Cartoon Network’s new “hybrid” show, Out of Jimmy’s Head features live-action actors paired with a Flash-animated 2D cast. The show is an extension of a made-for-TV film Re-animated, which was created by Adam Pava and Tim McKeon and animated at Renegade Animation. Here’s a clip from the series:

The new TV series drew 1.4 million viewers a few weeks back, some critical raves from sources like Hollywood Reporter, but has also received a high level of criticism within the animation community. The flap centers around Cartoon Network’s recent movement away from cartoons. Here’s a quote from a recent message board post about the premiere episode:

Well, the show is as cheesy, badly acted and written as I thought, but after actually sitting through a whole episode, I did notice one thing: the cartoons were great.

And according to an article at AWN.com, “animators work on set, doing drawings on a Wacom tablet and basically creating storyboards on the fly while the live-action production is going on, incorporating ideas generated by what’s happening on the set.” Matt Danner, the supervising producer and animation director for the series is one of those artists who heads to the set in Downey, California each day and as you can see in the clip above, the animation is some of the strongest Flash work around.

Lastly, here’s a clip from Ryan Green, who runs Bluefoot Studios. He animated this Flash-animated promo for Out of Jimmy’s Head in two nights.

As mentioned late last month, Renegade Animation and Cartoon Network have teamed up for a live-action/animated project called Re-animated. It’s set to premiere on Friday, December 8th, and I just spotted the trailer announcement on Cartoon Brew.