Doomer vibe but such is the state of the animation industry at the moment

Kiff Review

Kiff is a musical comedy animated series by Lucy Heavens and Nic Smal. They are known for their work in the animation industry, either script writing, storyboarding, or voice acting. This post will have spoilers.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the twenty-seventh article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on March 27, 2023.

The plot of Kiff focuses on a young flying squirrel named Kiff Chatterley (voiced by Kimiko Glenn), who is friends with a mellow bunny named Barry Buns (H. Michael Croner) in a magical land, within the mountains, known as Table Town. Both go on adventures in and around the town.

Like other Disney series airing this year, Kiff is aimed at kids and families. This is clear from the format, similar to many episodes of Amphibia, Milo Murphy's Law, and Phineas and Ferb. Each 22-minute episode is divided into two 11-minute segments. In typical Disney fashion, there is a musical number in almost every episode.

A different type of family tree: Applying family history concepts to animation

"Modern Cartoon Family Tree 2.0" by AlexB9598w

This family tree is unlike any other tree I've seen before. I thought I'd do a fun one this week. It's not focused on a specific character or on the draw of family, the latter which I wrote about before. Instead, this shows the connection between people and their different shows. It all starts out with Donovan Cook and moves down from there. I think this tree is interesting in that it shows the connection between these shows. However it is also, you could say, limiting. I say that because it doesn't exactly focus on the interconnection between people. I know that, for instance, that Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey are married, but this chart only shows them as writers. Similarly, I know about the controversy which enveloped Twelve Forever, leading to the end of the show, and Shadi Petosky, a trans woman, becoming the executive producer of the show and having her own project on the way. Since I don't know most of these shows, I'm narrowing it down to the shows I do know and working back from there. Let's start with one of my favorite shows, Cleopatra in Space, and focusing on the executive producer of that show, Doug Langdale.

Reprinted from my Genealogy in Popular Culture WordPress blog. Originally published on August 28, 2020.

I then expanded this by looking at the companies behind each one of these productions, and it starts to look more like a bit of a tree, showing the parent companies and production companies. Keep in mind that Sony Pictures Television, as of 2002, owns both Columbia divisions, so the chart would look a little different now. Additionally, DreamWorks is now owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBC Universal, which is, itself, owned by Comcast. So, the chart would look different today.

Now, I wanted to expand this a little more, so I originally wanted to look at all those who have been listed as being on the Cleopatra in Space crew (herein called Cleo Crew), apart from Doug Langdale. Since that was 40 people, I narrowed it down to storyboarders, which consisted of 18 people in total: Aaron Brewer,  Abigail Davies, Adam Temple, Andrew Marshel, Bob Suarez, Chris Ybarra, Derek Thompson, Eugene Huang, Gary Ye, Ingrid Kan, Kevin Slawinski, Laurianne Uy, Samantha Suyi Lee, Scooter Tidwell, Thalia Tomlinson, Topher Parnell, and Wei Li. From there, I broke it down by the overlapping shows that they had worked on. [1] I ended up narrowing it down mainly to DreamWorks shows, as you'll see in the chart below:

We learn a lot from this. For one, Chris Ybarra and Bob Suarez had worked together and/or on two of the same shows: Big Mouth and Turbo Fast. Additionally, Adam Temple and Wei Li had both worked on Carmen Sandiego, while Abigail "Abby" Davies and Laur Uy had worked on Spirit Riding Free. We also find that Bob Suarez and Laur Uy worked on the same show too. Even more fascinating is the fact that ALL of these productions were on Netflix and most, apart from Carmen Sandiego, were tied to DreamWorks. We can conclude that many of the storyboarders probably knew each other and/or had worked with one another in the past. If we combine this with the information about Doug Langdale I showed earlier, it would mean that Langdale worked on the same team as Bob Suarez and Laur Uy on The Adventures of Puss and Boots. These connections were likely part of the reason they were hired in the first place.

In sum, this is a unique family tree of sorts, which shows connections between those in the animation industry. You can see who the "parents" (like DreamWorks and Houghton Mifflin) are and who the "children" (like Bob Suarez and Laur Uy) are as well. This sort of analysis is much better than the "modern cartoon family tree" shown at the beginning of that post. That post almost treats the connections between individuals as static. I may do another one about LGBTQ animations or something else. We'll see what happens! As always, comments are welcome, as I'm deeply unsure about what I'll write about next.

© 2020-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] I also found that Aaron Brewer and Eugene Huang storyboarded Little Big Awesome, which was produced by Amazon Studios and Titmouse, Inc., and that Aaron Brewer and Bob Suarez storyboarded Niko and the Sword of Light, produced by the same groups. Additionally, Frank Squillace directed Jackie Chan Adventures, while Scooter Tidwell was a storyboarder. At the same time, Bob Suarez, Frank Squillace, and Scooter Tidwell storyboarded The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Furthermore, Abigail Davies worked on Cartoon Network's Ben 10, with Scooter Tidwell as a sequence director. Finally, Frank Squillace directed Transformers: Rescue Bots while Thalia Tomlinson worked as an animator for the same show.

