Cartoon Network, which until now has been a bit alien to 3D-animated series, started airing PET ALIEN on Jan. 23, 2005, at 10:00 am. The new series follows the adventures of aliens who leave outer space and land in the seaside town of DeSpray Bay to experience Earth life firsthand.
Mike Young Prods. does an amazing job of combining squash-and-stretch animation in a 3D environment. Then again, the studio is steeped in 2D tradition and made a conscious effort to bring the talents and sensibilities of 2D gag artists and Tex Avery animator disciples to the 3D world, much like the Los Angeles area studio has become a prolific producer of 3D animated series. The 26x30 series produced by MYP with co-producers Antefilm/TF1 (France), Crest (India) and Telegael (Ireland).
PET ALIEN is based on a property created by Jeff Muncy of John Doze Studios. It stars Tommy, a rather normal videogame playing, taffy-eating 12-year-old, who gets some help in every aspect of his complicated pre-adolescent Earth life from his alien friends: Dinko, Gumpers, Flip, Swanky and Scruffy, who take up residence in Tommy's lighthouse hideaway. The aliens do everything they can to help their new roommate, but their well-intentioned efforts only succeed in turning Tommy's life inside out and upside down.
The colors are rich, the designs are appealing (and quickly being merchandized), the characters are funny and the animation approximates feature quality (as in THE INCREDIBLES) on a television budget and schedule. Pixars John Lasseter made this assessment during a recent industry panel, when he shared the dais with MYPs Bill Schultz.
Exec producers are Schultz, Muncy, Sadaf Cohen Muncy, Nicholas Atlan, Chrstophe Di Sabatino, Paul Cummins and Anish H. Mulani. Mike Young and Liz Young are co-exec producers on the series, produced by Cary Silver and Siobhan Ni Ghadhra. Story editors are Tom K. Mason and Dan Danko.
Storyboard director is Trevor Wall, production design is by Muncy and Andrew Young, character design is by Eric Robles and Jeff Muncy while layout set design is by Drew Gentle. Mike Tavera composes the music while Billy Martin is music editor. Head of post-production picture is Neil McLaughlan, head of post-production sound is Ciaran O Tuairisc, while supervising editor is Richard Finn.
Director of technology is Eric Kirby and director of information technologies is Jeremy Lang. The PET ALIEN schedule for January:
Jan. 23: "I was a Teenage Bearded Boy" - To make Tommy more cool at school, the aliens give him a green beard. Now he's too popular for his own good and everyone wants a bushy green beard. "Escape from Detention X" - Fearing that Tommy's after-school detention is too harsh, the aliens hatch a plan to break him out of his "educational prison."
Jan. 30: "The Amazing Atomic Tommy" - The aliens think that Tommy has super-powers and are determined to prove it by putting him in rather precarious situations. "The Crater of Doom" - It's school picture day and Tommy has a big pimple on his forehead. The aliens try to help but make it much, much worse.
Launched in 1992, Cartoon Network (CartoonNetwork.com), currently seen in 87.3 million U.S. homes and 160 countries around the world, is Turner Broadcasting System Inc.s ad-supported cable service offering 24/7 animated entertainment.
One of the most prolific independent animation studios in Hollywood today, Mike Young Prods. represents the convergence of three major talents: Mike Young, creator of the British Academy award-winning series SUPERTED; Liz Young, supervising producer of Scholastic Entertainment's Emmy Award-nominated CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG, and its spin-off, PUPPY DAYS, both on PBS KIDS and Schultz, Emmy Award-winning producer of THE SIMPSONS and exec producer of the critically acclaimed TODDWORLD for Discovery Kids. With more than 12 years experience in the industry, MYP has a long and successful track record of creating quality animated series that touch, teach and delight their audiences.
