Author: Ryan Ball

Tonight marks the debut of SCI FI Channel’s expensive miniseries, The Triangle, a supernatural thriller boasting a star-studded cast and promising visual effects work. The three-night primetime event even has a blockbuster pedigree in the form of Independence Day producer Dean Devlin and X-Men director Bryan Singer, who serve as exec producers and collaborated on the story, which was fleshed out by Rockne S. Obannon, creator of the erstwhile SCI FI series Farscape.

At long last, basic cable subscribers in the U.S. can enjoy broadcasts of Aardman Animations’ Creature Comforts, a series created by Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit director Nick Park. An extension of Park’s Oscar-winning 1989 short film of the same name, the show features clay animals animated to audio interviews of ordinary British citizens. It debuts tonight, Dec. 2, at 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET on BBC America.

Directed by Aardman’s Richard Goleszowski, the man behind cult favorite series Rex the Runt, the Creature Comforts series consists of nine half-hour episodes in which discussions of ordinary things take on whole different meanings when coming out of the mouths of various critters. The show debuted in the U.K. in 2003 and was a hit with BBC viewers of all ages, prompting Aardman to go into production on a second season.

Aardman recently announced plans to produce an Americanized version of Creature Comforts for U.S. television. The show will be one of a number of television projects the Bristol toon studio will develop with Gotham Group. Aardman is also producing a computer-animated kung fu chicken series titled Chop Socky Chooks. In addition, the company is working with Decode Ent. on Planet Sketch, a kids’ comedy that airs on Canada’s TELETOON, while the feature division produces the CG flick Flushed Away, its third feature collaboration with DreamWorks Animation.

Just a reminder that NBC will air The Happy Elf, a new CG-animated holiday special boasting the vocal talents of Grammy and Emmy winner Harry Connick Jr., on Friday, Dec. 2, at 8 p.m. ET. The one-hour family film is produced by IDT Ent. in association with HC Prods.

Featuring narration and all-new original holiday songs by Connick, The Happy Elf is the story of Eubie, one of Santa’s helpers, whose overly optimistic outlook is put to the test when he tries to bring Christmas joy to the sad little town of Bluesville. The voice cast also includes screen icon Mickey Rooney (The Fox and the Hound), Carol Kane (Scrooged!), Lewis Black (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) and Rob Paulsen (Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island).

Based on Connick’s original children’s song of the same name from his 2003 album, Harry for the Holidays, the special was written by Andrew Fishman (Harry for the Holidays TV Special) from a story by Fishman and Scott Landis. Landis is a partner in HC Prods., along with Connick and Ann Marie Wilkins.

Following the world premiere broadcast on NBC, The Happy Elf will be released on DVD by IDT Ent.’s Anchor Bay Ent. on Dec. 6. The disc will come in a push-button-activated package with blinking lights and a speaker that plays a short snippet of the title song.

More information about the special can be found at www.thehappyelf.com, which also offers holiday activities and games for kids, sneak previews, a promotional trailer and chances to win $500 every week through Dec. 25. One Grand Prize winner will have the opportunity to meet Connick at a live performance.

Singaporean animation company Peach Blossom Media Pte Ltd has entered into three international co-production deals worth a total of S$32 million. The toon house will collaborate with South Korean studio Sunwoo Ent. and Dutch entity Submarine to produce a trio of new digitally animated 2D children’s series which have already been sold been sold to broadcasters in the U.S. and Europe.

Sunwoo, which has produced animation for FOX’s The Simpsons and Nickelodeon’s The Rugrats, will first work with Peach Blossom on Creepie. The 26-part cartoon series about a girl raised by a family of bugs will air on Discovery Kids in the U.S. The second project for the two studios will be I Got a Rocket, a 26-episode series based on a popular picture book of the same name. The show about a boy and his talking rocket has been picked up by Germany’s Kika and Nickelodeon Australia.

With Submarine, Peach Blossom will co-produce The Incredible Adventures of Kika and Bob, a 26-episode interactive toon series about a resourceful seven-year-old girl a not-too-clever fire-fighter who travel the globe and learn about interesting cultures. The series have been pre-sold to several European broadcasters including Discovery Kid U.K., Belgium broadcaster VRT and Swedish Broadcaster SVT.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore will co-invest in all three productions as part of a memorandum of understanding it signed with Peach Blossom Media last December. In its efforts to support local animation companies, MDA will contribute funds to the production of seven Peach Blossom animation projects over a three-year period. The first project covered under the deal was Wild Animal Baby, a wildlife series based on a popular pre-school magazine distributed by the National Wildlife Federation in the U.S. That show will soon be available to broadcasters.

Peach Blossom Media’s first series, Tomato Twins, was the first original Asian show to be broadcast internationally on Nickelodeon. The company recently completed a new 52-episode series titled Taoshu the Warrior Boy, which has been scooped up by Nickelodeon for Asia, Europe, France, the Middle-east and Hong Kong. More information on the studio is available at www.peachblossommedia.com.

Singaporean animation company Peach Blossom Media Pte Ltd has entered into three international co-production deals worth a total of S$32 million. The toon house will collaborate with South Korean studio Sunwoo Ent. and Dutch entity Submarine to produce a trio of new digitally animated 2D children’s series which have already been sold been sold to broadcasters in the U.S. and Europe.

