How to use this Page

Johnny Ryan and Dave Cooper's profane comic sensibilities are cleaned up for the kids.

Nick's production chief Russell Hicks speaks to Cartoon Brew about the evolving world of television, and what it means for both viewers and creators.

C.H. Greenblatt, creator of the animated series "Chowder," is back with a new series, "Harvey Beaks," that premieres this Sunday on Nickelodeon.

The hunt is on for the next generation of animated storytellers.

"Bad Seeds," the upcoming series by "Chowder" creator C.H. Greenblatt, has been renamed "Harvey Beaks!"

Nickelodeon has launched an in-house artist development program called the Artists Collective, aiming to reverse its fortunes and create culturally relevant shows that rival those of competitors Cartoon Network and Disney.

The Legend of Korra’s fourth and final season, Book 4: Balance, returns this Friday! You’ll be able to watch here. Trying to catch up with all three seasons in one day is a pretty tall order, but luckily the weekend will soon be here! The first three books (as seasons are called Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra) are available streaming on Nick.com.

Avatar: the Last Airbender follows Aang, the last airbender, who survived the Air Nomad genocide from the Fire Nation. Together with his friends Sokka, Katara and Zuko, Aang fights to prevent the Fire Nation from taking over the whole world, all the while mastering all four elements.

The Legend of Korra is the direct sequel to Avatar: the Last Airbender, taking place 80 years after the end of ALTA. Korra, upon discovering she was the avatar at the age of four, was placed under the direct care of the Order of the White Lotus and learned to water-, fire-, and earthbending. Korra sneaks away from the Order of the White Lotus compound to learn airbending from Tenzin, the son of Avatar Aang, in Republic City.

Important Terms

Elements: Air, Water, Earth, and Fire.

Bending: The ability to control one of the aforementioned elements, i.e. waterbending. A person who bends an element is known as a bender.

Avatar: one person who has the ability to control all four elements. The avatar is born into one of the four nations and learns to bend the four elements. The Avatar is supposed to help maintain balance between the Four Nations and the spirits.

The Four Nations

Four Nations: Air Nomads, Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe.

Team Avatar: the team of people who help and fight alongside the Avatar.

Pro-bending: a sport where benders fight each other with the elements. There are three benders per team: water, fire, and earth.

Order of the White Lotus: a formerly secret order that transcended the Four Nations to share philosophy and wisdom. Later, on the orders of Avatar Aang, they search and protect the next Avatar.

Red Lotus: a group that splintered off from the original White Lotus because they thought that the Order of the White lotus had become the bodyguards of the Avatar. They sought to free the world of its governments and have humans and spirits coexist. During Book 3, Zaheer leads them.

 The Major Players

Team Avatar:

Team Avatar: Asami, Mako, Korra, Bolin and Pabu (from left to right).

Korra: Korra is from the Northern Water Tribe. She is born when Avatar Aang, the protagonist of Avatar: The Last Airbender died. Korra can bend all four elements.

Asami Sato: The only nonbender on Team Avatar. Asami is the owner of Future Industries, a company that makes cars known as the Sato-mobile and other technology.

Mako: former street rat turned cop. Former captain of the pro-bending team the Future Industry Fire Ferrets. Mako is a firebender and both Korra and Asami’s ex-boyfriend. He is Bolin’s older brother.

Bolin: formerly an actor and pro-bender, he is the funny-man of Team Avatar. He is an earthbender and has the special ability to lavabend. He is Mako’s younger brother.

Other important characters

Katara: Aang’s wife, waterbending master and Korra’s teacher.

Tenzin, Bumi, and Kya: Aang’s children. Tenzin is an airbender, and Korra’s airbending instructor. Kya is a waterbender. Bumi is a retired Fire Nation general who later gains the ability to airbend after Harmonic Convergence. You may refer to them as the “cloudbabies.”

Pema: Tenzin’s wife, a nonbender.

Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and Rohan: Pema and Tenzin’s children. All airbenders. You may refer to them as the “airbabies.” Jinora is the first airbending master in a generation.

