Cartoon Network 2014 Kids Slate Showcase
At the recent Turner Broadcasting showcase the awesome super powers of Cartoon Network‘s animation programming was confirmed. Along with reminders of the excellence of established favorites such as Adventure Time, Regular Show and Amazing World of Gumball, we were shown enticing teasers of some upcoming projects that looked like they could be equally imaginative, funny, and well designed.
Along with these we also saw some promising new material for the other Turner ‘second flagship channel’ Boomerang, including updates of old favorites Tom and Jerry and Powerpuff Girls. Then, as a bonus feature, Amazing World of Gumball creator Ben Bocquelet gave us a quick show and tell of the development process for a new hilarious episode.
The new shows that were previewed were as follows:
Uncle Grandpa
An ‘Uncle Grandpa’ is apparently an actual thing in other countries and refers to a favorite elderly family member. This new animated comedy concerns one such ‘magical’ (their quotation marks not mine) uncle / grandpa who travels the world in a mystical RV and from what we saw seems like an offbeat, lovable and mustached older character, reminding me a bit of the regulars who propped up the bar in Cheers except in Austrian traditional costume and invoking magical powers and surreal worlds. Voiced by actor and cartoonist Pete Browngardt who worked on Futurama and Adventure Time, the visual style did indeed remind me slightly of Futurama. Another thing that’s great about it is its about time we had some more elderly heroes to look up to, just in time for when I become old myself which is scheduled for sometime next Tuesday. Uncle Granpa premieres on Monday April 14th.
Steven Universe
This concerns a ‘little brother’ to a team of Amazonian super guardians of humanity known as the ‘Crystal Gems’. While the Gem gals are like a super-powered mega-chilled version of the Spice Girls (including a British accented character who is cool rather than an arse or evil for once), Steven is a bit gawky, overweight, uncertain and eager to please. Now obviously everyone called Steven is super ace, especially the ones spelled with ‘ph’, but as this Steven in question is just a little kid, his super ness is yet to reach fruition and the comedy comes from his often disastrous attempts to impress his matriarchal super family. Created by artist, composer and director Rebecca Sugar, who also worked on Adventure Time, the show has a nice look that made me think of lovely old 60’s/70’s series like The Jackson 5 and Marine Boy. Steven Universe makes its debut in the UK on 12 May.
Clarence
Concerns another even more awkward, sweet and eager to please young chubby male character only this time he’s in the less superhero populated realm of a suburban classroom, where the humour comes from Clarence’s clumsy efforts to make friends and impress. A lot of the other characters are equally oddball and the world and humour kind of reminded me of Naploeon Dynamite except with younger characters and the humour more goofy and less deadpan as you would expect from a kids cartoon. Clarence has a kind of naïve drawing style which mirrors the sweetness of its protagonist and it was created by Skyler Page who at 24 is the youngest ever show creator.
Of these three main series from Cartoon Network Studios that were previewed here, though they all looked great, possibly Clarence was narrowly my favourite. Maybe this was due to its greater grounding in the real world, its quite distinctive style and its laughs coming from strong characters rather then drawing on superhero tropes or video game inspired fantasy, all of which lately of course has been done brilliantly but been done a lot, by Adventure Time and to a lesser extent Regular Show.
There were also brief previews of two new shows from Turners other big animation factory Warner Bros Studios. These were Teen Titans Go!, a character driven (that’s what it says here) comedy inspired by the original Teen Titans series which is about how without adult supervision the teenage heroes get into trouble in their downtime when they aren’t saving the world.
The other Warners show was a new rendition of The Tom and Jerry Show done in a more contemporary ‘flash’ looking style, the latest reboot of a an old favorite which in its heyday was one of the greatest cartoon series of all time. Although it looked well made and entertaining enough, for me personally each new rehash serves mainly to remind me how much better the frenetically violent original was and that you are setting yourself an impossible task when you aim remake something that was perfect to begin with.
We were also shown a crazy clip from a new Powerpuff Girls special Dance Pantsed featuring a guest appearance by (wait for it ) Ringo Starr (?!) who was shown drawn Powerpuff Girl style in a dress singing about how he wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl. I’m not making this up. There’s often a fine line between genius and insanity, either way this sounds like essential viewing.
The presentation Amazing World of Gumball presentation from Ben Bocquelet talked us through a new episode concept that came from the real life experience, Ben’s Dad succumbing to pester power to buy a family pet only to inflict on them the most horrible ugly aggressive animal that you could imagine. We were shown scenes from the very funny episode in storyboard, animatic, rough and finished animation and the final footage. The overall observation for me was confirmation of how all the best, most original and funniest ideas do come from real life rather than recycling or referencing other media.
These new shows should ensure that Turner/Cartoon Network continue to lead the field in terms of imagination, design and sheer damn funniness. Ben Bocquelet’s presentation showed how this is due to their continuation of the policy of trust in the type of original creator lead projects which drove the whole TV animation revival of the 1990s through shows like The Simpsons (Fox) and Ren and Stimpy ( Nickelodeon). Despite these rival companies early start Turners Cartoon Network is now the clear market leader with its clever, contemporary and colorful shows. The only other thing that rivalled the high standards of the new programs on offer were the fantastic goodie bags we handed out as we left, which meant that for my daughter the next day was like Christmas had come twice.