Craig Bartlett
{{short description|American animator (born 1956)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{for|the New Zealand cricketer|Craig Bartlett (cricketer)}}
{{redirect|Party Wagon|the Ninja Turtles' Party Wagon|Turtle Van}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Craig Bartlett 2017.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Bartlett performing with the Ready Jet Go! band in 2017
| name = Craig Bartlett
| birth_name = Craig Michael Bartlett
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|10|18}}
| birth_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S.
| known_for = Hey Arnold! (1994; 1996–2004, 2017)
Dinosaur Train (with The Jim Henson Company; 2009–2020)
Ready Jet Go! (2016–2019)
| occupation = Animator, writer, storyboard artist, director, producer, voice actor
| years_active = 1985–present
| relatives = Matt Groening (brother-in-law)
| spouse = {{marriage|Lisa Groening|1987|2015|end=separated}}
| education = Evergreen State College
| children = 2
}}
Craig Michael Bartlett (born October 18, 1956) is an American animator. He wrote, directed, created, and produced the Nickelodeon television series Hey Arnold! and the PBS Kids television series Ready Jet Go! and Dinosaur Train.
Career
Bartlett's first job, after graduating from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, was at Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon, where he learned the art of stop-motion animation, working on movies such as The Adventures of Mark Twain. Bartlett moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to animate the "Penny" claymations for the second season of Pee-wee's Playhouse on CBS. He later made an animated ID for NBC with Klasky Csupo.{{cite web|url=http://www.klaskycsupo.com/press/animationmagazine.html|title=KLASKY CSUPO PRESS & PROMOS|website=www.klaskycsupo.com}}
He later worked at BRC Imagination Arts, directing projects such as Postcards and Mystery Lodge for Knott's Berry Farm. He also animated the music video for "Jurassic Park" by "Weird Al" Yankovic from the 1993 album Alapalooza.
Bartlett met the Nickelodeon execs while story editing Rugrats in its first three seasons. He pitched Hey Arnold! to them in the fall of 1993 and produced a pilot the next spring. The series was greenlit in January 1995. Hey Arnold! was in production continuously from 1995 to 2001, made by Bartlett's own production company, Snee-Oosh, Inc., which he founded in 1986. The series culminated in a TV movie originally titled Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, but Nickelodeon decided to release it theatrically as Hey Arnold!: The Movie, in June 2002.
A dispute over a second planned Arnold movie resulted in Bartlett leaving Nickelodeon to write, direct and produce an animated TV movie for Cartoon Network called Party Wagon, a story originally intended as a pilot for an ongoing series. It ended up being the first Cartoon Network movie-length pilot to be broadcast, but not picked up until Underfist: Halloween Bash, which was created by Maxwell Atoms, who created The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carne.
In 2002, he published the official novelization of the first Hey Arnold! movie (having written it with Maggie Groening; {{ISBN|978-0-6898-5136-0}}).
In 2005, Bartlett returned to BRC to make a multimedia simulator attraction for NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, called the Shuttle Launch Experience. In the course of the three-year project, Bartlett interviewed 26 astronauts to gather their experiences from launch to orbit. One of these was four-time shuttle flier and commander and current NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr.
After developing various pilots and feature scripts, Bartlett moved to The Jim Henson Company, where he co-wrote the animated film Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby. He stayed at Henson to work as story editor on a PBS Kids preschool show called Sid the Science Kid with PBS executive Linda Simensky, whom he had worked with at Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.
In September 2008, a show for preschoolers called Dinosaur Train was picked up by PBS Kids; produced by The Jim Henson Company, this was the first show created by Bartlett to be picked up since Hey Arnold!.{{cite web|url=http://www.muppetnewsflash.com/2008/09/henson-moving-foward-with-dinosaur.html|title=Muppet News – Facts And Then Some|website=www.muppetnewsflash.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207022554/http://www.muppetnewsflash.com/2008/09/henson-moving-foward-with-dinosaur.html|archive-date=2012-02-07}} The series debuted on PBS stations on September 7, 2009.{{cite web|url=http://pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain/|title=Dinosaur Train - PBS KIDS|author=((Gopherwood Studios LLC; Flash Games by FableVision Inc.))|website=pbskids.org}}
In April 2015, Ready Jet Go! (formerly Jet Propulsion) was also picked up by PBS Kids. Produced by Wind Dancer Films and his company, Snee-Oosh, Inc., the series premiered on PBS stations on February 15, 2016.{{cite web|url=http://kidscreen.com/2015/04/10/pbs-kids-intros-ready-jet-go/|title=PBS KIDS intros Ready Jet Go!}}
In November 2015, Viacom announced that Bartlett would return to Nickelodeon to write Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie.{{cite news|title='Hey Arnold' TV movie in works at Nickelodeon|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ct-hey-arnold-nickelodeon-20151123-story.html|access-date=November 23, 2015|work=Chicago Tribune|date=November 23, 2015}} It premiered on November 24, 2017.
