Donovan Ryan Cook III (born January 30, 1968) is an American film director, cartoon creator and producer, best known for creating, directing and producing the animated series ''

2 Stupid Dogs ''2 Stupid Dogs'' is an American animated television series created and designed by Donovan Cook and produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. It originally ran from September 5, 1993, to May 15, 1995, on TBS as a part of their ''Sunday Morning in Fr ...

'' and directing the Disney animated features '' Return to Never Land'' and '' Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers''. Cook was born in Berkeley, California, in 1968, and moved to San Diego when he was 14. He graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 1990 and has worked on several different Disney animated movies, such as '' The Little Mermaid'' and the

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

adaptation of '' The Prince and the Pauper''. In 1993, he created the

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-nominated TV series ''

'' for

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

. The style he revived in ''2 Stupid Dogs'' has been emulated and copied numerous times since. He gained the idea from two stray dogs roaming in his apartment and tried to sell it when Hanna-Barbera bought it. '' Secret Squirrel'' was one of his favorite Hanna-Barbera cartoons that he watched in the 1970s, which influenced him to revive the series as ''Super Secret Secret Squirrel'', as the third backup segment in ''2 Stupid Dogs''. Cook then returned to Disney in 1997, where he developed and produced the series '' Nightmare Ned''. In 1998, he returned to feature animation when he co-directed '' Return to Never Land'' for Disney. In 2001, he took on the challenge of directing the first feature-length film of ''Mickey Mouse'' series characters

and

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

(

Goofy Goofy is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled f ...

had previously appeared in '' A Goofy Movie'' and its sequel). The film, '' Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers'', premiered worldwide on DVD in 2004. He also served as a director for '' Mickey Mouse Clubhouse'' and '' The Adventures of Kid Danger'', and was an assistant director for '' The Ren & Stimpy Show''. He even does sheet timing for some episodes of the '' Ben 10'' reboot. Cook was originally scheduled to co-direct the film '' Space Chimps'', but he would be subsequently scrapped from the project. His latest project was the low-budget indie film ''Rideshare: The Movie'', the first film ever to be shot on the iPhone 4. It was released on April 12, 2011, on the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, being subsequently shown on the Honolulu Film Awards. It has won positive reviews.

References

External links

* *
Official website of Cook's indie film ''Rideshare: The Movie''
1968 births Living people American television directors American animated film directors American animated film producers Animators from California People from Berkeley, California American film producers Television producers from California American storyboard artists California Institute of the Arts alumni Film directors from California Hanna-Barbera people American voice directors Walt Disney Animation Studios people {{US-animator-stub