Tagged With: Kids

During Buttnumbathon this year, one of the standout favorites was 40 unfinished minutes from the new opus UP from the geniuses at Pixar. Even with temporary still images and incompletely rendered animation, the entire audience knew that this was a classic in the making.

Apparently, so did the folks at the Cannes Film Festival. The world premiere of the film is at Cannes on May 13. UP was chosen to be the opening film of the festival, the first ever animated film to be awarded that honor.

Nickelodeon extends its commitment to empowering real-world environmental change among kids with a lineup of eco-friendly programming and off-channel initiatives on Earth Day -- Wednesday, April 22. New green-themed episodes from hit tween shows ICARLY and TRUE JACKSON, VP and select preschool series will air on Nickelodeon and NOGGIN throughout the day, leading up to Nickelodeon's first-ever "Power Down" -- an on-air call to action for kids to engage in environmental activity.

Scholastic Media has two Earth Day specials running on PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! on April 22.

MAYA & MIGUEL "Every Day Is Earth Day" -- airs April 22 on PBS KIDS GO! (Check local listings for times.)

For a school Earth Day project, the kids decide to clean up an old lot and plant a community garden. But as the deadline approaches, a rainstorm hits, turning the patch of dirt into a muddy mess. How will Maya get her friends out of the muck this time?

PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! will celebrate Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22, with the fourth annual "PBS KIDS Share the Earth Day" and a new Web-based Earth Day Channel on pbskidsgo.org. The celebration features premiering episodes from CURIOUS GEORGE, ARTHUR and CYBERCHASE; themed favorites from SUPER WHY!, SID THE SCIENCE KID and more; and eco-focused Web content on pbskidsgo.org, pbskids.org, PBS Parents (pbsparents.org) and PBS Teachers (pbsteachers.org).

In recognition for his significant and visible contribution toward helping the environment, and for inspiring kids to do the same, Nickelodeon will honor multi-Academy Award-nominated actor and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio with the first-ever "Big Green Help Award" at this year's Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday, March 28 (8-9:30 p.m. ET/PT), at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, Calif.

The first original series on the newly-branded Disney XD cable network, AARON STONE, about a teenager enlisted to become the real life version of a legendary, crime fighting online game character, launched to high marks, surpassing all series premieres on the former Toon Disney in Kids 6-14 (303,000), driven by target demo Boys 6-14 (232,000). In a synergistic move, AARON STONE's premiere was also featured on Disney Channel, delivering 1.6 million Total Viewers and 892,000 Kids 6-14.

marblemedia has acquired the North American format rights to produce a version of the popular Cartoon Network U.K. series SKATOONY. Currently in its third season on Cartoon Network, the successful television program pits real kids against cartoon characters in an animated quiz game show format.

The first season enters production this spring and will shoot 13 half-hour English and 13 half-hour French episodes. The series, aimed at kids aged 8 to 12, has been commissioned for TELETOON Canada and is set to premiere in Spring 2010.

The Jim Henson Company has appointed Hasbro as the master toy and game licensee for its SID THE SCIENCE KID property. SID THE SCIENCE KID is an educational animated television series airing daily on PBS KIDS that uses comedy to promote exploration, discovery, and science readiness among preschoolers.

The four-year license grants Hasbro the rights to introduce an array of SID THE SCIENCE KID products starting January 1, 2009. Hasbro's line of SID THE SCIENCE KID toys and games is slated to debut at retail Fall 2009.

TABCO Inc. and Digital Video have released TAB Kids 3.1, the new version of a software tool that smoothly introduces kids to the animation world in a funny and intuitive way.

The TAB Kids is a friendly and colorful software for kids to create animations and cartoons. It is so easy that any kid can use it with spectacular results, and yet it is powerful, as it relies on the Toonz technology developed for the industry to produce feature films and television series.

Nickelodeon is launching a brand-new pop culture online dashboard for kids with UPickDaily.com, an online home base for kids to share, vote, poll and post about what they are buzzing about at school or on the playground. UPickDaily.com allows kids to be their own content providers, programming directors, distributors and news aggregators around topics such as television, movies, music, gaming, celebrities, sports, the web, and more.