Yep, another Cartoon Network project is premiering in just a few weeks, and Animation Insider brought us this summary last month:

Cartoon Network has announced their plans to premiere The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack in Summer 2008.

Raised by Bubbie the talking whale in the bubbling splendor of the sea, Flapjack’s life was once a world of peace and tranquility. That all ended the day he and Bubbie rescued an old pirate from a shipwreck, Captain K’nuckles, whose tall tales tangle up Flapjack’s head, consuming him with an unquenchable desire for adventure.

Although Bubbie struggles to protect him, Flapjack would do anything to win the approval of Captain K’nuckles, even if it means getting himself into a lot of trouble. The trouble Flapjack finds himself in results from his naive, overenthusiastic quest for adventure. The best things are what happened instead — the misadventures.

The sea community in which the three friends live, Stormalong Harbor, is pretty much home to them. Here Flapjack and Cap’n K’nuckles work at the dock to earn candy money, acquire supplies, and get into mischief, all in support of acquiring the most coveted title of all� Adventurer!

I’d seen the summary a few weeks back and promptly forgotten about it (hey, I can only retain so much information at one time, and the lyrics to all of the songs I used to listen to on my coveted cassette tape player in junior high are tough to oust once they’ve had decades to sink in, you know?), but then today I ran across a sneak peek episode. Go ahead and watch it. I’ll wait.

So—what’d you think? I watched it with my kids, who are now appropriately jazzed for the June 5th premiere, but I couldn’t help feeling just a little deja vu while I was watching it. Then I remembered the first time I’d seen an episode of My Gym Partner’s a Monkey and how I really wanted to hate it, but actually it was… well… sort of funny. Flapjack was also sort of funny. And sort of like what I imagine would happy if you put My Gym Partner’s a Monkey and SpongeBob SquarePants into a blender together. Which is to say, it’s entertaining, but also has a bit of “been there” feel to it.

It’s interesting, too, that it’s premiering in an 8:30 p.m. time slot. What, no Saturday morning love? Is the content too mature for little kids? (Funny, I saw a lot of candy and a head in a toilet bowl. I foolishly assumed that little kids were the target demographic….)

I’ll be curious to see how it does.

Get in gear for a complete Speed Racer experience this May, and feed your need for Speed.

You’re already primed for the May 9th premiere of the Speed Racer feature film, of course, because if you watched those trailers like I told you to, you’re now counting down the days (and looking for a local IMAX theater). You’re only human, after all.

But did you also know that May will be bringing a new cartoon series to Nicktoons? It’s true!

Nicktoons Network, the fastest growing kids’ network, is set to premiere Speed Racer: The Next Generation, a new animated series that builds on the legendary adventures of the iconic original series, on Friday, May 2, at 7:00 p.m. (ET). The 90-minute premiere will launch the Speed Racer: The Next Generation television series just prior to the Lionsgate DVD release on Tuesday, May 6, and the live-action Warner Bros. feature film, directed by The Wachowski Brothers, on Friday, May 9. The 26- episode, half-hour series will air regularly Fridays at 7:00 p.m. (ET) on Nicktoons Network.

Television and DVD and movies, oh my!

In the 90-minute premiere, “The Beginning,” Speed, a teenager who had been orphaned as a baby, arrives at the prestigious Racing Academy and tries to get acclimated as the new kid. He meets friends and enemies, finds out he is the son of the famous driver Speed Racer and begins to deal with his new brother, X, and uncle, Headmaster Spritle (voiced by Peter Fernandez, original voice of Speed Racer in the original U.S. version). After finding parts of Speed Racer’s car — the Mach-5 — in a junk yard, Speed, with help from his new friends Conor and Lucy, rebuilds the legendary vehicle, but wrecks it during an intense race. Dejected and in need of a new car, Speed discovers his father’s schematics for a revolutionary gasless engine and builds the Mach 6.

How cool is it that they’ve gotten Peter Fernandez back? Though I worry that every time I hear him, I’ll think back to the first series. Regardless, I think that’s a nice nod to the original.

