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Fun Chat with Jon McClenahan
Ed, Edd n Eddy
1999-2009
December 3, 2015
JXP: You got started in the animation business in the 1980s. How did you get started in the business, and what was the first studio you worked directly with?
JON: My first job in animation was at Hanna-Barbera Australia, In Sydney (Australia). I wanted a job in art because I thought I could draw pretty well, but hadn’t had any success finding work in Chicago (where I lived). At the time I drove a truck for a meat company. In June of 1980 I visited a friend in Australia and visited the animation studio out of desperation. They were very busy, and the supervisor for the inbetweening department, an Englishman named Martin Chatfield, offered to let me work on inbetweens while I was in the country. The show was called, Drak Pack. They were also doing Popeye cartoons. Eventually I was able to go back to Chicago, obtain an Australian working visa, and return to Sydney with my family.
JXP: What were your influences in your work?
JON: I was not a connoisseur or even a student of animation styles at the time, but eventually I came to realize the animation I most wanted to emulate was that of Chuck Jones, the famous Warner Bros director. I really loved the Roadrunner cartoons, and my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons were the ones Jones directed.
JXP: How and why did you develop the Startoons studio?
JON: At Hanna-Barbera I had by God’s grace advanced to animator (1981) and then supervisor (1984) and then studio director (1985). As director I was working directly with some of the production people at Hanna-Barbera’s Los Angeles studio. But in 1987 the parent company (Taft-Hardy) decided to close the Australian animation studio. So since there would be no work (there were no other big studios in Sydney), I felt more secure moving back to Chicago. There I worked for a small studio (Cioni Artworks) for a year, and then decided to try working freelance, under the name StarToons. I developed a reputation for good work with the folks in Los Angeles, so the studio slowly grew.
JXP: How did you get booked for Tiny Toons?
JON: A friend of mine from Australia – James Baker – came to visit us for a week or so in 1990, and then continued up to Toronto (Canada) to visit other friends. There he met with Glenn Kennedy who was just starting to work on Tony Toons – they had a big contract with Warner Bros. They needed more animators, so James suggested he contact me. I animated for Glenn Kennedy for the first season of Tiny Toons. The first episode I animated on was Buster and the Wolverine. After that season, Kennedy and Warner Bros parted ways, so I went to Warner Bros myself to see if I could work directly for them.
JXP: What was the first Tiny Toons episode you did, and what was it like working with Tom Ruegger ("Animaniacs"), Tim & Julie Cahill ("Sylvester & Tweety", "Gym Partner", "Littlest Pet Shop"), Steve Spielberg, Bob Doucette ("Detention") and Sherri Stoner (the voice of Slappy Squirrel)?
JON: I had had several unproductive meetings with some of Tom Ruegger’s underlings at Warner Bros but by the end of the day I figured I would never be able to get a chance to break through all the red tape. Then God smiled on me again. I got onto the elevator to leave and there was another fellow on the elevator. He smiled and I introduced myself. He asked what I was hoping for, and we talked a bit, and then he says, “Well, listen, I’m just getting a snack down at the shop, why don’t you come with me and then come back up to my office? I’m Tom Ruegger.” When I sat down with him in his office I showed him some of the scenes I had done for Kennedy, and he really liked them, and arranged for us to take some assignments which eventually led to taking whole episodes to animate. Tom Ruegger is a brilliant, creative, energetic man, and he has always been very good and very generous to me personally.
Tim & Julie Cahill – the names ring a bell, but I do not recall ever meeting them.
Spielberg – my wife Christine met him once. I never met him. I know he specifically complimented our work on Henny Youngman Day and also said he thought Thirteensomething was the best of all the Tiny Toons, and of course we were very proud of that. We were told that he reviewed every episode personally, and he had given WB the order that there should be a unique background for every shot in Tiny Toons. Usually in a half hour show, you might have 350 shots, and only need 150-200 backgrounds, so that order seemed silly (and expensive) to me. And so I ignored it. And apparently Mr. Spielberg never noticed, because we only got compliments from him.
Bob Doucette – he was the series producer, I believe, on Road Rovers, and I did storyboards for him. He and I had different sensibilities on animation. He was a great draftsman and did wonderful layouts, and I think all his shows reflected that talent. I just liked wacky characters, so we were a little bit different that way.
Sherri Stoner is a terrific lady and very creative. Since she was a writer, we didn’t work much directly, but I admired her writing, and I believe she admired my animation work. We respected each other. She’s actually a fairly quiet person – you might expect her to be more outgoing and zany, but this is actually how a lot of creative people are. I loved her voice for Slappy Squirrel.
JXP: What cartoons did you watch as a kid?
JON: I loved the old theatrical classics: Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Roadrunner, Tom & Jerry. Of course, we watched Mickey Mouse on Disney’s weekly program but I always preferred Donald Duck to Mickey. I thought Disney’s feature films – Bambi, Pinocchio, Snow White, Fantasia – were amazing. On TV we watched Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, Top Cat, The Jetsons, and Rocky & Bullwinkle.
JXP: Did the gig at Tiny Toons was the reason for landing the Animaniacs, Histeria and Road Rover gigs?
JON: And don’t forget Taz-Mania. Yes, once Warner Bros knew what we could do, they would contact us about working on the next project. We were very sorry we never got to work on Freakazoid.
JXP: You guys did storyboards for selective WB shows but didn't animate them. Can you tell me some epps?
