"New Friends ~ An Environmental Fable" Debuts as a New Animated Web Series is Announced!

By: Andrew Bermudez

(Mustache Maniacs Film Co. Headquarters; June 7, 2013)

     After 8 months of development, filled with work, delays, struggles to meet deadlines, and winning an award, New Friends ~ An Environmental Fable has finally been released online. "It's been such an honor to have worked with CarTOON Shack on this film," said Andrew Bermudez, who assisted on the film. "It's truly a spectacular animation that, overall, may very well be nearly on par with Johnny Thunder and the Secret of Marco Polo in terms of overall quality, storytelling, and composition. I think it's even safe to say that the technical qualities of this film exceed the aforementioned film." The film marks the end of the partnership between Mustache Maniacs Film Co. and CarTOON Shack. However, Mustache Maniacs Film Co. will continue to develop the game Zoo Flight, which was created as a result of the partnership. If you haven't seen New Friends yet, click here to watch it.

     Along with the release of New Friends, a new web series, the first ever for Mustache Maniacs Film Co., was announced this morning. Mark Matthew invited the press to an unveiling this morning. After his PAs handed out hot cocoa during a screening of New Friends, Mark took to the stage to officially unveil...(wait for it)...LEGO Island: The Animated Series!

This image of Pepper Roni from the official LEGO Island Comic Adventures shows the direction LEGO Island: The Animated Series will take in its artistic style. Image courtesy Brickipedia.

     At the unveiling, Mark Matthew showed several pieces of concept art for the show (they will be shown here at a later date). "In last year's survey, we know that Island Xtreme Stunts did not fare well in ratings, so for this show, we will aim to go more in the direction of the games. For this show, we will animate it entirely in Adobe Flash CS6," said Mark Matthew. He continued, "our reasons for this is that we don't have the room on our backlot to build and maintain an entire island for how many seasons the show lasts, so storing it on a hard drive instead is a good space-saving alternative. We also chose Flash because the show would then resonate some of the nostalgia of the classic LEGO Island Comic Adventures, whose style would be mimicked."

     The show, which takes place several years after the game LEGO Island Xtreme Stunts, will feature the entire gang of characters from all three games and all four comic adventures, though more than a few will be redesigned to either look more modern or to make them look more distinct. That is, except for Gnarly Bones. "Gnarly Bones is a very dumb character [from the games], so we cut him out of the series," said Drawn To Life Animation head Steve Brocko. "At least Captain Click worked for his context. Granted, he was also a living skeleton, but he acts more as a haunt for the island's cave than anything else. Gnarly Bones was just...there." Other than that, all of the characters, from Pepper, Sky, The Brickster, and Nick Brick, to Shiney Doris, Arnold, Rich Pickings, and Shugu, will be present.

     For the release time, season 1 will debut fall 2014 as part of "Ten Years of Going Crazy!", with season 1 ending late spring 2015. Also, in a surprising move, LEGO Island: The Animated Series will NOT be released in 3-D. "After looking at Space Attack in 3-D, I decided against the move to make the series 3-D," said Mark Matthew. "Don't get me wrong. 3-D can look great when applied to the correct film, like Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse Fire, An Afternoon at the Zoo, and New Friends ~ An Environmental Fable, but Space Attack looked awful in 3-D. All it did was distort the image and have it recede back uniformly. There was no parallax anywhere." Therefore, LEGO Island: The Animated Series will not be in 3-D.

     As for other release dates, A Bite of MyJobs will debut this summer, The Second Mustache Maniacs Film Co. Fan Choice Awards will air winter 2014, Johnny Thunder and the Wisdom of the Ancients will be discovered July 2014, Zoo Flight will roll its way in summer 2014, and both Freddy and Joey in Corn Farm and Seeing Eye Robber will be animated fall 2014.