Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir is a French animated TV series by Thomas Astruc and ZAG Animation, which premiered in 2015. It tells the story of two high school kids in Paris, Marinette and Adrien, who inherit the powers of Ladybug and Cat Noir — charged with defeating the evil spirits that turn ordinary people into dangerous criminals. Each of them has joined up with a Kwami, a good magical spirit who transforms them into their super-selves for a limited time. The series was dubbed in English and it’s been running on Nickelodeon in North America — as well as released on DVD by Shout! Factory. What’s more, now Action Lab have now produced a new full-color Miraculous comic book series.
TV Series
I Gotta Get Me Another Hat
The Harry & Bunny Show is a series of slapstick comedy short cartoons running on The Disney Channel (and several on-line video channels for young viewers). It’s produced by Animasia in Malaysia. “Introducing Harry the magician, Bunny the stage rabbit and Madam Penny, a Gypsy fortune teller. Harry and Bunny have a very close relationship, but yet they dislike each other sometimes. Every episode features the conflict between Harry and Bunny in their daily life, where Harry always construct a new plan trying to get his magic wand back, while Bunny sabotages Harry with the magic wand.” Seems straightforward enough. Watch the showreel over on YouTube and you’ll get the idea.
Ducks To The World
Here’s yet another cool animated series the rest of the world gets, while apparently we here in the USA have to do without! Hence why Adventures in Duckport flew beneath our radar — no pun intended. This is from last year at Animation Magazine: “San Diego-based Lawless Entertainment has partnered up with Italian producer Mondo TV to co-produce and distribute a new 2D HD animated series based on the Adventures in Duckport characters of internationally popular brand Suzy’s Zoo. The 52 x 11 series will be distributed worldwide by Mondo (excluding North America), while Lawless handles global licensing and merchandising (except for some reserved by Mondo) and NorAm distribution. [When, is the question…] The Adventures in Duckport series will feature original Suzy’s Zoo characters, including the duck Suzy Ducken and her friends Jack Quacker, Penelope O’Quinn, Corky Turtle, and more. Targeted to ages 4-8, the show will offer charming adventures of these characters as they interact with the world and do their best to help the elder members of their community with love and respect.” At least we can see the trailer on Vimeo.
Open That Umbrella
Here’s one we missed: Just this year DHX Media (home, of course, of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic) premiered a new animated TV series for preschoolers. “Rainbow Ruby is the story of a spunky, resourceful little girl who magically transports to Rainbow Village, a whimsical land inhabited by her toys, and transforms into different jobs to help save the day! This CGI-animated preschool series takes the childhood fantasy of dolls come to life, and mixes in an aspirational heroine who proves that you can be anything you want to be!” The series has been showing in Canada on the Family Channel. Not sure if it’s broadcast in the US or not! Check out the trailer over on Vimeo.
Oh Look! Hasbro is Making Toys…
Earlier this year our Friends at Equestria Daily quoted an article from USA Today regarding Hasbro’s new “fan series” of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic toys, called Guardians of Harmony. This line of full-sized action figures stands out because the designs are not only expansions of what we’ve seen in the TV series, but they were also inspired by many of the stories and characters in IDW’s popular comic book tie-in series. In fact, some of the designs are based on ideas that Bronies have been discussing only in whispers! Besides some of the well-known characters, Guardians of Harmony includes figures of popular characters like Discord, a grown-up armored version of Spike the dragon, and even Weird Al Yankovic himself in pony form as Cheese Sandwich! Word is out that IDW may be creating a new line of comic books to include the Guardians of Harmony story situations, but we’ve yet to see that come about. Most of the new designs are available now at Amazon and other top toy destinations.
Wonderbolt Powers: Activate!
While we were at San Diego Comic Con, one of the categories we saw (of course) was lots of fan stuff and official tie-in stuff for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. (Yes it’s still around and Yes it’s still popular!) One of the more interesting and unusual of the latter is The Wonderbolts Academy Handbook, compiled by Brandon T. Snider and published by Hachette / Little Brown Books. “Attention cadets! This Wonderbolts Academy Handbook once belonged to Rainbow Dash! Along with valuable information on how to become a Wonderbolt, our stellar Pegasus pony added her own notes to help you along. The lessons in here have been passed down for generations, with each generation refining these lessons to better serve you and the institution. You will have much to learn and all staff and senior members of the Wonderbolts are more than willing to guide you. Good luck, have fun, and stay focused!” You should focus on Barnes & Noble to order yourself a copy.
One Short Rocket, One Tall Tree
More from Comic Con… Thanks to Cartoon Brew, we’ve learned that Marvel Studios have hired Passion Pictures to create a series of Rocket Raccoon and Groot animated shorts to be shown on Disney XD. “The shorts are being directed by Arnaud Delord, who is known for creating game cinematics with his creative partner Jérôme Combe under the moniker Arnaud & Jerome.” No date is set for the new shorts to be released, but the Cartoon Brew article has the test footage that Marvel recently showed. Interestingly, Passion Pictures also animated the well known “Meerkat” series of commercials for CompareTheMarket.com.
More Furry Netflix Cartoons
In addition to the aforementioned Llama Llama, we’ve learned from Cartoon Brew that Netflix have announced five more animated series coming to their streaming service over the next couple of years. At at least two of them are especially of note for furry fans: “Animated action-comedy Skylanders Academy follows the heroic adventures of the Skylanders team, a ragtag group of heroes with unique elemental skills who travel the vast Skylands universe, protecting it from evil-doers. They achieve victory by setting aside their egos, learning to trust one another and fighting as one to maintain harmony and balance in the land.” And yes, Spyro is among them. The series is set to premier on Netflix this coming fall. Then, there’s this: “Inspired by the Oscar-nominated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron [from Dreamworks Animation — ye ed-otter], Spirit Riding Free follows the heartfelt journey of a wild mustang who could not be tamed. A whole new generation will experience all the daring adventures when Spirit meets a girl named Lucky whose courage matches his own. Together they push limits, harness the power of friendship and discover what it means to be free.” Look for Spirit Riding Free to premier sometime in 2017.
Stanley the Animated TV Star
More from Animation World Network: “UK and LA-based family and entertainment production company, Komixx Media Group, announced it has secured the worldwide rights to stylish children’s author and illustrator William Bee’s colorful series Stanley. Komixx will create an animation series that will follow the adventures of Stanley the hard-working hamster and his furry friends. The lovable series [Stanley the Builder, Stanley the Farmer, and so forth — Ye Ed-Otter] comes from the British-born author and illustrator Ian Bilbey, who writes under the name William Bee. Komixx Entertainment has brought Bilbey on-board as its art director to develop Stanley into a much-loved animation character for preschoolers.” According to Andrew Cole-Bulgin, joint CEO and Head of Film & TV for Komixx Media Group, “Stanley is an independent, paws-on hamster who’s used to running the show… It’s going to be a lot of fun for Stanley, Hattie, Myrtle, Little Woo, and all their furry friends.” The show goes into production in 2017, then of course it will be looking for world-wide markets.