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Animation

The Annie Award Nominations for 2023

Jan 14th, 2024
by rodney.
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The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA) recently announced the nominations for the 2024 Annie Awards, celebrating the best of animation in 2023. Needless to say, there was a lot of anthropomorphic material being shown off last year! The shape-shifting little rebel known as Nimoma walked away with the most nominations: Nine in all, including Best Editing, Best Writing, Best Voice Acting (for Nimona herself, Chloë Grace Moretz), Best Storyboards, Best Production Design, Best Directing, Best Character Design, Best Character Animation, and Best Animated Feature Film (whew!). Not far behind was Hayao Miyazaki’s swan-song (heron-song?) The Boy and the Heron, with seven nominations including Best Feature. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Pixar’s Elemental followed with six nominations each. Rather a surprising one was Robot Dreams (directed by Pablo Berger) which brought in five nominations including Best Independent Feature Film — the latter shared by Earnest and Celestine: A Trip To Gibberitia and Four Souls of Coyote. Nominations for Best Animation in a Live Action Production include Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, The Little Mermaid, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Cocaine Bear (!). Some interesting anthro films with one nomination each include Migration (Voice Acting), Super Mario Brothers (also Voice Acting), and Leo (for Editing). Over on the TV & Series side of things, the one to beat is Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, with four nominations, but there are also multiple nods for Hilda and My Dad the Bounty Hunter. See all the nominees over at the Annie Awards web site, and watch for the winners when the awards are given out on Saturday, February 17th. (And don’t forget: Nominations for the 2024 Ursa Major Awards will open up soon as well. Be ready!)

image c. 2024 Netflix

One Little Spark

Dec 21st, 2023
by rodney.
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The Dragons of Ember City is a new full-color graphic novel series for young readers, created by Shane Richardson and Sarah Marino (both of whom are animators at Nickelodeon). The first book in the series is called Happy Spark Day. “Drake, Li, and Runa are three young dragons in Ember City, where a dragon’s spark is their special power and every dragon’s spark is unique. Ember is a city that burns brightest when its citizens use their sparks to help each other and their community. The more they use their spark, the brighter Ember City glows and provides for all its dragons. Can Drake, Li, and Runa learn to get along after uncovering their powers?” All this and more from Simon & Schuster.

image c. 2023 Aladdin Books

Time for a Tiger’s Tale?

Dec 12th, 2023
by rodney.
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For a while now we’ve been following the news that Lawrence Yep’s popular fantasy novel The Tiger’s Apprentice was being made into a feature film. Not certain what happened to that project over the course of a pandemic and several Hollywood strikes, but now we’re getting word that a different animated movie based on the novel is making its way to Paramount+ next February. And this time we even get a teaser trailer! “Based on the popular children’s book series of the same name by Laurence Yep, the film follows Chinese American teenager Tom Lee, whose life changes forever when he discovers he is part of a long lineage of magical protectors known as the Guardians… In the film, with guidance from a mythical tiger named Hu, Tom trains to take on Loo, a force that is as powerful as a Guardian but has evil intentions of using magic to destroy humanity. To fight against Loo, Tom must reunite all twelve Zodiac animal warriors and master his own newly discovered powers.” There’s more details and an interesting cast list over at Animation World Network.

image c. 2023 Paramount+

So Who DID Come First?

Nov 23rd, 2023
by rodney.
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Hitting at an interesting idea from several angles at once, Canadian production house Wind Sun Sky have given us Future Chicken, a new environmentally-themed presentation for children that’s arriving as a podcast, a streaming series, an interactive web site, and so forth. Here’s an announcement from Animation Magazine: “Wind Sun Sky Entertainment partnered with the Ontario Water Centre’s social enterprise ClearWater Farm are gearing up for the November 5 launch of Future Chicken — a new animation property designed to help children counter ‘climate doomism’ with hope, inspiration and empowerment — with the announcement of a coop-load of trailblazing green guest stars. This new global platform will launch with a digital series, a podcast, YouTube shorts, a Roblox experience and more. Featuring a variety of entertaining learning experiences for kids aged six to nine years old, the property revolves around a time-travelling eco-superhero chicken from 2050 named Potato, a.k.a. Future Chicken, who travels alongside other amusing characters, including a gossipy mushroom with a love of travel and an egg who wears rocket-pants.” Typical stuff that, of course. The official web site has a whole lot more.

image c. 2023 Wind Sun Sky

Four Stars for Four Legs

Nov 21st, 2023
by rodney.
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And yet more MIPCOM stuff, this time out of China by way of Canada. Got that? Here, this is from Animation Magazine: “Canadian kids’ & family entertainment company WildBrain has partnered with Tencent Video and animation studio Miaow’s House as the exclusive worldwide distributor outside of mainland China of the new animated series, Pet Hotel. The series follows the comedic antics of Lili the dog, Bubu the guinea pig and cats Nai Nai and Vicky as they welcome new animal friends to their home at the Pet Hotel. Unlike other hotels, the Pet Hotel — which has been converted from an old grocery store — is filled with high-tech inventions created by the pets’ caregiver and hotel owner, Robin; from massage tables to automatic feeders! The animal buddies and their young owner face various quirky customers and their wacky pets every day, giving rise to numerous entertaining stories. It’s no question that every guest at the Pet Hotel will leave happy, having made a new set of friends.”  Have a look at the article.

image c. 2023 Wildbrain

Talent, Kid, Talent!

