Jimmy Barrera

Jerónimo Francisco Barrera de Gutiérrez or "Jimmy Barrera" (February 3, 1941 - June 21, 2007) was a Mexican-American artist, sculptor, voice actor and animator who was most notable for his work at Carwardine Parks.

Early Life
He was born on February 3rd, 1941 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He moved to San Diego, California in 1955, at the age of 14, along with the rest of his family. He attended La Jolla High School and graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a BFA in Visual Arts.

Career
He worked as an artist and sculptor in San Diego until 1978 when he "temporarily" moved to Richmond, Virginia to work on the art for a newly constructed building, but he was well beloved by the community already, even compared to San Diego, so he and his wife Marcie moved to Richmond, staying there for the rest of his life.

Ever since moving to Richmond, he became a freelance artist, but while on a train to Newport News in July of 1980 (he didn't have a driver's license until 1988, when Chris Carwardine personally taught him), he ran into Christopher R. Carwardine, who recognized Barrera, and Chris asked him to commission art for his new "Carwardine Colony" park, Barrera agreed, and it started a friendship of a lifetime.

Barrera later brought in Andres Montserrat, a steel fabricator friend of his from San Diego who was also involved in visual arts, in 1981. Montserrat helped to create Carwardine Colony's maintenance and fabrication shop and also assisted Barrera in the creation of statues and sculptures for the chain.

For much of his later career at Carwardine, he split his time between Newport News and Los Angeles for production work, which resulted in him having a few voice roles on some non-Carwardine projects.

In the fall of 2000, he fully transitioned his animation production from cel animation to digital animation via Toon Boom. His last queue-tape he made via cel animation would be "Fire In The Hole!", notable for starring a prototypical Mr. Game & Watch, it would be released on the December 2000 queuetape at Carwardine Colony, and make it's way chainwide in early 2001.

Death
On the morning of June 21st, 2007, Jimmy Barrera died in a car accident on the way to Newport News, Virginia from his home in Richmond, Virginia. As he was driving to Newport News, he suffered a head-on collision with another driver. He was taken to the nearby Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital, where he would be pronounced dead at 10:15am.

He is currently buried at Riverview Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

Legacy
Jimmy Barrera became inducted into the Carwardine Carnie Hall of Fame in 2008. His sons Dustin Barrera and Eduardo Barrera currently work for Carwardine; Dustin as an artist and content producer and Eduardo as an artist.

Works of Art

 * Carwardine Parks Revised Logo (1981) [done via dark blue inked stamps of the Serpentine font placed side by side on a white sheet of paper]
 * Billings' Wild Kingdom Carousel Artwork (1982)
 * Pirates World Carousel New Artwork (1983)
 * Carwardine Corners Steeplechase Artwork (1983)
 * Christopher R. Carwardine "Unified" Design (1984) [with some help from Tokyo Movie Shinsha/TMS Entertainment]
 * Lasso Logo (1985)
 * Pharaoh's Fury Logo (1986)
 * Wild Wet: Frontier Flume Logo (1987)
 * Carwardine River Rapids Logo (1988)
 * New Old Mill Logo (1989)
 * Mario Statue (1990) [originally on the Carwardine Alpha cruise ship until 2007, when it was relocated to the Port of Long Beach]
 * Great Canadian Rapids Logo (1991)
 * Super Cyclone Logo (1992) [borrows elements from Olivia Stevenson's original Classic Cyclone logo]
 * Nitro Rush Logo (1993)
 * Akron Acres: 70 Years Of Fun Logo (1994)
 * American Arrow Logo (1995)
 * Donkey Kong's Coaster Country Logo (1996)
 * Mario's Wingflyer Logo (1997)
 * Jr. Cyclone Logo (1998) [borrows elements from Olivia Stevenson's original Classic Cyclone logo]
 * Monstar Logo (1999)
 * Jr. Grand Prix Logo (2000)
 * La Cite Incroyable Logo (2001)
 * Bourbon Street Arsenal Logo (2002)
 * Big Bird's Airport Logo (2003)
 * Twin Spiral Concept Art (2003)
 * Twin Spiral Logo (2004)
 * Skyward Slingshot Logo (2005)
 * Care Bears Cloud Cars Logo (2006)
 * Swiss Bobs Logo (2007)

Carwardine Queue-Tapes

 * Charles Montgomery Burns (2000) ["The Great Big 20th Carwardine Bash" only]
 * Dr. Julius Hibbert (2000) ["The Great Big 20th Carwardine Bash" only]
 * Jasper Beardsley (2000) ["The Great Big 20th Carwardine Bash" only]
 * Kent Brockman (2000) ["The Great Big 20th Carwardine Bash" only]
 * Luigi (1990-mid 1990s) [Storyboards only]
 * Mario (1990-1994/1995) [Still voiced Mario in some queue-tapes from 1994/1995/1996 to 2007 when Martinet was unavailable]
 * Ned Flanders (2000) ["The Great Big 20th Carwardine Bash" only]
 * Rolfe DeWolfe (1990-2007) [Storyboards only]
 * Scratchy the Cat (2000) ["The Great Big 20th Carwardine Bash" only]
 * Waylon Smithers (2000) ["The Great Big 20th Carwardine Bash" only]

Carwardine Original Characters

 * Amaya Carwardine (model sheets)
 * Chris Carwardine (model sheets, along with TMS Entertainment)

Former CEC Characters (Carwardine Queue-Tapes)

 * Dolli Dimples (personality traits, model sheets, 1990 and 2000 redesigns)
 * Sally Sashay (personality traits, model sheets, 1990, 2000 and 2003 redesigns)

Hallmark (Carwardine Queue-Tapes)

 * Rainbow Brite (personality traits, model sheets)

Nintendo (Carwardine Queue-Tapes)

 * Ash Ketchum (personality traits)
 * Kalypso (personality traits)
 * King K. Rool (personality traits)
 * Mr. Game & Watch (personality traits, model sheets)
 * Wario (personality traits)

MGA (Carwardine Queue-Tapes)

 * Cloe (personality traits)

Local

 * Dept. 2 Productions (1988-2007)
 * Texamation (1988-2007)

Overseas

 * AKOM (1989-2001; 117 shorts directed by him)
 * Anivision (1992-2000; 65 shorts directed by him)
 * Digital eMation (2000-2007; 48 shorts directed by him)
 * Fil-Cartoons (1991-1998; 78 shorts directed by him)
 * Hanho Heung-Up (1988-2007; 260 shorts directed by him, the most of any overseas studio)
 * Jade Animation (1995-2003; 99 shorts directed by him)
 * Plus One Animation (1992-2007; 104 shorts directed by him)
 * Rough Draft Korea (1992-2007; 96 shorts directed by him)
 * Sei Young Animation (1988-1997; 97 shorts directed by him)
 * TMS Entertainment (1988-2001; 86 shorts directed by him)
 * Toei Animation Philippines (2000-2002; 30 shorts directed by him)
 * Toon City (1998-2007; 72 shorts directed by him)
 * Toonz Animation (New Zealand) (1995-1996; 20 shorts directed by him)
 * Varga Studio (1991-2001; 84 shorts directed by him)
 * VIETPRO (2001-2007; 40 shorts directed by him)
 * Wang Film Productions (1988-2007; 208 shorts directed by him)

Trivia

 * Jimmy Barrera was severely anti-censorship, with several pieces of art going against the ban of Speedy Gonzales cartoons on TV and against 4Kids' censorship of anime.
 * His favorite character to animate was Mr. Game & Watch, due to his simplistic design.