In This Week in Animation News, I’ll take a look at the previous week in the world of animation in order to get you caught up on everything you might have missed. It’s your one-stop shop for news regarding cartoons, anime, and animated web series. We’re talking movies, TV shows, digital shorts, and everything in between!

While the first trailer from Sony's animated Spider-Man movie, dubbed Animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, was definitely the biggest bit of news from this weekend, here are some other news items you might have missed throughout the week. Fans of Adult Swim's Robot Chicken will be happy to hear that the award-winning series is returning for Season 9 this weekend and they're kicking things off in a big way with a cookie-fueled and drug-slanted Christmas special.

spider-man-animated-movie-poster-expo
Image

In other TV news, Netflix has nabbed an animated series titled Twelve Forever from Julia Vickerman (The Powerpuff Girls). And TBS surprised everyone by dropping a new cartoon named Tarantula, which is available to stream in its entirety now (unless you want to wait and watch it traditionally as it rolls out on the network, which is totally chill, as well.) Blending media is Austin-based animation studio Mighty Coconut is set to rollout 57° North, an AR adventure game that's driven by story and takes advantage of cutting edge technology.

For the latest animation stories we’ve already covered on the site this week, take a look at the following links. Then, check out a selection of new stories below. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments!

'Robot Chicken' Season 9 Kicks Off with a Santa Special

robot-chicken-season9-holiday-special

Season nine of Robot Chicken premieres Sunday, December 10th at 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT) with a special holiday episode and even Santa is not off limits in Freshly Baked: The Robot Chicken Santa Claus Pot Cookie Freakout Special: Special Edition. The special includes voice talent from Jason AlexanderJemaine ClementMadison Dylan, and Breckin Meyer among others. You can watch the trailer for the special here.

This season, fans can expect more of the royal parody treatment from Robot Chicken targeting more characters and titles including Mad Max: Fury RoadWestworld, Scooby-Doo and many more.

Robot Chicken uses stop-motion animation to bring pop-culture parodies to life in a modern take on the variety/sketch show format. The Emmy Award-winning series began airing in February 2005 and remains among the top-rated original series on Adult Swim. Robot Chicken is created and executive produced by Stoopid Monkey Productions' Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, and their Stoopid Buddy Stoodios partners, Buddy Systems' John Harvatine IV and Eric Towner, also serve as executive producers. Green and Senreich also write, voice and with Tom Sheppard, direct the multiple Annie Award-winning series.

Freshly Baked: The Robot Chicken Santa Claus Pot Cookie Freakout Special: Special Edition

Happy holidays, everyone as Robot Chicken joins Santa for the one Christmas he'll never forget. The North Pole elves dream of the simple toys of holidays past. Krampus puts in a good word for the coal industry. St. Nick finally meets his idol: Jared Leto.

robot-chicken-holiday-special
Image via Robot Chicken

In related news, Variety reports that Stoopid Buddy Stoodios recently signed a two-year, first-look deal with 20th Century Fox. They'll be developing both animated and "live-action animated" family films; I'm not sure if that latter one means live-action/animation hybrid films or puppetry or stop-motion or what. Currently, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios is in post-production on Changeland, their first live-action feature, written and directed by Green. The untitled film known as "Sword" will be the first collaboration under Fox. 

'Twelve Forever' Heads to Netflix for a 2019 Release

As BC reports, Netflix has nabbed writer-producer Vickerman's Twelve Forever, an animated series that finds 12-year-old Reggie creating a fantasy world in which birthdays are no-nos, a sort of contemporary Neverland. Reggie is joined by friends Todd and Esther as they visit this amazing world in order to live out their superhero fantasies and escape the responsibilities of impending adulthood.

Vickerman, Stan Spry, Bradford Bricken, Chris Hardwick and Shadi Petosky are on board as executive producers; production will be provided by Puny Entertainment and Cartel. Set for a 2019 release, Twelve Forever has Rhonda Cox (Beavis and Butt-head, Danger & Eggs) as the supervising producer and Daria co-creator Susie Lewis handling production management. Here's what Vickerman had to say:

“I am beyond excited that ‘Twelve Forever’ has found a home on Netflix. This is a project that is very close to my heart and we’re so grateful for the opportunity to share Reggie’s world with everyone. Puny and the Cartel have assembled an incredible team of writers and artists and we can’t wait to bring this series to life.”

Originally a 2015 pilot for Cartoon Network, Twelve Forever will arrive in 2019 on Netflix.

12-forever-netflix-poster
Image via Netflix

TBS' Animated Series 'Tarantula' Now Available to Stream

tarantula-animated-series-tbs
Image via TBS

Surprise! TBS has dropped a brand-new animated series titled Tarantula! The animated half-hour comedy is written and executive produced by Carson Mell (Silicon Valley) alongside executive producers Danny McBride (Vice Principals, Eastbound & Down), Jody Hill (Vice Principals, Eastbound & Down), Brandon James and David Gordon Green for Rough House Pictures, Claudia Katz and Gregg Vanzo for Rough Draft Animation.

Set at the Tierra Chula Resident Hotel, aka The Tarantula, the series centers on Echo Johnson (Mell), a respected but uncertified tattoo artist who delivers absurd yet introspective monologues. Echo’s poetic ramblings tell tales of misadventures with the other residents including Lucas (DanBakkedahl) the sci-fi writer and bread truck driver, Booty (Mell) the sensitive lead singer, and Bess (LaurenWeedman) a lady whose toughness was forged in the local honky-tonks. They partake in party crashing, dumpster diving, and other socially dubious acts of mischief. Riki LindhomeJacob VargasSteve Jones and Tati Gabrielle also lend their voice talents to the series.

Tarantula debuted on TBS December 4th, and two new episodes will roll out each week that follows. However, you can stream the entire series on TBS' app or on TBS.com right now. And if you need a teaser, you can watch the first two episodes on YouTube:

Mighty Coconut's AR Adventure Game '57° North' Pushes Animation and Technology Boundaries

merge-cube
Image via Merge

This week, Austin animation studio Mighty Coconut announced 57° North, a story-driven adventure set in the Alaskan wild, which available for iOS and Android December now!

57° North uses the Merge Cube and is available in the App Store and Google Play for $2.99.  Trailer and more information on 57° North can be found at http://www.mightycoconut.com/

57north.

57° North follows Sasha and Caleb, two cousins on a family trip to Alaska who suddenly find themselves stranded on a remote island after their boat is caught in a storm. Washed ashore in the frigid wilderness, it’s up to you the player to help them survive, make contact with the outside world, and hopefully escape. Perhaps you’ll even discover the secret of why there are so many security cameras out here in the middle of nowhere...

57° North utilizes the Merge Cube, the world’s first holographic object. Featured recently in a number of press outlets including New York Magazine, Huffington Post, and The View, the Merge Cube is a powerful and affordable device which merges physical and digital worlds using augmented reality technology and the powerful camera and sensors in your mobile device. With lush art and a rich story (featuring multiple decisions and multiple endings for the player), 57° North is a unique, narrative-driven experience in mixed reality.

mighty-coconut-57-north
Image via Mighty Coconut