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Animation

Dragons Help You Learn

Aug 8th, 2013
by rodney.
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Jump Start is a creative company best known for designing and developing games that help to teach young children the basics of reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic. Since 1991 they’ve released several lines of teaching games under the banners of Jump Start and Math Blaster.  More recently though, Jump Start has hitched up with Dreamworks Animation to create a new line of teaching software and on-line games based on the Madagascar series of animated movies. Yes, kids even learn from the penguins! The first release is called Madagascar Preschool Surf n Slide. Even more recently, there’s a new line of on-line games based on How to Train Your Dragon called School of Dragons. Check it all out at the Jump Start web site.

image c. 2013 Jump Start, Dreamworks Animation

Some… Familiar Ponies?

Jul 29th, 2013
by rodney.
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So, there’s this TV series, produced with young girls in mind, about talking ponies living in a magical land.  No, it’s not that one. “The Filly animated series brings to life the charming adventures of Rose and her friends as they attend the Magic Royal Academy of Funtasia. The Wizard of the Dark Mirror, and his comical minion Battiwigs, try to steal all the magic in the kingdom. Despite their wacky attempts, the Fillys enjoy everyday school life, studying and discovering their unique, and magical, crystal powers in these coming of age stories.” That’s from the producers and distributors. According to some sources, Filly is already a bigger toy product in Europe than My Little Pony. And then there’s this, from the Animation Magazine web site: “BRB and Dracco’s upcoming new animated series Filly Funtasia has put together a top-notch writing team: Dean Stefan (The Penguins of Madagascar, The Octonauts, Jake & The Never Land Pirates), Noelle Wright (Doc McStuffins, Sofia The First), Jymn Magon (Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures), Johnny Hartmann (Monster High), and Sean Derek (The Smurfs, ZhuZhu Pets, Strawberry Shortcake, Sabrina, Hello Kitty) are busy putting together episodes for the 26 x 30″ high-def series.” No kidding. Where have we been?

image c. 2013 BRB Internacional

Another Boy, Another Dinosaur

Jul 25th, 2013
by rodney.
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MIPCOM, if you need to be reminded, is an annual event held in Cannes, France, where would-be television producers from all over the world attempt to sell their entertainment products to distributors — all over the world. Held every year in October, it’s a great place to find interesting and unusual TV shows — many of them furry, especially in children’s TV of course.  Among the new crop is a show called Boy and the Dinosaur, produced in the UK by 1461 Productions. Based on an original idea by Jason Harding, the show is overseen by Davey Moore, David Bunting, Paul Couvela, and Russell Dever. The idea is quite simple: A 4-year old boy (called simply “Boy”) loves dinosaurs, and one wishes very hard that he could have one for a friend. Lo and behold, one shows up — a big orange saurid simply named “Dinosaur”. The two get along swimmingly, and have many adventures. The show was picked up for international distribution by Foothill Entertainment, and season one is currently in production with a hopeful release date of 2014. According to the official web site, the show has also been profiled in Variety magazine.

image c. 2013 by 1461 Productions

The Pitch Party 2013

Jul 23rd, 2013
by rodney.
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Another San Diego Comic Con, and that means it’s time once again for Animation Magazine to hold their annual Pitch Party competition. For the past 12 years the Animation folks have asked would-be show-runners to purchase a 1/6-page ad in the magazine, wherein those creators can show off their idea for a new animated series as a one-panel poster. The ideas are judged by a panel of animation industry experts (including executives from The Hub, Cartoon Network, PBS, and more), as well as the Animation staff and the magazine’s readers, all of whom picked their favorites for a show to actually bring into development. As usual, there were several furry-themed titles among the entries, including: Mob Dogs by Paul Trineer, Across the Universe by Daron Orange, Master Karate Todd & the Power Squad (web site), Night Watch Dog by Chris Gruszka (web site), Fast Sloths by Stephanie Komure and Joseph Medina (web site), Shell & Paddy by Thomas Spettel (web site), and The Tinies of Raglan Shire by Michael Kushner (web site). So who won? Well the highest-scoring entry with a furry bent was Night Watch Dog, which took 2nd place from the industry panel and 1st place from the magazine staff. 1st place from the magazine readers went to The Tinies, while Fast Sloths took 2nd place from the readers and 3rd place from the staff.  Check out the July 2013 issue of Animation to see the rest of the entries, or visit their web site.

