When you Wish Upon a Frog (Book II of the Jim Henson at Disney saga)
- Thread starter Geekhis Khan
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I like how you gloss over him not becoming alleged sexual offender and just jump straight to kicking him off the show because he'll always be a sex offender.
There's a difference between NPH as Doogie Howser, an original character, and The Doctor, a character who was for decades generally an old white British guy. Before NPH the youngest actor to play The Doctor was Peter Davidson at 29.
I imagine less in the UK than the US but then I am but an ignorant American.
Not knowing all the details but knowing that at the moment there are only five accusers over the period of 26 years and a apparent decade between some of the accusations. Besides at present the oldest allegation won't be until 1994 unless @WhovianHolmesianChap is aware of an earlier allegation.
Speaking of Don Bluth, he also would have directed Ice Age as a 2D animated film.
one thing I've realized is that outside of a couple of them showing up in acting roles, we haven't really seen anything from the world of Professional Wrestling, which is a genre of entertainment that should be getting affected a lot by the changes in the timeline, such as how does the different direction Ted Turner's media empire has gone in effect WCW, or does being in a more successful MOTU movie effect Hulk Hogan's wrestling career in the early 90's differently, or how might this effect the Steroid Trials, or will the much earlier version of Me Too shuffle things up like say having Jimmy Snuka's involvement in the 1983 death of Nancy Argentino get dug up much earlier than OTL, or similarly the financial and sexual exploitations The Fabulous Moolah made towards female wrestlers she had trained getting exposed
I actually worked on exactly that alongside others. Believe me, its wild.
Cheers 😊
1. Thanks for clarification. Personally I'd just be rid of him entirely.
2. Nice Easter egg. Maybe Fraser Hines, or one of Troughton's sons could play the Second Doctor as per OTL with Big Finish.
@Geekhis Khan what an excellent continuation of the Dr. Who saga. I'm grateful that you didn't let the, let's say, overwhelming response to your last post on the topic keep you down. I do love how the general theme for the whole TL is represented here, that being the importance of hope and compassion which is exemplified in Jim Henson and through the work of RTD.
Thank you
Thank you
Selena lives huh? Looks like Tejano music is gonna hit the mainstream because she was cut down right before the crossover could complete. In case you aren't familiar with her, her final concert at the Houston Astrodome got 66,994 people in the stands in 1995. Just about a thousand away from full capacity. Also happened to be fully televised and recorded so you can probably find it somewhere.
She's an overall great singer and performer that makes me wonder how far she can climb. Hope to see her in more productions and collabs.
Non-Disney Animation IV
Chapter 13: An Animation Renaissance, 1989-1995 (Cont’d)
From In the Shadow of the Mouse, Non-Disney Animation 1960-2000, by Joshua Ben Jordan
Where the 1980s were a time of consolidation in animation, with large film studios buying up the classic animation studios of old, the 1990s were increasingly a time for small, independent studios to spin up and make their mark. Advances in affordable audio-video computers like the Disney Imagination Station, Apple Gala and Silicon Graphics “Barney” stations, or even Virgin/Atari systems with a good “Video Package”, particularly when these were used alongside affordable vector compiling engines like the MINIBOG and Apple CORE, were making animation increasingly cost-competitive. Even used DIS stations were finding new lives with animation startups.
Suddenly a small production company like Bird Brain, Wayward, Snee-Oosh, or Whoopass could increasingly manage a TV series or even feature film without automatically having to tie themselves to a major studio, though such partnerships remained the norm as distribution remained the bailiwick of the big studios and networks. The increasing rise of inexpensive but very talented animation studios in Japan, Ireland, and South Korea allowed for the outsourcing of “inbetweener” and background work, even as accusations of “sweatshop” conditions arose, particularly among the remaining vestiges of the US Animator’s Union.
With the economics of animation thus shifting once again, suddenly, big studios found themselves in competition to retain partnerships with the small studios! Bird Brain Studios for example had, by this point, maintained a good working relationship with Warner Brothers for several years, but corporate decisions were increasingly alienating the small studio. Brad Bird and Bruce Timm were getting along well with WB’s Jean MacCurdy, Tom Ruegger, and Mira Velimirovic, but Mira would soon follow her old friend Lisa Henson to Fox, where she’d become an executive for Filmation alongside Richard Bazley, who’d in turn been lured over from Bluth Animation. Bazley, it should be noted, brought with him the rights for an animated film based upon the Ted Hughes book The Iron Man, known in the US as The Iron Giant.
With the amicable Velimirovic, who’d served as a good shield between animation and upper management, now gone, WB leadership began to push for more internal control of their DC-branded cartoons, and balked at Bird Brain’s earlier The Spirit movie deal with arch-rival Disney. When the contract with Bird Brain ended for the DC Animation universe in 1993, WB (over MacCurdy’s and Ruegger’s objections) declined to renew it, and allowed their in-house animators to manage the series going forward (including animating 1996’s Justice League vs. The Legion of Doom movie, which had no input from Bird Brain). While this led to a noticeable dip in the quality of storytelling and the innovativeness of animation, the DC cartoons did manage to continue to perform adequately on both the small screen and big. Internal WB animators, led by Tom Ruegger, began to increasingly run the DC shows while also pressing for more original WB programming, leading to The Animaniacs, among other productions.
WB also continued to keep their classic characters on the big screen, producing 1995’s Too Looney!, a new Looney Tunes animated adventure whose name evolved from the working title of “Looney Tunes Movie 2”. Produced by Joe Dante and directed by Tom Ruegger, Too Looney! would see Bugs and Daffy launching rival movie studios and thus opening the door to all kinds of parody and satire of every major recent film, every major star, and even sent up the film industry itself, gleefully biting the hands at WB that fed them, even parodying the big WB leadership shakeup in 1994. Light on plot and heavy on madcap, the feature underwhelmed critics, but entertained audiences, making a modest profit even in the face of the Disney juggernaut.
Bird and Timm were instead lured by Velimirovic to Filmation, where they’d pitch their idea for an art deco inspired Sci-Fi film noir called Ray Gunn. The Fox board was unsure about the potential for an adult-themed cartoon and pushed for a more child-friendly approach, which Bird rebelled against. In a compromise, Bird Brain would instead be hired to work with Bazley and his new Filmation Feature Animation team to produce The Iron Giant while working on Ray Gunn as a relatively low-budget film on the side. Bazley and Bird would come to loggerheads over the direction of the film, though, with Bazley wanting something closer to the source material (which has a cosmic dragon and some late-60s spiritualist elements) and Bird wanting to make it into a Cold War era film. Eventually, the US setting and Baby Boomer nostalgia potential helped Bird win out, moving the setting to the Cuban Missile Crisis era Pacific Northwest.
