[SPEAKER_03]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Bible for Kids Podcast with your hosts, author Trisha Goyer, and author and co-creator of Veggie Tales, Mike Nuraki.
[SPEAKER_01]: If instilling biblical values and kids is important to you, this podcast will give you the resources, wisdom, and hope to do just that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now let's join our hosts, Trisha, and Mike for this week's episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am Trisha Goyard.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm Mike Naraki, and today we're pleased to welcome filmmaker and animator Butch Hartman onto the podcast to talk about his animated series, The Garden Cartoon.
[SPEAKER_03]: Woohoo!
[SPEAKER_03]: Cartoons!
[SPEAKER_03]: I love cartoons today.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mentioned I love cartoons.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna do a woohoo with you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Woohoo!
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you see another cartoon lover awesome.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know, the reason I love cartoons, I think you'll agree with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody likes them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like everybody no matter the age loves cartoons, little kids, adults, because adults harkin' back to when they were kids, you can pretty much do anything in a cartoon, and people just love seeing animals talk, I think it's great.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is awesome and you could do it before there was AI you could make animals talk with cartoons.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my gosh, if you even look back at like the early early, but like Pinocchio, like all the Disney stuff, that they would do on hand-drawn cells, like those sequences in Pinocchio and Snow White, all hand-drawn, all on individual pieces of paper and plastic.
[SPEAKER_02]: The fact that they got these things done, they look so incredible.
[SPEAKER_02]: We could never do that now by hand.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's amazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, no, it'd be way too expensive if you had to do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, but my goodness.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, all right, we're going to get into talking a little bit more and about animation, but like always with the Bible for good podcast, we like to start with the Bible verse.
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, since we're talking about the garden, I have a verse here from Genesis.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's taken from Genesis 1, 26 and 27.
[SPEAKER_03]: Then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness so that
[SPEAKER_03]: They may rule over the fish in this sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock, and the wild animals talking and non-talking, over all the creatures that move along the ground.
[SPEAKER_03]: So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.
[SPEAKER_00]: and after two decades shaping some of the most beloved animated series of the television history award winning animator and producer which Hartman with give this 4.2 million combined social reach is entering a bold nude crib chapter through the launch of which Hartman studios and independent animation studio dedicated to high quality, faith, faith storytelling, and he is inspiring children and
[SPEAKER_03]: amazing and you may know a bunch is best known for creating the classic Nickelodeon series the fairly odd parents which wow that celebration is that that's 25th anniversary territory right now
[SPEAKER_02]: And two weeks as the request we record this, wow, wow, it's March 30th, March 30th, 2001 is when it aired and we're recording this on March 19th, 2020, 26, which I still can't believe, 25 years ago blows my mind.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's amazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's incredible.
[SPEAKER_03]: Of course, Danny Phantom and Hartman is now combining his signature humor and imagination with purpose-driven content for families.
[SPEAKER_03]: His flagship project, The Garden Cartoon, is streaming on Angel Studios, Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and more with two feature films already released in a slate of 10 new animated projects in development.
[SPEAKER_03]: But, welcome, formally now.
[SPEAKER_03]: We chat a little bit, but great to see you again and have you back on the podcast.
[SPEAKER_02]: Guys, guys, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: I started talking to early.
[SPEAKER_02]: I should have shut up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, no, I love it when we sort of mix it up a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: Guys, I'm psyched to be here.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, you're catching a guy here.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm 61 years old now.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I get to sew draw cartoons every day.
[SPEAKER_02]: And life is amazing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm having my second grandchild very soon.
[SPEAKER_02]: I should say my daughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: My daughter is not me.
[SPEAKER_02]: But my second grandchild will be here in October.
[SPEAKER_02]: My first one's 14 months, it's a little girl named Coco.
[SPEAKER_02]: And my second grandchild will be here in October, and I'm so thrilled we're beyond excited.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's incredible, and to be making, you know, actively making content for your, your grandkids.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's, that's amazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I've yet to have grandkids yet, but I'm looking forward to it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I, I'd say there's nothing better than winding them up and saying, bye, guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: See you later.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what I hear.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I will say this by having kids when we we got to take her for her her dance class and she's only 14 months old But my wife and I got to bet my wife and I got to babysit and she was so Sweet to us although girl she she was my little daughter my granddaughter She didn't make a peep.
