An Animation Rat Pack?

I've noticed that there is a small group of animators, writers and voice actors in the industry that. Many of these people have worked on shows like The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Adventure Time, Fish Hooks, Gravity Falls and Rick and Morty.

These people include

• Jackie Buscarino
• Alex Hirsch
• Justin Roiland
• Pendleton Ward
• Thurop Van Orman

For reference, here is an independent short titled Tiny Jackie Talk Show, which feature the voices of several in this rat pack.

The animation industry is so very well-knit that you'll generally be able to find several groups of people who seem to work on the same shows.

For example, Adventure Time alums are now spreading into the industry as well.

I don't think Frank, Dean, Sammy, Peter, and Joey would make good animation material.

They made a pretty good chess set.

Actually, wasn't there an MTV animated series where all the lead characters were named after the Rat Pack? Like...The Brothers Grunt, or something?

Actually, this is just something you start to notice the longer you pay attention to animation. You'll find the names of guys who worked on classic Warner Bros. cartoons in the credits for Marvel/Sunbow's GI Joe from the 80's. In the early 2000's you started to see Film Roman folks (all of whom seemed to work on the original Famiy Guy) branching out.It's a comparitively small pool of people

The Rat Pack never did any singing for Disney, did they? One would think they would have done so at some point...

Nope. None of the Rat Pack ever did. Bing Crosby did the narration and singing for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, though; not Rat Pack, I know, but contemporary to 'em. Well, to Sinatra, anyhow.

The animation industry community is a surprisingly tight-knit animal, which has only become more apparent with the advent of the internet; Tumblr is used as a vehicle for finding talent rather than the usual portfolio, as well as the guys in the industry having pages up as well. It's nothing new - the Nine Old Men and the guys at Termite Terrace are older examples of such a thing. Guys like Ralph Bakshi came from Terrytoons at a young age, John K. from 80's cartoonads, and etc etc etc. That being said there are likely plenty of people who are content with just doing smaller or fewer duties underneath.

Frankly I'd rather not be small potatoes myself in all that, but I ain't exactly doing myself favors staring at the forum all day, bahahaha. Rising names in animation also tend to be really good friends with one another too, and they'd have to be: burning bridges or even just being abrasive is sorta shooting yourself in the foot big-time with connections being the way they are.

edited 11th Oct '15 3:25:27 PM by StarvingGecko

They were too busy making Oceans Eleven to bother with that.

This does not mean that they weren't involved in kids' stuff. I recall seeing Sinatra involved in something called "Muhammad Ali Fights Mr. Tooth Decay."

I should mention that when Disney got Bing Crosby to do voices for Sleepy Hollow, he'd shed his old romantic crooner image of the thirties and become the family-friendly Average Joe who sang about Christmas and starred in movies with Bob Hope. He'd even played a priest, for God's sakes. Sinatra was never quite that family-friendly... (Bing was also still popular, while Sinatra was on the skids and forced to sing whatever Mitch Miller told him to...)

Of course, you can't forget Looney Tunes, which depicted them and many other celebrities of the day.

Crosby was frequently upset with WB animation over their various parodies of him. Or maybe he was just irritated with Frank Tashlin. Henry Fonda, on the other hand, apparently loved seeing himself in WB cartoons. Peter Lorre even did his own voice on one occasion.

Do they use Tumblr more than the traditional resume/ sample reels? I have heard it can be a mite difficult if you don't come up through Cal Arts.

C.H. Greenblatt talked about it in a Cartoon Brew article a while back[1]. I've also had friends of mine being told the same thing by CN employees, one of which I believe was named Amber who was part of the SU crew (the original messages are buried on my lappy somewhere). My buddy who interned there has been trying to help our digital arts group get tumblrs made to promote our own work as well.

edited 11th Oct '15 9:30:35 PM by StarvingGecko

It's pretty much impossible to get your own show unless you came from Cal Arts or can really prove you've got an idea for a big hit.

Daffy Duck did a pretty long parody of Sinatra at least at some point. I wonder how he took it?

You're not thinking of Book Revue, where he was parodying Danny Kaye, are you? Not to say he didn't do a Sinatra parody, just that, if so, I'm completely blanking on it (there was a Sinatra parody in Book Revue, but it wasn't Daffy...just an anemic looking dude in a wheelchair).

edited 12th Oct '15 9:25:16 PM by Robbery

The main Sinatra parody I remember from Looney Tunes is "Frankie" from that Porky Pig short.