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Television

The Annie Awards for 2017

Feb 4th, 2018
by rodney.
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Saturday the 3rd at UCLA, the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA) handed out the annual Annie Awards for the best in animated films, television, and effects for the year 2017. As everyone expected, the big winner of the evening was Disney/Pixar’s Coco, which took home 11 of the 13 honors that it was nominated for, including Best Feature, Best Directing, and Best Writing. (Not really an anthropomorphic film, but those alebrijes were so cool!) In spite of Coco’s sweep, there was still room for several anthropomorphic items to win awards in several categories. Revolting Rhymes was awarded Best Special Production (the award for medium-length original films). Based on the poems of Roald Dahl, Revolting Rhymes was created by Magic Light Pictures, which previously brought us The Gruffalo and Highway Rat. Silvergate Media’s series The Octonauts won for Best TV Production for Preschool Children, while We Bare Bears won Best TV Production for Children. Trollhunters won for Best Character Animation in a TV Production, and the feature War for the Planet of the Apes won for Character Animation in a Live Action Production. Cuphead took home the award for Best Game. Meanwhile, the Disney Mickey Mouse TV series had quite a night, taking home Annies for Best Directing, Best Music, and Best Storyboarding. Visit the Annie Awards web site to see the full list. [And remember: The Ursa Major Awards are taking nominations now!]

Image c. 2018 Magic Light Pictures

Funny Animals Around The World — Except Here

Jan 22nd, 2018
by rodney.
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And here we go again… Another cool animated funny animal series that has picked distribution around the world but somehow skipped North America… well, at least not the US of A. Here’s what Animation World Network has to say about Animanimals: “Each of the 26 non-dialogue episodes features a different animal facing an absurd adventure with a surprise ending. The series has already won 20 prizes across the world, including the Audience Award at the New York Children’s Film Festival for two consecutive years — for the films Zebra and Octopus — and the award for the Best Film for Young Children at the Chicago Children’s Film Festival for Zebra… The family entertainment series Animanimals is produced by highly experienced and creatively driven Studio Film Bilder in Stuttgart, which also has garnered many awards over its 28-year history… “All stories are driven by director Julia Ocker’s engaging sense of humor,” says Thomas Meyer-Hermann, founder of Studio Film Bilder. “There is laughter and empathy throughout the story, and then excitement at the clever and creative solution.“” Now it’s ready to be shown in much of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, New Zealand, and Canada. We’ll let you know if it gets closer to us here!

image c. 2018 Studio Film Bilder

The Annie Award Nominations for 2017

Dec 7th, 2017
by rodney.
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Recently ASIFA-Hollywood announced the nominees for the 2017 Annie Awards — considered to be the Oscars of animation, and often predictors of other upcoming awards. 2017 was nowhere near as furry as 2016, but there are quite a few furry (and more generally anthropomorphic) items scattered throughout the nominees. Cars III is up for Best Feature, as well as Animated Effects. Despicable Me III is also nominated in those categories, as well as Character Design (everybody still loves the minions…). Big Bad Fox from Europe is nominated in the somewhat-new category of Best Independent Feature, as well as Character Animation and Best Directing. The “Special Production” category has several anthropomorphic nominees including the Imaginary Friend Society series, Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (also nominated for Animated Effects and Music) and Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems. Though they’re not up for Best Feature, Ferdinand and The Star are both up for Best Editing, plus Production Design (Ferdinand) and Storyboarding (The Star). The furriest Short Subject nominee is the stop motion film Hedgehog’s Home — unfortunately, in spite of its title, Son of Jaguar is not a furry thing at all. It’s interesting that the entire Animation In A Live Action Feature category is all entries with anthropomorphic interest: Game of Thrones, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, Kong: Skull Island, Valerean and the City of a Thousand Planets, and War for the Planet of the Apes. Likewise you’ll find a lot of anthropomorphic interest in the Best TV Series for Pre-School Children (Mickey and the Roadster Racers, Octonauts, Peg + Cat, The Stinky & Dirty Show, and Through The Woods) and Best TV Series for Children categories (Buddy Thunderstruck, Lost in Oz, Niko and the Sword of Light, Tangled the Series, and We Bare Bears). Buddy Thunderstruck is also up for Character Design, as is Danger & Eggs and Trollhunters. Of course Trollhunters is making a good show on its own, with nominations for Direction, Storyboarding, and Writing. Over in the Best TV Series for Adults the furriest thing is Bojack Horseman, which is also nominated for Voice Acting and Editing. The Disney Mickey Mouse series is quite popular, as shown by the nominations for Direction, Music, Production Design, Storyboarding, Voice Acting, and Writing! Finally, several shows we know and like are nominated in one category each, including Dragons: Race to the Edge (Best Direction), Tumble Leaf (Best Music), Pickle & Peanut (Best Editing), Amazing World of Gumball (Best Voice Acting), and Dinotrux (Best Editing). Whew!  Got all that? The Annie Awards will be handed out at a gala ceremony on Saturday, February 3rd, 2018 at UCLA.

