Butch Hartman
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Butch Hartman (b. January 10, 1965, Highland Park, Michigan) is an American animator, director, and voice actor. He is the creator of the Nickelodeon animated shows The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom.
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[edit] Childhood
Elmer Earl Hartman IV 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. He also spent his childhood for 1 year in New Zealand because his dad got a new job there.
[edit] Early career
Hartman entered the animation industry 1986, first working on the Don Bluth film, An American Tail as an in-between animator; soon this was followed by a cartoon series My Little Pony and then It's Punky Brewster.
In 1990, he went to DiC Entertainment, where he worked on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Captain N: The Game Master and Gadget Boy. Later, he became a writer, television director and storyboard artist for several Cartoon Network shows, including Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, and Johnny Bravo. He also worked on the Disney movie Pocahontas (1995 movie) as a video reference.
[edit] The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom
His biggest success came in 1997, when he created The Fairly OddParents. It was originally a series of short subjects 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 created another cartoon for Nickelodeon, Danny Phantom, in 2004. The Fairly OddParents ceased production in 2006, but he announced in his website on February 2, 2007 that 20 more episodes will be produced. After 53 half-hour episodes were produced, Danny Phantom ceased production around 2007.
[edit] Doogal
He served as executive producer and screenwriter of Doogal, the Americanized dub of the Franco-British animated film The Magic Roundabout. The film was dubbed by The Weinstein Company, and was released on February 24, 2006. However, Doogal was a critical and box-office bomb, grossing only $7 million dollars and getting 5% on Rotten Tomatoes.
[edit] Other and future works
Hartman is currently working on two new projects for Nickelodeon: one, a live-action series; the other, animated. It has also be stated that now that 20 more episodes of The Fairly OddParents are being produced that Paramount may decide to go ahead and make a theatrical feature film The Fairly OddParents Movie.
His other TV work include voicing various characters on the animated series Family Guy, and playing the character "Sean Masters" on the short-lived series Generations in 1991. He was also a recurring character on the popular NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives (1988 - 1989; see [1]).
Hartman currently lives in Bell Canyon, California, with his wife, Julieann, and daughters, Carly and Sophia.
He also has two brothers Mike and Timmy whom Timmy Turner is named after.
He is a huge fan of The Simpsons.
[edit] FOP looks of other Nicktoons and Shows
On an edition of Nick Magazine, Butch Hartman posted FOP looks of Nicktoons and other Nick Shows such as Rugrats, Zoey 101, SpongeBob SquarePants, Drake and Josh, and Avatar the Last Airbender.
