Like many fans, Jessica Borutski fell in love with animation by watching tons of classic animation on TV from a young age, moving on to earn a degree at Algonquin College before going on to work for the legendary John Kricfalusi at Spumco on Adult Cartoon Party. A subsequent gig at Fuel Industries led to animation projects for TV, advertising, and video games, ranging from designing the characters for the All Girl Arcade online game world to designing Happy Meal toys for McDonalds Europe to Elmo’s A-to-Zoo Adventure for the Nintendo Wii and DS. Currently working for Warner Brothers Animation, Ms. Borutski has earned credits for character design for The Looney Tunes Show and Wabbit (even earning the ire of many online animation fans for her re-designs of the classic characters on the former).
Her latest position is as producer for Bunnicula, which just premiered on Cartoon Network. Just after the premiere, we were able to talk with Ms. Borutski about the proper way to bring an undead rabbit to live for TV animation.
TOONZONE NEWS: For Warner Brothers Animation, you’ve worked on The Looney Tunes Show and on Wabbit, and now you’re working on Bunnicula. Are you their go-to person for shows with rabbits in them or something?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: (laughs) Oh, man, I don’t know. I even made a short film about a rabbit before I started working at Warner Bros. Maybe they just liked the way I drew rabbits, and were like, “Hey, you work well with this animal!” And the funny thing is that it’s like my favorite animal too, so I’m convinced it must be my spirit animal or my power animal or something. I like rabbits, so it works.
TOONZONE NEWS: I read an earlier interview with you, where you got onto the show when Sam Register mentioned they had the rights to Bunnicula and you came back with a drawing of the character. Were you always on the hook to be the producer for Bunnicula, or was that something that you grew into?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: I’m not sure what their plans were with me at that point. I was just directing a few Merrie Melodies and things like that, so I think that maybe through my boards and my vision, they thought, “She could probably produce this.” They teamed me up with Maxwell Atoms, who created The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and that was great because I was a first-time producer. His strengths are really in writing, and my strengths are visual and storytelling. I’m not as strong with actually writing formulas for a good story and things like that. He really came in and helped me sort of figure out how to do a show. I think it would have been a lot more stressful for me and I probably wouldn’t have been as creative, so I think that was really smart of them to pair me up with him.
TOONZONE NEWS: Is there something about being a producer that you really really wish you knew before you started, now that you’ve been doing it for a little bit?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: That’s a good question. When I first got asked to be a producer, it really freaked me out because to me, it was just all new territory, and everything new is scary. I remember my friend Tony Cervone, who’s also a producer on Looney Tunes, and he gave me a really nice piece of advice, which was, “Don’t let it intimidate you because every producer is completely different and there’s no right way to produce a show, because everybody has different strengths.” So I went into it feeling that way, and that just made me feel better. I also felt more like a director than anything, because I’m really hands-on. I draw and I board. I actually felt really at home being a producer. So I don’t know, I think I just took it day by day, and didn’t let it freak me out too much.
TOONZONE NEWS: Would you say Bunnicula is more board-driven or script-driven?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: Our writers do a really nice one-to-two page synopsis, and then our board artists do all of the dialogue writing, and they add in things that the writer woudln’t even think of. So I’d say it’s pretty much a board-driven show.
TOONZONE NEWS: Was that always the way you wanted to approach this?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: Yeah, because as I said, I’m not the type that’s going to sit down and write a script and write a story. I’m more of a visual storyteller, so for me it felt very natural. And I just like shows that are board driven rather than script-driven.
TOONZONE NEWS: I was struck by Bunnicula‘s comedy timing when I watched it, because it doesn’t seem quite as hyperactive or as manic as a lot of kids cartoons these days. I like them, and they’re fun and they can be funny, but if that’s all that’s on TV, they can get really exhausting. Is that something that you were consciously trying to do?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: Yeah, yeah, because I like variety in timing, and I’m actually on the same page as you. A lot of these shows on now, I also really like but I do find that I get tired. “Oh my God, oh my God, this is TOO MUCH,” and I’ll turn off the TV and read a bit. I think it’s because naturally I like visuals and I like to linger, and I like to show people a visual and then we’ll make a joke. And it is nice to give kids a breather too, because they probably appreciate different pacing as well in the shows. I know I do. So I think it’s just because I am such a visual person that I like to allow time for even simple visual gags that are subtle but they’re not taking all your energy. You just want to watch a show. That might work in my favor, and it might not. I don’t know, maybe kids brains now are way faster than the way my brain works (laughs), but variety is nice. So I think kids will either like it, or they’ll say, “Eh, this show’s slow.” Who knows?
