The Delbert Cartoon Report

  It's time to take another trip into unknown lands, and this one by far is unknown.  Very little is known about this place and for it to be a cartoon destination it did not last at all.  I'm talking of course about New England Playworld in Hudson, New Hampshire. For locals, the name was best known as Benson's Animal Farm.  New England Playworld was the name given on its very last year.  The place opened in 1926 and was a mix of zoo animals and amusement rides.  I'll spare the details on the history of the park itself, but it was best known for their large 500 lbs gorilla named Colossus.  Enough is known about its years as Benson's, but what about as Playworld? That, unfortunately, is not easy to research.  Because it only lasted one year as such, and because it was on its last legs which means not many people were coming to the park, only a handful of proof could be found online.  No video recordings exist online (or maybe ever) , very few p...

  Welp....I didn't expect Paramount to give off so much news in so little time, especially when it comes to animation.  I've made many complaints about Paramount in the past and last year I made my predictions on Paramount +.  Do they hold up?  Let's find out 1. ViacomCBS is DEAD Ok that was click baity, but the name is gone.  Viacom is no more.  Instead, the whole company will be called Paramount (more specifically Paramount Global).  CBS will remain the brand for its network.   2. Among the top titles for Paramount + They are.....Paw Patrol, Clifford the Big Red Dog (uggg...why), Spongebob, and the South Park specials.  We'll talk more about South Park later.  I've said before that unless it's Spongebob or Paw Patrol, just forget it, and with these being top content, it does seem that way, but hold on.  We're not done yet. Artwork by me, because yup....had to be done 3.  Paramount banks heavily on Sonic the Hedgehog We a...

  For those living under a rock (and also living in Frostbite Falls), Jay Ward Productions just made a deal with WildBrain for not just distribution of its cartoon library but also production rights for new content with these characters.  Very little is known about it other than a couple of articles including a Variety article.   What does it all mean?  Let's break it down. First of all, WildBrain is a Canadian company that has a portfolio of cartoons in their cartoon library with ownership of many brands including the DIC library, Strawberry Shortcake, a share of the Peanuts Brand with new content, and more.  This is an independent company not owned by any of the 6 or 5 or 4 (that number keeps shrinking) major media conglomerates.  It's not the first time Ward Productions worked with these people as they helped them at Dreamworks with some rebooted shows such as The Mr. Peabody Show and Rocky and Bullwinkle.  WildBrain's track record has been hard to ...