The creative folks at Powerhouse Animation have assembled a new music video for the Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. The video, which features a song by The Austin Lounge Lizards, takes a stab at the governmental agencies that enforce toy safety in America. With recent reports of GHB, the date rape drug, turning up inside toys, the Consumer Union lays blame on shrinking budgets, lack of retailer responsibility and minimal penalties, and lays out solutions at notinmycart.org.

I recently had the opportunity to work directly with Powerhouse Animation, and I can’t say enough about this Austin-based team. Its not often a studio exceeds your expectations in every category, and I just hope I get the opportunity to team up with them again. Bravo, gang.

Lastly, The Austin Lounge Lizards are no strangers to Flash animation. Their track The Drugs I Need wound up in a wildly popular music video years back titled Drugs I Need. It was animated by The Animation Farm, and then distributed by JibJab.

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Not surprisingly, JibJab’s Halloween humor is politically-skewed this year. The California-based Flash animation team has released two new Starring You shorts, which allow users to upload their own photos - essentially ‘casting’ the short. Both sides of the beltway aisle have something to laugh at here with two zombie-themed shorts - Night of the Living Democrats or Night of the Living Republicans. I’ve chosen to cast felines again, and have titled this one Night of the Living Demo-cats.

Check out JibJab’s latest Starring You property - Unnecessary Force. I created a version of this Flash-animated short that stars an assortment of felines.

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Gregg and Evan Spiridellis are back with another JibJab short - but this time they’re going VIP-style. The brothers JibJab are VIP-guests tonight at the TV and Radio Correspondence dinner in Washington, D.C., an event also attended by President George W. Bush. Much as Stephen Colbert entertained the President last year, Gregg and Evan will be screening What We Call The News, a 2:30 minute Flash animated short that pokes fun at the media. You can watch the short here, and below that is a quick ‘behind the scenes’ piece I cut together during the production (I work at JibJab, if you didn’t already know). And don’t miss the official Behind the Scenes experience (free registration), which is over at JibJab.com.

Remember 2-0-5? In my humble opinion, this is one of the best JibJab shorts in the 7 years the Spiridellis brothers have been making us laugh. In that short, George W. Bush walked us through one of the toughest years in memory. Well, noone could have seen 2006 coming, but in Nuckin’ Futs, this years’ wrap-up, the JibJab brothers take a lighter approach to retrospection, covering Britney, GooTube and Mel Gibson’s drunken tirade. Enjoy!

Nuckin’ Futs - The JibJab Year in Review

Today marks the launch of the latest JibJab original animation. The song is a parody of American Idol’s Taylor Hicks.

JibJab collaborated with the artist who has sold the most comedy albums in history, and he recently had his first Billboard Top 10 hit - it’s none other than “Weird Al” Yankovic. JibJab and Weird Al have teamed up to bring you the animated music video for Yankovic’s latest single, Do I Creep You Out, which is off Straight Outta Lynwood, the album that spawned White and Nerdy.

The live-action White and Nerdy music video , which was also directed by Yankovic, is a rarity on this recent album, which has produced mostly animated videos. Weeks ago, CHF covered what is perhaps the most animated album in history.

Congrats to the whole JibJab team!

I know this isn’t an animation story, but it’s a project I’m extremely proud of. Today at JibJab.com, we launched ‘The Great Sketch Experiment,’ a collection of 6 live-action shorts in competition for a $10,000 development deal. We teamed up with John Landis, the director of classics like ‘Animal House’ and ‘Blues Brothers,’ and 6 sketch troupes from around the US. Initially, over 50 troupes were given photos of a stage in downtown LA filled with police sets, including a jail, a courtroom and an interrogation chamber. Their challenge was to write a short, comedy script that fit this environment, and from the dozens of submissions, Landis chose the 6 finalists. Then, over 3 days in September, the films were shot and now they’re online at JibJab.com. You can vote for your favorite, and we’ve even broadcast them on Verizon Wireless‘ V CAST service in the V CAST Showcase channel.

Everyone in our office has their favorite, which I think says volumes about the results of Landis’ direction and the talent of the troupes, and I’m biased towards ‘Shawshank in a Minute.’ It’s a rap-version of the classic 1994 Frank Darabont film ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’ It was written by Erik Weiner and Jordan Allen Dutton, and I somehow ended up playing the role of ‘Heywood’ in a couple shots (thus the bias). I’m hard to miss - just look for the off-balance, tall guy in the blond wig.