Teenage Mutant Nickelodeon Turtles

Here's a surprise, Nickelodeon, the Viacom branch known for its cartoon/kids programming channel has gone and purchased the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And when I say that I don't just mean they got the broadcasting rights to the original animated series and the more recent 4Kids one...

No, they got the full deal. Broadcasting rights, development of a new CG-animated series set for 2012, development for a new feature film that would be released with Paramount, and they would also cut a nice cut of the merchandising, including the ever popular toy line. Click the following link for the full press release.

via Toon Zone

The Last Airbender teaser is online

While I personally am a hater of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender, I'm well aware that there's plenty of people out there who like it, and I don't need an angry e-mails because I don't cover your favorite franchise... (Not to mention that I am getting this stuff from Paramount)

Anyways, the teaser website and teaser trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's adaptation of the series, The Last Airbender (presumably titled as such to not be confused with the completely unrelated Avatar film being directed by James Cameron), has gone online and is now available for your viewing pleasure:

Click to visit TheLastAirbenderMovie.com

While I'm not a fan of the show, and at this point have no intention on seeing the film, I will say that the teaser looks pretty cool, albeit filled with heavy CGI usage. I've yet to see Shyamalan's most recent films such as Lady in the Water and The Happening, though from what I've heard I'm better off. Maybe The Last Airbender will be the big hit he needs, but I think it may be to early to say at this point.

For fans of Avatar and/or Shyamalan's work, what are your thoughts about the teaser?

Domo-kun comes stateside

I'm sorry if this is old to some of you but its new to me. I remember reading back in ... 2006? That Nickelodeon had acquired the rights to NHK's Domo-kun, and was going to produced 26 shorts with the character. Now as far as I know, Nickelodeon has yet to air these, but it looks like something has come out of Domo's localization, as Target is using the character to promote Halloween. The first of this can be seen here:

Click here to see it at Veoh; removed due to annoying auto-play, sorry.

It's definitely got the look of the original Japanese version, but there is a US kind of style to it, I can't quite put my finger on it but it's there. I'd be really curious to see where they take this though, as I've been a long time fan of the character, I just hope they don't bastardize him..

You can watch more, and do a whole bunch of community related activities at the official US website, DomoNation.com

Rocko's Modern Life on DVD

Finally, the first official Rocko's Modern Life DVDs are being released. While, sadly, they aren't season sets, there are 2 "Best Of" collections, each with 2 discs. You can see the full announcement by the show's creator at Joe Murray's Journal. Episode list is currently unknown.

You can buy them on Amazon.com

Just a note, if you read the fine print at Amazon, it seems the DVDs are made on an "on demand" system. Meaning, Amazon actually burns the episodes onto a DVD-R, which then creates some compatibility issues. I'm not sure what that means for the quality of the episodes, but it sounds kind of shady. It's really no excuse for Nickelodeon to not release a mass produced, legit DVD boxset with all the episodes, and not just picking and choosing a few; especially after all this time.

Also now available is Joe Murray's great e-book on how to make and release your own animated work, Crafting A Cartoon!, which can be purchased or previewed here: Crafting A Cartoon.