I’ll be curious to see if all of these incarnations of Speed Racer hit pay dirt. Time will tell….

This one very nearly defies description, so I’ll let you check it out yourself:

I’ll confess a weakness for Amy Poehler that predates this project, but still… how can you not love Bessie Higgenbottom? You can’t. I mean, not if you have a heart and a funny bone. It’s simply not possible.

Here’s a bit from the official press release:

Bessie Higgenbottom (voiced by Amy Poehler) is the world’s most ambitious and loveably unhinged 9 ¾-year-old member of the Honeybee troop for girls. As a member of the Honeybees, Bessie wears her uniform every single day, leads her troop with a zeal General Patton would have admired and has earned more badges then any other Honeybee in history. Bessie is sometimes accompanied on her adventures by her ever-loyal younger brother Benjamin (voiced by Andy Richter), her very opinionated and somewhat reluctant dog Happy (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), one of her closest pals, her imaginary friend Finger and Rocky Rhodes (voiced by Kenan Thompson), the cool, older skater kid who works part-time at the counter at Bessie’s mother’s eatery, Hilary’s Café.

This program’s got it all—a geeky heroine, a questionable alter-ego, an annoying little brother sidekick, wacky humor, and great animation. I can’t wait for it to premiere. Fortunately, I don’t have to wait very long—it begins on Nickelodeon on Saturday, April 26th, at 10:30 a.m.

I’m having Girl Scout flashbacks. Fortunately, I feel confident that if I eat a few Thin Mints, they’ll go away. I’m willing to try out that theory, anyway.

It was nearly a year ago when I was excited to report that Olivia would be coming to Nick Jr. in CGI form. At the time, there wasn’t much information to go on, but I was thrilled to hear that the project was underway.

Now, it appears that Chorion is moving forward, and they’ve made plans for a Fall debut on the U.K.’s Five network:

The UK deal further consolidates Chorion’s relationship with Five which already airs the producer’s hit kids shows THE MR MEN SHOW and MAKE WAY FOR NODDY. OLIVIA will broadcast as part of Five’s Milkshake! block. The 52 x 11 minute series for a pre-school audience is currently in production with delivery scheduled for fall 2008.

Based on the award-winning books written and illustrated by Ian Falconer, OLIVIA is a 3D CG series animated by the Academy Award-nominated company Brown Bag Films. Chorion’s Diana Manson is executive producing along with Pat Resnick who is also the head writer. Resnick is an acclaimed screen and television writer with credits including 9 TO 5, QUINTET, MAXIE, STRAIGHT TALK and the Golden Globe-nominated HELL ON HEELS — THE BATTLE OF MARY KAY.

This is exciting news for Olivia fans all over the world, but the best part of this article comes next:

Five’s Director of Children’s Programs Nick Wilson said, “Olivia is a great character! And I am very fond of her — she’s also 6 and three quarters which is one of the great ages! She’ll be Pig of the Year and a great addition to Milkshake.”

I’m all for enthusiasm, but if I didn’t know better, I’d think Wilson himself was only about 6 and three quarters years old. Heh.

Also, since when do they hold Pig of the Year? I mean, I hope Olivia wins, and all, but I wasn’t aware it was a contest. Based upon what I recently found in the bottom of my daughter’s closet, I think she might be in the running for Pig of the Year….

Marvel fans will be thrilled to hear that Iron Man is coming to a cartoon near you—first on a pre-release DVD, and then as a television series later this month. But despite being as American as apple pie and, well, Marvel Comics, Iron Man is being developed for television in the United Kingdom:

Marvel has commissioned Gaul’s Method Animation to make 26 half-hour “Iron Man” shows. Marvel and Method are co-producing with U.K. animation shingle Cinnamon Entertainment.

Maybe you’re not familiar with Cinnamon, but the rest of the world isn’t:

Cinnamon managing director Anthony Bouchier said his company’s role in producing the series “is a tribute to the quality of animation talent working in the British Isles.”

Cinnamon, which has contributed early design and modelling work, specializes in children’s animation and is best known for BBC1’s CG toon hit “Freefonix.”

