Craig Douglas McCracken (born March 31, 1971) is an American animator, writer, director and producer, who is best-known as the creator the Cartoon Network animated series The Powerpuff Girls (1998) and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
Born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, Craig and his family moved to Whitter, California, after his father died when he was seven. He went to the California Institute of Arts, where he formed a strong friendship with Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti. During his second year, Craig created a short cartoon called "Whoopass Stew", and the idea eventually became The Powerpuff Girls. After graduating, he got his start in the animation industry on 2 Stupid Dogs.
There was also a short-lived project on Cartoon Network he and Rob Renzetti created called Cartoonstitute, which was supposed to be a successor to the What A Cartoon! Show on TV, but it got put quietly on CN's video service instead. He left Cartoon Network in 2009, and spent the next few years as a freelancer, creating sketches for what would eventually become his next show Wander over Yonder in 2013. It ran for two seasons before it's cancelation, making it McCracken's first show to be canceled rather than voluntarily ended.
Craig then moved over to Netflix to create Kid Cosmic, which premiered on in 2021; being his first series distributed for a streaming service, and the first to fully utilize a serialized story format. In 2022, it was announced that Craig has returned to Cartoon Network to spearhead the revivals of both Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
He is married to fellow animator Lauren Faust. The two met when she joined the writing staff of Powerpuff Girls in season three and have since collaborated on all of his subsequent shows. They presently have one daughter together.
McCracken took inspiration for his work from Jim Henson, Dr. Seuss, and Charles M. Schulz.
He also has a Deviantart page
, a Twitter, and a Tumblr.
Notable works include:
- No Neck Joe - his 1st year student film
- Whoopass Stew - his 2nd year student film, starring the prototype versions of The Powerpuff Girls
- 2 Stupid Dogs - Art director
- Dexter's Laboratory - Art director, writer, storyboard artist and director
- The Powerpuff Girls note
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
- Wander over Yonder. His first series to be produced for a company outside of Cartoon Network, and to date, his only series to be canceled rather than willingly ended.
- Kid Cosmic, produced by Netflix.
Craig McCracken's works provide examples of:
- The '60s: He missed the decade by a couple of years, but a lot of his works take great influence from its psychedelic aesthetic.
- Art Evolution: While his personal drawing style hasn't changed much over the years, his preferred animation techniques have. Foster's... saw him move from traditional hand-drawn animation to 2D computer animation, which allowed for more fluid character animation on a TV budget and better complimented his draftsmanship (by his own admission, he's a better designer than he is an animator). Starting from Wander over Yonder, he began using the more reliable (and animator-friendly) Toon Boom.
- Animesque: The Powerpuff Girls was basically this mixed with heavy UPA/Hanna-Barbera influence.
- Author Appeal: Star Wars and Japanese animation are frequently referenced in his work.
- Author Avatar: Mac from Foster's is unintentionally a bit based on himself as a kid. He eventually rolled with it. Played straight with Kid Cosmic.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Went to Cal Arts at the same time as Genndy Tartakovsky and Rob Renzetti, and the three have collaborated with one or the other on several projects over the years.
- Kid Hero: The Powerpuff Girls and Kid Cosmic feature heroic kids as the main characters. And while Wander from Wander over Yonder is Really 700 Years Old, he has a rather childish personality.
- Monochrome Casting: Never had a non-white main character in any of his works until Kid Cosmic, which features a more racially diverse main cast.
- No-Neck Chump: His first student film, No Neck Joe, was nothing but what he considered to be "the lamest, stupidest jokes you could make about not having a neck."
- No Hugging, No Kissing: While he and his wife Lauren Faust have been Happily Married since 2004, they don't do any romantic gestures in public. The only wedding photo of them that is shared publicly has them fist bumping instead of kissing or hugging.
- The Noseless: Rather common in his cartoons (The Powerpuff Girls, Bloo, Wilt, Wander...) Kid and Rosa were initially intended to be this, but looked unappealing and so noses were later added to their designs.
- Rule 34 – Creator Reactions: From a frequent questions journal on his DeviantArt account."Yes I have seen the porn. Let's just leave it at that."
- Signature Style: Thick-Line Animation, influence from 1960s cartoons and Jim Henson, flat but luscious backdrops, highly unique and imaginative creature designs, and...
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: ....heavily towards the idealistic end.
- Thick-Line Animation: His Signature Style. All of his work except Foster's (which uses lineless animation) is done in this style.
