On this episode of Our American Stories, after a career in the Marines, Mike Jones went on to work for some of the most successful animation studios, including Hanna-Barbera and Marvel Productions. He later left Marvel to produce and direct McGee and Me! and animate Adventures in Odyssey. After 30 years of work, his long-awaited project, Theo Presents, was finally released. Here’s Mike with his inspiring story of faith and creativity.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we continue with our American stories up next, a
story about a marine turned cartoon animator, and so much more.
Without any further ado, here's Mike Jinns.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I am a cartoonist, an animator, a cartoon director. And
my story really began as far as that goes, that
end of my story, when I was seven years old.
I was at a little school and I was in
second grade, and I just remember sitting in a row
(00:43):
and looking over at this little blonde girl right next
to me, and she was drawing trees and she just
had a particular way of drawing them that intrigued me.
And as far as I can remember or think, that
was the first discretionary, discriminatory thought I ever had regarding
my cartoons. She drew trees, and I wanted to draw
(01:06):
them like her. So that kind of began my artistic
careers that were seven years old. From that time on,
I just was a cartoonist. Every time I could get
a piece of paper in my hands, I was drawing cartoons.
My dad was a career marine, so we traveled all
the time. Every year we were moving to a new school,
(01:29):
a new location, and you know, for me to help
identify or become identified as something to gain approval.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I guess it was with my peers.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I drew cartoons and that one friends, and you know,
really that is what established me as a young man.
I had an identity as a cartoonist and that was
very important to me.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
That lasted all the way through high school.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I drew cartoons for the school newspapers and everything else
I went into, graduated from high school and went into
Arizona State.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I wanted to be an architect at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And you know what, I just really wasn't ready for
school too. I was set free and just kind of
just did everything I wanted to do except crack a book.
And so after one semester of school I ended up
dropping out and it had nothing going on for me.
(02:30):
And this was during the Vietnam War, so the draft
was very much a part of our lives at that time,
and I had a low number. So I knew that
Uncle Sam was going to come calling for me, and
sure enough he did.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
However, I beat him to the punch by one day.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I enlisted in the Marine Corps because I was at
a point in my life where I just didn't know
who I was, where I was going I had no
purposes it were, and so I said, you know what,
the thing I know the most is the Marine Corps,
and I joined the.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Marines, and that was at the end of nineteen seventy b.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
C. I was in boot camp in January of nineteen
seventy one, and I remember standing out on the grinder
two hundred and forty of us as were waiting for
our company to be formed, and the drillings director comes
out and he says, how many of you guys. Of
course he didn't say guys, he said something else, but
how many of you fellows know how to drive eighteen wheelers?
(03:31):
And a few hands raised in the crowd. And then
he says how many people know how to type? And
a few more hands raised in the crowd. And I
remember thinking, there's these guys, two guys behind me, and
they said, I'm not volunteering for nothing. Well, of course
those are the guys that were going to become grunts
because they had no specialties. But anyways, he asked how
many artists are there in the bunch, And there's two
(03:54):
of us out of two hundred and forty that raised
our hands. And after the he broke up the assembly,
there we were brought The two of us were brought
into a room and basically told to draw something anything
that was on our minds. And I drew a bulldog
with a helmet and a machine gun firing at the
(04:14):
camera or at the person looking at the cartoon. And
afterward the guy, the troop pander, goes, well, why did
you draw that? He says, well, I was raised in
the Marine Corps and I know that the bulldog is
our mascot, and well, anyways, long story short, that became
my mos, my military occupational specialty fourteen eleven or forty
(04:36):
nine to eleven, I'm sorry, and that was a combat illustrator.
So when I graduated from boot camp, and itr by
the way, I was the honorman in boot camp because
I wanted something to show who I was, and the
Marine Corps became my identity, and that was very important
that I excell in something that I wanted to, you know, pursue,
(05:01):
and at that time I wanted to pursue like my
dad did.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
The Marine Corps is a career.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
And I was then on my way to Naples, Italy,
and very soon became known in the barracks of one
hundred men as the barracks cartoonist, and I would draw
cartoons for officers, parties and everything else and going, and
that really sustained me. Again, it helped me to make friends,
and it consolidated confirmed my identity as a marine number
(05:30):
one and number two of the cartoonist. I'd been in
a marine now for about a year or so, and
I just started feeling a great loneliness, a great emptiness
in me that the identities of being a cartoonist and
being a marine just were not fulfilling. And one night,
(05:52):
after a liberty, these two marines basically shared Jesus Christ
with me, and I became a Christian.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
He became my new identity.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And believe me, it was an identity that took and
changed my whole course in life. So I got out
of the Marine Corps with an honorable discharge. I wanted
to become a chaplain or a pastor, something behind a
(06:23):
regular pullpit, and so I went to Bible College in
Santa Cruz, California. There I became an English major because
I love to write. I loved books and reading and such,
and again I was like the school cartoonist. I drew
cartoons for the annuals the yearbooks for the school newspapers,
(06:44):
et cetera. So I'm thinking, well, maybe God wants me
to be somehow involved with cartooning as a career or
as a ministry, augmenting somehow my pastorate.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
But anyways, I went to four year Here's a Bible college. There.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I met my wife, Kathy, and we were married for
after two years of school, and then we had another
two years and graduated. I didn't feel anymore as though
God wanted me to be a pastor. I had no
idea what he wanted me to do. So we decided
we would call Kathy's parents, and they both lived down
(07:22):
in Burbank area. We called them up and they said
they were just praying that God would bring us down
to Burbank to do what.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
We had no idea.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
But we took that as a Okay, Lord, you're telling
us something.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
We don't have anything else to.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Go on, so we're going to step out in faith
and go down to Burbank.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Well we did.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
We got down there and I started going around to
all the different Christian organizations like Gospellite, World Vision, David C. Cook,
all of these organizations that would hire cartoonists to you
to work on their magazine and whatever else. None of
the doors open, all of those closed. Nobody was hiring.
