Larry Schwarz (born January 20, 1970) is an American animation producer, entrepreneur, writer, and photographer. He was the founder and CEO of now-defunct cartoon studio

Animation Collective Animation Collective was an American internet and television animation studio based in New York City, best known for its internet and television series using Adobe Flash, Maya and other software. Founded and owned by Larry Schwarz in 2003, Animati ...

. He is best known for creating ''

Kappa Mikey ''Kappa Mikey'' is an American animated television series created by Larry Schwarz. The show was created by Schwarz's studio Animation Collective. The series premiered on February 25, 2006 and ended on September 20, 2008. 52 episodes were produced ...

''.

Early life

Schwarz was born in 1970. He was a

child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in film, movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associ ...

and

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

and enjoyed playing with puppets. In fourth grade, Schwarz "had a filmmaking club" wherein friends created live-action movies on

Super 8 film Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format. The film is nominally 8 mm wide, the same as older formatted 8& ...

which Schwarz's father would edit. One of these was an unfinished remake of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

''. In 1992, Schwarz graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

with a political science degree. He then visited Vietnam and launched the ''Vietnam Business Journal'' to connect American entrepreneurs with the country''.'' He graduated from the

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. p ...

in an unknown year.

Career

After attending law school, Schwarz realized that he wanted more playfulness in his career causing him to start a toy brand.

Rumpus Toys

In 1996, while living with his parents, Schwarz began designing his own plush toys under the Rumpus Toys brand, an online-only toy company. According to ''

Animation World Network Animation World Network (often just "AWN") is an online publishing group that specializes in resources for animators, with an extensive website offering news, articles and links for professional animators and animation fans. Specifically, AWN cov ...

'', Rumpus became "a company selling character-based plush toys online, backed up by Flash-animated segments featuring chwarz'scharacters." The corporation was headquartered on 24th street in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. By winter of 1997, Schwarz was able to produce a small lot of his toys in China. That year, the origina
RumpusNet.com
website was constructed and accessible online, with a caricature (presumably of Schwarz), catalog, and content. The page has been archived and can be viewed as it appeared in 1996 on the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

. At the time, its blurb read:

Look around at toy stores these days, and it's easy to get the feeling that all of the imagination has gone out of the toy business. Each year, the titans scramble to fight their way on board the annual blockbuster movie train, recycle plastic space heroes or tired
teddy bears A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy bear, ...
and, of course, smother the market with endless variations of the golden girl herself. Sadly, licensing has come to dominate the industry, and the role of the toy company as an innovative creator has become an increasingly neglected niche. It is the goal of Rumpus to embrace this niche to bring creativity and fun back to the toy industry.

Shortly before a toy fair in 1997 (possibly the

North American International Toy Fair The North American International Toy Fair (formerly the American International Toy Fair and also known as Toy Fair New York) is an annual toy industry trade show held in mid-February in New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and at to ...

), Rumpus toys were insulted by representatives of

Toys R Us A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include Toy block, toy blocks, Board game, board games, and Doll, dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed sp ...

, who did not return Schwarz's phone calls. However, specialty toy chain

FAO Schwarz FAO Schwarz is an American toy brand and store. The company is known for its high-end toys, life-sized stuffed animals, interactive experiences, brand integrations, and games. FAO Schwarz claims to be the oldest toy store in the United States, ...

expressed interest for the unique toys and ordered 60 dolls for their flagship store in Manhattan. Demand for Rumpus toys increased when TV host

Kathie Lee Gifford Kathryn Lee Gifford (née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show ''Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee''. Gifford is a ...

displayed organ-themed plush toy Gus Gutz on her show, after which Noodle Kidoodle and

eToys.com eToys.com was a retail website that sold toys via the Internet. It was established by a startup company of the same name on November 3, 1997. After an initial public offering on January 4, 1999, the company quickly shot up in value, becoming embl ...

began to invest in the brand. At this point, the Rumpus company was worth $1 million and had 9 employees. In 1998, Rumpus participated in the New York International Toy Fair. By 1999, the Rumpus toy brand was worth $15 million. With a staff of 36 in a polka-dotted company headquarters in the

Flatiron District The Flatiron District is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, named after the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Generally, the Flatiron District is bounded by 14th Street, Union Square and Green ...

