MTV's True Life has issued a casting call for furries aged 16-25, and potential cast members are already posting about it. [tip: sohjin]

True Life is is billed as following "unique persons in their everyday situations, and [documenting] the problems and goals they face." Their most recent episodes were "I'm A Chubby Chaser", "I Can't Please My Parents", "I'm A Sex Offender" and "I Have Diabetes".

True Life previously covered the fandom in infamous "Sex2k" segment Plushies and Furries.

American television broadcasters ABC and The CW have both ordered pilots of new series based on the traditional tale Beauty and the Beast.

The Disney-owned ABC's pilot has been described as "a fantastical re-imagining of the classic fairy tale set in a mythical, dangerous world wherein a beautiful and tough Princess discovers an unlikely connection with a mysterious beast". The CW's pilot, in the meantime, will be loosely based on the 1987 cult-classic CBS series starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman.

Epic Films, an independent film group operating in Adelaide, South Australia, has released a trailer for a project entitled Wastelander Panda.

The pilot for an in-development television series, Wastelander Panda features an anthropomorphic, machete-wielding panda wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The trailer has been likened to a hybrid of "Mad Max, Kung Fu Panda, and The Book of Eli".

The project began when when film students Victoria Cocks and Marcus McKenzie outlined the story of a young girl, Rose, who is raised by a panda. The 24-minute pilot features a $2000 mechanical panda head designed by Lion of the Sun Productions. [Trailer after the cut]

Those who only know Underdog from the rather odd 2007 live-action movie, sorry you! Underdog was a hit animated TV series produced by Total Television (who were also responsible for Tennessee Tuxedo), starting in 1964 and running more than 120 episodes until 1973 (and in re-runs ever since). Now Shout Factory have released the complete original series on DVD for the first time, featuring all 124 episodes in a 9-disc box set. Watch as Shoeshine Boy and his super-powered alter ego, Underdog, battle the evil likes of Riff Raff and Simon Bar Sinister to protect his true love, Sweet Polly Purebread. The DVDs also include original episodes of the Underdog back-up shorts GoGo Gophers, Klondike Kat, and Commander McBrag. Check it out at Shout Factory’s web site.

image c. 2012 by Shout Factory

The Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association, which administers the annual Ursa Major Awards, has closed the 2011 Recommended Anthropomorphic Reading List.

Recommendations for the 2012 Reading List are now being accepted, although the 2012 List will not be posted on the UMA website until March 1, after the nominations for the 2011 Awards have closed. Voting on the 2011 Awards finalists will open on March 15.

All fans are invited to recommend what they feel are worthwhile anthropomorphic works in eleven categories (motion pictures, dramatic short films or broadcasts, novels, short fiction, other literary works, graphic stories, comic strips, magazines, published illustrations, games, and websites) first published during 2012. This List is often used by fans to nominate in the next year's Awards.

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.

Nominations are open for the 2011 Ursa Major Awards, intended to recognize the best works published in the field of anthropomorphics last year. Nominations close on February 29; voting starts March 15 and closes May 4 (to allow last-minute voting from Morphicon).

Furry fans may nominate up to five works in each category. The 2011 Awards will be announced and presented in a ceremony at CaliFur VIII in Irvine, CA, June 1–3, 2012.

Available awards include Best Motion Picture, Dramatic Short Work or Series, Novel, Short Fiction, Other Literary Work, Graphic Story, Comic Strip, Magazine, Website, Published Illustration, and Game.

If you cannot think of five worthwhile nominees in each category, see the 2011 Recommended Anthropomorphics List on the Ursa Major Awards website for suggestions.

The 2011 Recommended Anthropomorphics List will close on Sunday, January 15, giving fans just three weeks to recommend any titles released at the end of the year. Nominations for the 2011 Ursa Major Awards open on January 12 (the first day of Further Confusion 2012).

Guess How Much I Love You is an popular and award-winning children’s book written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram. Now SLR Productions has created Guess How Much I Love You: The Adventures of Little Nutbrown Hare, a 2D animated TV series with young children in mind. Like the book, the series takes place in an idyllic woodland where Little Nutbrown Hare lives and learns with his father, Big Nutbrown Hare, and all their friends. The series has been running on Disney Junior Australia, and is set to premier soon on Disney Junior USA. If you check out the SLR Productions web site for the show, you’ll find a link to another interesting TV series they’re working on called Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs. Yes.

image c. 2011 by Anita Jeram

The Nut Job is a new CGI animated feature film that was announced in Animation Magazine’s 2012 calendar. It’s being produced by Toonbox Entertainment and Red Rover International, who are hoping to release it next summer. The director is Peter Lepeniotis, who first introduced his character Surly the Squirrel in a 2005 animated short film titled, appropriately, Surly Squirrel. In this new feature film, Surly and his rat buddy (named Buddy) must contend with a new group of rodents who invade their city park home. Not a lot to go on yet, but the film does have an entry up on IMDB, and Toonbox also has an web page for the project. Word is that The Nut Job may be developed into a TV series also.

image c. 2011 Toonbox Entertainment

In the “about bloody time” department: Word is out that Gon, the globally-popular manga by Tanaka Masashi, is finally being made into a CGI animated TV series. Gon, if you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know (or perhaps if he threw one on top of you) is a miniature dinosaur-like creature of tremendous speed and power. He lives in the animal world, and always seems to be getting into fights (comical, but still…) with other animals over simple matters like food and territory. Interestingly, this famous Japanese manga is being brought to television by an animation house in Korea, Daewon Media, with the help of the Japanese publishing house Kodansha. There’s a preview video up on YouTube which shows footage that was displayed recently at the TV trade show MIPCOM. The show is all set to premier in Japan and Europe early next year, with the rest of the world hopefully to follow soon after.

image c. 2011 Daewon Media

Sweden's TV3 is currently showing Svenskars Hemliga Liv - a program on the secret life of Swedes [in Swedish], featuring segments on a group of steampunk fans, a Final Fantasy cosplayer, and a fursuiter from Örebro meeting fellow fans for the first time. [tip: Emprah]

Update (15 Dec): A streaming version is available for the next few days. The furry segments are at the start, 22:40, 28:20 and 41:14.

The Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association, which administers the annual Ursa Major Awards, has updated the 2011 Anthropomorphic Reading List to include all of the titles recommended by Furry fans through the end of October. This list is often used by fans to nominate in the next year's Awards.

There are only two months left to recommend what you think is good this year. The 2011 Anthropomorphic Reading List will close on January 15, 2012, to give fans a couple of weeks to read/see works that came out at the end of December.

The Bronies (the chosen name of post-adolescent My Little Pony fans) rejoice as a second season of the hit cartoon show Friendship is Magic begins tomorrow on Discovery Channel's cartoon channel The Hub (9 AM EDT). But before it comes out, it might be a good time to reflect and review what made the show such a hit in its first season.

Kia's anthropomorphic hamsters, which began advertising the Kia Soul compact vehicle in 2009, have returned.

In a 60-second commercial, the hamsters perform a 'shuffle dance' in the blackened ruins of a video-game world where robots and armoured humanoids battle. The advert's first TV airing is to come during Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards.

In what may be an inspiration to fursuiters, Facebook, Kia.com, and YouTube will be involved in a shuffle dance video submission contest in mid-September.