(08:07):
And so with portfolio on my hand, I'm ca okay, God,
now what Well? My mother in law, Marcine, she knew
someone at her church named Gleia Vaughan. And Gliah was
the wife of an animator, a Warner Brothers animator named
Lloyd Vaughan. And she says, well, what if I set
up a meeting with you and Lloyd? I thought, great, wonderful.
(08:30):
Now Lloyd was one of Chuck Jones's stable of animators.
Chuck Jones was an Oscar winning cartoon producer director. He
was known most notably for his bugs, Bunnies, etc. Anyways,
so and Lloyd was one of his chief animators. You
can see his name on the credits.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And you've been listening to Mike Chen's tell the story
of his life as a career marine, moving from town
to town, his identity in this thing called cartooning. He
dropped out of college, new uncle Sam was beckoning beat
him to the chase, avoiding the draft by enlisting in
the Marines. And it was nineteen seventy no less, the
(09:15):
Marine Corps became my identity.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
I excelled there.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
He became a combat illustrator, and when God beckoned him
to become a pastor, well it didn't work out, and
he wondered what God's plans were for him.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
He'd become a Christian, that was his new identity.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
He drove down a burbank hoping to work with a
Christian ministry, but was denied, only to have a door
open with the great, the legendary Chuck Jones and the
Warner Brothers animation team. More of this remarkable story here
on our American Stories. And we continue with our American stories,
(10:11):
and let's pick up where we last left off with
Mike Jens telling us the story of getting a meeting
with cartoon animator Lloyd Vaughn. Vaughan is known for his
work at Warner Brothers, working for legendary Looney Tunes cartoonist
Chuck Jones.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Here again is Mike Jinns.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Anyhow, so I'm in Lloyd's house and showing him my
portfolio and he looked at it, and he looked at
me and he said, Mike, you need to be in
cartoon animation. I said really, He said, yeah, you need
to be in cartoon animation and here, let me make
a call for you. This is back in nineteen seventy seven.
(10:49):
And so he gets on the phone and calls the
guy by the name of Harry Love. And Harry was
an animator at Hannah Barbara at the time and he
was also teaching a night class on animation. And so
he gets Harry on the phone says, I'd like to
send Mike over and have him show you his portfolio,
which he did, went over there, met Harry, showed him
(11:10):
my portfolio and Harry goes, Mike, how would you like
to be in our night class? Of course, I you know,
just agog and I said, absolutely love it. So at
night I'm learning how to animate. I'm sitting at the
desks of animators who had animated on Yogi, Bear, Huckleberry Hounds, Flintstones.
(11:33):
I mean, this place is like, you know, the mecca
for cartoonists. And I had arrived and it was wonderful.
So for the next couple of months, I'm, you know,
going to the class at night, learning how to animate.
And it was like all the bells and whistles in
my head started sounding because I had now arrived as
a cartoonist.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I love to see my drawings anime.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So I had these five shows that I created while
at Hanna Barbera's the inco and paint department, and we
learned at the Harry Love's class that Filmation was hiring
assistant animators. I go, oh wow, that would be cool.
(12:19):
Filmation Studios they did Fat Albert and Tarzan and those
kinds of Saturday morning shows, and a guy by the
name of lou Irwin was in charge of the assistant
animators there at Filmation. He saw my stuff, he says, Mike,
you got a job. So all of a sudden, now
from inking and paignting, I am now an official assistant
(12:40):
animator working on you know, Mighty Mouse, Fat Albert, Tarzan
et Saturday, these shows that were being shown on Saturday
morning cartoons, which I was just completely thrilled about. And furthermore,
I was making a decent salary. At that point, was
able to join the union, the Cartoonist Guild, and my
(13:02):
wife and I were able to move out of the parents' house,
who are supporting us at the time and move into
our own place. Anyways, I'm now an assistant animator and
I worked there until the Christmas season at which point
I got laid off.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Everybody.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Most people get laid off at the Christmas season because
that's when the season ends, and during that holiday break
over Christmas is when the producers are trying to sell
their new shows to the networks. Well, here I am unemployed,
and I've got bills to pay, and I'm wondering, Okay, God,
what do we do? And Kathy and I prayed, of course,
(13:42):
And so I went driving around all over the different
animation studios with my portfolio in hand and trying to
find a job, and nothing was available, and they're all
shut down for the season.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So here I'm driving along kowing A boulevard in the
Burbank area, and I see the Hannah Barbera Studios there,
and I just had a prompting and inter prompting Mike,
go in there and try to get a job there. Now,
why would I go there when I had just worked
there earlier and gotten laid off from the inco and
painted part. Anyways, I went into the studio. The parking
(14:21):
lot was empty, and that's not a good sign. That
tells me that they're all laid off too. But I
walked into the studio and went up to the receptionist
and I said, I'd like to know if there's somebody
here I can show my portfolio to for a job.
