Introducing the first official “SpokesWubb” for World Autism Day, none other than Wubbzy:

You may have already seen this PSA on television, but what you probably don’t know is that the folks behind Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! donated their time and resources absolutely free of charge because of their desire to help spread the word for a worthy cause. I think that’s pretty amazing.

Visit the World Autism Awareness Day site for more information, and be sure to check out how to Walk on the Web with Wubbzy, too, if you’re interested in fundraising.

Leave it to Wubbzy to remind us all that we need to love each other more. Thanks, Wubbzy!

Just watching the show’s intro makes me feel like a lazy slug:

Wubbzy, Widget and Walden are ready to subtly slip some great lessons about values like honesty into a packed half-hour of fun and hilarity, and that’s makes ‘em alright by me. You can check out the official site or their Nick Jr. site for more, and of course now you can find all your Wubbzy needs at the brank-spankin’-new Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! Store right here at Ty’s Toy Box. (Personally, I recommend the Disco Dancin Wubbzy, not so much because he dances but because he has excellent hair. You’re welcome!)

Welcome to Ty’s, Wubbzy! I feel more wubbulous, already.

(Those of you who’ve always lived where it’s still arcing into the 70s in December may be used to this, but we aren’t. A few holiday television shows featuring plenty of yuletide glee along with some snow are just what the doctor ordered.)

Anyway, Nickelodeon is running all sorts of great stuff this month. Tomorrow (that’s Friday, December 14th, 2007) your preschooler can get into the spirit all afternoon long:

December 14 (12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.)

12:00 p.m. The Wonder Pets! “Save the Reindeer”
12:30 p.m. Blue’s Clues “Blue’s First Holiday”
1:00 p.m. Go, Diego, Go! “Diego Saves Christmas”
1:30 p.m. Wow Wow Wubbzy! “O Figgity-Fig Tree/Snow Day” (PREMIERE)

The winter holidays are here, and the kids are building a winter festival, Madame Zabinga is rehearsing the Nutty-Nutcracker, and Walden is waiting for the arrival of blue snow. Best of all is the lighting of the Figgity-Fig Tree, and this year Wubbzy wants to make it the best tree ever! But as usual, he overdoes it by adding too many lights and blows out the generator. Without any lights, the Wuzzleburg townspeople must come up with novel ways of decorating the tree. In “Snow Day,” Wubbzy goes sledding and Widget brings out his snow-shoveling machine. Walden begins building a snow sculpture of a Woly-Polar Bear, but soon Wubbzy sleds right into it, knocks it down and buries Widget’s machine in the snow. Now Wubbzy and Widget scramble frantically to fix the sculpture before Walden finds out.

Later on in the day, Christmas comes to the Wayside School:

Friday, December 14 – Wayside “Sideways Christmas” (PREMIERE)

“Extra-Curricular Ridicular”
All the kids are forming bizarre after-school clubs, except for Todd, who creates a plain old “Science Club.” Myron laughs at him, believing his club will be better, until he sees Todd’s club has managed to build a functioning rocket. Jealous Myron tries to form a “Science Club” and build a rocket of his own.

“Sideways Christmas”
A series of haphazard events confuse Myron into thinking he’s actually stuck in his own version of “The Christmas Carol.” The other kids are baffled as he mistakes them for Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and in the end, Myron learns his lesson.

On Sunday you’ll find a holiday-themed marathon taking place on Nick in the afternoon (featuring Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron, Danny Phantom, and others), and of course there’s plenty more holiday cartoon goodness as we move closer in towards Christmas. See the entire schedule here if you need to plan around your favorite shows.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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.