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Exclusive: Coming off a three-year overall deal at Netflix, kids programming veteran Nancy Kanter is re-launching her production company, Available Light Productions, with several projects already in the works, live-action movie Wayward Girls; animated movie Penny Phantom, based on the novel Little Thieves by Margaret Owen; animated movie The Circus Ship, based on the picture book of the same name; and animated preschool comedy series Alexander the Post Fox done in partnership with Kevin Jonas.

Available Light Productions’s slate of original series and movies, which Kanter is shepherding with the company’s Head of Development, William Goldberg, are expected to be taken out to the broader kids, family and general audience market.

Additionally Kanter, whose Netflix deal ended at the end of January, has animated and live-action projects across both the kid and adult demographic still in development at the streamer where her pact started in the kids and...

Spoiler Alert: Do not read if you have not yet watched “We the People,” streaming now on Netflix.

“We the People,” doesn’t just teach civics, it also mixes music and animation as storytelling devices to get its message across to adults and kids alike.

Each of the 10 episodes of the series created by Chris Nee and also executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama clock in at under five minutes but still manage to cover everything from the electoral system to taxes to Federal vs. State Power. Each also features an original song featuring new music from H.E.R., Janelle Monáe, Brandi Carlile, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Adam Lambert, Cordae, Bebe Rexha, Kyle and Andra Day. One even includes poet Amanda Gorman.

The songs are a call to action, allowing audiences to connect through the power of music, but also the message. Each episode has its own unique sound and music working...

Barack and Michelle Obama, and Kenya Barris have executive produced a Netflix series combining music and animation. “We the People,” created by Chris Nee, consists of 10, three-minute-long episodes that feature music performed by H.E.R., Brandi Carlile and Andra Day, among others. The show premieres on the streamer on July 4.

Per the logline, “We the People” covers a range of basic U.S. civics lessons in not-so-basic ways, set to original songs performed by artists such as Janelle Monáe, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Adam Lambert, Cordae, Bebe Rexha, Kyle and inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, with a groundbreaking mix of animated styles. Each episode of the series promises to be a vibrant call to action for everyone to rethink civics as a living and breathing thing, and to reframe their understanding of what government and citizenship mean in a modern world. Other musicians featured in the series include Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez,...

Doc McStuffins creator Chris Nee has reunited with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions for the Netflix animated series We the People.

Nee’s 10-episode series, also executive produced by Kenya Barris through his Khalabo Ink Society banner, combines music and animation to educate a new generation of young Americans about the power of the people. With three-minute installments, We the People is a series of animated music videos that covers a range of basic U.S. civics lessons in not-so-basic ways.

The series features original songs performed by artists including H.E.R., Janelle Monáe, Brandi Carlile, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Adam Lambert, Cordae, Bebe Rexha, Kyle, Andra Day and poet Amanda Gorman. Each episode, which utilizes a mix of animated styles, is a call to action to rethink civics as a living, breathing thing and reframe the understanding of what government and citizenship mean in a modern world.

It looks like Star vs. The Forces of Evil is coming to an end. Disney Xd just announced the TV show's fourth and final season will premiere in March.

The animated series features the adventures of teenaged princess Star Butterfly (Eden Sher), with her best friend, Marco Diaz (Adam McArthur). The voice cast also includes Grey DeLisle, Daron Nefcy, and Alan Tudyk.

Read More…...

A Disney Channel princess is preparing to vacate her throne. The animated series Star vs. the Forces of Evil will return for a fourth and final season next month, TVLine has learned exclusively. Star‘s farewell episodes begin with two back-to-back installments Sunday, March 10 at 8 am on Disney Channel and Disney Xd. Subsequent new episodes will air Sundays on Disney Channel.

“We put our heart and soul into this final season, and can’t wait to celebrate the exciting conclusion of the series with our fans who have remained so loyal throughout this journey,” creator/executive producer Daron Nefcy says.

With negotiations set to begin Tuesday for a new Animation Guild contract, more than 2,600 industry figures have signed a petition calling for pay equity for color stylists, the animation industry’s only predominantly female craft, whose artists set the look, lighting and palette of cartoons.

The 3,500-member Animation Guild, Iatse Local 839, hasn’t struck the industry since 1983, but leaders told their members recently that a strike this time around “is always a possibility, if not a probability.” The guild’s talks are separate from the recently concluded negotiations for a new film and TV contract covering some 43,000 members of Iatse’s 13 West Coast studio locals.

The petition, organized by the Animation Guild’s Color Stylist Committee, is yet another sign of the growing movement for gender pay equity in Hollywood’s historically female-majority crafts. As reported here exclusively last week, more than 3,300 industry figures have signed another petition calling...

