2011 in animation

January

• January 1: The first episode of Dan Vs. airs.
• January 3: The first episode of Wild Kratts airs on PBS Kids Go!, later on PBS Kids.

Latest revision as of 12:13, 16 October 202628 minutes ago

Restoring SMG4, and Madoka Magica is already covered on 2011 in anime

• January 1: The first episode of Dan Vs. airs.
• January 3: The first episode of Wild Kratts airs on PBS Kids Go!, later on PBS Kids.
• January 7: Puella Magi Madoka Magica premieres on MBS (and later TBS and CBC), receiving widespread acclaim audiences and critics for its beautifully dark, boundary-pushing reinvention of the magical girl subgenre and becoming one of the greatest anime series of the 2010s and of all time.
• January 9: The first episode of Bob's Burgers aired.^{[citation needed]}
• January 14: The first episode of Ninjago airs on Cartoon Network.
• January 24: The first episode of Bubble Guppies airs on Nickelodeon.

February

• February 11:
  • Entertainment One Films' Gnomeo & Juliet premieres.
  • Phineas and Ferb concludes its second season on Disney Channel with the premiere of the episodes "Make Play/Candace Gets Busted".^{[citation needed]}
• February 14: Disney Junior launches as Disney Channel's new preschool block after Playhouse Disney was shut down.
• February 27: 83rd Academy Awards:
  • Toy Story 3 by Lee Unkrich wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The song We Belong Together by Randy Newman from the same movie wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
  • The Lost Thing by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

March

• March 4:
  • Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon's Rango premieres. The movie gained controversy in California for the depictions of smoking in a children's movie. It was petitioned to receive an R rating, but failed to so. Further tobacco depictions would be phased out from the subsequent family-friendly films because of it.
  • Season 3 of Phineas and Ferb begins on Disney Channel with the premiere of the episodes "The Great Outdoors/Canderemy". The premiere of the season brought in a total of over 3.3 million viewers that night.
• March 11: Walt Disney Pictures and ImageMovers Digital's Mars Needs Moms is released, the film will become a major box-office bomb.
• March 13: The first episode of BoBoiBoy airs.^{[citation needed]}
• March 22: The film Rio is released.^{[citation needed]}
• March 23: Sym-Bionic Titan is canceled after 20 episodes due to low merchandise sales and series creator Genndy Tartakovsky leaving Cartoon Network to work with Sony Pictures Animation.
• March 26: The first episode of Larva airs.

April

• April 1: Illumination's live-action/animated film, Hop is released.
• April 3:
  • Tiger & Bunny premieres on Tokyo MX (with subsequent broadcasts on BS11 and MBS), instantly winning over critics and audiences with its refreshing, corporate-sponsored buddy-cop dynamic and becoming one of the standout superhero anime hits of the decade.
  • Nichijou premieres on TV Aichi (and later across independent regional networks), gradually overcoming mixed reviews from critics to earn a passionate cult following as one of the finest and most masterfully animated surreal comedies of all time.
• April 4: Cartoon Network's infamous program The Problem Solverz premieres, which received extremely negative reviews for its intense visual designs as the program was removed from the channel's schedule shortly after one season.
• April 6: Steins;Gate premieres on Tokyo MX (and later across independent UHF stations in Japan), earning critical and public acclaim for its deeply human, psychologically harrowing time-travel narrative and securing its legacy as one of the greatest anime series ever made.
• April 14: Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day premieres on Fuji TV's Noitamina block, gaining acclaim from audiences and critics for its profoundly devastating, cathartic exploration of shared childhood grief and becoming one of the premier anime tear-jerkers of the 2010s.
• April 24: The series finale of Total Drama World Tour premieres on Teletoon in Canada.
• April 27: Season 15 of South Park begins on Comedy Central with the premiere of the episode "HumancentiPad". It was seen by just over 3.1 million viewers that night.

