TARZAN, the new Disney animated feature that is based on TARZAN OF THE APES
by Edgar Rice Burroughs, finished first in the weekend US boxoffice race,
taking in $34,361,342. This is the second highest opening for an animated
film after THE LION KING which opened with $40.9 million in June 1994. STAR
WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE, the digital effects driven action film
from Lucasfilm, finished fourth, grossing $18,859,021 to bring its total to
$328,072,869; Universal's THE MUMMY, with digital effects by ILM, finished

Master animator Barry Purves will be teaching Acting for Animation at the Museum of the Moving Image in London. The class takes place from Saturday, July 10 to Sunday, July 11, from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm both days. Barry Purves is one of the world's leading stop-motion puppet animators. He began his career at Cosgrove Hall Productions working on such programs as THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. Since then Barry has gone on to write, direct, and animate several award-winning films: NEXT (1989), SCREEN PLAY (1992), RIGOLETTO (1993), and GILBERT & SULLIVAN (1998).

Celebrating its 17th year, Florida's oldest film and video festival
continues its commitment to encourage, support, and foster independent filmmaking. The festival will tour throughout Central Florida and include such cities as Orlando, Melbourne, Gainesville, and Tampa. The festival accepts film and video shorts and features in all formats, genres, and categories (including animation, documentary, experimental, narrative, music videos, and features). More information, including the entry form, is available at www.cffvf.org. The late deadline is June 25, 1999 (late fees apply).

Dan Romanelli has signed a new long-term contract with Warner Bros., extending his tenure as president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Consumer Products. Along with continuing responsibility for all the business units within the Warner Bros. Consumer Products division, such as Warner Bros. Licensing and Warner Bros. Studio Stores, Romanelli adds to his charter the ability to acquire properties intended primarily for the creation of licensing and merchandising franchises.

Data Motion Arts (DMA) has created the host character "Phred" for the new Noggin network. DMA's creative director Tony Caio was asked to create a character who is interactive, works on TV and on-line, and appeals to 6-to-12 year-olds. The result is a 2D character that appears tattooed on your forehead of different live-action faces. The PHRED ON YOUR HEAD show debuted on Nickelodeon on June 6th at 12:00 pm. You can view Phred on-line at www.noggin.com/build. Noggin is an educational TV channel and website, developed as a joint venture of Nickelodeon and Children's Television Workshop.

Beginning September 6, 1999, NODDY will air Monday through Friday on PBS stations in the US as part of PBS's "Ready to Learn" service. NODDY debuted in the US in the fall of 1998. The program's success has led to the production of 25 new episodes, bringing the total number of episodes to 65. The new episodes will begin airing in the fall of 1999. Based on the world-renowned children's books by Enid Blyton, NODDY, a show for children ages three to seven, is co-produced by BBC Worldwide, The Enid Blyton Company and Toronto-based Catalyst Entertainment, Inc.

Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. continues its support of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund with the 1999 Spring Breaks. Over the last several years, Diamond has redoubled its efforts to turn these regional industry gatherings into fund-raisers for the CBLDF through live and silent auctions, special giveaways, and other events. This year, the Spring Breaks raised more than $2,400 to benefit the Fund. The Spring Breaks are the natural descendants of the annual Diamond Retailer Seminars and are sponsored by Diamond in conjunction with DC, Dark Horse, Image, Marvel, and other publishers.