Latest / Salem Podcast Network / The Greg Laurie Show - Fairly OddParents creator Butch Hartman: Why I Left Nickelodeon to Create a Christian Cartoon
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Life Audio.
- 0:11Speaker 2: There's a million kids that won't go into a church
- 0:13Speaker 2: ever in their life, but they will watch an iPhone
- 0:15Speaker 2: and they'll watch a screen. So what can I put
- 0:17Speaker 2: on that screen? The whole entertainment world is a giant refrigerator.
- 0:21Speaker 2: It's full of junk food, but we're the apple. We're
- 0:24Speaker 2: the grapes. We're the healthy option. You know, I got
- 0:42Speaker 2: a great maquette story. My mother-in-law had a Goofy statue.
- 0:47Speaker 2: Disney's Goofy.
- 0:48Speaker 1: You know, Goofy.
- 0:49Speaker 2: She had this on her end table for like years.
- 0:53Speaker 1: I'm looking at this thing.
- 0:53Speaker 2: Finally, I got married to my wife and I'm like,
- 0:55Speaker 2: her name was Janet. I go, Janet, do you want
- 0:58Speaker 2: this thing? She's like, oh, you can have it. I go,
- 1:00Speaker 2: you sure? I go, because I'm a cartoonist.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, just take it.
- 1:04Speaker 2: So I take it. It's mine now. So I look
- 1:06Speaker 2: at the bottom of it, and it says, return to
- 1:08Speaker 2: the Disney character department.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness.
- 1:10Speaker 2: And I'm like, and it was a really intricate sculpture
- 1:12Speaker 2: of Goofy. It was perfect condition.
- 1:13Speaker 1: Do you have it still?
- 1:15Speaker 2: Well, I said, I can't keep this. She didn't know
- 1:17Speaker 2: what it was. You returned it? I returned it, but
- 1:19Speaker 2: I said, look, I'm going to return it on one condition.
- 1:20Speaker 2: We're going to auction this off. And we auctioned it
- 1:23Speaker 2: off for $ 8, 000. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, which I still
- 1:25Speaker 2: think could have got more, because it was at the
- 1:27Speaker 2: end of the auction. That's so collectible. It was so cool.
- 1:31Speaker 2: I should have kept it to this day. To this day.
- 1:33Speaker 1: Well, I'm talking with Butch Hartman, a cartoonist extraordinaire. And
- 1:38Speaker 1: this is the first time, Butch, that I've ever sat
- 1:41Speaker 1: down with a fellow artist. And I hesitate to use
- 1:45Speaker 1: that expression because you're a true artist, animator, cartoonist. I
- 1:50Speaker 1: was always aspired to be one, and I've dabbled in it.
- 1:53Speaker 1: I always describe myself as an advanced doodler.
- 1:56Speaker 2: Oh, there you go.
- 1:57Speaker 1: That's good. Because I love to draw. I love to create. But...
- 2:02Speaker 1: I've always loved the world of cartooning and animation, and
- 2:05Speaker 1: you've had amazing success. Tell us about some of the
- 2:08Speaker 1: shows that people might know about. Yeah, thank you.
- 2:12Speaker 2: Well, the main show I think I'm mostly known for
- 2:14Speaker 2: was on Nickelodeon called The Fairly Odd Parents. Yeah, that
- 2:17Speaker 2: one started out. We had started as an official series
- 2:20Speaker 2: in 2001, and it ran for 18 years on Nickelodeon.
- 2:23Speaker 1: Wow. And the funny thing is, before I knew you
- 2:26Speaker 1: or knew about you, I watched it with my grandkids.
- 2:29Speaker 1: My grandkids loved this cartoon, and they thought, well, this
- 2:31Speaker 1: cartoon is really cool because it's sort of retro-modern. It's
- 2:36Speaker 1: sort of a little throwback to stuff I grew up on,
- 2:39Speaker 1: Looney Tunes, Disney.
- 2:41Speaker 2: Hanna-Barbera.
- 2:42Speaker 1: Hanna-Barbera, for sure. But then it had this very modern sensibility.
- 2:45Speaker 1: It was in the world of today, and so it
- 2:48Speaker 1: connected to my grandkids. But I appreciated the sort of
- 2:51Speaker 1: nostalgic element of it. Oh, thanks.
- 2:53Speaker 2: Yeah, that What was cool is I developed that show.
- 2:56Speaker 2: I was in the industry. Well, first of all, I'm
- 2:59Speaker 2: from Michigan originally. I came out here in 1983 when
- 3:02Speaker 2: I was 18 years old because I wanted to be
- 3:03Speaker 2: an animator for Disney. And to this day, I've never
- 3:06Speaker 2: been an animator for Disney. But that was my goal.
- 3:08Speaker 1: But just about everybody else.
- 3:10Speaker 2: Exactly right.
- 3:10Speaker 1: But I wanted to be.
- 3:11Speaker 2: And so I went to college. I went to CalArts
- 3:13Speaker 2: in Valencia where I studied character animation. All the guys
- 3:16Speaker 2: I went to school with, I don't know what it
- 3:18Speaker 2: was about the window of time I was there, but
- 3:20Speaker 2: everybody from that time, from 83 to 86, Most of
- 3:24Speaker 2: them went on to be leaders in the industry at Pixar,
- 3:27Speaker 2: at Disney. It was just incredible.
- 3:28Speaker 1: It was kind of a golden era with the Cartoon Network,
- 3:32Speaker 1: kind of a rediscovery of animation. Yeah. Because it sort
- 3:36Speaker 1: of had become a little bit of a lost art
- 3:38Speaker 1: a bit, but rediscovered again by a new generation.
- 3:41Speaker 2: Yeah, I was actually there at Hanna-Barbera the day it
- 3:44Speaker 2: became Cartoon Network. I was working at Hanna-Barbera. This is 1991.
- 3:48Speaker 2: I just started working at Hanna-Barbera and we all are
- 3:50Speaker 2: told at 10 o'clock in the morning to go out
- 3:51Speaker 2: in the parking lot, like the whole staff. Okay, it's
- 3:54Speaker 2: like 400 people. We all walk out of the parking
- 3:55Speaker 2: lot and Ted Turner is there and he's standing at
- 3:58Speaker 2: a podium. And he was huge back then. I remember
- 4:00Speaker 2: he was very famous. He had started Turner Broadcasting and
- 4:03Speaker 2: he said, well, hello everybody. We have some pleasantries. And
- 4:07Speaker 2: he said, well, today you're now changing from Hanna-Barbera. You're
- 4:10Speaker 2: going to be called Cartoon Network. We all kind of
- 4:13Speaker 2: looked around. And then he said, if anybody here has
- 4:16Speaker 2: an idea, that you have for a cartoon, we'd love
- 4:19Speaker 2: to hear it. And no one had ever done that before.
- 4:22Speaker 2: There was never, ever a studio that let the workers
- 4:24Speaker 2: of the studio come up with an idea. You came
- 4:27Speaker 2: on as a worker bee, really, to do what the
- 4:29Speaker 2: bosses had already sold to a network or whatever.
- 4:32Speaker 1: But maybe you were one of the first generations to
- 4:34Speaker 1: grow up on cartoons because those old school Disney animators
- 4:38Speaker 1: that really created, they call them the old men, you know,
- 4:41Speaker 1: with the great animated films. Yeah, that old man, yeah.
- 4:43Speaker 1: They didn't grow up on animation. In that wild, they didn't.
- 4:46Speaker 1: But your generation did. You were watching Yogi Bear. You
- 4:50Speaker 1: were watching all those Hannibal Bears. Were they running? I
- 4:53Speaker 1: always remember they'd be running across something. It'd be the
- 4:55Speaker 1: same background going back.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Yeah, Fred Flintstone would pass the same couch and chair
- 4:59Speaker 2: 40 times. Wilma! 40 different versions of the same couch.
- 5:03Speaker 1: But they cracked a code to develop all of these
- 5:06Speaker 1: new shows that were quite different from... You know, the
- 5:09Speaker 1: Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry massacring each other or
- 5:13Speaker 1: Felix the Cat.
- 5:13Speaker 2: Well, Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny and those kind
- 5:16Speaker 2: of cartoons were higher quality. Those were made for movie theaters.
- 5:18Speaker 1: They really were.
- 5:19Speaker 2: Before TV was invented.
- 5:20Speaker 1: That's true.
- 5:21Speaker 2: And so they made them for the movie theaters because
- 5:22Speaker 2: TV didn't exist back then. And when you went to
- 5:24Speaker 2: the movies as a kid in the 1940s, you'd see
- 5:27Speaker 2: like four cartoons, three movies, and two newsreels. And that
- 5:30Speaker 2: was your whole day. But then when TV showed up,
- 5:32Speaker 2: they started putting those cartoons on television. Those are the
- 5:35Speaker 2: ones you and I saw growing up, the Bugs Bunnies
- 5:37Speaker 2: and the Tom and Jerry's. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera,
- 5:40Speaker 2: who created Tom and Jerry, when television came around, they're like,
- 5:44Speaker 2: how do we do this on a weekly basis? That's
- 5:46Speaker 2: where limited animation came from. They couldn't do as many drawings.
- 5:49Speaker 2: It was too expensive. But that's why Fred Flintstone has
- 5:51Speaker 2: a five o'clock shadow on his face, because they could
- 5:53Speaker 2: keep the same Fred body, but just replace the mouth
- 5:55Speaker 2: 500 times. That is so funny. I didn't know that. Yeah,
- 5:58Speaker 2: you had to have tricks where you would, if you
- 6:00Speaker 2: look at Quick Draw McGraw, this horse, he had like
- 6:02Speaker 2: the snout. They would just take his snout off and
- 6:04Speaker 2: put a different snout on it. So he would, hey,
- 6:05Speaker 2: he could do the voice and talk all day long, right?
- 6:08Speaker 2: So the limited animation made it possible for television to happen.
- 6:12Speaker 1: That's amazing. Now, when did you discover that you had
- 6:15Speaker 1: the ability to draw? Do you think some people just
- 6:19Speaker 1: have a natural ability and others maybe don't have it
- 6:22Speaker 1: as much, but they can develop it? Or where do
- 6:25Speaker 1: you think that fits in?
- 6:26Speaker 2: I think it really comes down to desire. I think
- 6:28Speaker 2: a lot of people can do whatever they want. We
- 6:31Speaker 2: know that. We serve a creative God. God made us
- 6:33Speaker 2: creative beings. We can create anything. And humans are always
- 6:36Speaker 2: growing in their creativity. If you look at a dog,
- 6:39Speaker 2: one dog is the same dog as it was a
- 6:41Speaker 2: thousand years ago. Dogs never invented an iPhone, right? But humans,
- 6:45Speaker 2: if you want to develop something, you can. I think
- 6:47Speaker 2: I had a knack for it when I was a kid. However,
- 6:49Speaker 2: had I not followed it, it would have just gone
- 6:52Speaker 2: by the wayside. But I developed it.
- 6:54Speaker 1: I was interested.
- 6:54Speaker 2: I was passionate. I was thrilled about it. Every time
- 6:56Speaker 2: I would sit down and do it, I loved it.
- 6:59Speaker 2: This is back before you could freeze an image on TV.
- 7:01Speaker 2: I would sit in front of the TV with a
- 7:03Speaker 2: little sketch pad and practice Fred Flintstone as fast as
- 7:05Speaker 2: I could. Or I'd practice, you know, Popeye or whatever.
- 7:08Speaker 2: And then back in the late 70s, you could get
- 7:11Speaker 2: these little film reels, little clips of Disney movies on film.
