Elizabeth! 🍉
@kikutowne
Followers
13,707
Following
457
Media
1,126
Statuses
30,836
A monotone cult classic. Creator of Welcome to My Life, City of Ghosts, & Mall Stories (she/her/dude). Takin’ it to the limit / ✌️🖤
Joined November 2008
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Covid
• 393261 Tweets
Curry
• 249282 Tweets
Alberto
• 248269 Tweets
Lebron
• 198552 Tweets
Serbia
• 189909 Tweets
Team USA
• 187368 Tweets
#ArshadNadeem
• 161477 Tweets
長崎原爆
• 127465 Tweets
Asake
• 115241 Tweets
Wizkid
• 114195 Tweets
Embiid
• 92808 Tweets
Fabiola
• 81630 Tweets
shawn
• 79360 Tweets
Jokic
• 73240 Tweets
Tatum
• 55290 Tweets
Melo
• 54377 Tweets
Tucker
• 48969 Tweets
Steve Kerr
• 44774 Tweets
#虎に翼
• 38103 Tweets
Rosie
• 32126 Tweets
Quinn
• 29855 Tweets
Dream Team
• 28103 Tweets
#ラヴィット
• 26035 Tweets
Katy Perry
• 25409 Tweets
Olivos
• 24904 Tweets
大蛇に嫁いだ娘
• 24348 Tweets
Tamara Pettinato
• 24174 Tweets
Panthers
• 23342 Tweets
Santana
• 13555 Tweets
Nestor
• 13112 Tweets
ハグの日
• 13036 Tweets
#Careshaplease
• 10444 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
I shot & edited this video yesterday to celebrate City of Ghosts
@PeabodyAwards
win today. Tell
#storiesthatmatter
?! Hell Yeah, we did!!! Congratulations to my City of Ghosts crew, my family, and to Los Angeles. Love y’all 💖👻😎⚡️⚡️ The music is Billy Changer 🖤✌️
65
171
1K
Too late, grandpa
Biden Admin Working With Social Media Companies to Limit Pro-Palestinian Content
400
4K
9K
1
7K
31K
What experience in the workplace radicalized you?
2K
1K
10K
10
2K
22K
Where the fuck is the Notre Dame level words of sadness and go fundmes at for this?! Fuck. I think about that every time I read about another place, destroyed by this genocide.
Israel bombed my favourite place in Gaza today. The ancient Great Mosque of Gaza, Mesjid Omar built in 1344.
This photo taken last yr. I can’t imagine the ruins that exist there now. How many murdered here because of the air strikes. Will we ever find out for sure?
501
15K
33K
2
6K
11K
I still make royalties from episodes of Adventure Time, and before that Phineas and Ferb, because when the episodes I wrote or directed aired in other countries, I got paid for it. I will never see a single royalty from whatever the number of views are on City of Ghosts.
14
500
5K
I think worth pointing out the big differences between the neighborhoods that USC and UCLA are in, and how those two different locations also have very different histories with LAPD & the way they act.
2
727
3K
Brave was about Brenda’s daughter and they fired her and handed it off to a dude. maybe it’s not the content so much as how y’all are managing stories about things you don’t know the first thing about because they came from someone’s lived experience that isn’t a cis white dude.
1
413
3K
Thank you <3 . Its been so long, I'm not that mad anymore but I do really wish nepotism had worked for me, in this particular case, 'cause I could've made a great show with my brother & fam.
@kikutowne
Still mad at Cartoon Network for not giving Welcome To My Life The greenlight, Ms. Ito.💔
3
17
175
15
215
2K
My grandparents were incarcerated because of it. and the first time it’s been directly talked about on a mainstream show for kids was in my show, released in 2021. Had to get my digs in while I could! 💜✊
68 civilians died in Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor was then used to justify the incarceration of 150,000+ people of Japanese ancestry in the Americas, and the murder by atomic bomb of 200,000+ in Japan, most of whom were civilians.
38
204
805
2
623
2K
I just want to stop people from thinking that campaigning to have people watch shows en masse on that platform will change the trajectory of the plans for making more. That’s not what they base it on.
1
61
1K
I had a white dude tell me I took his job at Sony when they hired me as a board artist, and I told him joke was on him, they had two open positions and the other was also filled by not him.
1
19
380
1
138
1K
In case you often find yourself wondering, lately: a lot a people ain't normal or OK anymore. There's a lot of unresolved anxiety and stress emanating from everywhere. Its showing up in so many really random ways all the time around me, lately, not just online.
