Walt Disney Home Video is re-releasing 101 DALMATIONS (1961) on video on March 9, for 101 days only. The fully restored, digitally remastered and THX Certified release also features a new 90-second MOUSEWORKS short, STREET CLEANER, featuring another Disney canine star, Pluto. In addition, the video is accompanied by an exclusive offer for a free Dalmation puppy beanbag toy. The video will be available at $26.99 (S.R.P.).

Eric Rollman has been upped to president of production for Fox Family Worldwide, a joint venture between Saban Entertainment and Fox News Corp. His new role puts him in charge of production for Fox Family Channel, Fox Kids Network and Fox Kids International, as well as continuing supervision of on-air promo material production for the various channels.

The animated feature "Princess Mononoke," Japan's highest-grossing feature of all-time, had an amazing television debut in Japan on January 22. Airing on Nippon Television Network (NTV), the Hayao Miyazaki film brought in a 35.1 rating, the eighth highest ranking in Japanese television history for movie broadcast ratings and the highest rating for a broadcast movie in 15 years.

Beginning in February, Kids WB! Saturday morning line-up will start airing the hit Japanese animated series, "Pokémon," a cartoon which gained infamy in late '97 when hundreds of young Japanese viewers simultaneously suffered seizures while watching an episode that featured a high-contrast flash sequence [AF 12/23/97]. While the series currently completes its first season in first-run syndication, Kids WB! will premiere twelve all new episodes of "Pokémon," which will join the series syndication package of 52 episodes for the completion of the '98-'99 season.

Toronto, Canada-based animation studio NELVANA Enterprises (Booth 1910) has reached a deal with cable and satellite channel TELETOON France giving the broadcaster 200 half-hours of animation programming per year from NELVANA.

Premiered at MIPCOM, Korean company Samsung Entertainment Group will again offer their newest animated series for adults called “Alexander.” Peter Chung, creator of “Aeon Flux,” is designing the characters for the fantasy-adventure show, which is set in 4th Century B.C. Macedonia, and is based on the novel “Alexander’s War Chronicles” by Hiroshi Aramata. The executive producer is Haruki Kadokawa, with Masao Maruyama producing, Rintaro directing and Yoshinori Kanmori supervisor directing. Animation is being produced by Mad House in Japan.

J.J. Sedelmaier recently completed a simple 30-second spot, “Filene’s Turkey,” promoting Filene’s Basement annual charity Giant Turkey Giveaway. The spot used a stark black-ink-against-white-background style to feature a spokes-turkey who grows fatter and fatter each time the cash register rings until it fills up the entire screen. Director J.J. Sedelmaier commented about the ad, “‘Filene’s Turkey’ is a simple spot that’s stylistically reminiscent of old black-and-white cartoons where personality carries the day over artistry.”

Hong Kong-born animation director and illustrator Paul Chung completed a French bubblegum spot, "Rainforest," for Passion Pictures through Young and Rubicam (Paris, France). The ad takes place in a brightly colored South American jungle setting as Indian natives watch their jungle being destroyed by an army of loggers. To thwart the loggers, a native opens a pack of Malabar bubblegum and from the pack jumps the superhero Malabar Man who proceeds to block the bulldozers with gum. The 30-second spot which combines traditional 2D with computer animation, will air in France starting in 1999.

Coming off their successful animated feature, “Antz,” Pacific Data Images (PDI) and DreamWorks have announced that their next collaboration will be “Tusker,” directed by Tim Johnson (co-director of “Antz”) and Brad Lewis (producer of “Antz”). The film will be PDI/DreamWorks’ third project and will follow the release of “Shrek,” which is currently in production. “Tusker” follows a herd of elephants as they make a perilous trek across Southeast Asia confronting numerous dangers including a malevolent group of poachers.

MEDIALAB, a real-time performance animation production company, and Cine-Groupe, a production house and distributor of animation, have joined forces for the first time in a co-production deal that will see two properties, “Pinocchio 3001” and “Sphinx@com,” developed into computer-generated animated feature films and television series. These projects will be produced over the next four years using MEDIALAB’s propietary performance animation techniques.