Penguins and Pandas get Pilots

According to Variety, both the penguins from "Madagascar" and the... well... pandas from "Kung Fu Panda" will be getting their own TV shows via Nickelodeon.



Both projects are in the early stages of development. Tom Martin ("The Simpsons") will pen the pilot script for "Panda." Paul Rugg ("Freakazoid!") is aboard to write the "Madagascar" offshoot, centered on penguins Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private in a series of new adventures.

Teaming brings together two of the biggest brands in animation: Nick is still home to genre's top-rated "SpongeBob SquarePants" franchise, while DreamWorks Animation counts "Shrek," "Shark Tale" and "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" among its feature hits.

CGI Animation on TV is a tough thing right now. People are used to what they see in theaters from Pixar, Dreamworks and the like, so when they see versions on the TV that were created on much tighter time and financial budgets, the shows just don't meet expectations. This is going to be the case even moreso with an established franchise, like "Madagascar" and "Kung Fu Panda," as people will be even more acustomed to the level of animation for those characters.

I understand that, like the videogame industry, companies would rather take a risk on established franchises than on brand new IPs, but it just seems that this could really backfire for Nick and DW.

Variety Article on "Madagascar" and "Kung Fu Panda" TV Shows