“Freefonix” follows the adventures of a pop group 50 years in the future in the city of Los Bosmos.

This is all coming just in time for the excitement over the soon-to-open Iron Man feature film, of course:

The latest “Iron Man” TV series will follow the release of the live-action “Iron Man” feature.

Pic, which stars Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role and Samuel L. Jackson as Marvel superhero Nick Fury, opens May 2 Stateside and in the U.K.

I have to admit, Iron Man has always been one of my favorites. I think it’ll be a great addition to any Saturday morning line-up. But maybe I just have a weakness for large robots; hard to tell.

Yes, this past Saturday was the Kids’ Choice Awards on Nickelodeon, and they were notable because Hannah Montana’s Miley Cyrus walked away with both favorite actress in a TV show and favorite female singer.

Or maybe it was because Harrison Ford got slimed. Personally, I think that was more interesting news, but then again, I’ve had a crush on Indiana Jones longer than Miley Cyrus has been alive….

(I cannot believe I just admitted that. Hi, I’m the Toy Box Mommy, and I am extremely old!)

Some were surprised that Cyrus didn’t take three awards, but Drake & Josh managed to edge out Hannah Montana for favorite show. Hey, she got two awards and she has two hands, so unless she was planning on juggling them, I think it worked out okay. (Also, judging by all of the products in the Hannah Montana Store here, I don’t really think she’s hurting for popularity. Just sayin’.)

My other favorite winner, of course, was the dubbing of Avatar: The Last Airbender as Favorite Cartoon. You know I love Avatar; where else can you get such an involved story embedded in fabulous animation along with humor and entertainment that works for almost all ages? Aside from the little orange Nickelodeon blimp statue thingie they get, I’m pleased that Avatar was recognized for the awesome show that it is. (But I am not going to say that too loudly, because there is a long history of cartoons I love being canceled. Let’s pretend I’m whispering.)

Congratulations to all of the winners, of course, and I would like to respectfully suggest that we work the sliming of guests into the next Academy Awards show, as well. It certainly livened things up a bit.

The year was 1993. Um, I think. It was a long time ago, you know. Anyway. I was a young, idealistic graduate student. I played my They Might Be Giants cassette tapes (yes, cassette tapes—my dinosaur often fetched them for me) over and over while studying or cooking myself some delicious Ramen noodles for dinner.

And then one beautiful Spring day, They Might Be Giants came to my University and put on a concert. It was outdoors, and because I was young and stupid I didn’t wear any sunblock. I ended up badly sunburned, but I didn’t care, because the concert was the most fun I’d had in years. (Probably since I’d been to that Phil Collins concert.) (What?)

If you had told me back then that TMBG would one day become a sensation amongst the toddler set, I probably would’ve laughed. First of all, back then I believed that little kids listened to nothing but Raffi and Barney. Second, I would’ve been hard-pressed to imagine myself with little kids shrieking for “Particle Man, Mama! One more time! PARTICLE MAN!” But there you have it; my children are almost as enamored of TMBG as I’ve always been, and a generation of kids are growing up on their music thanks to Playhouse Disney.

Yesterday I read over at Cartoon Brew that Disney is releasing new animated They Might Be Giants videos every week, in the form of a weekly video podcast. You can find them on iTunes, or hunt them down on YouTube. It’s good stuff and the whole family will be bopping along in no time.

This one is my favorite:

(Just a little something to make you smile on a Tuesday.)

It started up months ago—amidst doubts and some industry criticism— but yesterday the oddly-named Hulu had its official public launch. According to their About page, Hulu’s “ambitious and never-ending mission is to help you find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how you want it.”

USA Today noted:

Hulu’s launch is a big bet by big media companies that consumers are as eager to spend long periods of time watching TV shows and movies in front of their computers as they are in front of their televisions.

Ahead of its test launch four months ago, the service was greeted skeptically as a rival to Google’s (GOOG) YouTube video-sharing site. Hulu has won over some of its harshest critics, including technology blog TechCrunch, which has since praised the venture for focus on professional content, easy-to-use design and video quality.

