Ah, Neopets. Remember Neopets? Well, the cutesy online game looks set to get an even cutesier animated TV show, after Canadian Broadcaster Blue Ant Media acquired the rights for a series.
Back in the mid-2000s, all the kids – or at least myself and my siblings – were on it. As an online portal for collecting and caring for virtual creatures in the vein of a non-violent Pokémon, or less work-intensive Nintendogs (so much petting!), it provided a few too many hours of distraction throughout much of the decade.
We weren't the only ones, either: in 2005 Neopets had over 35 million unique users, and is still very much around today, even if today it doesn't have the cultural sway of, say, Fortnite or even Club Penguin.
This technically won't be the first time Neopets have come to the small screen, with small vignette appearances on Nickelodeon between its programming – but it will be the first time our beloved N-pets have got a dedicated show all to themselves.
Neopets TV show? It’s happening. Read more about our collaboration with Beach House Pictures and what we have planned for this new project! https://t.co/dnm4y5VBYa pic.twitter.com/1DpofXx3m8February 10, 2020
A whole Neo world
Will the Neopets be any good? It will almost certainly stay targeted at the young demographic that the brand is known for, so there may be limited enjoyment in it for those of us who spent hours caring for our virtual pets (i.e. feeding them omelettes).
There was an overarching narrative of sorts, with regularly-released comics giving an insight into the oppressive regime the adorable Neopets found themselves trapped in – though we'll see how biting the social commentary really is when the show releases.
As a Canadian broadcaster, and one that only started producing children's content in 2016, the reach of the show may also be limited – though in any age of streaming, where everyone from Netflix to Hulu is looking to nab exclusive series, there's no telling where popular shows could end up.
For the fourth consecutive year, the celebrated feature animation production and distribution forum Cartoon Movie will shine a spotlight on a particular geographic corner of the European animation industry. For the 2020 edition, taking place in Bordeaux from March 3-5, the focus will fall on the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, with the support of Film Fund Luxembourg.
Throughout the event, attendees can get acquainted with Luxembourg-based producers and studios who have helped create beautiful films and win the country international recognition for animated artistry, such as Barababor, Bayala – A Magical Adventure, Fritzi – A Miraculous Revolutionary Tale, Funan, Pachamama, The Breadwinner, The Prince’s Journey, The Swallows of Kabul, White Fang, Zero Impunity, and many others.
The event organizers at Cartoon love to showcase countries which may not take up a lot of space on a map, but make up for what they lack in size with ambition, enthusiasm, and in ability to adapt very quickly to new industry trends and demand. Like this year’s nation of tribute, these countries have innovation in their DNA.
After establishing itself as an industrial hub as well as a major financial center, Luxembourg now aims to diversify its economy by putting a great emphasis on new technologies. This also applies to the country’s animation industry. The sector has made a name for itself in Europe’s animation ecosystem through a pragmatic, flexible approach and thanks to the skills of its professionals. This is also the reason why the country is currently at the forefront of industry developments in terms of virtual, mixed and augmented reality.
The Luxembourg Spotlight is supported by Film Fund Luxembourg, which has played a major role in promoting the growth and development of the audiovisual and cinematographic industry in Luxembourg, and the animation industry in particular over the past 30 years. Thanks to the Fund’s unwavering support, animation “Made in Luxembourg” has garnered international acclaim and keeps going from strength to strength.
This year’s Cartoon Movie selection features two feature films by Luxembourger producers:
Molesworth (co-produced by Melusine Productions – project in development)
Ooops! The Adventure Continues… (co-produced by La Fabrique d’images – project in production), the sequel of the successful Two by Two – Ooops… the Ark has Gone!, released in 2015.
Headlines from around the world this week satirized by political cartoonists:
Brexit: Britain’s three-year effort to remove itself from the European Union became official January 31 at 11 p.m. London time. Nothing will change for businesses and residents in the United Kingdom yet as the date marked the start of the nation’s transition out of the EU. As a country, Britain did lose its voting power in the Brussels-based nation-bloc. Later this month, the EU will begin outlining for its chief negotiator a new set of goals on trade deals and other components of its relationship with Britain moving forward.
Coronavirus: The number of U.S. cases hit 12 this week as cruise ships around the world saw their own spike in cases among travelers and vacationers. More than 700 people have died in China, where the outbreak began, while Japan now has the highest number of cases outside mainland China with 86.
