Cartoon Network Shorts Department

Cartoon Network Shorts Department
Created by	Cartoon Network Studios
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Brian A. Miller (2013-2020) Jennifer Pelphrey (2013-2020) Rob Sorcher (2013-2020) Curtis Lelash (2013–2018) Mike Roth (2017–2018) Nick Jennings (2018–2021) Tramm Wigzell (2018–2020) Sam Register (2020-2021)
Producers	Nate Funaro (2013–2017) Scott Malchus (2017–2021) Sophia Monico (2019–2021) Jackie Buscarino (2021)
Related
What a Cartoon! The Cartoonstitute Cartoon Cartoons List of titles Steven Universe Clarence Over the Garden Wall We Bare Bears Long Live the Royals OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Apple & Onion Craig of the Creek Summer Camp Island Victor and Valentino Infinity Train Tig n' Seek The Fungies!

Cartoon Network Shorts Department is the channel's artist development program for animated pilots that are created at Cartoon Network Studios. It was inaugurated and started in 2013 through online uploading of six titles, on May 21 for a short period, which three of them have been greenlit for a TV series at the start of the program. ^[1]

The shorts program has since been superseded by the Cartoon Cartoons shorts program introduced in 2021.

The short Mushroom and the Forest of the World was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Format Children's Program. ^{[2] [3]}

List of pilots

United States

Title	Created by	Original premiere(s)
Clarence	Skyler Page	May 21, 2013(Online) February 17, 2014(TV)
Lakewood Plaza Turbo / OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes	Ian Jones-Quartey	May 21, 2013(Online)
Mars Safari!	Ghostshrimp
My Science Fiction Project	Audie Harrison
Paranormal Roommates	Benton Connor
Steven Universe : "The Time Thing"	Rebecca Sugar
Tome of the Unknown: "Harvest Melody" / Over the Garden Wall	Patrick McHale	September 9, 2013(LA Shorts Fest) May 18, 2015(Online)
AJ's Infinite Summer	Toby Jones	May 16, 2014(Online)
Long Live the Royals	Sean Szeles
We Bare Bears	Daniel Chong	May 21, 2014(KLIK! Festival) August 25, 2015(TV)
Back to Backspace	Dominic Bisignano and Amalia Levari	November 12, 2014(Online)
Pillywags Mansion [a]	Sam Marin
Jammers	Lizz Hickey	May 18, 2015(Online)
Ridin' with Burgess	Andres Salaff
Twelve Forever [b]	Julia Vickerman
Apple & Onion	George Gendi	June 18, 2015(Annecy Festival) May 2, 2016(Online) May 14, 2016(TV)
Welcome to My Life	Elizabeth Ito	June 18, 2015(Annecy Festival) April 7, 2017(Online)
Bottom's Butte	Minty Lewis	November 20, 2015(CTN Expo) May 2, 2016(Online)
Summer Camp Island	Julia Pott	March 17, 2016(SXSW Festival) December 2, 2017(CN App) April 25, 2018(Online)
Victor and Valentino	Diego Molano	October 29, 2016(TV) November 1, 2016(Online)
Infinity Train	Owen Dennis	November 1, 2016(VOD) November 2, 2016(Online) February 11, 2017(TV)
Legendary Place	Calvin Wong	March 4, 2017(GLAS Festival) November 9, 2018(Online)
The Fancies: "Fancytown"/"The Beach" /"Run Pam Run"/"Sir Tree" / The Fungies [c]	Stephen P. Neary	July 30, 2017(ABP Festival) May 8, 2019(Online)
Unlovable	Esther Pearl Watson and Mark Todd	August 11, 2017(HollyShorts Festival) [4]
Tiggle Winks / Tig n' Seek [c]	Myke Chilian	November 24, 2017(CN App) January 8, 2018(Online)
Craig of the Creek	Matt Burnett and Ben Levin	December 1, 2017(CN App)
Mushroom and the Forest of the World	Madeleine Flores and J. Smith	October 14, 2018(KLIK! Festival) April 26, 2019(Online)
Sunshine Brownstone	Audie Harrison	November 17, 2018(Online)
Pops & Branwell	Pete Toms and Aleks Sennwald	January 27, 2019(CFF Seattle) December 14, 2019(Online)
Splitting Time	Gleb Sanchez-Lobashov	February 16, 2019(BAICFF) December 21, 2019(Online)
The Wonderful Wingits	Leticia Abreu Silva	February 16, 2019(BAICFF) July 20, 2020(Online)
Cadette in Charge	Henrique Jardim	February 6, 2020(Online)
Trick Moon	Geneva Hodgson	July 21, 2020(Online)
Beetle + Bean	Nick Edwards	July 22, 2020(Online)
Genie Hunters	Mike Milo	December 16, 2020(Animatic)
Wild Help [d]	Niki Yang	January 1, 2021(Online)
Bird & Squirrel	James Burks	February 18, 2021(CFF Seattle) [5] February 16, 2026(Online) [e]
The Nonsense Tales of Alakasam! [d]	Kyle Arneson and Aaron Preacher	May 4, 2025(Online)
Afternoon Super [e]	Ben Crouse and Jacob Sluka	February 9, 2026(Online)
Badass Babies [6]	Zach Smith	TBD
Greetings from Samson [7] [8]	Tiffany Ford
HUE Chroma Warriors [9]	Eric Trueheart
Outrun Express [10]	Jeremy Polgar
Outrunners [11] [12] [13]	Adam Ganse and Ashe Jacobson
Paradise is for the Birds [14]	Brett Varon
Spirit Link [11]	André LaMilza
Study Hallers [15]	Ben Adams

