Craig McCracken

Craig McCracken (born March 31, 1971) is an American cartoonist, animator, director, writer, and producer known for creating Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Disney Channel and Disney XD's Wander Over Yonder, and Netflix's Kid Cosmic.

Regarded as "one of the most successful creators of episodic comedy cartoons", his style was "at the forefront of a second wave of innovative, creator-driven television animation" in the 1990s, along with that of other animators such as Genndy Tartakovsky, and has been credited as "a staple of American modern animated television".

Early life and education

McCracken was born March 31, 1971, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. He began drawing at an early age. He attended California High School in Whittier, California and the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he met his friend and future collaborator, Genndy Tartakovsky. During his first year, he created a series of short cartoons featuring a character named No Neck Joe, which were picked up by Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. While at CalArts, he also created a short entitled Whoopass Stew!, which would later become the basis for The Powerpuff Girls.

Career

In 1993, McCracken was hired by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons as an art director on the Turner Broadcasting System series 2 Stupid Dogs, alongside Tartakovsky. As his first job in the animation industry, he was "never really happy with how that [show] worked". While McCracken was at Hanna-Barbera, studio president Fred Seibert began a new project: an animation incubator consisting of 48 new cartoons running approximately seven minutes each. Dubbed What a Cartoon!, it motivated McCracken to further develop his Whoopass Girls! creation. He recalled that the network could not market a show with the word "ass" in it, so two of his friends came up with The Powerpuff Girls as a replacement for the original title. His new pilot, "The Powerpuff Girls in: Meat Fuzzy Lumkins", premiered on February 20, 1995, on Cartoon Network's World Premiere Toons-In, and a second short, "Crime 101", followed on January 28, 1996. The first short to be picked up by the network was Tartakovsky's Dexter's Laboratory, which McCracken would contribute to in early seasons. McCracken's Powerpuff Girls was the fourth cartoon to be greenlit a full series, which premiered on November 18, 1998, with the final episode airing on March 25, 2005. The show has won Emmy and Annie awards. In 2002, McCracken directed The Powerpuff Girls Movie, a prequel to his series. The film received generally positive reviews but was a box office failure.

McCracken and Lauren Faust at the Emmy Awards in 2008

McCracken left The Powerpuff Girls after four seasons, focusing on his next project, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. It premiered with the 90-minute television special "House of Bloo's" on August 13, 2004, on Cartoon Network. He developed the series with wife Lauren Faust and Mike Moon. The show ran for six seasons, all directed by McCracken, and concluded on May 3, 2009. It also won Emmy and Annie awards.

In April 2008, he became executive producer of a new Cartoon Network showcase project called The Cartoonstitute. After 17 years of employment, he resigned from Cartoon Network in 2009, after it shifted focus to live-action and reality shows. He created Wander Over Yonder for Disney Television Animation and Disney Channel in August 2013. After Wander Over Yonder was cancelled, McCracken pitched a new show to Disney, based on his 2009 comic strip The Kid from Planet Earth. Disney ultimately passed on the project, and he eventually left the company in 2017. He then pitched his idea to Netflix and it was greenlight under the name of Kid Cosmic. The show premiered on February 2, 2021, and ended on February 3, 2022. It is the first of McCracken's original works to have a serialized format and his return to the superhero genre since The Powerpuff Girls. He pitched 10 projects to Netflix in August 2021, but eventually left by April 2022 due to mass layoffs at Netflix Animation.

On July 18, 2022, it was announced that McCracken began developing reboots of The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends at Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe. Foster's Home will take form in a pre-school show focused on new characters. In 2023, McCracken received the Winsor McCay Award at the Annie Awards ceremony for his "unparalleled achievement and exceptional contributions to animation". The Hollywood Reporter also named him one of the most powerful people in kids entertainment, in pair with Lauren Faust.

Style and influences

Since his early years of career, McCracken has chosen to design characters in a simplistic way (as opposed to the realism of Warner Bros. or Disney feature films) because it is more practical for television production, as money and time limits what the animators can do. In addition to this, he claimed that the crew at Hanna-Barbera wanted their shows "to be different than what was on Nick and Disney". Some of his main inspirations were comic book artists such as Charles M. Schulz, Bill Watterson and Hergé. All of his series have had diverse influences in terms of design, comedy and storytelling. To mention some: 1960s Batman, Underdog and Rocky and Bullwinkle in The Powerpuff Girls, The Muppet Show and SpongeBob SquarePants in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (which also has a visual style inspired by 60s psychedelia), Yellow Submarine and Looney Tunes in Wander Over Yonder, and Dennis the Menace and The Adventures of Tintin in Kid Cosmic.

During his time at CalArts, he discovered the cartoons of United Productions of America (UPA), which also heavily influenced the visual style of his creations. His shows often present the underdog as the main focus. For example, Kid Cosmic is about a group of "punk rock" characters who "may not have the skill or the talent, but they have the determination and conviction" to create a superhero team. Foster's also revolves around a group of misfit creatures that have been abandoned by their original owners. Although the Powerpuff Girls are not typical underdogs, the fact that they are little girls might make people underestimate them as superheroes. He also liked to present "the contrast of cute characters being strong and tough". Although the Powerpuff Girls have been widely regarded as feminist icons, McCracken has claimed that the real background for their creation was finding "a fun idea" or "a cool concept".

