ANIMATION
WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 3.9 - December 1998
Business
Rugrats Offends Media Watchdogs. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization devoted to
fighting anti-Semitism, has taken issue with the depiction of a character
in Nickelodeon's Rugrats newspaper comic strip. The comic in question,
which ran in newspapers nationwide during the week of Rosh Hashanah - "The
Jewish New Year" - featured a character named Granpa Boris in a synagogue
reciting The Mourner's Kaddish, a holy Jewish prayer. In a public statement,
the ADL stated "the use of the Mourner's Kaddish in a jocular fashion
demands the prayer's solemnity," and added that the character design
of Granpa Boris is "reminiscent of Nazi-era depictions of Jews."
Nickelodeon was quick to agree with ADL's charges, apologize, and has promised
never to run the character or the specific strip in newspapers again. Herb
Scannell, president of Nickelodeon, said, "Unfortunately, the creators
of the strip made an error in judgment by referencing the Kaddish." While
he won't be reappearing in newspapers, the short, bald and big-nosed Granpa
Boris character is also featured in the Rugrats television series and
the upcoming animated feature film, The Rugrats Movie , however Nickelodeon
has not been asked to change the character in its animated versions.
Toon Union Final Election Results. The Animation Union, the Motion Picture
Screen Cartoonists (M.P.S.C.) and Affiliated Optical Electronic and Graphic
Arts, Local 839 IATSE has completed its voting process and announced the new
Executive Board of the organization. Re-elected to office were incumbents
Bronwen Barry, Dave Brain, Pat Connolly-Sito, Earl Kress, Craig Littell-Herrick,
Enrique May, Ann Sullivan and Stephan Zupkas. Also elected were newcomers
Bob Foster, Warren Greenwood and Karen Nugent, replacing Board members Sheila
Brown, Tom Ray and Dave Zaboski who did not run for reelection. Elected as
Trustees (in addition to the Executive Board) were Dave Brain, Pat Connolly-Sito
and Stephan Zupkas. As previously reported in the Animation Flash [10/13/98],
the following incumbent officers were nominated without opposition and elected
by "white ballot" at a membership meeting on September 29: President
Tom Sito, Vice-President George Sukara, Business Representative Steve Hulett,
Recording Secretary Jeff Massie and Sergeant-At-Arms Jan Browning. All officers
were elected to a three-year term, expiring November 2001 (not to annual terms,
as announced in the previous Flash).
For more information on the M.P.S.C. union, visit Animation World Magazine's
July 1998 issue for president Tom Sito's article, The
Hollywood Animation Union
(M.P.S.C. #839).
Profits Down For SGI. Silicon Graphics, Inc. has reported negative
first quarter results for the 1999 fiscal year. The company announced a net
loss of $44 million, or $0.24 per share, compared with a net loss of $56 million
in the same quarter a year ago. "Reporting a loss is never satisfying,
but I am very encouraged with the progress demonstrated in this quarter's
results," said Richard Belluzzo, chairman and chief executive officer.
Operating expenses at $335 million were down approximately $40 million from
the previous quarter while revenues were also down at $616 million compared
with $768 million in the same year-ago period. SGI's initial public offering
of its MIPS Technologies subsidiary at $44 million helped significantly alleviate
losses for this quarter. While the losses were smaller than predicted, SGI
has said that it will take some time to return to profitability. Belluzzo
outlined SGI's plans for continued recovery, "One of our key strategic
objectives is to impose discipline on our cost structure which has resulted
in operating expenses coming down dramatically for the quarter. We've also
sharpened our focus on our core businesses with the successful initial public
offering of our MIPS subsidiary. And we continue to see strong performance
in our origin server program. This quarter's results validate that our efforts
are on target."
Pixar Posts Profit Results. Pixar, the company behind Toy Story, posted
a third quarter net profit of $2.5 million, or $0.02 per share, down from
a third quarter profit of $5.3 million last year. The positive profits surprised
financial analysts who had forecasted a third quarter loss of $0.02 per share.
The upcoming release of A Bug's Life is expected to help further rejuvenate
Pixar's revenues.
Cinar Wants A New Name. Canadian company, Cinar Films Inc., recently
announced that they would like to change their corporate name to CINAR Corporation
(in French, Corporation Cinar). A Management Proxy Circular was sent to shareholders
announcing a Special Shareholder Meeting to be held at the company headquarters
in Montreal on December 10, 1998 to vote on the intended name change. The
new name was proposed to better reflect the company's diversification into
other areas of children's entertainment and education besides the film industry.
Harvey Posts Third Quarter Loss. The Harvey Entertainment
Company (Nasdaq: HRVY) reported a net loss of $2,006,000, or $0.48 per share,
for the third quarter of 1998 as compared to a net gain of $2,551,000, or
$0.62 a share, for the same third quarter period in 1997. For the nine month
period ending September 30,1998, Harvey has totaled a net loss of $4,788,000,
or $1.19 per share, as compared to a net income of $2,551,000, or $0.64 per
share, in the comparable year-ago period. Net operating revenues were also
considerably less coming in at a negative $1,121,000 compared to revenues
of $7,126,000 in the year-ago period. The decrease in revenue is attributed
to an adjustment of $2,316,00 because of Harvey's over-estimation of predicted
sales of the direct-to-video film, Casper, A Spirited Beginning, as
well as the revenue fluctuations related to the timing and accounting treatment
of merchandising licenses. Gary Gray, Chairman of the Board, commented, "During
this period, we have continued to move forward on two projects, in addition
to our ongoing licensing activities. We completed production of Baby Huey's
Great Easter Adventure and have entered into a distribution agreement
for this video with a major media company. We have also completed the debut
issue of Harvey, The Magazine for Kids available on November 17 with
an initial 200,000 copy print run." The Harvey library of characters
include Casper, the Friendly Ghost, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, Baby Huey, Little
Audrey, Herman & Katnip, and numerous others.
Nelvana Gets Puff. Toronto-based Nelvana has acquired
the worldwide development, production, distribution and merchandise licensing
rights to Puff the Magic Dragon. Based on a classic folk song written
by Peter Yarrow of the legendary folk group Peter, Paul & Mary and Lenny
Lipton, Nelvana will produce an animated Puff the Magic Dragon feature
length film, television series and special, as well as license all Puff merchandise.
Production will begin on this property in late 1999 or 2000. The lyrical children's
story which tells the tale of Little Jackie Piper and his dragon friend Puff
has sold 50 million copies since first being published in 1963 making it the
best-selling folk song in history.
 |
| Stephanie Graziano, BKN Studios President of Programming, Production and Network Development. Photo courtesy of BKN Studios. |
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.
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