Geraldine Laybourne, Oxygen Media's Chairman and CEO, has announced that
Oxygen Media has signed a carriage agreement with MediaOne, a domestic
cable operator, to distribute Oxygen's cable network. The new Oxygen
network, which is scheduled to launch on 02/02/2000, will be integrated
with Oxygen's existing online properties to create a "home base" for women
on cable and the Internet. Oxygen's carriage agreement with MediaOne will
deliver Oxygen to over 1 million subscribers at launch. Under the terms of

Computer Cafe has opened a full service animation studio in Santa Monica,
California. The 1400 square foot site, in the heart of Santa Monica's media
district, will be staffed by art director/digital artist Ron Honn, who is
relocating from the company's Santa Maria headquarters, and producer
Jonathan Stone, who joins the company from Saban Entertainment. Artists
from the Santa Maria facility will staff up the Santa Monica studio on a
project basis, and the company will also staff the new site with local

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

THE BANANA SPLITS will return via Cartoon Network Online's Web Premiere
Toon series in 2000. Produced by Hanna-Barbera and Sid & Marty Krofft, THE
BANANA SPLITS ADVENTURE HOUR was originally broadcast on NBC from 1968-70,
and the show was repeated throughout the 1970s. Episodes currently air
Saturday mornings on Cartoon Network. The live-action variety show featured
rock musician characters in fuzzy animal suits: Fleagle, a beagle; Drooper,
a lion; Bingo, a gorilla; and Snorky, an elephant. The foursome would

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

After several weeks of rumors, Film Roman has officially confirmed that
they are developing an animated feature film based on THE FABULOUS FURRY
FREAK BROTHERS, the underground comic book by Gilbert Shelton. THE FABULOUS
FURRY FREAK BROTHERS is about three hippie brothers: freewheeling
cowboy-hatted Frank; mad-inventor Phineas, and Fat Freddy, as well as Fat
Freddy's cat, who is described as meaner than Garfield, smarter than Felix,
randier than Fritz, and a better mouser than Tom. Mike B. Anderson (THE

The Art Institute of Phoenix is looking for an Academic Director of Game Art & Design for their new Bachelor Degree program in Game Art & Design...

The Art Institute of Phoenix is looking for computer animation instructors for their Bachelors degree program...

Italian production company GREEN MOVIE is searching for ANIMATION,
LAYOUT and STORYBOARD ARTISTS for an upcoming feature cartoon production
written by Nobel award winner, Dario Fo. They are looking for freelancers
and/or teams and/or companies from Europe, preferably countries nearby or
neighbouring Italy. The production period is MAY 2000 - JUNE 2001, and will
take place all over Europe and Italy. The selection process must be over by
mid-July 1999, so please hurry. Any queries should be sent to

Taylor Design Recruiting looking for Japanese-style animators and webmasters-designers...

Over 100 new article links have been added to the Student Corner this week...

This week's comic is about the Indian Summer...

Ontario Canada's Collège Boréal is looking for a classical animation professor.
The purpose of the school's three-year program is to prepare learners to
pursue a career in commercial animation, i.e., working in film,
TV series, video game, CD-ROM, Web page and advertising
production. The program allows the learner to be proficient in

Actor DeForest Kelley, STAR TREK's Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy died Friday,
June 10 after an extended illness. Kelley, born January 20, 1920, in
Atlanta, Georgia, US, played supporting roles in a number of movies,
including THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT (1956); GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K.
CORRAL (1957), RAINTREE COUNTY (1957), and APACHE UPRISING (1966). STAR
TREK creator and producer Gene Roddenberry had wanted Kelley to play the
doctor in STAR TREK from the get-go, having worked with him previously on

STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE, the digital effects driven action
film from Lucasfilm, grossed $25.4 million to bring its total to $296.7
million while finishing second to newly released AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO
SHAGGED ME in the US weekend boxoffice race for the week ending Sunday,
June 13. Universal's THE MUMMY, with digital effects by ILM, finished fifth
while grossing $5.48 million to bring its total to $136.2 million; THE
MATRIX, directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, finished seventh, grossing

Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation has announced the appointment of
Robert H. Ard to the position of Group Executive, Applications, and Shanker
Munshani to be General Manager of its Workstation Graphics Division. Ard
will be responsible for the Digital Studio, Digital Theater, and Pixel
Products divisions. He will also continue as the General Manager of the
Pixel Products unit. Ard is a veteran software industry executive. Prior to
joining Evans & Sutherland in 1998 as the General Manager of the Pixel

French production company Alphanim's RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT, a series,
co-produced with Cinar, about a group of three friends who travel the world
seeking out paranormal phenomena, will begin airing on the Fox Family
Channel on Wednesday, July 14, 1999. Alphanim, which was created in 1997 by
Christian Davin, has announced a number of new television series that are
in production or development.


In production:


SPACED OUT is a family sitcom created by P. Colin-Thibert and J.C. Islert,

Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne's media company founded to provide
content for women, will undertake cable television's first original
animated prime-time series specifically targeting women. Machi Tantillo
will be Executive Producer. "Our goal is to create the first animated
television series for women, exploring issues from a female point of view.
We also wanted to build an outlet specifically for female animators, whose
distinctive voices will help us develop a unique Oxygen animation style and

Gerry Lewis, currently the co-head of international distribution and
marketing for DreamWorks, will retire from that post in September 1999 to
play a new role for the company, it was announced today by DreamWorks
principal Jeffrey Katzenberg. Lewis has entered into a three-year
agreement, under which he will consult on the international marketing
activities of all films directed by Steven Spielberg (for DreamWorks and
other studios), as well as any sequels to or other versions of projects

Protozoa, a leading real-time 3D character animation studio, is producing
BBC Choice's new breakthrough kids series, THE DOG & DINOSAUR SHOW. In
production now, Protozoa, which did the real-time motion-capture animation
for live TV show guest appearances by M&M's Crispy character (Will Vinton
Studios created and animates the CGI character in the live-action
commercial campaign), will produce 26 segments of the show using its
proprietary performance animation software, ALIVE. Asked why he chose