Tuesday, June 16, 2020

Interview with Josh Dela Cruz from 'Blue's Clues & You!' | Lindalee Rose

Blues Clues and You - Josh Dela Cruz Interview with Juliet Brooke - Nick Jr - Nickelodeon - DVD | Lindalee Rose


"7 1/2 year old Junior Reporter; Juliet Brooke chats with Josh Dela Cruz, the live-action host of 'Blues Clues and You', the latest version of Nickelodeon’s hit interactive preschool series full of clues, puzzles, adventures and of course, everyone's beloved puppy, Blue. Blue’s Clues & You! will skidoo onto DVD for the first time on June 2nd, 2020, featuring four exciting episodes from the show’s debut season. #bluesclues #bluescluesandyou #TuesdayBluesDay"

Blue's Clues & You - Vol. 1 is available on DVD today!: http://nickalive.blogspot.com/2020/05/nickelodeon-announces-blues-clues-you.html

Kids can watch their favorite Nick Jr. shows weekdays on Nickelodeon and all week long on the Nick Jr. channel: http://nickjr.com/tvschedule/

Subscribe to the official Blue’s Clues & You! YouTube channel! Subscribe today at https://at.nick.com/BCYSubscribe!

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More Nick: Nickelodeon Launches #KidsTogether--A Global Prosocial Initiative to Help Kids and Families Stay Informed and Engaged With Activities; Noggin to be Offered Free to Kids in Need in Partnership with National Head Start Association and First Book
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From Self-Funding ‘Wild ‘N Out’ to Betting on ‘Masked Singer,’ Nickelodeon Alum Nick Cannon’s Big Risks Pay Off

Nick Cannon knew exactly where he wanted to be.

On Feb. 19, the multi-hyphenate comedian, TV and radio host, rapper, producer, entrepreneur and activist gathered with a small group of Debmar-Mercury executives in New York to discuss plans for the daytime syndicated talk show that Cannon will launch in September with the Lionsgate-owned distributor.


Cannon, who has a degree in criminology from Howard University, speaks in Times Square on June 7, demanding an end to police brutality. JASON SZENES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The setting was a conference room at Lionsgate’s offices on Fifth Avenue near Times Square. But the focus of the nearly two-hour meeting centered largely on a location about 60 blocks north at an iconic intersection in Harlem: 106th Street and Park Avenue.

“Harlem feels so right,” Cannon told the roomful of executives that included Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein, who sat at opposite ends of a long rectangular table. Cannon pressed the executives to commit to having Nick Cannon originate from the studio that was once home to BET’s long-running hip-hop variety show 106 & Park.


Ryan Pfluger for Variety

Marcus and others explained that it would be hard to find enough office space at that location to house the dozens of staffers needed to produce a daily one-hour talk show with the ambitious mix of music, comedy, sketches and games that Cannon envisions. Another executive noted that it could be a challenge to get some celebrity guests to head to Harlem while they’re trying to run the circuit of media stops in midtown. Even filling a studio audience every day might be tough in an area that doesn’t have the same level of tourist traffic as 30 Rock and environs.

“Put a big picture of me out there — they’ll come,” Cannon said with a broad smile that took the edge off the undoubtedly true statement. He spun around his swivel chair and stretched his legs, showing off gold lamé sneakers that offset his black sweatpants and black hoodie emblazoned with “Save Black Boys,” with a peace sign in place of the “o.”

The conversation turned from the high cost of setting up shop in Harlem to marketing and brand-integration opportunities. Cannon reeled off idea after idea for monetizing virtually every minute of the talk show. The Debmar-Mercury team was impressed with and energized by Cannon’s command of product-placement deals, sponsorship plays and social media promotion. After getting a big laugh with a joke about the prospects for monetizing his daily shower, the star had a message for the marketing executive sitting next to him.

“Sounds like you gotta get to work,” he said, flashing another thousand-watt smile. “I want to be in Harlem.”

***

Cannon, 39, has been in show business since he was a scrappy teenager, hustling rides from his home in San Diego to Los Angeles for open mic nights at The Comedy Store and the Improv.

Today, he’s all over the media dial, hosting Fox’s top-rated The Masked Singer and a daily five-hour syndicated radio program, which he plans to continue even after Nick Cannon premieres — from its refurbished studio at 106th and Park.

What’s more, there’s talk of Masked Singer spinoffs as Fox looks to leverage its most successful entertainment property. Cannon’s NCredible Entertainment banner set up an overall deal with the TV side of Fox in 2018, when the network was once again flirting with the idea of trying a late-night show, possibly with Cannon as host.

Fox pitched Cannon several TV concepts for hosting and producing. Nothing resonated until the bizarre Korean TV format, involving celebrities performing in secret under elaborate costumes, caught his fancy.

“I thought that this idea is so crazy, it’s either going to be a huge failure or a huge hit,” Cannon said of Masked Singer to Variety. “Luckily for me, it was the latter. But that’s confirmation of the type of creator and entertainer that I am. I’ve always been the sleeper-hit guy.”


Ryan Pfluger for Variety

Cannon’s NCredible Entertainment banner has a host of TV, film and digital projects in the pipeline, for Fox and other partners. He’s also active in music as an artist, producer and talent manager, with an NCredible label imprint at Republic Records. In his spare time, he’s squeezed in four years as the most famous undergraduate at Howard University: Last month, he earned a degree in criminology, with a minor in African studies.