[SPEAKER_02]: She played with us.
[SPEAKER_02]: She was she knows us so well now, which is great And my granddaughter lives in Florida
[SPEAKER_02]: and I live in California.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's my wife and I fly to Florida every six weeks to see my family.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we were making an effort to get out to social noses.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the test.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the best.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have to say the fairly odd parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my kids, I've older kids and then we adopted more.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's my oldest, our C36, 32 and 31.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we've seen every episode so many times.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love it so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so.
[SPEAKER_00]: funny, yet clean, and yet now I have rankets too.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just have, it's so much stuff that you're producing, but I would love to hear, you know, if you've had the success in mainstream animation, what led you to launch department studios.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thanks for asking.
[SPEAKER_02]: And boy, thanks for being a fan of fairly odd parents.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been talking about that for ages.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just such a wonderful piece of my life and God really gave me this incredible idea over 25 years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we'd said our 20th anniversary coming up.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I really got into doing my own stuff because I think, and you guys know, and Mike, Mike knows, a lot of the studios in Hollywood now, it's really hard to get things made.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the gatekeepers have really changed that their landscape has changed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Where even though back in the day it was there were less gates to get in they were a little easier to get in I guess But now there's more gates, but ironically all they want to do is rehash old stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: They want to make reboots of old things and that's fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's wonderful
[SPEAKER_02]: But new things are really hard to get going.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I thought, why don't I just do this myself?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I can make the things on my own.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can control it all.
[SPEAKER_02]: And but the trick with that is you've got to pay for everything up front and then you have to get the distribution and all this stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a trade-off.
[SPEAKER_02]: And but I look at this way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Walt Disney had to start from square one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why can't I start from square one?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm not even starting from square one.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've got already got a track record of 25 years.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, Disney started with nothing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, I'm not comparing myself like I'm Walt Disney, but I look at great people like that going, you've got to start somewhere.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the Lord says this and the Bible says, you're first, there's the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's always a process.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's seed time and harvest.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody wants the harvest part.
[SPEAKER_02]: I get it, but there's the seed and there's the time part that people seem to forget about, but I'm right now in the time part.
[SPEAKER_02]: We planted a seed now in the time part.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_03]: One, I've heard it said before too that any movie or TV series that gets made is kind of a miracle in and of itself because there's so much to go into and so many obstacles that you have to overcome to get to that point and it's
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so difficult and so when you see something up there of quality and you see the heart and the artistry and it's just you know, it's just amazing to see Well, I tell people all the time that telling a show to come up with an idea and then sell it and keep it up I say it's like throwing a dart through a donut, but the donut is on a merry-go-round
[SPEAKER_02]: And everything has to align perfectly for even the bad shows have to go through this.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it breaks my heart when I see a show come on and it's only on for a couple weeks and it's gone because it took so much time to get it done and how many bad movies get made?
[SPEAKER_02]: All these movies get made and some are great, some aren't, but it's like people need to take advantages opportunities and take them seriously.
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you know, you mentioned, you know, we talked about fairly odd parents being clean and fun, but not not faith driven or right based.
[SPEAKER_03]: What inspired your shift toward purpose, driven, faith based storytelling?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, great question.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, when I was at Nickelodeon, had a great time there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I worked there for 20 years and in 2018, I started feeling this kind of, I guess you would say, it was just time to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know it was the Holy Spirit really telling me it's time to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: And because being anywhere for 20 years is a, um,
[SPEAKER_02]: is a lifetime.
[SPEAKER_02]: It really is.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had a great time in Nickelodeon, but it was really kind of kind of plant my own flag.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I left in 2018.
[SPEAKER_02]: And but I really wanted to start making Christian content because I looked at the marketplace of Christian stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's so little good stuff out there for kids in the Christian marketplace.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is some.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is
[SPEAKER_02]: But Mike, you're going to love this every time I would say to people, name a Christian cartoon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Veggie Tales comes up.
