Nickelodeon Announces Upcoming Animation Slate and New Model for Discovering and Cultivating Talent
On Tuesday, May 7, Nickelodeon Animation Studios provided a special presentation to give an early look at their next generation of animated shows. The presentation was opened by Nickelodeon’s President of Content & Development, Russell Hicks who introduced the presentation with a retrospective montage of Nickelodeon from its early years to today. Hicks announced Nickelodeon’s initiatives with their Shorts Program and also SpongeBob SquarePants Shorts Program, in which fans will be allowed to pay tribute to SpongeBob with their own shorts based on the cartoon.
Next up, Jenna Boyd, Nickelodeon Animation’s Senior Vice President of Animation Development, talked more about their Shorts Program; a new way for up and coming creators to showcase their animation which Nickelodeon could eventually translate to a series. Many of the shorts will be aired on Nickelodeon or streamed on Nick.com. A reel was shown of the various Class of 2012 Nick Shorts. One of the shorts showcased is now being developed as a full series for Nickelodeon in Pam & Sid’s Port-a-Party. The full short for Pam & Sid was also shown. Basically, Pam & Sid are two irreverent female meerkats who turn a port-a-potty to their very own party club. The show was created by Mindy Sterling and Annie Sertich. The hyperactive meerkats are dedicated to being best friends forever and not letting anything get in the way of their party lifestyle, even a construction worker who really has use the bathroom.
Next Rich Magallanes, Senior Vice President of Current Animation talked about current Nickelodeon Animation. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ current season will be airing its first season finale in August, and the show will be jumping right into season two in September 2013. Fairly Odd Parents recently celebrated its twelfth anniversary and the show just began season nine. This brings the show’s current total to a 152 total episodes which Nickelodeon is very proud of. Magallanes’ talked about the introduction of the show’s new character, Sparky, Timmy’s mischievous, talking fairy dog. Sparky’s debut episode that aired before the Kid’s Choice Awards drew nearly 4 million viewers. It sounds like Fairly Odd Parents is here to stay at Nickelodeon for now as Rich says “there is still a lot of magic in it.”
Magallanes next talked about the next season of Avatar: Legend of Korra. Book 2 for the show will be focused on a conflict between the human world and spirits. Dark spirit creatures are seeping into the human world and causing trouble. A new clip was shown from Book 2 in which Korra battles a dark, ethereal spirit creature when after she goes to visit her family. The creatures look like ones out of Kekkaishi and XXXHolic. The animation and action looked incredibly vibrant and fluid. Season two of Legend of Korra will be premiering later in 2013 and will be thirteen episodes.
Sanjay and Craig, Nickelodeon’s new animated series, was also highlighted. A new clip was presented in which Sanjay and his pet, talking snake Craig (voiced by Chris Hardwick) go to a video arcade disguised as Craig’s alter-ego, Maximum Dennis, to challenge an arcade bully to a game. Sanjay and Craig dress up in a costume with Craig as the headpiece to help Sanjay look cool while Sanjay dominates Tyson at the arcade. To boil it down, Sanjay and Craig looks like it will be Nickelodeon’s own version of Regular Show. Nickelodeon has ordered twelve episodes for the first season. Show creators Jim Dirschberger, Jay Howell, and Andreas Trolf were also in attendance to speak about working at Nickelodeon and the new show. Sanjay and Craig premieres on Nickelodeon on May 25.
The next show highlighted was the new upcoming series Breadwinners. Breadwinners, created by Gary Di Raffaele and Steve Borst, is a series about two ducks who start their own bread delivery truck business out of a jet-fueled rocket van. The new show premieres in December with twenty episodes ordered for the first season. The main characters Sway Sway (Robbie Daymond) and Buhdeuce (Eric Bauza) have a big brother/little brother relationship. They like to dance and freestyle rap. A short animation test clip was shown featuring Sway Sway and Buhdeuce having a little dance off; one of them brings out their sparkly dance pants. The show looks very wacky and is said to be a throwback to older Nickelodeon animated shows from the ‘90’s.
Following the end of the presentation, the Nickelodeon staff and the new show creators conducted a short Q&A session. Of some interest is one of the supporting characters in the Sanjay and Craig cast, Remington Tufflips, a washed up action hero who lives in a trailer who Sanjay and Craig also worship. For fans of Danny Phantom, there recently some vague teasing posts on Twitter recently by creator, Butch Hartman. However, according to Magallanes “there no plans right now” for any new material for the show.