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 for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named 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, the only publicly funded independent art school ...

. 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 by ...

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 campaign to have a full web series developed.

Mondo Media Mondo Media is an American multimedia company that mainly produces online animation. The company was founded in 1988 by John Evershed and Deirdre O'Malley in San Francisco, California. Before ''Mondo Mini Shows'', the company initially crea ...

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'' (stylized as ''W✪RD GIRL'') is an American children's Flash animated superhero television series produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids. The series began as a series of shorts entitled ' ...

'' while Lindsay worked as a designer for

Converse Converse may refer to: Mathematics and logic * Converse (logic), the result of reversing the two parts of a definite or implicational statement ** Converse implication, the converse of a material implication ** Converse nonimplication, a logical c ...

before working at Hero4Hire Creative animation. They did guest work on the long running Cartoon Network series ''

''. Lindsay Small-Butera earned an Emmy Award for her work on the episode "

Ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among o ...

". In 2019, they helped create the animation for the point-and-click indie game '' Later Alligator'' which took "40,000 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 seinen manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow. The manga, first serialized in 1989 under the subtitle of ''The Ghost in the Shell'' ...

'', '' Cowboy Bebop'' and ''

FLCL is an original video animation (OVA) anime series 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. ''F ...

'', 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 Living people Filmmaking duos American television directors American animators Animation people American animated film directors Women animated film directors American women animators American women television directors