This a few years early, and from Fox!
Hopes to make the eponymous Giant fully digital created some problems, as even with a render farm of MINIBOGs there was a lot of vector data to maintain the flowing, three-dimensional look that Bird wanted. Blending hand-drawn, digitally inked and painted elements with the use of fully CG-renders, and taking advantage of cost-saving measures developed during their TV run, the Bird Brain/Filmation team managed to produce the film for about $32.4 million. The film would screen in the summer of 1995 amidst a major advertising blitz by Fox where its blend of heartfelt sincerity, beautiful and sweeping animation, and relatable characters would lead to it earning a surprising $189 million at the box office, the third-highest grossing animated film of the year[1], and more notably it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the first non-Disney film to earn that honor. It was the start of a great working relationship between Bird Brain and Filmation.
On the TV front, Filmation continued to support several TV series, including partnering with Craig Bartlett’s Snee-Oosh Productions to produce PFN’s popular Hey Arnold![2] It would be the beginning of a long-running partnership between Bartlett and Fox President Lisa Henson. Filmation also partnered with Lucasfilm to produce a short-lived Young Indiana Jones animated series as a spinoff of the popular live action series of the same name and even managed to poach Star Wars animation from Disney Animation by promising reduced costs but comparable quality. The resulting series, Star Wars: The Mandalorian Chronicles, followed members of Clan Fett, including Boba Fett[3], as they navigated the underworld and backwater planets of the Empire (a premise that enraged Michael Eisner at Hollywood Pictures, who claimed to have pitched a similar series idea to Lucas years earlier). Filmation also continued its forays into Star Trek with Captain Data and Tales from the Borg War, the two friendly rival Sci-Fi franchises (or at least their animated universes) suddenly produced under the same roof, though executive interest in a crossover was consistently rejected by both Richard Berman and George Lucas alike. “The physics don’t even work the same,” Lucas reportedly told Henson as she sheepishly passed on the request from Barry Diller.
Other big studios also continued to try and grab a piece of the Mouse’s animation market share on the big and small screens alike. Columbia’s Hanna-Barbera was continuing to produce low-budget animated films based on television IP, releasing The Flintstones Movie in 1994 to moderate success[4], Scooby Doo: Monsters United in 1995 to a small but disappointing profit, and Captain Planet: Take Back the Planet!, which barely broke even. The Jetsons Movie, released in 1995, would flop hard, but find new life in syndication and home video. Their only attempt at an original IP, 1993’s Once Upon a Forest, Executive Produced by William Hanna himself, ran smack into The Little Mermaid and Ritzy Gal and barely broke even, ultimately gaining a new appreciation in home video. Otherwise, HB remained the Champions of Television, producing numerous new productions for its Cartoon City channel, including the popular 2 Dum Mutts and similar “post Hoerk & Gatty” fare that continued in the shocking footsteps of the late John Kricfalusi, whose 1994 suicide amid accusations of solicitation of sex from an underaged girl shocked the industry.
HB also entered into the Network Animation world in partnership with Steven Bochco, developing the PG (and occasionally T) rated Capitol Critters for CBS. After kicking around ideas involving anthropomorphic mice in a near-standard sitcom format that just happened to be located at the US Capitol, Brandon Tartikoff convinced Bochco to focus on the politics, leading to the concept of an entire “animal government” with animals based by state[5] (such as a bison representing populist Wyoming Senator John Vinich and a large sperm whale for the Ted Kennedy expy). Over its four short but influential seasons, Capitol Critters would gain a reputation for addressing controversial issues and leaving no side unscathed as its writers skewered every politician and political hypocrisy within reach. “I knew that we were on the right track when both Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi separately accused us of bias against their side,” said Bochco.
Universal Pictures dipped its toes back into the animation waters and teamed up once again with UPA to produce Kong and Godzilla vs. Aggraghast in 1992, a relatively low budget animated film that built off of the popular Monster Mayhem TV series, though maintaining the skilled animation of the 1988 Godzilla film. Intended mostly as a way to keep the King Kong IP in the public consciousness while they worked on the live action King Kong film while also drumming up interest in the Kongfrontation attraction at Universal Studios Florida, Kong and Godzilla would only break even and would be the last Universal/UPA feature collaboration for a while. Instead, UPA continued to make animation for Universal on television. The series Monster Force and ExoSquad[6] were launched in first run syndication in 1994 and 1993 respectively, and both featured park tie-ins at Universal Studios. The success of Monster Mayhem in particular would even catch the attention of Disney and lead Marvel Productions to briefly relaunch the Inhumanoids line in a two-season anime-inspired reboot.
Hollywood Animation, still known in the industry as DiC, was working with Don Bluth, producing the hit Ritzy Gal in 1993. Bluth also worked with the in-house DiC animators to help produce Retriever, a jazzy canine-based comedy based loosely on Catcher in the Rye. It was a massive success upon release in the summer of 1994 and the first film to actually beat a Disney animated film at the box office, besting Disney’s innovative all-digital The Brave Little Toaster in a head-to-head lineup. The success would be the crowning achievement of the Bluth-DiC partnership. It would also be their last. Fed up with the drama behind the scenes, Bluth took his business back across the Atlantic to Paris and Luxembourg to partner with Pathé on an animated science fiction adventure based on the French Valerian & Laureline comics[7]. Hollywood Animation/DiC would instead experience a major internal leadership shakeup that would send ripples across the industry.
This from Don Bluth! (Image source Amazon)
For Valerian & Laureline, Bluth partnered with Pathé for production and Eurasian and Oceana distribution. Universal later signed on for North American distribution. The adult-themed space adventure received a T-rating and ultimately underperformed, making $57 million internationally (mostly in Europe and Asia) vs. a $31 million budget. However, the gorgeous visuals and memorable progressive rock soundtrack made it a cult hit with good home video sales and led to the production of a very popular Dragon’s Lair style animated video game[8] that helped pay the bills for Bluth. While overall a setback for Bluth’s independent relaunch, Bluth Animation remained a viable and skilled studio.
Essentially this (Image source Looper)
But while Bluth continued to pursue feature animation, most of the smaller indie companies would stick with the small screen. Matt Groening continued to work closely with Wayward Entertainment and Gracie Films. Rather well occupied with running Nuclear Family and supporting Rugrats, he often served as a consultant on other Wayward products such as Jim Jinkin’s hit semiautobiographical animated series Jinx, following the life of artistic but shy 11-year-old Richmond native Brian “Jinx” Jinkins as he deals with the trials of childhood and a near crippling fear of failure[9]. The series, which showed a great deal of emotional intelligence, was a favorite with critics and audiences alike when it debuted on Neptune in Fall of 1991, and would last through to near the end of the decade, spawning a host of imitators.
