In the continuing crisis at CINAR Corp., husband and wife co-founders, Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg, have stepped down after senior VP and CFO Hasanain Panju was fired when US$122 million was found to have disappeared into investments without board approval. With tax fraud allegations floating in the skies, Charest will leave her chairman and co-CEO seat, while Weinberg will give up his president and co-CEO position. The couple will remain as leaders and directors of the company.

With strictly live-action fare reigning the U.S. box office, SNOW DAY slipped to sixth place, while PITCH BLACK remained steady in fifth place. Paramount's kid-pic, with special effects by Curious Pictures, fell from #2, grossing US$4.8 million this past weekend and bringing its total gross to $49 million. USA Films' PITCH BLACK, with primary visual effects by Double Negative Ltd. and The Chandler Group, clocked in at #5 for the second straight weekend, grossing $5.07 million raising its total gross to $29.7 million.

BBC video brings to homes 13 tales from the TV series WILLIAM'S WISH

WELLINGTONS. The 5 minute stories feature a small boy and his pair of magic

boots. The show airs weekly on Cartoon Network and TVO. The tape will be

distributed in the U.S. and Canada by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Volume 1 will be available on March 7, 2000 and be priced at US$14.95.

Be a part of Playboy's rich heritage of cartoon humor. Participate in

Playboy's Comix and Animation Contest. All multimedia formats welcome:

Shockwave, Flash, videotape, pen and ink and more! Grand prize winner

receives $25,000. Five honorable mentions will also be selected. Judges

include Scott Adams, Award winning creator of Dilbert, and Kevin Smith,

Writer/Director of hit films "Chasing Amy" and "Dogma." The deadline for

submission is April 1, 2000. As with any contest there are lots of rules

Bill Plympton has updated his

appearances page.

In the next months, his

films will be appearing in various festivals and other events around the

world. Bill will be attending the Newport Film Festival, Newport, RI, USA;

Annecy Animation Festival, Annecy, France; Florida Film Festival, Maitland,

FL, USA; and Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films, Zagreb, Croatia.

The big snow ball of Paramount's SNOW DAY picked up momentum and rolled in

to #2 at the U.S. box office. In its second week in theatres, the kid-pic,

with special effects by Curious Pictures, grossed US$8.34 million bringing

its gross to $43.1 million. USA Films' ALIENS-like PITCH BLACK, with

primary visual effects by Double Negative Ltd. and The Chandler Group,

finished at #5 grossing $7.14 million raising its total gross to $22.9

million. THE TIGGER MOVIE finished the weekend in sixth place, making $6.31

* Wednesday, March 1, 2000. Hollywood, California, U.S.A.





In celebration of the 125th anniversary of J. Stuart Blackton, The Silent

Society of Hollywood Heritage, Inc. and the International Animated Film

Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, are presenting a program highlighting this motion

picture and animation pioneer. A diverse sampling of works by the medium's

first director-producer-animator and actor will be featured, all drawn from

* 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

* Thursday, March 9, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.





This month's Women In Animation Writers' Group Seminar will be held at 7:30

pm at Saban Entertainment, 10960 Wilshire Blvd. (corner of Midvale). The

discussion centers around the outline, the scene, and animation terms. Fee:

US$5 to cover costs. RSVP to Jean Ann Wright required. Tel.: (818)

360-8321 or E-mail: jjwright@gte.net. For more information on WIA events,

please visit the Website at

* Saturday, February 26, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.