image c. 2017 Netflix

Vinyl to Match

Nov 30th, 2017
by rodney.
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More stuff we found at a recent My Little Pony convention. Snuggle Trumpet is, according to their web site, the home for t-shirts, dice bags, athletic jerseys, and other good stuff all decorated with custom-made vinyl decals.  So far, it’s mostly about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic of course, but they not only make stuff based on canon characters but also based on fans’ own creations. Plus, they plan on expanding their line before long.

image c. 2017 SnuggleTrumpet.com

This Dad is for the Birds

Nov 24th, 2017
by rodney.
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And once again, another animated property that the entire world seems to get except us here in the USA. Cracked (also known some places as Cracke’) is a series of comedic shorts created by Squeeze in Canada. The premise is simple: Ed is a friendly if nervous ostrich. (Don’t ask us why he’s red, or why he appears to have no wings. We don’t know.) Ed is a single dad who is trying to raise his brood of 8 eggs to hatching. Very, very wild hi jinks ensue. Animation World Network mentioned the series last year, when it was distributed in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the Middle East, and Continental Europe. Recently they added Japan to the list — but still no mention of the USA. Well, if you visit the Squeeze web site, you can learn more about the series and how to download it as an app.

image c. 2017 Squeeze

From China to the World

Nov 23rd, 2017
by rodney.
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Talk about International! Cloth Cat Animation in Wales and 9 Story Distribution in Canada have teamed up with Magic Mall Entertainment in China to bring Magic Mall’s new animated TV series Luo Bao Bei to the wider world. This is from Cloth Cat’s web site: “The series centres on spirited, fun-loving 7 year old Luo Bao Bei as she explores everyday life with her friends, family and animal companions, having adventures and learning that even though we seem different on the outside, the emotions we all feel make us fundamentally the same. Starting life as a popular cartoon spokesperson and community icon in Beijing, this show is created by Grace Tian.” The head writer for the new series is David Ingham, who is well-known for his work on Shaun the Sheep and The Octonauts.

image c. 2017 Cloth Cat Animation

The Tale of the Irish Rooster

Nov 22nd, 2017
by rodney.
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Speaking of MIPCOM, as usual the hey-buy-our-TV-series trade show has given us lots of anthropomorphic animation to hope might make its way to our shores. Among them is Brewster the Rooster, created by Salty Dog Pictures and distributed internationally by Monster Entertainment. According to C21 media, “The show… follows the adventures of six-year-old Maggie and her best friend Brewster as they find out the answers to questions only children could think to ask.” Animation magazine has an article from a year ago about this and other interesting projects that Monster has picked up for distribution.

image c. 2017 Monster Entertainment

Kitties From Italy

Nov 21st, 2017
by rodney.
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Another one we learned about from Animation magazine: Italy’s Rainbow Studio (home of Winx Club) has teamed up with Canada’s Bardel Entertainment to bring us 44 Cats, a new animated TV series. (The title is based on a very very popular song in Italy.) Here’s what the creators say: “The series centers on a group of cats who act normally when thy are around people, but act just like humans when they are on their own. Just like children, the little cats see the world of adult humans as confusing and full of strange rules. Highlighting themes of friendship and altruism, 44 Cats is driven by the main characters’ love of helping others.” Currently the show is at MIPCON, searching for distribution in the wider world.

image c. 2017 Rainbow

If You Give A Mouse A TV Show

Nov 20th, 2017
by rodney.
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Looks like Amazon has brought us a classic children’s illustrated book series as a new animated TV series for their Amazon Prime service. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (famously written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond in 1985) was adapted for animation by Mercury Filmworks in Canada. Show-Runner Joe Scarborough has quite the animation resume’, having worked on shows like Arthur, Doug, Curious George, Pocoyo, and Martha Speaks. This new series follows a young boy named Oliver and his best friend, an adventurous mouse. Their friends are various other kids whose companion animals include a cat, a pig, and even a moose. Check out the preview video over at YouTube.

image c. 2017 Amazon Prime

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