Diz Channel gives the go ahead to a new animated series instead of a new live-action half-hour loaded down with 'tweens.
Disney Channel has greenlighted "Fish Hooks," its first animated series in three years.
The cable channel has ordered 21 episodes of the high school comedy, which mixes 2D digital animation and photo collage.
"Fish" revolves around party guy Milo (voiced by Kyle Massey); his neurotic brother, Oscar (Justin Roiland); and an overly dramatic goldfish, Bea (Chelsea Staub). They attend Freshwater High, a school submerged in a giant fish tank in the center of a local pet store. The series chronicles their daily lives ...
As we've mentioned before, a lot of the Chowder crew from Cartoon Network is now at work on the Disney project. (Since Disney TV Animation is a shadow of what it was in the Glory Days of the mid-90s, this is a good thing.)
And American Dad gets a pickup for one more circuit on the merry-go-round.
Fox has given a sixth-season order to "American Dad," keeping the animated skein on the air through at least the 2010-11 TV season.
Pickup also ensures that Seth MacFarlane's Sunday night "animation domination" continues next year on Fox; network also recently ordered a full second season of "The Cleveland Show." MacFarlane's mother ship, "Family Guy," is also on the network pretty much in perpetuity.
T.V. animation isn't the roaring center for long-term jobs that it was ... oh ... fourteen years ago when Disney TVA and Warner Bros. Animation employed hundreds and hundreds of cartoon workers. Since those halcyon days, when broadcast syndication gave us "The Disney Afternoon" and blocks of Warner Bros. cartoons were on broadcast and cable t.v., the money has shrunk and studios have chosen to minimize deficit financing. Adding misery to depression, cartoon cable networks have embraced live action shows, even though a lot of those shows flame out quickly and few have any long-term shelf life. (Never under-estimate the power of Miley Cyrus.)
I've got no functioning crystal ball telling me where television animation will be two ... or four ... or ten years from now. But I'm grateful for any shows that get put into production, because it provides work for animation artists who have had a rough time securing long gigs in the last several years.
Posts
6 comments:
Thanks for you positive thoughts.
Always appreciated.
Its actually pretty hilarous.
I think "Phineas and Turd" looks like ass and consider how long that thing has been on.
I liked the concept when you mentioned it, but I saw a pic of the characters and although I don't agree with Anonymous' comments, I concur with his feelings on the matter.
Then again, I don't like much of the style of animation I see on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney channel. I miss the old Hanna Barbera, Duck Tales and Filmation type stuff. Things like Flapjack seem like hideous stuff. To each his own.
Oh, and I'm talking about the first Anonymous.
I actually like Phineas and Furb. I forgot about that one. The animation is ok, but the stories are much more clever that I thought they would be.
I'm optimistic about the future of televised animation, the past nine years are just a repeat of the "slump" during the 1970s.
The show is looking great, and it's filled with amazing talent from CN. Nice to see cubes filling up around here again!
Post a Comment