5
240
1K
This is exactly the same reasoning they used when they told me they weren’t making more City of Ghosts at Netflix, and encouraged me to make something that was both “indie feeling” and that had mass appeal like Waffles and Mochi, the Michelle Obama show.
Pixar is now focusing on films with “clear mass appeal” with less focus on directors’ “autobiographical tales” like ‘Luca’ and ‘Turning Red’
“The studio’s movies should be less a pursuit of any director’s catharsis & instead speak to a commonality of experience”
(Source:
2K
1K
20K
4
229
1K
Cant wait for everyone to see what I’ve been cooking up w/
@chromosphereLA
&
@UnrealEngine
. Join us in the food court 💖
#AtillaTheGrilla
#MallStories
Follow
@TropicoMall
for updates and showtimes
25
109
1K
I put them in our show because it was 1) simple to do, 2) important for kids like Thomas to see themselves loved & 3) a reflection of the full & beautiful world in which we live 💜✌️ Happy Pride month, Thomas. We love you.
14
180
1K
Right now my biggest concern about AI is that it’s literally an environmental threat. Same with NFTs, same with crypto. We need to end it. Every time someone talks about a future with AI being inevitable we need to hammer them about it. Jobs won’t matter if we don’t have an earth
2
495
1K
Animation friends: I understand the sadness and shock. I have no advice at the moment, other than solidarity in knowing the feeling. I want you to know it was never your fault that you were hopeful, try not to let this kill that part of you.
2
131
1K
We need to squash that myth, and find other ways to make our stuff or to distribute it. I am never recommending anyone subscribe. It’s time for us to boycott these shams.
3
46
1K
Can't believe this was over 2 years ago. What an insane trajectory from that studio releasing a groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind series, that made people hopeful, to the state it's in now re: original ideas and the sham Netflix Animation proved to be without someone like me.
Looking for a kids show thats as relaxing as a hot bowl of soup on a rainy day? Check out
@kikutowne
’s City of Ghosts, a visually stunning love letter to LA’s heritage that shows that the normal is as beautiful as the paranormal. Now streaming on
@netflix
!
37
627
6K
10
117
1K
I’m glad people loved my show, I think it’s phenomenal. But I would say don’t subscribe. Find a way to watch it that doesn’t benefit Netflix because they don’t give a shit about creatives getting fair compensation and they blew up our industry.
1
94
1K
The traditional animation desk being in full clear view in the ad, something meaningful to a lot of my industry, gets smashed and flattened into a small rectangle. Our industry is 77% unemployed right now. The one that Hollywood was saying “saved them” during Pandemic.
"Apple came along and handed us a perfect visual metaphor for one of our most potent fears about big tech right now — namely, that it is crushing the arts and transmuting them into dull consumer products."
1
28
121
8
270
1K
I asked them if a copy of City of Ghosts could be available to the
@LAPublicLibrary
since that’s where the Ghost Club meets in my show. I wanted it initially because one of their oldest librarians grew up in Boyle Heights and they didn’t have Netflix. They said no.
Mike Flanagan says Netflix was actively hostile towards the idea of releasing any physical media.
“I tried very hard to get them to release my work on Blu-Ray & DVD. Netflix refused at every turn. It became clear very fast that their only priority was subs, & that they were
628
4K
37K
2
271
1K
If we got paid for the streams I would feel differently. But the people who made it will see nothing from tens of millions of views. We don’t get royalties from streams but they get viewership and continued subscriptions
1
41
961
Yeah, I was the same... used to get three dvds at a time, even. I also made them a Peabody Award Winning show that they barely acknowledged. I quit subscribing because they also sucked as an employer.
Netflix raising their price to $22.99 a month?!!!! They’re about to lose a customer that’s been with them since they were a mail order company.
28
40
199
10
114
935
I said this and a lot more directly to people at Netflix and believe you me, it's like trying to explain to a person trapped in a cult that things might not be so great about the way they're doing things in the cult.
1
70
899
Working at Netflix Animation prior to the Pandemic, I could absolutely sense they were creating a bubble. We talked about how there weren't enough artists working in the industry to make the amount of shows they planned to churn out.
5
134
893
I tried for 2 years to get ideas greenlit at Apple TV+ and wasn’t able to get anything going, to give you even more perspective. I came really close but came up empty handed. And ever since I was done at Netflix I have not been able to get another show greenlit.
