Pokemon has caught new deals with several eastern European countries and renewals from around the rest of the continent. New locations of Pokemon infestation include Polsat in Poland, RTL-Klub in Hungary, Nova in Czech Republic, ETV in South Africa and Fox Kids’ Scandinavia Satelite service. The countries that renewed the second season’s 52-episodes were TV2 in Denmark, TV2 in Norway, TV4 in Sweden, Star Channel in Greece and RTL in Belgium.

VanHook Studios, a Hollywood-based effects and animation house, has ventured into cyberspace with a new episodic program for whatsonweb.com. VanHook has worked on the visual effects for such features as MY FAVORITE MARTIAN and 13TH WARRIOR and TV series ALLY MCBEAL, ZENA, HERCULES and MAX STEEL. The first series to hit whatsonweb.com will be the fantasy series KIRA: THE CURSED, staring adult film star Kylie Ireland. "Kylie is a great choice for us. Not only is she a wonderful actress, with great screen presence… she also has an enormous and incredibly loyal fanbase.

Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's

Animation Trivia

Quiz. This week, we're asking questions about stop-motion and puppet

animators. Which English puppet animator was replaced by computer

animation folks on Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!?" Which Czech animator

began drawing films but ended up working with puppets? Which video

did Disney recall because a cameraman had inserted a few frames of a

The 8th Holland Animation Film Festival will be held November 15-19,

2000 in Utrecht, Netherlands. Besides the international competition

for applied animation and student films from the Netherlands, Belgium

and Luxembourg, this year the festival will present an international

competition for independent animation. The competition is divided

into two separate categories: one for narrative films and one for

non-narrative films. In both categories a Grand Prix will be awarded.

This volume provides a survey of films made at Joonisfilm Studio

since Estonia's independence. Included: "Viola" (Grand Prize, 2000

Nordic and Baltic Animation Festival), "On the Possibility of Love"

(Grand Prize, Brisbane Animation Festival), "Bermuda" (Director's

Prize, Ottawa International Student Animation Festival), "Birthday,"

"Departure," "Gravitation," "Jaagup and Death," and two Estonian

films made at Finland's Turku Arts Academy: "Cappuccino" and

* Wednesday, June 21 – Sunday, June 25, 2000. Zagreb, Croatia.

As anticipated, Marvel's net sales decreased over last year’s first quarter period due in part to film licensing revenue. The year-ago quarter included a non-refundable advance from Sony Pictures Entertainment for the feature film license of Spider-Man, as well as an advance from Universal Studios for a feature film based on The Hulk. Also, year-ago first quarter revenues reflected strong initial distribution shipments for the Toy Biz division’s new line of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) products.

Honkworm International, a leading producer of original on-line entertainment content, has unveiled three new animation projects at the Cannes Film Festival. Each title will consist of no less than 20 Webisodes, ranging from two to six minutes in length. Honkworm executive VP of content Chris Cobb said, "We approach each of our short-form series from a filmmakers perspective, for us, first and foremost, it's about storytelling.

At the international box office, DreamWorks’ GLADIATOR conquered Australia and the U.K. while MISSION TO MARS landed on top in Italy and Germany. For the week ending May 11, 2000, GLADIATOR reigned by grossing US$4.53 million in Australia and $5.37 million in the U.K. in its first week in release in both countries. The global gladiator hit has now grossed nearly $86.56 worldwide. Buena Vista’s part APOLLO 13-part 2001 space epic, MISSION TO MARS remained atop the charts in Italy where it grossed another $524,264, raising its Italian cume to $1.92 million.

Folioscope presents "L'Equipée de Folimage Studio de Films d'Animation," the catalog for the exhibition on Folimage, the creators of the 1999 Cartoon d'Or winner "L'Enfant Au Grelot" ("Charlie's Christmas"), among other award winning productions. The Folimage exhibition will be presented at the Annecy Museum, Annecy, France, June 3-October 31, 2000. The Annecy festival will also present a retrospective of the studio's world-famous work.