Red Raven, Phoenix Animation's new show which is being developed in association with the Opaskwayak Cree Nation.

Many of the companies exhibiting at NATPE have established co-productions with a number of different countries. For instance, Alliance Communications offered the new animated series, Captain Star. The cult comic strip hero will be flying onto the small screen in a co-venture between Filmworks (UK), HTV's Harvest Entertainment (UK), Alliance Communications Corporation (Canada), ZDF (Germany), Nickelodeon (UK) and Canal Plus (Spain). Other financiers include YLE (Finland) and VPRO (Holland). In addition, Alliance brought a third season of Reboot and another season of Beast Wars, (which is distributed by Claster Television), two high-tech computer-generated animation series produced by Alliance and Mainframe.

Catalyst Entertainment teamed with co-owned Phoenix Animation Studios, CanWest Global System and the Opaskwayak Cree Nation on Red Raven, a new FCC-friendly half hour animated series for fall 1998. The program is based on the comic book and chronicles the adventures of Lynx, a Cree warrior who can transform himself into a supernatural hero.

One of the most beloved characters from the early world of children's television is returning this fall through an agreement between Saban Entertainment and Busch Entertainment. Captain Kangaroo will be back as the All-New Captain Kangaroo to highlight the Saban's Kids Network. The FCC-friendly show will be an updated, contemporary version of the old standard, but enough of the classic elements will be retained to appeal to the original viewers who are today's moms and dads.

Summit Media Group's Mr. Men.

Stay Tooned!
The following NATPE items highlight the convention's animated news bites:

From the start of NATPE's opening session, the innovative use of animation techniques were present, when Medialab's unveiled Cleo, a real-time motion capture animated character who "starred" in their 3-D performance animation presentation.

Montreal-based Telescene Film Group is the producer for Student Bodies, an FCC-friendly live action/animation series set in high school where kids work on an alternative student publication, which is being distributed by Twentieth Television. The show is scheduled to premiere in syndicated television in the fall of 1997.

Nelvana had two animated properties at the conference: Ned's Newt and Sticking Around, a half hour series that will be seen this fall. Sticking Around, created by Robin Steele and Brianne Leary, was adapted from a series of shorts which originally ran on MTV's Liquid Television. The company is also co-producing with Medialab on Donkey Kong Country. In addition, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus, the animated series produced by Scholastic Productions in association with Nelvana, has been licensed to approximately 80 countries around the world, including the UK, France, Spain, Greece, and several countries within the Middle East and Latin America.