T.V. Animation and C.G.I.

Nick is doing a new animated series.

... Nickelodeon, the network behind the original show, today announced that it will air the “Avatar” spinoff series “The Legend of Korra” (a working title) starting next year. ...

The creators of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” say that the new spinoff series “The Legend of Korra” will be more mature than the original show, but will still have the same sense of fun and adventure.

Nothing particularly fresh or startling about a cartoon studio announcing it's latest animated project, but what's news to me is, Nick's doing the project as a hand-drawn series ....

Because in case you haven't noticed, most of Nickelodeon's newer efforts are of the computer-generated variety: Penguins of Madagascar. Fanboy & Chum Chum. The upcoming Kung Fu Panda and Monsters and Robots among others. As a Nick staffer said to me:

"Nickelodeon thinks that c.g. is the way to go, and that's the format it plans to make most of its new stuff in" ...

There have been, of course, computer generated t.v. cartoons for years. Jimmy Neutron was big in the nineties, and there was the short-lived Starship Troopers along with a smattering of others.

But over the past decade, more hand-drawn product was trundled out for television than c.g. product. Kids, it turned out, watched the old-fashioned product in the same or greater numbers as c.g. cartoons, so there was small incentive for studios to spend more dollars to run whacky characters through computers.

The winds, however, seem to be shifting. Nick sees c.g.i. as its shining future, and Disney has Mickey's Clubhouse, Winnie the Pooh and Friends and its direct-to-video features. Others will no doubt follow.

One day c.g. toonage on your gargantuan flat-screen monitor could well be the default cartoon at which everyone stares, but right now there is still a wide variety of hand-drawn offerings. The cost-benefit ratio for computer-generated images doesn't seem to be there yet for other major animation producers, but isn't it just a matter of time before that magical day arrives?