“Annecy, with its unique and global mix of industry professionals and passionate fans, is the perfect place for us to share what we are up to and most excited about,” said Michael Ouweleen, president, Adult Swim. “We’re not just announcing new series, but also new ways of creating – from Adult Swim SMALLS to a special done in an unconventional way – all that hopefully help push the boundaries of animation. As always, we will be creator-driven and chance-taking until such time someone puts us in handcuffs. Literal ones.”

The upcoming projects announced include…

The Elephant, a special in three parts by Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe), Ian Jones-Quartey (OK KO!), Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time) and Patrick McHale (Over the Garden Wall). Not many details aside from the power hour team behind it were announced but we expect to learn more in the coming months. The Elephant will be produced by Titmouse for Adult Swim

Keeping Up with the Joneses is a new half hour animated comedy from Hugh Davidson, Rachel Ramras and Larry Dorf that focuses on the Newberry family as they try to “keep up” with their staggeringly wealthy Dallas neighbors – including the one next door, Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys. Keeping Up with the Joneses is being produced by Warner Bros. Animation for Adult Swim.

Heist_Safari is a new offering from celebrated creator and director Genndy Tartakovsky. Pitched at Annecy in 2024, Heist_Safari tells the story of three Frog brothers robbing a bank. Seems simple enough, but the execution is special as ****??!!! Heist_Safari is currently in development with both Adult Swim and Cartoon Network Studios.

Along with the announcements involving new programming, Adult Swim also announced the renewal of both Smiling Friends and Ninja Kamui, each for two additional seasons.

Smiling Friends fans can rejoice as it’s been announced that the show created by Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel has been picked up for a fourth and fifth season. This is in addition to the third season set to premiere this fall. The news came out of Annecy Animation Festival where Smiling Friends had a dedicated panel.

Cusack had this to say to The Hollywood Reporter about the freedom the multi-season pick up now gives the creative team. “It means you don’t have to make the same episode that the engine of the show relies on, which is the smiling friends go out and help a depressed character. Just like the shows we love and grew up with, the best part is now we can make a whole episode about a secondary character and zoom in on them more and explore the town.”

To hear more, check out the exclusive interview with Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel on The Hollywood Reporter.

Created by Gonzalo Cordova (Tuca & Bertie, Adam Ruins Everything) and produced in partnership with Mexico City-based studio by Cinema Fantasma (Frankelda’s Book of Spooks), the stop-motion series follows Marioneta, a proud wealthy Spaniard living in 1980s Quito, Ecuador. There she encounters a diverse group of eccentric and ambitious women navigating the complicated worlds of love, family, and cuys. Featuring an all-woman cast, Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is produced entirely in Spanish with English subtitles.

The Matrix. A film from the early 2000’s or a way to teach your grandkids a valuable life lesson about taking things that don’t belong to them? In the season opener of Rick and Morty, “Summer of All Fears”, Rick does the latter as he traps Morty and Summer in a phone charger based hellscape where they end up stuck for thirty years matrix time.

Summer during her time in the matrix becomes a corporate girl boss, whereas Morty has rougher go of it and ends up going to war. The situation is worsened when they leave the matrix but don’t get mindblown, leaving them with all the memories and burdens of the lives they led within the matrix including the weight of being a successful 40-something for Summer and severe PTSD for Morty. Lessons are learned when the kids decide to be mindblown, clearing them of the trauma the matrix caused. Sometimes it’s better to forget.

Moral of the story: Don’t borrow phone chargers.

Overall, a spectacular start to the eighth season. 

Rick and Morty airs Sundays at 11PM ET/PT on Adult Swim.

The first thing that’s apparent in the new season is that Ian Cardoni (Rick) and Harry Belden (Morty) get the chance to make themselves at home in the roles in a way that season seven didn’t allow. This is apparent in episode three, “The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly”, where both Cardoni and Belden get the chance to flex their abilities.

The second is the writing, top tier as usual with plenty of references to past canon. In episode one, “Summer of All Fears”, we see Summer go out west and wearing turquois, a nod to a line from the season one episode, “Interdimensional Cable”, where she threatens to go out west and “I don’t know, do something with turquois!” 

