Breakthrough Animation Inc. has sold ATOMIC BETTY to Cartoon Network in the U.S. The series, co-produced with fellow Canadian Atomic Cartoons and Tele-Images Kids in France, has cleared in a number of markets around the world, but creators were especially keen on bringing the cartoon to American TV viewers.
UPN's new comedy, GAME OVER, network prime time's first-ever CGI-animated series, will debut March 10 (8:00-8:30 pm ET/PT).
TRANSFORMERS: ENERGON, the newest installment of the legendary story matching the Autobots versus the Decepticons, joins Cartoon Network's Saturday lineup of action/adventure programming starting Jan. 31, 2004 at 7:30 pm.
International action hero Jackie Chan is celebrating the Chinese New Year during the third annual Jackies Chantastic Chinese New Year, and welcomes his good friend Lucy Liu as a guest voice on his Kids WB! hit anime- style comedy/adventure series, JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES, at 8:00 am on Jan. 31, 2004. In addition, Michael Rosenbaum of The WB's hit SMALLVILLE also makes a special guest-voice appearance.
Mumbai-based UTV has announced it will launch a Hindi language kids network. The channel will air dramas, comedies, movies, animation and documentaries targeted toward kids 4-19. This will be the first children's network from a company based out of India.
Recently, Turner Intl. India debuted its Pogo channel. Turner launched Cartoon Network in India in 1995.
One of the first new animated shows out the gate in the new year is DISNEY'S DAVE THE BARBARIAN, which premiered Jan. 23, 2004 with a five-episode mini-marathon at 5:30 pm on the Disney Channel. Produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, the series airs regularly on weekends with episodic premieres on Fridays.
USA Network has ordered production to begin on a new TV series, DEAN KOONTZ'S FRANKENSTEIN. Best-selling author Koontz will write the series and exec produce along with legendary film director Martin Scorsese and Flame Television's Tony Krantz. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake director Marcus Nispel will helm the project.
face2face animation will showcase its latest animated content, including recent work for Conan O'Brien as well as new children's animated characters, at NATPE 2004. New properties include SCRATCH TRIGGER ERROR, a first-person animated series pilot, as well as two new pilots that use face2face's proprietary "ghetto anime" style, which renders 3D images in a 2D approach.
Eat Your Lunch is bringing is new live-action and animated musical series for the 8 and under crowd, titled BZOTS, to NATPE at Booth 1569. The company will have the first two episodes and the first CD on hand at the conference.
Cartoon Network is set to air anime series GUNDAM SEED and DETECTIVE CONAN, beginning in April.
The latest GUNDAM anime series will air on its weekend Action Block. GUNDAM SEED's appearance on the Cartoon Network will roughly coincide with the release of the first volume of the GUNDAM SEED manga from Del Rey on April 30. The series was a huge hit in Japan, where it brought the GUNDAM franchise back to the top of the TV ratings and stimulated tie-in merchandise sales. Rights holder Bandai America plans a huge new line-up of GUNDAM toys to roll out in 2004 as well.
David Wollos, partner of Entertainment Media Consultants will be on hand at NATPE representing a number of properties, including the animation catalog for TeleImages in France.
TeleImages properties include: JULES VERNES AMAZING JOURNEYS, NORMAL NORMAL, THE ROKEN PUPPET, THE POISONED PRESENT, LOULOU, A GIFT FOR SELIM, THE MONEYBOX ANGEL and SEASIDE HTOEL.
Headlining the properties represented, are a number of popular childrens/young adult books including:
DPS Film Roman announced today that it has joined forces with CRACKED MAGAZINE to create television and DVD productions featuring the best gags, humor and characters from the 45-year history of the publication (ala MAD TV and MAD MAGAZINE). Licensing and merchandising rights have also been optioned, with DPS Film Roman looking to create T-shirts, novelties and possibly a game in the near future.
To celebrate the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, Cartoon Network is serving up six hours of ED, EDD N EDDY one of its most popular original seriesfrom 9:00 am to 3:00 pm on Jan. 19, 2004.
