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:

I’m still not a fan of Family Guy, but I have to admit this is a terrific sequence from last night’s 8th season premiere episode.

UPDATE: You should read the comments on this post for sequence production details from Family Guy director Greg Colton, and the lead animator of the piece, Darlie Brewster (posting with the handle DarlieB). Our thanks to both of them for participating in the comments.

It was bound to happen. Canadian TV execs greenlight a cartoon about… TV Execs!

Created by Kevin Gillis (Atomic Betty) and Laura Kosterski, Producing Parker looks rather attractive - art direction-wise. I hadn’t heard about this show until today; Wouldn’t mind seeing an episode if it ever makes it to the States. It’s currently airing in Canada on TVTropolis, and coming to GlobalTV later on this year.

Painting by Bill Wray

Today, Nick is premiering the second season of The Mighty B! at 5:30 p.m (ET/PT). A new episode will debut everyday of this week. I’ll readily admit that I don’t understand the network’s logic of burning off five new episodes in a week, but that’s besides the point. Bill Wray, who is both painting backgrounds and co-directing episodes, tells me that he’s very proud of the second season and thinks they’ve made big strides with this current crop. He’s posting a lot of fantastic Mighty B! artwork on his blog. Bill’s enthusiasm, combined with all the funny stuff in the second season promo posted below, has convinced me that I need to check out a few episodes and see what it’s all about.

Just spotted on zazzle.com. Gotta admit I wish I had thought of this first…

I nominate this exchange between director/illustrator Ward Jenkins and his daughter, Ava, as the best animation-related tweet of the day:

Nick-at-Nite’s new animated series, the one produced by Michael Eisner, made it’s debut tonight. Anyone catch it? I did, and despite the near unanimous negative reviews, I must confess… I liked it.

The script was on par with typical (re: Fox) animated series these days, but I found the animation, produced by Eric Fogel (Celebrity Deathmatch) refreshing. What did you think?

The LA Times has a huge front page story in it’s Business section today, reporting on Cartoon Network’s recent programming gamble on live action. From the article:

The new shows haven’t reversed the slide. In July, the network had the fewest viewers in that target age range since May 2000 and its least-watched month overall since June 1998.

There is internal tension as well, with many veteran animators either quitting or being handed their walking papers. There are even whispers inside the channel’s Burbank animation studios that the network might drop “Cartoon” from its name.

If the ratings on CN were bad before, they are worse now. As an example of some of the actual numbers, courtesy of Nielsen Media Research Data, here are final K6-11 Ratings for Saturday, August, 8, 2009, Cable Networks only (Live + Same Day Data):

NICKELODEON - 4.1/25 Avg. (7a-1p)
Jimmy Neutron 1.4/20; Jimmy Neutron 1.9/21; Fairly OddParents 2.8/24; Fairly OddParents 3.5/24; SpongeBob SquarePants 5.0/29; SpongeBob SquarePants 5.6/29; Penguins of Madagascar 4.3/21; Back at the Barnyard 4.5/21; Mighty B! 4.1/20; SpongeBob SquarePants 5.2/25; SpongeBob SquarePants 5.3/28; SpongeBob SquarePants 5.6/30

DISNEY CHANNEL - 2.1/13 Avg. (7a-1p)
My Friends Tigger & Pooh 1.3/19; Little Einsteins 1.3/15; Special Agent Oso 1.6/14; Handy Manny 1.8/13; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 1.9/12; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 1.7/9; Imagination Movers 1.8/9; Handy Manny 2.0/9; Phineas and Ferb 3.1/15; Phineas and Ferb 3.5/17; Cow Belles (100 minutes) 2.5/13

CARTOON NETWORK - 1.4/8 Avg. (7a-1p)
George of the Jungle 0.9/10; Chaotic 1.0/8; Secret Saturdays 1.3/9; Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl Galactic Battle 1.3/8; Star Wars: Clone Wars 1.3/7; Ben 10: Alien Force 1.7/8; Batman: Brave & The Bold 2.0/9; Bakugan 1.9/9; Thumb Wrestling Federation 1.2/6; Teen Titans 1.4/7; Teen Titans 1.6/9

To our friends at Cartoon Network, we want you to succeed. We know we’re not in your demographic, but I and hundreds of thousands of others like me actually care about what you’re doing. We love cartoons and we want them back.

To paraphrase 14-year-old Ashley Rosario, quoted in the LA Times article, we’re open to new things as long as they’re not crummy. Stop looking at market research and viewer surveys - you clearly don’t understand them. Or us.

What might work at AMC or SYFY or USA and TBS won’t work here. Cartoon Network is a niche channel and you must give the viewers what you promise. I don’t want mustard coming from my ketchup bottle. As long as you are content to follow your competitors, and to recycle worn out ideas, you won’t succeed. You must lead with new ideas, new concepts, new animation.

You are programming Cartoon Network as a run-of-the-mill cable kids channel, instead of using the incredible opportunity you have to lead and bond with the animation community - where there is a wealth of talented creators and an abundance of original ideas just waiting to happen.

I strongly believe in the potential of Cartoon Network - otherwise I wouldn’t post so much about it. I am heartened by the recent announcement of the two new animated shows and the ongoing production of Pen Ward’s Adventure Time. So until the day you drop the “Cartoon” from your channel’s name and dive completely into obscurity, I’ll be keeping tabs on you. And our readers will let you know what they think.