Archives for : Nicktoons

Toon-In Talk Episode 26: Interview with Yvette Kaplan

Hello and welcome to twenty-sixth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews.  Whitney is back from her hiatus and ready to finish her Ladies of Animation series.  She’s returning with an awesome guest, Yvette Kaplan.  Yvette Kaplan has a prestigious animation career working in both feature and television animation.  She made a name for herself as the supervising director for the quintessential 1990s cartoon Beavis and Butt-Head.  Yvette also directed the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America film that was the highest grossing non-Disney animated for years.  Yvette works on any project that catches her interest and she shares her adventures in this interview.

Episode 26

  • Yvette Kaplan is famous for her work on Zack and Quack, Beavis and Butt-Head, Doug, and many other great projects.
  • She has carried many titles and roles in the animation industry, going as far back as being an ink and paint artist.   She caught the animation bug when she was five years old.
  • Yvette loved watching the Fleischer cartoons: Betty Boop and Popeye. Her absolute favorite cartoon short is Max Fleischer’s “Somewhere in Dreamland.”
  • She knew more about the Fleischer cartoons than she did the Disney features.
  • Yvette is also a fan of John and Faith Hubley’s works, a husband and wife team who made animated films.
  • When Yvette began her career, she was advised not to go into animation, but she didn’t listen and in the early 1990s, she began work on Nickelodeon’s NickToons.
  • She worked on the pilot for Doug, directed by Tony Eastman. Nickelodeon liked her work and she was a director on the series for three seasons.
  • Although she was very busy, Yvette consulted on The Magic School Bus.
  • Then Tony Eastman showed her two “gross boy” characters for a MTV show. Yvette Kaplan loved the humor and Mike Judge, the show’s creator, hired her to be the director on Beavis and Butt-Head.
  • She also directed Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and it was the highest grossing non-Disney animated movie for years.
  • Yvette would later return to Los Angeles with the intent to work on more feature and television, but she also wanted to explore all avenues.
  • She found a comfortable spot on the King of the Hill team as well as on the PBS show Arthur.
  • Drawing more on her extensive talents, Yvette made the children’s CGI show Zack and Quack. The animation looks like it was made from paper.
  • She prefers to work in television, but Yvette sometimes get the strong urge to work on a feature film.
  • Yvette recently worked on the fun new girl-based series from Disney called Star Darlings. She loves working on it, because it took her into a new genre she had never worked in before.
  • She shares that working on education based cartoons has its difficulties, but it was a challenge she loved.
  • From her perspective, Yvette wasn’t too aware about the lack of women in the animation industry. She never felt a ceiling and her positive attitude helped her push through many barriers. She became more aware of it as she matured.
  • Both Yevette and Whitney are huge fans of Steven Universe and Star vs. The Forces of Evil, two shows created by women.
  • Yvette declares that her animation adventure will continue.

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Toon-In-Talk Episode 06: Interview with Mathew Klickstein

Hello and welcome to sixth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews.  If you grew up in the 1990s, you most likely watched Nickelodeon and were a fan of their Nick Toons.  The 1990s have become known as the Golden Age of Nickelodeon Studios and nostalgia always comes into play when that decade is mentioned.  Mathew Klickstein felt the same way, so he wrote Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Age chronicling the adventures of cast, crew, and other cool people from the “only kid’s network.”

Episode 6

Show Notes

• Whitney tells Matt she had been searching Nickelodeon’s history herself. He tells her that a lot of people told him they wanted to write a book on Nick, but they never got around to it. He affirms there are a lot more stories to tell about “the only kid’s network.”
• He recommends reading the academic book Nickelodeon Nation by Heather Hendershot.
• Matt discusses details about how it was published and why he decided to write an oral history of Nickelodeon.
• Whitney asks questions about why Matt formatted the book the way he did, especially when it comes to information about his interviewees.
• Matt interviewed over 250 people for the book. He also had to leave out a lot of material.
• To track people down, it was actually the easiest getting Melissa Joan Hart, Kenan Thompson, and others. It was extremely difficulty getting people who worked on only one show, like Richard Price.
• Six degrees really comes into play for rounding up the interviewees.
• Slimed was more like producing a documentary than writing a book. Matt loves oral history, but he wants his next book to be in prose.
• In the early days, Nickelodeon licensed cartoons to air on the station. Nickelodeon made Looney Tunes popular again. When the licensing came up again, Warner Brothers wanted more money from Nickelodeon.
• We can thank the FCC for putting an end to 30 minute long toy commercials. Networks were also finally allowed to produce their own cartoons.
• The original three cartoons were: Doug, Ren and Stimpy, and Rugrats.
• Nickelodeon found six shows they made pilots for. They found potential shows by literary going to animator’s garage.
• Whitney mentions the yearly Nickelodeon writing and animation contest. Both discuss how Nick has changed its content and yet remained the same.
• Whitney brings up Ren and Stimpy and Matt discusses its heated history.
• The creator John Kricfalusi had an ill reputation, though he is a creative genius.
• Whitney and Matt talk about making something new and original. Neither wants to repeat the creative past.
• Money is a necessary evil. Whitney mentions some of her hopes before she got her book contract. Matt recommends people use a publisher and gives his advice about self-publishing and YouTube.
• Matt’s favorite NickToon is Ren and Stimpy and Whitney’s is Aah! Real Monsters.
• Matt declares the episode over!


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