Lin Beifong: Chief of Republic City Police, metalbender. Toph Beifong’s daughter.

Book 1: Air

Korra has a difficult time learning how to airbend, because she’s unable to tap into the spiritual side of bending. She joins a pro-bending team known as the Fire Ferrets. An anti-bending movement known as the Equalist Movement gains in popularity. The leader, Amon, wants to get rid of bending and benders. Korra tries to balance learning to airbend, practice with the Fire Ferrets and defeating Amon. Korra finally learns to airbend, when Amon seals off all of her other bending abilities.

Book 2: Spirits

Six months after the end of Book 1, Republic City has a president who is supposed to represent the interests of benders and non-benders alike. When a spirit attacks at a festival that Korra attends, she decides to focus on learning spirit-bending instead of airbending, and her uncle Unalaq becomes her teacher. Unalaq tricks Korra into opening the spirit portals. Unalaq wants to join with a dark spirit to become the Dark Avatar and destroy the Avatar cycle. Korra learns of Won, the first Avatar. With the help of Jinora, Korra defeats Unalaq. Spirits and humans were never meant to live apart, so Korra doesn’t close the Spirit Portals. The world enters a new age where spirits and humans live together.

Book 3: Change

The spirits are disrupting life in Republic City, but Korra can’t get them to live peacefully with humans. When reports of people suddenly gaining the ability to airbend reach Korra, she travels with Tenzin, his family, and team Avatar to restore the Air Nomads. The Red Lotus, a criminal organization that tried to kidnap Korra when she was young, escapes from prison. The Red Lotus’s leader, Zaheer, is one of the new airbenders. Zaheer and his cronies go on a quest to rid the world of its leaders and the Avatar. Zaheer kills the Earth Queen and Ba Sing Se descends into chaos.

When Zaheer threatens all the new airbenders to get to Korra, Korra risks her life to save them.

Several weeks later, we see Korra in a wheelchair getting ready to attend Jinora’s airbending master ceremony. Jinora, Avatar Aang’s granddaughter becomes the first airbending master in a generation. Tenzin announces that the airbenders will regain their nomadic roots

Korra returns with her parents to the Northern Water Tribe to heal.

Legend of Korra returns THIS FRIDAY.

The trailer: with Korra kicking major butt and new hair!

Watch the opening clip.

This is a clip of Kai and Opal airbending some bad guys!

I hope you’re just as excited to return to Republic City as I am!

As part of Nickelodeon Animation's ongoing effort to rebrand itself as a champion of artist-driven projects, the studio announced that it has teamed up with the Australian animation website LoopDeLoop.

Why Nickelodon's public pitching spectacles are a disservice to the network and to the artists who work there.

In a first-of-its-kind programming move that even surprised the show's creators, Nickelodeon will remove "The Legend of Korra" from its network schedule, and premiere the remaining episodes of season three exclusively on digital platforms.

Nickelodeon has picked up a new series: "The Loud House" by animation veteran Chris Savino. The series is inspired by Savino's own "chaotic life growing up in a huge household," and follows a boy named Lincoln who lives at home with his 10 sisters. The concept received a 13-episode greenlight based on the following pilot from the studio's 2013 Animated Shorts Program.

Nickelodeon is making a concerted effort to promote its renewed dedication to creativity at its animation studio. This week, they will open an art exhibit, “Butt What Is Art? A Sanjay and Craig Fine Art Retrospective,” at California State University, Fullerton’s Atrium Gallery (Pollak Library). The exhibit will focus on art created for, and inspired by, the series about an Indian boy and his talking snake:

Skip Dolphin Hursh works as a designer and animator for Nickelodeon in New York. Skip uses his free time to create personal work that includes handsomely designed looping animated GIFs that invoke thoughts of toy machinery and strange cellular activity. He explains more about how he arrived at this ongoing project in an interview with Giphy.

