Kappa Mikey (found pitch pilots of Nickelodeon animated series; 2004)

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Kappamikey.jpg

The title card used for the Nicktoons pilot.

Status: Found

Date found: 26 Jul 2017 (first pilot), 29 Mar 2018 (second pilot)

Found by: Sergei Aniskov (first pilot), TeamNotCrash (second pilot)

Mikey as he appeared in the Nicktoons pilot.

Kappa Mikey was an animated comedy series that aired on Nicktoons Network from 2006 to 2008, with a short-lived Nickelodeon run as well.[1] The show centred around a teenage American boy named Mikey, who wins a trip to Japan to star in an anime series named LilyMu. The show was an affectionate parody of anime and Japanese culture, and had a unique style of animation blending; Japanese people were portrayed in an anime art style, while American people were portrayed in a Western-animated art style.

The series was not always planned to air on Nicktoons. According to an article in Animation World Network from May 2002, the series was originally picked up by Noggin for its teen block, The N. The article was titled "Sunbow and Noggin's The N To Co-Develop Kappa Mikey."[2] Following this production deal, a Kappa Mikey pilot was created and finished around 2004.

Both Noggin and Nickelodeon were part of the same company (MTV Networks). After the first pilot was made, MTV Networks executives felt that Kappa Mikey could work better as a show for younger audiences, so the project was moved to the Nickelodeon division.

The first pilot was aimed at a slightly older audience than the eventual series, with more mature humor. (At the time, Noggin/The N was producing similarly "edgy" animated shows for older kids and teens, like O'Grady.) The series' voice actors still played the same parts. According to one of the show's animators, Andrew Kaiko on his Tumblr, the pilot had different characterization, different animation, and a hip-hop soundtrack.[3] Only a few pictures and information of the pilot existed, until July 26th, 2017, when the series' executive producer Sergei Aniskov uploaded the full pilot on his YouTube channel. It's in low quality and has temporary voiceovers and music in the pilot, but otherwise, it is the full intact original pilot.

On March 29th, 2018, YouTube user TeamNotCrash uploaded a second pilot of the show that originally aired on Nicktoons. This pilot was confirmed as real by the show's creator and used a different art style and voice cast from the first pilot.

Gallery

Footage

The first pilot, uploaded by Sergei Askinov.

The Nicktoons pilot that aired on the network.

Videos

LSuperSonicQ's video on the first Kappa Mikey pilot.

LSuperSonicQ's follow-up video on the subject.

See Also

Anthology and Short Series

Bumpers and Promos

Films

Game Shows

Inaugural Series

Live Action

Pilots

Other

External Links

References