Creator of SpongeBob SquarePants (1961?2018)
Stephen Hillenburg
|
---|
|
Born
| Stephen McDannell Hillenburg
(
1961-08-21
)
August 21, 1961
|
---|
Died
| November 26, 2018
(2018-11-26)
(aged 57)
|
---|
Alma mater
| |
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Occupations
| - Animator
- writer
- producer
- director
- voice actor
- marine biologist
|
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Years active
| 1984?2018
|
---|
Notable work
| SpongeBob SquarePants
(1999?2018)
Rocko's Modern Life
(1993?1996)
|
---|
Spouse
|
Karen Umland
(
m.
1998)
|
---|
Children
| 1
|
---|
|
Scientific career
|
Fields
| Marine biology
|
---|
Institutions
| Orange County Marine Institute
|
---|
|
|
|
|
Stephen McDannell Hillenburg
(August 21, 1961 ? November 26, 2018) was an American animator, writer, producer, director, voice actor, and
marine biology
educator. He is best known for creating the animated television series
SpongeBob SquarePants
for
Nickelodeon
in 1999 – serving as the
showrunner
for its first three seasons, and again from season nine until his death – which has become the
fifth-longest-running American animated series
. He also provided the original voice of Patchy's pet parrot
Potty the Parrot
from the show.
Born in
Lawton, Oklahoma
and raised in
Anaheim, California
, Hillenburg became fascinated with the ocean as a child and developed an interest in art. He started his professional career in 1984, instructing marine biology at the
Orange County Marine Institute
, where he wrote and illustrated
The Intertidal Zone
, an informative picture book about
tide-pool
animals, which he used to educate his students. In 1989, two years after leaving teaching, he enrolled at the
California Institute of the Arts
to pursue a career in animation. He was later offered a job on the Nickelodeon animated television series
Rocko's Modern Life
(1993?1996) following the success of his 1992 short films
The Green Beret
and
Wormholes
, which were made as part of his studies.
In 1994, Hillenburg began developing
The Intertidal Zone
characters and concepts for what became
SpongeBob SquarePants,
which has aired continuously since 1999. He also directed
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
(2004), which he originally intended to be the
series finale
. He then resigned as showrunner, but remained credited as executive producer on subsequent seasons (even after his death). He later resumed creating short films with
Hollywood Blvd., USA
(2013). He co-wrote the story for the second film adaptation of the series,
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
(2015), and received a posthumous executive production credit for the third film,
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
(2020).
Besides his two
Emmy Awards
and six
Annie Awards
for
SpongeBob SquarePants
, Hillenburg also received other recognitions, such as an accolade from
Heal the Bay
for his efforts in elevating marine life awareness and the
Television Animation Award
from the
National Cartoonists Society
. Hillenburg announced he was diagnosed with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS) in 2017, but stated he would continue working on
SpongeBob
for as long as possible. He died from the disease on November 26, 2018, at the age of 57.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Stephen McDannell Hillenburg
[1]
was born on August
21, 1961 at
Fort Sill
,
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
a
United States Army
post in
Lawton, Oklahoma
, where his father, Kelly N. Hillenburg Jr. (1936?2006),
[6]
worked for the U.S. military.
[7]
His mother, Nancy (
nee
Dufour),
[6]
taught visually impaired students.
[2]
[3]
[4]
When he was a year old,
[7]
the family moved to
Orange County, California
,
[2]
[4]
where his father began a career as a draftsman and designer in the
aerospace
industry.
[7]
His younger brother, Bryan,
[6]
eventually became a draftsman/designer as well.
[4]
When an interviewer asked Hillenburg to describe himself as a child, he replied that he was "probably well-meaning and naive like all kids."
[8]
[9]
His passion for sea life can be traced to his childhood, when films by
Jacques Cousteau
, a French
oceanographer
, made a strong impression on him.
[4]
[7]
[10]
Hillenburg said that Cousteau "provided a view into that world", which he had not known existed.
[7]
He liked to explore
tide pools
as a child, bringing home objects that "should have been left there and that ended up dying and smelling really bad."
[9]
Hillenburg also developed his interest in art at a young age.
[7]
[11]
His first drawing was of an orange slice. An illustration which he drew in third grade, depicting "a bunch of army men
... kissing and hugging instead of fighting", brought him the first praise for his artwork, when his teacher commended it.
[7]
"Of course, this is 1970
... She liked it because, I mean, obviously that was in the middle of [the
Vietnam War
]. She was, I would imagine, not a hundred percent for the war like a lot of people then. ...
