BOB BOYLE’S NEW SHOWS

Welcome to the Boyle-Age of cartoons!Last week I was invited to breakfast on the Disney lot and had a look behind the scenes of Toon Disney’s latest original series, Yin Yang Yo! Though it’s produced by Disney Television Animation, it’s actually not a Disney-labeled show. It’s the first original series for the Jetix programming brand (According to the Jetix presskit: “Jetix is boy-driven, but it is not boy-exclusive and never strays from the Disney core values of trust, quality, optimism, self-expression, creativity, storytelling, imagination, and entertainment”)Yin Yang Yo! follows the antics of two hyper-kinetic tween rabbits who temporarily put aside their sibling rivalry to learn mystical martial arts. It’s done in flash and, along with Puffy Ami Yumi and Foster’s Home, it the best use of the technique on a broadcast series I’ve personally seen. By “best”, I mean I can’t tell it wasn’t animated traditionally – and the art direction is teriffic. An 18-hour programming stunt will launch the series on Labor Day, Monday Sept. 4th (6:00 a.m.-12:00 am midnight).Yin Yang Yo! was created by art director and producer Bob Boyle (Fairly Oddparents, Danny Phantom) who, amazingly, has another show he created debuting a week earlier on rival kids network, Nick Jr. Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (pictured at right), is a problem solving cartoon for pre-schoolers. The Wubbzy crew has been producing one of the best production blogs I’ve ever seen for the past ten months. In addition to that, a nifty behind-the scenes promo film is posted here. Wubbzy starts regular telecasts on Monday, August 28.