[SPEAKER_02]: First thing anybody says.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And which is awesome.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, that's so cool.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we got to like add to the roster, like you know, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't just have Superman, you have to have Batman, you have to have Aquaman, you have to have Wonder Woman, you know, so I want to make sure that we have more heroes in the roster.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's where my, my idea was, let's just put some more stuff out there.
[SPEAKER_03]: oh man that is so true yeah and just to have that critical mass of things that are truly entertaining and engaging and because kids identify with characters and if they care about the characters they care about what the characters have to say and that's a big mission field so
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, but I still have people lining up at Comic-Con, there's 30, 40 years old that grow up with my show that still love these characters so much and want me to draw them and it's really, really cool.
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely, such a powerful thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, we have to take a short break, so we're going to do that and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast.
[SPEAKER_03]: Tricia and I are speaking with animator, butch heartman.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would love to hear how your faith has specifically influenced the stories now you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to do more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to write my faith stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: What process are you thinking through and how did you come up with what you've created?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thanks for asking, you know, I didn't grow up in a godly home.
[SPEAKER_02]: I grew up in a house where, you know, just a standard regular house where we live by our wits, everybody live by the world's standards, all that type of thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, my parents were great people, but nobody really went to church, nobody understood who the Lord was unless you hit your finger with a hammer, you didn't say Jesus' name at all, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: So, but I didn't know about the Bible my whole life.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't know the story of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't know who the disciples were.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't know who Moses was.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't know the Garden of Eden stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you'd hear things we wouldn't really understand.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to do a cartoon that could at least begin explaining some of this stuff to kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know where I was all the time when I was a kid.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was in front of a television.
[SPEAKER_02]: Those of you that are under 30, that was a box we had in our house where pictures would come on.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Sal would come up, but I was in front of the TV and anything on that TV I would watch.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I thought if I could make a cartoon that would explain the Bible, but in a fun way and show kids how to interact with it and how they can learn these biblical lessons too.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe they'll learn something, maybe they won't have to go through the same trials and tribulations I went through.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I thought I'll do a cartoon that explains that which way I came up with a garden cartoon, which is a little lion.
[SPEAKER_02]: name Lenny with a little lamb named Lucy and together they live and work in a miraculous garden where anything can grow even an idea God comes down as a rainbow every day they call him the boss hey boss because they work for him and so every day it gives him an assignment and teaches them an original song that we have 45 songs in this show I'm trying to be just like veggie tells him copying you
[SPEAKER_02]: But they learn what the Bible means.
[SPEAKER_02]: They learn how to put these biblical principles into action in their life.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's super funny on top of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: We try to make it as funny as possible for that age range.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_03]: Trisha, did you have a follow-up?
[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, I didn't mean to call you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always just love, like, you just jumped over, like, I wonder if you're how you came to fate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm like, oh, I'm so glad to hear the rest of the story, and I'm thinking of the listeners too, they're like, wait, wait, you started.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, and we do want to hear more about the garden cartoon, but I just love to hear how you came to fate, because, yeah, first of all, if you're working in Hollywood, it seems like, that's kind of almost the last place.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would think, but I would love to hear your story.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll try and condense it here.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't get a save to love a 35 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm 61 now and my wife and I she also wasn't say we got married as unsaved people.
[SPEAKER_02]: We had two kids two daughters as unsaved people and then we asked a friend of ours who had kids before us.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have really great kids.
[SPEAKER_02]: How how are your kids so great?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we got a church all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was one of his answers.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we grew up in we grew up in very chaotic homes my wife and I a lot of crazy stuff going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I want my kids have a house of peace.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't care what that takes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm willing to sacrifice whatever that is to have a house of peace.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we started going to church.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, once you make that decision in your heart, what church do you go to?
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't even know the first thing to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't know the first place to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Church after church, we didn't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: We finally ended up going to an all-African American church called Crenshaw Christian Center.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was passed by Frederick Casey Price.