Women In Animation, Inc. will be holding their annual meeting with guest

speaker Lynda Weinman of lynda.com. The meeting introduces members and

anyone interested in WIA with what has happened in the past year and what

exciting events and activities are on the way for 2000. Weinman, a pioneer

of graphics and animation on the MAC, will bring to the event her knowledge

The kid flick SNOW DAY, with special effects by Curious Pictures, settled

at third place for a second straight week at the U.S. box office. The

Paramount-produced flick grossed US$14.8 million over the President's Day

holiday weekend, bringing its cume to $31.5 million. USA Films release

PITCH BLACK finished at #4. Yet another ALIENS-esque sci-fi flick, PITCH

BLACK grossed $14 million. THE TIGGER MOVIE finished the weekend in fifth

place, making $10.5 million, bringing its cume to $22.3 million. Even

The SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, located in historic Savannah,

Georgia, USA, is seeking candidates with college-level teaching experience

for the position of PROFESSOR OF COMPUTER ART to teach beginning and

advanced level courses in Stop-Motion and Clay Animation. The successful

candidate should have professional experience as an

animator/director/designer, and familiarity with a wide range of

fabrication materials, techniques and styles, including armatures and

Two years ago, following the theatrical release of "Anastasia," Fox was

expanding its commitment to animation. Fox Family Films, one of Twentieth

Century Fox's four film divisions, was being renamed Fox Animation Studios,

to reflect the division's new plan to focus solely on animated feature

films, including stop-motion, mixed media (live-action mix) and digital

production. Several animated projects were on the development slate then,

including "Dark Town" with Henry Selick, "Santa Calls" with Blue Sky|VIFX,

* Tuesday, February 22, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.





Come hear from the team of Fox's FUTURAMA at the AFI's Writers' POV. In

past years, AFI has featured the writing teams from THE SIMPSONS and KING

OF THE HILL, who gave a Writers POV on the making of an animated series.

Continuing this popular topic, AFI has invited the FUTURAMA team to

participate in this question & answer event. Guests will include: executive

producer David X. Cohen, and writers Ken Keeler, Eric Horsted, Lewis

* Saturday, February 26, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.





Women In Animation, Inc. will be holding their annual meeting with guest

speaker Lynda Weinman of lynda.com. The meeting introduces members and

anyone interest in WIA with what has happened in the past year and what

exciting events and activities are on the way in 2000. Weinman, a pioneer

of graphic and animation on the MAC, will bring to the event her knowledge

Rumored since last fall, Walt Disney Animation Canada Inc. announced

Monday, February 14, 2000 it will close the doors of its animation studios

in Canada by the spring. Opened in 1996, the Toronto and Vancouver branches

of Walt Disney were created to produce primarily direct-to-home video films

in connection with Walt Disney Television Animation. The company slowly

started winding down production last fall and will completely close around

When the day broke on February 15, 2000, an old man wasn't humdrum about

joining a list of Oscar nominees that included three misses and my

grandmother who irons shirts! The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and

Sciences has released its list of nominations for this year's Oscar

competition. In the category of animated short films the nominees are:

Aardman Animations' Peter Peaks' HUMDRUM; Torril Cove's MY GRANDMOTHER

IRONED THE KING'S SHIRTS; Alexander Petrov's oil paint on glass in IMAX

CINAR ENTERTAINMENT has filled the newly created seat of president with

PETER MOSS. In his position effective March 1, Moss will focus on

developing CINAR's entertainment business in North America, Latin America

and Asia. Before joining CINAR, Moss served as programming and production

VP for YTV, Canada's youth network. Moss has regularly worked in pre-school

programming with the Children's Television Network and the CBC.

Joe Cartoon Company has filed a lawsuit against two entities, John

Zuccarini and Cupcake City, for the violation of the newly enacted

Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. The lawsuit is one of the first

cases filed under the anticybersquatting statute in the U.S. The act

outlaws the unauthorized use of an Internet domain name that is

"confusingly similar" to another name, for the purpose of intercepting

users of the pre-existing domain. Filed with United States District Court,

The Harvey Entertainment Company and PG Capital, an apparel industry

investment company, have finalized a joint venture for a new apparel

company, Harvey Fashion LLC. The new company will be responsible for

manufacturing, selling and marketing a complete apparel collection, based

on the popular Harvey Classic Character library. Paul Guez will serve as

chairman of the board and CEO. The creation of Harvey Fashion LLC replaces

and extends the scope of an earlier Harvey apparel venture planned with