The Awesome Chronicles of Manny and Khan

By
on

Someone posted one of the shorts from The Cartoonstitute, Cartoon Network’s former shorts program. Since they are no longer running cartoons, we might as well embed it here and take a look. Note, the sound is bad and the ending is cut off. Regardless, the heavily Spumco-influenced Awesome Chronicles of Manny and Khan by Josh Lieberman and Joey Giardina has funny drawings and pleasing design… things no longer of interest to CN.

(Thanks, Joshua Bailey)

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  • Isaac

    While the gags, sound effects, dialogue, and backgrounds remind me of Spümcø, the character design and plot are similar to Klasky Csupo, and the drawing style is the staple flat Cartoon Network. I think that makes it a good representation of every major classic animation studio since the ’90s.

  • Tim Schuit

    Oh cool! Ren and Stimpy!

    Oops, I mean, Leprechaun and Blue Thing.

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

    Note the animation was done at Big Star Entertainment, which also did work on “Ren & Stimpy”.

    Really funny pilot. I really hope Cartoon Network comes to its senses and pick this up, or at least air this. They had enough sense to pick up “Chowder” and “Flapjack” in the first place…

    Hey, I can dream, can I?

  • Jay Taylor

    Why do most modern cartoons involve the characters whining and yelling constantly? Does no one know how to show a characters frustration without making ME FRUSTRATED!?

    Anyways, is it official that CN isn’t continuing with Cartoonstitute?

  • Zork Nemesis

    Jay, it’s because it’s an odd couple pitch, and every odd couple has to have wacky guy and angry guy. It’s sharp execution, but nothing inventive. Zero risks.

  • Benny

    If this is the best Cartoonstitute can do, it should remain dead. This one tries too hard and is no better than any of the Development Porn bred by execs at any studio in the last decade of cartoon decline. If they really want to finish it, all they need do is add a ton of pseudohip spurting blood when the metal traps grab hold, then run it on Adult Swim.

  • http://markpudleiner.blogspot.com/ pudleiner

    A real cartoon !!!
    { yes, a ren + stimpy clone … but still…}
    Stupid characters hitting funny poses and gags.
    Good way to start the week :-)

    I’ll be showing the kids this one :-)

  • http://www.arielvillaverde.com Ariel

    Love the humour and BG design. Even the way the legs connect to the body of Manny(*overlapping) Genius!

    The formula’s the same as Ren(*w/an Arnold voice) & Stimpy but it kept me entertained.

    Good luck to this show. It’d be worth having around.

  • http://goldenagecartoons.com Matthew Hunter

    That was…really terrible.

  • Doofus

    Majority of CN cartoons were influenced by spumco in one way or another. In fact, hasn’t it been that way for a decade?

    I almost enjoyed it, but it was still…like every other CN show – just a lot of shouting and a A to B storyline. That said, I’ll take it over CN “REAL” shows any second.

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

    I felt like this was more “Angry Beavers” couple rather than “Ren and Stimpy” couple. But why is that a turn-off? Every superhero cartoon and movie is like every other superhero cartoon and movie, every teenage gang of characters is like every other teenage gang of characters, they’re all the same. For the most part, nothing is really different and certain pieces cater to certain genre’s, which I accept and enjoy for what they are. If I’m looking for something uber original and sitting by itself, I will go search for something like that when I feel like it.

    This short felt really natural to me in it’s humor, and the randomness didn’t feel forced. I had to try REALLYREALLYREALLY hard not to laugh out loud…since this was watched at work! Really liked the backgrounds in this; and all that neutral green really offset the starker colors of the characters nicely. Also:

    I COULD WATCH THIS EVERY DAY.

  • Lauren

    Hahahaha! That article felt bitchy. Take THAT CN! =P

  • http://www.milowerx.com Mike Milo

    I went to what I think was the only public viewing of all the Cartoonstitute shorts and this was one of the better ones. It is interesting to note that about half of them involved some sort of elf and the other half had anthropomorphic animals. Most of them were very unique in their style. They were all odd in some way. The best one by far to me though was Craig Kellman’s short about a grown up mama’s boy kangaroo still living in his mama’s pouch. It had a great style and a retro feel. It also pulled no punches and was the most adult of the bunch. Why CN couldn’t see it had potential I don’t know.

