Imagine Television, the makers of THE PJS, is leaving Disney for its new
home at Fox. The three-year collaboration between the small screen arm of
production house Imagine Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television will
take effect at the end of April 2000. Worth up to $30 million, the deal
also includes a two-year option extension. Imagine TV had been based at
Walt Disney Television since it was formed in 1997 by Imagine Entertainment
On Friday, January 14, 2000, Walt Disney International-Latin America
announced the launch of the Disney Channel Latin America and an exclusive
satellite television distribution agreement with Galaxy Latin America, LLC
for DIRECTV service in Spanish-speaking Latin America. "Launching the
Disney Channel in Latin America in 2000 is an exciting initiative for the
Walt Disney Company," said Diego Lerner, president and managing director,
WDI-Latin America. "As we have in other parts of the world, we will now
V12's director David Hwang created a "'50s sitcom spoof" commercial for
Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Produced for the Detroit ad agency DP + Company,
the 30-second spot features blue-tinted footage of a classic LEAVE IT TO
BEAVER-like family. As the family reads about the Selectcare program, the
commercial washes over in bright Technicolor hues. The voice-over
concludes, "Sometimes the answer can come right out of the blue." Jennifer
Lucero produced for V12.
Toronto-based RED ROVER's directors Andy and Linzi Knight created the
"subliminal" message for the Molson Export "Subliminal" spot. The 30-second
spot slyly transforms the bubbles in a glass of beer into the image of
three go-go girls dancing to "And the Beat Goes On." The spot was produced
for McClaren McCann of Toronto. Linzi Knight said, "This is the kind of
commercial people look forward to seeing because they're always looking to
see if they notice anything else going. That kind of viewer attention is
CLASS-KEY CHEW-PO, the commercial division of Klasky Csupo, produced two
animated spots for Hasbro's "Together TV" and Tiger Electronics' "Find
Furby" game. Both spots were directed by Steven Dovas and were produced for
New York-based ad agency Posnick & Koklaer. The "Together TV" spot features
live-action heads placed atop animated bodies. The spot highlights parents
spending time with their children. The "Find Furby" spot brings animated
versions of the Furby dolls to life as they bounce around the sky from
London-based collective, CURIOUS PICTURES and TOMATO, created the blend of
type graphics and stock footage for an RCA spot entitled "Static." Graphics
weave together images of static, distortion and color bars, until finally a
crisp picture of the two RCA Dalmatian mascots appear to illustrate the
growth of television from its early days to HDTV. The spot ends with the
tag "RCA. Changing entertainment. Again." Graham Wood directed for Curious
Pictures/Tomato and Quiche Campbell produced.
Hitting the U.S. market April 2000, Humongous Entertainment will bring
families their new CD-ROM, PAJAMA SAM 3: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT FROM YOUR
HEAD TO YOUR FEET. Pajama Sam is back to uncover the mysterious
disappearance of four Peace Delegates who have not arrived at the Food
Pyramid for a Peace Conference. The suggested retail price will be $24.99.
On January 3, 2000, Activision, Inc. and id Software released QUAKE III
ARENA for Macintosh. The on-line multiplayer game features 26 deathmatch
and four capture-the-flag levels. The title is available at a suggested
retail price of $49.99. id Software offers such titles as Wolfenstein 3D,
DOOM, DOOM II, QUAKE and QUAKE II.
On January 5, 2000, Acclaim Entertainment started shipping their SOUTH PARK
RALLY for PlayStation with Nintendo 64, PC and Sega Dreamcast to follow
shortly. Developed by Tantalus Interactive, the kart-style racing adventure
features mission-based game modes and 27 characters from the Comedy Central
series. All versions of South Park Rally will include multiplayer modes
that feature races and cooperative game modes, including the multiplayer
Tom Snyder Productions, the creators of DR. KATZ: PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST,
have been assigned to create a new animated comedy series for Oxygen,
Geraldine Laybourne's new network to launch February 2, 2000 to accompany
the Web site of the same name. The comedy series titled HEY MONIE is based
on the life and longings of a single African-American professional woman in
big city America. This is the first network animated series based on an
African-American woman and her friends. The show is scheduled to air on
Fox Kids has started developing a series based on the comic book/Internet
toon JOE PSYCHO & MOOFROG CARTOONSHOW. Set in the fictional town of Spleen,
Oregon, JOE PSYCHO revolves around humorous mishaps of the local TV station
where crazy Joe and mind-mannered MooFrog work.
