Your Midweek Cartoon Linkage

Disney Channel (which runs Disney TVA) renews one of its animated winners.

A second season of Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Disney XD's number one series, has been ordered for a spring 2011 launch.

Kick Buttowski, which had a record-setting launch in February, is Disney XD's top series in total viewers and across all key kid and boy demographics

Mr. Sarnoff might have departed Sony Pictures Imageworks and Warner Bros. Animation, but he's still in the cartoon game:

Technicolor shows its creative side

The longtime film processing firm is venturing into the highly competitive business of making animated TV series ... Leading the effort is [Tim] Sarnoff, the former head of the visual effects house Sony Pictures Imageworks, who was recruited by Technicolor last year. Since then, he has been assembling a team of high-profile animation executives, hiring industry veterans Jean MacCurdy, a former president of Warner Bros. Animation who helped launch the Kids WB network, and Fonda Snyder, a former Disney Channel executive and co-founder of Storyopolis Productions

Comics Continuum and MTV are reporting that Warners is doing a new animated Batman feature:

Batman: Year One, the comic-book story by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchilli, is being adapted into one of Warner Home Video's DC Universe animated movies, The Continuum has learned.

According to sources, the film will be directed by Sam Liu, who co-directed Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

Warner Bros. did not confirm the film's existence. The studio has not commented on projects until their announced release.

(Happily, TAG blog isn't revealing this news item, and so will not be sternly reprimanded by a Warner Bros. executive.)

Scott Steinberg of CNN asks:

Why do video games make such bad movies?

Answer: Guys running and jumping through exotic landscapes, shooting and stabbing things, don't lend themselves to riveting, high-concept movies.

The Hollywood Reporter surveys the Annecy Animation festival.

This year's official selection will showcase 213 films in competition including features, short films, TV movies, educational programming, commercials, music videos and student films.

Organizers have gathered more than 50 animated personalities to bring life to the South-Eastern French commune. David Silverman, Patrice Leconte, Nick Park, Peter Lord, Peter de Seve, Alain Chabat, Sylvain Chomet, Bill Plympton, Michel Ocelot, Raoul Servais, Florence Miailhe, Elie Semoun and others are set to make appearances. ...

Thailand, if you don't know, has been having problems. Riots. Killings. Burning and looting. But the Bangkok Post details one area of Thailand's economy that continues to grow and thrive.

The animation industry is apparently one of the few markets to remain unaffected by the political turmoil in Thailand. Boasting plenty of potential and a portfolio of successful projects, Thai animation entrepreneurs are reporting skyrocketing growth.

A number of successful stories came out of the MIPTV 2010 industry event in Cannes, France, in April, in both co-production and licensing sales, with 10 Thai companies attracting business worth at least 860 baht ....

Have yourself a productive Wednesday.