Impeachment: The Senate voted Feb. 5 to acquit President Donald Trump on two impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Trump made history as the third president to be impeached and the only first-term chief executive to seek re-election while facing the political process. As the vote unfolded, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney also made history as the first lawmaker to break party ranks and vote to remove a president belonging to their own political party. Once acquitted, Trump followed up by firing and recalling key witnesses the Senate never heard from in its impeachment trial.
Rush Limbaugh: Before the Senate acquitted the president, first lady Melania Trump presented Rush Limbaugh, a divisive conservative radio host recently diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during her husband’s annual State of the Union address. The medal is the highest civilian award a president can bestow.
Oscars: Voters in the 92nd Academy Awards dealt ‘Joker,’ a comic book adaptation starring Joaquin Phoenix, 11 nominations. Zero women directors were nominated for Best Director for the second consecutive year, while the Los Angeles Daily News derided the lack of diversity among actors nominated this year as a joke. Kirk Douglas, a three-time Oscar-nominated actor who died at the age of 103, will be honored.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping her copy of President Trump’s State of the Union address spawned the parody title “Nancy the Ripper” which has gone viral, including appearing on tee-shirts being hawked. Not the kind of manufacturing/jobs increase the Speaker was aiming for.
“Nancy the Ripper” is actually a sequel to Pelosi’s showy, sarcastic and smirking hand clapping of Trump’s 2019 SOTU. Pelosi’s acts have been both praised and pilloried as deserving of either an Oscar or Razzie, given at the Golden Raspberry Awards.
Pelosi actually admitted afterward that she wanted to put on a performance for the public in protest after reading and hearing Trump’s “falsehoods” in the address.
At her weekly Capitol Hill news conference, Pelosi described how she sat behind the President quickly reading her copy ahead as he gave his address. When she “saw the compilation of falsehoods” she thought “there has to be something that clearly indicates to the American people that this is not the truth” and decided to shred her copy.
“I tore up a manifesto of mistruths. It was necessary to get the attention of the American people to say, ‘This is not true. And this is how it affects you.’ And I don’t need any lessons from anyone, especially the President of the United States, about dignity."
“We do not want the chamber of the House of Representatives to used as a backdrop for one of his reality shows.”
“He has shredded the truth in his speech, shredded the Constitution in his conduct. I shredded the address. Thank you all very much.”
Before ripping up her copy of the address at the end, during the SOTU, Pelosi could also be seen repeatedly shaking her head no and mouthing the words “not true.”
In addition to the “manifesto of mistruths” Pelosi was miffed that Trump awarded Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom.
Pelosi and Democrats would also later complain when Facebook and Twitter allowed the posting of an edited clip of the address that gave the impression Pelosi ripped up the speech when Trump honored the last living Tuskegee airmen and reunited an American serviceman and his family, when in fact she did it after the speech ended.
President Trump claimed Pelosi’s SOTU rip was illegal.
“I thought it was a terrible thing. Very disrespectful to the chamber and the country. It’s illegal what she did. She broke the law.
Former federal prosecutors and legal analysts told The Hill that Pelosi’s rip wasn’t illegal because it was a copy, not an official document she tore up.
“The federal law prohibiting the destruction of public records or government document does not apply,” said former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner.
Legal analyst Elie Honig concurred.
“No prosecutor with half an ounce of common sense would ever charge this case. The law isn’t meant to criminalize destruction on ceremonial documents.”
Lisa Simpson from Fox also apparently would agree with Pelosi and the attorneys.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded by tweeting a Simpsons clip of the character Lisa Simpson ripping up a paper in tears and anger.
Pompeo likely wasn’t having a laugh when he helped Trump tear up the White House job assignments of EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Lt. Colonel Vindman.
Previously it has been correctly pointed out that Pelosi is one of the few politicians who have succeeded in trolling Trump and getting under his skin. But among Trump’s many falsehoods in his State of the Union address, one truth is he succeeded in getting under Pelosi’s skin prompting her to put on an act. Pelosi didn’t want Trump to use the “chamber as a backdrop for one of his reality shows” but she ended up putting on her own reality show that also wasn’t a good look for the country.
Help out your favorite cartoon characters at Valley Children’s Museum this Saturday the 15th from 9:30am-1:30pm. Children up to age 10 can play and learn by engaging in STEAM-centric activities and crafts. Help build a house for Spongebob, construct an ice bridge for Elsa, experiment with water currents with Moana and so much more! Admission: Adult(s) and one child $5, each additional child $2. Children under 3 are FREE!
There is a lot of paper being ripped in this week’s editorial cartoons.
As expected, the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to acquit President Donald Trump of two impeachment charges brought by the Democratic-led House of Representatives. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney was the sole Republican to vote for impeachment, putting him on a desert island in the eyes of cartoonist Bill Bramhall.