At a moment of reckoning for the nation over racial injustice and equality, Cannon is quick to note how far he has come on the strength of hard work and talent. He grew up in a family of modest means. As a kid, he split his time living with his mother and paternal grandmother in San Diego and with his father, a minister and businessman, in Charlotte, N.C.

“If you’d told that kid in the projects that one day I’d get to choose whether I do my talk show in Harlem or Los Angeles, he’d be like, ‘Get the f— out of here,’” Cannon says.

Friends and associates say Cannon was born with an entrepreneur’s instincts.

“The level of focus and drive that he had then was pretty much the same that you see now,” says Saturday Night Live trouper Kenan Thompson. He helped Cannon get his foot in Hollywood’s door as a warmup comic on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy Kenan & Kel. “I’m not surprised that he’s everywhere now. I go to him now for advice. He’s a lot further down the road than I am in terms of being a producer.”

The warmup gig made Cannon, at 16, his family’s breadwinner. And he soon worked his way up to a writing job on the show. From there, he was quickly recruited as a cast member of another Nickelodeon sketch comedy series, All That. At 21, he gambled and wrote checks for more than $100,000 to finance the pilot for his MTV sketch comedy-variety franchise Wild ’N Out. The show is now in its 15th season and has spawned a hugely lucrative live tour. Cannon’s decision to pay for his own pilot paid massive dividends in 2012 when MTV bought the property — leaving its creator with a stake in revenue from touring and merchandising.

“Nick is a creative genius. He has built so many businesses and he is a good human,” says Chris McCarthy, president of Entertainment and Youth Brands for ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks.

At 26, Cannon was named chairman of Nickelodeon’s TeenNick cable channel. To outsiders, it seemed like a figurehead appointment for PR value. By that time, Cannon was closely associated with the Nickelodeon universe after having had his own comedy series, The Nick Cannon Show, for two seasons and being a frequent presence as a host and guest star.

To Viacom insiders, Cannon was quickly seen as a fellow executive who came well-prepared to staff meetings, with spreadsheets, analyses, budget proposals and a surfeit of ideas for content and marketing.

“He did an incredible amount with the resources we gave them,” says Cyma Zarghami, who headed Nickelodeon from 2006-18. “He brought people together; he moved into a corner office and shot content for the channel in and around his office. He did incredible work to set up a brand identity for TeenNick.”

Cannon considers the 10 years he spent as a Viacom executive akin to earning his MBA in media. The more he learned about the way things worked behind the scenes, the better and bolder the ideas he pursued in his own career. He still sends Zarghami flowers every year on her birthday.

“Everybody thought that was an on-camera thing. I went in with my PowerPoint and my statistics and everything, and I’d say, ‘This is how we grow this business.’ Luckily, some people there were kind enough to take a chance on me,” he says.

In 2009, he consolidated a number of disparate efforts under the broad umbrella of NCredible Entertainment. Today the company has about 25 employees and operations that span TV, film, digital, live events and merchandising. The experience at Viacom also made it clear to him that he never again wanted to be “just a piece of talent” on a project.

His determination at times has met with roadblocks. As an African American and as a person known primarily as talent, he often faced a double bias in his efforts to be taken seriously as a businessman.


Ryan Pfluger for Variety

“It’s a hindrance being a man of color as much as it is being talent,” Cannon says. “There’s a perception of how talent should be treated [by employers] — the secrets you have to keep from them and how you have to handle them with kid gloves. That’s not how I operate. You don’t have to put gloves on with me. Give it to me straight.”

Despite San Diego’s proximity to Hollywood, Cannon’s first education in television came when he was a preteen working with his father on religious broadcasts via public access cable in North Carolina. To have a show on the local cable system, participants had to go through a workshop on TV production. The nuts and bolts of production lessons he learned at the age of 11 still serve him well.

“My reward from my dad was like, ‘Yo, if there’s any hours left over, do whatever you want to do,’” Cannon recalls. “So I would create and do rap shows and comedy shows.”

Cannon’s background as a by-the-bootstraps success story is a big part of his carefully tended image as a regular guy — a person who hangs out with celebrities but looks at his adventures through the prism of the audience. Not even his 2008-16 marriage to pop superstar Mariah Carey could change his attitude about where he lands on the celebrity scale.

“I’m not famous. I’ve been around real famous people. My wife was famous,” Cannon says. “People don’t think of me as famous. I want to be the guy that everybody wants to have a drink with and welcome to their house. I want to be that guy as opposed to the one that everybody’s in awe of. It’s an energy thing that I see as a superpower.”

Inspiration for building his NCredible business has come from role models such as Will Smith and Oprah Winfrey, as well as Dick Clark, Merv Griffin and Ryan Seacrest. As fast as he is on his feet on camera, his true love is the writing process and birthing ideas. “I never really wanted to be a superstar entertainer. I get my joy out of being the executive producer or the creator,” Cannon says.

In matters of spirituality, the son of a North Carolina preacher has a singular sense of faith that is deep but different from the traditional approach practiced by his father’s nondenominational congregation.

“I live my faith,” he says. “I like speaking things into existence. I mean, I wanted to marry Mariah Carey since I was 12 years old.”

***

Long before the death of George Floyd ignited the latest wave of outrage at police brutality toward people of color, Cannon had been a vocal advocate for criminal justice reform. His interest in racial injustice led him to enroll in Howard University in 2016. He managed to spend about one day a week on the school’s Washington, D.C., campus and — always ahead of the times — otherwise worked remotely. He plans to stay at Howard to pursue his master’s degree in psychology and a doctorate in divinity and theology. Part of his curriculum at Howard has included spending time teaching and working with inmates in D.C.-area jails.