  • Lucky Jim

    It’s pretty cute. I bet kids would have liked it, but I suppose now they’ll never know.

  • some guy

    this is not genius, or clever or even funny. everything is random. Ren and Stimpy wasn’t random for just any old reason and even when it got “weird” it had mood, atmosphere and pacing to really suck you in to each moment instead of throwing a billion unfunny randomness at you every 5 seconds. This was 2 cardboard cutout, “wacky guy” and “angry guy” archetypes, yelling at the screen for far, far too long…

    obnoxious does not equal funny, that was a problem with Bloo in the beginning of the first season of Fosters and it seems that they noticeably scaled him back a bit, giving his whining context and motivation, rather than simply having him be an asshole for the sake of being an asshole, thus making bloo loveable instead of teeth grindingly annoying.

    nice BG’s tho.

    I think this raises the point that A) the cartoon standards are pretty low right now (no offense meant to the people that I know put in a LOT of hard work on this, but honestly, this isn’t what should be considered “great”) B) kids don’t watch cartoons BECAUSE the standards are pretty low (in addition to many societal changes I think people have yet to notice) C) rather than address the issue of figuring out how to actually make a cartoon entertaining, CN has decided it’s easier to simply abandon them altogether, which is a cowardly, shortsighted strategy.

    I think cartoon fans are getting so desperate for ‘toons that they’re begging for laundry detergent laced crack and have long forgotten what the good stuff felt like.

    However, I would have liked to see people involved in cartoonstitute continue to multiple cartoons over a longer period of time so a chemistry can develop and find comfortable rhythms for storytelling and pacing. A huge problem with our industry is that you have large groups of people coming together for 6-9 months at a time on a season of a show then they scatter and move on to other shows so chemistry rarely develops or pays off. The nomadic nature of tv animation is killing the creativity.

  • Chris

    The whole short can be found under the clips section at the production’s website:
    http://www.bigstarani.com/

  • Rodrigo

    I’m not a fan of these over-hyper cartoons. The “zaniness” always feels a little much, like that hyper kid at school that you always wanted to punch in the face. Ren & Stimpy felt a little more refined in this respect.

    But at the very least, they are cartoons.

  • Charles

    Not bad. A German leprechaun could be funny. This cartoon needed a few more or better gags and less screaming though.

  • http://ryuuseipro.deviantart.com John Paul Cassidy

    The animation is very good! Its being in widescreen makes me think that CARTOONSTITUTE is aiming for HD airings.

    The story and characters are “meh,” but acceptable.

    But this is nonetheless very promising! I’d love to see what else this program has under this sleeve! That is to say…

    Is it true that Cartoon Network put the kibosh on CARTOONSTITUTE? I’ve heard no other announcements besides this post. (Even Lauren Faust, who’s involved, didn’t seem to mention anything about it.) Or, it could be an exaggeration on Jerry’s part.

  • Kyle Maloney

    This isnt something I would have liked or watched in the 90s, something about the character designs turn me off, but in a day where animation is dominated by horrible flash animation, this actually stands out. it does feel like a “What a Cartoon Show” short that wouldnt have gotten a full series though.

  • Makinita

    ehhh…. that kind of sucked..sorry and I dont see the R&S style reference anywhere

  • doug holverson

    @some guy: Can you list any of the many societal changes?

  • CMcC

    For what it’s worth this is just 1 out of 14 in wide range of shorts we produced in the Cartoonstitute. I thought a little background info on the creators might be of some interest to you. Neither one of these guys had ever done anything creatively in animation before this short. Joey’s previous animation experience was as a production person on various shows, and Josh had interned at CN.

    For two guys with NO prior creative experience we were all quite impressed with their enthusiam and determination get a cartoon made.

    So…

    we gave them a chance to make the cartoon THEY wanted to make. Good or bad it’s what our program was all about. Giving people a chance to present their ideas in the most honest and sincere way possible without too much Network interference.

    I sincerely hope you all get to see the other ones someday.

