Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

Director of the series Igor Kovalyov said the style was inspired by his earlier Soviet film Investigation Held by Kolobki which he and Gábor Csupó showed to the producers who then gave Kovalyov's team a lot of creative freedom with the art direction and storyboarding.

Real Monsters was created by Gábor Csupó and Peter Gaffney, and was the third animated series produced by Csupó's company Klasky Csupo, which also created the animated shows Rugrats and Duckman on USA Network.

Csupó was inspired to write a show about monsters because his own young children loved them.

Csupó drew some sketches of possible monsters on a piece of paper and successfully pitched the idea to the network: "I wanted them silly and not too skillful – and the idea worked." Nickelodeon programming director Herb Scannell said the character design in Aaahh!!!

Real Monsters was partially inspired by Yellow Submarine, a 1968 animated film that was, in turn, inspired by The Beatles.

The character Gromble, in particular, bears a close resemblance to the Blue Meanie characters from that film.