Craig Bartlett

Lore & Background

Bartlett graduated from the Evergreen State College and began his career at Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon, learning stop-motion animation on films such as The Adventures of Mark Twain. He moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to animate the 'Penny' claymations for the second season of Pee-wee's Playhouse. He later worked at BRC Imagination Arts, directing projects for Knott's Berry Farm, and animated the music video for 'Jurassic Park' by 'Weird Al' Yankovic.

Bartlett met Nickelodeon executives while working as a storyboard artist on Rugrats in its first three seasons and directing episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show. He pitched Hey Arnold! in fall 1993, produced a pilot in spring 1994, and the series was greenlit in January 1995. The show ran from 1995 to 2001 through his production company Snee-Oosh, Inc., culminating in the theatrical film Hey Arnold!: The Movie in June 2002. A dispute over a second planned Arnold movie led him to leave Nickelodeon and create the direct-to-video film Party Wagon, released in 2004.

In 2005, Bartlett returned to BRC to make the Shuttle Launch Experience for NASA's Kennedy Space Center, interviewing 26 astronauts. He later worked at The Jim Henson Company, co-writing Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby and serving as story editor on Sid the Science Kid. Dinosaur Train debuted on PBS Kids in September 2009, and Ready Jet Go! premiered in February 2016. In November 2015, Viacom announced Bartlett would return to Nickelodeon to write Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie, which premiered on November 24, 2017.

Reader's Guide

Craig Bartlett's significance lies in his creation of three distinct animated television series that reached broad audiences across different age groups. Hey Arnold! became a cultural touchstone for Nickelodeon in the late 1990s, known for its urban setting and character-driven stories. His later work on PBS Kids with Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go! demonstrated his ability to craft educational content for preschoolers. Bartlett's career also includes contributions to stop-motion animation, music videos, and immersive attractions for NASA. His return to the Hey Arnold! franchise with The Jungle Movie in 2017 underscored the lasting appeal of his original creation. Bartlett's work reflects a versatility across animation techniques and platforms, from network television to educational programming and theme park experiences.

Did You Know?

• Bartlett founded his production company, Snee-Oosh, Inc., in 1986.
• He animated the music video for 'Jurassic Park' by 'Weird Al' Yankovic.
• Bartlett interviewed 26 astronauts while working on the Shuttle Launch Experience for NASA.
• He married Lisa Groening, sister of Matt Groening, in 1988.

From Stop-Motion to Storytelling: Bartlett's Early Animation Years

Craig Michael Bartlett's path into animation began not in a television studio but in a small workshop in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, he took his first professional role at Will Vinton Studios, where he absorbed the craft of stop-motion animation while contributing to films like The Adventures of Mark Twain. That hands-on foundation shaped his visual sensibility for years to come. In 1987, he relocated to Los Angeles to create the claymation segments featuring the character Penny for the second season of Pee-wee's Playhouse on CBS, and he also crafted an animated network ID alongside Klasky Csupo for NBC. His range expanded further during his tenure at BRC Imagination Arts, where he directed interactive attractions such as Postcards and Mystery Lodge for Knott's Berry Farm, and he even animated the music video for Weird Al Yankovic's 1993 track 'Jurassic Park' from the album Alapalooza. Throughout this period, Bartlett was building the infrastructure for his own creative voice, having already established his production company Snee-Oosh, Inc. in 1986.

Hey Arnold!: The Series That Defined a Generation

Bartlett's encounter with Nickelodeon's leadership came organically through his work story editing Rugrats across its first three seasons and directing three episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show. Those connections set the stage when, in the autumn of 1993, he pitched a new concept to the network's executives. By the following spring he had produced a pilot, and in January 1995 the series received its green light. Hey Arnold! ran continuously from 1995 through 2001, produced under his own banner, Snee-Oosh, Inc. The show's narrative arc reached its climax in a feature-length special originally conceived as Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, which Nickelodeon ultimately released in theaters as Hey Arnold!: The Movie in June 2002. Bartlett also co-wrote the official novelization of that film alongside Maggie Groening, published in 2002. A creative disagreement over a planned second Arnold feature led him to part ways with the network, but his relationship with the character endured: in November 2015, Viacom confirmed he would return to write Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie, which premiered on November 24, 2017.

Beyond the Neighborhood: Diverse Projects and Later Series

After leaving Nickelodeon, Bartlett channeled his storytelling instincts into a wide variety of formats. In 2005 he returned to BRC Imagination Arts to develop the Shuttle Launch Experience, a multimedia simulator attraction for NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Over the course of that three-year project he sat down with twenty-six astronauts to capture their firsthand accounts of the journey from launch to orbit, including four-time shuttle commander and then-NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. His path then led him to The Jim Henson Company, where he co-wrote the animated feature Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs and a Baby and served as story editor on the PBS Kids preschool series Sid the Science Kid alongside executive Linda Simensky, a collaborator he had known from his earlier Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network years. In September 2008, PBS Kids picked up Dinosaur Train, produced by Henson, marking the first new series Bartlett created to be greenlit since Hey Arnold!; it debuted on PBS stations on September 7, 2009. Ready Jet Go! followed in April 2015, produced by Wind Dancer Films and Snee-Oosh, premiering February 15, 2016.

Personal Life, Jazz, and a Lifelong Love of Pop Culture

Born on October 18, 1956, Bartlett grew up in Anacortes, Washington, where he attended Anacortes High School before moving on to Evergreen State College. In 1987 he married Lisa Groening, sister of Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, Futurama, and Disenchantment—the same Lisa whose name would later become iconic as a character on The Simpsons. The couple had two children, Matt and Katie, though by August 2018 reports indicated the pair had been separated since 2015 and were working through a divorce settlement. Musically, Bartlett is deeply devoted to jazz, a taste that runs through every series he has created, all of which were scored by composer Jim Lang in that style. His love of popular culture extends well beyond the animation world: he has expressed strong admiration for The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and David Bowie, alongside the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, The Wizard of Oz, Titanic, the Peanuts universe, and the films of Hayao Miyazaki.