-I’d like to emphasize PieGuyRulz for his deep look into the entire situation-

Butch Hartman’s project, Oaxis Entertainment, will be the self-proclaimed new streaming network for the family. Unfortunately for the iconic animator, he’s thrown his reputation out of the window before it even launched.

Oaxis Entertainment has about as much love from the fan community as we do for M. Night Shamalyan’s interpretation of Avatar. The Butch Hartman kickstarted project didn’t start that way.

No, Butch had the support and love of a community of animation fans who were inspired by his work; skewing from Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom to T.U.F.F. Puppy and Bunsen is a Beast. The animator and writer’s legacy at Nickelodeon, and his departure in 2018 had his supporters and fans incredibly curious about his potential projects.

Would he move to Cartoon Network, Netflix or some other production house?

What would be in the cards for someone that’s been such an influential mind in the world of animation?

Enter a kickstarter from the man himself, not aimed at a singular animated production, but an entire entertainment network aimed at bringing families together. With such an ambitious idea, many backed Hartman to reach his $250 thousand dollar goal.

Everything seemed to be great.

But like the sneaky and strategic horse the Greeks used to conquer Troy, Hartman, who’s kickstarter goal was nearly reached, snuck a major change the mission of the entertainment service so many had fully backed.

The platform, dubbed Oaxis Entertainment, would have religious themes, particularly its content would aim to outreach Christianity to audiences. This, obviously, skewed the market of potential audiences, as well as, and more importantly, the fundraisers themselves, as questions of how accepting and open this service truly would be, arose.

Additional video surfaced of Hartman speaking to potential fundraisers and outright lying about complex issues like suicide to emphasize his potential service. Today, Hartman has only continued to throw himself into further controversy, while at the same time, seemingly purposefully pushing himself away from the animation community.

On his podcast, The Speech Bubble, Hartman, speaking to voice actor Tara Strong, accused Tara of being the cause of prior Timmy Turner voice actor Mary Kay Burgman’s suicide. You do hear Hartman say “I’m joking,” after the statement, though there wasn’t much funny about the setup or accusation.

Oaxis reached its $250 thousand dollar goal, and is still going; only time will tell how the new service will be received positively or negatively when it launches.

This has been a truly disappointing development.

I grew up with Hartman’s works. Fairly Odd Parents is glued into my memory as one of the great cartoons, at least in the first few seasons. I’ll never forget the hundreds of hours of my childhood when my eyes were glued to Nickelodeon’s ever going airings of the series. Channel Chasers lives on as one of my favorite cartoon specials of all time.

Danny Phantom was just awesome, not only in concept, but in Danny’s journey of understanding his powers, the bonds of friendship, and incredible foes.

T.U.F.F. Puppy was goofy, though I loved the world that was established.

And though I hated Bunsen is a Beast, there were people that found a love for the series.

The Hartman art style is just as ingrained in my nostalgia as Klaspy-Csupo’s.

I was truly excited for whatever he was going to do next, and it’s annoyingly unfortunate, because it didn’t have to end this way.

Just as Matt Groening’s new show is on Netflix, Hartman could’ve just as easily garnered excitement by moving to a new pre-established platform.

Could all of you, here in the Animation Nation, imagine how hyped you’d be about a Hartman project on Netflix or Hulu before the controversy?

Instead, he’s pushed himself so far from the animation community that supported him for so many years, and only announced a vague service that may or may not last after such controversy.