Personal life
Bartlett attended and graduated from Anacortes High School in Anacortes, Washington. In 1987, Bartlett married Lisa Groening, sister of Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, Futurama and Disenchantment, after whom Lisa Simpson is named.{{cite web|url=http://www.donthaveacowman.com/Simpsons/Cards/Inkworks2001/page2001.70.html |access-date=July 23, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820020800/http://donthaveacowman.com/Simpsons/Cards/Inkworks2001/page2001.70.html |archive-date=August 20, 2008 |title=My Simpsons Collection }} They have two children, Matt and Katie.Craig Bartlett, Maggie Groening, Richard Bartlett: Hey Arnold!, Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 144 [https://books.google.com/books?id=6mTpyf8Dm-wC&dq=Craig+Bartlett+lisa+matt+bartlett&pg=PA144] In August 2018, it was reported that Craig and Lisa were going through a divorce settlement and that they had been separated since 2015.{{Cite web|url=https://theblast.com/hey-arnold-simpsons-split-marriage-lisa-groening-craig-bartlett/|title = 'The Simpsons' Creator's Sister, Lisa, Splits from 'Hey Arnold' Creator After 30 Years of Marriage|date = 8 August 2018}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 1985
| Calaveras Miner (voice) |Claymation artist, voice actor |
| 1985
| |Claymation artist |
| 1986–1990
| |Animator for Penny cartoons |
| 1987
|A Claymation Christmas Celebration | |Claymation artist |
| 1988
| |Writer |
| 1988
|Arnold Escapes from Church | |Producer, director, writer, animator |
| 1990
|The Arnold Waltz | |Producer, director, writer, animator |
| 1991
|Arnold Rides His Chair | |Director |
| 1991–1994
| |Story editor, writer, director, storyboard artist (segment "Stu-Makers' Elves") |
| 1995
|Oldman Farmer Höek, additional voices |Director, voice actor |
| 1994; 1996–2004
| Brainy, Abner the Pig, Ned, Miles Shortman, others (voice) |Creator, developer, executive producer, story, writer, director, voice actor |
| 2002
| Brainy, Murray, Grubby, Monkeyman (voice) |Producer, writer, voice actor |
| 2004
| |Writer, story editor |
| 2004
|Party Wagon | Romeo Jones, Ferryman #2, Cheyenne #1 (voice) |Creator, storyboard artist, producer, director, voice actor |
| 2008
| |Co-writer |
| 2008–2013
| |Story editor, writer |
| 2009–2020
| Spider (voice) |Creator, writer, executive producer, director, voice actor |
| 2013
| |Creator, executive producer, storyboard artist, writer, director |
| 2016–2019
| |Creator, executive producer, writer, director |
| 2017
|Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie | Miles Shortman, Brainy, Abner the Pig, Monkeyman (voice) |Executive producer, series based on, writer, voice actor and voice director |
| 2021
|Dinosaur Train: Adventure Island | |Executive producer, writer and co-director |
| 2023
|Frog and Toad{{cite news|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/2625422/jim-henson-frog-and-toad/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202010500/http://www.mtv.com/news/2625422/jim-henson-frog-and-toad/|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 2, 2017|title=JIM HENSON COMPANY TO MAKE ANIMATED 'FROG AND TOAD' MOVIE|author=Valerie Gallaher|date=June 14, 2012|access-date=January 22, 2017}} | |Screenwriter |
| 2024
| |Additional animation |
=Internet=
| class="wikitable" |
| style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |
| 2016–17
| Nickelodeon Animation Podcast | rowspan="1"|Episode 12: Craig Bartlett | rowspan="1"|Podcast |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://victoriamixon.com/2009/11/23/hey-craig-the-craig-bartlett-interview Interview with Victoria Mixon]
- {{IMDb name|0058799|Craig Bartlett}}
- [http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.9/3.9pages/3.9bevilacquabartlett.html Craig Bartlett's Charmed Past Life]
{{Craig Bartlett}}
{{Hey Arnold}}
{{Will Vinton Productions}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartlett, Craig}}
Category:Animators from Washington (state)
Category:American storyboard artists
Category:American animated film directors
Category:American animated film producers
Category:American comics writers
Category:American comics artists
Category:American voice directors
Category:Evergreen State College alumni
Category:American stop motion animators
Category:Nickelodeon Animation Studio people
Category:Showrunners of animated series