A cartoon for everyone who's doing their best to be the best they can be.

The Itty-Bitty Bear Committee

Every single human who has ever been born—whether they’re aware of it or not—is searching for the best way to live their life. To experience the least pain and the most enjoyment possible. Looking around at how that’s going for everyone, it’s clear that we’re not all working with the same quality of examples or information.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we were all met by a little “welcome to this world, and here’s some useful information” committee as we entered the world? And it should probably be run by a bear, right? I mean, not a big scary “rawr!” bear, but a li’l Snufflebear who’s there to be helpful in a world that frequently isn’t.

Funny this should come up, because in the short cartoon I made, we meet a little boy who was lucky enough to win that exact Snufflebear lottery and who receives a very special birthday present right out of the gate. That present is a helpful poem Snufflebear wrote just for him.

A scene from Snufflebear’s Guide to Life

Dry Sponges Are Precious Things

When we enter this world, it’s a lot like someone just placed a dry sponge into a pool of water. With free-flowing zeal and excitement, we start sucking up all the water we can hold, but what kind of water is in this pool? Is it water that is cool, clear, and flowing in from a fresh stream? Or is it a murky, stagnant puddle that’s full of gross little microbes?

Some kids find themselves in gross puddles, and becoming free of such a puddle and squeezing out what was absorbed can be a lifelong process (if they’re able to even get out of the puddle). But ya know what dramatically increases the likelihood that they’ll make it out? When positive examples and loving support are there to help them find a way.

You can't be what you can't see. - Marian Wright Edelman

I love that quote. And while I don’t think it’s true to say that we “can’t” be what we can’t see, experience has taught me that it’s so much easier to model new behaviors after we’ve seen them in action.

You can eventually be what you haven’t seen, but omg is it a laborious process. - Ryan M. Snufflemuffin

One of the most difficult calls to adventure I ever answered was the long, long journey of climbing out of my own icky little puddle of origin so I might eventually discover what other ways of being even looked like. And in 2017—thirty-seven years into my journey and so many miles from where I started—I was feeling trapped under the weight of what my heart- and mind-sponges were still carrying from that puddle. I wished so hard that little me had someone way-back-when to help encourage and guide him, and while I couldn’t personally go back in time to give li’l dude a hug and tell him to keep going, I could write him a letter and see what good that might do.

I started writing a letter to six-year-old me, and as I wrote, the words began coming to mind in the voice of a character I had recently discovered inside of me. That character was (and is) a little bear named Snufflebear. And as the letter emerged, Snufflebear took the wheel. He switched gears and started delivering what he had to say as a poem.

I had never animated anything before, but it was a skill I wanted to explore, and the poem seemed like it might be a nifty thing to get started with. So I drew up a storyboard to make my writing visual, created new characters for what emerged in the storyboard (like Little Buddy and Brain Brian), illustrated more than 25 scenes, began writing and recording the soundtrack, and recruited a few talented friends to give voices to some of these characters.

Some of the original storyboard sketches for this animation

Six years, a pandemic, and thousands of hours later, here we are. Set loose into the world like a tiny hungry bear in an ice cream shop, I give you Snufflebear’s Guide to Life. I hope you love what we’ve made. I may not know you personally right now, but I made this for you, and the childlike sense of wonder and possibility that you still hold inside.

You and I can absolutely do this thing called “life.” We’ve got what it takes, and Snufflebear’s got our back.