This week, Animation Cafmoderator Larry Lauria invites you to visit Animation Island and tell him your top five desert island picks in feature and short animation. Plus, discuss your choice of really essential animation books. Over in Show and Tell, check out The Ninjai Gang's LITTLE NINJA, plus...
AWN's Upcoming Theatrical Releases database has been updated with a link to the trailer for the English-dubbed version of Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY, in theaters September 20! Plus, get a first look at X-MEN 2 and more...
Graphics studio and publisher Marlin Studios has announced the release of PREMIUM 3D MODELS - CITY BUILDINGS. The 16th in a series of 3D models and texture libraries created for use by 2D and 3D graphics artists, the CITY BUILDING models consists of 182 detailed building models for use in an urban 3D environment. The 3D models are presented in the 3DS, LWO(6) and OBJ file formats and all the models are fully licensable and royalty free. A special edition of Right Hemisphere's 3D Exploration is included with each library for viewing, transforming and manipulating the models.
Entertainment Rights, the global childrens entertainment group, is expanding its U.S. office with the appointment of Fabiola Flores Cortes as sales manager for Latin America, handling all sales of the ER catalogue in this region. She will join Gillian Kirby, who is responsible for ERs business in the USA and Canada, in the New York office.
Corus Entertainment's Nelvana has signed a deal to supply a 90-minute Nelvana branded programming block for Eastern European kids' broadcaster Minimax. Starting in September 2002, the Hungary-based cable and satellite broadcaster Minimax will screen the Nelvana block on Saturday and Sunday mornings, across three of its territories -- Hungary, Poland and Romania. The deal is the first of its kind for Nelvana in Eastern Europe, and comes in response to recent demand from broadcasters there for a cohesive, themed approach to kids' weekend programming.
IFP/Chicago Flyover Zone Festival
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Friday, November 08 - Saturday, November 09, 2002
Entry Deadline: Friday, October 11, 2002
Family entertainment company Raven Moon Entertainment, Inc. hassigned a multi-faceted development deal with Pangea Corporation, astrategic marketing and content development entity, which specializesin the kids entertainment and toy industries. Pangea will assistRaven Moon in the further development of its intellectual properties,while also establishing licensing and cross-promotional opportunitiesfor Raven Moon's GINA D'S KIDS CLUB brand, a series oflive-action/animated videos for children. Pangea has worked with DIC
Cinesite Hollywood has named Jeffrey Baksinski manager of the 3D department. Baksinski has been the motion/tracking supervisor in the visual effects department at Cinesite since 1998, where his responsibilities included supervising camera reconstruction, virtual set modeling and the creation and application of pipeline and procedures on such films as RED PLANET, 13 GHOSTS and WINDTALKERS.
Artist Kenny Scharf brings his vision to Cartoon Network with a CG-animated half-hour special THE GROOVENIANS, premiering on Sunday, November 10 at 10:30 pm during Cartoon Networks ADULT SWIM animation block. A self-described "pop-surrealist," Kenny Scharf came to fame in the 1980s with art inspired by pop culture, particularly cartoons like THE JETSONS and THE FLINTSTONES. Scharf works in a variety of media, from oil paint on canvas to sculpture, and incorporates not only cartoon characters, but vivid colors, graffiti-inspired imagery, vintage advertisements and more.
At the 2002 London Effects and Animation Festival (LEAF), visual effects house The Mill will give a detailed presentation on the visual effects it created for Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning film BLACK HAWK DOWN. Further supporting the festival, The Mill has created animated IDs for the LEAF Awards to be held on October 10, 2002 at London's Olympia exhibition center. "We are very excited to be involved with this year's LEAF," says The Mill's 3D operations manager Stephen Venning.
Interactive entertainment software publisher TDK Mediactive, Inc. will be issuing a Collector's Edition for the fall launch of the video game ROBOTECH: BATTLECRY, available on the PlayStation2, Xbox and GameCube game systems. Each limited edition box will be individually numbered, and include the ROBOTECH: BATTLECRY video game, the game soundtrack featuring re-recorded versions of the original series' music, a specially designed T-shirt, exclusive artwork including a lenticular motion card, and a Defense Force dog tag. "ROBOTECH is a strong property with a very big following.
The top two movies held their places from last weekend, with extreme-sports actioner XXX, with visual effects by Digital Domain, coming in at number one with $23M, for a gross to date of $84.9M. Alien thriller SIGNS, with visual effects by ILM, was in second place, with $19.5M for a cume of $150.7M. The surfer girls of BLUE CRUSH had a third place debut with $15.2M and kids' action pic SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS, with visual effects by ComputerCafe, added another $11.6M to its total for a ten day cume of $45.7M and fourth place.