Nov 19th, 2023
by rodney.
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Here’s something else we recently found at Animation Magazine: “Two Ireland-based animation houses, Lighthouse Studios (The Bob’s Burgers Movie, The Cuphead Show!) and Dog Ears (Puffin Rock and the New Friends) are partnering to co-produce an all-new animated adventure series for kids ages 5-7, dubbed Stage Struck!” The description goes like this: “Creatures large and small — including Coco the crocodile and her friends — are welcomed to Showtime School, founded by the much-loved Miss Feathers. At Showtime School, everyday classes present extraordinary performance challenges! In classrooms full of pianos and crash-mats, even the ‘normal’ subjects have a theatrical spin — from the history of puppetry to the science of sound waves! Showtime’s students get a taste of music, movement and razzle-dazzle from all over the world — drumming circles, beat-boxing, fox-trotting, monologues, card tricks, Beatniks, and up-tempo Bhangra. Every day is a creative adventure!” Currently it’s seeking world markets at MIPCOM. (Are we the only ones getting a severe Richard Scarry vibe out of that illustration? We can’t be.)

image c. 2023 Lighthouse Studio

Yip, Yip, and Away!

Nov 17th, 2023
by rodney.
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More interesting MIPCOM stuff, thanks to Animation Magazine: “Kids’ entertainment specialist CAKE has partnered with Polish-based producers Animoon [Even Mice Belong In Heaven] and Letko on new the preschool animated series Toru Superfox… Toru Superfox is an adventurous fox on a quest to face the most puzzling of creatures: His emotions. Along with his best friends Bunio, a wild boar who loves napping and eating; Zoja, a resolute chick with an attitude; and shy hedgehog Fenio, they imagine that the forest where they play is inhabited by the characters from their favorite comic books — including Supervixen, the legendary guardian of the forest based on Toru’s Grandma! Toru’s super power is empathy and whenever someone is in trouble, Toru puts on his superhero mask and comes to their rescue!” Read the article to find out more, and see the trailer for the original European series over on YouTube.

image c. 2023 Animoon

Book Buddies to the Rescue

Nov 16th, 2023
by rodney.
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We found this in Animation Magazine, looked it up, and followed along to their web site… Atomic Cartoons present a new animated special for young folks, coming to PBS Kids right before New Years. “Rocket Saves the Day is a fun-filled adventure for preschoolers and their parents, based on the New York Times bestselling Rocket book series created by Tad Hills and published by Random House… The movie is a hero’s journey in which an enthusiastic young pup, Rocket, and his new best friend, Little Yellow Bird, embark on a quest to save their town through the power of reading. Throughout the journey, Rocket and his friends learn how to put letters and sounds together to make words – the building blocks of reading. Its animation style embodies a unique and distinctive hand-drawn look that mirrors Hills’ textured illustrations.” Look for it on December 26th.

image c. 2023 Atomic Cartoons

Mythological Cuteness

Nov 14th, 2023
by rodney.
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Where have we been? We’ve been missing episodes of Fabulous Beasts (aka There Are Beasts), which started streaming back in April. There’s a detailed preview over at Yu-Alexius. “Known in Chinese as You Shou Yan, the donghua promises to deliver another adorable experience for Chinese animation viewers, especially to the fans of Non-Human (Fei Ren Zai), and All Saint’s Street (Wan Sheng Jie) since both shows feature mythological and supernatural creatures living in the modern day world.” [There’s even more we need to check out! — ye ed-otter] “Based on the popular manhua by Xue Xia Mao Yao Zi, There Are Beasts is produced by Bilibili and animated by Studio FENZ. [The show] follows Sibuxiang, a mythological animal who descends to the mortal world to help his fellow creatures survive in a time of scientific advancement. As Sibuxiang encounters a range of fascinating characters, including Pixiu, Tuye, and the Jue brothers, viewers will be treated to a thrilling blend of mythology and modernity, filled with exciting stories and characters that are sure to capture the imagination.” All of which fails to capture the essence of just how cute these characters and their adventures are. See what we mean over on YouTube.

image c. 2023 Bilibili

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