Sunwoo, which has produced animation for FOX’s The Simpsons and Nickelodeon’s The Rugrats, will first work with Peach Blossom on Creepie. The 26-part cartoon series about a girl raised by a family of bugs will air on Discovery Kids in the U.S. The second project for the two studios will be I Got a Rocket, a 26-episode series based on a popular picture book of the same name. The show about a boy and his talking rocket has been picked up by Germany’s Kika and Nickelodeon Australia.

With Submarine, Peach Blossom will co-produce The Incredible Adventures of Kika and Bob, a 26-episode interactive toon series about a resourceful seven-year-old girl a not-too-clever fire-fighter who travel the globe and learn about interesting cultures. The series have been pre-sold to several European broadcasters including Discovery Kid U.K., Belgium broadcaster VRT and Swedish Broadcaster SVT.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore will co-invest in all three productions as part of a memorandum of understanding it signed with Peach Blossom Media last December. In its efforts to support local animation companies, MDA will contribute funds to the production of seven Peach Blossom animation projects over a three-year period. The first project covered under the deal was Wild Animal Babies, a wildlife series based on a popular pre-school magazine distributed by the National Wildlife Federation in the U.S. That show will soon be available to broadcasters.

Peach Blossom Media’s first series, Tomato Twins, was the first original Asian show to be broadcast internationally on Nickelodeon. The company recently completed a new 52-episode series titled Tao Shu the Warrior Boy, which has been scooped up by Nickelodeon for Asia, Europe, France, the Middle-east and Hong Kong. More information on the studio is available at www.peachblossommedia.com.

Madrid-based brand management company Elastic Rights has picked up the animated preschool series Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs, a co-production of CCI Entertainment of Canada and Collingwood O’Hare in the U.K., in association with U.K.-based Silver fox Films. Elastic Rights will distribute the 52 x 12 show across all platforms in Spain, and all platforms except free in Portugal.

Based on the best-selling books by British author Ian Whybrow, Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs follows the adventures of five-year-old Harry and his toy dinosaur friends, which come to life when no one else is watching. The series debuted in August during the new Tickle U preschool block on Cartoon Network in the U.S., and has been picked up by Super RTL in Germany, France 5, RTP in Portugal and Disney Channel in the U.K.

Elastic Rights has already closed broadcast deals for the series with Playhouse Disney in Spain, which will air the show Monday-Friday starting at the end of December, 2005. In Portugal, the series is set launch in late January 2006 on RTP. Other animated properties being handled by Elastic Rights in Iberia include The Cookie Jar’s Caillou, Enoki’s Flash Kicker, Mike Young Prods.’ ToddWorld and Viz Media’s Mirmo! and MegaMan NT Warrior.

Cartoon Network has begun production on a new animated series titled Squirrel Boy. The 13×30 show is being produced at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, Calif. and is slated to debut in the summer of 2006.

Created and exec produced by Everett Peck (Duckman), Squirrel Boy follows the exploits of ten-year-old Andy and his best friend, Rodney, a know-it-all squirrel with a lot of big ideas. Joining them on some of their neighborhood adventures is Rodney’s best squirrel buddy, Leon, who prefers the call of the wild to Rodney’s life as a kept squirrel.

Leon will be voiced by Tom Kenny, the voice of SponegeBob SquarePants. Other veteran voice actors tapped for the new series include Richard Horvitz (Invader Zim) as Rodney J. Squirrel, Pamela S. Adlon (Disney’s Teacher’s Pet) as Andy Johnson and Kurtwood Smith (That ’70s Show) as Andy’s father.

Squirrel Boy joins the growing list of Cartoon Network original series, which includes the Emmy Award-winning Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars and The Powerpuff Girls, as well as Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Life & Times of Juniper Lee and Camp Lazlo. Other shows currently on the production slate at Cartoon Network Studios include the half-hour series Ben 10, My Gym Partner’s a Monkey and the untitled project starring Andre Benjamin (a.k.a. Andre 3000) of the hip-hop duo Outkast.

Cartoon Network Asia Pacific has acquired broadcast rights to the animated kids series Planet Sketch, a co-production of DECODE Ent. and Aardman Animations. Since debuting at MIPCOM in October, the 13 x 11 series, commissioned by CiTV and Teletoon, has also sold to Cartoon Network Latin America, ABC Australia and South African broadcaster M-Net.

Aimed at 7-11 year olds, Planet Sketch is a rapid-fire sketch comedy format featuring a cast of recurring characters that include the mean and moody Street Rappers, the gross-out prank-loving Gnaughty Gnomes and the flatulent Parping Ponies.

Toronto, Canada-based producer and distributor DECODE Ent. counts among its properties the animated television series Naughty Naughty Pets, Bromwell High, The Save-Ums, Franny’s Feet, King and Angela Anaconda. Based in Bristol, England, Aardman Animations is best known as the creator of DreamWorks Animation’s clay-animated features Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and is currently in production on its first CG feature, Flushed Away, also for DreamWorks. Another iron in the fire at Aardman is an Americanized version of its hit animated British TV series, Creature Comforts.