Danger Planet

By
on

For several hours over the weekend, 14 Cartoonstitute shorts were posted on You Tube. Monday morning they were all gone. However, one of them – Derek Drymon’s Danger Planet – has escaped and I’m pleased to post it below. Watch it while you can:

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  • compn

    after watching dana snyder in so many shows, you’d think i’d be sick of him by now.

    nope, hes great! “THAT WAS THE ALIEEEN”
    this short is hilarious. i hope it makes it to series and they can form some kind of great linear arc plot for it too.

    some great toons in those 14 cartoonstitute shorts. i just wish they had the money to make the 39 that were originally planned.

  • Kelly

    Danger Planet had some fun stuff in it – I never thought I’d dig a video game as a main character. Woo!

  • http://2dwannabe.blogspot.com robcat2075

    Pretty good origin episode. Great premise. Minimal nonsense.

    More!

  • http://bakertoons.blogspot.com/ Charles Brubaker

    JG Quintel’s short, REGULAR SHOW, is still on YouTube.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOs1KdD3FQg

    This is probably the best of the bunch. I love the art design and how it’s laid back (yet still weird at the same time). Cartoon Network must’ve loved it, too, because this actually got greenlit into an actual series (see? This shorts program wasn’t a total waste).

  • Gio Renna

    Wish I could watch the other 13. Sounds like a cool experiment. I wonder what convinced the Cartoon Network execs to go through with it.

  • Dock Miles

    Pretty durn entertaining — didn’t laff out loud once, but never stopped smiling. Don’t know if it could be stretched into a series. Would like to see somebody try. Curse you, constrained budgets!!

  • doug holverson

    Kind of retro-’80s. Although, I suppose that the genuine ’80s item would be stiffer, more listless and hokier, with blander humor. I like it, with the morphing alien providing a bit of an unhinged comedic foe.

    Any reason why CN posted and yanked these so fast? I throw out the cynical conspiracy WAG that the Cartoonless Network suits didn’t want any short-changed cartoons to possibly upstage their precious Real.

  • ask

    All gone?

    CN must really hate Cartoonstitute!

  • http://yeldarb86.deviantart.com Mr. Semaj

    Interesting.

    The only other ones I saw before Monday were the ones from Genndy Tartakovsky and Paul Rudish. Rudish’s cartoon has cool background and character designs, great music, and creative use of sound effects.

  • http://weirdurl.com Zekey

    I really like the setting of this. Hope it gets picked up. Or anything, really.

  • Anonymous

    “Cartoonstitute is a Cartoon Network project created by Cartoon Network executive Rob Sorcher that would have been a showcase for animated shorts created without the interference of network executives and focus testing. ” -Wikipedia.

    Maybe the executives saw the shorts, realized how good they were, and pulled the plug since this would serve as a solid example that they contribute nothing to the cartoon creation process.

  • http://tresswygert.blogspot.com Tres Swygert

    Pure fun and uniquely entertaining! :) Love the writing in this short as well. Hope they keep this on YouTube for a long time (though doubt it).

  • http://www.mukpuddy.blogspot.com mukpuddy

    By the looks of it there are still 4 of them up!

    JG Quintel’s is our fav of the bunch!

  • http://gagaman.blogspot.com Gagaman

    Dig the arcade cabinet as the main character 9why hasn’t anyone done that before?) but all i can think of when I hear his voice is master Shake from Aqua Teen, I presume it’s the same actor. The animation on that morphing alien was fantastic! Really enjoyed it.

  • http://www.elliotelliotelliot.com Elliot Cowan

    The really nice thing about these is how little they resemble the rest of CN lineup…

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/guabamanchannel Reynaldo Leon

    Now that’s a character driven cartoon. The way it should be done. Of course it doesn’t fit on CN schedule. They only play “conceptual” cartoons with annoying screaming kids and dumb parents.

  • http://www.frankpanucci.com FP

    There’s a torrent floating around of the other Cartoonstitute shorts, ripped from YouTube.

  • http://juanmanimation.blogspot.com juanma

    This is great.

    is it just a short?

    Or a tv series Pitch pilot?

  • http://jessicaplummer.blogspot.com Jessica Plummer

    This was awesome. I had seen a drawing of that human character somewhere, so I loved seeing the cartoon it’s a part of. If only there were enough grace in the world to produce more of these pieces independently…

  • Charles Thompson

    Loved the cartoon! Great work.

  • http://brockorama.blogspot.com Brock

    That was fantastic! Loved the shape shifting alien, all the characters were well done and had great performances. Very inspiring!

  • gweelok

    here’s another cartoonstitute short…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LvIG7MDSys

  • Robiscus

    That was fantastic!
    (Love the homage to John Carpenter’s “The Thing”)

  • http://chrisallison.blogspot.com Chris Allison

    WOWOW! I liked Danger Planet. But I really really really liked the UNCLE GRANDPA short. I wish I knew who worked on it so I could give them a hearty congrats. TONS of laughs, lots of cartoony logic, and most importantly it’s SUPER FUNNY and pretty appealing. Love the obvious Basil Wolverton influence. Check out Uncle Grandpa, guys! We should try to get that greenlit!

