We’ve already written about Dan Vs., the Flash-animated series on The Hub. As it turns out, there’s another Flash-animated series on the network – My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I think I rolled my eyes when I heard about this series the first time, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll see that the team behind the show is rather impressive. Lauren Faust, who wrote on The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, developed the series retread, and Jayson Thiessen is the Supervising Director. You may have seen some of Jayson’s work here CHF in the past, and Rob Renzetti (creator of My Life as a Teenage Robot) is the show’s story editor. I also know many CHF readers have worked on the series, and there’s some top-notch Flash animation throughout. Pre-production is handled out of Los Angeles, and physical animation is produced at Studio B. Here’s a sample:
It’s worth mentioning that this series has fueled a meme, and terms like Bronies, Colts and Derpy Hooves have popped up on 4chan and, yes, PonyChan.
The Happy Tree Friends spin-off series has spun out Splendid. The latest 3-minute adventure from Mondo Media has launched, and it features the well-intended superhero Splendid, who has been redesigned for his new starring role. Roque Ballesteros directed and his pals at Ghostbot handled the design, storyboarding, layout and animation. This episode of Splendid’s SSSSSuper Squad is titled Mirror, Mirror, in which we meet Splendid’s arch nemesis – Splendont!
The new Happy Tree Friends project is officially live. It’s a spin-off project called KA-POW!, and it’s all-action, all the time. Okay, there’s comedy too… and blood. Lots of blood. The first episode is titled W.A.R. Journal Operation: Tiger Bomb and you are invited to watch:
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The project is based out of Mondo Media in San Francisco, but for this new series they’ve invited the gang at Ghostbot to animate. These companies have teamed up before for projects like Mole in the City, but for KA-POW! we’re seeing some new takes on the art direction.
To learn more about that and other topics, we are now joined by the co-creator of Happy Tree Friends, Kenn Navarro, writers Warren Graff and Ken Pontac, and Brad Rau, who works at Ghostbot. I should mention that I’ve now started consulting for the team at Mondo, so read cautiously. I’m working from the inside now, and I’m not to be trusted.
AARON SIMPSON: As you now watch your creation spawn a spin-off series, it must be pretty thrilling. Did you have any idea your original short would grow into something this popular? Read the rest of this entry »
A few shorts to share related to a common theme (wink) that relates to a yearly event (wink) that happens this time every year (wink). Here’s the latest episode from Eric Pringle’s series Prophet Buddy titled You Called It.
Sadly, there are not more Prophet Buddy episodes until May. We’re still hoping this is an April Fools joke.
And, as promised, Jayson Thiessen’s series is back for a second week of Mr. Obtuse.
Jayson Thiessen, the creator of one of my favorite Flash-animated shorts Chubby Dee, has launched a new animated series. Mr. Obtuse brings his digi-voice humor to the web every Tuesday – now known as “Obtuesday” (Jayson’s joke, wish I could take credit). Here’s episode 1:
