The March Acrobat edition of Animation World Magazine is now ready for download. The theme this time around is direct-to-video. Greg Singer sizes up the direct-to-video biz in his in-depth analysis. Joe Strike stakes a claim on Disney’s direct-to-video sequels. Karen Raugust looks at HIT Ent. home entertainment empire. Rounding out the theme, Chris Panzner takes a more historical look at Japan’s V-cinema.

As for movies, Jerry Beck has a profile of STEAMBOY while VFXWORLD’s Bill Desowitz looks at ROBOTS. Desowitz also interviews some of the creatives behind the restores DVD release of BAMBI. Bob Miller chats with the makers of the TV special, DRAGONS: A FANTASY MADE REAL.

Continuing our coverage of important events, Karen Raugust reports back from Toy Fair, Adam Snyder tells us all about KidScreen Summit and Heather Kenyon chronicles her trip to I Castelli Animati.

For our monthly columns, the Animation Pimp, Dr. Toon, the Career Coach and Nancy Cartwright all return. As for book excerpts we have new chapters from Gene Deitch’s HOW TO SUCCEED IN ANIMATION and Carol MacGillivray and Anthony Head’s 3D FOR THE WEB. In reviews, Fred Patten gives a peak at recent anime releases and Taylor Jessen reviews five new shorts fresh from the festivals.