Genndy Tartakovsky



Genndy Tartakovsky (Геннадий Тартаковский) is a Russian-American animation director and producer of Russian origin and one of the greatest minds behind Cartoon Network.

Born in 1970 in the USSR to Jewish parents, Genndy moved abroad with his family, afraid of anti-semitism. First they went to Italy, where he picked up art from their German neighbours' daughter. Then they moved to the USA, where he eventually got into California School of Arts (because he was too late to apply for a business school). There he embraced his future career as an animator and made his first two shorts, one of which eventually became Dexter's Laboratory. While schooling, he formed a strong friendship with Craig McCracken and Rob Renzetti (My Life as a Teenage Robot), which often shows in their cooperation between series. After working on Sym-Bionic Titan for Cartoon Network, he has moved on to Sony Pictures Animation to direct Hotel Transylvania and its first two sequels.


 * Powerpuff Girls:
 * Supervising producer for Meat Fuzzy Lumkins (1994)
 * Supervising producer for 54 of 78 episodes in the series' main run (1998-2004)
 * (Uncredited) supervising producer for 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (2003)
 * Dexter's Laboratory:
 * Series producer (1996-2003)
 * Supervising producer for the Ego Trip TV Movie (1999)
 * Executive producer for the Chicken Scratch short (2002)
 * Uncle Gus in: For the Love of Monkeys – Supervising producer (1999)
 * Foe Paws – Supervising producer (2000)
 * Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? – Supervising producer (2000)
 * Thrillseekers: Putt n' Perish – Supervising producer (2000)
 * Imp, Inc. -- Supervising producer (2001)
 * The Flintstones: On the Rocks – Supervising producer (2001)
 * My Freaky Family: Welcome to My World – Supervising producer (2001)
 * Samurai Jack -- Executive producer (2001-2004); producer for the 2017 revival
 * The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy – Supervising director for seasons 2 and 3 (2003-2004)
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars – Executive producer (2003-2005)
 * Sunday Pants – Producer for Episode 3 (2005)
 * Sym-Bionic Titan – Executive producer (2010-2011)
 * Hotel Transylvania - Director (2012)
 * Hotel Transylvania 2 - Director (2015)
 * Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation - Director and writer (2018)
 * Primal - (2019-Present)
 * Hotel Transylvania: Transformania - Writer (2021)

A more detailed filmography can be found at his IMDb page.


 * Animesque: Most of Genndy's cartoons follow this, mainly because he was inspired by Japanese animation.
 * Art Evolution: He used to be so horrible at art he couldn't draw a circle.
 * Aside Glance: Many of his characters' silent reactions to something odd or stupid taking place often involve this, either directly to the audience or another character.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Genndy is either in love with this trope or owes it money. Sym-Bionic Titan's Radar entry is pretty much its recap.
 * Development Hell: The Movie of Samurai Jack is in here, and interest is needed at hand. It is rumored that Genndy may be directing Hotel Transylvania to help fund the project.
 * Lock and Load Montage: Genndy's apparently a big fan of these; they can be found quite frequently in all of his cartoons.
 * Ms. Fanservice: If there's a young woman in one of his cartoons, expect her to almost always be a Fetish Fuel Station Attendant.
 * Rule of Cool
 * Thick Line Animation: Consciously averted with Samurai Jack, but his previous and subsequent works have this style.
 * Widget Series: But as Sym-Bionic Titan proved, this trope has never looked so cool.
 * What Could Have Been: Genndy had two chances to get into directing films, none of which came to be. First being a sequel to The Dark Crystal, which ended up in Development Hell. Second being a film of Astro Boy, which later ended up being finished in another studio unrelated to him, and did so poorly that it closed them down.