Orrin Scott: Archiving Animation with Home Media - Nickelodeon Physical Home Media Releases

The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius was the first franchise to have spun off from a theatrical film. Todays’ Nicktoons continue that pattern, but it’s also interesting to note that they also happen to be CGI products. I’m going to have to research whether these choices were because of theatrical box office performance, whether it's a by-product of CGI productions decreasing in cost over time, or because the assets had already been created for their respective films. Regardless, for today, let’s analyze the home releases of the next five Nicktoon franchises.

Tak and the Power of Juju originally debuted in 2003 as a PlayStation 2 and GameCube action-adventure game developed by Avalanche Studios, published by THQ, and produced by Nickelodeon. It sold well enough to warrant two sequels, Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams (2004; Original XBox, PS2, Game Boy Advance and GameCube) and Tak: The Great Juju Challenges (2005; Original XBox, PS2, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and GameCube).

In 2007, Tak and the Power of Juju ran for one season of 26 episodes as a co-production between Avalanche Studios, THQ, and Nickelodeon Studios, making it the first CGI series where Nickelodeon had direct control over the end product. Tak had a single episode compilation released on DVD and the complete series was released on Amazon’s manufacture-on-demand.

Sources:

https://www.awn.com/news/taks-got-power-nickelodeon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tak_and_the_Power_of_Juju

Tak and the Power of Juju Logo

https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Tak_and_the_Power_of_Juju

Back at the Barnyard was a theatrical film that debuted in 2006. A year later, a series by the same name would run for two seasons. The film was released on DVD. The television series had three episode compilations released on DVD and Amazon’s manufacture-on-demand has released the entire series on two season sets.

Sources:

https://nickelodeon.fandom.com/wiki/Back_at_the_Barnyard_videography

Back at the Barnyard Logo:

https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Back_at_the_Barnyard

The Mighty B! (2008) ran for two seasons of 20 episodes apiece. It has only had 15 shorts released on two episode compilations on DVD.

Episodes released:
Season 1 Episode 1A "So Happy Together"
Season 1 Episode 1B "Sweet Sixteenth"
Season 1 Episode 2A "Bee My Baby"
Season 1 Episode 2B "Bee Afraid"
Season 1 Episode 3A "Artificial Unintelligence"
Season 1 Episode 3B "We Got the Bee"
Season 1 Episode 5A "Bat Mitzvah Crashers"
Season 1 Episode 5B "Super Secret Weakness"
Season 1 Episode 13A "Something's Wrong With This Taffy"
Season 1 Episode 13B "Name Shame"
Season 1 Episode 14A "Bee Patients"
Season 1 Episode 14B "To Bee or Not To Bee"
Season 1 Episode 17A "Ben Appetit"
Season 1 Episode 17B "Dang it Feels Good to Be a Gamester"
Season 1 Episode 20 "Dragonflies"

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Mighty_B!_episodes#Season_1_(2008%E2%80%9309)

The Mighty B! Logo

https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mighty_B!

The Penguins of Madagascar (2008) is a spinoff of the Madagascar film franchise, though the stories told are self-contained from the films and unrelated to the fourth film of the same name. It ran for three seasons of 149 episodes, of which 66 have been released on DVD as episode compilations including two episodes as a bonus pack-in with Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Two prequel (to the films) series have been produced; All Hail King Julien (2014, Netflix) and Madagascar: A Little Wild (Hulu, 2020).

