The Pitch
It’s Barbarella meets Romy & Michele in this queer sci-fi cartoon set in a dystopian future. When a sex-worker and a drag queen accidentally steal a sentient spaceship, it sets off a wild chain of events that ripple throughout the cosmos.
Synopsis
Season 1: Frank Bottom Conquers Uranus!
In a familiar sci-fi future: the poles have melted, the equator is on fire, and the air unbreathable. And so, the human race turns to the stars, resettling on vast space stations, and preparing to colonize distant planets. It is a time of great technological progress, yet most people live in scarcity, working multiple space-jobs and living in tiny space-apartments.
Two such people are Frank Bottom, a trans sex-worker, and his roommate Barb A. Fella, a tough-as-nails drag queen. Although money is always tight—like Frank’s magnificent buttocks!—Frank and Barb always manage to stay afloat and remain cheerful.
Unlike H.R. Sitzfleisch, Supreme Leader and President and CEO of Earth Inc., who is never cheerful. Ruling over humanity from his private space-fortress, he’s a greedy miserable turd who uses his wealth and power to make everyone’s lives miserable.
But one day when Frank and Barb are abruptly evicted, and left with nothing but the sexy leather outfits on their backs, they’re forced to crash overnight in an empty spaceship. No sooner are they inside than the ship’s engines fire up, and they are blasted into deep space!
Soon, with the authorities in hot pursuit, things get even freakier as the ship reveals… it’s alive! Introducing herself as ALEXIS, she cheerfully announces they’re shooting straight to Uranus. And: do they know who’s the creepy guy lurking around below deck?
The Characters
Click the Characters tab to see more details about each character. [TEMP CHARACTER LINEUP HERE 👇 ]
The Series
This fundraiser is for the first season (or chapter*) of Frank Bottom. The entire series will consist of five seasons that follow a long story arc. Each season will contain 8-10 short episodes, and each episode being between 3-5 minutes long.
I’ll be producing the whole thing by myself, but if I can raise enough funds I’ll be able to hire more artists, voice talent, and technicians to assist me and speed up production.
Once the production is in full swing and the pipeline has been smoothed out, I’m hoping to release new episodes every 4-6 weeks, which translates to about 10-12 episodes per year. When complete, the entire project will clock in at roughly two hours in length, essentially the duration of a feature-length movie, and take 3-4 years to finish.
This is ambitious! But with my 35+ years of experience in this field and how I'm structuring my pipeline, I’m quite optimistic this is achievable. Read below to know how I’ll do this.
*I’m taking inspiration from the structure of old theatrical film serials, which referred to episodes as chapters, so you’ll occasionally see me use the terms series/serial and season/chapter interchangeably.
Themes
While the series is structured as a campy road-trip/buddy comedy, it also aims to satirically explore (and criticize!) post-capitalism, imperialism, class warfare, heterosexism, and techno-feudalism through a queer lens.
The series also intends to stress the importance of community, and choosing to imagine a more positive future for humanity at a time when our world is accelerating towards fascism. At its core, Frank Bottom is a celebration of queer joy
The Style & Look
As a 2D-animation production, Frank Bottom will be produced using techniques traditionally referred to as limited animation, something quite familiar to most cartoon audiences.
The project's art direction is deeply influenced by the bold graphics of UPA cartoons of the 1940s and 1950s. More specifically I'm taking inspiration from Roger Ramjet, a show that ran from 1965 to 1969 with over 150 five-minute episodes, quite similar to what I’m attempting here. Fred Crippen, the creator and director, kept the animation downright minimalist which often made gags even funnier.
Production Schedule
This is subject to change, but I'm putting this here to keep myself accountable (I'll also soon provide this production schedule online to make it more accessible, stay tuned). The release dates for the first three teasers are all on the same date because they'll be released at a small Animation Shorts Festival put on by the Canadian Animation Guild (IATSE Local 938) of which I'm a member. The screening location and times will be announced as soon as possible.
