Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment forged two deals to further the company’s brands in the consumer product arena. One is for a line of high-tech toys and gizmos, starting with digital jewelry, while the other covers apparel and accessories.

One-year-old digital animation studio SciClone Motion Graphics (www.sciclonefx.com) has been adding experience in high-end 3D graphics as of late, reports Anand Gurnani in ANIMATION ‘XPRESS. Focusing mostly on television commercials, SciClone’s recent clients have included Underground Music Movement, for which it created a high-end TV ad featuring a 3D ant, fluid simulations and a lot of compositing. Other brand clients include Colgate — SciClone has animated a dozen commercials for this brand alone — as well as Tide, Fair & Lovely, Samsung, Nutrine and ABN Amro Bank.

Toy Play will release a new line of Color-In Cardboard Playhouses featuring many colorful animated cartoon characters. These unique playhouses allow kids to color in their favorite characters — and then build their own playhouse, decorated with their designs. These kid-sized playhouses are made of durable cardboard and styled in iconic shapes and come with five colored markers.

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members voted by a margin of 81.2% to 18.8% to overwhelmingly approve the proposed Interactive Media Agreement recently negotiated with videogame producers. In accordance with a national board decision on June 29, the referendum was sent to Screen Actors Guild performers with earnings under the previous three-year agreement with the videogame industry— as well as any eligible, paid-up SAG member in good standing who requested a ballot. The new contract will go into effect on Friday July 29, 2005 and run through December 31, 2008.

Speaking at the First Chinese International Animation, Cartoon and Game Fair, which opened yesterday in Shanghai, head of the animation department at Nanjing Normal University Wu Yue said that after decades of slumber, Chinese animators have begun developing new products, reports CHINA VIEW.

Since 2000, more than 100 university animation programs have formed and graduates have gone on to start their own businesses, mostly in the Yangtze River Delta.

"There are many small studios," Wu said. "They are clustered in East China."

SHARK TALE co-director Eric “Bibo” Bergeron has set up a new animation studio in Marseilles, France. After spending eight years at DreamWorks, where he also made THE ROAD TO EL DORADO, Bergeron is returning to France to produce and direct his latest projects.

The first 3D film, A MONSTER IN PARIS, will be co-written by Bergeron and Ramzy, the two French comedians on whom the designs for the main characters are based and who will provide the French voiceovers. The film will be entirely produced in France at the new European studio.

NBC Universal is in talks to buy DreamWorks SKG, in what could be a deal worth $1 billion, according to the trades. Universal Studios already distributes DreamWorks' videos and DVDs via Universal Studios Home Video, and its films internationally through United Pictures International, the foreign distributor jointly owned by Universal and Paramount. Additionally, the two studios have co-financed films such as the 2000 Oscar-winner GLADIATOR and Steven Spielberg's upcoming MUNICH, which Universal will release in December.

Gaiam Inc., a lifestyle-media company catering to people who value personal development, natural health and inspirational entertainment, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of GoodTimes Ent.

DreamWorks Animation SKG and McDonald's Corp. announced a two-year worldwide marketing and promotional relationship. The first film associated with the tie-in will be SHREK 3, slated for release in 2007, and will include such signature promotions as McDonald's Happy Meals.

Major theater chains in Germany have threatened to not carry Buena Vista International’s release of HERBIE: FULLY LOADED, because the company intends to release the DVD in December, reports VARIETY. Greater Union Filmpalast and Cinemaxx have both said they will not screen the film, because the Aug. 4 theatrical debut is only four — not the typical six — months away from the home entertainment release.

4Kids Entertainment Inc. will handle exclusive worldwide merchandising rights TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES CGI-animated feature film expected to be released in early 2007. Playmates Toys will develop a toy line for the all-new TURTLES film from The Weinstein Co., Warner Bros. Pictures and Imagi Animation Studios

After producing an ambitious slate of direct-to-video movies, The Walt Disney Co. has decided to close its animation studio in Sydney, Australia and notified its 250 employees there this will take effect next year.

The law firm of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP announces that an amended class action lawsuit was filed on July 21, 2005, on behalf of purchasers of the securities of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. that extends the Class Period. The previous Class Period was from October 28, 2004, to May 10, 2005. The new Class Period is from October 28, 2004, to July 11, 2005.

Korea's animation industry is seeing increased growth as it moves from a subcontractor to a source of original productions, reports ARIRANG NEWS. For years, Korean producers had a hard time even garnering an audience in their own country, always being overshadowed by products from Walt Disney and Studio Ghibli.

PorchLight Ent.’s animated series Tutenstein will turn new pages in publishing history as the series about the kid pharaoh of yore catapulted into the present day finds new life as a new children’s magazine under the same name from Turkey’s SGM Publishing. The monthly 40-page Tutenstein branded publication will be issued this September.

Businessman/entrepreneur Phil Knight announced today (July 19, 2005) that he has absorbed animation company Vinton Studios, which Knight acquired in September 2003, into a new entertainment and media venture called LAIKA.

LAIKA’s first film offering is CG animated short film, MOONGIRL, director Henry Selick’s (NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH) a charming fable which re-imagines lunar mythology. Footage of MOONGIRL is available now for viewing at www.laika.com.

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. confirmed that it has been informed by its principal shareholders that they will not proceed at this time with the secondary offering of $500 million of Class A common stock which was filed in a preliminary registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 28, 2005.

Mumbai-based music company, Sagarika Music Pvt. Ltd., has launched its children's entertainment brand, The Culture Company, and an animation VCD series targeting children, reports THE HINDU.

"The Culture Company is a brand under which Sagarika will produce and market educational and entertainment products for children of the target age group, 2-12," Sagarika Bam, president, Sagarika Music.

The Walt Disney Company, Roy E. Disney and Stanley P. Gold announced today (July 8, 2005) that they have agreed to put aside the differences of late and has brought Roy Disney back to the company board as a diorector emeritus. Disney and Gold will not to run a rival slate of directors, submit shareholder resolutions for the next five years and have also agreed to dismiss all their pending lawsuits against the Disney Co.

Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN writer Carlos Cuaron has formed an animation production company, reports VARIETY. His partner in the firm will be Mexican animator Rene Castillo. Cuaron will continue to write live-action scripts.

Castillo is bets known for his award-winning clay-animation shorts, NO SUPPORT (SIN SOSTEN) and DOWN TO THE BONE (HASTA LOS HUESOS).

The unnamed company’s first project could be an adaptation of a children’s play, which Cuaron wrote several years ago.