A Wave of Female Creator Driven Cartoons

I dont worship Rebecca Sugar and that new Star VS The Forces of Evil show. dont get me wrong,I like them a lot and I have a lot of respect for Sugar and Star. But It just occurred to me.Could this be the Start of a wave of Female Creator Driven Cartoons. This reminds me of the early Shojo manga pioneers like Riyoko Ikeda, Keiko Takemiya and Hagio Moto who revolutionized manga with their being at the helm of their creations, along with the innovations and twists they brought to the medium. I definitely love that animation is branching out from being a boys club. How sad that it was Dreamworks and TV Networks who took this step and not, say Pixar.

Females creating cartoons has been around for a while before now.

Julie McNally-Cahill created My Gym Partners A Monkey with her husband Tim.

Sandra Equihua created El Tigre with Jorge Gutierrez.

Sue Rose created Pepper Ann and Angela Anaconda.

Emily Kapnek created As Told By Ginger.

And let us not forget Arlene Klasky, who helped found a certain animation company you may know of... There may be a few more examples I haven't thought of yet. I think two of the three creators of The Mighty B were women.

There are a few females in the animation business who ought to get the chance to create a cartoon, but haven't. Lynne Naylor is one - she did the Billy the Beef Tallow Boy segment on Ren And Stimpy and on the basis of that alone she deserves her own show.

edited 7th Apr '15 6:44:06 PM by Aldo930

And don't forget the pony in the room.

I meant more on their own. Women definitely have been major colaborators and co-creators. Of the few you mentioned only Sue Rose and Emily Kapnek have flown solo. I definitely love those shows you mentioned (Except My Gym Partner is A Monkey, that show pisses me OFF!)

Frozen had a female co-director, but I definitely have a lot of respect for Dreamworks for allowing a Female Director to stand on her own. Even if I hated the result because it was so bland (Kung Fu Panda 2). I know its Tumblr-ish and Its not lost on me that animation directors shouldnt be chosen just for a progressive agenda.

Its Sugar And Star that actually truly showed the prowess of a Female Creator.

I still have a lot of love for women-men teams. I think the ideal should be that everyone should have a say and work to improve a cartoon to be the best it can be. I loved Tomodachi Life and didnt mind the gay controversy (Im gay) because the game was so terrific and well done.

EDIT: I love Fi M and Lauren Faust is definitely a very talented sould and the major force behind the success of the show (Even if it wasnt enough to save The Hub).This topic is about Female Creator Driven shows though. It isnt lost on me that Lauren was a major example of a Female Force to be reckoned with in the Animation industry. But this topic is more for Female Creator Driven Cartoons. As in not from another franchise, otherwise it would just be Female Animators and so on.

edited 7th Apr '15 6:55:00 PM by AegisP

IMO, it's less that there's a huge wave of female creator driven series and more that people are making a bigger deal of it and focusing on them being female.

To put it another way, instead of the shows being covered as "hey here's a new series and the creator happens to be a woman", their identity is being used as a major selling point.

True. But thankfully Steven Universe and Star show that these women are actually talented. Their shows werent greenlighted just to please Tumblr. While Im a big fan of Women being more involved in animation I wont sing praises to a show just because its creator was female and that's the way it should be.

First I want to write one thing: One of the first animators was a woman and called Lotte Reiniger, who created a feature-length animated film called 'The adventures of Prince Achmed', in 1929 (You probably can watch it somewhere on youtube).

To women helping to create animation is not new, Disney had a lot of female painters and inkers during the II. World War, I remember that they actually used make-up on the evil queens cheeks. An idea which a woman came up with (I really wished I knew where I read that). (you can read more here: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/03/disney-animation-girls-201003 )

But none of those 100 women ever branched out and became creators or directors in their own right.

I think the reason we now have this 'wave' of women creating cartoons is because they can. Because they now have the resources and support that they did not have years ago.

edited 8th Apr '15 1:26:11 AM by Madmous

In the early years of animation, the industry outright refused to school woman as animators. Disney was the first studio who changed this policy and Walt Disney himself encouraged Mary Blair, who is more or less the mind behind the style of the silver era, but she was an artist, not an animator. Animation (actual animation, not doing the groundwork) has been a male dominated field for a long time. So if there are now more woman who become animators, all power to them.

Lotte Reiniger was a great artist who was unique in her craft. But she was not working in Hollywood, so only animation fans really have an inkling of her importance. (And watching her work on youtube is a bad idea...the best way to watch it is in a theatre with a life orchestra. One should at the very least ensure to watch the coloured version, not the black and white one, and to pick the one with the right music. I have honestly no idea why there are even versions with another score out there when there is music which was written specifically for this movie).

edited 8th Apr '15 10:07:35 AM by Swanpride

You're critically missing the point here. The thread speculates on a new, current wave of female creator-driven shows. It said nothing about there having never been any, making your intended point irrelevant.

