Oh Yeah ! Cartoons : #5 Blotto

Nickelodeon 

  Previously, Robot gives me feelings   [HERE]

       #5 Blotto

 Season 1, Episode 5c

 Blotto is created by Bryon Vaughns, and  this one goes for a fun idea.  It starts showing an artist's room and it shows ink blots and the ink blots on the paper start moving and this begins the story.  

                   This one has a fun art style using retro styled character designs for Blotto and Dotto. The ink world is pretty fun, still giving the space of being mostly white and empty to show that it's still paper. There's also a comic book world that gives it's own retro pop art vibe.   The entire 7 minutes are also sung. That's right this whole thing is music which makes it stand out and feels like an old cartoon where everything is music. 

     Wayne Brady sings Blotto's lines  while Kenna J Ramsey sings Dotto's lines. The story is simple Blotto loves the ink world while Dotto, doesn't she wants something more.  A comic book villain notices that Dotto doesn't like the ink world and thinks he has a chance for her to be with him. Thankfully, for him, his song works.  

    Blotto gets jealous and tries to see if he can get Dotto back but the villain able to do things in the comic book world to stop him. The cartoon here gets really cartoonish, and embraces the comic book world very well.  

      Then a director stops things and starts saying that Blotto is a star.  Also doesn't doesn't end well for Blotto.

    This one was very fun and energetic. I like the concept a lot. I don't think this one feels intended to be a series, and it probably wouldn't have worked as one, but it was really fun too see it. It makes sue of the fun of the animation medium quite well and harkens back to classic cartoons as well. The music aspect of it makes it really pop.  

            Say the line , alright, do go check this one out !

   That's it for now, tune in next time when we enter a world inside of notebooks!   

     

Oh Yeah! Cartoons : #4: Protecto 5000

Nickelodeon 

    Previously, the real villains are the girlfriends we make a long the way... (tugs collar) [HERE]

 

       #4 Protecto 5000

                                                                  Season 1, Episode 4a 

           Oh a robot!  Protecto 5000 was created John Eng ,whom also worked on "Jimmy Neutron" and "The How to Train your Dragon" series. (Unless IMDB was wrong)  Anyway, this short takes us through different time periods showing us different destructive things going.  To take us the short's present time.  

    There's a girl named Nadya she's moved a few times and has social anxiety problems  and her mother hopes that she'll be able to make friends at this new school.  She meets a robot named Kenny, who is disguised as a school janitor.  This school has some kids that bother her and lock her in a room that she's stuck in until the night.  

     Kenny finds her and helps and she's wonders what kind of robot he is, he eventually tells her that he's a protection android from a different galaxy.  He mentions how his boss, one of the beings we saw in the time sequence at the start; the one that went away after the atomic bomb test, is gone and he feels that he's bad luck.  

   

         A power line is knocked over by driver who fell sleep and he goes to save a party, Kenny is knocked out by the shock, but he's not death. They have become friends. 

       This one is great,  I love the concept, a girl who has no friends and is socially awkward and an android who feels guilt about not doing his primary function working together.  I think it would have been a fun series to have on TV. It would really be an interesting idea to have this progress to see how Kenny and Nadya help each other along the way, while also maybe help save people. 

       It's not comedic, and that's what works for it, it's heartwarming and little sad.  I don't know the reason why this didn't make it as a series, but I kind of wish we lived in the world where this was. 

   I like the character designs, Kenny is retro looking robot showing his age.  Nadya being so small compared to the bullies and Kenny is a nice contrast , showing how she might feel in the world. Teh character designs use nice basic shapes, Nadya's hands are not shown with fingers and her legs are point at the end. The biggest bully has a big body and little legs.  Very distinct art style design.  The voice acting is top notch, including, Grey Griffin, Joe Alaksey, and Mary Kay Bergman.  The short uses nice simple backgrounds that give their own characteristic  making characters pop.  

     

          I'm going to say this alot for these shorts, but here really do check this one out, I really found this one to be something special.  