[SPEAKER_02]: in South Central Los Angeles, and it was the greatest church I'd ever gone to at the time, because he really taught us how to look in that Bible and discover the answers for ourselves.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I got into the word so much, I ended up going to say I went to college in my car at an hour,
[SPEAKER_02]: I had an hour drive back and forth to Nickelodeon each way and I had CDs, tapes, I back when tapes were things.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had CDs, tapes, all this stuff listening over and over again to teach you after teacher, after teacher, because I wanted to know why this, why that, who is this, why is this person mentioned, what does this mean, why did Jesus die for our sense, what does it even mean when you say that, I don't understand what that means,
[SPEAKER_02]: And now it's all kind of come full circle now in the pastor, my wife and I have our own church called New Branch Family Fellowship in Woodland Hills, California, or both pastors.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so now we've come from people who didn't even know about the Bible to teaching it now.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's only because of him.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had to die to myself when 1,000 percent.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's only because of Jesus that I was able to do that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, amen.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, let's, you know, getting back to the cartoon series, the Garden Cartoon, I'd love to hear, you know, whenever you're creating something, you're wanting to kind of carve out its own space and differentiate it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know, you know, obviously, you know, it's faith-based, but you know, what makes it different from other children's or specifically faith-based animated content.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think to be very honest with you, it's higher quality than most.
[SPEAKER_02]: We didn't always spend that much extra money on it either.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very, very inexpensive to make compared to, let's say, an Nickelodeon show or something.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I've been doing it for so long.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know how to take shortcuts.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know how to make things look as great as they possibly can for a very small amount of money.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do 12 jobs on the show.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm calling in favors.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm taking Hollywood level skills.
[SPEAKER_02]: and bringing it to this marketplace that really desperately needs it, especially the writing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And my thing was, I don't care how great it looks even though I wanted to look great.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want the high level writing to be there.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you have great characters, great stories, people will follow four years and years and years, as you well know Mike.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I wanted something to look, not look great, but have really entertaining, fun characters.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we've achieved it.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you're right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, the writing, the acting, and then the design, if you can, if you can design a world, even if it's, you know, economical, you know, good design goes a long way and you can, you can, you know, make something really pleasant looking and well animated without having to, you know, have a Pixar budget.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, at the end of the day, we're all storytellers and it doesn't really, you know, what I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the right hands,
[SPEAKER_02]: even a simple story can be unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_02]: I look at sign-filled, a show about nothing, but in the right hands, number one show on TV.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you get these other movies that cost billions of dollars and they're just terrible and you don't want to see them at all.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're like, what happened?
[SPEAKER_02]: What happened there?
[SPEAKER_02]: But I'll watch Napoleon Dynamite over and over again, you know, because it's because it's funny.
[SPEAKER_02]: so it's it's it's the story and who is the greatest storyteller our Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest storyteller and if we're made in his image we have the ability to tell stories the way he did that's great you sound like a pastor man I think hey I need a mess I need a mess for this Sunday so I'm trying to come up with one thank you thank you thank you
[SPEAKER_00]: And you mentioned that you passed it with your wife, your wife passed it too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you did she work with us on the series, Cartoon series with you too?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, 100% my wife is the CFO.
[SPEAKER_02]: May I, my wife handles all the money because my wife doesn't draw.
[SPEAKER_02]: She doesn't write, but she says, I'll do this with you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll handle all the money.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so together, my wife used to work in Hollywood too.
[SPEAKER_02]: She worked on the Jeopardy Show for 14 years.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so she worked on Jeopardy.
[SPEAKER_02]: I worked in Nickelodeon.
[SPEAKER_02]: We would ton of Hollywood know how.
[SPEAKER_02]: You brought it all to bear on this show, the garden, started butchartman studios.
[SPEAKER_02]: We now we have a ton of other faith and family projects in the works.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are, I just about, we just started doing two brand new half-hour specials.
[SPEAKER_02]: A different show is that we're making.
[SPEAKER_02]: One is a Christian type show and one is just family straight up.
[SPEAKER_02]: But look, I always say that there's people that will never go into a church.
[SPEAKER_02]: kids will never go on in but they'll always have a cell phone in their hand.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so what goes on that cell phone.
[SPEAKER_02]: My job is to get the anybody to watch the cell phone and to get my stuff on that cell phone.
