TV ROUNDUP: Amazon, Nickelodeon, Adult Swim, Netflix
A roundup of animated series projects that are currently in development or production.
Amazon: Undone
Amazon has greenlit its first original animated series, Undone, a half-hour dramedy created by Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Writers Guild Award-winning Bojack writer Kate Purdy.
The adult-skewing show follows protagonist Alma as she discovers that she’s gained a new relationship with time as a result of a near-death experience. Alma, who will use her newfound powers to investigate her father’s death, will be voiced by Rosa Salazar of the Maze Runner film series.
Like Netflix’s recently announced Tuca & Bertie, Undone will be produced by Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company. Noel Bright and Steven A. Cohen of Bojack Horseman will serve as executive producers alongside Bob-Waksberg, Purdy, and Tommy Pallotta (A Scanner Darkly).
Amsterdam-based studio Submarine and Austin-based studio Minnow Mountain will co-produce the animation, which is being designed and directed by filmmaker Hisko Hulsing, director of the animated sequences in Cobain: Montage of Heck and the filmmaker of Junkyard, winner of the grand prize for best independent short animation at the 2012 Ottawa Int’l Animation Festival.
Series co-creator Kate Purdy adds, “Hisko’s beautiful artwork and masterful use of light and color will create a look never seen before on a television show that will make audiences lose their minds.”
Undone is currently in pre-production and expected to premiere in 2019 on Amazon Prime Video in over 200 countries and territories.
Nickelodeon: Los Casagrandes, Pony
Nickelodeon has announced that it is developing a spin-off to their extremely popular The Loud House, which following the firing of creator Chris Savino, is co-executive produced by Mike Rubiner (Kablam!). The show is currently television’s number one series with children 2 to 11.
The still-in-development project has a working title of Los Casagrandes, and will focus on Lincoln Loud’s friend Ronnie Anne Santiago and her extended multi-generational family, the Casagrandes.
Nickelodeon has also confirmed that the Casagrande family will be at the center of a six-episode arc in The Loud House’s fourth season, which has been greenlit for a total of 26 episodes. Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, a writer and producer on Fox’s short-lived Bordertown and a cultural consultant on Disney-Pixar’s Coco, will serve as a cultural consultant and consulting producer for the Loud House story arc.
Nickelodeon has also ordered 20 episodes of Pony, an original 2d buddy comedy about 9-year-old Annie and her best friend Pony, a talking pony who lives with Annie and her family in their city apartment.
Pony is created by Ant Blades, director at London-based Birdbox Studio. It marks the first animated comedy series to be greenlit for the U.S. from Nickelodeon International. Like the other half-hour series Breadwinners and The Loud House, Pony was originally created as a pilot for one of Nick’s shorts development programs.
Adult Swim: Ballmastrz 9009
The new 15-minute series, Ballmastrz 9009, will premiere Sunday, April 8, on Adult Swim. Created by Christy Karacas (Superjail!), the show features his distinctive style combined with “elements he loves about anime.”
Animation is being handled by Titmouse, which also produced the animation on season 2 and later for Karacas’ Superjail!
The series, set in 9009, follows notorious party girl Gaz Digzy, who is forced to join and reform the worst team in The Game, a hyper-violent tournament intended to annul the need for any war.
Digzy is voiced by Natasha Lyonne of Orange is the New Black and joined by a cast including Dana Snyder, Dave Willis, Jessica DiCicco, Eric Bauza, Christopher McCulloch, and Karacas himself. Special guest voices include Norman Reedus, Stephanie Sheh, and Mike O’Gorman.
New back-to-back episodes will debut weekly on Sundays at midnight (ET/PT).
Netflix: The Last Kids on Earth
Upcoming Netflix series The Last Kids on Earth is in production and scheduled for a 2019 premiere.
The show will be based on Max Brailler’s popular book series of the same name, which recently won the Texas Bluebonnet Award for children’s literature. The Last Kids on Earth follows Jack Sullivan and his middle school classmates who live in a tree house and protect themselves from zombies in the aftermath of the apocalypse.
The adventure-comedy series is being produced by Vancouver-based Atomic Cartoons, a division of Thunderbird Entertainment, which also produced the Netflix Original children’s series Beat Bugs, which features Beatles covers by artists like Sia, Eddie Vedder, and Pink.
Writer Scott Peterson, who has received Emmy nominations for his work on Phineas and Ferb and My Life as a Teenage Robot, is the showrunner. Book series creator Max Brailler is co-writing the episodes with Peterson, and executive producing the show with Atomic’s Jennifer McCarron and Matthew Berkowitz.