International

Since 2016, the program has begun to expand to other countries where Cartoon Network Studios accept to commission (but not produce) those local short pilots, and the first title to be noticed in this process is Lasso & Comet. ^[16]

Title	Created by	Country of origin	Co-production(s)	Original premiere(s)
Lasso & Comet	Ivan Dixon Developed by: Greg Sharp and Ivan Dixon	Australia	Rubber House Cartoon Network Asia Pacific	November 9, 2016(Online)

See also

• Nickelodeon Animated Shorts Program - the Nickelodeon counterpart of the program.

Notes

1. Only puppet show/animated pilot of the program and the entire Cartoon Network Studios filmography.
2. This pilot has been greenlit as a series by Netflix.
3. Despite these two pilots have being greenlit by Cartoon Network, their series move to premiering on HBO Max.
4. Stop-motion
5. Released under the Cartoon Cartoons label.

References

1. "Next Generation of Animation - Behind The Scenes, Geek Week, Cartoon Network - YouTube". YouTube . Retrieved September 13, 2016.
2. "Daytime Emmy Nominees: 'Elena of Avalor,' 'Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure' Lead Toon Contenders". Animation Magazine. May 21, 2020. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
3. "Daytime Emmy Awards: 'Dragon Prince,' 'Ask the Storybots' & 'Last Kids on Earth' Win Key Animation Categories for Netflix". Animation Magazine. July 27, 2020. Archived from the original on September 8, 2020. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
4. "Esther Pearl Watson's Unlovable animated short will be at Hollyshorts Film Festival from August 10–19th!". Twitter. August 1, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
5. "Bird & Squirrel short accepted into the (Virtual) Children's Film Festival Seattle 2021". James Burks. February 9, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
6. "Zach Smith - LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
7. "CN Doc Short on Vimeo". Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
8. "SAMSON AT WORK". by tiffanyford. Archived from the original on December 23, 2023. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
9. "Eric Trueheart - StaffMeUp.com". Staff Me Up. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
10. "Motion Scientist". Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
11. "Jill Calhoun, ACE - LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
12. "JillCalhoun_AnimaticDemoReel_Vimeo2 on Vimeo". Archived from the original on August 5, 2021. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
13. "Outrunners" (PDF). Léandre Perrin. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
14. "Brett Varon - LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
15. "Ben Adams - LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
16. "Cartoon Network Grows its Australian-Made Original Animation in 2016". Time Warner, Inc. November 18, 2015. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved October 30, 2017.

External links

• CN Minis playlist on YouTube
• Shorts Department on Cartoon Network Studios website