That New Show Smell

Today Pen Ward recorded his second short, “Bravest Warriors” in the main building. I had the pleasure of attending 40 minutes of it, and manohmanohman–very funny. Favorite line thus far? Chris: “I can’t…I’m too much of a down in the dumps delilah…”

From left to right, here’s the lineup:
Pen Ward: Creator
Tara Strong: Hi-Five Alien and Beth
Rob Paulsen: Danny and Tickle Monster
Dan Finnerty: Wallo
Noah Nelson: Professor Brain Dog
Charlie Schlatter: Chris

It’s official! Niki Yang has just started her second short, “Victor”, and has just given me this “self portrait” to kick off production. We can’t wait to see what you can do again, Niki. If The Two Witch Sisters is any indication, you’ll have us singing another jingle in no time.

I think I can honestly say that in the over 500 pitches we’ve taken for “Random Cartoons!” this year, there hasn’t been one with more panels than Pat Ventura’s re-pitch of his short, The Dangerous Duck Brothers last Friday. We needed to use the Nickelodeon Main Conference room for this pitc, which was over 300 pages long, 2 panels per page. Pat, you’re a drawing machine!

And for those of you wondering, yes, Pat will have to kill some of his darlings. But that, as “they” say, is showbiz.

I took a horribly awful video of his pitch board as it wrapped around the entire room, and on to other mobile panels we brought in. Quite an amazing site. The pic I took is an arial shot of the pitch room. The second floor of the Nick building (where SpongeBob and Avatar are stationed), has a terrific glass wall, perfect for spying.

Today we welcomed Niki Yang back in the house with her new short called “Victor”. For those of you following the blog, Niki has just recently shipped her first show, “The Two Witch Sisters” overseas. Her new short follows Victor, a postman pug with an enormous appetite, as he attempts to deliver a persistent letter that unfortunately gets in the way of his precious meal time. The re-pitch today was excellent, and as always, Niki’s art completely “wows” me. Welcome back Niki!

Hey all! I recently did a post on Jun Falkenstein’s band, Waste of Aces, and their new CD called “Perfect Day”. With Jun’s kind permission, I wanted to share a song of theirs with you called “Power, Money and Fame”. Adam Henry, creator of Krunch and the Kid and Tiffany is credited on the HOT JAZZ HORN in the song. Check it! Great stuff.

Money Power and Fame!

On March 31, 2006 at 6:44 PM, Nickelodeon’s very own Claudia Spinelli and her husband Han Yi welcomed their daughter Leonora YeoEun Yi into the world. Weighing in at seven pounds, three ounces, and 20(!) inches long, it’s hard to believe that Leonora was once the little belly mover and shaker in the Random Cartoons pitch room (I once saw Claudia’s stomach shift visibly during a pitch. Cool!)

This little girl is ADORABLE. I mean, seriously, folks. In my newborn pics I look like a cross between a sunburnt tomato and something out of a Wes Craven film. Claudia, all those 7-11 Slurpees you drank produced a winner!

I remember back in the day, Claudia was this close to going with my suggestion to name her baby “Minnie”. This would make her Minnie Yi. Somehow, I think Leonora has a better ring to it.

Congrats Claudia and Han!!!! We can’t wait to [Read more…]