There’s some good news afoot for Teen Titans fans, but it depends on your point of view. As a fan of the TV cartoon rather than a comics aficionado, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I really loved Trouble in Tokyo and would be happy for a who slew of Titans movies in the same vein. It’s great entertainment for the whole family. On the other hand, I’m intrigued.

Oh, Toy Box Mommy, you are saying. What in the world are you talking about??

Whoops. Would that be helpful to this discussion? I bet it would. My bad.

The George Perez website brings us the scoop: Teen Titans: The Judas Contract will be coming direct to DVD in 2008.

For everyone who was a fan of the hit Cartoon Network series, this is not for you. For everyone who liked the show but wondered where characters like Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and others were in the original cartoon, this is more up your alley.

Based on the story written by Marv Wolfman and George perez, Teen Titans villain Destroke the Terminator sends a spychopathic metahuman named Terra to infiltrate the team to gain access to their secret identities so he can capture them.

“I love the original story,” explains Wolfman. “This is one of several Titans stories we did early on that deserves to be a movie.”

Wolfman admitted to having a fondness for the original Dethstroke stories, the Terror of Trigon and the Titans story set on Starfire’s home world.

Co-writing and Wolfman will be Tom DeSanto, producer on the “X-Men” and upcoming “Transformers” films. Perez will contirbute all-new character designs, and the team will feature the classic lineup of Wonder Girl, Changeling, Cyborg, Raven and Dick Grayson, who will make the transition from Robin to Nightwing.

Just off the top of my head, I’m going to have to say that that sounds… completely awesome. With DeSanto on board I’m imagining something very dark and compelling. I might not be able to let my kids watch this one, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get the DVD to… ummm… prescreen it, just in case. Yeah. That’s it.

TitansGo.net has a further bit of clarification:

To rebrief on this new project (and to rid confusion), this DTV release will be an adaption of the classic Teen Titans comic story of the same name, by “The New Teen Titans” co-creators Marv Wolfman and George Perez. For those unfamiliar with “The Judas Contract”, it is a milestone NTT story arc in which Deathstroke (Slade Wilson) sends Terra to infiltrate the Titans as part of his plot to destroy them from the inside. While the Teen Titans animated series adapted the story for Season 2, this new DTV is not related to the show in any way aside from the basic story.

Well, that would be a problem if the “basic story” wasn’t so amazing, I guess. As it is, I’m guessing they won’t have any trouble selling those DVDs when the time comes.

(Psssst! Been to the Teen Titans Store at Ty’s recently? There’s been a bunch of markdowns. And today is your last day to place any order and still receive it in time for Christmas with just the standard ground shipping. I’m just sayin’.)

I have to confess, I sort of feel like I never really “got” Fantasia. I’ve seen it several times; heck, I think we own it, having been sucked into the something-or-other superfantastico anniversary edition at some point when I was still bound and determined to own every animated Disney film out there. But it just doesn’t do it for me. Meh. I get it, he’s conjuring things, it gets out of control. Pass the popcorn.

So I felt slightly vindicated, I guess, to read Cartoon Brew’s entry yesterday:

“[FANTASIA] is a mishmash of pedantic narration and erratic tone (the finale’s soul-sucking demon gives the death of Bambi’s mom a run for the money in the childhood trauma department), and, frankly, some of the animated sequences now seem dangerously akin to screensavers.” That’s the assessment according to PREMIERE magazine’s list of the 20 most overrated movies of all time.

Anyway, other than reassuring me that I might still qualify for hipness even though I don’t like Fantasia, the article got me thinking about other kid and family films. We all have our favorites, of course. I was trying to think of other movies I find to be vastly overrated, and mostly was only able to come up with ones I find to be underrated.

By far my most favorite movie that most people haven’t seen is The Wrong Trousers. Oh, sure… Wallace and Gromit went mainstream later on, but all you need to love them is The Wrong Trousers. That movie is perfection.

I’m also a devotee of The Princess Bride, but I think that for the most part, it enjoys appropriate acclaim.

