Genndy Tartakovsky

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Genndy Tartakovsky (Russian: Геннадий Тартаковский (Gyennadiy Tartakovskiy), born January 17, 1970) is a Russian animator. His work is influenced heavily by American comic books, anime, and pop culture.

1 Early life
2 Education
3 Early career
4 Major works
5 Orphanage studios
6 Future projects
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Early life

He was born in January 1970, in Moscow, USSR to Jewish parents[1]. His father worked as a dentist for high level government officers and his mother was an assistant principal at a school. They moved to the United States when he was seven because his father wanted a better life for his children.

His family actually went to Italy first, where he lived next to a German family. He was first inspired to draw there by the neighbor's daughter. He says, "I remember, I was horrible at it. For the life of me, I couldn't draw a circle."

He then moved to the United States. The first comic he ever bought was a SuperFriends comic at his first job at a 7-Eleven.

[edit] Education

He started going to Eugene Field School in third grade. He says he never fit in until he was a sophomore. When he was 16, his father died. During this time he escaped into television. They moved to government-funded housing and he began working. He went to high school and worked. In short, his childhood was over.

He tried to take an advertising class, because his family was pushing him to be a business man. But he signed up late and could only take an animation class. Tartakovsky studied animation at Chicago's Columbia College. He basically built up his profile at that time and overworked himself. In about 1991 he made a three-minute short film by himself. He managed to get into the California Institute of the Arts with his friend, Rob Renzetti. They used a shoebox full of flipbooks to get in.

He came up with the idea of Dexter's Laboratory at college; it originated from drawing a ballerina. He developed another short film in his second year.

[edit] Early career

His early animation career consisted of in-betweening for various animated television shows, such as Batman: The Animated Series and The Critic. He later got work drawing storyboards for Hanna-Barbera's 2 Stupid Dogs.

[edit] Major works

Tartakovsky is most well known for creating, writing, and directing the animated series Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. Dexter's Laboratory grew out of a student film with the same title that he produced while at the California Institute of the Arts. Additionally, he helped produce The Powerpuff Girls and has directed many episodes, serving as the animation director for The Powerpuff Girls Movie. He also directed Star Wars: Clone Wars, a successful miniseries set in the Star Wars universe depicting the Clone Wars.

[edit] Orphanage studios

Recently, Tartakovsky has been made creative president of The Orphanage, an animation studio fabricated of Lucasfilm veterans. The company hopes to one day rival animation giant Pixar, and believes that Tartakovsky can get them there. Their first feature will be the sequel to the 1982 classic The Dark Crystal. It will be directed by Tartakovsky and is titled The Power of the Dark Crystal.

[edit] Future projects

He has also been pitching a cartoon series of Stephen King's The Dark Tower to HBO. It is unknown how the upcoming 2007 Dark Tower comics will affect the possibility of this projected series becoming a reality - whether the foray into an illustrated medium will pave the way for Genndy's animation, or if it will prove to be enough for King and the Grant publishing company. He has also been connected to the long-standing Astro Boy movie project.

Genndy recently helped create and directed animation on a new series for cartoon network's Adult Swim. The series, which is titled Korgoth of Barbaria is set for a complete first season which will air in the very near future.