Holy Hubcaps! Cartoonito Africa Is Revving Up For Batwheels

g

Batwheels is a fun-filled action-adventure show that combines two of a young kid’s favourite things – superheroes and vehicles! They’re the Batwheels - an awesome group of sentient super-powered crime-fighting vehicles defending Gotham City alongside a host of DC Superheroes. Brought to life by the Batcomputer, the heroic Batwheels are thrust into hilarious hijinks and jaw-dropping action while learning important life lessons.

Led by Bam, The Batmobile, the Batwheels must navigate the challenges of being a newly formed super team as well as the growing pains that come with just being a kid. This relatable and aspirational series will follow the journey of this dynamic team as they thrill and entertain with their heroic adventures, and demonstrate the value of self-confidence, friendship, and teamwork.

The all-star voice cast includes Ethan Hawke (as Batman), Jacob Bertrand (as Bam the Batmobile), Gina Rodriguez (as Catwoman), and Xolo Maridueña (as Snowy the Snowcrawler), among others. Sam Register (Looney Tunes Cartoons) serves as Executive Producer, Michael G. Stern (Doc McStuffins) as Co-Executive Producer, Simon J. Smith (Penguins of Madagascar) as Supervising Producer, and Steven Fink of Bang Zoom Ltd. as Producer. Based on characters from DC, Batwheels is produced by Warner Bros. Animation with animation services provided by Superprod Studio.

“The most rewarding thing for me is knowing that for a whole new generation, this will be their first animated Batman story they can call their own,” notes Stern. “I am extremely proud of the show because we tried to attract and involve an audience as young, old, and diverse as possible so everyone can enjoy the ride.”

Leading the channel premiere on Cartoonito Africa is an exciting special – Secret Origins of the Batwheels – which kicks off at 08:40 CAT on 25 March. The 32-minute prequel reveals how the Batcomputer is forced to bring the Bat-Vehicles to life, leading to the creation of the Batwheels.

And if that is not enough excitement for those that love superheroes and cars, Cartoonito brings all the Batwheels fun to the Mall of Africa from Friday, 24 March to Sunday, 26 March, and Cresta Shopping Centre from Friday, 31 March to Sunday 2 April. From racing toy cars and playing online games to colouring their new favourite heroes or making memories in front of a Batwheels photo wall - there will be plenty of fun to go around!

So, Rev up and peel out! and join the Batwheels on their action-packed adventures on Cartoonito Africa every weekend at 08:40 CAT from Saturday, 25 March.

How The Pinwheel TV Series Created Nickelodeon?

In 1970s, Cable TV was in its tenancies that in Tennessee Ohio there was an idea by Warner Cable for an experimental two way multiplatform cable television system that played a significant role in American interactive television. This experiment was called Qube Network.

Qube introduced viewers to several concepts that became central to the development of modern television. Pay-per-view programs, special interest cable television networks and interactive services.

On December 1st, 1977, a breakthrough show began airing a new show called Pinwheel show was similar to Sesame Street with live-action skits, mixed in with shorts from an abandoned animatior. The show was met with immense popularity that it's cable provider Channel 3 at the time would go as far as renaming the network to Pinwheel.

The show starred Kim played by Arline Miyazaki, Sal played by Betty Rozek, Smitty played by Dale Engle. Sal And Smitty were an elderly couple who ran a local newspaper company called The Daily Noodle. One of Smitty's obsessions was getting a photo of the elusive Emerald Bird with the intention of placing it on the front page of The Daily Noodle.

This was a long running gag that saw Smitty constantly missing off on the opportunity to capture the bird. Another character was Jake played by George James who enjoyed music and his hobby was collecting unusual sounds in small boxes.

Franci was another of the human characters and she was an artist in the show as well as a storyteller who was eventually phased out. The last of the human characters was Coco and she was a French mime who was played by C.C. Loveheart.

As for the puppet characters, there was Aurelia who was an Bohemian style character who owned by the Pinwheel house. She had red coloured hair, olive green eyes, purple lips frequently colourful headscarves and large hoop earrings as well. Her personality was friendly and bubbly but firm when needed.

Her nephews were Plus and Minus, they were twin boys who lived in the attic room. The colour scheme of the twins were very wild and the exact opposite of Aurelia. Plus had black hair and orange skin while Minus had white hair and purple skin. As for their personalities, Plus was very upbeat and enthusiastic while Minus was more thoughtful and easily discouraged.

A recurring sketch was Minus's attempt to board a spaceship Plus distracting caused him to miss take off. The twins favourite thing was Goncha Lash which was a combination of tag and, hide and seek and this game went on eternally.

Another character included Silas the Snail who was always on his way to the annual Snail gathering which he would never be able to visit because he was so slow. He barely made it out of the garden. He would also give a message to the viewers to slow down and enjoy life and saying getting there is half the fun.

There were also many others Ebenezer T. Squint was a grumpy green-skinned resident who lived in the basement storage. He would always pretend to be grouchy and mean but in reality he enjoyed being part of the house activities.

