Sony Pictures Entertainment
has formalized the name of its newest business unit, Sony Pictures Family
Entertainment Group (SPFE), and appointed Gary Hirsch as senior vice
president and general manager of the division. Reporting to Sander
Schwartz, president of the relatively new division, Hirsch will oversee new
business development opportunities for the division and its day-to-day
operations, including business affairs, human resources, studio operations,
production and marketing. Hirsch comes to Sony's SPFE from Columbia

Columbia Records will celebrate the 20th anniversary of
the release of PINK FLOYD's album THE WALL with the release of the film on
DVD in October. The film includes animation designed and directed by Gerald Scarfe, who went on
to design Disney's HERCULES. The DVD features a new transfer of the
original widescreen film, as well as unreleased footage, a remastered 5.1
Dolby Digital soundtrack, the 25-minute "making of" documentary THE OTHER
SIDE OF THE WALL, and the new 45-minute documentary RETROSPECTIVE, with

One of the fastest growing areas of the booming entertainment technology industry is special effects, and with standards being raised daily by innovative uses in TV, film, and computer games the need for qualified effects artists increases. The Center for Digital Imaging and Sound (CDIS), a private technical arts college celebrating 20 years in operation in British Columbia, has jumped on the opportunity.

Gold Coast, Australia-based EA Australia, a subsidiary of Redwood City,
California-based Electronic Arts, has hired Steve Dauterman to head a new
development studio located in Australia. Dauterman, formerly Director of
Development for LucasArts, had been with the Lucas group for ten years,
initially as Financial Analyst for Lucasfilm before moving across to
LucasArts in 1992. Since working at LucasArts he has overseen the
development of such worldwide interactive titles as "Rebel Assault," "Dark

The fifth annual Anima Mundi festival has had its run July 9-18 in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. At this festival the audience is the jury, and they have
chosen:


Best Brazilian Film - DE JANELA PARA O CINEMA (RAINBOW'S END) by Quiá
Rodrigues.


Best Film of the Official Selection - GOGWANA by Deiniol Morris, UK.


Second Best Film of the Official Selection - AU BOUT DU MONDE (AT THE ENDS
OF THE EARTH) by Konstantin Bronzit, France.


Third Best Film of the Official Selection - RECI, RECI, RECI (WORDS, WORDS,

Clare Kitson, the person behind Channel 4 television's remarkable animation
programming, is leaving the animation industry. Clare did an exceptional
job, and deserves to leave her post with gratitude and appreciation from
those she has worked with for the last twelve years. Therefore, Animation
World Network is publishing a tribute to Clare in the September '99 issue
of Animation World Magazine, which will focus on television. Our tribute to
Clare will be presented in tandem with a historical article on animation at

The Annual Society for Animation Studies (SAS) Conference will be hosted by
Griffith University and will feature papers by Maureen Furniss on motion
capture, Chris Robinson on Estonian animation, Richard Leskosky on
animating between the lines, Jean-Paul Goergen on hand-drawn sound in
Germany in the 1930s, Suzanne R. Williams on the aesthetics of computer
games, Marilyn Carney on Australian women animators, Bryan Barker on the
impact of CinemaScope on animation production, Cathyrn Vasseleu on "Time

Los Angeles-based DNA Studio has named David Badagliacca as its Head of
Sales, Marketing & New Business Development, and Jane Greenstein, as a
full-time producer. Previously, Badagliacca supervised the launch of
Maverick Records' Clio Award-winning Web site while at the label. He also
oversaw efforts for other popular, unconventional sites, including a new
site for recording artist Alanis Morissette and a music video made
exclusively for the Web. Jane Greenstein will produce original content for

SOFTIMAGE will be showcasing the latest release of Toonz, the leading 2D cel animation solution at SIGGRAPH '99 in Los Angeles. Toonz version 4.3 features a more interactive exposure sheet, larger palettes, "3D" textures, and new special FX. SOFTIMAGE will also be introducing for the first time the Toonz Linetester. Also shown, will be the Toonz plug-in for SOFTIMAGE®|3D which will minimize your tracking nightmares when combining all those external materials.