- 7:15Speaker 2: They were like maybe five minutes long, a piece of
- 7:17Speaker 2: like Sword in the Stone or like 101 Dalmatians. I
- 7:19Speaker 2: would run it on a projector. I'd go in my bathroom,
- 7:21Speaker 2: the darkest room in my house, I'd shut the door
- 7:24Speaker 2: and project the movie on the wall. And I would
- 7:26Speaker 2: trace like Peter Pan on the wall just to learn
- 7:29Speaker 2: how to draw these characters. And so- It seemed impossible
- 7:33Speaker 2: back then. Every drawing didn't seem like it was going anywhere.
- 7:35Speaker 2: But as you realize, you develop over the years.
- 7:39Speaker 1: Well, for me, my mom was married and divorced seven times.
- 7:42Speaker 2: You say seven times?
- 7:44Speaker 1: Seven, yeah. Wow. And boyfriends in between.
- 7:46Speaker 2: Wow.
- 7:47Speaker 1: And she also was a raging alcoholic. And she would
- 7:51Speaker 1: drink and pass out every night. So I would literally
- 7:54Speaker 1: go to bars with her late at night, wait for
- 7:57Speaker 1: her to be done, And I would sit at a
- 7:59Speaker 1: table and I had a drawing tablet. And I started
- 8:01Speaker 1: creating little adventures in a world that I could retreat to.
- 8:06Speaker 1: And I remember one night my mother brought home an
- 8:08Speaker 1: animator from Disney, or so he said. Well, I didn't
- 8:12Speaker 1: believe him. He says, no, I'm an animator for Disney.
- 8:14Speaker 1: I said, prove it by drawing Mickey Mouse. Pulls out
- 8:17Speaker 1: a little pencil and draws a flawless Mickey Mouse. I
- 8:20Speaker 1: was just blown away. And then he says to me,
- 8:23Speaker 1: this is a magic pencil. If you take this pencil...
- 8:27Speaker 1: and put it under your pillow. When you wake up
- 8:29Speaker 1: in the morning, you'll be able to draw like me.
- 8:31Speaker 1: And I believed him. Sad thing is, I was 30. No,
- 8:33Speaker 1: I'm kidding. That's a joke. I was just a really
- 8:36Speaker 1: little kid. I literally believed him. Excitedly went to bed,
- 8:40Speaker 1: put the pencil under my pillow.
- 8:42Speaker 2: Woke up with a pencil in your ear, and your
- 8:43Speaker 2: ear's bleeding. This is terrible.
- 8:45Speaker 1: I wake up, I grab the pencil. I can hardly
- 8:47Speaker 1: wait to draw Mickey Mouse. Of course, I couldn't. It
- 8:49Speaker 1: wasn't until I got Older than I realized, he just
- 8:52Speaker 1: wanted me to go away so he could be with
- 8:54Speaker 1: my mom, right? Greg, this makes me.
- 8:56Speaker 2: Very sad now. I'm sorry that animator let you down.
- 8:58Speaker 2: I'm terribly sorry about that.
- 8:59Speaker 1: That's okay.
- 9:00Speaker 2: Tell me his name.
- 9:00Speaker 1: Tell him to find this guy. What was his name now?
- 9:03Speaker 1: But that was the world I retreated to. Tell me
- 9:06Speaker 1: about your childhood and your upbringing.
- 9:09Speaker 2: Oh, thank you.
- 9:10Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 9:11Speaker 2: Interesting. I come from a similar background. I don't know
- 9:14Speaker 2: if it was the same exactly on that level. But
- 9:17Speaker 2: my parents got divorced when I was nine. There was
- 9:18Speaker 2: a lot of chaos in my house growing up, a ton.
- 9:21Speaker 2: I have three younger brothers. None of them draw. I'm
- 9:23Speaker 2: the oldest of four. And I was the same thing.
- 9:27Speaker 2: I would retreat into my room. I would draw. I
- 9:29Speaker 2: loved comic books, Spider-Man, Batman. Superman was my big one
- 9:32Speaker 2: at the time. But I would draw. And Disney I loved.
- 9:37Speaker 2: Disney was kind of like royalty, though, because you couldn't
- 9:39Speaker 2: really watch Disney movies on TV. You only had to
- 9:41Speaker 2: wait until they came in the theater. But I'd watch
- 9:42Speaker 2: cartoons all the time because I could rely on those characters.
- 9:46Speaker 2: To give me a sense of peace and joy. That's
- 9:49Speaker 2: what I would retreat to. And then I'd watch TV.
- 9:52Speaker 2: I loved comedy. One of my favorite shows was Happy
- 9:54Speaker 2: Days because Fonzie was my hero. And I could always
- 9:56Speaker 2: count on Fonzie being there every Tuesday. And I would
- 10:00Speaker 2: get it's funny when I meet people now who've watched
- 10:02Speaker 2: my shows because my shows have been on for over
- 10:05Speaker 2: 30 years. people go, they're emotional. They go, I grew
- 10:08Speaker 2: up with your show. It meant so much to me.
- 10:10Speaker 2: When I was a kid, I had a hard life
- 10:12Speaker 2: and your show would make me laugh. And that really
- 10:15Speaker 2: gets you in the heart. And then I had the opportunity,
- 10:16Speaker 2: the wonderful opportunity of meeting Henry Winkler at the Fonz.
- 10:20Speaker 2: This is like just a couple of years ago. I'd
- 10:21Speaker 2: never met him before. And I started getting emotional meeting
- 10:24Speaker 2: Henry Winkler. Because when you're on this screen and people
- 10:27Speaker 2: can rely on that world and that character, it means
- 10:29Speaker 2: so much to them. That's why putting stuff on a
- 10:32Speaker 2: screen now, I look at it as such a responsibility
- 10:35Speaker 2: because you could put a bad thing on the screen
- 10:37Speaker 2: or a good thing on the screen. Look what screens
- 10:40Speaker 2: meant to you when you were younger. Look how you
- 10:41Speaker 2: could retreat. Same with me. And so when I grew
- 10:44Speaker 2: up in Michigan, there was a lot of substance abuse
- 10:47Speaker 2: in my house as well. So I left home at
- 10:49Speaker 2: 18 to come to California from Michigan. That's where I
- 10:51Speaker 2: grew up. Yeah, so I came out here to be
- 10:53Speaker 2: an artist.
- 10:53Speaker 1: Yeah, very similar to your story. You know, I'm a
- 10:56Speaker 1: little older than you, so I grew up with shows
- 10:58Speaker 1: like Father Knows Best, My Three Sons, Leave it to Beaver.
- 11:02Speaker 2: I watched the reruns of those shows.
- 11:03Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Dick Van Dyke show, which, you know,
- 11:06Speaker 1: some of these shows are just classic and they hold up. Yeah.
- 11:09Speaker 1: And I would, I remember that, you know, when Hugh Beaumont,
- 11:12Speaker 1: who played Beaver's dad, would call him into his den
- 11:14Speaker 1: to give him a lecture, I would like listen because
- 11:17Speaker 1: he was a father figure. I didn't have a father figure.
- 11:20Speaker 1: I actually was getting advice from, from some guy who
- 11:23Speaker 1: wrote a script for an actor to say to another actor.
- 11:26Speaker 1: Well said.
- 11:26Speaker 2: But like you, it was a point of connection. Mike
- 11:29Speaker 2: Brady was mine, the Brady Bunch. Because Brady Bunch was
- 11:32Speaker 2: on reruns like crazy when I was a kid. So
- 11:35Speaker 2: I wanted to dress like Greg Brady. I probably still do.
- 11:38Speaker 2: But Greg Brady and Mike Brady. And I used to
- 11:41Speaker 2: love Hugh Beaumont. He would have dinner in a suit.
- 11:44Speaker 2: He'd sit there in a suit and eat dinner with
- 11:45Speaker 2: his family.
- 11:46Speaker 1: And the mom would wear the string of pearls when
- 11:48Speaker 1: she's in the kitchen. Yeah.
- 11:49Speaker 2: You know, I'm like, I don't recall my mom wearing
- 11:52Speaker 2: a string of pearls when she ate it perfectly. And
- 11:54Speaker 2: they had a Thanksgiving dinner every time they had dinner.
- 11:57Speaker 2: Everything was perfect.
- 11:59Speaker 1: I recently came across a bunch of my old drawings.
- 12:02Speaker 1: I saved everything from my earliest days. This is one
- 12:05Speaker 1: of my characters. I call him Yellow Dog. Why would
- 12:08Speaker 1: you call him Yellow Dog? I don't get that. Well,
- 12:09Speaker 1: it's funny. When I was eight years old, I started
- 12:11Speaker 1: drawing him. His first name was Herman. And then I
- 12:15Speaker 1: may have given him another name along the way. Then
- 12:17Speaker 1: he became, I think, T-Bone. And then one day I thought,
- 12:22Speaker 1: I don't like any of these names. And I said, well,
- 12:24Speaker 1: what is he? He's a yellow dog. I'm going to
- 12:26Speaker 1: just call him Yellow Dog.
- 12:27Speaker 2: I love that. It's perfect. You should give him a
- 12:29Speaker 2: sidekick called T-Bone, like his guitar playing pal. So T-Bone
- 12:33Speaker 2: shows up and he's got a bone guitar that he plays, right?
- 12:36Speaker 2: So then now you have a dog band.
- 12:38Speaker 1: It's a good idea.
- 12:39Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
- 12:40Speaker 1: A professional animator is giving me advice on my cartoon
- 12:43Speaker 1: strip that I may want to use.
- 12:44Speaker 2: One dog on guitar, one dog on drums.
- 12:46Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 12:47Speaker 2: There you go.
- 12:48Speaker 1: By the way, it's so funny.
- 12:48Speaker 2: Call them the bow-wows.
- 12:50Speaker 1: Is this the pen you use?
- 12:52Speaker 2: Oh, wait, let me see that. That is... Oh, yeah,
- 12:55Speaker 2: that's it. Yeah, that's a Pentel brush pen.
- 12:57Speaker 1: Perfect.
- 12:57Speaker 2: I actually brought some for you.
- 12:58Speaker 1: Oh, I have some. So it's so funny. I saw
- 13:03Speaker 1: a video of you drawing, and I said, wait, that
- 13:05Speaker 1: looks like the pen I used. So I've always drawn
- 13:07Speaker 1: with pen-tilt felt pens. But it wasn't the brush pen.
- 13:12Speaker 1: And I ordered some, and they sent me these by accident,
- 13:15Speaker 1: and they're from Japan. They have Japanese writing on them.
- 13:18Speaker 1: Mysterious Japanese writing. So you know it's exotic. Yeah, well, yeah.
- 13:21Speaker 1: That's right. And I thought, so cool, because when you
- 13:23Speaker 1: put a little pressure, the stroke is broader. Exactly. Kind
- 13:26Speaker 1: of pulled back.
- 13:27Speaker 2: You got that from watching my video? You ordered that pen?
- 13:29Speaker 1: No, I got it on my own.
- 13:31Speaker 2: Oh, very nice.
- 13:31Speaker 1: And then I got it by accident, because they sent
- 13:34Speaker 1: me the wrong pen. I thought... I'm in love with
- 13:36Speaker 1: this pen.
- 13:36Speaker 2: I love it, too.
- 13:37Speaker 1: So I ordered boxes of them.
- 13:38Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great. You know, the guys that I grew
- 13:40Speaker 2: up loving from Mad Magazine.
- 13:41Speaker 1: I love Mad Magazine.
- 13:43Speaker 2: Mad Magazine was a huge influence on me as a kid.
- 13:45Speaker 2: I used to love Don Martin. Remember Don Martin?
- 13:47Speaker 1: Loved Don Martin.
- 13:47Speaker 2: Oh, was you the guy with the shoes that flapped over?
- 13:49Speaker 1: Or those little joints in the margins. Sergio Aragon. I
- 13:53Speaker 1: used to love those as well. So I interviewed Alice Cooper.