Luigi O'Brien was a produce salesman who had a small vegetable stan at the back of the Pinwheel house. All the produce he sold could talk and sing and had their own personalities. They were usually referred to as their vegetable or fruit names.

Other characters included Molly the Mole, Herbert and Lulu as well who would get occasional visits from the bird like aliens Tirka, Gorkle and Woofle from the Planet Zintar.

Most of the live-action scenes took place in or around the boarding style house called the Pinwheel house. It actually featured a Pinwheel in one of the pieces. Live actors would frequently interact with the puppet characters. They would discuss topics, learn lessons, explore numbers and all the characters lived and worked within the Pinwheel house.

Warner's Pinwheel channel was hugely popular and clearly saw a demand for this type of children's entertainment with an educational aspect so when they purchase the Warner Communications Satellite it was only natural to rebrand the channel to Nickelodeon.

With the Nickelodeon rebrand came the reformat of the Pinwheel show now into hour long episodes typically shown in 3 to 5 hour blocks. This format would eventually become Nick Jr.

Pinwheel had a total of 7 seasons and 260 episodes many of which are poorly documented and the program never saw a VHS or DVD release. The show was produced from 1987-1994 and reruns would continue until 1994.

It was still the longest running show by hours aired and episodes released combined in the history of the network. It was Nickelodeon's first show and became the rise of the brand. It's not what brought the network to its true potential.

Children's program that revolved around education were becoming saturated and Nickelodeon moved to more scripted teen focused content for a new generation of kids and Nickelodeon was not afraid to ride the wave.

How The Pinwheel TV Series Created Nickelodeon?

In 1970s, Cable TV was in its tenancies that in Tennessee Ohio there was an idea by Warner Cable for an experimental two way multiplatform cable television system that played a significant role in American interactive television. This experiment was called Qube Network.

Qube introduced viewers to several concepts that became central to the development of modern television. Pay-per-view programs, special interest cable television networks and interactive services.

On December 1st, 1977, a breakthrough show began airing a new show called Pinwheel show was similar to Sesame Street with live-action skits, mixed in with shorts from an abandoned animatior. The show was met with immense popularity that it's cable provider Channel 3 at the time would go as far as renaming the network to Pinwheel.

The show starred Kim played by Arline Miyazaki, Sal played by Betty Rozek, Smitty played by Dale Engle. Sal And Smitty were an elderly couple who ran a local newspaper company called The Daily Noodle. One of Smitty's obsessions was getting a photo of the elusive Emerald Bird with the intention of placing it on the front page of The Daily Noodle.

This was a long running gag that saw Smitty constantly missing off on the opportunity to capture the bird. Another character was Jake played by George James who enjoyed music and his hobby was collecting unusual sounds in small boxes.

Franci was another of the human characters and she was an artist in the show as well as a storyteller who was eventually phased out. The last of the human characters was Coco and she was a French mime who was played by C.C. Loveheart.

As for the puppet characters, there was Aurelia who was an Bohemian style character who owned by the Pinwheel house. She had red coloured hair, olive green eyes, purple lips frequently colourful headscarves and large hoop earrings as well. Her personality was friendly and bubbly but firm when needed.

Her nephews were Plus and Minus, they were twin boys who lived in the attic room. The colour scheme of the twins were very wild and the exact opposite of Aurelia. Plus had black hair and orange skin while Minus had white hair and purple skin. As for their personalities, Plus was very upbeat and enthusiastic while Minus was more thoughtful and easily discouraged.

A recurring sketch was Minus's attempt to board a spaceship Plus distracting caused him to miss take off. The twins favourite thing was Goncha Lash which was a combination of tag and, hide and seek and this game went on eternally.

Another character included Silas the Snail who was always on his way to the annual Snail gathering which he would never be able to visit because he was so slow. He barely made it out of the garden. He would also give a message to the viewers to slow down and enjoy life and saying getting there is half the fun.

There were also many others Ebenezer T. Squint was a grumpy green-skinned resident who lived in the basement storage. He would always pretend to be grouchy and mean but in reality he enjoyed being part of the house activities.

Luigi O'Brien was a produce salesman who had a small vegetable stan at the back of the Pinwheel house. All the produce he sold could talk and sing and had their own personalities. They were usually referred to as their vegetable or fruit names.

Other characters included Molly the Mole, Herbert and Lulu as well who would get occasional visits from the bird like aliens Tirka, Gorkle and Woofle from the Planet Zintar.

Most of the live-action scenes took place in or around the boarding style house called the Pinwheel house. It actually featured a Pinwheel in one of the pieces. Live actors would frequently interact with the puppet characters. They would discuss topics, learn lessons, explore numbers and all the characters lived and worked within the Pinwheel house.

Warner's Pinwheel channel was hugely popular and clearly saw a demand for this type of children's entertainment with an educational aspect so when they purchase the Warner Communications Satellite it was only natural to rebrand the channel to Nickelodeon.

With the Nickelodeon rebrand came the reformat of the Pinwheel show now into hour long episodes typically shown in 3 to 5 hour blocks. This format would eventually become Nick Jr.

