ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 3.9 - December 1998


Television

The Simpsons Get A Star. The longest-running prime-time animated family in television history, The Simpsons, will be getting their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September 1999. Among the celebrities that will be inducted next year include Alex Trebek, Freddy Fender, Wesley Snipes, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dennis Franz, Samuel Jackson, James Woods, Bob Newhart, Jane Seymour and Reba McEntire. Animation World Magazine will be there to cover the ceremony.

Fox Appeals To Boyz & Girlz. Fox Family Channels is creating two new digital cable/satellite networks: The Boyz Channel and The Girlz Channel, offering gender-specific entertainment and educational programming for 2-14 year-old boys and girls. The full-time, ad-supported services scheduled to launch sometime in 1999 will also be available as basic analog channels. Much of the programming will come from the library that Fox Kids already owns mixed in with some original productions. In the evenings, the channel's focus will target parents with programs dealing with raising and parenting children of that specific gender. Fully interactive companion web sites, www.boyzchannel.com and www.girlzchannel.com, are also in the works and will launch in early `99.

More Splat! Is Coming Your Way. Red Giant Television has reached a deal with Discovery International and Teletoon to produce a third season of Splat!, the weekly half-hour TV series devoted to animation. This will bring the total number of episodes to 39 half hours. Red Giant is also in the process of creating a two hour, prime-time TV special celebrating animation. Splat! currently airs in 120 countries around the globe.

Two New Series For Canadian Cactus. The Canadian television and cinema production and distribution company, Coscient Group, announced that their subsidiary Cactus Animation has started production on two new animated series: Pirate Family and Fantomette. The animated comedies are a co-production with French company Elma Animation and have a total budget of $22 million. The series, each composed of 26 half-hour episodes, have already been pre-sold by Motion International, Coscient Group's distribution subsidiary, to a number of markets. Pirate Family will air in fall 1999 on YTV and Radio Canada in Canada and on the French networks France 3 and Canal J, while Fantomette will air on Tele-Quebec and the aforementioned French networks.

Batman Beyond and Dilbert Set For January. The newest incarnation of the successful animated Batman franchise, Batman Beyond, is set for a US premiere of Saturday, January 16, 1999 at 9:30 AM on Kids WB! The show takes place in the 21st century when a mature Bruce Wayne decides it's time to train a younger Caped Crusader to keep Gotham safe. Another highly anticipated comic-turned-cartoon series, Dilbert, is set for a US premiere on UPN's prime time lineup Monday, January 25, 1999 at 8:00 PM (PT/ET). Produced by Columbia-Tristar, Dilbert is based on the popular syndicated comic strip created by Scott Adams which deals with the absurdities of the '90s workplace in the cubicle-confined office environment that rules corporate America.

Gribouille Animating Xcaliber And Micronauts.
Gribouille, a CGI production company based in Europe and North America, has begun production on two new computer-animated television series. Xcalibur, designed by French artist Philippe Druillet and directed by Didier Pourcel, is being produced in association with Canal +, Ellipsanime, France 2 and Cactus Animation for a targeted late 1999 delivery. Micronauts, based on an existing line of action-figures and Marvel comics, is being produced with Abrams/Gentile Entertainment, Kaleidoscope Media Group and Annex Entertainment, and may be ready as early as fall 1999. Gribouille is also partnering with Italian toy manufacturer Giochi Preziosi, on the production of a new Micronauts technology-based toy-line. Both series are green-lit for an initial 26 half-hour episodes, and will feature hyper-realistic virtual characters. Gribouille is also partnering with other companies such as Dimensional Media Associates, to bring this style of animation to different entertainment mediums.

TV Tidbits: Los Angeles-based Rough Draft Studios has been awarded five episodes of the animated Baby Blues series. Thirteen episodes of Baby Blues have been ordered and will air in fall `99 on the WB prime time schedule. The first eight episodes are being completed by Warner Bros. Television Animation. This recent development fuels rumors that Warner Bros. Television Animation is in the midst of cutbacks. Inside sources have said that Warners will cease production on Histeria! after only 52 episodes, cutting 13 previously announced half hours. Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain is also rumored to be finishing its last season without a pick up. As a result, nearly one hundred layoffs are supposedly looming on the horizon before year's end. Officially, a Warner Bros. spokesperson stated that no decision has yet been made on the fate of the two shows, which are still currently in production, and that while there would be layoffs, they are undetermined at this time. . . . . . Saturday, November 21, at 8:00 PM (ET), The Cartoon Network aired the animated direct-to-video Batman feature released earlier this year, Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero. The film, which was directed by Boyd Kirkland and written and produced by Kirkland and Randy Rogel, won an Annie Award in November for Outstanding Animated Home Video Production. . .


Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.


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