Nelvana continued to produce the Dr. Who and the Tales of Doctors Past animated specials, including the Calling All Doctors feature-length 30th anniversary special in 1993, which featured all nine Doctors at the time. But with the decline of Saturday Morning Cartoons in the US, they were increasingly struggling to find markets and increasingly “trapped in the middle” in competition with both the Big Studios and the many new animation startups. They produced series based on the popular Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys book series and other children’s-literature-based works, and produced the popular post-Hoerk & Gatty show Eek! The Cat for PFN, but they continued to suffer solvency issues. A White Knight appeared in 1994 in the form of Penguin Pictures, the newly spun-up film label from Pearson PLC as they continued to grow their film and TV presence. Penguin acquired Nelvana in whole[10] for a reported $400 million and gave the company free creative reign so long as they “maintained independent British and Commonwealth animated programming,” presumably free from American influences, though this last part remained unstated.
A similar fate befell Cosgrove Hall Films, whose popular Danger Mouse and Count Duckula animated series were just reaching their conclusion in 1993[11]. Cosgrove was in production on an animated adaption of Terry Pratchett’s non-Discworld-related Truckers when their production partner Thames was acquired by the growing Penguin Productions media empire. Pearson/Penguin acquired Cosgrove Hall soon after[12], merging them into the larger Nelvana animation group, though they retained their distinct name, logo, and de facto independence. Nelvana ultimately underwrote production on Diggers and Wings, completing the Bromeliad Trilogy. Cosgrove had expressed interest in doing an animated adaption of Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters, but Fox had beaten them to the rights, so instead they did an animated version of The Colour of Magic in 1997, soon to be followed by The Light Fantastic and other books following the unwanted adventures of the inept “Wizzard” Rincewind[13].
Aardman, meanwhile, continued to produce Wallace and Gromit shorts, with 1993’s The Wrong Trousers and 1995’s A Close Shave. Joined by Terry Brian (who’d produced The Trap Door with Charlie Mills), Nick Park’s clever duo were still giving Disney a run for their money at Awards Ceremonies. Still in talks with Disney over a possible feature animation, Aardman remained a bantamweight player, regularly doing commercial work to pay the bills, and was set to break out in exciting new ways.
But while the established small studios and large studios continued their dance, the 1990s are probably best known as the decade that saw increasing numbers of animated startups. And indeed, while the ‘90s would be largely remembered for the Big Screen Renaissance, it was these smaller studios, empowered by advances in digital animation and freed for pushing boundaries thanks to the 1990 Children’s Entertainment act and the ratings system it brought, who would be the avant garde of a burgeoning animation revolution.
From Frog Baseball (Image source “comedyhistory101.com”)
One of the most successful incubators of these small, revolutionary startup producers was Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, started in the early 1990s at the University of California, Berkeley, by Craig "Spike" Decker and Mike Gribble. Numerous now-famous animators got their start there, like Craig McCracken, Genndy Tartakovsky, Mike Judge, Joe Murray, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Danny Antonucci, and others. The Festival was the first place where now popular shows like Whoopass Stew, Inbred Jed, My Dog Zero, and Beavis and Butt-Head[14] got their start, among others.
The first of the Spike and Mike alumnus to break out was, of course, Mike Judge, whose moronic Beavis and Butthead from the “Frog Baseball” short ended up on MTV’s Liquid Television in 1992. Bevis & Butt-Head would famously appear on MTV in their own show in 1993, soon to be followed by Inbred Jed, which would be taken up by Cartoon City’s Adult Swim in 1996. Whoopass Studios, who had the advantage of being financially supported by Heather Henson, soon followed in 1993. Their Whoopass Stew shorts were ultimately shown on Liquid Television and later turned into the popular and revolutionary animated series on MTV.
My Dog Zero, by Joe Murray (Image source The Movie Database)
Creator Joe Murray similarly began with Spike & Mike and Liquid Television, eventually seeing his silly short My Dog Zero expanded into a surreal relationship satire where Joe, a lonely bachelor, tries to make his way through the world, all witnessed and attested through the eyes and mouth of Zero, his flea-bitten mutt of a dog. Zero (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui in a thick vaguely Australian accent) narrates the world to the fourth wall while Joe largely mumbles and pantomimes in the background, speaking unintelligibly save for a handful of worlds that Zero presumably knows, like “Zero”, “Food”, and “good/bad boy”. The end result was a T-rated satire of humanity as seen through the eyes of a dog that was noteworthy for pushing the limits of what was socially acceptable even in an MTV T-rated cartoon, with tons of jokes involving sex, masturbation, substance abuse, and other taboo subjects[15].
Many of these small studios would produce both hard PG- or T-rated adult-themed stuff for MTV or Cartoon City’s Adult Swim while simultaneously producing G-rated or soft PG works for kids, creating an interesting dynamic where the same animators and voice actors were producing something child friendly on Neptune and something child-unfriendly on MTV. Whoopass, for example, would launch the now-iconic Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon City in 1997 in partnership with Hanna-Barbera and Drac & Mina on Neptune in partnership with WB, in both cases using their “kid friendly” Kickin’ Studios label. Joe Murray would likewise later produce Trunk’s Modern World, the story of a neurotic Aardvark named Trunk for Neptune.
Not only were these small studios experimenting in themes and pushing the limits on acceptability in violence and sex, but many were experimenting with new animation styles and new styles of writing and pacing. More stylized artwork, often directly evocative of the old UPA midcentury animation or taking cues from Anime, was entering the fray. Some series, like Whoopass Stew, evoked both. Others went in entirely different directions, such as Popular Arts Entertainment, which introduced their unique “Squigglevision” style for The Comedy Channel’s Dr. Katz, Therapist to the Stars.
And as the 1990s continued, animation, led by these small and innovative studios, was about to break out in ways no one had ever seen.
[1] In our timeline, of course, The Iron Giant didn’t screen until 1999 and WB, burned by the flop of Quest for Camelot, failed to promote it (despite incredibly positive test screenings), leading to its spectacular (and undeserved) flop at the box office. While this film isn’t quite as beautiful as the one from our timeline, it will be a beloved success that sets Filmation Feature Films up for success in the future.
[2] To answer your question, @drrockso20.
