TVSquad

It took just a few weeks, but the trouble is over. The two sides have met and negotiated a fair arrangement. No, I'm not referring to the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama camps and the Florida and Michigan delegates. No, the news is more animated than that. The powers that be at 20th Century Fox TV have re-signed the actors who voice the The Simpsons.

The principals are signing new four-year deals in which the talent will receive substantial increases in salary. They had been getting $360,000 per episode and were looking for a bump up in that fee to $500,000 per. The negotiated compromise amount is about $400,000 per show. And as expected, instead of a 22 episode season commencing next fall, there'll be 20 shows in the year ahead.

The first animated cartoon wasn't very good. As far as I know, SalesGenie.com is a newcomer to the Super Bowl. Acme Widget boss, Hank Bulleymonger (funny, right?) comes down on his worst salesmen that he needs to double his output or he's fired. SalesGenie.com to the rescue! He gets 100 free sales leads and becomes the Salesman of the year. Never mind that the worst salesman of the year is middle eastern man with seven kids, and any controversy that may or may not bring, the bottom line is it was a lame commercial.

While the thirty years of Star Wars panel featured plenty of video game previews and Lucas-approved montages of the fans that have made him one seriously wealthy man, it also featured a special preview of Family Guy's season premiere - a one hour Star Wars tribute starring Stewie as Lord Vader, of course. Who else were you expecting to don Vader's robes?

The Simpsons promo machine is still going strong, preparing for the family's bigscreen adventure on July 27th. The marketing for this movie has been wonderfully creative, but even though real-life Squishees are delicious, I think my favorite plug has got to be the new fashion spread in the August issue of Harper's Bazaar. "The Simpsons Go to Paris" depicts the Simpson family wearing outfits straight from the seasons' high fashion catwalks. The spread also features Simpson-ized versions of supermodel Linda Evangelista and designers like Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul Gaultier.

Check out this post with scans of the illustrations, helpfully accompanied by real photos of the outfits on the catwalk. Sadly enough, many of the fashions look better in the cartoon world than in the real one. Case in point: Those bizarre "if Carol Burnett had a stage lighting fetish" Viktor & Rolf numbers. And I also find it a little unsettling that Donatella Versace looks healthier in Simpson-yellow than in whatever shade of leather her skin is now.

When I heard Speed Racer was coming to Nicktoons, I figured it was the original cartoon, but no such luck. Instead, a newer version is being created to (not) coincide with the upcoming live-action film version from the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), although having both debuting around the same time will definitely result in the kind of synergy studios crave.

The new Speed Racer 'toon is being produced through Lionsgate and Animation Collective, the studio behind Kappa Mikey, an anime-inspired comedy that also airs on Nicktoons.

Oh yeah, it's happening.

Following the soon-to-be -released Transformers and the recently-announced He-Man comes yet another afternoon 'toon from my childhood making its way to the silver screen.

This time, it's ThunderCats, an animated series that aired in the 1980s and focused on a group of warriors that looked like a meld of both human and feline. Warner Bros. has optioned a script from Paul Sopocy for the live-action CGI feature-length adaptation.

Over the past few weeks, I have seen multiple commercials for Comedy Central's new animated show, Lil' Bush. It didn't even remotely interest me, because it simply sounded like a compilation of the easiest possible Bush jokes... "If you don't X, the terrorists win", "I'm the decider", etc. But as it turns out, I may have to give this show a try, because my life is dictated by rock and all things rocking.

In this recent interview with Fuse TV, Lil' Bush creator Donick Cary talked about the stars that have contributed their voices to the show. The list includes Frank Black, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Dave Grohl. Also, Iggy Pop -- Iggy friggin' Pop -- plays Lil' Bush's buddy, Lil' Rummy.

Did Donald Rumsfeld just get a little cooler? Yeah, maybe.

[via CC Insider]

Cool news for Family Guy fans: the series will be going into syndication in 24 of the top 25 markets, including Minneapolis (which probably doesn't mean much to any of you, but I live in Minneapolis).

While I'm not as fanatical about Family Guy as some, I think it's perfect for syndication. It's a series with the kind of light humor that's perfect for playing in the background while you clean your house on a lazy afternoon, and I don't think it'll suffer too much from the obligatory editing that often happens when a program goes into syndication. When a show is as heavy on non sequitur gags as Family Guy, cutting one or two doesn't hurt the overall flow of the episode too much.

So there you go: between airings on FOX, Adult Swim, TBS and now a syndicated run, you'll be able to get your daily allowance of Family Guy. If you can learn to grow your own food inside your house, you'll never have to leave.

The second installment in the Hellboy animated movies for Cartoon Network will air at 7 p.m. on March 17. Hellboy: Blood and Iron borrows heavily from Wake the Devil, the second Hellboy paperback, according to the series' production blog. This second installment was originally envisioned as an origin story, but that concept was too close to the theatrical release, so a (mostly) new story was developed.

The third and final installment, Hellboy: The Phantom Claw is still in the script stage, and according to the production blog, will have more of a "mad scientist/weird technology" vibe, making it quite different than the previous two movies.

