Burbank, California-based Renegade Animation, which specializes in producing cel-animated television commercials, has launched a new service to provide cel-style animation for advertising on the Internet. As the service's first job, FMT Advertising, New York, has contracted Renegade to create an animated Internet cartoon series for its client BulkRegister.com. The series, consisting of five 90-second episodes, parodies "dot com" culture, while promoting BulkRegister.com's ability to register large quantities of domain names.

On Monday, November 6, 2000, German children's TV producer and rights buyer TV Loonland announced that it expects annual sales to top DM127 million (US$55.9 million) for 2000. This report is almost four times its original estimate of DM32.7 million ($14.4 million) when the German company went public in March. It's pretax profit is estimated to be DM25.5 million ($11.2 million), increased from DM18.6 million ($8.2 million). TV Loonland attributes the growth to its recent international acquisitions, including the purchase of France's Salsa Distribution and U.K. production studio Telemagination.

AWN's stock ticker features the most prominent publicly traded companies in the world of animation. AWN, Inc. makes available certain financial information from third party information providers. AWN does not give advice in any such fields, and has not reviewed, and in no way endorses the validity of such data. This information is provided solely as a means to keep our readers informed of the market performance and trends of certain companies. AWN strongly suggests that one seek advice from a competent professional regarding any investment or financial issues.

British Culture Secretary Chris Smith was quoted in the LONDON SUNDAY EXPRESS as saying he will issue orders to U.K. TV regulators to cut back on "trashy cartoons" which have flooded the airwaves and replace them with "high-quality educational shows." Broadcasting Minister Janet Anderson told the newspaper, "The government shares parents' concerns that violent and unsuitable material is being broadcast in ever earlier slots." However, some U.K. officials may be uninformed about where the illicit animation is actually coming from.

Children's animation producer Nelvana has won its lawsuit against Paris-based Editions Mango for the use of Nelvana-owned properties after the two companies' licensing agreement was terminated. In 1994, Nelvana and New York creative consultancy Clifford Ross Co. signed a licensing deal with Editions Mango, allowing the French company to produce and sell books based on Nelvana and Ross-owned characters, including Babar, Celeste, Arthur, Cornelius, Flora and Alexandre.

Uri Geller, world-renowned psychic entertainer and author, has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against Nintendo for unauthorized use of his name on Pokemon cards and related materials. The lawsuit demands that the Koyto, Japan-based company stop using Geller as a character on its Pokemon cards and pay substantial general and punitive damages.

Mainframe Entertainment and Studio B Productions have announced that the two Vancouver animation studios are entering into a co-production agreement to develop an original series utilizing both traditional and computer animation. Mainframe CEO Ian Pearson said, "We've admired Studio B's work for some time and were looking for a partner in the traditional animation realm to co-produce projects that combine 2D and 3D animation techniques.

On Tuesday, November 1, 2000, The Harvey Entertainment Company announced that the proposed preferred stock investment by Classic Media LLC has been terminated due to the companies' inability to reach a definitive agreement. On August 24, 2000, Harvey announced that it had signed a Letter of Intent with Classic Media for an investment of roughly US$30 million in exchange for a new issue of Harvey Preferred Stock.

Luxembourg’s audiovisual production group, Oniria, is continuing its expansion with a new subsidiary studio in Berlin. The studio will be called Oniria Film and will handle pre-production (graphic design, scripts, storyboards, etc.), production management and post-production for the company's TV series. Thierry Schiel and Sophia Kolokouri have set up the new arm and Oniria Production administrator Nina Kolokouri will serve as general manager. Currently, Oniria Film is working on 52 15-minute episodes of the TV series BOB’S BEACH.

AWN's stock ticker features the most prominent publicly traded companies in the world of animation. AWN, Inc. makes available certain financial information from third party information providers. AWN does not give advice in any such fields, and has not reviewed, and in no way endorses the validity of such data. This information is provided solely as a means to keep our readers informed of the market performance and trends of certain companies. AWN strongly suggests that one seek advice from a competent professional regarding any investment or financial issues.