Can you smell that in the air? The scent of new shows. Press releases. Promises of new entertainment that may or may not be filled. Do you know what that smell is?
Smells like Upfronts.
Cartoon Network has made the jump on the Upfront season before anyone else by releasing their 2013 slate today, and skipping the whole singular Upfront presentation with a tour of smaller meetings for clients and partners. From the press release:
Armed with record-setting ratings success as the only top kids’ network to achieve across-the-board growth in 2012 and its most-watched year in Prime in its 20-year history, Cartoon Network is jumping ahead of the customary Kids Upfront season and taking its show on the road with the CARTOON NETWORK ROAD TOUR. With more than a dozen new productions and multiple returning hit series now slated for the 2013 and early 2014 season, Cartoon Network brought its road-show presentation directly to key clients and promotional partners at their respective home bases the week of January 21 and will continue into March.
Network, ad sales, marketing and programming executives will travel to more than 15 key cities across the country to visit clients and promotional partners. Along with its presentation, the network also plans to “take over” the building at each of its visits with custom activations that will include the distribution of unique branded premiums to employees.
Sounds cool. Sounds interesting. As Deadline notes, NBC has utilized the same strategy in the past, but if you get to go to one of these, have fun!
But y’all don’t care so much about that as much as y’all care about this: there’s a whole big slate of new Cartoon Network shows to bring you from the network’s press release today (thanks to Nick and More for posting that by the way!). The new shows have already kicked off this year, but the future looks bright. Some favorites return with new shows, some other favorites have new seasons, and some people who worked on favorites have their own shows now. Let’s begin.
NEW SERIES FOR 2013
- As mentioned, the new year of shows on CN has already kicked off. Incredible Crew kicked off back on January 24th, and if you haven’t seen it, it’s a live-action, half-hour, Nick Cannon-produced sketch comedy show full of skits, music videos, pranks, and a bunch more. The show stars Jeremy Shada (Adventure Time’s Finn the Human), Shauna Case, Shameik Moore, Tristan Pasterick, Chanelle Peloso (from CN’s Level Up), and Brandon Soo Hoo. Watch the show Thursday nights at 8. If you’d like, you can also check out a preview from the show starring Jeremy Shada rapping about running errands. It’s alright:
- Our first cartoon is entitled Steven Universe and is created by the Emmy and Annie nominated Adventure Time storyboarder/writer (they’re the same thing on AT), Rebecca Sugar, who was behind some of the show’s most stand-out episodes (It Came Fom The Nightosphere, Daddy’s Little Monster, Mortal Folly, Fionna & Cake, What Was Missing, Incendium, Hot To The Touch, Burning Low, and the incredible I Remember You just to name a handful). Steven Universe is told from the perspective of Steven, who is the youngest member of a team of Guardians of the Universe. Cartoon Network also notes in their press release that Rebecca Sugar is the network’s first ever solo female show creator. Which is awesome. Hell yeah, Rebecca Sugar.
- Uncle Grandpa is something people likely have already seen if they got a chance to check out the Cartoonstitute pilots when they leaked or watched Secret Mountain Fort Awesome. The show is about a man named Uncle Grandpa and his adventures as every single human being’s magical uncle and every single human being’s magical grandpa. It was created by Pete Browngardt, who also created Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, which, turns out, has won some awards. Emmy, Annie, and Annecy Cristal. Nice!
- Next up: Clarence. Another show from another Adventure Time storyboarder, Skyler Page. The show is well summed-up by CN’s press release: “Clarence is a new original animated series about an optimistic boy who wants to do everything. Because everything is amazing!” Sounds fun! Check out Skyler’s YouTube channel if you want to check out some small animations he’s done. And check out the AT episode The Hard Easy, because he worked on that one.
- The next one is something a lot of people have been clamoring for for a while, and that a lot of people are gonna be really happy about. Teen Titans Go! is the return of the team of Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and Cyborg to the network in their own show after a series of short episodes as part of the network’s DC Nation block. The characters and the voices are all back, but the show will focus more on being a bit of a sitcom than what it was years ago. But, regardless, Titans fans should be pretty hyped to know their friends are back. The show starts in April.
- More DC! Beware The Batman is the newest animated Batman effort in a long line of cartoons starring Bats, and the main set of characters will be joined by a rogues gallery of villains that haven’t actually been included in a Batman cartoon before. The release lists Anarky, Professor Pyg, Mister Toad, and Magpie amongst the bunch of bad guys taking Batman, Robin, Alfred, and swordstress Katana on in Gotham. The show will be part of DC Nation come this summer, and will be CGI. It’ll be worth a look. Batman usually is.
