Victor Cook

Victor A. Cook (born c. 1960/1961) is an American film and television producer and director best known for his work on the animated series The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008–2009), Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010–2013) and Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters (2017–2018),^[2][3] and as an executive producer of Disney Junior's T.O.T.S.^[4]

Victor Cook
Born	c. 1961 (age 63–64) Saitama, Japan[1]
Education	CSULB
Occupations	Television director writer producer
Years active	1987–present
Known for	The Spectacular Spider-Man Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters
Children	2

Early life

Cook was born in the early 1960s,^[4] one of five children on the Johnson Air Force Base in Saitama, Japan.^[1] His parents met in an Air Force cafeteria while his father was enlisted.^[1] He is half-Korean through his mother.^[5] After leaving Saitama, the family lived in San Antonio, Texas; Florida; Fort Worth, Texas; Euless, Texas; Okinawa, Japan (at Kadena Air Base); and Atwater, California.^[1] After high school, he briefly attended a junior college in Central California before transferring to California State University, Long Beach.^[1][4]

As a child and into college, Cook desired to be a print cartoonist, but was dissuaded after reading about Jack Kirby's career.^[4] While at the junior college, a life drawing teacher gave him the contact information for a former student who went on to work for Hanna-Barbera.^[4] He only called once he was already into his career.^[4] The student suggested taking an animation class at The Animation Guild.^[4]

Career

After graduating college, Cook worked as a graphic artist and political cartoonist for Costa Mesa's Daily Pilot then as an assistant animator at Filmation.^[1] At Filmation, he found himself drawn to storyboards because they reminded him of comic cels.^[4] He worked on BraveStarr during the day and took storyboard classes at night until Filmation folded.^[4] He was able to find a job working on ALF Tales and ALF: The Animated Series.^[4] This experience helped him eventually land at Disney Television Animation, where he worked for 16 years.^[1][4] After leaving Disney, he worked with Greg Weisman to create The Spectacular Spider-Man; worked on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated; and started at Hasbro, where he helped develop Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters alongside writer Kevin Burke and producer Chris Wyatt.^[4] In the late 2010s, he was hired onto T.O.T.S. by Disney Junior.^[4]

He is the creator of the Mecha-Nation comic books.^[1] It is the first comic book he's worked on.^[1]

The Spectacular Spider-Man

I wanted to make sure that this was an iconic Spider-man for the different generations of fans, but I also wanted to bring in a new generation of fans that had a passing interest in it. I also really wanted this to be a two dimensional Spider-man that moved like we've never really seen him move in animation before. I thought Sam Raimi set the bar of how he should move and I haven't seen that in animation.

—Cook on the animation style he chose for The Spectacular Spider-Man^[6]

Cook was called by Sony Entertainment to develop a DVD project about Spider-Man. Cook developed it with Greg Weisman; they wanted to base it on the early comic book publications of the character that showed him younger, which Cook had never seen done before in any adaption. The idea was reformatted to an animated television series, but maintained a similar chronicle style with story arcs whose episodes could still work as standalone stories.^[6] The original title for the series was The Amazing Spider-Man, based on the comic series of the same name, but by mid-2007 the name was changed to The Spectacular Spider-Man.^[7][8]

Cook wanted the animation to be squash and stretch style, and the action to be as good as the first two Spider-Man films. Sam Raimi directed as they had "set the bar" for the fluid movement for Spider-Man.^[6][9] As they were on a specific budget, they wanted to allow the animation to "move" more than anything, giving it simple and stylistic designs.^[10] He also looked back on Blood and Iron which had a "fresh, young, look to it" that appealed to him visually. Cook wanted to make an "iconic" Spider-Man for both new and older generations and "really wanted this to be a two dimensional Spider-man that moved like we've never really seen him move in animation before."^[6][11]

Personal life

He and his wife Sonia, who is also half-Korean, have been married since the late 1980s.^[1][12] They have two children: Hanah and Jackson.^{[citation needed]} His daughter is an animation writer.^[13] and, according to Victor's friend and colleague Greg Weisman, served as the inspiration for Artemis Crock in Young Justice.^[12]

As an animator, Cook admires Charles M. Schulz, Jack Kirby and Hayao Miyazaki, and was a Hanna-Barbera fan growing up.^[4][1]

