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!)

Toon Zone’s message board community was hit with the following question earlier this week…

Is Conventional Animation Doomed?

New Jersey’s JD Weil supposed that because of the increased use of “CGI and Flash, conventional 2D animation may not survive.”

The question hit a nerve, and the discussion that followed attempted to answer JD’s original query while touching on the essential topics surrounding the Flash ‘revolution’ – Why is Flash becoming so popular? Does Flash limit animation quality? Can a digital project ever supplant the appeal of hand-painted cell animation? The discussion eventually veered way off track and inevitably digressed into chest-pounding, taste-bashing and people sticking up for shows they once worked on.

A few highlights from the thread are listed below.

Matt Wilson

Flash animation creates jobs for animators in the US that is not possible with “conventional” animation.

joshualane

Hand-drawn 2D animation is evolving to a point where things are done entirely on computers. Whether they use flash for the animation, or some other program, it really doesn’t matter. So, yes, “conventional” hand-drawn animation is doomed.

Matt Wilson

The programs certainly don’t do it for the animator. It’s no magic money tree, there’s hard work involved.

Prism

Don’t write off any form of animation as being doomed because there are always comebacks and this includes all mediums.

SirLemming

…I must point out again that Flash animation isn’t very limited. It’s just that most people who use it don’t have big budgets.

Prism

After all Lilo and Stitch would not have been the same without the watercolors that were everywhere. Right now cel is the most versatile of all the animation techniques and digital has a long way to go before it can catch up. (Editor: I can’t let this one go without commenting – Flash allows an artist to import ANY type of non-digital medium, as long as it can be lifted onto a flatbed scanner. Granted, the lens of a scanner may not capture the soul of a watercolor rendering the way film would, but it should be understood that Disney’s feature film ‘Lilo and Stitch’ could have been made in Flash. I wouldn’t have advised Disney to attempt this, but Flash can act as an ink and paint program if need be.)

Scythemantis

…hand-drawn animation has never shown and is not showing ANY sign of being “replaced” by Flash. Flash may be cheaper and quicker but that only means we get more cartoons, rather than different-looking cartoons,

livingfruitvirus

If you want cancelled shows , here’s more: Home Movies (they were the first), Gary the Rat, This Just In, Yakkety Yak, Atomic Betty, Harvey Birdman, O’Grady, Stroker and Hoop (coming soon), Hey Monie!, Shorties Watching Shorties, and probably a couple more I’m forgetting.

Scythemantis

Some people seem to also be confusing “bad animation” with “bad art”. They are totally, totally different things. A bad drawing can be animated well and a good drawing can be animated cheaply.

Desdiablo

Conventional animation isn’t doomed, it’s just taking another turn.

I think Desdiablo’s very civil post sums it up best. Whether the shows being produced in Flash suit your artist taste, wallet or funny bone, the medium is upon us and gaining ground – fast.

It was only 2 years ago, we must remind ourselves, that Flash barely had a toe-hold in any major US animation studios. There was ‘Mucha Lucha’ at Warner Bros. Animation, the Disney Channel shorts ‘The Proud Family Shorties,’ and the ill-fated ‘Kid Notorious’ at Comedy Central.

But check this out – as of today, there’s at least 9 Flash animated shows on (or soon to come on) US television.

1 Mucha Lucha – Warner Bros. Animation

2 Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Show – Cartoon Network

3 Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends – Cartoon Network

4 Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law – Adult Swim, Cartoon Network

5 Atomic Betty – Cartoon Network

6 The Venture Bros. – Adult Swim

7 Katbot – Disney (coming soon, I hear)

8 Omega Dome – Noodlesoup (coming soon)

9 Maggie – Disney TV Animation (coming soon)

I’m not positive on Katbot or Omega Dome, but the rumors are leaning that way. Regardless, it’s been quite an impressive run for ol’ Flash TV animation, once pronounced dead on the floor of the big internet bubble. That being said, most of these are being animated overseas or up north in Canada. But, as studios are quickly learning, the ability to do on-the-fly retakes, and maintain extremely strick on-model accuracy throughout a production is a huge plus.

Long live Flash animation!