    Highlight this show, too, Jerry! It deserves it!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LvIG7MDSys

  • http://www.animationapocalypse.blogspot.com Baron Lego

    I really enjoyed that and I hate damn near everything. Cool short!

  • http://www.spiteyourface.com Tony Mines

    I liked how different it was from the rest of current schedules, and how nonsense driven the premise was, but I didn’t like IT. Didn’t find it funny. Guess that’s me.

    Can’t help thinking that between 1987 and 1992, this would have felt as tired and familiar as the things it is now dissimilar to. Removing it from that context is not enough to make it seem fresh to me.

  • http://www.milowerx.com Mike Milo

    @ Chris Allison:
    Pete Browngardt created, wrote and storyboarded Uncle Grandpa. He was a writer/storyboard artist from Chowder and now he is working on Flapjack. A very talented dude.

  • http://www.milowerx.com Mike Milo

    Derek is quite a talent… he’s now the producer on the highly anticipated Adventure Time.

  • http://chrisallison.blogspot.com Chris Allison

    @ Mike Milo:
    Thanks dude! I tried to find a blog of his or something but to no avail. He’s got a great sense of humor and I’d like to see more of his stuff!

  • http://yeldarb86.deviantart.com Mr. Semaj

    Today would be (the channel formerly known as) Cartoon Network’s 17th birthday.

  • Max

    “Cartoonstitute … would have been a showcase for animated shorts created without the interference of network executives and focus testing. ” -Wikipedia.

    “Maybe the executives realised the shorts proved their obsolescence.” -previous anon

    There is literally no other explanation for why they would make these and not show them. No level of financial return is less than the zero of hiding the shorts away.

    Why am I able to accept that this level of insane evil is how businesses work? Was it ever thus? Why can’t some rich maverick step in, finance good stuff, and wipe flash-based focus-tested crap off the earth?

    Someone should do more reporting on this, it’s criminalinexplicable for this stuff to be completed and shelved.

  • http:///exitplanetwhom.blogspot.com gavin

    I’m guessing they plan to role these out at some distant point, and the whole put-them-up-no-take-them-down thing is to seed a sense of intrigue, thereby adding to the shorts’ desirability and giving them a legendary status.

    That, or the execs are just stupid.

  • http://highlyrecommended.blogspot.com Satorical

    At least six of the fourteen are on YouTube right now. Just search for cartoonstitute.

    If these were viewed as pilots, I have a feeling Uncle Grandpa would wear thin very quickly. Spleenstab could work a la Korgoth (if only that had happened). The Regular Show characters could be more than a one-off as well.

    Regardless, loved how inventive most of these were, if not always laugh-out-loud funny. More please.

  • http://yeldarb86.deviantart.com Mr. Semaj

    “Why am I able to accept that this level of insane evil is how businesses work?”

    ‘Evil’ would be the best way to describe this charade. No sane businessman would purposely hide a winning product just to keep up with their agenda of mediocrity.

  • shadowcat016

    you know you probaly never heard of this but it actually reminds me of a manga series called space family carlvinson though it may be merely a coincidence but here’s the opening and ending to it’s one-episode ova which is to date the only anime adaptation of it

    opening
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGlOdEZpNNk

    ending
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNDXXgbOCRY

  • dave Smith

    I made a short. It’s called “YES”. No one liked it. It’s not on youtube.
    Oh Well. By the way. once i made a cartoon for disney called “bozzelbags zip” and Amid hated it. I’ll never make it.

  • http://www.cannedgeek.com/ Kyle

    That was wonderful for so many reasons!

  • http://www.milkywayandthegalaxygirls.com/ Lauren Faust

    I liked Yes and Bozzelbags and I like you too Dave.

  • kent

    Bozzelbags Zip is awesome!

  • robert alvarez

    Dave Smith is one of the funniest guys working in animation today. I would be happy to work with him on any project he does.

  • Dave Smith

    you like me… you really like me!
    Thanks friends!

  • robert alvarez

    I was very lucky to work with Derek on Danger Planet. He is an amazing talent. The end result of Danger Planet shows why he was chosen to be one of the core members of the Cartoonsitute program.

  • http://www.danyboom.blogspot.com dany

    thats was AWESOME ? why take it down ? the heartbreak never ends.

    voice of duck from peep in the big world, right ? i love that guy.

    fantastic. creepy, funny, exceptional.

    dany

  • adamredwoods

    I would buy a Cartoonstitute DVD.

    Thanks for the other link to “Regular Show”. That was amazing. Both these cartoons are excellent and a great testament to what can be done if animation lovers are left to their own devices without corporate interference.

  • http://storyboardsecrets.com Sherm Cohen

    Derek Drymon just posted a whole lot of great development sketches and paintings from the show at Danger Planet Blog

  • http://cartoonsnap.com Sherm Cohen

    Not sure why that link didn’t post, but Derek Drymon’s Danger Planet blog is at: http://dplift.blogspot.com/

  • Shadowcat016

    Hey there it’s me again so after couple of months I finally manage to finish a piece of fanart i working on.

    So here it is.
    http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu185/SFC-club/DangerPlanetCharacterSheetcolored.jpg

  • Jay

    just watched bozzlebags zip and its awsome i dont understand why he didnt like it