In late May, Cannon traveled to Minneapolis to add his voice to the protests calling for justice for Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after he was restrained by a police officer with a knee on his windpipe for nearly 9 minutes. The global outrage sparked by Floyd’s brutal death put the spotlight on issues that Cannon has tackled as an artist and as a scholar.

“I want us to focus on our humanity and dismantling racist systems that we don’t need, that perpetuate crimes of inequality and oppress communities of color all over our country,” he says. “We have to dismantle all of those systems that this country was built on.

“That’s why so many people get it wrong when it comes to racism. People think, ‘Oh no, I’m not a racist.’ But if you support this system, you support racism. If you don’t step up and say this system has been wrong for years — from the war on drugs to the criminalization of Black men in general to the school-to-prison pipeline to the prison-industrial complex. It’s a form of modern-day slavery.”


Ryan Pfluger for Variety

Cannon’s decision to pursue higher education was also driven by his three children. He has 9-year-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan, with Carey and a 3-year-old son, Golden, with actor Brittany Bell.

“I wanted to be that example to my kids,” he says. “I would find myself doing youth advocacy and telling kids to get an education, but I never completed mine.” He finished his undergraduate degree in four years despite a bad flare-up of lupus, the autoimmune disorder Cannon was diagnosed with in 2012, during his freshman year.

Cannon takes pride in the accomplishment. “In 2016, a lot of people thought, ‘Oh, that’s a gimmick; he’s getting an honorary doctorate thing,’” he says. “The same way people thought about my job at Viacom.”

***

In 1996, talent manager Michael Goldman was representing Kenan Thompson. Goldman couldn’t help noticing a lanky teenager performing in Hollywood comedy clubs before he was old enough to legally be in the venues.

“They would keep me in the kitchen until they called my name,” Cannon says.

In Goldman’s eyes, Cannon was “still wet clay.” But he was also “crazy ambitious and crazy charming.” The two have been business partners ever since.

Thompson and Goldman eventually brought Cannon to the Nickelodeon on Sunset studio in Hollywood to serve as a warmup comic for Kenan & Kel and others. Cannon took to the job immediately and soon was doing warmup work for ABC, WB Network and other outlets as well as Nickelodeon.

“I was starting to be able to pay my mom’s rent based off of coming up (to L.A.) once a week. It kind of kicked off from there,” Cannon says.

He came to the attention of Will Smith not long after Smith launched his Overbrook Entertainment venture in 1998. Cannon had won third prize in a stand-up comedy festival in the Bay Area when suddenly he was contacted by industry veteran David Tochterman, who was running TV for Overbrook.

“He was really young and really raw, and you couldn’t look at him and not say he’s going to be a star,” Tochterman says of Cannon. “You can’t acquire that skill.”

Cannon showed his spunk in his first formal meeting with Smith, who was red-hot at the turnstiles at the time. Unbeknownst to his manager, Cannon took the first opportunity to hand the A-lister his spec pilot script for Loose Cannon, a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air-esque comedy starring Cannon as a military school student.

“I wasn’t focused on anything but the biggest star in the world opening and closing his mouth,” Goldman says. “Nick reaches into his backpack and hands him a script. I’m watching this like my life is flashing before my eyes. To show that kind of self-confidence at that age was mind-blowing.”

Overbrook landed a six-episode commitment for Loose Cannon from WB Network. The pilot had bona fide buzz. What’s more, Smith took his pilot star under his wing. But the show never got a pickup because by that time the network was moving away from the largely Black-cast comedies that had helped launch the network and toward Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson’s Creek.

Cannon was devastated. For one thing, he’d ignored Smith’s advice not to buy a Range Rover after he got the series-deal advance. “He told me, ‘I was a teenager, and I spent all my money — don’t do it.’ But I did it anyway,” Cannon cackles.

In the early 2000s, Cannon had a flurry of movie roles — 2002’s Drumline, 2003’s Love Don’t Cost a Thing and 2005’s Underclassmen. None of the titles was a big hit, but he definitely had traction in features. So Goldman was taken aback when his client came to him with the idea for investing his own money in Wild ’N Out (which Cannon describes as “Whose Line Is It Anyway? for the hip-hop community”).

“I was not in favor of doing an MTV comedy show when he was getting attention from directors in Hollywood,” Goldman says. “I was like, ‘We’re happening in movies now.’ But that’s what he was passionate about.”

Cannon isn’t shy about reminding Goldman that Wild ’N Out has since generated “hundreds of millions of dollars” and served as a launching pad for such comedy stars as Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Taran Killam (Moody's Point, The Amanda Show) and Katt Williams.

“He is probably the hardest working and most talent and yet most underrated creative and business person in the industry,” says ViacomCBS’ McCarthy, who worked on the launch of Wild ‘N Out for MTV2 in 2005, and he shepherded the show back to MTV’s air in 2013. When the idea to launch a Wild ‘N Out branded tour blending music and comedy, McCarthy thought it would be impressive if they sold hundreds of tickets. It wound up becoming hundreds of thousands of tickets

“He knew there was an audience hungry for multi-cultural comedy,” McCarthy says. “When you see him go from things like hosting Masked Singer to being the visionary behind Wild ‘N Out to doing his radio show to protesting in the street — he has a hyphenated life, and it’s all real. He really is behind everything he does.”

The star’s desire to work in multiple disciplines once surprised those who knew him early in his career. But not anymore.

