With a new Alvin and the Chipmunks film release on the way this holiday season—Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked!—Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products, in conjunction with Bagdasarian Productions, kicks off a long-term merchandising program intended to support the franchise. The program includes seasonal rollouts of fresh product and unique styles with prime retail positioning and the exciting introduction of a new branding initiative based on The Chipettes, the adorable, fashionista, female rock stars of the group.

To meet consumer demand and keep the product fresh, Fox Consumer Products will continuously offer new character art and graphics with themes tied to key retail selling windows such as back-to-school, holiday, and spring. The spring look will include a “Chipwrecked” island theme inspired by both the new film and the season. An everyday look is also available for year-round business. Some of the kid-favorite themes include: rock ‘n’ roll, sports, cheerleading, and nautical.

To fuel this campaign at retail, Fox Consumer Products has aligned with a wide range of partners to produce new product consistently throughout the year. New partners on board include Just Play LLC, who will create basic, feature, and novelty plush lines, with Vivid Imaginations as the as the UK distributor for the product. Santa’s Best will introduce holiday seasonal goods for the new film, while Gipsy has partnered for a specialty plush line in France.

In the interactive space, Majesco will take the lead once again with a follow-up Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked video game, based on the upcoming film. Ty will continue to produce their own special lines in the toy category, while Build-A-Bear Workshop will return with its top-selling line of stuffable plush featuring Alvin and Brittany and pre-stuffed plush of the other main characters.

HarperCollins also rejoins for a wide publishing program that will include beginning readers, novelizations, sticker books, and storybooks. They will be accompanied by Bendon Publishing, which will publish a line of activity, board, and coloring books along with flashcards and workbooks.  Editora Alsto Astral will introduce a book program in Brazil.

Apparel and accessories form the cornerstone of the merchandising program and include a robust offering of items: Tees, sets, outerwear, swimwear, sleepwear, headwear, bags, rainwear, hosiery, and footwear for both boys and girls from leading companies in both the U.S. and Canada, such as Isaac Morris Limited, H.E.R. Accessories, Berkshire Fashions, Accessory Innovations, JCorp, SGI, and SG Footwear.

Other key partners include Hallmark, which will create a comprehensive  line of greeting cards, ornaments and giftwrap, and Kellogg’s continues with its top-selling line of branded fruit snacks. When released in support of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, the fruit snacks marked the brand’s first foray in the food category.

To fully capitalize on world’s love affair with the adorable Chipettes, Fox Consumer Products is focusing on the wholesome and cute, yet sweet and sassy attitude of Brittany, Jeanette, and Eleanor for a line of accessories, toys, and more. Always a favorite among girls, Fox Consumer Products is dedicating a strong program that will introduce The Chipettes as never before at retail to reach this most enthusiastic fanbase.

Spin Master Ltd. and Penguin Group have partnered to bring the hundreds of unique and colorful characters from Spin Master’s Zoobles toy line to a publishing program debuting next spring.

Available across all tiers of retail distribution, the program will feature readers, storybooks, color and activity books, and a collector’s guidebook based on Zoobles, the adorable little characters that spring to life from small colorful balls to form cute, quirky, and sometimes mischievous creatures when placed on their “Happitat.”

Since quickly emerging as the breakout girls’ toy brand of 2010, Zoobles continue to make gains in the small doll category at retailers nationwide. Throughout the year, Spin Master will add all-new characters as well as unique features and accessories to the toys that will enhance young girls’ play. Spin Master will also add to the Zoobles’ content-rich website, www.Zoobles.com, by periodically unveiling new Zoobles Lands, as well as providing exclusive first looks at new Zoobles, fun mini-games, contests, and free downloads.

We like trains and we like Joel Barnett of Brentwood Licensing, who contributed an article to Spring issue (we’re finishing it up now!) about the opportunity to license smaller brands. To that end, we’re happy to share some news that we received last night:

Brentwood Licensing, LLC has been selected by Licensing Management International LTD to represent the Morton Media Group Limited magazine titles and images in the USA. These magazines and images include, Classic American, The Classic Motor Cycle Magazine (with images and magazines covers dating back to 1903), Scootering Magazine, Aircraft publication, Old Glory Titles, The Railway Magazine, and others. The magazine covers and thousands of images are a pictorial history of the railroad, motorcycles and other transportation vehicles in the UK and around the world.

Congrats Joel! Keep the deals (and articles) coming.

