Search form

Geographical Region: All

Animation Headline News

March's WIA Writers' Group

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, February 24, 2000 at 12:00am

* Thursday, March 9, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

This month's Women In Animation Writers' Group Seminar will be held at 7:30

pm at Saban Entertainment, 10960 Wilshire Blvd. (corner of Midvale). The

discussion centers around the outline, the scene, and animation terms. Fee:

US$5 to cover costs. RSVP to Jean Ann Wright required. Tel.: (818)

360-8321 or E-mail: jjwright@gte.net. For more information on WIA events,

please visit the Website at

Design Headline News

WIA, Inc. General Meeting

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, February 24, 2000 at 12:00am

* Saturday, February 26, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Women In Animation, Inc. will be holding their annual meeting with guest

speaker Lynda Weinman of lynda.com. The meeting introduces members and

anyone interested in WIA with what has happened in the past year and what

exciting events and activities are on the way for 2000. Weinman, a pioneer

of graphics and animation on the MAC, will bring to the event her knowledge

Headline News

eBay To Auction Mickey's Merchandise

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 12:00am

Disney's Go Network has inked a 4-year agreement with eBay making it the

exclusive on-line auction site for Walt Disney's Web properties. Under

terms of the deal, eBay and the Go Network will create two co-branded

auction sites -- one to provide person to person transactions, the other

merchant to consumer sales, featuring goods from Disney's properties and

ESPN, among others. Disney will market the two sites through its Go

Network, a portfolio of Web sites that includes Disney.com, ABC.com and

Headline News

Rugrats: Burger King's Thanksgiving Whopper

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 12:00am

Burger King, a leading hamburger chain, has decided to back RUGRATS IN

PARIS with a licensing campaign to coincide with the film's Thanksgiving

release. Burger joint cross promotion of films released in the holiday

season means big money for both parties. Burger King opted to work out a

deal with the Nickelodeon/Paramount sequel to RUGRATS: THE MOVIE, which it

backed in 1998, instead of DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS,

starring Jim Carrey. Insiders say Burger King may drop US$20 million into

Effects Headline News

Riots Raises Roster With New Producer and CGI Artist

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 12:00am

RIOT, a digital effect house, breaks out with the naming of a new visual

effects producer ALIX EGLIS and visual effects artist CLAUS HANSEN. As a

freelancer, Eglis has produced commercials for Santa Monica,

California-based Crew Cuts and Lost Planet. For Culver City,

California-based Mars Media, she produced the R&B group, TLC's "Unpretty"

