Pendleton Ward

Pendleton Ward
Pendleton Ward in 2011
Born (1982-09-23) September 23, 1982
United States
Pen name Pen Ward, Pendelton Ward, buenothebear
Occupation Animator, writer, voice actor
Residence Los Angeles, California
Nationality American
Education CalArts
Period 2005–present
Genre Science fantasy
Adventure
Comedy-drama
Notable works Adventure Time
Bravest Warriors
Website
buenothebear.com

Pendleton Ward (born September 23, 1982)[1] is an American animator, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor who works for Cartoon Network Studios and Frederator Studios. He created the Emmy Award-winning series Adventure Time (2010-2018)[2] and the internet series Bravest Warriors (2012).[3] Ward is a graduate of the CalArts Animation Program.[4] He grew up in San Antonio, Texas and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Early life

Ward became interested in animation at an early age, inspired by his mother, who is an artist and worked with animators. He started drawing flipbooks in first grade. He often worked with his best friend, Alec "The Logdog" Coates, on short comic books.

Ward attended CalArts, where he became friends with J. G. Quintel and Alex Hirsch. They later worked on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack together. Eric Homan, vice president of Frederator Studios, offered Ward a job at the studios after watching one of his films at the annual CalArts animation screenings.[5]

Career

In 2002–2003, Ward published a webcomic titled Bueno the Bear. He later took down the comics because he thought they were "terrible". However, he retains the name "buenothebear" for his website and his handle on sites such as Twitter. Ward created a student film titled Barrista, starring Bueno the Bear that was later released by Frederator Studios.

Ward continued to work on short animations for Frederator's Random! Cartoons, which aired on the Nicktoons Network. There he worked with several people who would later join him on the Adventure Time series, including composer Casey James Basichis, Adam Muto and Niki Yang, many of whom had attended the California Institute of the Arts alongside Pen. His two shorts were The Bravest Warriors and the Adventure Time animated short. The Adventure Time short was made in 2006 and went on to become an internet phenomenon in 2007, with over a million views by November of that year. Ward initially pitched Adventure Time to Nickelodeon, but was rejected. It also took some time before Cartoon Network decided to pick it up.

In 2007, Ward was hired to work on the first season of Cartoon Network's The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack as a writer and storyboard artist. Flapjack was a storyboard-driven show, allowing the storyboard artists to write all the dialogue and draw all the action based on an outline assigned to them. The artists each worked in pairs, and during his time on Flapjack Ward was partnered up with Mike Roth (formerly the supervising producer of Regular Show) and later Alex Hirsch, who has since gone on to create the show Gravity Falls and develop Fish Hooks for Disney Channel. The experience inspired Pen to approach Adventure Time the same way once it was picked up as a series.

In 2012, Frederator Studios developed Bravest Warriors and turned it into a web series for the relaunch of Cartoon Hangover, however Ward has little involvement in the series. Former Adventure Time lead designer Phil Rynda worked on the redesigns of the characters for the series. The series premiered during the fall of 2012 through Cartoon Hangover's YouTube channel alongside a comic book series of the same name by Boom! Studios.

Sometime during the fifth season of Adventure Time, Ward abruptly stepped down from running the show, explaining it was negatively affecting his "quality of life". In the October 2, 2014 edition of the Rolling Stone magazine, Ward stated "I quit because it was driving me nuts". However, he continued to work as one of the show's writers and storyboard artists until the end of the season six, and he still serves as an executive producer.[6] In an interview with Indiewire prior to the debut of season seven, head writer Kent Osborne noted that Ward had stopped writing episode outlines at the beginning of season 7 but still looks over them and provides input, as he is focusing on an Adventure Time movie.[7]

In 2017, Ward was credited as "Story Consultant" for the current hard-cover adventure for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, 'Tomb of Annihilation'.

Filmography

Television

Year Title Role
2008–2009 Random! Cartoons Storyboard artist, character designer, director
2008–2009 The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack Writer, storyboard artist
2010–2018 Adventure Time Creator, storyline writer (seasons 1–8), storyboard artist (seasons 1, 3, 5, 8), producer (seasons 1–2), executive producer (seasons 3–10), showrunner (seasons 1–5)
2014 Over the Garden Wall Writer, storyboard artist
Episode: "Songs of the Dark Lantern"
2015 Uncle Grandpa Director, writer, storyboard artist, story
Episode: "Guest Directed Shorts"
2012–present Bravest Warriors Creator

Films

Year Title Role
2013 I Know That Voice Himself

Web

Year Title Role
2012–2013 Animation Pals[8] Co-creator
2012–present Bravest Warriors Creator
2014–present Bee and PuppyCat Animatic editor, voice director, writer[9]

Short films

Year Title Role
2007 Barrista Director, writer, animator
2011 Pikapew Poop Chu Story, animatic, soundmixing

Voice roles

Year Title Role Notes
2007 Barrista Bueno the Bear / Sasha Short film
2008 Random! Cartoons Abraham Lincoln / Old Man Episode: "Adventure Time"
2009 The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack Rower #1 / Sail Boss Episode: "Ben Boozled"
2010–2018 Adventure Time Lumpy Space Princess / Shelby / Additional voices 85 episodes
2011 Pikapew Poop Chu Ash / Brock Short film
2012 Bravest Warriors Computer Episode: "Emotion Lord"
2013 I Know That Voice Himself Documentary
2014 Broken Age Gus Video Game
2015 Uncle Grandpa Uncle Grandpa / Pizza Steve Episode: "Guest Directed Shorts"
2016 The Simpsons Couch Gag singer Episode: "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus"

Influences

Ward has previously stated that his friends, many of whom he works alongside on Adventure Time, are his biggest drawing and animating influences.[10] In another interview, he explained that he was influenced by The Simpsons.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "FamilySearch.org". Familysearch.org. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  2. ↑ Weisman, Jon (August 14, 2013). "Emmy Wins Come Early for 'Adventure Time,' 'Portlandia,' 'Simpsons'". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  3. ↑ Sims, Chris. "'Adventure Time' Creator Pendleton Ward's Next Project, 'Bravest Warriors,' Looks Awesome Archived 2012-05-14 at the Wayback Machine. and Flapjack". Comics Alliance. February 8, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Pendleton Ward Bio". Turner. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  5. ↑ Farago, Andrew. "Random Thoughts from Frederator Cartoonists Archived 2012-06-26 at the Wayback Machine.". Animation World Network. Thursday January 29, 2009. Retrieved on July 28, 2011.
  6. ↑ Strauss, Neil. "'Adventure Time': The Trippiest Show on Television". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  7. ↑ Kohn, Eric (June 18, 2015). "Kent Osborne Explains the Crazy Logic Behind 'Uncle Kent 2' and the 'Adventure Time' Connection". Indiewire. Snagfilms. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-04-16. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
  9. ↑ "Bee and PuppyCat (TV Series 2013– )". IMDb.com. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
  10. ↑ Ewalt, David. "It's Adventure Time! Pendleton Ward Talks About His Hit Cartoon". Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  11. ↑ DeMott, Rick. "Time for Some Adventure with Pendleton Ward." Animation World Network. Sunday April 25, 2010. Retrieved on November 20, 2010.
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