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Qubo Network To Air Tampa 9-Year-Old's Animated Cartoons

Photo from Qubo

Rueben Schaffer will have an animated short airing on the children's network, Qubo, starting on Thursday.

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By WALT BELCHER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 16, 2008

TAMPA - Rueben Schaffer says he would like to be a cartoonist or a NASCAR driver when he grows up.

The fourth-grade honor-roll student hasn't gotten behind the wheel of a race car yet, but he has created dozens of cartoons, many of them appearing on an educational Web site for budding animators.

The 9-year-old is excited because one of his short animated films has been selected to be broadcast nationally on the Qubo network.

"I can't wait to see how it looks," says Rueben, one of 12 young animators whose films were selected by Qubo to be remastered from the child's original concept into animated minimovies for television.

Qubo is a TV and online entertainment service for children and families.

Rueben's film, "Aliens Are Evil," is less than a minute long.

It will make its world television premiere about 3:40 p.m. Thursday during the afternoon block of Qubo children's programs on the ION TV network (channel 17 on Bright House and Verizon).

The film also will air between programs on "Qubo on NBC" and "Qubo on Telemundo" (in Spanish) during Saturday and Sunday morning programming Dec. 20 and 21, respectively.

It will be repeated several times daily from Thursday through Dec. 25 on the Qubo channel that is broadcast in Tampa on a digital feed from ION affiliate WXPX-TV.

Rueben, a student at Chiaramonte Elementary School, created his short animated film using an innovative storytelling application on the qubo.com Web site.

"He has made a lot of films using the computer because his mind is just full of stories," says Rueben's mother, Sonia.

"He has to do his homework first," she adds. "He is so creative, and some of his films are very funny."

Qubo officials say nearly 44,000 aspiring young filmmakers from across the country have created animated films online since the application launched a year ago.

Qubo was created by several information and education corporations, including ION Media Networks, NBC Universal and Scholastic Books, to "champion literacy and values in children's television."

At the child-friendly Qubo Web site, Rueben is able to make a cartoon from scratch featuring characters known as "The Zimmer Twins," Edgar and Eva.

The Zimmer Twins section at qubo.com has storytelling tools, animated clips and simple editing instructions that enable children to tell their stories.

The clips and storytelling prompts explore classic children's themes such as science, animals, magic and adventure. They also encourage basic elements of sentence structure and reinforce reading, grammar and writing techniques.

After creating their stories, users can post and share their creations and even vote for their favorite user-created submissions online.

Rueben's mother says some of his creations have been voted as favorites by the other animators.

Rueben says he is fascinated by aliens, UFOs and the possibility of life forms from outer space. "I believe aliens are real," he says. In his animated story, the Zimmer Twins have to save Earth from aliens who want to blow it up.

Rick Rodriguez, president and general manager of Qubo, says it's a "thrill to see the creativity of these talented children on our air."

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

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