Official Children's Museum of Manhattan Press Release via Broadway World:
Children's Museum Of Manhattan's Fourth Annual SUNDAY FUNDAY EXTRAVAGANZA Announced
The Children's Museum of Manhattan will hold its fourth annual Sunday Funday extravaganza on Sunday, Jan. 28 from 10:30 am to 2 pm at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers, and this year's event will boast a new summer fun and travel theme. The ticketed event, benefiting the museum and sponsored by Nickelodeon, will bring together the best in family entertainment, indoor sports and games, creative workshops and fabulous food for the entire family.
Children ages 0-12 will enjoy age appropriate activities including live entertainment and appearances by Nickelodeon costume characters Marshall and Skye from Paw Patrol & Shimmer and Shine, as well as T the Dinosaur from Field Station. Kids can also meet and greet local sports stars including Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie, Knicks legend John Starks and Giants greats Justin Tuck and Victor Cruz.
Children can also watch pro sand castle builders create a masterpiece and make their own, search for buried treasure in a sand pit, race a mini stock car, run pro basketball drills with Jr. Knicks, kick a field goal and throw passes. Infants and toddlers will enjoy soft play areas and sing-alongs, and themed workshops for all ages will be run by museum educators. The event will also feature a dress-up photo booth, face painters and so much more!
Thanks to the past five years they’ve spent costarring on Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, you could say that Sean Astin and Rob Paulsen view each other the way their characters do: as brothers who are also best friends… even if they do sometimes squabble. Such is why it made perfect sense for Rob to enlist Sean for a very special episode of Nerdist's Alpha series Talkin’ Toons: one in which the turtles channelled their brotherly love (and, yes, rivalry) to sub in for Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly in a classic scene from Step Brothers.
It's hard to think anything could ever top the original, but Rob filling in for Reilly’s Dale in the style of his Raphael from the 1987 series, and Astin taking over for Ferrell’s Brennan as Raphael from the 2012 series, was better than a samurai sword autographed by Randy Jackson.
If you want to check out this full episode of Talkin’ Toons, along with all past and future ones, you can only find them at Nerdist's interactive online Alpha community. It’s just one of their many great shows there, and if you’re not already a member your first 30 days are free when you sign up.
What other famous movie brothers should Sean Astin and Rob Paulsen sub in for? The Blues Brothers, or The Boondock Saints? Perhaps they can enlist their fellow turtles to reenact John Singleton’s Four Brothers. Be cool, not rude, dude, and share your best ideas with NickALive! know in the comments below!
Watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons!
Nickelodeon is celebrating the launch of the third season of its hit animated comedy series The Loud House today (Friday 19th January 2018) with a 360-degree video that lets viewers explore the madness of the Loud family household literally from all angles!
CREDIT: Janko Roettgers / Variety
The video has been produced by Nickelodeon’s Entertainment Lab, a small research and development unit that spent the past year quietly working away on internal projects. As it is getting ready to release more of its work to the public, Variety recently got a aweslime behind-the-scenes look at Lab, its stage-sized VR setups, hacked arcade machines and crazy virtual reality slime fights.
Nickelodeon SVP Chris Young began exploring new technologies for the network in 2014. In May of last year, Nickelodeon made his mission official, and created the Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab, a group of six staffers looking to explore virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and everything in between. “The Lab is really tasked with a long-term view of where entertainment is headed,” Young explained as he recently gave Variety a tour of their facilities, housed on the mezzanine level of the original building at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California.
The Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab’s stage for multi-player location-based VR. CREDIT: Janko Roettgers / Variety
That tour began with a look at a stage customized for developing location-based VR experiences that can be used by multiple players at the same time. Much like other location-based VR setups, the Lab has also been using dozens of tracking cameras and special computer backpacks that make it possible to freely walk around within the experience while wearing a VR headset. Young explained that he wanted to go beyond the constraints of a typical consumer-grade VR setup. “I was interested in doing something at much bigger scale,” he said.
In a corner, a desk was littered with cables, soldering irons and random parts. Young explained that he wasn’t happy with the fact that your typical VR setup doesn’t know whether you raise your hand, or step forward with one foot. “We really want to have full body presence.” And since commercial body tracking solutions are still evolving, Young decided to build his own tracking devices, with a little help from a 3D printer.
The Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab is developing its own tracking hardware for location-based VR. CREDIT: Janko Roettgers / Variety
The Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab has done extensive work in VR, much of which will never be seen outside of the walls of the network’s facility. This included Sage, an animated VR short film from Nickelodeon supervising director Dan Krall about an elf in a magical forest.
Lab employees also experimented with alternative controllers for VR to get beyond the awkward task of having to teach players the use of buttons for a particular game. “Kids know super-soakers, and they know what a banana is,” quipped Young — so why not use these everyday items for VR games? At one point, Young even created a life-sized model of his office in virtual reality, which allowed him to use his real office as a playground for motion capture and other experiments.
But not all of the Lab’s work is focused on VR. One of the team’s offices is being used for real-time video animation for Facebook Live streams. With the help of some X-Keys Midi controllers, Lab employees were able to animate cartoon characters in real-time, making them frown, jump and wave just by hitting a few buttons. Their mouth movements were automatically synchronized to live speech input Adobe’s Character Animator app, which works a bit like the software powering Apple’s Animoji. “I call these guys cartoon DJs,” joked Young about employees using the hardware.
A real-time animation station at the Entertainment Lab, used for Facebook Live streams. CREDIT: Janko Roettgers / Variety
The Lab’s most famous project thus far has been Slime Zone, a social multiplayer VR experience that was first shown at Vidcon last year. In it, players find themselves in a colorful animated world where they can shoot green slime at each other, play ping-pong or basketball, or just watch videos together, chat and hang out. Every now and then, Nickelodeon characters like SpongeBob, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and even Korra make an appearance.
Imagine an 8-year-old’s birthday party where everyone had way too much cake and soda and is bouncing off the walls, but in VR, and you get the picture. It’s a lot of fun, and a way for the Lab to play with a bunch of different modalities around social VR. Team members also wanted to try to bridge the gap between the new medium and other screens, and went full circle on video gaming by porting Slime Zone to an arcade machine.
There’s no word yet if and when the Slime Zone will ever turn into a commercial product, but you shouldn’t be too surprised to see more of the Lab’s work actually reach consumers. For instance, Lab employees have been working on augmented reality characters based on Apple’s ARKit that may get released in the near future.
And there will likely also be more 360 videos, since the Loud House project was used to set up an internal workflow. “The process we set up to handle the 360 output allowed the animators to approach the production in the same way they create the TV show,” said Young. “With this process, it was a seamless step from storyboards, to animation, to final 360 render.”
Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab staffers are using Midi hardware to animate characters in real-time. CREDIT: Janko Roettgers / Variety
Some Nickelodeon Entertainment Labs projects may seem silly, but listen to Young, and you start to understand that there’s more to it. Ultimately, he argued, it’s all about a shift from traditional production methods to tools that can be used and manipulated live. “The future is real-time,” he said. “Working real-time is fundamental to this technology.”
Young and his team have for instance been testing the quality level of game engines, which are traditionally used for real-time video-game graphics rendering. As part of that work, the Lab also produced an animated short film rendered entirely in a game engine. The goal was not only to show that the results look comparable to traditional animation, but also that the assets could be changed on the fly, and even adapted to new mediums. After producing the short film in 2D, the team put the same assets into VR. “And then we took the VR experience, and put it onto HoloLens,” recalled Young.
Ultimately, Nickelodeon could start to use game engines more widely to produce animated shows, Young predicted: “As a company, we are very interested in it.”