The bruising partisanship of the impeachment fight spilled over into Tuesday’s State of the Union address. The president would not shake House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand, and Pelosi ripped up Trump’s speech with a flourish.
On Thursday, Trump held up the front page of the Washington Post with the headline “Trump acquitted.” Cartoonist Walt Handelsman depicted a donkey, the symbol of the Democratic Party, ripping the front page in half. On the flip side, A.F. Branco drew the president happily caressing the same front page.
The other big news this week was the chaotic Iowa Democratic caucuses. A smartphone app designed to make tabulating the results faster malfunctioned, causing huge delays in reporting results. The field also was in disarray. By week’s end, it looked as if Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg were in a dead heat. The supposed front-runner, Joe Biden, was in fourth place. Candidates were eager to put Iowa behind them and go on to New Hampshire.
Cartoons were drawn by Bill Bramhall, Dan Wasserman, Dana Summers, Drew Sheneman, Scott Stantis, Walt Handelsman, David Horsey, Phil Hands, Joel Pett and Joey Weatherford of Tribune Content Agency; and A.F. Branco, Mike Luckovich and Michael Ramirez of Creators Syndicate.
A cartoon cat, sick of the annoying mouse living in his home, devises a plot to take him out with a trap loaded with cheese. The mouse, wise to his plan, safely removes the snack and saunters away with a full belly.
You can probably guess what happens next. The story ends as it almost always does: with the cat yelling out in pain as yet another plot backfires against him.
The plot may be familiar, but the story behind it may not be. From Academy Award wins to secret production behind the Cold War's Iron Curtain - this is how Tom and Jerry, who turn 80 this week, became one of the world's best known double-acts.
The duo was dreamt up from a place of desperation. MGM's animation department, where creators Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera worked, had struggled to emulate the success of other studios who had hit characters like Porky Pig and Mickey Mouse.
Out of boredom, the animators, both aged under 30, began thinking up their own ideas. Barbera said he loved the simple concept of a cat and mouse cartoon, with conflict and chase, even though it had been done countless times before.
Puss gets the Boot became the first released in 1940. The debut was a hit and won the studio an Oscar for best animated short. Despite their work, the animators were not credited on the win.
Managers initially told them not to put all their eggs in one basket. A change of heart came only when a letter arrived from an influential industry figure in Texas asking when she would see another one of those "wonderful cat and mouse cartoons".
Jasper and Jinx, as they were first known, became Tom and Jerry.
According to Barbera there was no real discussion about the characters not speaking, but having grown up with silent films starring Charlie Chaplin, the creators knew they could be funny without dialogue. Music composed by Scott Bradley underscored the action and Tom's trademark human-like scream was voiced by Hanna himself.
For the best part of the next two decades, Hanna and Barbera oversaw the production of more than 100 of these shorts. Each took weeks to make and cost up to $50,000 to produce, so only a handful could be made every year.
These Tom and Jerrys are almost universally considered the best, with rich hand-drawn animation and detailed backdrops helping win them six more Academy Awards and cameos in Hollywood feature films.
"I'll bet when you watched them as a child, or even if you look at them right now, you would be hard-pressed to know when they were made," says Jerry Beck, a cartoon historian who has worked in roles across the industry.
"There's something about animation. It's evergreen, it doesn't fade," he says. "A drawing is a drawing, it's like when you go see paintings. Yes, we know they're from the 1800s or 1700s - it doesn't matter and it still speaks to you today."
"That's the thing with these cartoons. What we've learned in time is that they really are great art. They're not disposable throwaway entertainment."
When producer Fred Quimby retired in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera took over MGM's cartoon department just as budget cuts closed in. Studio bosses, threatened by the growing popularity of television, realised they could make almost as much money by re-issuing the old shorts as they could by making new ones.
When their department was closed down in 1957, Hanna and Barbera set up their own production company.
But only a few years later, MGM decided to revive Tom and Jerry without its original creators. In 1961 they outsourced to a studio in Prague to save on costs. Chicago-born animator Gene Deitch was tasked with heading the remake, but struggled with a tight budget and staff with no knowledge of the original.
His studio also secretly made episodes of other cartoons, including Popeye. Czech names were Americanised on the credits to stop viewers associating the shows with Communism.
"Because of the Iron Curtain, the animators in the studio here in Prague had never ever even seen a Tom and Jerry cartoon," Deitch later told Radio.cz.
He knew, being the first to follow up the classics, that he would be "in the line of fire" from fans, and his 13 cartoons are regularly labelled the worst. In interviews Deitch was honest about their bad reputation and revealed he even received a death threat over them.
