PBS' NATURE recently received a new animated logo for its opening from digital animation and effects house, SimEx Digital Studios. The opening is a montage of snippets from nature. SimEx helped bring together the show's theme in the opening by illustrating how humans relate to nature everyday. Read more about SimEx Digital Studios and their work from Creative Director Allen Yamashita in Heather Kenyon's Animation World Magazine interview.
On Monday, December 20, 1999, MTV Networks,
the music/entertainment cable television and Internet business, announced
it would split its Net company into two separate groups. MTV Networks
On-line will be divvied up into the MTVi Group, which includes VH1.com,
MTV.com and SonicNet.com, and Nickelodeon On-line, which includes nick.com,
nickjr.com, tvland.com, nick-at-night.com, gas.nick.com, teachers.nic.com
and redrocket.com. "Executives in the past have stated that both companies
As was reported [AF 12/21/99], a federal
court jury convicted former Walt Disney Internet executive, 34-year-old
Patrick Naughton, of possessing child pornography, but deadlocked on
charges that he crossed state lines seeking sex with a "13-year-old girl"
which he arranged via the Internet. On Wednesday, December 22, 1999, U.S.
District Judge Edward Rafeedie reversed his own ruling and released
Naughton from jail, saying it was likely that he would win a new trial. On
The advanced ticket sales for
Disney's IMAX release of FANTASIA/2000 have already seen strong numbers. In
Reuters Magazine, Brian Weisfeld, senior vice president of operations for
Toronto-based IMAX Corp., said advanced ticket sales were as high as
$80,000 in some IMAX-operated theaters versus a more normal $4,000. IMAX,
the owner and franchiser of more than 180 IMAX theaters worldwide, hopes
that FANTASIA/2000 will attract other major films to their eight story
As we reported in the past [AF 7/1/97], the
world-renowned Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki had decided to
hang up his white film gloves and never make a feature film again. Well
cheer up anime fans! The master is back to work on a new feature film. This
announcement ends a 2 1/2 year hiatus after PRINCESS MONONOKE broke box
office records all over Japan. What's the follow-up to the US$150 million
hit at the Japanese B.O.? The project is titled SEN TO CHIHIRO NO
London-based Passion Pictures has recently finished stings, bumpers, and
indents to promote PBS KIDS. The interstitials were directed by Alyson
Hamilton, who received an Emmy nomination for her work on the title
sequence for U.S.-based TV channel CBS' THE PROMISED LAND.
DARIA fans can start gearing up for a telefilm full of fun-filled teenaged
angst. IS IT FALL YET? will be based off the DARIA series and is slated to
hit MTV in the fall. Karen Disher and Guy Moore will direct, and Glenn
Eichler and Peggy Nicoll will script.
Boston-based animation house Fablevision is slated to create two new shows
for Noggin, the new 24-hour educational network for kids from Nickelodeon
and the Children's Television Workshop. Fablevision will produce CECIL AND
HER VERY OWN UNIVERSE and SWAMP DOG. CECIL will feature a 12-year-old girl
and her robot dog who live in a underground society in the future. Cecil
dreams of leaving her mole-like life to see what above ground has in store.
As of December 21, 1999, both young and old fans of the lovable elephant
Babar can take home his new direct-to-video feature BABAR: KING OF THE
ELEPHANTS. The new film follows the adventures of Babar's life from birth
to his kingship. The video was co-produced by Nelvana Limited and HBO Home
Video and features computer replications of original Babar illustrations.
BABAR: KING OF THE ELEPHANTS bounces into stores at a suggested retail
price of US$19.96.
If you're planning to kick back with the Rockettes this holiday season at
New York City's Radio City Music Hall look forward to a more interactive
show. To be featured in the Christmas Spectacular, Black Logic, a visual
effects, 2D/3D animation and live-action production house, has created a 3D
animated sequence to interact with the Rockettes. A happy "Man in the Moon"
character, based on Georges Melies' A TRIP TO THE MOON, smiles, winks and
* Wednesday, January 26 - Sunday, February 6, 2000. Rotterdam, The
Netherlands.
The Rotterdam International Film Festival includes a short film section
with categories in animation that include Fiction, Documentary, and
Experimental. To highlight the fest's Japanese program, an exhibition
entitled "Manga Manga!" will showcase selections from manga productions
from 1945 to the present. The festival will again present its "Exploding
The Dark Knight descends into video stores December 21, 1999 with three new
BATMAN BEYOND videos and two new DVDs -- BATMAN BEYOND: THE MOVIE and
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM. Each of the three BATMAN BEYOND VHS tapes
(DISAPPEARING INQUE, SCHOOL DAYZ, TECH WARS) all feature three episodes of
the Warner Bros. cartoon series. The BATMAN BEYOND DVD features the movie
and four bonus episodes of the series. BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM is the
first feature animated movie and has sold millions of copies on VHS
* Thursday, January 13, 2000. Westwood, California, U.S.A.
