Since launching on YouTube about a year ago, Future Thought’s animated Crime Time series has tallied a few million views. They’ve reportedly embarked on 92 new episodes, half of which will be penned by Nassos Vakalis. He is the director of the series, but his day job finds him storyboarding on Monsters vs. Aliens - the upcoming DreamWorks animated feature. Here’s a new episode of Crime Time titled Midnight Lover.

Nassos Vakalis’ online series Crime Time has hit the big time. The Flash-animated episode titled Electro-Phobia, which was animated by Mumbai-based Future Thought Productions, has tallied up nearly a quarter of a million views on YouTube.

Nassos Vakalis, an Emmy Award winning artist in Los Angeles, has teamed up with Future Thought Productions to create Crime Time. The series, produced out of Mumbai, India, follows the adventures of Shifty, “a pint-sized pilferer with lofty ambitions and limited brainpower.” Vakalis directs and designed the characters, which draw inspiration from the classic UPA shorts. Future Thought utilized Flash and SoftImage in producing the series. Below is an episode titled Paint Job:

I just spotted a link to the new ‘The Buzz on Maggie’ website while browsing the ‘Animation Nation’ message boards. ‘Maggie’ is a new Flash-animated show from Disney that’s now set to bow on The Disney Channel in June, and the website is currently hosting 8 20-30 second clips from the show. It looks great, especially the ‘Mr. Pesky’ clip.

Maggie is described as “the funky fly girl with an extreme taste in music! She lives in the fly metropolis of Stickyfeet with her fun family and with her sassy best friend Rayna at her wing, Maggie’s life is a little wild and totally out of the ordianry — just the way she likes it!”

The show is being written by the always funny Bill Motz and Bob Roth, who I believe are also producers on the show. The director is Dave Wasson, the creator of ‘Time Squad’ who is also producing, and it’s being animated at Future Thought Productions (Bombay) and Bardel Entertainment (Vancouver).

I’m expecting great things from this show, as I know how talented the crew is. Jorge Gutierrez, Sandra Equihua and Katie Rice are splitting the character design effort, and the storyboards are under the supervision of Spumco-grad Gabe Swarr. And the list continues - Roman Laney is handling BG design and Ricky Garduno storyboarded several episodes. Ray Morelli, another Spumco-vet also chipped in with board revisions. Can’t wait!

Indian animation studio Dawsen Infotech is getting set to deliver the 85th episode of their Flash-animated series ‘Thakurmar Jhuli,’ which translates roughly to ‘Grandmother’s Bag of Stories.’ The show has been running since late 2003, and it’s based on a book of the same name, written by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder. It features well-known ‘Bangla fiction’ stories that have been passed down from one generation to the next. From what I can tell, the show is a regional presentation, running on Zee Telefilms ‘Alpha Bangla’ network, which makes it’s long run even more impressive.

The production studio, Dawsen Infotech (I can’t help but think of Initech from the live-action feature ‘Office Space’), is mostly known for a few dozen CD-ROM titles, like ‘Toon Tutor’ and ‘Word Wizard,’ all presumably animated in Flash. After viewing a few samples of Dawsen’s animation on their site, I can’t imagine that the quality of this show is very high, but their success touches on a bigger point - Indian Flash animation is on the rise.

According to a recent study, the Indian animation industry as a whole should grow by 30% through the year 2008, at which time it will be a $15 billion industry. Rediff, an Indian newspaper, ran an article last week offering three reasons why:

1) India has a vast base of English speaking workforce
2) the presence of good studios and
3) the low cost of animation services

I think we can assume that the later is the primary reason, which is supported by this quote from the same article, “The total cost for making a full-length animated film in America is estimated to be $100 million to $175 million. In India, it can be made for $15 million to $25 million.”

The recent financial collapse of Bangalore-based jadooWorks and an impending talent-shortage offer a sobering footnote to this shooting-star story. But even this incident shouldn’t diminish the rapid rise of studios like UTV Toons, DQ Entertainment and Future Thought Productions, all Flash animation producers.

But through all of this, Dawsen Infotech continues to churn out episodes of ‘Thakurmar Jhuli,’ as well as a new Flash property titled, ‘Tuntuni.’ Whether it’s local content like these shows, or service work for French or American studios, it seems like India will be a home to Flash animation for years to come.

The upcoming TV animation season is making room for more Flash-animated series, while holding spots open for returning favorites.

