Talk to the Snail

Who’s the lucky guy? Fred is, as Alex Kirwan and Rob Renzetti present him with a very exclusive maquette of Jenny, model XJ-9, from Rob’s My Life as a Teenage Robot. It seems like yesterday Teenage Robot premiered on Nick, but it was really back in the summer of 2003. Meanwhile, you can see never-before-aired episodes of the series, Saturdays on Nicktoons Network.

As a “Where-Are-They-Now” note, these days, Alex is busy designing characters for Nick’s The Mighty B, while Rob is co-running a big shorts program with Craig McCracken over at Cartoon Network.

– Eric

Whoops. For a little more than a year, I’ve been thinking off and on how I needed to remember to blog on July 19, 2008, the tenth anniversary of the debut of Oh Yeah! Cartoons on Nickelodeon (although something tells me there may’ve been a sneak preview earlier). Typically, I forgot. For the record, the first three shorts to premiere that Saturday in 1998 were Larry Huber and Bill Burnett’s “ChalkZone”, Vincent Waller and Bill’s “What is Funny?”, and Greg Emison and Bill’s “Jelly’s Day”. A veritable Burnettapalooza. So, happy belated anniversary, OY!. I owe you something tin.

– Eric

We’re just thirteen day away from the season premiere of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! on Nick Jr. New episodes will air Monday through Friday, August 18 through 22, at 1:30 p.m. This season, Wubbzy gets not only a new neighbor, Daizy, but also visits from Michelle Kwan and Ty Pennington. Get ready for Wubbmania, like it’s 2006 all over again.

– Eric

So our good friend Rita Street tricked me into participating in an event she and her Radar Cartons pal, John Hardman, put together with the New Zealand government. Basically, a bunch of Kiwi creators and studio reps fly to L.A. to meet, greet, and pitch mighty development executives (like me) from benevolent cartoon companies (like Frederator). Held throughout the day at a Burbank hotel, the event saw all the usual suspects from the suit side – Disney, Starz, Cartoon Network, Nelvana, Cookie Jar, and so forth were all represented (Nickelodeon sat out because the projects weren’t from the U.S.).

Anyhoo, the New Zealand folks I met with were very nice, had great ideas, and were soldiering on despite having pitched the same ideas up to ten times in the course of a few hours. I offered all the usual wisdom and advice (“Maybe a cartoon about a development executive who eats pretzels?”), ate [Read more…]

If you’ve been waiting for merchandise based on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! (and we know you have), your wait is almost over. By the end of this summer, you’ll see loads of toys, games, dolls, and books from licensees that include Fisher-Price, Hasbro, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster. The Wubbster’s first DVD in the U.S., A Tale of Tails, will be released on September 23. The 92-minute set is available for pre-order on Amazon right now for the low, low price of just $11.99. Cheap!

– Eric

Congratulations to Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! creator and executive producer Bob Boyle for winning his first Emmy in the category of Individual Achievement in Animation. Bob, pictured above with sk8rgurl Michelle Kwan, will be honored at the June 13th Emmy Awards ceremony. Congratulations, again, Bob. You deserve this one.

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