Why Butch Hartman Created ‘The Garden’ Without Nickelodeon

My friend Butch Hartman, the creator of The Fairly OddParents, sat down with me for a fun, wide-ranging conversation on my podcast, The Greg Laurie Show.

But I want to share with you the story behind The Garden, the Christian cartoon Butch knew no major studio would ever fund, so he made it himself. Butch brought great insight into a range of related topics: 

• No One Else Would Make a Christian Cartoon, So Butch Hartman Did
• How ‘The Garden’ Is Different From Other Cartoons, and Where to Watch It
• Why Nickelodeon Won’t Air a Christian Cartoon
• Creating Cartoons Parents Can Trust
• Hollywood’s Double Standard When It Comes to Christian Content
• The Importance of Christian Media
• Why Christian Cartoons Shouldn’t Be Overly Preachy

No One Else Would Make a Christian Cartoon, So Butch Hartman Did

[00:25:52] Greg Laurie: So now you are working on a Christian series. You’ve had great mainstream success with all of your shows that have all done really amazingly well, going on for seasons and seasons, which is not an easy thing to do.

[00:26:07] Butch Hartman: No.

[00:26:07] Greg Laurie: But now you’re doing something that we would… what would we call what you’re doing now? Inspirational? Would you call it overtly Christian? What is it you’re doing with The Garden, and who is it for, and where can we see it?

[00:26:20] Butch Hartman: Oh thank you. We started our own studio in 2018 when I left Nickelodeon. It’s called Butch Hartman Studios. They needed a guy named Butch Hartman. I auditioned, and I got the job.

…I’ve been developing this Christian cartoon since, like, 2005. I didn’t leave Nickelodeon until 2018. But I knew nobody would make a Christian cartoon. I’d have to make it myself. So my wife and I self-funded a couple episodes on our own.

How ‘The Garden’ Is Different From Other Cartoons, and Where to Watch It

[00:26:45] Butch Hartman: It’s called The Garden Cartoon. And then we actually got some investment for it, and now we have 20 half hours. It’s on Angel Studios. You can see it on RightNow Media. It’s gonna be on the YouVersion app very soon. 

…We have a Garden app that’s absolutely free on the iPhone and Android.

The Garden stars Lenny the Lion and Lucy the Lamb. They both represent each side of the Lord, lion and lamb. Lenny’s a guy, Lucy’s a girl. And they live in a garden where anything can grow. And the boss, God, comes down as a rainbow and talks to them every day and gives them a task. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they don’t, but it’s through a scripture or an original song.

Every episode has a song.

[00:27:31] Greg Laurie: Do you write the songs?

[00:27:32] Butch Hartman: I wrote all the songs. 

…I grew up watching Schoolhouse Rock! “I’m Just a Bill,” “Conjunction Junction,” all those things. That really taught me a lot. I thought, “If I could have a song like that in every episode with scripture, kids can learn the scripture.”

We have one song where this pirate character pulls up. He’s a crocodile named Captain Snappy, and he wants to find treasure, so Lenny and Lucy help him find the treasure. But he wants all the treasure at the end, and they’re like, “You need to share this treasure with everybody.” So they talk about Luke 6:38: “If you wanna be my first mate, go read Luke 6:38. It’s all about giving, and that’s pretty great.”

…So the pirate at the end learns how to give…

[00:28:34] Greg Laurie: How different from our culture today. That’s the exact opposite of the message. Everyone’s talking about, you know, love yourself, find yourself. And yet Jesus says, “If you wanna find yourself, in effect, lose yourself.” And you discover that God’s plan for you is better than your plan for yourself.

…Studies have been done, and they have found that there’s something they actually call a “helper’s high.” There’s a release of endorphins when you do things for other people.

[00:29:03] Butch Hartman: How about that?

[00:29:03] Greg Laurie: Well, it looks like the Bible had it right in the first place. Jesus said, “It is more blessed”, or “happy-making,” you could say,  ”to give than it is to receive.”  But that’s so counterintuitive to the cultural cues we’re getting today.

 So I love that in the world of animation and cartoons.

Why Nickelodeon Won’t Air a Christian Cartoon

[00:29:21] Greg Laurie: Do you think that Nickelodeon would ever run a show like The Garden?

[00:29:28] Butch Hartman: No.

