Line #24 Creator/JonMcClenahan


1	[[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jon_mcclenahan_1700.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:202:Meet Jon [=McClenahan=].]]
3
4	->''"Jon [=McClenahan=] is one of the greatest animators alive today. You've just never heard of him because today's American animator is about as employable as a typewriter ribbon salesman. Which is a shame, really."''
5	-->--'''[[Website/PlatypusComix Peter Paltridge]]''' on Jon [=McClenahan=]
6
7	Jon [=McClenahan=] is an American animator, hailing from UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, Illinois.
8
9	Jon's career in animation began in 1980, when after four years as a meat-truck driver, he was told of a job opening at Creator/HannaBarbera's Australian offices. He and his family left for Sydney promptly to work at the studio. He started as an inbetweener, eventually climbing the ladder to direct the animation for animated adaptations for ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'' and ''WesternAnimation/TeenWolf''.
10
11	His employment at HB Southern Star Studios (as it was called) ended in August 1987, when the studio was consolidated and sold off. After some time at Cioni Artworks, Jon started [=StarToons=], his studio, located in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}. During this time, he did some of his best known works, including ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' (some Creator/KennedyCartoons animated episodes, and some of his own), ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'', and, ultimately, ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'', for which he did most of the Slappy Squirrel shorts.
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13	However, after completing work on the first season of ''Animaniacs'', [=StarToons=] began sliding into a downwards spiral. Jon planned with one of his former background {{painters}}, an Indian named Uttam Kumar, to start an Indian animation house for [=StarToons=] (which was to be the first of its kind) only for Kumar to be found out as having undergone a FaceHeelTurn during that time. Later, after a management change at Creator/WarnerBros Animation (his client for nearly all of [=StarToons=]' work), Jon tried to get on good terms with new president Sander Schwartz, only to be accused of shipping the work to an overseas studio just because it was so different from what [=StarToons=] usually did. This was the death knell to [=StarToons=], and Jon [=McClenahan=] was on his own again.
14
15	After a brief stint at Germany's Munich Animation, he became a director at Creator/MidwayGames until 2006. After that, he had a two-year stint at Star Farm Productions.
16
17	Now, since 2008, Jon [=McClenahan=] once again has his own company, named [[http://www.mackhammer.com/index.php Mack Hammer Productions]], which mainly does storyboards and character designs for miscellaneous shows. However, he keeps a low profile, and he posts on the [=ToonZone=] forums as [[http://www.toonzone.net/forums/member.php?18706-Jonny-Mack Jonny Mack]]. His most recent credit can be found in ''Film/SpaceJamANewLegacy''.
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19	Interviewed a few years back on [[http://www.platypuscomix.net/people/mcclenahan.html Platypus Comix]] (which is where the page quote comes from).
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21	[[AC:Dudley The Dinosaur]]
22	[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dud_6515.jpg]]
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24	Dudley the Dinosaur is Jon [=McClenahan=]'s most well known creation, a mascot for the American Dental Association. Dudley was the nation's first bilingual (English and Spanish) kids' public service campaign. He has starred in many commercials, beating ''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Smokey The Bear]]'' as the most well-known public service campaign character, and ads have been in and out of production since 1991. The most recent short was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc5TeAjaZSM Dudley's Grade School Musical]], released in 2012 and co-produced by Jon's Mack Hammer Productions. Besides directing and animating it, he also voiced one of the characters.
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26	Dudley is not the only series of commercials that [=StarToons=] worked on, though; they did a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-cSi0eczdI Tiny Toons cereal commercial]] in 1991, and here's a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_rcrpL_tks reel]] of other commercials they've done.
