The 72-page festival catalog provides information in three languages

(French, Dutch, English) on all exhibitions, making of presentations,

retrospectives, biographies of festival guests, as well as technical,

production, story summary and distribution data on films. Available for

$6.00 plus s/h. The

Folioscope product

line includes a rare selection of videos, featuring pioneer Belgian

3Dlabs, Inc., a professional graphics firm, has expanded its presence in

Europe with a new office near Frankfurt, Germany. 3Dlabs plans to use the

new branch as a base for expanding its market coverage in Central Europe,

one of the largest markets for its workstation graphics products. In turn,

3Dlabs announced the appointment of Frank Losch as country manager. Mr.

Losch brings many years of marketing and sales expertise to the new

position. "The ability to increase market penetration of Oxygen workstation

Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. announced that it will produce 26 all-CGI

ACTION MAN half-hour television series episodes for Hasbro Properties

Group, a division of Hasbro, Inc. Before the series begins regularly

scheduled broadcasts on Fox Kids in September, a one-hour ACTION MAN

special will air on Fox Kids Network in May 2000. SABAN International N.V.

will handle international distribution for the series. The new TV show is

based on Hasbro's ACTION MAN brand, the number one boy's action brand in

FAT DOG MENDOZA co-produced by Sunbow Entertainment and Cartoon Network

Europe, is set to premiere in the U.K. Animated by TMO-Loonland's Peter

Volkle at his Hungarian studio, the first of the 26 completed episodes will

air on February 28, 2000. The series is based off of Scott Musgrove's cult

comic book. Fat Dog and his boy Little Costumed Buddy live in Neighbourhood

X, which seems normal until one notices that ancient Rome and the Himalayas

On Saturday, March 4, 2000, world class life drawing master Glenn Vilppu

will present "On the Tails of Anders Zorn, Carl Larsson and P.S. Kroyer in

Scandinavia" at the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Union (MPSC Local

839), North Hollywood, California. To attend this free event, please call

(661) 269-1726 or (818) 994-2402. Glenn Vilppu will also present his tour

of Denmark and Sweden, scheduled July 10-21, 2000. When traveling through

major cities, Vilppu will lecture on the local art. Artists, photographers

* Thursday, March 9, 2000 - Saturday, March 11, 2000. Madrid, Spain.





Cartoon, the European producers organization, will present a seminar on

"how to negotiate with the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and Japan."

Discussions will focus on the structures, customs and constraints of the

fore mentioned markets. After an introduction on each country, the various

policies on international co-productions will be discussed. A question and

Munich-based EM.TV & Merchandising has acquired the Jim Henson Co. in a

cash and stock transaction valued at US$680 million. The German company now

owns the rights to the Muppets and Sesame Street characters. The purchase

gives EM.TV "some of the most powerful and enduring kids and family brands

worldwide and. . . access to the world's biggest and most important media

market," said Thomas Haffa, EM.TV CEO. "In addition, our investment in

Henson will give us a position in cable networks, which will open up new

Hamberg, Germany-based IGEL MEDIA AG, an independent distributor of family

programming, has announced ED GALTON as their new head of distribution.

Galton will head worldwide distribution for the company focusing on

strengthening its operations outside of Germany. Previously at Gaumont as

VP/Head of Television and Video Sales, Galton organized the pre-sales and

distribution for such titles as OGGY AND THE COCKROACHES, SPACE GOOFS and

HIGHLANDER, THE RAVEN.

Denmark-based A. FILM has rapped on a 35-second commercial for Kellogg's

Cereal. The spot was directed by Craig Frank and produced for the Leo

Burnett agency. The classic 2D animation spot launches a new image campaign

introducing Kellogg's Town, where 8 popular Kellogg's figures like

Cornelius, Tony the Tiger, Coco, Chocos, Loopy, Snap, Crackle and Pop live.

The spot will air in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.

