Films
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| Antz. © DreamWorks LLC. |
Antz To
Premiere In Toronto. The Toronto International
Film Festival will host the world premiere of DreamWorks SKG and PDI's
computer-animated feature film Antz at their closing night gala
on September 19. The film will officially open in theaters (U.S. and Canada)
on October 2. Antz will also be screened at the Ottawa International
Animation Festival on opening night, September 29.
The Happy Princess Toon In Development. Scottish Television
and Siriol Productions are developing a 30-minute animated cartoon for
children about the life of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Word of the
animated project--based on the book The Happy Princess by Nicholas
Allen--is upsetting some U.K. groups, including the Church of England.
The Hollywood Reporter [7/28-8/3/98] said "the show reportedly
depicts Diana's battles with eating disorders and puts blame on Prince
Charles for her misery with royal life, though no mention is made of the
Paris car crash that ended her life last year. Instead, the story ends
with Diana skipping with children in heaven." Should they change the
name of this project to "The Unhappy Princess?" A Scottish Television
spokesperson confirmed that the series is in development, and that it has
been pitched to several broadcasters and co-production partners (including
DIC Entertainment), but stressed that "it's too early to tell"
what the fate of the project will be.
South Park Feature In Production. Comedy Central has green
lit production of an animated feature film based on the TV series South
Park, created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The target release for
the still untitled film is March 1999, to coincide with "Spring Break."
The film will be produced in Venice, California by a separate production
team than the TV series. Like the series, the film will be produced on
SGI computers using Alias PowerAnimator and Maya software.
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| Rene Laloux's classic Fantastic Planet will be re-released theatrically this year. Photo courtesy of CQN Releasing. |
Fantastic Planet In
Rotation. Rene Laloux's animated feature
film, Fantastic Planet (1973) is being theatrically re-released
in the U.S. by Cinequanon Pictures in honor of its 25th anniversary. The
bizarre, Bosch-esque science-fiction film is described as a "jolting
futuristic story of a rebellion by oppressed humanoids against a race of
gigantic androids on a distant planet." Not the typical animated feature
fare to which American audiences are accustomed! The film was co-produced
in France and Czechoslovakia and co-written and designed by Rene Laloux
and graphic artist Roland Topor. It was the first animated feature to win
an award at Cannes (Special Jury Prize), and has inspired many other filmmakers.
A new 35mm print of the film has been created from the original English
dubbed version first released in the U.S. in 1974 by Roger Corman. It will
be accompanied by Laloux and Topor's animated short, Les Escargots,
(1965). The films' relaunch will premiere at Los Angeles' NuArt Theater,
October 9-15, then on to New York and other cities in November. Since its
original release, Fantastic Planet has only been released on laserdisc
and on unauthorized bootleg video tapes, which used badly duped prints
that were edited to omit key sequences. Thus, this theatrical return of
Fantastic Planet showcases the film in its complete form, as it
was envisioned by Laloux, who currently resides in France. After the theatrical
run, Cinequanon plans to release an official, higher-quality video in 1999.
Rene Laloux's book, Drawings That Move--One Hundred Years of Animated
Films was reviewed
by Giannalberto Bendazzi in the April 1996 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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