   That's it for now, tune in next time, when I wipe the tears away. 

Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #3: ThattaBoy

Nickelodeon

   Previously:  what if   The Three little pigs were in X-Files? [HERE]

  

                               #3  ThattaBoy

                                  Season 1 Episode 3b

          Thattaboy  was created by Alex Kirwan who was hired to work at Frederator studios (the studio working on this series) right after leaving High School.  He worked drawing plots for "Johnny Bravo" and worked later on "My Life as Teenage Robot" , but he did submit one short for "Oh Yeah!" this one!

             

        This one has a vibe of classic cartoons to it, Thattaboy is superhero  who is tired of fighting robots.  Meanwhile there's an alien who wants to kidnap a popular TV dog to then invade the world.(That's a plan)  Also, there's a girl named Georgette who has Medusa snake hair who's birthday is coming up and wants Thattaboy so she can destroy him. 

   

    There's some teenage girls stealing things and they crash into Georgette's supervillain father where Thattaboy comes up and stops them.  His girlfriend, Polly, wants to be a supervillain. (What a twist!)  She let's the villains go and Thattaboy wonders if he should give, then the Martians show up and he goes maybe not .

    It's quick paced  and packing a lot in it's  almost 7 minutes.  The animation style has a retro almost art deco future style, giving the 30's vibe of what the future could look like.  The character designs are interesting. They are very distinctive, Thattaboy's eyes come together taking up most of his face, his costume is distinct, with a mix of yellow, blue, and red. His robot dog is very interesting too. The villains all have their own nice looks too, very creative Martians. Polly has a very retro cartoon woman design. 

          I think the  stories would have worked as eleven minute stories or a show having 3 7minute segments.  I do think this could have been interesting as a series, it's a fun superhero styled show with creative ideas, I liked that Polly is bored and decides to become evil, such a funny way to make a new villain.  Thattaboy is  a very focused on fighting crime character there are a lot of things that could be done with that. 

    The comedy is fun and past paced as well.  The  plans are creatively silly.  There's a really fun aesthetic  to this . Though, I will say some parts of it do feel like a little too fast and so, like you might not want to try to absorb it too fast.   There's some fun to be had watching this, so do go that. 

     

   That's it for now, tune in next time, when we turn evil. oooh 

         

   

           

       

        

       

         

       

Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #2 : F-Tales

Nickelodeon

                 Oh Yeah! Previously, Jelly's Day was fun we spent a day had fun, saw plant -human love come in action.  [HERE] 

 

 

#2 F-Tales

                                                              From Season 1, episode 2a

       No, we aren't covering up the F-word, that's the name of the short. This is one going as parody of  "The X-Files" because this is the 1990's and of course there is going to be a parody. 

   

   It even has "X-Files" tile theme intro, just enough to be different so they don't get sued, but close enough to make sure you notice it.  This one was created by Rob Renzetti. he worked on a few Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network shows before doing things for Nick and we'll be seeing his name a few times during our journey.  He did get a Nick series that being "My Life as Teenage Robot".  

      The F in F-Tales is based on fairy tales stories and doing fairy tale stories as mysteries to be solved.  A Fox woman and Chicken Little are our two lead investigators our Muller and Scully if you will. They are investigating the story of the "Three Little Pigs"

      You can tell where this story goes, mostly but the twist is fun and like how the wolf is defeated. The ending is funny too. I like how the Chicken Little's madness is set up from the start. 

  

               This was fun, but I can tell why this was wise not to make it a series. The thing that hurts it is the "X-Files" parodying, that wouldn't really hold the show as much, the only thing that works for maybe is the X Files. That's fun for an episode, but I can see where it would wear thin as a series. Also fairly tales, the subverting Fairy tales thing could have worked though as this was right before "Shrek" would scratch that itch. 

    For what it is though, it's a pretty fun short, the humor is well done. It was all fun to see.  The character designs and personalities were fun. The nervous chicken-little who worried about the sky falling and thinking everything is a conspiracy (so he's Facebook?) , the cool fox who's more grounded, the pigs have their own designs and personalities.   Give this one a look. 