As mentioned before, actors from the Hellboy movie also provide voices for the animated version, including Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair and Doug Jones. Original Hellboy creator and Hellboy movie co-writer Mike Mignola also co-wrote the scripts for the animated versions.

[via Toon Zone]

While you're in the process of preparing yourself both physically and mentally for the release of The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters on April 13, make sure you snatch up the soundtrack, which comes out on April 10. I haven't purchased the soundtrack for an animated movie since The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, but I may have to get my greasy hands on this one. It'll feature a brand new version of the ATHF theme from Schooly D, not to mention tracks by The Hold Steady, Mastodon, Killer Mike, and Nine Pound Hammer (the band behind the 12 Oz Mouse theme). The CD will also feature sound bites from the movie and skits.

While this is Adult Swim and Williams Street first foray into animated movies, they've been collaborating with underground musicians for some time now. Check out this page for a bunch of downloadable audio goodness.

The Cartoon Network series Ben 10, about a young boy who uses a mysterious device called the Omnitrix to change into different super heroes, is being developed into both a full-length made-for-TV animated movie, and a live-action movie, also presumably for television.

None of the reports from the Cartoon Network upfronts have any details on who will star in the live-action movie, or even what the movie will be about. I myself have never seen the show, though since I tend to spend a lot of time on animation blogs I've heard some good things about it. The show just seemed to be geared towards a much younger crowd, even though I can and have enjoyed cartoons not necessarily intended for grown ups. Do any of you watch it or have kids who watch it? Does a live-action version make sense?

First of all, big props to Toon Zone for being on top of this stuff.

Cartoon Network has five new shows kicking off this year. They are:

• Re-Animated: a new series based on the original Cartoon Network movie about a young boy who has his brain replaced with that of a famous animator and begins to see the animator's creations appear in real life.
• Chowder: the story of an apprentice to a famous chef named Mung Dahl. Chowder wants to be a master chef, but he eats everything he sees. Chowder was created by C. H. Greenblatt, who previously worked on SpongeBob SquarePants and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
• Currently untitled Santo series: Originally developed by Cartoon Network for Mexican audiences and based on the legendary Santo the Silver Masked Man, this new series will see the famed wrestler win bouts inside the ring while fighting vampires, monsters and robots outside the ring.
• The Secret Saturdays: Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday are scientists who work together to save the world from strange and inexplicable events. As part of a network of scientists, the trio battle the evil V.V. Argost and a mutant half-giant / half-spider.
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack: Out of all these new series, this one looks the most interesting to me. Creator Thurop Van Orman's (Powerpuff Girls, Camp Lazlo) series focuses on a young sailor named Flapjack who lives inside a whale named Bubbles and listens to tales of the sea from a pirate named Captain K'nuckles. There's a great interview with Van Orman on the Frederator blog, along with some images from the upcoming series. I'm absolutely enamored by the design of this cartoon.

Via Digg, I came upon this interview with Rob Coleman, one of the directors of LucasFilm's upcoming Star Wars 3D animated series. Typical of most of Lucas' projects, the main details are being kept under wraps, though Coleman promises that the series will be unlike any other animated series on television right now. He did mention that Lucas is a fan of anime, but beyond that nothing is known as to just how the new series will be rendered or what it will even look like*. Regardless, I'm excited about this new series, both as a Star Wars fan and as someone who has seen Lucas create visual worlds unmatched by any other movie in the last several years. If the writing and voice acting can match the artistic quality of the new series, I'll definitely check it out.

Meanwhile, Lucas is also working on a live-action Star Wars series, which he says will be more "adult" in theme and will not center on the Skywalker family. I'd say tackling two different series at once is too much, but if I had all the man power and resources Lucas has, I'd be making about twelve shows at once.

*UPDATE: Here's a small promotional image from the new series. Thanks, Brendon.

All day today, Boomerang is broadcasting cartoons about love and romance. You didn't forget it was Valentine's Day, did you? This is the day lovers exchange socks, shave their heads and carve a menagerie of mythical creatures out of frozen mayonnaise. Okay, that's not true, I'm just trying to start a new trend beyond all this boring "flowers and chocolate" nonsense.

At any rate, if you love yourself some cartoons, keep checking into Boomerang today for love-laced cartoons featuring the Looney Tunes characters, the Smurfs, Popeye, Top Cat, Speed Buggy, the Flintstones, 2 Stupid Dogs, Droopy, Tom and Jerry, and others. You can see the schedule here.

If you don't have Boomerang, you can always watch some of those same shorts over on the In2TV site.

I was really hoping this would die before it went too far, but apparently I prayed to the wrong god. Last October I mentioned that Donald Trump and his people were planning a Trump cartoon, and now it looks as if they've found a production company to animate the series. Animation Dimensions will work on the new series, which is still untitled, will be shopped around to various networks after it's approved by Trump and Premiere Enterprises.

So, a cartoon about a man who's already overexposed, created through the consent of businessmen and women who don't know the first thing about animation. That's pretty much modern televised animation in a nutshell, save for a few exceptions. If this series ever gets picked up, I predict a quick end for it. If it does take off, I'm taking it upon myself to hunt down all prints of the series and destroy them myself.