National News | Letter to the Editor | Seminars - Festivals
WINNERS OF THE 2001 ASIFA-EAST ANIMATION FESTIVAL, OUR WED. JUNE 13 EVENT, CONTAINS WHAT MAY BE THE BEST BILL PLYMPTON SHORT SINCE "YOUR FACE" Eat is certainly a funny and sophisticated work. Plympton takes us to a lovely French bistro, sets a charming mood and then hits us with his amazing surprises that keep building to the film's outrageous climax. The film is funnier than the best of Spike and Mike's recent offerings, yet wholesome enough that it probably will not upset too many people who were offended by some of Plympton's earlier works. Come see for yourself what this master has created. I don't think you will be disappointed. (See separate article on it winning top honors at Cannes in May.)
If Plympton isn't reason enough to turn off your TVs and journey over to the Exploratorium on Wed. June 13 at 7:30, there are 24 other works in the show that might delight you. Billy Greene, a member of our chapter who is working for Vinton in Portland, is represented with Thought Bubble. Aaron Augenblick's Ramblin' Man, set to a Hank William's song, has a wonderfully stylized look to it (a highlight from the recent SF Film Festival). John R. Dilworth is represented with a clip from The Tower of Dr. Zalost, a half-hour show that combines footage from what looks like a great animated monster film with his award winning characters from Courage the Cowardly Dog. For solid humor there are a range of shorts that go from nice works made for children's TV to Queer Duck in an episode titled "Oh, Christ." Patrick Smith's Drink was a surreal highlight of this year's Spike a! nd Mike show. CGI fans should be impressed with an ad by Cyclotron titled Matre'D. There is an experimental computer work by Karl Staven and Protest by Josselin Mahot is a high-tech, sophisticated video that opens with a photorealistic elephant walking on a narrow ledge of a skyscraper. The program is a good mix of independent films, sponsored films, commercials and student work. Come and enjoy it.
BILLY GREENE'S "THOUGHT BUBBLE" TO BE SHOWN AT ANNECY THIS WEEK Greene writes, "Hey Karl, I have some news about my short film. Sorry it's kinda late. I hate tooting my own horn, but ASIFA members are the people I most want to share this with. Billy Greene's animated short "Thought Bubble" (4 min, 2001, 35mm) was selected for the Annecy International Festival of Animation, in France, June 4-9. It is one of 5 U.S. shorts in the "Panorama" (non-competitive) program. The film premiered at Sundance 2001, in a special program of animation from Portland, Oregon. It has also appeared in Taos Talking Pictures, Arizona Film Festival, Nashville Independent Film Festival, and the Florida Film Festival.
The film portrays the lonely exploits of a man living on the streets, in a city made of paper. The main character is a clay & foam puppet, who interacts with various 2D paper characters. The film was made with the support of Will Vinton Studios in Portland. Billy Greene's previous films include "Malfunction", and "Your Face" which was shown at the ASIFA-SF open screening 1998. Both films were co-directed by Astrid Cravens."
AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR DAVID FEISS JOINS WILD BRAIN - HE ALREADY HAS DIRECTED TWO HIGH ENERGY FRITO ADS FOR THEM He is best known for his Cow and Chicken series developed a few years ago for Cartoon Network. It was twice nominated for a Primetime Emmy and it received an Annie Award. Since then he has developed the series I. M. Weasel for the Cartoon Network and Inspector Beaver for the Internet.
In 1999, Entertainment Weekly included Feiss in their "100 Most Creative In Hollywood," and in 1997 he won the Rueben Award for Cartoonist of the Year in TV Animation.
His pair of new 30 second Frito-Lay Cheeto ads are really high energy productions full of slightly rude extreme takes in the best traditions of Tex Avery and John Kricfalusi. The product is some questionable stuff that can change the color of your tongue after eating it. One of the ads shows a nurse giving a gross slob an injection in the butt with a grossly oversized needle. Since you probably don't watch the kid shows that are running these ads, we will make sure you see them at a future ASIFA event. They really are exciting to watch. The ads combine traditional cel animation with Mac graphics (Photoshop, After Effects and US Animation).
