Nickelodeon Creator Reimagines NickToons as Anime — See the Bold Transformation
Anime may be stealing the spotlight, but Western animation’s engine is still roaring—driven by Nickelodeon’s NickToons, the cable-era incubator that has minted generation-defining franchises since the 1990s. Here’s how this powerhouse reshaped the medium—and the next wave it’s primed to unleash.
Anime is having a moment, sure, but over on the Western side, Nickelodeon has been quietly feeding the machine for decades. Their NickToons banner has pumped out a ridiculous run since the 90s — Rugrats, Invader Zim, SpongeBob SquarePants, the works. Most of them never get an anime glow-up. Until now, sort of.
Butch Hartman goes full anime (just for fun)
Butch Hartman — yes, the guy behind The Fairly OddParents — has pivoted from launching Nickelodeon staples to building a big YouTube channel (he is sitting at almost one million subscribers). His lane lately: reimagining NickToons in all kinds of what-if scenarios. Adult Timmy Turner? Check. Crossovers that never happened? Also check.
His latest piece: a small thought experiment that redraws Timmy Turner and Jimmy Neutron as if they were born in Japan instead of at Nickelodeon. No, it is not an official project. It is Hartman noodling on style and nostalgia, and it fits right in with the rest of his remix posts.
Where Timmy Turner actually stands right now
Meanwhile, over in the official canon, Timmy did not come back when Netflix revived the brand. The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish brought back Wanda and Cosmo but handed the lead role to a new kid, Hazel Wells, and swapped in a CG look for the series. The most recent season dropped last year, and Netflix still has not said if the sequel series is getting more episodes.
Earlier this year, showrunner Lindsay Katai said many of the folks who made A New Wish have moved on to other projects. Translation: the creative team is scattered, and Netflix is keeping quiet about the show’s future.
The near-miss crossover and Timmy’s endgame
Hartman has also been spilling some behind-the-scenes tidbits lately. He says he once pitched Nickelodeon on a Fairly OddParents/SpongeBob SquarePants crossover that would have taken Timmy and friends down to Bikini Bottom. It never happened, but that was the idea on the table.
And if you have ever argued about who Timmy grows up to marry, Hartman has a take there too: he thinks Timmy would eventually end up with Tootie.
Timmy is back this summer... kind of
If you are itching to see Timmy in anything new, he will surface in a different corner of the IP multiverse: the video game Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis: Next! is set for release this summer. It stacks a bunch of classic NickToons together, and these game mash-ups have been a reliable way for Paramount to dust off the old favorites.
So, does Hartman’s anime pass on Timmy and Jimmy work for you, or are you Team Original Design forever?