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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.3 - JUNE 1999
Television
Nick Previews Spongebob.
Spongebob Squarepants, a new animated series, was previewed by Nickelodeon
on May 1 at 9:30 ET/PT in the USA. The cartoon features the adventures of
SpongeBob, a hopelessly optimistic and earnest sea sponge. Creator and executive
producer Steve Hillenburg (Rocko's Modern Life, The Green Beret, Wormholes)
studied art and marine biology before earning a degree from Cal Arts in Experimental
Animation. Soon you will be able to visit Nick.com for more information about
the series. Produced at the Burbank Nicktoons Studio, Spongebob will
premiere sometime this summer.
BBC1 Renews Pocket Dragon. BBC1 has bought another season
of New York-based BKN's Pocket Dragon Adventures produced by Craig
Miller and Marv Wolfman's Los Angeles-based Wolfmill Entertainment. The first
season currently airs in the U.K. Monday and Thursday at 3:45 pm on BBC1,
averaging 1.3 million viewers, which represents about a 37% share. The series
features the mischievous little Pocket Dragons who seek adventure in a magical
world of wizards, knights and gargoyles.
The Pocket Dragons chose their favorite cartoons for the Desert
Island series in the November 1998 issue of Animation World Magazine.
New Series On Fox Family Channel. Fox Family Channel's 1999-2000
6 pm-8 pm lineup includes two new animated series. Saban Entertainment's Pigs
Next Door, a new animated series in the tradition of All In The Family,
chronicles the life of a family of pigs who move from the farm to the suburbs
and are forced to deal with prejudiced humans. Rodney Dangerfield provides
the voice for the title character of Rodney, a series in development
for the 1999-2000 season that depicts Rodney's misadventures as a struggling
comic and the everyday ups and downs of dysfunctional family life. The Fox
Family Channel, a cable network, debuted on August 15, 1998 pledging to produce
new animated fare for kids.
Cartoon Network Greenlights Longhair And Doubledome. Cartoon
Network has greenlit Gavrilo Gnatovich's Longhair And Doubledome for
production as a seven minute series pilot. The short features Longhair, a
fastidiously sophisticated and self-serving Cro-Magnon, and his charmingly
earnest yet irksome friend, Doubledome, as they endeavor to evolve alongside
their oafish neighbors, the Neanderthals. An air date has not been announced.
Gavrilo Gnatovich runs his own studio Knock Knock Cartoons in Cleveland, Ohio,
which is a commercial animation house as well as a producer of short films.
He and Linda Simensky met at an animation festival in 1991. "This is
just another example of how Cartoon Network is working outside the mainstream
with independent studios," said Simensky.
To learn more about Linda Simensky and her role as a supporter of independent
animation check out Harvey Deneroff's article, "Supporting
Independents: Five Champions" in the May issue of Animation World
Magazine.
Kushner-Locke Plans Latin American Animation Channel. The Kushner-Locke
Co. has announced that they have entered an agreement with Toei Animation
to license Toei's animated product. Toei has one of the largest animation
libraries in the world. K-L plans to use the newly acquired product to launch
its own Spanish language animation channel in Latin America. The deal gives
K-L 1400 half-hour episodes, in the first three years, of Toei animated product
including the popular series Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z.
Toei is one of the leading animation companies in Japan and has enjoyed success
in Latin America since 1994 with its popular children's animated product.
The deal further solidifies K-L's presence and expansion in Latin America,
which began over 3 years ago with its distribution activities through its
subsidiary Phoenix World Investments (PWI). During the past three years K-L,
through PWI, has distributed theatrical, television and video product in Latin
America, including Toei's successful feature length film Dragon Ball Z.
The Kushner-Locke Company is an independent producer and distributor of feature
films, direct to video films, television series, made for television movies,
mini-series, and animated programming for theaters, network, and cable television.
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| Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square. © National Film Board of Canada. |
Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square Makes Its
TV Debut. Shui-Bo Wang's Oscar nominated Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square
made its US TV debut Sunday, May 16 at 8 pm on HBO's Signature Channel. It
debuted in Canada on Thursday, May 27 at 9 pm and 2 am ET/PT on Vision TV.
It repeated on Friday, May 28 at noon, 8 pm, and 1 am; and on Monday, May
31 at 11 am. It also airs on SCN on Friday, June 4 at 8 pm; and on TVO on
Monday, June 7 at 10 pm. Skillfully blending the personal and political, director
Shui-Bo uses original artwork and archival material, providing a personal
perspective on Mao's Cultural Revolution and the historic upheaval of the
'70s and '80s. Sunrise is Shui-Bo's reflection on both the idealism
and intolerance of a revolutionary society.