As for overrated… well… don’t throw tomatoes at me, but even though I watch it every year, and make my children watch it, I confess to thinking that A Charlie Brown Christmas is sort of overrated. I know. I’m sorry. It’s a tradition, and not one I’ll eschew any time soon, but every time I watch it I sort of wonder why I’m watching it.

I much prefer A Christmas Story. (”Frag-eel-ay! That’s French!”) But I know some folks who find that to be overrated, so to each their own.

What kid or family movies do you think are either overrated or underrated? I bet I’m missing some great ones.

Decisions, decisions. Don’t you hate it when you have to decide between two equally-tempting options, or—worse yet—you have to try to figure out which choice to go with when you don’t have all the information? I hate it when that happens.

Especially with important things like cartoons and comic books.

What?

Anyway, we have a dilemma on our hands, people.

TVShowsonDVD.com is reporting good, but slightly tension-filled, news for fans of Avatar:

It appears Nickelodeon is giving fans a reason to buy the Avatar volumes being released next year; they’re packaging an exclusive comic in each set. Here’s a quote from a Video Business article about their plans:

Each of the four releases in season two will be packaged with an exclusive collectible comic book, culminating with a boxed set toward the end of the year, similar to what the company did this year with the first season.

So now fans will have to decide whether to buy the volumes and get the comics, or wait and get the season set which could have a bonus disc, but may not include the comics. “Book 2: Earth, Volume 1″ comes out on January 23, 2007.

I suppose the Powers That Be are hoping that folks will buy the volumes as they become available—both to get the comics and to have the show in-hand as soon as possible—and then they’ll whip up some super-fantastic bonus disc that none of us can live without in the hopes that we’ll buy the boxed set, as well.

Well I, for one, am not going to fall for it! I want the comics. I mean, er, my son wants the comics. And how good could that bonus disc really be, anyway? I will simply avert my eyes once it’s available. Ahem.

By the way, did you know that Avatar storyboard artist Justin Ridge has a blog? (Of course he does, you’re saying. Everyone has a blog.) (Just be careful over there, because not all of his artwork is kid-safe. Don’t go calling the kids over to the computer only to scream and clamp your hands over their eyes.) Somehow I missed it back in November when he gave us a sneak peak of a panel from one of those upcoming bonus comics. It looks great!

Do you see that picture? Do you see that alien in the test tube? Can you think of anything cooler to give to your kid than a “real live” alien in a test tube? No, you can’t. Because there is nothing cooler. In fact, if Santa left one of those under the tree for me I wouldn’t complain in the slightest. Maybe it would be the final step in healing from the Sea Monkey debacle of 1980. (Don’t ask.)

The craze that’s sweeping the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand is now available to customers this side of the pond exclusively through Ty’s Toy Box. Meet the Test Tube Aliens:

If that doesn’t make you want to grow your own aliens at home, I command you to get a Sharpie and write “NO FUN AT ALL” on your forehead.

Honestly, I think it would be more than enough fun to have this goofy little critter in its test tube, ever-expanding from feeding on the sloog the owner must mix up and pour over it. (Sloog!) But it’s so much more than that—once your alien is born, you can surf on over to Test Tube Aliens online and register your new bundle of ectoplasm. From there, you can enter the research lab and check your alien’s health and age, and also… hmmm… well, let’s see what it says.

From the manufacturer’s description:

Test Tube Aliens is an innovative new concept that gives children the opportunity to grow, nurture and interact with their own collectible race of glow-in-the-dark creatures. Using advanced environmental sensor technology, Test Tube Aliens are aware of their environment and will react to changes in the way they are treated.

Kids can adopt a Test Tube Alien, hatching it from chrysalis and nurturing it into a full grown alien. They need to be fed, rested and live in a swampy home of slime. Get the balance right and your alien will survive and thrive into adulthood, but get the balance wrong it will become sick and die.

With a healthy growing alien you can improve its life status by monitoring its health. Test Tube Aliens’ special sensors will interact with any home PC screen, detecting encoded messages from the Test Tube Aliens website.

Log your alien onto the Test Tube Aliens site and hold it to the screen and it will immediately flash to signal that it has received special messages that will help you to extend its existence.