Pinwheel had a total of 7 seasons and 260 episodes many of which are poorly documented and the program never saw a VHS or DVD release. The show was produced from 1987-1994 and reruns would continue until 1994.

It was still the longest running show by hours aired and episodes released combined in the history of the network. It was Nickelodeon's first show and became the rise of the brand. It's not what brought the network to its true potential.

Children's program that revolved around education were becoming saturated and Nickelodeon moved to more scripted teen focused content for a new generation of kids and Nickelodeon was not afraid to ride the wave.

Recap To The Past Decade: Ben 10 Has Been Missing In Action For Almost Two Years

Ben 10 has been missing on Cartoon Network for nearly two years and on April 11th of this year will mark the two year conclusion of Ben 10 (2016). It's kind of surprising that the network has yet to announce the next instalment to the franchise.

Duncan one of the creators of Ben 10 apart of Man Of Action had mentioned on Twitter throughout 2021 that they were working on something for the future of Ben 10 and it was going to be announced by the end of that year.

Here we are in March 2023 and we still got no confirmation about Ben 10 and honestly this has been the longest period of time since we got any word on the franchise. For those who weren't aware the previous iterations took a few weeks with Omniverse 6 months.

After Omniverse ended, there was a lot of uncertainty about the franchise some areas were proposing that the franchise would continue on with an original series Ben 10,000 or a possible reboot which is what we ended up getting few months after Omniverse.

We've never been in a scenario where we're creeping in on a 2 year mark of not knowing what's going on with Ben 10. Considering Warner Bros. Discovery had made cutbacks with content some were unannounced it's possible the next instalment was cancelled.

Warner Bros. Discovery appointed Tom and at the time he had a different vision for Cartoon Network as seen last year we got preschool content onto the channel through Cartoonito which has experienced immense success if you're talking HBO Max and global.

Now that you have this merger and new people tagging along now you have Michael being the president of the network and they probably revisited this project and thought we need to pivot for something better hence Velma and We Baby Bears.

Considering how popular Ben 10 is I mean just like The Powerpuff Girls it is one of Cartoon Network's biggest franchises. It's possible they're probably working on another project probably not from not what was proposed at the time Tom was around.

Ben 10 Alien Force was one of the top 10 animated series on HBO Max last year which goes to show how huge it is globally and that people are still hungry for more Ben 10 probably not Omniverse hungry but it was good in its own way and that's what counts.

From what this entails, people want a more darker version which was basically Alien Force and Ultimate Alien and not that cheesy reboot. I mean if the reboot did get much hype then we wouldn't be waiting almost two years for a follow-up to be announced.

Some people wanted a continuation for the original while others wanted a follow up to Omniverse but honestly they might do something different probably set it within another paradox. But chances are we'll be seeing 10 year old Ben for a while longer.

They've been acknowledging their older shows for sometime now that Craig McCracken is working on a reboot to Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and a second reboot to The Powerpuff Girls. We even got a revival to Total Drama launching in the future.

Honestly, it feels like Cartoon Network is being nostalgic by bringing back these old shows and putting new spins on them. I'm sure people would want the same for Ben 10 as 2+ years is a bit too much for one of your longest running shows so hopefully we get something.

Credits: DC Network

Boomerang Was Never Meant To Be A Preschool Channel

Boomerang is family oriented channel oriented channel by Warner Bros. Discovery that serves as the home to characters such as Tom And Jerry, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo. It is also home to other content such as Mr. Bean, Masha And The Bear and Zig & Sharko.

Prior to the latter productions, Boomerang was kind of a pushover to Cartoon Network airing a lot of old productions from the network alongside Hanna-Barbera including The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Wacky Races, Tiny Toons Adventures and Sheep In The Big City.

This part of the brand failed to reach the expectations set by Warner Bros. Discovery hence the 2015 rebrand and addition of shows on like Kingdom Force, Owl & Co, Zig & Sharko, Inspector Gadget and My Knight & Me.

Overtime, this previous format was revived in other regions as Boing and found a way to modernize their offering on top of bring the nostalgic feel with shows like All Hail King Julien and Turbo FAST colliding with originals like Johnny Bravo and Adventure Time.

Later in the month, Boomerang is expected to exit a lot of European territories in favour of Cartoonito. I'd like to see this as a bad thing but to be honest it's probably better if another brand assumed it's position as opposed to making a mockery of the name.

Boomerang was and will always be recognised to a generation of kids as the home of Tom And Jerry, Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo and also the home to childhood nostalgia which had a much longer history than the format currently viewed in Europe.

But if I had to be honest, I'd love to see them revive it in a similar position as Toonami - repeats. Catering to those original aspects while modernizing the portfolio for their mascots. It's journey may be coming to end but I feel there's still so much left for the channel.

I know they're plenty of people not fond of Cartoonito retaining every aspect of Boomerang. But Cartoon Network just seems a bit edgy for shows like Tom And Jerry and after looking at the lineup I feel this feed will recieve a lot of praise from consumers.