I had no idea about the implications, really, because I just thought it was a funny idea. I remember that still, that moment when she said, 'oh my gosh, look at that'", Hillenburg elaborated.
[7]
It was then when he knew he "had some [creative] skill".
[7]
He asserted that his artistry came from his mother's side, despite his father being a draftsman, noting that his maternal grandmother was "really, really gifted" and a "great painter".
[7]
In the 1970s, someone took Hillenburg to the
International Tournee of Animation
at the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
. He was "knocked out" by the foreign animated films, including Dutch animator
Paul Driessen
's
The Killing of an Egg
(1977). "That was the film that I thought was uniquely strange and that lodged itself in my head early on," he recounted.
[12]
"I've always been interested in art and making things, but I chose not to go to art school because I thought I needed to do something else. Art was a tough way to make a living. I've always done both. I just kind of figured that the marine biology would be a career and the art would be something I did for my own self-expression."
?
Stephen Hillenburg
[8]
He attended
Savanna High School
in Anaheim,
[4]
[8]
[13]
describing himself as a "
band geek
" who played the trumpet.
[7]
At age 15, he
snorkeled
for the first time;
[3]
[4]
[8]
Hillenburg took part in a "dive program"
[7]
at Woods Coves
[8]
in
Laguna Beach
,
[3]
[4]
as part of the
Regional Occupational Program
at Savanna.
[7]
This experience, as well as subsequent dives,
[7]
reinforced his interest in, and led to his decision to study,
marine biology
in college:
[3]
[4]
[7]
[8]
[13]
"The switch clicked and I decided I wanted to be a marine biologist, but I also liked being an artist."
[11]
Some of his high-school teachers, who knew of his interest in art and fascination with the ocean, advised him otherwise,
[7]
saying: "You should just draw fish."
[7]
[14]
However, the idea of drawing fish seemed boring to him and he was more riveted by "making weird, little paintings".
[7]
During a few summers after finishing high school, he worked as a fry cook and lobster boiler
[15]
at a fast-food seafood restaurant
[4]
in
Maine
.
[15]
(This later inspired
SpongeBob SquarePants
' occupation in
the television series
, which he would begin developing in 1994.
[15]
)
Hillenburg went to
Humboldt State University
in
Arcata, California
, as a marine-science major.
[7]
He minored in art,
[7]
and said that "[he] blossomed as a painter in Humboldt."
[16]
In 1984, he earned his bachelor's degree in natural-resource planning and interpretation, with an emphasis on marine resources.
[3]
[4]
[13]
[17]
He intended to take a master's degree, but said it would be in art:
[7]
"Initially I think I assumed that if I went to school for art I would never have any way of making a living, so I thought it might be smarter to keep art my passion and hobby and study something else. But by the time I got to the end of my undergrad work, I realized I should be in art."
[4]
Early career
[
edit
]
After graduating from college, Hillenburg held various jobs in 1984, including as a park service attendant in Utah and an
art director
in San Francisco, before landing the job he wanted: teaching children.
[7]
He hoped to work in a national park on the coast,
[11]
and eventually found a job at the
Orange County Marine Institute
(now the Ocean Institute),
[11]
an organization in
Dana Point, California
, dedicated to educating the public about
marine science
and
maritime history
.
[18]
Hillenburg was a marine biology teacher there for three years:
[3]
[4]
[19]
"We taught
tide-pool
ecology, nautical history,
diversity
and
adaptation
. Working there, I saw how enamored kids are with undersea life, especially with tide-pool creatures."
[8]
[20]
He stayed at the Dana Point Marina
[13]
and was also a staff artist.
[7]
[15]
[21]
Although "[i]t was a great experience" for him,
[11]
he realized he was more interested in art than his chosen profession.
[19]
While working there, one of the educational directors asked him if he would be interested in creating an educational comic book about the
animal life of tidal pools
.
[7]
[11]
[22]
He created a comic called
The Intertidal Zone
, which he used to teach his students.
[22]
It featured anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into
SpongeBob SquarePants
characters
[23]
– including "Bob the Sponge", the comic's co-host, who resembled a realistic
sea sponge
, as opposed to his later SpongeBob SquarePants character, a sea sponge whose stylized square shape resembles a
kitchen sponge
.
[24]
He tried to get the comic published, but the publishers he approached turned him down.
