The imagination of Charles M. Schulz has spawned decades of animated hits and legions of fans. Every year, one of the key highlights in ToonBarn news reporting is announcing when the Peanuts will be celebrating the Christmas holiday on your TV, or visiting the Great Pumpkin. Now, we’re able to take a few more of these types of animated classics home with us, as the DVD world welcomes the Charlie Brown/Peanuts Specials 1970’s Collection, Volume 2 DVD Set. Volume 1 arrived in stores only this past October, and fans gobbled them up. On June 1st, you can get your hands on this two-disc set for about $30, with all 6 specials completely remastered. Read on to see what’s included (more… )

Last week, Nickelodeon debuted The Penguins of Madagascar President’s Day special, Dr. Blowhole’s Revenge, earning the top ratings spot for the evening. The episode featured special guest star Neil Patrick Harris, star of “How I Met Your Mother”, as the penguins’ long-time nemesis out for revenge and to finally conquer the world. Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private face off against the malevolent Dr. Blowhole, attempting to foil his plans. The evil dolphin aims to kidnap King Julien, who Dr. Blowhole mistakenly thinks is Skipper’s best friend. Take a look at a clip of the episode right here (more… )

From Monday through Friday next week, February 22nd through February 26th, Nickelodeon will help celebrate the Chinese New Year with brand new episodes of the hit series Ni Hao, Kai-Lan. The week-long marathon event will be dubbed Year of the Tiger week, with each episode airing at 1:30pm. On Friday’s episode, Kai-Lan teaches a valuable lesson to Rintoo the Tiger; taking turns. And, if you’ve ever tried to teach a tiger how to take turns before, you know how valuable it can be to be successful!!! (more… )

The Boomerang Network knows how to truly celebrate a holiday! That’s why, on Monday, February 15th, otherwise known as President’s Day, the sister-channel to the Cartoon Network will be airing a 12 hour Smurfs marathon, from 8am to 8pm. The mushroom-living little blue creatures will spend the entire day fouling Gargamel’s plans, avoiding Azrael, and singing happily, as they Smurf the day along. Led by the wise and magical Papa Smurf, the rest of the crew includes Brainy, Vanity, Hefty, Clumsy, Smurfette (the only female Smurf), and dozens of other adorable characters. Be sure to TOON in! (more… )

With Valentine’s Day just a few days away, “love is in the air” couldn’t ring truer! Boomerang, Cartoon Network’s sister channel, is proving this by hosting Johnny Bravo St. Valentine’s Day Marathon on Valentine’s Day, just as they did last year. The marathon will run on Sunday, February 14th, from 12pm through 8:30pm. Finishing off the 8 and a half hours of Johnny, there will be a 30 minute special called “Its Valentine Day, Johnny Bravo at 8p, featuring Molly Shannon, Joe McIntyre, Maureen McCormick, and Donny Osmond as guest stars. (more… )

Running from 9am through later this afternoon, Nickelodeon is offering viewers a big heart-shaped box of chocolates! …er… cartoons! An all-day marathon is planned with love as the theme, including new episodes of The Wonder Pets!, Team Umizoomi, and episodes of Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Max & Ruby, The Fresh Beat band, and Ni Hao, Kai-lan. If you love cartoons like we do, it makes complete sense to share the love weekend with them (more… )

For all you love birds out there, be sure to TOON into ABC tonight as the network airs the Peanuts special A Charlie Brown Valentine. Just like the classic Christmas special, the Halloween themed Great Pumpkin special, and the turkey-themed Thanksgiving special, the Valentine’s Day episode is taken directly from Charles M. Schulz’s famous comic strip, and will be on tonight, February 10th, at 8pm on ABC. Charlie Brown finally works up the courage to call the little red-haired girl to ask her to the Valentine’s Day dance. But once again he ends up broken-hearted and empty-handed when he dials the wrong number and reaches Peppermint Patty instead. You heart-shaped blockhead! (more… )

Today is the day, Super Bowl XLIV. Day-long hype will build the story of the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts doing battle on the field, a true grid iron classic. While any football reference instantly brings the toon image of Lucy and Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame to my mind, I’m very much looking forward to enjoying the game today. Well, the game, and the commercials! Have you guys picked a team yet? Is it the standard answer of “well, the Colts have Peyton, but we want ‘Nawlins to win!” ? What say you!! (more… )