Does a Webkinz want to live in a “swampy home of slime?” I don’t think so. The choice seems pretty obvious, to me. Go check them out and I dare you not to be intrigued.

[image courtesy of CBBC Newsround’s coverage of the 2006 Toy Fair]

‘Tis the season for the favorite movies we’ve all watched every year around this time. I am a sucker for A Christmas Story, and the more times I see it, the more I love it. But at the same time that the billionth showing of these time-tested favorites is gracing our televisions, Hollywood is still trying to come up with a new holiday movie that might become a classic over time.

I had high hopes for Unaccompanied Minors when the commercials started running. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because we haven’t been to the movies in a while. Maybe it’s because it seemed familiar to me, somehow (more on that, below). Maybe it’s because I was convinced for quite a while that the movie features Anne Hathaway. (It doesn’t; that’s Gina Mantegna, but I still think they look an awful lot alike.)

Well, the time has come: Unaccompanied Minors opens tonight, and my kids are begging to see it. The only problem? The critics are already panning the film. Alas.

The premise seems interesting enough—kids are snowed in at the airport while traveling between divorced parents for the holidays. Disparate personalities unite to work towards a common goal, hilarity ensues. Rather, it’s supposed to ensue.

Remember when I said the commercials seemed sort of familiar? When I read this blurb I realized why:

It’s The Breakfast Club for middle schoolers with slightly lower-grade angst and a less memorable soundtrack.

(I’m just going to guess there’s no scene where everyone gets stoned in this one, though….)

And there is a sense that this movie should be good, what with the talent both behind the cameras and in front of them… but the verdict is that it simply falls short.

In short, Unaccompanied Minors – which traces the Home Alone-style hijinks of a bunch of parent-less kids who get snowed in at an airport over Christmas – features more smart, funny people than any other dumb, unfunny film I’ve ever seen.

Well that’s just depressing. I think we’ll stay home. Besides, nothing tops both of my kids chiming in at the exact right moment, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”

Hello! I’m the Toy Box Mommy, and I… I… well, I am old.

Oh, I’m not that old by most standards. And I believe age is one of those mental things—you’re only as old as you feel! Age is just a number! Well let me tell you: When I go to MySpace I feel incredibly old. I feel that my age is just a number… that should be closer to 99 than 30.

See that logo up there? The one that declares MySpace to be “a place for friends” and sounds so lovely? I think that is because “a place for blaring music, seizure-causing backgrounds, and many blinking graphics” was deemed a bit too verbose.

But the kids today, they’re all into MySpace. Or so I hear. (One of them said something about it, while I was hollering for them to get off my lawn.) And people of all ages are using MySpace to stay in touch or reconnect with long-lost pals.

I finally braved MySpace for a while because I discovered that many of the hot licensed characters available at Ty’s Toy Box have their own MySpace pages. Some are created by enthusiastic fans, some are backed by the productions themselves; all of them are another avenue to explore the shows you and your kids love.

Here’s a sampling of the pages I came across:

• Lazy Town has 801 friends at last check. For some reason I find it hilarious that Mighty Mouse is amongst them.
• Together Forever is associated with a popular Doodlebops fan site, and boasts 1005 friends. This is one of the more complete pages; there’s tons of information about the Doodlebops, pictures, videos, etc.
• Avatar, the last Airbender has plenty of Avatar artwork and lists most of the show’s characters amongst its 714 friends. (That’s a rabbit hole of links to fall down, but what a fun way to pass some time.)
• Strawberry Shortcake’s page says she’d like to meet: “Any berry happy, berry fun, berry special, berry sweet, berry sporty, berry artistic, berry musical, & just plain berry berry friends.” I am berry, berry scared. (But my daughter loved it.) One of her 465 friends is Rainbow Brite, of course.
• Backyardigans is a newer page, with only 22 friends so far, but who knows how it will evolve. Or if they’ll decide against the neon hearts background (hope springs eternal).

So, you know, this new-fangled MySpace thing… I guess it’s alright. Even though back in my day we had to just draw pictures of important things on the cave walls.

On the heels of the recent discussion of the new animation category for the Golden Globes, it seems only fitting that yesterday the full list of Annie Awards nominees was made available.