[SPEAKER_02]: Cause I want to be at least an option they can have.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's like a refrigerator full of junk food.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I want to be the apple.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to be the grapes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to be the healthy option inside of the fridge, you know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because at the end of the day, all of us have seen terrible stuff, we've seen dark stuff that's out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh God, don't watch that, don't watch that, don't watch that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I want to be the one people that parents say, okay, that one's good to watch.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can watch that because even non-Christian people want their kids to have healthy stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: right right well and that's that was leading right into the next question that was going to ask it was just as you know why do you believe parents and grandparents are you know and I feel like this has been like that for many like this for many years but it seems like it's just getting worse and worse they're increasingly concerned about what kids are watching on TV right so can you absolutely but
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, sure thing, you know why they're concerned because they saw the effect it's had on their lives.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we've all grown up with all of this stuff and a lot of us have had to deal with a lot of nonsense in our minds and our hearts because of the stuff we've been exposed to.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we see it not getting any better and you're going well.
[SPEAKER_02]: This happened because I watched this and I saw this at two early of an age.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think now today's grandparents were saying, you know what, we can help to build a better entertainment landscape.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it's time that all of us do our part because everybody watches entertainment.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't care who you vote for, I don't care what church you go to, I don't care what you do.
[SPEAKER_02]: And everybody has a screen and they watch something.
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, we're even doing this interview on a screen, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: We're doing this whole interview.
[SPEAKER_02]: together on this Zoom call and everybody's got a screen that's something will be on.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's our responsibility.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you can't just do it from money.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you just do it from money, it's going to be a very shallow and hollow victory for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you do it to get people's hearts in the right place, you're going to have a much more robust harvest, I'll say.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think you're right, like people that aren't even believers, they want their kids to have moral.
[SPEAKER_00]: They want their kids to have values.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: My daughter teaches at a university in the Czech Republic, and she just last week was on this trip with some of her students, and there was four different countries like Slovakia and Czech, and I don't know, Norway, and they came together and the whole teaching thing that they were teaching college students who were going to go teach students is how to incorporate
[SPEAKER_00]: values and characters in the classroom, you know, to say when someone raises their hands, you're talking about, look at how brave you are, and calling out these characters, she goes, mum, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was all, it was
[SPEAKER_00]: We'd like that when they note fairly odd parents, veggie tales, how about how we can use a little bit more about how we can use animation to actually teach and show these things in a way that's fun and natural and not like we're hitting them over the head with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's a great question, too.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you need to never want to pray about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're a Christian entertainer or a filmmaker of any kind, you pray about that's the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_02]: How do I do this the best way possible?
[SPEAKER_02]: The main thing is to tell a great story, to tell a great story about redemption with redemptive qualities, with characters that may be fail, but then get back up and achieve at the end.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll use the movie Rocky as an example.
[SPEAKER_02]: He gets beat up, but then he comes back, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: People love a story where someone overcomes adversity and they triumph, but they have a redemptive arc through the story.
[SPEAKER_02]: That always works.
[SPEAKER_02]: It always will.
[SPEAKER_02]: So try and keep your stories in that and that will house if you can.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, and it really, it's how God works through our lives as well, you know, by bringing us to the end of ourselves and and redeeming us and, you know, And it's only, it's only when you get to the end of yourself, you allow him in your heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: Up until that point, you think you've got it all figured out just like the rich young ruler in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Lord, how can I do this?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, still everything you have and follow me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry I can't do that and he walks away.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the only one ever walked away from Jesus unchanged.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody else who encountered Jesus got changed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody who ever encounters Jesus in a real way gets changed for the better.
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_03]: And story is fundamentally about change.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so if you can see that in a way that's true that engages kids, they're going to step into that.
[SPEAKER_02]: and parents too.
[SPEAKER_02]: I get people all the time with fairly on parents.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're adults now.
[SPEAKER_02]: My gosh, when I was a kid, I didn't get half the jokes, but now I'm growing up.
[SPEAKER_02]: I get all these other jokes and my kids are my kids are watching it now, my guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if it can have a cross appeal down generations, you're really hitting them all out of the park that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's wonderful.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's time again for another short break.
