News & Notes
Adult Swim announced two slates of programming in advance of its recent upfront event: one for the top-rated cable network and one for AdultSwim.com, which has seen double-digit growth across multiple platforms and mobile gaming.
New on-air animated programming includes Robot Chicken: The Walking Dead Special, Brad Neely’s Harg Nallin’ Sclopio Peepio and the much-anticipated returns of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack and anime hit FLCL. Animated pilots include Lazor Wulf from Henry Bonsu and Daniel Weidenfeld ( China, IL) and Chuck Deuce created by Chioke “Stretch” McCoy and Matt Iles, produced by music rep Jenn Tolman.
Original content set for AdultSwim.com includes Stupid Morning Bulls***, Williams Street Swap Shop, Call of Karaoke and Development Meeting, as well as anime fan show Toonami: Pre-Flight and FishCenter.
Returning original animated series are Mike Tyson Mysteries, Mr. Pickles, Robot Chicken, Rick and Morty, Squidbillies and The Venture Bros.
New animation acquisitions are Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Hunter X Hunter and Dimension W.
Returning animation acquisitions are American Dad!, Bob’s Burgers, Cleveland Show, Dragonball Z Kai, Family Guy, Inuyasha: The Final Act, King of the Hill, Naruto: Shippuden, Oblongs, One Piece, Parasyte: The Maxim and Samurai Champloo.
Outstanding Achievement in Animation Production Design: Ivan Viaranchyk, Night Shadows
Special Jury Award for Comedy in Animation: Kristina Martin, Sprigs and Parsley in: Coffee Table executive produce, along with John W. Hyde of Rehab Entertainment and Blues Brothers manager Eric Gardner. The studio will begin shopping the project to broadcasters this month.
Early Man business and taking a $147 million write off in its second fiscal quarter earnings. ... FremantleMedia Kids & Family and CBBC will bring back the revived Danger Mouse for a second season of his reinvigorated animated adventures. ... PBS KIDS set the premiere of its newest Jim Henson Co. show,
If you’re like this humble editrix, you are cursed by the scheduling gods and therefore missed Bob’s Burgers Live! last month. But just because we are scorned by heaven doesn’t mean we can’t bring some BB flavor into our lives! So strap on your apron and/or pink bunny ears, and let’s get grilling.
Inspired by the show’s iconic Burger of the Day gag, which lets creator Loren Bouchard and his writing team flex their wordplay muscles, the Burger Book contains 75 original, practical recipes whipped up by Cole Bowden for his fan-cuisine blog The Bob’s Burgers Experiment.
With colorful character illustrations, easy to follow directions and recipes like “Bleu Is the Warmest Cheese Burger,” “Bruschetta-Bout-It Burger” and “I Know Why the Cajun Burger Sings,” it’s half cookbook, half memorabilia and 100 percent bad dad joke.
E3 Expo brings the future of gaming to L.A. this week. [e3expo.com] Don’t miss eye opening tech talks, presentations, demos and the annual Computer Animation Festival at SIGGRAPH in Anaheim. [s2016.siggraph.org]
Director Andrew Stanton had no intention of making a sequel to his 2003 Pixar hit Finding Nemo. Having lived with that movie for years and seen it hundreds of times while making it, he considered it a completed work and had moved on to other projects.
But that all changed in early 2011 when he watched the movie for the first time in years as Pixar prepared to release a stereoscopic 3D version of the movie.
“It was probably the most objective I’d been watching the film, since I’d been away from it so long, and I surprised myself by walking out of it worrying about Dory,” he says. “I realized that her character could easily forget this new family she had found and might not find them again. And that kind of stuck with me.”
When that idea refused to go away, Stanton realized he had to give it some attention.