Mike Milo's Journal

Three years ago I created a seven minute animated film called “Flavio” for Nickelodeon/Frederator Films, about an over-emotional goat who works as a dishwasher in a pizzeria and longs to be a famous inventor like his hero Leonardo DaVinci.

I have not been able to post it on my site because it had to air on telivision first to be eligible for Emmys and Annies and all that stuff that only animators care about. Anyway, I can finally show it. Please check it out and as always I love to here your thoughts!
You can see a production blog about the making of Flavio at Frederator.com and learn more about Flavio here.

Here’s some designs for a show my buddy Harry and I were working on…

This was my first attempt but we jointly decided that the black guy’s design was a bit too old.

Here’s a few more soul-searching facial designs… (click the design to see a bigger pic)

Personally I like #3, #6 and # 13 the best.

A few weeks ago I posted a design of an idea I had about Stephen and Boris… I liked the idea but it lacked focus so I went back to the drawing board and revised it considerably in concept as well as in design.

I can’t say much about the idea itself except that it’s about two of Mother Nature’s agents who help her get things done. Anyway, here’s the final version of When Nature Calls.

I pitch on Thursday! Wish me luck!

I think I like these the best so far…

Check THIS out! It’s the actual guidelines to pitch a cartoon at Cartoon Network. Pretty cool! Tons of info in here. But then again, I’m not sure there’s much point in it seeing as how they say they’re moving towards live action and will soon become Cartoon Network. But then again, I imagine the criteria will be the same for them whether it’s live action or animation anyway.

I just got back from pitching some projects for a studio who’s name rhymes with Quisney and it seemed to go pretty well. They’re looking for funny ideas yet still have them be able to fit in with their slate right now, which is hard, I think, for cartoons. they also wanted more of a single character idea and not so much an ensemble cast of characters.

I pitched three ideas; Manny the Nanny, Lump’s Life and Killer; Whale at Large. Of all of them, (I got a million of ‘em) they sparked to Manny the Nanny the best. I pitched three ideas and you can see a smidge of artwork from them below!

"Manny" from Manny the Nanny

"Killer" from Killer; Whale at Large

"Lump" from Lump’s Life

So I’ve decided to get back on the Pitching trail. It’s been quite some time since I did this and my last successful pitch was about two years ago called Flavio.

Next week I’ll be pitching to National Geographic and the week after to Disney’s Shorts division. I am scheduled to pitch at Nickelodeon at some point as well.

Below is one of the shows I’ll be pitching called Jessie’s Human which is based on my own dog Jessica. It’s the story of a bachelor and his jealous Lucille Ball type dog who’s always getting into trouble in one way or another. I hope someone likes it. Believe me, you’ll be the first to hear!

As always click the image to see a bigger pic.

Here’s a short cartoon idea I did a while back when I was writing Flavio… I really like this idea and am hoping to pitch it along with 4 other concepts to Disney in the next few weeks.

This one is called For the Birds and centers around Red, a cardinal who has a crush on his classmate, Jeannie and The Admiral who believes in the imminent threat of an alien attack. Below… (more…)