The Legend of Korra returns to Nickelodeon with a new season this Friday, September 13, at 7pm (ET/PT). While the new season trailer is action-fueled drama (with a glimpse of the first Avatar Wan), we’ve got an exclusive clip featuring Bolin in a lighter moment from the upcoming season:

Korra’s second season, titled Book 2: “Spirits,” takes place six months after the end of Book 1:

Korra has rid Republic City of Amon and the Equalists, but now she must take on an even larger threat as the physical and spirit worlds collide. During the one-hour premiere, “Rebel Spirit/The Southern Lights,” Korra struggles to find a deeper connection with the Spirit World as she and the gang attend a Southern Water Tribe festival. Then, Korra and Chief Unalaq journey into a dangerous maelstrom and find a source of great spiritual power.

The Legend of Korra is co-created by Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, who also created Avatar: The Last Airbender, and exec produced by DiMartino, Konietzko and Joaquim Dos Santos.

Nickelodeon is releasing online a three-part Legend of Korra webseries called “Republic City Hustle,” presumably to help build buzz for the second season of the TV series, which will debut next month. The webseries takes place three years before the events of Book 1 and tells the backstory of two of the show’s central figures—brothers Mako and Bolin—and how they ended up with their sidekick Pabu. The first two episodes have already debuted online and can be viewed below:

Legend of Korra: “Republic City Hustle: Part 2″

Besides the obvious redesign of the characters, things were also done differently behind the scenes. This webseries was produced out of Nickelodeon’s on-air graphics department in New York instead of the regular Los Angeles crew. The animation was created in After Effects.

CREDITS
SVP Brand Creative: Matthew Duntemann
Executive Producer: James Stephenson
Producer: Eric Collins
Written by: Tim Hedrick
Directors: Chris Papa and Rob Kohr
Character Design: Evon Freeman & Rachael Hunt
Storyboards: Matthew Robinson
Backgrounds: George Berger and Alexandra DiTullio
Animation: Scott Kennell, Ross Norton, Christine Chen, Alexandra Ditullio, Brett Underhill and Mike Liu
Sound: Beatstreet

(Disclosure: The co-director of this piece, Rob Kohr, provides technical support/maintenance for Cartoon Brew.)

Nickelodeon has rolled out a new set of promos for their upcoming slate of animated shows in a series of behind-the-scenes clips embedded in their Nick Studio 10 pre-teen programming block. Here, viewers are introduced to new series like Breadwinners and Rabbids Invasion, and reacquainted with returning players like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Sanjay and Craig and The Legend of Korra.

In the Nick Studio 10 spots, a pair of hyperactive tweens scramble from one studio cubicle to another to chew the scenery with unidentified mononymous animation “experts” with names like “Bret”, “Ciro” and “Claudia”. The entire experience results in a headache-inducing panderfest that is desperately trying to connect to its youthful demographic.

The direction of this presentation style is the polar opposite of Cartoon Network’s recent profiling of their upcoming slate of auteur-driven, character-based properties from smart, hipster-ish millenials. While CN is at least making an attempt to shine a light on nurturing bright ideas from the next generation of talent, Nick hopes to distract from rebooted ideas and threadbare concepts with quick cuts, dubstepping ducks and rectally-focused gags that take the form of toilet plungers, cow farts and “butt kicks.”

Ultimately, Nickelodeon would be hard pressed to sell this collection of spinoffs, adaptations and desperate grabs in a sincere, straightforward way. When placed alongside CN shows like Steven Universe or Uncle Grandpa, something like Rabbids Invasion, which began as a manic, unintelligible video game, has trouble competing.

Nick management continues to wallow in its inability to find a clear creative path that distinguishes itself from its competitors. These dips in quality are cyclical in TV animation—just a few years Cartoon Network was in the same position—but Nick’s stumbles have been a ongoing concern for over a decade. These promos serve as an outward reflection of the network’s inability to come up with shows that connect with their audience, and explains better than anything why the entire network subsists on the back of a single decade-and-a-half old, as seen in the network’s recent ratings:

Created by marine biologist-turned-animator Stephen Hillenburg in 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants is one of Nickelodeon’s most popular and longest running television shows. The upcoming group art show, “Nautical Nonsense: A Tribute to SpongeBob SquarePants,” will feature artistic interpretations from an eclectic roster of animation artists, illustrators, and cartoonists.

