A few years before the debut of Avatar the Last Airbender, "Constant Payne" was originally planned as the first action Nicktoon with an anime-influence aesthetic.
A shame this project was never greenlit, since it seemed very promising, with a very cool setting and nice animation, kinda reminsicent of the collaborations made by TMS Entertainment for western shows such as Cybersix. It also has a certain "Jackie Chan Adventures" vibe, but better.
Unfortunately, a series of circumstances eventually lead Constant Payne to stay canned: According to a former Nickelodeon animator Ray Pointer, during the same time this was show started being produced, Disney begin the development for Kim Possible, which had a similar premise (Truth to be told, from what can be seen from this pilot, Constant Payne seems way more interesting than Kim Possible)
In addition to that, there is a mention of "growing dissatisfaction with certain labor issues within the studio, lead by the writer, Micah Wright". The Imdb trivia also mentions the creator Micah Wright "was suspected of spearheading a plan to unionize the Nickelodeon writing staff, which Nickelodeon didn't approve of so they shelved this series as punishment"
Shame how such a great concept was basically negated a chance to be aired due those circumstances. Even worse, in the following years, Nickelodeon keep producing a lot of terrible series in a desperate attempt to replicate the Spongebob success (Not to mention a lot of unwatchable live action garbage) while also rejecting other pilot that eventually turned into succesful shows (Like Adventure Time)
Whatever was the plan of the villain in the pilot, and whatever he took from that MacGuffin box will forever remain as an unsolved mystery.
Sad, really. At least we got Avatar the last Airbender...
A shame this project was never greenlit, since it seemed very promising, with a very cool setting and nice animation, kinda reminsicent of the collaborations made by TMS Entertainment for western shows such as Cybersix. It also has a certain "Jackie Chan Adventures" vibe, but better.
Unfortunately, a series of circumstances eventually lead Constant Payne to stay canned: According to a former Nickelodeon animator Ray Pointer, during the same time this was show started being produced, Disney begin the development for Kim Possible, which had a similar premise (Truth to be told, from what can be seen from this pilot, Constant Payne seems way more interesting than Kim Possible)
In addition to that, there is a mention of "growing dissatisfaction with certain labor issues within the studio, lead by the writer, Micah Wright". The Imdb trivia also mentions the creator Micah Wright "was suspected of spearheading a plan to unionize the Nickelodeon writing staff, which Nickelodeon didn't approve of so they shelved this series as punishment"
Shame how such a great concept was basically negated a chance to be aired due those circumstances. Even worse, in the following years, Nickelodeon keep producing a lot of terrible series in a desperate attempt to replicate the Spongebob success (Not to mention a lot of unwatchable live action garbage) while also rejecting other pilot that eventually turned into succesful shows (Like Adventure Time)
Whatever was the plan of the villain in the pilot, and whatever he took from that MacGuffin box will forever remain as an unsolved mystery.
Sad, really. At least we got Avatar the last Airbender...