Annecy Round-Up: Bubblegum and Marceline, Loving Dory, Conan The Barbarian and More

For one week every June, the humble town of Annecy in France becomes the center of the animation world. Animators, executives, industry figures, artists and animation fans descend on the alpine town as it hosts a celebration of our favourite medium in all its forms. This year's festival just wrapped up this past weekend and there has been a whole load of news coming out of the festival. We've already covered several posts on the subject already, but now we bring you a round-up of the best of the rest.

Cartoon Network Studios and HBO Max have announced yet another Adventure Time spin-off. This time featuring fan favourite characters Bubblegum and Marceline. The series will feature the further adventures of the friends (girlfriends?), with plans of stories that will spread across multiple episodes and seasons. The series has been given a 10-episode straight-to-series order. Adam Muto is serving as showrunner and executive producer. Fred Seibert and Sam Register are also executive producing.

Warner Bros Animation announced an adult animated remake of the classic gothic drama Dark Shadows (previously adapted into a movie by Tim Burton). The show is in a very early stage of development, and Lisa Holdsworth, a writer on Channel 4's Dreamers, Call The Midwife and A Discovery Of Witches, is set as the showrunner.

Warner Bros Animation in association with DC Studios, announced new series, Absolute Batman, an adaptation of the comic of the same name. They also announced Joker: Laugh Riot, DC's first anime series, and a kids series starring Krypto the Superdog. They also screened the animated feature Batman: Knightfall, first in a planned trilogy of films based on one of the most notorious arcs from comics' history.

Netflix dropped a trailer for Alley Cats from creator and writer Ricky Gervais, animated by Blink Industries.

At the first-ever Prime Video Studio Focus, it was announced that Invincible has been renewed for a sixth season, before the fifth has even aired. This makes it the longest-running Amazon animated series. It was also announced that Jack Quaid (The Boys) would be joining the voice cast. It was also announced that Helluva Boss would be returning for season three on October 14.

Cartoon Network Studios and Prime Video are developing a series based on Conan The Barbarian from animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky. He said, “I’ve been trying to develop Conan since 2008, but the world was not ready, But now, after Adult Swim’s Samurai Jack and Primal, it’s prime time for this to come to life, I have been so inspired by the books written by Robert E. Howard, whose work I have a personal connection with. So far I feel super excited. This is the only IP I’ve worked on other than Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and I think it’s going to be something special.”

Disney announced their first theatrical short for five years. Lilo and Scratch will take place shortly after the first film (the animated one, not last year's live action) and Stitch is doing just fine with his new family. That is until Lilo brings home another new family member- a cat. Chris Sanders will return to voice Stitch. The short is described as "a wild, chaotic chase around the island, " Adding "this is the kind of mayhem we love with this character.” The short will debut this autumn, presumably alongside Hexed, Walt Disney Animation Studio's 65th animated feature, which the studio also previewed.

Pixar also previewed a new short. Loving Dory will feature the perrenially forgetful fish falling in love.. with a plastic bag. It will feature the return of Nemo and Dory, and other beloved characters from the Finding Nemo franchise, and is this time directed by Lou Hamou-Lhadj. Hamou-Lhadj co-directed the Oscar-nominated short Borrowed Time with Andrew Coats, and served as an episode director and art director for Pixar's TV series Win Or Lose, as well as working as an animator, artist or character modeller on various Pixar features and shorts. The short is presumed to be releasing alongside next year's Gatto, making it the first Pixar feature to be accompanied by a short in quite some time.

A trailer was released for the revived King Of The Hill (otherwise known as season 15).