Once again, Bill Plympton has updated his appearances page. This month, "I Married a Strange Person" will be appearing in various festivals and other events in Canada, Germany, Finland and Ukraine. "Mondo Plympton" will be screened in the US, Brazil and Germany. Bill will also be attending the events in Canada, Brazil and Germany.


www.awn.com/plympton/appearances.html

Affiliated with the World Science Fiction Convention, the North American
Science Fiction Convention which takes place in Anaheim, California, August
26 - 29, 1999, is held whenever the WSFC is outside of North America (as it
is this year in Australia). The convention includes hundreds of authors,
artists, and filmmakers as speakers; an art show; a dealers room; films;
costume competition; dances; parties and more. The film competition accepts
entries in 16mm and VHS (NTSC only), to be judged by a panel of working TV

The ABC network, which is owned by The Walt Disney Co., has ordered a
six-hour miniseries based on the first two installments of James Gurney's
fantasy book series, DINOTOPIA which is about a world in which humans and
highly-evolved dinosaurs live together in harmony. With the exception of
Stephen King projects THE SHINING and STORM OF THE CENTURY, DINOTOPIA marks
ABC's biggest miniseries time commitment since 1988's 30-hour WAR AND
REMEMBRANCE which starred Robert Mitchum. Some sources estimate the cost at

The Walt Disney Company has named four executives to new positions. ETIENNE DE VILLIERS has been named president and managing director, Walt Disney International Europe; MICHAEL O. JOHNSON has been named president and managing director, Walt Disney International Asia; DIEGO LERNER has been named president and managing director, Walt Disney International Latin America; and PAUL SALEH has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer, Walt Disney International.

The inaugural Vancouver Effects & Animation Festival (VEAF) will exhibit
animation and effects works created by people from around the world and
will present awards in 22 categories. The festival takes place Monday, July
13-18 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For more information call
(604) 874-5590; or visit www.veaf.com.

Rob Davies, a 1999 Emmy nominee for his work on STEVEN SPIELBERG PRESENTS:
PINKY, ELMYRA AND THE BRAIN, has recently returned from Warner Bros. T.V.
Animation in L.A. to his native British Columbia, Canada to start up a new
animation studio, Atomic Cartoons Inc. Joining Davies is former REN AND
STIMPY animator and Universal Cartoons director Mauro Casalese, director
Trevor Bentley (Nickelodeon's CAT DOG, Nelvana's NED'S NEWT), and director
Olaf Miller (Sony's LITTLE WITCH). "Our main focus is to assist companies

A bit of controversy has arisen due to the striking similarity between some
scenes in James Gurney's DINOTOPIA books and George Lucas' STAR WARS
EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE. The questionable parallels include that
between PHANTOM MENACE's royal Naboo city of Theed and DINOTOPIA's
Waterfall City; the trip through PHANTOM MENACE's Naboo's core and a
submarine ride in THE WORLD BENEATH; the celebratory parade at the end of
the film and several scenes from DINOTOPIA books; and between Jar Jar Binks

Don Spielvogel, President of VirtualMagic Animation, Inc., and Jeffrey
Harrison, Chairman/CEO of ImagineAsia Studio, announce the formation of
VirtualMagic ASIA, a new digital ink, paint and compositing service in the
Philippines that will operate as a subsidiary of VirtualMagic Animation,
Inc. headquartered in North Hollywood, California. VirtualMagic ASIA is a
corporate venture between two animation and digital service studios,
VirtualMagic Animation, Inc. and ImagineAsia Studio, of Manila.

Pre-production on STAR WARS EPISODE II (Lucas reportedly has a title in
mind, but it has not been released) has already begun. Shooting is set to
start in June 2000 with locations at Fox Studios Australia, Tunisia, and
Italy, and the release is scheduled for summer 2002. The story will focus
on the romance and marriage between Anakin Skywalker (the future Darth
Vader) and Queen Amidala, and the Siths' attempt to gain control of the
galaxy. Whereas the budget for EPISODE 1 was $115 million, Lucas says he

A BUG'S LIFE, a Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar Animation
Studios film, has climbed to $358 million in worldwide box office receipts
to become one of the top-grossing animated films of all time. With its
domestic gross of $163 million, the film has already become the fourth
biggest animated feature released in the United States (behind THE LION
KING, ALADDIN and TOY STORY). Internationally, A BUG'S LIFE has a
gross-to-date of $195 million and has set records in the United Kingdom,

Siren Entertainment, an Australian company, has released eight volumes
of THE MILTON THE MONSTER SHOW, available in both VHS PAL and NTSC
formats. In the fall of 1964, THE MUNSTERS and THE ADDAMS FAMILY,
sitcoms about families of monsters, appeared on US TV. Attempting to
cash in on their subsequent success, Hal Seeger Productions produced THE
MILTON THE MONSTER SHOW for ABC's 1965-1966 season. Milton is a giant
Frankenstein monster-type created by Professor Weirdo and Count Kook.
His creators meant Milton to be scary, but he turns out to be a