May

• May 1: The first episode of Raa Raa the Noisy Lion aired.^{[citation needed]}
• May 3:
  • The first episodes of The Amazing World of Gumball & The Looney Tunes Show aired on Cartoon Network.^{[citation needed]}
  • Punky airs for the first time.
• May 15: The Cleveland Show concludes its second season on Fox with the episode "Hot Cocoa Bang Bang". The finale was seen by exactly 4.9 million viewers that night.
• May 22:
  • The film Kung Fu Panda 2 premiered.^{[citation needed]}
  • American Dad! concludes its seventh season on Fox with the episode "Gorillas in the Mist". The finale was seen by over 3.5 million viewers that night.
  • The Simpsons concludes its 22nd season on Fox with the episode "The Ned-Liest Catch", in which Ned Flanders and Edna Krabappel become romantically involved, ending on a cliffhanger regarding whether or not they will stay together. Viewers are invited to vote over the matter. On September 25, at the start of the new season, the next episode "The Falcon and the D'ohman" reveals that they have indeed become a couple by viewer request.
  • Bob's Burgers concludes its first season on Fox with the episode "Torpedo". The finale was seen by just over 4.3 million viewers that night.
  • Family Guy concludes its ninth season on Fox with the final episode in the Star Wars trilogy parody "Its a Trap!". The finale was seen by over 5.8 million viewers that night.

June

• June 1:
  • Peter Dodd's Freddy Frogface premiered.^{[citation needed]}
  • Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux' The Rabbi's Cat was released, based on Sfar's graphic novel of the same name.^{[citation needed]}
• June 13: Season 5 of Johnny Test begins on Cartoon Network with the premiere of the episodes "Johnny Goes Nuts/Johnny Daddy Day".
• June 18: The Walt Disney Company/Pixar film Cars 2 was released, which gained negative attention over the 2006 predecessor for lacking the originality, unnecessary spy themes, and gun violence.
• June 27: Nickelodeon launches a revival of Winx Club with a one-hour special.
• Specific date unknown: Dutch animator Rosto's The Monster of Nix was released, a mixture of live-action and animation, with the voices of Tom Waits, Terry Gilliam and The Residents.

July

• July 15: Winnie the Pooh is released, receiving favorable reviews. Due to John Lasseter’s involvement and devotion with the CG animation for subsequent films, this would be the last traditionally animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios until Lasseter left Disney in 2018 and the studio announced in 2019 that there would be possibilities for more hand-drawn films in the future.
• July 16: Goro Miyazaki's From Up on Poppy Hill premieres.^{[citation needed]}

August

• August 1: Secret Mountain Fort Awesome airs its first episode on Cartoon Network.^{[citation needed]}
• August 5: Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, the first film based on Phineas and Ferb, premiered on Disney Channel to critical acclaim. The film's premiere reeled in a total of 7.6 million viewers that night, thus making it the highest-rated animated children's program of the year.
• August 19: Alan Becker releases "Animator vs Animation III" on Newgrounds.
• August 25: Phineas and Ferb creators Dan Povenmire & Jeff "Swampy" Marsh make a multi-year deal with Disney Television Animation which includes the following:
  • A fourth season renewal of the show.
  • A pilot for a potential spin-off of the show.
• August 31: After 11 years, Between the Lions is removed from PBS Kids.

September

• September 3: Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur premieres on Cartoon Network. The film gave us the "Ultra Instinct Shaggy" meme 6 years later.
• September 8: Futurama concludes its sixth season on Comedy Central with the episode "Reincarnation". The finale was seen by over 1.4 million viewers that night.
• September 12:
  • The first episode of Detentionaire airs.^{[citation needed]}
  • Johnny Test concludes its fourth season on Cartoon Network with the episode "Johnny X Strikes Back Again!".
• September 16: The film Top Cat: The Movie premieres.^{[citation needed]}
• September 21: The first episode of Plim Plim airs.^{[citation needed]}
• September 25:
  • Season 23 of The Simpsons begins on Fox with the premiere of the episode "The Falcon and the D'ohman", which features the following guest stars: Tom Colicchio, Kevin Michael Richardson, & Kiefer Sutherland.
  • Season 3 of The Cleveland Show begins on Fox with the premiere of the episode "BFFs", guest starring professional wrestler Ric Flair.
  • Season 10 of Family Guy begins on Fox with the premiere of the episode "Lottery Fever".
  • Season 8 of American Dad! begins on Fox with the premiere of the episode "Hot Water".
• September 29:
  • The Danish film Ronal the Barbarian is released.^{[citation needed]}
  • The Problem Solverz concludes its first season on Cartoon Network with the episode "Tux Dog's Island". This was the last episode to air on Cartoon Network as the show's second & final season would instead release on Netflix due to its critically negative reception.^{[citation needed]}