JON: I did a storyboard or two for Pinky & The Brain. The one I remember isBrainania. I think I also did the storyboard for One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock which was kind of a strange half-hour Slappy Squirrel cartoon.
JXP: You worked on Camp Candy. How much influence did John Candy have on the show?
JON: I never had any contact with him. This was when I had first started StarToons, and I was working alone. He probably reviewed the scripts but other than that he had very little to do with the production. I could be wrong about that, but I know that we never had any contact. I was doing storyboards and had also worked on storyboards for The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, which was the year before Camp Candy. Martin Short was very much involved in the Ed Grimley cartoons and would often make videotapes acting out the action, and they would send those tapes to me along with the scripts.
JXP: You created the WAC! short Fat Cats. How did you develop the idea and what was it like working with the Hanna Barbera team again?
JON: We heard about the WAC! project and let our artists come up with their own ideas for cartoons. Fat Cats was created by Tony Cervone and Spike Brandt who worked for me at the time. In the end, we thought this was the best idea. We pitched it to Hanna-Barbera along with several other ideas, but H-B didn’t seem interested. About a month after that, Spike and Tony both left Chicago and got jobs at Warner Bros. A few months later, they asked us to pitch Fat Cats again. By that time, we had liked it so much that I had already done the storyboard for it. So we recorded a “scratch track” and made a story reel and flew back to Los Angeles to show them, and now they saw what a great cartoon it could be, and so they asked us to finish it. The Cartoon Network people were all executives in suits – didn’t seem like any of them had a sense of humor, but maybe it’s because we were outsiders from Chicago. Anyway, our technical director Ron Fleischer knew Ken Hudson Campbell from film school, and so we got him to do the voice for Louie. We were having trouble finding a good Elmo, and so Ken suggested his friend Hank Azaria. Both of them did a tremendous job, they added a lot of funny stuff to the scripts. We were kind of disappointed CN never called us back to do more Fat Cats. We were very proud of it.
JXP: You were friends with another animator named Kyle Carrozza who later made Mighty Magiswords for CARTOON NETWORK. How did you guys meet, what inbetweens did he do for "Bully for Skippy" and did you guys have any funny moments?
JON: I forget how I met Kyle but it seems he was a fan and was interested in the animation biz, and his drawings were very nice, so we invited him to come visit and learn the work. He didn’t do a lot for us – I think we may have had to redo any drawings he did. In the end he decided to go back home instead of staying to work with us. But I remember him as a very enthusiastic, bright, talented young man.
JXP: Any advice for a cartoonist like myself?
JON: Pray a lot. These are hard times now for animators.
JXP: Were there any changes or censorship issues that the WB team had to make you change in any way; storyboard or animation wise?!
JON: The Warner Bros people would always have us change a few small things here and there. Usually they were very happy with everything we did for them. The censors never gave us any trouble – even where we thought they might! For instance, when I look back at Meet Minerva, I’m amazed at what we got away with. Also, in an episode of Taz-Mania, in one scene Taz had been hypnotized into thinking he was a dog, and so in one shot I animated him licking his crotch like a dog. I fully expected to have to redo that shot, but nobody ever said anything and so it went to TV that way!
JXP: To your perspective, why did Startoons close down?!
JON: Changing times, changing economy, changing technology. My brother Dave helped me manage the studio after it grew, and he recommended we start developing our skills in CG/3D animation, but I didn’t listen to him. I didn’t like the idea of struggling with new terminologies and program menus etc. He was more far-sighted than me.
JXP: Rumor was it that an anime-esque show was in the works of Startoons before it's closing. Is it true and if so, what was it?
JON: One of our animators, Steve Bowler, wanted real bad to do anime, so we let him put together a cartoon. It was called, “M7.” Somebody put it up on YouTube, but I can’t find it anymore. It looked pretty good to me, although I’m not a connoisseur of anime.
JXP: What was it like working with the WB again for Tom & Jerry?
JON: It’s always a pleasure working for Warner Bros. Primarily I work for the director, Spike Brandt, who used to work for me, so we understand each other pretty well. Spike’s a real expert on Tom & Jerry and I’m not, so it’s taken me a while to get to the point where I draw those characters properly, but Spike always seems to like the way they move.
JXP: Where did you study?
JON: I studied chemistry and journalism for a while at Chicago State University (1973-74). I also did some art courses at the American Academy of Art (1975-76). When I approached the professor there in charge of animation, he told me I didn’t have the talent for animation.
JXP: How is MackHammer Productions different from Startoons?
JON: Mack Hammer is really just me. We don’t have an office – I work from home. When I need help with a project I subcontract it to freelancers. We don’t hire artists.
JXP: What do you feel about the other oversea studios used in TT and Animaniacs; such as Tokyo Movie, Kennedy, Wang Film and AKOM?!
JON: TMS was the best of all. They did amazingly good work, and they were consistent. Glenn Kennedy had worked with Tom Ruegger on the Hanna-Barbera show, A Pup Named Scooby Doo, and so Kennedy Cartoons was trying to make Tiny Toons look like that show. But Spielberg didn’t like that style, and so this led to a lot of friction between Kennedy and Warner Bros, and eventually they stopped working on Tiny Toons (see my answer to #4 above). A lot of people don’t like Kennedy Cartoons because their work looked so different from the others. AKOM and Wang, I couldn’t tell their work apart. These were animation factories and they didn’t put a lot of creativity into their animation.
Good luck to you, Luis. JM