* Sunday, April 9 - Sunday, April 16, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Comic book fans can hobnob with the best in the business on a 7 day/7 night
cruise benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit
organization protecting the First Amendment rights of the comics community.
The "Making WAVES" cruise will stop at three Mexican ports -- Puerto
Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan. The event will feature week-long
* Sunday, February 13, 2000 - Thursday, February 17, 2000. New York, New
York, U.S.A.
The American International Toy Fair, one of the world's leading toy trade
shows, features over 1,800 exhibitors and highlights the newest and most
exciting toys on the market. Toy Manufacturers of America, Inc., the
industry trade association, brings the 97th annual event to several
showrooms all across the Manhattan area. Three new showplaces have joined
* Friday, February 18, 2000. New York, New York, U.S.A.
Cinema Village, the city's venue for alternative animation, will be
presenting the U.S. theatrical premiere of KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS from
French filmmaker Michel Ocelot. Based on a West African legend, this film
follows a miraculous infant who singlehandedly saves his small village from
a sultry yet evil wizard. Featuring an original score by Senegalese music
artist Youssou N'Dour, KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS offers a unique spin: an
Just under the loud yelp of SCREAM 3 and THE HURRICANE, STUART LITTLE, with
primary visual effects by Sony Pictures Imageworks, additional animation by
CFX and Rhythm & Hues, and miniatures by Thunderstone, squeaked up a spot
to #3 at the U.S. box office. Sony's radiant rodent racked in US$4.71
million bringing its total stock pile of green cheese to $128.6 million.
THE GREEN MILE, with primary visual effects by ILM, Rhythm & Hues, POP and
Riding the wave of the box office success of STUART LITTLE, Columbia/Sony
Pictures has announced a sequel to the tiny toon. Shooting on the new film
could start as soon as this summer. The intended release date for the flick
is Christmas 2001. Producer Doug Wick is set to return, however actors,
director and screenwriter have not yet been confirmed. Sony Picture
Imageworks, who comprised the effects for the first flick, are expected to
return on the sequel. The first STUART LITTLE was directed by Rob Minkoff,
Time Warner's Entertaindom.com and Pulse Entertainment have formed a
strategic relationship to bring interactive animated entertainment to the
Web. The partnership includes content produced by Pulse Entertainment as
well as an investment by Entertaindom in Pulse. The cash and content deal
strengthens Entertaindom's ongoing alliance with Pulse Entertainment as
home to its Pulse Comix page and as a major content provider for
Entertaindom Web shows like MARVIN THE MARTIAN, DR. SCIENCE and FLOOPS.
Macromedia, Inc. announced its acquisition of Time4.com, a
Minneapolis-based Net application development firm. The privately-held
business, which created a Web-based reservation system, was acquired for an
undisclosed amount. Time4.com's president and chief executive officer
Douglas K. Olson will become vice president of engineering for the
Macromedia eBusiness Solutions Group. In his new role, Olson will lead the
development of Macromedia's eBusiness Infrastructure, one of the first
On February 3, 2000, Pixar reported financial results for its fiscal fourth
quarter and year ending January 1, 2000. For the quarter, Pixar posted
record profits of US$9.6 million, or $0.19 per diluted share. These results
are compared to profits of $1.1 million, or $0.02 per diluted share,
achieved in the 4th quarter of 1998. Revenues for the quarter were $24.9
million, compared with $3.1 million a year-ago. For the year, Pixar held
profits of $49.2 million, or $0.99 per diluted share, compared with $7.8
In association with Children's Television Workshop and IF/X Productions,
CineGroupe will be producing 40 half-hour episodes of SAGWA, THE CHINESE
SIAMESE CAT for PBS KIDS. The series is adapted from the award-winning
children's book by Amy Tan, author of THE JOY LUCK CLUB. SAGWA follows the
title character's escapades through Ancient China. Each episode will
include 11-minute segments and related interstitials woven together by
music, folk stories and fairy tales. The executive producers of the project
Disney's THE WEEKENDERS is set to premiere on ABC's "Disney's One Saturday
Morning" line-up Saturday, February 26, 2000 at 8:30 am. Each episode
follows a quartet of friends over one weekend from Friday after school to
Sunday evening. The series will be directed by Steve Lyons and is produced
by Walt Disney Television Animation.
Vitoria, Spain-based Mb Producciones is reaping a huge success from its new
animated series MIMI AND MR. BOBO. Since its debut on TVE, the average
share the series has received is 25.8. The show airs Saturday at 9 am and
re-runs at 8:30 am on Sundays. Mb Producciones is currently in negotiation
to create merchandise for the program with several well-known Spanish toy
and book companies. The company is also in the developing stage of a
feature based on the characters of the MIMI AND MR. BOBO series.
On February 1, 2000, Cartoon Network announced a broad expansion of
CartoonNetwork.com, the network's entertainment destination on the Web.
Kicking off the expansion is a heavy increase in original, interactive
entertainment. Over the next year, CartoonNetwork.com will more than double
production of its Web Premiere Toons. In addition, CartoonNetwork.com will
triple the number of games on the site; add functionality including
shopping and advanced search functions; and create a safe community aspect.
