Animation World Magazine, Issue 3.2, May 1998


Animation World News

Home Video

Don Bluth and Gary Goldman's first independent animated film,
Banjo the Woodpile Cat. Images courtesy of Twentieth Century
Fox Home Entertainment.

Fox Will Play Goldman & Bluth's Banjo. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will make a video release of Don Bluth and Gary Goldman's first independent animated film, Banjo the Woodpile Cat, available for U.S.$9.98 (Canadian $11.98) starting May 5, 1998. The 29-minute film, depicting the story of a young cat who runs away to the big city in search of adventure, was created in the late 1970s, just before the directing duo left Disney to create their own animated features (The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, et al.). Bluth and Goldman are now on staff at Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, where they directed Anastasia, which was released on video April 28.

For background information on Don Bluth, visit Jerry Beck's article, "
Don Bluth Goes Independent" in the June 1996 issue of Animation World Magazine.

South Park, created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
© Comedy Central.

South Park's On Warner Video. The first official, commercially produced videos of the animated series, South Park will be released on May 5, by Warner Home Video, through a licensing arrangement with Rhino Home Video. The three tapes will contain the series' first six episodes, complete with close-captioning: "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe," "Volcano," "Weight Gain 4000," "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride," "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" and "Death." Also included are exclusive "fireside chat" interview sequences with the show's creator/directors, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. However, Stone and Parker opted not to include on the tapes The Spirit of Christmas, the infamous animated short that spawned the South Park series. Fans will have to continue downloading that one off the Internet and trading bootleg tapes. Each volume is priced at $14.95 and is labeled with a TV-MA rating and consumer warning label. Some may wonder: Why is the video being released by Warner Bros.? The series is owned by Comedy Central, which is owned by Comedy Partners, a joint venture of Time Warner Entertainment and Viacom.

Have you ever wondered what Matt Stone and Trey Parker's favorite films are? Check out their top ten pick lists in the
September 1997 edition of "The Desert Island Series" in Animation World Magazine.

Fox Kids Delivers Cheap Vids. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is flooding the kids home video market with eight new releases priced at U.S. $5.98 (Canadian $7.98) each. The titles being released on April 7 are re-releases of the TV series episodes and vault films: The Adventures of Raggedy Ann & Andy: The Mabbit Adventure, Bobby's World: Roger `n Me, Cinderella, Life With Louie: For Pete's Sake, Life With Louie: The Masked Chess Boy, Snow White and The Tick: The Tick vs. Arthur. In July, Fox Kids will debut a line of pre-packed, in-store standing displays with additional short animated videos ranging in price from $5.98 to $9.98 each, like: Dr. Seuss sing-along titles The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, The Hoober-Bloob Highway, The Lorax, Grinch Night, The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat and Pontoffel Pock & His Magic Piano, as well as Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, Garfield and Where's Waldo?

Why this growth in the home video market? Read our extensive coverage on this aspect of the industry in the
November 1998 issue of Animation World Magazine.

Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.


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