- 13:58Speaker 2: I just watched that. That was a fabulous interview. Where
- 14:00Speaker 2: did you interview him? Where was that at?
- 14:02Speaker 1: I interviewed him in Arizona. That's where he lives.
- 14:05Speaker 2: Was that theater you were in?
- 14:06Speaker 1: Yeah, we went to a theater. But he was in
- 14:09Speaker 1: my office here. He came to church on a Sunday morning.
- 14:12Speaker 1: It's so funny because when he shows up at church,
- 14:14Speaker 1: he doesn't look anything like Alice Cooper. He's not wearing
- 14:16Speaker 1: a top hat with a giant anaconda around his neck.
- 14:19Speaker 1: He just looks like a normal guy. But we're walking
- 14:22Speaker 1: around my office, and I have some pictures of the Beatles.
- 14:25Speaker 1: He said, I knew all the Beatles. I'm like, you
- 14:28Speaker 1: knew all the Beatles? Oh, yeah. And then I mentioned
- 14:30Speaker 1: Mad Magazine. And he said, I grew up reading it, too.
- 14:33Speaker 1: And I said, that explains a lot about you. Because
- 14:36Speaker 1: he's a little warped. He loves, you know, he's really
- 14:39Speaker 1: playing a character. You know, it's just a persona, not
- 14:43Speaker 1: unlike what an actor does. You know, Harrison Ford isn't
- 14:46Speaker 1: really Indiana Jones, etc.
- 14:48Speaker 2: Wait, he's not? I'm sorry, he's not an Indiana Jones?
- 14:51Speaker 1: Nor is Henry Winkler the fun.
- 14:53Speaker 2: Wait a second. Hold on. Why wasn't I told this, Greg?
- 14:56Speaker 2: You didn't throw that at me. You expect me to
- 14:58Speaker 2: handle that?
- 15:00Speaker 1: Sorry. That's okay.
- 15:02Speaker 2: Perfect. You're right here on the podcast.
- 15:03Speaker 1: Mad Magazine was warped. It was satirical. It was hilarious.
- 15:08Speaker 2: What I loved about it, though, it was drawn so amazing.
- 15:10Speaker 1: It was.
- 15:11Speaker 2: The guys like Mort Drucker.
- 15:14Speaker 1: He did the sort of realistic takes on modern TV
- 15:18Speaker 1: shows and movies.
- 15:18Speaker 2: He did the movies, but caricatures.
- 15:19Speaker 1: I loved his style.
- 15:20Speaker 2: Unbelievable caricatures of actors. And then you had Al Jaffe,
- 15:24Speaker 2: who was another guy in there. Don Martin, as I
- 15:26Speaker 2: mentioned earlier.
- 15:26Speaker 1: Who did The Spy vs. Spy?
- 15:28Speaker 2: That was, what was his name? Antonio Projas, I think
- 15:34Speaker 2: that was his name.
- 15:34Speaker 1: They're really odd.
- 15:35Speaker 2: You're never going to see that anywhere else.
- 15:37Speaker 1: Yeah, no dialogue really, but they were really kind of
- 15:40Speaker 1: cool in their own way.
- 15:41Speaker 2: Yeah, but Mad Magazine was great. I would read, I
- 15:42Speaker 2: would laugh all the time. And I love that. Again,
- 15:46Speaker 2: I love comic books. I used to love, again, this
- 15:49Speaker 2: of course is before the internet. We had to find
- 15:52Speaker 2: stuff to love. And that's why these cartoons meant so
- 15:54Speaker 2: much to me. And I started buying books on cartoons,
- 15:57Speaker 2: how to make them. But more, moreover than that, but
- 15:59Speaker 2: how to put personality into a drawing. It's how do
- 16:01Speaker 2: I take this drawing and make it into a real
- 16:03Speaker 2: life character that people want to enjoy? And what really,
- 16:06Speaker 2: what really stood out to me is the writing and
- 16:07Speaker 2: the storytelling. Drawing is one thing, but if you can
- 16:09Speaker 2: tell a story, that's, it's the story, not just the drawing.
- 16:13Speaker 1: Well, like, I'll get an idea. Like someone will, I'll
- 16:16Speaker 1: be sitting there and I'll have a blank piece of
- 16:18Speaker 1: paper and a pen. I'll start laughing. Well, I'm already envisioning. Exactly. Right.
- 16:23Speaker 1: But here's the hard thing. A lot of people say,
- 16:25Speaker 1: do a caricature of me. Some people are easy to caricature.
- 16:28Speaker 1: I tried a caricature of you earlier last night. I
- 16:33Speaker 1: saw a picture and I was trying, you know, of
- 16:34Speaker 1: course I'm going to start with your hair because your
- 16:36Speaker 1: hair is, you know, I'm going to exaggerate your hair.
- 16:39Speaker 1: But the problem with you, Butch, is, You're too symmetrical.
- 16:42Speaker 1: That's true. How do I say it? You're too handsome.
- 16:46Speaker 2: Well, gosh, that's awful.
- 16:47Speaker 1: I need a big nose. I need some mirrors.
- 16:49Speaker 2: Glasses help. Glasses. Or bald.
- 16:51Speaker 1: Anything that, you know, so I'll draw people and they'll
- 16:54Speaker 1: laugh at it. But I'll have girls say, do a
- 16:57Speaker 1: caricature of me. But I will not do a caricature
- 17:00Speaker 1: of a girl because you have to exaggerate. Hence the
- 17:03Speaker 1: term caricature. And they don't take it this way.
- 17:06Speaker 2: But you need to make the girl at least look attractive.
- 17:08Speaker 2: They really want to see that. I used to do
- 17:10Speaker 2: caricatures at Magic Mountain here up in California. When I
- 17:15Speaker 2: first got to California, when I was going to school,
- 17:17Speaker 2: CalArts is right down the road from Magic Mountain. So
- 17:20Speaker 2: I would ride my 10-speed bike to Magic Mountain and
- 17:22Speaker 2: I did caricatures for a living in the summer of 1984.
- 17:24Speaker 2: I'd say, hey, what's your name? Greg. Hey, Greg, face
- 17:27Speaker 2: that way for me. And I would draw your profile.
- 17:30Speaker 2: And I'd say, okay, Greg, what do you like to do?
- 17:31Speaker 1: I like to fish.
- 17:32Speaker 2: I'd draw you fishing with a little fishing pole. And
- 17:34Speaker 2: you'd catch like a little fake, like a lobster or something.
- 17:36Speaker 2: And then you'd pay me 350. Wow. And off you
- 17:39Speaker 2: would go.
- 17:39Speaker 1: Those would be collectible now.
- 17:42Speaker 2: Well, hey, you never know. You never know. But it
- 17:44Speaker 2: was really fun because that really taught me not just
- 17:47Speaker 2: how to draw better, but how to draw fast.
- 17:49Speaker 1: Yes.
- 17:50Speaker 2: And how to draw with ink. Because when you can
- 17:52Speaker 2: draw with ink confidently, you really, really become better as
- 17:55Speaker 2: an artist. Because that's why I started putting the pencil
- 17:57Speaker 2: down and drawing with ink a lot more because it
- 17:59Speaker 2: would make me more confident because you can't erase. Wow.
- 18:01Speaker 2: It's like you've got to be confident about that line.
- 18:03Speaker 2: So that's when I was really good.
- 18:04Speaker 1: I've noticed that you use a tablet-like device, iPad or something.
- 18:08Speaker 2: iPad, yeah.
- 18:09Speaker 1: Was it hard to move from pen and ink to
- 18:13Speaker 1: the digital format? And have you gotten to a place
- 18:15Speaker 1: where you feel like it has the same feel or
- 18:18Speaker 1: do you have to adapt to that?
- 18:20Speaker 2: It's a little tricky because when you're, you don't realize this,
- 18:22Speaker 2: but when you draw on paper your whole life, you
- 18:24Speaker 2: know when to stop, you know how the paper feels.
- 18:26Speaker 2: When you draw on glass on a tablet.
- 18:28Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 18:29Speaker 2: The stylus will stop about a billionth of a second
- 18:32Speaker 2: after you want it to stop because the glass is
- 18:34Speaker 2: very slick. So you have to adapt for that. But
- 18:37Speaker 2: I really love digital art. You know why? Because you
- 18:38Speaker 2: never run out of color. You never run out of ink.
- 18:40Speaker 2: I don't have to buy a set of markers every
- 18:42Speaker 2: three months, you know? So I really like that. But
- 18:45Speaker 2: then people, because I offer to do drawings for people
- 18:47Speaker 2: and most of them want them on paper because it's
- 18:49Speaker 2: more one of a kind. Oh, sure. They want them
- 18:51Speaker 2: on paper. But the digital format allows me more color choices,
- 18:54Speaker 2: allows me, I can size things, copy things, email things.
- 18:58Speaker 2: You go much faster. If I'm going to do a
- 19:00Speaker 2: painting like this for us to paint that, traditional paints,
- 19:03Speaker 2: it'd be like, for me, like a couple weeks. But
- 19:06Speaker 2: on digital, I could do it in a couple hours,
- 19:07Speaker 2: you know, because it's just a lot faster.
- 19:10Speaker 1: So you started out working on a lot of other
- 19:11Speaker 1: people's projects. You worked on An American Tale, which was
- 19:14Speaker 1: a great film. I did, yeah. What are some of
- 19:16Speaker 1: the other films you worked on before you developed your
- 19:19Speaker 1: own series?
- 19:19Speaker 2: Yeah, I worked on An American Tale. It was one
- 19:21Speaker 2: of my first jobs in 1986 as an animator. Then
- 19:24Speaker 2: I worked on My Little Pony, the first TV series
- 19:26Speaker 2: from Marvel Productions. Yeah. Then I worked at Hanna-Barbera. I
- 19:30Speaker 2: worked on Tom and Jerry Kids. That was a TV series.
- 19:33Speaker 2: I worked on Droopy, Master Detective. I worked on Dexter's Laboratory,
- 19:36Speaker 2: Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls. I worked on– what was the
- 19:41Speaker 2: other one? Oh, it was Cow and Chicken. And then
- 19:44Speaker 2: I started selling my own shows to Nickelodeon and then
- 19:48Speaker 2: started developing my own stuff.
- 19:49Speaker 1: So at what point did you say, okay, I'm going
- 19:51Speaker 1: to do my own thing and I have some ideas?
- 19:53Speaker 1: So it said when you were over there at the
- 19:55Speaker 1: Cartoon Network and Ted Turner said, give me your ideas.
- 19:58Speaker 1: Is that when it began for you?
- 19:59Speaker 2: Pretty much. Because a buddy of mine, I was never
- 20:01Speaker 2: going to do this. I always tell people seize an
- 20:03Speaker 2: opportunity when it comes along. I've learned this. A friend
- 20:06Speaker 2: of mine said, hey, they just told us we could
- 20:07Speaker 2: pitch our own ideas. I've got an idea. Do you
- 20:10Speaker 2: want to help me? And I said, nope. I said,
- 20:12Speaker 2: I don't want to. I'm happy with my job. Thanks
- 20:14Speaker 2: very much. Had I kept that mindset, I never would
- 20:17Speaker 2: have gone anywhere. It's almost like Jesus saying to Peter,
- 20:20Speaker 2: cast your net over the side and you're going to
- 20:22Speaker 2: get a bunch of fish. And you're like, well, I'm
- 20:25Speaker 2: holding this net. And my friend says, do you want
- 20:27Speaker 2: to help me? And I finally said, sure, I'll help you.
- 20:29Speaker 2: And it was through that experience. And we actually sold
- 20:31Speaker 2: that show. It wasn't a great show, but we sold
- 20:34Speaker 2: it because it was the first one that we pitched.
- 20:36Speaker 2: And they said, yeah, we're just going to buy that.
