The Mouse's Wild Side: Disney's New Animal Kingdom
Walt Disney World is the proud site of a new Disney theme park: Animal Kingdom. Joseph Szadkowski reports on this new destination which combines adventure, education and fun.
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Vilppu Drawing Online: Introducing Material and Proportion
Contrary to popular belief, the Internet and kids are made for each other. Ted Pedersen & Francis Moss take us into the world of the post-television generation.
Dig This! Humongous Cartoons with a Little Technology
Animation World Magazine takes a jaunt into the innovative and remarkable: IMAX invents a new technology that allows animators to animate in thin air!
Dirdy Birdy
December, 1998's Dirdy Birdy by John Dilworth.
Dig This!
IMAX invents a new technology that allows animators to animate in thin air!
Theme Parks in the Digital Age
Clark Dodsworth lends his considerable insight as to what we can expect from the amusement park of the future. Interactive robotic fauna? Digital characters with acquired intelligence and synthetic personalities? You bet!
A Bug's Life: PIXAR Does It Again
Charles Solomon reviews PIXAR's much anticipated follow-up to Toy Story, A Bug's Life, which is funny, bright and a joy to watch.
Here's A How de do Diary: September
The seventh installment of Barry Purves' production diary as he chronicles producing a series of animated shorts for Channel 4. An Animation World Magazine exclusive.
The Flesh Made Word: Harry Smith Speaks
Chuck Pirtle discusses the latest text on Harry Smith, Think of the Self Speaking: Selected Interviews of Harry Smith. Featuring interviews from 1968-1989, this text elaborates on the life of this groundbreaking American Surrealist artist.
Shifting to the Big Screen: The Rugrats Movie
The toddlers' first excursion into theaters in The Rugrats Movie is well directed and paced, but flawed. Michael Mallory explains.
That's Enough Folks: Black Image In Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960
Giannalberto Bendazzi reviews That's Enough Folks,Henry T. Sampson's insightful book on the cartoon treatment of African Americansand other minority groups. Available in English and Italian.
Disneyland: From Dream to Reality
Katie Mason relates Disneyland's history from Walt's dream to an attraction which has drawn over 400 million visitors since its opening day, July 17, 1955.
George Merkert joins Pacific Data Images
Animation and visual effects house Pacific Data Images (PDI) has appointed industry veteran George Merkert as Executive Producer of the Motion Picture Visual Effects division. This decision comes on the heels of PDIs announcement of their intention to grow their operation and core business capabilities beyond its present size and scope, and to further develop its traditional animation/visual effects support work with a new emphasis towards content creation.
CINAR and Shanghai Animation to co-produce series
Canadian-based CINAR Films has signed an agreement with Shanghai Animation Film Studio, a subsidiary of Shanghai TV, Chinas second largest broadcasting company, to co-produce a 52 ten-minute episode animated series called Rumble and Growl. The Chinese-developed educational series chronicles the adventures of two friends, Rumble and Growl, who are always hungry. In their quest to find food, the pair uncovers scientific wonders and never-before explained natural phenomena. This is the first-ever official Canada-China co-production for an animated series created in China.
Wallace and Gromit to make a cameo appearance in Rex the Runt
Popular Plasticine cartoon characters Wallace and dog Gromit are returning to the screen for the first time since the Academy-Award winning 1995 short A Close Shave. The cheese-loving duo will make a cameo appearance in an episode of the new 13-part Aardman series Rex the Runt, a cartoon about the adventures of four dogs who share a suburban semi-detached home. Their brief appearance showcases them in their Close Shave role of window cleaners, except this time they face the dastardly Bad Bob.
A Bug's Life leads the humongous weekend box office
Disney/Pixar's "A Bug's Life" dominated the box office this weekend with a staggering number one debut of an estimated $33.3M over the Friday-to-Sunday period and a record-setting $45.7M over the five-day holiday frame. If the estimates hold, the computer-generated bug picture will become the largest Thanksgiving opening in history topping Disney's 1996 release "101 Dalmatians" which debuted with $33.5M and $45.1M over the comparable periods.
Beau Cameron at the Cafe
BEAU CAMERON has joined Santa Maria, California-based COMPUTER CAFÉ as a 3Dcharacter animator. His first project is animating a flock of penguins fora Mervyn's television spot.
An All Dogs Christmas Carol airs on Fox Family
On Sunday, December 6, Fox Family Channel premieres AN ALL DOGS CHRISTMASCAROL at 6 -7:30 p.m. (ET/PT). The canine retelling of Dickens' "AChristmas Carol" is based on the Don Bluth film, "All Dogs Go to Heaven.".
The Rugrats are breaking Nickelodeon records
Not only are the RUGRATS burning up the big screen but they're also settingrecords on the small screen. A Thanksgiving-themed episode, "The Turkey WhoCame to Dinner," which aired on November 10 garnered Nickelodeon's biggestratings ever among the age 2-11 demographic. The special outperformed allcompetition, even broadcast networks, in its time period earning a 9.4/28national rating share (3.7 million viewers) among kids 2-11.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is remastered
A digitally remastered version of the animated holiday classic, RUDOLPH THERED-NOSED REINDEER will air on U.S. network CBS Monday, November 30 from8-9 p.m. (ET/PT). The Rankin-Bass film about an awkward shiny-nosedreindeer will include an additional two minutes and 50 seconds of footagenot seen since 1964. The extra footage comes from the reinsertion of twosongs, "We Are Santa's Elves" and "We're a Couple of Misfits."
"Kwiky Mart" is big in Holland
Sunday, November 22, marked the end of the 7th Holland Animation FilmFestival 1998. Awards were presented for both the international competitionfor applied animation and student films. The jury for the internationalcompetition for applied animation consisted of Garri Bardin (Russia), PaulBush (United Kingdom), Dingeman Kuilman (The Netherlands), Adriaan Lokman(The Netherlands), and Linda Simensky (United States). They chose thefollowing films to receive the Golden Pegbar Awards:
Cinanima Results are in
The 22nd Cinanima International Animated Film Festival wrapped up onNovember 15 in Espinho, Portugal. The international jury consisted ofCarlos Pinto Coelho (Portugal), Florence Henrard (Belgium), BorivojDovnikovic (Croatia), Georges Sifianos (France) and Georges Schwizgebel(Switzerland). Below is a complete list of winners as reported by thefestival:
CLASS A (less than 6 minutes) - tie"Festival" by Roberto Catani (Italy)."L'Arme du Crocodile" by Eric Blesin (Belgium).
CLASS B (between 6 and 13 minutes).
A call for U.S. Film Fest Entries
The 32nd annual U.S. International Film and Video Festival is now seekingsubmissions in computer animation and non-computer animation categories.Entries must be received by March 1, 1999. For entry kits and additionalinformation, contact (630) 834-7773 or visit www.filmfestawards.com.
Ideas in Animation Event is taking place in San Francisco
* Monday, November 30. San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
Nik Phelps and the Sprocket Ensemble present Mike "Temple" Brady and the"Flaming Won Ton Show," a performance art presentation. The event is partof the Ideas in Animation program and is billed as "an evening of animationwith live original music." The West coast premiere of "Publegg Enemy," anew clay animated film from Dave Clausen and Carrie Kessler, and JasonShiga's new cartoon, "Double Duce," will also screen at this event which
