Giving a shout out for the Human Resources season 2 trailer if you haven’t already seen it. It’s the Big Mouth spinoff show that seemingly no one knows about!
We worked on this show in-between / on top of seasons of Big Mouth, which made for a crazy schedule, but it also gave a lot of our team year round employment, which was awesome. I don’t think we could have asked for a better team than the crew that worked on this show.
Season comes out June 9! Very proud to have worked on this.
Lots of news in the last month – did not include much of the Disney / D23 announcements (there were a ton). A couple unionizations, some layoffs, and a bunch of Justin Roiland projects. Here we go!
If you missed it, the Solar Opposites Halloween Special is up on Hulu…
Paloni Show! Halloween Special! set to stream on Hulu on 10/17
More Roiland stuff on Hulu! Should be good nonsense. Props to my friends who have been slammin n jammin on getting this out.
Production workers vote to join the Animation Union at Bento Box
Harley Quinn renewed for Season 4 with new showrunner (Sarah Peters)
Lightyear had a decent launch on streaming considering it was up against Stranger Things
Rango Director Gore Verbinski shops his Netflix feature around town
Pinocchio live action getting some mixed responses
King of the Hill not going to be at Fox
Sounds like it could very well find a home at one of the streamers, just won’t be airing on Fox
Pixar releasing their first longform series on Disney+ starring Will Forte
Wondering how this will look compared to their features – I’m sure it will be classic Pixar high quality stuff
More layoffs / restructuring at Netflix Animation
Rick and Morty Season 6 premiere getting some good numbers
Emoji Movie creating some competition for the Queen’s funeral
Disney Parks attractions first looks – Coco, Frozen, Moana, Zootopia, Villains
Lots of parks news and lots of new attractions based on Disney properties
Netflix debuts Entergalactic trailer and key art
Great cast for the new Andy Samberg Digman series at Comedy Central
Have some friends working on this as well over at Titmouse – looking forward to seeing it
Here’s the cornucopia of animation trades news over the last month. Lots of HBO Max drama…
Emmys Individual Achievement Winners – Netflix almost swept it this year (lots of Arcane wins)
TV Academy Reveals Emmy Winners In Juried Categories
Good take from CNN on how Netflix is changing business models – this explanation is directly related to the changes at Netflix animation
Netflix is not in deep trouble. It’s becoming a media company
Dreamworks sets the Kung Fu Panda 4 Release Date (it’s March 8, 2024)
Love Death and Robots renewed for Season 4
Tubi orders Adult Animated Comedy Series from Julien Nitzberg about drug dealing bears – there’s not a ton of Tubi originals yet, so maybe they will start to have a presence in original animation
AMC shows off some ‘Pantheon’ trailer and key art finally – We have been making this at Titmouse and I haven’t seen much of it, so it’s cool to see how it’s turning out. Some definite Ghost in the Shell vibes.
Streaming views surpass cable for the first time (from Nielsen) – Everyone knew this was coming, so here we are at the crossroads where streaming is beginning to pass cable in scale
Ok, we have to talk about HBO Max here … lots of big changes this last month.
Lots of shows were to be pulled from HBO Max abruptly – 36 titles, with 20 titles being originals
Then we heard about more cuts from HBO Max – including a stack of Batman & WB projects, as well as the JJ Abrams Batman project
Cartoon Network creators then jumped in to blast Discovery’s decision (and handling) on removing these shows from HBO Max…
Fungies creator Stephen Neary “slams” HBO Max
Summer Camp Island creator Julia Potts reacts
Infinity Train creator Owen Dennis calls out HBO Max
So at least after all that, John Oliver called out HBO Max over pulling the series (no clip – not exactly surprising)
Ok that’s enough of that – I’m sure there will be more HBO Max stuff next time.
And closing this out on a lighter note – some footage of the lost American Sailor Moon pilot has been unearthed. It’s great and terrible in all the best ways.
Ok that’s it for this time. Stay frosty.
Hi animation friends – trying a new thing this week where I collect some animation news stories from around the trades over the last week and plug it into this easy to quickie read format. Enjoy!
For the Rick and Morty fans – Adult Swim announced the premiere date for Season 6 (I’ll save you the click – it’s September 4)
GDT’s stop motion Pinnochio is looking magical – if you haven’t seen the trailer yet (it’s also below here and it looks incredible)
Good review on Deadline for DC League of Super Pets
And some early weekend BO results for DC League of Super Pets that look positive
And the power of the Minions keep going … Minions Rise of the Gru is the first animated film to pass the $300M mark during the Covid era
South Park is celebrating and doing a 25th anniversary pop up shop + experience that is touring the world! Hollywood date for the experience is set for August 20 (likely in that weird empty lot at Hollywood and Vine they use for pop ups / Halloween mazes)
Sad news – Paul Coker, Rankin/Bass Production Designer and MAD Magazine illustrator has passed away at 93. (Here’s a bonus link to a pinterest board of Coker illustrations)
I’m slightly biased and excited about this news for my friends – Brutus Pink (creators of Big Mouth and Human Resources) have renewed their deal with Netflix through 2026
That’s it for now. Have a great week everyone.
nate funaro 