RENEGADE ANIMATION created their third in a series of 30-second Trix Yogurt
spots for New York-based ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The spot starts out
with a group of sad kids in a black & white colored world until they taste
Trix Yogurt. They use their spoons as magic wands to paint the world in
bright colors. The cel animated spot was directed by Darrell Van Citters
and produced by Jeff Poehlmann of Johnson Burnett Productions.
yU + CO, in collaboration with Digital Domain, provided the motion graphics
design for seven new American Express "Blue" commercials. The titles appear
at the close of the spots as a grouping of light and dark squares, as in a
highly pixilated image, before coming into focus as letters. The titles
where designed to comment on the physical flexibility and the holographic
blue box center of the new card. Garson Yu was designer and director for yU
RADIUM's Inferno artist Alaina Goetz created effects for two Mervyn's
California commercials. In "Yo-yo," Goetz takes live-action footage of a
dancer and puts them into a yo-yo that spins and jerks off the screen. In
"Kung-fu," Goetz creates the transitions between scenes by creating
rice-paper doors that slide in front of the camera. Radium's Andrea Mansour
produced the project for Minneapolis ad agency Martin/Williams.
On December 27, 1999, Activision, Inc. shipped VIGILANTE 8: SECOND OFFENSE
for the Sega Dreamcast. In this new adventure, players must stop the Coyote
terrorist gang that has traveled back through time in an attempt to change
the course of events that will allow evil to dominate the world. Developed
by Luxoflux Corp., the game features multiple modes of play -- single
player quest, arcade and survival mode, two-player versus, cooperative and
Visual Magic Magazine, AWN's 3D animation and digital effects
online magazine, has posted a new article: "Masters of Visual
Effects Videos Reviewed"...
Pam Thompson has a new Career Coach column - Setting And
Achieving Goals...
Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book,
"Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY...
On January 8, 1999 the Walt Disney Company recalled 3.4
million copies of "The Rescuers" video release due to two
objectionable non-consecutive frames in the 110,000-frame
movie...
In December 1999, Mill Film announced that they united operations with
sister company Magic Camera. The combination will create a formidable
start-to-finish London-based feature film facility mixing Mill's visual
effects talent and technical strengths with the digital effects, miniature
construction and photography of Magic Camera and Magic Models. Antony Hunt
will serve as managing director of Mill Film and will take charge of day to
day operations of the combined companies. Hunt has been at the helm of
Several animation studios in Santiago, Chile, including Arce Studios, EMU
Ltd., ROOS Film S.A., and Trimedia S.A. have formed a partnership to
promote the animation business in Santiago. The partners are looking for
co-producers and/or investors for their products. Alvaro Arce, President of
Arce Studios, worked in the animation industry in the United States for
many years at Hanna-Barbera, The Walt Disney Company, and others. Alvaro
has several original series currently in development. Arce Studios is now
South Africa-based Triggerfish Animation, a leading stop-frame animation
company in South Africa, is currently shooting animation sequences for the
South African SESAME STREET, using an assortment of different materials
including local contemporary art work, creating a unique African feel to
the production. In addition, Triggerfish is shooting a 30-second commercial
using 7 plasticine characters for a new product being launched in South
Africa and Australia called Slo Jo -- a fruit smoothie.
CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG will come to life on PBS' fall 2000 schedule. The
show will be based on the 39-year-old CLIFFORD Scholastic book series
written by Norman Bridwell. John Ritter will provide the voice of Clifford;
while Kel Mitchell (KEENAN & KEL) will voice the dog's buddy, T-Bone; Grey
DeLisle (RUGRATS) will voice Clifford's best friend, Emily Elizabeth; and
Cree Summer will voice Cleo.
DIGITAL DOMAIN helped Plum Productions create a virtual jungle/city for the
new Fiat Punto spots. Plum Productions' director Eric Saarinen worked with
Digital Domain's visual effects supervisor Paul Kirsch to create a city
full of people riding around on lion, tigers, and bears. The Punto drives
in showing how different it is compared to the other animals on the street.
Digital Domain had the complex job of combining five-days of greenscreen
shooting on the Paramount backlot into a coherent flow. "We made the
Disney/Pixar's TOY STORY 2 is coming to Sega Dreamcast. In March 2000,
Activision, Inc., in collaboration with Disney Interactive, will release
Disney/Pixar's TOY STORY 2: BUZZ LIGHTYEAR TO THE RESCUE for Sega
Dreamcast. The new release will be a third-person free-roaming adventure
game that uses 3D animation to deliver a unique mix of gameplay elements.
As Buzz Lightyear, players take on five big bosses in a quest to save Woody
from a toy collector over 15 levels.