image c. 2013 Michael Kushner

Say Hello to Toothless — Again

Jul 13th, 2013
by rodney.
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Recently on YouTube, Dreamworks Animation released the official trailer for How to Train Your Dragon 2, coming to theaters in June of 2014. Absolutely nothing about the plot is revealed, but it’s easy to see that both Toothless the night fury and his rider Hiccup have grown up considerably — and learned a lot about aerial acrobatics.  The new film is both written and directed by Dean Deblois, half of the team that directed the first film.

image c. 2013 Dreamworks Animation

Let the Magic Begin

Jul 3rd, 2013
by rodney.
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Having made waves and conquered new worlds with their wildly-successful new-storyline comic book series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, IDW now turn their eyes on a more obvious task: Adapting the TV series to comic books.  Witness My Little Pony: The Magic Begins, coming in full color this September. Using a combination of screen-grabs and original artwork, this 112-page trade paperback tells the story of our hero-fillies from Ponyville, just as they came to us in the first-season episodes (as created by Lauren Faust, of course!).  Amazon is already taking pre-orders.

image c. 2013 IDW Publishing

Overture, Hit the Lights

Jun 23rd, 2013
by rodney.
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Warner Brother Studios are celebrating their 90th anniversary, and in honor of that are releasing a series of DVD collections known simply as The Best of Warner Brothers. Around here, the collection most folks are likely to find interesting is The Best of Warner Brothers: 50 Cartoon Collection — Looney Tunes. This 2-DVD set is coming out this week. Here’s the skinny, from CD Universe: “It’s always ‘wabbit’ season now that the best Looney tunes Cartoons from the Warner Bros. vault are available in this wild two-disc collection! Reunite with Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Daffy Duck and all the Looney Tunes gang in an animated assortment of hits that have tickled the funny bones of cartoon lovers for generations. There’s something for everyone in this must-own collection of 50 Looney Tunes classics that helped contribute to 90 years of Warner Bros. cartoon magic. ” There are bigger box-set collections out there, but this best-of collection brings together many well-known favorites like Rabbit of Seville, One Froggy Evening, Duck Amuck, and more, all in one set.

image c. 2013 Warner Brothers

A Bird and a Racoon Walk into a Bar…

Jun 21st, 2013
by rodney.
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It’s one of the most popular and well-known creations of Cartoon Network, and it’s been nominated several times for an Ursa Major Award. Now, fans of CN’s The Regular Show will be happy to hear that two full seasons — that’s 40 episodes — will be coming this July with the release of  Regular Show — The Complete First and Second Seasons on DVD and Blue-ray. From the preview at Movieweb.com: “This release marks the first time the Emmy Award-winning animated series created by J.G. Quintel (The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Camp Lazlo) and produced by Cartoon Network Studios will be available as a full season set and the show’s first Blu-ray release. If that’s not enough of a draw, both the DVD and Blu-ray will also include more than two hours of bonus features, highlighted by: Audio commentary for every single episode from Quintel and the show’s storyboard artists; the un-aired pilot episode from the series and an animatic for it; a video of Quintel pitching the series’ first episode, The Power complete with animatic; an interview with Quintel about the series; and his student short, The Naïve Man from Lolliland.” More Rigby and Mordecai than you can shake a gumball at.

image c. 2013 Cartoon Network

Prehistoric Pals with Pluck

May 29th, 2013
by rodney.
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Playing in theaters now (in front of several movies) is the trailer for Walking With Dinosaurs: The Movie, produced by BBC Earth (of course) and coming to theaters this December. Interestingly, the producers are taking a somewhat anthropomorphic angle for this 3D CGI film: It’s actually narrated by the dinosaurs themselves as they go about their daily lives. In this story, we meet a young frill-head dinosaur, who is something of a runt in his herd — but who will grow up to be a great leader who will guide them through a dangerous world. The film is directed by Barry Cook (Mulan, Arthur Christmas) and Neil Nightingale (Enchanted Kingdom). Check out the trailer at Animation Scoop.

image c. 2013 BBC Earth

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