And she said, and I'm not kidding, hold on, let
me see if Bill Hannah is available. Before I could
(14:42):
under register what she just said, Bill Hannah of Hannah
at Barbera, the guy who created Huckleberry Hound and the
Flintstones and all of those great cartoons that were on television,
she says, let me see if I can get a
hold of Bill for you. Two seconds later, Mike had
on a Bill Hannah's office. So here I am shaking
(15:03):
like a leaf with my portfolio and I went in
there and there he was, and I'm not kidding, he
had his feet up on his desk. There's Bill Hannah.
I introduced myself and he said, well, what do you got, Mike,
And so I brought out the five shows that I
had created, and he was very interested in those.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
It took a great interest.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
We were there talking in his office for an hour
and a half and at one point he brought in
all of these studio heads and to introduce them to me.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
And so here's Mike.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Is anybody here got any work I know that it's
the layoff time, but does anybody have any work for Mike?
And one guy by the name of Uraj Paran stepped forward, so, yeah,
I got something. If he's interested in doing a coloring book,
so I said, well absolutely, and it gave me enough
money to pay for our bill. That helped us through
(15:59):
the layoff period. I was then rehired after that was completed.
I was rehired by Filmation and I met one of
the producers there, Don Christiansen, and he saw my coloring
book and he saw my drawings that I'd done that
I showed Bill Hannah. He said, how would you like
to be a storyboard artist? Didn't realize it at the time,
(16:21):
but this was a turning point in my career. And
if anybody doesn't know what a storyboard artist does, he's
the guy that takes a script and turns it into
its visual form. First visual form seen by scene, shot
by shot, close up, long shot, down shot, upshot. All
of the different approaches to producing a cartoon are done
(16:44):
through the storyboard artist.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So basically, what I was.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Being handed was the gift that the ability, the teaching
instruction on how to create films. It was during that time.
Actually in nineteen seventy seven when I came up with
an idea called THEO. And at that point I thought,
you know, what, cartoons are a universal language. Kids love cartoons.
(17:13):
It doesn't matter what part of the world they're from,
what ethnicity, what age. Really, people love cartoons. What a
great vehicle for communicating biblical truth. What a great pulpit
to be working from behind my animation desk, my drawing
(17:33):
table became my pulpit. I did not realize it in
nineteen seventy eight when I created THEO that it was
going to take thirty years before God finally gave me
the financing to produce that series. But I'm glad I
didn't know, because what I had to go through was
basically I left Filmation and I started working for Marvel
(17:56):
Productions of Spider Man fame. I used to play chess
in my lunch hours with stan Lee. I used to
beat him. He beat me too, but we had a
great time to get a great guy. But anyways, I
worked at Marvel for seven years. It was during that
time that I went from being a storyboard artist to
being a writer and also for being also being a
(18:19):
director of shows. And a finally, as a producer of shows,
primetime specials, I produced their very first feature film. And
I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but the My
Little Pony feature film. You may have seen that before,
that was me who produced that and directed it.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
My Little Pony.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Pony All in Spring is here and you've been listening
to Mike Jens tell his journeyman's story, his story of
an artist actually, because this is how artists live, job
to job, in a job, out of a job, fired,
re hired, laid off, brought back.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
But he stayed with it.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
He stayed with his calling, his purpose and soon well
he was about to do his own show.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
But that conversation with that secretary.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Let me see if Bill Hannah is available, and there
he was, feet on his desk.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
My goodness, what a moment in his life.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
When we come back more of Mike Jens's story here
on our American story and we continue with our American stories,
(19:40):
and let's return to our storyteller, Mike Jens, who was
just sharing how his rise in the animation industry involved
working for the likes of Marvel Productions and playing chess
with Stan Lee in his spare time. To producing primetime
cartoon specials like My Little Pony the movie in nineteen
eighty six, the voices of Danny DeVito, Madeline Kahn, Ria Perlman,
(20:04):
and Tony Randall.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Here again is Mike jen.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I produced Fragle Rock for NBC, the animated version of
Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson. Had a great time at
Marvel and learned everything I needed to know to have
(20:28):
my own studio with my own cartoons going through it.
I left Marvel in nineteen eighty eight. There was a
big change in the industry at that time. A lot
of people from New York were moving and buying up
animation studios. Back in the earlier days, studios were run
by guys like Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. They were animators,
(20:51):
they were directors. Even at phil Nation, Lou Scheimer was
an animator. These are guys that understood the process and
understood the artistic mentality or the temperament. So in nineteen
eighty eight things had all changed, and Marvel had been
bought out by an organization called New World Entertainment, and.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
The handwriting was on the wall.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Anyways, Fragile Rock came to a close, and I ended
up working for a couple of other studios. I worked
for DreamWorks Television. Then after that I worked for Saban Entertainment,
where I produced three shows for them. They ran out
of work. I was no longer needed and so now
I'm unemployed. And it was kind of a hard time
(21:37):
in my life because I go, I'm not producing anything.
I'm not doing anything. Nobody wants me. I know, a
sad story. And that lasted for three years. But again
I just felt like, Okay, God, what is it? What
happened to THEO? What happened to that vision that I
had back in nineteen seventy eight about creating this particular
(22:02):
series for you? And one day I got called into
my father in laws. I'm not going to tell you
what he does, but he has a small business and
he asked me, Mike, do you want to work for me?