"I THINK THE IMPACT OF THESE NEW TOOLS IN THE HANDS OF OUR ARTISTS IS THE MOST EXCITING THING THAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE ANIMATION BUSINESS IN 50 YEARS. Every day we are given more and better tools to realize our dreams, to visually create, and it is happening at a startling pace." Jeffrey Katzen-berg The quote is from "On the Leading Edge of Animation, for the Moment" about the making of Shrek by John Canemaker, NY Times, Sunday, May 13, 2001. Katzenberg also said that they experimented with making some of the characters more photo-realistic, but it looked awkward. "That's the first time I've encountered a technological advancement that was actually a contradiction to the creative look for the movie."
Canemaker also talked briefly by phone with William Steig who wrote the book the movie is based on. He was amazed and delighted with the film. The author is 93, lives in the Boston area and says he is in better condition than most people his age.
"SHREK" WAS SELECTED TO COMPETE AT CANNES For the first time in 48 years, an animated film was selected to compete at the Cannes Film Festival. PDI/DreamWorks' Shrek was one of 22 features selected for the official competition. Gary Meyers e-mailed us from the festival and said that the audience loved Shrek. Bill Plympton said the audience at the screening he attended went nuts over it and gave it a standing ovation. He called it "unbelievable."
SENATOR BOB KERREY COULD LEARN SOMETHING FROM "SHREK" One of the educational themes that Shrek addresses is our culture teaching us to think other cultures are inferior to ours and therefore the people are less human. Is Shrek a big dumb green ogre? The psychology behind teaching people to believe Shrek is those things and therefore inhuman is the same conditioning that lead Kerry to believe it was OK to kill civilians who were believed to be "gooks" and all those other labels Uncle Sam gave them. The lessons in Shrek are quite relevant as our nation reacts to the recent revelations about Kerrey's SEAL's team in Viet Nam. Calling them a SEAL's team makes them sound like a cool sports teamŠ
CONGRATULATIONS TO PDI/DREAMWORKS ON "SHREK" STARTING OFF WITH A "BLOCKBUSTER" WEEKEND I read on the Internet it was a $42.1 million opening weekend. That was on Sunday afternoon and the weekend wasn't even over. How do they know how much it took in before the box offices closed?
YOU MAY NOT KNOW THAT SHREK IS A YIDDISH WORD A few days ago I told my doctor how wonderful Shrek was and he laughed. I asked why and he said shrek was a Yiddish word for a person who was a real horror. I was curious to see if there were other ways of defining shrek, so I asked Tsvka Oren of ASIFA-Israel what "shrek" meant. He e-mailed me that it is not a Hebrew word, but there is "a Yiddish word, 'Shreklach', meaning awful or terrible." I spoke with a woman who says her cousin uses shrek to describe someone who was a mess (as in "their life is a mess") and another person recalls shrek being a screechy sounding person who is always complaining.
ILM HAS CREATED A LOT MORE OF THE IMPOSSIBLE TO DELIGHT FILM GOERS THIS SUMMER Their amazing work began to be seen the first weekend in May with the record breaking release of The Mummy Returns from Universal Pictures ($70.1 million, a record for a non-holiday opening weekend).They worked on more than 300 shots in the film including the mummy's see-through body, midget creatures, mummy warriors, sand effects and other impossible things.
Pearl Harbor, being released by Touchstone on the Memorial Day weekend, recreated the opening day of WWII. Hopefully none of ILM's work will be noticed as computer generated images as director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer want their 40 minute battle to appear real. The filmmakers only had a handful of vintage aircraft available and they couldn't damage them. ILM's computers recreated a fleet of 350 Japanese planes plus explosions, fiery crashes and lots of smoke. They also recreated Pearl Harbor from the air, land and sea with their computers as the area doesn't look the same today. They even recreated the same weather conditions that existed on Dec. 7, 1941. Since ILM had to add the film's actors to many of their images, the project kept their composite artists busy.
On June 29, A.I. Artificial Intelligence from DreamWorks SKG will be released. The project was being developed by Stanley Kubrik when he died. Spielberg, with the blessing of the estate, produced the film. It stars an eleven year old android (robot) named David that wants to experience human emotions. The tag line for the film is, "his love is real, but he is not."
Jurassic Park III from Universal Pictures premiers July 18th. The new film will have more shots in it by ILM than there were in the combined first two films. Joe Johnston directed. Story has a boy stranded on the island and his rescue party becomes stranded when their plane crashes. The film features new types of dinosaurs that are beautifully animated.
