FINDING NEMO took home three prizes at the 2003 DVD Exclusive Awards, held Dec. 2 at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Six hundred academy members, who are filmmakers and TV and DVD producers, judge the outstanding releases of the year.
The Buena Vista Home Entertainment release of the record-breaking Disney/Pixar animated feature won for menu design; games and interactives; and deleted scenes, outtakes and bloopers.
Walt Disney Pictures and McDonald's have teamed up to bring THE HAUNTED MANSION movie to Happy Meals. Launching Nov. 26 and running until Dec. 18, Happy Meals will feature six different toys from the movie including Ramsley's Trunk, Zombie Surprise, Madame Leota, Singing Bust, Gracey's Camera and Mortifying Mirror.
This week in AWNs Theatrical Release Database we have lots of new films and new trailers for upcoming releases. Upon the success of SCARY MOVIE 3, Dimension will be rushing out SCARY MOVIE 4. On the horror front, we have new pages for the AMITYVILLE HORROR remake, the next villain team-up HELLOWEEN and the serial killer thriller MINDHUNTERS. Staying with the spooky theme we have a teaser trailer for ALIEN VS.
Dr. Toon sat down with the animation veteran Eric Goldberg to rap about his experiences on Looney Tunes: Back in Action, as well as the rest of his intimidating résumé.
SLEEPING BEAUTY Disney's ambitious fairy tale spectacle from 1959 - the first animated feature drawn and photographed in Technirama 70mm -- arrives on DVD Sept. 9, 2003 in a lavish two-disc special edition (Walt Disney Home Video, $29.99). The movie looks stunning with the entire digital cleanup, though some preservationists and historians may argue about the accuracy of the colors and precision of the aspect ratio (it should be 2.2:1, not 2.35:1).
Banking on some slightly different kind of toy stories, Miramax Films and LEGO Co. are in production on a second CGI-animation direct-to-video based upon the toy companys BIONICLE brand and are developing a theatrical motion picture scheduled for release in 2005. These are early commitments considering their first collaboration, BIONICLE: MASK OF LIGHT, wont debut on DVD and video until September 16, 2003.
PIGLET'S BIG MOVIE (Buena Vista Home Entertainment, $29.99) hits the DVD shelves July 29, 2003 featuring extra goodies such as PIGLET'S BIG BOOK OF MEMORIES (find Piglet's lost drawings) and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PIGLET (a 3D book of memories filled with favorite "Pigletisms"). The movie provides the lovable pink fellow with his first starring role (voiced by John Fiedler in his 35th year doing the cherished role). PIGLET was directed by Francis Glebas (FANTASIA 2000's "Pomp & Circumstance"), produced by Disney Toon Studios and animated by Walt Disney Animation Japan.
Iain Harvey reports on Europe's 2003 Cartoon Movie, covering the hot properties and how the event has progressed in five years to support European animated film producers.
Not only did THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS nab best movie at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, held May 31, 2003 at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, but Peter Jackson's second installment of the blockbuster Tolkien trilogy took three more prestigious awards, including best virtual performance by Gollum. TWO TOWERS also earned best action sequence for the Battle of Helms Deep, deepening WETA Digital's enormous stature among leading VFX studios, as well as best on-screen team (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin and Gollum.
Twentieth Century Fox has delayed its plans to release a live-action/CG animated GARFIELD movie from December 19, 2003 to June 2004. Rhythm & Hues is the primary studio doing visual effects on the movie director Peter Hewitt is adapting from the syndicated cartoon strip created by Jim Davis. The story starts as Garfield's owner, Jon, takes in sweet but dimwitted pooch Odie, turning Garfield's perfect world upside down. The lasagna-loving orange tabby tries to get Odie out of his life until the hapless pup is kidnapped by a nasty dog trainer, so Garfield pulls himself away from his beloved barcolounger to get him back. Waiting until June not only gives the effects artists more time to complete the picture, it makes good marketing sense to take advantage of the extra push GARFIELD will be getting as the sarcastic feline celebrates his 25th birthday in 2004. GARFIELD has already been made into a number of 2D animated specials and TV series produced Lee Mendelson Films, Paws Inc. and Film Roman. The comic is read in 2,600 newspapers by 260 million readers around the globe.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS and SPIDER-MAN got five nominations apiece to lead the list of contenders for MTV's 2003 MOVIE AWARDS. The 12th edition of the awards will honor a new generation of performers in a new category: best virtual performance. Nominees include Yoda in STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES, Gollum in THE TWO TOWERS, Dobby in HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, Kangaroo Jack in KANGAROO JACK and Scooby-Doo in SCOOBY-DOO.THE TWO TOWERS is nominated for Best Movie along with SPIDER-MAN, 8 MILE, BARBERSHOP and THE RING.