[7]
[11]
During this time, Hillenburg also started attending
animation festivals
such as the
International Tournee of Animation
and
Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation
, where student films from the
California Institute of the Arts
(colloquially called CalArts) were shown.
[7]
[12]
He determined that he wanted to pursue a career in that field.
[7]
[12]
He had planned to take a master's degree in art, but instead of "going back to school for painting",
[7]
he left his job in 1987 to become an
animator
.
[23]
[24]
Hillenburg enrolled in CalArts' Experimental Animation Program
[4]
[23]
[24]
in 1989.
[11]
About this decision, he said: "Changing careers like that is scary, but the irony is that animation is a pretty healthy career right now and science education is more of a struggle."
[25]
He studied under
Jules Engel
,
[26]
[27]
the founding director of the program,
[27]
[28]
whom he considered his "Art Dad" and mentor.
[27]
[29]
[30]
Impressed by
The Intertidal Zone
, Engel accepted him into the program.
[7]
[24]
Hillenburg said, "[Engel] also was a painter, so I think he saw my paintings and could easily say, 'Oh, this guy could fit in to this program.' I don't have any [prior experience in] animation really."
[7]
Hillenburg graduated in 1992,
[4]
[8]
earning a Master of Fine Arts in
experimental animation
.
[4]
During his time at CalArts, he briefly drew comics for the surfing magazine
KEMA
in 1990.
[31]
Animation career
[
edit
]
Early works
[
edit
]
Hillenburg made his first animated works, short films
The Green Beret
(1991) and
Wormholes
(1992),
[32]
while at CalArts.
[3]
[4]
[5]
[25]
The Green Beret
was about a physically challenged
Girl Scout
with enormous fists who toppled houses and destroyed neighborhoods while trying to sell
Girl Scout cookies
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
Wormholes
was his seven-minute thesis film,
[24]
[33]
about the
theory of relativity
.
[3]
[4]
[33]
He described the latter as "a poetic animated film based on relativistic phenomena" in his grant proposal in 1991 to the
Princess Grace Foundation
,
[34]
which assists emerging artists in American theater, dance, and film.
[35]
The foundation agreed to fund the effort, providing Hillenburg with a Graduate Film Scholarship.
[34]
[36]
"It meant a lot," he said in 2003. "They funded one of the projects I'm most proud of, even with
SpongeBob
. It provided me the opportunity just to make a film that was personal, and what I would call independent, and free of some of the commercial needs."
[34]
Wormholes
was shown at several international animation festivals,
[25]
[34]
including the
Annecy International Animated Film Festival
, the
Hiroshima International Animation Festival
, the Los Angeles International Animation Celebration, the
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
,
[37]
and the
Ottawa International Animation Festival
,
[38]
where it won Best Concept.
[39]
LA Weekly
called the film "road-trippy" and "
Zap
-comical",
[40]
while
Manohla Dargis
of
The New York Times
called it "inventive".
[28]
Hillenburg explained that "anything goes" in experimental animation. Although this allowed him to explore alternatives to conventional methods of filmmaking, he still ventured to employ "an industry style"; he preferred to
traditionally animate
his films (where each
frame
is drawn by hand) rather than, for instance, make cartoons "by filming piles of sand changing".
[7]
He made at least one other short film as an animation student, but its title is unspecified.
[12]
[21]
Rocko's Modern Life
[
edit
]
Hillenburg's first professional job in the animation business was as a
director
[21]
[24]
on
Rocko's Modern Life
(1993?1996),
[3]
[21]
[23]
Nickelodeon
's first in-house cartoon production.
[41]
He "ended up finding work in the industry and got a job" at the television network after he met the show's creator,
Joe Murray
,
[34]
at the 1992 Ottawa International Animation Festival,
[12]
[21]
where
Wormholes
and Murray's
My Dog Zero
were both in competition.
[38]
Murray, who was looking for people to direct
Rocko's Modern Life
at the time,
[21]
saw Hillenburg's film and offered him a directorial role on the television series.
[7]
[21]
[24]
He "[had] friends that [gave him] a hard time about [the offer]. ... but doors opened when [he] stepped into the animation world," so he accepted it.
[21]
He "was planning on being a
starving artist
": "[I spent] several thousand dollars to make a film and [realized] I may not make it back?I had loans out. Fortunately, Joe Murray saw my film
... and he took a huge chance," Hillenburg related.
[12]
Hillenburg worked closely with Murray
[42]
on
Rocko's Modern Life
for its whole run on the air.
