Toon-In Talk Episode 26: Interview with Yvette Kaplan

Hello and welcome to twenty-sixth episode of Fanboy Nation’s Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Whitney is back from her hiatus and ready to finish her Ladies of Animation series. She’s returning with an awesome guest, Yvette Kaplan. Yvette Kaplan has a prestigious animation career working in both feature and television animation. She made a name for herself as the supervising director for the quintessential 1990s cartoon Beavis and Butt-Head. Yvette also directed the Beavis and Butt-Head Do America film that was the highest grossing non-Disney animated for years. Yvette works on any project that catches her interest and she shares her adventures in this interview. Show Notes Yvette Kaplan is famous for her work on Zack and Quack, Beavis and Butt-Head, Doug, and many other great projects. She has carried many titles and roles in the animation industry, going as far back as being an ink and paint artist. She caught the animation bug when she was five years old. Yvette loved watching the Fleischer cartoons: Betty Boop and Popeye. Her absolute favorite cartoon short is Max Fleischer’s “Somewhere in Dreamland.” She knew more about the Fleischer cartoons than she did the Disney features. Yvette is also a fan of John and Faith Hubley’s works, a husband and wife team who made animated films. When Yvette began her career, she was advised not to go into animation, but she didn’t listen and in the early 1990s, she began work on Nickelodeon’s NickToons. She worked on the pilot for Doug, directed by Tony Eastman. Nickelodeon liked her work and she was a director on the series for three seasons. Although she was very busy, Yvette consulted on The Magic School Bus. Then Tony Eastman showed her two “gross boy” characters for a MTV show. Yvette Kaplan loved the humor and Mike Judge, the show’s creator, hired her to be the director on Beavis and Butt-Head. She also directed Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and it was the highest grossing non-Disney animated movie for years. Yvette would later return to Los Angeles with the intent to work on more feature and television, but she also wanted to explore all avenues. She found a comfortable spot on the King of the Hill team as well as on the PBS show Arthur. Drawing more on her extensive talents, Yvette made the children’s CGI show Zack and Quack. The animation looks like it was made from paper. She prefers to work in television, but Yvette sometimes get the strong urge to work on a feature film. Yvette recently worked on the fun new girl-based series from Disney called Star Darlings. She loves working on it, because it took her into a new genre she had never worked in before. She shares that working on education based cartoons has its difficulties, but it was a challenge she loved. From her perspective, Yvette wasn’t too aware about the lack of women in the animation industry. She never felt a ceiling and her positive attitude helped her push through many barriers. She became more aware of it as she matured. Both Yevette and Whitney are huge fans of Steven Universe and Star vs. The Forces of Evil, two shows created by women. Yvette declares that her animation adventure will continue.