video and Will Smith's "Wild, Wild West" video. Eglis will oversee projects

for Riot, acting as a liaison from the client to the artists. Prior to

Headline News

Radium Expands Santa Monica Branch's Roster

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 12:00am

RADIUM has expanded its Santa Monica office roster with a new head of

production JONATHAN WHITEHEAD and visual effects artists MARK HOLMES and

CHRISTINE RIVARD. Whitehead will oversee the daily operation of the Santa

Monica branch including client relations, bidding, marketing, personnel and

line producing. For the last six years, Whitehead was an executive producer

at Saatchi & Saatchi, primarily working on ads for Toyota. Whitehead's

feature film producing credits include GHOSTBUSTERS II, THE ABYSS, STEEL

Global Headline News

Vivid Animation Stops Production

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 12:00am

Jeff Lotman, CEO of Vivid Animation and Virtual Celebrity Productions,

announced that the company has closed operations. "Vivid, which had just

completed its first commercial project, for MasterCard, will no longer

accept commercial projects," said Lotman who has decided to focus all of

his energies and resources on his two-year-old licensing and merchandising

company Global Icons. "Global Icons is growing faster than I had hoped and

the potential is so great that it demands all of my attention at this

Show Headline News

A New Cubicle For Dilbert On The Net

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 12:00am

After UPN put DILBERT on an indefinite hiatus which starts March 14, the

producers of the cartoon series announced it would broadcast an episode of

the show along with rare outtakes on the Net. The 22-minute previously

aired episode entitled "The Merger" will air commercial-free on the Web

from February 17 - 29, 2000. Columbia/TriStar, who produces the show, will

become only the second major studio to enter into the Netcasting arena. In

November of 1999, Warner Bros. simulcast parts of an episode of "The Drew

Henson Headline News

German EM.TV Acquires The Muppets

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 12:00am

Munich-based EM.TV & Merchandising has acquired the Jim Henson Co. in a

cash and stock transaction valued at US$680 million. The German company now

owns the rights to the Muppets and Sesame Street characters. The purchase

gives EM.TV "some of the most powerful and enduring kids and family brands

worldwide and. . . access to the world's biggest and most important media

market," said Thomas Haffa, EM.TV CEO. "In addition, our investment in

Henson will give us a position in cable networks, which will open up new

Million Headline News

Snow Falls At 3rd Again

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 12:00am

The kid flick SNOW DAY, with special effects by Curious Pictures, settled

at third place for a second straight week at the U.S. box office. The

Paramount-produced flick grossed US$14.8 million over the President's Day

holiday weekend, bringing its cume to $31.5 million. USA Films release

PITCH BLACK finished at #4. Yet another ALIENS-esque sci-fi flick, PITCH

BLACK grossed $14 million. THE TIGGER MOVIE finished the weekend in fifth

place, making $10.5 million, bringing its cume to $22.3 million. Even

Show Headline News

Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak Premiere

On Sunday, February 20, 2000, everyone's favorite alien villain from Space

Ghost's CARTOON PLANET, Brak, will present his own half-hour musical

variety show on Cartoon Network entitled BRAK PRESENTS THE BRAK SHOW

STARRING BRAK. Starting at 7 pm, the special will feature 10 original songs

and many comedy sketches. The dimwitted host gets the chance to sing a

heart-warming duet with R&B singer Monica, ride down a country road in an

ol' pick-up truck singing the tune "Highway 40" with teen film star Freddie

Live-action Headline News

Live-Action Tick Actor Named

Patrick Warburton, best known for playing Elaine's mechanic boyfriend,

Putty, on SEINFELD, will don the blue superhero suit in the new live-action

TV series THE TICK. Barry Sonnenfeld will direct the half-hour pilot, and

share executive producing credits with partner Barry Josephson and TICK

creator Ben Edlund. Shooting is scheduled for the first two weeks in April.

Headline News

Angela Anaconda Marathon

To celebrate the American holiday, President's Day, Fox Family will be

hosting a seven hour marathon of ANGELA ANACONDA on Monday, February 21,

2000. Fourteen episodes of the hit animated series will air back-to-back

starting at 7:30 am. Catch all of Angela's misadventures with her friends

and chief rival Nanette Manoir, her stuck-up blonde classmate.

Headline News

Digimon Marathon

DIGIMON: DIGITAL MONSTERS will take over the airwaves for a seven hour

marathon on Sunday, February 27, 2000. The "Digithon" will feature 11 new

episodes to Fox Family starting at 7 am. Follow the mysterious adventures

of the series' seven young heroes as they discover the secrets of the

"black gear" which threatens the existence of Digiworld.

Company Headline News

Los Kitos Comic Strip To Become TV Series

The Krislin Company has gained the rights to produce an animated TV series

based off of Los Kitos Entertainment's LOS KITOS comic strip. Currently

running in more than 200 newspapers worldwide, the strip, created by

Colombian-born Martha Montoya, addresses the concerns of Hispanics and

other immigrant groups and highlights cultural awareness. Walt Kubiak,

president of the Krislin Company said, "We are very excited about our

association with LOS KITOS and look forward to introducing this fine

Movie Headline News

An Extremely Goofy Movie Stumbles Into Stores

On February 29, 2000, Disney will debut its new direct-to-video feature

entitled AN EXTREMELY GOOFY MOVIE. The new Goofy flick follows Goofy and

his son Max as they both go off to college. Goofy brings some old-fashioned

ideas along that embarrass young Max. But all bets are off as both father

and son compete in the "College X Games," an extreme sports competition.

The VHS tape will be priced at US$24.99 and the DVD will be $29.99. An

added bonus is the short entitled KIDS' GOOFIEST JOKES, a collection of

Movie Headline News

Catch Pokemon: The First Movie On Video

On March 21, 2000, POKEMON: THE FIRST MOVIE will hit stores across the U.S.

Every DVD and video will feature a sneak preview of this summer's new

theatrical film POKEMON THE MOVIE 2000 plus THE STORY OF MEWTWO'S ORIGIN.

