Genndy Tartakovsky
Genndy Tartakovsky is a very highly regarded animator who I
found when I came across cartoonbrew.com, a great website that features all
kinds of animated works by students and professionals alike. Tartakovsky has
been the creator, lead animator, director and producer on some very well known
TV series including Dexter’s Laboratory,
Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: Clone
Wars.
Tartakovsky
was born in Soviet Russia in 1970. He was originally not into art at all, and
wasn’t a good drawer. His family moved to the United States when he was 7 due
to his parents’ concern about how anti-Semitism in Europe would affect their
children’s lives. They eventually settled in Chicago. After his father died, he
began working. His family wanted him to take advertising classes in college so
that he could eventually become a businessman, but since he signed up late for
classes fate landed him in an animation class. This led him to study film at
Columbia College Chicago and in turn he moved in Los Angeles to study animation
at California Institute of the Arts. At CalArts, Tartakovsky created two
student films which would be the basis for his first and probably most famous
work, Dexter’s Laboratory. After two
years at CalArts, he got a job in Spain working on Batman: The Animated Series and The
Critic.
Shortly
after, Tartakovsky was recommended by a colleague of his named Craig McCracken
for an art director job at Hanna-Barbera, a top animation studio. It was here
that his career finally took off and he created his best known works, including
the full-length series of Dexter’s Lab
and Samurai Jack, and had a hand in
producing the Powerpuff Girls
television show and movie.
Finding
Tartakovsky during my research was eye opening to me because up until now most
of the animators that I have been reading about do a lot of thankless work,
work painstaking hours and don’t have much to show for it, it seems. Most of
the people I have been researching embody the archetypal “starving artist”.
This is a guy who is incredibly talented and hardworking and has also seen the
fruits of his efforts take him to the top of his field. He obviously makes a
substantial living working for multi-million dollar studios, and in the same
token he has a vehicle through which to share his ideas and works with thousands,
maybe millions of people. Most of the art I create will only be seen by a few
eyes. When I read about someone like this, who has a similar background in that
he is Jewish and comes from a similar family situation and has accomplished
what he has, it gives me a picture of what is possible for someone to
accomplish as an artist/animator, and is almost a motivator because I see that
this is actually attainable and not just a reverie.
Tartakovsky’s
actual drawing style is very distinct and recognizable. Everyone in my
generation remembers growing up watching Dexter’s
Lab and even the Powerpuff Girls,
and to a lesser extent Samurai Jack
which wasn’t as popular because it was a little more complicated of a show, but
was still a part of the public consciousness and ended up winning multiple
awards for its ingenuity. He has also delved into different drawing styles on
other projects such as Star Wars: Clone
Wars and Sym-Bionic Titan, two
shows that employ more of a “mecha-style” of anime as he calls it in an
interview with Animation World Network. This shows not only his versatility but
also his ability to create work that connects with different viewing audiences.