Finally, on July 27, Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes for 20th Century Fox will be released. The plot has space travelers going through a "wormhole" and landing on the mysterious planet. ILM did crowd enhancements where they add digital extras to scenes plus other effects work. They did not do the make-up that helped to make the previous Planet of the Ape features remarkable film experiences.
INTERESTED IN SEEING "MONKEYBONE"? Henry Selick's most recent feature will be released in July on video according to information on the web.
SF STATE ANIMATION STUDENTS SHOWED OVER 30 WORKS AT THEIR ANNUAL FILM FINALS SCREENING They included hand drawn projects, stop motion puppets, clay figures, and 2D and 3D computer animation. 29 films and videos were projected and several multi-media projects were displayed on monitors in the lobby. 26 of the screened works were under 2 minutes in length so the enjoyable program moved quickly from one work to the next.
Highlights included Don (Gordon) Thomas' 17 minute stop-motion puppet film Pedro and Tony. It deals with a domestic quarrel between a dog and a chicken living as a couple in a large apartment building. Neighbors give advice at one point, but most of the action is between the lovers. I suspect the film will do well at film festivals and it may prove to be a useful film with couple councilors. Thomas spent 7 years working on the project.
Jennifer Ohngha's The Suit, a 7 minute stop-motion work is a creative adventure of a suit of clothing in the real world. This highly creative work, shown silent last year, now has a fine soundtrack.
Heather White contributed a 1 minute Flash piece called Stormy Day. It begins and ends with a butterfly on a flower. Between the two shots a musical and visual storm erupts. This mini-Fantasia episode shows off her fine drawing skills and her ability to push and play with the software. A second Flash work, Bill Sievert's A Cat Named Mouse is a delightful piece of writing.
Shalease Dixon's Sweet Dreams is an ingenious work that has a drawn stick figure falling asleep and having a dream. The dream sequence was made by scratching on black leader. She also showed nicely crafted clay penguins in her work Cold Conflict. Other well animated clay studies included The Dr. X Project by Jennifer Emsley and Tara Miller's Red Furry.
Several works-in-progress showed a lot of promise including a slick looking Slim by Patrick Chung. His cgi character comes off of a drawing board and falls for a sexy hand drawn female. I understand it will have a comic ending.
Eji Yared's pencil test for Spider and Fly was nicely animated and Patricia Satjawatcharaphong's Reflection showed off her ability to draw well.
The traditional animation classes at SF State this semester were taught by Martha Gorzycki and Don Thomas. Jan Millsapps presented digital cinema, Jane Veeder 3-D computer animation and Thomas Luehrsen taught "Applied Aesthetics of Computer Cinema." Karl Cohen taught animation history.
ANIMATED SERIES BY DEEPEND, A BRITISH COMPANY WITH AN OFFICE IN SF, IS COMING TO THE WEB The show White Bread Blues was supposed to premiere in May, but it wasn't up when I looked for it. Their publicity says it features two "shameless deadbeats" named Cody and Gunter who live in a "trashy desert trailer park." It is being produced in SF. It is nice to know new things are happening on the Internet. At www.whitebreadblues.com Deepend's local office is at 1420 Haight St., SF, CA 94117
OAKLAND'S YAS TAKATA CO-DIRECTED "SEVENTH PORTAL" PLUS A SECOND FILM AT GREAT AMERICA Stan Lee's 7th Portal is a new 3D animated simulation film now playing at Great America and four other Paramount theme parks. The 70mm attraction distributed by Iwerks was a cooperative venture between Paramount Parks, Stan Lee Media and Blur Studio. The latter did the actual production based on Stan Lee's characters and input.
Yas Takata, who lives in Oakland, co-directed the film. Great America has a Yas Takata double feature going on! The park has two simulation theaters. In one they are showing 7th Portal, and the other is showing Smash Factory, which came out of Midland Productions several years ago. Takata was formerly with Midland, which got started in Richmond and then moved to Berkeley. Midland doesn't do ride films anymore, but the ones they did produce are still fresh, innovative and exciting. Smash Factory was done with models, miniatures and motion controlled cameras. It was an independent production from Midland that became an industry favorite.
Midland tried to move into the feature market a few years ago. They still have a Berkeley phone number, but after getting their answering machine dozens of times and finding the mailbox is always full, I suspect their business is in mothballs.
