Author: Ryan Ball

Ricky Gervais, creator and star of the BBC breakout comedy hit, The Office, is set to bring his signature brand of British humor to Springfield. According to Daily Variety, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has tapped the Golden Globe winner to write an episode of Fox’s long-running animated series.

Gervais is keeping a tight lid on the storyline of his Simpsons installment, for which he will also lend his voice. All that is known is that he will not be reprising his Office role for the toon.

Groening and mutual fan Gervais let news of their teaming slip at the British Comedy Awards, where Groening accepted The Simpsons’ award for international comedy and Gervais picked up a special achievement award for writing.

The Office was named best comedy series at last year’s Golden Globes and earned Gervais a win for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. Despite the disastrous Americanization of the hit Brit series Coupling, NBC is moving forward with plans to debut the U.S. version of The Office as a mid-season replacement this year.

The Latin American comic strip, Condorito (Little Condor), may be flying north in the form of an animated TV series, according to Daily Variety. The popular funny pages feature, which has graced Spanish-language rags since its debut in Chile 55 years ago, will stay true to its Latino roots as it’s adapted for English-speaking audiences in the U.S.

Condorito was created by René Ríos “Pepo" Boettiger in 1949. The comics follow the exploits of a friendly condor who is joined in his wacky adventures by his nephew, Condy, his curvy human girlfriend, Yayita, and his loyal dog, Byte.

The property is owned by World Editors, a company managed by Latin American and U.S. Hispanic media vet David Taggart and Brad Bushell, a licensing and syndication consultant for Paws Inc., home of Garfield.

The development team behind the Condorito series includes Sergio Guerrero, co-writer/producer of the feature, A Day Without a Mexican; Rick Najera, creator of the long-running, touring stage production, Latinologues; and comic actor/writer Eugenio Derbez, whose credits include Hospital el Paisa and Shrek 2.

Visual elements for the series are being developed by Cineanimadores, the Chile-based producer of the animated feature, Ogu & Manpatu, and other Latin American Disney projects.

With ABC finding a huge audience and even bigger ad revenues with its supernatural action/adventure series, Lost, NBC is testing similar waters, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The network has ordered a pilot for Fathom, a deep-sea sci-fi actioner from NBC Universal Television that is sure to feature a good deal of digital effects work.

Created by the twin brother writing/directing team of Josh and Jonas Pate (The Grave, Deceiver), Fathom takes cues from James Cameron’s The Abyss as it investigates mysterious creatures living in the ocean depths. The Pates will direct and exec produce the pilot from a script they wrote. The brothers return to network TV after co-executive producing Dick Wolf’s failed ABC cop show, L.A. Dragnet.

When we reported that 15 MTV International channels were airing the new Happy Tree Friends holiday special, we were wondering if any U.S. broadcasters would have the cajones to broadcast the gruesomely funny show about cute, catastrophe-prone woodland creatures. Today there’s good news form producer Mondo Media Prods., which announced that Happy Tree Friends Winter Break will run eight times on MTV-2 starting Christmas Eve.

MTV-2 will be the first U.S. broadcaster to air the adult-targeted Happy Tree Friends, which became a cult hit on the festival circuit and with its three DVD releases. The property has even spawned a line of licensed products sold at major music retailers around the world.

The Christmas special will feature the debut of three brand-new holiday-themed episodes, in addition to existing installments such as last year’s Yule Tide hit, “Class Act,” and the “Christmas Kringles” animated greeting cards.

All MTV International channels currently airing the Happy Tree Friends series of animated shorts, including MTV’s various European, Latin American and Asian channels, will air the holiday special.

Happy Tree Friends Winter Break will premiere on MTV-2 on Friday, Dec. 24 at 5:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturday, Dec. 25, at 12:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 26, at 1 a.m., Monday, Dec. 27, at 10 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 28, at 12:30 a.m.; Thursday, Dec. 29, at 10:30 p.m.; and Friday, Dec. 30, at 2:30 a.m. A portion of the program will be available for viewing online at www.happytreefriends.com.