  • some guy

    Just theories but I think some make themselves pretty self evident:

    1) Children are treated like “small adults,” by media. While we shelter them from the taboos of violence and sex, our media still encourages mature behavior in the name of being “cool.” children are conditioned to feel that being child-like is suddenly uncool, this is a side effect of unchecked consumerism, broadening the largest profit pool (teens) to leak into other age groups, creating “tweens” and even making older people feel the need to fit into the “cool” demographic. is it any wonder that we see people up to 30 years old using LOLspeak and acting and dressing like they’re 15 years old while young children also strive to be part of the 15 year old crowd? A wonderful side effect of unchecked, overly aggressive advertising of “lifestyles” that are beyond the reach of and completely unnecessary for, the average person.

    2) blurred media lines. This one’s fairly obvious… people have far more entertainment options. Videogames, Movies and music are absolutely everywhere and it’s at the tip of our fingers for instant gratification. it’s much much harder for big media conglomerates to keep your attention when you’re playing world of warcraft, watching netflix and listening to “stolen” music. In a desperate attempt to find enough food to feed these massive dinosaurs, having specialized, niche networks just isn’t a viable option. Niche entertainment outlets either have to go away, give up their specialness to capture as broad an audience as possible or be happy with a much smaller piece of the pie and starve a little bit. The only way a “cartoon” network can be successful is to stay as small as possible, keep the overhead low and be happy that way. Truly, if you want provide quality entertainment for a specific audience, you have to leave your ambitions for global saturation in the clouds.

    3) Animation and the arts in general have become less of a “Craft” and more of a commodity, hell the craft was merely incidental for most of it’s history. Very few people care about the rich tradition or standards of animation anymore, no one with the money to invest in such a venture anyway… Back in the day, you could make a saturday morning cartoon and sell a toy or some cereal or some ad space when it was still the “cartoon” that was the showcase, the reason to tune in. Nowadays, when businessmen talk about “animation” they are talking about one small piece of a very large package they want to set up for a global marketing blitz. It’s no longer, “let’s make a cartoon for money” It’s, “We’ve got a product and to sell this product we need to saturate media with movies, music, billboards, games, flyers and throw a cartoon in there somewhere.” It’s just another check off their long list of ways to sell a product. The product and advertising is the showcase. We used to have shows so entertaining that people bought ad space to be seen alongside it. That was true entertainment value. Now shows ARE the advertisements and it rarely matters how good the show is because you don’t have much of a choice since every other show is also advertising the same thing and it’ll be replaced with more of the same. Today, advertising is king, entertainment is a happy accident.

  • some guy

    I would love to see more of what was made. Even all the unaired Frederator shorts would be great. It’s unfortunate that the current weather dictates that these shorts aren’t “worth” showing for whatever strategic reasons. And that many of the creators won’t get many (if any) more chances to really hone their skills and harness that enthusiasm to get better and better.

  • Chris Sobieniak

    > If this is the best Cartoonstitute can do, it should remain dead. This one tries too hard and is no better than any of the Development Porn bred by execs at any studio in the last decade of cartoon decline. If they really want to finish it, all they need do is add a ton of pseudohip spurting blood when the metal traps grab hold, then run it on Adult Swim.

    I thought it was OK though I wouldn’t mind the blood if it came to that.

    This cartoon did evoke what the 90′s shows used to be much like as I can remember. The randomness almost got out of hand but tried to keep everything in balance. I really enjoyed the “FALSE” bit personally, but wonder if it should say “REJECTED” instead as if to obviously note the stupidity of what went on there!

  • Niki

    My cousins laughed, and their five.

  • erik K

    I liked what ‘some guy’ had to say, and he certainly shed new light on why todays animated works feel so uninteresting to me..

    I really enjoyed this short. To me its what I would like to see in a cartoon. Yes the yelling seemed a bit intense, but it was the first time I saw a character do that for 7 minutes.. and I certainly wasnt poking holes in motivations or character personalities like so many of others have commented on.

    Personally, I miss my Monty Pythons and my Airplane movies, and my Ren and Stimpy. Today I have teenage super mutant heroes that are always smarter than any one else in their world, and other shows about mind readers that see dead people, etc. Somehow, the networks are trying to ‘reflect’ back at us what they think we as a society wants to see.

