Creative – MightyPants Media

Interview: Sunny Levine and Mike Burakoff

Date: January 2, 2016 Category: Creative, Fun, Music, Our Content Comments: 0

You might think "animated hip-hop comedy music videos for kids" isn’t a thing. It is. In the age of YouTube, anything you can think of is already a thing. But this week saw the premiere of the first video to mix slick animation, psychedelic imagery and an original cast of characters with thumping beats and funny lyrics, sharply tuned to adult sensibilities but made for kids. And now THAT is a thing. King Douglas, playing now on SpindoTV (a joint-venture between Spinmaster Toys and Mondo Media), tells the story of a charming but over-indulged boy whose birthday party spirals out of control when his father forgets how to say…

All Bears Need Love

Date: July 28, 2015 Category: Commercial, Creative, Our Content Comments: 0

I'm proud to announce that we've just released the Book Trailer for All Bears Need Love, a picture book by award-winning children's author Tanya Valentine. It's a 60-second animated short adapted from the book's art by Adam Taylor, and featuring music from talented singer-songwriter Wendy DuMond. All Bears Need Love is a heartwarming story of an orphaned Baby Brown Bear who arrives at City Zoo, alone and scared. When a Mama Polar Bear promises to be his mother, she faces protest and opposition from the other, unenlightened animals. But Baby Brown Bear learns family is family, no matter the differences. Tanya Valentine writes picture books for pre-K…

MightyPants 2015 Animation Reel

Date: March 25, 2015 Category: Commercial, Creative, Fun, Studios, TV Series, Uncategorized Comments: 0

I figured it was time. Our last Studio Animation Reel is from 5 years ago, before we transmogrified into MightyPants. It does not include many of the great new projects we developed for our friends/clients. I wanted something that focused solely on our new work. But this is not it. I'm sorry... I had to bring back some of our greatest hits, because I couldn't help myself. We just had so much fun working on shows like The Mystery Mavs, Stainboy, and GeeGuides, I just had to invite them to the party. Nonetheless, newcomers like Goodwin vs Badwin, Kneebouncers, and the Mondo Pilots join the lineup, along with some of…

Creepy Casey comes to life

Date: August 5, 2014 Category: Creative, Fun, Our Content, Uncategorized Comments: 0

Creepy Casey, the creation of Kid-Lit Author Tanya Valentine, will finally have her say! Casey has long been the star of her eponymous book series, but until recently we could only read about her exploits in the Creepy Casey books penned by Valentine (who, by pure coincidence, has also served as a producer for MightyPants Media). For her animated debut, the earnest and upbeat Casey Crabtree appears alongside the author in a recent promo announcing Valentine's stage appearance with the Village Theatre improv company. Valentine will be appearing on Friday, August 8 as a guest speaker at the Atlanta-based theater, where her stories will become inspiration for…

Kneebouncers Hitz a chord

Date: July 28, 2014 Category: Creative, Fun, TV Series, Uncategorized Comments: 0

In anticipation of the upcoming Kneebouncers TV series, we'd like to take a moment to appreciate the contributions of composer Robert Hitz. Mr Hitz provides all of the songs for the series, some of which are scored to action with delightfully creative synchronization. His music has a joyous, haunting quality that adds a unique personality to the show... and he does it all analog, on a piano, using fingers (and, one would assume, thumbs). Anyone who creates music for video will appreciate the challenge of scoring live to video. In an industry that is almost entirely digital, it's refreshing to hear music produced this way... but what…

Kneebouncers takes off!

Date: July 24, 2014 Category: Creative, Fun, Our Content, TV Series, Uncategorized Comments: 0

Preschool series Kneebouncers is coming to a TV near you! The series, based on the internet destination of the same name, will be airing August 11 on Baby First TV (available in most cable & satellite markets). Created by Punch Robinson and Kurt Dommermuth and developed & produced by MightyPants, Kneebouncers consists of 20 x 3 minute episodes that are broken into several "skits" each. Airing interstitially between morning and afternoon programming blocks, the zany educational segments feature cute, energetic characters in colorful settings. The Kneebouncers cast includes Freddie the photo-happy Bear, Foo-Foo the busy Bunny, Horatio the hungry Hippo, SlyCat the curious Kitty, Sammy the mischievous Monkey…

Kneebouncers learns to fly

Date: March 4, 2014 Category: Creative, TV Series Comments: 0

Creative Edu-Gaming group Kneebouncers is taking its popular pre-school brand to TV, and they've asked MightyPants to help breathe a little extra life into their content. The series of 20 x 3-minute shorts premieres in April on BabyFirstTV, slotted between other short-format properties like VocabuLarry and Harry the Bunny. As a dad and long-time subscriber to Kneebouncers.com, it was a real treat to have this opportunity to work with creators Punch Robinson and Kurt Dommermuth. Punch & Kurt are two of the nicest guys I've had the pleasure to work with, and treat the property as if it were their own kid. As with any major growth spurt,…

