Warner Bros. legend Friz Freleng art exhibit in Los Angeles
* January 10 - March 14. Los Angeles, California, USA.
Amid Amidi's Recent Posts
WIA Writer's Group to discuss lawyers and agents
* Thursday, January 21. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
The Women in Animation's Writer's Group will hold a discussion about what writers should know about lawyers and agents. The event starts at 7:00 P.M. Call Kellie-Bea Rainey to RSVP and for directions at (818) 623-0020 or e-mail at kellie-bea@kellie-bea.com.
"Doug's 1st Movie" will hit the big screen in March
Originally intended as a direct-to-video film, Walt Disney Pictures hasannounced that "Doug's 1st Movie," based on the ABC series "Disney's Doug,"will be released to theaters on March 26 in time for the spring break andEaster holidays. Both the TV series and film are produced by New York-basedJumbo Pictures Inc., a subsidiary of Disney acquired in 1996. "Doug's 1stMovie" follows the misadventures of 12-year old Doug Funnie as he findshimself caught between saving the endangered "monster" of Lucky Duck Lake
Miramax to distribute Tom Thumb and Thumbelina animated feature
Wanting to get a piece of the lucrative animated feature pie, Miramax Filmshas announced their acquisition of worldwide distribution rights to theanimated musical fairy tale, "The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina."The film is being produced at Hyperion Studios, known for other animatedworks such as "Life with Louie," "Bebe's Kids" and HBO's "Happily EverAfter: Fairy Tales for Every Child." The film features the voices of ElijahWood as Tom Thumb and Jennifer Love Hewitt as Thumbelina.The story
The Attik has "Idle Hands"
San Francisco-based The Attik has produced and designed 5 seconds of live-action and graphics for the theatrical trailer end card for "Idle Hands," an upcoming Columbia Pictures film. The segment involves a live-action human hand clutching and clawing at the screen. The Attik team blended the live-action with an illustrated graphic of a hand, animated using a technique similar to stop-motion, to give the piece an organic feel while maintaining a scratchy, hand-crafted texture. Simon Dixon was the Creative Director/Director and Monica Perez was Senior Art Director.
Tom Schumacher is promoted to head of Disney animated features
Thomas Schumacher has been promoted to president of Walt Disney Feature Animation and Walt Disney Theatrical Productions replacing Peter Schneider, who was promoted from this role to the president of The Walt Disney Studios. Joe Roth, Disney chairman, stated, "Tom, who has long collaborated with Peter in running our animation and theatrical units, is the perfect choice to replace Peter as president of Feature Animation.
Funny Farm, a new studio in Atlanta, is ready to animate
Funny Farm Studios is a new 2D animation studio starting up in Atlanta, Georgia. The facility is headed by Donna Ervin, former manager and producer for DESIGNefx cel animation, and two animation directors, Jim Peebles and Jeff Fastner. "We have enormous talent, experience and speed to offer," states Ervin. The studio will target the national and regional commercial, interstitial programming and web development markets.
Mondo Media gets mondo money
Mondo Media, a leading developer of digital content, has received a $2 million investment from venture capital firm, Sofinnova. The investment will fund the development of a line of Mondo Mini Shows - a series of animated and personalized, interactive, web-based cartoons. The shows will mirror the syndication model of newspaper comics where popular properties attract broad audiences on a repeat basis. "The syndication model is novel for the web, a proven success in other media," explains Randy Komisar, Mondo Media's Virtual CEO.
WIA Writer’s Group meeting
* Thursday, January 14. Westwood, California, U.S.A.
Women In Animation's Writers' Group is starting up their Seminar Series again for 1999. The first seminar will cover the differences between live-action and animation writing, the philosophy of comedy, and gag writing techniques. The group meets at Saban Entertainment at 7:30 PM. For further information call Jean Ann Wright at 818-360-8321.
Film Roman launches off
Film Roman Inc, the producer of The Simpsons and King of the Hill, has struck a deal with Launch Media Inc. under which Film Roman will provide content for the Launch CD-ROM - a monthly interactive guide to music and movies that is sold in retail stores and available by subscription. The Launch CD-ROM currently reaches an estimated 1 million users monthly with approximately 300,000 subscribers.
P.J.s arrive on Fox
Fox will debut the new mid-season animated sitcom, "The P.J.s," on Sunday, January 10 at 8:30 p.m. following a divisional conference football playoff game. The show will start the following Tuesday in its regular 8:30 p.m. slot following "King of the Hill." The "foamation" series was produced at Will Vinton Studios and is executive produced by comedian/actor Eddie Murphy.
"The Simpsons" tops December ratings
By special arrangement with Nielsen Media Research, AWN publishes the Nielsen ratings for animated programs on a monthly basis in the Animation Flash. The ratings included herein are only for U.S. national network television. The following list of animated national network programs is ranked by Household Ratings. A Rating is the percentage of households that tuned into the program. This percentage can provide us with the number of households that tuned into the program on average during the month. The universe estimate for the 1997-98 television season is 98 million TV homes.
SGI announces new Intel-NT based workstations
Silicon Graphics Inc, a company that built its reputation on UNIX-based systems used to create visual effects for countless films, has unveiled new workstations based on Intel processors and the Windows NT operating system. Dictated by a changing marketplace, the new systems will appeal to a wide group of users who need the computing power but not the prohibitive prices. However, SGI believes that these systems will not replace the high-end UNIX workstations but will rather complement them.
"Prince" still tops at the box office
The post-New Years box office was quiet as usual with DreamWorks The Prince of Egypt on top of the animation heap grossing 6.1M for fifth place. To date, the high-budgeted religious flic has grossed nearly $75M domestically and $83.7M internationally. Disneys live-action/CGI Mighty Joe Young stayed put in sixth place with $5M for a 17-day total of $34.9M. Disney/Pixars A Bugs Life fell from fifth to seventh with $4.7M and a 52-day cume of $143M.
Scheider is new Disney prez
This past Thursday, Peter Schneider was named to the new position of president of The Walt Disney Studios; the annoucement coming just one day after Disney CEO Michael Eisner said the company needed to perform better with Disney-branded live-action movies.
Barbarella creator, Jean-Claude Forest, dies
Jean-Claude Forest, who created the provocative sci-fi comic strip character Barbarella and designed sets for the '60s movie starring Jane Fonda, passed away December 30, 1998 at the age of 68. Forest created the seductive 41st century adventurer in 1962 originally appearing in V Magazine. The cult favorite Roger Vadim-directed movie released in June 1968, "Barbarella," secured her place in fandom history.
Disney recalls 'Rescuers' videos
On Friday, January 8, 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. The frames in question feature a
live-action naked torso of a female in a background image inserted as a gag
by a cameraman when the movie was originally filmed in the 1970s. The 1992
home video release of the animated film didn't use the original print and
therefore didn't have the objectionable images. Under ordinary viewing
Tape House becomes Black Logic
New York-based Tape House Digital has changed their name to Black Logicannounced Alfie Schloss, Vice President, Marketing. Black Logic is afull-service visual effects company offering graphic design, high-endcompositing, 2D and 3D computer animation and live-action production.Founded in 1992, the company's mission is to become one of the East Coast'spre-eminent visual effects and computer animation companies. Schlossstated, "This is not merely a name change. As Black Logic we have
"The P.J.s" arrive on FOX
Actor/comedian Eddie Murphy and Oregon-based Will Vinton Studios have teamed up to create "The PJs," the first stop-motion animation series to air in prime-time. Set in a big city housing project, the "foamation" series centers around a unique cast of characters led by building superintendent Thurgood Stubbs (voiced by Eddie Murphy). The premiere episode, "Hangin' With Mr. Super," airs Sunday, January 10, at 8:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on FOX network following "The Simpsons." The show moves to its regular day and time on Tuesday, January 12 at 8:30 p.m. (ET/PT) following "King of the Hill."
Flickerfest Short Film Festival coming in January
* Sunday, January 3 - Saturday, January 9, 1999. Sydney, Australia.
Flickerfest, 8th International Short Film Festival will consist of a main competitive program, a short documentary competition and additional programs and forums aside from the competition. For more information, visit www.flickerfest.com.au or call 61 (0)2 9211 7133.