    Are we all longing for the world to eventually recognize us as ‘the one’? American Idols popularity seems to answer that question.

    It seems like it all started with us worshipping Luke Skywalker and Rocky, believing that a street kid can be the top Jedi or the Heavyweight Champ of the world. Yet we still havent grown out of that.

    I mean, for guys its sooooooo easy to ponder why in the world these little girls around us all want to be princesses.. Well for us guys, we got to see what we’re aspiring to as well.

    Batman and John Connors and Neos that those are the only Hollywood stories we will support? And today that has trickled down to your tv animation.. These Ben 10′s, and Danny Phantoms, and amazing Spidermans are all just that type of story. But it all seems so one dimensional..

    Personally I miss my coyote road runner shorts, where it was letting us relate to the scenarios in more subliminal/subtle ways: ambition and the pursuit of something better. I draw on those ideals and Coyotes determinedness a lot while trying to work in this animation industry.. As I see a lot of great, fantastic, wonderful ideas get overcooked and overbleached til you really have a bland result.

    And it felt like to me, this short had a nice strong flavor that did not feel like it was watered down for the masses. And it really was a nice surprise to me.

    By sanding away its abnormalities, like the screaming, and the wackiness, and the stupidity, I think your left with a pretty bland project.

    To me this was different and felt ‘executive free’ and that carries a lot of weight in my book.. The more raw, fun, wacky humor, the better. And especially that its not pushing a moral to me, and I didnt feel like it borrowed from Ren and Stimpy for the wrong reasons.

    Simply put, these two goofballs just put a smile on my face on a Monday night, and I cant ask any more from a goofy cartoon.

    Thanks German Leprechaun and bird buddy.. It was a good laugh.
    and thank you Cartoon Brew for bringing it to my attention.

  • rhinotonight

    i really couldn’t watch this, it came off as annoying. it had a few gags but honestly couldn’t get all the way through it.

  • http://pierreportfolio.blogspot.com/ Pierre Fontaine

    Nice design and nicely done animation. That’s about all I can say about it because I’m just so dog-gone tired of this kind of cartoon. So, beautiful work, shame about the content.

  • Jason

    Oh jeezus, another cartoon about a moron and a spastic sociopath. Yep, we haven’t had enough of those. A platypus and a German leprechaun, what WILL they think of next?

    And we wonder why CN is turning to live-action. Christ, look at the animated product they’re being offered. I’m beginning to see things from (shudder) CN’s point of view…

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

    While this had some cool background art, I’ll have to agree with some others that the “Ren & Stimpy” Syndrome has been done to death. Not that there never were any good attempts, but after a while, the derivation becomes all too apparent.

    And I’m sure that there were better entries in the Cartoonstitute lineup, though I’m still left wondering why Cartoon Network poured money into a program they weren’t going to use.

  • david

    eh. i agree with one of the above posters. the yelling and screaming is pretty annoying..and the whole angry and stupid pairing of personalities has been played out to death. This just reminds me of all the recent stuff that they have put out. Whats the point of “funny” drawings if the story characters are not even engaging or lack charisma. what happened to subtlety? Oh wait kids don’t have attention spans for that. make the characters yell and have a cut every 3 seconds.

  • http://twitter.com/jsidhom Jonah Sidhom

    I thought it was funny, nothing new though… now that I read all these comments, I realize there WAS a lot of screaming. Somehow I didn’t notice whilst watching.

  • Bezza

    Sorry but i found this cartoon genuinely unfunny. Seriously, I thought my jokes were bad…

  • http://www.milowerx.com Mike Milo

    @Mr. Semaj
    When Craig McCracken got up at the premiere, he stated that there would have been a lot more of these if the world hadn’t fallen apart to which Rob Sorcher agreed so I imagine CN pulled the plug when the economy went bad. I think there was a genuine interest to do more of these but the guys up top at Time Warner pulled the plug for what ever reason. It is interesting to note that they pulled the plug at a time when they’ve just made their first billion dollars this year. Odd to cut funding being such in the black but then I don’t have my own multimedia conglomerate so what do I know?
    http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118006168.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&nid=2562

    Maybe they’ll do something with these one day. For what it’s worth Craig and Rob did a fantastic job weeding through what I imagine was thousands of entries with the rules constantly changing for them at each turn.

