New Cartoon Network Pilots: ‘Back to Backspace’ and ‘Pillywags Mansion’

Cartoon Network quietly dropped two new pilots on its website this week: Dominic Bisignano and Amalia Levari’s Back to Backspace and Sam Marin’s Pillywags Mansion.

Back to Backspace mixes in some New Aesthetic themes with other contemporary bits like looping machines. The idea is high-concept—”deletions” go to the world of Backspace where Patti and her crew sort through them—but there’s a lot to appreciate in its mixed-media approach to storytelling.

Pilots aren’t meant to be slick finished ideas, but to suggest potential, and Bisignano and Levari’s pilot does a good job of displaying the potential of its creators, even if the idea doesn’t quite hold together. For the record, we presented Dominic’s CalArts student film From Burger It Came six years ago on Cartoon Brew TV.

Pillywags Mansion was created by CalArts grad Sam Marin, the voice of Benson on Regular Show. It’s a puppet-driven concept about the “crazy, reclusive” R.J. Pillywags, who presents cartoons from inside his home. I struggled to connect with the characters and concept in this pilot, but at least it’s got puppets, which are on trend.

[Thanks, Lauren Fisher]