While we’ve had a few Christmas and Thanksgiving episodes, Rick and Morty gets its first Easter episode with episode four, “The Last Temptation of Jerry”. You’ll never look at Easter quite the same, though this fan is unsure if that’s a good or bad thing.

The final episode we got to screen was episode five, “Cryo Mort a Rickver”, which is going to be one of the episodes that truly stands out among the best episodes in the series. Though I won’t spoil it as to why.

Rick and Morty season eight premieres Sunday May 25th at 11PM ET/PT on Adult Swim.

I had the pleasure of witnessing this first hand at Des Moines Con, where I shadowed a first timer. As many who have listened to my podcast know, I was a nanny for a family for a very long time, and I got to join that family in attending Des Moines Con 2024 this past May, which was the first convention for the youngest member of the brood.

Noah (they/them) at the time was a fourteen year old deep in the trenches of fandom, tumblr, shitposts, discord servers, the whole nine yards. On our way to pick up badges I asked them what they were feeling about seeing the exhibit hall for the first time and they simply made a sound similar to a delighted squeak. And while I have an outside perspective of witnessing everything, I took time to talk with them about their first con experience after the whole convention was over for this feature.

Rilo: So how would you describe the feeling you felt when you first entered the main hall?
Noah: Awe. Mostly awe.

Rilo: You cosplayed?
Noah: Yeah!

Rilo: Can you tell me what that was?
Noah: Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Rilo: Did you meet others who knew who that was? Because I sure as hell didn’t.
Noah: I actually met another Madoka who got her cosplay from the same website as I did!

Rilo: What surprised you the most?
Noah: Just how good everyone’s cosplays were and how nice everyone was too.

Rilo: Are there any cosplays that stood out to you?
Noah: There was someone who had like a giant puppet of a rock troll from the Hobbit and the head was bigger than my entire body! It was really cool.

Rilo: What panels did you go to?
Noah: I went to a toy collecting and toy panel. I went to the cosplay contest, which was extremely cool. I went to a puppet panel with that guy [who had the rock troll puppet] and he just told us how to make puppets for cosplay. They were all really cool.

Rilo: Did you meet any of the guests?
Noah: Me and my family actually got a private photo shoot with Steve [Burns] from Blue’s Clues. It was really cool. Yeah I was dressed up as a Madoka and you just took a photo together. I was feeling kind of overwhelmed by that time, but going into that room I instantly felt calmed by his presence. It was magical.

Noah was also kind enough to indulge me on our first day there and happily held the rather cumbersome cosplay prop I had while I met Alex Brightman, of BeetleJuice the Musical and Hazebin Hotel fame. 

Rilo: What was something that surprised you most?
Noah: Like I said everyone was just so nice, I also was surprised that people liked my cosplay. I got a lot of photos. I got a photo with a lot of people who had much better cosplays than me, which was surprising.

Rilo: I know you bought some items, what did you get?
Noah: I got some posters, most notably I got a poster for us that had some really good Smiling Friends fanart on it. I got a Madoka keychain and I got a Madoka Magica art book.

Rilo: If you had to describe your first con experience in one word, what would it be?
Noah: Amazing.

Rilo: Last question, do you plan on going to any cons in the future?
Noah: Yes!

THE OVERVIEW

The south hall of the Von Braun Center in downtown Huntsville was packed to overflowing with celebrity guests and vendors, making it clear the show may have outgrown the space, I’ll talk more about that later.

Among the big name guests were George Takei, Steve Burns, Tara Strong, Paige O’Hara, Jonathan Frakes, and cast members from the 80’s sitcom Saved By The Bell and the 90’s sitcom Home Improvement. The big ticket seller though was very clear, Melanie Zanetti and David McCormack, the voices of Chilli and Bandit (or Mum and Dad) on the international hit show Bluey.

While Friday and Sunday were full of wandering, meeting vendors, cosplayers and guests, they were relatively manageable. Saturday however was insane, mostly because of the Bluey panel occurring at noon. Throngs of parents, children and people of all ages who are touched by Bluey swarmed the hall. And it made sense, as the following day the highly anticipated 28 minute special “The Sign” was due to drop of Disney+.

