It’s always dangerous in this business to say “now I’ve seen everything”, but hooey, this comes close. From Animation World Network: “Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana has teamed up with London-based entertainment company Toikido to greenlight a new 2D animated children’s series, Piñata Smashlings. Inspired by the popular Roblox game, the series follows the previously released shorts currently streaming on Nelvana’s ‘Keep It Weird’ YouTube channel… The series follows four friends, characters from the game, thrown together by fate to form a team of unlikely heroes. Whether questing across the land, unlocking maps, or collecting ‘fruities’ and ‘power ups’, these Smashlings are out to save the Piñataverse from the evil Bashlings and level up on fun along the way.” Already set to show in Canada (naturally), the series is looking for international markets.
YouTube
Jam Sessions for Juniors
Something new for the younger set we just found out about, thanks to Animation World Network: “YouTube Originals Kids & Family has released the official trailer for its all-new preschool series Jam Van, featuring a lineup of celebrity voice talent and musical guests… From Believe Entertainment Group (Dear Basketball), composer/producer Bill Sherman (Hamilton, In the Heights, Sesame Street), and animation studio Global Mechanic, the series follows animated best friends Lamb (voiced by Pete Lee) and Anne the Alligator (voiced by Nicole Byer). The duo travels to new locations around the country, where they meet with famous live-action musical artist friends. Together take on social-emotional learning challenges with the help of a new original song sung together.” This live action/animation mash-up premiers on January 19th.
Lizard Latin Lover
Merry Christmas! Recently we stumbled across a new Internet star known as Tito Lizzardo, an animated lizard singer who pals around with a sexy feline dancer named Catty Baby (aka Catty B). Virtual Humans (a site we also just discovered!) has this to say about them: “Tito is a lizard that likes to dress in his school jacket. Catty Baby is a cat that rocks her sporty looks every day. Their TikTok account is exploding with the couple’s dance moves next to the beach and the palm trees in Miami. Tito and Catty are a couple of artists doing remixes of famous Latin songs like ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ or ‘Hey DJ’. Their gang is completed with Juan Gato, Catty’s brother who is always wearing a Miami Heat shirt. All together they create amazing videos of their song remixes, targeting very young audiences with their cute, animalistic appeal.” Tito and crew first appeared in a series of short, at times rather risque dance videos on TikTok. Since then, they’ve released several much-more-family-friendly music videos on their YouTube channel. Who’s behind all this? We don’t know! But we’d love to meet them!
The Internet Is For… Cats
Recently got this from Animation World Network: “Disney Branded Television and Emmy Award-winning Baobab Studios have begun development, with award-winning screenwriter Pamela Ribon, on Intercats, an animated sitcom set in a cat workplace… Baobab’s co-founder and chief creative officer, Eric Darnell (Baba Yaga, Madagascar, Antz), is the creator and executive producer on Intercats… Jony Chandra (Nimona, Spies in Disguise) will direct… Told through the big reflective eyes of cats, Intercats is a four-quadrant animated workplace comedy about the cats who produce the hysterical cat videos that go viral on the Internet. It features a ragtag team of cats aspiring to get what all cats want: their independence. But, to do so, they must first learn to navigate their own internal relationships and build upon their success as the premier studio for viral cat videos.” Interestingly, Pamela Ribon is also the writer of My Boyfriend Is A Bear, which we’ve talked about previously here.
My Pet Be-Anything
We really need to get caught up on our YouTube phenoms. We found this at Animation World Network: “Guru Studio is ramping up production on Moonbug Entertainment’s newest CG animated series based on their popular YouTube hit, My Magic Pet Morphle… The show follows Mila and her stepbrother, Jordie, as they leap into a world of adventure with the help of Morphle, Mila’s magical and loyal pet, who has the power to change into whatever she needs.” Morphle is scheduled to hit Disney + and Disney Junior in 2024.
The Reception is Fuzzy
Creator Charles Brubaker has returned with a new installment of the Ursa Major Award nominated cartoon series Fuzzy Princess, called Oingo Bongo. “Wanting to win a new set of bongo drums, Chiro enters herself and Kuma in a poetry contest. Can Chiro keep the ever-hungry Kuma ‘inspired’?” The short is already up on YouTube, and there are links to lots of Fuzzy Princess books as well.
Friends with Fur
At WonderCon we met Ralph Lee Miranda, one of the minds behind Oh, Bubba — a series of animated shorts. Here’s what the makers say: “Oh, Bubba is an animated series on YouTube. It stars our titular character Bubba Lu [the gorilla], Grumpy, and their hooman friends as they navigate this modern world together, often with hilarious results and commentary… Think of it as The Muppets meets Friends.” You can also find out more about the series at IMDB.
The Girl, The Bear, and The Movie Empire
One of the most popular series of animated shorts in the world is Masha and The Bear, created by Animaccord in Russia. Now word has come down from Animation World Network that the company is looking to expand the property even more. “In addition to production of the core show’s new seasons, development is in the works on a feature film, as well as podcasts, tech-driven content, and custom-made content for social media platforms.” Here’s a did-you-know: Masha and The Bear “… holds the Guinness World Record as the most watched animated video on YouTube for the episode ‘Recipe for Disaster’, which has recorded almost 4.5 billion views.” The feature film is scheduled for release in 2025.
From YouTube to You
What have we been missing? Well apparently it’s Oggy and the Cockroaches, an animated YouTube series that has racked up millions of views. Well now American Mythology have brought us Oggy and the Cockroaches as a full-color comic book series written by S.A. Check and Jordan Gershowitz. “Oggy is a cat that just wants to watch TV but those pesky cockroaches, Joey, Dee Dee, and Marky aren’t happy until they drive poor Oggy crazy! Illustrated by Dean Rankine, these new comic tales deliver non-stop hilarity for Oggy fans worldwide!”