Read Maureen Furniss' review of Sunrise
Over Tiananmen Square and view a QuickTime clip from the film in the
April issue of Animation World Magazine.
Watership Down Comes To TV. Watership Down, a $10 million TV
series of 26 half-hour episodes based on the novel by Richard Adams and the
feature film directed by Martin Rosen, both of which are also called Watership
Down, is being produced by British independent Alltime Entertainment and
Toronto-based DECODE Entertainment. Beth Stevenson, of DECODE, and Simon Vaughan,
of Alltime, are producing; Neil Court, of DECODE, is executive producing with
Steven DeNure and Martin Rosen. The series will debut this Fall in the UK
on ITV and Canada on YTV, CBC and Canale Famille. The series will be among
those being offered at L!censing '99. Watership Down is about the adventures
of a group of rabbits. (Brian Aldiss, a British science fiction writer, has
said, in reference to the Richard Adams book, that "the British write
stories about rabbits for rabbits, while Americans write about robots for
robots.")
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| Family Guy. Courtesy of and © Fox Broadcasting Company |
Fox Takes Over Family Guy. Animation
company Film Roman has announced that due to production differences Fox will
take over production responsibilities on June 1 for Family Guy, which
is currently in production on its second season. The primetime show Family
Guy airs at 8:30 pm on Sunday in the coveted spot after The Simpsons
and has been a hit with biting, racy humor. While Fox spokespeople say that
it will be handled "in-house," a specific division or Fox-owned
company has yet to be named. Film Roman, which produced 15 episodes of Seth
MacFarlane's show, will continue to produce The Simpsons and King
Of The Hill. Film Roman has made bold moves over the course of the past
two years to become a larger force in animation by, among other things, creating
an aggressive development slate, and hiring such industry leaders as Eric
Radomski (Batman, Spawn).
Australian Company Offers Product In L.A. Australia-based company Behr
Entertainment came to Los Angeles with several properties including two that
are animated. Monster Club is an animated series for children featuring
the characters of The Monster Club. This series will feature fundamental
lessons about family, friendship and the environment. Radio Toons,
which is in development, is an animated series featuring classic radio shows
from the 1930s and 1940s as the sound and dialogue tracks. Similar to the
highly rated 1970 Rankin/Bass TV special The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians, it
features cartoon renditions of Jack Benny, George Burns, Abbott & Costello,
and Bob Hope. 13 half hours are proposed, and co-production opportunities
are available. The company was in Los Angeles, California at the Century Plaza
Hotel, Room 1149, May 24-26. For more information, contact Walter Behr at
75 Cherry Lane, Monsey, New York 10952. Tel: 914-368-1281; fax: 914-369-8219;
or e-mail: wbehrent@aol.com.
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| What's Opera, Doc? Courtesy of and © Warner Bros. All rights reserved. |
Bugs Bunny Marathon Returns To Cartoon
Network. Cartoon Network's 7th annual 48 hour Bugs Bunny cartoon marathon,
JUNE BUGS, will take place Friday, June 4, 9 pm - Sunday, June 6, 9 pm. The
following films, some of which are included in more than one theme block,
are scheduled:
Evolution of Bugs - Friday, 9 pm; Saturday,
6 pm; Sunday, 1 pm.
Porky's Hare Hunt, Prest-o-Change-o, Hare-Um Scare-Um, Elmer's Candid Camera,
A Wild Hare, Elmer's Pet Rabbit.
Musical Bugs - Friday, 10 pm; Saturday, 7 pm; Sunday, 11 am.
A Corny Concerto, Stage Door Cartoon, Rhapsody Rabbit, Long-Haired Hare, What's
Opera, Doc?, The Rabbit of Seville.
Bugs in Space - Saturday, 12 am; Saturday, 8 pm; Sunday, 10 am.
Haredevil Hare, Hasty Hare, Mad as a Mad Hare, Hare-Way to the Stars, Lighter
than Hare, Spaced Out Bunny.
Bugs and Yosemite - Saturday, 1 am; Saturday, 10 pm; Sunday, 4 pm.
Hare Trigger, Buccaneer Bunny, Bugs Bunny Rides Again, Ballot Box Bunny, From
Hare to Heir, Prince Varmint.
Bugs in the Spotlight - Saturday, 4 pm; Sunday, 12 am.
