4kidsEntertainment
Latest
An actual Viva Piata ... piata?
It's natural really. American Greetings has signed a deal with 4Kids Entertainment to create, ahem, "social expression products" based on Microsoft's would be Pokémon killer, Viva Piñata. These products are to include stickers, gift wrap, gift bags, greeting cards, Christmas ornaments, and (drum roll please) party goods! Oh please, let them make honest-to-God piñatas. I actually saw a Viva Piñata branded piñata while picking up my copy of GOW, but I think it was purely promotional. Besides, it was tiny. It would hold, like, hardly any candy at all. So, if you love (or hate) Viva Piñata and would dearly like to smash your own, your dream is one step closer to reality. Don't get your hopes up just yet, though: the product line isn't scheduled to launch until Fall of 2007. Full press release after the break.
Viva Piata animated series on FOX, will your kids take the bait?
As promised, Microsoft, Rare and 4Kids Entertainment announced today that Viva Piñata, the CG animated series, will debute tomorrow morning. The cleverly disguised infomercial will debut on FOX, capturing the fascinations of children across the country and, in turn, gobbling up a chunk of their parents' incomes over the course of the holiday season -- and beyond. At least, that's the hope.With an Xbox 360 game on the horizon, along with the standard flood of licensed merchandise, Viva Piñata the CG animated series is nothing more than a "springboard" for turning a profit*. Forgive our naiveté, but wasn't there a time when cartoons where made to provoke kids' imaginations -- not just sell something? A time when games and merchandise where the afterthought -- not the end goal? Nihilo sanctum estne?!*The official press release reads: "The computer graphics (CG) animated series ... will act as a springboard for the new franchise..."[Via press release]