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're going to take that and we'll be right back on the Bible for kids.
[SPEAKER_03]: What if you could empower kids to engage with the gospel?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Bible for Kids Podcast, and Trish and I are speaking with
[SPEAKER_00]: but how does the line in the land foundation fit your broader mission to protect families and support wholesome entertainment?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that thank you for asking.
[SPEAKER_02]: Line in land is a foundation set up.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a 501C3.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a non-profit, but it is for people who want to help us in our mission.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what I mean by that is this, I'm a pastor, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: But any ties that come into my church go to the church.
[SPEAKER_02]: How do I get people to help me support what I'm doing?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because let's face it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But Charmin Studios is not Disney Studios yet.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not Universal Studios yet.
[SPEAKER_02]: But in this studio, and we do need funding to make things happen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's face it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to pay people top dollar to make these wonderful, wonderful cartoons.
[SPEAKER_02]: because they get motivated and they need to make a living as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, line and land foundation exists so people can donate to us.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what it's for, I meet a lot of people who maybe they can't invest in million dollars, but they can give me $10.
[SPEAKER_02]: They can give us $50.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's what line and land is for.
[SPEAKER_02]: It only goes for the funding of the shows and for the marketing of the shows.
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's face it without marketing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Without advertising, nobody knows we're here and this is a real realization I've come to doing all this with got a market ourselves We got to tell people that we exist.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you want to help us out go to linealamfoundation.org It's the thought linealamfoundation.org Go check it out and we'd love to see if you could support us and help us.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd be wonderful.
[SPEAKER_03]: wonderful.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I love that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when we both got into the business, it was either about, you know, broadcast television or cable TV obviously with Nickelodeon.
[SPEAKER_03]: Veggie Tales was built off a home video model.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, um, but now everything is about streaming, you know, and so that's a whole, the whole marketplace has turned over to stream it's upended a lot of different things.
[SPEAKER_03]: What excites you the most about the future of kids entertainment and this kind of this new paradigm?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's awesome because it's almost like the wild west and it's very exciting because like I said earlier there are so many more channels slash platforms now you can go on.
[SPEAKER_02]: And once you establish relationships with those platforms you really can reach a huge audience.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm even talking about YouTube, but we didn't have that back in the day.
[SPEAKER_02]: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, all of that stuff and it's absolutely free to post on there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, if the really is no excuse anymore for a filmmaker to not have an audience anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what I'm excited about though is doing things in a high-quality way and then getting it out to all of these various platforms as many ways that I possibly can.
[SPEAKER_02]: Back in the day in the early 2000s when I was doing fairly odd parents and Danny Fanon, I was completely dependent on the network to advertise.
[SPEAKER_02]: and that they didn't do a commercial, there was no way for me to even tell anybody about it except for my close circle of friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, and then our first website came out.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had a website and my way I have a website.
[SPEAKER_02]: I could tell people about stuff and I'd go on there and post up, and then like eight people would answer them.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to go off so I'm reaching the end.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and then we taught we'd nerd out and talk about the show and then you get like 10 good comments and one bad one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my gosh You have sess over the bad comment.
[SPEAKER_02]: What happened?
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, so the audience the the opportunity to grow an audience is so much bigger now And if you don't take advantage of it, it's really a missed opportunity.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, no, it's, you know, and I don't know how you find staying up with your social media.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's actually a challenge for me to keep posting on social media.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some people have the gift more than others, but you're right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you have to do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, as an author, and Trisha, you know this as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're really good at this, you know, just reaching out and connecting with your audience and making sure you're developing that relationship with them is super, super important.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well I got I have 2.4 million on TikTok and I got almost a million on YouTube and half a million almost on Facebook and it just takes it's just a consistency.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a ham.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a natural performer.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love to go on and post videos and post clips of my show.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing this thing you'll love this.
[SPEAKER_02]: You could do this too.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing a thing called Fairly Odd Flashback where I watch my old episodes and I react to them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I haven't seen these episodes in 20 years.