Awards and nominations

Date	Award	Category	Work	Shared with	Result	Ref
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or Less)	Dexter's Laboratory (for "The Big Sister")	Larry Huber, Genndy Tartakovsky, and Paul Rudish	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or Less)	Dexter's Laboratory (for "Star Spangled Sidekicks", "TV Super Pals", and "Game Over")	Sherry Gunther, Larry Huber, Genndy Tartakovsky, and Jason Butler Rote	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)	The Powerpuff Girls (for "Bubblevicious" and "The Bare Facts")	John McIntyre, Amy Keating Rogers, Jason Butler Rote, and Genndy Tartakovsky	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)	The Powerpuff Girls (for "Beat Your Greens" and "Down 'N Dirty")	Robert Alvarez, John McIntyre, Randy Myers, Amy Keating Rogers, and Genndy Tartakovsky	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)	The Powerpuff Girls (for "Moral Decay" and "Meet the Beat Alls")	Robert Alvarez, Lauren Faust, John McIntyre, Amy Keating Rogers, and Genndy Tartakovsky	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More)	The Powerpuff Girls (for "'Twas the Fight Before Christmas")	Robert Alvarez, Lauren Faust, Juli Hashiguchi, Craig Lewis, John McIntyre, Brian A. Miller, Randy Myers, Amy Keating Rogers, Chris Savino, James Tim Walker	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Annie Awards	Best Production Design in an Animated Television Production	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (for "A Lost Claus")	Mike Moon, Dave Dunnet, and Martin Ansolabehere	Template:Won
	Annie Awards	Best Directing in an Animated Television Production	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (for "Duchess of Wails")	Template:N/a	Template:Nom
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (for "House of Bloo's")	Template:N/a	Template:Won
Template:Dts	Annie Awards	Best Directing in an Animated Television Production	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (for "Bus the Two of Us")	Template:N/a	Template:Nom
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour)	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (for "Go Goo Go")	Brian A. Miller, Lauren Faust, Jennifer Pelphrey, Vince Aniceto, Robert Alvarez, Eric Pringle	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More)	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (for "Good Wilt Hunting")	Brian A. Miller, Jennifer Pelphrey, Lauren Faust, Vince Aniceto, Michelle Papandrew, Darrick Bachman, Craig Lewis, Robert Alvarez, Eric Pringle, Robert Cullen	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Annie Awards	Directing in an Animated Television Production or Short Form	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (for Destination: Imagination)	Rob Renzetti	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or More)	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (for Destination: Imagination)	Jennifer Pelphrey, Michelle Papandrew, Tim McKeon, Ed Baker, Alex Kirwan, Robert Alvarez, Brian A. Miller, Ryan Slater, Lauren Faust, Darrick Bachman, Vaughn Tada, Rob Renzetti, Eric Pringle	Template:Won
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program	Uncle Grandpa (for "Pilot")	Peter Browngardt, Janet Dimon, Robert Alvarez, Rob Renzetti, Brian A. Miller, Jennifer Pelphrey, and Rob Sorcher	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Annie Awards	Outstanding Achievement, Character Design in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production	Wander Over Yonder	Template:N/a	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Short-Format Animated Program	Wander Over Yonder (for "The Gift 2: The Giftening")	Francisco Angones, Amy Higgins, Lauren Faust, Ben Joseph, Johanna Stein, Dave Thomas, Eddie Trigueros	Template:Nom
Template:Dts	Annie Awards	Best Character Design - TV/Media	Kid Cosmic (for "Kid Cosmic and the Rings of Power!")	Template:N/a	Template:Nom
	Annie Awards	Winsor McCay Award	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:Won
	Children's and Family Emmy Awards	Individual Achievement in Animation	Kid Cosmic	Template:N/a	Template:Won

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role
1991	No Neck Joe	Creator, director, writer, and animator Template:Small
1992	Whoopass Stew!	Creator, director, writer, and animator
1999	Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip	Story
2002	The Powerpuff Girls Movie	Creator, director, story, writer, executive producer, storyboard artist, character designer, and character layout
2009	The Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!	Creator, Writer, Story, director, executive producer, story editor, storyboard artist, and character designer

Television

Year	Title	Role
1993–1995	2 Stupid Dogs	Art director
1995	Space Ghost Coast to Coast	Himself Template:Small
1995–1997	What a Cartoon!	Writer, director, and art director
1995–1996	Dumb and Dumber	Character designer
1996–2003	Dexter's Laboratory	Director, art director, model designer, and storyboard artist
1998–2005	The Powerpuff Girls	Creator, story, executive producer, writer, storyboard artist, recording director, and director (1998-2002; 2008)
2004–2009	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends	Creator, executive producer, art director, character designer, developer, story, writer, storyboard artist, director, and story editor
2007	Diggs Tailwagger: Galactic Rover	Executive creative consultant
	Enter Mode 5
2008	Uncle Grandpa	Executive producer Template:Small
2009	Chowder	Story and storyboard artist Template:Small
	Regular Show	Executive producer Template:Small
2013–2016	Wander Over Yonder	Creator, writer, storyboard artist (2013), director (2013), story, character designer, executive producer, and additional voices
2021–2022	Kid Cosmic	Creator, executive producer, story, writer, storyboard artist, character designer, director

Personal life

McCracken married animator Lauren Faust on March 13, 2004. Faust took maternity leave in mid-2016 to take care of their newborn daughter, Quinn.

External links

• Template:IMDb name
• Craig McCracken's deviantART account
• Template:Twitter
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• Template:Instagram
• 10 Questions: Craig McCracken