The Women In Animation Writers' Group begins a new series of seminars at
Saban Entertainment at 7:30 pm. Have you always wanted to write for
animation, but you don't where to start? What's the difference between
writing for animation and live-action? What are some of the techniques for
writing gags? Join us and find out! For more information please contact
Jean Ann Wright at (818) 360-8321. RSVP required.
On Thursday, December 16, 1999, a federal court jury convicted former Walt
Disney Internet executive, 34-year-old Patrick Naughton, of possessing
child pornography, but deadlocked on charges that he crossed state lines
seeking sex with a "13-year-old girl" which he arranged via the Internet.
Naughton's lawyers asked that he remain free on bail awaiting an appeal,
however the request was denied due to the fact that federal law requires
persons convicted of crimes of violence to be jailed upon waiting for an
STUART LITTLE had big shoes to fill to make it to the top of the U.S. box
office this past weekend. The Sony flick, with primary f-ex by Sony
Pictures Imageworks, additional animation done by CFX and Rhythm & Hues,
and miniatures done by Thunderstone, knocked off TOY STORY to finish atop
the bo with a gross totaling US$15.02 million. THE GREEN MILE kept pace and
walked in second place with a gross of $12.68 million and a cume of $36.7
million. TOY STORY 2 slipped to third with a gross of $12.13 million making
Recently, Europe has gotten a good old dose of American capitalism,
Japanese style. POKEMON has infested the European television market. The
children's mega-hit first debuted in the UK on Sky 1 in April and quickly
became the channel's #1 kids show. In October, the ITV Network and GMTV
secured UK terrestrial broadcast rights to the show. A month prior to the
ITV and GMTV deal, POKEMON started airing on Germany's RTL2, The
Netherlands' Fox Kids, Belgium's VT4 and RTL, Portugal's SIC and France's
Brazil's Justice Ministry has banned six video games it considers too
violent for the public. This ruling comes on the heals of last month's
deadly shooting rampage in a movie theater by a medical student. "The games
are considered violent and [are] affecting people who play them,
particularly children," a ministry spokeswoman said. "As for DUKE NUKEM,
the ministry regulation says its virtual world may have motivated Mateus da
Costa Meira to stage the cinema shooting on November 3 in Sao Paulo." All
A strike by union employees at Disneyland Paris may stop the park's rocking
New Year's Eve celebration. Disney played down the chance of a strike,
however local union leader Elena Stanciu warned, "The party'll be ruined,"
citing staff frustration over slow-moving pay talks and dissatisfaction
with a $115 New Year's Eve bonus as the main reasons for the latest threat
of a walk out. Stanciu said seasonal staff were being offered almost four
MetaCreations, a renowned provider of graphics software, recently announced
that the Board of Directors has made the baffling decision of effectively
dropping their range of graphics products to concentrate purely on their
MetaStream technology. This decision comes shortly before the release of
Carrara, MC's "next-generation 3D software for print, video and the Web."
On the third line of their Carrara announcement, MetaCreations stated that
it would continue to support their existing graphics products. However,
Template Graphics Software (TGS) recently announced that its modeling and
animation software Amapi, was receiving an upgrade. The new release will be
'officially' announced at the Mac World Expo in January, however, the new
version is available now. It features Dynamic Geometry, which allows users
to edit an object dynamically by changing its outline, profile or basic
structure, through the software's ability to remember the construction
history of the object. The upgrade also has a new Decimation tool, which
Discreet recently released a maintenance update to 3D Studio MAX 3 which,
in the coming weeks, will be distributed free of charge to all registered
users of the software. The announcement comes shortly after the company
declared success at clearing well over 100,000 copies, and are reinforcing
their commitment to users by bringing them new features so soon after the
initial release of the software. The update includes data containers for
Twenty 2D/3D animation and special effects companies from Quebec, Canada
have formed a union in order to better promote the award winning work done
in the region. Called Quebec Animation, the association is supported by the
Quebec Minister of Industry and Commerce, the Quebec Minister of
Communications and Culture, the Quebec Minister of International Relations,
the Montreal Bureau of Cinema, and the Canadian Service Center in
Multimedia Applications (CESAM). The association sets up a focal point for
Fox Family's newly picked up ANGELA ANACONDA rings in the New Year with a
14-episode marathon on January 1, 2000. The seven-hour event will start at
7 am and run 'til 2 pm on Fox Family. The show that TV Guide recently named
one of the top ten new kids shows of 1999 regular airs at 1 pm on Saturdays
and Sundays on Fox Family.
In this new issue #18: Cover Story: "Return to Pepperland" by AndrewOsmond. Features: Multiplying the Monster; Newsreel: What's New inToontown; Festival Watch: SIGGRAPH '99, The Montreal World Film Festival,TDIF '99, SAFO '99, and Animart; Doin' It on the Low End: Painting Frames;Women in Animation: On a Roll: NFB Film Keeps Pleasing Jurys; Short andSweet; Education: Training on the Right Side of the Brain; Cartoons:Spliced; In Progress: Bully Dance, A Monster's Calling and Ho-Ho-Ho;
The Quickdraw Animation Society web site has been updated...