[3] Boba Fett will canonically be a true Mandalorian in this timeline, and “Fett” will be a clan surname, not a familiar name. Thus, characters like Marr Fett, Chiss Fett, Jey Fett, Mos Fett, and B’luc Fett will appear in the cartoon, which will be relegated to the second-tier “T-Canon”. Originally they planned to go with "Boba" as the surname to imply that "the Clan came first", but test audiences didn't like it.
[4] Seth MacFarlane will be one of the staff writers.
[5] Hat tip to @Pesterfield.
[6] Hat tip to @lukedalton.
[7] Hat Tip @GrahamB.
[8] The “hook” that sets it apart from Space Ace or Dragon’s Lair is that you can play one of two possible adventure storylines: one following Valerian and one following Laureline when they are split up. Those who complete both adventures are treated by getting to experience all the “crossover points” from both perspectives, and learn the whole story. It also allows for you to add another quarter to “continue” when you run out of lives, making it a diabolical quarter-eating machine.
[9] Evolved into Doug in our timeline.
[10] Eventually acquired in our timeline by Corus for $540 million in 2000, which was right after Nelvana bought Klutz Books for $74 million.
[11] Largely went per our timeline, since you asked @Ogrebear. Several later episodes changed since they were parodying different Bond films.
[12] Acquired around the same time by Anglia Television in our timeline.
[13] In our timeline they partnered with Acorn Media to produce animated versions of Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, but here Fox has the former and Disney the latter.
[14] The names actually came from real kids that he knew while in college. Read all about it.
[15] Eventually Murray found his way to Nicktoon in our timeline, where he produced Rocko’s Modern Life mostly to the developing Nick formula, though he (in)famously slipped in so much adult humor that the show was constantly the source of ire for censors and moral guardians alike.
For an idea of what this timeline’s My Dog Zero show is like, here’s some sample dialog:
INT – Joe’s Living Room – Night
JOE and CYNTHIA awkwardly wrestle and make out on the couch as ZERO looks on, confused.
Zero: I don’t get people. They always bloody overcomplicate things. Look at their mating rituals, right? And believe it or not, that’s mating they’re doing back there, not fighting. I know, confused me too at first. People mating rituals go on for hours, don’t they? Days even. I mean, with us dogs it’s simple: butt-sniff, butt-sniff, here we go…on to other things, right? But people? Forget it. He’s spent weeks trying to get under this one’s tail, mind ya’, and just mark my words, the second his forelegs start to move too far tail-wards on her, she’ll snap at him and run off and he’ll be back in the corner of his bedroom with them mags he keeps hidden under the bed. Hardly makes a lick of sense.
From In the Shadow of the Mouse, Non-Disney Animation 1960-2000, by Joshua Ben Jordan
Where the 1980s were a time of consolidation in animation, with large film studios buying up the classic animation studios of old, the 1990s were increasingly a time for small, independent studios to spin up and make their mark. Advances in affordable audio-video computers like the Disney Imagination Station, Apple Gala and Silicon Graphics “Barney” stations, or even Virgin/Atari systems with a good “Video Package”, particularly when these were used alongside affordable vector compiling engines like the MINIBOG and Apple CORE, were making animation increasingly cost-competitive. Even used DIS stations were finding new lives with animation startups.
Suddenly a small production company like Bird Brain, Wayward, Snee-Oosh, or Whoopass could increasingly manage a TV series or even feature film without automatically having to tie themselves to a major studio, though such partnerships remained the norm as distribution remained the bailiwick of the big studios and networks. The increasing rise of inexpensive but very talented animation studios in Japan, Ireland, and South Korea allowed for the outsourcing of “inbetweener” and background work, even as accusations of “sweatshop” conditions arose, particularly among the remaining vestiges of the US Animator’s Union.
With the economics of animation thus shifting once again, suddenly, big studios found themselves in competition to retain partnerships with the small studios! Bird Brain Studios for example had, by this point, maintained a good working relationship with Warner Brothers for several years, but corporate decisions were increasingly alienating the small studio. Brad Bird and Bruce Timm were getting along well with WB’s Jean MacCurdy, Tom Ruegger, and Mira Velimirovic, but Mira would soon follow her old friend Lisa Henson to Fox, where she’d become an executive for Filmation alongside Richard Bazley, who’d in turn been lured over from Bluth Animation. Bazley, it should be noted, brought with him the rights for an animated film based upon the Ted Hughes book The Iron Man, known in the US as The Iron Giant.
With the amicable Velimirovic, who’d served as a good shield between animation and upper management, now gone, WB leadership began to push for more internal control of their DC-branded cartoons, and balked at Bird Brain’s earlier The Spirit movie deal with arch-rival Disney. When the contract with Bird Brain ended for the DC Animation universe in 1993, WB (over MacCurdy’s and Ruegger’s objections) declined to renew it, and allowed their in-house animators to manage the series going forward (including animating 1996’s Justice League vs. The Legion of Doom movie, which had no input from Bird Brain). While this led to a noticeable dip in the quality of storytelling and the innovativeness of animation, the DC cartoons did manage to continue to perform adequately on both the small screen and big. Internal WB animators, led by Tom Ruegger, began to increasingly run the DC shows while also pressing for more original WB programming, leading to The Animaniacs, among other productions.
WB also continued to keep their classic characters on the big screen, producing 1995’s Too Looney!, a new Looney Tunes animated adventure whose name evolved from the working title of “Looney Tunes Movie 2”. Produced by Joe Dante and directed by Tom Ruegger, Too Looney! would see Bugs and Daffy launching rival movie studios and thus opening the door to all kinds of parody and satire of every major recent film, every major star, and even sent up the film industry itself, gleefully biting the hands at WB that fed them, even parodying the big WB leadership shakeup in 1994. Light on plot and heavy on madcap, the feature underwhelmed critics, but entertained audiences, making a modest profit even in the face of the Disney juggernaut.
Bird and Timm were instead lured by Velimirovic to Filmation, where they’d pitch their idea for an art deco inspired Sci-Fi film noir called Ray Gunn. The Fox board was unsure about the potential for an adult-themed cartoon and pushed for a more child-friendly approach, which Bird rebelled against. In a compromise, Bird Brain would instead be hired to work with Bazley and his new Filmation Feature Animation team to produce The Iron Giant while working on Ray Gunn as a relatively low-budget film on the side. Bazley and Bird would come to loggerheads over the direction of the film, though, with Bazley wanting something closer to the source material (which has a cosmic dragon and some late-60s spiritualist elements) and Bird wanting to make it into a Cold War era film. Eventually, the US setting and Baby Boomer nostalgia potential helped Bird win out, moving the setting to the Cuban Missile Crisis era Pacific Northwest.