- 20:37Speaker 2: So that taught me I could sell stuff. And I
- 20:40Speaker 2: could actually make stuff people would want. And I could
- 20:42Speaker 2: develop it on my own. So I kind of got
- 20:44Speaker 2: the bug of doing my own thing. Creating my own characters.
- 20:47Speaker 2: Writing my own stories. Writing my own jokes. And then
- 20:50Speaker 2: being able to be a leader at that point. And
- 20:52Speaker 2: that's when you really start becoming a producer and a
- 20:54Speaker 2: showrunner and a leader in your chosen field. Seizing the opportunity.
- 20:59Speaker 1: I wanted to be an animator. I never became one.
- 21:02Speaker 1: I got to work in it a little bit. But
- 21:04Speaker 1: I wanted a cartoon strip. And I used to correspond
- 21:07Speaker 1: with Charles Schultz. That's amazing. I would write him letters
- 21:10Speaker 1: and he would write me back.
- 21:12Speaker 2: He was amazing.
- 21:13Speaker 1: He was so kind. And when I got a letter
- 21:16Speaker 1: from Charles M. Schultz at that point in my life
- 21:18Speaker 1: as a young man.
- 21:19Speaker 2: That must have freaked you out.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Well, it was like a letter from heaven almost. It
- 21:22Speaker 1: was just like, Charles M. Schultz, I couldn't wait to
- 21:24Speaker 1: open it up.
- 21:24Speaker 2: He didn't give you a magic pencil to put under
- 21:25Speaker 2: your pillow.
- 21:26Speaker 1: No, he didn't.
- 21:26Speaker 2: That wasn't the same guy, was it?
- 21:27Speaker 1: But I was so bold. I said to him, would
- 21:30Speaker 1: you send me one of your actual comic strips like
- 21:33Speaker 1: the ones I see in the paper? And he sent
- 21:35Speaker 1: it to me. Isn't that amazing? And the frames were
- 21:38Speaker 1: like this large, as you know. They're not small like
- 21:40Speaker 1: you see in the paper. And I lost it, of course.
- 21:43Speaker 1: And it would be worth thousands and thousands of dollars.
- 21:46Speaker 1: He sent me signed things. He was so kind. But
- 21:49Speaker 1: I basically had two aspirations in life. I want to
- 21:52Speaker 1: be a professional cartoonist, backup plan creator. I'll open a
- 21:55Speaker 1: pet shop because I loved animals.
- 21:59Speaker 2: There's a cartoon right there. That's where the dog band
- 22:02Speaker 2: comes from. Pet shop. Right.
- 22:04Speaker 1: Well, you know, for me, I still see things like
- 22:06Speaker 1: I'll see something I find amusing. I'll look at a scene.
- 22:09Speaker 1: It's something in life, something, an article I read and
- 22:12Speaker 1: I'll read it. And then I'll have my punchline. I
- 22:15Speaker 1: can't stop myself from thinking that way.
- 22:18Speaker 2: That's amazing.
- 22:18Speaker 1: You know, I see like frames. Frame, punchline.
- 22:22Speaker 2: I love that.
- 22:22Speaker 1: You know, and once it's in your head, it kind of,
- 22:26Speaker 1: I always see, but I've been able to bring that
- 22:28Speaker 1: over into preaching as well.
- 22:30Speaker 2: Well, you're a storyteller. That's the greatest thing. Yeah.
- 22:32Speaker 1: Really, at the bottom of all of it, or at
- 22:34Speaker 1: the base of all of it, it really, that's it.
- 22:37Speaker 1: And coming to storytelling, who was a better storyteller than
- 22:40Speaker 1: Jesus himself? And the Bible is filled with the greatest
- 22:44Speaker 1: stories of all time. And so you came to faith
- 22:48Speaker 1: in Christ. Tell me where and when that happened.
- 22:50Speaker 2: Yeah, it happened when I was 35 years old. I
- 22:54Speaker 2: was going to Crenshaw Christian.
- 22:55Speaker 1: A little bit later in life.
- 22:56Speaker 2: A little bit later in life, yeah. And I'd grown
- 22:58Speaker 2: up with no God in my life at all, and
- 22:59Speaker 2: neither did my wife. I've been married 34 years to
- 23:02Speaker 2: my beautiful wife, Julianne. And she and I had been
- 23:05Speaker 2: married for eight years. We had our first two daughters,
- 23:09Speaker 2: our only two daughters. We were very little. And she
- 23:12Speaker 2: had a very chaotic upbringing as well. And we were thinking,
- 23:15Speaker 2: we want our kids to have a better life than
- 23:16Speaker 2: we had when we grew up. And we had a
- 23:18Speaker 2: real dear friend of ours who had really great kids.
- 23:20Speaker 2: We said, how do you raise your kids so well?
- 23:22Speaker 2: He said, we go to church. And we went, go
- 23:25Speaker 2: to church? I don't want to go to church. But
- 23:28Speaker 2: then the Holy Spirit got in and then started basically
- 23:31Speaker 2: leading us to different churches. We were going to church
- 23:33Speaker 2: on the way. All these different churches around LA. We
- 23:35Speaker 2: ended up at Crenshaw Christian Center, taught by Frederick K.C.
- 23:38Speaker 1: Price.
- 23:39Speaker 2: I got saved at that church, went there for 10 years.
- 23:42Speaker 2: And the day I realized I had to start going
- 23:45Speaker 2: to church, we walked in the first day. Fred Price
- 23:47Speaker 2: is teaching on tithing and giving. And that was something
- 23:50Speaker 2: that I had a real stronghold over. I don't want
- 23:52Speaker 2: to give people my money, my church. But for some reason,
- 23:55Speaker 2: this Holy Spirit softened my heart that day and said,
- 23:57Speaker 2: you got to come back to this church. So I
- 23:58Speaker 2: learned how not only to be a Christian, but I
- 24:01Speaker 2: learned how to be a giver and a tither and
- 24:03Speaker 2: someone who would bless people other than want to take
- 24:05Speaker 2: from them. And that really taught me, I got to
- 24:08Speaker 2: teach giving. Not just giving money, but giving of yourself.
- 24:11Speaker 2: Jesus says, if you want to follow me, deny yourself.
- 24:14Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 24:15Speaker 2: And pick up your cross and follow me. So I
- 24:16Speaker 2: had to learn how to deny myself. And I became
- 24:19Speaker 2: a servant at that point. I became a servant. And
- 24:21Speaker 2: so then we taught our kids about, we've raised our
- 24:23Speaker 2: children in that. My wife and I became full-on pastors.
- 24:26Speaker 2: We're pastors now.
- 24:27Speaker 1: I did not know that.
- 24:28Speaker 2: We have our own church in Woodland Hills called New
- 24:30Speaker 2: Branch Family Fellowship. Jesus says in John 15, five, I'm
- 24:33Speaker 2: the vine, you're the branches. If you abide in me,
- 24:36Speaker 2: you're going to bear much fruit. But without me, you
- 24:38Speaker 2: can do nothing. So I thought, man, we have to
- 24:41Speaker 2: teach this. Because when COVID happened, We'd already been having
- 24:45Speaker 2: our own Bible study. And then all the churches in
- 24:47Speaker 2: LA were shutting down. So the Lord told us really
- 24:50Speaker 2: in our hearts to go out to a park near
- 24:52Speaker 2: our home and just set up lawn chairs under a tree.
- 24:55Speaker 2: So we started preaching under a tree and we've been
- 24:57Speaker 2: doing that for six years now.
- 24:58Speaker 1: That's neat.
- 24:59Speaker 2: So when you come to New Branch, we were called
- 25:00Speaker 2: Church in the Park for a long time. Now we're
- 25:02Speaker 2: called New Branch. The Lord gave me that name. And
- 25:05Speaker 2: so we're still in the park every Sunday in Woodland Hills.
- 25:07Speaker 1: That's cool. I didn't know that. Have you ever tried
- 25:10Speaker 1: using your art as you preach? Like, Oh, all the time.
- 25:14Speaker 2: The other night, we have a whiteboard in my office.
- 25:16Speaker 1: Yes.
- 25:17Speaker 2: And every time, we just told the story of Esther
- 25:19Speaker 2: the other night. And I was drawing Haman, and I
- 25:21Speaker 2: drew Esther.
- 25:21Speaker 1: How cool.
- 25:22Speaker 2: And I drew the king.
- 25:22Speaker 1: I bet they love that. I bet the adults love
- 25:24Speaker 1: it as much as the kids.
- 25:25Speaker 2: People are taking photos because they take it home and
- 25:27Speaker 2: they look at the drawing because I'm bringing it to life.
- 25:30Speaker 2: And the Lord told me to do that, too. So
- 25:31Speaker 2: I start drawing the stuff. And so I was like, okay,
- 25:33Speaker 2: here's Esther. And here's Haman. And here's Mordecai. And here's
- 25:37Speaker 2: the gallows that Haman built for Mordecai. But I said
- 25:40Speaker 2: the gallows basically symbolize offense because Haman had offense in
- 25:44Speaker 2: his heart against Mordecai. So don't get hung up on
- 25:47Speaker 2: the gallows of your own offense and all that type
- 25:48Speaker 2: of stuff. But it was really a blessing that the
- 25:50Speaker 2: Lord told me to do that.
- 25:51Speaker 1: There's something with art and illustration that just kind of
- 25:55Speaker 1: gets in your brain in a different way.
- 25:57Speaker 2: It absolutely does.
- 25:58Speaker 1: It does.
- 25:59Speaker 2: Because a picture's worth a thousand words. And they say
- 26:02Speaker 2: that all the time.
- 26:03Speaker 1: So now you are working on a Christian series. You've
- 26:07Speaker 1: had great mainstream success with all of your shows that
- 26:12Speaker 1: have all done really amazingly well, going on for seasons
- 26:15Speaker 1: and seasons, which is not an easy thing to do.
- 26:18Speaker 2: No.
- 26:18Speaker 1: But now you're doing something that we would, what would
- 26:21Speaker 1: we call what you're doing now? Like inspirational? Would you
- 26:24Speaker 1: call it overtly Christian? What is it you're doing with
- 26:28Speaker 1: The Garden now? And who is it for? And where
- 26:31Speaker 1: can we see it?
- 26:31Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. We started our own studio in 2018
- 26:34Speaker 2: when I left Nickelodeon.
- 26:35Speaker 1: Okay.
- 26:36Speaker 2: And it's called Butch Hartman Studios. They needed a guy
- 26:39Speaker 2: named Butch Hartman. I auditioned and I got the job. No,
- 26:43Speaker 2: but our first cartoon, I've been developing this Christian cartoon
- 26:47Speaker 2: since like 2005. I didn't leave Nickelodeon until 2018. But
- 26:50Speaker 2: I knew nobody would make a Christian cartoon. I'd have
- 26:52Speaker 2: to make it myself. So my wife and I self-funded
- 26:54Speaker 2: a couple episodes on our own. And it's called The
- 26:57Speaker 2: Garden Cartoons. And then we actually got some investment for it.
- 27:01Speaker 2: And now we have 20 half hours. It's on Angel Studios.
- 27:05Speaker 2: You can see it on Right Now Media. You can
- 27:07Speaker 2: see it. It's going to be on the YouVersion app
- 27:09Speaker 2: very soon. We're excited about that.
- 27:11Speaker 1: Well, I would love to put it in our platform.
- 27:13Speaker 1: We can talk about that later.
- 27:14Speaker 2: I would love that. Yeah. But the Garden Cartoon, we
- 27:16Speaker 2: have a Garden app that's absolutely free on the iPhone
- 27:19Speaker 2: and Android. But Garden stars Lenny the Lion and Lucy
- 27:22Speaker 2: the Lamb. They both represent each side of the Lord,
- 27:24Speaker 2: Lion and Lamb. And Lenny's a guy. Lucy's a girl.