Don’t know the Annie Awards? This February will mark the 34th annual event, in spite of the fact that the trophy/statue thing looks a lot like an ugly lamp. (I kid. I think it’s supposed to look like one of those things you spin and look inside the holes to see the pictures within appear to move. That would make sense, and be topical, whereas an ugly lamp would just be mean.) The awards are designed to honor excellence in animation, obviously, and are touted as “animation’s highest honor.”

There are six production categories (as well as a slew of other individual achievement categories, and the juried awards), and they’ll be worth keeping an eye on as we move into “awards season.” Here are the ones that pique my interest:

Best Animated Feature

* Cars – Pixar Animation Studios
* Happy Feet – Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Kennedy Miller Production in association with Animal Logic Film
* Monster House – Columbia Pictures Presents an ImageMovers/Amblin Production
* Open Season – Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia Pictures
* Over The Hedge – DreamWorks Animation

No surprises there. I’m pleased to see Monster House nominated; I don’t think it’ll win, but the kids and I really like it and it’s nice to see something that’s not about wacky animals or anthropomorphized vehicles make the cut.

Best Home Entertainment Production

* Bambi II – DisneyToon Studios
* The Adventures of Brer Rabbit – Universal Animation Studios
* Winnie the Pooh: Shapes & Sizes – DisneyToon Studios

Wait… there’s a second Bambi movie? Really?

Best Animated Short Subject

* Adventure Time – Nickelodeon
* Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot – Thunderbean Animation
* No Time For Nuts – Blue Sky Studios
* Weird Al Yankovic “Don’t Download This Song” – Acme Filmworks

I am a sucker for Weird Al. I don’t know if it deserves an Annie, but the song is brilliant. (Watch it here if you haven’t seen it before.)

Best Animated Television Production

* Charlie and Lola – Tiger Aspect Productions
* Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends – Cartoon Network Studios
* King of the Hill – Twentieth Century Fox TV
* The Fairly OddParents – Nickelodeon
* Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! – Film Roman, a Starz Media Co.

Well. Foster’s, obviously. I may even cry if Foster’s doesn’t win.

Two interesting factoids about the Annies to ramp your animation geekoid meter all the way up to eleven:

1) Animated News reports that for the first time ever, all of the Annie voting will be done online. Viva technology!

2) CNN points out that “[t]he winner of the Annie Awards has gone on to claim the Oscar for animated feature every year since the Academy Award for animation was created.”

That does rather diminish the suspense a bit, though I suppose we could hope for a historical upset by the time the Academy Awards rolls around. Just for fun.

Where would I be without TitansGo.net? Somewhere with a lot less knowledge of where to go for a handy Teen Titans fix, that’s where.

According to TGN, issue 37 of the “Teen Titans Go!” comic book contained a special 6-page bonus insert:

Written by Marc Sumerak and drawn by TTG regular artist Todd Nauck, the story features the Titans teaming up with Sara Hunter, a dyslexic girl on a mission to save her father. This bonus comic is part of an effort by Schwab Learning to promote child education.

According to the story, Sara is a childhood friend of Beast Boy, and is an archaelogist like her dad. She proves to be a fun character, one we wouldn’t mind seeing pop up in later “official” TTG stories.

You can check out screen shots of the pages over at TGN, or you can read the entire thing through SparkTop.org in their little viewer interface (very slick!).

If you simply must have a paper copy of this mini-adventure for your very own, hop on over to Marc Sumerack’s site for the complete list of comics where the insert can be found. Although I have to admit to a bit of cognitive dissonance over discovering that you can grab the Titans in an issue of Archie. Although I can almost envision Beast Boy and Jughead hanging out together….

My children don’t spend much time online… mostly because whenever they get close to my desk I throw myself prostrate across the monitor and keyboard and scream “Mine! Mine! ALL MINE!” Of course, I kid. It’s so much easier just to sit on the desk, bare my teeth and snarl.