“I used to think that if Nick decided to stick to one thing — whether it be acting, stand-up or music — that he would become one of the biggest stars in that one area,” says Zarghami, who is now head of the production and consulting business MiMO. “But he wanted to do everything and do it his way.”

As his 40th birthday approaches in October, Cannon is focused on big goals both in front of and behind the camera. The Nick Cannon talk show — which for now is on track for a September debut, despite lockdown conditions in New York due to the coronavirus — is designed to serve as a “central hub” for all of his other entertainment activities in the comedy, music and digital realms.

On the business side, Cannon and Goldman are determined to build up NCredible’s activity as a production entity and scout new business ventures, such as the Cannon-branded line of speakers and headphones launched in partnership with RadioShack in 2016. Per Goldman, the gear has generated $80 million in retail sales to date.

And Cannon vows to put his criminology degree to good use by working in prisons and in other marginalized communities as he pursues advanced degrees. “This is a transition period for me,” he says. “This feels like my first opportunity to step into manhood.”

The kid who found his calling telling jokes on public access TV sees no boundaries for the next phase of his multifaceted career.

“Everyone from Dick Clark to Oprah Winfrey to Merv Griffin to Bob Hope — those people were not only great hosts and entertainers, they really had an effect on culture,” Cannon says. “I have always wanted to be the best entertainer I could possibly be. I love Eddie Murphy, I love The Fresh Prince, I love Ice Cube. I love Michael Jackson. I want to do what they do. No one told me I could only ever do one thing, so I’m like, ‘I’ma do it all.’”

More Nick: Nickelodeon Upfront 2020 Roundup!
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Classic Rugrats Comic Strip for Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | NickRewind

Classic Rugrats Comic Strip for Tuesday, June 16, 2020 | NickRewind


Rugrats, provided to Creators Syndicate by Nickelodeon, based off the popular animated television series has been created for children and family's to laugh and enjoy together.

Follow these comics and their take on real episodes of the show and their own spin on hilarious adventures.

Read more Rugrats comic strips!: https://www.creators.com/features/rugrats

More Nick: Nickelodeon and Paramount to Bring 'Rugrats' Back for the Next Generation of Kids!
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SpongeBob Fans Celebrate Nickelodeon’s Pride Month Post on Social Media

SpongeBob SquarePants fans are loving Nickelodeon’s latest Pride Month post on social media. The network put up a tweet on Saturday featuring three characters from the Nickelodeon roster in support of LGBTQ+ fans. SpongeBob, Schwoz Schwartz from Henry Danger, and Korra from Avatar: The Legend of Korra. Now, Korra ended her series in a canon relationship with a woman, which was huge for animation fans looking for representation on screen. SpongeBob has often been argued to have been coded as gay for most of the show’s long run - even though the creator of the beloved series, Stephen Hillenberg confirmed to The Associated Press before his death that SpongeBob, along with his BFF Patrick are actually an asexual: "We never intended them to be gay. I consider them to be almost asexual. We're just trying to be funny and this has got nothing to do with the show."


He added that there are “more important issues to worry about. I really don’t pay much attention to this.”

When Hillenburg made this claim, he was under intense scrutiny from anti-LGBTQ+ lobbying groups who believed that SpongeBob in some way promoted homosexuality to children, so fans believe that Hillenburg may have called SpongeBob asexual just to avoid this controversy. In point of fact, sea sponges do reproduce asexually.

HuffPost asked the voice of SpongeBob, Tom Kenny, in 2015 about possible significant others in the little sponge’s future. He was doubtful, saying the characters were even “pre-sexual”:

"I think our take on SpongeBob and Patrick is that they’re pre-sexual characters. Like, they’re too young and naïve to have any feelings of that type, and even if they do have stirrings they don’t know how to act on them ... I guess the only way SpongeBob could maybe have a girlfriend is if he was trying to imitate, if it was imitative behavior. Like, “Wow, apparently having a girlfriend is what you’re supposed to do, I’ll go get one.” But that’s not where his mind is at. [In SpongBob’s voice] “He’s married to his job. Like Captain Kirk is married to the Enterprise. I’m married to the Krusty Krab.”

Unless Nickelodeon is going back on series creator Hillenburg’s statements, SpongeBob isn’t gay. He’s asexual, or even — in Kenny’s words — pre-sexual.

SpongeBob has become a sort of mascot for the LGBTQ+ community in its 20+ years its been on-air.

Nickelodeon’s post doesn't necessary automatically mean that SpongeBob is gay, but, being asexual, is part of the LGBTQ+ community, which is vast and diverse. However, there is still debate over whether asexuality is part of the LGBTQ+ umbrella.

Fans are taking Nickelodeon's post and the fact that the replies to the tweet are turned off as a sign that SpongeBob is gay. There’s a lot of vindication on the web right now as people revisit the old questions about certain scenes in a new light. And while Nickelodeon’s post had some perhaps erroneously spreading the word that SpongeBob was “confirmed” to be gay, others were celebrating him as the asexual icon he already is:




Henry Danger actor Michael D. Cohen plays Scwartz on the Nickelodeon show. He also gave an interview to Time last year where he revealed that he had transitioned 20 years ago. Everything going on in the world at the time motivated the decision to share his story.

"I was misgendered at birth. I identify as male, and I am proud that I have had a transgender experience — a transgender journey… In my experience, I was born male,” Cohen explained. “What my body said about it was irrelevant. No matter how hard I tried, it was not up for negotiation. Believe me, it would have been so convenient if I was actually a woman.”