But your post DOES demonstrate just how rare they are, since you only came up with four series from the past 20 some years, which all aired at different times and are generally long gone now. And you're even including one just co-created by a woman whose name still isn't top billing. You've unintentionally made a pretty solid case for the industry being sexist as hell.

If you're a woman, your likelihood of getting hired for important work like this is still vastly less than a man even if your qualifications and experience are greater. This was even worse the farther back you go, but we're not nearly out of the woods yet. Corporations and especially entertainment networks are still largely run by the logic of half-dead geezers who think women have a totally different perspective than men that "doesn't sell."

This is why, yes, we SHOULD make a "big deal" over female creators getting. Networks need the wake-up call.

edited 12th Apr '15 4:33:19 AM by scythemantis

How is it a wave when there's only been three in the past five years?

I could probably count six cartoons created or co-created by females in the 90s and 2000s, plus several more if I counted those created by Arlene Klasky. Which begs the question - are the accomplishments of these women devalued because a lot of them were done with male help?

We do need more female creators, though, that's sure.

edited 12th Apr '15 4:55:23 AM by Aldo930

Yea it doesn't even seem like a wave as much as a continuation of a trend.

Also, if someone is going to attack someone else for making "only 5 examples", you need to disprove their point not just complain about it. Those were several big name shows in their time, there were likely others just not as well remembered. Not to mention there aren't hundreds of new cartoons every year. Maybe one or two. Half a dozen over a few years is actually kind of a lot.

I love you Aldo, and I dont think you intended to be sexist or anything. I do have to say, waves start small. It would be ridiculous to just have 7 cartoons appear and there's our wave, no. Its gradual. But yeah, it could just as easily be a dud and no more Female Creators (God I always get mad when people dont get tense right, but right now Im at a loss as to write this this sentence!) would see their cartoons hit the air in the next 5-10 years.

Scythemantis! Hey there! And to think I used to think you were insentive! I didnt peg you as the kind to criticize sexism (Aldo wasnt sexist but I still loved your post). You both are Family Guy fans I think! And some of the coolest posters around!

EXTREMELY sorry for the double post but I have major news!

Cartoon Network really is aiming to be Gender Agnostic and feature Girl Aimed cartoons and as many as 8 out of 13 new pilots are made by Female Creators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/business/media/cartoon-network-upbeat-as-ad-season-begins.html?_r=0

EXTREMELY SORRY ABOUT THE TRIPLE POST. But more major developments are happening as we speak!

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-cm-college-animation-women-20150525-story.html#page=1

Im so glad.

Rather surreal.

I suppose it's going to lead to more new female creators. Maybe we'll be talking about how there are no men creating cartoons soon enough.

Notice that they specify that Rebecca Sugar is CN's first solo female creator...

I know, I said so too. Or implied. Fuck Im not sure.

I dont mean to belittle co creating duo's,but this is certainly great too.

Good to see that Cartoon Network's doing better. I was rather encouraged by Sorcher's statements, that the quality has to come first and everything else will follow (apparently Sorcher was manager of the Network when they first started focusing on creator-driven original content, the first wave of Cartoon Cartoons).

So perhaps we'll see a new golden age. Or at least an expansion of the goodness that the new tens has brought (at least on the comedy front).

The 2010s for animation are far better than the late 2000s, despite stuff like Teen Titans Go, Breadwinners, and Sanjay and Craig premeiring in this decade, alongside some of the more infamous episodes of Sponge Bob and Family Guy (this is not the place to discuss whether they are good or not). Sadly, it seems that only applies for TV animation. Film Animation, for the most part, hasn't been as good as TV animation so far in this decade.

ON TOPIC: I like that we're getting more diversity when it comes to creator driven cartoons. Now if only we could get The Modifyers off the ground.

If Cartoon Network could get Adventure Time to rise from it's grave at Nick and Cartoon Hangover/Frederator got Bravest warriors to rise(though that may have to do with the popularity of AT), I think it could be a possibility one day.

I've stopped watching A Tafter Steven Universe came out, though I'd like to think that's neither here nor there. The PB and Marcy miniseries could very well have been written by Sugar, from what's been known about it.

Peanut Butter? Oh wait, Marcy, the PB must stand for Peppermint Batty

Why is the gender of cartoon creators so Goddamn important? What matters is the product the creator is turning in, not the creator's gender.

Representation? Maybe?

People should be hired on the basis of their ability, really.

That's what I'm saying. Quality is the important thing.

I know I should be glad more women are getting their due in this field as of late - but what's even there to care about if the product ain't up to snuff? When did gender become such a big deal, anyway?! I just find this all so stupid, TBH. I'm glad more women are getting in the field, but that's all there is to it. And it's NOT like women weren't working in this field way back when, either - including AS showrunners.