Reflections on Tom Ruegger

David Stiefel TVPR 210 Reflective Essay Tom Ruegger: Half the Genius Behind Animaniacs, Partially the Inspiration for the Trapezoid Kids

To be honest, I aspire to create numerous things, not all of which are animated, and the inspirations list would be too high to count. But for the scope of this presentation, I will focus primarily on the Trapezoid Kids, which makes things much simpler. Though I was not aware of it till now, probably the biggest influence behind the Trapezoid Kids was the work of Tom Ruegger. Therefore, it would be beneficial to focus most on this man, and one of his most brilliant creations for TV: the Animaniacs. According to KeyFrame Online, Tom Reugger is the chief animator as well as the director and/or producer of numerous children’s cartoons throughout the 1980’s and 90’s. His list of projects includes but is not limited to Yogi’s Treasure Hunt in 1985, Animaniacs in 1993, Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, and Duck Dodgers in 2003. (KeyFrameOnline) The Animaniacs is probably the most inspirational for the concept behind the writing of the Trapezoid Kids, with the 80’s show Alvin and the Chipmunks also playing a role in the inspiration department. Like the Chipmunks, the Trapezoids rely on a human mentor to serve as a parental figure and help them lead as quasi-normal as possible a stable life on Earth. Like the Warner children in Animaniacs, they are incredibly zany creatures with flamboyant personalities that always seem to stumble upon one or another form of comic mischief. The idea of the Trapezoids began in 2003, during a Design and Communication class that I had at Lansing Community College. The assignment involved taking four squares and manipulating them in numerous ways to convey specific abstract concepts. With permission, I turned the squares into trapezoids, to use their upper corners as “arms” to pose them in forms that I felt conveyed their emotional states more efficiently. The assignment with the trapezoids was a success, and soon the Trapezoids found their way into every assignment in that class wherein which it was feasible to include them. It was during the 3-D perspective assignment that they gained their specific body colors, names, origins, and wardrobe preferences, as well as their body texture. From the very beginning, they were a highly musical group of Vaudeville-style lunatics, in keeping with their inspiration origin. Because they don’t have true hands or faces drawn on them, each motion is more open to interpretation, with the context of each situation framing the interpretation. This inverted emotional inference process is also used for the faceless Stationery Voyagers, whose bodies being slightly less flexible, are even more dependent on the principle. In that respect, the writing for Trapezoids follows the pattern of the writing for Animaniacs, in that the writing is to this day considered far more clever and original than the animation style itself. According to a 1995 issue of Animation Magazine, Tom Ruegger based the Warners of Animaniacs on his own children’s personalities. (Animation 12) That same article specified that the Warners were inspired by the black-and-white cartoons of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The emphasis was on the speed of motion and the quick-wit of the motion as it followed the script to convey a sense of something being accomplished. Little emphasis existed on the technology itself. The storyline justification for the look of the Warners in particular, given in then intro to the show itself, is that they were rejected ideas for a 30’s-era cartoon that somehow leapt to life off their pages and were locked away in a water tower for several decades in the hopes that they would be prevented from ruining the studio’s reputation. As KeyFrame Online puts it: “The Animaniacs - Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner - are cartoon characters who were created in the 1930's, but deemed too crazy and 'ahead of their time', and locked up in the Warner Brothers water tower for 60 years. They escaped in 1993, bringing with them Pinky and the Brain, The Goodfeathers (a pigeon send up of 'The Godfather') and a host of other franchises and occasional characters. Episodes would usually (but not always) include three short cartoons starring different sets of characters.” (KeyFrame Online 2)

In reality, Ruegger simply wanted to create characters that were a visual style throwback in appearance, but were more than culturally relevant to the 90’s in personality. I have envisioned the Trapezoids as such; throwbacks in appearance to a style so simple that the greats of animation themselves would have never sunk so low as to draw something so simple for television; yet with personalities that could easily convey their time period. Throughout 2003, I envisioned the Trapezoids in numerous ways as being able to spoof early 21st century pop culture. They would run on some of the most bizarre and seemingly pointless missions throughout their home town, and evade government bureaucrats trying to capture them for study through such means as disguising themselves in endless ways. They would dress up as Matrix characters, South Park characters, and more. Several ideas for running gags were proposed for them as well, in keeping with the running gags in Animaniacs. TV.com points out that Tom Reugger got his start in the business with Hanna-Barbera (TV.com), and as that company began to go bankrupt, went along with Hanna-Barbera’s assets to Warner Bros. Animaniacs was a concept that he came up with as he had the assistance of Steven Spielberg; and while the style is very reminiscent of Tex Avery’s work, with zany creatures of a clearly western visual style violating the laws of physics and rewriting history for comic effect, the staple remains on the brilliance of the writing. In the end, I don’t know if “Motion Graphics Animator” really is the title I would want for myself. Associate Producer/Writer seems more like my biggest strength. Like Ruegger and Spielberg, I’m very big on trying to come up with premises for shows, and developing interesting characters. But I would not want to be the one to draw every single frame of them in action. Throughout this entire piece, I have emphasized the value of the concept; of the goals for the series and characters. But I have found little on the web or elsewhere about Tom’s technical side to Animaniacs, as there is little that is unique about the techniques of 2-D cell animation he used. His strength with that series was the strong writing; and that is what I aspire towards as well, with the Trapezoids as well as with the Voyagers. WORKS CITED "TV Production: What a Character! Part II of a series: The Evolution of Animaniacs." Animation Magazine. July 1995. p. 12.

“Animaniacs.” KeyFrame Online. http://www.keyframeonline.com/Animation/Animaniacs/422/

“Tom Ruegger Biography Page.” KeyFrame Online. http://www.keyframeonline.com/CastCrew/Tom_Ruegger/3742/

“Tom Ruegger Biography.” TV.com. http://www.tv.com/tom-ruegger/person/41626/biography.html