27	----
28	!!Shows worked on by Jon [=McClenahan=]:
29	[[AC:[=StarToons=]]]
30	* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' (sequences in 17 episodes by Kennedy Cartoons, sequences in one Creator/EncoreCartoons episode, and three full episodes using his [=StarToons=] studio: "Henny Youngman Day" (with Creator/LukFilm), "Thirteensomething", and "It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special" (with [[Creator/GalaxyDigimation Rainbow Animation Korea]]))
31	* ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' (sequences in three episodes by Kennedy Cartoons: "Jurassic Jumble", "Whiffle While You Work" and "Dry Hard")
32	* ''Series/McGeeAndMe'' (animated sequences in three episodes: "In the Nick of Time","The Blunder Years", and "Beauty And The Least")
33	* ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' (the intro sequence, plus two full episodes [[labelnote:List]]"Instant Replay/Taz and the Pterodactyl", "Hypnotazed/Mum's n' Taz's[[/labelnote]])
34	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' (27 shorts) [[labelnote:List]] "Slappy Goes Walnuts", "What Are We?", "The Big Candy Store", "Bumbie's Mom", "Wally Llama", "Meatballs or Consequences", "Wakko's America", "Guardin' in the Garden", "Plane Pals", "Be Careful What You Eat", "Chairman of the Bored", "Critical Condition", "Broadcast Nuisance", "Windsor Hassle", "...And Justice For Slappy", "Frontier Slappy", "Meet Minerva", "Oh Oh Ethel", "Meet John Brain", "Ragamuffins", "Karaoke Dokie", "Scare Happy Slappy", "Macbeth", "Dot the Macadamia Nut", "Bully For Skippy", "Magic Time", "The Brain's Apprentice"[[/labelnote]] (bumpers and wraparounds) [[labelnote:List]]every "Colin", cartoons in Wakko's body, "Buttermilk: It Makes a Body Bitter", "Yakko's World of Baldness", "Disasterpiece Theatre", "Testimonials", "Branimaniacs", "It", "Punchline"[[/labelnote]]
35	* ''Britannica's Tales Around The World'' (1 episode)[[labelnote:List]]"The Chinese Parrot"[[/labelnote]][[note]]Several of [=StarToons=]' staff, including [=McClenahan=], also did the Rapunzel short for Calabash Productions[[/note]]
36	* ''Secret Adventures'' (animated sequences)
37	* ''Fat Cats'' (a pilot for the WesternAnimation/WhatACartoonShow)
38	* ''WesternAnimation/RoadRovers'' (storyboards)
39	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'' (12 episodes) [[labelnote:List]] "The Wild West", "Around The World In A Daze", "Writers of the Purple Prose", "The Dawn of Time", "Loud Kiddington's Ancient History", "More Explorers", "Euro Mania", "Communuts", "Better Living Through Science", "Big Fat Baby Theatre", and uncredited work on "World War II" and "The Teddy Roosevelt Show"[[/labelnote]]
40	* ''The Crippled Lamb''
41	* ''WesternAnimation/LittleDogsOnThePrairie'' (one of their last assignments, as the copyright dates it to 2000/2001)
42
43	!!Not animated by [=StarToons=] but similar in style:
44	* ''Little Go Beep'' (directed by Spike Brandt, a former [=StarToons=] staffer, and also animated by many ST alumni. As such, the short carries Jon's style)
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47	!!Tropes associated with Jon [=McClenahan=]:
48	* AnimatedAdaptation: The 1999 short film "The Crippled Lamb" is a DirectToVideo adaptation of the Christian children's book by Max Lucado. The film was popular during the Christmas seasons for some churches to show during a sunday school classes around the seasons in the late 90s/early 2000s.
49	* AnimationBump: Mainly due to the bounciness and expressiveness of his work.
50	* CreditsGag: Once, as a joke, he submitted "Max [=McClenahan=]" as a staff member in the credits. Why is it a joke? Max is his dog.
51	* DependingOnTheArtist: Was more evident in [=StarToons=]'s work for ''Animaniacs'', due to a larger animation staff.
52	* OldShame: Jon isn't proud of his early Creator/HannaBarbera work, like ''Laverne and Shirley in the Army'' and ''The All-New Popeye Hour'' and although at the time he was glad to have animated on ''WesternAnimation/JetsonsTheMovie'', he was embarrassed after seeing the final product calling it the worst animated film he'd ever seen.
53	* SignatureStyle: Jon's animation style, with its emphasis on strong held poses and snappy movements, is so distinctive that it's easy to pick out (see ''Jetsons: The Movie''). It's even evident in episodes of shows that he storyboarded/directed but his studio didn't actually animate- see certain episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' (such as "Soccer Coach Slappy") and ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' (such as "Brainania").

Context Creator / JonMcClenahan