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Mammoth versus… Pirates?

We swear, we can not make this stuff up on our own… Here’s the basic description of Ice Age: Continental Drift, coming this July from Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox: “Manny, Diego, and Sid embark upon another adventure after their continent is set adrift. Using an iceberg as a ship, they encounter sea creatures and battle pirates as they explore a new world.” Pirates. Okay.  Well, if they can do Santa Claus B.C., why not pirates? Of course Ray Romano, Denis Leary, and John Leguizamo return as mammoth, sabertooth, and sloth respectively, along with new voices including Peter Dinklage, Jennifer Lopez, and Aziz Ansari. The fourth Ice Age go-round is directed by Mike Thurmeier (co-director of Ice Age 3) and Steve Martino (Horton Hears A Who!). If you go to the film’s web site there’s a short Scrat cartoon that also serves as a trailer for the new movie.

image c. 2012 Blue Sky Studios & 20th Century Fox

Invasion of the Super-Pets

Capstone Publishing is starting 2012 off in a big way with their DC Super-Pets series of full-color graphic novels, which start to hit the shelves this month. Here’s part of their promo advertisement: “The DC Super-Pets series features the crime-fighting adventures of the pets of favorite super heroes from beloved DC Comics: Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Green Lantern. These intrepid Super-Pets—Krypto the Super-Dog, Ace the Bat-Hound, Streaky the Super-Cat, Beppo the Super-Monkey, Jumpa the Super-Kangaroo, and their friends—save the day and foil the evil plans of the universe’s most dastardly super villains.  The books have been specially designed for children just learning to read independently. Included in the endpapers are illustrations of all the Super-Pets in the series (both heroes and villains), jokes, and a guide to the meaning and pronunciation for each book’s most challenging words.” Look at this series and you’ll realize you never knew there were so many super pets! Each of these 56-page trade paperbacks features the art of Eisner Award-winning DC Comics artist Art Baltazar, with scripts by Scott Sonneborn, Sarah Stephens, Jane B. Mason, John Sazaklis, and Donald Lemke. Capstone also has an interactive web site for the entire series.

image c. 2012 Capstone Publishing

Adventure Time: The Comic

If you haven’t gotten the word yet, Adventure Time with Finn and Jake is one of the most popular animated TV series out there — not only on Cartoon Network, but on TV in general and the Internet all over the place. Now Boom Studios’ KABOOM imprint is presenting the brand new Adventure Time full-color comic book series, premiering this February. Join the adventure as Finn the human, Jake the Dog (with amazing powers of transformation), and Princess Bubblegum explore the amazing Land of Ooo. The premier issue was written by North Ryan, with illustrations by Shelli Paroline and Branden Lamb. Check out the Boom! Studios ordering page for more information on the series.

image c. 2011 Boom! Studios

Goodbye 2011… Hello Awards Season!

As we wish you all a happy, healthy, and creative New Year in 2012, it’s time to start thinking about what we’re going to award from 2011! Besides the Oscars and the Annie Awards (which many of us follow closely), for Furry Fandom it’s time to start thinking about the annual Ursa Major Awards, the anthro-fan’s answer to the Hugo Awards ™ from science fiction fandom. Nominations for 2011 are open to any and all, and they open on January 12th. If you visit the Ursa Major Awards web site, you’ll find the Recommended Anthropomorphics Reading and Viewing List for you to peruse, listing some of the many interesting items of anthropomorphic interest that came about in 2011.  Like what?  Well… movies like Rango, Rio, Puss in Boots, and Kung Fu Panda 2… TV series like Thundercats, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic… books and stories by authors like Kyell Gold, Alflor Aalto, MCA Hogarth, and Paul Kidd…  plus comics, games, artwork, and a brand new category for Best Anthropomorphic Web Site. All this and much much  more! But remember: An item does NOT need to be on the Recommended List for  you and your friends to nominate it for an Ursa Major Award. It just needs to be Furry! [Check the web site for how the Ursa Majors define that!] After the the nominations are tabulated, the voting will begin this spring — followed by the Ursa Major Awards presentation at CaliFur in Southern California this June.  Remember, last year more than 1,000 fans world wide took part in the voting.  Help to make that number even bigger in 2012!

