* 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
* 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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 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
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
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.
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
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
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
- 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
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.