It’s almost that time of year when hordes of TV fans storm San Diego to get a sneak peek at their favorite returning shows and a glimpse of the upcoming season’s best new offerings at Comic-Con 2018. Below, we’ve compiled the dates, times and locations of all the major TV-related events.*

We’ll be updating this page as more panels are announced, so make sure to bookmark it and check back often!

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It’s almost that time of year when hordes of TV fans storm San Diego to get a sneak peek at their favorite returning shows and a glimpse of the upcoming season’s best new offerings at Comic-Con 2018. Below, we’ve compiled the dates, times and locations of all the major TV-related events.*

We’ll be updating this page as more panels are announced, so make sure to bookmark it and check back often!

Not paneling at Sdcc this year: Game of Thrones, Outlander, Westworld, iZombie, The 100, Gotham, Blindspot

Tba

Deadly Class (Syfy) | Tba

Doctor Who (BBC America) | Stars Jodie Whittaker,...

In certain ways, the May 2 CalArts Character Animation Producers’ Show resembled any number of other year-end showcases of undergrad work held by art schools nationwide. Students gathered to cheer on their classmates, as 22 student-created animation shorts were screened, with four of them winning special awards. Alumni and faculty mingled in the aisles, using the event as a de facto reunion.

Of course, most other schools’ programs do not fill up the DGA Theater in Hollywood, and most mingling alumni do not include the likes of Pixar’s Pete Docter catching up with students and offering notes afterward. And it was hard to miss the entire rows roped off for representatives of every major player in animation: Disney, Pixar, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, DreamWorks, Netflix, Bento Box …. Begun in the 1980s, and slowly expanding in stature starting in the mid-’90s, CalArts’ showcase has evolved into something resembling a friendlier version of an NFL combine,...

Star Butterfly, the protagonist of Disney Xd’s “Star Vs. The Forces of Evil” is as inspiring as her creator. Daron Nefcy has been thinking about the characters that makes this show such a hit for a while and with the perfect mix of voice actors, animation, story, and theme song, this show has taken audiences by storm! Today, we’re going through 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Star Vs. The Forces Of Evil.

Looks like it's Star: 4, Evil: 0. Disney Xd confirms it has renewed its Star vs. The Forces of Evil TV show for a fourth season, with a start date Tbd. The third season is currently airing, with the next new episode, 3.15, "The Bogbeast of Boggabah / Total Eclipsa the Moon," slated for Saturday, March 3, 2018 at 11:00am Est. With a voice cast led by The Middle's Eden Sher, as well as Adam McArthur, Star vs. The Forces of Evil features the adventures of teenaged princess Star Butterfly (Sher), with her best friend, Marco Diaz (McArthur). The cast also includes: Grey DeLisle, Daron Nefcy, and Alan Tudyk. Disney Press is publishing a new children's tie-in book this July, too. Learn more from the following Disney Xd press release excerpt. Read More…...

Disney Channel has greenlighted a pair of kid-targeted animated series: Amphibia, a comedy about a girl who gets transported to the titular world, and The Owl House, a horror comedy about a teenage human girl who stumbles upon a portal to the Demon Realm. Both are set to premiere in 2019. The cable net also has ordered a fourth season of Disney Tva’s Star vs. the Forces of Evil, from creator/executive producer Daron Nefcy. Created and executive produced by Matt Braly (Grav…...

The battle continues for Star vs. The Forces of Evil. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney Xd has renewed the TV series for a fourth season ahead of its season three premiere.Created by Daron Nefcy, the animated adventure comedy "follows Star Butterfly (Eden Sher), a fiercely awesome teen princess from another dimension, as she navigates high school, embarks on dimension-hopping adventures across the multiverse, and battles arch-nemesis Ludo and his monstrous forces of evil alongside her best friend Marco Diaz." The voice cast also includes Adam McArthur, Alan Tudyk, Nia Vardalos, and Jenny Slate.Read More…...

Somebody higher up at Disney must have taken a look at the success of Disney Junior’s Sofia the First and thought “We should try and replicate that, but this time target it toward an older audience.” More princess cartoons means more merchandise to buy at your local Disney store! While the motivation for wanting a new animated series is obvious, it’s a little out of the ordinary which series they recently greenlit. Star and the Forces of Evil (working title) came from the mind of young artist and writer Daron Nefcy. Usually big companies like Disney look for their next big series from more experienced writers.

Star and the Forces of Evil has a terrific concept, which explains why Disney would so readily grab at it from a youngster like Nefcy. It’s already got a voice-actor attached to play the lead of Princess Star Butterfly: The Middle’s Eden Sher.