- 27:29Speaker 2: And they live in a garden where anything can grow.
- 27:31Speaker 2: And the boss, God, comes down as a rainbow, talks
- 27:34Speaker 2: to them every day, and gives them a task. And
- 27:36Speaker 2: sometimes they get it right, sometimes they don't. But it's
- 27:39Speaker 2: through a scripture or an original song. Every episode has
- 27:41Speaker 2: a song.
- 27:42Speaker 1: Do you write the songs?
- 27:43Speaker 2: I wrote all the songs.
- 27:44Speaker 1: So you're a musician as well?
- 27:45Speaker 2: Yeah. Do you play guitar, piano, both? I play guitar
- 27:49Speaker 2: a little bit, but I'm more of a lyricist. I
- 27:50Speaker 2: write the lyrics. I have some great composers who I've
- 27:52Speaker 2: worked with. Because what I'll do is I'll write the lyrics,
- 27:55Speaker 2: and I'll go on my iPhone, and I'll do a
- 27:57Speaker 2: voice memo. It goes like, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. And then they'll turn
- 28:01Speaker 2: it into actual music. And then we work through it together.
- 28:05Speaker 2: But I grew up watching Schoolhouse Rock. Oh, yeah. I'm
- 28:08Speaker 2: just a Bill, Conjunction Junction, all those things. That really
- 28:11Speaker 2: taught me a lot. Yeah. I thought, if I could
- 28:13Speaker 2: have a song like that in every episode of Scripture,
- 28:16Speaker 2: kids can learn the Scripture. We have one song, this
- 28:19Speaker 2: pirate character pulls up. He's a crocodile named Captain Snappy.
- 28:22Speaker 2: And he wants to find treasure. And so Lenny and
- 28:24Speaker 2: Lucy help him find the treasure. But he wants all
- 28:26Speaker 2: the treasure at the end when they finally find it.
- 28:28Speaker 2: And they're like, you need to share this treasure with everybody.
- 28:30Speaker 2: He's like, I want all the treasure. So they talk
- 28:31Speaker 2: about Luke 638. If you want to be my first mate,
- 28:34Speaker 2: go read Luke 638.
- 28:36Speaker 1: It's all about giving.
- 28:37Speaker 2: And that's pretty great. So we talk about how giving
- 28:40Speaker 2: is a great thing. And so the pirate at the
- 28:42Speaker 2: end learns how to give. And so that's the story
- 28:45Speaker 2: of that one.
- 28:45Speaker 1: How different from our culture today. That's the exact opposite
- 28:48Speaker 1: of the message. Everyone's, you know, talking about love yourself,
- 28:52Speaker 1: find yourself. And yet Jesus says, if you want to
- 28:56Speaker 1: find yourself, in effect, lose yourself, and you discover that
- 29:00Speaker 1: God's plan for you is better than your plan for yourself.
- 29:03Speaker 1: But it's interesting because studies have been done and they
- 29:06Speaker 1: have found that there's something they actually call a helper's high.
- 29:10Speaker 1: There's a release of endorphins when you do things for
- 29:13Speaker 1: other people.
- 29:13Speaker 2: How about that?
- 29:14Speaker 1: Well, it looks like the Bible had it right in
- 29:16Speaker 1: the first place, right? Because He told us Jesus said
- 29:19Speaker 1: it's more blessed or happy-making, you could say, to give
- 29:23Speaker 1: than it is to receive. But that's so counterintuitive to
- 29:26Speaker 1: the cultural cues we're getting today. So I love that
- 29:29Speaker 1: in the world of animation and cartoons. Do you think
- 29:32Speaker 1: that Nickelodeon would ever run a show like The Gardener
- 29:36Speaker 1: or something like that? No. Because there's an audience for it, though.
- 29:40Speaker 2: Isn't there?
- 29:40Speaker 1: There is.
- 29:41Speaker 2: But you know a lot of uh bigger studios they
- 29:44Speaker 2: uh want to kind of be down the middle uh
- 29:46Speaker 2: or they say they do anyway but they they don't
- 29:48Speaker 2: want to do anything they'll call religious now if you're
- 29:51Speaker 2: a real christian you'll know that you know christianity is
- 29:53Speaker 2: not about religion it's about the relationship with the lord
- 29:55Speaker 2: yes but no one wants to take time to learn
- 29:57Speaker 2: that or understand that and so Well, you know, our job,
- 30:01Speaker 2: and I knew when I was making The Garden, I'd
- 30:02Speaker 2: have to do it by myself. I can't have a
- 30:04Speaker 2: studio behind me. I had to start my own studio.
- 30:06Speaker 2: So now we're making, we have 20 more pilots we're
- 30:08Speaker 2: making at my studio right now. Some are straight up Christian.
- 30:11Speaker 2: Some are just family. But the main thing is, whatever
- 30:14Speaker 2: goes on that screen, whatever I'm responsible for, parents don't
- 30:17Speaker 2: have to freak out about it. Parents can enjoy it.
- 30:19Speaker 1: They can trust it if Butch Hartman's name is on it.
- 30:22Speaker 2: Absolutely.
- 30:23Speaker 1: I'm not perfect. That was true of Disney. Oh, Disney,
- 30:27Speaker 1: it's good. But it's different now.
- 30:29Speaker 2: Very different. I mean, there are challenges everywhere. And, you know,
- 30:32Speaker 2: I can't really comics. I don't run Disney Studios. But
- 30:35Speaker 2: all I know is this. I want to put stuff
- 30:37Speaker 2: out there that I can be proud of, that I
- 30:39Speaker 2: can go like, look, at least when I leave this earth,
- 30:41Speaker 2: I left people with something. Hopefully they'll grow from right
- 30:45Speaker 2: and learn how to be a servant, learn how to
- 30:46Speaker 2: be someone who can help learn how that it's not
- 30:49Speaker 2: all about you. I was watching your Alice Cooper interview.
- 30:51Speaker 2: He said something really great. And it's true. People in
- 30:54Speaker 2: Hollywood in the industry, they want to be their own God.
- 30:57Speaker 2: Everybody does. And then that's why Christianity is so huge
- 30:59Speaker 2: because you have to lay yourself down and lift him up.
- 31:03Speaker 2: And then you might have to listen to Jesus and
- 31:06Speaker 2: people don't want to do that. And it's unfair in
- 31:08Speaker 2: a way the way the world raises us because we're
- 31:10Speaker 2: raised to be protective. We're raised to protect ourselves and
- 31:14Speaker 2: trust only ourselves. And it's sort of a stacked deck
- 31:17Speaker 2: in a way. And then you have to lay that
- 31:19Speaker 2: down is a very big deal. I always tell people
- 31:21Speaker 2: that our church, you can't become a Christian accidentally. It's
- 31:24Speaker 2: a choice. You're not adopted accidentally.
- 31:26Speaker 1: It's true.
- 31:26Speaker 2: There's a process.
- 31:27Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned that an organization like Nickelodeon or others, oh,
- 31:31Speaker 1: we don't want religion in our cartoons or in our programming.
- 31:35Speaker 1: Give me a break. There's religion in everything. It's just
- 31:37Speaker 1: a different religion. Absolutely.
- 31:39Speaker 2: Whatever you worship, exactly.
- 31:40Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a man-centered religion or it's woke ideology or
- 31:43Speaker 1: they're presenting trans characters or gay characters. Well, that's a
- 31:48Speaker 1: belief system, okay, that is coming through now. And yet,
- 31:52Speaker 1: But we don't want your belief system when, you know,
- 31:55Speaker 1: millions and millions of people around the world, and Americans,
- 31:58Speaker 1: of course, identify as Christians. You think just on a
- 32:01Speaker 1: financial basis alone. They'd say, this is an audience. Let's
- 32:05Speaker 1: market to them. I do see some breakthroughs, though, with
- 32:08Speaker 1: organizations like Amazon. My friend John Irwin, who directed Jesus Revolution,
- 32:14Speaker 1: has a series that Amazon has funded called House of David.
- 32:18Speaker 1: And it's really telling the Bible stories about And so
- 32:21Speaker 1: I do see that there's some doors are opening up.
- 32:24Speaker 1: And that's so important because, you know, one idea I
- 32:28Speaker 1: came up with a while ago was I want to
- 32:30Speaker 1: reach unexpected people in unexpected places with an unexpected message.
- 32:36Speaker 1: By that, I mean, I'd like to sneak up on people,
- 32:38Speaker 1: not in a misleading way, but just kind of enter
- 32:41Speaker 1: their world. Not everyone's going to darken the doorway. of
- 32:44Speaker 1: our church. But if I could reach them, oh, maybe
- 32:47Speaker 1: in a movie theater through Jesus Revolution, or maybe on
- 32:50Speaker 1: radio or TV or some other way, I want to
- 32:53Speaker 1: do that because, you know, Jesus told us to go
- 32:56Speaker 1: into all the world and preach the gospel. He didn't
- 32:59Speaker 1: say the whole world should go to church, but he
- 33:01Speaker 1: did say the church should go to the whole world.
- 33:04Speaker 2: He didn't say build a building and sit there and
- 33:05Speaker 2: let them come to you.
- 33:06Speaker 1: He didn't say that, did he? No, he didn't.
- 33:08Speaker 2: And what I think is awesome, too, it's it's us
- 33:12Speaker 2: becoming vessels for him. You know, whether it's, because like
- 33:15Speaker 2: you said, there's a million kids that won't go into
- 33:18Speaker 2: a church ever in their life, but they will watch
- 33:19Speaker 2: an iPhone and they'll watch a screen. So what can
- 33:22Speaker 2: I put on that screen to at least tell them
- 33:24Speaker 2: that there's hope for them out there? And by the way,
- 33:27Speaker 2: when I do the garden thing, The garden has scripture
- 33:29Speaker 2: in it, but it's funny too. I mean, the thing is,
- 33:32Speaker 2: we start with funny and entertaining.
- 33:34Speaker 1: I like that.
- 33:35Speaker 2: And by the way, there's a message in there too.
- 33:37Speaker 2: Because kids aren't going to watch it if it's preachy.
- 33:38Speaker 2: They're not going to. But I get parents going, I
- 33:41Speaker 2: like it more than my kids do. So I love
- 33:43Speaker 2: that because you're reaching the parents too. And if the
- 33:45Speaker 2: parents like it, they're the ones, if you really think
- 33:47Speaker 2: about it, the parents are the audience because they're going
- 33:49Speaker 2: to allow their child to watch it anyway, right? So
- 33:51Speaker 2: we want to speak to the parents and the kids.
- 33:54Speaker 2: And I try and look at our stuff as the
- 33:57Speaker 2: whole entertainment... world is a giant refrigerator. It's full of
- 34:01Speaker 2: junk food, but we're the apple. We're the grapes. We're
- 34:04Speaker 2: the healthy option. We're still in the fridge, but we're
- 34:07Speaker 2: the healthy option.
- 34:08Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. So there's a lot going on in
- 34:11Speaker 1: the world of technology right now, and artificial intelligence is
- 34:16Speaker 1: affecting everything. My friend John Irwin, who is working on
- 34:22Speaker 1: the House of David, used AI quite effectively. And the
- 34:26Speaker 1: problem with AI is A lot of times you can
- 34:28Speaker 1: tell that's very AI, but if it's done right in
- 34:32Speaker 1: the right moments, it can be a tool. Are you
- 34:36Speaker 1: using AI in any of your animation at this point?
- 34:39Speaker 1: And what do you think about it? And what are
- 34:41Speaker 1: maybe some of the problems or challenges with it or
- 34:44Speaker 1: some of the advantages it could bring to, because you
- 34:47Speaker 1: mentioned how you can do things more quickly when you
- 34:49Speaker 1: switch from paper to a digital tablet, there are certain
- 34:52Speaker 1: things you can do more quickly, hopefully not sacrificing quality,
- 34:57Speaker 1: Perhaps with AI that you couldn't have done before. What
- 35:00Speaker 1: are your thoughts about that?
