A to Z of Animation Studios: Qubo
Or: The TV Network That Felt Like a Fever Dream but Somehow Existed for 14 Years)
Welcome back to Animation Anarchy, where we celebrate animation history while also exposing the deep-cut weirdness that most people have forgotten. If you haven’t subscribed to our YouTube channel, do it now before Qubo’s weirdly forgotten mascot finds you in your sleep.
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🔥 Q is for Qubo (Cookie Jar Entertainment and the Land of Saturday Morning Strangeness)
Imagine a TV network that aired shows no one asked for, at times no one watched, yet somehow stayed alive for over a decade.
That was Qubo.
What Was Qubo?
• A kids’ TV block-turned-network that ran from 2006 to 2021.
• Mostly aired low-budget, second-tier cartoons that felt like rejects from PBS Kids and Nickelodeon.
• Somehow managed to exist on free over-the-air television, making it the last bastion of “just turn on the TV and see what’s on” animation.
Qubo was a wild, unpredictable mess. One minute you were watching educational programming, the next, a knockoff superhero show with animation from the uncanny valley.
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The Qubo Roster (A.K.A. Cartoons You Forgot Existed)
• Jacob Two-Two – A Canadian show about a kid so painfully awkward that he repeated everything twice.
• Jane and the Dragon – A 3D-animated show about a medieval girl who refused to be a princess and instead hung out with a sarcastic dragon.
• Babar and the Adventures of Bad CGI – Qubo revived Babar, but this time, in terrifying 3D.
• VeggieTales (The TV Show) – Yes, Qubo aired VeggieTales, proving that even Christian vegetables could make it onto network television.
• The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog – A show that nobody remembers, yet somehow aired constantly.
• Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century – Yes, this was real. Sherlock Holmes was revived in the future with robot Watson.
• Turbo Dogs – A show about dogs who were also race car drivers. That’s it. That’s the whole plot.
• Scaredy Squirrel – A paranoid squirrel who refused to leave his home. Basically, all of us post-2020.
The Qubo Experience (A.K.A. Why Was It So Weird?)
1. The animation quality? Ranged from decent to “this was animated in Microsoft Paint.”
2. The scheduling? Completely random. You never knew what you’d get at 3 AM.
3. The vibe? It felt like a liminal space for cartoons—a strange purgatory where forgotten shows went to live out their days.
And then, in 2021, Qubo was shut down and erased from history.
Gone, but never forgotten. (Actually, most people forgot it immediately.)
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🎖 Honorable Mention: Quirino Cristiani Studios (The Obscure Creator of the First Animated Feature Film Ever!)
Now let’s talk about Quirino Cristiani, the unsung hero of animation history.
Who Was Quirino Cristiani?
• An Argentinian animator who, in 1917, made the first animated feature film EVER.
• Yes, before Disney. Before Japan. Before ANYONE.
His Groundbreaking Work
El Apóstol (1917) – THE FIRST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM IN HISTORY.
• A political satire about the Argentine president.
• 70 minutes long.
• Entirely animated in cut-out style.
• It no longer exists. (A fire destroyed all copies in 1926. Thanks, fate.)
Peludópolis (1931) – THE FIRST ANIMATED FILM WITH SOUND.
• Beat Disney’s Snow White to the punch by six years.
• Also lost to time because history is cruel.
Cristiani was so ahead of his time that most of his work was destroyed before animation even became a global industry.
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Final Thoughts (A.K.A. Why You Should Subscribe Before Qubo Haunts Your Dreams)
Qubo? The strangest, most random kids’ TV network ever.
Quirino Cristiani? The animation pioneer that history forgot.
Next up? R for Rankin/Bass—the stop-motion Christmas kings who made your childhood both magical and slightly terrifying.
(Spoiler: Yes, we’re talking about that creepy Rudolph special.) 🚀
