Dr. T: Ah...not my science book.

JK: You write what you know. So why would you come into the animation business not able to draw and all of a sudden you want to tell all the people who do know, how the stuff works and what to do? You don’t know anything about the art of it. I mean, yeah, physically you can write, but you’re going to make every artist hate your guts, and you’re going to make crap. It won’t stand the test of time because it’s just not utilizing the media.

Bob Clampett, receiving an award here from Rudy Ising, introduced Kricfalusi to Milton Gray, who worked at Filmation by day and taught classical animation class by night.

Dr. T: Let’s talk about a subject dear to both of us — Bob Clampett. How important was his personal guidance in your career?

JK: He honestly didn’t give me that much personal guidance. Whenever I asked him how he did anything, he wasn’t that articulate in explaining the creative process. He was just a natural, he was gifted — he just did it. He was so good at it that he never overanalyzed it. He did tell me what it was like working at the [Warner] studio; he told me tons of stories about the people there. He was totally inspirational in that sense. And also, I was too young to really know exactly what questions to ask him to find out anything in a technical sense. I didn’t know enough yet to ask any intelligent questions. But he was totally inspirational both in his work and his personality because he was as funny as his cartoons.

Dr. T: Your work, from Mighty Mouse up through The Ripping Friends, has always been marked by emotional intensity, surreal characters, outrageous gags, funny character design — that’s out of the Clampett tradition, but how would you say you differ from him?

JK: Well, I have a tough time writing short cartoons. I don’t know why, because I love short cartoons. I guess I’m long-winded. Maybe I get more into the psychology of the characters than Clampett does. Then, this is a different time period, and that’s the main difference. He just grew up in a different world. I don’t purposely try to be different than Clampett; he’s my absolute favorite cartoonist of all time, and I’d like to be able to do something half as good as his cartoons.

Kricfalusi feels animation today is marred by writers who can't write well or draw.

Dr. T: Clampett seemed to go through distinct phases in his career. From about 1937-40, he was into wild distortions, like in The Daffy Doc.

JK: Man, I love those black and white cartoons!

Dr. T: Then, like for a year or two he seemed to settle down into spot gags and celebrity-driven cartoons.

JK: You know what that is? That’s because he was finishing Tex Avery’s cartoons. He took over that unit when Avery left, and finished a lot of cartoons that Tex had already storyboarded.

Dr. T: Then he geared up again right around 1942 with Wabbit Twouble, and by 1943 he was doing some of his best work. Do you feel that your career has gone through distinct phases as well?

JK: Well, I don’t analyze it, so I don’t know. You’d probably be better at picking that up! I don’t think about the last thing I did. Once it’s done, I don’t even want to look at it. I’m thinking about the next thing.

Dr. T: Wasn’t it Bob Clampett who first referred you to Filmation in 1979?

JK: Well, Bob Clampett didn’t refer me to Filmation; he introduced me to Milt Gray, who worked at Filmation and was a classic animation freak. He worked at Filmation doing crap, and he knew it was crap, but he was teaching a classical animation class at night. So Bob Clampett wasn’t recommending Filmation to me. He recommended that I go meet Milt Gray, join his class, and then maybe Milt could let me know where there’s work and get me in somewhere.

Dr. T: Milt Gray is one hell of an animation historian.