Did you know that although Matt Groening came up with the original Simpsons characters, he imagined them in black and white and within small scales. The guy who accomplished his project was a Hungarian animator, Gábor Csupó.
Csupó grew up during the Cold War in Budapest. He started to work as an animator for the Hungarian animation studio Pannonia Film. Just like all companies in Socialist Hungary, Pannonia was financed and controlled by the state and had a virtual monopoly in the local animation market. In 1975 Csupó decided to leave his home country and migrated to Western Europe in search for better career opportunities. In Sweden he met his futute wife Arlene Klasky, and followed her to the United States. There they worked for Hanna-Barbera and eventually launched their own animation studio, Klasky Csupo in 1982.
The Simpsons characters appeared first in the Tracey Ullman show, and Klasky Csupo were responsible to handle the animation. Csupó decided to color the world of Springfield yellow and dyed Marge's hair vivid blue. At first Gracie Films thought their idea was too unorthodox, but eventually time proved them right. After the success of the sitcom - that was crowned by numerous Emmy awards -, Gábor got hired by Nickelodeon and gave the world cartoons such as the 'Rugrats', 'The Wild Thornberrys', and 'Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'.
He later jumped into the director's seat and made some live-action Hollywood hits, too: The Bridge to Terabithia and The Secret of Moonacre. What a career!