I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again: it’s not any artist’s fault that it’s hard to break into the animation industry right now. THERE ARE VERY FEW JOBS BC STUDIOS AREN’T ABLE TO CREATE SHOWS RIGHT NOW. It’s not bc an artist is not talented or anything-
11
262
2K
8
113
823
@offbeatorbit
LMAO, like do they care? Star-Bs is too busy busting up unions to focus on this. 😂
1
0
770
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free✊ 🍉🍓
Settler colonialism attempted to snuff out Native and Black families in all forms. Children torn from parents. All genders demonized. Entire familial lineages eliminated. Centuries later, it’s still a battle. There’s no way you can look at Palestine and not see the parallels.
61
1K
2K
1
218
771
Dropping whole seasons of TV shows at once and putting movies on streaming platforms before they’ve had a chance to make their money back through ticket sales in theaters… like these things are a big part of what’s broken (not the only thing, just part of it)
2
106
768
The thing that got to me lately, that I can’t shake, is seeing kids in the images from Gaza, wearing clothes and having backpacks/ belongings with American cartoon characters on them. They are fans, our audience. And we can’t even get it together to say “ceasefire” for them.
6
263
762
2024 is the year of corporate profits for big studios and executives in animation while the source of those profits, animation artists & writers… 70% are unemployed, without health insurance, & having to relocate because cost of living is too high in CA
1
180
728
Some of us have been saying this in every meeting we’ve had FOR QUITE A WHILE.
Viewership data pushes Max to make animated shows for young adult audiences, according to Max EVP Suzanna Makkos.
"We see it in the numbers—I feel like that’s the home run in animation, whenever you can get something that can play to both [young and older] audiences.”
96
266
2K
5
94
702
Just think about it. Like who benefits from us telling everyone to watch it on their platform? Not the artists, we’re like 70% unemployed!
1
24
689
You want established IP? I got your established IP right here! (I'm actually serious, the rights to this project that's had 5.7 million views, went back to me a little while ago)
26
128
636
The fuck? Well this is what I spent my budget on and they said they didn’t need more of it, I guess so this guy could have more money to blow on Dogecoin or whatever.
Netflix bought a sci-fi series from director Carl Rinsch in 2018 and spent $55M developing it
Not a single episode has been finished
Instead, the director has reportedly spent $11M of Netflix’s money gambling on risky stocks and buying dogecoin, which he flipped for $27M
484
3K
31K
6
88
604
Also fuck Apple for that commercial, too. Did you see they managed to put an old school animation desk in that pile of creative items they obliterated? They’re telling us to eat cake and we’re telling our fans to keep watching on these platforms? Not me!
2
24
602
Lmao, level of dedication? They let people on Trash Trucks bring in a raccoon to draw like this. This kind of stuff still happens, buddy, and people also still go on research trips to whole other countries to study the art and style? Also, now they let women be animators, too.
14
91
577
*cries in Welcome to My Life*
Warner Bros. Discovery plans to venture into more genres for adult animation, including drama, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, mystery and young adult.
"We think there's more to do in dramas and prestige animation," says Adult Swim President Michael Ouweleen.
#AnnecyFestival
147
181
955
7
54
568
Like we’re fucking out here struggling to keep our industry alive because of them, we should make them, the corporation, struggle to exist, honestly.
1
17
570
Additionally they siphon off viewers for movies where the number of tickets sold could’ve made the studios more money to where some of the artists could get bonuses, so like seriously, I dunno, I’m done with them!
1
12
558
RELEASE COYOTE VS ACME!
The Animation Guild’s (TAG) Master Agreement expires on August 16th — and we need YOUR help!
Spread the word about what’s at stake for animation!!! Post about your favorite cartoons that got canceled using
#CanceledCartoons
!
624
21K
46K
1
104
543
All kidding aside, I hope those execs lose their jobs. It would free up more money for actual good projects to move fwd.
Executives were expecting a deluge of pitches after the writers strike, but that didn’t arrive: "If come January and February, it’s still crickets, then we have a problem"
176
134
607
4
75
536
There is no one cool in charge of these places and it shows.
0
12
529
It would make it a lot easier on everyone if the problem with kids having gaps in learning was as simple as too many screens, believe me I wish that was it. But any human being with a heart takes a step back to think about everything that's been going on for the past 5 years.
1
75
526
I don’t need to use a ton of words and drawings to tell you that I know it’s not a good idea to trust any of these corporations or institutions about anything because they will say anything to you to get you to believe they have good intentions.
3
72
519
I worked on the Bee Movie and that sucked too, like animation folks keep trying to tell you, lots of money and famous comedy names don’t make funny or good animation. They make expensive, mild fun that’s palatable to tasteless Americans.
