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), and as an executive producer of Disney Junior's T.O.T.S.

Early life Cook was born in the early 1960s, one of five children on the Johnson Air Force Base in Saitama, Japan. His parents met in an Air Force cafeteria while his father was enlisted. He is half-Korean through his mother. 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. After high school, he briefly attended a junior college in Central California before transferring to California State University, Long Beach.

As a child and into college, Cook desired to be a print cartoonist, but was dissuaded after reading about Jack Kirby's career. 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. He only called once he was already into his career. The student suggested taking an animation class at The Animation Guild.

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. At Filmation, he found himself drawn to storyboards because they reminded him of comic cels. He worked on BraveStarr during the day and took storyboard classes at night until Filmation folded. He was able to find a job working on ALF Tales and ALF: The Animated Series. This experience helped him eventually land at Disney Television Animation, where he worked for 16 years. 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. In the late 2010s, he was hired onto T.O.T.S. by Disney Junior.

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

The Spectacular Spider-Man

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. 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.

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. As they were on a specific budget, they wanted to allow the animation to "move" more than anything, giving it simple and stylistic designs. 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."

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

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

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

Film YearTitleCredited asNotes Director Producer Art Writer 1993 The Return of Jafar Direct-to-video 1996 Aladdin and the King of Thieves Direct-to-video 2001 Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure Direct-to-video 2002 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure Direct-to-video Tarzan & Jane Segments "Volcanic Diamond Mine" and "Flying Ace" 2003 Atlantis: Milo's Return 21 Grams 2007 Hellboy: Blood and Iron TV movie Hellboy: Iron Shoes Bonus short for Hellboy: Blood and Iron My Blueberry Nights 2010 Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic Direct-to-DVD 2012 Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens TV movie Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays Direct-to-DVD Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games Direct-to-DVD 2013 Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright Direct-to-DVD Scooby-Doo! and the Spooky Scarecrow Direct-to-DVD Scooby-Doo! Mecha Mutt Menace Direct-to-DVD Stoker Robosapien: Rebooted 2014 Scooby-Doo! Ghastly Goals Direct-to-DVD 2015 Scooby-Doo! and the Beach Beastie Direct-to-DVD 2019 Mickey's Treat TV movie

References

External links

2009 interview with Post Magazine (US) about The Spectacular Spider-Man 2009 interview with IGN about The Spectacular Spider-Man with If Magazine about The Spectacular Spider-Man 2017 interview with IGN about Flex Fighters 2017 interview about Flex Fighters 2018 interview with Collider about Flex Fighters 2018 interview with Kneel Before Pod