     Oh yeah! Some of these posts are going to be short, I'm giving each short their own little post, instead of doubling them up. 

    Anyway that's it for now, tune in next time when we investigate why the little mermaid melted into foam. 

  

        

Oh Yeah! Cartoons : #1: Jelly's Day

Nickelodeon 

  

            "Oh Yeah! Cartoons" was a feature on Nickelodeon back in the late 1990's, the idea was to feature shorts that would let new talent and those who wanted to get their projects out there to an audience and maybe gage what could be the next series.  Something we don't really see today on TV, a format of programming  that's airing these.  Now, they have done this stuff online, but it seems doing it on TV has been more muted.   

   

          This was crated by Fred Seibert , who was part of MTV's early days the man who helped create the famous visuals the channel had, later he helped MTV's sister network, Nickelodeon , get a new look : the famous orange splat, and also created Nick at Nite.  He worked at Hanna-Barbera later on and helped make their cartoon incubator/anthology  series "What a Cartoon!"  which helped formulate some big Cartoon Network series.  This idea came to Nickelodeon with this series. 

     Here's what these series of posts will be doing is taking a look at some shorts that were featured on it. To make it more interesting, I won't be doing any shorts from things that became series, like "Fairly Odd Parents",  "Chalkzone" , or "My Life as a Teenage Robot" . The things that were series in "Oh Yeah!" but not otherwise a series , may be featured but  in a different way.  The main idea is we'll be going through and seeing an alternate world of things that what could have been. 

         This  is our look at "Oh Yeah Cartoons",  

   

more after the jump 

TVLookFall 2022: What's New, What's Renewed, What's Ended?

TVLookFall2022  ABC CBS  CW FOX NBC 

Last Updated May 16 ,2022 at 9:46 AM MT 

    It's our annual list of network TV moves either shows being renewed or canceled /ending. Also what's new? For disclosure, we are going to count reboot or one of those shows that are returning after ending as new , just to keep this list consistent.

Also to be determined is our list for shows that haven't been officially given a status so, it's constantly changing. 

 ABC 

Renewed 

A Million Little Things 

Abbott Elementary

America's Funniest Home Videos

American Idol  

Bachelor in Paradise  

Big Sky

Celebrity Wheel of Fortune

Grey's Anatomy 

Home Economics 
Judge Steve Harvey

Shark Tank

Station 19 

The Bachelor

The Conners 

The Goldbergs

The Good Doctor

The Rookie 

The Wonder Years

Canceled 

Black-ish 

Promised Land (final episodes moved to Hulu) 

Queens  

The Ultimate Surfer 

To Be Determined 

Reality/Summer shows (determined at their own times)

New Series 

Alaska 

Not Dead Yet 

The Rookie: Feds

CBS 

Renewed 

Blue Bloods 

Bob Hearts Abishola 

CSI: Vegas

FBI   ( 2 seasons) 

FBI : International  ( 2 Seasons) 

FBI: Most Wanted  ( 2 Seasons) 

Ghosts 

NCIS 

NCIS Los Angeles 

NCIS Hawaii 

The Equalizer (2 seasons) 

The Neighborhood

SWAT 

Young Sheldon

Canceled 

B Positive

Bull

Good Sam 

How We Roll 

Magnum P.I 

United States of Al

To Be Determined 

Reality/Summer shows (determined at their own times) 

Survivor 

The Amazing Race

Secret Celebrity Renovation

New Series 

East New York 

Fire Country

So Help Me Todd

 CW 

Renewed 

All American 

All American : Homecoming 

Kung Fu 

Nancy Drew

Riverdale 

Superman and Lois 

The Flash 

Walker

Canceled 

4400

Bat Woman 

Charmed

DCs Legends of Tomorrow 

Dynasty

In The Dark 

Legacies 

Naomi 

Rosewell, New Mexico 

To Be Determined 

Reality/Summer shows (determined at their own times) 