With no marketing and a private test pool of users, the service has attracted more than 5 million viewers in the past month, said Hulu Chief Executive Jason Kilar.

About 80% of its entire video library is viewed every seven days, a sign likely to be viewed favorably by programming partners seeking ways to boost profits from vintage shows, Kilar said.

Hulu is going to be the one to watch because this represents a real shift in marketing paradigm when it comes to mass entertainment. There’s no cost to the end user, and the interface is simple and easy-to-use. Selections can even be played full-screen, and the streaming is smooth (I expected a lot of bumps and pauses, but found it much higher-quality than I’d expected).

Some would say that such a site is long overdue, but nevertheless, networks and studios making their content available for free, and in full through a third-party this way is opening up a whole new ball game.

And I’m not just saying that because I found my husband sitting here in our office watching Remington Steele on his laptop this morning….

There are modern inventions I love, and there are others which I feel have negatively impacted our lives. The worst, though, are the ones that are somehow both. To wit: I love our DVR. I whisper sweet nothings to it when no one is around. When I’m busy or just spaced out and therefore miss or forget about a favorite show, it’s no problem! My beloved DVR has remembered to record it for me, and I can view it at my leisure!

But I also hate our DVR, because it has ruined something absolutely fundamental about childhood for my kids—there is now no reason to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to watch cartoons, because they can watch their favorite shows whenever they feel like it. That just seems… wrong, somehow.

Not that we don’t do Saturday morning cartoon marathons around here, obviously. It’s just that the kids are just as likely to fire up some back episodes of their favorites as they are to actually do the live television. And really, they can’t win, because if they watch live TV I give them a hard time about the insipid commercials (you know, those things they can fast forward over when they’re using the DVR).

Regardless, I predict we’ll be doing live TV this weekend—how could we possibly resist when it’s Super Hero Saturday?

Toon Zone has all the details:

The back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back heroics start at 9:30am (ET/PT) with the new Legion of Super Heroes episode “In the Beginning,” which details the Legion’s formation.

[…]

The premiere of The Spectacular Spider-Man will follow at 10:00am with “Survival of the Fittest,” in which high school student Peter Parker must face both The Enforcers and Vulture.

[…]

As Spider-Man begins, The Batman will end with an hour-long event, “Lost Heroes,” in which Batman, Robin and Green Arrow battle The Joining after it has kidnapped the Justice League members and transferred their powers into alien androids.

(See the full article for more details, obviously.)

I don’t know about you, but with a line-up like that, even I’m gonna be parked in front of the television come Saturday. Um, for nostalgia’s sake, of course.

In the fast-paced world of tween entertainment, it’s not enough to be good. You have to be the best.

As any parent of a tween can tell you, tweens have the attention spans of fruit flies. If you don’t have a hit on your hands, how far away could you possibly be from a total flop? Those fickle kids are determining your fate, after all.

So it’s no surprise to hear that the industry is tracking the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon like hawks:

“For the longest time Nickelodeon was the dominant player but there is now a real race,” Katz Television Group vice president of programming Bill Carroll said. “Nickelodeon has not gone down but relatively they’re not as high.”

Carroll acknowledged the buzz generated by Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana and two High School Musical movies, saying, “In perception, Disney leads by a head. And in the entertainment industry, perception is reality.”

Still, despite the perceived and real challenges Nickelodeon faces, it would be hard to find a healthier network, said Derek Baine, a cable television analyst at SNL Kagan Research: “The network still has a huge cash flow margin — at 67% it’s one of highest in the industry.”

The article tracks the development and strategies of both channels, and it’s really interesting to see how each network plotted their rise to stardom.

As for which one can be declared king? Keep wondering.

Still, neither network can be pronounced a hands-down winner.

Well, thank goodness for that, right? This way we can keep arguing about it. And if my daughter is any indication at all, we can have the Hannah Montana vs. iCarly discussion for hours on end. (I can hardly wait—just let me go find my earplugs.)