andPOP » nickelodeon

Taylor Swift Presenting at TeenNick HALO Awards

Natalia Buia — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:58:24 +0000

Posted on andPOP:

Four of the hottest stars will honour ordinary teens doing extraordinary things at the third annual TeenNick HALO Awards.

Taylor Swift will join Lady Gaga, actress Jessica Biel and soccer phenomenon David Beckham as they award four young individuals who have made a difference in their communities.

HALO, which stands for “Helping and Leading Others”, will recognize teens like James O’Dwyer, who started the Magnolia Disaster Relief, a program offering aid to rural areas affected by tornadoes. Taylor is the celeb scheduled to present O’Dwyer with his award.

MTV News says Nick Cannon will host the special ceremony in Los Angeles. It will be broadcasted on November 6 on Nick at Nite.

Interview with Lucas Cruikshank, AKA “Fred”

Megan MacKay — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:52:05 +0000

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For a lot of people, YouTube is just the website that hosts all your favourite cats-wearing-mustaches videos that keep you occupied during a slow day at work. For Lucas Cruikshank, it was the springboard into his untapped comedy and creativity that ultimately led to a pretty hefty contract with Nickelodeon.

“It’s definitely been crazy,” Lucas said in an interview with andPOP. “But I’m just so excited.”

Known better by his Internet alias, an exuberant six-year-old named “Fred,” Cruikshank is one of the most popular personalities on the video site. With his videos nearing 100 million subscribers, he’s just released and album and feature film with more to come on the horizon. Lucas’s character work, after appealing to masses of young people on the popular vlogging site, caught the attention of Nickelodeon back in 2009. The media mogul quickly inked a deal with Cruikshank promising a multi-platform infiltration including an album, movie and television show.

“Fred is always talking about how he wants to be famous,” he explained. “Now we get to see what happens when he actually gets the opportunity.”

So where does inspiration for a character like Fred come from? According to Cruikshank, there’s not one explicit source. “It was a lot of things. It was mostly because kids around that age don’t really understand the things what teenagers seem to understand. It was also to poke fun at video bloggers who talk to the camera and act like it’s a person.”

With that simple idea, the Fred character took the site by storm, becoming the first account to officially reach one million subscribers. And though the medium may have temporarily changed, Cruikshank’s managed to maintain quite a bit of creative control, even after signing on with Nickelodeon. “I was obviously an actor and also an executive producer because I created the whole character. The writers would send me a draft of the script and I would add in my comments and tell them what I thought. They were all really open to my creative input.”

So what exactly happens in the movie, you ask? Well, it premiered a few weeks ago on Nickelodeon, but the DVD has just been released and is available in major retail outlets. A spoiler to entice you: Cruikshank puts John Cena, playing Fred’s estranged father, into a headlock.

What’s in the future for Fred? Well, he’ll have to take a backseat to a new character Lucas has been working on. “I can’t wait to reveal a new character, something fresh and new. I actually just signed a deal with Nickelodeon for a sitcom for a new character so I’m excited about that. Right now we’re working on the pilot so I guess I’ll just see what happens.”

We’d like to see what happens too. With motivation, creativity, and positive-mindedness to spare, it goes without saying that Cruikshank has a bright future ahead of him.

Jessica Simpson and Joe Simpson Family Comedy

Vanessa Baker — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:46:35 +0000

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Jessica Simpson and Ashlee Simpson Wentz’s father, Joe Simpson, is creating a comedy for Nickelodeon based on his experiences raising his two famous daughters, reports E! News. The show, a collaboration with Tommy Lynch, is reportedly based on the family’s pre-fame life in Texas.

Game Review: Tak and the Guardians of Gross.

sarge-ak47 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:03:07 +0000

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JUJU MAKE ME GO CRAZY.
Alright lets get one thing out of the way, I enjoy video games regardless of the age and gender they are created for. If it is a good game then I will classify it as a good game. In my books there is no such thing as a ” I guess for a kids game this is alright.” You wanna know why? Because even simple kids games have to abide by some sort of standard. And don’t get me started on those pre-preschooler games… at that young age you shouldn’t be playing games in the first place. I played Super Mario Land for the Gameboy when I was 6, it was challenging, immersible, and got me to love games ever since.

Now that’s not to say Tak and the guardians of gross is a game designed for kids, I honestly wish that were not the case but tons of things within the game lead me to believe the only person to get some mild joy out of the title would be someone around that age.

The game is the third story iteration in Tak series and after a long hiatus now returns to the Wii. Developed by Blitz games and published by THQ this game sports the nickelodeon splat right on the box letting us know that this is a fine game based on the cartoon based on the game.. In fact one of the special extras on the disc is an episode of the cartoon.

So on to the game, this third story driven iteration now finds Tak on his way to clean the temple, where upon he tries to do it the easy way and what should have been as easy as sweeping dust under the rug turns out unleashing four GIGANTIC monsters that embody everything gross. Tak tasks himself to once again seal these monsters via the help of some new JUJU masters. Each new master offers him a new magic and the motivation to take the monsters down. from there on in its about a 6 hour journey (even faster if you avoid the non-checkpoint fights and run past the baddies) through some cool looking environments and some interesting design choices. Players are generally going to be doing a lot of platforming, light fighting and a couple of aiming and driving missions. It’s key to note that most of the crucial cinematics are cartoony CGI with in-game cut-scenes every now and then. Despite the horrendous witting the voice work is passable. It’s sad and a bit unfortunate that we get to hear so little of the awesome Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld’s David Putty), the man’s voice is always welcomed and I was surprised to hear him in the game..seeing as I don’t watch the cartoon he voices.

