Retro toons get energized

Sydney, Australia-based independent producer and distributor Energee Entertainment Pty Ltd., producers of the animated series “Crocadoo,” has acquired two cartoon series from the 1960s to sell to the nostalgia niche market. “Clutch Cargo” follows the seaplane travel adventures of Clutch and his friends Spinner and Paddlefoot, and “Space Angel” follows the intergalactic adventures of law enforcer Scott McCloud from the Earth Bureau of Investigation. Both are contained in half-hour episodes which can also be shown as five-minute daily strips or used as fillers. Energee has also acquired “Go to Hell,” a feature-length animation completed last year by Australian animators Ray and Leaf Nowland, and “Mr. No,” a series of 3D animation shorts without dialogue. Finally, Energee will also be selling its own productions, “The Legend Of Mulan,” a 45-minute special derived from the same Chinese legend on which the Disney feature is based; “The Digswell Dog Show,” a 13-episode half-hour cartoon about a suburban dog; “Scrooge Koala's Christmas,” a half-hour Christmas special and, lastly, “Poetica,” a series of 30 mixed-media shorts (2.5 min. each, co-produced with La Cinquieme in France) by 18 directors, illustrating narrated poems by William Blake, Lewis Caroll, Dylan Thomas, Charles Baudelaire, and others.