Cartoon Network's Multi-Award-Winning Climate Champions Campaign Celebrates 1 Million Challenges Accepted

A whopping 1 million challenges have been accepted by enthusiastic Cartoon Network Climate Champions worldwide. These are everyday heroes who have decided to take action by heeding the call to protect our earth, one challenge at a time!

Launched in June 2021, the Cartoon Network Climate Champions initiative, aimed at giving kids the tools to act and fight against climate change, invited kids across EMEA to take on small and fun challenges that can make a world of difference to help protect their environment – and kids across Africa have been exceptional!

Of the one million accepted challenges, 18% are from Africa, meaning close to 190 000 African kids actively participated in making an environmental difference. From planting trees and saving water to reusing everyday household items to create useful crafts, our young, real-life superheroes are determined to fight against climate change, and the growing numbers across Africa are proof that our future is in safe hands!

This multi-award-winning campaign has taken away a Bronze Award for the Environmental Category and a Silver Award for the Arts and Entertainment Category at the 2022 PRISM Awards, South Africa’s highly sought-after public relations and communications awards. The campaign also won an Africa SABRE Award in the Media, Arts and Entertainment Category. The Africa SABRE Awards recognizes superior achievement in branding, reputation, and engagement and puts a spotlight on the industry’s most compelling work, especially focusing on programs and initiatives that drives real business impact across the continent. The most recent award, announced in July 2022, was the IPRA Golden World Awards, recognizing excellence in public relations on a global platform.  These are all testament to the fact that Cartoon Network’s Climate Champions is making great strides on a local and international front.

Monika Oomen, VP, Brand, Communications and Franchise, Kids EMEA, Warner Bros. Discovery, said: “Climate change is an important issue to the younger generation, and we can see this in their desire to not only talk about saving the planet but to take action too. Cartoon Network’s Climate Champions provides an engaging platform to inspire kids in this mission and to show them that every action, however small, can make a difference. Hitting one million challenges is a huge milestone that reaffirms our pride in this project and the inspirational kids that have taken part. We look forward to celebrating the next million!

 

Digital First: The Rise And Fall Of e.tv's Youth Block, Craze

Craze is a youth block provided by eMedia Investments on e.tv which has been around for nearly 15 years which houses several animated and live-action shows from various brands on DStv including DreamWorks Channel, JimJam, CBeebies and Da Vinci Kids.

For several months, Craze has slowly started to shift away from primetime as eToonz ramped up their schedule with a dedicated live-action block. On top of that, primetime has moved to weekdays on the channel with the launch of Doodlebops: The Animated Series and Fast And The Furious: Spy Racers.

I'm not saying that Craze won't be around for the foreseeable future but would it be shocking if eMedia was slowly trying to shift their attention away from the renowned youth block and more toward eToonz and their streaming, eVOD.

Take to account, the events that occurred in April where eMedia boosts their local endeavours with the likes of Is'phindiselo, The Black Door and Isono with few international series once seen in the 8:30pm slot now viewable on eXposed.

eMovies and eMovies Extra have both recieved their fair share of new movies something e.tv has been lacking since the introduction of their local lineup as viewership on Saturday and Sunday night slots had begun to deteriorate while other areas experience growth.

Craze's demise was very much in the works I mean look at eExtra and eReality how much of the content was rebroadcast from e.tv. Turn to eMovies and eMovies Extra didn't Abominable and Doctor Strange air first on those channels before e.tv so why not eToonz.

eToonz isn't the best or the worst but performing to the level of most kids channels despite not getting as much exposure as the other e.tv channels. Let's be honest, Craze has been roaming in a similar environment as the only difference was the number of viewers obtained on a monthly basis.

 

Roundups #88: The Good Doctor Getting A Female Led Spinoff, Young Justice Reportedly Not Moving Forward At HBO Max And King Kong Series In Development For Disney+

The Good Doctor spinoff in development

ABC is developing “The Good Lawyer,” a legal spinoff of the medical drama “The Good Doctor” which stars Freddie Highmore as Dr. Sean Murphy, a surgeon with autism.

“The Good Lawyer” will be introduced as a backdoor pilot during Season 6 of “The Good Doctor,” which is set to premiere in October. Sean finds himself in legal trouble and seeks the services of Joni, a twentysomething defense attorney who has OCD. Joni, relatively new to her law firm, is funny, eager, self-aware and anxious. She is a skilled lawyer and doesn’t want to be treated differently by others, though her OCD symptoms affect her personal and professional life. At one point, her firm tries to fire her, after which she is forced to threaten to sue for a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

One higher-up at the firm involved in the firing attempt is Janet, a highly-regarded attorney and partner at the firm who has represented Dr. Glassman (Richard Schiff) in several legal matters throughout the years. Glassman turns to her to represent his protégé Shaun, and when Shaun chooses Joni to represent him, the cynical Janet is forced to reconsider her assessment of Joni.