- Legends of Chima is the newest LEGO show on Cartoon Network following the pretty successful Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu. Here’s CN’s explaination:
“In the mystical land of CHIMA, Laval the Lion and Cragger the Crocodile are the best of friends. An innocent escapade results in Cragger getting his first experience with the CHI, a powerful and sacred resource important to the delicate balance of CHIMA. The CHI gives awesome power to the user but needs to be managed carefully and certainly not by young adventurous animals.”
Alrighty! It’ll be here come Summer. Get ready to buy your kids some new stuff, parents. - Grojband is about a 12 year old garage band leading kid named Corey who can’t write a song to save his life until he ends up reading his sister’s diary, chock full of, as CN puts it, “”teen angst and junk””. Utilizing his sister’s teenage angst “and junk”, he starts writing some pretty successful songs. It’s by Fresh TV, who brought you the Total Drama franchise.
- And speaking of the Total Drama franchise, Total Drama All Stars welcomes back a menagerie of characters from old series for a brand new fake-reality-show-cartoon-thing. Yep.
- Finally, The Tom and Jerry Show is another new take on a classic cartoon franchise after CN’s The Looney Tunes show. It’ll keep the look, characters, and “sensibility” of the original shorts, but with a bright, HD look. So, less of a sitcom than Looney Tunes Show, and more classic Tom & Jerry, it sounds like, which is pretty cool. It’s coming from Warner Bros.
Anything sound good? Some of it does to me. Some of it sounds cool as heck. But we’re not done. Let’s check out…
UPCOMING SPECIALS AND MOVIES
- Adventure Time – “Bad Little Boy” is a new Fionna & Cake episode, and it’s got some big names behind it. The Ice King is still writing Fionna & Cake fanfiction, and the princesses he is still kidnapping are tired of the stories. So Marceline drops by to show Ice King what a good story is. Neil Patrick Harris is back as Prince Gumball, and Donald Glover stars as the genderswapped Marceline counterpart, Marshall Lee. Rebecca Sugar’s working on this one, and it’ll air on February 18th. And there will be singing, don’t you worry. Check out a preview:
- Regular Show – Thanksgiving Special: Regular Show has had a handful of half-hour special episodes, and they’re not stopping with the Christmas one. There’ll be a half-hour Thanksgiving special this year to help celebrate Turkey Day. Mordecai and Rigby, in true Mordecai and Rigby form, manage to ruin Thanksgiving and have to save it before their families show up for holiday dinner. The half-hour episodes usually tend to be some of the show’s best stuff, so don’t you dare miss this one.
- Here’s something truly special: a CGI Powerpuff Girls special. The girls are back to save the day, but they’re not just saving Townsville. They’re saving the whole world. It’ll be here later this year, and will star Beatles legend Ringo Starr as a character named Fibonacci Sequins, who will perform an original song entitled “I Wish I Was A Powerpuff Girl”. It’s produced by CN and Passion Pictures, directed by Dave Smith and Kevin Dart, and of course, stars the original voice cast in their original roles. How cool is this?How dang cool is this? We’ll let you know when this is happening.
- LEGO isn’t just giving you a new show, but they’re working with the Star Wars franchise to bring you a new special, The Yoda Chronicles. Set in the timeline of episodes I, II, and III (oh boy), the special stars, obviously, Yoda, in his own adventure with a class of Padawans fighting to stop Darth Sidious from creating a new weapon that would destroy the republic and let evil take over forever.
So there are your new shows, and your specials. One more thing though: there are shows returning, of course. New seasons, new specials, new stuff. Here’s a list of…
RETURNING SERIES AND SPECIALS
- Adventure Time
- Regular Show
- Annoying Orange
- MAD
- The Amazing World of Gumball
- The Looney Tunes Show
- Ben 10 Omniverse
- Dragons: Riders of Berk
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Inc
- Johnny Test
- Pokemon Black & White: Adventures in Unova
- Beyblade: Metal Fury
- Almost Naked Animals
- Scaredy Squirrel
There’s a 2013 full of cartoons and really nice sounding specials on its way. Hope y’all are ready for Cartoon Network in 2013.
Keep an eye on Adult Swim Central as the year goes on, we’ll let you know when notable things are coming back or premiering. We’ll keep tabs on Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Gumball, and let you know when stuff like Steven Universe and the new PPG special are heading your way. We’ll also keep tabs on AT and RS comics for you. Watch out.
We’ll also let you know once Adult Swim’s 2013 upfront slate is available for perusing! Check out the network’s 2013 projected premieres schedule, and keep an eye on this site, and our Twitter for news.
And again, hat tip to Nick and More for the press release.
Get ready for 2013! Get ready for new cartoons!