This a few years early, and from Fox!
Hopes to make the eponymous Giant fully digital created some problems, as even with a render farm of MINIBOGs there was a lot of vector data to maintain the flowing, three-dimensional look that Bird wanted. Blending hand-drawn, digitally inked and painted elements with the use of fully CG-renders, and taking advantage of cost-saving measures developed during their TV run, the Bird Brain/Filmation team managed to produce the film for about $32.4 million. The film would screen in the summer of 1995 amidst a major advertising blitz by Fox where its blend of heartfelt sincerity, beautiful and sweeping animation, and relatable characters would lead to it earning a surprising $189 million at the box office, the third-highest grossing animated film of the year[1], and more notably it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the first non-Disney film to earn that honor. It was the start of a great working relationship between Bird Brain and Filmation.
On the TV front, Filmation continued to support several TV series, including partnering with Craig Bartlett’s Snee-Oosh Productions to produce PFN’s popular Hey Arnold![2] It would be the beginning of a long-running partnership between Bartlett and Fox President Lisa Henson. Filmation also partnered with Lucasfilm to produce a short-lived Young Indiana Jones animated series as a spinoff of the popular live action series of the same name and even managed to poach Star Wars animation from Disney Animation by promising reduced costs but comparable quality. The resulting series, Star Wars: The Mandalorian Chronicles, followed members of Clan Fett, including Boba Fett[3], as they navigated the underworld and backwater planets of the Empire (a premise that enraged Michael Eisner at Hollywood Pictures, who claimed to have pitched a similar series idea to Lucas years earlier). Filmation also continued its forays into Star Trek with Captain Data and Tales from the Borg War, the two friendly rival Sci-Fi franchises (or at least their animated universes) suddenly produced under the same roof, though executive interest in a crossover was consistently rejected by both Richard Berman and George Lucas alike. “The physics don’t even work the same,” Lucas reportedly told Henson as she sheepishly passed on the request from Barry Diller.
Other big studios also continued to try and grab a piece of the Mouse’s animation market share on the big and small screens alike. Columbia’s Hanna-Barbera was continuing to produce low-budget animated films based on television IP, releasing The Flintstones Movie in 1994 to moderate success[4], Scooby Doo: Monsters United in 1995 to a small but disappointing profit, and Captain Planet: Take Back the Planet!, which barely broke even. The Jetsons Movie, released in 1995, would flop hard, but find new life in syndication and home video. Their only attempt at an original IP, 1993’s Once Upon a Forest, Executive Produced by William Hanna himself, ran smack into The Little Mermaid and Ritzy Gal and barely broke even, ultimately gaining a new appreciation in home video. Otherwise, HB remained the Champions of Television, producing numerous new productions for its Cartoon City channel, including the popular 2 Dum Mutts and similar “post Hoerk & Gatty” fare that continued in the shocking footsteps of the late John Kricfalusi, whose 1994 suicide amid accusations of solicitation of sex from an underaged girl shocked the industry.
HB also entered into the Network Animation world in partnership with Steven Bochco, developing the PG (and occasionally T) rated Capitol Critters for CBS. After kicking around ideas involving anthropomorphic mice in a near-standard sitcom format that just happened to be located at the US Capitol, Brandon Tartikoff convinced Bochco to focus on the politics, leading to the concept of an entire “animal government” with animals based by state[5] (such as a bison representing populist Wyoming Senator John Vinich and a large sperm whale for the Ted Kennedy expy). Over its four short but influential seasons, Capitol Critters would gain a reputation for addressing controversial issues and leaving no side unscathed as its writers skewered every politician and political hypocrisy within reach. “I knew that we were on the right track when both Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi separately accused us of bias against their side,” said Bochco.
Universal Pictures dipped its toes back into the animation waters and teamed up once again with UPA to produce Kong and Godzilla vs. Aggraghast in 1992, a relatively low budget animated film that built off of the popular Monster Mayhem TV series, though maintaining the skilled animation of the 1988 Godzilla film. Intended mostly as a way to keep the King Kong IP in the public consciousness while they worked on the live action King Kong film while also drumming up interest in the Kongfrontation attraction at Universal Studios Florida, Kong and Godzilla would only break even and would be the last Universal/UPA feature collaboration for a while. Instead, UPA continued to make animation for Universal on television. The series Monster Force and ExoSquad[6] were launched in first run syndication in 1994 and 1993 respectively, and both featured park tie-ins at Universal Studios. The success of Monster Mayhem in particular would even catch the attention of Disney and lead Marvel Productions to briefly relaunch the Inhumanoids line in a two-season anime-inspired reboot.
Hollywood Animation, still known in the industry as DiC, was working with Don Bluth, producing the hit Ritzy Gal in 1993. Bluth also worked with the in-house DiC animators to help produce Retriever, a jazzy canine-based comedy based loosely on Catcher in the Rye. It was a massive success upon release in the summer of 1994 and the first film to actually beat a Disney animated film at the box office, besting Disney’s innovative all-digital The Brave Little Toaster in a head-to-head lineup. The success would be the crowning achievement of the Bluth-DiC partnership. It would also be their last. Fed up with the drama behind the scenes, Bluth took his business back across the Atlantic to Paris and Luxembourg to partner with Pathé on an animated science fiction adventure based on the French Valerian & Laureline comics[7]. Hollywood Animation/DiC would instead experience a major internal leadership shakeup that would send ripples across the industry.
This from Don Bluth! (Image source Amazon)
For Valerian & Laureline, Bluth partnered with Pathé for production and Eurasian and Oceana distribution. Universal later signed on for North American distribution. The adult-themed space adventure received a T-rating and ultimately underperformed, making $57 million internationally (mostly in Europe and Asia) vs. a $31 million budget. However, the gorgeous visuals and memorable progressive rock soundtrack made it a cult hit with good home video sales and led to the production of a very popular Dragon’s Lair style animated video game[8] that helped pay the bills for Bluth. While overall a setback for Bluth’s independent relaunch, Bluth Animation remained a viable and skilled studio.
Essentially this (Image source Looper)
But while Bluth continued to pursue feature animation, most of the smaller indie companies would stick with the small screen. Matt Groening continued to work closely with Wayward Entertainment and Gracie Films. Rather well occupied with running Nuclear Family and supporting Rugrats, he often served as a consultant on other Wayward products such as Jim Jinkin’s hit semiautobiographical animated series Jinx, following the life of artistic but shy 11-year-old Richmond native Brian “Jinx” Jinkins as he deals with the trials of childhood and a near crippling fear of failure[9]. The series, which showed a great deal of emotional intelligence, was a favorite with critics and audiences alike when it debuted on Neptune in Fall of 1991, and would last through to near the end of the decade, spawning a host of imitators.