Women In Animation International will elect its new board of directors and treat members to a panel discussion with some of the team from THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE on Saturday, April 5 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at Klasky Csupo in Hollywood, California. The panelists who will discuss bringing the small screen hit to the big screen include THORNBERRYS co-director Jeff McGrath, exec. producer Julia Pistor and co-producer Sean Lurie; moderated by Bonita Versh, director of Class-Key-Chew-Po Commercials. This is a members only event. Call to RSVP by April 2 at 818-759-9596 or send an email to info@womeninanimation.org. For membership information, visit www.womeninanimation.org.
CARTOON MOVIE, the only event dedicated to promoting European animated feature films, has nearly doubled in size in its five-year history. CARTOON MOVIE started on a positive note when organisers revealed that 1/3 of the projects presented last year are now in production with the required participants and funding. Started in 1998 with 255 professionals, the fifth edition of CARTOON MOVIE closed March 15, 2003 at Babelsberg Studios, in Potsdam, Germany with 461 attending, amongst them were 51 distributors and 61 investors.
Jerry Beck muses about 2002s slate of animated feature films.
The 5th edition of Cartoon Movie will be held March 13-15, 2003, in Potsdam, Germany. Organized by the European Association Cartoon in collaboration with NFP Teleart in Germany and with the support of the Media Programme of the European Union and Berlin-Brandenburg Filmboard, Cartoon Movie offers attending investors, producers and distributors a complete overview of European animation feature films at different stages of production.
Jerry Beck muses about 2002s slate of animated feature films.
If it makes you feel better to bring a child to the theater as an excuse to see The Wild Thornberrys Movie, you won't be disappointed. Klasky-Csupo delivers solid family entertainment in its ongoing balancing act of art and heart.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) has announced that seventeen films will compete for the Best Animated Feature Film Oscar in the 2002 Academy Awards competition. Because of the large number of eligible features, under the rules for the category, a maximum of five films could be nominated.The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted on December 10, 2002 to activate the category for the 75th Academy Award Presentations.
A movie based on the MTV stunt show JACKASS took the top spot this weekend, booting DreamWorks' suspense flick THE RING down to second place. JACKASS: THE MOVIE debuted with a surprising $22.7M, the third highest grossing October debut ever. THE RING, with visual effects by Method Studios, Rhythm & Hues, Asylum and Tippett Studios, came in second with $18.7M, for a two-week total of $39.4M. Debuting in third with $11.5M was the spooky sea voyage GHOST SHIP, featuring visual effects by Photon VFX.
Join us to celebrate the release of the The Powerpuff Girls, The Movie. Creator and director Craig McCracken will sign the exclusive collection of original layout drawings from the yet to be released film, as well as a fantastic collection of original production cels. Thursday night June 20th.
THQ Inc. has released SCOOBY-DOO! for Game Boy Advance, based on the live-action/CGI movie coming to theaters on June 14, 2002. Players will explore locations featured in the movie, searching for clues to complete missions and ultimately, solve Spooky Island's big mystery. The environments for the game were inspired by actual movie stills and artwork. THQ will also be releasing SCOOBY-DOO! NIGHT OF 100 FRIGHTS, for PlayStation 2 and GameCube, later in 2002.
MTV Animation alum Chris Prynoski went back to his roots by once again creating a stylish opening sequence for the 2002 MTV Movie Awards. The show was produced by Austin Reading and executive produced by Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet. MTV commissioned Prynoski and his company, Titmouse Inc., to produce this year's Awards Show open after Titmouse delivered a successful graphics package for last year's show.
In the midst of Spider-Man mania, Danny Fingeroth caught up with two of the most popular producers in showbiz Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad to talk about box office success, becoming a geek, creative changes and the new animated television show.
Surprised that Spider-Man is racking up such huge sums at the box office? Danny Fingeroth isn't, as he explains, there's a little Spidey in all of us.
Interactive entertainment developer THQ Inc. has gained interactive publishing rights to HEY ARNOLD! THE MOVIE, Nickelodeon's animated feature film based on the TV show, HEY ARNOLD! In HEY ARNOLD! THE MOVIE for Game Boy Advance, players assume the role of Arnold as he rallies his friends and relatives to stop an unsavory businessman from tearing down their neighborhood to build a Super Beeper Emporium. Players must help Arnold find and organize his friends so that they can complete certain tasks on different levels.