Montreal-based CineGroupe and Saban International Paris will co-produce a
new half-hour series entitled WUNSCHPUNCH. The show will be based on the
novel by Michael Ende, whose previous novel, THE NEVER ENDING STORY was
made into a live-action feature. Radio Canada will broadcast the series in
Canada and TF1 will air it in France. Hubert Gariepy and Bruno Bianchi will
produce the series and Philippe Amador will direct.
The BBC, CINAR and HALO Productions will team up to brighten the world with
the teenage angst of the new animated series TREASURE. The show follows the
teenage tribulations of Treasure, her ever-frantic mother and critical
grandmother. The series will air on BBC prime time sometime in late 2000,
early 2001. The show has also been sold to YTV in Canada. TREASURE is based
off a popular newspaper column by Michele Hanson.
TOPIX/MAD DOG clears the air for the newest Ricola ad. Produced for ad
agency, DKB & Partners, a 30-second spot entitled "Reflections" was created
to promote Ricola's new line of herbal health dietary supplements.
TOPIX/Mad Dog created the reflections of the Ricola Matterhorn on windows,
soap bubbles, sunglasses and cars. The spot was produced at TOPIX/Mad Dog
by Diana D'Amelio and the senior Flame artist was James Cooper.
San Francisco-based ATTIK has brought to the finish line the spot for the
Infogrames video game TEST DRIVE 6. In the 30-second spot entitled "Movie
Trailer," director Simon Dixon placed a live-action driver in the seat of
the high-speed graphic environment. Clips of the real life racer are
intercut with game footage. The senior producer on the project was Lisa
Laubhan and the live-action producer was Doug Lay.
Versions of Boris Graffiti LTD and Boris FX LTD are now bundled with selected Avid Xpress DV non-linear video editing and delivery systems. Graffiti LTD, one of the most flexible title animation toolsets available, provides superior creativity and workflow for Avid system users by extending the titling capabilities in Avid Xpress DV. Boris FX LTD enhances the Avid Xpress DV toolset with the same dynamic special effects found in the award-winning Boris FX.
Spumco's John Kricfalusi will be bringing his offbeat humor to a new Fox
Kids Network series entitled, THE RIPPING FRIENDS. Scheduled to hit the air
Fall 2000, the show will follow the adventures of 4 wacked out superheros.
Kricfalusi will provide at least one of the voices for the series. This
show will be Kricfalusi's first television series since Nickelodeon booted
him off of his brain child REN AND STIMPY.
Animation World Network is excited to announce that it has been acquired by
Creative Planet (www.creativeplanet.com), a network of business-to-business
Web sites for creative professionals. Dan Sarto, COO and co-founder of AWN
said, "This transaction will afford AWN the opportunity to continue its
aggressive growth strategy and sustained position as the leading Internet
site for the animation profession." AWN brings to Creative Planet its vast
In the spring, Fox Kids Europe will launch a local TV affiliate in Italy
and initiate a fully localized Web site to coincide. The new channel will
be distributed by cable and direct satellite to about 400,000 subscribers
via the Stream pay television system. The channel will broadcast entirely
in Italian 15 hours a day with such well-known shows as X-MEN, MIGHTY
MORPHAN POWER RANGERS and INSPECTOR GADGET. The scheduled launch date for
the new net will be April 1, 2000. Following the Italian launch, Fox Kids
On February 11, 2000, CBS will air a special celebrating the career of THE
PEANUTS creator Charles Schultz. The hour-long GOOD GRIEF, CHARLIE BROWN: A
TRIBUTE TO CHARLES SCHULTZ will be hosted by CBS' former news legend Walter
Cronkite. The special will feature clips from the PEANUTS series and
specials, plus an interview with Charles Schultz. The legendary comic strip
artist retired at the beginning of the year in order to concentrate on
beating his newly diagnosed cancer.
NASCAR fans will soon be treated to the premiere of a new animated TV show
NASCAR RACERS. On Friday, February 5, 2000 at 3:30 pm, Fox Kids will kick
off the new series with a re-broadcast of the 90-minute NASCAR RACERS
telepic. Following the next day at 9:30 am, the series will premiere. The
show will follow the high-speed adventures of four young race car drivers.
Designed for those who produce commercials, music videos, industrial
projects and similar broadcast pieces, 'Lifestyles - Mixed Cuts' is a stock
CD which is packed full of video clips of people. The royalty free
collection of video snippets includes the faces of adults and children,
plus a wide variety of situations including a birthday party, a mother and
daughter out for a walk, professionals in a board room and even a transient
walking along train tracks. The uses are endless. Commercials and music
Toon Boom Technologies recently released a new version of its 2D cel animation software, USAnimation, which is used by top animation studios all over the world (Walt Disney TV Animation, Film Roman, Warner Bros., Klasky Csupo, Paramount Pictures, Mercury FilmWorks, Sunwoo, Cuckoo's Nest, Cinar). Version 5.0 brings a wealth of new tools to animators, including the new 3D camera, or USAnimation's Real-Time Scene Planning module (which can be used at any time after scanning).
Iowa State University's student television station is looking for animated
films of any kind under 7 minutes in length, for their animation
exposition. The winner will be broadcast locally in April of 2000 to an
audience of around 40-50,000 homes. In addition, animators that participate
will have their Web sites linked to from the station Web site. Submissions
can be on BetaSP, SVHS or VHS tapes. Since the animations will be broadcast
on TV, all submissions must meet FCC rules that include no nudity, graphic
