John Kricfalusi starts his own blog according to boingboing. I became familiar with his work through the Spike and Mike’s animation festivals that I used to attend every chance I got in the early ’90s. His Ren and Stimpy cartoons were featured shorts at the festivals, before Nickelodeon picked them up.
Magician Penn Jillette gives his reasons why he believes “There is No God” on NPR’s “This I Believe” series. Animator Doug TenNapel offers a response on his blog.
TenNapel is the creator of Earthworm Jim and the new Catscratch show on Nickelodeon. He and Jillette are both six and a half feet tall.
(via STR.org)
From the land that gave us Björk comes LazyTown, a new kids series dedicated to promoting physical fitness. It debuted this past Monday on Nick Jr., perhaps to coincide with the Olympics. The show is the brainchild of professional athlete and aerobic champion Magnus Scheving, who also stars as Sportacus, a jock superhero. His sidekick is Stephanie, a perky eight-year old, who I thought at first was a Japanese pop star with her crazy pink hair and pink outfit. Lazy Town is a mix of live action, CGI and puppetry and stylistically is reminiscent of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. And with its techno-pop tunes, it appears like an over-extended Aqua Barbie Girl music video.
One other kiddie show that promotes physical activity is Boohbah on PBS. If you thought Teletubbies was weird, this one is just plain out of this world. From what I remember in one episode, it had non-speaking, phallic-like beings whirling in a dervish fashion. And soon after that, they take off into ethereal heights like out-of-body souls entering the astral plane. Let’s wait and see if Jerry Falwell has a cow over this.