And I said, well, sure, I need a job. So
I became a machinist for two years, working in a
(22:24):
machine and I don't know, I guess it was God's
humbling me, bringing me to because I was a little
full of myself then and so I think it was
kind of a process of God humbling me and teaching
me what it means to truly just sit and wait
upon him, because he is the one who is in control,
not me. And so Kurt asked me. My father in
(22:47):
law asked me. He said, Mike, how much would it
cost to produce THEO? And I'm thinking, you don't know
what you're asking me. It would cost millions of dollars
because the kind of animation I want to do is,
you know, American animation, which is the best in the world,
but it's very, very expensive. So I just I told
(23:08):
him what it would cost for me to do a
five minute promo video if I did it kind of
guerrilla like and just hired guys and they're all working together.
So I went to one of the animator friends of
mine and said, can we do this for ten thousand?
He said, yeah, we can do it.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
That grew. The money started coming in, and it.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Grew, and it grew, and it grew and it grew,
and we did and we ended up doing seventeen episodes
of THEO, ten minute episodes of THEO, one hundred and
seventy minutes worth of animation, extremely expensive, millions of dollars
worth of of moneies came in. Anyways, THEO was produced
(23:53):
and people can watch it today, see it today and
go to theopresents dot com. That's how they can look
at this project. But the dream was fulfilled. People may
not know what THEO is THEO I wanted to. I
created THEO back. Like I said in nineteen seventy eight,
my idea was to create an animated theologian. Now that
(24:15):
may scare people a lot just hearing the word theologian,
but if basically he's a kindly English gentleman who lives
in England on the on the Colne River, and he
has mice church mice that he talks to and they
talk to him. It's very much using the medium of cartoons,
but it's done in a way that I think is
(24:36):
very endearing.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Now, the first rule in our new exclusive club is
that I have the Grand Phazier. You're that grand fast
Year Vizier Grand Phazire.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
What's the second rule of.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
The second rule is that we won't let anyone into
our club. Wait, they're snubbed? How about thea.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Fear is a human?
Speaker 5 (25:06):
No humans alive? Snubbed? That just leaves us only Luther
the US only club.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
What a name?
Speaker 5 (25:15):
How exclusive can you get? Just think we can be
as messy as we want, stay your past, our bedtime,
eat snacks between males, collect juice, jews. But there's only
you and me and the club have to think that
one through anyways.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
And he teaches the mice because they usually mess up
in some way, and he will use that as a
springboard that launches into a biblical story as well as
he will wrap it up in a way that is
entertaining to children. If the kids aren't going to be entertained,
they're not going to listen to what you have to say.
(25:55):
So in that sense, THEO is a very entertaining price.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
What an interesting hat do you have there, Belfry.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
It's our official US only club hat.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
You can't have one because.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
You got snubbed.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
I got snubbed. Oh, dear Luther snubbed you. He's the
grand fish here did he say fish? Ere? Luther said
humans don't have clubs, yo, But they do. Humans have
many sorts of clubs. Is this your club for you?
Speaker 3 (26:34):
No? This is where the church meets.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
The church isn't a club. No, But unfortunately people sometimes
treat the church like a club. It's very sad. Others
think of it as a place where people who look
and think alike get together once a week. Some take
pride in their church, but look down their noses on others.
(26:59):
And then there are those who avoid going to church
all together. But that isn't what God intended at all.
Here is what a healthy church in the first century looked.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Like, fully animated with beautiful music. The animators that we
ended up getting thirty years later were top D for animators.
Why well, because at that time, which was not the
case in nineteen seventy eight when I created THEO.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
At the time.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Their CGI or the three D animation that Pixar. Through Pixar,
everybody was doing this kind of stuff, and the two
D animators, the traditional animators, most of them were no
longer needed, and some very very talented men and women
were suddenly out on the streets, and at my disposal,
(27:51):
I was able to hire these people to work on
THEO when the time finally came.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And also we had some top rated the guy by
the name of John Sponsler.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
He had worked with Hans Zimmer and with the guys
that did the Pirates of the Caribbean franchises. He's a
brilliant composer and he was available to work on the
THEO series. Every single episode of THEO is scored, and
by that I mean it's not library music. Typically in
(28:26):
a cartoon show television show, they will.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Create library cues.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
You know this, this is a cue for sadness, this
is a cue for adventure, this is a cue for
excitement or whatever danger, And when they're editing the film,
they will bring those cues out to, you know, to help,
you know, underscore a picture.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Not the case with THEO.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Every single frame of film was scored two picture by
John So I say that boasting because it speaks to
what God has done and allowed to happen with the
creation of this project. I had to wait thirty years, yes,
but it was the worth the wait. And now I
have finally retired, although I am writing write books and
(29:11):
I'm living here in Montana, enjoying a place that I
always wanted to live. But of course, at the time
when I got into the cartoon business, there were no
cartoonists or no animation studios here in Montana. Anyways, that
is how I would like to end my little story here, and.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I had a great job on the production by Greg
Hangler and a special thanks to Mike Jens for sharing
with us his story, the story of a cartoonist turn marine,
turned Christian who thought God called him to be a
pastor and who ended up using his animation gifts to
create his own ministry through his art and craft with
his project, His Love THEO. If you wish to learn
(29:54):
more about THEO, go to theopresents dot com and to
hear the podcast version of the show, subscribe on the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Mike Jens'
story here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories up next, a
story about a marine turned cartoon animator, and so much more.