[4]
Aside from directing, he also produced, wrote and storyboarded for some episodes, and served as the executive story editor.
[3]
[4]
In particular, the third season episode "
Fish-N-Chumps
" was co-written and directed by Hillenburg, and involved
Rocko
,
Heffer
, and
Filburt
going on a fishing trip, oblivious to the fact that a pair of anthropomorphic sea creatures are attempting to catch them from underwater; this would foreshadow his later work with
SpongeBob
.
[24]
In 1995,
[4]
[42]
during the fourth and final season of
Rocko
,
[43]
Hillenburg was promoted to
creative director
, where he helped oversee pre- and post-production.
[3]
[4]
[42]
Working on the series enabled him to repay his loans.
[11]
He later related that he "learned a great deal about writing and producing animation for TV" from his stint on
Rocko's Modern Life
.
[44]
SpongeBob SquarePants
[
edit
]
Creation
[
edit
]
Some evidence shows that the idea for
SpongeBob SquarePants
dates back to 1986, during Hillenburg's time at the Orange County Marine Institute.
[45]
He indicated that
children's television series
such as
The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse
(1987?1988) and
Pee-wee's Playhouse
(1986?1991) "sparked something in [him]." He continued, "I don't know if this is true for everybody else, but it always seems like, for me, I'll start thinking about something and it takes about ten years to actually have it happen, or have someone else believe in it... It took me a few years to get [
SpongeBob SquarePants
] together."
[21]
During the production of
Rocko's Modern Life
,
Martin Olson
, one of the writers, read
The Intertidal Zone
and encouraged Hillenburg to create a television series with a similar concept. At that point, he had not even considered creating his own series:
[7]
"After watching Joe [Murray] tear his hair out a lot, dealing with all the problems that came up, I thought I would never want to produce a show of my own."
[42]
However, he realized that if he ever did, this would be the best approach:
[7]
[24]
[46]
"For all those years it seemed like I was doing these two totally separate things. I wondered what it all meant. I didn't see a synthesis. It was great when [my two interests] all came together in [a show]. I felt relieved that I hadn't wasted a lot of time doing something that I then abandoned to do something else. It has been pretty rewarding," Hillenburg said in 2002.
[4]
He said that he finally decided to create a series as he was driving to the beach on the
Santa Monica Freeway
one day.
[42]
"It finally dawned on me that if I was going to do my own show, all those things I lectured about and obsessed about would make for an interesting world."
?
Stephen Hillenburg
[43]
As he was developing the show's concept, Hillenburg remembered his teaching experience at the Orange County Marine Institute and how mesmerized children were by tide-pool animals, including
crabs
,
octopuses
,
starfish
, and
sponges
.
[3]
[4]
[42]
It came to him that the series should take place underwater, with a focus on those creatures: "I wanted to create a small town underwater where the characters were more like us than like fish. They have fire. They take walks. They drive. They have pets and holidays."
[42]
It suited what Hillenburg liked for a show, "something that was fantastic but believable."
[42]
He also wanted his series to stand out from most popular cartoons of the time exemplified by
buddy comedies
such as
The Ren & Stimpy Show
(1991?1995). As a result, he decided to focus on one main character: the weirdest sea creature that he could think of. This led him to the sponge:
[7]
"I wanted to do a show about a character that was an innocent, and so I focused on a sea sponge because it's a funny animal, a strange one."
[43]
In 1994,
[15]
Hillenburg began to further develop some characters from
The Intertidal Zone
,
[7]
[15]
including Bob the Sponge,
[7]
who resembles a realistic sea sponge; at first, Hillenburg continued this design
[7]
[21]
[24]
[47]
because it "was the correct thing to do biologically as a marine-science teacher."
[42]
In determining the new character's personality, he drew inspiration from innocent, childlike figures that he enjoyed, such as
Charlie Chaplin
,
Laurel and Hardy
,
Jerry Lewis
,
Pee-wee Herman
,
Abbott and Costello
, and
The Three Stooges
.
[7]
[21]
[45]
[48]
While Hillenburg "retained the idea of a living sea sponge,"
[15]
he soon considered giving the character a square shape (like a
kitchen sponge
), and realized that this idea would match the character's square personality perfectly:
[7]
[21]
[24]
"[I]t looked so funny. I think as far as cartoon language goes he was easier to recognize. He seemed to fit the character type I was looking for?a somewhat nerdy, squeaky clean
oddball
."