Anyway congratulations to the scientists who finally cracked the formula for the most objectively adorable character design

Modern cartoons with lgbt representation for pride month!

enjoy this incomplete list of married parents from recent children’s cartoons

ahhhh Aquila has adorable archeologist moms!!! 

That’s the last one of my six fanarts challenge

Disney Wizard Top 10! Animated series for 2019

Yeah, you read that right. This year, I’m doing a full list of 10 shows, instead of a mere 9. Look at me, all double digits and everything.

First a Disclaimer. Steven Universe continues to elude my ability to watch, as well as it’s new sequel series Steven Universe: Future. I want to watch ‘em, but I can’t legally, so I can’t rank them on my list.

Next up, Honorable mentions:

(No images on these, due to Tumblr’s stupid rules on image #s per post. Anyone got another forum I can move to for this list in the future?)

Cleopatra in Space.

I’ll have more to say on this show once it becomes Legally Available in the U.S. next year. It’s not legally available yet, so that’s why it can’t make the cut this year.

Miraculous Ladybug makes the Honorable Mentions this year, not because of a lack of U.S. Availability, but rather because of the HORRIBLE AIRING ORDER ACROSS MULTIPLE COUNTRIES. Seriously, not one episode in any country that airs the show actually aired the EXTREMELY CONTINUITY HEAVY third season in proper order, and it seriously hurt the show, and did irrevocable damage to first impressions of important episodes. It’s not the fault of the show runners nor the writers that this happened, but it did happen, and in 2019...it shouldn’t happen.

The Last Kids on Earth: Great TV movie pilot! Where...where’s the rest of the show?

Young Justice: Outsiders.

By all rights this show SHOULD be my #1 slot. Like...it’s not even a contest. If you asked me what the best show I watched in 2019 was, it was Young Justice’s long awaited third season. But unfortunately, my rule for this list is “Animation is for Everyone”. Due to graphic violence and implied sexual content, I cannot put the show on the list, much as it pains me to exclude it. I struggled with this decision all year, but I made the rules for the list years ago, for my own personal integrity, I won’t change them now, just because I don’t like them anymore. I’ll be posting about “adult” animated series soon. I have some thoughts that I want to share.

The list proper:

10) The Deep

After a two year long hiatus, my favorite adventure series returns. The story of the Nekton family, and their long hunt for lost Lemuria finally comes to a close...just in time for some new mysteries to arise.

Available on: Netflix

9) Fast & The Furious: Spy Racers

I hate this show. It has NO business being as good as it is. Because annoyingly, it is. It’s very good. I have no interest in the movie franchise it came from. I think I saw one movie from it, at a friend’s house. I don’t remember anything that happened in it, I just remembered that I thought it was stupid.

But this show manages like able characters and an engaging plot line, that requires no knowledge of the movies that spawned it, so...it ended up being good, to my eternal chagrin.

Available on: Netflix

8) Legend of the Three Caballeros

Honorable Mention from last year, now a legitimate part of the list. The system works. This amazing show is fun, funny, and I wish there was more of it.

Available on: Disney+

Our first ever Disney+ Show! Yay!!!

7) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Two seasons of this show came out this year, continuing the trend from last year, and...

They’re magnificent.

Seriously. Watch this show. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Available on: Netflix

6) Carmen Sandiego

I said most of what I needed to say about Carmen early this year. She’s great.

Available on: Netflix

5) The Dragon Prince

This show still feels like what would happen if Game of Thrones and Avatar: The Last Airbender had a beautiful secret love child together. Magic, mystery, romance, political intrigue, dragons, jelly tarts, this show has it all.

Available on: Netflix

4) Amphibia

Described by several of my friends as ‘Frog “isekai”’ this fun little series aired its entire first season in one month, and it was delightful. A Thai-American girl named Anne gets sucked into a world of Sapient Amphibians and has to learn to live with them. It’s mostly slice of life stories, but it’s extremely well done, and I love every moment of it.

Available on: Disney+

3) Green Eggs & Ham

This is my sleeper hit this year. This show is EXTREMELY well done, and I cannot say anything more about how good it is without spoiling stuff for you. Bring snacks, you will get hungry watching it.

Available on: Netflix

2) Ducktales

This reboot of the classic 1987 series continues to be the quintessential how-to guide to make a successful reboot of a show. “Whatever Happened to Della Duck” is an incredible bottle episode.

Available on: Disney+

1) Infinity Train

The number one show of the year, and the first time that a non-Netflix or Disney show hit my #1 spot. This show about loss and grief is as relatable to kids as it is adults. I cannot recommend this show enough to anyone. It’s a beautiful, well written, amazingly brilliant show. Plus it has corgis. Who doesn’t love corgis?

Available on: Cartoon Network App (I know, I’m sorry, but this show IS worth the pain of that app)

There you go. Until next year my friends. Disney Wizard wizzes out!

Cleopatra in Space by Mike Maihack

Graphix

ok guys Cleopatra In Space is really fucking cute and really good and i love it please check it out. dreamworks animated, based off of a cute looking comic series! here’s some cute characters to make you wanna watch

(currently its been released in dreamworks asia but the first 5 eps are on kimcartoon in english)