Without any further ado, here's Mike Jinns.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I am a cartoonist, an animator, a cartoon director. And
my story really began as far as that goes, that
end of my story, when I was seven years old.
I was at a little school and I was in
second grade, and I just remember sitting in a row
(00:43):
and looking over at this little blonde girl right next
to me, and she was drawing trees and she just
had a particular way of drawing them that intrigued me.
And as far as I can remember or think, that
was the first discretionary, discriminatory thought I ever had regarding
my cartoons. She drew trees, and I wanted to draw
(01:06):
them like her. So that kind of began my artistic
careers that were seven years old. From that time on,
I just was a cartoonist. Every time I could get
a piece of paper in my hands, I was drawing cartoons.
My dad was a career marine, so we traveled all
the time. Every year we were moving to a new school,
(01:29):
a new location, and you know, for me to help
identify or become identified as something to gain approval.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I guess it was with my peers.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I drew cartoons and that one friends, and you know,
really that is what established me as a young man.
I had an identity as a cartoonist and that was
very important to me.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
That lasted all the way through high school.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I drew cartoons for the school newspapers and everything else
I went into, graduated from high school and went into
Arizona State.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
I wanted to be an architect at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
And you know what, I just really wasn't ready for
school too. I was set free and just kind of
just did everything I wanted to do except crack a book.
And so after one semester of school I ended up
dropping out and it had nothing going on for me.
(02:30):
And this was during the Vietnam War, so the draft
was very much a part of our lives at that time,
and I had a low number. So I knew that
Uncle Sam was going to come calling for me, and
sure enough he did.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
However, I beat him to the punch by one day.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I enlisted in the Marine Corps because I was at
a point in my life where I just didn't know
who I was, where I was going I had no
purposes it were, and so I said, you know what,
the thing I know the most is the Marine Corps,
and I joined the.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Marines, and that was at the end of nineteen seventy b.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
C. I was in boot camp in January of nineteen
seventy one, and I remember standing out on the grinder
two hundred and forty of us as were waiting for
our company to be formed, and the drillings director comes
out and he says, how many of you guys. Of
course he didn't say guys, he said something else, but
how many of you fellows know how to drive eighteen wheelers?
(03:31):
And a few hands raised in the crowd. And then
he says how many people know how to type? And
a few more hands raised in the crowd. And I
remember thinking, there's these guys, two guys behind me, and
they said, I'm not volunteering for nothing. Well, of course
those are the guys that were going to become grunts
because they had no specialties. But anyways, he asked how
many artists are there in the bunch, And there's two
(03:54):
of us out of two hundred and forty that raised
our hands. And after the he broke up the assembly,
there we were brought The two of us were brought
into a room and basically told to draw something anything
that was on our minds. And I drew a bulldog
with a helmet and a machine gun firing at the
(04:14):
camera or at the person looking at the cartoon. And
afterward the guy, the troop pander, goes, well, why did
you draw that? He says, well, I was raised in
the Marine Corps and I know that the bulldog is
our mascot, and well, anyways, long story short, that became
my mos, my military occupational specialty fourteen eleven or forty
(04:36):
nine to eleven, I'm sorry, and that was a combat illustrator.
So when I graduated from boot camp, and itr by
the way, I was the honorman in boot camp because
I wanted something to show who I was, and the
Marine Corps became my identity, and that was very important
that I excell in something that I wanted to, you know, pursue,
(05:01):
and at that time I wanted to pursue like my
dad did.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
The Marine Corps is a career.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
And I was then on my way to Naples, Italy,
and very soon became known in the barracks of one
hundred men as the barracks cartoonist, and I would draw
cartoons for officers, parties and everything else and going, and
that really sustained me. Again, it helped me to make friends,
and it consolidated confirmed my identity as a marine number
(05:30):
one and number two of the cartoonist. I'd been in
a marine now for about a year or so, and
I just started feeling a great loneliness, a great emptiness
in me that the identities of being a cartoonist and
being a marine just were not fulfilling. And one night,
(05:52):
after a liberty, these two marines basically shared Jesus Christ
with me, and I became a Christian.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
He became my new identity.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And believe me, it was an identity that took and
changed my whole course in life. So I got out
of the Marine Corps with an honorable discharge. I wanted
to become a chaplain or a pastor, something behind a
(06:23):
regular pullpit, and so I went to Bible College in
Santa Cruz, California. There I became an English major because
I love to write. I loved books and reading and such,
and again I was like the school cartoonist. I drew
cartoons for the annuals the yearbooks for the school newspapers,
(06:44):
et cetera. So I'm thinking, well, maybe God wants me
to be somehow involved with cartooning as a career or
as a ministry, augmenting somehow my pastorate.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
But anyways, I went to four year Here's a Bible college. There.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I met my wife, Kathy, and we were married for
after two years of school, and then we had another
two years and graduated. I didn't feel anymore as though
God wanted me to be a pastor. I had no
idea what he wanted me to do. So we decided
we would call Kathy's parents, and they both lived down
(07:22):
in Burbank area. We called them up and they said
they were just praying that God would bring us down
to Burbank to do what.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
We had no idea.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
But we took that as a Okay, Lord, you're telling
us something.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
We don't have anything else to.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Go on, so we're going to step out in faith
and go down to Burbank.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Well we did.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
We got down there and I started going around to
all the different Christian organizations like Gospellite, World Vision, David C. Cook,
all of these organizations that would hire cartoonists to you
to work on their magazine and whatever else. None of
the doors open, all of those closed. Nobody was hiring.