—Bryan Joiner

Let’s put the trials and tribulations associated with the new Spider-Man Broadway show, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, to the side for a moment and focus on another famed super hero: Batman.

Warner Bros. Consumer Products, DC Entertainment and Water Lane Productions have unveiled key characters in the $20-million-dollar theatrical extravaganza Batman Live-World Arena Tour, which debuts July 19 in the UK.

DC Comics’ Caped Crusader and his sidekick Robin will fight the Joker, the Riddler, Catwoman, the Penguin, Two-Face, and Harley Quinn, in an attempt to save Gotham City.

The show will reach North American audiences in August 2012.

—Mackenzie Allison

VIZ Media, a distributor of anime and manga in the U.S., has announced acquisitions for its kids imprint, VIZ Kids. The acquisitions include DVD, download-to-own, and graphic novel licenses for Hero 108, Mameshiba, Pokemon, Mr. Men and Little Miss, and Voltron Force.

VIZ Kids will distribute DVDs of Hero 108 in May and make episodes available for download on iTunes in June. Based on Mameshiba, VIZ Kids will release a graphic novel, Mameshiba: On the Loose!, and a character guide, Meet Mameshiba, in July. The company will also release manga, a travel activity kit, and other select merchandise based on Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version. The travel activity kit will be available in May and volumes 1 and 2 of  the manga will be available in July 2011. VIZ Media will create and distribute original graphic novels based on Mr. Men and Little Miss in spring 2012 and produce and distribute original graphic novels based on the all-new animated series Voltron Force in spring 2012.

Move over Archie: Peter Griffin and the gang are headed into comic book territory. Titan Comics, a publisher of licensed entertainment properties in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products, recently announced the launch of the Family Guy comic series, based on the hit animated Fox show.

The comic will follow new exploits of the Griffin family and their fellow Quahog, Rhode Island residents.

Artwork for the comic series is provided by comic artists SL Gallant (G.I. Joe, Torchwood) and Anthony Williams (Judge Dredd, Superman, and Batman).

The first Family Guy comic will hit U.S. newsstands and specialty comic book stores July 27.

It has been more than 25 years since The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graced the pages of a comic book, but that will all change this summer thanks to a long-term agreement between Nickelodeon and IDW Publishing. The agreement, which will include an all-new installment of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and graphic novels, was announced last week at WonderCon in San Francisco.

The comics are part of a larger initiative to bring the heroes in a half shell to a new generation of fans.

Nickelodeon will premiere a CG-animated version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in fourth quarter 2012.

Let’s imagine for a moment that Arnold Schwarzenegger has a bucket list. He could already check off “become a champion body builder,” “make millions as a movie star” and “have a successful political career.” Assuming it made the list, the Terminator star might soon be able to cross off cartoon and comic book character.

According to a recent report by Entertainment Weekly, Schwarzenegger is working with comic book guru Stan Lee on an animated TV series, as well as a comic book, that will mix the real life of the actor and politician with the superhuman exploits of the characters he’s played.

“The Governator” will battle the evil organization Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars and Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men). The project is still in the development stages and won’t be completed until next year.

Schwarzenegger has stated that the cartoon is his plan B, and that if he could run for president, he would. Too bad that’s one he can’t check off of the list.

—Mackenzie Allison

Hit Entertainment has made three new publishing deals for Barney, Thomas & Friends, and for the first time, Angelina Ballerina, in Latin America.

Editorial Vértice will debut the first Angelina Ballerina publishing program in Latin America with story, coloring and activity books for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Editorial Vértice will also publish coloring and activity books for Barney and Thomas & Friends, and the Thomas & Friends magazine in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. In addition, Barney coloring and activity books will be published in Mexico.

Editora Fundamento will publish picture storybooks for Thomas & Friends in Portuguese available at mass retailers across Brazil. Also in Brazil, Editora Vale das Letras will be the new publisher of Thomas & Friends coloring and activity, puzzle, bath, and book plus CD ROM formats in Portuguese. The books will be rolled out to mass and specialty retailers in June.

Hidden City Entertainment, the rights holder of Bella Sara, announced that Media Service Zawada signed a licensing agreement to publish books and a fan magazine as well as distribute the ongoing Bella Sara Adventures dvd series in Poland.

Hidden City also signed with MSZ as the company’s marketing partner and official distributor of Bella Sara trading cards in Poland, with plans to launch this fall.