2
35
504
Love them. 💜 Fucking heartbroken, but I won’t let the bigots win, I see you and will fight for you.
2
59
484
At least make them have to work for it! It’s their fucking product. They’re supposed to be in charge of marketing it, NOT THE ARTISTS! Get them to put the work in if they want the thing to make them money.
2
11
479
When I was 8, I left a Snoopy in a hotel my family stayed at in Monterey Bay, and when we came back they had tucked him in, and it still makes me happy to think about it today. I'm 44 now.
I’m obsessed with the house keeping staff in this hotel. Every time they make up the bed they put my Sylvanian lying down. 10/10 bit. It makes my day
191
9K
166K
2
30
464
If people are pirating City of Ghosts, Honestly? Y’all are radical and you totally understood the message of the show. Congrats ✊
This kind of feels like when big corporations responsible for most of the pollution on earth telling ppl to use paper straws and mind their carbon footprint - ultimately it’s not a “fans weren’t supportive enough” issue as much as “studios weren’t supportive enough”
6
352
2K
3
95
463
Celebrating being nominated for too many big things by doing a self photoshoot with myself in my backyard. I need to practice my look for the Emmys. Even if I lose I can still slay, I hope ❤️🔥, but I need to build up my confidence …
15
12
456
This is a smaller deal for sure, but I asked if Netflix could give a copy of City of Ghosts to the Los Angeles Public Library since it featured the library and would be meaningful for people to be able to check it out there who might not have money for Netflix. They said no.
The history of student debt:
In 1970, Ronald Reagan was running for reelection as governor of California. Public universities were free in the state. A Reagan advisor warned that free college was producing the dangerously explosive “dynamite” of an “educated proletariat”
39
3K
7K
10
114
458
Instead they’re all about big IP or things that they already know people will watch because it’s worked somewhere else. Because they don’t know shit about how to market anything, and if people already know it they think they won’t have to do a thing to sell it. Boy are they wrong
1
11
461
sometimes when my brain goes to depression towne, & I need a quick boost for my self esteem, I go and look at this score on the only series I’ve ever made…still pretty baller, IMO
13
34
444
Just 'cause they say it on a billboard doesn't mean they support that on their platform, FYI, especially when it doesn't come from a big man name.
Anyway, find my future work on Apple TV+
gotta hand it to GdT and Netflix for building a successful awards campaign around sending the message that animation is “not just for kids” while running a children’s fairy tale against a movie that is actual adult animation
5
9
111
6
43
421
To be totally frank, I will run out of health insurance hours at the start of 2025 because of my lack of hours working for a union studio. Dunno what I’m gonna do. 🤟💀
Cartoon Network is dead?!?!
Spread the word about what’s at stake for animation!!! Post about your favorite Cartoon Network shows using
#RIPCartoonNetwork
Active members of TAG can help by filling out your survey! Today (7/8) is the last day!
1K
48K
114K
3
96
422
Yeah. Sometimes they mean “because it spoke to kids about something that a lot of adults don’t wanna talk about because they don’t know how to explain it.” Like the shit we’re living through that some adults can’t even talk about, now.
Whenever someone says "This children's cartoon was ACTUALLY for adults," what they tend to mean is "This children's cartoon did not approach children like they were a clueless, undeserving audience."
32
2K
15K
4
80
410
The fear of whether you can be a good showrunner/ director, like good to the people who work for & with you, and also make incredible work at a big studio… it’s a very real fear for people who step into that job, including me.
3
46
397
NO. FUCK NO. FUCK YOU.
Republican Congressman Ryan Zinke has introduced a bill to expel Palestinians from the United States. And ban Palestinians from entering the country. What the fuck.
539
11K
31K
5
95
389
I had a white dude tell me I took his job at Sony when they hired me as a board artist, and I told him joke was on him, they had two open positions and the other was also filled by not him.
1
19
380
Love it
This is next level. A captain whose boat was attacked by orcas off the coast of Spain got footage of them going direct for the ship’s rudders.
898
5K
46K
0
38
375
I just don't want all my options for things to work on to be superhero stuff, spinoffs, reboots etc etc. I want to make original, weird, animated, board driven comedy, that isn't based on any past project or characters that already exist to "give my spin on it."
1
51
374
Just sitting here so baffled at how quick this shit got so fucked up. Like for what
Instagram is reportedly testing unskippable ads
The 'ad break' requires users to wait a set amount of time before they're allowed to scroll again
604
385
4K
2
27
371
What no one ever told me was that if you make something subversive and powerful, like a kids show that speaks truth to power, the evidence of how great the thing you achieved is, is the extent to which the people in power gaslight you & act like they didn’t notice.