(08:07):
And so with portfolio on my hand, I'm ca okay, God,
now what Well? My mother in law, Marcine, she knew
someone at her church named Gleia Vaughan. And Gliah was
the wife of an animator, a Warner Brothers animator named
Lloyd Vaughan. And she says, well, what if I set
up a meeting with you and Lloyd? I thought, great, wonderful.
(08:30):
Now Lloyd was one of Chuck Jones's stable of animators.
Chuck Jones was an Oscar winning cartoon producer director. He
was known most notably for his bugs, Bunnies, etc. Anyways,
so and Lloyd was one of his chief animators. You
can see his name on the credits.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And you've been listening to Mike Chen's tell the story
of his life as a career marine, moving from town
to town, his identity in this thing called cartooning. He
dropped out of college, new uncle Sam was beckoning beat
him to the chase, avoiding the draft by enlisting in
the Marines. And it was nineteen seventy no less, the
(09:15):
Marine Corps became my identity.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
I excelled there.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
He became a combat illustrator, and when God beckoned him
to become a pastor, well it didn't work out, and
he wondered what God's plans were for him.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
He'd become a Christian, that was his new identity.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
He drove down a burbank hoping to work with a
Christian ministry, but was denied, only to have a door
open with the great, the legendary Chuck Jones and the
Warner Brothers animation team. More of this remarkable story here
on our American Stories. And we continue with our American stories,
(10:11):
and let's pick up where we last left off with
Mike Jens telling us the story of getting a meeting
with cartoon animator Lloyd Vaughn. Vaughan is known for his
work at Warner Brothers, working for legendary Looney Tunes cartoonist
Chuck Jones.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Here again is Mike Jinns.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Anyhow, so I'm in Lloyd's house and showing him my
portfolio and he looked at it, and he looked at
me and he said, Mike, you need to be in
cartoon animation. I said really, He said, yeah, you need
to be in cartoon animation and here, let me make
a call for you. This is back in nineteen seventy seven.
(10:49):
And so he gets on the phone and calls the
guy by the name of Harry Love. And Harry was
an animator at Hannah Barbara at the time and he
was also teaching a night class on animation. And so
he gets Harry on the phone says, I'd like to
send Mike over and have him show you his portfolio,
which he did, went over there, met Harry, showed him
(11:10):
my portfolio and Harry goes, Mike, how would you like
to be in our night class? Of course, I you know,
just agog and I said, absolutely love it. So at
night I'm learning how to animate. I'm sitting at the
desks of animators who had animated on Yogi, Bear, Huckleberry Hounds, Flintstones.
(11:33):
I mean, this place is like, you know, the mecca
for cartoonists. And I had arrived and it was wonderful.
So for the next couple of months, I'm, you know,
going to the class at night, learning how to animate.
And it was like all the bells and whistles in
my head started sounding because I had now arrived as
a cartoonist.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I love to see my drawings anime.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So I had these five shows that I created while
at Hanna Barbera's the inco and paint department, and we
learned at the Harry Love's class that Filmation was hiring
assistant animators. I go, oh wow, that would be cool.
(12:19):
Filmation Studios they did Fat Albert and Tarzan and those
kinds of Saturday morning shows, and a guy by the
name of lou Irwin was in charge of the assistant
animators there at Filmation. He saw my stuff, he says, Mike,
you got a job. So all of a sudden, now
from inking and paignting, I am now an official assistant
(12:40):
animator working on you know, Mighty Mouse, Fat Albert, Tarzan
et Saturday, these shows that were being shown on Saturday
morning cartoons, which I was just completely thrilled about. And furthermore,
I was making a decent salary. At that point, was
able to join the union, the Cartoonist Guild, and my
(13:02):
wife and I were able to move out of the parents' house,
who are supporting us at the time and move into
our own place. Anyways, I'm now an assistant animator and
I worked there until the Christmas season at which point
I got laid off.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Everybody.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Most people get laid off at the Christmas season because
that's when the season ends, and during that holiday break
over Christmas is when the producers are trying to sell
their new shows to the networks. Well, here I am unemployed,
and I've got bills to pay, and I'm wondering, Okay, God,
what do we do? And Kathy and I prayed, of course,
(13:42):
And so I went driving around all over the different
animation studios with my portfolio in hand and trying to
find a job, and nothing was available, and they're all
shut down for the season.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So here I'm driving along kowing A boulevard in the
Burbank area, and I see the Hannah Barbera Studios there,
and I just had a prompting and inter prompting Mike,
go in there and try to get a job there. Now,
why would I go there when I had just worked
there earlier and gotten laid off from the inco and
painted part. Anyways, I went into the studio. The parking
(14:21):
lot was empty, and that's not a good sign. That
tells me that they're all laid off too. But I
walked into the studio and went up to the receptionist
and I said, I'd like to know if there's somebody
here I can show my portfolio to for a job.