No, the reality is that I have not let allowed my children to use any online program which allows them to interact with other people. Sure, we do the standard elementary-school haunts, PBSKids.org and Big Fat Awesome House Party (which still makes me giggle uncontrollably), but anything where they’re interacting with other kids? Nope. Not yet. They might be ready, but I’m not.

And yet… my friends with kids just a bit older than mine are all talking about Club Penguin, and after the fourth or fifth person mentioned it to me, I decided to check it out for myself. That’s when I came across Peter McKay’s piece which was as hilarious as it was informative. You should read the entire thing, really, because it’s chock-full of gems like this:

It’s a cartoon island where kids take on penguin identities to interact with each other. They never really say much — they just mill about, awkwardly bumping into each other until, every once in a while, someone dances. It’s kind of like a middle school social.

The idea behind Club Penguin is simple: Online gaming and instant messaging are the two activities kids most want to engage in online. Why not create a fun environment that is as entertaining as it is safe?

BusinessWeek has dubbed Club Penguin “MySpace for the Sandlot Set”, and Children’s Technology Review Magazine named it an Editor’s Choice.

This may just be the perfect solution for younger kids and their nervous parents. From the Club Penguin Q & A:

In order to ensure the safest possible environment, we created two chat options.

Ultimate Safe Chat is the perfect solution for parents seeking the ultimate in online safety. This important option limits what users can say to a predefined list of greetings, questions, and statements in the menu located on the left of the bottom tool bar, as well as emotes, actions and greeting cards. These users can only see other Ultimate Safe Chat messages, as well as emotes, actions, and greeting cards.

Standard Safe Chat allows players to type their own messages to other users. Every message that is typed first goes through a sophisticated word filter, which blocks inappropriate words and phrases, and also deciphers codes players might use in an attempt to get past the filter and bully others. For further security of Standard Safe Chat participants, moderators monitor what’s going on and receive player reports of misconduct. An “M” icon on the upper, right-hand portion of the screen reminds participants that a moderator is available to help. Players who engage in inappropriate behavior can be silenced or banned.

Hmmmm… I like it. (In fact, there are a few people in real life I’d like to silence and/or ban. Can we get someone on that, please?) I’m still not sure I’m ready to share my computer, but I think I’d be comfortable letting my kids try this out.

As animated feature-length films continue to grow in popularity, it almost seems odd to realize that for the first time ever, the 64th edition of the Golden Globe Awards will have a dedicated category for animated films.

The announcement was made this past January:

Next year’s Golden Globes will offer a new category when the awards are announced in January, 2007.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association voted last month to establish “Best Animated Feature Film” commencing with “The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards” in 2007, it was announced today by Philip Berk, President.

[…]

The new category of “Best Animated Feature Film” brings the total number of Golden Globe Awards categories to 25 in addition to the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Well, duh (as my daughter might say). It’s about time, no? Gone are the days when you would sit in a dark theatre where cartoons romped onscreen, plying your children with popcorn while chaos from everyone else’s kids swirled around you. Well, hmm. Actually, I guess that’s not gone, but in addition to that you’ll now see something new: People without kids. Today’s animated flicks are for all ages, with appeal to a much wider audience than their predecessors.

And—let’s face it—they started giving out an Academy Award for animation in 2001. C’mon, Hollywood Foreign Press! What took you so long?

Anyway, the point is that animation is hot right now. Even still, I was surprised to see that there are 16 animated films qualified for the upcoming Golden Globes:

Sixteen animated feature films have been qualified for consideration for the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards honoring 2006 achievements, Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk annouced Wednesday.

Also qualifying are 184 live-action feature films (119 dramas and 65 comedies or musicals), 124 TV series (73 drama and 51 comedies), 38 mini-series or TV-movies, and 56 foreign-language films.

In addition, 88 songs are eligible for the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture.

Well, I guess it doesn’t seem like so many, when compared to 184 live-action films. Still, 16 animated films with a shot at one of those shiny statues. Not too bad.

We’ll have to sit tight until the Golden Globes show on January 15th, but I can’t wait to see which 2006 offering goes home with the prize. I assume it’s going to be Cars, although there is a small part of me that would be really thrilled if it ended up being Curious George. Care to weigh in with your predictions?