The show’s opening reception will be tomorrow night—Saturday, July 27—from 7-11pm at Gallery Nucleus in the LA suburb of Alhambra (210 East Main St). Admission is $5, and the event will include costumed characters from the show, a scavenger hunt and raffle prizes.

“Plankton Scream” by Peter Bennett (Acrylic on canvas)

“Jellyfishin’ with Gary” by Cuddly Rigor Mortis (Acrylic on panel)

“Sponges” by Oliver Akuin (Gouache)

(Artwork at top of post: “Nautical Nonsense” by Joey Chou, digital illustration)

Late-breaking labor news out of Los Angeles:

NICK CG ARTISTS OVERWHELMINGLY RATIFY ANIMATION GUILD CONTRACT
Burbank, CA, July 12 — Newly organized CG artists have ratified a contract negotiated between the Animation Guild, Local 839 IATSE and Nickelodeon Animation Studios. Ratification was overwhelming, with 90.1% of the bargaining unit’s 70 employees voting “Yes.”

The Guild has had a contract with Nickelodeon covering traditional animation artists since 2004. Talks extending union contract protection to Nick’s CG artists extended from March to July of this year, between management and a committee of seventeen employees along with Guild representatives. The primary issue was bridging from Nickelodeon’s corporate insurance to the Motion Picture Industry Health Plan, to insure uninterrupted health coverage for covered employees.

Steve Hulett, the Animation Guild’s Business Representative Steve Hulett issued this statement:

“Five years ago, the Animation Guild went to work organizing Nick’s CG department. We had a number of setbacks, but last year, thanks to Guild organizer Steve Kaplan, communication with employees accelerated and support for the Guild increased dramatically. Early in February, Nickelodeon agreed to a neutral card count and negotiations for a contract started soon thereafter.

“Talks went on for months. TAG had a large negotiating committee of unit employees, most in their early to mid-twenties, and they were focused and tenacious through several long days of work. I doubt we could have reached agreement without them.

“Nick negotiators Bill Cole and Kevin Ellman were tough but flexible, and had a lot to do with the parties reaching agreement.”

Final negotiations over the Memorandum of Agreement wrapped on July 10, with ratification by unit employees taking place at the studio’s Burbank facility on Friday afternoon.

Every few years, a TV network launches an internal shorts program in an attempt to identify new talent and show ideas. These initiatives rarely produce the results the networks desire because artists aren’t court jesters who can perform on demand and create show-ready ideas the moment a network asks for one. Talent development is a years-long investment that requires patience, commitment, and yes, failure. To put it simply, the people who run show development today lack the foresight or knowledge of how animation works to adequately develop the immense pool of talent that is already employed at their studios.

Of course, that won’t stop them from launching ridiculous shorts programs that result in ridiculous shorts, and artists who may or may not be cut out for show creation. Last year, Nickelodeon launched yet another in a long line of these in-house network shorts programs. Remmeber, this is the studio that passed on Adventure Time so identifying talent is not their strong suit. They commissioned twelve micro-shorts for the program, and made them available via a Nick phone app. They haven’t promoted them online, but they are posted on the Internet and we’ve gathered links to all of them below.

From these pitches, Nickelodeon recently said in a press release that “six are currently in series development and two will get pilot orders.” One of the ideas that was pitched to the shorts program, but which didn’t get made as a micro-short was Breadwinners created by Gary DiRaffale (aka Gary Doodles) and Steve Borst. That show was recently picked up for a 20-episode order.