“This crazy backlash and oppression of rights is happening right in front of me,” he added. “I can’t stay silent. The level of — let’s be polite — misunderstanding around trans issues is so profound and so destructive. When you disempower one population, you disempower everybody… These are my people. I belong to this group.”

“People don’t understand. They think this has to do with sexuality and it doesn’t. They think this has to do with pushing an agenda on kids and it doesn’t,” he reflected. “What it does is send a message to kids that whoever they are, however they identify, that’s celebrated and valued and okay.

Today, fans of SpongeBob are feeling valued and genuinely happy because of this post. It remains to be seen what Nickelodeon will say when someone inevitably asks about it. There will be detractors, but that isn’t going to stop the Internet from having a little bit of fun along the way.

For the most part, the convseration about SpongeBob and Nickelodeon's Pride tweet was all in good fun. Many fans argued that this was not a controversial revelation, as SpongeBob has always played it fast and loose with gender norms and stereotypes. In one episode, he even wore dresses and took on a maternal role while he and Patrick Star raised a baby clam together.

Whatever SpongeBob's preferences are, fans made it clear that they love him regardless on Saturday, and the LGBTQ+ community was happy to count him among them. Here's a look at how Twitter responded to Nickelodeon's surprising Pride tweet.

Do you love SpongeBob SquarePants? Are you excited for the next movie, Sponge On The Run? Let me know in the comments! Check out the reactions below:

The clips are flying


Wild times


Calling him an icon


The stans are hype


Just logging on


A big question


The trending topic is bubbling


This quote is circulating a lot too


Well okay then


Some Observations


Defying Stereotypes


Romance


Ace Pride


More Reactions:


Update (6/16) - Russian voice actor Иван Агапов (Ivan Agapov), who voices Squidward Tentacles, Patchy, Barnacle Boy, Squilliam Fancyson and various male characters in the Russian dub of SpongeBob SquarePants, has commented on the rumors that SpongeBob is gay. According to Agapov, when working on the dubbing of the cartoon, he did not get the feeling that SpongeBob was gay.

Watch SpongeBob SquarePants on Nickelodeon!

Listen to The SpongeBob Musical here!: https://spongebobmusical.blogspot.com

SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off Serves Up Fun Under the Sea as it Launches on Mobile Platforms Worldwide! http://nickalive.blogspot.com/2020/05/spongebob-krusty-cook-off-serves-up-fun.html

CALLING ALL GOOFY GOOBERS! (ROCK!) Are ya ready for a deep dive into the world of SpongeBob SquarePants? The SpongeBob YouTube channel is THE PLACE for all fan-favorite SpongeBob moments! We’re serving up everything from legendary scenes to remixes of classic songs to deep dives into Bikini Bottom lore. Be sure to check back every week for Music Mondays, Wumbo Wednesdays, and Flashback Fridays! Subscribe now at https://www.youtube.com/SpongeBobOfficial!

Shop SpongeBob!: https://www.spongebobshop.com - SpongeBob face masks now available, with ALL proceeds going to charity!

From CBR:

Nickelodeon Celebrates Pride Month With Legend of Korra and SpongeBob

Nickelodeon celebrated Pride Month with some of the network's LGBTQ+ characters and allies.

Happy Pride Month from Nickelodeon!

The children's TV network tweeted out three Pride Month-themed posters (from designer Ramzy Masri) of some of its most famous LGBTQ+ characters and allies. "Celebrating Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month," the network tweeted along with posters of Korra from The Legend of Korra, SpongeBob and Michael D. Cohen from Henry Danger.

Korra identifies as bisexual, while Michael D. Cohen transitioned from female to male about 20 years ago. SpongeBob's sexuality has never been officially confirmed, although some are now speculating that the tweet confirms he is gay. This stands in contrast to comments made by the show's creator, Stephen Hillenburg.

"Everybody is different, and the show embraces that. The character SpongeBob is an oddball. He's kind of weird, but he's kind of special," he said in 2002. "I always think of them as being somewhat asexual."

SpongeBob SquarePants has been airing on Nickelodeon since 1999 and has aired a total of 262 episodes. The series has also spawned three films: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water and the upcoming prequel The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.

A sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra aired from April 2012 to December 2014 for a total of four seasons and 52 episodes. Henry Danger aired from 2014 to 2020 for a total of five seasons.

###

More Nick: Nickelodeon Announces Voice Cast for 'Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years', First-Ever 'SpongeBob SquarePants' Spinoff!

Originally published: Saturday, June 13, 2020.

Original source: ComicBook; Additional sources: BroBible, Sputnik News, HotNewHipHop, Complex, Heavy, PopCulture,
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'Rise of the TMNT' Animation Team Celebrates Latest Toon Boom Harmony Update with New Segment Animated with Harmony 20

Official Toon Boom Animation press release:

Toon Boom dares animation artists to create with Harmony 20

Latest edition of its award-winning digital solution is its most powerfully creative yet

Harmony 20 has tools and capabilities that dare artists to push beyond the boundaries of what audiences expect to see.


MONTREAL - JUNE 16, 2020

Toon Boom Animation launched the newest update to Toon Boom Harmony, our award-winning animation production software. With Harmony 20, we want to challenge artists and animators to express themselves in new styles — inspiring users with a demo pack created by seven artists and their teams from around the world. Their work illustrates endless possibilities with Harmony 20’s improved drawing and colouring tools as well as a host of new features.