, Schwarz founded the Rumpus website, which housed toy sales as well as original

Flash animations 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 ...

produced in-house. Toys designed by Schwarz included friendly Monster in My Closet, organ-displaying Gus Gutz, programmable alarm clock toy Wake Me Willy and cat toy Harry Hairball. Schwarz's goal was for Rumpus to become an entertainment brand that created animated films alongside toy sales, "like Disney." An archive of the site from June 2000 indicates the website was primarily built in

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid ...

(plugin 4.0). By April 2002, the site had shut down, and the new domain holder announced that Rumpus Toys has "closed its doors." Rumpus is now defunct and its former site, Rumpus.com, is no longer accessible.

Animation Collective

Larry Schwarz was the CEO of now-defunct animation studio based in New York City,

. The studio produced ''

'' (and its spin-off ''

Dancing Sushi ''Kappa Mikey'' is an American animated television series created by Larry Schwarz. The show was created by Schwarz's studio Animation Collective. The series premiered on February 25, 2006 and ended on September 20, 2008. 52 episodes were produced ...

''), ''Thumb Wrestling Federation'', ''Leader Dog: The Series'', ''Tortellini Western: The Series'', ''

Three Delivery ''Three Delivery'' (also known as ''Chop Suey Trio'') is an animated television series inspired by kung-fu movies. It was created by Larry Schwarz, who also created similar series, ''Kappa Mikey'' and '' Speed Racer: The Next Generation''. It is ...

'', and '' Speed Racer: The Next Generation'' for

Nicktoons Network Nicktoons (formerly Nicktoons Network) is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Media Networks. The channel is geared towards children aged 7 to 11, and broadcasts reruns of original animated series from sister network Nickelode ...

and ''

Ellen's Acres ''Ellen's Acres'' is an American animated television series for preschool-age children, which exclusively premiered weekly on Cartoon Network and in the United Kingdom, the show airs on Cartoonito. Animation Collective produced the series. It orig ...

'', ''HTDT'', and ''

Princess Natasha ''Princess Natasha'' is an American flash cartoon that was developed by Larry Schwarz for AOL Kids. The episodes were released between May 9, 2003 and July 1, 2006 and total 44 episodes overall, each running between 6 and 12 minutes apiece. The s ...

'' for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

. In addition, Schwarz served as producer of ''

Wulin Warriors Wulin may refer to: * Wulin is the fictional society of Chinese martial arts heroes in Wuxia fiction. Wulin is considered a part of the broader term ''jianghu'', which refers to the underworld of bandits and other elements that live outside the ma ...

'' for

and the first season of ''

The Incredible Crash Dummies ''The Incredible Crash Dummies'' is a line of action figures designed by David McDonald and Jim Byrne, styled after the eponymous crash test dummy popularized in a public service advertising campaign of the late 1980s, to educate people on the saf ...

'' for the

FoxBox 4Kids TV (often stylized as 4K!DSTV and formerly known as FoxBox from September 14, 2002 to January 15, 2005) was an American television programming block and Internet-based video on demand children's network operated by 4Kids Entertainment. I ...

. Animation Collective also created games and

webisode A webisode (portmanteau of "web" and "episode") is an episode of a series that is distributed as part of a web series or on streaming television. It is available as either for download or in streaming, as opposed to first airing on broadcast or c ...

cartoons for

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

, including ''

''.

Larry Schwarz and his Band

Schwarz is the CEO of Larry Schwarz and His Band, which produced ''

Alien Dawn ''Alien Dawn'' is a science fiction comedy television series which aired on Nicktoons. The series premiered on February 22, 2013 and supposedly ended on April 12, 2013, leaving 11 episodes unaired until TeenNick marathon aired the remaining episode ...

'' (2013-2014) for

and '' Team Toon'' (2006-2013) for

. Both series, produced in partnership with Fremantle Media Kids and Family Entertainment, were created by Schwarz. In February 2020, Schwarz announced that he is producing ''Dinosaur, Mermaid, Racecar, Pufferfish'' along with Believe Entertainment Group.

Publications

In 2017, Schwarz co-wrote the young adult trilogy ''Romeo, Juliet and Jim'' along with Elise Allen. It includes "homages to Shakespeare and Truffaut." In 2023, he co-wrote and published young adult adventure ''The

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

Prophecy'' with Iva-Marie Palmer. He is also a photographer who has published male photography work in books and online.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarz, Larry American animators American animated film directors American animated film producers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Horace Mann School alumni 1970 births