Here are the twelve shorts made last year:

Pam and Sid’s Port A Party created by Annie Sertich and Mindy Sterling
Watch the film

Baby Stache created by Gary Anthony Williams
Watch the film

Lucas created by Kyle Dunnigan
Watch the film

Austin Oliver created by Greg Worswick
Watch the film

Wing Dings created by TJ Fuller
Watch the film

Level 15 created by Wolf-Rudiger Bloss
Watch the film

Zombie Brothers created by Eric Robles
Watch the film

Carrot and Stick created by Derek Iversen and Miles Hindman
Watch the film

Marty’s Exotic Animals created by Andrew Friedman
Watch the film

Cabrito and Chewy created by Allan Jacobsen and Chuckles Austen
Watch the film

Odyssey Squad! created by Ben Adams
Watch the film

Tallie Peer Counselor created by Laura Sreebny
Watch the film

Desperate-for-a-new-hit-show Nickelodeon debuted a new animated series Sanjay and Craig this morning. The show, which is about an Indian boy Sanjay and his talking pet snake Craig, was created by Jim Dirschberger, Jay Howell (designer, Bob’s Burgers) and Andreas Trolf, and exec produced by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi (The Adventures of Pete and Pete, KaBlam!, Bravest Warriors).

Early reviews have been positive for the hand-drawn series. Entertainment Weekly says that the show is “a quick-paced, eminently GIF-able product of the Internet age,” while also being “a clear throwback to a simpler time.” The AV Club acknowledges the show’s Calvin & Hobbes-like dynamic”

If you’ve seen the show, report back here with your thoughts. As always, these talkbacks are open only to those who have seen a show and wish to discuss it.

In 1990, an ad that ran in comic books announced the launch of a magazine based on the TV channel Nickelodeon.

Over at kiyong’s blog of creative pursuits, Nickelodeon Writing Program executive director Karen Kirkland shared scriptwriting advice for aspiring TV writers.

The writing program aims “to attract, develop and staff writers with diverse backgrounds and experiences” for Nickelodeon Network. There is no fee to apply, and accepted writers can land a paid position that lasts up to one year–earning some invaluable experience in television writing. Here’s some advice from Kirkland:

I love it when I read a MODERN FAMILY spec where the writer has not only given me a fresh perspective on the show in terms of the story idea and the premise, but I can still feel the tone of the show, the character voices have remained intact, but the writer’s voice – in terms of his or her perspective, is also coming through in that script. That’s a really difficult thing to do. And of course, your script has to make me laugh out loud! It has to be funny. The dialogue needs to be witty. Your story, the arcs and your characters all need to be multi-layered. I can always tell when a writer’s had fun writing their script because I have fun reading it. Most of the common flaws are a result of writers that aren’t invested in their work. Before you write your spec, do yourself a favor – write a 1/2-page premise first, then an outline, then (and only then) should you write your first draft. Do your research – it’s not enough to watch a couple of episodes. Watch them all – multiple times!

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A few weeks ago, I posted a teaser trailer for PigGoat BananaMantis!, a project developed for Nickelodeon by Dave Cooper and Johnny Ryan, and animated by Nick Cross.

Nickelodeon had already passed on the project at that point, but after the enthusiastic reaction it received online (including on Cartoon Brew), they’ve revived the idea. Johnny Ryan told VICE magazine yesterday:

[Nickelodeon] helped us make this little teaser trailer cartoon. They really liked the way it turned out and wanted to go on to the next step and develop a pilot. We wrote and storyboarded a pilot episode which they didn’t like so they wound up passing on the whole thing. Fast forward a few months later and animator Nick Cross posted the original cartoon on his site where it got a really positive response. I think this made Nickelodeon rethink their decision and they decided to revive the project.

So now we are going back into development to try and make it work. We haven’t really worked out all the details yet as far as how many episodes and all that stuff. I only just found out that they wanted to try this thing again yesterday.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | One comment | Post tags: Dave Cooper, Johnny Ryan, Nick Cross, nickelodeon, PigGoatBananaMantis!, Pilot

Related posts:

1. “PigGoat BananaMantis!” By Dave Cooper, Johnny Ryan and Nick Cross
2. “Angora Napkin” By Troy Little and Nick Cross
3. “The Woods” Animation Test by Max Winston

Salomon Fenix said, on 9/8/2012 12:56:00 PM

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This short was very good, Nickelodeon happily could well appreciate this short, I hope that this series will be Good.