“The entertainment industry is becoming aware of the true value of animation — both as a means of producing content and of expressing what is impossible to show in any other medium,” says Stephanie Quinn, Director of Marketing at Toon Boom Animation. “Harmony 20 has tools and capabilities that dare artists to push beyond the boundaries of what audiences expect to see.”

A creative world in Harmony

To showcase Harmony 20’s stylistic flexibility and features, we invited seven artists and teams to produce a demo pack, each contributing scenes inspired by a short prompt. These teams were drawn from both the Toon Boom Ambassador Program and our international community, and were given total creative freedom on their scenes.

Watch the Harmony 20 launch video.


Scene One: Mark Borgions, illustrator and animator, HandMade Monsters
Interpreting, “In our world… // Everything is possible,” Belgian illustrator Mark Borgions’ scene begins with a squirrel climbing a massive tree as giants approach to play instruments. The scene uses imported raster and vector assets along with Harmony’s textured brushes and pens, deformers, depth of field effects, colour scale nodes and rigging with master controllers.

Scene Two: Arthell Isom, studio founder and background artist, D’ART Shtajio
Tokyo-based anime studio founder Arthell Isom was inspired by the lines, “You can be who you are // You can show your true you,” and shows a person exploring their true identity in a mirror. It was animated in a traditional Japanese-style pipeline, recreated in Harmony. “I believe D'ART Shtajio is helping to set the tone for the future of Japanese animation. Anime has always been a tradition, the next gen is coming,” Isom says.

Scene Three: Anja Shu, animator and instructor, TUMO Center for Creative Technologies
Based in Yerevan, Armenia, Anja Shu applied her watercolour animation skills to the lines, “You can sing // You can dance,” illustrating an opera singer jumping from the stage to her dressing room. “I’m very happy with the wide range of textured brushes and pencils that Harmony has to offer. There are so many styles to try — watercolour, pastel and chalk,” Shu says.

Scene Four: Magelan Fournier, Marie Pier Larose, Matt Watts, Raymond Quigley, Andres Martinez Vergara and Mike Morris
Inspired by, “You can achieve,” artists Magelan Fournier and Marie Pier Larose created a 3D scene to accompany a 2D rig created by Matt Watts and animated by Raymond Quigley. The full scene was pulled together, both 2D and 3D elements, by Andres Martinez Vergara. Finally, the scene was originally storyboarded by Mike Morris for the new Toon Boom Training Courses for Advanced Rigging, showcasing Master Controllers and other advanced rigging features.

Scene Five: Rise of the TMNT crew, Nickelodeon
The Burbank team behind Nickelodeon’s hit television series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles provided a digitally hand drawn animated scene with their iconic characters to accompany the lines, “Acceptance is everywhere // And possibilities are endless.” This superhero scene was storyboarded by Kevin Molina-Ortiz and was brought to life by Director, Sebastian Montes and Supervising-Director, Alan Wan.

Scene Six: Gonzalo Azpiri, animator and studio owner, Hookup Animation
Depicting, “And every creative dream // Every style,” Bueno Aires-based promotional animator Gonzalo Azpiri animated an action sequence of a creature leaping through the woods, over a car and diving into a live-action ocean scene. “These kinds of scenes with animated backgrounds end up being quite complex due to the many elements involved, but Harmony has put together a lot of friendly aids to organize the work, which made my scene much easier to handle,” Azpiri says.

Scene Seven: Pinot W. Ichwandardi, senior animator, VaynerMedia
Finishing the demo pack is New York-based animator Pinot W. Ichwandardi with, “Everyone can simply express their deepest dreams // Their truest stories,” — showing a live-action right hand sketching its left counterpart, which then erases the hand that drew it! His scene makes use of filmed footage, rotoscopy and traditional animation.

What’s new in Harmony 20
Harmony 20, the industry’s leading 2D animation software, brings the latest in digital drawing sensitivity to its brushes — every marking, every style, every texture you want to create feels natural. Rulers, guides, colour control and features as well as innovative deformers enrich your animation, bringing your work closer to what you can imagine.

Harmony 20 new features:

  • The smoothest texture deformation with the Weighted-Deform Node
  • Create depth, volume, and more realistic animations with new Lighting & Shading
  • Advanced colour management environments and effects give artists and studios full control over the accuracy of their project’s colours from initial illustration to final export
  • New colour effects nodes: colour curves, colour levels, gamma, and colour-fade
  • Drawing and creativity live hand-in-hand and snapping Alignment Guides make it faster & easier
  • Drawing improvements made for animation artists make animation creation quicker and easier

For more information on Toon Boom Harmony 20 features, pricing and technical requirements, please visit: toonboom.com/products/harmony

About Toon Boom Animation Inc.: Toon Boom Animation Inc.’s award-winning software is the global standard for animation and storyboarding. Storyboard Pro and Harmony solutions provide everyone from enthusiasts to professionals with the artistic freedom to create in any style and efficiently publish anywhere. Customers who chose Toon Boom animation software for the development and creation of their productions include Disney Television Animation, Amazon, Fox Television Animation, Nelvana, Ubisoft, Toei Animation, The SPA Studios, Xilam and Boulder Media, to name a few. The technology is currently available in Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. For more information, visit: toonboom.com.

End to end 2D animation production software

Harmony 20 Award-Winning 2D Animation Software

More Nick: Synapse Games Developing New TMNT Game for Kongregate!
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Peppa Pig Partners with Save the Children for COVID-19 Charitable Retail Promotion

20% from all Peppa Pig products sold through online shop will be donated to the charity’s UK COVID-19 appeal.


