Genndy Tartakovsky was born January 17, 1970 in the United Soviet Socialist Republic (Russia) . He left Russia and moved to Italy, and then to America with his Jewish parents. When he was young and still in Italy, a Russian girl introduced him to drawing. Later in America, he became interested in comic books, and tried to draw from them. He enrolled in Columbia College in Chicago intending to major in graphic design, however he signed up late, and all the advertising classes were filled. Instead, he took the only other available class: animation. It was a good choice. He excelled. Tartakovsky transferred to the California Institute of the Arts, a college that’s extremely hard to get into. After college, he landed a job at Cartoon Network thanks to a friend from school. Since then, he has participated in the making of many shows, and is best known for the shows that he made and produced on Cartoon Network, such as Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars (the five-minute shorts, not the TV series or the movie), and more recently, Sym-Bionic Titan.
In 2011 Tartakovsky joined Sony Pictures Animation as the director of Hotel Transylvania. Before him, the movie went through several directors. This was the original blurb:
A group of classic monsters including Frankenstein, the Mummy, Dracula and the Werewolf who are hiding out in a hotel on the outskirts of Transylvania now that 21st century technology has seemingly made them irrelevant.
Simon Van Helsing, the youngest in a long line of monster hunters. The last thing Van Helsing wants to do is fall in love with Dracula’s Daughter, Mavis. Upon discovering that they are natural enemies, the doomed couple attempts to bring peace between monsters and humans. In the end, each family will have some new blood.
He changed the movie drastically from the original blurb.
Genndy also made a short titled Goodnight Mr.Foot, which was about Bigfoot coming to the hotel, and an overeager witch trying everything she can to make him comfortable.
Zombie and Bigfoot from “Goodnight Mr. Foot”Genndy makes excellent use of silence and mood in his cartoons. Entire scenes, even episodes, would have little to no dialogue at all, but the action and story spoke loud enough for it to work brilliantly. He used the worlds inside the shows to create the feel and action.
He uses basic shapes in all of his animation, characters and scenery alike. The main character of the show that bears his name, Samurai Jack, is exceptionally notable of this. If you look closely, Jack’s body is made of rectangles, squares, and triangles in a few places like his hair.
Genndy Tartakovsky is best known for his work at Cartoon Network. He has certainly made an impression in the animation industry, and I look forward for more to come.
Sources:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/26/genndy-tartakovsky-taking-over-the-hotel-transylvania/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/GenndyTartakovsky
Samurai Jack Season 2 DVD: Genndy’s Scrapbook
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