Like

Julian said, on 9/8/2012 2:12:00 PM

Nickelodeon? They funded it? Wow, I was almost certain it was CN just by the style. Of coarse I question why these established animators and artists even need so much funding and network support in this day and age when this supposed amateur Aaron Long kid keeps popping up and throwing out these rival cartoons, animated by all by him on a dime. I guess it’s time and quantity. You can only produce these things so fast, and when it’s just you, keeping an audience engaged and staying relevant would be a nightmare with 2D. So you need to hire people, get better equipment, etc, and thus get into the big costs. Still, it shows how conservative and out of touch Nick animation execs have become. You’d think it would be the opposite due to the map stapling success they got from it in the 90s. CN’s seemed to loosen their belt a bit in the late 00s, and they seem to be doing just fine now. Nick on the other hand seems to be squeezing what ever else they can get from 13 year old Spongebob and beating this anime style “Kora” thing vigorously, and they’re ratings are declining? I’d say it’s time to get some new leader ship, and give some shown new creative talent a chance.

Like - 1 others like this comment

Mark Mayerson said, on 9/8/2012 3:26:00 PM

I’m sure the recent management shakeup at Nickelodeon, with Brown Johnson leaving, had something to do with the revival of the project. Nick’s ratings are not good and something had to be done.

The fact that the web has proven that this has an audience makes it easier for the suits to take a chance on it.

It’s all about having an audience. If you can create something that has one, people with money will beat a path to your door.

Like - 1 others like this comment

Mapache said, on 9/8/2012 3:38:00 PM

It’s happening. Even after the horrible things things cartoon brew readers said about Nickelodeon on the comments. :)

Kudos. This has a lot of potencial.

Like

Erik Butter said, on 9/8/2012 3:42:00 PM

I hope it works out, but i guess Nickelodeon is a little scared of creative people. So i wonder how long this will last.

Like

Deaniac said, on 9/8/2012 7:07:00 PM

I absolutely loved the PigGoatBananaMantis trailer, so this makes me very happy indeed. It’s comforting to know that Nick is taking more creative risks (especially after their recent management shake-up) and is giving this project a second chance.

I’ll definitely be rooting for this to make it past development; it’s high time Nick have a another ORIGINAL cartoon on their network. Who knows? Maybe it’ll knock Spongebob down a few pegs.

Like

Eman said, on 9/8/2012 7:33:00 PM

Oh thank God.
Maybe Nick isn’t as incredibly stupid as they’ve acted over the past decade.

Spongebob’s already been milked to complete zombification, they only gave Kora 2 short seasons, Fairly odd parents is in the same boat as Spongebob, and the Dreamworks shows lack the charm of the films.

I honestly don’t know how they’ve survived this long on such few series.

Like

James said, on 9/8/2012 10:27:00 PM

So Cartoon Brew may have helped revived this cartoon? That deserves a round of applause!

Hopefully Nick able to give Cross, Cooper, and Ryan the shot they deserve next time around.

Like

Frank Panucci said, on 9/8/2012 10:47:00 PM

Re:
“So now we are going back into development to try and make it work. “

Wha? The teaser/trailer as-is works like crazy.

PigGoat BananaMantis is the best obscure member of the Avengers, if you overlook the gratuitous cleavage and goofy mysticism.

Like

A few weeks ago, I posted a teaser trailer for PigGoat BananaMantis!, a project developed for Nickelodeon by Dave Cooper and Johnny Ryan, and animated by Nick Cross.

Nickelodeon had already passed on the project at that point, but after the enthusiastic reaction it received online (including on Cartoon Brew), they’ve revived the idea. Johnny Ryan told VICE magazine yesterday:

[Nickelodeon] helped us make this little teaser trailer cartoon. They really liked the way it turned out and wanted to go on to the next step and develop a pilot. We wrote and storyboarded a pilot episode which they didn’t like so they wound up passing on the whole thing. Fast forward a few months later and animator Nick Cross posted the original cartoon on his site where it got a really positive response. I think this made Nickelodeon rethink their decision and they decided to revive the project.

So now we are going back into development to try and make it work. We haven’t really worked out all the details yet as far as how many episodes and all that stuff. I only just found out that they wanted to try this thing again yesterday.

Today we bring you our weekly sampler of cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven’t yet, and post there for... Read the rest of this post