INTERESTED IN SEEING NEW WEB SITES PROMOTING THE WORK OF CHRIS LANIER AND VICTORIA LIVINGSTONE? He did two seasons of Romanov for Wild Brain. His site is www.chrislanier.com
Victoria "Tori" Livingstone, who works at ILM, created Window, a personal puppet film in 35mm. It has won several awards. www.xylofilm.com
BRIAN KOLM, AARON CLARK AND NORMAN QUEBEDEAU HAVE ANIMATED WORK ON THE WEB Clark is an independent artist who has a site to showcase his work. It is www.creebles.com Brian Kolm, who is working on a 5 minute cel animated short, has a new site at www.bkolm.com
Quebedeau worked for many years in L.A. as a storyboard artist and writer (from Disney to Hanna-Barbera). He now does freelance work locally and teaches storyboarding at the Academy of Art. Early this year he was hired to do the animation for a rather unusual "sarfatti" site on the web. You can skip all the cosmic and UFO stuff and go directly to his work at www.stardrive.org/cartoon, or you can wonder around the entire site www.stardrive.org He can be reached at NRQUEB@aol.com or (650) 375-0919
STANFORD UNIVERSITY TO OPEN AN ACADEMY FOR NEW MEDIA The Stanford Academy for New Media will offer week-long sessions in 3D Modeling/Animation, Web Design and Digital Video, beginning July 2, 2001. One of the teachers will be Ed Hooks (acting for animators). The program is for artists, educators, and high school and older students. In addition to the current offerings, the school will be adding a Maya OSX track later this summer. newmedia.stanford.edu
COMING - INTERVIEWS WITH MICHEL OCELOT AND RAMOND HUI IN OUR JULY NEWSLETTER Ocelot's feature Prince and Princesses just played at the Pacific Film Archive and SF Film Festival. He talks with Adrienne Crew about silhouette animation and other topics in this informative 3 page article.
Hui was the animation supervisor of Shrek. He talked with Karl Cohen about animating Shrek at PDI.
NIK PHELPS CREATED THE MUSIC TRACK FOR AN ANIMATED FILM THAT IS ONE OF 3 FINALISTS FOR A STUDENT OSCAR Nik and Nancy are excited about going to the ceremony in LA on June 10. The film is Brooke Keesling's Boobie Girl. June Foray did the voice work. Keesling, who went to CAL Arts, is now working in the industry.
RAINBOW STUDIOS MAY BE OPENING AN OFFICE IN SAN FRANCISCO Rainbow Studios is a game developer in Phoenix. A news item run by AWN says they are opening a satellite office in San Francisco, but I haven't been able to confirm this (no mention of the local office on their web site www.rainbowstudios.com).
Rainbow reports they are expanding their business at the present time. Nicholas Napp, vice president of animation at Rainbow, said, "The expansion of our production space has allowed us to improve our motion-capture stage and enhance our post-production facilities, both of which are critical to our ongoing success." Their products include Starship Troopers and ATVOff-Road Fury games. Rainbow Studios, 3830 North 7th St., Phoenix, Arizona 85014-5004 (602) 230-1300
ERIK THE TASTELESS WAS INTERVIEWED ON TV, live from Bay to Breakers. Erik, a union organizer for Barbarians Local #239, won 1st prize in the race's costume contest last year (he was given a free trip to Vegas where he fit right in with the crowd). Despite minor back pains, he ran the race for the 8th time this year. Erik, who says he lives in a cave, sometimes masquerades as Ron Seawright. He pretends to be a sophisticated opera lover, animation teacher and ASIFA board member, but we know who he really is.
Friday, June 2, 7 pm, BARRY PURVES SCREENING AND DISCUSSING 5 OF HIS ANIMATED FILMS at the Women's Building as part of the National Queer Arts Festival. The banner headline on the festival's press release says "Hot Homo Puppet Action: The Films of Barry Purves," 3543 18th St. (415) 552-7709 admission $15 www.staytooned.com and www.queerculturalcenter.org
FEATURES BY ALEXANDER PTUSKO (Russia), at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley
Sunday, June 3, 5:30, Ruslan and Ludmila (from a Pushkin poem about a sorcerer who steals the hero's bride)
Thursday, June 7, 7:00, Viy (a horror film based on a short story by Gogol)
Friday, June 8, 7:30, Aerograd (sound effects by Ptusko)
Saturday, June 9, 8 pm, Nik Phelps and the Sprockets Ensemble at the PFA performing new compositions written by Berkeley High School composers. Program includes Hans Richter's Ghosts Before Breakfast and other classics.
