Women in Animation Share Their #MeToon Moment on 'Full Frontal With Samantha Bee'

In the era of #MeToo and Time's Up, and following the fall of Harvey Weinstein, women in Hollywood have banded together to shed light on the unspoken atrocities which too-often occur behind closed doors. Such is the case with this group of female animators, who are featured on the March 13 episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. These women bonded together on Facebook, and in turn, identified a common experience of alleged harassment from a male colleague: The Loud House creator Chris Savino. Popsugar has shared an first look at their story, #MeToon.

The ripple effect started when storyboard artist, Cheyenne Curtis, detailed her experience with Savino to the private Facebook group. Even her close friends in the community were unaware of Curtis's claims before she made them. "Something came over my body; my hands just started typing frantically. It wasn't thought out, it was just years of pent up feelings." Curtis said. "People knew exactly who I was talking about and I didn't need to say who it was."

Curtis's allegations led to several other women coming forward with their own reports against Savino. Risking their own success and putting their careers on the line, these women teamed up, made their claims against Savino public, and brought their concerns to the The Animation Guild. He was fired from Nickelodeon, following the accusations of inappropriate behaviour from a dozen women, and suspended for one year by the guild, thanks to the efforts of these female animators.

To hear from the animators themselves, including Curtis, watch the full video below. Fun fact: the whole segment was shot, produced, directed, and animated by women.



In your favorite cartoons the good guys always win, but this time the good gals won. Produced and animated by an all-female team led by Kaitlin Fontana with Julie Levitsky. Edited by Daphne Gómez-Mena.

Watch Full Frontal with Samantha Bee all new Wednesdays at 10:30/ 9:30c on TBS!

From Polygon:

Women in animation share their #MeToo moment on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee

Call it a #MeToon moment

A group of women in the animation industry got together on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee to share their own animated #MeToo story.

Animators Megan Nicole Dong, Ashlyn Anstee, Katie Rice, Cheyenne Curtis, and Paula Spence recounted the formation of a Facebook group for women in animation that emerged after the Harvey Weinstein exposé. Curtis bravely shared a story, and while she did not name the individual in question, other women came forward, and the group quickly realized that the man was Loud House creator Chris Savino.

After a story on Savino by Cartoon Brew broke, Nickelodeon fired him, but unease still lingered among women in the animation industry.

“There was just this huge anxiety that he was just going to get hired somewhere else,” said Anstee.

Despite many roadblocks, the group banded together and pored over their union constitution to find specific language they could use — there wasn’t anything about sexual harassment — and brought Savino to court with charges of misconduct.

Fortunately, unlike some other incidents of sexual harassment cases coming to light in the past two years, this story has a satisfying ending: Savino was given a one-year suspension from the Animator’s Guild, and a letter detailing his disloyalty to the guild went around to the animation studios.

“You mess with someone’s friends,” said Rice, “and they’ll fu*k you up.”

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Additional source: Fast Company.