Oct 5, 2012

Rebecca Sugar Becomes Cartoon Network's First Solo Female Show Creator

I don't know how I missed this press release, but last month Cartoon Network announced that it would be producing two new series: Peter Braungart's "Uncle Grumpa," based on the popular pilot of the same name Braungart produced several years ago, and Rebecca Sugar's The Steven Universe. [This is the first time in Cartoon Network's 20-year history that it has broadcast a children's entertainment series created solely by a female creator. While it is a little too early to celebrate the fact that Cartoon Network is producing a show by a woman, this is a baby step in the right direction.

Sugar is also part of a new generation of creators who established their reputations online before the animation industry took notice. This contrasts with past animation creators (Seth MacFarlane, Genndy Tartakovsky, and John Kricfalusi), whose artists remained largely anonymous to the public before they were made famous by their own shows. It is a turning point in animation culture, where artists no longer need the reach of a network to establish a fan base, and furthermore, networks now mostly respond to trending artists rather than launching new careers. [It is especially gratifying to see Rebecca Sugar's meteoric rise to fame. This is because Cartoon Brew was the first major media outlet to promote her work. At the time, I said, "Rebecca Sugar is ridiculously talented ...... She is definitely an artist with a bright future ahead of her," I wrote. Since then, we have continued to follow her progress, and in 2009 we selected her graduation film, Singles, for our annual student animation festival."

After graduating from the Manhattan School of Visual Arts, Sugar moved to Los Angeles and began working as a writer, storyboard artist, and songwriter for the "Adventure Time" series. Sugar's new show, Steven Universe, is "a coming-of-age story told from the perspective of Steven, the youngest member of the Guardians' team of cosmic magicians." What that means is anyone's guess, but with Rebecca at the helm, I can't take my eyes off this one.