Dave Wasson is an American animator whose projects include Time Squad and is one of the directors for the 2013 Mickey Mouse shorts.
Born and raised in Arkansas, Dave went to study character animation at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Upon graduating some of his first jobs included animation, layout work, and character designs for Cool World and Space Jam.
In 1997 Dave jumped on board Fred Seibert's Oh Yeah! Cartoons program for Nickelodeon. One particular project included a series of shorts entitled "Tales from the Goose Lady", about an insane magical goose and her talking wand "Juanito" who stalk two children and force them to listen to their versions of classic fairy tales. Think of it as a twisted version of Jay Ward 's own Fractured Fairy Tales. Another of project called "Max and His Special Problem", about a man who accidentally sneezes out his brain, won Dave an Emmy for Production Design in 1999. These projects had him working with other animators that would go on to work with Dave many times again over the years including Rob Renzetti, Alex Kirwan, Carlos Ramos, Larry Leichtliter and Tim Biskup.
After Oh Yeah! Cartoons, Dave went on to create his own show for The Cartoon Network, Time Squad (2001-2003). Though short-lived, Time Squad has developed a cult following in the near-20 years since it first hit the airwaves. Dave soon went onto various animation jobs over the early 2000's including direction and character designs for My Life as a Teenage Robot, Clone High, The Buzz on Maggie and Making Fiends.
In the current decade, Dave has had a hand in producing, writing, and directing some of Disney's latest projects for television including Star vs. the Forces of Evil and several of the new Mickey Mouse cartoons. He also has ventured into writing and illustrating children's books, his first being The Big Ideas of Buster Bickles.
Filmography
- Beany and Cecil: Character Layout. For the ill-fated revival 1988 series, The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil directed by John Kricfalusi.
- Cool World: Layout Artist, Animator
- Space Jam: Animator
- Oh Yeah! Cartoons: Creator, Producer, Director, Animator, Character Designs
- Clone High: Character Designs. On his website Dave mentions that he was never credited for it.
- Time Squad: Creator, Director, Producer, Writer.
- My Life as a Teenage Robot: Layout, Character Designs, Props. Dave leaves his mark in the first episode, as you can see when Larry 3000's head appears in Wakeman's lab.
- The Buzz on Maggie Director, Character Designs. Maggie was the first Disney cartoon to be animated in flash. Dave gave the storyboard artists a lot of freedom to try to make the show as fun as it possibly could.
- Making Fiends: Producer, Director.
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Co-Developer, Producer, Writer.
- Mickey Mouse (2013): Director, Storyboard Artist/Writer.
- The Cuphead Show!: Executive Producer, Additional Voice Actor.
Tropes that apply to Dave Wasson:
- Thick-Line Animation
- Minimalism: Dave's character designs are often similar to the classic UPA shorts of the 1960's.
- Kafka Comedy: His writing often involves this brand of humor. Expect Disproportionate Retribution and Karma Houdini's.
