I am still very much moving forward with these cartoons, and am still doing the work of Clone High first, and then the Mission Hill episodes. My current progress is that I am currently taking my drawn storyboard for Clone High Episode 14 and re-working it in ToonBoom Storyboard 2. From there I can export it into ToonBoom Digital Pro/Animate. (I currently do not have their latest “Animate” but am making due with my version of Digital Pro).

I hope that all distracted you all enough to notice I stopped talking about my cartoon work. Well, to make it up to you I will do what I can to put up something new towards the work I am doing for the next update. See you then!

Pictured: Cleopatra and Joan of Arc

Phil Lord and Chris Miller have made mention of their next movie project. A 21 Jump Street remake. I really only mention this because I found that out when I was trying to find out why the lovely Emma Stone name dropped “Phil Lord” and “Chris Miller” in her recent movie “Easy A“. Here is what Pajiba had to say:

“Meanwhile, Variety is reporting that Emma Stone is circling 21 Jump Street, alongside her Superbad co-star Jonah Hill. Again, this is a project with talented directors — Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ Phil Lord and Chris Miller — but it’s a big-screen version of a beloved, but really not that popular television show. And as we know, even popular television shows haven’t translated well to the screen, and few have found any box-office success. Plus, from what I hear from someone familiar with Jonah Hill’s script, it’s absolute dog shit, though I understand it is getting a turd polish.”

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This next bit of news may be old to some of you, especially for those who frequent the Clone High Live Journal.

Around when Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was prepping to come out into theaters, Phil Lord and Chris Miller made a youtube account for “FineMoustaches”. Yes, their behind-the-scene videos with the voice cast of Cloudy… are fun, but they also added a video/commercial that relates heavily to Clone High.

“This was a fake commercial we made in 1998 for a series of educational shorts about action figures based on historical figures. Its educational value was somewhat suspect. It was never aired.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NKXNThJ610

In other news, Sit Down Shut Up was in fact picked up by Comedy Central, as previously mentioned, to help Viacom push back against other late night television blocks for adult viewers. It is currently running Tuesday nights.

When they won’t magically just ask me to run their network block to fight [adult swim], another way for me to help Viacom was me buying the Daria complete series on DVD. There is an insert inside the packaging that mentions, along with many cartoons from that time, that the licensing for music for DVD distribution was not thought ahead for, when signing the artists to contribute. The main theme is there, and that’s all I remember, so watching these again, and many for the first time, doesn’t bother me with the music subbing. When the WB had to do the same for Mission Hill, there were many fan complaints about the quality of the added music and how the DVD’s were built with them, which was terribly. I haven’t noticed an issue with the Daria set yet.

And for some fun, look at this redesigned Spork. I want many.

Super spork spoon fork combo

Read a funnier write up about this spork here, at the ever-funny ToplessRobot.com.

While I work on some things, both website and cartoon, enjoy this “Top 50 [adult swim] Characters” list.

Apparently the shows ratings are not doing well enough in the 8:30 block, immediately following The Simpson’s, so they decided to move it to 7pm, where Futurama previously floundered for awhile before getting the axe. Come to think of it, I’m amazed that FOX let Futurama live on as long as it did, thankfully.

As for the Futurama movies, they were pretty decent. Production quality was fantastic, but a a little too spastic story-wise to make it feel like the first season for me again. I was hoping for a 4-movie story arc that would tie together some loose ends that the previous seasons opened and readied for great story telling, but it didn’t come. Instead we were introduced to the Nudars, an alien race I could have gone without meeting, and other story lines that had little to do with previous seasons besides the occasional hilarious reference to previous situations. Again, all-in-all, I was overjoyed that they were to be made, and satisfied with the end result. I just wish a bit more could have been thought out for what they wanted to accomplish if indeed these are to be the makings of the “last season”.

I am excited to get my hands on The Venture Brothers – Season 3 DVD that came out recently. I am quite over [adult swim], so I just await the DVD of shows I care for. Speaking of which, I do catch Superjail (Yeah!) and Drink Crow (Meh!) on [adult swim] onDemand, but their live-action shows make my eyes bleed. (Oh, I so want to be in charge of programming…)

And if you ever want to sit back and watch a cartoon HEAVILY inspired by Ren and Stimpy production (minus the SPUMCO art-style), just put on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack found on Cartoon Network. That’s my current recommendation. And if that’s not for you, well then, go watch Korgoth again and cry for what could have been.