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TV Series

Two Adventurous Mice

Aug 18th, 2013
by rodney.
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More from the MIPTV convention, as reported by Animation Magazine: “Global entertainment company DQ Entertainment and Foothill Europe Limited have announced an agreement to develop, co-produce and distribute CG-animated buddy comedy Raz & Benny… The stereoscopic-3D CGI show is created by U.K.-based director Simon Hodgkiss of Rockkiss DME and follows two mice whose ambitions are bigger than their brains, but whose good luck is as endless as their friendship. With their eccentric pal Lilly, dare-devil Raz and cautious Benny are always off on one adventure or another–whether posing as international spies, scuba-diving submarine rescuers or jungle explorers.” Vimeo has a preview video that includes an animatic of Foothill’s development work.

image c. 2013 DQ Entertainment

Some… Familiar Ponies?

Jul 29th, 2013
by rodney.
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So, there’s this TV series, produced with young girls in mind, about talking ponies living in a magical land.  No, it’s not that one. “The Filly animated series brings to life the charming adventures of Rose and her friends as they attend the Magic Royal Academy of Funtasia. The Wizard of the Dark Mirror, and his comical minion Battiwigs, try to steal all the magic in the kingdom. Despite their wacky attempts, the Fillys enjoy everyday school life, studying and discovering their unique, and magical, crystal powers in these coming of age stories.” That’s from the producers and distributors. According to some sources, Filly is already a bigger toy product in Europe than My Little Pony. And then there’s this, from the Animation Magazine web site: “BRB and Dracco’s upcoming new animated series Filly Funtasia has put together a top-notch writing team: Dean Stefan (The Penguins of Madagascar, The Octonauts, Jake & The Never Land Pirates), Noelle Wright (Doc McStuffins, Sofia The First), Jymn Magon (Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures), Johnny Hartmann (Monster High), and Sean Derek (The Smurfs, ZhuZhu Pets, Strawberry Shortcake, Sabrina, Hello Kitty) are busy putting together episodes for the 26 x 30″ high-def series.” No kidding. Where have we been?

image c. 2013 BRB Internacional

Another Boy, Another Dinosaur

Jul 25th, 2013
by rodney.
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MIPCOM, if you need to be reminded, is an annual event held in Cannes, France, where would-be television producers from all over the world attempt to sell their entertainment products to distributors — all over the world. Held every year in October, it’s a great place to find interesting and unusual TV shows — many of them furry, especially in children’s TV of course.  Among the new crop is a show called Boy and the Dinosaur, produced in the UK by 1461 Productions. Based on an original idea by Jason Harding, the show is overseen by Davey Moore, David Bunting, Paul Couvela, and Russell Dever. The idea is quite simple: A 4-year old boy (called simply “Boy”) loves dinosaurs, and one wishes very hard that he could have one for a friend. Lo and behold, one shows up — a big orange saurid simply named “Dinosaur”. The two get along swimmingly, and have many adventures. The show was picked up for international distribution by Foothill Entertainment, and season one is currently in production with a hopeful release date of 2014. According to the official web site, the show has also been profiled in Variety magazine.

image c. 2013 by 1461 Productions

The Pitch Party 2013

Jul 23rd, 2013
by rodney.
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Another San Diego Comic Con, and that means it’s time once again for Animation Magazine to hold their annual Pitch Party competition. For the past 12 years the Animation folks have asked would-be show-runners to purchase a 1/6-page ad in the magazine, wherein those creators can show off their idea for a new animated series as a one-panel poster. The ideas are judged by a panel of animation industry experts (including executives from The Hub, Cartoon Network, PBS, and more), as well as the Animation staff and the magazine’s readers, all of whom picked their favorites for a show to actually bring into development. As usual, there were several furry-themed titles among the entries, including: Mob Dogs by Paul Trineer, Across the Universe by Daron Orange, Master Karate Todd & the Power Squad (web site), Night Watch Dog by Chris Gruszka (web site), Fast Sloths by Stephanie Komure and Joseph Medina (web site), Shell & Paddy by Thomas Spettel (web site), and The Tinies of Raglan Shire by Michael Kushner (web site). So who won? Well the highest-scoring entry with a furry bent was Night Watch Dog, which took 2nd place from the industry panel and 1st place from the magazine staff. 1st place from the magazine readers went to The Tinies, while Fast Sloths took 2nd place from the readers and 3rd place from the staff.  Check out the July 2013 issue of Animation to see the rest of the entries, or visit their web site.