Young Justice cancelled on HBO Max

It appears that Young Justice has been canceled for the second time in its run as HBO Max is reportedly not bringing the beloved DC animated series back for season 5. August has been a turbulent month for Warner Bros. Discovery following their massive merger earlier this year. The studio made major headlines with the shocking decision to cancel HBO Max's Batgirl movie, starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon. Despite principal photography having completed in late March, Warner Bros. Discovery shelved Batgirl while also revealing plans to have HBO Max and Discovery Plus become one streaming service next summer.

With the shake-up going on, it was also revealed during the Warner Bros. Discovery earnings call that animation would be part of a "restructuring" for the new version of the studio. This put the popular series Young Justice in question regarding if it will get a season 5. Despite having already finished airing season 4, subtitled Young Justice: Phantoms, HBO Max, or Warner Bros. TV have yet to announce a renewal for the series, which originally began on Cartoon Network. Concerns have been high ever since Young Justice showrunner Greg Weisman confirmed on social media that they have yet to learn about a potential season 5.

King Kong is coming to Disney+

An iconic monster is headed to Disney+. Disney Branded Television is in very early development on King Kong (working title), a series for Disney+ tracking the original story of the famous ape. Deals have just closed for the project, from James Wan’s Atomic Monster, which would mark the first live-action series set in the Kong universe.

Written by Paper Girls creator Stephany Folsom, King Kong is a serialized action-adventure drama that brings the classic monster story into the modern age, with a return to Skull Island and the dawn of a new Kong. The series will explore the mythology of King Kong’s origin story and the supernatural mysteries of his home based on IP from Merian C. Cooper’s original books and the new King Kong novelizations by Joe DeVito.

A live-action series, King Kong Skull Island, was in development at MarVista Entertainment and IM Global Television five years ago with a different creative team, also based on Cooper’s King Kong and DeVito ArtWorks’ Skull Island, with Festa executive producing. It did not come to fruition.

Redraw Your World: Why The Cartoonito Linear Channel Will Likely Have A Silent Rollout In EMEA?

Cartoonito is a brand name used by Warner Bros. Discovery for a collection of television networks and programming blocks that target preschool-age children. Since 2021, the brand comes with original content produced under Cartoon Network Studios.

Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled plans to boost the offering of Cartoonito within the next two years but those plans could be in jeopardy. As seen in the past weeks, the company behind Cartoonito had scrapped projects some even entered post production.

On top of that, they plan to cut more content as they save up on costs. Not that Cartoonito won't have 50 titles I honestly believe they could get there but under two years does seem a bit far fetched perhaps use what little is available and the rest will follow later.

As seen in most international markets particularly Europe, Cartoonito is airing on a lot of Boomerang channels which builds onto that speculation of the phasing out of the channel as Warner Bros. Discovery hasn't done much for the brand.

Boomerang positions itself as a family channel but certain shows like Grizzy And The Lemmings and Masha And The Bear just compliment the offering seen on Cartoonito. Even the recent launches of Akissi and Legend Of Spark make the channel seem age appropriate to Cartoonito.

As seen with Redraw Your World on Cartoon Network and the phasing out of TCM with TNT I'm starting to think that maybe if Cartoonito does wind up replacing Boomerang for viewers in these regions that Warner Bros. Discovery won't make much fuss about it.

Redraw Your World may be on Cartoon Network but you still see plenty of old graphics and even when TNT replaced TCM there wasn't much variation at the time and so the idea of Boomerang folding under Cartoonito for a similar stance doesn't seem far fetched.

At launch, I'm kind of expecting Cartoonito to keep most of the content with several other shows heading to Cartoon Network or for them to keep those shows and put it in much later timeslots while use the above-mentioned shows to fill up the airtime alongside other content.

 

Warner Bros. Discovery September 2022 Highlights (Final): Gotham's #1 Crime Fighter Makes A Dash Onto Cartoon Network And Boomerang Africa

Cartoon Network:

JELLYSTONE!
JOURNEY TO JELLYSTONE!, WHERE ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!