October

• October 1: Fate/Zero first airs on Tokyo MX (along with other Japanese syndication networks), quickly receiving widespread critical and audience acclaim for its mature storytelling and stellar animation and becoming largely recognized as one of the best anime series of both 2011 and the entire decade.
• October 2:
• The first episode of China, IL airs.^{[citation needed]}
• The Seth MacFarlane crossover event "Night of the Hurricane" occurs on Fox:
  • Part 1: The Hurricane! (The Cleveland Show)
  • Part 2: Seahorse Seashell Party (Family Guy)
    • Critics & fans have declared this to be the worst episode of the show, mainly due to Meg taking back everything she said about Peter, Lois, & Chris at the end of the episode, even though she had every right to scold them for constantly bullying her all these years.
  • Part 3: Hurricane! (American Dad!)
• Hunter × Hunter premieres on Nippon TV, surpassing the 1999 anime adaptation to achieve near-universal acclaim as one of the greatest anime series of the decade and of all time.
• October 16: Puss in Boots, a spin-off in the Shrek franchise, is first released.^{[citation needed]}
• October 18: The film Batman: Year One is first released.^{[citation needed]}
• October 23: Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson release The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, a CGI-film adaptation of the Belgian comics series Tintin.^{[citation needed]}
• October 27: A reboot of Beavis and Butt-Head first airs, but only lasts a season. The series would later have another revival on Paramount+ in 2022.^{[citation needed]}

November

• November 11: The film Arthur Christmas is released by Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation.^{[citation needed]}
• November 16: South Park concludes its 15th season on Comedy Central with the episode "The Poor Kid". It was seen by just over 3.1 million viewers that night.
• November 18: The film Happy Feet Two is first released.^{[citation needed]}
• November 23:
  • Jean-François Laguionie's The Painting premieres.^{[citation needed]}
  • The Fairly OddParents' hour-long special "Timmy's Secret Wish!" premiered on Nickelodeon, it is revealed that Timmy has secretly wished for him and everyone else on earth to stop aging for 50 years so that he doesn't have to worry about growing up and losing his fairies. The special was seen by over 2.9 million viewers that night, it ended up being the highest-rated episode premiere of that night.

December

• December 17: The first episode of Transformers: Rescue Bots airs.
• December 28: Bambi and A Computer Animated Hand are added to the National Film Registry.

Specific date unknown

• Robert Morgan's Bobby Yeah premieres.

February

• February 10: Ravi Cabot-Conyers, American actor (voice of Antonio Madrigal in Encanto and Once Upon a Studio).

May

• May 17: Rylee Alazraqui, American actress and daughter of Carlos Alazraqui (voice of Emma in Stillwater, Rok-Tahk in Star Trek: Prodigy, Julie and Safari Sarah in Doug Unplugs, Grace in Puppy Dog Pals, Milk in the Apple & Onion episode "A New Life", Agnes in the Doc McStuffins episode "The Doc McStuffins Christmas Special", additional voices in Summer Camp Island).

September

• September 15: Lexi Sexton, American child actress (voice of Adelaide Chang in The Loud House and The Casagrandes, Kid at Home #3 in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Toddler Titans... Yay!").

January

• January 2: Peter Hobbs, French-American actor (voice of Jerry in Heavy Traffic, American General in The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat, General in Wizards), dies at age 92.
• January 6: Aron Kincaid, American actor (voice of Killer Croc in Batman: The Animated Series, Sky Lynx in The Transformers, the Nerdator in the Freakazoid! episode "Nerdator", Fritter O'Way in the DuckTales episode "Down and Out in Duckburg"), dies at age 70.
• January 11: Tony Geiss, American author, songwriter (Sesame Street), producer and screenwriter (Sesame Street, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Between the Lions, Play with Me Sesame), dies from complications after a fall at age 86.
• January 13: Jack LaLanne, American fitness & nutrition guru and motivational speaker (voiced himself in The Simpsons episode "The Old Man and the 'C' Student"), dies from pneumonia at age 96.
• January 26: Clément Sauvé, Canadian comic book artist and character designer (G.I. Joe: Renegades), dies from cancer at age 33.
• January 27:
  • Boyd Kirkland, American television director (Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men: Evolution, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes), dies at age 60.
  • Charlie Callas, American actor and comedian (voice of Elliott in Pete's Dragon), dies at age 86.