[SPEAKER_02]: Watch it and go, boy, I would fix that drawing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's still a funny joke and things like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the audience is really like it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think it's really, really fun to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's one thing I'm doing.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_03]: In Nickelodeon is totally cool with that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would imagine, because it just brought you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, there's that, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I've actually found a way to get it on YouTube, because we basically just filmed me watching my laptop.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're not uploading an episode where the copyright hits us, you know, I'm just watching
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're cutting away from it here and there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's just really fun to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I haven't seen the episodes so long.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a real fun walk down memory lane for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: To go, oh, I remember what I made this.
[SPEAKER_02]: My daughter was born that day.
[SPEAKER_02]: All that stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's really fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would love that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I get caught into every once in a while.
[SPEAKER_03]: Watch a veggie clip.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, just, you know, brings up all these memories.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's, it's fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's fun to talk those through.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, definitely.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's not my YouTube channel and even with like YouTube, you know everyone says I want to get a Netflix I want to I want to get on Hulu and that's wonderful But your YouTube channel can become a platform for you If you build your audience, there's people out there that have built an audience of millions of people and no one's ever even heard of them
[SPEAKER_02]: and they make these incredible, even slightly less expensive things that I make, and they build this mess, and following, and it can be done.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're diligent, Bible says, God rewards the hand of the diligent, and most of these people aren't even godly, and they still have a mess of following.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can succeed to see what the Holy Spirit is with you, and guiding you.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have an advantage, first John 220 says that we have an anointing from the Holy One.
[SPEAKER_02]: and we know all things and I go all things and the word says all things.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, man, I guess I guess I know this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when it shows up, that's when you need to know it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's not like it's so I got, I mean, I'm just going to fill your head at once, your head will explode.
[SPEAKER_02]: But when you need to know something, you can pray about it and learn about it and the Holy Spirit will make it easily accessible to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So at the end of the day, we have these messages that are going out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what do you hope children and families take away from the
[SPEAKER_02]: I really hope they understand that there's joy in the world, there's hope.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want them to really get to know who our father is, who Jesus is, absolutely got to know who Jesus is, because Jesus is, it's hard to comprehend how much he loves you until you actually experience it.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're a parent out there,
[SPEAKER_02]: having your own child, you understand what unconditional love is, because you love your child no matter what.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus loves us a thousand times more than that, a billion times more than that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So feeling the love of the Lord, we live in such a society now where love is completely absent sometimes.
[SPEAKER_02]: The world does its best to turn you away from the Lord, but if we can reflect him back,
[SPEAKER_02]: toward other people.
[SPEAKER_02]: If people look at you and see Jesus, that's the goal.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I want my projects to reflect him back as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_03]: But thank you so much for being with us today.
[SPEAKER_03]: This has been such a pleasure chatting with you.
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you tell our listeners where people can connect with you online?
[SPEAKER_03]: Where they can jump into that pool of 2 million or plus in the art of that following year?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thanks guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can find me on TikTok and Instagram at Butch Heartman.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm on X as fairly on father and you can find it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can also go to Butch Heartman Studios dot com and you can see where up to over there and line and land foundation dot org.
[SPEAKER_02]: But Butch Heartman studios will connect you to everything and garden cartoon.
[SPEAKER_02]: is on Angel Studios.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just got, we did our season one, and now we're exclusively season two on Angel Studios, and we begin airing on Easter, our Easter episode, this year starts, and so we're really excited about that season two is about to begin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Fantastic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And did you get some good news recently?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we just thank you for asking.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just got nominated a Garden Cartoon movie, the greatest thing ever got nominated for best animated movie at the ICF Film Foundation.
[SPEAKER_02]: Film Festival, I should say, and our Garden Cartoon got nominated for best series as well in the same festival.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're gonna be really excited to see what happens there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And listen, there's be sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram at the Bible for Kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible for Kids is now at 501c3 non-profit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'd love to have you join this in our mission to reach you kids with the message of the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Visit thebubbleforkids.com to explore our store, donate, or learn more today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for listening to the Bible for Kids Podcast with Trisha Goyer and Mike Nurekki.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be sure to connect with the Bible for kids on Instagram, Facebook, and at thebibelforkids.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible for Kids Podcast is powered by the Christian Parenting Podcast Network.
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