ANIMATION
WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 3.8 - November 1998
Films
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| Antz. © DreamWorks LLC. |
Antz Arrivez. DreamWorks
Pictures and Pacific Data Images' computer-animated feature film, Antz
opened in U.S. theaters on Friday, October 2. After the first two weeks in
the number one spot, by its third week in theaters, the total cumulative box
office gross was $51.5 million. Antz will make its international debut
starting in New Zealand and Australia on October 29.The film's 78 minutes
of animation (112,320 frames) took two and a half years and a staff of over
200 people to produce. Character voices featured in the film include Woody
Allen, Dan Akroyd, Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone,
Sylvester Stallone and Christopher Walken. DreamWorks took the animation world
by surprise in June when they announced that they would release Antz
six months earlier than its previously announced debut set for March 1999
[AF 6/30/98], a highly competitive move which placed the film in theaters
nearly two months ahead of Disney's A Bug's Life. However, in case
there is still any confusion between this season's insect movies, Antz
is clearly targeted at an older audience than A Bug's Life. PDI's second
CGI feature for DreamWorks, Shrek is in pre-production, and will get
a head start on production shortly after the release of Antz. DreamWorks'
first, now second-to-be-released animated feature, Prince of Egypt,
produced in their Los Angeles facility, is slated for a December 18 debut.
Antz is reviewed
by Jerry Beck in the October 1998 issue of Animation World Magazine.
Lenica Documentary In Progress. Animation historian Marcin Gizycki
has begun production on a 30-minute documentary film about animator Jan Lenica,
a Poland native whose credits include animated shorts such as Janko the
Musician (1960), Labyrinth (1962), and several films with Walerian
Borowczyk. After teaching in Kassel and Berlin, Germany for the past 20 years
(plus, stints working in France and the United States), Lenica has returned
to Poland where he is currently making a 30-minute film called Wyspa R.O.
(The R.O. Island), with Studio Miniatur Filmowych. Both films are being
funded by Polish Television. Lenica's new film--his first in 20 years--will
be a combination of animation, optical printing effects, and live-action starring
fellow animator Piotr Dumala. Gizycki is also working on a documentary about
the history of Polish animation, and is a contributor to a forthcoming book
about Studio Miniatur Filmowych, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this
year.
The Ottawa International Animation Festival will host a retrospective of Jan
Lenica in the year 2000. For information about the festival, visit
the official web site.
Mainframe Travels With IMAX. Vancouver, Canada-based
Mainframe Entertainment will produce two feature-length, stereoscopic, 3D
computer-animated films for IMAX large-format cinemas. The announcement comes
exactly two years after the two companies announced a production deal [AF
8/21/96] to produce two 3D CG-animated ride-films based on Mainframe's TV
series, ReBoot. The first one, ReBoot, the Ride opened in IMAX
ride theaters last year and the second, Journey Into Chaos will open
next month. In the new deal, the first film to be produced will be Gulliver's
Travels, based on the story by Jonathan Swift and scheduled for release
in 2000. The 15/70 format film will feature an eight-story-high Gulliver in
the story's Lilliputian world of the early 1700s. Mainframe's Ian Pearson
and production designer Brendan McCarthy are adapting the story. "The
fantastic nature of Gulliver's Travels makes it a perfect choice for
an IMAX 3D presentation," said Mainframe CEO and vice chairman Christopher
Brough, "No other company has ever produced a film like this." The
second feature in this deal has yet to be determined.
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| In the 1960s, Chuck Jones directed the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Now it's going to be a live-action film. Photo courtesy of and © MGM Home Entertainment. |
Animation Inspires 2 New Movies. Recycling is alive and well in Hollywood. An astounding number of animation properties are being optioned for adaptation as live-action films, such as Inspector Gadget and Sailor Moon (DIC/Disney). This week, two more such deals have been announced. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, a book by Dr. Seuss and then an animated feature directed by Chuck Jones at MGM, will have its next reincarnation as a live-action feature starring Jim Carrey. Universal, which already owns the theme park rights to Dr. Seuss properties, and Ron Howard's Imagine Films paid Dr. Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel nearly U.S. $5 million for the film rights. Holiday 1999 is the target release date. The second toon movie deal announced this week is based on Cote Zeller's Prometheus & Bob, a stop-motion animated short series about a caveman and an alien that airs on Nickelodeon's weekly animation variety show, Kablam! Amy Heckerling and Albie Hecht will produce the live-action adaptation for Nickelodeon Movies. "My daughter first brought Prometheus & Bob to my attention and I was hooked instantly," said Heckerling. "[It] is intelligent and hilarious."
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
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