Presentation wise things are pretty clean and simple. The Graphics are some what ho-hum, granted the Wii is not a powerful machine and this isn’t a triple A title- still we could use something that does not look like a PSP port. Honestly some areas of the game sport such dated texture work and effects that its hard to understand that this came out recently. But there is something really cool about the game, and that lies in the design of most of the levels. Some of the later stages are pitted on the actual gigantic monsters themselves, and some of the sights are truly unique and cool. The environment design gets kudos as well for picking gross themes like trash, slime, melted cheese, and what could be best described as a gassy jungle. Whats even more cool is that its apparent right away that these touches are so akin to titles like God of War (remember getting Pandora’s box?) and Shadow of the Colossus. So what at first seems like dated visuals gets a notch up in terms of creativity and some truly cool scenes in the game.

Sound wise things couldn’t be worse. I’ve mentioned how I only loved the voice work of David putty.. besides that everyone sports a passive delivery of the horrible lines. It’s an audio assault to hear Tak yammer on about how he can use his wall running skills.. or how he can hit that.. or how he is afraid of heights. The music on the other hand is a surprise, with noticeable ambient sounds and subtle music that kicks in at the right moments. In fact one of the tracks seems so familiar to what I’ve heard in God of War. The soundtrack is a definite plus and probably the most polished thing about this game.

Game play is a mix of light linear platforming – with the occasional cool element that is oddly placed once every hour. The combat is light, very light, in fact you don’t even have to utilize the very few moves at your disposal. I found myself just bashing B over and over until the guys dropped. Occasionally I ended up using an area clearing supermove which is charged by the orbs of fallen enemies. Sure there is a vault move.. a charging tackle.. but really all you gotta do is bash B for the majority of encounters. There are some cool context sensitive take downs that result in some very God of War moments (they really love that game from the looks of things) that just scream excitement, but they’re few and far in between. The boss fights are as linear as the levels with only a couple of places that had me scratching my head- then I realized it was the fact that I could not see that ledge due to the games poor camera. Wii platform games are running into a lot of problems. Aside of Mario Galaxy, no one has seemed to nailed down the camera, and it’s rather sad since we all know how intuitive and hassle free galaxy’s camera was. But the camera will cause a lot of frustrations by positioning you in odd perspectives that will make your jumps seem like leaps of faith and moments were your next objective is not visible due to a poor vantage point. I should note that the simplicity of the game and it’s linear nature make it ideal for young kids, but they deserve better camera and gameplay if you ask me. And God forbid should any of those young ones pick up Tak and his annoying phrases, that alone would be disastrous.. that’s assuming they are not fans of the cartoon. If they are, they will love the game and it’s farty sense of humor.

This is a wii game and controls are very important. Granted I have given up on finding new and innovative control solutions via most third party devs, I still wont knock on a control scheme that isn’t broken. In Tak the controls are relatively simple. You run via standard nunchuck and press A and B for jump and attack. the Z button is mapped for vaulting over enemies, context sensitive actions, and wall running ala Prince of Persia. The only gripe I have is that the magic button is mapped to C on the nunchuck. It gets a bit tricky when you have a context sensitive action followed by a magic display. But besides that the controls work well and don’t require intense use of gestures and awkward motions. There are a few minigames that take advantage of the IR sensor and one that requires you to shake your Wii-mote, but things are relatively cool.

There isn’t much here in terms of replay, the game gets you a solid 6 hour session with mini games for a multiplayer session, the mini games are a bit shallow and ridiculous, but there are one or two out of the handful that might make you smile. There is a standard challenge mode designed to revisit some of the games areas, some cool picture mini games that are used to unlock and view the games concept art and as I mentioned before, an episode of the show.

Ultimately Tak is a game that leaves one confused. Can kids really like stuff like this? Well it’s worth a rental to the die hard fan of the show or previous games, defiantly worth a try to see some cool colossi monsters moving as you scale them, but in the end the series has refused to evolve and fix some of the problems of the original. The game feels dated and at times really lacks any of the depth of modern and classic platform titles. Go play Mario Galaxy, try out Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, the Jak and Daxter series and then if your really bored or if your young sibling/cousin/child has played them all and loves them TAK cartoons.. rent this one for them.

Game play    2/5
Graphics    2/5
Sound          3/5
Replay         2/5

Ren & Stimpy to Return to TV, Air On Nicktoons

Michael Levine — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 10:31:05 +0000

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Nickelodeon will be bringing back the classic kids cartoon Ren & Stimpy on it’s 24 hour animation network, Nicktoons.

Nicktoons will air all 3 seasons from the original series. The show will air weedays at 11:30pm EST and on weekends from 11:00AM – 12:00PM EST (2 episodes).

“We’re thrilled to add the cult classic, Ren & Stimpy, to our air,” said Keith Dawkins, Vice President and General Manager, Nicktoons. “The show is timeless because it combines great style, great humor and a truckload of attitude. We’re excited about bringing this original Nicktoon back to our audience. Ren & Stimpy represents the type of bold, experimental, creator driven animation that Nicktoons and our Nicktoons studio is all about.”

Ren & Stimpy left the airwaves back in 2002, after originally debuting in 1991 on Nickelodeon. The show earned an Emmy nomination in 1993.