  • http://davidessman.com david essman

    How do comments like:

    “That was…really terrible.”

    add to the discussion?

    How about an actual critique? What works, What doesn’t , and What can they do to improve their future work.

    It’s real easy to type “it sucks” and hit enter. Really easy and really weak.

  • Garman

    Time-Warner can always package these 14 CN shorts along with those 2004 Larry Doyle unfinished Looney Tune shorts. That’s enough stuff to fill up at least one DVD. Unless they need a tax write-off.

  • http://ryuuseipro.deviantart.com John Paul Cassidy

    Thanks for the info, Mike.

    This is really discouraging. I was looking forward to CARTOONSTITUTE, but I’m sorry to hear it got canned. Now I know something’s wrong over there.

  • http://aalong64.blogspot.com Aaron L

    I thought the backgrounds were really nice, but the characters and writing were pretty bad. I was also surprised at how blatantly it ripped off from Ren and Stimpy. Stuff like the noises the platypus made when it was excited, and when it coughed up the ‘PLAY’ letters.

    Pretty much all the new cartoons I’ve seen in the last few years feel very ‘in-bred’, for lack of a better word. They all have similar ‘funny’ poses and expressions, bland, generic character designs, and annoying voice acting… Why can’t they do something that looks a little different? As in, not anime or faux-retro?

  • http://pumml.blogspot.com DB

    Honestly, I’m really happy to be seeing ANY of the Cartoonstitute shorts. Sure beats the hell out of Slam Ball and the other live action shows they’ve lined up. Also as Craig pointed out above, this is a really decent first effort from 2 guys with less experience… kudos to them for doing it! Overall the look is really nice… a bit shouty and R & S derivative but a solid effort nonetheless.

    I think they should be encouraged and applauded for their work, not berated. With the way Cartoon Network is acting, we’re lucky to have any of these shorts.

  • cartoon elite

    congrats to them for getting a short done before the overpaid idiots pulled the plug.

    but i have to say i dont understand why people who have the least cartoon experience are always given a chance to make shorts. kind of backwards, don’t you think? arent there tons of people out there right now with the experience & ideas to make a really great show?

  • The Nightmare is Near

    Best to voice your opinion to some of them here is some “CN numbers and emails”.

    http://news.turner.com/pr_contacts.cfm?aff_id=2598

    Contacts

    ATLANTA:

    James Anderson
    SVP
    Phone: 404.885.4205
    Email: james.anderson@turner.com

    Joe Swaney
    Director, Cartoon Network
    Phone: 404-885-0657
    Email: joe.swaney@turner.com

    Tim Declaire
    Director, Adult Swim
    Phone: 404.575.9283
    Email: tim.declaire@turner.com

    Katie Gordon
    Phone: 404-885-0643
    Email: katie.gordon@turner.com

    Carol Kim
    Phone: 404-885-0163
    Email: carol.kim@turner.com

    Wendy Rutherford
    Manager, PR
    Phone: 404-827-5097
    Email: wendy.rutherford@turner.com

    Angie Weiss
    Phone: 404-575-5077
    Email: angeline.weiss@turner.com

    LOS ANGELES:

    Courtenay Palaski
    Senior Director Cartoon Network/Adult Swim
    Phone: 310.788-6903
    Email: courtenay.palaski@turner.com

    Dawn Lach
    Phone: 310-788-6787
    Email: dawn.lach@turner.com

    NEW YORK:

    Adrienne D’amato
    Director, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim
    Phone: 212.275.8235
    Email: adrienne.damato@turner.com

    Shana Ungerson
    Phone: 212-275-8012
    Email: shana.ungerson@turner.com

  • cmcc

    @ Cartoon Elite: Joey and Josh are the only guys who had little experience in the program. Here’s the list of the other creators who did shorts.

    Dave Smith
    Chris Reccardi
    Derek Drymon
    Aaron Springer
    Mike Bell
    Chris Staples
    Matt Danner
    Genndy Tartakovsky
    Paul Rudish
    Craig Kellman
    J.G Quintel
    Pete Browngardt

    All of these guys have done lots of work in the industry and they made some pretty cool/funny shorts.

