This week we all got together for the first time in almost 5 years. Â Only one missing was Marc who is now in dental school. Â Great session to punch up the script for Episode 3. Â I can’t wait to animate this thing, lots of great new storylines for our favorite characters! Â Check out these two videos…
We’d love to thank all of you for the kind words and encouragement! Â We are tightening up the script and such before we start production. Â Its also been quite a few years since I (Rocky here:) drew the original characters, I’ve been toying with some updates to their look. Â I’d love to hear your views on the new direction. Â Celia got a haircut, haha.
Here's the updated look for the main characters!
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- Here’s the updated look for the main characters!
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- Junior
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- Nico
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- Celia
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- Mom
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- Dad
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- Little Man
Well, February is over and…We did it! We sold enough Juniors Giants to trigger the commencement of Episode 3. Working on contract now, and hope to actually start production this month. Stay tuned as we will begin to post our thoughts on Episode 3 soon!
In preparation for the production of episode 3, Juniors Giants is on sale all this month at Family Christian stores across the nation.  You can get BOTH episodes of Juniors Giants for only $5 as Family Christians “Members Only” program.  If you haven’t yet seen the show, now is your chance to get it for super cheap.  Plus, the sooner we sell through this promotion, the sooner we get started on #3!
I met with Randy (lead author) and Rocky (lead artist, and voice of Niko) in person this week, also spoke with KC (the voice of Dad, and the music/sound director).  Everyone is ready to go and to make the next installment of our beloved series.  We were reminded this week how much we love these characters, and these stories!  We can’t wait to get started!  Marc my brother (and animation director of the first 2) is going to dental school now, so we will miss out on his talents this time around.
Speaking of starting production, we are doing lots of behind the scenes stuff to get ready, and we are working closely with Bridgestone (our distributor) to line up production start. Â We are raring to go, but we need to make sure some pieces are in place before we begin. Â Looks like production is likely to start in March…Just waiting for final sales of the Family Christian member’s only club to hit the books. Â Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly!
-Mike
In preparation for the upcoming production of Juniors Giants, I re-designed the website for our company: www.juniorproductions.com.
We will be posting lots of stuff to the blog as we begin production, and those posts will also show up on the Juniors Giants Facebook fan page.
You can also buy copies of the current 2 episodes here. This takes the place of the old www.familyvideoguy.com that I ran for a few years to sell copies of JG direct to fans.
Come check out the new design and let me know what you think!
After almost 4 years of trying, crying, praying, hoping, failing, and almost giving up… we are FINALLY making another episode of Juniors Giants! Â I cannot wait to begin production of this new installment, and I cannot thank enough our fans that have quit frankly kept the dream alive for me, even when it didn’t seem it would EVER happen again.
Thank you for all of your support, and stay tuned here for our journey along the way. Â Should be fun!
Mike Rasmussen
Juniors Giants Episode 2
Year: 2006
Writer: Sprigg Davis
Director: Mike Rasmussen
Length: 40
Category: Comedy
Media: DVD
Studio: Junior Productions LLC
Episode 2 of Juniors Giants continues the story of Junior and his friends and family that we were introduced to in the first Episode. In this episode Juniors is struggling with envy as he pines after the latest craze for kids his age “Rotomon Warriors!” Rotomon is a collectable robot battling system that Junior and his friends play after school. Junior would give ANYTHING to have the “Ultimate Warrior Expansion Chip” that would supposedly upgrade his robot to the level that would allow him to beat his nemesis: “One Tooth Kid”.
Along the way, Junior loses sight of what is really important and fixates on getting this latest toy. His best buddy Niko as usual tries to reign him in, but Junior needs to learn the hard way, and has to battle Pharaohman the huge gold Egyptian robot that represents his envy and greed. With the help of the word of God and his Family, Junior is finally able to overcome his envy and greed and defeat the huge gold robot.
Our favorite characters from the first episode return with Mom taking up scrap booking with hilarious results, Dad trying to set up a wireless network and failing over, and over and over, only to finally erect a preposterously giant antennae on top of the house that enables wireless networking access around the globe. And Junior’s Sister Celia running for class president of her elementary school on an anti-warball platform (warball is like dodgeball but without all those pesky rules and objectives).
Again, it should come as no surprise that since I Directed Juniors Giants Episode 2 “Envy thou not” that I would give it 5 stars. But, I helped write, animate, and direct the thing and I still laugh while I watch it! Its a great continuation of the first episode, and bodes well for the series. We love watching it as a family, and I hope that you do too!
Junior Giants Episode 1
Year: 2005
Writer: Sprigg Davis
Director: Mike Rasmussen
Length: 30
Category: Children’s
Media: DVD
“Wait a minute?!” you should be saying “How can the director of Juniors Giants review his own show?, is that even legal?”. You may also be saying “Based on Mike’s cartoon caricature, I would guess that he is an incredibly smart, good looking, and all around great guy!”. Well it should come as no surprise that I give Juniors Giants 5 out of 5 starts, the writing is smart, funny topical and uplifting. The animation is bright and fun with great artwork. The music and sound is catchy and fun.
Juniors Giants was a labor of love. Everyone involved in the project felt a special attachment Junior, his friends and his family, and making it the best we could possibly make it. These characters came to life for us! And we felt that we were making something bigger than just the 1st episode of a great cartoon series. We were making a statement about what we wanted for our families, the state of entertainment in these days, and that you don’t have to compromise morals, common decency, and reverence for comedy. There IS a time to laugh, and you will laugh when you watch Juniors Giants.
You’ll laugh when Junior battles a tiny Scottish man who thinks he is the angry giant, You’ll laugh when dad buys “The Working Man Toilet” that can flush up to 50 golf balls at once. You’ll laugh as Junior’s little brother “Little Man” hoards a cache of spoons so that he “never has to go spoonless again…”.
But you’ll also notice the kernel of truth in the show. Truth that families can pull together and look to the scriptures for help with real world problems. Truth that its God’s help for us is real, and that he wants us to laugh and be happy.
Juniors Giants is a show with a heart. It is a show that wants you to celebrate life and be able to laugh along with Juniors and his clan. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it.
Have you ever watched “The Simpsons”, “The Family Guy”, or heaven forbid “South Park” and wondered why the creators of these shows often ruin the show with inappropriate, shocking or irreverent content? They are Funny! But do they really need all that stuff to be funny? Conversely have you ever watched shows made specifically for kids, or with “uplifting”Christian content and cringed and the extreme cheesiness and barely watchable writing? They are uplifting and appropriate to watch as a family, but do they really have to be so didactic and dull?
I’ve often had those thoughts. My friends and I got tired of the having to chose between a show that was funny and entertaining and one that is uplifting and appropriate for watching as a family. So about 2 years ago we decided to do something about it! We created a direct to DVD series called “Juniors Giants“ . Our goal was to create a series that was funny AND uplifting, entertaining AND great to watch as a family. We succeeded! Check out the Juniors Giants website and decide for yourself.
Then we got to thinking. There have got to be other shows out there like ours. There are! This website will be a repository for what we have found. We have a lot of friends that have created some great shows that also fit this bill. This website will be a way to explore some of these shows and a great place to find shows for purchase that you can be confident are entertaining, funny, action packed AND uplifting and appropriate to share with your families. Look for reviews of these shows, general thoughts on entertainment and shows for families and thoughts on our production of Juniors Giants and other cartoons we have in the works.
So That’s it! My name is Mike, and I’m “The Family Video Guy”. Together lets find some great shows that are funny entertaining and great to watch as a family. Should be fun!