Wed. June 13, 7:30 pm, OUR SCREENING OF THE ASIFA-EAST ANNUAL ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL at the Exploratorium.
Tues. June 19, 8:15 pm. VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, A PROGRAM OF SHORT ANIMATED FILMS Program includes Jeffrey's Hollywood Screen Trick, directed by Todd Downing plus other golden moments of cinema. At the Victoria Theatre. The program is part of the 25th San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
Sunday, June 24, 7 pm, Ptushko's The Stone Flower, a fantasy film from Russia, 1946. It was Russia's first all color feature. At the Rafael Center.
Friday, June 29, 6 pm, free, Nik Phelps and the Sprockets Ensemble perform new compositions commissioned to go with animation created by graduate students at Expression Multimedia, 6601 Shell Mound St. Emmeryville.
Sunday, July 1, 7 pm, Ptusko's The New Gulliver, 1935. It combines live action and stop-motion puppets, Rafael Center.
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE PFA FOR RUNNING 5 NIGHTS OF ZEMAN'S FEATURES AND SHORTS IN MAY They were wonderful with lots of magical surprises to delight us. Fortunately a lot of people took the time to discover his highly imaginative body of work.
PS. Their Starevitch shows were so popular that the 7:30 show sold out 30 minutes before show time!
BILL PLYMPTON'S "EAT" WINS THE BEST SHORT FILM AWARD AT CANNES in their Critics Week Competition (May, 2001). Cannes, Annecy (June) and ASIFA-East are the first festivals he has entered it in. See it at the Exploratorium, Wed. June 13 at 7:30. (W. Coast Premiere)
THE LITTLE THEATRE IN SEATTLE SHOWED 4 PROGRAMS OF DIRECT ANIMATION IN MAY It is rare enough for someone to have a single show of cameraless animation (painted or scratched directly on film), so 4 shows must be a unique event. The works shown ranged from early classics by Len Lye, Harry Smith, Norman McLaren, Stan Brakhage, Rose Bond and Barbara Neubauer to new works by Brakhage, Richard Reeves, Sandra Gibson, the Scratch Film Junkies, and other artists. They also showed the cameraless feature Ere Erera Baleibu Icik Subua Arvaren by Basque artist Antonio Sistiaga, 1970, 75 min. and had a show of work by Devon Damonte (plus a hands-on workshop with Damonte). www.nwfilmforum.org/littletheatre
MAURICE NOBLE, THE CREATOR OF AMAZING BACKGROUNDS FOR CHUCK JONES' FILMS, DIES AT 91 He created "Roadrunner country," the sets for What's Opera Doc? and Duck Amuck, plus hundreds of other wonderful moments. His work at Disney before WWII included the exceptional design work on "Pink Elephants on Parade" in Dumbo (1941). Later in his life he worked on several Dr. Seuss specials with Jones and on their The Phantom Tollbooth. He co-directed the Oscar winner The Dot and the Line (with Jones), 1965.
I e-mailed Bill Dennis (CEO of Toonz India) the news of Noble's passing. He wrote back, "Thanks for the update. I couldn't agree more. Maurice was a genuinely nice person with a good heart. Kind, gentle and extremely talented."
.STAN LEE MEDIA CEO ACCUSED OF SHARE-HOLDER FRAUD - THIS CASE IS GETTING REAL STRANGE AWN's Flash reports that, "In an about face to his January 2001 sworn declaration, former Stan Lee Media vice president Stephen Gordon issued a 'Further Declaration' in a Los Angeles Superior Court action which retracted and corrected previous allegations made by Gordon against Stan Lee Media co-founder Peter Paul, as well as detailed a series of new accusations of fraud and libel against Stan Lee Media CEO Ken Williams. Gordon's new declaration effectively reverses his previously sworn statements made about Paul in a lawsuit filed against Paul and Gordon by their former attorneys in an attempt to collect legal fees. Gordon's previous declaration alleged that Paul was being personally investigated by the SEC, was hiding assets and had fled the country. Gordon's new declaration retracts and corrects those allegations, while including new allegations that W! illiams, the former president of Sony Digital Studios, was involved in a plan to 'personally destroy' co-founder Paul and to bankrupt Stan Lee Media in order for him to acquire Stan Lee Media assets free of existing shareholders and creditors."
