I spent the after-lunch hour bouncing between buildings at the Network of Cartoons, where there is work going on with different series within the skyscraper adjacent to CN's regular studio, even as the third floor of the original facility stands mostly empty.
A young artist informed me:
"The seventeen Cartoonstitute shorts that the studio hadn't released showed up on You Tube a bit over a week ago. Cartoon Network (or somebody) hauled them down, but many of us think they were put up by a person who got their hands on the DVD disk the studio had made up.
"Half of them popped back up on You Tube real fast, because people liked them and ripped them from the internet. Some of the shorts are really funny. Uncle Grandpa got a huge number of hits before it was taken down the first time. The interesting thing is that all these cartoons are now eligible for Emmys because they appeared on the internet. And there's a new Emmy category for animated shorts ..."
I've got no idea if any of these shorts will win a pretty gold statue, but I certainly hope one of them gets the nod. You Tube is a pretty good distribution system.
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11 comments:
"The interesting thing is that all these cartoons are now eligible for Emmys because they appeared on the internet."
That's certainly good.
Even if one of them was even nominated that would be awesome!
Uncle Grandpa is the Bomb.
Another Swing and a miss for the network.
Why is CN suppressing the 17 Cartoon Institute shorts ? I mean they paid for them and the shorts are all finished , just sitting on the shelf, right?
So ... what's the deal? Someone in the CN upper-management really, really hates cartoons (that's sort of been obvious for years) ? The shorts don't fit in with the now-failed "CN Real" concept ?
That would be hilarious if they win an Emmy for one of these Cartoon Institute shorts and then have to come up with some lame explanation of why they won't release it or barely release it. (sort of like when "Spirited Away" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature a few years ago , but Disney gave it the lamest theatrical release imaginable, like they were just going through the motions to meet the bare minimum contractual requirements for a theatrical release . But the movie won the damn Academy Award for Best Animated Feature ! One can only conclude that someone at Disney didn't really want it to succeed at the box-office. )
Does anyone know how the shorts program was structured in terms of ownership? Suppose CN owned the pilots, but the intellectual property belonged to the creators. Hypothetically speaking, MTV could order up one hundred episodes of YouTube favorite Uncle Grandpa and eat CN's lunch. Oh, SNAP!
It doesn't work that way, Anon. But still, any four of these shorts would make a SWEET primetime animation block.
Not sure what CN's deals with creators are. With Oh Yeah shorts if the Network didn't pick it up, the ownership reverts to the creator.
But to do something with it, you'd have to negotiate a deal to cover all or some portion of the original production cost of your short.
I usually dont like CN shows too much, but Uncle Grandpa was pretty damn funny
sort of like when "Spirited Away" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature a few years ago , but Disney gave it the lamest theatrical release imaginable, like they were just going through the motions to meet the bare minimum contractual requirements for a theatrical release. But the movie won the damn Academy Award for Best Animated Feature ! One can only conclude that someone at Disney didn't really want it to succeed at the box-office
What? I remember a MAJOR publicity push by Disney when Spirited Away was released stateside in 2002... special screenings, an exclusive run @ the El Capitan in L.A. with an appearance by Miyazaki, etc. If there's one thing Hollywood wants, it's to make money. (It didn't win the Academy Award until the 2003 Oscars, BTW)
Disney's supposedly 'lame' marketing and release of 'Spirited Away' is a typical reaction to a beloved film not connecting with the North American market. We've seen the same claim with virtually EVERY Miyazaki film release. Before the film comes out, there is the usual clamoring that THIS will be the film that changes the game, then the actual film comes out and makes $8-10 million total.
If this had happened once, or even twice, I'd wonder if the 'bad marketing' claims were true. But we've seen it repeatedly, and not just with Miyazaki films. Maybe some people just need to admit that, despite how much WE love Miyazaki and challenging animated fare, most of the rest of North America don't share that sentiment.
"The interesting thing is that all these cartoons are now eligible for Emmys because they appeared on the internet. And there's a new Emmy category for animated shorts ..."
Does that rule apply if it was put online illegally? CN didn't authorize the release of the shorts legally as it was just some guy who had the DVDs somehow (maybe someone who works at CN?)
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