Nelvana continued to produce the Dr. Who and the Tales of Doctors Past animated specials, including the Calling All Doctors feature-length 30th anniversary special in 1993, which featured all nine Doctors at the time. But with the decline of Saturday Morning Cartoons in the US, they were increasingly struggling to find markets and increasingly “trapped in the middle” in competition with both the Big Studios and the many new animation startups. They produced series based on the popular Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys book series and other children’s-literature-based works, and produced the popular post-Hoerk & Gatty show Eek! The Cat for PFN, but they continued to suffer solvency issues. A White Knight appeared in 1994 in the form of Penguin Pictures, the newly spun-up film label from Pearson PLC as they continued to grow their film and TV presence. Penguin acquired Nelvana in whole[10] for a reported $400 million and gave the company free creative reign so long as they “maintained independent British and Commonwealth animated programming,” presumably free from American influences, though this last part remained unstated.
A similar fate befell Cosgrove Hall Films, whose popular Danger Mouse and Count Duckula animated series were just reaching their conclusion in 1993[11]. Cosgrove was in production on an animated adaption of Terry Pratchett’s non-Discworld-related Truckers when their production partner Thames was acquired by the growing Penguin Productions media empire. Pearson/Penguin acquired Cosgrove Hall soon after[12], merging them into the larger Nelvana animation group, though they retained their distinct name, logo, and de facto independence. Nelvana ultimately underwrote production on Diggers and Wings, completing the Bromeliad Trilogy. Cosgrove had expressed interest in doing an animated adaption of Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters, but Fox had beaten them to the rights, so instead they did an animated version of The Colour of Magic in 1997, soon to be followed by The Light Fantastic and other books following the unwanted adventures of the inept “Wizzard” Rincewind[13].
Aardman, meanwhile, continued to produce Wallace and Gromit shorts, with 1993’s The Wrong Trousers and 1995’s A Close Shave. Joined by Terry Brian (who’d produced The Trap Door with Charlie Mills), Nick Park’s clever duo were still giving Disney a run for their money at Awards Ceremonies. Still in talks with Disney over a possible feature animation, Aardman remained a bantamweight player, regularly doing commercial work to pay the bills, and was set to break out in exciting new ways.
But while the established small studios and large studios continued their dance, the 1990s are probably best known as the decade that saw increasing numbers of animated startups. And indeed, while the ‘90s would be largely remembered for the Big Screen Renaissance, it was these smaller studios, empowered by advances in digital animation and freed for pushing boundaries thanks to the 1990 Children’s Entertainment act and the ratings system it brought, who would be the avant garde of a burgeoning animation revolution.
From Frog Baseball (Image source “comedyhistory101.com”)
One of the most successful incubators of these small, revolutionary startup producers was Spike & Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, started in the early 1990s at the University of California, Berkeley, by Craig "Spike" Decker and Mike Gribble. Numerous now-famous animators got their start there, like Craig McCracken, Genndy Tartakovsky, Mike Judge, Joe Murray, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Danny Antonucci, and others. The Festival was the first place where now popular shows like Whoopass Stew, Inbred Jed, My Dog Zero, and Beavis and Butt-Head[14] got their start, among others.
The first of the Spike and Mike alumnus to break out was, of course, Mike Judge, whose moronic Beavis and Butthead from the “Frog Baseball” short ended up on MTV’s Liquid Television in 1992. Bevis & Butt-Head would famously appear on MTV in their own show in 1993, soon to be followed by Inbred Jed, which would be taken up by Cartoon City’s Adult Swim in 1996. Whoopass Studios, who had the advantage of being financially supported by Heather Henson, soon followed in 1993. Their Whoopass Stew shorts were ultimately shown on Liquid Television and later turned into the popular and revolutionary animated series on MTV.
My Dog Zero, by Joe Murray (Image source The Movie Database)
Creator Joe Murray similarly began with Spike & Mike and Liquid Television, eventually seeing his silly short My Dog Zero expanded into a surreal relationship satire where Joe, a lonely bachelor, tries to make his way through the world, all witnessed and attested through the eyes and mouth of Zero, his flea-bitten mutt of a dog. Zero (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui in a thick vaguely Australian accent) narrates the world to the fourth wall while Joe largely mumbles and pantomimes in the background, speaking unintelligibly save for a handful of worlds that Zero presumably knows, like “Zero”, “Food”, and “good/bad boy”. The end result was a T-rated satire of humanity as seen through the eyes of a dog that was noteworthy for pushing the limits of what was socially acceptable even in an MTV T-rated cartoon, with tons of jokes involving sex, masturbation, substance abuse, and other taboo subjects[15].
Many of these small studios would produce both hard PG- or T-rated adult-themed stuff for MTV or Cartoon City’s Adult Swim while simultaneously producing G-rated or soft PG works for kids, creating an interesting dynamic where the same animators and voice actors were producing something child friendly on Neptune and something child-unfriendly on MTV. Whoopass, for example, would launch the now-iconic Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon City in 1997 in partnership with Hanna-Barbera and Drac & Mina on Neptune in partnership with WB, in both cases using their “kid friendly” Kickin’ Studios label. Joe Murray would likewise later produce Trunk’s Modern World, the story of a neurotic Aardvark named Trunk for Neptune.
Not only were these small studios experimenting in themes and pushing the limits on acceptability in violence and sex, but many were experimenting with new animation styles and new styles of writing and pacing. More stylized artwork, often directly evocative of the old UPA midcentury animation or taking cues from Anime, was entering the fray. Some series, like Whoopass Stew, evoked both. Others went in entirely different directions, such as Popular Arts Entertainment, which introduced their unique “Squigglevision” style for The Comedy Channel’s Dr. Katz, Therapist to the Stars.
And as the 1990s continued, animation, led by these small and innovative studios, was about to break out in ways no one had ever seen.
[1] In our timeline, of course, The Iron Giant didn’t screen until 1999 and WB, burned by the flop of Quest for Camelot, failed to promote it (despite incredibly positive test screenings), leading to its spectacular (and undeserved) flop at the box office. While this film isn’t quite as beautiful as the one from our timeline, it will be a beloved success that sets Filmation Feature Films up for success in the future.
[2] To answer your question, @drrockso20.