Animha Productions, a unique association of professionals dedicated to

independent film production and animation workshops, is working on a peace

film project created by Prakash Moorthy in India and Animha's Dave

Brunskill in England. The film will include single drawings and paintings

done by 5-7 year-old children from around the world, and all children are

invited to participate. The subject is "a mother sending her child to

school." Drawings should reflect the national identity of the child, using

- FIGURE CONSTRUCTION, a brand new Vilppu video


Prestigious life drawing instructor Glenn Vilppu is offering a new video

tape of his classes. Vilppu said: "Figure Construction is a class room

demonstration of basic figure construction. This tape, I feel, is one of

the best examples that I have done so far on basic construction." His

material is being used worldwide in courses for animation students. The

Opening the weekend of February 11, 2000 in the U.K., TOY STORY 2 has

already broken box office records. Playing on 495 screens, the sequel

grossed US$12.8 million in its first three days. The feat even beat out

bohemeth-grossing STAR WARS EPISODE 1, which made only $12.5 million in its

first U.K. weekend. So far Buena Vista International, which is distributing

the film outside the U.S., said the movie has already grossed $332 million

worldwide. Playing on 3,334 screens outside the U.S. this past weekend, TOY

Expand Images and Ellipse Programme, France's two leading television

production companies, announced on February 10, 2000 plans to merge. The

new studio, entitled Expand, will have an approximate revenue for 2000 of

FRF1.4 billion (US$210.2 million). The deal will enable both parties to

increase their international content output for the expanding European

market. As part of the deal, CANAL+ Images and Finexpand signed an

agreement solidifying their relationship as shareholders in the new studio.

Bill Plympton has updated his

appearances page.

In March, "Surprise Cinema"

will be appearing in various festivals and other events in the US, Canada,

Belgium, Germany and Australia. Bill will be appearing at the Zagreb World

Festival of Animated Films in Zagreb, Croatia, June 12-25, 2000.

* Thursday, March 16 - Tuesday, March 21, 2000. Stuttgart, Germany.



The 10th International Trickfilm Festival will present the best animated

productions from the past two years. More than 500 films will be screened

at the festival. The Best of Animation includes a selection of the most

interesting films in the history of artistic, animated film. Young

Animation is a competition featuring animated film schools and colleges.

The festival will also present the International Panorama, Tricks for Kids,

* Thursday, April 6 - Sunday, April 9, 2000. Brisbane, Australia.



The Third Brisbane International Animation Festival represents Australia in

an international animation festival alliance with Ottawa, Holland, Fantoche

and Anima Mundi. It is Australia's only festival dedicated exclusively to

animation in all o

Vitoria, Spain-based Mb Producciones is reaping a huge success from its new

animated series MIMI AND MR. BOBO. Since its debut on TVE, the average

share the series has received is 25.8. The show airs Saturday at 9 am and

re-runs at 8:30 am on Sundays. Mb Producciones is currently in negotiation

to create merchandise for the program with several well-known Spanish toy

and book companies. The company is also in the developing stage of a

feature based on the characters of the MIMI AND MR. BOBO series.

Montreal-based CineGroupe and Saban International Paris will co-produce a

new half-hour series entitled WUNSCHPUNCH. The show will be based on the

novel by Michael Ende, whose previous novel, THE NEVER ENDING STORY was

made into a live-action feature. Radio Canada will broadcast the series in

Canada and TF1 will air it in France. Hubert Gariepy and Bruno Bianchi will

produce the series and Philippe Amador will direct.

In the spring, Fox Kids Europe will launch a local TV affiliate in Italy

and initiate a fully localized Web site to coincide. The new channel will

be distributed by cable and direct satellite to about 400,000 subscribers

via the Stream pay television system. The channel will broadcast entirely

in Italian 15 hours a day with such well-known shows as X-MEN, MIGHTY

MORPHAN POWER RANGERS and INSPECTOR GADGET. The scheduled launch date for

the new net will be April 1, 2000. Following the Italian launch, Fox Kids

STARDUST ENTERTAINMENT FILMPRODUKTION is a studio located in

Berlin-Potsdam, Germany, specializing in computer animation (3D) and visual

effects. The CGI studio is equipped with the most advanced wireless

motion-capture system by Motion Analysis. In addition to its staff of 50

CGI professionals from 15 different countries, currently based at the

studio in Germany, Stardust Entertainment is cooperating with CGI studios

in Romania, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Asia. Currently in production on a 26