Case of the Missing Hare, What's Cookin', Doc?, What's Up, Doc?, Big Top Bunny,
A Star is Bored, Blooper Bunny.
Sportsman Bugs - Saturday, 5 pm; Sunday, 2 am; Sunday, 9 am.
Baseball Bugs, Rabbit Transit, Rabbit Punch, Knights Must Fall, Bully for
Bugs, Bunny Hugged.
Bugs and Daffy - Saturday, 9 pm; Sunday, 8 pm.
Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, Duck Amuck, Beanstalk Bunny, The Iceman Ducketh,
Duck Rabbit Duck.
Bugs and Friends - Saturday, 4 am; Sunday, 7 pm.
Hair Raising Hare, Bugsy and Mugsy, A Witch's Tangled Hare, Rabbit's Feat,
Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare, Rabbit's Kin.
Bugs in the Big City - Saturday, 11 am; Sunday, 8 am.
Hare Conditioned, Racketeer Rabbit, A Hare Grows in Manhattan, Barbary Coast
Bunny, Bugsy and Mugsy, The Unmentionables.
Bug's Horror Stories - Saturday, 2 pm; Sunday, 12 pm.
Falling Hare, Hair Raising Hare, Water, Water Everyhare, Hot Cross Bunny,
Hyde and Hare, A Witch's Tangled Hare.
Patriotic Bugs - Saturday, 7 am; Saturday, 11 pm; Sunday, 2 pm.
Falling Hare, Little Red Riding Rabbit, Super Rabbit, Bunker Hill Bunny, Southern
Fried Rabbit, Yankee Doodle Bugs.
Classic Death Scenes - Saturday, 6 am.
Elmer's Candid Camera, The Wild Hare, Wabbit Who Came to Supper, Hare Ribbin',
Hare Force, The Old Grey Hare.
When Animals Attack - Saturday, 3 pm; Sunday, 5 am.
Hold the Lion, Please, The Heckling Hare, Acrobatty Bunny, Gorilla My Dreams,
Now Hare This, Backwoods Bunny.
Adventurer/Traveler Bugs - Saturday, 5 am; Sunday, 7 am.
Buccaneer Bunny, A-Lad-In His Lamp, Rebel Rabbit, Knights Must Fall, Bedeviled
Rabbit, Prince Varmint.
Fairy Tales & Fables - Saturday, 9 am; Sunday, 6 am; Sunday, 6 pm.
Tortoise Beats Hare, Tortoise Wins By a Hare, Jack Wabbit and the Beanstalk,
Little Red Riding Rabbit, Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears, Beanstalk Bunny.
Bugs and Elmer I - Saturday, 2 am.
The Wild Hare, Elmer's Candid Camera, Hare-Brained Hypnotist, The Old Grey
Hare, Unruly Hare, Hare Remover.
Bugs and Elmer II - Saturday, 12 pm.
The Big Snooze, Slick Hare, What's Opera, Doc?, The Rabbit of Seville, Rabbit
Seasoning, Beanstalk Bunny.
Chuck Jones' Bugs I - Saturday, 8 am.
Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, Bully for Bugs, Hair Raising Hare, The Rabbit
of Seville, Haredevil Hare.
Chuck Jones' Bugs II - Saturday, 3 am; Sunday, 4 am.
Bugs Bonnets, Frigid Hare, Wacki-ki Wabbit, Hare Tonic, Odor-able Kitty, Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Bunny.
Friz Freleng's Bugs I - Saturday, 1 pm.
Hare-Brained Hypnotist, Little Red Riding Rabbit, Hare Trigger, Slick Hare,
Knights Must Fall, Rabbit Every Monday.
Friz Freleng's Bugs II - Sunday, 3 am.
Fresh Hare, Hare-Brained Hypnotist, Slick Hare, Rabbit Every Monday, Wild
and Wooly Hare, Horse Hare.
Bob McKimson's Bugs I - Saturday, 10 am; Sunday, 3 pm.
Acrobatty Bunny, Easter Yeggs, Gorilla My Dreams, Hot Cross Bunny, Rabbit
Romeo, Bill of Hare.
Bob McKimson's Bugs II - Sunday, 1 am.
Easter Yeggs, Gorilla My Dreams, Wideo Wabbit, Rabbit Romeo, Bill of Hare,
False Hare.
Bob Clampett's Bugs - Friday, 11 pm; Sunday, 5 pm.
Wabbit Twouble, The Wacky Rabbit, Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid, Falling Hare,
Buckaroo Bugs, The Big Snooze.
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.