The Cartoonstitute
The Cartoonstitute was a planned Cartoon Network project created by Cartoon Network's executive Rob Sorcher that would have been a showcase for animated shorts created without the interference of network executives and focus testing. It was headed by Craig McCracken and Rob Renzetti. 39 shorts for the project were in development at Cartoon Network Studios, but only 14 of these were completed. Eventually, balancing 5 upcoming shows and adding another proved difficult and the project was scrapped. Of the shorts which were made, only Regular Show and Uncle Grandpa have been greenlit to become animated series. On May 7, 2010, Cartoon Network uploaded nearly all of the shorts to their website. The only shorts not uploaded were Maruined, 3 Dog Band, and Joey to the World.
History
The series was first announced on April 3, 2008, at Cartoon Network's annual upfront in New York City. The project was to be similar to The Cartoon Cartoon Show which aired on the network more than a decade earlier and gave birth to some of the channel's first animated series, such as Dexter's Laboratory and Cow and Chicken. The Cartoonstitute was to establish a think tank and create an environment in which animators can create characters and stories. A section of Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, California, was set aside exclusively for the project. The "Cartoonstitute" name was imagined by Lauren Faust, the wife of Craig McCracken. The first short to appear legally online via Vimeo was "3 Dog Band: Get It Together" on July 29, 2009. On September 26, 2009, all 14 completed shorts were posted on YouTube and the account was deleted shortly after posting them.List of completed shorts
All shorts of the project were developed and produced in 2009, despite their release in 2010.| Title | Created by | Synopsis |
| "3 Dog Band: Get It Together" | Paul Rudish | A trio of dogs prepare for a gig at an exclusive nightclub, with some minor difficulty along the way. |
| "Baloobaloob's Fun Park" | Aaron Springer | Two human teenagers, Andy and Jeff, must help an extraterrestrial named Baloobaloob come up with an extraordinary stage act in an attempt to prevent his amusement park from closing. |
| "Danger Planet" | Derek Drymon | When a Danger Planet arcade machine and a forklift robot get stranded on an alien planet, they take it upon themselves to protect a human baby, or else a space ranger will make sure that they do not leave the planet on her watch. Note: The short was re-released in 2016 with brighter colors. |
| "Joey to the World" | Craig Kellman | A 35-year-old kangaroo decides to move out of his mother's pouch and into the Alaskan wilderness. Note: This is the only short that is written for an older teen/adult audience. |
| "Le Door" | Matt Danner | An inter-dimensional explorer named Le Door takes his young apprentice Frank on a tour through his old academy, only to enter a competition against his old sidekick-turned-rival Zee Window and his apprentice Zee Donut Hole. Note: Le Door's character is a parody of Doraemon. |
| "Maruined" | Genndy Tartakovsky | Two siblings, a teen girl and her younger brother, become trapped on a deserted island full of danger with a strange hippopotamus/dog hybrid as their pet and protector. |
| "Meddlen Meddows" | Chris Reccardi | A bug-like alien has difficulty escaping an alien planet after the power cell of his ship gets stolen by the primitive locals. |
| "Regular Show" | J. G. Quintel | When two best friends, a blue jay named Mordecai and a raccoon named Rigby, play a game of rock, paper, scissors over a couch, it leads to dangerous results. Note: This short serves as the pilot to the show of the same name, Regular Show. The short was later retooled into the season 2 episode "First Day". |
| "Spleenstab" | Mike Bell | A barbarian attempts to become a kind and gentle person with the help of a forest elf. |
| "Stockboys of the Apocalypse" | Derek Drymon | A teenage boy falls into a time machine where he must work at a department store with his now-elderly best friend and a mutated pig. |
| "The Awesome Chronicles of Manny and Khan: Lava Ball! The Ashes of Heroes" | Josh Lieberman and Joey Giardina | A German-accented leprechaun named Khan and a giant platypus named Manny attempt to retrieve a ball, pretending that the patch of grass surrounding it is lava. |
| "The Borneos" | Chris Staples | The sole normal child in a family of circus performers must undergo training to prevent the family title of the "Walla Walla Wildman" from being taken. |
| "Uncle Grandpa" | Pete Browngardt | A strange man who is the uncle and grandfather of everyone in the world, simply Uncle Grandpa, must do battle with a gang of mutants, after an attempt to gain the appreciation and love of a nerdy teenager named Ham Sandwich goes awry. Note 1: This short later became the pilot to both Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, as well as the show of the same name, Uncle Grandpa. Note 2: This short also had a nomination for the Emmy Awards in 2010. |
| "YES" | Dave Smith | A merman enlists a family from the country to assist him in an effort to help people realize and fulfill their dreams. |