WB RELEASES
2000-2001 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE
Tue May 16 18:25:21 2000
Mad Hatter, Brainatra and Gookie
 Recent reports from Yahoo! News
and AnotherUniverse.com
confirm that Will Vinton Studio's THE PJ'S, formerly airing on FOX, is officially moving
to the WB. Leading off the Sunday night lineup at 7:00pm, the urban comedy will attempt to
compete with ratings powerhouse "60 Minutes", ABC's "Wonderful World of
Disney" and FOX's "Futurama". Animation
Magazine adds via The Hollywood Reporter that "Warner Bros. TV will take on
production supervision of the show with Imagine and Will Vinton Studios."
Joining the line-up in mid-season will be the previously announced series The Oblongs,
"an irreverent animated comedy from prolific executive producer Bruce Helford (writer
on "The Drew Carey Show", "The Norm Show" and "Family Ties")
and Jace Richdale (formerly co-executive producer of The Simpsons). A recent Time-Warner
press release states that The Oblongs is a show "that breaks all the conventions,
but at the heart is an odd, but lovable family," And an old news item from The Comics Continuum describes the series
as a show about "a family with a variety of bizarre physical and emotional
abnormalities caused by the toxic conditions which abound in the industrial valley they
call home. The series follows the daily lives of these outsiders as they try to fit in
with the beautiful, affluent people who live in the hills above them."
The WB's summer line-up will also include the premiere of the long-delayed series "Baby Blues, a family-friendly
animated comedy based on the popular comic strip. It will feature the voices of Mike
O'Malley ("The Rick" in ESPN commercials), Julia Sweeney (SNL; Stuart Little),
Joel Murray (Dharma & Greg), Arabella Fields (Godzilla) , Deidrich Bader (The Drew
Carey Show), E.G. Daily (Powerpuff Girls, Rugrats), Kath Soucie (Rugrats, Dexter's Lab)
and Nicole Sullivan (MadTV), with guest voices by Steven Weber (Wings, The Shining), Dan
Cortese (Veronica's Closet) and sports announcer Bob Costas.
Baby Blues was animated by Rough Draft and Varga, with Warner Bros Animation handling both
pre and post production. The production team includes animation director Alexei
Alexeiev, writers/producers Peter Ocko
and Jeff Martin and creative producer Liz Holzman, whom Animaniacs and Pinky & The
Brain fans might recognize from her producer/director credits on P&TB, "Pinky,
Elmyra & The Brain" and "Wakko's Wish".
French Put Ban On Pokémon Cards
Thurs May 18 03:10:55 2000
Gookie
Inside Daily
Variety offers the following item in a long series of odd news and human behavior that
has accompanied the Pokémon phenomenon:
PARIS (Variety) - Principals in French elementary and middle schools are taking extreme
measures against the Pokemon card-trading rage by banning the decks from many school
playgrounds. The innocent trading of the Japanese picture cards, they say, has turned to
racketeering, with the ``have-nots'' using strong-arm tactics to get what they want.
MAX STEEL Goes Live on the Web
Thurs May 18 03:10:55 2000
Gookie
Animation Magazine reported Friday, May 12 that Kids'
WB! And Sony Pictures Family Entertainment Group have partnered with Rotar (a
"pioneer in state-of-the-art interactive technology") to produce a "live,
realtime, animated interactive experience" Friday, May 19th, beginning at 5pm
(Eastern-Pacific) exclusively at kidswb.com. It will
feature the lead character from MAX STEEL, the 3D computer-animated, action-adventure
series currently airing on Kids' WB! "This will include realtime streaming
animation and a behind-the-scenes tour of N-TEK, the series' top secret corporation. Fans
will get the opportunity to participate by actually guiding the action, asking Max
questions and having them answered live."
You Don't Know Jack About Looney
Tunes
Thurs May 18 03:10:55 2000
Gookie
According to Animation Magazine, Kid Rhino is debuting two CD-ROM editions of YOU DON'T
KNOW DOC!, a new audio-only quiz show series" - a send-up of the popular "You
Don't Know Jack" CD-ROM trivia challenge game series. Billed as being "fun for
all ages", contestants will be able to play as Looney Tunes characters - Elmer Fudd,
Daffy Duck, Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn and Yosemite Sam, and hosted by Bugs Bunny. Kids
Rhino's two titles include "The ACME Wise Guy" edition (testing knowledge of
general topics), and the "Coast-To-Coast" edition (with "travel
related trivia"). Other game elements include "sound effects, oddball ACME
commercials, and world famous Looney Tunes music". "YOU DON'T KNOW DOC! is part
of Warner Bros. Consumer Products' "Interact For Fun" initiative, which launches
in June and runs through December."
MORE NEWS ON UPCOMING WB VIDEO GAME
TITLES
Tue May 16 16:05:26 2000
The Mad Hatter and Gookie
As a follow-up to Mad Hatter's report on E3, here are additional details on the games for
Daffy Duck, Batman Beyond and The New Batman Adventures:
The N64 game, DUCK DODGERS STARRING DAFFY DUCK, developed by Infogrames, will be released in June, selling for
$49.95. See official site duckdodgers.com for
further details.
Gamefan reports that Kemco is developing a Batman Beyond game for the
Nintendo and Playstation. No other details are offered, but they did provide footage of
the game in action which can be downloaded by clicking here.
For those with non-cable modems who lack patience for the 20-40 minute download time, the
preview shows promise as a great action game. Gameplay looks similar in action and
movement to Capcom's X-Men arcade game from a few years back, combined with fighting
elements of such games as Street Fighter and Tekken. The Future Batman will have an
arsenal of weapons to command, complete with power-ups and combat combo moves to increase
points and do more damage to enemies. The characters are modeled in 3D animation that
moves nice, quick and fluid-like, and the music, like the show, rocks hard.
Toon Zone affiliate World's Finest
has screengrabs available for the highly-anticipated Batman video game based on designs
from "The New Batman Adventures". And for RealVideo game previews of this game
for the Playstation, as well as the one for Game Boy Color, click on the Batman banner on Ubi Soft's homepage.
Pokémon Movie 2000 Special
Edition Cards
Thurs May 18 02:10:55 2000
Gookie
The July issue of Wizard Magazine's IN POWER reports that
"one of four all new special-edition cards will be handed out to every attendee for
Pokemon The Movie: 2000, coming to theaters July 21. Also featured in this issue is an
extensive "Pokemon Player's Guide" ranking the top 30 Pokemon cards and offering
previews of the newest promo cards on the market, along with a 3-page price guide. And for
collectors, alternate covers of the mag are available, as pictured in the link above.
Latest X-Men: Evolution News
 Thurs May 18 2000
The Mad Hatter
The Comics Continuum has released the first group portrait
of the upcoming Kid's WB series X-Men: Evolution. The image can be viewed at http://www.comicscontinuum.com/
stories/0005/18/xevo.htm
Pictured from left to right are Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Rogue, and
Spike, a new character.
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