Creek & River America (C&R), a talent management company representing freelance creative artists and production and design firms, has opened its first North American office in New York. Creek & River America represents U.S.-based talent on behalf of its parent company, Tokyo-based Creek & River Co., Ltd., which currently represents more than 20,000 creative artists including directors, producers, cinematographers, animators, designers, illustrators, copywriters and photographers.

Yet another twist in the bitter battle for Winnie the Pooh royalties surfaced this week when Disney reportedly made an announcement that the granddaughter of Pooh creator A.A. Milne and the granddaughter of Pooh illustrator E. H. Shepard have decided to reclaim all rights to the characters. According to an AP report, Disney cited a clause in the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act that will allow the heirs to reclaim the international rights granted to Disney, as well as rights granted to Stephen Slesinger Inc. and grant all those rights exclusively to Disney starting in 2004.

Pixar Animation Studios announced the largest quarterly profit in the company's history with the financial results for its fiscal third quarter of 2002 and for the nine months ended September 28, 2002. For the quarter, Pixar earned $46.9 million or $0.87 per diluted share, compared to earnings of $6.2 million, or $0.12 per diluted share, achieved in the year-ago quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $102.5 million, as compared to $11.3 million in the year-ago quarter. These results were largely driven by better than expected sales of the MONSTERS, INC.

In announcing its fourth quarter and August 31, 2002 year-end results, Corus Entertainment Inc. revealed it has taken a CAD$200 million (approx. US$128 million) write-down of its investment in Nelvana. Nelvana is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. The company took the write-down because of the slowdown in the production and distribution industry over the past year. The write-down includes $40 million (US$25.6 million) from Nelvana's library and $160 million (US$102 million) for goodwill and other intangibles.

Cartoon Network has added Hungarian and Romanian to its language services making it available in no less than eleven languages in Europe. Starting out as a pan-European channel in 1993, Cartoon Network now has seven dedicated regional channels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa where it can be enjoyed in English, Danish, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.

The long-running litigation over WINNIE THE POOH royalties took a startling turn as accountants hired by the court to audit Disney's records were officially fired on October 25, 2002. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ernest M. Hiroshige had determined that the accountants were biased in favor of Disney and their auditing methods unreliable. He has ordered that a new independent accounting firm be hired.

IMAX Corporation has announced that it will be bringing large format theaters to South America. Four IMAX theatres will open, to be located in Chile and Ecuador. "IMAX's entry into South America with these four new theatres is an exciting moment for our company and is really only the beginning for us in a market that we believe can support many more IMAX theatres in many countries," said Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler, co-CEOs and co-chairmen, IMAX Corporation.

ELECTRONIC MEDIA ONLINE is reporting that U.S. broadcast network UPN will be dropping Disney's two-hour animated block beginning in 2003, opting instead to give the time slots back to stations. The kids' block airs weekdays on various UPN affiliates and features such series as DIGIMON and DISNEY'S RECESS. Disney has been programming the block since 1999. The two-hour slot will likely be handed back to affiliates for syndicated or local programming, effectively removing at least one network from the broadcast 'toon wars.

London-based computer animation studio Slave Studios Ltd. has opened Bravo Studios, a sister company based in Bucharest. Bravo Studios is headed by Cinesite veteran Bill Scanlon, and opened in summer 2002 with 30 animators. The studio expects to increase its staff to over 50 animators by 2003. Slave and Bravo are currently at work on numerous projects for television and film. Among other projects, the studio recently completed SPHERIKS, a 26 x half-hour TV series in partnership with Passion Pictures for FIFA, featuring the official mascots for the WORLD CUP 2002.

Children’s entertainment outfit HIT Entertainment reported record financial results for its fiscal year, which ended July 31, 2002.