IMotion Picture Screen Cartoonists, Local 839 IATSE will now be known as The Animation Guild. The union, which represents animators, designers, technical crafts and story people in the animation field, has been known by its former name (or the acronym MPSC) for over fifty years. But effective with its approval by the IATSE general executive board on July 23 and the Local 839 membership on July 30, 2002, the union will now official be known as The Animation Guild and Affiliated Optical Electronic and Graphic Arts, Local 839 IATSE.

Strega Imaging, a new visual FX and motion graphics design company, has opened its doors in Universal City, California. Partners and co-creative directors Colin Cheer and Michael Jackson gained their industry experience from their previous work on an eclectic array of projects. Cheer, an illustrator and designer, was involved in the early days of the desktop publishing revolution, and in 1997 he was recruited to head the 3D effects team at 525 Studios, working on effects for the series THE OUTER LIMITS along with other film and video projects.

In a considerable licensing deal, Cartoon Network has acquired over 600 half-hours of programming from Warner Bros. International Television Distribution to air on Cartoon Network UK. "In a fiercely competitive market, this is a major boost for Cartoon Network. With these titles added to our formidable library plus other Cartoon Network productions, co-productions and acquisitions, we have an unbeatable line up," said Finn Arnesen, vice president of programming, acquisitions and development for Cartoon Network, Europe.

Despite the strong box office performance of recent hits LILO & STITCH and THE ROOKIE, The Walt Disney Company has reported lower than expected earnings for the quarter and nine months ended June 30, 2002. Referencing the downturn in the international and domestic travel and tourism industry as well as the economy as a whole, Disney cited in particular the drop-off of attendance at its domestic theme parks and resorts, and the lack of television advertising dollars at the ABC television network.

AtomTelevision, a new joint venture between Internet short film provider AtomFilms and Global Media Holdings, has announced it will launch a digital network in early 2003 using its extensive library of short films and animation titles. As part of AtomTelevision's debut, the company is announcing the launch of its VOD (video-on-demand) initiative, Atom on Demand.

Vancouver, Canada's Pork and Beans Productions recently moved to a brand new 5000 square foot studio in the Yaletown district of Vancouver. The company is expanding to accommodate a growing staff as they prepare to start Flash animation production on the series YAKKITY YAK, in association with Studio B Productions. Distributed by MTV Networks International, YAKKITY YAK was created by Australian company Kapow Pictures and follows the life of a yak that longs for his big break into show business. It is scheduled to broadcast on Teletoon and Nickelodeon Australia in 2003.

Barcelona-based Grupo Neptuno has completed a major deal with Basque television producer Euskal Irrati Telebista (ETB) for the distribution of its catalogue worldwide, excluding Latin America and Spanish-speaking stations in the United States. ETB's complete line up of more than 1,000 hours of documentaries, entertainment, animation, feature films and live-action series will join Grupo Neptuno's existing catalog, which includes the preschool series CONNIE THE COW, distributed by AAC Kids and TV-Loonland, and the Flash animated series 2020, a co-production with Megatrix.

North
American anime distributor A.D. Vision, Inc. (ADV), has partnered
with CoMix Wave, Inc., a Japanese anime and manga management and
production company, to promote and popularize CoMix Wave's creative
talent and holdings. CoMix Wave manages more than 50 of Japan's top
manga artists and illustrators, and works to discover and promote new
talent within the industry. The company also manages production --
both in Japan and overseas -- of a variety of anime projects,

Pixar Animation Studios has settled its lawsuit against
software developer Exluna, Inc. The settlement resolves all pending
litigation and any other disputes between the two companies. Exluna,
a privately held software company specializing in software
development technology for film quality graphics rendering, was
charged with the misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright
infringement and patent infringement. In a separate announcement,
NVIDIA Corp. announced the acquisition of Exluna, Inc. as part of

Gullane Entertainment’s popular children’s property THOMAS & FRIENDS, has now been translated into Spanish and Portuguese and will be seen in eighteen countries across Central and South America including Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico, and throughout The Caribbean. The series launched in early July 2002 on Discovery Kids Latin America’s newly expanded pre-school block.

