Going from 'Dexter' to 'Powerpuff,' there was a lot of dialogue, there was a lot of... you know, we did action, of course, but I was getting burned out on the words, and both shows had this big, thick black outline.
— Genndy Tartakovsky
I have been very fortunate for the most part of my career when it comes to support and trust.
I've always been in love with samurais, that kind of classic idea about a hero who has a sword with an intense skill and is very stoic and doesn't talk much.
The one amazing thing about 'Jack' is that I did it in 2001, you know, and it still survived. There's something about it that's connected with people.
I was an immigrant when I came, and one of my biggest things was I really wanted to fit in. I didn't want to be, 'Oh, look at that guy;' I wanted to be part of the crowd. Which is a weird thing, because the more successful I got, the more out of the crowd I became.
In feature animation, cartoony or exaggerated animation is almost taboo. There is this precedent that if you do that kind of stuff people won't like it or it will be too zany.
I always refer to 'Blazing Saddles' or 'Young Frankenstein' as very much the kind of humor that I like to do.
I didn't want 'Hotel Transylvania' to be the nail in the coffin for cartoony animation. Because if the movie failed, I could see people blaming that aspect of it. I was really nervous about that.
For whatever reason, I think we have one type of animated movie and it's so wrong. I want to do a drama, I want to do an action, a comedy. In live-action, there are all sorts of movies. There's independent movies, big movies, action movies, funny movies, and for us we have one movie.
I've always thought that maybe I need to do a live-action movie, have it make a lot of money, and then come back and have a bigger budget for animation and do more with that.
Being funny is very complex.
In 2-D, the way you draw defines you, but in CG the computer takes away your identity.
Trying to be a leader, you've got to be really sure of what you're doing and you've got to guide people the right way.
I'm not a violent person at all, and I don't want to show violence for violent's sake.
I was thirty when I did 'Jack.'
Storytelling has changed. Shows like 'Adventure Time' have taken storytelling in a different direction.
I grew up in the '70s, early '80s as a kid, and when we first immigrated to this country I went to a 7-Eleven and for the first time in my life I saw... back in the day they had this little spinning comic book rack, and there were comic books and I was basically drawn to them.
My love of visual sequences stems from live-action films like Sergio Leone westerns, Kurosawa, some '70s action films, Tex Avery, and my general love of animated movement.
One of the things I hate about TV for kids is that it conescends to them.
As soon as you think, 'Pirates are really popular right now with kids so I'm going to write a pirate movie'... that's when you're dead.
Jazz flute's funny. And I'm a big Latin music fan, Tito Puente, Tina Cruz, all that stuff.
To me, storytelling is a mystery. Especially when you're directing.
Animation is my love, but I think there's definitely room in live-action. I mean, 'Iron Man 2' was fun, and I got to see that world.
I mean, for sure, from my history, I have an extreme fondness for 2D. I think it feels very hand-crafted, and you see the artist's personal touch. I think something about CG makes it a bit more sterile.
If you look back at Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' or 'Pocahontas,' animated films were trying to get more and more real before CG really arrived.
I had done it all in my career. I always felt, as a kid, that that's what a director needed to be. Hitchcock could do anything in my mind. He's the director. That person has to be the best actor, the best designer, the best cinematographer. Then I came to realize that isn't the case. You just need to surround yourself with the best.
Making a feature like 'Hotel 3' or 'Hotel 2' is kind of fun and jokey. It doesn't take itself too seriously. You could do whatever you want, basically.
I remember seeing my first Disney film when I was 13 or 14. It was 'Jungle Book,' and I remember really falling in love with it.
I don't want to do animation to mimic reality. I want to push reality.
I'm a true fan of animation, and it's my livelihood.
Doing simple flip books, I used to get such a kick out of it, just drawings and nothing else.
TV is all about schedule and budget, and you're always fighting that.
There were so many amazing comic books. Like I was around for the original Frank Miller/Chris Claremont 'Wolverine' miniseries.
One night I was sick and I watched the old black and white 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers.' And it freaked me out.
It makes things very easy when the people you are working for have trust and believe in you and actually really like and respect your work.
We use music, cinematic storytelling and very stylized backgrounds to create mood and atmosphere as 'Samurai Jack' travels an exotic landscape. The environment is a major character in each show.
I don't like to be part of the cattle. I like to just do my own thing.
I'm not as articulate as I'd wanna be.
I'm very in the now; I don't like to look back a lot.
You can never guess what a kid's going to find funny - besides, you know, an obvious fart joke here and there.
Stories are important, but I'm really into characters, and if you can give birth to a good one, that's true success.
You know, I loved 'Toy Story.' It's a great movie, but it has some pretty serious drama.
Luckily, as a director I can just tell people what I need and I don't need to tell them how to get it.
In feature animation, it's kind of taboo to make a movie that's more cartoony. But I never really believed that.
I remember arguing with my dad to let me dress up to go to a Halloween party in seventh grade, but I never in my childhood went trick-or-treating.
For me, animation is the caricature of life. It's something that we create, from the ground up.
For me, doing all the TV stuff and having the experience directing, knowing what you want to make is 90% of it. The rest of it is just guiding everybody on that one path. But, figuring out the path is the difficult part.
Going as far back as 'Dexter's Lab,' we've always had these sequences with no dialogue. The interesting thing is those sequences got the biggest reactions.
I'm a very happy, optimistic person.
Being a hardcore old-school comic book lover, it took me a while to accept the need for comic book movies.