[42]
[49]
To voice the central character of the series, Hillenburg turned to
Tom Kenny
, whose career in animation had begun with his role in
Rocko's Modern Life
. Elements of Kenny's own personality were employed in further developing the character.
[50]
[51]
While
pitching
the cartoon to executives at Nickelodeon, Hillenburg donned a
Hawaiian shirt
, brought along an "underwater
terrarium
with models of the characters", and played
Hawaiian music
to set the theme. Nickelodeon executive
Eric Coleman
described the setup as "pretty amazing".
[24]
Although
Derek Drymon
, creative director of
SpongeBob SquarePants
, described the pitch as stressful, he said it went "very well".
[24]
Nickelodeon approved and gave Hillenburg money to produce the show.
[52]
Broadcast
[
edit
]
SpongeBob SquarePants
is Nickelodeon's first original
Saturday-morning cartoon
.
[14]
[53]
It first aired as a preview on May 1, 1999,
[10]
[54]
and officially premiered on July 17 of the same year.
[10]
[14]
Hillenburg noted that the show's premise "is that innocence prevails?which I don't think it always does in real life."
[52]
It has received positive reviews from critics, and has been noted for its appeal to different age groups.
[4]
[43]
[52]
James Poniewozik
of
Time
magazine described the titular character as "the anti-
Bart Simpson
, temperamentally and physically: his head is as squared-off and neat as Bart's is unruly, and he has a personality to match?conscientious, optimistic and blind to the faults in the world and those around him."
[55]
On the other hand,
The New York Times
critic
Joyce Millman
said that the show "is clever without being impenetrable to young viewers and goofy without boring grown-ups to tears. It's the most charming toon on television, and one of the weirdest. ...
Like
Pee-wee's Playhouse
, SpongeBob joyfully dances on the fine line between childhood and adulthood, guilelessness and camp, the warped and the sweet."
[56]
SpongeBob SquarePants
was an immediate hit.
[52]
Within its first month on air, it overtook
Pokemon
(1997?) as the highest-rated Saturday morning children's series.
[53]
By the end of 2001, the show boasted the highest ratings of any children's series on television.
[13]
[57]
[58]
Nickelodeon began adding
SpongeBob SquarePants
to its Monday-through-Thursday prime-time block. This programming change increased the number of older viewers significantly.
[59]
By May 2002, the show's total viewership reached more than 61 million, 20 million of which were aged 18 to 49.
[59]
Hillenburg did not expect the show would be very popular even to adults: "I never imagined that it would get to this point. When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you can't anticipate this kind of craze. We just try to make ourselves laugh, then ask if it's appropriate for children. I can tell you that we hoped it would be liked by adults. But we really thought the best we could hope for was a college audience."
[60]
SpongeBob SquarePants
has gone on to become the longest-running series on Nickelodeon.
[61]
"Ten years. I never imagined working on the show to this date and this long. It never was possible to conceive that. ...
I really figured we might get a season and a cult following, and that might be it," Hillenburg said in 2009 during the show's tenth anniversary.
[12]
Its popularity has made it a
media franchise
, which is the most-distributed property of
MTV Networks
.
[62]
As of 2015
[update]
, it has generated $25 billion in merchandising revenue.
[63]
Departure
[
edit
]
In 2002, Hillenburg halted production of the show after the
third season
was completed to focus on the making of
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
which was released in 2004:
[64]
"I don't want to try and do a movie and the series at the same time. We have 60 episodes and that is probably as many as [Nickelodeon] really needs. It is a standard number for a show like this. I have done a little research and people say it is just crazy doing a series and movie at the same time. I would rather concentrate on doing a good job on the movie," he noted.
[32]
He directed the film from a story that he conceived with five other writer-animators from the series:
Paul Tibbitt
, Derek Drymon,
Aaron Springer
,
Kent Osborne
, and
Tim Hill
.
[65]
The writers created a mythical hero's quest: the search for a stolen crown, which brings SpongeBob and his best friend
Patrick
to the surface.
[66]
In 2003, during the production of
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
, his mentor Jules Engel died at the age of 94.
[67]
Hillenburg dedicated the film to his memory.
[68]
He said that Engel "truly was the most influential artistic person in [his] life."
[29]
[30]
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
grossed $140 million worldwide,
[69]
and received positive reviews from critics. The
review-aggregator
website
Rotten Tomatoes
rates it 68 percent positive based on 125 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. Its consensus states in summary, "Surreally goofy and entertaining for both children and their parents."
