Monkmus, who was interviewed here at CHF back in October of 2005, has completed his most recent music video – this time for Los Campesinos!, a UK band on the all-mighty Wichita label. The track is titled We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives, and it’s currently available for viewing on the Hornet Inc. website.

Monkmus also created the album packaging, cover artwork and other illustrations for the album We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives, which is due out soon. The video, according to an article in Digit, was created with both Flash and After Effects, and Monkmus had additional character animation help from Simon Ampel and Chris Siemasko.

Sesame Workshop and Cartoon Pizza, the New York City animation studio, are underway on a Flash-animated series for preschoolers called ‘Pinky Dinky Doo.’ Fifty-two 11-minute episodes are planned and are scheduled to begin rolling out in early 2006. According to C21media.net, ‘Pinky Dinky Doo’ mixes “Flash animation with photo collage backgrounds.” In the US, ‘Pinky’ will be seen on Noggin, on CBC in Canada, on BBC in the UK, on ABC in Australia and Discovery Kids in Latin America. You can spy a short Quicktime clip from ‘Pinky’ here (link removed at the request of the show).

Regular Cold, Hard Flash readers may remember reading about Cartoon Pizza before. They’re responsible for producing the Flash-animated show ‘Global Thingy,’ which was featured here back in May of this year.

Thanks again to Chris Siemasko for the story tip. Chris is an animator out a Cartoon Pizza, and he recently pitched a show for the 4th season of Frederator’s ‘Oh Yeah! Cartoons.’ Come to think of it – why haven’t you? Get on it!

Along with Curious Pictures, Disney is set to launch ‘Disney’s Little Einsteins’ brand, extending on the wildly popular ‘Baby Einstein’ franchise. Disney purchased the Baby Einstein company a few years back, and they’ve wasted little time expanding the brand. Now, next month, Disney plans the launch of the first ‘Little Einsteins’ DVD/video, which will be closely followed by an October 2005 launch on Playhouse Disney on the Disney Channel. According to an AWN article from earlier this year, in each episode, “the characters journey through the landscape of a renowned painting or work of art from a range of cultures.”

Curious Pictures, the New York-based producer of shows like ‘Codename : Kids Next Door,’ is handling the animation, and from the looks of a few resumes I’ve found floating on the ‘net, the ‘Little Einsteins’ is being produced with both Flash and After Effects. The show, which is aimed at the pre-school market, is using a unique production method, mixing “animation, real-world footage and art.” A trailer is available for viewing at the ‘Little Einsteins’ website, and more clips are cut into this testimonial promo. Here’s the title sequence:

Big thanks to Chris Siemasko over at Animation Mafia for the story tip.