6
35
362
I could’ve made 3 more seasons of City of Ghosts by now. I’ve been wasting so much time fighting to get someone power to let me make another thing like it.
4
36
358
I’m more concerned about what AI, streaming, and big tech are doing to the planet than whether I have a job or if my art is going to be used by AI. I’m not switching to another platform, I’m not pitching projects to go to streaming, I’m reconsidering how I can avoid the cloud.
1
42
362
When they asked for feedback at Netflix Animation, before I was out the door in March 2021, this is what I said on the form. Damn.
4
26
353
Whoa what hahahahah
The
#ChildrensEmmys
nominees for Animated Series are City of Ghosts (
@Netflix
), The Cuphead Show! (
@Netflix
), The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder (
@DisneyPlus
), Star Trek: Prodigy (
@ParamountPlus
), and A Tale Dark & Grimm (
@NetflixFamily
).
35
129
473
14
16
355
So glad I had the foresight to wear this to the Emmys, where we took home the prize of directing and best show
So pardon me if you see me giving a big middle finger to anyone who fucking tries to claim that personal stories with personal details about people who aren’t the “majority” are the issue that’s costing them profits.
1
22
324
2
25
354
It’s backwards from what we are trained to do as animators but sure whatever, man.
3
25
349
I think there is a severe lack of understanding of how you build a healthy community with other artists, and that does not mean we stay silent when there are people who are part of our ranks that have family DYING, watching them being bombed out of existence everyday
1
102
344
I wish more animation artists had the nerve to question authority, because all of the big institutions in the western world are lying to us. But y’all think we’re gonna adhere to some rules of order in a game with liars? You might be that naive, but I’m not.
5
54
335
The ante gets up’s when you’re a woman who isn’t white and you take the job a white person thinks they are supposed to have. Yeehaw animation industry
The notion that hiring a person of color means that a qualified White person is being denied a job is rooted in racism.
144
1K
6K
1
36
340
Have I got an idea for you... its about kids and ghosts, and the kids are the documentary crew... learning about local history and not just white people in a motherfucking office job town.
A reboot of ‘THE OFFICE’ is not happening but the creator is interested in making a series set in the same universe.
“Something like the notion of this documentary crew doing a documentary about a different subject.”
(Source: )
841
1K
30K
5
39
334
Its so stupid that Cal Arts Job fair had the same vibes, for me, LMAO. Getting a call-back from Cartoon Network got me so many mean glares, only topped by getting called back by Pixar.
Thinking a lot about how the day I got into Harvard three different white kids told me I only got in because I am Black, how after I won a litany of awards a faculty member called me a diversity hire and after I earned tenure another one let me think everyone felt that way, about
8
1K
11K
5
18
340
I took the test 💜🤟 I got the job 🙌 (whatevers2009)
ADVENTURE TIME (2009) Storyboard test and really a key to some of the magic that became the series. Pen’s directions give you insight into his world thinking.
5
97
583
4
20
335
The library has a lot of stuff you can rent on dvd or cds, for free, you just gotta sign up for a card. They also have a free streaming service called Kanopy 💜✊
4
62
333
So pardon me if you see me giving a big middle finger to anyone who fucking tries to claim that personal stories with personal details about people who aren’t the “majority” are the issue that’s costing them profits.
1
22
324
Quadruple City of Ghosts Emmy Noms! What-whaaat! Congrats again, team! 🖤
@kevindart
came thru with the slick promo (I added the appropriate LA backing track that can be heard in Episode 5 of the show 💀✌️)
@TheEmmys
17
41
300
@starteas
I wish I understood it more, but it’s a lot of what people were fighting for in the strikes last year and what animation people already kind of get screwed over on. Streamers don’t want to have to pay residuals the same as what broadcast / syndicated shows typically paid
1
7
293
i am NOT a cocomelon parent…you gon sit down and watch aljazeera
205
11K
52K
3
30
285
Had my first internship in this building and worked on Adventure Time, first as a board artist and then as a director… Made my short Welcome to My Life in here. Learned so much and met so many great artists and actors. Thank you, CNS. I’ll miss this space! 💜
Sadly, this building will no longer be CNS. From what I’ve been told, everyone will be out by August 1. All moving together in a WB building as one animation unit. Farewell CNS as it was.
241
1K
6K
2
27
285
This is a problem everywhere right now. Broad appeal = appealing to white Americans. And the fact that you think that’s gonna save the company? What a sham.
1
27
282