Starting the new year off with a big bang, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim annual New Year's Eve Bash (Wednesday, 11:00 pm 2:00 am) out-scored last year's time period by double and triple digits, according to Nielsen Media Research. The Sunday-Thursday night Adult Swim telecasts also continued to climb in delivery and ratings for targeted young adults.
Highlights of Adult Swim's performance vs. the same time period last year include the following:Adult Swim New Year's Eve Bash* Adults 18-24 delivery (171,000) increased by 34% and ratings (0.6) by 20%.
Manga Entertainment Inc. has signed an agreement with Starz for 13 of Manga's Anime films. The films will be featured on Starz's non-stop X-citement ACTION channel. The titles include GHOST IN THE SHELL, PATLABOR 1, PATLABOR 2, BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE, PERFECT BLUE, STREET FIGHTER IIV, BLACK MAGIC M-66, MACROSS II: LOVERS AGAIN, MACROSS PLUS, NEW DOMINION TANK POLICE, SHADOW SKILL and X.
Buena Vista International Television has an original new animated show to sell at NATPE 2004, DISNEYS DAVE THE BARBARIAN, which debuts at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2004 on the Disney Channel. Produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, the 21x30 comedy series was created by Doug Langdale.
Reassured that major American studios are back at NATPE, TV France International (TVFI) will be at the market with 15 French production and distribution companies, including 21 foreign sales executives.
Grace Animation Studios ceo Christopher Turner is assembling a production team to produce 26 new animated half-hour series of the THE AVENGING APES OF AFRICA (AAoA) for worldwide distribution. Grace will be showing a promo and first episode of the series at NATPE.
THE AVENGING APES OF AFRICA is an exciting action/adventure series for kids 6-12, where five transmuted ape brothers, and their exploration friends span the globe protecting and defending all animals of the world from the dreaded Mr. Harry B. Richborne and his worldwide band of pitiless poachers.
GDC Entertainment Ltd. will be showcasing, at booth 1271, its recently completed CGI feature, THRU THE MOEBIUS STRIP, funded and produced entirely in China.
Exec producer and ceo of GDC (Global Digital Creations) Raymond Neoh will be on hand to take attendees from the MOEBIUS concept he optioned from renowned illustrator Jean Moebius Giraud only a few years ago through the production steps at GDC's IDMT studio in Shenzhen. The 74-minute movie is also being developed as a TV series.
ValCom Inc. is presenting the 3D animation series, NEW ZOO REVUE at NATPE 2004 at booth 473. The original people-in-suits series debuted in syndication in the U.S. in 1971 and reached more than 100 million viewers.
Vince Vellardita and Barbara Atlas are co-exec producing the project with Dotan Koskas serving as animation producer and co-producton partner O Atlas Enterprises. The musical show follows the adventures of Charlie the Owl, Henrietta Hippo, Freddie the Frog, Freeda the Frog and humans like Mr Dingle, Doug and Emmy-Jo.
ASTRO BOY has zoomed back into action in the U.S. on Kids WB! with 25 all new anime adventures that debuted Jan. 17, 2004 at 8:30 am ET and 7:30 am PT. The day also marked the fourth season of STATIC SHOCK (11:30 am ET and 10:30 am PT) with 13 new episodes. STATIC SHOCK is also part of the weekday lineup, airing in its new 3:30 pm slot.
As part of a new marketing agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), DandG Licensing, LLC will be bringing the DAVEY AND GOLIATH series to NATPE in Las Vegas at booth 1128. Mark Bannon founded DandG Licensing exclusively for work on DAVEY AND GOLIATH.
Cybergraphix Animation recently announced its co-production agreement with Mumbai-based Animation Bridge and Padmalaya Telefilms for 26 half-hours of its action-adventure series GUARDIANS OF LUNA, which it will be bringing to NATPE.
The National Film Board of Canada will be at NATPE this year with NOËL NOËL, an animated Christmas special narrated by Leslie Nielsen, that revives the great tradition of children's fairy tales.
The title character in this whimsical half-hour is a misguided billionaire, who falls in love with Beatrice, a bespectacled fairy who prefers words of love to rivers of diamonds. Thanks to little Zoey, her dog Snooze and a blue-eyed reindeer, Noel Noël finally realizes that money doesn't bring happiness, and that to be happy, you have to listen to your heart.
