Turkey's health minister, Osman Durmus, has urged TV stations to remove POKEMON from their line-up in light of two children suffering injuries copying the actions of the cartoon's characters. On Friday, November 24, 7-year-old Seda Aykanat suffered a broken leg when she leapt off the fifth-floor balcony of her apartment. Previously this year, a 4-year-old boy in Turkey also sustained injuries copying the super-powered stunts of POKEMON characters.
In a restructuring move, Icebox.com has cut its staff of 100 in half. The decision was made in an attempt to make the company profitable by the end of next year. Icebox will no longer produce its content in-house, but will use freelancers some being the laid off employees -- and Flash animation production firms. Company CEO Steve Stanford reassured the industry that Icebox has US$2 million on hand, but needed to convince investors that the company is close to profitability. Stanford said that a new round of about $10 million in financing should close next month.
Continuing the revamping of its finance division, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has announced three top-level finance appointments. Peter Halt was appointed senior VP and chief financial officer of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, which was formed last spring. Previously he served as VP finance and corporate controller at SPE. Filling Halt's old role will be Mark Rudolph, who is currently VP finance at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Simon Baker was named VP finance and corporate treasurer at SPE. Prior to Sony, Baker was the VP of finance at Fox Entertainment Group.
Icebox.com has announced that Strauss Zelnick has joined the company's board of directors. Until his recent resignation, Zelnick served as president and CEO of Bertelsmann AG's music company BMG Entertainment. He also serves as non-executive chairman of broadband application service provider On2.
New York design studio hey! designed and produced the new ID campaign for the TNN networks' transformation from The Nashville Network to The National Network. All five of the 5-second IDs contain the tag line, "We've got pop!" "Each element in the series took a slightly different approach to defining what 'pop' is and how it looks, feels and sounds," said hey! creative director Josh Pelzek. "In three of the IDs, we interpreted 'pop' as an action - popcorn exploding like fireworks, a button popping off a large man's shirt and bubbles - which contain the TNN logo - popping in mid-air.
Santa Maria, California-based Computer Café has created photo-realistic 3D animation simulating a NASCAR race for an Electronic Arts product demonstration. Produced by Western Images the video showcases a new game
Affiliate animator Raimund Krumme won the German Film Prize, Gold, for short films, for his new short "The Message." The prize comes with a cash prize of DM 60.000 (approx. $50,000). "The Message" is a 6-minute film where the message, "He is back again" is passed on to many people until there is a discussion about who is back again; it was in competition at the Annecy, Ottawa, Cinanima and Holland festivals. Discover or rediscover Riamund's work in his gallery on AWN.
Animator Dave Lambard has been working feverishly and just released a new Web cartoon, "Tattoo"...
Check out the latest "behind the scenes" features and tutorials from Visual Magic Magazine...
This week's updates to the Calendar of Events includes the 2nd "Art & Animation" Conference & Screenings in Torino, Italy, December 11-12, 2000; the 41st Monte Carlo Television Festival in Monaco, February 16-22, 2001; Cartoon Movie in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, March 15-17, 2000; the World Education Market in Vancouver, Canada, May 21-24, 2001; L!CENSING 2001 in New York, June 12-14, 2001; and more!
Leading experts in their respective fields are there to answer your questions and give you personal advice and insight in the Discussion Forums. Ask questions! It only takes a few minutes and any topic is fair game. Pose your questions to experts on 2D animation, 3D animation, finding a job, putting together a portfolio, and much more. You can even jump up on your soapbox in the Animation Café!
Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book, "Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY...
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz. Where did "Ersatz," the first film from outside of the United States to win an Academy Award for best animated film, originate from? What is Rembrandt Film's home country? Where did Jiri Trnka create his body of work? Good luck...you'll need it!
Great gift ideas for Disney buffs of all ages. Plus, the AWN store has plenty more Disney favorites available...
* Monday, January 22 Thursday, January 25, 2000. Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.
* Wednesday, January 24 Thursday, January 25, 2001. London, U.K.
December will feature articles based on the themes of location-based entertainment and anime. Karl Cohen is profiling Imax -- is animation's next frontier in peril? Also, Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman will be discussing the past and future of LBE, specifically VR. On the anime side of things Fred Patten is going to review "Vampire Hunter D," the latest anime release to arrive on U.S. soil. Andrew Osmond is going to be interviewing a number of experts and scholars on the stylistic merits of Japanese animation. Be ready to put on your thinking cap before reading this one.
* Friday, January 26 Saturday, February 3, 2001. Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Hollywood, California's Toonshoppe, provider of 2D and 3D character animation services, is looking for 2D CHARACTER ANIMATORS for a television pilot. . . Oak Brook, Illinois' wwwcrc, a start up breaking into streaming media content creation, is looking for 2D FLASH ANIMATORS. . . San Francisco, California's Academy of Art College is looking for ANIMATION/VFX INSTRUCTORS to teach in one or more of the following areas: 3D modeling; character setup and animation; lighting and texturing; visual effects; and traditional animation. Instructors may also take classes at the college. . .
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The London Effects and Animation Festival handed out its awards at a ceremony on November 14, 2000...
With international numbers trickling in due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, it looks like CHARLIE'S ANGELS is charming audiences around the world. In its U.K. debut, ANGELS raked in a whopping US$4.52 million. After five-weeks in U.K. theatres, WHAT LIES BENEATH sunk to second, with a gross of $768,052, elevating its cume to $16.39 million. In fourth, BEDAZZLED danced in with $505,329, raising its U.K. cume to $3.92 million. LITTLE NICKY possessed 5th place, grossing $385,214, thereby growing its U.K. cume to $1.46 million.
On Sunday, November 19, 2000, the Holland Animation Film Festival concluded its five-day festival with the presentation of its awards. This year's event was the first to hand out an award for independent animation films. With this competition, the festival sets out to promote the short, artistic animation film, and, as a result, encourage media attention toward independent animation.
Santa Monica Internet entertainment site TheThreshold.com has acquired the online game rights to the HELLRAISER franchise originally created by Clive Barker. HELLRAISER: HELL ONLINE will be the first game produced from the deal and will be available at www.thethreshold.com or directly through www.hellraiseronline.com. The game challenges players to solve the Lament Configuration, the puzzle box that opens a gateway to Hell. The game starts as a simple puzzle that gamers must solve each time they visit the Website. Solving the puzzle is the first step in the complex game.
Contrary to what we announced in last week's Spotlight, the 3rd International Student Animation Festival of Ottawa (SAFO) will be held October 18-21, 2001, not November...