    @ Nightmare: Most of the people on this list are PR people. They are not the ones calling the shots.

  • The Nightmare is Near

    I see. Yeah your right. But maybe they could get into contact with the people who are calling the shots.

  • JM

    It’s a shame we’ll probably never get an “official” release of these shorts.

    As for Manny and Kahn. I’d probably need a “show” to get the context, I could see myself “getting” it after 2 or 3 episodes.

  • http://jgiardina.blogspot.com/ Joey Giardina

    from one of the guys that made this cartoon….

    The last few days have been to say the least, interesting for both Josh and I. On monday morning I woke up (like I all ways do), made myself a hot cup of coffee, and sat down in front of my computer to peruse the interwebs. When my completely average monday turned into one of the most surreal days of my life. In an attempt to NOT boor you to death with the “hows” and “whys” (which I am not entirely sure of yet) I will “The Chase”. One of the most trusted and respected animation blogs on the internet Cartoon Brew posted a bootleg copy of our short and oh boy do people have something to say.

    Before I get into THAT, I feel something needs to be addressed; Even though it may seem to some as if we are amidst the darkest hour for CN. With live-action’s bulking muscles aggressively attempting to conquer the last safe haven for cartoons. I find it impossible to believe that a studio founded on cartoons will completely abandon a truly wonderful attempt to bring creator-driven shows to the masses (which is what we all want… right?). Cartoons have been around forever and Im sure they will continue to be around for a long time.

    I also believe that we the viewers have grown too accustom to the instant gratification that the Internet provides us. We want our cartoons and we want them NOW! All our shows must be genius, clever, and the funnest thing we’ve ever seen…every time. They must be new… but not too new cause the old stuff is awesome… make sure you keep that in mind… but don’t make it feel like anything Ive seen before…… The truth is; we all want and like different things. Josh and I were lucky enough to stand beside some of the industry’s best for a brief moment in time. With the goal of learning how to make a cartoon. A cartoon that WE wanted to see. A Cartoon that maybe, just maybe, other people would like too.

    Josh and I were given seven minutes to create a world, introduce our characters, set up a story, tell the story, and prove that this world could continue on if given the chance to do so. I think that for two young guys with limited experience to fall back on; we did a pretty good job considering the whole thing is about two friends… and a ball.

    Running on limited experience we turned to the people, shows, and movies that we respect and admire. We tried our best to see where they came from, who their heroes were and whom they referenced. Looking back in time and learning from others that have come before us.

    There is no doubt that we are fans of John K and Spumco but we are also fans of many other great Cartoonists and performers like; Max Fleischer, Milt Gross, Maurice Noble, Tex Avery, Laural and Hardy, The Three Stooges, and the list goes on and on.

    I don’t see anything wrong with admiring these great artists and trying to learn from them but, I can’t stress this enough; in no way shape or form was this the only thing we did. Due to our tight schedule we didn’t have enough time to think twice about anything let alone take the time to make a conscious decision to make something look or feel like something else. Almost all of the similarity between our short and the works of our heroes was subconscious. Which is not surprising to me in the least they are the reason I love cartoons and story telling. They are the reason I strive to do what I do.

    Now, I can only assume that we the fans will someday in the future get to see The Cartoonstitute shorts in all of their glory. Presented in pristine HD and surround sound. Whether its on TV, The Web, or DVD does not matter, what does matter is that you get to see them the way the creators intended them to be seen. Not a copy of a copy of a flash movie, ripped and then compressed into a youtube window. A version so deteriorated that all you hear is the audio peaking out on every word. Something so obtrusive that you can’t appreciate the beautiful score or brilliantly funny voice acting. Not a version where amazingly drawn frames are dropped and others merged together at the whim of a supper computer. Where skips and jumps happen and endings are cut off.

    I know it may seem like I am mad that Manny and Khan was leaked but I am not. I am actually quite happy. I could have very easily contacted Youtube and had the video taken down but I didn’t. I truthfully was VERY interested to know what people thought of it. So Josh and I just sat back and figured “someone” would eventually take it down. The strange thing is, three days later and its still up with 2,513 views and the comments keep pouring in. Some good, some bad and after three days I feel compelled to respond.

