The Animals

Newgrounds, the long-running online community for independent games, animation, music and art, is drawing renewed attention as users revisit its role as a creative hub. Founded in the 1990s, it gave many animators and game developers their first audience, and discussions now focus on its history, its ad-free, creator-driven culture, and why it has endured while other Flash-era platforms disappeared.

Historian Benjamin Breen reports using the AI model Claude Opus 5.5 to dig up a previously overlooked eyewitness record of the dodo, the extinct flightless bird of Mauritius. The finding showcases how language models can surface forgotten material in digitised historical archives, and it is drawing attention as a striking example of AI-assisted archival discovery rather than hype.

A dog has become fond of raiding her owner's garden, with her favorite activity being to help herself to fresh tomatoes straight off the vine. The story, shared by Yahoo, is charming animal lovers who are amused by the pup's taste for homegrown produce. While ripe tomatoes are generally safe for dogs in small amounts, gardeners may want to protect their crops from four-legged snackers.

Jagex has confirmed it is developing a fourth RuneScape MMO using Unreal Engine, alongside a RuneScape animation project involving popular streamer MoistCr1TiKaL. The announcement has quickly spread across gaming news outlets, with players in the UK, Netherlands and beyond discussing what a new engine could mean for the long-running franchise's future.

Mr. Carton, the hero of a wordless French animated short by Tant Mieux Production, tries to reach the sea in his cardboard car, blocked by a chaotic highway between him and a distant cliffside lighthouse. The film is being shared for its playful use of scale and paper textures, with viewers recommending it to others who missed it.

The finalists of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2026 have been announced, with The Guardian publishing a gallery of the shortlisted images. Standout entries include a caiman wearing a wig, a leopard doing a handstand, a strutting white-tailed eagle, and a polar bear that appears to be chatting with a seagull. The humorous animal pictures are being widely shared as readers pick their favourites.

A gaming clip titled 'Upgrade the Vehicle to Win' pits the popular cartoon characters Shinchan and Nobita against each other, drawing over three million likes. Fans of the two Japanese animation franchises are engaging with the playful crossover matchup, sharing and reacting to the character-based vehicle challenge format.

A Minecraft animation following an elemental villager from birth to death has drawn over two million likes, making it one of the most-viewed gaming clips of the moment. The piece, created by Junkeyy, taps into the ongoing popularity of life-story and villager-themed Minecraft content, which regularly racks up big numbers among younger gaming audiences.

A social media post jokingly compares a bear to a poor Pac-Man player, drawing amused reactions. The quip suggests the animal's movements resemble someone fumbling through the classic arcade game. Little verified detail accompanies the joke, but it has caught attention among users sharing lighthearted gaming and wildlife content.

A compilation of the Minions' funniest and most memorable scenes from their films is drawing millions of views worldwide. The yellow henchmen from the Despicable Me franchise remain among animation's most popular characters, and fans are revisiting their best comedic moments, from slapstick chaos to the heroes' gibberish-filled antics, in high-definition clips.

A Bengali-language cartoon comedy sketch about a vegetable doctor, nicknamed the eggplant doctor, is drawing large audiences online. The animation, framed as a funny medical treatment for vegetables, has gathered millions of likes and is being shared widely under live and viral tags. Viewers are engaging with it as lighthearted family entertainment.

An animated comedy skit featuring a character called Doctor Baingan, who treats vegetables with humorous remedies, is drawing massive engagement in India's cartoon entertainment space. Viewers are responding to the mix of slapstick humour and vegetable-themed gags, with the clip racking up millions of likes as short-form animation continues to boom among Hindi-speaking audiences.

Before Disney's animated Aladdin, Tim Burton directed a 1986 television version of the story in which Leonard Nimoy and James Earl Jones both appeared, with Jones voicing the Genie. The trivia is circulating among film fans who are surprised that two iconic actors and Burton were attached to the same little-known Aladdin project.

A new Motu Patlu episode shows the popular cartoon duo heading out to win a golf match, only for a squirrel to throw their game into chaos. The animated comedy is drawing a large audience among Hindi-speaking children and family viewers.