Animation
Cartoon Network's anime/action block "Toonami" has undergone a pretty radical evolution over the years (remember when it was hosted by Moltar?) but it's sadly been brought to an abrupt end as of last Saturday. Check out TOM's final broadcast for yourself.
Toonami's exit won't leave too large of an anime-shaped hole in Cartoon Network's schedule, since Naruto was really the only Japanese show in their most recent lineup. The future of Naruto on Cartoon Network is a bit uncertain, but you can still get your anime fix Saturday nights on Adult Swim.
Cartoon Network to End Toonami on September 20 [Anime News Network]
I've not seen George Lucas' new animated Star Wars feature The Clone Wars, but the reviews haven't been spectacular. It probably doesn't help that the film includes a flamboyant, purple relative of Jabba the Hutt based upon Truman Capote. No, I am not joking.
Lucas has incited controversy before by including arguably stereotype-based (not to mention unpopular) characters in the Star Wars movies, and while "Ziro the Hutt" isn't necessarily the first gay character to appear in a Star Wars movie, it might not be a particularly subtle or positive portrayal. What do you think?
Animator Jeff Chiba Stearns made this short reflecting on the last several years of his life, using only black pen and a hecka lotta yellow Post-Its. It's at once cute, sad, and oddly uplifting.
Clearly the planets have aligned in some infernal formation, because Stan Lee is collaborating with Paris Hilton.
Lee is creating a new superhero based upon Paris for an animated show which will air on MTV. The legendarily vapid heiress shares her sentiments:
While Paris refused to divulge any details of the new collaboration, she did reveal her favourite superhero power. She said: "I'd love to be invisible - that would be fun!"
Yes, Paris. Yes it would.
Showbuzz [news.com.au]
Simon & Schuster has produced an online animated series called N., based upon a short story by Stephen King that appears in his new anthology Just After Sunset. The series is actually more like a combination of an audio book and a graphic novel, consisting mainly of static images with narration underneath. It looks pretty good so far, even though each episode is quite short.
The story involves a psychiatrist with a patient who claims that his OCD is actually a defense mechanism to keep supernatural beings from invading our universe.
A long lost promotional clip from the undeveloped Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated series has surfaced on Youtube. Not that this will be much of a surprise to fellow Whedonites, but it looks really really good. Could a sufficient viral buzz possibly bring animated Buffy back from the dead, or is this just a sad remnant of what might have been?
Weebl of Badger Badger Badger fame has a real knack for composing Flash to accompany annoyingly addictive tunes. A while back he made this toon for British TV station E4. It's not only catchy, it's educational.
How to be a celebrity [E4]
An independent publisher is currently shopping around an animated series that stars John Oates' mustache.
The mustache, to be voiced by Dave Attell (oh, it talks, by the way), has the ability to give superpowers to its former owner, the guy from Hall & Oates that isn't Hall. Oates attempts to regain his rock star status and battle villains with their own supernatural mustaches.
John Oates' Moustache Cartoon Sounds Amazing [Rolling Stone]
A new CG film will feature the voice of Christina Ricci. She will play a crayon. Alongside her previous roles, which include a murderous Barbie doll, a pig-nosed heiress, and a Special Olympian's lover, it doesn't really even sound that odd.
The Hero of Color City involves a community of crayons who are menaced by an unspeakable evil. Ricci plays Yellow, and is the first cast member announced for the film, which is currently in preproduction.
Christina Ricci joins 'Hero' voice cast [Hollywood Reporter]
PBS's new animated comedy Click & Clack's As the Wrench Turns is based upon Car Talk, the NPR show hosted by wisecracking car repair specialists Tom and Ray Magliozzi. The brothers will play fictionalized versions of themselves in the series, which will follow them as they run both their radio show and their auto shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A zany cartoon debut for an animated pair [Boston Globe]
Hollywood Newsroom has an interesting article chronicling the troubled history of Disney's upcoming Tinkerbell DVD, which will tell the origin story of the iconic Peter Pan fairy. Disney has ditched Brittany Murphy for the title role in favor of Mae Whitman, better known as the voice of Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
The article also includes a clip from the film, which at first glance might appear to be in the same vein as the plasticly girly Barbie movies. I'm detecting a bit of Pixar-style humor, though, so Tinkerbell may well be worth the wait.
John Lasseter, Disney, Fires Brittany Murphy. Mae Whitman is the new voice of Tinker Bell! [Hollywood Newsroom]
Apologies for bumming you out with this beautiful, heartbreaking, and weirdly, kind of NSFW stop-motion animated retelling of the Puccini opera Madame Butterfly, though the ending strangely seems somehow optimistic to me.
And girls who like girls who like stuff!
Clip of the Week
It was 1980 and disco was dead, but not in the UK!
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