- 35:01Speaker 2: Yeah, good question. We don't use any AI right now.
- 35:04Speaker 2: Right now, we just, I'm very traditional in many ways.
- 35:08Speaker 2: People think that with AI, you're going to suddenly unemploy
- 35:11Speaker 2: everybody and machines lose to everything, which is untrue. We
- 35:15Speaker 2: don't use it right now, but it's going to get
- 35:17Speaker 2: to a point where I think it's going to be
- 35:19Speaker 2: in everything that we do. I don't know how any
- 35:21Speaker 2: of us can kind of avoid it as it's going along. Now,
- 35:24Speaker 2: when I say that, I do say that I can
- 35:27Speaker 2: imagine in the future a studio where certain parts are
- 35:31Speaker 2: done with AI because it does save time. It does
- 35:34Speaker 2: save money too, but I'm not saying I'm going to
- 35:35Speaker 2: do it right away or even if I ever will.
- 35:37Speaker 2: But if people want to do it, that's up to them.
- 35:40Speaker 2: I look at it this way. I'm old enough to
- 35:41Speaker 2: have been back in the 90s before the internet existed.
- 35:45Speaker 2: I thought I'll never– I remember saying this. I'm always
- 35:48Speaker 2: going to read a newspaper. I'll never look at that
- 35:50Speaker 2: computer ever. I'm going to always keep my newspaper. And
- 35:52Speaker 2: slowly but surely, I'd go into work and there would
- 35:54Speaker 2: be the computer with the news on it. And I
- 35:57Speaker 2: don't have a newspaper anymore. So it's going to start
- 35:59Speaker 2: suddenly seeping into our lives. But it's how we control
- 36:02Speaker 2: it and how we utilize it for the best. I
- 36:05Speaker 2: want to employ as many people as possible. That's what
- 36:07Speaker 2: I want to do. And make sure artists have jobs,
- 36:09Speaker 2: voice actors have jobs, all that stuff. Now, if there's
- 36:12Speaker 2: a way to save money, every producer wants to do that.
- 36:15Speaker 2: I just had a project I was going to do.
- 36:18Speaker 2: And I asked an animation studio, another animation studio, I
- 36:21Speaker 2: want this many episodes. How much will it cost? And
- 36:24Speaker 2: they quoted me $ 300, 000. I actually talked to this AI studio.
- 36:28Speaker 2: How much would you guys charge me for the same work?
- 36:30Speaker 2: We'll charge you $ 30, 000. Whoa. So you have to go, well.
- 36:36Speaker 2: So when it comes to cost saving, that's kind of
- 36:39Speaker 2: obvious sometimes. However, I'm still very traditional. And so I
- 36:43Speaker 2: like doing things the traditional way. And we'll see what
- 36:45Speaker 2: the future has to hold for us.
- 36:48Speaker 1: Voice acting is very important.
- 36:49Speaker 2: Oh, big time. It's got the human heart in it.
- 36:52Speaker 1: Yeah. And you've done some of that yourself, haven't you?
- 36:55Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit.
- 36:55Speaker 1: Like do you do it for your own cartoons? Yep.
- 36:58Speaker 1: Like who, what characters do you voice?
- 37:00Speaker 2: Well, I would do side, I would do side characters.
- 37:02Speaker 2: I did a character who was kind of just like
- 37:04Speaker 2: my voice. We did a character on Fairly Oddparents called Dr.
- 37:06Speaker 2: Rip Studwell. He was a fairy doctor. He was a
- 37:08Speaker 2: handsome fairy doctor. Even though he was a doctor, he
- 37:11Speaker 2: was actually a soap opera doctor that wasn't really a doctor.
- 37:13Speaker 2: It's like, I'm not really a doctor, but I play
- 37:15Speaker 2: one on TV, you know, that kind of thing. It's like, oh,
- 37:17Speaker 2: this is terrible.
- 37:19Speaker 1: What's the matter, doctor?
- 37:20Speaker 2: My headshots came out horribly. You know, that type of thing.
- 37:23Speaker 2: But I can do, I do things like, I could
- 37:24Speaker 2: do like a Homer Simpson voice and things like that. Marge,
- 37:27Speaker 2: I can't, but I have three kids and no money.
- 37:30Speaker 2: Why can't I have no kids and three money? You know,
- 37:32Speaker 2: things like that. So I can hop in and do
- 37:34Speaker 2: a voice on occasion. And I would always imitate my,
- 37:36Speaker 2: I'd have the voice actors in the room, these amazing
- 37:38Speaker 2: actors that I have. And we would just banter back
- 37:41Speaker 2: and forth with voices. I would do voices. They would
- 37:43Speaker 2: do voices. So it was a lot of fun.
- 37:44Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 37:45Speaker 2: But these actors I would hire, are just dynamite. They
- 37:47Speaker 2: can do 30 voices each. They can sing in character.
- 37:50Speaker 2: And they're writers. They have writers' minds, too. My one
- 37:53Speaker 2: rule on my show was, look, we've worked four weeks
- 37:55Speaker 2: on this script. Don't change the script. Unless you can
- 37:59Speaker 2: make it better. If you can add to it and
- 38:00Speaker 2: make it better, go right ahead. But don't just start
- 38:03Speaker 2: changing stuff because you have a different idea. Because we
- 38:05Speaker 2: know what we want. But our actors on our shows
- 38:08Speaker 2: were just fantastic.
- 38:10Speaker 1: Like, if you had to list maybe your five favorite movies,
- 38:13Speaker 1: and I define a favorite movie as If I'm watching
- 38:16Speaker 1: television and my favorite movie comes on, even though I
- 38:18Speaker 1: may actually own that movie, I'll stay and watch it
- 38:21Speaker 1: until the commercial comes. Yeah. Because I just love all
- 38:24Speaker 1: those scenes from the movie. Oh, sure. Do you have
- 38:26Speaker 1: like five movies? These are like movies I'd love to
- 38:29Speaker 1: go back to.
- 38:29Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah. I'd probably say the first Star Wars
- 38:33Speaker 2: movie from 1977, that one. Superman, Christopher Reeve. Oh, wow.
- 38:37Speaker 1: Love that.
- 38:37Speaker 2: And I love Back to the Future. Wow. Love that.
- 38:40Speaker 2: I really love The Matrix.
- 38:42Speaker 1: Yeah. Yes.
- 38:43Speaker 2: Remember the movie The Matrix, which was very eye-opening. What
- 38:45Speaker 2: would be my fifth one? I think Raiders of the
- 38:48Speaker 2: Lost Ark. I really am a big fan. I mean,
- 38:50Speaker 2: I'll stop whatever I'm doing to watch those movies. And
- 38:52Speaker 2: by the way, the list I just gave you, I'd
- 38:54Speaker 2: have to go over that list again because I'm sure
- 38:56Speaker 2: there's five other ones I would definitely love.
- 38:57Speaker 1: Well, what do you think is the greatest animated film
- 39:00Speaker 1: ever made? Wow.
- 39:01Speaker 2: That's a good question.
- 39:02Speaker 1: I have my opinion, but I'll hear yours.
- 39:04Speaker 2: The greatest animated film ever made. Um, I'm going to
- 39:06Speaker 2: go back probably traditionally one of the early Disney films. Um,
- 39:10Speaker 2: because again, keep in mind, he was doing this for
- 39:11Speaker 2: anybody else was doing this.
- 39:13Speaker 1: Gosh.
- 39:14Speaker 2: And people are going to disagree with me out there. Oh,
- 39:16Speaker 2: just on a personal level, the greatest one. I would
- 39:19Speaker 2: probably see a lady in the tramp is up there. Wow.
- 39:21Speaker 2: Lay in the tramp. I had the, I had the rare, uh,
- 39:24Speaker 2: opportunity when I was an intern, uh, at school, I
- 39:27Speaker 2: got to go to work at Disney for a month. And, uh,
- 39:30Speaker 2: I got to go in this place called the morgue,
- 39:32Speaker 2: which is there where they keep all the old animation. Unbelievable.
- 39:35Speaker 2: And you can't take anything out of there. And this
- 39:37Speaker 2: is before phones. You'd never know pictures. You just go
- 39:39Speaker 2: in and look at all the animation art. So I
- 39:41Speaker 2: go over to the lady in the tramp drawer and
- 39:42Speaker 2: I'm pulling all these drawers open and I'm looking at
- 39:44Speaker 2: animation drawings that are this long. Remember the scene of
- 39:47Speaker 2: lady in the tramp where he's underneath at the very
- 39:49Speaker 2: end when tramp is caught, he's in the dog catcher
- 39:51Speaker 2: cart and they're taking him away and the other dogs
- 39:54Speaker 2: are running after him. And it's raining and there's horses
- 39:57Speaker 2: and there's the cart. And I'm looking at all these
- 40:00Speaker 2: drawings drawn by people, no computers. And there's a hundred
- 40:05Speaker 2: of them and under the cart with the mud splashing
- 40:07Speaker 2: and these dogs. And you're like, how do people do
- 40:09Speaker 2: this kind of thing? So to me, that experience I
- 40:12Speaker 2: had made me think this is one of the greatest
- 40:13Speaker 2: pieces of animation I've ever seen in my life. So. Again,
- 40:16Speaker 2: I'm sure people disagree with me, but that's one of
- 40:18Speaker 2: the greatest animated films.
- 40:19Speaker 1: I would pick Pinocchio.
- 40:21Speaker 2: Oh, again.
- 40:21Speaker 1: Because, you know, he created the genre with Snow White.
- 40:26Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 40:26Speaker 1: Did what no one had done before. But there was
- 40:28Speaker 1: still a Snow White. I felt there was, like, as
- 40:32Speaker 1: I recall, some of the things in it I thought
- 40:35Speaker 1: were just kind of old feeling. In Pinocchio, it was
- 40:39Speaker 1: just completely... thought through the monstro scenes where there's a
- 40:44Speaker 1: scary movie. It is scary.
- 40:45Speaker 2: If you watch it now, even as an adult, it's scary. When,
- 40:48Speaker 2: when the boys turn into donkey, the boys go to
- 40:51Speaker 2: a place called pleasure Island and they're, they're sinning so much.
- 40:56Speaker 2: They turn into these donkey. I know it's really terrifying. And,
- 40:59Speaker 2: and you're like, but again, all hand-drawn all on cells, right?
- 41:03Speaker 2: Not only the animation art with pencil, but then they
- 41:05Speaker 2: put it on cells with ink. They had a whole,
- 41:08Speaker 2: Department of people that would ink on the cells with
- 41:10Speaker 2: different colors. Just astounding bits of artwork. And they probably
- 41:13Speaker 2: got paid hardly anything back then, too.
- 41:17Speaker 1: Tell me if this is true, that because they wanted
- 41:19Speaker 1: to reuse the cells, they would, like.
- 41:23Speaker 2: Wipe them clean? Yeah, is that true? Can you imagine?
- 41:26Speaker 2: And they would throw them away in the garbage.
- 41:28Speaker 1: Like an original cell from Lady and the Tramp or
- 41:30Speaker 1: Pinocchio or Snow White. would be worth thousands and thousands
- 41:34Speaker 1: of dollars. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah.
- 41:35Speaker 2: Nobody knew that back then, though.
- 41:37Speaker 1: No, they didn't. No, they had no idea.
- 41:38Speaker 2: They had no idea there'd be a market for that.
