Around March 25th I learned that one of my favorite new animated shows was being canceled.  The internet rumors are swirling that this is not due to terrible ratings, but instead due to the fact that the show doesn’t have enough merchandising potential.

Sym-Bionic Titan debuted Sept. 17, 2010 on the Cartoon Network. Billed as “an exciting hybrid of high school drama and giant robot battles”, Sym-Bionic Titan features “the adventures of three beings from the planet Galaluna who crash-land on Earth while attempting to escape their war-torn world.” The series follows the lives of Ilana, Lance, and Octus, two alien teens and a robot in the form of humanoids who arrive on Earth while fleeing an evil general who has taken over their home planet with the help of monstrous creatures called Mutraddi. (via)

The show’s creator, Genndy Tartakovsky, is best known to me for his work on the original animated micro-series Star Wars Clone Wars as well as Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Lab.  In the video below Genndy describes that the premise for the show came from he and his son watching Godzilla movies, and then re-enacting them with little soldiers and Barbies!

I loved that these aliens had to try and figure out a way to fit in to this new world AND they had to try and fit into High School too.  The show had some scary moments as well as a scene where the head cheerleader tries to convince one of the characters to do her homework by dancing around the room, BUT I really enjoyed it.  As Newton (robot disguised as a big nerdy kid) refuses to do Kimmie’s homework (head cheerleader just mentioned), and helps her figure it out for herself she gives him a kiss.  Shes never felt that she was smart enough to do this work, and Newton helped to build her confidence.  This video takes place right after this scene (thank you Flock of SeaGulls for just the right song!).

So there it is.  I really enjoyed this show, but now, it looks like it’s gone.  I’ve been thinking quite a bit about how this could have been avoided, but I’ll save that post for later.

I’m a big fan of the cancelled tv show Firefly.  Early in December I was commissioned to create some sketch cards of the cast of the show.  My scan of the final color images didn’t turn out so good, so I put together the black and white drawings to give you a feel for the cards.  I’d love to do some prints from this show.

To celebrate Columbus Day, you can SALE the ocean blue at a discount of 14.92%.  LOL!  :D  Click the image below to go on over to Zazzle and look at a few of the items that I have there or browse to find something else you like.  Use the discount code of 1492Columbus this weekend only and get 14.92% off your purchase.

TransAMformer!! by Spencer_B3
Browse other Robot T-Shirts

Speaking of animated Star Wars:Clone Wars Lego goodness…  Tonight at 9:00 on the Cartoon Network is the Premiere of “Lego Star Wars: The Quest for R2-D2″.  In conjunction with this television premiere is a new mini-site and game.  They’ve released the first level of the game to promote it’s full launch this month (probably timed with tonight’s premiere).  You can play the game here.  The video below shows some of the game footage.  *note* the video doesn’t have any sound.

Wow! The convention starts on Wednesday! Here are some post cards that I’ll have at my table. This first card is a re-print of the card that I made last year to take to Celebration Japan. The next card is a promotional card for a fan site that I’ll be creating new character illustrations for. The last card is the super sized 5.5×8.5 postcard promotion for my new project s.a.m.M13. (this one’s SO awesome I might have to charge for it!)

I love witty t-shirts.

 
You can go buy the shirt here.  Thanks to SuperPunch for making my day! 

GI Joe was a staple part of my Television diet growing up.  I had the action figures and the vehicles, but I don’t think that I ever went overboard with GI Joe.  So, true to form there is a new movie coming out this summer called GI JOE the rise of COBRA.  I haven’t sought out much information about the film yet, but I did find something else very interesting.

My first exposure to GI Joe was through the cartoon.  It would seem that  in preparation for this summer’s big-budget movie Hasbro has made a NEW Cartoon mini-series.  I find this interesting because it’s a cartoon with the instructions to produce a non-tiny-child-oriented GI Joe, AND it’s taking advantage of the internet distribution model.

The GI Joe: Resolute cartoon was announced as a series of 10 five-minute webisodes to be capped off by a 10-minute finale.  The online premiere of the show leads up to its broadcast premiere on Cartoon Network next week, which will show all of the webisodes as well as debut the final 10 minutes of the storyline.  So they are going to give away the first 50 minutes of the hour long movie for free online and then show the last 10 minutes on Cartoon Network.  This way they can take advantage of the internet and then have their advertisers pay for the cable tv spots and then they’ll sell the DVDs and package them with some toys.

To help sell this new non-tiny-child, more “sophisticated” take on the characters, Hasbro has hired acclaimed comic book writer Warren Ellis.  Here’s a bit from Warren’s website, “Sam Register phoned me up and said, we’d really like you to write a GI JOE animation, at a PG-13 rating, aimed at an older viewer. I said, I’ve never seen a GI JOE cartoon in my life…I know nothing about GI JOE. It is meaningless in my world.  Excellent, Sam said. Just the guy we need.”

Here is the trailer for the series and episodes 1-2 can be seen here.

When I was a kid I would LIVE for Saturday mornings.  We would wake up early and watch cartoons for HOURS!  We didn’t have cable so we were at the mercy of the broadcast station choices.  Now that I have children of my own, I’ve seen a shift in the cartoons that are on Saturday.  The excitement is still there, but the choices are a bit more limited.

One of my favorite cartoons was Battle of the Planets also known as G-Force.  The series is centered around five young superhero ninja in the employ of Dr. Kozaburo Nambu of the fictitious “International Science Organization” to oppose a group of technologically advanced villains, known as Galactor, from trying to take control of the Earth’s natural resources.  Each of the Five member team is equipped with a special wrist device that, aside from being a communicator, enabled the characters to change into their super suits when the proper gesture and voice command, “Bird Go!”, is given.  (from Wikipedia)

The show was pretty fun, but as is the case with most of these cartoons from my youth, my memories of the show are better than the actual show.  That is why I’m keenly interested to see what the new 3D movie version of this story turns out like.  You can see more over at io9.com.