Disney Releases 3 New Sing-Along Videos. Walt Disney Home Video will release a new collection
of their sing-along video series on July 22. The Disney's Sing-Along
Songs Collection of All-Time Favorites series includes three 30 minute
videos available for a limited time at $14.99 each. Each video is subtitled
with song lyrics and a bouncing Mickey Mouse or highlighted words to follow.
The first volume, The Modern Classics, offers the first opportunity
to own sequences from Hercules on video, with two musical sequences
from the film, as well as scenes from The Little Mermaid, Aladdin,
Pocahontas, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast. Volume
two, The Early Years, includes classic musical shorts and feature
film sequences from the Thirties and Forties, including Who's Afraid
of the Big Bad Wolf?, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, and scenes from Pinnochio
and Dumbo. The third volume, The Magic Years, contains classics
from the Fifties and Sixties, including "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo"
from Cinderella, "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle
Book, and others from Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty.
Planetary
Traveler Lands On Video. Fox Lorber Associates and Third Planet Entertainment
will release Planetary Traveler, a feature length, computer animated,
science fiction film on video, in stores this Fall. Produced and directed
by Jan C. Nickman, the 40 minute film is said to be the first full length
production ever to be created entirely on standard desktop computers. Nickman,
who produced the 50,000 unit-selling video, The Mind's Eye, created
Planetary Traveler with digital artists across the country, via
the Internet, by holding creative team meetings in AOL chat rooms and exchanging
storyboards and designs via email. Using Macintosh computers, the animation
was animated and rendered with Bryce software provided by MetaCreations,
and hardware provided by MetaCreations, Streamlogic and Truevision. The
video will be available in stores on September 26 at a suggested retail
price of $19.99, while a DVD (digital video disc) version is in the works.
All New Pooh. On August 5, Walt Disney Home Video will release their
third animated made-for-video movie, Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search
for Christopher Robin, at a suggested retail price of $24.99. The 76
minute film is the first original Winnie the Pooh movie created in 20 years,
since the home video entitled The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,
released earlier this year, was not an original production, but a collection
of shorts.
Disney's Pooh's Grand
Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin.
Russian Classics Finally Distributed, By Jove!. Films By Jove, a Studio City, California-based distribution
company, has added a foreign sales distribution arm in order to distribute
their library of films to television, home video and theatrical markets
worldwide. The Films By Jove library includes the majority of the animated
films produced at Russian Soyuzmutzfilm Studios between 1952-1980, acquired
in 1992 from former distributor Sovexportfilm. The international distribution
arm, headed up by executive vice president Trish Gardner and head of sales
Melissa Wohl, has already signed distribution deals with Warner Bros.,
Walt Disney Co., Channel 4 U.K., and the U.S. cable network Bravo. With
Live Entertainment and Warner Bros., Films By Jove recently released Mikhail
Baryshnikov's Stories From My Childhood, a 13 hour home video series
which includes films such as The Snow Queen. Over $1.5 million in
restoration work was conducted to prepare the damaged films and dub the
soundtracks, for the collection. The English version of which features
the voices of stars including Charlton Heston, Shirley MacLaine and Mickey
Rooney. Films By Jove's next project will be to release animated features
by Russian animators Nina Shorina and Yuri Norstein (if he ever finishes
it!)
CPM Anime Releases. Central Park Media will release several science
fiction and erotic thriller-style anime titles on home video in August,
including Yotoden: Chronicle of the Warlord Period, Chapter 1, Peacock
King: Spirit Warrior 1, Machine Robo-Revenge of Cronos, Volume 1, Visionary
by U-Jin, Volume 1, and Ogenki Clinic. All titles will be available
retail for between $19.95 and $29.95. In September, Central Park Media
will release Masami Ohbari's Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer: Round 1 (dubbed)
on video, at a suggested retail price of $19.95. The action-adventure anime
film is based on the popular video game of the same name. Also on September
2, CPM will release volumes from their prolific "Black Jack"
and "Patlabor" series: Black Jack: Clinical Chart 3 (dubbed,
$19.95) and Patlabor: The Mobile Police-The New Files, Volume 5 (subtitled,
$29.95).
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.
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