New Series 

Gotham Knights 

The Winchesters

Walker: Independence 

FOX 

Renewed 

9-1-1

9-1-1: Lonestar

Bob's Burgers

Call me Kat 

Crime Scene Kitchen 

Duncanville

Next Level Chef

The Cleaning Lady 

The Masked Singer 

The Resident 

The Simpsons

Welcome to Flatch

Canceled 

Our Kind of People

Pivoting

The Big Leap

To Be Determined 

Moving to Fall 

Monarch 

Reality/Summer shows (determined at their own times) 

New Series 

NBC 

Renewed 

American Auto 

Chicago Fire 

Chicago Med

Chicago P.D 

Grand Crew

La Brea

Law and Order 

Law& Order : Organized Crime

Law & Order : SVU

New Amsterdam (renewed for final season) 

The Blacklist

Young Rock

Canceled 

Ordinary Joe 

Kenan

Mr. Mayor

The End Game 

This is Us

To Be Determined

 

Reality/Summer shows (determined at their own times) 

New Series 

Lopez vs. Lopez 

Quantum Leap 

The Lookback: Kids of Degrassi Street: Cookie Goes to the Hosptial

The Flashback Degrassi 

 

            Previously, I looked  at the short film that started the entire Degrassi world,  "Ida Makes a Movie"  That premiered on September 12, 1979, the 2nd episode of "Kids of Degrassi Street" premiered on September 1, 1980 with "Cookie Goes to the Hospital" This the second of the original 4 films before it got to be its own series.  

        The  basic idea of  this series was really to present a realism in storytelling for kids watching. This one is about Ida's friend, Cookie. Ida and her friend, Noel, don't want to let Cookie's doll join their secret club, but that's only establish how important the doll is to her, as later on, Ida goes home and finds out  Cookie is in the hospital with appendicitis and really wants her doll.

  

       Ida and Noel find out that kids under the age of 12 are not allowed in the Children's ward (ironic) and the nurse at the front follows that rule to a strict tee.  Most of their plot is both of trying to find different ways to get in the ward to get to Cookie to give her the doll and failing.  

  Meanwhile, Cookie is in her hospital room, where the moments with her are used to give to show how the hospital experience. While Cookie is told by her nurse how the operation will be going and what to expect, she worries about her doll and hopes that it will show up. During her segments they do feel natural with it's explanations  as a way to show it's audience how this works to kind of reduce fear. 

    

      It seems that Ida and Noel  unwillingness to give up works, as just before Cookie was about to into surgery, her nurse ends up finding Ida and they rush to get the doll to Cookie. The end they meet with Cookie and her Doll and play.

       

     A  very charming installment, basic story, but does a great purpose. I also see that the start with Ida and Noel having a strict rule for the club ties in with the hospital's rule on Children and sometimes letting a rule bend is a beneficial. At least that's what  I got from it.  It's presents what it's going for well  with an entertaining story.

      I couldn't really do this with a beat by beat look, just because that would be me just explaining every detail, and that wouldn't be too much of a fun read.  That's our stop, at Degrassi street for now, we make a turn here until later.   

It's a Lookback, Charlie Brown: For Auld Lang Syne

Peanuts 

      

     When started the Peanuts posts here on this site, there were 45 specials in all, the most recent of those was from 2011, that being  "Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown"   The 2010's by happenstance ended up being the first decade where there was only 1 new Peanuts special since the things started in the 1960's. 

     Most of the post Schulz death specials take a plot  or vignettes from the strips and purpose them into specials. Which wasn't a new thing, that happened after his death, but it seemed to be the way to go after his death.  In the 2010's there was a slight dry up of Peanuts media, not  a drought though.  There was a French shorts series called "Peanuts", that also ran on Cartoon Network/Boomerang in the US, there was some graphics novels, and even a movie.  