I was blessedly able to snag a place at the back of the panel to observe. Moderated by Expo founder, Jeremy Long, they Some of the more heartwarming moments definitely involved the long line of little kids who had to be held up to the microphone to ask their questions. David even had a puppet of Bandit’s in show altar-ego, Unicorse. Probably most touching was the adults who all had beautiful stories that had led them to being fans of the show. Huntsville Expo filmed the full panel and it’s available here.

There were clearly some flaws, most of it being the space constrictions. There were multiple events happening at the VBC at the same time, making parking a nightmare, with on site spots not even guaranteed for vendors. And the fact that it was all forced to be packed into one space meant that the two main panel rooms were separated by a folding wall, making it almost impossible at times to hear the panel you were actually attending. 

The lines were so long for autographs at times that they did have to start having lines for waiting in line in the hallway outside. The volunteers and staff of the Expo were doing all they could with what the VBC gave them and it seems as though they are finally going to be given an additional hall for next year’s con. 

And while overwhelming at times, the whole con was an incredible experience that I’ll gladly attend again. Here’s to HSV Expo 2024! You were a hell of a show. Next year will be even better!

THE COSPLAYS

I myself decided to go in costume Saturday and Sunday as Professor Lupin from Harry Potter and Gale of Waterdeep’s Hand from Baldur’s Gate 3, respectively.

And I was not alone, with cosplayers from a wide variety of fandoms showed off their stuff. Below are photographic highlights!

It was revealed Sunday that the show’s new stars are Ian Cardoni and Harry Beldan, with Cardoni providing the voice for Rick and Beldan playing his grandson Morty. This announcement came after months of speculation following the firing of co-creator and voice actor Justin Roiland, who had previously provided the voices for the duo.

Due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, neither actor has commented on their new roles voicing the characters who have become cultural icons, but Hollywood Reporter spoke with co-creator Dan Harmon and current showrunner Scott Marder in an exclusive interview about the long search to find the right people for the job.

Marder stated that he always wanted two seperate actors to replace Roiland after watching the toll voicing both characters took on his voice over time:

We watched it over the years wear down on Roiland’s voice. It felt unfair to do that to someone.

Scott Marder

The search apparently took six months, where thousands of people auditioned before they settled on the pair. Neither Cardoni or Beldan have regular voice work on their resumes, this being both performers first high profile role. In yesterday’s NYCC recap, it was also noted that Adult Swim deliberately kept the duo’s voices a secret until now, due to wanting the show’s new season premiere to be the focal point versus discussion on who would be replacing Roiland.

Rick and Morty airs Sundays at 11PM on Adult Swim.

“I have sad news to share. I’m sorry to say that Pibby has still not been greenlit, and it doesn’t look like it will happen in the near future. Making a show is a long, difficult process, and you can never say never, but for now, it looks like Pibby most likely wont become a show. I’m sorry to all the fans. Thank you for all your support.”

-Dodge Greenly

Adult Swim debuted the short entitled Come and Learn with Pibby! over Halloween 2021, the story revolved around Pibby, a childrens show character, who ends up having to battle a neffarious static monster that threatens to corrupt all shows, leading her and the friends she makes along the way to traverse the multiverse of Cartoon Network’s cartoon library in order to escape or meet their doom.

It quickly grew a cult following much as the original short for Smiling Friends had, that show had recently been picked up around the time Pibby aired and fans had hoped that Learning with Pibby would receive similar treatment.

Adult Swim also used Pibby for their April Fools prank in 2022, having scheduled programming become corrupted by the static monster.

The trailer featured clips of old favorites returning like Mr. Poopybutthole, Squanchy, Gearhead and Birdperson along with Dr. Wong (voiced by actress Susan Sarandon), and promised tons of action in the upcoming season, but what fans were truly interested in was: how do the new voices for Rick and Morty sound?

While the exact identity of the actors is still confidential, and likely to remain so until the season premiere, the trailer offers up a sample of the performances which don’t sound too different from Justin Roiland’s original voices. As previously stated the production decided to go with imitation when recasting.

Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that two separate voice actors are portraying the multidimensional grandfather-grandson duo, with one providing the voice for Rick while the other is Morty.

Season 7 of Rick and Morty premiers Sunday October 15th at 11PM on Adult Swim.