British comedy puppet series Mongrels has been axed by its television station, BBC3.

The series, described as "Avenue Q meets Family Guy", centred on a troupe of five anthropomorphic animals who hung around the back of a pub on the Isle of Dogs in London.

Roger Ebert has written that the best way to enjoy a movie is in a crowded, reactive theater. I beg to differ.
The best way to enjoy a movie is in an empty theater, where you do not have to worry about your fellow moviegoer’s reactions coloring your own.

I learned this lesson from the Muppets; perhaps my fondest movie theater experience is having an entire theater alone with just my family watching The Muppet Christmas Carol. It's probably neither the studio’s nor the theater owner’s favorite way for you to watch a movie on the big screen, but if you find yourself laughing out loud alone in the dark, you know that it is really you laughing.

Sadly for the Muppets, but happily for me, I had the theater all to myself for The Muppets. I found myself laughing in the dark once more.

The original Hugh T. Manatee, a regular member of the Funday PawPet Show cast, is up for auction.

Funds will be used to purchase new equipment for Poinkcast, HughTube and video archive digitization.

Update: The auction raised $102.50, just 43% of the winning bid for Poink T. Ferret in June 2007.

Puppeteer JR explained the sale [tip: BabsBunny]:

A few weeks ago, I started thinking, I'd love to have a YouTube channel focusing on stuff I've done and Hugh and Poink; [...] So, I created HughTube. [...] I decided I really wanted to build this up, film stuff with Poink and Hugh that hasn't been seen anywhere, and really build up the PoinkCast brand. I put together a list of stuff I'd need, and realized that if I did it all out of pocket it was going to take a while. So I posted it on FA and asked for donations.

For historical purposes, a collection of links and other tidbits posted to Newsbytes in August.

How To Train Your Dragon - the story of a young Viking who defies generations of tradition by befriending a dragon - was a hit for DreamWorks in 2010.

Loosely based on a children's book series by Cressida Cowell, the movie grossed nearly $500 million worldwide, and won the 2010 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Motion Picture.

Now the story is being adapted for the stage.

The BBC is offering viewers the chance to get behind the set of animal puppet sitcom Mongrels.

Limited numbers of tickets are available for tours and previews on 13th, 20th and 27th May. A random draw for the tickets will take place between now and midday on 9th May.

Space Shuttle Endeavour may be getting a stowaway – a hand puppet of Krtek, a mole created by Czech cartoonist Zdeněk Miler in 1956. [Spottacus]

Krtek is to travel with Andrew Feustel on the ship's final mission, planned for 19 29 April.

BBC Three puppet-based animal sitcom Mongrels has won the Royal Television Society (RTS) Craft and Design Award for "Production Design – Entertainment and Non-Drama".

Production designer Simon Rogers and his team took the award, defeating popular Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd and BBC children's comedy series Hounded.

However, Mongrels lost the award for "Tape and Film Editing – Entertainment and Situation Comedy" to Channel 4 sitcom Pete Versus Life.

British puppet-based sitcom Mongrels has been nominated for two Royal Television Society (RTS) Craft and Design Awards.

The series, which revolves around the lives of five anthropomorphic animals who hang around the bin yard of a pub on the Isle of Dogs, London, has been nominated for two awards which are given within the areas of TV production. The winners will be announced on 24th November.

The Funday Pawpet Show now offers a near-complete episode archive – but perhaps not for much longer.

Over the past few months, several hundred old episodes have been detailed and put online for download, but the risk of five-figure licensing fees has led show lead Yappy Slyfox to threaten to pull the plug.

Originally, only each week's previous broadcast was available for download, although several "old tapes" that might just happen to contain early episodes were auctioned off several years ago.

The FPS annual telethon (which raised over $10,000 in 2007) is on November 14; its 11^th anniversary will be celebrated a fortnight later. The show runs 6-10PM Eastern each Sunday.

UK animal-lovers are getting a treat with Mongrels, an urban animal puppet comedy by TX Media, now airing on BBC Three.

Subtitled "a puppet show for adults," the show is described by director Adam Miller as "Avenue Q meets Family Guy but with puppet animals."

Each episode features a song; topics include God, lesbians, pedophiles and the middle class. The show is also peppered with in-jokes about celebrities and random humour.

Bonus: Go behind the scenes to learn more about Marion and Nelson from their creators.

The main characters in Mongrels (left to right): Destiny, Nelson, Kali (top), Marion (bottom) and Vince

Mongrels sets the tone very early on. The first scene features a pensioner falling down some stairs to her death.

Her pet cat Marion (accent unknown) tries to give her mouth-to-mouth. This proves to be of no avail as the woman has been dead for four months. So, what do Marion’s fellow felines do to their late owner? Simple - they eat her.

From this opening you can tell what kind of audience they are aiming for. Mongrels pushes the boundaries of taste and admittedly at times it is very funny.

The main characters in Mongrels (left to right): Destiny, Nelson, Kali (top), Marion (bottom) and Vince

Preview clips of BBC Three adult animal puppet sitcom Mongrels are available before the series begins on 22nd June.

Previously known under the title We Are Mongrels, the sitcom revolves around the lives of five wild animals living around the back of an inner city pup.

Boys and girls can now hope to be greeted by a real-time talking Mickey at Disneyland.

Furry reactions include awesome, pretty cool, neat but creepy and not impressed.

Disney plans to release a Monsters, Inc. sequel on 16 November 2012, the BBC reports.

A new Muppets movie is also in the works, and will introduce a new character called Walter.