After him the task fell to Chuck Jones, best known for his work on Looney Tunes at Warner Brothers. Under him, Tom's eyebrows grew thicker and his face more twisted, and was more like the Dr Seuss character the Grinch that Jones also animated.
Mark Kausler, 72, is one of many people who have warm memories of Tom and Jerry growing up. He dragged his father to see reels of the shorts, over and over, at his local cinema in St Louis. He began making his own cartoons, partly inspired by the characters, and went onto an extensive animation career of his own.
"So much of it is based on the way they look and the timing and the way the music works and everything," he says. "It was such a wonderful formula, the way everything interconnected."
"And when they tried to disassemble and reassemble it with another crew and with another type of designer and other comedy - it just rings inauthentic to me, if you know what I mean."
He came a little too late into the industry to work on Tom and Jerry itself, but remembers the excitement of the "monumental" moment Hanna and Barbera showed up to his animation school.
At MGM, television had been seen as a "bad word", but after going it alone Hanna and Barbera pivoted into the platform. With longer episodes and smaller budgets, they adapted their animation style and used tricks to save time and money.
Their cartoons dominated children's television for decades. They first found success in the early 1960s with characters like Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear and soon, more hits like The Flintstones, Top Cat and Scooby Doo followed.
In the 1970s the pair returned to Tom and Jerry. By then, many of the early episodes were considered "too violent" under fresh guidelines issued to networks. New episodes, with the duo as friends, never lived up to the success of the originals.
Like other cartoons of the time, the show's legacy has also been complicated by long-standing criticism of its depictions of race. In particular, the character of "Mammy Two Shoes" - a black housemaid with an exaggerated southern accent usually seen from the waist down - has been labelled an offensive racial caricature. Parts of the series also contain jokes using blackface and derogatory depictions of Asians and native Americans.
When the originals were broadcast on US television in the 1960s, some scenes were edited out with "Mammy" replaced with new characters added by Jones's team. Today the worst-offending episodes are usually cut from re-release collections and streaming platforms. Attention was drawn to this in 2014 when Amazon Prime Instant Video added a "racial prejudice" warning to the series.
Tom and Jerry, with its slapstick violence and dark comedy, remains extremely popular around the world today. It can be found on children's television everywhere from Japan to Pakistan and a new mobile phone game has more than 100m users in China.
The show has also, surprisingly, found itself in news headlines. In 2016, a top Egyptian official tried to blame the cartoon for rising violence in the Middle East and Iran's Supreme Leader has compared their US relations to Tom and Jerry at least twice.
In the 80 years since their creation, the cat and mouse have appeared in everything from a "kids" version to a 1992 musical movie where they sang and spoke.
Bill Hanna died in 2001 and Joe Barbera passed away in 2006. A year before his death, Barbera was credited for the last time on a Tom and Jerry short - which was also his first without his former partner.
"We understood each other perfectly, and each of us had deep respect for the other's work," he said of their working relationship.
Warner Brothers, who now own the rights to Tom and Jerry, will release a new live-action film just before Christmas this year. Not much is known about the project, except that actors including Chloë Grace Moretz and Ken Jeong have signed on.
For Jerry Beck, Tom and Jerry's enduring appeal comes in part from the character's universal relatability.
"I think most people can identify with little Jerry because there's always an oppressor in our lives," he says.
"We always have someone, our boss, our landlord, politics - whatever it is. And we're just trying to live our lives and somebody wants to disturb it."
Israel's Ambassador to Portugal condemned the publication of antisemitic cartoons by Portuguese cartoon artist Vasco Gargalo in the weekly Portuguese news magazine Sábado, in a letter to the director of the magazine.
Raphael Gamzou, the ambassador, pointed out that he saw Gargalo's cartoon shortly after returning to Portugal with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa after the 5th World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem.
The cartoons do "perversely, an excellent service in the fight against antisemitism, contrary, most likely, to the artist's intention," wrote Gamzou.
The cartoon in question, The Crematorium, depicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wearing an armband like that of the Nazis but with a Star of David rather than a swastika on it. In the image, Netanyahu is pushing a coffin draped in a Palestinian Authority flag into an oven. Above the oven is the infamous gate of Auschwitz with the German phrase “Arbeit macht frei,” meaning “work sets you free.”
— Center Against Anti-Semitism (@CTRAntisemitism) January 30, 2020
The ambassador warned that while democratic societies like Portugal have the right to creative freedom and expression, he is "also fully aware of the impact and power of racist and antisemitic cartoons like those of Der Sturmer, who contributed so much to the promotion of the Final Solution."
