Alex Small-Butera (born January 29, 1986) and Lindsay Caroline Small-Butera (born September 16, 1985), sometimes collectively referred to as SMALLBÜ, are an American husband and wife animating duo. They are best known for creating the long-running web series '' Baman Piderman''. They have also famously worked on ''

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward and co-produced by Frederator Studios for Cartoon Network. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn the Human, Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

'' and helped co-develop the video game '' Later Alligator''.

Biography

Alex Butera and Lindsay Small met at

Massachusetts College of Art and Design Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and the only publicly funded independent art sch ...

. They collaborated on a homework assignment to create a short film for the

Ottawa International Animation Festival The Ottawa International Animation Festival is an annual animated film and media festival that takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OIAF was founded in 1975, with the first festival held from August 10 to 15 in 1976. Initially organized b ...

in Canada. The result was the surreal animated comedy ''Baman Piderman''. The short was released online where it became a hit. Following this, they launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign to have a full web series developed.

Mondo Media Mondo Media, Inc. is an American multimedia company that mainly produces online independent animation aimed at teens and young adults. It was founded in 1988 by John Evershed and Deirdre O'Malley in San Francisco, California. Before ''Mondo ...

eventually bought the series for their YouTube channel. Initially, Alex was the sole person working on the shorts, but after showing the third episode to Lindsay, she stated that it was "the worst thing hehad ever seen." Alex asked her to become the writer for the series. She had refused at first, but since then all of their work had been equally divided between the two. Alex started working on the series ''

WordGirl ''WordGirl'' is an American animated superhero children's television series produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids. The series began as a series of shorts entitled ''The Amazing Colossal Adventures of ...

'' while Lindsay worked as a designer for Converse before working at Hero4Hire Creative animation. They did guest work on the long running

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

series ''

''. Lindsay Small-Butera earned an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for her work on the episode "

Ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. "Ketchup" now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes for different varieties contained mushrooms, oysters, mussels, egg whites, grapes, or walnuts, amon ...

". In 2019, they helped create the animation for the point-and-click indie game '' Later Alligator'' which took "80,000 cels" to animate.

Influences

Alex was influenced by popular anime such as ''

Ghost in the Shell ''Ghost in the Shell'' is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on the manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized between 1989 and 1991, is set in mid-21st century Japan and tel ...

'', ''

Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 Japanese neo-noir space Western anime television series that aired on TV Tokyo and Wowow from 1998 to 1999. It was created and animated by Sunrise (company), Sunrise, led by a production team of director Shinichirō Watanabe, ...

'' and ''

FLCL is an anime created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, written by Yōji Enokido, and produced by the FLCL Production Committee, which consisted of Gainax, Production I.G, and King Records. The series tells the adventures of the ...

'', while Lindsay has cited UPA as her source of inspiration along with classic '50s animation.

Filmography

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Small-Butera, Alex and Lindsay 1985 births 1986 births American animated film directors American television directors American women animators American women television directors Filmmaking duos Living people Primetime Emmy Award winners Women animated film directors