those new Peanuts cartoons now on-line

If you’ve got iTunes set up, this link should take you to the free sample of the new Peanuts cartoon, including two episodes of the 20 they’re making this season. They run about three and a half minutes each, plus credits. In this case, the two episodes really cover one storyline – they’ve adapted the Linus-runs-for-school-president story. Which means that they’ve got something very timely, but on the toher hand they’re basically covering the same ground as You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, which aired on U.S. TV just last week.

The animation is a little stiff in a different way than the classical Peanuts animation is a little stiff; the use of  Flash software to make it gives movements that area little too smooth without being quite right. But that’s a nitpick – particularly if you’re watching this thing on a cell phone, which is what they had in mind.

Pricewise, the deal is reasonable. If all the episodes are about this length, that means than a $7.99 subscription gets you about 70 minutes of animation, which is roughly as long as three TV specials.

A couple of you told me about yesterday’s NPR interview with Craig Schulz about these new cartoons; you
can listen to it online here.

There’s still time to vote.

And there’s always time for more donuts.

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25 years

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