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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.1 - April 1999
Films
Mulan Arrives In Homeland. Disney's Chinese-themed Mulan finally
opened in China on February 23 on thirteen screens in Shanghai. Chinese officials
had originally declined to import Mulan when it was released last year
because of their dissatisfaction with Disney's release of Kundun, a
live-action film about Chinese rule in Tibet, two years ago. The timing for
Mulan's debut was less than favorable, falling on the last day of school
children's winter vacation period. Mulan is scheduled to screen in
other parts of China including Beijing, although dates haven't been announced
yet. Early reports show that ticket sales have been very slow in China, the
world's most populous country.
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An In-Depth Look At A Kingly Production Process. Burbank, California-based
Rich Animation's upcoming animated feature The King and I, released
on March 19, utilized a unique production process by transferring animation
scenes via the Internet between artists located in California, Europe, China,
India, Korea and Canada. By avoiding the massive overhead costs associated
with typical feature animation studios, Rich was able to compete with the
big boys by delivering a theatrical quality feature on a budget. The process
worked like this: First, animators all over the world created a digital line
test of their rough drawings, which were compressed and sent via e-mail to
Rich Animation to be reviewed daily. Changes were sent back as notes via e-mail
with occasional video attachments from the director to illustrate a specific
action. Once the rough animation was approved, pencil drawings were sent to
Brown Bag Films in Dublin, or to Rich, where they were scanned into Cambridge
Animation's Animo software and a scene file was created. Next, the Animo scene
file and rough drawings were sent to Hanho Heung-Up Studio in Seoul, Korea
where the clean-up portion of the film was centralized to keep a certain consistency.
Once again, line tests of clean-up drawings were sent to Rich Animation daily
for approval. Final digital paint and compositing work was divided between
Rich Animation, Colorland in China and Pentafour in India using the Animo
system. This streamlined process was made possible by Rich Animation's computer
systems engineer Paul Cowell, who developed a system within Animo so that
everybody used the same file standards and naming conventions. When asked
about what this means for independent animation producers, Tom Tobin, Vice
President of Studio Operations, Rich Animation, commented, "I think it
proves there is a way to make feature quality animation outside of Los Angeles.
The fear that many producers have with using the Internet is that when you
go out of that traditional studio setting, you lose control over the product
because everyone isn't situated under one roof. What we discovered is that
there are equally talented artists in every corner of the world who can complete
the job. Another one of the advantages to working this way is that when we
go home at night, there are animators across the world just starting their
day's work on the film. We're literally in production on the film 24 hours
a day." Because of the nature of the Internet, Tobin points out some
of the problems, "were scene file sizes and data transfer capacity. Your
average animator doesn't have an ISDN or T1 line but with our file compression
utility, those type of connections weren't necessary to send line tests."
However, during the digital paint stage where file sizes became larger, problems
arose. Originally, it was to be painted completely at Pentafour's facility
but their file transfer capacity proved to be too low requiring portions of
the film to be painted elsewhere. With The King and I, Rich Animation
has harnessed the power of the Internet and combining it with Animo, has created
a unique and cost-effective digital production process.
The King and I is reviewed in this issue of Animation World
Magazine.
Spike & Mike Fest `99. The duo's more wholesome festival, Spike
& Mike's 1999 Classic Festival of Animation, opened Friday, March
12 at the Ridge Theatre in Vancouver, B.C. (running through April 4). The
program includes Blue Sky Studios' Oscar-nominated, Bunny, Aardman's
Hum Drum, Digital Domain's Tightrope, Pierre Coffin's Pings,
Peter Reynolds' The Blue Shoe, Annecy-winner Sientje, Don Hertzfeldt's
Billy's Balloon, Laurent Gorgiard's Man With the Pendulous Arms,
Behaviour Productions' The Art of Survival, Chris Landreth's Bingo,
Folimage's The Romance of my Heart, Eric Fernandes' Son of Bambi
Meets Godzilla, Emma Calder's The Queen's Monastery, Anna Henckel-Donnermarck's
Busby, classics from past festivals like Christophe and Wolfgang Lauenstein's
Oscar-winning short Balance and Marv Newland's Bambi Meets Godzilla.
The show is also booked at the Roxy Theatre in Victoria, B.C. (April 9-15),
Spike and Mike's home town of La Jolla, California (April 9-June 6), and at
the Castro (April 9-21) and Palace of Fine Arts (April 23-May 1) theaters
in San Francisco. Grandpa Munster will serve as a special opening weekend
guest at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla (April 9-11). For additional
tour dates and information, visit www.spikeandmike.com.
Spike & Mike's 1999 Classic Festival of
Animation is reviewed in this issue of Animation World Magazine
Manga Still Does Shorts. Manga Entertainment has informed Animation
World Magazine that they still have a shorts department and are actively
looking for animated short films to market and distribute. Since their San
Diego animated shorts operation closed down last year, submissions are now
being accepted through their central Chicago division. While it is still unclear
as to how the shorts will be packaged, films may be sent to:
Manga Entertainment
Attn: Animated Shorts Division
727 N. Hudson #100
Chicago, IL 60610
Little Bits From The Big Screen. Disney/Pixar's A Bug's Life
has passed $150 million in the overseas box office and $310 million worldwide
making it the 11th highest-grossing animated feature of all time. The top
ten spots are all held by Disney films. The film has been released in 26 countries
so far and has been in the top ten consistently in most countries including
Germany ($15 million), Italy ($5.5 million), Spain ($10.2 million), Sweden
($3.5 million), and Taiwan ($3 million). In the United Kingdom, the film set
a new record for the highest animated opening, and the eighth largest opening
ever. After five weeks as the country's number one film, it has grossed over
$40 million. Disney's Mulan also recently passed the $300 million worldwide
mark with a box office push from its release in China. . . . London-based
Pearson launched their independent theatrical animated feature, A Monkey's
Tale, at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California. The film,
which is Pearson's first foray into the theatrical feature arena, is directed
by Jean-Francois Laguionie. The $14 million family entry features the voice
talents of John Hurt, Michael York, Rik Mayall and Michael Gambon, as well
as the hit Irish group Boyzone, who performs the end title song. The film
took nearly eight years to complete and utilized the talents of 400 animators.
A Monkey's Tale chronicles the adventures of two monkey tribes, the
tree-dwelling Woonkos and the land-loving Laankos, that Mother Nature has
separated through a variety of natural disasters. Over the centuries, these
once harmonious tribes have come to fear and hate each other, until a young
teen Woonko, Kom, reunites the two communities with the help of the brave
Laanko Gina. . . . Steve Oedekerk has stepped down as the director of Warner
Bros. big-budgeted live-action/animated remake of The Incredible Mr. Limpet
after months of bickering between him and the studio. The script is currently
being reworked by Mulan writer Rita Hsaio. Jim Carrey, the film's lead,
will wait to see the new script before making any decisions on his involvement
with the film. The film is being produced by Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
and Bill Gerber.
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.