All-New Rugrats Special Comic Celebrates Your Favorite T-Rex in April 2018
BOOM! Studios today announced RUGRATS: R IS FOR REPTAR 2018 SPECIAL #1, an all-new oversized one shot comic about everyone’s favorite T-Rex arrives in stores April 2018. When the power goes out at the Pickles home, the babies and adults come together to share their own personal favorite Reptar stories. This graphic novel is based on Nickelodeon’s original animated series, Rugrats.
Writer Nicole Andelfinger (Munchkin), along with artists Edras Cristóbal (Marvel Adventures), Sarah Webb (Kochab), Brittney Williams (Goldie Vance) and Ilaria Catalani, deliver a unique collection of short stories by Grandpa Lou, Phil & Lil, Angelica Pickles, Susie Carmichael and Tommy Pickles, each sharing their own version of Reptar.
“The fans demanded it and now we’re thrilled to put the spotlight on Reptar,” said Whitney Leopard, Editor, BOOM! Studios. “While you’ve seen the world’s favorite green dino in our monthly Rugrats series, we knew that was only the beginning. Now you’re going to see that there’s no such thing as too much Reptar!”
RUGRATS: R IS FOR REPTAR 2018 SPECIAL #1 features a main cover by Savanna Ganucheau (Adventure Time Comics) and a variant cover by Matt Frank (Godzilla). This special is the latest release from BOOM! Studios’ critically acclaimed KaBOOM! imprint, publisher of world-class licensed series such as Rocko’s Modern Life, Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall, Peanuts, and Garfield, along with original series like Brave Chef Brianna by Sam Sykes and Selina Espiritu, and The Deep by Tom Taylor and James Brouwer.
For breaking news on RUGRATS: R IS FOR REPTAR 2018 SPECIAL #1 and more from BOOM! Studios, stay tuned to www.boom-studios.com and follow @boomstudios on Twitter.
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Watch all your '90s Nickelodeon favorites on NickSplat, your late-night destination for your favorite childhood Nickelodeon cartoons and live-action shows! NickSplat doesn't question football-shaped heads, but embrace them - along with Reptar bars, a Big Ear of Corn, orange soda, and even slime for Pete (and Pete's) sake. Make your slime-covered Nickelodeon childhood dreams come true every night at 11 PM ET/PT, only on TeenNick USA! #NickSplat!
Half price wristbands are being sold for Blackpool Pleasure Beach for WOW Weekends
UK - Blackpool Pleasure Beach has announced that they will be offering families half price weekends, just in time for the February half term holidays!
WOW Weekends will kick off the new season from Saturday 10th February 2018 with all wristbands £19.50 when booked online in advance.
Families can save up to half price by booking the discounted tickets that allows customers unlimited all day riding on all rides and entry to all areas including the UK's only Nickelodeon Land.
Amanda Thompson OBE, managing director of Blackpool Pleasure Beach, said: “We are so excited about the 2018 season and can’t wait to open the gates so that all our visitors can return to enjoy their favourite rides.
“With the launch of ICON approaching, 2018 is shaping up to be one of our most exciting seasons yet, and we’re looking forward to kicking off the year with this unmissable half price offer.”
The theme park has 10 rollercoasters to choose from including the UK’s tallest roller coaster, The Big One.
This year, Blackpool Pleasure Beach will also see the addition of ICON, the UK’s first double launch roller coaster that will give thrill seekers the same acceleration as a Formula 1 driver before twisting and turning at high speeds across the park, interacting with other ride.
At Nickelodeon Land, families can meet and greet SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer and ride on 12 aweslime rides, including SpongeBob’s Splash Bash and the Bikini Bottom Bus Tour, among others.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach will be open every Saturday and Sunday from Saturday 10th February 2018 until Sunday 18th March 2018, and then daily from Saturday 24th March 2018 until Sunday 4th November 2018.
For more information, or to book a visit, please visit the Blackpool Pleasure Beach website. Non-riders can enter the park for just £6.
