Along with Curious Pictures, Disney is set to launch ‘Disney’s Little Einsteins’ brand, extending on the wildly popular ‘Baby Einstein’ franchise. Disney purchased the Baby Einstein company a few years back, and they’ve wasted little time expanding the brand. Now, next month, Disney plans the launch of the first ‘Little Einsteins’ DVD/video, which will be closely followed by an October 2005 launch on Playhouse Disney on the Disney Channel. According to an AWN article from earlier this year, in each episode, “the characters journey through the landscape of a renowned painting or work of art from a range of cultures.”

Curious Pictures, the New York-based producer of shows like ‘Codename : Kids Next Door,’ is handling the animation, and from the looks of a few resumes I’ve found floating on the ‘net, the ‘Little Einsteins’ is being produced with both Flash and After Effects. The show, which is aimed at the pre-school market, is using a unique production method, mixing “animation, real-world footage and art.” A trailer is available for viewing at the ‘Little Einsteins’ website, and more clips are cut into this testimonial promo. Here’s the title sequence:

Big thanks to Chris Siemasko over at Animation Mafia for the story tip.

Alex Dobuzinskis, of The Daily News of Los Angeles, recently posted a brief article titled ‘Last holdout embraces the future,’ which focuses on Glendale, California’s Renegade Animation. The article also discusses ‘Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi,’ and the future of the 2D animation pipeline, in particular, how the industry is quickly veering towards an all-digital workspace. One of Renegade’s storyboard artists, Scott O’Brien, is currently making the switch to a digital tablet device (presumably a Wacom tablet), and the article boasts that this transition marks the end of Renegade’s pencil-holders.

Dobuzinskis also offers up some cost saving figures, which very well may reflect what’s happening at Renegade, but I’d hate to see the whole industry painted with this brush.

Ultimately, the cost of Flash animation — about four times cheaper than traditional animation because it requires only one-third of the staff — helps save the company from sending work overseas for “finishing,” as many other animation firms have done.

I applaud Renegade for keeping the animation work stateside, as many of my friends are amongst their crew, but unrealistic expectations about Flash production have been an albatross around the movement’s neck since the beginning. Animating with a vector-based software package like Macromedia’s Flash can surely help shave costs, but I’d imagine an apples-to-apples comparison would show aggregate, across-the-industry savings to be a little less exciting than ‘four times cheaper.’

‘Faireez,’ new Flash-animated series is gearing up to launch onto multiple international networks. The series, which is aimed at kids 5-7, is a co-production by Australia’s Moody Street Kids and Canada’s Funbag Animation. The show welcomes us “to the animated series Faireez, where four intrepid trainees – Gabby, Polly, Tucker and Tim – do their best to foil the plans of the bad-tempered, feckless and wet-blanket-baddie: Jumpalina.” You can see a few seconds of animation on the Funbag Animation website, but be prepared for the large download – 40mb. The show will initially air on the UK’s GMTV, Australia’s Network Ten and Nickelodeon Australia, and the B Wooding Media site has an October 2005 date for US market availability.

Breakthrough Animation, one of the fine companies behind the international Flash-animation hit ‘Atomic Betty,’ is rolling out a fresh new show. ‘Captain Flamingo,’ a 30-episode co-production with Heroic Film Company, Atomic Cartoons and PASI Animation, will be rolling out on Canada’s YTV in January 2006. The show centers on Milo Powell, a little boy with a terrycloth cape who fights for justice along with his next door neighbor Lizbeth. The property bowed at NATPE 2005, and expect a worldwide rollout to commence soon.

Last month I posted news of MTV Networks’ purchase of ‘Kappa Mikey,’ a Flash-animated anime spoof, for global distribution. The intention is to roll out the show on Nicktoons in the US and Nickelodeon Interenational (both under the MTV Networks umbrella) next year. The show, which was created by Animation Collective’s Larry Schwarz, focuses on “once-struggling American actor Mikey Simon as he adjusts to his new role as the biggest anime star Japan has even seen. But fame doesn’t come without a price.” On the heels of this news is the announcement that 4Kids Entertainment, the New York-based provider of children’s entertainment and merchandising, just picked up the the worldwide licensing, marketing and promotional rights for the show, which bodes well for Kappa Mikey’s future. Along with this recent press release comes some new show art, which feels reminicent of Comedy Central’s ‘Drawn Together,’ a show that marries various animation styles into one show. But now that I see the art, I’m starting to think that this show won’t be produced in Flash. The models, especially the anime-inspired characters, are fairly intricate, and might not be very Flash-friendly. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.