A new charitable retail partnership is up and running on the official Peppa Pig online shop from Star Editions.

Throughout May, June and July, 20% from all Peppa Pig products sold through the web store will be donated to Save the Children’s UK COVID-19 appeal to help families struggling in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.

The promotion applies to a selection of new rainbow-themed personalised Peppa Pig products, plus a range of ‘Stay at Home’ items.

Hasbro and Star Editions are supporting the promotion with Facebook posts on the official Peppa Pig page and paid social posts in June. Hasbro is also undertaken an outreach campaign to celebrity and parenting influencers, in addition to ads running across its online and social channels.

“Peppa Pig brings joy to so many families and we’re keen to harness that positivity to help support Save the Children raise vital funds during this difficult time,” commented Marianne James, vp consumer products at Hasbro. “We hope their efforts will continue to help families at a time when the need has become even greater.”

Hasbro’s latest retail promotion follows a recent fundraising campaign with Save the Children in May which saw the charity’s annual Muddy Puddle Walk fundraiser re-named Muddy Puddles Week.

Families in the UK were encouraged to recreate their own Muddy Puddle magic at home and donate funds online or by text to assist the charity’s vital work supporting children across the UK and beyond.

In addition to Peppa Pig-themed games and challenges for children to enjoy online, Hasbro’s eOne created a series of new Peppa Pig toy play videos, voiced by Mummy Pig actor, Morwenna Banks, to help children make sense of the ‘new normal’ during lockdown, with themes such as Peppa talking to her friends by video call, and keeping in touch with her grandparents as pen pals.

The news follows ViacomCBS and P.M.I. partnering to release a range of branded face masks featuring characters from hit Nickelodeon properties, with proceeds from each face mask sold also going towards Save the Children’s Covid-19 global response efforts.

More Nick: Nickelodeon Launches #KidsTogether--A Global Prosocial Initiative to Help Kids and Families Stay Informed and Engaged With Activities; Noggin to be Offered Free to Kids in Need in Partnership with National Head Start Association and First Book

Original source: Licensing Source.
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PAW Patrol & Abby Hatcher Crossover! No Bath Time for Peepers | PAW Patrol Official & Friends

PAW Patrol & Abby Hatcher Crossover! No Bath Time for Peepers | PAW Patrol Official & Friends


Wow! What a PAWsome obstacle course! But Abby has her own obstacle – the water’s all dried up and she can’t bathe the Squeaky Peepers! PAW Patrol is on a roll!

When trouble strikes in Adventure Bay, PAW Patrol is there to save the day! Why? Because no job is too big, no pup is too small! Watch as PAW Patrol works together to keep Adventure Bay safe – whether it’s a cat in a tree, a chicken running free, or a train off the tracks, they always find a way to help those in need! Whether Chase is on the case, Rubble’s on the double, or Skye’s gotta fly, you won’t want to miss all the exciting action in Adventure Bay!

Welcome to the world of Abby Hatcher, where Fuzzlies are real and everyone knows it! But Fuzzlies usually see the world differently than humans, which is often the source of wild and funny shenanigans! But luckily for everyone involved, Abby Hatcher is the ultra-adorable Fuzzly catcher! When things go sideways or a Fuzzly inflates to twice its size, Abby Hatcher is there to help smooth things out. Don’t miss the excitement, adventure, and downright hilarity in Abby Hatcher!

Check out full episodes of PAW Patrol and Abby Hatcher on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr.!

#PAWPatrol #PAWPatrolAndFriends #AbbyHatcher

More Nick: 'Paw Patrol' Movie from Spin Master and Nickelodeon Movies, with Paramount Pictures Distributing, Set for August 2021 Release!
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Nicksters' Anti Boredom | SpongeBob SquarePants #HomeOkPlease | Nickelodeon India

Nicksters' Anti Boredom | SpongeBob SquarePants #HomeOkPlease | Nickelodeon India


Until it gets safe to step out again, here's SpongeBob with his stay-at-home anti-boredom plan. #HomeOkPlease

#SpongeBobSquarePants #BikiniBottom #Sandy #Patrick #MrKrabs

More Nick: Nickelodeon India Brings the Playground Home for Kids with #HomeOkPlease Campaign!
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Nickelodeon Says #YogaSeHiHoga | Nickelodeon India

Nickelodeon Says #YogaSeHiHoga | Nickelodeon India


Let's strike the right balance between yoga and fun with our #YogaSeHiHoga challenge. Send Nick your entries on https://bit.ly/3e6Smi3

#YogaDay2020 #YogaChallenge #HealthyLifestyle #YogaGoals #Motu #Rudra #HomeOkPlease

Nickelodeon Yoga Se Hi Hoga Contest | Voot Kids


This Yoga Day, Nickelodeon says #YogaSeHiHoga. Send us your pictures/videos doing your favorite Yoga Aasan and stand a chance to get featured on our channel!

More Nick: Nickelodeon India Brings the Playground Home for Kids with #HomeOkPlease Campaign!
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'Put a Sock In It' | The Loud House | Nickelodeon

Watch the original The Loud House animated short, "Put a Sock In It"!



LILY SPEAKS!


Subscribe to the official The Loud House & The Casagrandes YouTube channel!: https://at.nick.com/LoudCasaSubscribe

More Nick: Nickelodeon Releases The Loud House “Really Loud Music” Digital Album!

Additional source: /@KythRichborne.
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What Did You Think of the New 'The Casagrandes' Episode 'Karma Chameleon'? | Nickelodeon Fan Poll

What did you think of the brand new The Casagrandes episode "Karma Chameleon"? Vote in the poll and sound off in the comments below!