"Gordon's filing comes on the heels of an announcement by Austin-based venture capital firm Interfase Capital, LP, that it was providing debtor in possession financing for Williams' operations during reorganization of Stan Lee Media, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, 2001 [AWN News 2/20/01]. In a report published by Digital Coast Daily, Paul was reached in Argentina, where, rather than hiding from authorities, he says, he is working on a new business. According to the report, Paul claimed that the management team brought on to run Stan Lee Media last year failed to perform adequately, including that CEO Ken Williams never even completed a business plan and failed to generate revenue. 'The management that I hired with Stan to run the company in my opinion failed to perform the functions adequately,' commented Paul. 'In six months, no business plan was ever completed and no cash flow developed.' Paul also s! aid that in order to raise desperately needed capital for Stan Lee Media, Williams engaged in 'death-spiral' financing, in which an investor's share of the company increases if the value of the stock falls below a certain price. Paul claimed that the firm that provided bridge financing in early December was guaranteed a minimum share price of $1. 'Lo and behold,' Paul claimed, 'immediately after that the stock got shorted. It's a very strange coincidence that the stock declined to the point where the obligor was no longer required to put any more money in, and most likely made money by shorting the stock.' Paul's assertions about the management team's supposed shortcomings, as well as the death-spiral financing, were also made to AWN during a previous conversation."
"Asked for his response to Gordon's and Paul's allegations by Digital Coast Daily, CEO Williams reportedly declined to answer many of the specific claims, saying he didn't want to "litigate in the press." He did respond to the assertion that he is trying to take over the company, calling it an "absurd idea." Williams was quoted as saying, 'I have no intention of doing so and there's no basis in fact whatsoever. I've made it clear in all of my discussions that the recapitalization is in no way contingent on my continuing involvement. I'm trying to resolve a difficult situation for creditors and investors in a way that maximizes shareholder value.' Williams stated that he did in fact write a business plan, however, and said that he was in the process of revising it in order to raise more funds due to poor positioning by Paul at the company's founding. 'We really were at the height of the dot-com meltdown in the fall,' Williams explained. 'Peter's e! arlier positioning of us as a dot-com play left us in trouble, even though we were developing a much broader media strategy under my leadership.' In addition to plans of joining one or more of several shareholder lawsuits being filed, Paul is also suing The Industry Standard for alleged libel in its claims that Paul was convicted of selling heroin and was disbarred as an attorney. The Standard later ran a correction and apologized."
Congratulations to AWN's Flash for this excellent in-depth report that covers several conflicting points of view. I suspect this story will be with us for many months and it may never be completely resolved if Paul remains out of the country. KC
SIMPSONS ACTORS GET RAISES Variety reports that six voice actors on the show will each get $100,000 per episode. The new contracts will pay Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Yeardley Smith, Julie Kavner and Nancy Cartwright $2.2 million per season for the next two seasons (with an option for a third season of 22 episodes at $125,000 per episode). Currently, each of the actors makes $70,000 per episode. In 1998 they threatened to leave the show unless they received substantial raises. At that time they were paid $25,000 per episode.
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IS DISNEY IN TROUBLE? THEY HAVE ANNOUNCED LAYOFFS AND SALARY CUTS IN THEIR ANIMATION DEPARTMENTS They have also announced company-wide layoffs totaling 4,000 employees. It appears their costs are increasing and their profits are decreasing.
The number of cuts in animation haven't been announced, but AWN contacted Steve Hulett, business agent for Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 839, and he estimates that the layoffs will number between 160-230 people out of 1,000 in Burbank. AWN'S FLASH also said "inside sources say they have been told that salaries may be slashed between 30% to 50% at both the Orlando and Burbank feature facilities." No layoffs are slated for Orlando at the present time.
DISNEY TO RELEASE "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" IN 70MM JANUARY 1, 2002. It will be available in 70mm/15 perf for IMAX theaters and in 70mm/8 perf for Iwerks and other theaters. The 70mm prints will include a new musical number, "Human Again." It had been cut from the original production after it had been storyboarded. Beauty and the Beast (1991) was hand drawn, and then digitally inked and painted.