Here’s the latest on the Flash shows coming up in the 2005-06 season:

KIDS’ WB!
Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island (NEW!)
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, this new Flash-animated show tries it’s best to keep up with the indomitable spirit of Coconut Fred. He’s a positive force of madness who inadvertently causes mayhem on the tropical homestead known as Fruit Salad Island. Coconut Fred is due out in the Fall, and it’s also a show I happen to be producing.

CARTOON NETWORK
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (returning)
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite shows on the ol’ TV. I spent much of the first season watching the incredibly smooth Flash animation, trying to figure out how they do it, and now I’m simply immersed in the show. This show is animated in two locations - at the Burbank-based Cartoon Network Studios LA, and at Boulder Media in Ireland.

Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi (returning)
This show currently holds the record for Cartoon Network’s best premiere, and now it’s coming back for a second season. It’s loosely based on the bandmates from Puffy AmiYumi, the poppy, cheery j-pop group who sing the title song for ‘Teen Titans.’ It’s being produced and animated at Renegade Studios in Glendale, California.

Atomic Betty (returning)
Atomic Cartoons out of Vancouver, Canada, created, sold and now produces this show along with Breakthrough Entertainment. It’s the only Flash-animated show on Cartoon Network that you can truly call an action show. In my opinion, Flash isn’t the best option for shows like this, but you’d never know by watching ‘Atomic Betty.’

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (returning)
Harvey Birdman wasn’t originally animated in Flash, but they’ve made the switch. It makes perfect sense, as the animation, while funny, is the definition of ‘limited.’

DISNEY CHANNEL
The Buzz on Maggie (NEW!)
A handful of ‘Mucha Lucha’ artists and production crew headed over to ‘Maggie’ last year, which bodes well for this show. The Mucha Crew was the first to get the overseas Flash animation pipeline oiled and pumping. It also won’t hurt to have Dave Wasson, the creator of ‘Time Squad,’ on board as Executive Producer and Director. The show reportedly follows Maggie, a teenage fly with a positive attitude, who faces the diligent, routine-oriented world around her. The word on the street is that this show is built like a sitcom, but it looks great and animates extremely well. It kicks off in June on The Disney Channel in the 9:30am slot. This show is being animated at Bombay-based Future Thought Productions and at Bardell Entertainment in Vancouver.

Katbot (NEW!)
Created by Funny Garbage out of New York City, Katbot originated as a web series. It stars a good-natured robot cat from planet Katatonia. She poses as a foreign student to mask her alien background, and tries to fit in with the Earth natives. You already know Funny Garbage’s work - they help produce ‘Crank Yankers’ and designed all of the puppets and the imaginative title credits. They’re also the creative team behind the ‘Teen Titans’ opening title sequence. This show is being animated at Funny Garbage in New York City and Collideascope in Nova Scotia.

FOX SPORTS
Omega Dome (NEW! - *updated*)
Coming to Fox Sports Net this Fall, ‘Omega Dome’ is the sporting man’s delight - complete with full-contact indoor sports, as you can see from the accompanying photo. It’s coming to you from the gang that delivered ‘Venture Bros.’ to Cartoon Network - New York City’s Noodlesoup, and it centers on two sports lovers who never want to leave home. The show idea was hatched by Noodlesoup creative-guru Jeff Nodelman, and it’s being written by David I. Stern, who is also busy with the script for Sony Pictures Animation’s ‘Betting the Farm.’ Intercutting live-action sports clips with Flash animation, ‘Omega Dome’ has been described as ‘an animated show for sports fanatics; if you quote Homer Simpson and remember where you were when LT mistook Joe Theisman for a party piñata, then this is the show for you.’ If it’s even half as funny as ‘Venture Bros,’ I’ll be at the fiesta on day 1.

**update**
NICK JR.
Wubby Widget & Walden (NEW!)
I somehow forgot to include Bob Boyle’s new show, which will premiere in 2006. I’m not 100% sure this show will be produced in Flash, but I’ve heard rumblings suggesting so. The show eminated from Frederator’s book-centric property effort, that landed ‘Wubby’ a Random House book deal. Press releases have hinted about the three characters, Wubby, Widget and Walden, who each look at the world a different way, and go about problem solving accordingly. Check out Bob’s groundbreaking plog (production blog).

(A big thanks to Amid at Cartoon Brew for the support!)
(And another big thanks to botbotin and SteveLambe for fact checking!)