image c. 2013 Michael Kushner

A Bird and a Racoon Walk into a Bar…

Jun 21st, 2013
by rodney.
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It’s one of the most popular and well-known creations of Cartoon Network, and it’s been nominated several times for an Ursa Major Award. Now, fans of CN’s The Regular Show will be happy to hear that two full seasons — that’s 40 episodes — will be coming this July with the release of  Regular Show — The Complete First and Second Seasons on DVD and Blue-ray. From the preview at Movieweb.com: “This release marks the first time the Emmy Award-winning animated series created by J.G. Quintel (The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Camp Lazlo) and produced by Cartoon Network Studios will be available as a full season set and the show’s first Blu-ray release. If that’s not enough of a draw, both the DVD and Blu-ray will also include more than two hours of bonus features, highlighted by: Audio commentary for every single episode from Quintel and the show’s storyboard artists; the un-aired pilot episode from the series and an animatic for it; a video of Quintel pitching the series’ first episode, The Power complete with animatic; an interview with Quintel about the series; and his student short, The Naïve Man from Lolliland.” More Rigby and Mordecai than you can shake a gumball at.

image c. 2013 Cartoon Network

A Boy and His Snake… or Vice Versa

May 28th, 2013
by rodney.
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Suddenly everyone is talking about Sanjay and Craig, a new animated TV series on Nickelodeon. It stars the voice of Chris Hardwick (comedian, bowler, and head honcho of The Nerdist Channel on YouTube) as Craig, the best friend of a young suburban boy named Sanjay. Craig, it turns out, just happens to be a talking snake. The Nerdist web site has more details, and you can check out the glowing review at Gerry Beck’s Animation Scoop, also. The series is up and running on Nickelodeon now.

image c. 2013 Nickelodeon

Furry Lego??

May 3rd, 2013
by rodney.
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Where have we been? Looks like even classic toys are taking on a furry angle. Legends of Chima is a new line of Lego toys the world-famous plastic brick system introduced this year. From the Wikipedia entry: “Chima is a land where anthropomorphic animals lived in peace with one another until a conflict caused a civil war with the eight animal tribes: Lion, Eagle, Raven, Wolf, Gorilla, Rhino, Bear, and Crocodile. The members of the factions fiercely battle over a powerful natural resource called Chi, which could allow its possessor to create or destroy.” The toy sets are already available — and a TV series based on the line has already been produced by Prime Focus for the Cartoon Network. Later this summer, a free MMORPG of Chima will be available on line as well.

image c. 2013 Prime Focus

Here There Be Unicorns

Apr 24th, 2013
by rodney.
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Unicornatopia is a collection of artists, craft-makers, and enthusiasts dedicated to the lore of the unicorn — from Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn to My Little Pony and beyond. To that end they maintain a unicorn-themed web site, and also travel in groups to various fannish conventions to sell not only artwork but custom-made wearable unicorn horns and other crafts. Their web site is unicornatopia.com, and it includes numerous links to other unicorn-themed sites as well as various artists associated with the group.

image c. 2012 Unicornatopia

Welcome to Area Fifty-Something

Apr 4th, 2013
by rodney.
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After the box-office success of Monsters vs. Aliens in 2009, Dreamworks Animation green-lit a spin-off TV series to be developed for Nickelodeon. Well, now it’s here! Monsters vs. Aliens premiered on cable TV March 23rd with a special pilot episode, “Welcome to Area Fifty-Something”. Regular episodes begin on Saturday mornings starting this weekend.  B.O.B. the blob, Link the fish-man, Dr. Cockroach the bug-man, and Susan (aka Ginormica) the giant-lady just want to live a quiet life on their secret government base, but that’s hard to do when hostile aliens keep showing up — and doing things like kidnapping the President! Nickelodeon has an official web site for the show as well.

image c. 2013 Dreamworks Animation

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