Dreamworks Animation is continuously branching out and the small screen is just as important as the big screen for widening the appeal of several key properties. Dragons: Riders of Berk will soon returns with season two, Dragons: Defenders of Berk. And Turbo did well enough to have a television series, Turbo: F.A.S.T. (Fast Action Stunt Team), to premiere on Netflix December ’13.
In the past decade, they have brought their theatrical hits like Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and Monsters vs Aliens the Animated Series to the small screen. Although they took longer than usual to bring to television, the response has generally been positive. Still in development since 2011 is Future Earth, a project with director Steven Speilberg lending a hand.
“Future Earth aims to be an epic mini-series examining what life on Earth will be like in 25, 50 and 100 years. The mini-series will draw from a vast number of sources, including the leading futurists, scholars and great minds of today, to dramatize and explore how various facets of our daily lives – health and medicine, technology, the environment, the military, the economy and media – will evolve over the next century.”
According to License! Global, “The focus on expansion into TV began with the 2012 acquisition of Classic Media’s property portfolio, which includes The Lone Ranger, Lassie and Where’s Waldo?”
Now as for whether or not those old programs are going to be remade, that’s uncertain. Fans eager for Future Earth are still waiting. So what’s just a few more years?
You got to love time zones because no matter where in the universe the party is happening, Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor, turns 70.
If keen observers of video game cinematics and CGI films think the computer graphics look great now, especially in how cloth material and hair are rendered, the next wave is going to be amazing.
Fandom is most likely to be divided with the reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. With a second film well into production, Marvel Entertainment will rake in some of the money that Sony is putting out in marketing. And this larger studio is going to keep the cinematic rights to the web-head for as long as their webbing can hold. The Amazing Spider-Man will never be part of the Avengers Universe if the similarity of the Oscorp building to the Stark Tower, built upon the MET Tower, is any indication.
“I Like to Move It, Move It,” may very well be Dreamworks’s mantra for pushing the product line that’s associated with the movie, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. The adventure will be in locating the merchandise, since not every toy store or food franchise operation will have the items that die-hard fans are looking for. As for the video releases, hopefully a box set is in the works. This series can benefit assuming the series is finally done and over with.
The producers at Marvel Animation must think the same visual and narrative style used in Ultimate Spider-Man can be repeated with the new series, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.