Nickelodeon USA to Premiere New Episodes of 'The Loud House' from Monday, June 8, 2020

Get set for brand new episodes of The Loud House and The Casagrandes plus all new Loud House shorts, premiering weekdays at 12:00 p.m. (ET/PT) starting Monday, June 8, 2020, only on Nickelodeon USA!


The Loud House

Monday, June 8, 2020 at 12:00 p.m.:

Episode: On Thin Ice: Lynn's extreme sports superstitions cause chaos at a professional hockey match. (#421A)

Short: The Maltese Bear.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - Room and Hoard: The kids try to convince Mom and Dad that they still play with their childhood toys. (#421B)

Wednesday, June 10, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - A Star is Scorned: When Lola realizes that double the cuteness could help her break into show business, she teams up with Lily. (#422A)

Thursday, June 11, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - Senior Moment: Lori regrets everything she hasn’t done in high school, and vows to make up for lost time in her senior year. (#422B)

Monday, June 15, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - Sand Hassles: Lucy and the Morticians' Club try to stop plans for a school field trip to the beach. (#424B)

Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - Wheel and Deal: Lana and Lincoln enter to compete in a soap box derby to win a race car ride-along with Lana's hero. (#423A)

The Casagrandes

Tuesday, June 16, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - Karma Chameleon: The Changs leave Ronnie Anne and her cousins to watch after Cam the chameleon snake. (#115A)

Thursday, June 18, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. - Team Effort: Ronnie Anne and her skate buddies work together to show their coach that they have what it takes to make a team. (#115B)

"Wheel and Deal" sneak peek:



"Team Effort" Sneak Peek:




Promos:






Make sure to catch season three of hit The Loud House podcast, Listen Out Loud!: http://nickalive.blogspot.com/2020/05/nickelodeon-expands-podcast-slate-with.html

Subscribe to the official The Loud House & The Casagrandes YouTube channel!: https://at.nick.com/LoudCasaSubscribe

More Nick: Nickelodeon Releases The Loud House “Really Loud Music” Digital Album!

Additional sources: Nickstory, Anime Superhero Forum /@kanc.

Originally published: Friday, May 22, 2020.
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Nickelodeon Brazil to Premiere New Episodes of 'The Loud House', June 15-18

Things are getting LOUD as Nickelodeon Brazil (Brasil) is premiering more brand new episodes of The Loud House weekdays at 18:00h between Monday 15th - Thursday 18th June 2020! The new episodes of The Loud House will be "Deep Cuts", "Game Off", "Write and Wrong" and "Purrfect Gig".


From Diário Carioca:

NICKELODEON ANUNCIA EPISÓDIOS INÉDITOS DE THE LOUD HOUSE

Lincoln Loud e sua família estão de volta em novas aventuras a partir desta segunda-feira, 15 de junho, até quinta-feira, dia 18 de junho, sempre às 18h, com um episódio inédito por dia, no canal Nickelodeon

São Paulo, junho de 2020 – A Nickelodeon acaba de confirmar a estreia de quatro episódios inéditos de The Loud House. Lincoln Loud e sua família estão de volta em novas aventuras a partir desta segunda-feira, 15 de junho, até quinta-feira, dia 18 de junho, sempre às 18h, com um episódio inédito por dia, no canal Nickelodeon.

Saiba o que vai acontecer nos novos episódios da série:

Cortes Profundos: Quando a Luna descobre que o clube da música da escola será cancelado devido a cortes no orçamento, se junta aos seus amigos e decide fazer um protesto para chamar a atenção da diretora Rivers e fazê-la mudar de ideia. A diretora aceita, mas decide cancelar o clube de esportes, da Lori, e depois o clube de teatro, da Luan. Quando as meninas pensam que conseguiram salvar os 3 clubes, escutam uma conversa da diretora e descobrem que um deles ainda será cancelado! Então todos eles se reúnem na frente da escola para protestar, e, quando as coisas saem do controle, corre o risco de todos os clubes da escola serem cancelados!

Fim de Jogo: A Lana vê o Lincoln jogando “Destruição Total do Lixo” e pede ao irmão para jogar também, mas ele nega por só ter uma vida restante. Ansiosa para jogar, a Lana decide acordar no meio da noite para jogar um pouco sem que o irmão perceba, mas acaba perdendo a última vida dele e precisa pedir a ajuda das irmãs para consertar isso!

Certo e Errado: A mãe quer trabalhar com escrita em tempo integral e descobre uma vaga perfeita: como escritora de uma coluna sobre criação de filhos. Mas, quando ela descobre que a editora quer uma coluna sobre a criação perfeita, precisa fazer com que seus filhos se comportem perfeitamente bem para conseguir o trabalho. O problema é fazer com que eles continuem se comportando perfeitamente bem depois…

Trabalho Purrfeito: Os McBride vão sair da cidade e contratam a Luna para cuidar dos gatos, já que ela precisa de dinheiro para ir no show do Mick Swagger com a Sam. Só que, quando ela chega na casa deles, descobre que o trabalho é muito mais difícil do que ela pensava e que, talvez, seja demais para ela.

Episódios inéditos: de segunda a quinta-feira, 15 a 18 de junho, sempre às 18h.

###

Mais Nick: Nickelodeon Brazil Launches #GaleraUnida, A Prosocial Initiative to Help Kids and Families Stay Informed and Engaged With Activities
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