February

• February 10: Bill Justice, American animator (Walt Disney Animation Studios), dies at age 97.
• February 12: Kenneth Mars, American actor (voice of King Triton in The Little Mermaid franchise, Tuskernini in Darkwing Duck, Professor Screweyes in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Grandpa Longneck in The Land Before Time franchise, Beethoven in the Animaniacs episode "Roll Over, Beethoven", Dr. Gunter Hunterhanker in the Freakazoid! episode "Candle Jack"), dies at age 75.
• February 21: Dwayne McDuffie, American comic book writer, television producer and writer (Warner Bros. Animation), dies from complications from emergency heart surgery at age 49.
• February 22: Jean Dinning, American singer (sang "Blame It on the Samba" in Melody Time), dies at age 86.

March

• March 20: Johnny Pearson, English composer (Captain Pugwash), dies at age 85.
• March 23: Elizabeth Taylor, English-American actress (voice of Mrs. Andrews in the Captain Planet and the Planeteers episode "A Formula for Hate", Sarah in the God, the Devil and Bob episode "God's Girlfriend", Maggie Simpson and herself in The Simpsons episodes "Lisa's First Word" and "Krusty Gets Kancelled"), dies from heart failure at age 79.

April

• April 4: Wayne Robson, Canadian actor (voice of Frank in The Rescuers Down Under), dies at age 64.
• April 17: Osamu Dezaki, Japanese film director, producer (co-founder of Madhouse) and screenwriter, dies at age 67.
• April 27: Oscar Kawagley, Yup'ik anthropologist, teacher and actor (voice of Inuit Narrator in Brother Bear), dies from cancer at age 76.

May

• May 10: Norma Zimmer, American actress (voice of White Rose in Alice in Wonderland), dies at age 87.
• May 16: Bill Skiles, American comedian (voice of Monkeys in The Jungle Book), dies at age 79.
• May 20: Randy Savage, American professional wrestler and actor (voice of Thug in Bolt, Sasquatch in The X's, Rasslor in the Dexter's Laboratory episode of the same name, Leonard Ghostal in the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Piledriver", Master Sergeant Emily Dickinson Jones in the Duck Dodgers episode "Back to the Academy", Biker in the Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? episode "Family Vacation", Gorilla in the King of the Hill episode "Bill, Bulk and the Body Buddies"), dies at age 58.
• May 21: Bill Hunter, Australian actor (voice of Phillip Sherman in Finding Nemo, Bubo in Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole), dies from liver cancer at age 71.
• May 25: Lillian Adams, American actress (voice of Rosa in Heavy Traffic, Italian Woman in Hey Good Lookin'), dies at age 89.

June

• June 18: Clarence Clemons, American musician and actor (voice of the Narrator in The Simpsons episode "Grift of the Magi"), dies from a stroke at age 69.
• June 23:
  • Peter Falk, American actor (voice of Bailey in Hubert's Brain, Don Feinberg in Shark Tale), dies from pneumonia at age 83.
  • Fred Steiner, American conductor, orchestrator, film historian, arranger and composer (The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, Tiny Toon Adventures), dies from a stroke at age 88.
• June 25: Alice Playten, American actress (voice of Gloria in Heavy Metal, Baby Lickety-Split and Baby Moondancer in Generation 1 of My Little Pony, Poindexter in Felix the Cat: The Movie, Beebe Bluff in Doug), dies at age 63.

July

• July 5: Gordon Tootoosis, Saskatchewan actor (voice of Kekata in Pocahontas, Mushom in Wapos Bay, Gordy in Open Season), dies from pneumonia at age 69.
• July 12: Sherwood Schwartz, American television writer and producer (creator of The Brady Kids, The New Adventures of Gilligan and Gilligan's Planet, co-wrote the song "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle" which was used on Rugrats Go Wild and the Robot Chicken episode "Suck It", and "The Brady Bunch Theme" which was parodied as the "T.U.F.F. and D.O.O.M. Theme" in the T.U.F.F. Puppy episode "Share-A-Lair"), dies at age 94.
• July 15: Michael Magee, Canadian actor, singer and author (voice of Cyril Sneer in The Racoons), dies at age 81.
• July 23: Toyoo Ashida, Japanese film director and character designer (Fist of the North Star, Vampire Hunter D, The Mysterious Cities of Gold) and producer (Studio Live), dies at age 67.
• July 29: Dominique Benicheti, French film director and producer, dies at age 68.
• July 31: Carl Steven, American former child actor (voice of Pigpen and Franklin in Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown, Woody in Happily Ever After, Jamie Bingham in Fluppy Dogs, Fred Jones in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo), dies from a drug overdose at age 36.