MightyPants 2014 Commercial Reel

Date: February 27, 2014 Category: Commercial, Creative, Design, Our Content Comments: 0

How often do you take the time to sit back and mack on a few commercials? MightyPants director Tony Grillo wants to share a few 30-second slices with you, baked right here in our kitchen. You'll notice a departure from our previous reels, as we delve into more live video & graphic content. We've been fortunate enough to work with some pretty great clients over the last couple of years, and they've been trusting enough to let us wear the chef's toque. Suffice to say nobody got burned, and we managed to feed a few million eyeballs in the process.

OUYA Concept Art

Date: February 11, 2014 Category: Commercial, Creative Comments: 0

A few pieces of Concept Art for an alternate spot that was never produced. While it would have been fun to see this one through, we went instead with the Tantrum Boy concept from our earlier post.

ABC Family’s call for Teen Poets

Date: June 3, 2013 Category: Commercial, Creative, Studios Comments: 0

ABC Family and ABC Digital recently teamed up to create a campaign calling on fans to submit works of poetry for presentation to visitors of the ABC Family site. The campaign, called "You Should Know This About Me", asks users to submit written works for submission. Selected poems are then produced into videos by the writers themselves, for display on the ABC Family Site. The campaign kicks off with a fully-animated sizzle reel - a "call to action" title sequence - to introduce the concept and get the ball rolling with new videos. Since studios are often bound by nondisclosure agreements, it cannot be said…

Flinch puts on its MightyPants

Date: April 28, 2013 Category: Creative, Our Content, Studios Comments: 0

After 15 years as an independent animation outfit, Flinch Studio is putting on its big boy pants and marching into history. Don't be upset - Flinch isn't really going away, merely evolving. As a company, our role has changed quite a bit over the years... from a hungry startup, digging into a brand new medium and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for an emerging industry, to developing new content with industry greats who gave us the chance to prove ourselves. From hunkering down and scraping an existence through the web's dark days, to re-emerging as a creative boutique studio…

Making ourselves heard on BBC World Service

Date: April 5, 2013 Category: Creative, Music, Our Content Comments: 0

If you're a regular listener of the BBC World Service... you're probably too smart to be wasting intellect reading this. If for some reason you find yourself compelled to continue reading, you'll be pleased to learn that MightyPants Creative Kahuna Tony Grillo received a shout out on the BBC World Business Report last night. Take 90 seconds to click the image below and sample our (now world-famous) parody on the US Economic Crisis, which opens a segment on Japan's Central Bank. If you're in a hurry, skip ahead to the 1:10 mark: After hearing this piece, you may be under the impression that Tony…

In appreciation of the mustache

Date: February 1, 2013 Category: Creative, Our Content Comments: 0

Who doesn't appreciate a good mustache? Whether ironic or sincere, I think we can all agree there's nothing quite like a good sesame-seed-sweeper to make your day. Also, enjoy this video about the history of paint. See what I mean?

Flinch at 35,000 feet

Date: January 22, 2013 Category: Creative, Music, Our Content Comments: 0

If you find yourself on a Virgin America flight in the near future, you may be treated to a little high-altitude hardcore courtesy of the Flinch Studio Ministry of Music. As part of their Syndication Feed deal with online music video giant VEVO, the sexy airline will be piping original music produced by Tony and resident Composer Will Jenkins for this spot we delivered back in October: Virgin America, or "Vamerica" as I like to call them, will be weaving the thumping tune into VEVO's program stream as part of the branding for their in-flight video music content. As we here at Flinch continue to…

Goodwin vs Badwin marathon scores a Quarter Million Views

Date: January 21, 2013 Category: Creative, Our Content Comments: 0

The Goodwin vs Badwin Marathon launched last weekend by Momdo Media performed exceptionally well in its first 3 days, racking up nearly a quarter-million views in its first 3 days online. We've had a great time producing these first 8 episodes, and look forward to getting the dirty word out to more new fans!

Cursed Entertainment

Date: January 20, 2013 Category: Creative Comments: 0

Cursed Entertainment is the Development-Focused alter-ego of Flinch Studio. Yes, we still make your characters move... but we also want to give them a long and healthy life. Animated properties have more distribution outlets today than ever before. This is good for all of us, but it doesn't necessarily make the audience less discerning; animated content is still a tough sell, viewership is narrower, and success depends on engaging content with smaller price tags. The modern studio must be lean and agile, its creative lead experienced with story and character development, as well as strategic property development. Despite today's amazing advancements in chemistry, there's still…

Category: Creative