Craig Bartlett

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.

Craig Bartlett
Bartlett performing with the Ready Jet Go! band in 2017
Born
Craig Michael Bartlett

(1956-10-18) October 18, 1956
EducationEvergreen State College
Occupation(s)Animator, writer, storyboard artist, director, producer, voice actor
Years active1985–present
Known forHey Arnold! (1994; 1996–2004, 2017)
Dinosaur Train (with The Jim Henson Company; 2009–2020)
Ready Jet Go! (2016–2019)
Spouse
Lisa Groening
(m. 1987; sep. 2015)
Children2

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.[1]

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 1994 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 computer-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 Jim Henson's Dinosaur Train was picked up by PBS Kids; produced by Brian Henson, this was the first show created by Bartlett to be picked up since Hey Arnold!.[2] The series debuted on PBS stations on September 7, 2009.[3]

In April 2015, Ready Jet Go! (formerly Jet Propulsion) was picked up by PBS Kids. Produced by Wind Dancer Films, the series premiered on PBS stations on February 15, 2016.[4]

In November 2015, Viacom announced that Bartlett would return to Nickelodeon to write Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie.[5] 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.[6] They have two children, Matt and Katie.[7] In August 2018, it was reported that Craig and Lisa were going through a divorce settlement and that they had been separated since 2015.[8]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1985 The Adventures of Mark Twain Calaveras Miner (voice) Claymation artist, voice actor
1985 Return to Oz Claymation artist
1986–1990 Pee-wee's Playhouse Animator for Penny cartoons
1987 A Claymation Christmas Celebration Claymation artist
1988 Meet the Raisins! 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 Rugrats Story editor, writer, director, storyboard artist (segment "Stu-Makers' Elves")
1995 The Ren & Stimpy Show Oldman Farmer Höek, additional voices Director, voice actor
1994; 1996–2004 Hey Arnold! Brainy, Abner the Pig, Ned, Miles Shortman, others (voice) Creator, developer, executive producer, story, writer, director, voice actor
2002 Hey Arnold!: The Movie Brainy, Murray, Grubby, Monkeyman (voice) Producer, writer, voice actor
2004 Johnny Bravo Writer, story editor
2004 Party Wagon Romeo Jones, Ferryman #2, Cheyenne #1 (voice) Creator, storyboard artist, producer, director, voice actor
2008 Unstable Fables Co-writer
2008–2013 Sid the Science Kid Story editor, writer
2009–2020 Dinosaur Train Spider (voice) Creator, writer, executive producer, director, voice actor
2013 Sky Rat[9] Creator, executive producer, storyboard artist, writer, director
2016–2019 Ready Jet Go! 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
2023 Frog and Toad[10] Screenwriter

Internet

Year Title Role Notes
2016–17 Nickelodeon Animation Podcast Episode 12: Craig Bartlett
Episode 49: Making of an Iconic Theme Song
Episode 50: Hey Arnold! Deep Dive
Podcast

References

  1. "KLASKY CSUPO PRESS & PROMOS". www.klaskycsupo.com.
  2. "Muppet News – Facts And Then Some". www.muppetnewsflash.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07.
  3. Inc., Gopherwood Studios LLC; Flash Games by FableVision. "Dinosaur Train - PBS KIDS". pbskids.org. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. "PBS KIDS intros Ready Jet Go!".
  5. "'Hey Arnold' TV movie in works at Nickelodeon". Chicago Tribune. November 23, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  6. "My Simpsons Collection". Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  7. Craig Bartlett, Maggie Groening, Richard Bartlett: Hey Arnold!, Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 144
  8. "'The Simpsons' Creator's Sister, Lisa, Splits from 'Hey Arnold' Creator After 30 Years of Marriage". 8 August 2018.
  9. "Craig Bartlett Offers Inspiring Keynote at Ottawa". 20 September 2013.
  10. Valerie Gallaher (June 14, 2012). "JIM HENSON COMPANY TO MAKE ANIMATED 'FROG AND TOAD' MOVIE". Retrieved January 22, 2017.
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