image c. 2011 ALAA / Heather Bruton

An Ape Classic Returns

From 1974 to 1977, Marvel Comics (through their Curtis Magazine imprint) published a black & white tie-in comic for the Planet of the Apes movie and TV series.  It featured not only adaptations of the five original movies, but also new adventures as well as background stories on the creation of the films.  [Full disclosure: Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter grabbed every issue he could get a hold of!] Many of the stories were written by Moonknight co-creator Doug Moench (as well as Gerry Conway) and illustrated by Ghost Rider co-creator Mike Ploog (as well as Mike Esposito and George Tuska). Now, BOOM! Studios have secured the rights to re-publish those 1970’s classics under the title Terror on the Planet of the Apes, coming this February.

image c. 2011 Boom! Studios

 

Sonic Turns 20 in a Big Way

As part of SEGA Games’ big 20th anniversary celebration for Sonic the Hedgehog, Archie Comics have released Sonic Genesis, written by Ian Flynn. This “story reboot” collection of all-new Sonic adventures is illustrated by various artists, including the return of fan favorites Tracy Yardley and Patrick “Spaz” Spaziante. After running in the Sonic comic book series this summer and fall (starting with issue #226, below), Archie will release Genesis as a hardcover graphic novel this coming April. You can pre-order this foil-covered new collection at the Barnes & Noble web site.

image c. 2011 Archie Comics (from the comic book series)

Little Nutbrown Hare on TV

Guess How Much I Love You is an popular and award-winning children’s book written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram. Now SLR Productions has created Guess How Much I Love You: The Adventures of Little Nutbrown Hare, a 2D animated TV series with young children in mind. Like the book, the series takes place in an idyllic woodland where Little Nutbrown Hare lives and learns with his father, Big Nutbrown Hare, and all their friends. The series has been running on Disney Junior Australia, and is set to premier soon on Disney Junior USA. If you check out the SLR Productions web site for the show, you’ll find a link to another interesting TV series they’re working on called Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs. Yes.

image c. 2011 by Anita Jeram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that’s all for now. Except, of course, to say MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you all.  We’ll see you in 2012!

Rodent vs. Rodent

The Nut Job is a new CGI animated feature film that was announced in Animation Magazine’s 2012 calendar. It’s being produced by Toonbox Entertainment and Red Rover International, who are hoping to release it next summer. The director is Peter Lepeniotis, who first introduced his character Surly the Squirrel in a 2005 animated short film titled, appropriately, Surly Squirrel. In this new feature film, Surly and his rat buddy (named Buddy) must contend with a new group of rodents who invade their city park home. Not a lot to go on yet, but the film does have an entry up on IMDB, and Toonbox also has an web page for the project. Word is that The Nut Job may be developed into a TV series also.

image c. 2011 Toonbox Entertainment

From Africa to Europe

The trailers have begun to arrive for Madagascar 3, Europe’s Most Wanted, coming next June in 3D from Dreamworks Animation (of course). It’s directed by Eric Darnell (who co-directed the first two Madagascar films) and Conrad Vernon (Monsters vs. Aliens). Here’s the plot as described by the Wikipedia entry for the film: “Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the Hippopotamus (Jada Pinkett Smith) set out to return to New York after escaping to Africa. Dependent on the mechanical know-how of the notorious monkeys and penguins, their plan inevitably goes awry and they find themselves stranded in Monte Carlo, where they try to escape Europe from animal control by joining up with a traveling circus by chance. Led by the venerable tiger Vitali, the animal-centered circus has seen better days. During the course of a tour through a series of European cities that ends in a fabulous big top in the heart of London, Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria help Vitaly, Gia the jaguar, and Stefano the sea lion, rediscover their passion for show business and reinvent circus performance.” In other words, they show them how to move it, move it…

image c. 2011 Dreamworks Animation