[3] Boba Fett will canonically be a true Mandalorian in this timeline, and “Fett” will be a clan surname, not a familiar name. Thus, characters like Marr Fett, Chiss Fett, Jey Fett, Mos Fett, and B’luc Fett will appear in the cartoon, which will be relegated to the second-tier “T-Canon”. Originally they planned to go with "Boba" as the surname to imply that "the Clan came first", but test audiences didn't like it.
[4] Seth MacFarlane will be one of the staff writers.
[5] Hat tip to @Pesterfield.
[6] Hat tip to @lukedalton.
[7] Hat Tip @GrahamB.
[8] The “hook” that sets it apart from Space Ace or Dragon’s Lair is that you can play one of two possible adventure storylines: one following Valerian and one following Laureline when they are split up. Those who complete both adventures are treated by getting to experience all the “crossover points” from both perspectives, and learn the whole story. It also allows for you to add another quarter to “continue” when you run out of lives, making it a diabolical quarter-eating machine.
[9] Evolved into Doug in our timeline.
[10] Eventually acquired in our timeline by Corus for $540 million in 2000, which was right after Nelvana bought Klutz Books for $74 million.
[11] Largely went per our timeline, since you asked @Ogrebear. Several later episodes changed since they were parodying different Bond films.
[12] Acquired around the same time by Anglia Television in our timeline.
[13] In our timeline they partnered with Acorn Media to produce animated versions of Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music, but here Fox has the former and Disney the latter.
[14] The names actually came from real kids that he knew while in college. Read all about it.
[15] Eventually Murray found his way to Nicktoon in our timeline, where he produced Rocko’s Modern Life mostly to the developing Nick formula, though he (in)famously slipped in so much adult humor that the show was constantly the source of ire for censors and moral guardians alike.
For an idea of what this timeline’s My Dog Zero show is like, here’s some sample dialog:
INT – Joe’s Living Room – Night
JOE and CYNTHIA awkwardly wrestle and make out on the couch as ZERO looks on, confused.
Zero: I don’t get people. They always bloody overcomplicate things. Look at their mating rituals, right? And believe it or not, that’s mating they’re doing back there, not fighting. I know, confused me too at first. People mating rituals go on for hours, don’t they? Days even. I mean, with us dogs it’s simple: butt-sniff, butt-sniff, here we go…on to other things, right? But people? Forget it. He’s spent weeks trying to get under this one’s tail, mind ya’, and just mark my words, the second his forelegs start to move too far tail-wards on her, she’ll snap at him and run off and he’ll be back in the corner of his bedroom with them mags he keeps hidden under the bed. Hardly makes a lick of sense.
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And what year did this earlier Iron Giant come up, exactly?
Quite the hefty post there, Geekhis! A whole industry is a lot of ground to cover but you've done it admirably.
Nice to see Ireland getting the shoutout as an animation center, very nice to see Nelvana remain on its own (thanks, white knight!).
I hope this leads to more French animation crossing the pond, in both animation and comic books, France is chronically overlooked over here (unless you live in or near Quebec).
Nice to see Ireland getting the shoutout as an animation center, very nice to see Nelvana remain on its own (thanks, white knight!).
I've heard a similar sentiment from historians covering the Reformation: when the complaints from your Catholic and Protestant consultants about how their/the other side are portrayed start equalizing, you've probably hit that sweet spot.
Is Bluth still working out of Ireland?
I hope this leads to more French animation crossing the pond, in both animation and comic books, France is chronically overlooked over here (unless you live in or near Quebec).
Wow....that's a HUGE animation update!
I like how the animation landscape radically changes ITTL's 90's with the earlier cgi opening things up amazingly. So many studios, so many products. Guess the explosion of cable, satellite, and later internet companies/channels really changes the game.
I presume MTV stops being a music channel ITTL as well then?
Nice that Filmation does so well ITTL. The takings from The Iron Giant alone will keep them solvent for some years. Oscar winners too!
When did Star Wars: The Mandalorian Chronicles air please? How long did the adventures of the Boba Clan last?
Can you tell us any more about the Tales from the Borg War series please? First I remember about it.
So glad they skipped on a Star Trek - Star Wars crossover. So very glad.
Do Tom and Jerry not get a revival in this period given they are classic characters?
Does feel like HB are not adjusting to the lack of Sat morning cartoons well given their failures, and moderate successes.
Capitol Critters sounds like fun. Wonder if someone nicks the idea and uses it in the UK. Yes, Minister from the POV of the Downing St cats?
I do like that Monster Mayhem spawns a whole load of series leading to a 'Monster craze' with Kong, Godzilla, Monster Force, ExoSquad and Inhumanoids!
Wonder how Bluth would work with the French studios for Valerian & Laureline - it sounds like a great movie series, but how did an American adjust to the European model? I can see ITTL me liking this movie given how cool the comics are.
Jinx seems interesting, but ITTL is past the age where he'd watch it.
Calling All Doctors in 1993 sounds like fun. I imagine they got impersonators for the Doctors no longer with us? How did the voice cast get on with Mr. Harris?
Very nice that Nelvana and Cosgrove are rescued by Penguin Productions. Are they anything to do with the publishers as that has nice multi-media tie-ins?
So glad the Pratchett adaptions are being made and are decent.
"Aardman, meanwhile, continued to produce Wallace and Gromit shorts, with 1993’s The Wrong Trousers and 1995’s A Close Shave" - Hooray!
Bevis & Butt-Head - I suspect ITTL me would dislike them as much as OTL me, though who knows! ITTL me would probably like My Dog Zero though, as it appeals to me OTL, sat here wishing we have a way to see these shows!
What is Sandy Frank up to? I cannot imagine he would let an animation revival pass him by with his history of bringing animated shows to American TV?
Great, huge chapter there @Geekhis Khan
I like how the animation landscape radically changes ITTL's 90's with the earlier cgi opening things up amazingly. So many studios, so many products. Guess the explosion of cable, satellite, and later internet companies/channels really changes the game.
I presume MTV stops being a music channel ITTL as well then?
Nice that Filmation does so well ITTL. The takings from The Iron Giant alone will keep them solvent for some years. Oscar winners too!
When did Star Wars: The Mandalorian Chronicles air please? How long did the adventures of the Boba Clan last?
Can you tell us any more about the Tales from the Borg War series please? First I remember about it.
So glad they skipped on a Star Trek - Star Wars crossover. So very glad.
Do Tom and Jerry not get a revival in this period given they are classic characters?
Does feel like HB are not adjusting to the lack of Sat morning cartoons well given their failures, and moderate successes.
