Twenty years ago today, the first episode of the What-A-Cartoon! (which served as one of the pilots for The Powerpuff Girls) aired on Cartoon Network. What-A-Cartoon, produced by Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios, is considered one of Cartoon Network's first original series. The show was designed to be a showcase of animated shorts produced by a variety of different creators.

The show ended up spinning off several other Cartoon Network originals including Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow & Chicken, The Powerpuff Girls, and Courage the Cowardly Dog. One of the WaC shorts, "Larry and Steve", even served as a prototype for the ever-popular Family Guy. Other talent that were involved with WaC included William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Pat Ventura, Ralph Bakshi, Butch Hartman, Robert Alvarez, Jerry Eisenburg, Rob Renzetti, and many others.

A total of 48 shorts were produced for this series, and Cartoon Network later made other similar short programs that allowed new talent to produce pilots for prospective shows. I believe What-A-Cartoon! played a huge role in the "creator-driven" era of '90s animation because this show allowed new cartoonists to create their own ideas and become directors of the projects they created. After all, many people who were involved in this project later ended up doing much bigger (and arguably) better things.

As I remember,
The other name of "What-A-Cartoon!" is "World Premiere Toons".

Which ones did Mike Kazah(sic) did? I was wondering if he did the one with a glasses wearing worm getting chased by a stranded bird in a desert.

It's great to see the show now turning 20 this year, but it's too bad WB hasn't released a complete set of the show on DVD yet. But then again, they're mainly releasing the crappy H-B shows on DVD instead of the good ones.

Here's the awesome theme to celebrate..........

Which ones did Mike Kazah(sic) did? I was wondering if he did the one with a glasses wearing worm getting chased by a stranded bird in a desert.

Ah, I remember that one; Boid 'n Worm.

My memories of this show dates back to 1997 when I saw a promo featuring The Powerpuff Girls and ever since I saw them, I sooo wanted that to be a TV show. A year later, my dream came true. 🙂

Other talent that were involved with WaC included William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Pat Ventura, Ralph Bakshi, Butch Hartman, Robert Alvarez, Jerry Eisenburg, Rob Renzetti, and many others.

Bruno Bozetto made a World Premiere Toon, "Help".

Which ones did Mike Kazah(sic) did? I was wondering if he did the one with a glasses wearing worm getting chased by a stranded bird in a desert.

Ah, I remember that one; Boid 'n Worm.

Okay, I look it up and Kazah didn't do it. Though, Mark Kausler helped with it.

Bruno Bozetto made a World Premiere Toon, "Help".

I remember this cartoon. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Bozetto's work.

Bruno Bozetto made a World Premiere Toon, "Help".

That one was always one of my favorites. Although credited to Hanna-Barbera, the short was actually produced in Italy.
A couple other "farmed out" shorts included "Rat in a Hot Tin Can" by Perennial Pictures, and "Courage the Cowardly Dog: the Chicken from Outer Space" by Stretch Films.

There were also a couple of shorts with a rather heavy Ren and Stimpy influence I enjoyed. One was "Buy One, Get One Free" (quite a few Ren and Stimpy alumni were involved, like Scott Willis, Chris Reccardi and Lynne Naylor, along with being animated by Rough Draft Korea), and another was "Tales of Worm Paranoia" (by Eddie Fitzgerald, complete with the APM music library, and animation by Carbunkle Cartoons and Kennedy Cartoons.)

To Mister Bighead: Bruno Bozetto's most well-known work is a rather adult Fantasia parody called Allegro Non Troppo.

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