At Warner Bros., word was out for their upcoming prime-time animated series, Baby Blues, based on the popular comic strip. There was also Detention, which looks at a group of pre-teens, who constantly find themselves in the titular high school hell. Interest was also surrounding the prime time series, The Downtowners, an animated look at Generation X.

Sony Wonder used Licensing '99 to introduce their new animated super-heroes, Mega-Babies, a group of snot-nose (literally) toddlers, who will fight crime "before nap time."

Angela Anaconda. © 1999 Fox Family Channel. All rights reserved. © Sony Wonder.

Classic Characters
In the licensing industry, they're called "evergreens," which means, these classic animated properties will never go out of style. There were plenty of these "green pastures" at the Warner Bros. booth, with characters ranging from the Looney Tunes gang to the Hanna-Barbera canon. Over at Universal, the studio was continuing Woody Woodpecker's resurgence. Press releases from United Media pronounced "The Global Power of Peanuts," while at the Hearst Entertainment booth, there was literature announcing that live-action features are currently in the works for such characters as Mandrake the Magician and Flash Gordon. Speed Racer Enterprises was promoting -- what else? And Paramount now owns the rights to Terrytoons. Although there was no word on what the studio plans to do with the franchise, can Deputy Dawg: The Movie be far behind?

Mike Lyons is a Long Island-based freelance writer who has written over 100 articles on film and animation. His work has appeared in Cinefantastique, Animato! and The Disney Magazine.