Animation World News
Business
Nevada Bans Anime To Minors. Nevada, the U.S. state popular for its legal gambling
(Las Vegas) and escort services, has passed a bill (#336) which will restrict
sale or rental of pornographic cartoons to minors. The increasing popularity
of "tentacle porn" anime videos has given rise to concern among
activists, particularly because animated material is so often assumed to
be suitable for children. Video stores, for instance, could inadvertently
place the videos in the children's section by an unwitting store clerk.
The Nevada Assembly lawmakers who voted on the bill were shown a sequence
from the Japanese animated film, Ninja Scroll, which portrays graphic
scenes of sex and violence.
Finally, A Marvel-Ous Deal. Toy Biz, Inc. has reached an agreement
to merge with Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. in an "arranged marriage"
through Carl Icahn, controller of High River Limited Partnership, who recently
took control of the bankrupt Marvel from former financier Ron Perelman.
Marvel has been the subject of months of legal battles and headline news
since they declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 1996. The deal will
move stocks and holdings between Marvel, its bondholders, Toy Biz, and
a group of banks led by Chase Manhattan. A statement issued by Carl Icahn
said, "Conflicts and divisiveness between the toy company and the
rest of Marvel have been a major problem over the last few years and have
hurt all of Marvel's constituencies...This problem should now be rectified
and all of Marvel's properties and assets will be combined under one roof
where they belong."
Cinar Acquires Carson-Dellosa. Canadian entertainment company Cinar
Films, Inc. has confirmed plans to acquire Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company,
Inc. and its affiliates for approximately $40.5 million ($24.5 million
in cash and $16 million in Cinar voting shares), in a deal that is expected
to be complete by the end of July. Carson-Dellosa, a privately held company
which sells education products and classroom supplies to schools, has an
existing product base of original characters which are already widely recognized
by students in the U.S. and in selected other countries through distribution
of print material and merchandise. Both companies were founded in 1976,
and both produce product for the pre-school to sixth grade. In addition
to developing print properties into animated ones, Cinar will now be in
a position to create merchandise based on their original animation properties.
"We believe that we will be able to leverage the educational appeal
of Cinar's library of original television series which are based on popular
children's books, and produce them in brand new venues," said Cinar
co-founder and president Ronald Weinberg. Cinar currently produces and/or
distributes several animated series based on popular children's books,
including Arthur, Paddington Bear, The Busy World of Richard Scarry,
and The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures.
In July, Cinar released its second quarter earnings to the public.
Overall, for the first half of 1997, the company's revenues increased 40%
from last year, to $37.4 million, while net earnings rose 68% to $5.5 million.
"During the second quarter," said Cinar president Ronald Weinberg,
"we delivered 51 new half-hours of animation and live-action programs.
We are well on our way to meeting our production target for fiscal 1997."
Lacewood, Paragon Paradox. Ottawa-based Lacewood Productions and
Toronto-based Paragon Entertainment Corporation are in conflict regarding
the arranged partnership between the two companies. The deal, which was
set to close by the end of March, would have placed Lacewood's assets and
Paragon's investments into a new joint venture called Lacewood Animation
Productions, Inc. But Lacewood, who has received $1.5 million in loans
from Paragon, is now suing Paragon for breach of agreement, in a $6.5 million
lawsuit. Coming to Lacewood's aid is Canadian actor/comedian Leslie Nielsen
(Naked Gun), who has allegedly advanced the company $1.75 million
to use towards payment of their loans from Paragon.
Harvey Entertainment Wins Lawsuit. The Harvey Entertainment Company
recently won a $700,000 lawsuit against former agent/director/board member
Jeffrey Franklin , his company ATI Equities and related company Franklin/Waterman
Entertainment. The case involved claims concerning Harvey's animated television
series, Casper & Friends. The jury found that Jeffrey Franklin
and his company willfully breached their fiduciary duties to Harvey while
serving as an agent and as a member of Harvey's Board of Directors from
1990 to 1993. Harvey chairman and CEO Jeffrey A. Montgomery said, "The
protracted litigation process has been a distraction for our company, and
we are delighted to put this issue behind us and again focus our full efforts
on exploiting our Harvey classic character portfolio."
Marina Docks With Dargaud. French animation company Marina Productions
has joined the Dargaud family, a major European publishing group. Dargaud
has taken an 80% stake in Marina, as part of an effort to further move
into children's TV programming; They have already launched with Lucky
Luke, Corentin, and Blake and Mortimer, three co-produced animated
series based on the publisher's comic properties. Marina recently produced
the Mr. Men series, currently in syndication sales through U.S.
distributor Summit Media. The investment from Dargaud should enable the
company to increase production of additional animated series.
Electronic Arts And Maxis To Merge. Two publishers of entertainment
software, Electronic Arts and Maxis, Inc. (creators of "SimCity"
games) have signed an agreement to merge in a transaction valued at approximately
$125 million. The merger is expected to be completed in August.
Activision Says Yes To Take Us! Activision has acquired a small,
seven-employee German marketing firm called Take Us! Marketing & Consulting.
The acquisition is a key step in Activision's expansion into the German
marketplace for games and entertainment software. "The ability to
simultaneously release our titles in multiple languages is an important
component of Activision's long term European growth strategy" explained
Activision chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick. While the acquisition has been
announced, it will not be recorded as a purchase with Activision until
the first quarter of 1998.
Animation World News is compiled daily for publication in the AWN Daily Flash, the weekly Animation Flash email newsletter, and monthly issues of Animation World Magazine.
Send your newsworthy items, press releases, and reels to:
Email: wendyj@awn.com
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Mail: Animation World Magazine
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