Nicktoons, Nickelodeons new 24-hour animation channel, will premiere Animation Collectives two new original series LEADER DOG and TORTELLINI WESTERN. The first LEADER DOG episode premieres at 8:00 pm April 18, 2004 while TORTELLINI WESTERN episodes will debut later in the season. LEADER DOG tells the story of a junkyard dog, plucked from the pound to lead an advanced civilization on a distant planet. An homage to Spaghetti Westerns, TORTELLINI WESTERN follows the wild west adventures of a recently arrived immigrant family.
The shows have a retro-2D style feel, hearkening back to something more old-fashioned the classic cartoons of the creators childhood, said Animation Collective ceo Larry Schwarz. We really wanted to create something totally original, yet familiar the kind of shows we grew up with and watched on Saturday mornings. We wanted to tell funny stories with memorable characters -the kind that will become classics.
Like Loony Toons and other classics, both new series work on two levels, according to Schwarz. Action packed with slapstick, over-the-top, cartoon comedy, they appeal to kids. Older viewers will also be able to appreciate the wry inside jokes and pop culture references, he said.
If Animation Collectives cartoons have a traditional feel, its partly because the studio is organized like the old-fashioned small and highly creative studios like those of Hanna-Barbera (THE FLINTSTONES) and Jay Ward (ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE), according to Schwarz. While most studios send work overseas to save money, LEADER DOG and TORTELLINI WESTERN, like all of Animation Collectives shows, are created and animated via Flash completely in-house by the company in a walk-up loft studio in New York Citys Hells Kitchen. The companys animators even lend their voices for several of the main characters.
By doing it all here, were able to create something very special. Were involved in the entire creative and production process and are able to create something with a unique signature. Schwarz added.
Nicktoons will air 13 short format episodes of each show. Each LEADER DOG episode is three minutes, while each TORTELLINI WESTERN runs two minutes.
Schwarz continued, THE SIMPSONS, SOUTH PARK and even MICKEY MOUSE all started out as shorts. We hope that LEADER DOG and TORTELLINI WESTERN will have that kind of impact and one day maybe even inspire the next generation of animators.
Directed by Sergei Aniskov, LEADER DOG features inhabits of the planet Zmed arriving on Earth for excitement but all they encounter is a mangy junkyard dog on the run from the pound guards. He is beamed back to Zmed and hailed as a hero. Now Leaders rocking the place doggie-style and Zmed will never be the same.
Directed by Sean Lahey, TORTELLINI WESTERN is an operatic comedy about one familys adventures in a new world. When the pasta famine hit the small Sicilian village of Vallelunga, customers stopped coming to the Ruggiero family restaurant. So Pop packed his family up and moved to Palermo, Montana in America.
Year-old Animation Collective (www.animationcollective.com) creates Flash-based animation for television, the Internet, home video and feature films. Animation Collective produces programming on a work for hire basis and develops and produces original proprietary properties. THE INCREDIBLE CRASH DUMMIES, a series of interstitials produced by Animation Collective and 4Kids Entertainment are running on the FOX BOX on Saturday mornings. PRINCESS NATASHA SECRET AGENT and KUNG FU ACADEMY, two original Animation Collective series are featured in the KOL section of AOL.
