Somehow Matt Stone and Trey Parker managed to make the concept of a “Guinea Saurus Rex” seem somehow plausible in their latest 2-part episode of South Park. This clip below features some of the mixed-media animation that makes South Park simply the funniest animated show on TV. This is from the second half of the two part episode Pandemic (now viewable online at SouthParkStudios.com), which parodies the 2008 film Cloverfield.

Stop-motion specialist Thomas R. Smith has animated on great TV series like The PJs and Robot Chicken. More recently, he’s been working on Cartoon Network’s series Chowder, which is a traditional 2D show, but they occasionally wedge in stop motion sequences like this:

Also check out Smith’s Ugly Girl – a big hit on YouTube.

Disney/Pixar’s feature film Cars has made the leap to TV. Tonight on Toon Disney at 5:00pm/4:00pm central, a new series of animated shorts will premiere, starting with an episode titled Rescue Squad Mater. The shorts were directed by John Lasseter, who also directed the 2006 feature along with the late Joe Ranft. Lasseter is joined by co-directors Victor Navone and Rob Gibbs. Disney Channel and ABC Family will also carry the shorts later on down the road. Get it? Road… cars. Ugg. Below you can see a clip from an upcoming episode titled El Materdor.

And here’s some images from the new series:

On October 19th, the latest new Family Guy episode premiered on Fox. Road To Germany takes us back to 1939 Nazi Germany after Mort Goldman accidentally uses a time machine in Stewie’s bedroom. We also trip through time by way of movie references… Star Wars, Indiana Jones and, of course, Back to the Future. Watch the full episode below, courtesy of Hulu.com.

Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, once referred to Fox News as a “right-wing propaganda machine,” but the parent Fox network apparently has no problem with Seth MacFarlane bitch-slapping the McCain/Palin ticket. This clip leads us to believe that the Family Guy team won’t be asking Sarah Palin to guest star anytime soon (but Fox News DID ask if it went too far).

Nickelodeon announced a few new series orders today. The one that caught our attention was Fanboy and Chum Chum, which features some of the freshest designs seen on children’s TV. Eric Robles who was also the mastermind behind The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, created the series, and I’ve seen beautiful art and storyboards on the producer’s website.

Russia’s version of Cartoon Network, 2×2, has come under government scrutiny over a recent airing of the South Park episode Cartoon Wars Part II. Currently at the 2×2 website, they’ve posted an image of Cartman with the words “no comments” (inset), and on their blog they’ve included a scan of the government notice.

The episode originally aired in the US in April 2006, and caused a stir then, as it features controversial depictions of the prophet Muhammad. On Comedy Central, the shot was replaced by a black screen and the text “In this shot, Muhammad hands a football helmet to Family Guy; Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad on their network.” Here’s a video report on the topic from Russia Today:

View a gallery below of images from this controversy:

The entire episode is available for viewing at SouthParkStudios.com.