This month Animation World Magazine is taking a special focus on Asian
Animation, especially Japan. Kosei Ono profiles Japanese artist, Tadahito
Mochinaga, and Gigi Hu introduces us to two of Japan's leading independent
filmmakers. A group of key creative talent from Blue Sky Studios recently
toured Japan and have provided us with a scrapbook of photos and stories.
Andrew Osmond takes an indepth look at the impact Japanese animation is
having on animation made outside of Japan and we begin the first in a

The Art Institutes International at San Francisco, a post-secondary,
degree granting educational institution, is seeking a qualified candidate
to serve as ACADEMIC DIRECTOR for its computer, multimedia and graphic
design programs...

ASIFA-Hollywood will host its 7th Annual Animation Expo on March 3-4, 2000,
in Glendale, California...

Ottawa '00 will take place from September 19-24, 2000. The Ottawa
International Animation Festival will recognize industry achievements in
animation with a new competition devoted solely to commissioned works...

Each year the Brussels Cartoon and Animated Film Festival programs the
'crème de la crème' in international animation...

In this new issue #18:
Cover Story: "Return to Pepperland" by Andrew
Osmond. Features: Multiplying the Monster; Newsreel: What's New in
Toontown; Festival Watch: SIGGRAPH '99, The Montreal World Film Festival,
TDIF '99, SAFO '99, and Animart; Doin' It on the Low End: Painting Frames;
Women in Animation: On a Roll: NFB Film Keeps Pleasing Jurys; Short and
Sweet; Education: Training on the Right Side of the Brain; Cartoons:
Spliced; In Progress: Bully Dance, A Monster's Calling and Ho-Ho-Ho;

The Quickdraw Animation Society web site has been updated...

This week's updates to the Calendar
of Events includes the World Animation
Celebration in the U.S., and Anima Mundi 2000 in Brazil. The Calendar of
Upcoming Events is a constantly changing reference source for what's
happening around the World of Animation. Use it to stay abreast of
animation related activities across the globe. If you know of animation
related events that we don't have listed, send an email with the pertinent

Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's
Animation Trivia Quiz...

"Setting Up Your Shots: Great Camera Moves Every Filmmaker Needs To Know,"
was written by Jeremy Vineyard, a writer and director based in Los Angeles...

The past few weeks were marked with announcements regarding companies
beginning to broadcast animation over the 'net, and this is only going to
intensify...

Charles Schulz, the creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the entire
PEANUTS gang, has decided that he will retire in order to concentrate on
beating his newly diagnosed cancer. This desicion will end almost five
decades of Schulz's world-famous comic. Schulz, who has always refused to
let another artist draw PEANUTS, said he would stop producing new daily
panels as of January 3, 2000 but allow his syndicators to recycle comic
strips from 1974 if newspapers still wanted to run the strip. On a daily

Florida, U.S.-based AARGH! ANIMATION, Inc., one of the largest independent
cel animation houses, has produced a series of national spots for Cold-Eeze
cold medicine that combine live-action with cel animation. The cel
animation was directed by Mark Simon and Dave Kallaher of AARGH! Now
running and continuing through the cold season, these spots, three :10
spots and two :30 spots, are running in heavy rotation on major U.S.
networks. The spots feature live-action actors whose sneezes morph them
into animated characters.

Urban Vision will soon re-release Vampire Hunter D and Wicked City. The

classic horror anime D will hit streets January 18, 2000 and Yoshiaki

Kawajiri's hit Wicked City debuted December 7, 1999. Both flicks will be

available in an English Dubbed version for US$19.95 and a Japanese with

English subtitles version for $29.95. Other anime titles coming soon to DVD

are Slayers: The Motion Picture, street date February 8, 2000 for $29.98

and Legend Of Crystania: The Motion Picture, street date February 8, 2000

Disney's television animation chief Charles Hirschhorn has been given the
boot. The now former head of Walt Disney Television and Walt Disney
Television animation officially exited the position on Wednesday, December
8, 1999. It's speculated that Hirschhorn's responsibilities at WONDERFUL
WORLD OF DISNEY will most likely be taken over by ABC movies and
mini-series head Susan Lyne, while his duties for TV animation and
direct-to-video flicks will most likely be folded into the feature

Next summer the third feature installment of the POKEMON trilogy will make
its way to Japanese theatres. POCKET MONSTER: THE LORD OF THE UNKNOWN TOWER
will introduce yet another of those little "pocket things" to kids and
merchandising execs around the world. Kunihiko Yuyama is set to direct the
film, which will feature a short tentatively titled POKEMON 2000. If in the
U.S. or Europe one may ask, whatever happened to POKEMON 2? Well, fear not
Charmander chums, the second POKEMON feature, which was released in Japan

"Spike & Mike" fest organizers, Mellow Manor Prods. has teamed up with
Netcaster IFilm to bring its twisted toon vault exclusively to Cyberspace.
The two year deal will allow Net surfers the chances to see animation
shorts only previously showcased at the "Spike & Mike's Classic Festival of
Animation" and "Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation."
BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD-creator Mike Judge, SOUTH PARK's Trey Parker and Matt
Stone, TOY STORY's John Lasseter, and the NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS'

Harvey Entertainment Company has inked a deal with San Francisco-based
Spunky Productions, Inc., a digital media company, to produce and
distribute Richie Rich Web cartoons. The new toons will be available on
both SpunkyTown.com and the Harvey site. Spunky will adapt early comic book
adventures of the world's richest kid into 2 - 5 minute episodes to start
airing during the holiday season. Product tie-ins will be developed by both
companies to be sold on both of their Web sites. Dan March, Director of New

The Downtown Athletic Club (DAC), presenters of the Heisman Memorial Trophy
for the year's outstanding U.S. college American football player, have
contracted with Lemon Custard Comics, the San Francisco-based computer
animation production house, to produce a Flash-animated comic strip for the
Web to tell the story of the trophy and football in general. The first
installment, "The John W. Heisman Story," will run simultaneously on
HeismanMemorialTrophy.com and LemonCustard.com. DAC plans to use the Web to

LIPSinc., the producer of Ventriloquist for 3D Studio MAX, recently
announced that they had launched a new lip-synching program called Echo.
Whereas Ventriloquist is a plug-in for 3D Studio MAX, Echo is a standalone
program which outputs in flipbook, dope sheet and function curve animation
data for animation platforms, interactive 3D game engines, and multimedia
applications. Timeline Studios, a company founded by best-selling author
Michael Crichton, is using Echo in the company's first title, slated for