To promote the video release, five special "Golden Tickets" will be

included in random VHS packages. The five lucky recipients will win a

first-edition starter set of Team Rocket game cards, a trip for two to

Japan, a meeting with Mr. Ishihara, creator of the POKEMON card game and a

Sega Headline News

LucasArts Brings Their Far, Far Away Galaxy To Dreamcast

Sega of America announced that LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC has

become a new third party publisher for the Sega Dreamcast. Scheduled to

ship Spring 2000, STAR WARS: EPISODE I RACER will be the first LucasArts

title to hit Dreamcast. LucasArts is committed to providing additional

titles in the future, adding to Sega's long list of third party publishers

and developers for Sega Dreamcast. Taking advantage of Dreamcast's Internet

capabilities, STAR WARS: EPISODE I RACER will allow gamers to post high

Headline News

Sammy Sosa Hits For 3DO

The 3DO Company has signed an exclusive multi-year agreement with U.S.

Major League Baseball's 1999 Man of the Year, Sammy Sosa of the Chicago

Cubs. Sosa will help in the development and marketing of 3DO's baseball

franchise, SAMMY SOSA HIGH HEAT BASEBALL. In the February 2000 issue of

COMPUTER GAMING WORLD MAGAZINE, SAMMY SOSA HIGH HEAT 2000 was named "Best

Sports Game Of The Year" and PC GAMER MAGAZINE even went as far as to call

it "The Best Baseball Game Ever." "I agree with the gaming magazines that

Headline News

Igel Names Galton New Head Of Distribution

Hamberg, Germany-based IGEL MEDIA AG, an independent distributor of family

programming, has announced ED GALTON as their new head of distribution.

Galton will head worldwide distribution for the company focusing on

strengthening its operations outside of Germany. Previously at Gaumont as

VP/Head of Television and Video Sales, Galton organized the pre-sales and

distribution for such titles as OGGY AND THE COCKROACHES, SPACE GOOFS and

HIGHLANDER, THE RAVEN.

Headline News

Ring Of Fire Fans The Flames With 6 New Artists

RING OF FIRE expands its flames with six new artists. Joining the

Hollywood, California-based visual effects and design studio are Infero

artists ALI LAVENTHOL and ALAN LATTERI, visual effects/digital composite

artist JEREMY ALCOCK, CGI artist JOHN JENKINS and producers JILL HEINRICH

and KIMBERLY EVANS. Before Ring of Fire, Laventhol was a freelance Flame

artist working at Rhythm & Hues. Latteri comes to Ring of Fire with credits

on X-FILES: THE MOVIE, STAR TREK IX: INSURRECTION and GODZILLA. Coming from

Shows Headline News

Nick Jr Comes To CBS Saturday Mornings

As a result of the pending merger between CBS and Viacom, which owns

Nickelodeon, some of Nick Jr.'s top preschool shows may air on CBS Saturday

mornings. The shows would help breath life into CBS' low-rated block of

Saturday morning children's programming according to executives from both

companies who spoke on condition of anonymity. No final decision has been

made on which shows will air on CBS, though the hits BLUE'S CLUES and

LITTLE BILL are almost Eyeball Channel bound. The move is reminiscent of

Events Headline News

Disney Promotes Breier To VP Of Special Events

LYLLE BREIER was promoted to the newly created position of senior vice

president, special events, for THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS. Breier will be

responsible for developing and overseeing a vast array of worldwide special

events relating to the domestic and international releases of the studio's

motion-picture and video product. Over her ten year career at Disney,

Breier has helped to stage some of Disney's major events, including the

1995 premiere of POCAHONTAS in Central Park, the 1997 "HERCULES Premiere

Headline News

Store Specials: Vilppu Video , Belgian Compilation, Plympton Poster

- FIGURE CONSTRUCTION, a brand new Vilppu video Prestigious life drawing instructor Glenn Vilppu is offering a new video

tape of his classes. Vilppu said: "Figure Construction is a class room

demonstration of basic figure construction. This tape, I feel, is one of

the best examples that I have done so far on basic construction." His

material is being used worldwide in courses for animation students. The

Spot Headline News

A. Film Raps Kellogg's Town Spot

Denmark-based A. FILM has rapped on a 35-second commercial for Kellogg's

Cereal. The spot was directed by Craig Frank and produced for the Leo

Burnett agency. The classic 2D animation spot launches a new image campaign

introducing Kellogg's Town, where 8 popular Kellogg's figures like

Cornelius, Tony the Tiger, Coco, Chocos, Loopy, Snap, Crackle and Pop live.

The spot will air in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.

Pages