Capitol Critters sounds like fun. Wonder if someone nicks the idea and uses it in the UK. Yes, Minister from the POV of the Downing St cats?
I do like that Monster Mayhem spawns a whole load of series leading to a 'Monster craze' with Kong, Godzilla, Monster Force, ExoSquad and Inhumanoids!
Wonder how Bluth would work with the French studios for Valerian & Laureline - it sounds like a great movie series, but how did an American adjust to the European model? I can see ITTL me liking this movie given how cool the comics are.
Jinx seems interesting, but ITTL is past the age where he'd watch it.
Calling All Doctors in 1993 sounds like fun. I imagine they got impersonators for the Doctors no longer with us? How did the voice cast get on with Mr. Harris?
Very nice that Nelvana and Cosgrove are rescued by Penguin Productions. Are they anything to do with the publishers as that has nice multi-media tie-ins?
So glad the Pratchett adaptions are being made and are decent.
"Aardman, meanwhile, continued to produce Wallace and Gromit shorts, with 1993’s The Wrong Trousers and 1995’s A Close Shave" - Hooray!
Bevis & Butt-Head - I suspect ITTL me would dislike them as much as OTL me, though who knows! ITTL me would probably like My Dog Zero though, as it appeals to me OTL, sat here wishing we have a way to see these shows!
What is Sandy Frank up to? I cannot imagine he would let an animation revival pass him by with his history of bringing animated shows to American TV?
Great, huge chapter there @Geekhis Khan
Huh, interesting to see that Doug is not only different TTL, but ended up animated still rather than as a book series as was originally the case for Doug OTL. I wonder how Wayward Entertainment discovered the East Coaster when they themselves are on the West Coast.
With the mention of the Sick and Twisted Festival, I once more wonder if Turner "struck back" at Tom Ruegger being poached from HB by tapping Fred Seibert to become the president of HB, and eventually resulting in TTL's equivalent to What-A-Cartoon and beginning proper Frederator's history of producing short cartoon "incubators". Even more so than ever, with the burgeoning smaller studios, it would be worthwhile to tap into and develop HB's own staff's creativity further (ala What-A-Cartoon's first incarnation), or even just use it as an opportunity to have these smaller studios pitch ideas to them (ala its second incarnation).
Great update, good to see the dynamics of TTL rippling even further, especially with what appears to be a higher density of teen/adult animation! Hopefully the trends of TTL result in adult animation having a better reputation going into the 21st century, and not be associated with immature gross-out humor and a lack of depth for much of the next two decades.
With the mention of the Sick and Twisted Festival, I once more wonder if Turner "struck back" at Tom Ruegger being poached from HB by tapping Fred Seibert to become the president of HB, and eventually resulting in TTL's equivalent to What-A-Cartoon and beginning proper Frederator's history of producing short cartoon "incubators". Even more so than ever, with the burgeoning smaller studios, it would be worthwhile to tap into and develop HB's own staff's creativity further (ala What-A-Cartoon's first incarnation), or even just use it as an opportunity to have these smaller studios pitch ideas to them (ala its second incarnation).
Great update, good to see the dynamics of TTL rippling even further, especially with what appears to be a higher density of teen/adult animation! Hopefully the trends of TTL result in adult animation having a better reputation going into the 21st century, and not be associated with immature gross-out humor and a lack of depth for much of the next two decades.
Really excited to see where all of the developments are going to end up, since it's clear that Western Animation is more diverse and prolific thanks to the butterflies. Bluth finally ended his partnership with Hollywood Pictures/DiC, which is a long time coming, though I wonder if he will be able to compete with Disney or other Western animators now that he's on his own now. He has the potential to usurp Disney with films like the Retriever but maybe he could manage to do something like Dracula, The Count of Monte Cristo, Cats, or even East of the Sun and West of the Moon to continue that trend.
On that note, how about his other games repurposed as movies? I think that The Sea Beast and Barnacle Bill would be a good way to ride the Little Mermaid hype train on his end.
What Captain Planet still exists ITTL? Is it basically the same as the original too?
Also I wonder who the Planeteers would face in this tv movie, a collection of their rogues gallery combined or some kind of planet destroying movie villain?
Too bad for Michael Eisner, he would've loved this movie given his admiration for the French. I wonder if Bluth can tap into this for some more movie ideas. However they might only make a profit in the EU.
Wait so Boba is his family now?
Idk if I like it, but it's certainly something. Also he's not going to be a clone?
I rather have them become the unofficial Adult cartoon channel than the Reality TV channel.
Sounds more like My Dog Zero than Capitol Critters from the execution. Still sounds fun.
A lot going on here, mostly good. The bits that jumped out at me particularly.
I was really hoping we were going to get an actual animated version of The Iron Man, complete with Space Bat-Angel-Dragon, but I acknowledge it's a tough sell.
But that's the fun part! Data has to retrofit the warp engines to work with Star Wars hyperspace, the Borg are intrigued by a universe where there's a Force that binds all things, and we get lots and lots of technical explanations!
(Everyone who isn't a complete nerd: That is in no way the fun part.)
I can see this being another splitting point for the "Orthodoxy": it's a multi-Doctor story (good!) but it acknowledges 8 and 9 (bad!) and probably some of them don't even think animation "counts" in the first place...
(I've just realised the previous post didn't mention what the live action series did for the anniversary, unless it was the big regeneration story. I have no ideas here, except that "The Dark Dimension" probably didn't happen for all the reasons it didn't happen IOTL, and also because Rigelsford strikes me as someone who would be arch-Orthodox ITTL, and would therefore write his "and suddenly Tom Baker had never regenerated" story with an eye towards unhappening the NPH incarnation permenantly, and the BBC aren't going to touch that.)
Good Om above, not only do we get the full Bromeliad, there's a bidding war over Discworld subseries? Truly this is the most blessed of timelines.
(Now waiting for the other shoe to drop, as somebody manages to get it totally wrong and Terry isn't quick enough to stop them.)
Good to see them doing well. Looking forward to seeing what they do next.
Are we quite sure this isn't another Discworld adaptation, because I could totally imagine Gaspode saying this...
I hope all of this is in the same art style so they can do crossovers.
It looks like 1995.
I would assume no considering he was working at DIC in America and than went back across the Atlantic.
Not necessarily MTV still did shows of music videos at this time and I think they still play more music than non music.
Not a family but a clan. It's probably something similar to Sikhs, i.e. everyone in the clan take the Boba name, no matter their original origin. To be fair I think Fett is a better clan name.
I guess not.
No matter they would still change the name so as not to cause confusion with Marvel's Iron Man.
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