The Nicktoons Film Festival continues this Sunday with Screening 10– a selection of eight shorts that deal with folks we adore and folks who are a bit more challenging. A co-production of Frederator Studios and Animation Magazine for Nicktoons, The Nicktoons Film Festival airs on the Nicktoons cable channel Sunday nights 10 p.m. (EST) and 7 p.m. (PST), with a repeat at 1 p.m. (EST) and 10 p.m. (PST). The films featured in Screening No. 10–"The Friends & Enemies" Show are: The Wild Wild Circus Company from Canadian filmmakers Jean-Christian Knaff and Claude Micelli for indie-house Nelvana; Loco Melones from award-winning filmmaker Izabela Bzymek; Playing Cricket from NASA/JPL robotics engineer Jack Morrison; Beach Booty from CalArts grad Alex Hirsch; Fool Throttle from ReelWorks Animation Studio filmmakers Todd Hemker and Morgan Williams; Monkey, Monkey from New York-based filmmaker Melissa Jordan; Rustbuckets: The Last Rainforest from Australian filmmakers Daniel Kouts and Paul Harmon; and Six Snails Snoring from fine arts lawyer Charles Danziger.

The Nicktoons Film Festival:

Screening: 10–The "Friends & Enemies" Show

Airdate & Time: Dec. 26, 2004, 10 p.m. (EST); 7 p.m. (PST), Nicktoons

Film #1: The Wild Wild Circus Company: Fishy Memories (Length: 5:00; 3D animation with 2D textures)–Jean-Christian Knaff and Claude Miceli Knaff are a husband and wife team with expertise in illustration and sculpture. In addition to running their own studio, Knaff and Miceli, the two some have created an endearingly different series of shorts for Nelvana called The Wild Wild Circus Company. The story of two young acrobats, Nice and Bijou, who meet in a beautiful park, The Wild Wild Circus is a flight into the imagination. The episode we picked to show you is called Fishy Memories and involves performer Bernard as he remembers his unique childhood. (To find out more about the filmmakers and other Wild Wild Circus Company shorts produced for Canada’s major indie house, Nelvana, e-mail funpak@corusent.com.)

Film #2: Loco Melones (Length: 1:20; 3D animated in Softimage XSI)–Aren’t you glad you have your holiday shopping done? Now it’s time to get back to real life and the annoyance of little things, like the grocery store. In Loco Melones, filmmaker Izabela Bzymek turns a visit to a rather downtrodden little market into a Laurel & Hardy-esque parody of the everyday. Bzymek explains that the concept for her prize-winning short actually came from her boyfriend, who helped her sift through dozens of ideas. "We were both taking up 3D at the time and I had so many ideas, I couldn’t pick one. Mike suggested, jokingly, ‘Why don’t you do two old biddies fighting in a market?’ I thought, ‘Well, that’s not bad. I put a little story behind it and, voila! Loco Melones!" Ahh…if only everything were that easy! (To contact Izabela Bzymek e-mail her at ibzymek@yahoo.com or check out her illustration website, www.faeriesarereal.com.)

Film #3: Playing Cricket (Length: 1:40; 3D animated in Hash’s AnimationMaster)–As most of us know, the online dating thing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Humans, though, aren’t the only animals that have a hard time finding their soulmate. In Jack Morrison’s clever take on insect mating, crickets do, too! Says Morrison, "During their mating season, crickets like to invade our house, and their favorite spot is under the tracks of the largest sliding glass doors they can find. It got me thinking about how clever they are to pick the best spot for amplifying that annoying noise they make, and I wondered what extremes a cricket might go to boost his odds." Let’s just say, "all" extremes! (To reach Jack Morrison, e-mail him at jack@digins.com or check out some of the work he’s completed as a robotics engineer for NASA/JPL. Jack animated "Rover Navigation 101," at

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/animation.html)

Film #4: Beach Booty (Length: 1:27; 2D, edited in Adobe Premiere and After Effects)–Oh, the perils of sunbathing. Here’s what filmmaker Alex Hirsch has to say about the creation of his wonderfully uncomfortable short: "I made Beach Booty for my CalArts freshman year film," explains Hirsch. "First year shorts are required to be under 90 seconds, in black and white, so I needed to come up with a fun, simple story that would communicate quickly. Over winter break, I was cleaning out my garage when I found this old metal detector I used to have as a kid. Even though I never found much of anything, I always loved the idea that under the sand could be some kind of hidden treasure. That kind of thing really fueled my imagination, and I thought it would be a good jumping off point for a short." (You can contact Alex Hirsch through his e-mail address, Fezguy@hotmail.com.)