    Now of the 45 specials only a few had reruns by 2019, those being The Christmas one, the shorts Christmas one made to fill time because ABC wants more ads, The Great Pumpkin, Thanksgiving, an episode of "This is America Charlie Brown", You're Not Elected, I Want a Dog, New Year, She's a Good Skate. Be My Valentine, and A Charlie Brown Valentine. The Easter Beagle stopped running in 2014, because I guess Disney ABC just didn't care, that also meant they didn't run either , Lucy Must be Traded or Charlie Brown's All Stars any more anyway.

 

        In speaking of ABC, they did renew rights, after their initial pick up from CBS in 2000, and that contract was up in 2020.  The Streaming is the future folks decided to swerve and cause chaos, but before that some changes happened with Peanuts.  In 2010, United-Media owned 80 percent of Peanuts sold that to Iconix Brand Group, the Schulz Family still had 20 percent.  In 2017, Canada's DHX bought Iconix's stake  and this (as WildBrian ) is who co-owns Peanuts currently. They decided to jump into making Peanuts media quickly. They decided to work with new streaming service , in the great  streaming race, with Apple's Apple TV plus, which is the  one with that might not have alot of people using it.  

      

     Wildbrain made two series "Snoopy in Space" and "The Snoopy Show" for the streaming service, so far. They are doing that thing were they want to milk using Snoopy as  a centerpiece even though Peanuts has always been more about the people than Snoopy, but corporation gonna be corporate. In a more sad decision (though some will say, it's the future, and  that's where I walk away muttering under my breath) they decided to abandon normal television to have Peanuts specials , the holiday ones mostly,  stream on Apple TV Plus (I'm sure their subscriber was happy)  after running on  a broadcast network of some sort since 1965.   It's not really the future, it's that a desperate Apple had money to splash hoping that people would chose them for to be another streaming service they have to contend with.   This is did cause some backlash so Apple decided to go to PBS , to help them out  and run the fall/winter holiday specials at least once. 

      In this deal, they made a new special  and I don't like the title : "Snoopy Presents : For Auld Lang Syne"  the thing that bugs me is the name being that way. Snoopy Presents, instead of the conventional  like "For Auld Lang Syne, Charlie Brown"  or  "A Charlie Brown Auld Lang Syne" or "Charlie  Brown's  Auld Lang Syne"  the focus on Snoopy and his name as the brand is slightly tedious and annoying to me, I'm mostly writing this to say I don't like it as some one who loves Peanuts and even knows why the specials don't use Peanuts in the titles.   It's also annoying for consistency reasons where 45 specials use  some variation of  same title structure and number 46 just walks up here  and messes up things. I'm not going to use my distaste for the title though to take away from anything about the special itself. From 2021, this  is "Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne" (the only time I will call it this in this post) 

         The animation style is  pretty nice, I'm glad it's full 2D and not 3D CGI, but looks like the budget was increased from the 2000's days (The blanket one from 2011 had nice animation)  The backgrounds are nice and feel like Peanuts. 

Snowy day/ Copyright Peanuts 

    

   This special is going to be focused on Lucy, it's not the first time a Peanuts special focused on not Charlie Brown, especially if you've read my past  Peanuts posts. Lucy is happy that her Grandma is coming soon, this is the famous blanket hating grandma. Also we get a "Citizen Cane" mention.  Snoopy's brothers and his sister come over to the Brown house for their own fun with Snoopy.

The answer is Rosebud/Copyright Peanuts 

 

    Charlie Brown is feeling down that he didn't do well on his resolutions that past year. (I  mean, most people don't care about their resolutions after February so...)    The first 6   minutes are really setting up things  and maybe some Peanuts Easter eggs like they are trying to make sure they remember Peanuts' biggest hits. (I would do the same , but do 80's and 90's strip deep cut references), then on Christmas Eve and Lucy gets a phone call and gets news from Grandma that she's not coming.  

It's like a cheap game where you dress up a still Lucy/Copyright Peanuts

     Like the Peanuts Movie, using that as a comparison since this is new story instead of ripped from the comics, they use more famous 60's- early 80's designs of the characters (so girls not Peppermint Patty in dresses) the phone is rotary not even push button, etc.

More after the Jump