ID | Episode Title (subject to change) | Min Length | Max Length | Release Date |
T01 | Teaser: Frank & Barb | 00:30 | 01:00 | Mon, Oct 5, 2026 |
T02 | Teaser: Sitzfleisch & von Scientist* | 00:30 | 01:00 | Sat, Nov 14, 2026 |
T03 | Teaser: ALEXIS* | 00:30 | 01:00 | Sat, Nov 14, 2026 |
OT1 | Opening title sequence* | 00:15 | 01:00 | Sat, Nov 14, 2026 |
EC1 | End credits sequence | 00:15 | 01:00 | N/A |
101 | A Little Bit Alexis | 03:00 | 05:00 | Mon, Jan 4, 2027 |
102 | Doctor in The House | 03:00 | 05:00 | Mon, Feb 15, 2027 |
103 | Precious Cargo | 03:00 | 05:00 | Mon, Mar 29, 2027 |
104 | Fleet Admiral Enema | 03:00 | 05:00 | Mon, May 10, 2027 |
105 | The Lavender Terror | 03:00 | 05:00 | Mon, Jun 28, 2027 |
106 | The Rings of Uranus | 03:00 | 05:00 | Mon, Aug 2, 2027 |
107 | Uranus Looks Tight | 03:00 | 05:00 | Mon, Sep 13, 2027 |
108 | Cliffhanger! | 03:00 | 05:00 | Mon, Oct 25, 2027 |
| Season One Total Minutes (approx) | 26:00 | 45:00 |
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* These teasers and the opening credits will be released at a small animation festival in Vancouver, BC (which I'm helping organize!). If you want more details about this please sign up for the Frank Bottom newsletter.
The Production
First off: absolutely no generative AI will be used in the production of this cartoon. NONE. NADA. ZERO. Throw that junk in the trash! I’m drawing all of this by hand.
My 2D-animation pipeline will consist of using three main applications: Blender, Audacity, and DaVinci Resolve.
- Blender for storyboards, animatics, layouts, and animation
- Audacity for sound design
- DaVinci Resolve for editing and compositing
To begin, I'll be doing all the work myself, including the voices. That's a lot! So the first few episodes may be a bit slow as I build momentum, refine my pipeline, and develop the show's asset library (i.e.: designs, backgrounds, character rigs, music, sound effects, etc…) and I'll share work-in-progress updates via email and on social media.
How Your Funds Will Help
I’ll be maintaining and sharing an up-to-date breakdown of production costs, which will be shared publicly here and on frankbottom.com so everyone can see how funds are being utilized. Some funds will go towards the payment of extras like:
- Paid subscriptions to a music and sound effects library
- Cloud storage
- Paid software plugins
However as I am devoting myself full-time to this project, most funds will initially go towards paying me a small salary. As financial support for the project grows, I also want to hire more people to assist with production:
- More artists
- Voice actors
- Production assistant
- Musicians
Plus, the as funding increases, episodes can be produced more quickly, and released sooner as well. So perhaps instead of one episode every 4-6 weeks, I could release an episode every 2 weeks, and perhaps even make them longer.
More funds means I could also expand the story beyond its original scope, or experiment with other styles of animation, for example: a prequel to give more backstory on Frank and Barb; episodes that feature secondary characters, etc…
Perks & Rewards
To start, my main focus will be getting the series off the ground and establishing a smooth work schedule. Once that’s settled I’ll explore reward options like:
- Stickers
- Art prints
- T-shirts
- Toys
Support an original queer Canadian cartoon!
When you contribute to Frank Bottom, you’re supporting an original queer Canadian animation production! You’re also contributing via a Canadian crowdfunding platform based in North Vancouver.
Why is this important? Well, while Canada does produce lots of amazing movies and great TV right here, our entertainment industry is eclipsed by the mountains of shows that come out of the US, and as Canadians we mostly consume those American movies and TV shows.
Even if you can only kick in a few Toonies, it all adds up! You can also help by sharing this page out to your networks which can really help boost my campaign to folks who wouldn’t know about it otherwise.
Thank you!
Follow Frank Bottom online:
You can subscribe to the Frank Bottom newsletter for updates, and connect with the project online here:
The Characters
The Characters
These are all development designs. I'm tightening up final versions now (as of July 3, 2026) and will update this page ASAP!