Manga publisher Tokyopop has acquired publishing rights to the highly popular manga series LUPIN THE 3RD and the movie books for Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA. Tokyopop plans to publish the LUPIN THE 3RD series in its original right-to-left format, while AKIRA will join the company's growing catalog of "Cine-Manga" titles (digitally captured screen stills laid out in a storyboard format). With titles in its catalog including SAILOR MOON, GUNDAM WING, INITIAL D, REAL BOUT HIGH SCHOOL and COWBOY BEBOP, Tokyopop also publishes several hit properties based on popular Cartoon Network and Kids!

British animation producer, tv4c, has seen its pre-school animation series, BUSY BUSES, picked up by two regional terrestrial broadcasters in Japan for their autumn schedules. The 26 x 5-minute series is also currently airing daily on Kids Station, Japan’s biggest children’s satellite broadcaster and is enjoying its second run on EBS, Korea and ABC, Australia. BUSY BUSES will return to Living TV in the UK in September 2002 for a six month run.

Disney has already announced plans to capitalize on the success of its 2D animated summer hit LILO & STITCH with a direct-to-video sequel and a television series. Thomas Schumacher, head of Disney Feature Animation, made the announcement. The video sequel, currently entitled STITCH! -- THE MOVIE, is slated for release in 2003 and will serve as a bridge between the feature film and the television series, currently under development with the working title of STITCH! -- THE TV SERIES, and set to launch on Disney Channel in fall 2003. In STITCH!

On July 9, 2002 children's television producer Nelvana laid off 65 staff in its production department across all positions. According to a Nelvana spokesperson, the move was part of a strategic reorganization of the department to shift towards a team-based production unit with a smaller full-time staff, allowing the incorporation of more contract positions. Some of those laid off were given call-back dates for employment on future Nelvana projects. Nelvana is owned by Corus Entertainment, a Canadian-based media and entertainment company.

Studio City, California-based animation studio Fred Films has signed an agreement with the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees and its Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 839 IATSE (Local 839). Fred Films and Local 839 have been in negotiations since the union received representation cards from a majority of the company's staff.

German animation company RTV Family Entertainment has written off 100 million Euros in a bid to keep the company alive, after the collapse of the Kirch Media Group and other precipitating factors led to a near collapse of RTV last month. RTV has returned all shares in Dutch documentary production company Off the Fence to Ellen Windemuth, former owner and previous managing director. In return, Windemuth releases RTV from its financial obligations. In addition, RTV has written off Sydney, Australia-based subsidiary Energee Entertainment in its entirety.

Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products and Mattel, Inc. have announced a comprehensive, multi-year agreement that grants Mattel the master toy licenses for several of Warner Bros.’ core franchises including LOONEY TUNES, BABY LOONEY TUNES, BATMAN, SUPERMAN and JUSTICE LEAGUE. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Mattel will develop and market products such as vehicles, action figures, playsets, plush, games, puzzles, dolls, adult collectibles and other categories based on the properties.

Although DreamWorks has only recently begun production on its upcoming animated features SHREK 2 and SINBAD, it has been hard at work forging a strategic worldwide promotional partnership with consumer food products giant General Mills. The multiple-picture relationship will span several theatrical animated releases and home videos, including the July 2003 release SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS and the sequel SHREK 2, scheduled for 2004 release. Promotional programs will be created for numerous food product categories.

Disney has partnered with Hasbro, Inc. to bring the popular characters from Disney's summer hit LILO & STITCH to stores. The unruly alien is captured in numerous ways including SPITTIN' STITCH with "real spitting action" created by holding him underwater to fill him up, then squeezing him, ELECTRONIC EXPERIMENT 626 STITCH has electronic features which allow Stitch to make laser sounds and speak "alien." And if you want to transform an alien into a pet, the 2-in-1 SWITCHIN' STITCH turns Stitch from outlaw alien experiment into a family pet.

Spanish production companies MSL and Grupo Trimagen have recently signed a joint venture agreement to create animated programming. The new international company, MSL-TRIMAGEN, will develop, produce and market a wide range of animated series and feature films. The company is currently working at the head offices in Madrid and Barcelona on several projects, including BUNNIBAL, a 26 x 13-minute animated series currently in pre-production.