Category: Television

OLLIVERS ADVENTURES, a new 13 x 30-minute animated series from Collideascope Digital Productions will have its Canadian premiere starting Saturday, September 7, 2002 at 8:00 am ET/PT on Canadian broadcaster TELETOON. The series is a spin-off of Collideascopes Gemini Award-winning animated shorts, OLLIES UNDER THE BED ADVENTURES.

UK-based production company Animatrix Ltd. plans to create an all new 26 part series based on the 1980s preschooler DR. SNUGGLES. Featuring Sir Peter Ustinov voicing the title character, a cuddly bow-tied inventor who strives to make the world a better place, the original DR. SNUGGLES was broadcast in more than 80 countries, and can still be seen in Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, Ireland and Canada. Animation studio Telemagination has produced a 3 1/2-minute pilot of the newly revamped DR. SNUGGLES scheduled to screen this year at Cartoon Forum and Mipcom.

BBC (UK), France 3 (France) and ABC (Australia) have picked up independent studio Millimages' latest animated series CORNEIL & BERNIE. The 52 x 13-minute series, also known as WATCH MY CHOPS!, is currently in production and is set to broadcast internationally during 2003. Lead character Corneil is a cultured and well-read dog, who is likened by the producers to "a canine FRASIER." Corneil keeps his genius talents hidden from his owners, but when Bernie the dog-sitter is hired and discovers Corneil's secret, Corneil's life is turned upside down.

For the third year in a row, Cartoon Network will wrap up summer with a weekend-long marathon of original animation. Highlights include the premiere of eight new series pilots, the debut of four animated music videos, a sneak peak at the new series CODENAME: KIDS NEXT DOOR and back-to-back episodes from CN's original animated series. From 8:00 pm (ET, PT) on Friday, August 23, 2002 until 10:00 pm on Sunday, August 25, Cartoon Network will air 50 hours of original animation from series such as DEXTER'S LABORATORY, GRIM & EVIL, COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG, ED EDD N EDDY and THE POWERPUFF GIRLS.

Artist Kenny Scharf brings his vision to Cartoon Network with a CG-animated half-hour special THE GROOVENIANS, premiering on Sunday, November 10 at 10:30 pm during Cartoon Networks ADULT SWIM animation block. A self-described "pop-surrealist," Kenny Scharf came to fame in the 1980s with art inspired by pop culture, particularly cartoons like THE JETSONS and THE FLINTSTONES. Scharf works in a variety of media, from oil paint on canvas to sculpture, and incorporates not only cartoon characters, but vivid colors, graffiti-inspired imagery, vintage advertisements and more.

UK-based distributor Indigo Kids has signed a deal to distribute Toonz Animation India's new project THE ADVENTURES OF TENALI. Indigo will take worldwide television, video, DVD and licensing rights, excluding India and Singapore, as part of an ongoing agreement with the studio, which includes Asian distribution rights for HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR MONSTER, a co-production with UK-based Treehouse Productions and Canada-based Vivamundo. Based on a character from Indian folklore, THE ADVENTURES OF TENALI (26 x11-minutes) takes a trip through history to a world of monarchs and palaces.

Vancouver, Canada-based Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. will provide the CGI animation production for Columbia TriStar Domestic Television (CTDT) Family Entertainment's new animated series, SPIDER-MAN, slated to premiere on MTV in winter 2002. According to Mainframe, this new incarnation of the Spider-Man series, featuring Peter Parker as a college student trying to juggle school, work, relationships and being a super hero, will feature CG animation processed to have a classic animation look, combining bright, abstract colors and including a realistic neon lit city.

Fox Kids UK has announced the line-up for its new season of programming and it includes several UK television premieres and a second season of the battling robots show MEDABOTS, which is currently one of Fox Kids UK's top-rated shows. Among the UK premieres are the anime series SHIN CHAN, acquired from TV Asahi, and PIG CITY, a Cinegroupe production that features the adventures of a country bumpkin pig in the big city.

Cartoon Network hasrevived yet another Warner Bros. series with the premiere of THEOBLONGS on Sunday, August 4, 2002 at 10:30 pm during Adult Swim,Cartoon Network's twice-weekly block of animation aimed at adults.The Oblongs is a series about a typical close-knit family that justhappens to have various physical abnormalities due to living in closeproximity to a toxic swamp. The series is based on characters thatappear in Angus Oblong's book, CREEPY SUSIE AND THIRTEEN OTHER TRAGIC

QUEER DUCK, the animated series about an openly gay duck and his friends, is going international following a recent agreement between Showtime Networks and The British Broadcasting Company (BBC). The show, which consists of 20 x 3-minute episodes, will air on BBC Choice as a regular part of the weekly magazine program That Gay Show. BBC Choice is a mixed genre channel aimed at a modern young audience whose core is 25 to 34 year olds. The BBC will have all television rights to show QUEER DUCK in the United Kingdom until 2005.