And she said, and I'm not kidding, hold on, let
me see if Bill Hannah is available. Before I could
(14:42):
under register what she just said, Bill Hannah of Hannah
at Barbera, the guy who created Huckleberry Hound and the
Flintstones and all of those great cartoons that were on television,
she says, let me see if I can get a
hold of Bill for you. Two seconds later, Mike had
on a Bill Hannah's office. So here I am shaking
(15:03):
like a leaf with my portfolio and I went in
there and there he was, and I'm not kidding, he
had his feet up on his desk. There's Bill Hannah.
I introduced myself and he said, well, what do you got, Mike,
And so I brought out the five shows that I
had created, and he was very interested in those.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
It took a great interest.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
We were there talking in his office for an hour
and a half and at one point he brought in
all of these studio heads and to introduce them to me.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
And so here's Mike.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Is anybody here got any work I know that it's
the layoff time, but does anybody have any work for Mike?
And one guy by the name of Uraj Paran stepped forward, so, yeah,
I got something. If he's interested in doing a coloring book,
so I said, well absolutely, and it gave me enough
money to pay for our bill. That helped us through
(15:59):
the layoff period. I was then rehired after that was completed.
I was rehired by Filmation and I met one of
the producers there, Don Christiansen, and he saw my coloring
book and he saw my drawings that I'd done that
I showed Bill Hannah. He said, how would you like
to be a storyboard artist? Didn't realize it at the time,
(16:21):
but this was a turning point in my career. And
if anybody doesn't know what a storyboard artist does, he's
the guy that takes a script and turns it into
its visual form. First visual form seen by scene, shot
by shot, close up, long shot, down shot, upshot. All
of the different approaches to producing a cartoon are done
(16:44):
through the storyboard artist.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So basically, what I was.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Being handed was the gift that the ability, the teaching
instruction on how to create films. It was during that time.
Actually in nineteen seventy seven when I came up with
an idea called THEO. And at that point I thought,
you know, what, cartoons are a universal language. Kids love cartoons.
(17:13):
It doesn't matter what part of the world they're from,
what ethnicity, what age. Really, people love cartoons. What a
great vehicle for communicating biblical truth. What a great pulpit
to be working from behind my animation desk, my drawing
(17:33):
table became my pulpit. I did not realize it in
nineteen seventy eight when I created THEO that it was
going to take thirty years before God finally gave me
the financing to produce that series. But I'm glad I
didn't know, because what I had to go through was
basically I left Filmation and I started working for Marvel
(17:56):
Productions of Spider Man fame. I used to play chess
in my lunch hours with stan Lee. I used to
beat him. He beat me too, but we had a
great time to get a great guy. But anyways, I
worked at Marvel for seven years. It was during that
time that I went from being a storyboard artist to
being a writer and also for being also being a
(18:19):
director of shows. And a finally, as a producer of shows,
primetime specials, I produced their very first feature film. And
I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but the My
Little Pony feature film. You may have seen that before,
that was me who produced that and directed it.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
My Little Pony.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Pony All in Spring is here and you've been listening
to Mike Jens tell his journeyman's story, his story of
an artist actually, because this is how artists live, job
to job, in a job, out of a job, fired,
re hired, laid off, brought back.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
But he stayed with it.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
He stayed with his calling, his purpose and soon well
he was about to do his own show.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
But that conversation with that secretary.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Let me see if Bill Hannah is available, and there
he was, feet on his desk.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
My goodness, what a moment in his life.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
When we come back more of Mike Jens's story here
on our American story and we continue with our American stories,
(19:40):
and let's return to our storyteller, Mike Jens, who was
just sharing how his rise in the animation industry involved
working for the likes of Marvel Productions and playing chess
with Stan Lee in his spare time. To producing primetime
cartoon specials like My Little Pony the movie in nineteen
eighty six, the voices of Danny DeVito, Madeline Kahn, Ria Perlman,
(20:04):
and Tony Randall.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
Here again is Mike jen.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
I produced Fragle Rock for NBC, the animated version of
Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson. Had a great time at
Marvel and learned everything I needed to know to have
(20:28):
my own studio with my own cartoons going through it.
I left Marvel in nineteen eighty eight. There was a
big change in the industry at that time. A lot
of people from New York were moving and buying up
animation studios. Back in the earlier days, studios were run
by guys like Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. They were animators,
(20:51):
they were directors. Even at phil Nation, Lou Scheimer was
an animator. These are guys that understood the process and
understood the artistic mentality or the temperament. So in nineteen
eighty eight things had all changed, and Marvel had been
bought out by an organization called New World Entertainment, and.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
The handwriting was on the wall.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Anyways, Fragile Rock came to a close, and I ended
up working for a couple of other studios. I worked
for DreamWorks Television. Then after that I worked for Saban Entertainment,
where I produced three shows for them. They ran out
of work. I was no longer needed and so now
I'm unemployed. And it was kind of a hard time
(21:37):
in my life because I go, I'm not producing anything.
I'm not doing anything. Nobody wants me. I know, a
sad story. And that lasted for three years. But again
I just felt like, Okay, God, what is it? What
happened to THEO? What happened to that vision that I
had back in nineteen seventy eight about creating this particular
(22:02):
series for you? And one day I got called into
my father in laws. I'm not going to tell you
what he does, but he has a small business and
he asked me, Mike, do you want to work for me?