[70]
"It reached to a point where I felt I'd contributed a lot and said what I wanted to say. At that point, the show needed new blood and so I selected Paul [Tibbitt] to produce. I totally trusted him. I always enjoyed the way he captured the SpongeBob character's sense of humor. And as a writer, you have to move on?I'm developing new projects."
?
Stephen Hillenburg on leaving
SpongeBob SquarePants
as the showrunner
[12]
After completing the film, Hillenburg wanted to end the series "so [it] wouldn't
jump the shark
."
[12]
[71]
"We're working on episodes 40 through 60 right now, and I always looked at that as a typical run for an animated show. [
The Ren & Stimpy Show
] lasted about that long, for example. And I thought now was a good time to step aside and look at a different project. I personally think it's good not to go to the point where people don't want to see your show anymore," Hillenburg said in 2002.
[4]
However, Nickelodeon wanted to produce more episodes: "The show was such a
cash cow
for the station that it couldn't afford not to," storyboard director
Sam Henderson
observed.
[71]
Initially Hillenburg doubted that the network would continue the show without him, saying: "I think [Nickelodeon executives] respect that my contribution is important. I think they would want to maintain the original concept and quality."
[4]
Consequently, he resigned as the
showrunner
[72]
and appointed his trusted staff member Paul Tibbitt to the role.
[12]
[73]
[74]
Although he no longer had a direct involvement producing
SpongeBob SquarePants
, he retained his position as an
executive producer
[45]
and maintained an advisory role, reviewing each episode.
[72]
[75]
Tibbitt started out as a supervising producer but rose up to executive producer when Hillenburg went into semi-retirement in 2004.
[76]
While he was on the show, he voiced Potty the Parrot
[77]
and sat in with Derek Drymon at the record studio to direct the voice actors while they were recording.
[78]
During the
fourth season
, Tibbitt took on voicing for Potty,
[79]
while
Andrea Romano
replaced the two as the voice director.
[78]
In 2014, Tibbitt announced on his
Twitter
account that Hillenburg would return to the show. However, he did not specify what position the former showrunner would hold.
[80]
As early as 2012, Hillenburg had already been contributing to another film based on the series,
[7]
which was first reported in 2011
[81]
and officially announced the following year,
[82]
with Tibbitt as director. Tibbitt also wrote the story with Hillenburg,
[83]
who "[had] been in the studio everyday working with [the crew]."
Besides writing, Hillenburg also executive-produced.
[85]
He said in 2014: "Actually when [the film]
wraps
, I want to get back to the show. ...
it is getting harder and harder to come up with stories. So Paul [Tibbitt] and I are really going to brainstorm and come up with fresh material."
[11]
Called
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
, the second film adaptation was released in 2015
[86]
to positive critical reception, currently holding a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 80 percent and an average rating of 6.5/10.
[87]
It earned $323.4 million worldwide,
[88]
becoming the second highest-grossing film based on an animated television show, behind
The Simpsons Movie
(2007).
[89]
Other pursuits
[
edit
]
United Plankton Pictures Inc.
Company type
| Private
|
---|
Industry
| Entertainment
|
---|
Founded
| April 1, 1998
; 26 years ago
(
1998-04-01
)
|
---|
Founder
| Stephen Hillenburg
|
---|
Headquarters
| ,
U.S.
|
---|
Products
| SpongeBob SquarePants
|
---|
In 1998,
[90]
Hillenburg formed
United Plankton Pictures Inc.
, a television and film
production company
, which produces
SpongeBob SquarePants
and related media. From 2011 to 2018, the company published
SpongeBob Comics
, a comic-book series based on the cartoon.
[91]
[92]
Hillenburg announced the venture in a 2011 press release, where he said, "I'm hoping that fans will enjoy finally having a
SpongeBob
comic book from me."
[91]
[92]
Various cartoonists, including
James Kochalka
,
Hilary Barta
,
Graham Annable
, Gregg Schigiel, and Jacob Chabot, have contributed to issues of the comic.
[91]
[92]
According to Jeff Lenburg, in his book
Who's Who in Animated Cartoons
, Hillenburg was co-writing and co-directing a second animated feature film based on
Rob Zombie
's comic-book series,
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
, which was slated for a 2006 release.
[93]
He helped to write
Diggs Tailwagger
, a 2007
pilot
by Derek Drymon.
[94]
[95]
In 2010,
[7]
he began working on
Hollywood Blvd., USA
,
[16]
a new short film for animation festivals.