TOONZONE NEWS: Bunnicula is based on a series of kids novels by James Howe. How much research did you do before you picked up the show?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: We met with James, actually. He came out to LA. We had a nice lunch and a nice chat, and he’s a really nice guy. I’ll be honest, I didn’t read the book cover to back beforehand, but I love the idea of Bunnicula. It’s just a great idea. So I knew what the book was about, and I met with him and he just said to me, “Do whatever you want with my book, except that I need you to remember a couple of things. Don’t change the characters’ personalities, I don’t want them to be completely different,” and he said, “Bunnicula is a vegetarian. I never want him to drink blood.” And we were like, “Yeah, yeah, that’s great. We can work with that.” And then he had no other rules. He let us do what we want. He understood that to develop a series from an idea, you really have to change a few things so we can keep going with it and make hundreds of episodes. He was very gracioius with his property and he just allowed us to have a lot of fun.
He’s actually seen the episodes, and he really, really likes them. So it’s been a nice relationship with him. I think he feels like we’ve done his book justice. He’s happy with it.
TOONZONE NEWS: One of those changes was that you moved the setting to New Orleans, which seems really seems fitting, but was there a reason why you picked that city in particular?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: I think for the main reason that when you go to New Orleans in the French Quarter, it’s like Halloween all-year round. I had to laugh so hard when I was there, because there are real estate signs that say, “House for Sale. Haunted.” And there’s another, “Apartment for Sale. Not Haunted.” These are actually on the real estate signs, and I was like, “Oh my God!” There’s just so much history, because a lot of horrible things happened there, so there’s apparently a lot of ghosts (laughs). And it’s just a beautiful city, so that’s great, because the French Quarter is just amazing, especially at night. Our art director had a field day with that, because he loved painting these old buildings at night, with this French architecture. It’s just a really cool place. It doesn’t even feel like it’s in America. It feels like it’s in Europe or something.
TOONZONE NEWS: It is its own little corner of the world. I hope you got a good research trip out of it.
JESSICA BORUTSKI: Yeah, I did. I went with my little sister, like, last year, and we stayed in this old house in the French Quarter and went on a ghost tour. It was really fun.
TOONZONE NEWS: This may be premature, but has any thought been given to crossing Bunnicula over with something else from Warner Bros?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: (laughs) I’ve definitely imagined what that would be like, but we’ve never had a meeting about that yet. I think that would be really cool, though, for sure, because now we have all these bunnies and stuff. It might be cool to get them to meet each other.
TOONZONE NEWS: I think Scooby-Doo would make a pretty good crossover.
JESSICA BORUTSKI: Oh yeah! I didn’t even think of Scooby. He’d be perfect!
TOONZONE NEWS: I’m going to guess that Bunnicula is kind of your life right now, but is there anything else going on that you want to talk about? Do you have time to work on shorts or any of your own work now?
JESSICA BORUTSKI: There’s a lot of great stuff happening here. I’m excited about some stuff I can’t talk about. But you know, I am working on something for myself, when I have the time (laughs). I’m making a kids book called Toaster Head that I did a lot for with Inktober. Everyone has to do 1 ink drawing a day, and I’ve had this story idea in my head since 2007, about this little girl who makes a robot out of recycled goods and has a toaster for a head. I thought, “Oh, what a great way to get all the drawings done. I’ll do 1 ink drawing a day for 31 days in October, and then I’ll have a kids’ book.” So I have all of my images drawn, and now I’m trying to write it. That’s harder for me. I have the whole story in pictures, I just have to figure out how to write it. I’m also due in a few weeks to have a kid. I might have this book done, maybe next year? Yeah….I’ve been producing a lot. I’ve been producing a baby and a show.
Toonzone News would like to thank Jessica Borutski for taking the time to talk with us, and to Winson Seto of Warner Bros. Animation PR for setting up the interview. New episodes of Bunnicula are premiering now on Cartoon Network. Fans can follow Jessica Borutski via her Instagram account.