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD IS PRESENTING A LOT OF UNUSUAL SCREENINGS In late April they showed the 1999 ASIFA-East Animation Festival winners. In May they screened rare 16mm Technicolor prints of cartoons (the best color process developed for film - beautiful colors that don't fade) and a program honoring the DePatie-Freleng Studio. On June 1 they showed "Sex Wars in Animation, 1926 - 1950" hosted by Milton Knight.
ASIFA AT ANNECY 2001 The ASIFA Board of Directors is inviting all representatives of ASIFA National groups and individual members to attend the open ASIFA meeting to be held on Wednesday, 6th June, 2001, from 10:00 a.m to 1:30 p.m. in the Jumel Room - Quai des Clarisses (close to the salle Pierre Lamy).
ASIFA members, animators and animation fans are also invited to visit the ASIFA booth at the Bonlieu Centre. There will be information about ASIFA and you can see and purchase artworks, books, tapes, postcards etc. by prominent artists - ASIFA members.
The ASIFA booth will hold a silent auction of original animation art works from famous animators, including Bill Plympton (Mutant Aliens, in competition), Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (When the Day Breaks, Annecy grand prix 1999), Georges Schwizgebel (past Annecy juror and exhibition artist), Don Hertzfeldt (Rejected, in panorama and Oscar nominee) and other brilliant animators. All proceeds will go toward the ASIFA production fund to finance new animation collaborations by ASIFA members. Please come to the ASIFA booth and make a bid on your favorite piece of art!
Animators, if you are interested in making a donation of your artwork for future online and festival auctions, please speak to someone in the booth or contact jacksonhall@asifa.net.
JERRY BECK COMMENTS ON THE CARTOON NETWORK CENSORING 12 BUGS BUNNY CARTOONS FROM WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A MARATHON WEEKEND SHOWING ALL OF BUG'S CARTOONS "The war against those of us who love and respect classic animation and the mega-corporations who withhold them from the public rages on. The Wall Street Journal on 'June Bugs' was picked up by the AP (Associated Press) newswire and was big news last Friday (5/4/01). I was interviewed by a few radio talk show hosts in New York And L.A. - and I'm working with the Cartoon Network on a way to present (and explain) the "withheld twelve."
The titles that won't air on the "June Bugs" marathon are: Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt, All This and Rabbit Stew, Any Bonds Today?, What's Cookin' Doc?, Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, Herr Meets Hare, Which is Witch?, A Feather In His Hare, Frigid Hare, Bushy Hare, Horse Hare, Mississippi Hare.
"Cartoon Network is taking responsibility for the decision to pull these films, after they originally scheduled them to air in the wee hours of the morning. I don't blame Cartoon Network for this action. They are doing the responsible thing as a high profile national kids cable channel."
"Many, many of you have asked me who to write to at Cartoon Network to protest this action. If you feel moved to write, I propose you channel your protest, not at Cartoon Network, but at Warner Home Video who refuses to release Looney Tunes on DVD (not to mention VHS). Even worse, they refuse to acknowledge the adult fans of these cartoons. I've said it before, these cartoons are treasured films of Hollywood's golden age. They rank with The Wizard Of Oz and Citizen Kane. They rank with TV classics like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners. These movies & TV series, in recent years, have had loving restorations released on TV & home video. The Warner Bros. cartoons are comedy classic films that are being abused. AOL/Time-Warner treats these films as 'kiddie fodder,' to be sliced and diced as it sees fit for kids consumption. That's fine. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that WE (the a! dult public) have no access to the original films. It's a real shame."
"Write to Warner Home Video and request 'The Complete Uncut Bugs Bunny' on DVD. Help raise their consciousness - make them aware that there are grown people who would pay real money for a boxed set of Warner Bros cartoons. President, Warner Home Video,4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91522" From Jerry Beck's www.cartoonresearch.com
note: The AP version of the story in the Chronicle said the idea of running the censored cartoons "was nixed after Warner Brothers, which owns the rabbit, expressed its worry that the episodes might harm the company's extensive merchandising ventures." I asked Sally Beatty, the author of the original story in the Wall Street Journal, if an executive of Warner Bros. actually said that. She e-mailed me, "You have a good eye, in fact, no one at Warner Bros. would come out and say that." There may be some truth to the statement, but it was probably made up by an AP writer and is not a proven fact. People are speculating why they were pulled, but nobody knows for sure.