[7]
In making the two-minute film,
[11]
he videotaped people walking and animated them in
walk cycles
.
[7]
[11]
Hillenburg said in 2012, "I hope to get [the film] done. It takes forever." He was aiming to finish it that fall.
[7]
In 2013,
[96]
three years after production began,
Hollywood Blvd., USA
was released to festivals.
[11]
Hillenburg characterized it as a "personal film" and said that "it's not a narrative. It's just really about people in our town."
[7]
Personal life
[
edit
]
In 1998, Hillenburg married Karen Jean Umland,
[97]
[98]
a Southern Californian chef
[99]
who teaches at the New School of Cooking in
Culver City
.
[5]
[32]
[100]
[101]
He deemed her the funniest person he knew,
[32]
and the character of
Karen Plankton
was named after her.
[102]
Also in 1998, their son was born.
[5]
[32]
Hillenburg formerly resided in Hollywood
[32]
[60]
and
Pasadena
,
[6]
[19]
and lived with his family in
San Marino, California
[103]
[104]
until his death.
[105]
His hobbies included
surfing
,
snorkeling
,
scuba diving
, swimming, and performing "noisy rock music" on his guitar.
[4]
[5]
[32]
He jammed with his son, who is a drummer, which Hillenburg called "a great way to bond with each other."
[106]
He also enjoyed
birdwatching
at home,
[106]
but said that he was always "an ocean freak".
[9]
He was known informally as "Steve" among his family, friends, and fans.
[100]
According to his colleagues, he was "a perfectionist workaholic",
[19]
and was also known for his private nature. Julia Pistor, co-producer of
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
, noted that Hillenburg was "very shy". She said: "He doesn't want people to know about his life or family. He's just a really funny, down-to-earth guy with a dry sense of humor who puts his family first and keeps us on our toes in keeping our corporate integrity."
[19]
Hillenburg said about himself: "I make animation because I like to draw and create things. I have no real interest to be on camera or to be a celebrity. It's not that I don't like people, but I like having my privacy."
[64]
Hillenburg's graphic influences were
George Herriman
,
E. C. Segar
,
Bill Watterson
,
Dr. Seuss
,
Max Fleischer
,
Chuck Jones
,
Tex Avery
,
Bob Clampett
,
Jay Ward
,
Jules Engel
,
Matt Groening
,
Joe Murray
and
John Kricfalusi
;
[107]
the latter was inspired to have many close-up shots in several SpongeBob episodes to have grotesque and extremely detailed drawings. He had also cited
Charlie Chaplin
,
Buster Keaton
,
Laurel & Hardy
,
The Three Stooges
,
W.C. Fields
,
Jerry Lewis
,
Jacques Cousteau
,
Jim Henson's
The Muppets
and Paul Reubens'
Pee-wee Herman
.
Philanthropy
[
edit
]
Hillenburg, with his wife Karen endowed numerous projects and organizations through the United Plankton Charitable Trust,
[104]
[108]
which they established in 2005,
[109]
naming after Hillenburg's United Plankton Pictures. It supports areas of their personal interest,
[108]
giving under $500,000 annually as of 2017
[update]
.
[104]
[108]
Grantees include large, established arts-related organizations such as the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
and the
Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound
,
[104]
in which Karen is
co-chair
.
[99]
Health accounts for most of their grantmaking;
[104]
they had gifted
Planned Parenthood
(where Karen has been on the board of directors as of 2014
[update]
[110]
) and the
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
, among other national health organizations.
[104]
In education, they have donated to schools, including the
Polytechnic School
in Pasadena (which their son attended), CalArts, and Humboldt State University.
[108]
Donations to the latter helped fund the HSU Marine Lab
[16]
and the Stephen Hillenburg Marine Science Research Award Endowment, which the couple created in 2018 to support the university's marine-science research students.
[111]
The previous year, the
Princess Grace Foundation
introduced the Stephen Hillenburg Animation Scholarship, an annual grant from the Hillenburgs to emerging animators.
[112]
Illness and death
[
edit
]
Hillenburg disclosed to
Variety
magazine in March 2017 that he had been diagnosed with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), though he continued to work on
SpongeBob SquarePants
for as long as he was able. He added: "My family and I are grateful for the outpouring of love and support. We ask that our sincere request for privacy be honored during this time." Hillenburg was in the early stages of the disease at the time, according to a source close to him.
