All the short and feature films on competition have now been screened at Annecy 2005 and the judges are off to make their final deliberations for the awards ceremony tomorrow night, June 11 in Annecy, France. The week started off a bit cold and dreary, in both the weather and the film selection. But there have certainly been better selections than the previous year, offering a remarkably varied amount of styles, techniques and storytelling.
PorchLight Entertainment will produce a new season of JAY JAY THE JET PLANE episodes that will include an interactive mystery element and a new Latina airplane character friend for Jay Jay.
MORE SENSITIVE, an animated film about a musician playing before a drunken, oblivious audience in a piano bar, was awarded Best Animation at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto this past weekend.
This is the second award for MORE SENSITIVE, which also won the Government of Canada Best Short Animation Award at the Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival in February 2004. Since then it has screened at 20 festivals across Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia.
Kerstin Guehne returns to DIC Ent. as vp, International Television & Home Entertainment Sales, overseeing television programming and home video/DVD sales across German-speaking Europe and Central Europe. She will be responsible for DICs extensive catalog of programming and home entertainment product in these territories.
Warner Home Video (WHV) and DIC Ent. (DIC) have announced the release date for TROLLZ VOLUME 1: BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE and TROLLZ VOLUME 2: MAGIC OF THE FIVE, the first two of nine planned movies from the newly launched Trollz property. Both full-length, made-for-video animated movies will be available in stores Sept. 6 and will retail for $19.98.
Massive Software is now offering a key advancement of the companys Academy Award-winning 3D animation system for AI-driven characters and digital stunts with Massive 2.0. The 2.0 release adds such features as Smart Stunts?, fully anti-aliased viewing of agents and scenes, facial blend shape support, new motion tree workflow and a host of updates that streamline and speed the softwares overall operation and UI.
Rights management company Target Entertainment, acting as agent for Chapman Entertainment, has signed new TV deals for FIFI AND THE FLOWERTOTS in Asia and the Middle East. Target reps the stop-motion series from Chapman Ent., which continues to impress buyers across the globe, taking root in 42 territories that have picked up the rights to the TV series since its launch at MIPCOM 2004.
DIC Ent. has promoted company veteran Shannon Nettleton to vp of production. She will oversee the production and post-production departments and will manage the efforts of DICs in-house production teams, as well as outside vendors and freelancers. She will supervise the companys slate of film, television and home entertainment productions and develop systems to maximize the efficiency of these projects.
Marie Johnston, the wife of legendary Disney animator Ollie Johnston, passed away on May 20 from complications due to pneumonia, at her home in Flintridge, California. She was 87 years old and had been in declining health. The Johnstons celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary earlier this year.
DreamWorks Animation's MADAGASCAR THE GAME from Activision Inc. has hit stores in time for the May 27 release of MADAGASCAR. Based on the highly anticipated CG feature, MADAGASCAR THE GAME lets players discover their true animal instincts when an adventurous journey lands them on the remote island of Madagascar. Gamers must master each animal's individual survival skills in order to tackle obstacles and foes in scenarios from the movie and beyond.
Registration for summer term 2005 at the Gnomon School, which runs from June 27 through Sept. 11, is in full swing. You can register online at www.gnomon3d.com/registernow.html, in person, via mail or by fax. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. You can also call (323) 466-6663 to make an appointment.
Gnomon has added five new courses that echo the advances and changes in the industry:
DECODE Ent. has further expanded its presence by signing a five-series deal with Cartoon Network Latin America. The 65-hour package, which spans programming for all age ranges, includes primetime series BROMWELL HIGH (13x30 episodes); delightfully illustrative preschool series FRANNYS FEET (39x22 episodes); teen-skewed UNDERGRADS (13x22 episodes); and the second season of GIRL STUFF/BOY STUFF (39x30 episodes) alongside KING (52x22) for 6-11 years olds.
The five leading actors from the upcoming Fantastic 4 film(Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel Studios) -- based on the Marvel comicbook series -- will also perform their roles in Activision Inc.'s upcoming FANTASTIC 4 videogame. Jessica Alba (DARK ANGEL, SIN CITY), Emmy award-winner Michael Chiklis (THE SHIELD), Chris Evans (THE PERFECT SCORE, CELLULAR), Ioan Gruffudd (KING ARTHUR) and Julian McMahon (CHARMED, NIP/TUCK) will portray Sue Storm, The Invisible Woman; Ben Grimm, The Thing; Johnny Storm, The Human Torch; Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic and Victor Von Doom, Dr. Doom, respectively.