- 41:40Speaker 2: Who would want an old cell? They wouldn't want to
- 41:42Speaker 2: hang this in their house or something. But again, like
- 41:44Speaker 2: I just said, the level of artistry on these things done, again,
- 41:48Speaker 2: all hand done, which is crazy. Even though we have
- 41:51Speaker 2: computers and AI and stuff like that now, nothing's ever
- 41:53Speaker 2: going to replace the human heart.
- 41:55Speaker 1: That's right. And I think you can do a lot
- 41:57Speaker 1: with computers and And there are ways now with AI
- 42:01Speaker 1: where you can tell it, create this scene, and I've
- 42:03Speaker 1: done it for fun, but it doesn't capture really what
- 42:07Speaker 1: I'm after. And like you are saying, you know, we're
- 42:11Speaker 1: made in the image of God, and we have the
- 42:13Speaker 1: ability to create. Like beavers, they've been building the same
- 42:17Speaker 1: dams forever. Nothing's changed. Same old, same old. But we
- 42:22Speaker 1: do have this creative ability, which just seems to be— the
- 42:25Speaker 1: Bible says in the last days, knowledge would increase. And
- 42:30Speaker 1: it really seems like the expansion of human knowledge is
- 42:35Speaker 1: happening so rapidly right now.
- 42:37Speaker 2: Human arrogance, too.
- 42:39Speaker 1: That's very true.
- 42:40Speaker 2: And people get— and as you well know as a pastor
- 42:44Speaker 2: and a follower of Jesus— you're going to know that
- 42:45Speaker 2: people begin, they'll become lovers of themselves. They'll worship themselves.
- 42:49Speaker 1: It's a sign of the end times.
- 42:50Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because it's so easy to
- 42:54Speaker 2: fall into the self-worship thing, especially as you get successful
- 42:58Speaker 2: doing what you love. And whether you're a rock star,
- 43:00Speaker 2: whether you're an artist, whether you're a baseball player, whatever,
- 43:03Speaker 2: and people start telling you how much they love what
- 43:06Speaker 2: you do, you've got to be very... I praise God
- 43:09Speaker 2: that I had my wife, who's an on-fire Christian... And
- 43:14Speaker 2: of course, the Lord in my life, because when people
- 43:17Speaker 2: start telling you how great your stuff is, it's very
- 43:19Speaker 2: easy to start getting to believe your own publicity. But
- 43:22Speaker 2: to stay humble, to become a servant, I became a
- 43:24Speaker 2: Christian right at the right time. Right when my show
- 43:26Speaker 2: started taking off, Jesus came into my life. And I
- 43:29Speaker 2: was able to give things to him. I have video
- 43:32Speaker 2: from a camcorder of me recording my show. And I
- 43:34Speaker 2: first started doing all the papers around my desk, all
- 43:36Speaker 2: the drawings, early drawings. And I'm saying on the video,
- 43:39Speaker 2: this will be a number one show someday. Kids around
- 43:41Speaker 2: the world will watch this show. And love it. And
- 43:43Speaker 2: it's going to bless them. And they're going to have
- 43:46Speaker 2: an amazing life because of the show. And people have
- 43:48Speaker 2: come up and said that to me over and over again.
- 43:50Speaker 2: And I don't say this out of arrogance. I say
- 43:52Speaker 2: it out of just what the Lord's done with the show.
- 43:54Speaker 2: I give Jesus all the credit for what I've done.
- 43:56Speaker 2: I don't take any credit at all. Because it's his
- 43:58Speaker 2: show at the end of the day. I'm just a steward.
- 44:01Speaker 2: My new studio, it says Butch Hartman Studios, but it's
- 44:04Speaker 2: his studio. He's the CEO. I just show up for
- 44:07Speaker 2: work every day and do what he tells me to do.
- 44:10Speaker 1: So if an older butch could talk to a younger butch.
- 44:13Speaker 2: I am an older butch.
- 44:14Speaker 1: Okay. So as you, if you could talk to a
- 44:17Speaker 1: younger you, what advice would you give yourself?
- 44:20Speaker 2: I would tell my younger self, and I think about
- 44:22Speaker 2: this all the time. I would tell my younger self,
- 44:24Speaker 2: do not be afraid. And I'm telling you out there,
- 44:26Speaker 2: don't be afraid. What are you waiting for? You have
- 44:29Speaker 2: zero excuses to wait. And why? Because if you are
- 44:32Speaker 2: following Jesus, he already said, with God, all things are possible.
- 44:36Speaker 2: All things are possible. And we start, and My wife
- 44:39Speaker 2: and I have been teaching lately, and you're going to
- 44:40Speaker 2: love this, on being fully persuaded. Abraham was fully persuaded
- 44:45Speaker 2: that God could do what he said he could do.
- 44:47Speaker 2: We have to learn how to be fully persuaded. And
- 44:49Speaker 2: when I talked about Esther, she was fully persuaded that
- 44:52Speaker 2: she was born for such a time as this. You
- 44:54Speaker 2: were born for such a time as this. So don't wait.
- 44:57Speaker 2: If you're young out there, take the chances now because
- 44:59Speaker 2: you're really going to wish you had when you get older.
- 45:01Speaker 1: Yeah. And you can learn. Through your setbacks and failures
- 45:04Speaker 1: as well. That's part of the process, isn't it?
- 45:06Speaker 2: Everybody fails. You're going to fail all the time. And
- 45:09Speaker 2: look at Peter.
- 45:09Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 45:11Speaker 2: Peter is a fantastic example. And Jesus forgave him. He
- 45:15Speaker 2: became one of the ultimate leaders of the church, having
- 45:18Speaker 2: denied the Lord three times. And I tell you, man,
- 45:22Speaker 2: I've probably denied him more than that in my life, right?
- 45:24Speaker 2: But praise the Lord. He's a loving, forgiving God. And
- 45:28Speaker 2: that's what I love the most about him. Because he
- 45:30Speaker 2: took a chance on a guy like me.
- 45:31Speaker 1: Yes. What are some go-to scriptures that you look to
- 45:36Speaker 1: maybe when you're stressed or uncertain about the future or
- 45:40Speaker 1: some other area of your life that maybe you return
- 45:43Speaker 1: to certain passages again and again?
- 45:45Speaker 2: One is Philippians 4.6, is be anxious for nothing, which
- 45:48Speaker 2: I absolutely love. Luke 6.38 says, given it shall be
- 45:52Speaker 2: given to you. I love the giving thing. And then
- 45:55Speaker 2: trust in the Lord, Proverbs 3.5, trust in the Lord
- 45:57Speaker 2: with all your heart. lean not on your own understanding.
- 46:00Speaker 2: That's where I get hung up a lot is leaning
- 46:02Speaker 2: on my own understanding. As old as I am now,
- 46:04Speaker 2: and I'm way older than I used to be, but
- 46:06Speaker 2: I still, my understanding is this much when it comes
- 46:10Speaker 2: to all the things that God has to offer us.
- 46:13Speaker 2: And so my goal now is to at least point
- 46:16Speaker 2: people to my Lord and Savior and let them get
- 46:19Speaker 2: a chance to make the choice.
- 46:20Speaker 1: Well, why don't you do that right now for someone
- 46:22Speaker 1: that's watching this and They've heard you talk about how
- 46:25Speaker 1: your faith has impacted your life, your marriage, your career.
- 46:29Speaker 1: Why should they ask Jesus to be their Lord and Savior?
- 46:33Speaker 2: Amen. I think you should at least consider making Jesus
- 46:37Speaker 2: your Lord and Savior because you've probably gotten to a
- 46:39Speaker 2: place in your life once or multiple times where you realized,
- 46:42Speaker 2: I can't do this anymore. I'm at the lowest point
- 46:45Speaker 2: in my life. There's no hope for me. But I'm
- 46:47Speaker 2: telling you right now, there is hope for you. You
- 46:49Speaker 2: were put here for a reason. You did not show
- 46:51Speaker 2: up by accident. Don't ever think you're just one Like
- 46:55Speaker 2: we can mass produce these dolls here. You can't mass
- 46:57Speaker 2: produce you. There's never going to be another one like you.
- 47:00Speaker 2: So you are probably the only chance anyone else has
- 47:03Speaker 2: of hearing who Jesus is. So you're here to tell
- 47:06Speaker 2: people who Jesus is and he loves you and he
- 47:09Speaker 2: wants to see you succeed in whatever you choose to
- 47:11Speaker 2: succeed in. So make Jesus Christ the Lord of your
- 47:14Speaker 2: life because you know what? He loves you and I'd
- 47:17Speaker 2: rather see you do it and give Jesus a try
- 47:20Speaker 2: and just see how it works in your life. I
- 47:22Speaker 2: think it'd be awesome.
- 47:23Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember when I was a brand new Christian,
- 47:27Speaker 1: I prayed a prayer. I didn't really knew what I did,
- 47:30Speaker 1: but I prayed sincerely and asked Christ to come into
- 47:33Speaker 1: your life. And I was struggling with drugs at that point.
- 47:37Speaker 1: I was basically smoking weed. I wasn't like a drug addict,
- 47:40Speaker 1: but it was an issue in my life. And I
- 47:43Speaker 1: knew I needed to change and not do that any longer.
- 47:47Speaker 1: So I just said, God, look, you got to make
- 47:50Speaker 1: this real to me. I'm cynical because of my upbringing.
- 47:54Speaker 1: I don't know if it's going to work. I don't
- 47:56Speaker 1: know if I'm the religious type. I didn't. But if
- 47:58Speaker 1: you're real, just make yourself real to me. And God
- 48:01Speaker 1: entered my world, right? Just like he entered your world.
- 48:05Speaker 1: And then he enters the world of an academic. And
- 48:08Speaker 1: then he enters the world of a small child. And
- 48:11Speaker 1: he enters the world of whoever. You know, he has
- 48:14Speaker 1: a way of just coming into our world and making
- 48:17Speaker 1: himself real to us in a way that we understand. Amen. Amen.
- 48:21Speaker 2: And see, the one thing too is that when you
- 48:23Speaker 2: do accept Christ into your heart, he's going to come
- 48:26Speaker 2: in very, he'll come in very gently, but he will
- 48:29Speaker 2: start telling you the truth. And people that need the
- 48:32Speaker 2: truth sometimes don't want to hear the truth. I needed
- 48:35Speaker 2: the truth in my life. I needed to hear the
- 48:36Speaker 2: truth about who I was and that I needed to
- 48:39Speaker 2: be a servant instead of just someone who was trying
- 48:41Speaker 2: to survive on a day-to-day basis.
- 48:43Speaker 1: I love that.
- 48:44Speaker 2: Working under my own strength. It was exhausting working under
- 48:46Speaker 2: your own strength.
- 48:47Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 48:48Speaker 2: And there's been many times in my life now, especially
- 48:50Speaker 2: working in Hollywood where, yeah, I can draw, but you
- 48:53Speaker 2: got to learn how to play politics in Hollywood too.
- 48:56Speaker 2: You need to get the studio to keep giving you
- 48:58Speaker 2: money for your show. And then when you hire people,
- 49:00Speaker 2: dealing with people and other human beings, God gave me
- 49:03Speaker 2: the strength to do all that. Jesus gave me the
- 49:05Speaker 2: ability to do all of this stuff I never thought
- 49:07Speaker 2: I could do. And the ability to be humble about
- 49:10Speaker 2: it at times. Again, I'm not perfect. I'm sure there
- 49:13Speaker 2: were times I wasn't. But I want to make sure
- 49:15Speaker 2: that I can at least represent him as cleanly and
- 49:18Speaker 2: clearly as possible, given my limited human ability.
