Alex and Lindsay Small-Butera


Alex Small-Butera and Lindsay Caroline Small-Butera, sometimes collectively referred to as SMALLBÜ, are an American husband and wife animating duo. They are best known for creating the long running web series Baman Piderman. They have also famously worked on Adventure Time and helped co-develop the video game Later Alligator.

Biography

Alex Butera and Lindsay Small met at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. They collaborated on a homework assignment to create a short film for the Ottawa International Animation Festival in Canada. The result was the surreal animated comedy Baman Piderman. The short was released online where it became a hit. Following this, they launched a Kickstarter campaign to have a full web series developed. Mondo Media eventually bought the series for their YouTube channel. Initially, Alex was the sole person working on the shorts, but after showing the third episode to Lindsay, she stated that it was "the worst thing had ever seen." Alex asked her to become the writer for the series. She had refused at first, but since then all of their work had been equally divided between the two. Alex started working on the series WordGirl while Lindsay worked as a designer for Converse before working at Hero4Hire Creative animation.
They did guest work on the long running Cartoon Network series Adventure Time. In 2019, they helped create the animation for the point-and-click indie game Later Alligator which took "40,000 cels" to animate.

Influences

Alex was influenced by popular anime such as Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop and FLCL, while Lindsay has sighted UPA as her source of inspiration along with classic 50's animation.

Filmography

YearTitleAlexLindsayNotes
2009-2015Baman PidermanAlex directed, wrote, composed and edited
Lindsay wrote
2009-2014WordGirlAlex also storyboarded
2013Mappy
2013Dick FiguresEpisode: "Snowjob"
2013
2013The AwesomesEpisode: "The Super-Hero Awards"
2013Story WarShort film; Lindsay directed and wrote
Alex storyboarded
2015Good Thinking! The Science of Teaching Science
2015ClarenceEpisode: "Tuckered Boys"
2016-2017Adventure TimeEpisode: "Beyond the Grotto"
Episode: "Ketchup"
2019Later AlligatorVideo game