August

• August 22: Joan Gerber, American actress (voice of Granny in Corn on the Cop, Irma Boyle in Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, The Elephant in The Mouse and His Child, Mrs. Rich and Irona the Maid in Richie Rich, Mrs. Kelp in Snorks, Mrs. Beakley and Glittering Goldie in DuckTales, Gotcha Grabmore in Tiny Toon Adventures, Shreeka in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Shreeka's Revenge"), dies at age 76.

September

• September 4: Dave Hoover, American comics artist and animator (Wanderers, Starman, Captain America), dies at age 56.
• September 14: Kevyn Wallace, American animator (Rocko's Modern Life), background artist (Freakazoid!, The Proud Family Movie, The Simpsons Movie) and layout artist (Bebe's Kids, Earthworm Jim, Walt Disney Animation Studios), dies in a car accident at age 48.
• September 18: Tom Daly, Canadian film producer (My Financial Career), dies at age 93.
• September 19: Earl Kress, American animation historian, storyboard artist (The Kwicky Koala Show, The Addams Family) and screenwriter (Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, The Fox and the Hound, Hanna-Barbera, The Transformers, The Berenstain Bears, Ghostbusters, Warner Bros. Animation, Mother Goose and Grimm, Disney Television Animation, The New Woody Woodpecker Show, Winx Club, The X's, Monster Allergy, Geronimo Stilton), dies from liver cancer at age 60.

October

• October 5:
  • Steve Jobs, American business magnate (co-founder of Pixar), dies at age 56.
  • Charles Napier, American actor (voice of Duke Phillips in The Critic, General Hardcastle in the DC Animated Universe, Cooley in the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command episode "Haunted Moon", original voice of the Sheriff in Squidbillies), dies at age 75.

November

• November 4: Sarah Watt, Australian film director and animator (The Way of the Birds), dies from cancer at age 53.
• November 7: Joe Frazier, American professional boxer (voiced himself in The Simpsons episodes "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" and "Homer's Paternity Coot"), dies from liver cancer at age 67.
• November 18: Mark Hall, English animator and film producer (Cosgrove Hall Films, Danger Mouse), dies from cancer at age 75.
• November 30: Zdeněk Miler, Czech animator, film director, and illustrator (The Little Mole), dies at age 90.

December

• December 1:
  • Shingo Araki, Japanese film and television director (Mushi Production, Toei Animation, Tokyo Movie Shinshia) and producer (co-founder of Toei Animation), dies at age 72.
  • Bill McKinney, American actor (voice of Jonah Hex in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Showdown"), dies at age 80.
  • Alan Sues, American actor and comedian (voice of Sir Leonard Looney in Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure, Scratcher in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July), dies at age 85.
• December 2: Bruno Bianchi, French animator and comics artist (Inspector Gadget, DIC Entertainment, SIP Animation), dies from cancer at age 56.
• December 5: Dan Mills, American animator (Beany and Cecil, Linus the Lionhearted, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Freddie as F.R.O.7, Asterix Conquers America, The Pagemaster, Cats Don't Dance, Family Guy) and storyboard artist (101 Dalmatians: The Series, Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II), dies at age 80.
• December 7:
  • Harry Morgan, American actor and director (voice of Carolinus in The Flight of Dragons, Bill Gannon in The Simpsons episode "Mother Simpson"), dies from pneumonia at age 96.
  • Ricky Garduno, American animator and storyboard artist (¡Mucha Lucha!, Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island, The Buzz on Maggie, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, Making Fiends, Family Guy), commits suicide at age 35.
• December 15: Merlee Shapiro, Canadian actress (voice of the Storyteller in Caillou), dies at an unknown age.
• December 30: Ronald Searle, English illustrator, cartoonist and comics artist (The Happiest Days of Your Life, Energetically Yours, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, Monte Carlo or Bust! and Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done), dies at age 91.