[113]
During his last days as executive producer, he had difficulty speaking, and it ultimately got to the point where he stopped going to his office due to the progression of the illness.
[114]
Hillenburg died on November 26, 2018, at the age of 57.
[100]
According to his
death certificate
, he died at his home in
San Marino, California
. It also states that his body was
cremated
, and that his ashes were scattered in the
Pacific Ocean
off the coast of California the next day.
[115]
Legacy
[
edit
]
During the
halftime show
for
Super Bowl LIII
, the performing band
Maroon 5
arranged to use a clip from the
SpongeBob
episode "
Band Geeks
" (which uses the song "Sweet Victory" as part of a spoof of a football halftime show) during their show as a means to pay tribute to Hillenburg.
[116]
A full clip of the "Sweet Victory" song, including a dedication to Hillenburg, was played inside
Mercedes-Benz Stadium
, but not during the game, which angered many fans.
[117]
The song was later included in a promo for
ViacomCBS
's
Paramount+
streaming service during
Super Bowl LV
.
[118]
A full, all-
CGI
version was broadcast before Nickelodeon's broadcast of
Super Bowl LVIII
.
[119]
The TV special
SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout
and the theatrical film
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run
which he worked on, are dedicated to his memory.
In 2019, a spin-off of
SpongeBob SquarePants
,
Kamp Koral
, began production, featuring younger versions of the characters attending summer camp. Former showrunner
Paul Tibbitt
stated that Hillenburg would have disliked the idea; he commented, "Steve [Hillenburg] would always say to me, 'You know, one of these days, they're going to want to make
SpongeBob Babies
. That's when I'm out of here.
'
"
[114]
Tibbitt also released a statement stating, "I do not mean any disrespect to my colleagues who are working on this show ... [but] they all know full well Steve would have hated this."
[120]
The concept of
Kamp Koral
came from a
season 12
meeting in October 2018, a month before Hillenburg died.
[121]
Hillenburg is credited as the creator of
Kamp Koral
, and is credited on other spin-offs as the characters' creator.
[122]
[123]
Awards and honors
[
edit
]
In 1992, one of Hillenburg's early works,
Wormholes
, won for Best Concept at the
Ottawa International Animation Festival
.
[39]
For
SpongeBob SquarePants
, Hillenburg was nominated for 17
Emmy Awards
, winning in the categories of Outstanding Special Class Animated Program and Outstanding Sound Editing ? Animation in 2010 and 2014, respectively. The show has also received several other awards and nominations, including 17
Annie Award
nominations, winning six times, as well as winning two
British Academy Children's Awards
, out of four nominations. In 2002,
SpongeBob SquarePants
won its first
TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming
nomination.
In 2001,
Heal the Bay
, an environmental nonprofit organization, honored Hillenburg with its Walk the Talk award.
[4]
[124]
He was recognized for raising public awareness of marine life
[4]
through
SpongeBob SquarePants
.
[124]
The following year, Hillenburg was given the
Television Animation Award
from the
National Cartoonists Society
,
[4]
[125]
and the Princess Grace Statue Award from the Princess Grace Foundation.
[4]
[36]
In 2018, Hillenburg received the
Winsor McCay Award
at the
45th Annie Awards
,
[126]
and a special recognition at the
45th Daytime Emmy Awards
"for his contribution and impact made in the animation field and within the broadcast industry."
[127]
The marine
demosponge
species
Clathria hillenburgi
, known from
mangrove
habitats off the coast of
Paraiba
,
Brazil
, was named in honor of Stephen Hillenburg.
[128]
[129]
On November 18, 2021, Hillenburg was honored with a bench and historical plaque at his alma mater Savannah High School in Anaheim, California. The project was a collaboration between the Hillenburg family, Anaheim Historical Society, and
YouTube
personality Griffin Hansen.
[130]
Karen Hillenburg specifically chose a bright yellow bench that "she thought perfectly captured her husband's warmth and goofiness".
[131]
The memorial was dedicated one day before Savanna High School's 60th anniversary at a school-wide assembly hosted by Hansen and principal Michael Pooley. The event was attended by Karen and Clay Hillenburg, as well as members of
SpongeBob SquarePants'
cast and crew including
Tom Kenny
,
Jill Talley
,
Rodger Bumpass
,
Bill Fagerbakke
,
Clancy Brown
,
Mr. Lawrence
, Marc Ceccarelli, and Derek Drymon.
Filmography
[
edit
]
Film
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
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Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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