Aaron Paul Springer (born September 5, 1973; age 52) is a SpongeBob SquarePants crew member who worked on the show from seasons 1 to 8. He also worked on one episode from season 2 of The Patrick Star Show.
Biography
Springer is a modern animator, episode writer and storyboard artist, beginning his days in animation at Spümcø in the late 1990s. After contributing to projects such as the music video for Bjork's "I Miss You," Springer was hired onto SpongeBob SquarePants as a writer and storyboard artist in 1998, early in the production of its first season. Initially paired with Sherm Cohen and later, Erik Wiese during season 1, Springer's subsequent storyboarding partnership with C.H. Greenblatt during seasons 2 and 3 produced some of the series' most well-known and critically-acclaimed episodes, among them "Band Geeks," "Dying for Pie," and "Survival of the Idiots."
Following the completion of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004, where he contributed to storyboarding and writing, Springer worked on three episodes early in season 4 before departing the series. He would return midway through season 5 beginning with the episode "The Krusty Sponge" and resumed writing and storyboarding duties on the series until the end of season 8. During these seasons, he mostly worked solo as a storyboard director, although he was occasionally paired with Sean Charmatz during seasons 7 and 8. After season 8, he left SpongeBob to direct episodes of Gravity Falls. He wrote for 71 episodes in total.
Besides his work on SpongeBob SquarePants, Springer is best known as a storyboard artist for the live-action/animated hybrid film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, a few freelance episodes on Poochini, Dexter's Laboratory, and Samurai Jack. He also has directed several episodes. He plays the real-life drummer in "Prehibernation Week," however he is uncredited.[1] In 2006, Springer created and co-directed the pilot episode for Korgoth of Barbaria in collaboration with Genndy Tartakovsky for Adult Swim. Springer also was the voice of the animated character "Laughing Bubble" in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004. Springer has also collaborated with various animation veterans such as Lynne Naylor, Chris Reccardi, Alex Hirsch, Craig McCracken, Genndy Tartakovsky, Paul Rudish, Rumen Petkov, Dave Wasson, Rob Renzetti, Maxwell Atoms, C.H. Greenblatt, Chris Savino, Stephen Hillenburg, and John Kricfalusi. He also worked on animated films like Mulan, The Emperor's New Groove, Open Season, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return and Mr. Peabody & Sherman. He also wrote some episodes of Disney's Mickey Mouse.
Springer is also the creator of a TV show entitled Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer which premiered on Disney XD in June 2017.
He returned to work on the third movie.[2]
Springer was working for Warner Bros. Animation before returning on The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants as a storyboard artist and supervising producer.[3] He also briefly worked on season 2 of The Patrick Star Show as a writer and storyboard director on the episode "Too Many Patricks."
Trivia
General
- In 2000, Springer opened a Flash website called FunTowne. (http://funtowne.com/index.html) It is still up as of 2026, although it hasn't been updated in years and various features are only accessible via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. One section of the website, called "Art Gallery," features doodles from various SpongeBob SquarePants crew members made during the production of the show's first few seasons.[4]
- He was one the few CalArts students that John Kricfalusi met and hired in 25 years and actually considered a "cartoonist."[5]
Gallery
External links
References
- ^ Audio Commentary for "Prehibernation Week"
- ^ Vincent Waller on Twitter: "@NatroxServer Tim Hill, Aaron Springer, Sue Mondt, Zeus. This all the info I have crew wise."
- ^ https://www.instagram.com/erik.wiese.creative/p/C5owqukSmmi/
- ^ Funtowne Art Gallery
- ^ John K Stuff: Dan Gordon and what makes a cartoonist