And I said, well, sure, I need a job. So
I became a machinist for two years, working in a
(22:24):
machine and I don't know, I guess it was God's
humbling me, bringing me to because I was a little
full of myself then and so I think it was
kind of a process of God humbling me and teaching
me what it means to truly just sit and wait
upon him, because he is the one who is in control,
not me. And so Kurt asked me. My father in
(22:47):
law asked me. He said, Mike, how much would it
cost to produce THEO? And I'm thinking, you don't know
what you're asking me. It would cost millions of dollars
because the kind of animation I want to do is,
you know, American animation, which is the best in the world,
but it's very, very expensive. So I just I told
(23:08):
him what it would cost for me to do a
five minute promo video if I did it kind of
guerrilla like and just hired guys and they're all working together.
So I went to one of the animator friends of
mine and said, can we do this for ten thousand?
He said, yeah, we can do it.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
That grew. The money started coming in, and it.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Grew, and it grew, and it grew and it grew,
and we did and we ended up doing seventeen episodes
of THEO, ten minute episodes of THEO, one hundred and
seventy minutes worth of animation, extremely expensive, millions of dollars
worth of of moneies came in. Anyways, THEO was produced
(23:53):
and people can watch it today, see it today and
go to theopresents dot com. That's how they can look
at this project. But the dream was fulfilled. People may
not know what THEO is THEO I wanted to. I
created THEO back. Like I said in nineteen seventy eight,
my idea was to create an animated theologian. Now that
(24:15):
may scare people a lot just hearing the word theologian,
but if basically he's a kindly English gentleman who lives
in England on the on the Colne River, and he
has mice church mice that he talks to and they
talk to him. It's very much using the medium of cartoons,
but it's done in a way that I think is
(24:36):
very endearing.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
Now, the first rule in our new exclusive club is
that I have the Grand Phazier. You're that grand fast
Year Vizier Grand Phazire.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
What's the second rule of.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
The second rule is that we won't let anyone into
our club. Wait, they're snubbed? How about thea.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Fear is a human?
Speaker 5 (25:06):
No humans alive? Snubbed? That just leaves us only Luther
the US only club.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
What a name?
Speaker 5 (25:15):
How exclusive can you get? Just think we can be
as messy as we want, stay your past, our bedtime,
eat snacks between males, collect juice, jews. But there's only
you and me and the club have to think that
one through anyways.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
And he teaches the mice because they usually mess up
in some way, and he will use that as a
springboard that launches into a biblical story as well as
he will wrap it up in a way that is
entertaining to children. If the kids aren't going to be entertained,
they're not going to listen to what you have to say.
(25:55):
So in that sense, THEO is a very entertaining price.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
What an interesting hat do you have there, Belfry.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
It's our official US only club hat.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
You can't have one because.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
You got snubbed.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
I got snubbed. Oh, dear Luther snubbed you. He's the
grand fish here did he say fish? Ere? Luther said
humans don't have clubs, yo, But they do. Humans have
many sorts of clubs. Is this your club for you?
Speaker 3 (26:34):
No? This is where the church meets.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
The church isn't a club. No, But unfortunately people sometimes
treat the church like a club. It's very sad. Others
think of it as a place where people who look
and think alike get together once a week. Some take
pride in their church, but look down their noses on others.
(26:59):
And then there are those who avoid going to church
all together. But that isn't what God intended at all.
Here is what a healthy church in the first century looked.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Like, fully animated with beautiful music. The animators that we
ended up getting thirty years later were top D for animators.
Why well, because at that time, which was not the
case in nineteen seventy eight when I created THEO.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
At the time.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Their CGI or the three D animation that Pixar. Through Pixar,
everybody was doing this kind of stuff, and the two
D animators, the traditional animators, most of them were no
longer needed, and some very very talented men and women
were suddenly out on the streets, and at my disposal,
(27:51):
I was able to hire these people to work on
THEO when the time finally came.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And also we had some top rated the guy by
the name of John Sponsler.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
He had worked with Hans Zimmer and with the guys
that did the Pirates of the Caribbean franchises. He's a
brilliant composer and he was available to work on the
THEO series. Every single episode of THEO is scored, and
by that I mean it's not library music. Typically in
(28:26):
a cartoon show television show, they will.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Create library cues.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
You know this, this is a cue for sadness, this
is a cue for adventure, this is a cue for
excitement or whatever danger, And when they're editing the film,
they will bring those cues out to, you know, to help,
you know, underscore a picture.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Not the case with THEO.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Every single frame of film was scored two picture by
John So I say that boasting because it speaks to
what God has done and allowed to happen with the
creation of this project. I had to wait thirty years, yes,
but it was the worth the wait. And now I
have finally retired, although I am writing write books and
(29:11):
I'm living here in Montana, enjoying a place that I
always wanted to live. But of course, at the time
when I got into the cartoon business, there were no
cartoonists or no animation studios here in Montana. Anyways, that
is how I would like to end my little story here, and.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
I had a great job on the production by Greg
Hangler and a special thanks to Mike Jens for sharing
with us his story, the story of a cartoonist turn marine,
turned Christian who thought God called him to be a
pastor and who ended up using his animation gifts to
create his own ministry through his art and craft with
his project, His Love THEO. If you wish to learn
(29:54):
more about THEO, go to theopresents dot com and to
hear the podcast version of the show, subscribe on the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Mike Jens'
story here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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