- 49:21Speaker 1: Wow. Well, you've done a great job of it, but
- 49:24Speaker 1: it's going to be exciting to see what the Lord
- 49:27Speaker 1: inspires you to do in the days ahead. Who knows
- 49:29Speaker 1: something that you never even considered. And it's funny how
- 49:32Speaker 1: an idea comes that just, pops into your head. And
- 49:36Speaker 1: you know, like God gave to Joseph a vision, a
- 49:38Speaker 1: dream of his future. Sometimes it's good to keep your
- 49:43Speaker 1: dreams to yourself because when he told his brothers, it
- 49:46Speaker 1: didn't take it well. But that dream really was from God,
- 49:49Speaker 1: wasn't it? That he was going to be in a
- 49:51Speaker 1: position of influence.
- 49:52Speaker 2: And his trip to the goal wasn't easy either. And
- 49:56Speaker 2: by the way, your trip to your goal is not
- 49:58Speaker 2: going to be easy. I hate to break it to you,
- 50:00Speaker 2: but it's through that growth, you're going to become an amazing,
- 50:03Speaker 2: incredible leader. Father, mother, sister, brother, whatever it's going to be,
- 50:07Speaker 2: you'll be the most amazing example. And then you'll look
- 50:10Speaker 2: back going, I look back now going, look what God did.
- 50:13Speaker 2: Look what God did there. I wasn't even expecting it.
- 50:15Speaker 2: Right now even, I started off as an artist like you.
- 50:17Speaker 2: Now I have my own company. It wasn't easy. It
- 50:20Speaker 2: didn't happen overnight. And it's still not easy. But you still,
- 50:24Speaker 2: you do it because God asked you to do it.
- 50:26Speaker 2: And if he gives you the vision, you've heard this
- 50:29Speaker 2: Christianese thing, he'll give you the provision. You'll get the provision.
- 50:33Speaker 2: But it won't come in a way you expect.
- 50:34Speaker 1: I like that. I actually haven't heard that. Oh, there
- 50:36Speaker 1: you go.
- 50:37Speaker 2: Can I get credit for that then? Yes.
- 50:39Speaker 1: If he gives you the vision, he'll give you the provision.
- 50:41Speaker 1: That's very good. You touched on this already, how you
- 50:46Speaker 1: would like people to remember you. What would you like
- 50:51Speaker 1: someone to say of your life after it's been lived
- 50:55Speaker 1: to its completion? Like, you know, that Butch Hartman, this
- 50:58Speaker 1: is what I remember about him.
- 51:00Speaker 2: He was on Greg Laurie's podcast. Yes. I would say
- 51:03Speaker 2: there was that. That's such a big question. I would
- 51:07Speaker 2: probably say something. I would hope people would say he
- 51:10Speaker 2: was a great representative for Jesus and he was a
- 51:13Speaker 2: great servant and he used his gifts to the fullest
- 51:15Speaker 2: of his capacity. And when I get to the end
- 51:18Speaker 2: of my life, I'm never going to be able to
- 51:20Speaker 2: use all the gifts I have that I've been given.
- 51:22Speaker 2: I know there's some that are in there that I
- 51:24Speaker 2: probably have been too Even at this point, as much
- 51:28Speaker 2: as I love Jesus, still nervous about accessing. But they're
- 51:31Speaker 2: in there. And I want people to go like, I
- 51:33Speaker 2: want to do what Butch did by following the Lord.
- 51:36Speaker 2: Not being like me, but being like him. That's my goal.
- 51:40Speaker 1: Well, thanks for the time. Great to hang out with you.
- 51:42Speaker 2: I can't wait, man. I brought some pens, too. I
- 51:44Speaker 2: want to draw a little bit.
- 51:45Speaker 1: Let's do that. It's up to you. Okay.
- 51:47Speaker 2: Are you ready to do this?
- 51:48Speaker 1: Yeah, let's do it.
- 51:49Speaker 2: Okay, here we go.
- 51:49Speaker 1: Okay.
- 51:50Speaker 2: All right, Craig. So what are we going to draw first?
- 51:54Speaker 1: Yellow dog.
- 51:55Speaker 2: Yellow Dog. You teach me how to draw Yellow Dog.
- 51:58Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel a little intimidated drawing with you because you're...
- 52:03Speaker 1: You shouldn't. Okay. But I still will be. I've been
- 52:07Speaker 1: drawing Yellow Dog since I've been a kid. I was
- 52:10Speaker 1: going through some archives of old art, and I thought, man,
- 52:13Speaker 1: I've been drawing that thing since I've been like eight
- 52:15Speaker 1: years old. Wow. And anyway, so I always start with
- 52:18Speaker 1: Yellow Dog. It's just a nose. Yes. Sometimes he has
- 52:29Speaker 1: circles around his eyes. Sometimes they're just dots, just depending
- 52:32Speaker 1: on what I'm doing.
- 52:43Speaker 2: How many fingers does he have?
- 52:45Speaker 1: He has paws.
- 52:46Speaker 2: Paws. These are important things to know.
- 52:49Speaker 1: Yeah, he's put little, but he can have fingers.
- 52:51Speaker 2: I'm coming along. How's that, all right?
- 52:53Speaker 1: He's a Butch Hartman yellow dog, but I like him.
- 52:56Speaker 1: He's a little more something, a little more attitude.
- 52:59Speaker 2: Okay.
- 53:00Speaker 1: So he's got a little belly.
- 53:02Speaker 2: Little belly.
- 53:10Speaker 1: So then I'll usually just kind of, you know, bolt
- 53:12Speaker 1: him up. And I like a thicker line around them
- 53:17Speaker 1: after I'm done with them.
- 53:18Speaker 2: Yep. My first attempt at yellow dogs. There we go. Wow.
- 53:25Speaker 2: Put those side by side.
- 53:28Speaker 1: Well, I like yours.
- 53:29Speaker 2: This is like amateur. No.
- 53:34Speaker 1: Pro. Proper new yellow dog.
- 53:37Speaker 2: There we go. Wow. Okay, now we drew your character. Yes.
- 53:40Speaker 2: So let's draw one of my characters.
- 53:41Speaker 1: Okay.
- 53:42Speaker 2: Okay, hand me my sketch pad back.
- 53:43Speaker 1: Okay, here you go.
- 53:43Speaker 2: Now I'm going to give you a little tutorial here
- 53:45Speaker 2: on Lenny. We'll do Lenny from the garden cartoon.
- 53:48Speaker 1: Okay.
- 53:49Speaker 2: So we're going to do a piece of paper, and
- 53:52Speaker 2: we'll stick straight with pen. All right, so Lenny, we
- 53:56Speaker 2: start off, he's a circle. Put it right in the
- 53:59Speaker 2: middle because we have to make room for his hair,
- 54:01Speaker 2: which is really big.
- 54:02Speaker 1: I don't think this is going to go well.
- 54:03Speaker 2: Let's see. Let's see. Give this a try. Here we go. Circle.
- 54:09Speaker 1: Okay. Circle.
- 54:10Speaker 2: Circle. Now, about halfway down, we're going to do a
- 54:24Speaker 2: line that kind of curves like this, like one line
- 54:27Speaker 2: that kind of separates the circle. Okay.
- 54:30Speaker 1: Is that his mouth?
- 54:31Speaker 2: No, that's his top of his shirt. Wow. You'll see.
- 54:36Speaker 2: We'll get to his mouth in a second. Just one
- 54:38Speaker 2: line like that. Great. Now underneath that line is one
- 54:43Speaker 2: more line like this. So you got his shirt and
- 54:48Speaker 2: that's the top of his pants. See, his character wears
- 54:53Speaker 2: no clothes. Mine's fully clothed. What does that say? Okay.
- 54:57Speaker 2: Now put his mouth off to the left a little bit.
- 55:00Speaker 2: Just a little letter U like that. Now going down here,
- 55:10Speaker 2: right below the eye down here, one little square or
- 55:13Speaker 2: one little like that. Those are his shorts, like his
- 55:15Speaker 2: pant legs. Now we'll do his arms out and around
- 55:27Speaker 2: like that. Now his hair. He's got his big lion hair.
- 55:37Speaker 2: So we go one, two, three on that side. Wow.
- 55:43Speaker 2: His tail's kind of starting here. And like a garden hose,
- 55:55Speaker 2: it's really long. It comes out like that. I like that.
- 55:58Speaker 2: So it's sort of hidden behind his foot. Yeah, behind
- 56:01Speaker 2: his foot. Then it comes out this way like a
- 56:02Speaker 2: garden hose. Give me five.
- 56:09Speaker 1: Okay.
- 56:10Speaker 2: Well done, man. Let's show that to the camera. Here
- 56:17Speaker 2: we go. Hey, can I draw you one of my
- 56:20Speaker 2: characters and just give it to you as a gift?
- 56:21Speaker 1: Yes, please.
- 56:22Speaker 2: Would that be okay with you? I'm going to draw
- 56:24Speaker 2: you one of my Fairly Oddparents characters.
- 56:26Speaker 1: Okay, great.
- 56:27Speaker 2: This is Cosmo. Yes. He's the silly Fairly Oddparent. And
- 56:35Speaker 2: if you look, he's just made up of basic circles
- 56:38Speaker 2: and squares, a lot of angles.
- 56:42Speaker 1: How did you design to come up with this style?
- 56:45Speaker 1: This is a certain style for this comic or this series.
- 56:51Speaker 1: And it's like big heads, little bodies. But you've done
- 56:54Speaker 1: all kinds of animated. I mean, I'm looking through your sketchbook.
- 56:58Speaker 1: You do all kinds of cartoons. But you came up
- 57:00Speaker 1: with a certain look for these guys.
- 57:02Speaker 2: Yeah, I really based this on a lot of the
- 57:05Speaker 2: 1950s cartoons that I loved. There was a company called
- 57:09Speaker 2: UPA back in the 50s, and they did Tom Terrific
- 57:12Speaker 2: and things like that. And so I loved that style.
- 57:15Speaker 2: I loved Hanna-Barbera as well. There's a lot of Hanna-Barbera
- 57:18Speaker 2: influence in what I did for Fairly Oddparents. When I
- 57:22Speaker 2: finally sold my own show, I said, I'm going to
- 57:23Speaker 2: draw in a style I've never drawn before. So I
- 57:25Speaker 2: really worked hard to make it almost like a language
- 57:29Speaker 2: that I'd never really drawn before. So this is Cosmo.
- 57:39Speaker 1: That's cool.
- 57:42Speaker 2: That's really great. I'm going to draw a character that
- 57:45Speaker 2: Yellow Dog would hang out with. What if you had
- 57:48Speaker 2: one named Moondog? If he was a surfer. Yeah, I
- 57:54Speaker 2: can work. Moondog. I got it here. We'll do Moondog.
- 57:57Speaker 2: I got it. Here's Moondog. Hey, bro, this is Moondog, dude.
- 58:07Speaker 2: I'll sometimes do the voices when I draw.
- 58:09Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome.
- 58:10Speaker 2: So this guy's like, hey, he's like a surfer dog. Okay, man,
- 58:18Speaker 2: what's up? He's got like a t-shirt on. So I'll
- 58:23Speaker 2: put him on a surfboard. So this is Moondog.
- 58:45Speaker 1: Oh, he's great.
- 58:45Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 58:46Speaker 1: I think you should do this professionally, but I think
- 58:49Speaker 1: you've got it.
- 58:50Speaker 2: Well, I'm grateful, man. Thank you. I might give it
- 58:52Speaker 2: a shot.
- 58:54Speaker 1: So, Butch, thanks again for coming. A real pleasure.
- 58:56Speaker 2: Thank you. Thanks for drawing with me. I got to
- 58:58Speaker 2: draw with Greg Laurie. That was fun. Thank you so much.
- 59:00Speaker 1: You got to draw with Butch Hartman. Hey, thanks for
- 59:03Speaker 1: joining me today. Subscribe to my YouTube channel. Follow me
- 59:07Speaker 1: on social media. And be sure to download the Harvest
- 59:10Speaker 1: Plus app, where you will find exclusive content just for you.
- 59:15Speaker 1: See you next time.