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TAG FOR “TV”Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
May 27, 2009 12:00 pm
I hadn’t seen this before, but thanks to You Tube we now know that long before Robert Smigel and TV Funhouse, a short-lived British sketch comedy show The End of Part One (1979-80), also featured a parody of limited animation TV cartoons: (Thanks, John Dredge) 21 Comments » posted in Cartoon Culture, TV 
May 14, 2009 1:30 pm
I was, and still am, a huge fan of Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda. But the announcement today of the a new Nickelodeon TV series based on the movie has saddened me. If ever there was a character with the potential to fuel a series of theatrical sequels, it’s Po. I don’t expect Jack Black to be providing the voice and personality of the character for the TV version. A TV series poised to appear before the second film (now in production) seems like a business decision based more on a way to make some fast cash, rather than a sincere effort to nurture a worthy property. Going to series doesn’t neccesarily negate the possibility of further theatricals, but it sure cheapens the franchise. Couldn’t Nick have been simply based a series on the Panda’s co-stars, The Furious Five? 34 Comments » posted in Ideas/Commentary, TV
April 29, 2009 6:00 pm
Remember they used to run “What-A-Cartoon”? Now it’s “Where’s-the-Cartoons?” A channel called Cartoon Network continues to produce and acquire live action programming. I’m not sure why this still surprises me – or why I even still report on it here. In case you haven’t heard: The original BBC version of The Office starts running on Adult Swim this summer. The Mighty Boosh, another BBC live action pick up, is already running on the Cartoon Network’s nighttime block. 68 Comments » posted in TV
April 21, 2009 5:23 am
Did you know Chuck Jones made an adaptation of The Jungle Book? Sadly, I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t. It’s even available on DVD. This clip below offers a taste. Like most of Jones’s work from the 1970s, it’s dripping with cloying preciousness. And yet, it’s difficult to dislike it. Even Jones at his Jonesiest is a cut above the rest of the animation that came out of Hollywood during that decade. (Thanks, Jupey Krusho) 31 Comments » posted in Classic, TV
April 19, 2009 12:05 am
Big day in the U.S. and Canada for prime time animation. The folks behind the hilarious Arested Development have concocted Sit Down, Shut Up for Fox. The first episode airs tonight at 8:30pm. Meanwhile, in the Great White North, the McKenzie brothers return to Canadian television in the new half-hour animated series Bob & Doug, premiering tonight at 7:30pm on Global. Any thoughts? 59 Comments » posted in TV
April 9, 2009 12:15 am
. The Upstate Four (viewable in two parts above) is an eleven-minute Cartoon Network pilot created by brothers Fran Krause and Will Krause. When I first saw it last year, I was immediately taken by the quality of the production. Funny and fresh, energetic and entertaining, it looks and feels like nothing else currently out there. On top of that, the character animation is handled beautifully with none of the corner-cutting that has become an unfortunate hallmark of contemporary Flash TV animation. The pilot wasn’t picked up for series production and languished at Cartoon Network, but the brothers Krause received recognition for their efforts in the form of a top prize for Children’s Television Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival as well as an Excellence in Animation prize from the 2008 ASIFA-East Animation Festival. The Krause’s pilot for The Upstate Four raises the bar for TV animation everywhere, and proves that, with thoughtful planning and execution, top-grade TV animation is within reach. I wanted to learn how such an inspired and quality piece of work made it through the moribund development pipeline at Cartoon Network. The interview below was conducted via email, and in our far-ranging conversation, Fran and Will guide us through the tangled development process, their feelings about pitching, whether the type of quality they achieved in this pilot could be maintained in regular series production, and some of the lessons they learned from creating this pilot. 47 Comments » posted in Animators, Flash, TV, Fran Krause
April 3, 2009 10:30 am
Love it or hate it – the theme song has become a classic. Marvel.com is posting the entire series of the 1967 ABC Spider-man Saturday morning cartoon show, one episode per week (each Thursday) on their site. It’s amazing that talents like John Dunn and Herman Cohen worked on this stuff. I don’t know if I can watch more than one – however the Bakshi ones come later in the run and they may be worthwhile. Here’s the first episode… 39 Comments » posted in Classic, TV
March 30, 2009 12:30 pm
Dreamworks had a very good weekend. A $58 million dollar opening for Monsters Vs. Aliens was the biggest opening weekend gross this year and generating the third highest March gross on record. It also set a record opening for a 3-D film in digital and IMAX screens. Even more impressive was the debut of the new Dreamworks animated series, The Penguins of Madagascar which Nickelodeon is reporting as the most-watched series premiere in the network’s history, drawing 6.1 total million viewers. I caught the Penguin show last night and, considering it’s aimed at kids, its better than most of the CG series that have come along lately. It doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s very entertaining. Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley, the executive producers, toiled on many of the better Disney television productions in the past ten years (including those wonderful Genie Great Minds Think For Themselves interstitials). The TV critic at the L.A. Times points out that the show… “…doesn’t revolve around bratty/neurotic children and their pets. (May I take this moment to remind every parent of a cartoon-watching child that the iconic “Tom and Jerry” and “Roadrunner” were essentially silent — oh time, time, go back in thy flight.)” Nickelodeon will feature two weeks of Penguins primetime premieres weeknights until April 10, at 8:00 – 8:30 PM (ET/PT). The series will move to its regular timeslot on Saturdays at 10:00–10:30 AM (ET/PT) beginning April 18. |
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EVENTS
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