Director

As soon as you think, 'Pirates are really popular right now with kids so I'm going to write a pirate movie'... that's when you're dead.

Going from 'Dexter' to 'Powerpuff,' there was a lot of dialogue, there was a lot of... you know, we did action, of course, but I was getting burned out on the words, and both shows had this big, thick black outline.

Well I grew up following most of the major titles like 'Fantastic Four,' 'Spider-Man,' 'Avengers,' etc. But I had also a lot of love for the smaller titles like 'Master of Kung Fu,' 'Black Panther,' 'The Defenders,' 'Inhumans,' and of course Power-Man and Iron Fist.'

For me, CG tends to feel watered down and it becomes cold because it's so perfect.

In feature animation, it's kind of taboo to make a movie that's more cartoony. But I never really believed that.

Going as far back as 'Dexter's Lab,' we've always had these sequences with no dialogue. The interesting thing is those sequences got the biggest reactions.

You can never guess what a kid's going to find funny - besides, you know, an obvious fart joke here and there.

For me, I'm not a great wordsmith, and so maybe from lack of great dialogue writing, I thought it's easier and better to express a story through visuals.

I was really fortunate in my career where I always had executives who were very like-minded.

If you look back at Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' or 'Pocahontas,' animated films were trying to get more and more real before CG really arrived.

I try not to be in my head too much, I just try to do what feels right.

There was a show I loved as a kid: 'The Blue Falcon & Dynomutt.'

I was thirty when I did 'Jack.'

I read comics because of the art.

Through the years, I've developed a style or a language that I like, even when it applies to action. All my action principles are very similar to my cartoony principles, because all the poses want to be really strong.

We use music, cinematic storytelling and very stylized backgrounds to create mood and atmosphere as 'Samurai Jack' travels an exotic landscape. The environment is a major character in each show.

My goal is to always try to make you feel something, whether that's humor or sadness or excitement, and to try to manipulate screen space.

In 2-D, the way you draw defines you, but in CG the computer takes away your identity.

Being funny is very complex.

My love of visual sequences stems from live-action films like Sergio Leone westerns, Kurosawa, some '70s action films, Tex Avery, and my general love of animated movement.