Bullseye Art was a New York City based art collective that pioneered art and animation on the web. Founded in 1995 by Josh Kimberg, Nick Cogan and Ryan Edwards, the company gained fame for its creation of unique and offbeat interactive cartoons made using

Macromedia Flash Macromedia Flash may refer to: *Adobe Animate, a multimedia authoring and computer animation program formerly known as ''Macromedia Flash'' *Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform ...

. Bullseye Art became well known for its humour with such cartoons as ''Porkchops'', which portrayed a talking donkey in

surrealistic Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

situations, and ''Miss Muffy and the Muff Mob'', about a band of rapping muffin-headed girls. A dragon named Hooptie-Goo often appeared as a mascot during the opening or closing credits. Other multi-episode cartoons included ''Internet – The Animated Series, Rat Chicken, Space Dog, Makin' Moves'' and ''The Rhino and Nutmeg Show''. The company was commissioned to do several high-profile cartoon segments, the most notable of which was the opening titles for

The Rosie O'Donnell Show ''The Rosie O'Donnell Show'' is an American daytime variety television talk show created, hosted, and produced by actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell. It premiered on June 10, 1996, and concluded after six seasons on May 22, 2002. This talk sh ...

, for which they were nominated for two Emmy Awards. The animated opening was the first work of

Flash Animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...

to appear on television. They also created the music videos '' First Tube'' and ''

You Enjoy Myself "You Enjoy Myself", commonly abbreviated to "YEM", is a Phish song written by Trey Anastasio, first played live on February 3, 1986. It is the band's most frequently performed song, having been played at about 33% of their first 1,800 shows. Hi ...

'' for the rock band Phish.

Mockingbird Foundation The Mockingbird Foundation is a charitable organization founded by fans of the jam band Phish in 1996 (legally incorporated the following year) to support music education for children. Unconventional in structure, it exists almost entirely online ...

. ''The Phish Companion: A Guide to the Band and Their Music''. San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books, 2004.
page 79
Bullseye Art maintained a free entertainment portal featuring many of the first community features that are now standard on the internet. Revenue was driven by licensing their cartoons to third party sites (

Atom Films Atom.com (formerly AtomFilms) was a broadband entertainment network offering original short subject Film, movies, animations, and series by independent creators. The company was founded in 1998 in Seattle by Mika Salmi. Sequoia Capital, led by Mic ...

, Shockwave.com, HBO's Volume.com, Razorfish) and from commercial animation (

Icebox.com icebox.tv was an animation company founded in 1999 by Jonathan Collier, Howard Gordon, Rob LaZebnik, Scott Rupp, and Tal Vigderson. The founders stated that the company was created to capitalize on the inherent "freedom of the medium" which th ...

Kenny the Shark ''Kenny the Shark'' is an American animated television series produced by Discovery Kids. The series was first premiered on Discovery Kids' Saturday morning block on NBC on November 1, 2003, and ended with the last episode on February 19, 2005. ...

). Bullseye Art shut its doors in 2003 and the founders started a production company named Raw Power. During this period (2003–2004), the majority of the cartoons were unavailable. In 2005, Josh Kimberg launched the cartoons under the new name Magic Butter. While initially a pay site, MagicButter.com eventually became free, displaying all of the old content along with new cartoons, T-shirts for sale, and free downloads such as MP3s, desktop wallpapers, and icons until it shut down.

References

* *

Footnotes

External links

Magic Butter website

Magic Butter website
(Archive)
Bullseye Art website
(Archive) {{Animation industry in the United States American animation studios Websites about animation Underground culture Companies based in New York City Defunct companies based in New York City Web portals