Film #5: Fool Throttle (Length: 5:00; Flash)–Talk about stylish and retro, filmmakers Todd Hemker and Morgan Williams really come off the line fast with Fool Throttle. Admittedly macabre, Fool Throttle is a cautionary tale that, according to these filmmakers from Minneapolis-based ReelWorks, offers a message of peace. The project started as simply ‘quirky eye candy’ bumpers for the commercial house’s demo reel. In the storyboard phase, exec producer Audrey Robinson Favorito challenged Hemker and Williams to take their scooter character to the next level and make it a real story. The filmmakers explain, "We drew inspiration from Dr. Seuss’s The Butter Battle Book. We liked how there is no clear innocent or guilty party in The Butter Battle, and how the entire conflict escalates over nothing but a matter of taste. Fool Throttle’s story of road rage is a bit like The Butter Battle, an innocent misunderstanding that leads to pointless aggression." As we all know, pointless aggression makes for really good cartoons! (To learn more about the filmmakers and their company, go to www.realworks.com.)

Film #6: Monkey, Monkey (Length: 2:18, 2D animation)–Oh, that little green monster does create conflict, doesn’t he? In the case of Melissa Jordan’s funny short, that least attractive of all traits is the main subject. Says Jordan, "I came up with the idea for Monkey, Monkey in storyboarding class at the School of Visual Arts. My teacher was the legendary Howard Beckerman and he asked us to create a storyboard on the topic of jealousy. I ended up making a whole film about it. I think the idea of using monkeys and a tropical theme comes from Florida, where I grew up." Jordan is working in New York at Funny Garbage, a web-design house. (To reach Melissa Jordan, e-mail her at melissasaurus@aol.com.)

Film #7: Rustbuckets: The Last Rainforest (Length: 3:00; CG animation)–Filmmaker Daniel Kouts says, "The films, TV shows and animated stories I’ve enjoyed the most are the ones that don’t rely on dialogue." One of his favorite examples is The Road Runner; another is Mr. Bean. The central character in Kouts’ 13×3 Rustbucket series, is Klank–a 24th-century robot who works as a janitor in an aging museum of the 20th century. "Klank has his comedic roots in the great silent film era comics–Chaplin, Keaton," adds Kouts, who worked with producer Paul Harmon, to develop the property. Of the several delightful Rustbucket shorts, we selected The Last Rainforest for its solid animation, whimsical tale and dash of pathos. Kouts has worked for such Australian houses as Animal Logic and Filmgraphics Prods. Harmon is an award-winning filmmaker/producer running his own ad agency downunder. The Australian Film Commission and SBC Television funded the pilot episode of the series. (For more information on Rustbuckets go to www.thinkingpictures.com.au.)

Film #8: Six Snails Snoring (Length: 3:00; Flash)–By day, Charles Danziger poses as a lawyer for fine artists, but here at the film festival we know he’s a talented animator to boot. Although Danziger explains that his film was created to help kids calm down at night, we found that it also has a wonderfully mesmerizing effect on adults. We kept watching it over and over without realizing it. "The idea behind Six Snails Snoring is that young children can learn to count as they go to bed, while at the same time literally counting down to bedtime," says Danziger. "I have tried to put each animal in imaginative scenes that are appealing to kids, such as fish eating French Fries, and peacocks playing ping-pong. By the end of the movie, the child will have sung good night to the animals, all ten of them will be happily snoring and, ideally, the child will be, too. The film’s extraordinarily talented composers, Drew Hemenger and Philip Carroll, managed to create the perfect, whimsical music to give each animal a distinct personality–and to send them off to sleep." (To contact Charles Danziger, e-mail him at charles@danziger.com. To see more of his animation, go to www.crunchyworld.com.)

Daily Variety reports that New York-based Cablevision may dissolve or sell off its HDTV satellite service, Voom, home to nearly 40 high-definition channels including Animania and Monsters HD. Launched in October of 2004, Voom was set to anchor a now defunct spinoff of Cablevision’s Rainbow Media, which includes cable outlets AMC, WE and IFC.

Voom has failed to show cablevision a return on its $150 million investment, mostly because it hasn’t been able to compete with DirecTV and EchoStar, which both offer HDTV programming. If Voom indeed goes on the auction block, EchoStar has been identified as the likeliest buyer, according to the trade.

Animania on Voom airs such animated series as 2020, Horrible Histories, The Gravediggers Squad, Ratz, Dan Dare–Pilot of the Future and Voltron: The Third Dimension, as well as cartoon classics such as The Pink Panther, Dick Tracy, Mr. Magoo and Felix the Cat.