Episodes released:
Season 1 Episode 1 "Gone in a Flash"
Season 1 Episode 2 "Launchtime"
Season 1 Episode 3 "Haunted Habitat"
Season 1 Episode 4 "Operation: Plush & Cover"
Season 1 Episode 5 "Happy King Julien Day!"
Season 1 Episode 6 "Paternal Egg-Stinct"
Season 1 Episode 7 "Assault & Batteries"
Season 1 Episode 8 "Penguiner Takes All"
Season 1 Episode 9 "Two Feet High and Rising"
Season 1 Episode 10 "Tangled in the Web"
Season 1 Episode 11 "Crown Fools"
Season 1 Episode 12 "The Hidden"
Season 1 Episode 13 "Kingdom Come"
Season 1 Episode 15 "All Choked Up"
Season 1 Episode 16 "Popcorn Panic"
Season 1 Episode 17 "Go Fish"
Season 1 Episode 18 "Miracle on Ice"
Season 1 Episode 19 "Needle Point"
Season 1 Episode 20 "Eclipsed"
Season 1 Episode 21 "Mort Unbound"
Season 1 Episode 22 "Roomies"
Season 1 Episode 23 "Misfortune Cookie"
Season 1 Episode 24 "Lemur See, Lemur Do"
Season 1 Episode 25 "Roger Dodger"
Season 1 Episode 26 "Skorca!"
Season 1 Episode 27 "Otter Gone Wild"
Season 1 Episode 28 "Cat's Cradle"
Season 1 Episode 32 "Mask of the Raccoon"
Season 1 Episode 33 "Out of the Groove"
Season 1 Episode 34 "Jungle Law"
Season 1 Episode 35 "I Was a Penguin Zombie"
Season 1 Episode 36 "Sting Operation"
Season 1 Episode 37 "All King, No Kingdom"
Season 1 Episode 38 "Untouchable"
Season 1 Episode 44 "Snakehead!"
Season 1 Episode 45 "Jiggles"
Season 1 Episode 46 "The Falcon & The Snow Job"
Season 1 Episode 48 "Dr. Blowhole's Revenge"

Season 2 Episode 1 "The Red Squirrel"
Season 2 Episode 2 "It's About Time"
Season 2 Episode 4 "In the Line of Doody"
Season 2 Episode 6 "Hard Boiled Eggy"
Season 2 Episode 7 "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel"
Season 2 Episode 10 "Mr. Tux"
Season 2 Episode 11 "Concrete Jungle Survival"
Season 2 Episode 16 "The Helmet"
Season 2 Episode 18 "The Big Squeeze"
Season 2 Episode 19 "Wishful Thinking"
Season 2 Episode 20 "April Fools"
Season 2 Episode 21 "Hello, Dollface"
Season 2 Episode 25 "Driven to the Brink"
Season 2 Episode 27 "Work Order"
Season 2 Episode 28 "Hot Ice"
Season 2 Episode 29 "Command Crisis"
Season 2 Episode 30 "Truth Ache"
Season 2 Episode 31 "The All Nighter Before Christmas"
Season 2 Episode 45 "Operation: Neighbor Swap"
Season 2 Episode 49 "A Visit from Uncle Nigel"
Season 2 Episode 50 "The Hoboken Surprise"
Season 2 Episode 51 "The Return of the Revenge of Dr. Blowhole"
Season 2 Episode 54 "Operation: Good Deed"
Season 2 Episode 62 "Operation Antarctica"
Season 2 Episode 63 "The Big Move"

Season 3 Episode 11 "Antics on Ice"
Season 3 Episode 20 "Siege the Day"
Season 3 Episode 28 "Snowmageddon"

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_(franchise)#Penguins_of_Madagascar_(2014)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Penguins_of_Madagascar_episodes#Season_1_(2008%E2%80%9310)

https://nickelodeon.fandom.com/wiki/The_Penguins_of_Madagascar_videography

The Penguins of Madagascar Logo

https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/The_Penguins_of_Madagascar

Random Cartoons! (2008) is a one season sequel to Oh Yeah! Cartoons (Sometimes mis-credited as the fourth season to Oh Yeah! Cartoons). Much like its predecessor, Random Cartoons! is an anthology of 29 cartoons over 13 episodes.

One of the shorts created for Random Cartoons!, Hornswiggle was created by Jerry Beck and directed by Rich Arons (Freakazoid!, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, and many more). More info can be found here and the production blog can be viewed here. Photo from my collection.

One short would be picked up for a series for Nickelodeon (Fanboy & Chum Chum (2009)), one other would be picked up by Cartoon Network (And into a smash hit; more on that one later), and one would be produced for Frederator Studios’ YouTube Channel, Cartoon Hangover (Bravest Warriors).