Gamzou appealed to Sábado and other platforms to not "grant the Gargalo's of this world the immunity and impunity that arise from the distortion of the concept of freedom of expression."
The magazine had claimed that the cartoon had not been published in the magazine and the Gargalo was not an employee of Sábado. The embassy found Gargalo on a list with other employees on the magazine's website.
In a letter to the magazine sent last week, B'Tsalmo (In His Image), a right-wing, Israel-based human-rights organization, called out Sábado for giving "false information" to the Israeli Embassy, pointing out that Gargalo is listed as an illustrator on the magazine's website and that his cartoons appear on the website as well.
"We strongly demand that you stop employing Mr. Gargalo either as employee of the magazine or as a freelancer, and stop publishing his cartoons altogether," wrote B'Tsalmo CEO Shai Glick in the letter.
Gamzou added that if Gargalo's cartoon was turned into a textual piece, it would reveal a "shamelessly antisemitic article that trivializes the greatest tragedy in the history of mankind, through the use of all the stereotypes that promote hatred towards Jews."
The ambassador concluded the letter by asking the director of Sábado, "does the creative freedom, which you so rightly defend, include the freedom to hate and incite hatred?"Hannah Hepner contributed to this report.
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire —Amy Klobuchar tore in to Pete Buttigieg for trying to capitalize on his rivals' absence of the campaign trail by downplaying the importance of the Senate impeachment trial.
"What you said, Pete, as you were campaigning through Iowa — as three of us were jurors in that impeachment hearing — you said it was exhausting to watch and that you wanted to turn the channel and watch cartoons," the Minnesota senator, 59, said Friday in a Democratic presidential debate. "It is easy to go after Washington, because that's a popular thing to do," she added, but said that it is "much harder to take those difficult positions."
Klobuchar, along with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, was stuck in Washington, D.C., in the weeks before this week's Iowa caucuses rather than on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.
"It's popular to say and makes you look like a cool newcomer, but I just — I don't think that's what people want right now," Klobuchar added.
Buttigieg, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, did talk about impeachment exhaustion while his rivals were stuck in President Trump's Senate impeachment trial, but primarily argued that the process is designed to make the public want to tune out. His "cartoons" comment came during a town hall in Indianola, Iowa.
The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor clarified his statements later in the debate.
"The American people from outside of Washington feel a sense of exhaustion, watching the division and the dysfunction. It is not to take anything away from the very good work that you and our other Democratic members of Congress and the Senate are doing," Buttigieg said.
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar does not seem to possess fuzzy feelings toward political phenom and current New Hampshire co-frontrunner Pete Buttigieg — at previous debates, she’s gone after the former South Bend mayor for his spotty electoral history. On Friday night, Klobuchar again trained her fire on Buttigieg. This time, she focused on Buttigieg’s positioning of himself an outsider, focusing on a recent comment that when he tunes into Congressional drama on television, he wants to “switch it off and just watch cartoons or something.” Klobuchar was having none of Buttigieg’s brickbats, issuing a full-throated defense of her Washington experience. Watch below:
Now that Buttigieg has vaulted to the the first tier of candidates, he can probably expect to take more frequent direct criticism from the other Democratic hopefuls on and off the debate stage.
The Senate voted Wednesday to acquit President Donald Trump on two impeachment charges, in only the third trial of its kind in American history.
Voting 48-52 on abuse of power and 47-53 on obstruction of Congress, the Republican-led chamber brought an end to a political process that centered on the Trump administration’s decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine and whether that move equated to White House pressure for Ukrainian leaders to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival in the upcoming 2020 election.
Trump, in an address to the nation Thursday at the White House, denounced his political foes while celebrating his acquittal. He made similar comments a few hours earlier at the annual prayer breakfast in Washington.
“It was evil, it was corrupt,” Trump declared Thursday during the national address. “This should never ever happen to another president, ever.”
Trump, on Twitter, rebuked the one Republican who voted to remove him:
Had failed presidential candidate @MittRomney devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election. Read the Transcripts!
Democratic leadership from the House of Representatives served as impeachment managers and presented the case to remove Trump by framing the aid withholding as Trump misusing the power of the presidency for his own political gain. The impeachment managers further argued that Trump obstructed Congress when he instructed White House aides to defy House subpoenas as that legislative body investigated the administration’s military aid distribution to Ukraine.
Trump’s impeachment ended much the same way as the previous two in U.S. history: Both Bill Clinton in 1999 and Andrew Johnson in 1868 were left in office after their respective trials.