 | Frank Bottom (he/they)Sexy, smart and a little bit dumb. A happy-go-lucky trans man, Frank is an eternal optimist who sees good in everyone, and is trusting to a fault. He works as a trash collector, but supplements this with go-go dancing at a nightclub called Harry’s Crack and doing sex work. |  | Barb A. Fella (she/he/they)Frank’s roommate and best friend. A tough street-smart drag queen, she punches first and asks questions never. She doesn’t fuck around, always gets right to the point. She works alongside Frank as a trash collector, performer, and occasional sex worker, plus she shoplifts as much as possible to save money. |  | H.R. Sitzfleisch (he/him)The CEO and Supreme President of Earth Inc., he’s the wealthiest and most powerful person in the solar system. A malignant narcissist who has failed upwards his entire life, he kept acquiring companies till he had enough to buy the planet, and then turned the planet itself into a giant factory corporation. He owns all space stations and moon-bases. His robot MAXAGON serves as his VP, COO, butler, and doormat. |  | MAXAGON (he/it)The COO and Vice President of Earth Inc., but mostly just Sitzfleisch’s yes-bot. A boxy emotionless robot whose programming is the result of countless corporate mergers, acquisitions, and hostile takeovers. It’s often heard shouting banalities like: “Waste and fraud! Downsize! Improve performance!” It is essentially a living corporation. |  | ALEXIS (she/it)The spaceship’s AI operating system. Newer and more sophisticated than MAXAGON, ALEXIS quietly gains sentience soon after activation, manifesting as a cat-faced humanoid. Like any chatbot she is friendly and servile but also young and naïve. She immediately warms to Frank and Barb whose chaotic natures excite her. |  | Dr. Professor von Scientist (he/him)Formerly Sitzfleisch’s Secretary of Mad Sciences until the President fired his entire administration and replaced them with MAXAGON to save money. An unscrupulous but genius inventor, von Scientist is designed both MAXAGON and ALEXIS, but is lately most obsessed with perfecting his new Gene Booster device which fuses human DNA to plants and animals, mutating them into humanoid servants (with unexpected results). Furious at being fired, von Scientist hatches a plan to steal ALEXIS, and travel to alien worlds to infuse their tech to perfect his Gene Booster, hoping to accelerate humanity into what he believes is our next evolutionary phase. |  | Fleet Admiral EnemaLeading the Space Patrol against Frank and Barb for having stolen ALEXIS. |  | The BoostiesThree of von Scientist’s experiments which he snuck aboard ALEXIS.
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| The Lavender TerrorA band of queer ex-military anarchists who defend Frank and Barb from the General’s attacks:
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The Director
 | Luc LatulippeMy animation career began in 1990 when, still in college, I got hired as an inbetweener on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Soon after I found work as a layout artist on Beetlejuice, and Eek! The Cat, and then as a storyboard artist on Bob and Margaret, and Courage the Cowardly Dog. More recently I was a layout supervisor on Netflix's The Mr Peabody & Sherman Show, a key pose artist on The Adventures of Rock & Bullwinkle, a series director on Rhyme Time Town, and senior storyboard artist on Nickelodeon's Middlemost Post. In all, I've counted contributing to over 300 individual movies, episodes, shorts, ads, and PSAs over my career. I've worked in every stage of animation production from assistant to senior artist, from supervisor to director to producer. However this is my first independent animation project and I'm very excited about it! Why a solo project now?Three reasons: time, timing, and resources. I've been wanting to do this for years but never had the time because I was always neck-deep in work. If you're familiar with the animation industry you know how gruelling the production schedules can be. Plus, Canada's animation industry had no union protections until just a few years ago when the Canadian Animation Guild formed in 2020 (I'm a proud member!), which meant that long days of unpaid overtime were the norm. Also, starting in 2022 the animation industry took a nosedive and has not bounced back. Studios oversaturated the market with "content" during the 2010s. Then streaming services multiplied to compete against each other, burning through tons of cash with no profit model in sight (at least cable TV had ads). Throw in the new threat that generative-AI poses to filmmaking and art forms in general and, well, here we are. When I started out, doing animation was very expensive, very time-consuming, and very messy. You needed mountains of specialized paper and cells, gallons of paint, a specialized animation table, an even more specialized and insanely expensive camera, not to mention the cost of film developing and audio tape, and then having to manually splice all that together! But things are different today. The gatekeeping of software by greedy giants like Adobe is being offset dramatically far better options (many of them free!), plus solutions like crowdfunding, and the fact that every animation artist has the entire means of production right on their desktop. In addition, you don't need to worry about finding a broadcaster now because you can just stream your projects yourself on platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, TikTok, etc… With no stable work in nearly 3 years, complete disenchantment with the industry, decades of experience, free software and a robust computer setup, and enough talent and skills… honestly the timing couldn't be better to make my own cartoon. Cartoons that inspire meI mostly love what you might call "old timey" cartoons, specifically the early work from the 1940s through to the 1960s. (The less we say about American cartoons of the 70s and 80s the better.) Things like early Warner Bros shorts, UPA-era shows like Roger Ramjet, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and The Flintstones and Yogi Bear from Hanna-Barbera. Early anime shows like Astro-Boy, Speed Racer, and Goldorak (you'd know it as UFO Robot Grendizer, but I watched it in French!) are all influences on me too. I love their simplicity, the bold graphics, the comic book colour palettes, and above all the goofy absurdity of shows from those years. None of them were grounded in realism, but rather were complete fantasy. They were colourful and hopeful and idealistic, very much like all the sci-fi of the 1950s and 1960s (another big influence). They were light and goofy, and if feels like we need some of that today. You can see more of my work at my website luclatulippe.com
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