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, Anima ...

. 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 produce ...

''.

Early life

Schwarz was born in 1970. He was a child actor and

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a 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-liners, stories, ...

and enjoyed playing with puppets. Schwarz is a graduate of the

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

and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

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 still living with his parents, Schwarz began designing his own plush toys under the Rumpus Toys brand, an online-only toy company. By winter of 1997, he was able to produce a small lot of his toys in China. The corporation was headquartered on 24th street in Chelsea,

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 ...

. That year, the origina
RumpusNet.com
website was constructed and accessible online, with a caricature (presumably of Schwarz), catalog, and blurbs. The page has been archived and can be viewed as it appeared in 1996 on the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 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 ...

and Schwarz's phone calls were not returned. However, specialty toy chain FAO Schwarz 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 ...

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

Noodle Kidoodle Noodle Kidoodle was an American retail chain that sold educational toys from 1993 to 2000. The company's slogan was "Kids learn best when they're having fun!". The chain operated stores in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Ha ...

and eToys.com 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 Gre ...

, 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) ...

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 (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 produc ...

''), ''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 Nickelo ...

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 or ...

'', ''HTDT'', and '' Princess Natasha'' 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, ...

. 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 Fox Box. Animation Collective also created games and webisode 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! Inc. ...

, including '' Princess Natasha''.

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 episod ...

'' (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

Schwarz co-wrote the young adult novel ''Romeo, Juliet and Jim'' along with Elise Allen. 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