Take a trip to the quaint little town of Jellystone!, chock-full of all your favourite Hanna-Barbera characters from Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound to Top Cat. It’s the perfect place to live, work and play. Join in on the silliness and misadventures as the colourful residents accidentally cause crazy trouble for each other! This month, Augie, Shag and Yakky accidentally turn everyone into babies in the hope of having other kids to play with. In another fun-filled episode, Yogi has a midlife crisis and starts a rock band. A mishap could even be in the making when we look to Mayor Huck to put together a team of astronauts to save the world from an impending cosmic disaster. Tune in for this brand-new season. You’ll love it…and laugh a lot.

PREMIERE: Monday, 05 September 2022
TUNE IN: Mondays to Fridays @ 18:10 CAT

NINJAGO
WHAT’S YOUR NEXT NINJA MOVE?

Get into stealth mode and tune in to the new season of Ninjago: Crystalized! The ninjas are back with some brand-new adventures, and this time, they have been locked up in the Kryptarium Prison, surrounded by some of their old enemies. Here they learn a mysterious Crystal King is recruiting a council of evil enemies. To find out the identity of this new enemy, they escape from prison and become fugitives. Who is the Crystal King? Why is he gathering a powerful counsel? Team up with Wu, Kai, Lloyd, Zane, Nya, Jay and Cole and get ready for some more action-packed missions!

PREMIERE: Saturday, 03 September 2022
TUNE IN: Weekends @ 09:15 CAT

CN MOVIES SPECIAL: BATMAN
LET’S CELEBRATE EVERYTHING BATMAN!

To ensure you don't miss any of the Batman Day festivities, Cartoon Network is handing you three back-to-back LEGO Batman movies to celebrate the day with the funniest Batman movies of them all. Starting with Lego DC Comics: Batman Be-Leaguered Superman and other superheroes start disappearing mysteriously – will Batman save the day? Batman then teams up with the Justice League to face the Joker and Lex Luthor in Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite. And finally, in Lego DC Batman: Family Matters, Batman and his team encounter the villainous Red Hood, who’s obsessed with destroying the Bat-family and all of Gotham City. The super-villains are up to no good on Batman Day!

TUNE IN: Saturday, 17 September @ 09:35 CAT

Boomerang:

THOMAS AND FRIENDS
It’s all engines go!

All aboard for some brand-new episodes of Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go! With an adorably fearless “I think I can” attitude, Thomas and his friends are not afraid to take on any challenge, big or small. In the first of these brand-new episodes, a big storm approaches and Thomas and the tank engines must complete a week’s worth of deliveries by the end-of-the-workday whistle. But Sandy needs repairs … will they make it on time? Then, another big wind blows in, and Sir Topham Hatt’s Hat has swept away, and it’s up to Thomas and his friends to catch it. So, join Thomas and Friends for more episodes like this where they lift, load, pull and choo-choo through every new adventure.

PREMIERE: Monday, 29 August 2022
TUNE IN: Everyday @ 07:05 CAT

BATMAN DAY – MOVIE STARS SPECIAL
It’s a case for Batman!

Did you know that 17 September is Batman Day? And Boomerang is taking on the villains to celebrate everyone’s favourite superhero! On this day, Boomerang’s Movie Stars features Scooby-Doo and Batman in the movie Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and The Bold. It's a thrill a second! After saving Scooby-Doo and the gang from some truly dangerous villains, Batman enlists the help of the Mystery Inc. gang to solve one of his few unexplained cases. Meanwhile, they must also deal with a new mysterious villain who calls himself the 'Crimson Cloak', who is planning to take over Gotham City! It's a big case – are you brave enough to be Batman's sidekick and help him save the day?

TUNE IN: Saturday, 17 September @ 09:40 CAT

AKISSI: A FUNNY LITTLE BROTHER
Fiercest adventures with our amazing adventurer of Africa

Tag along for a funny African adventure with Akissi: A Funny Little Brother. This heartfelt Boomerang half-hour special follows a fearless and feisty little girl, Akissi, and her monkey friend, Boubou, as they set out on hilarious adventures in their contemporary African city. But oh, she has some big hoops to jump through when the neighbourhood cats try to steal her fish, and Boubou almost ends up in a frying pan! How will that turn out? Join in on the adventure - and all the mischief - with the beloved Akissi, who seems like a pest to her brother when in fact, she is nothing but a true adventurer, always looking for the next thrill. Nothing scares her away from hilarious escapades in her modern African city, only on Boomerang!

TUNE IN: Saturday, 24 September @ 09:15 CAT