[00:29:28] Greg Laurie: Because there’s an audience for it, though, isn’t there?

[00:29:28] Butch Hartman: There is. But a lot of bigger studios want to kind of be down the middle, or they say they do anyway. They don’t wanna do anything they’ll call “religious.”

Now, if you’re a real Christian, you’ll know that Christianity’s not about religion. It’s about the relationship with the Lord. But no one wants to take time to learn that or understand that.

Creating Cartoons Parents Can Trust

Butch Hartman: …I knew when I was making The Garden, I’d have to do it by myself. I can’t have a studio behind me. I had to start my own studio.  We have 20 more pilots we’re making at my studio right now… Some are straight-up Christian, some are just family. But the main thing is, whatever goes on that screen, whatever I’m responsible for, parents don’t have to freak out about it. Parents can enjoy it.

[00:30:08] Greg Laurie: They can trust it if Butch Hartman’s name is on it.

[00:30:11] Butch Hartman: …I’m not perfect… But all I know is this: I wanna put stuff out there that I can be proud of. That I can go, “Look, at least when I leave this earth, I left people with something hopefully they’ll grow from.” And learn how to be a servant. Learn how to be someone who can help. Learn that it’s not all about you.

 I was watching your Alice Cooper interview. He said something really great, and it’s true: People in Hollywood and the industry, they all wanna be their own god. 

Everybody does. But that’s why Christianity’s so huge, ’cause you have to lay yourself down and lift Him up.  And then you, like, might have to listen to Jesus, and people don’t wanna do that. 

…I always tell people at our church, you can’t become a Christian accidentally. It’s a choice. You’re not adopted accidentally.  There’s a process. 

Hollywood’s Double Standard When It Comes to Christian Content

[00:31:16] Greg Laurie: You mentioned that organizations like Nickelodeon or others, “Oh, we don’t want religion in our cartoons or in our programming.” Give me a break. There’s religion in everything. It’s just a different religion.

[00:31:27] Butch Hartman: Absolutely. Whatever you worship.

[00:31:29] Greg Laurie: It’s a man-centered religion, or it’s woke ideology,  or they’re presenting trans characters or gay characters. That’s a belief system that is coming through now. And yet, “We don’t want your belief system,” when millions and millions of people around the world, and Americans of course, identify as Christians. You would think just on a financial basis alone they’d say, “This is an audience. Let’s market to them.”

I do see some breakthroughs, though with organizations like Amazon. My friend Jon Erwin, who directed Jesus Revolution, has a series that Amazon has funded called House of David, and it’s really telling the Bible stories. So I do see that some doors are opening up  and that’s so important.

The Importance of Christian Media

[00:32:10] Greg Laurie: An idea I came up with a while ago was that I want to reach unexpected people in unexpected places with an unexpected message. By that I mean I’d like to sneak up on people, not in a misleading way, but just kind of enter their world. Not everyone’s gonna darken the doorway of our church.

But if I could reach them, maybe in a movie theater through Jesus Revolution, or on radio or TV or some other way, I wanna do that because Jesus told us to “go into all the world and preach the gospel.” He didn’t say the whole world should go to church, but He did say the church should go to the whole world.

[00:32:53] Butch Hartman: He didn’t say build a building and sit there and let them come to you… What I think is awesome, too, is it’s us becoming vessels for Him.

…There’s a million kids that won’t go into a church ever in their life, but they will watch an iPhone. And they’ll watch a screen. So what can I put on that screen to at least tell them that there’s hope for them out there?

Why Christian Cartoons Shouldn’t Be Overly Preachy

[00:33:15] Butch Hartman: …When I do The Garden, it has scripture in it, but it’s funny, too. We start with funny and entertaining. And by the way, there’s a message in there, too. ‘Cause kids aren’t gonna watch it if it’s preachy. They’re not going to.

I get parents going, “I like it more than my kids do.” I love that, because you’re reaching the parents, too. If you really think about it, the parents are the audience, ’cause they’re gonna allow their child to watch it anyway. So we wanna speak to the parents and the kids.

I try and look at our stuff as the whole entertainment world is a giant refrigerator, and it’s full of junk food. But we’re the apple. We’re the grapes. We’re the healthy option. We’re still in the fridge, but we’re the healthy option.

Get the full interview here.