Can Illumination Entertainment produce anything besides more Despicable Me and Minions movies? The animation studio is aggressively proving that it can – with anthropomorphic animals. It has already announced The Secret Life of Pets for a July 8th, 2016 release. Now The Cartoon Brew website has announced that Illumination Entertainment will also release Sing on December 21st, just in time for Christmas.

Sing sounds roughly like a Muppet movie, or a cleaned-up Meet the Feebles, with an all-anthro animal cast. Buster Moon, a koala theatrical producer, is producing a vaudeville-style live show. The hopefuls trying to get a part include a mouse crooner, a timid elephant, a pig mother with too many piglet youngsters, a young gorilla trying to break free from his mob family, a punk-rock porcupine and more. The voice cast includes Matthew McConaughey, Seth MacFarlane, Tori Kelly, Reese Witherspoon, Taron Egerton, Scarlett Johanssen and John C. Reilly, among others.

Illumination promises that Sing will have 85 songs! Is that a record for any musical, much less a funny-animal one?

Every now and then I find a work of furry art that is amazing. Such is the two-part audio drama entitled Porcupine Passions. The story started as a spin off explaining some back-story details of The Beach Bears saga (interview), but became much more.

Porcupine Passions I (10 episodes, about 10 minutes each) tells Bobby’s story as he struggles with his feelings of deep friendship for his friend Dipper. I could feel Bobby’s genuine feelings as I listened. The Beach Bears musical group had formed, and Dipper had stumbled into some serious heartache. As loyal friends do, Bobby comes to Dipper’s aid. Sounds simple; but the story is told with such genuine emotion, it’s anything but.

Porcupine Passions II (37 episodes, about 10 minutes each) precedes The Beach Bears saga and defines the friendship between Bobby and Dipper, which is tested when Bobby must move away and both their lives change in ways neither expected. Both grow and realize how special their friendship really is, as do the listeners.

Earlier today, Pachi the Porcupine was revealed as the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games mascot, in front of thousands of children at the annual Kids CBC Day in Toronto. CBC featured the mascot in action on their Toronto evening news.

Of the six finalists, Pachi was also most-liked by the public, in the online voting contest that gathered over 33,000 votes, according to the official press release. The voting contest results contributed 10% to the final score, along with other criteria including "embodies the spirit and values of the competition" and "has 'strong kid appeal'".

Organizers received 4130 submissions for the mascot, which was narrowed down to 108 in review before selecting the six finalists.

The "Pachi Pals" – Grade 8 students Paige, Fiona, Michelle, and Jenny, from Markham, Ontario, part of the Greater Toronto Area – designed the porcupine as a class project.

Correction (July 20): 33,000 was the number of votes received for all six finalist designs, not just for the winning entry as I initially reported.

The 2015 Pan American Games are running an online vote until May 5 to choose their mascot. The six finalists, selected from 4,130 entries, are:

1) a Maple-leaf headed beaver	2) a moose	3) a multi-colour owl
4) a porcupine with multi-color quills	5) a raccoon	6) twins wearing hats

See more: Original finalist designs, prior to conversion to Pan Am colours and style by illustrator/animator James Caswell of Sheridan College.