Sally Cruikshank
Sally Cruikshank, born Sarah Cruikshank in 1949 in Chatham, New Jersey, is an American cartoonist, animator and artist. She did animation for Sesame Street and her short Quasi at the Quackadero (1975) was later preserved in the United States National Film Registry.
She grew up in a family with artistic and educational roots. Her parents were Rose and Ernest Cruikshank. After studying art at Smith College, Cruikshank explored animation, encouraged by classmates and instructors. She attended the Yale Summer Art School and later studied filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Her early works include Ducky (1971), made with watercolors and paper, introducing her quirky duck characters. She followed with Fun on Mars (1971) and Chow Fun (1972), using mixed media. While at a San Francisco studio, she became head animator and began doing TV commercials and experiments in animation.
Quasi at the Quackadero, developed in the mid-1970s, is Cruikshank’s best-known work. The 10-minute film features Quasi, Anita and the robot Rollo in a surreal, carnival-like world. She financed it herself, using about $6,000, and created hundreds of watercolor backgrounds and thousands of cels. The film won awards and was shown in theaters.
She continued with projects like Make Me Psychic (1978), and she explored ideas for Quasi’s Cabaret. Face Like a Frog (1987), with music by Oingo Boingo, showcases her distinctive surreal, psychedelic style. Cruikshank also contributed animation to feature films and created opening title sequences for Ruthless People, Mannequin, Loverboy, Madhouse, and Smiley Face. She produced many Sesame Street animation sequences from 1989 to 1999 and later worked with Interval Research in the 1990s. She has also worked on archiving her films and moving some works to 35mm film.
Awards and recognition include the Maya Deren Award for independent film and video artists (1986) and the preservation of Quasi at the Quackadero in the National Film Registry (2009). The film was also ranked No. 46 in The 50 Greatest Cartoons in 1994.
Personal life: Cruikshank had a relationship with underground cartoonist Kim Deitch in the 1970s and early 1980s. She married producer Jon Davison in 1984, and they have a daughter named Dinah. Her artistic influences include Carl Barks, Winsor McCay, and other early animators and cartoonists. She is known for a unique motion style and for creating offbeat, playful characters.
She later contributed to a SpongeBob SquarePants Halloween special, The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom, in 2D animation, and remains active in art and animation.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:53 (CET).