REGARDING THE STORY ON BILL HANNA
"Since you invited comment on one specific piece, I respond as follows: the only thing I can object to in your otherwise well-written, eye-opening, on-target treatise on the subject of Bill Hanna's elusive (and somewhat illusive) resume was your use of the phrase 'few alternatives' when you certainly meant 'few options' or 'few choices'". Will Ryan, Los Angeles
Paull Naas writes, "I've felt for years that Hanna-Barbera has taken unwarranted grief from the animation community over their body of work (excluding Tom and Jerry), when it should have been thankful for H-B keeping animation alive as an art form and industry. I won't dispute the opinion that Yogi, Quick Draw and the gang didn't contribute much artistically, but as you correctly pointed out, H-B did employ dozens, if not hundreds, of animation artists who otherwise would have had no work in the industry. I'm sure Preston Blair was happier feeling like "a race horse pulling a milk wagon"* than he would have been if he'd had to sell shoes for a living. Whether or not they pioneered limited animation, they certainly created a business model that made it work, which led directly to creating a new segment of the industry that employs many of our friends and associates to this day. Their production model helped keep animation alive as a medium during a very low point in its history, ensuring that it still existed when creators such as Matt Groening and John K. came along."
"A friend recently told me that he thinks the 'golden age' of any medium is the era in which one grows up, and I have to agree with him. I grew up on Hanna-Barbera shows, and didn't care at all that they moved differently than Bugs and Mickey; Fred and Barney were every bit as enjoyable and entertaining to me as the other two were. I'm certain my son will feel the same way about Rugrats and Doug. As an adult, I find some of my childhood H-B favorites laughable and cheesy, but I'm sure glad they were there when I was a kid to inspire me to learn how to make drawings move, and to keep an industry going so that I could get paid to make those drawings move when I grew up. I'm glad Bill Hanna kept at it after MGM folded their tent, and I think we all owe him a debt of gratitude."
*ed note: Preston Blair told me he quit animation after doing a few TV projects and became an inventor and investor in the stock market. At the time of his death he was working on an interactive tennis game.
Bill Dennis, President and CEO of Toonz Animation India wrote, "Greetings from Trivandrum and Los Angeles. I read your obits on Bill Hanna and Sam Singer. I thought what you wrote on Sam was fair, straightforward and was written in the "spirit" of an obit. But on Bill's.........it felt like you strayed into editorial territory. I was hoping for something that accentuated the positive and focused on Bill's lengthy list of credits and accomplishments. I think this would have been an easy task given Bill's veteran status and his illustrious career.
Bill's history was at times controversial and it might be interesting to look at and write about those times. But, not in an obit. For me.....it was inappropriate.
By the way, I've been meaning to drop you a line to let you know how much I enjoy the newsletters. They're always crammed with great info and interesting tidbits. Believe it or not, your newsletters are widely read in South India and they help us as we put together our own ASIFA-India newsletters. Best regards from all of us, Bill Dennis"
REGARDING SPIKE AND MIKE
A friend's wife loved Rejection and was still laughing when she thought of the film the next day. My friend was amused by it too and said the crowd at the Castro found it funny. Unfortunately, I saw it at home, alone, on a 15" television. That is not the best way to enjoy animation. I suspect part of the fun of this film is seeing it on a big screen with a large crowd that is into it.
FILM ARTS FESTIVAL OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA has a June 9 (early) & June 29 deadline for their early Nov. event. $15/20 entry fee, they pay $3 min. for work shown. Can show S-8, 16 & 35mm, Beta SP & DV. Mail a SASE to FAF, 346 Ninth St., SF, CA 94103 or www.filmarts.org
BRADFORD ANIMATION FESTIVAL, JULY 27 deadline. They preview PAL tapes. No entry fee. www.baf.org.uk
CINANIMA 2001, INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL, Aug. 1 deadline, no entry fee, some cash prizes, a well established event. Rua 62, 251 Apartado 743, 4500-901 Espinho Codex Portugal tel 22 7344611 www.cinanima.pt
SCREENWRITING SEMINAR with Robert McKee, June 8-10 in San Francisco. 888-676-2533 wwwMcKeeStory.com
WEB2001 CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION, SEPT. 4-8, MOSCONE CENTER, SF (415) 947-6136 www.web2001.com
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This issue was written by Karl Cohen and proofread by Pete Davis. The production crew included Shirley Smith, Tara Packard and Ron Seawright. Subscriptions are $18 a year. |
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© 2001 Animation World Network