Cartoon Network announces 2009-2010 plans

by Glenn Hauman on March 26th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Posted In: News

Cartoon Network is growing up… or trying to. And in the process, they’re getting away from the things that make them, well, a cartoon network.

That’s the theme that seems to be running through their upfront presentation for the 2009-2010 season. Highlights include entering into the reality TV genre, creating a new sports-centric programming block, and introducing 19 new programs, pilots, and movies, including six that are live-action (umm…) as well as 164 episodes of returning series.  In doing so, Cartoon Network stepped out on its evolutionary path to become what it described as a "dominant youth culture brand," that not only understands boys, including boys 6-11, but girls and older kids too, while creating "un-sanitized" "TV for kids, not kids TV". 

Luckily, no one seems to talking about renaming it "CyFy". Yet.

Highlights:

  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars will return with new episodes in fall 2009; also returning are Batman: The Brave and the Bold; Chowder; The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack; and The Secret Saturdays.
     
  • Ben 10 adventures will be continuing in Ben 10: Alien Swarm, a previously announced live-action movie, directed by Alex Winter, which premieres fall 2009; and Ben 10: Evolutions (working title) – where the adventures of Ben (16-years-old) continue.  From Cartoon Network Studios.
     
  • The network’s first original all-CG animation movie will be Firebreather, which is based on the Image comic book of the same name created by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn, who serve as co-executive producers.  Peter Chung (Aeon Flux) will direct.
     
  • Cartoon Network is creating a new Saturday afternoon sports focused programming block titled CN AMPT, underscoring its new deal with the NBA and relationship with Turner Sports. NBA commissioner David Stern, who discussed Cartoon Network’s new partnership with the NBA announced earlier in the week, revealed that Boston Celtic Eddie House and his 7-year-old son Jaelen will be the stars of the first project together, the short-form series My Dad’s a Pro.  So pleased with the NBA’s new relationship with the network, Stern quipped to those assembled, "If I were a buyer, I would buy."

Other new series from favorite creators include:

  • Total Drama Action, a follow-up to Total Drama Island;
  • Sym-Bionic Titan, from creator Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack);
  • Generator Rex, from Man of Action (comic vets  Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, and Steven T. Seagle; they created Ben 10), and…
  • Prepped (working title) which is executive-produced and written by Paul Dini (Lost, Batman Beyond, Detective Comics, and Madame Mirage).