    To all the people that posted the countless positive comments I say THANK YOU! Thank you for overlooking the poor quality of the copy and seeing the good in our short. Thank you for thinking this could someday be a show. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for being so kind when you could have easily been hurtful. Thank you, We made this for you.

    To all the people that kind of liked or were on the fence and gave constructive criticism I say Thank you. We are listening.

    To all the hatters I ask you this; If Manny and Khan was produced by two random guys that had no connection to CN would you have been so quick to hate? Because the truth is; besides Craig McCrakken and Rob Renzetti (whom you could hardly call executives) there was absolutely NO other creative input from anyone other then the artists that made it. It was for a lack of a better term “Executive-Free”.

    I can only assume that you the hatters are NOT in the business of making cartoons and I come to that deduction quite simply; Anyone who IS would never leave a purposely hurtful comment just to make themselves feel better. Anyone who is even remotely connected to ANYTHING creative knows truthfully what goes into the process of making something for others to see or hear. They wouldn’t do it even if it was bad.

    A final thought before I sign off; Far to often people refer to Cartoon Network as if it is an entity of its own. An all powerful being capable of deciding what stays and what goes… but, its not. It is a group of wonderful people; some like minded and some not, all coming together for one common goal. Which is to produce the highest quality of entertainment possible with the given recourses available. I am proud to say for a brief but wonderful time in my life I was apart of that.

    Thanks again for all the amazing comments on Youtube, Toonzone, and Cartoon Brew. And Thanks to the people at Cartoon Network responsible for giving me a chance to make a cartoon. And Thanks to My best Buddy Josh!

    Joey

  • http://www.cartoonresearch.com Jerry Beck

    Joey – Thank you for your comments above. As someone who has gone through the process of creating a cartoon for a network shorts program I know where you are coming from and know what you’ve been through. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Manny and Kahn, animation needs more characters like Joey and Josh. Good luck to you both.

  • The Nightmare is Near

    That was beautiful Joe. This may be CN’s darkest hour as some say. But with people like you, you have shed some light in this darkness. I know it probably doesn’t make much sense, but it gives me hope that CN will learn from this.
    In a cartoon world there are so many things people can come up with, so many different “worlds” weather it’s a from a dream, a fantasy, about growing up in life, whatever the creator(s) can think of. I have seen many of them and liked many of them. Manny and Khan fits in just fine.
    Animation is a beautiful art that’s been going on for several decades. The fans of CN know this. They are going to keep fighting for what they want on CN. I know I will keep fighting for cartoons. We will Stop The Madness! Ride on TO VICTORY for Animation and down with the reality plague!

  • Bezza

    @Joey: Nice statement Joe. Best of luck to you to.

  • http://ryuuseipro.deviantart.com John Paul Cassidy

    You are very welcome, Joey!

    Although we disagree with what CN is doing, thank you also for providing an honestly caring view on their behalf. I still think it’s unfortunate that CARTOONSTITUTE was canned. I just hope they reconsider eventually.

    As an amateur animator who did a few 3D projects, I know that animation can be very hard, in both storytelling and execution, so I can relate. (The last project I did was the most difficult!) I already think your work is impressive, so I look forward to more of your projects!

  • http://ukracattack.blogspot.com RacattackForce

    I found the short to be a interesting first-time try for two inexperienced animators. Had I’ve been the same opportunity, I doubt my short would have been much better and I would subconsiuosly fell back on the stuff I know: Looney Tunes, old Disney theatrical shorts, Hanna-Barbera, etc.

    The basic premise was wonderful. Two friends attempt to retrieve a ball, while pretending the stuff around it is a deadly substance. It was something I would think to be done in an early episode of Spongebob Squarepants, which often crafted magnificent stories without fail and without leaning on B or C plots in an episode (unlike several season 5 and 6 episodes).

    The way the characters acted was like Ren and Stimpy, with Manny sometimes even sounding like Stimpy.

    Anyway, here’s hoping Cartoon Network will eventually put the video back up themselves, that it will get tons of views (enough to become a series), and Josh and Joey would be able to come back and experiment more with the concept.