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Credited as				Notes	Ref(s)
		Director	Producer	Art	Writer
1987—1988	BraveStarr	No	No	Yes	No		[4]
1988	ALF Tales	No	No	Yes	No		[4]
1988—1989	ALF: The Animated Series	No	No	Yes	No		[4]
1989	The Smurfs	No	No	Yes	No		[14]
	The Karate Kid	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
	Garfield and Friends	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
	Denver, the Last Dinosaur	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
1990	TaleSpin	No	No	Yes	No	Episode "Time Waits for No Bear"	[4]
1991	Widget	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
1992	The Little Mermaid	No	No	Yes	No	Episode "Urchin"	[citation needed]
	Raw Toonage	No	No	Yes	No	Episodes "Bonkers in Space/Cro-Magnum PI/The Treasure of the Sierra Marsdre" and "Sheerluck Bonkers/All Potato Network/The Puck Stops Here"	[citation needed]
1991—1992	Darkwing Duck	No	No	Yes	Yes	Wrote "Kung Fooled"	[4][5]
	Mr. Bogus	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
1993	Bonkers	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
1994	Aladdin	No	No	Yes	No		[4][5]
1995	Rocko's Modern Life	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
1995—1996	Gargoyles	No	No	Yes	No		[4][5]
1996	Quack Pack	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
	Jungle Cubs	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
1997—1998	101 Dalmatians: The Series	Yes	Yes	No	No		[4][5]
2000	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	Yes	No	No	No		[4][5]
2001—2002	The Legend of Tarzan	Yes	No	No	No		[5]
2002—2004	Fillmore!	No	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
2005	American Dragon: Jake Long	No	No	Yes	No		[15]
2003—2006	Lilo & Stitch: The Series	Yes	Yes	No	No		[4][5]
2007	Mickey's Great Clubhouse Hunt	Yes	No	Yes	No		[citation needed]
2006—2008	Mickey Mouse Clubhouse	Yes	No	No	No		[1][4]
2008	The Spectacular Spider-Man: Attack of the Lizard	Yes	Yes	No	No		[1]
2008—2009	The Spectacular Spider-Man	Yes	Yes	No	Yes		[1][16]
2012	Young Justice	Yes	No	No	No	Episode "Coldhearted"	[17]
2010—2013	Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated	Yes	Yes	No	No		[1][4]
2017—2018	Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters	Yes	Executive	Yes	Yes	Co-creator Also wrote the main title lyrics	[4][18]
2019—2022	T.O.T.S.	No	Executive	No	No		[19]
2023—present	Pupstruction	No	Executive	No	No		[20]

Film

Year	Title	Credited as				Notes	Ref(s)
		Director	Producer	Art	Writer
1993	The Return of Jafar	No	No	Yes	No	Direct-to-video	[5]
1996	Aladdin and the King of Thieves	No	No	Yes	No	Direct-to-video	[21]
2001	Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure	No	No	Yes	No	Direct-to-video	[citation needed]
2002	101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure	No	No	Yes	No	Direct-to-video
	Tarzan & Jane	Yes	No	No	No	Segments "Volcanic Diamond Mine" and "Flying Ace"	[22]
2003	Atlantis: Milo's Return	Yes	No	No	No		[23]
	21 Grams	No	No	Yes	No		[24]
2007	Hellboy: Blood and Iron	Yes	No	No	No	TV movie	[25]
	Hellboy: Iron Shoes	Yes	No	No	No	Bonus short for Hellboy: Blood and Iron	[25]
	My Blueberry Nights	No	No	Yes	No		[26]
2010	Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic	Yes	No	No	No	Direct-to-DVD	[1]
2012	Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens	Yes	Yes	No	No	TV movie	[1]
	Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays	Yes	Yes	No	No	Direct-to-DVD	[4][27]
	Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games	No	Yes	No	No	Direct-to-DVD	[27]
2013	Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright	Yes	Yes	No	No	Direct-to-DVD	[28]
	Scooby-Doo! and the Spooky Scarecrow	No	Yes	No	No	Direct-to-DVD	[27]
	Scooby-Doo! Mecha Mutt Menace	No	Yes	No	No	Direct-to-DVD	[4]
	Stoker	No	No	Yes	No		[29]
	Robosapien: Rebooted	No	No	Yes	No		[30]
2014	Scooby-Doo! Ghastly Goals	Yes	No	No	No	Direct-to-DVD	[31]
2015	Scooby-Doo! and the Beach Beastie	Yes	No	No	No	Direct-to-DVD	[4]
2019	Mickey's Treat	Yes	No	No	No	TV movie	[32]