History
The company was formed as Frederator Incorporated in 1997 (its first cartoons were released in 1998), and was housed at a temporary location of the Nickelodeon Animation Studios, in North Hollywood, California. Frederator's debut production was the cartoon short incubator, a television series called Oh Yeah! Cartoons, which later spun off three series: The Fairly OddParents, ChalkZone, and My Life as a Teenage Robot, in addition to 51 original short cartoons by a group of creators including the first films by creators like Butch Hartman, Rob Renzetti, Tim Biskup, Larry Huber, Pat Ventura, Seth MacFarlane, and Carlos Ramos. Oh Yeah! Cartoons was based on Seibert's What A Cartoon! series of shorts from Hanna-Barbera Cartoons and Cartoon Network, which brought Hanna-Barbera its first hit series in 10 years, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, I Am Weasel, The Powerpuff Girls, and Courage the Cowardly Dog.
In 2002, Frederator created a joint venture for pre-school cartoons with producer Susan Miller's Mixed Media Group, Inc. and produced their first pre-school series, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!.
Frederator Studios created a television series and competition The Nicktoons Film Festival (now known as the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival) for the Nicktoons network, which debuted October 24, 2004.
On November 1, 2005, Frederator launched the first cartoon podcast, named Channel Frederator. This weekly animation network features submitted films from around the world, and quickly became one of the top video podcasts on Apple Inc.'s iTunes. In quick succession, The Wubbcast was launched for pre-schoolers in January 2006, and ReFrederator featuring vintage public domain cartoons in April 2006. Channel Frederator is now part of media company Next New Networks and reaches almost 4,000,000 video views monthly.
On June 25, 2007 Variety article announced the studio had formed Frederator Films, dedicated to creating animated feature films budgeted under $20 million. Frederator's first feature is set up at Paramount Pictures, co-produced with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions. They have also set up their first two animated features in a first look production arrangement for Sony Pictures Animation.
The studio produced its first original internet cartoons with independent animator Dan Meth. The Meth Minute 39 launched on September 5, 2007, featuring 39 of Meth's original character shorts. (The first cartoon was "Internet People," a video on the viral video sites YouTube and MySpaceTV that featured some of the best internet memes and internet people.) A spin-off, Nite Fite, debuted in October 2008. These series have totaled over 35,000,000 video views to date.
Random! Cartoons, the latest Frederator series of short cartoon series, began airing on Nicktoons in 2009; it spawned the TV series Fanboy and Chum Chum and Adventure Time.
Frederator announced a fifth cartoon shorts incubator in February 2012. There will be 39 Too Cool! Cartoons, along with its new YouTube premium content channel and adult production label, Cartoon Hangover. Two other series were also announced, SuperF*ckers, created by James Kochalka, and Bravest Warriors, created by Pendleton Ward.
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