It must be in the cards that the month of May is a good time for fairies as the WINX CLUB joined Miguzi's Monday-Friday lineup on May 16, 2005 and now airs on the Cartoon Network afternoon adventure block at 5:00 pm. The action-packed series features teenaged fairies and witches use magical powers for both good and evil. The series also premiered this month (May 2) on Nickelodeon UK, as well as a trading card game at Toys "R" Us stores.
Steven Paul's Crystal Sky and Sony's Screen Gems are set to adapt videogame classic TEKKEN into a feature film, reports VARIETY. Budgeted at $50 million, the film is scheduled to start production this fall. For Crystal Sky, this is one of two properties picked up in turnaround from Dimension. The second begins with Marvel's WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, which Paul will produce with Marvel Studios' Avi Arad.
PorchLight Ent. has announced that Discovery Kids and Jetix Europe have ordered 13 new episodes of the Emmy award-winning animated series, TUTENSTEIN. The new episodes are scheduled for delivery in 2006. Discovery Kids Channel and Jetix Europe are the series partners in the U.S. and Europe respectively. In the U.S., Tutenstein airs on the Discovery Kids channel and the Discovery Kids Saturday morning block on NBC.
PorchLight Ent. announced the appointment of MAX Ent. (MAX) as its new representative in Middle and South East Asia. Under the agreement, MAX will exclusively handle licensing and merchandising rights for PorchLights flagship preschool brand JAY JAY THE JET PLANE throughout Malaysia, Singapore, the Indian Subcontinent and the Middle East.
Further enhancing its internal development capabilities, Activision Inc. announced that it has acquired game developer Toys For Bob. As a result of the acquisition, Activision now has approximately 1,000 employees in its studio operations.
The 48th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 21May 5, 2005) unveiled its official selection for the Golden Gate Awards (GGA) competition, which honors innovation in documentary, animation, shorts, experimental, television and works by youth. Winners will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards ceremony on May 4, at the Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. Official selections will be screened in a variety of curated programs throughout the festival to give audiences the opportunity to savor the talents of diverse filmmakers from around the globe.
Mega Bloks Inc. is partnering with Bardel Entertainment Inc. to make a sequel to last year's DRAGONS FIRE & ICE epic movie adventure. YTV will broadcast the new DRAGONS METAL AGES in fall 2005 while the previous distribution partners Lions Gate, Paramount, and Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution LP are onboard again for the global home entertainment distribution of the second Dragons movie.
MTV Networks vice chairman Bill Roedy announced several new developments for its businesses in China, including a strategic partnership for digital music content with the world's second largest mobile player, China Mobile, and the premiere of locally produced animation and live-action programming created through its joint venture with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) HAHA Nick.
Alienware announced the availability of the new Alienware Aurora: Star Wars Edition, the first-ever officially licensed STAR WARS PC. Aurora: Star Wars Edition systems are based on AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processors and packed with exclusive STAR WARS content such as desktop skins, fan club membership and movie soundtrack samples. The systems are available in two versions, Dark Side and Light Side, which feature breathtaking STAR WARS artwork on the cases.
A former boyfriend of Sydney teenager has been committed to stand trial for allegedly murdering an 18-year-old Walt Disney animator, Lyndsay van Blanken, according to many newspaper accounts in Australia.
William Matheson, 22, was committed on April 27, 2005, in Sydney's Central Local Court over her death in November 2003. A trial date has yet to be set.
Accounts say he was the last person known to see van Blanken alive on Nov. 24, 2003, outside the Charing Cross Hotel in Waverley, in Sydney's east.
THQ Inc. has released HELLO KITTY BUBBLEGUM GIRLFRIENDS for PC and Mac. Published by ValuSoft, a division of THQ, the videogame based on the SANRIO property is rated "E" for Everyone and is available at retailers in the U.S. for $19.99 SRP.
Autodesk Inc. will release Discreet Lustre 2.6, the latest version of its industry leading digital color correction system, and the Autodesk Incinerator 1.0 system that is planned to enhance the realtime performance of future Lustre-based products. New to the market, the Incinerator system is an inline cluster of configurable processing units that connect to one or more Lustre stations, boosting system performance and interactivity during digital color grading sessions. The Lustre 2.6 system delivers a host of new features, including additional conform and editorial capabilities.
