The team at Ireland’s Flickerpix have revealed a 3-minute teaser for a new Flash-animated series titled Zig & Zag. The characters in the series were created and performed by Ciaran Morrison and Mick O’Hara, who first introduced Zig and Zag as puppets back in 1987. They eventually became quite popular as part of the cast on Channel 4′s The Big Breakfast. They’ve since starred in a number of programs and TV spots, and this is their first step into the world of animation. Animation production was handled at Boulder Media, another Irish company.

The German studio JEP Animation has produced a whole pile of Rudolf episodes. The series is a Flash-animated production about a travelling salesman for French television. The episodes, which are directed by Rudi Mertens, are 3 minutes long, and 13 of them can be seen at the Canal J website. Leonard Ward was the lead animator most of them.

Toon Factory, the French animation studio, recently teamed up with Foothill Entertainment to land some distribution deals for their animated series. Samson & Néon, a Flash animated series that already airs on France 3, is about a hyperactive Earthling named Samson who befriends an extraterrestrial named Neon. While Flash puppets are obviously in use here, it’s well animated, and fills quite “full” for a Flash show. Here’s a 2-minute sample (in French):

The team at Blue Spirit Animation, formerly known as Spirit Productions, has been hard at work on a new Flash-animated series titled Le monde de Pahé (The World of Pahe). It airs on France 3, and I haven’t read about it jumping the pond or being dubbed into English, but here’s a little sizzle reel I spotted:

The boys at Ka-Ching Cartoons have been mighty busy, churning out a new kids show titled De Grobbebollen Maken Lol (in Dutch “lol” rather appropriately means “fun”). It’s in Dutch, but there’s plenty of physical comedy that translates into any language. [might need Silverlight to view this]

[UPDATE] I learned from Joost at Ka-Ching that they’re making 52 five-minute episodes over 2 seasons. They’re also working with artists from around the globe like Mick Harrison, Jesse Cote and Todd Ramsay