Courage the Cowardly Dog returning?

[D'Snowth]

And you hate when things go to Netflix.

Both network and Netflix have their share of cons, and in Netflix's case, as I say, not everybody has the service because not everybody has home internet, so even if Netflix is willing to offer producers more creative control than networks are willing to offer, the major con is that only a fraction of the public masses is going to see it. Even now, a lot of people out there still don't have cable, let alone HBO, hence the nontroversy over SST's move to HBO when it was always meant to be easily accessible for kids of all walks of life can view (even though some people don't seem to understand PBS will still get the new episodes - totally for free - on a 9-month delay).

 

[Drtooth]

Both network and Netflix have their share of cons, and in Netflix's case, as I say, not everybody has the service because not everybody has home internet, so even if Netflix is willing to offer producers more creative control than networks are willing to offer, the major con is that only a fraction of the public masses is going to see it.

That's the sad Catch 22. And often times it's a matter of having anyone see it at all over not being able to sell to a network. Sure, some of Netflix's animated kid's programming is just reruns or international programs that air on regular television in their home countries (Inspector Gadget and Danger Mouse for example). Then again, you could also make the inaccessibility case for cable, but a good deal of those shows do get released on DVD as well. And I'd say, while not everyone has the internet and not everyone who does have the high speed packages, more people have internet than not, and more people have internet than cable. Though a good deal of that is families realizing it's too darn expensive to have both when they don't really watch TV as much.

Still, the state of cartoons on television is always one step forward and two steps back. Blah blah blah M.C. Scat Cat joke. They certainly are making more cartoons now than 10 years ago, but depending on the network you get a block of selected shows (CN), shows that they seem to sabotage so they don't have to compete with live action programming or popular cartoons (Nick), or bury them on a sister network that's only available in the second, pricier price point cable package and then wonder why the ratings are so low (Disney). And to be fair, yes these networks all offer their shows online, but only unlockable if you subscribe to the cable packages that have them. I can see why the Yokai Watch company went to Netflix as a secondary source of exposing the show, considering that XD is such a hard channel to actually get. And that obscurity hurt our only chance to bring Doraemon (who in Asian and Latin countries is ubiquitous, China and its native Japan especially) over here, not to mention keeping the Pac-Man and Xiaolin Showdown revivals from being popular (both are on netflix now, actually). And really... Yokai Watch was the thing that was supposed to overtake Pokemon. It's the first time since that where we got a kid's anime toy commercial that was actually successful in Japan.

 

[D'Snowth]

Here's the animatic for Dilly's other Prudence pilot, and this one is apparently more along the lines of his original vision for the series, as well as Prudence's character design (though he still wanted her to be chubbier).

Both are interesting, but I think the other Prudence pilot did a better job at illustrating that these monsters we're seeing are really Prudence's deep insecurities and her battles with them; this one isn't too clear on that, which makes it more confusing. The content, on the other hand, is more akin to Courage.

 

[Drtooth]

Seems they just stopped airing several Courage episodes a day on Boomerang, but on the bright side, it's replaced by late night reruns of Dexter's Lab.

 

[Schfifty]

I kind of wonder if Courage will ever make a miraculous return on its home channel again like it did last August, but I bet it most likely won't happen. Good to hear Dexter's Laboratory is back on Boomerang again after being buried for so long...I thought its days on television were nearly over.

And I also echo what PL says about the Dirdy Birdy animatic. That should so be a finished cartoon.

 

[D'Snowth]

Dilly really can't seem to catch a break right now. Both PRUDENCE AND THE IMPS pilots never made it beyond animatic because they were "too weird"; he's got another animatic pilot on YT called CHUNKS & CHOOGLE (a.k.a. DUMB MONKEY ISLAND) that he worked on for five years, but never happened due to personality and management conflicts; then of course, there's THE DIRDY BIRDY sequel that will never get made because his Kickstarter campaigned fell far below the goal. Here's at least hoping his GOOSE IN HIGH HEELS short will go better, since he's got at least three different fully-animated previews on YT right now.

 

[Drtooth]

I kind of wonder if Courage will ever make a miraculous return on its home channel again like it did last August, but I bet it most likely won't happen. Good to hear Dexter's Laboratory is back on Boomerang again after being buried for so long...I thought its days on television were nearly over.

And after Dexter's late night block on weekends, Billy and Mandy apparently. I really hope this means Boomerang is at least considering a rival to Teen Nick's "The Splat" with older CN shows. They also used to have Chowder, but that disappeared off of weekends months ago.

 

[D'Snowth]

Dilly finally posted a teaser from his upcoming short GOOSE WITH HIGH HEELS:

While this isn't his first time using Flash, this is his first all-Flash short, and just looking at this brief teaser makes me wonder: if one independent animator, with little experience with Flash, can churn out something this fluid smooth, how is it actual Flash studios with actual budgets that produce animated shows for TV still have cold, stiff, and robot animation? Well, I guess it's like Drtooth has said: it's clear these studios, like 9 Story, rely way too heavy on library models and poses and such, and if you've seen Dilly's WIP videos, you can see he's animating this short as if he was drawing/animating by hand.

Dilly's been posting more WIP videos of GOOSE WITH HIGH HEELS, but here's another sample he posted today that, once again, brings to mind this point I made months ago about how it's a shame that TV standard Flash animation can't look as good as this:

 

[Luke kun]

You're sure it's not this purple dinosaur?

But yeah, that's kind of surprising, especially since Courage's tone is more darker and edgier than the other by a mile.

barney vs dino now

 

[Drtooth]

Saw a new Courage shirt at JC Penny. Didn't get it though, since they weren't on sale. It's strange that CN/WB is marketing the character like that. Not unwelcome, but strange.