Whether you were mesmerized or mystified by THE MATRIX RELOADED, you get another chance to experience the Wachowski brothers’ second installment on this sharp and lavish DVD, available Oct. 14, 2004 (Warner Home Video, $29.95). As far as value-added features, the 30-minute doc on the impressive 12-minute freeway chase (courtesy of ESC Entertainment and Animal Logic Films) is all we get in terms of any vfx depth.

Disney’s highly acclaimed and award-winning short DESTINO, which finishes up where Salvador Dali and Walt Disney left off, and is bound for the New York Film Festival this month, will bow on DVD in 2004 as part of a brand-new “making-of” documentary.

So far the Miramax gamble of splitting up Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL into two parts has paid off at the box office, as the bloody movie pastiche debuted with an impressive $22M gross to lead the pack for the weekend ended Oct. 12, 2003. With vfx by Centro Digital Pictures Ltd. and K.N.B. EFX Group Inc., KILL BILL VOLUME 1 knocked off Paramount’s THE SCHOOL OF ROCK, which came in second at $15.4M and has collected $39.6M in second week.

German funding body FilmFoerderung Hamburg has put cash behind two animated features, reported DAILY VARIETY. Animation house Ludewig received $650,000 for its animated version of WINNETOON'S -- DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE, based on Karl May's 19th century novels. Gerd Ludewig will be directing. As well, FF Hamburg put up $767,000 for the sequel to the 2002 hit THE LITTLE POLAR BEAR, directed by Thilo Rothkirch and Piet de Rycker. The POLAR BEAR sequel has already drummed up $1.4 million from public funds.

At a time when 2D feature animation is currently under assault in the U.S., Montreal-based H2V Entertainment has proudly announced that its initial slate of three films are all in 2D and will be ready for distribution in April 2004. Not only that but MANGA LATINA: KILLER ON THE LOOSE, MONICA MADE IN AMERICA and PIÑATAS are all contemporary, Latino-flavored stories aimed at teens and adults.

At long last, Disney's mega hit, THE LION KING, arrives on DVD Oct. 7, 2003 (Walt Disney Home Entertainment, $29.99) in a special edition worthy of the phenomenon. For starters, the two-disc set contains gorgeous transfers of both the theatrical release and the extended edition featuring the Elton John/Tim Rice song from the play, "Morning Report," digitally cleaned and enhanced in painstaking fashion by the original filmmakers from Feature Animation.

Paramount Pictures THE SCHOOL OF ROCK toped the box office hcarts in its debut, taking in $19.6M for the weekend ended October 5, 2003. MGM’s OUT OF TIME opened in more theaters but came in second at $16.2M. Boy Wonder Visual Effects worked on this action/thriller as did Dennis Hoffman, vfx producer and special effects director Kevin Harris, along with Tim Laundry, vfx supervisor. Universal's THE RUNDOWN, starring The Rock, dropped to third in its second week with $9.7M and a $32.67 cume.

Mondo TV S.P.A. and MIM MONDO IGEL MEDIA AG signed a deal with ndF (neue deutsche Filmgesellschaft mbH) for the co-production of two animated feature films and the second season of a 13x26 TV series based on Annette Langen and Constanza Droop’s German children’s books LETTERS FROM FELIX. The $5 million production budget will be divided with MIM AG responsible for $2.3 million and ndF for $2.7 million. ndF’s portion will be partially funded by the German associations FFA and FFF.

SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS (DreamWorks Home Entertainment, $19.95), DreamWorks' last traditionally animated feature for the foreseeable future, bows on DVD Nov. 18, 2003.

Modern VideoFilm used da Vinci's 2K Plus color enhancement systems as a part of its digital intermediate (DI) workflow to remaster and restore Ridley Scott’s new director’s cut of ALIEN. The 2K Plus interfaces directly with the Quantel iQ servers in Modern VideoFilm's Glendale digital intermediate facility, enabling the staff to maintain a cohesive DI workflow that allows them to perform color correction, restoration and other post-production tasks through a single user interface.

In what is probably the first post Cartoon Forum deal, Monster! Distributes has just secured distribution rights to THE LOST LITTLE CATERPILLAR, a new half-hour film from Icelandic-based production company CAOZ.

DreamWorks confirmed that SHARKSLAYER would now be called SHARK TALE. A less violent title, which was desired, but this computer-animated tale by any other name is still about gangster sharks, opening Oct. 1, 2004. The comedic riff on THE SOPRANOS, THE GODFATHER and CAR WASH, the first computer-animated feature produced at the Glendale, California-based campus, rendered in mental ray, boasts an all-star cast of voices, including Will Smith, Robert DeNiro, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese and James Gandolfini.

Back in the late '50s, Frank Capra's BELL SCIENCE films (a combination of live-action and animation) were a regular favorite on CBS. Two volumes of these WONDERS OF LIFE are available Sept. 30, 2003 on DVD (Image Entertainment, $14.99) featuring animation from Shamus Culhane, the only animator to work on the first four Disney animated features, and other artists from Disney and the UPA Studio. The first volume contains HEMO THE MAGNIFICENT and UNCHAINED GODDESS, and the second contains the Emmy Award winner OUR MR. SUN (best editing, Frank Keller) and STRANGE CASE OF COSMIC RAYS.

Universal's THE RUNDOWN, which may prove to be The Rock's breakout starring vehicle, scored a whopping $18.5M in its debut for the weekend ended Sept. 28, 2003. Topping the box office chart also gives Rhythm & Hues some vfx bragging rights as well. Disney's Diane Lane romancer, UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, debuted in second place with $9.7M.

On September 30, 2003, FUNimation Prods, Ltd. will release the BLUE GENDER box set and will give fans the opportunity to win five animation cels from the series in a trivia promotion. By answering five trivia questions about the show, fans are entered to win one of five animation cels used in the production. All cels, valued at $250 each, come complete with multiple matching sketches.

Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment have announced that TIGGER MOVIE director Jun Falkenstein along with actor Will Ferrell (OLD SCHOOL, the upcoming ELF) have signed on to their animated feature CURIOUS GEORGE. Ferrell will lend his voice to the troublesome monkey’s owner, The Man in the Yellow Hat. The 2D feature is being produced by Academy Award-winners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The film is scheduled for release on November 4, 2005.

Upon the success of UNDERWORLD in its opening weekend at the box office, Lakeshore Entertainment and Screen Gems have quickly greenlit two additional UNDERWORLD films. Original film’s writers Danny McBride and Len Wiseman will begin writing the sequel’s screenplay immediately. Wiseman plans to return as director as well, hoping to start filming as soon as possible. The third film is tentatively set as a prequel to the first film.

Gabor Csupo of the Klasky Csupo animation studio (RUGRATS and WILD THORNBERRYS) will make his feature directorial debut with GREEN MONKEYS, a live-action/computer-animated version of the comic strip about monkeys that act human, a spokesperson confirmed. GREEN MONKEYS is published by Dan's Papers and written by Betty and Michael Paraskevas. The project seems a perfect match for Klasky Csupo, since the strip resembles THORNBERRYS in its graphic style despite the proposed CGI makeover.

The WB's popular SUPERMAN spinoff series, SMALLVILLE, comes to DVD in THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON set (Warner Home Video, $64.92) on Sept. 23, 2003. The deluxe six-disc package offers the origins of the characters, numerous plotlines and deleted scenes and other bonus features.

Chalk up another horror dominance of the box office chart. UNDERWORLD, the vampire/werewolf flick from Screen Gems (with vfx from FrameStore CFC and Luma Pictures), debuted in the top spot for the weekend ended Sept.21, 2003 with $21.7M.