ASIFA(Association Internationale Du film D'Animation), the only internationally recognized organisation for animation, has opened up it first ever national chapter in India. The national Indian chapter of ASIFA is located in the Toonz Studios in Technopark, Trivandrum. To check out their newletters and to get more info visit them online through AWN at http://www.awn.com/asifa-india
Simon & Schuster Interactive, in association with Jim Henson Interactive, a division of The Jim Henson Company, announced that their anticipated PC release FARSCAPE: THE GAME has shipped. Based on the hit Sci-Fi Channel show, and featuring voices of the cast members, the PC release of FARSCAPE: THE GAME will be available at retailers August 17, 2002. FARSCAPE: THE GAME is a 3D action game that incorporates CG models and sound effects taken from the series. In addition to the game arriving at retail, Farscapegame.com, the official Website of the game has launched.
The Art Institute Online, a division of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, will offer a bachelor of science in Game Art & Design beginning in fall 2002. The Art Institute Online currently offers programs in graphic design and multimedia and Web design in an interactive, faculty-facilitated, asynchronous format that allows students to log in to complete their classes 24 hours a day, seven days a week at their convenience, making it ideal for students with irregular schedules or those who live in areas far from a brick-and-mortar school.
Adobe Systems has updated its Digital Video Collection so anyone with $1249 has the tools to complete a professional video project on the desktop from start to finish. The Adobe Digital Video Collection, which is now compatible with Macintosh OS X and Microsoft Windows XP, includes the recently announced Adobe Premiere 6.5, Adobe's digital video editing software, as well as the latest versions of Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. The Adobe Digital Video Collection is available at an estimated street price of US$1,249 and can be purchased from www.adobe.com.
Janet Hill has been named to head up West Coast communications for MTV Networks, which includes the channels MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TNN, TV Land and CMT. In her new position, Hill will be responsible for all internal and external communications for MTV Networks in its West Coast offices, which includes business, trade and consumer publicity.
Bitter Films have released their Academy Award nominee REJECTED (Best Animated Short Film, 2001) on a special limited edition DVD "single" for fans and friends of the film. Extras include...
The brand new HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE series kicks off on Cartoon Network, Friday, August 16, 2002 at 4:00 pm (ET, PT) with 90-minute movie featuring the never-before-told story of the origin of He-Man. New episodes of the series will air Fridays at 6:00 pm during the network's "Toonami" block, starting on August 30.
Vancouver-based independent producer Samantha Daley has launched Nudge Productions to provide strategic production consulting, product marketing strategy, production management and sales and marketing. Her current clients include Atomic Cartoons, Pork and Beans Productions Inc. and MX Solutions. "Current market trends show production work moving from large conglomerate studios to smaller boutique studios.
SecondSun Entertainment has teamed with Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures to screen its new animated short cartoon, SOMETHING FISHY, together with the film THE MASTER OF DISGUISE, starring Dana Carvey, now in theaters. The 3-minute short, about a little shrimp and his position in the food chain, was produced by SecondSun Entertainment's 3D-animation division, Brainchild Studios, and was directed by Ed Konyha. The film was chosen by Revolution Studios from over 300 short cartoons that were submitted.
Curious Pictures has once again teamed up with Nickelodeon, this time to create the packaging for the new cartoon block "Nicktoons," currently running every Friday night from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm. The project includes the opening for the hour program, along with 19 bumpers, 5 intros and 5 credit crunches that will rotate during the block each week. The spots feature Nicks cartoon personalities goofing around in the production studio, while reminding the viewers that theyre watching Nicktoons.
Controversial documentary filmmaker Michael Moore (ROGER AND ME, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE) is getting animated. VARIETY reports that Moore's next project will be an animated feature, co-written with cartoonists/animators Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins) and Harold Moss. Tomorrow is well known for his comic strip "This Modern World," which appears regularly in approximately 150 papers across the country, and Moss is the founder and creative director of FlickerLab in New York.
It probably comes as no surprise that the incredible success of Columbia Pictures/Marvel Studios feature film release SPIDER-MAN ($800 million worldwide) has led the company into strong second quarter revenues. Revenue in this quarter rose to $71 million from $45.9 million a year ago. For its quarter ended June 30, Marvel reported a net profit of $4.2 million after provisions for preferred dividends, or 10 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $11.4 million, or 33 cents a share, a year before.
