Recap To The Week: Warner Bros. Discovery Adds Unicorn Warriors Eternal And My Adventures With Superman From Adult Swim To Cartoon Network In Latin America And Canada

Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery write off several productions such as Little Ellen and Scoob: Holiday Haunt! while remaining content such as My Adventures With Superman and Unicorn Warriors Eternal's future remained quo as these series were meant to launched much earlier.

During the year, it was learnt by Warner Bros. Discovery that the latter My Adventures With Superman and Unicorn Warriors Eternal would move to Adult Swim. Considering how Cartoon Network has evolved over the years this news doesn't come as a shocker.

Following the release of these series, Warner Bros. Discovery made this content accessible to Cartoon Network in Latin America and Canada. And to expand further on my previous statement, Cartoon Network has scooped up shows like We Baby Bears and Lego Monkie Kid.

Content I wouldn't say is geared toward a mature audience I mean for a while now some consumers would say Cartoon Network has gone soft but I would say the brand is adapting to the current climate and this differs in various territories so it seems.

In the Phillipines, Cartoon Network was seen airing The Simpsons at one point and this is a brand that brought on shows like Samurai Jack which if you look at it will probably be deemed inappropriate for children's TV so henceforth we look at another brand, Adult Swim.

Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled plans to invest more time on the brand as consumers in select territories that view Cartoon Network are adults which I'm assuming is the case for Latin America and Canada and the fact that restrictions are differ in those regions.

In South Africa, I'm not expecting these shows to be made available on Cartoon Network particularly for those restrictions if anything the latter is currently streaming on Showmax seeing as they licence content from HBO, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.

Development Alert: Jodha & Akbar To Make It's Freemium Debut On Zee One

Jodha, a fiery Rajput princess is forced to marry the hard-hearted Mughal emperor Akbar when he conquers her father’s kingdom. Her reluctant marriage makes her one of many wives in a palace filled with many enemies, but her loathing melts away when she sees that she might just be the one to transform her husband from being a vicious ruler into a compassionate one. 

It is a historical love story that was produced by Ekta Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms for Zee TV. It starred Rajat Tokas and Paridhi Sharma in leading roles, it was a successful show with praises for its cast performances.

Alongside Zee TV, the drama was made available on Zee World and is one of the few shows to be made available in local languages. 

During its run, Jodha & Akbar has accumulated several achievements including Best Historical/Mythological Show, Best Actor in Negative Role, BIG Star Most Entertaining TV Show (Fiction), BIG Star Most Entertaining TV Actor and Best Director.

Jodha & Akbar is set to rollout on Zee One in the coming months.

New Series Alert: Goodbye, My Princess Coming Soon To eExtra

Goodbye My Princess follows a naive, petulant little princess with an unusual amount of independence, and her perfect life gets turned completely upside-down and her innocence, so to speak, ripped away from her.

Having received overwhelming love and admiration as the 9th Princess, Xiao Feng is forced to leave the life that she has known in order to become the Crown Princess. Her husband, the black-bellied Crown Prince, holds the highest position, second only to one, the Emperor. However, the Eastern Palace is the most dangerous place to be.

Goodbye, My Princess is a 2019 Chinese drama series that was broadcast on the Asian streaming service, Youku and was said to come with a 250 million yuan budget (R528 million). It starred Chen Xingxu, Peng Xiaoran, and Shawn Wei in leading roles.

Based on the novel of the same name, the drama has earned positive reviews since its premiere, due to the outstanding performance of the cast, beautiful costumes and fitting props; as well as high-quality cinematography. It walked away with numerous achievements majority were directed at the series and Peng Xiaoran who served as one of the leading actresses.

Goodbye My Princess airs weekdays at 17:30 from 20 July on eExtra replacing Battle Through The Heavens.

Recap To The Week: AMC Networks International Launches New Content Group Across UK & EMEA

AMC Networks International UK (AMCNI0UK) has forged a new Content Group across the UK and EMEA and promoted Sam Rowden to run it.

Rowden, who currently oversees the company’s programing strategy for the CBS channel portfolio, becomes VP of the Content Group.

She will oversee linear and content strategies across the UK and EMEA with oversight of joint venture channels CBS Justice, CBS Europa, CBS Reality, RealityXtra, Legend, HorrorXtra as well as channel brands AMC and SundanceTV.

The weighty new remit also includes AMCNI-UK’s AVoD and FAST portfolio consisting of the AVoD player CBS Catchup Channels UK and FAST channel True Crime from CBS Reality that has recently launched with Amazon Freevee and Rakuten TV, and which is also available via ITVX. Additionally, Rowden is now also responsible for content acquisition and content partnerships including the relationship with Paramount Global for both the UK and EMEA joint ventures as well as content management including compliance.

“Sam has been the driving force behind the continued success of AMCNI-UK’s joint ventures with Paramount Global, both in the UK and in EMEA, including the development of our highly successful true crime originals effort since the beginning,” said Kevin Dickie, EVP and MD for AMNCI UK.

“With her leadership skills and expertise developing brands that appeal to a wide range of audiences, she is perfectly placed to assume this key role as we further integrate our linear and streaming efforts.”

Rowden joined AMCNI around 15 years ago.

Trepanation Of The Skull And You: Lost Pilot For The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy Has Surfaced The Net

In 1995, while Maxwell Atoms (née Adam Burton) was still in college, he created a short animated film titled Billy and Mandy in Trepanation of the Skull and You. This short would go on to form the basis of Atoms' hit Cartoon Network show The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. The character designs differ quite a bit from the end result. In the original pilot, Billy appears lankier and with a smaller nose than his final design while Mandy has pigtails, a nose (which she lacks in the series), and a plain, single-color dress.

In the short, Billy learns about trepanation, a process in which a hole is drilled into the skull to relieve internal pressure, after seeing that Mandy (who incorrectly describes the process as a way to unlock the brain's full potential) has already gotten "trepanned"; Billy then has Mandy trepanate him, which results in Billy losing copious amounts of blood before passing out. Atoms described it as being "completely inappropriate for Cartoon Network," but felt that the characters were too fun to use only once, which led to the development of the series. In need of a straight-man character, it was eventually decided to add the Grim Reaper as the third protagonist.

For the longest period of time, it was believed that the short utilized the visual style of a piece of concept art for an unrelated and unmade pilot for the show (shown below); the actual short is stylized after monochrome films of the 1920s and 1930s, and featured only Billy and Mandy, the latter of whom appears significantly different from the below image. Atoms would later clarify the issue on his official YouTube upload of the short.

In Atoms' 2013 RebelTaxi interview with Pan-Pizza (of thatfellowinthecoat.com and partner of Channel Frederator), he mentioned the short in some detail, revealing that he had it stored away on film, noting that he should've had it digitally transferred "at some point."

Rediscovery

On RebelTaxis's podcast on March 15th, 2016, it was announced Maxwell Atoms recently found the old short and would display it at the TROMAnimation festival in New York.

A day after the short premiered at the TROMAnimation Film Festival, Maxwell Atoms uploaded the short to his YouTube channel in higher quality; there is noticeable deterioration of the film, though it is still in a watchable state. Atoms has clarified that he is unable to reshoot the short and synch it with its audio track, as he was forced to throw out his assets for the short to conserve space when he was living in a studio apartment.