | Adventures in Odyssey: Baby Daze | storyboard artist | |
Adventures in Odyssey: A Stranger Among Us | storyboard artist | ||
2004 | Channel Chasers | animator for "Channel 297" scene | |
2005 | The Magic Roundabout | writer: United States screenplay | |
2011 | A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! | Waiter | writer: series and characters |
2012 | A Fairly Odd Christmas | Christmas caroler | writer: series and characters |