TVSquad

(S19E04) If I don't make it, feel free to re-marry from anyone on the list on the bulletin board in the closet. -- Marge, during her hostage scare

We had two good things happen this week on The Simpsons. First, we finally had an episode that didn't focus on Homer. Second, we had a guest voice that was actually utilized. Actually, there were two guest voices used well; I just didn't know about one of them until the credits were rolling. More as we progress.

I've been staying away from writing about The Simpsons the same way I stay away from the cookies I bought a few days ago: I promise myself to only have a couple, but then I figure one more won't hurt, and then I decide to eat another to make it an even number, and by the end I've eaten twenty cookies and written about The Simpsons just as much.

So yeah, we've been saturated with Simpsons stuff ever since the movie came out, but when I came across this article in Reuters, I could not, as a fan, keep my mouth shut and not tell other fans about it.

Do a search for my name on this blog and it becomes clear I have a nerdish obsession with animation. One of the things I love so much about it is that there are no boundaries whatsoever: a character can swallow a fork, get shot in the face, and decapitated by helicopter blades and still bounce back as if nothing happened. The only person in real life who could do that is Jesus Christ, and even He needed to rest for a few days afterward.

I haven't exactly been scouring the news sites for information on Paris Hilton's recent incarceration, but I did find this funny video from Super News!, the animated shorts that sometimes air on CurrentTV.

In the one below, titled "The Shawskank Redemption," Hilton enters prison and befriends a kindly older gentleman named "Red" who helps her adjust to prison life. Apparently, Red has been sent to a ladies' prison for having unpaid parking tickets, something he doesn't quite understand but seems to take in stride anyway.

As I said in my early review of the new CBS animated series Creature Comforts, I never saw the original Channel 4 version from the UK, so I couldn't compare and contrast, but I loved the pilot episode of the American version, which creator Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit) is also involved with.

Luckily, I found a video preview of the pilot episode via Animation Magazine, and I've placed it below for your viewing pleasure. I absolutely love the idea of putting the words of regular folks into the mouths of these animals, because in doing so, it makes the stories seem less personal and gives them a more universal appeal. It's one of the smartest and cleverest ideas for an animated series I've seen in a long time, and it's nice to see another animated series that, not unlike King of the Hill, doesn't rely heavily on random weirdness to be funny (not that I have a problem with "random weirdness," I just like variety).

Creature Comforts debuts on CBS this Monday at 8:00 p.m.

Interesting things in the world of animation have happened. I will now tell you about them:

First of all, if you're a fan of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, or you have kids who love the show, the recently-released DVD Billy and Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure is definitely worth the purchase. In this made-for-TV movie --which originally aired on Cartoon Network-- Billy, Mandy and Grim must race against Boogey (a.k.a. "the Boogeyman") to retrieve Horror's Hand, an ancient artifact that give its possessor the power to conjure up everyone's deepest fears, but only if one conquers their own fears first. Kids will enjoy the silly characters and booger jokes, and there are plenty of pop cultural references for adults: within the first five minutes of the movie we're treated to homages to Terminator 2, Stargate, Star Wars and Fractured Fairy Tales, just to name a few. Also, there's a nice lesson about facing your fears that ties all the random insanity together.

I watch a lot of cartoons. I don't however, watch much anime at all. Sure, there are movies and TV shows I've seen and enjoyed (Akira, Ghost in the Shell, FLCL), but that's a mere drop in the vast anime ocean, hardly enough to call myself a fan.

So, my lack of true anime insight and the fact I was nowhere new the New York ComicCon this year are my two main excuses for not getting this news to you sooner, but winners of the first American Anime Awards --which honors anime series released in the U.S. and redubbing provided by English-speaking voice actors-- were announced, and they are:

You gotta love classic Sesame Street. Remember the Twiddlebugs, that family of insects who lived in Ernie's window box? Sesame Workshop, which recently announced a new animated program featuring Bert and Ernie, have also announced a series of three-minute CGI shorts featuring the cuddly bugs. Muppet News Flash reports the shorts will pop up some time in 2008, but where exactly is still unknown.

The Twiddlebugs, named Tina, Thomas, Teddy and Tessie, first appeared on Sesame Street in 1972. The squeaky-voiced bugs used random objects to build and furnish their milk carton home, such as buttons and thimbles. Below is a clip from Sesame Street featuring a CGI version of the Twiddlebugs, which will give you some idea what the new series will look like. I've also posted a classic Twiddlebugs clip, because, frankly, I prefer the puppet version. I'm not against CGI, but I'll take the original Muppets over those sterile and inflated-looking computer versions any day.

Boomerang, the Cartoon Network spin-off that was once home to old, classic cartoons, is adding two new shows to its line-up that are neither old nor classic: Krypto the Superdog and Gerald McBoing Boing.

My fellow animation nerds are probably saying, "wait a sec, isn't Gerald McBoing Boing from the '50s?"

Yes, the original Gerald McBoing Boing short, based on a recording written by Dr. Seuss, first appeared in theaters in 1951 and won the Academy Award that same year. Boomerang, however, will be airing an updated version that ran on the now-defunct Tickle U block of preschool programming on Cartoon Network. It would seem logical that if you bill your network as featuring old cartoons you'd pick the Gerald from the '50s and not the one from 2005, but I stopped trying to figure out such decisions a long time ago.

Gerald McBoing Boing will debut on Boomerang Monday, February 5 at 6:00pm, followed by Krypto the Superdog at 7:00pm.

I placed the original Gerald McBoing Boing short after the jump.