Toon In is AWN's guide to what's new on the Net. This week's installment features the newest toon from John K, Bill Plympton and much, much more.
Get your Toon In: Web Animation Guide here!
Every week AWN's associate editor Rick DeMott highlights what he thinks is the top new toon in cyberspace in "Rick's Picks!"
Rick's Pick For Friday, August 11, 2000!
AniVision Inc. has signed a licensing deal with the U.S. college footballs Southeastern Conference (SEC) to transport online game players into key plays from the 2000 season. Under the 5-year pact, AniVision will recreate SEC games and place gamers within the action to view replays on-demand, analyze players performance or insert themselves into key plays. The alliance marks the first use of AniVisions 3D-animation technology for real-sports recreation.
Class-Key Chew-Po director Voltaire has wrapped up his first national spot for Kelloggs PopTarts Pastry Swirls. The spot features cherries parading in a chorus line then diving into a pool of cream cheese. Innovative Business Communications provided the CGI cream cheese so that the fluid nature would be more believable. The commercial was produced for Chicago-based ad agency Leo Burnett.
Ring of Fire has finished two spots for Sonys Walkman entitled "Spaceship" and "Dorm." Both spots center around the space alien Plato. In "Spaceship" after downloading tunes onto his Sony Memory Stick Walkman, Plato fights Los Angeles traffic in his shuttle on his way to his new college. In "Dorm," Plato enters his room after a shower to find that his female over-night visitor loves the mini disk of songs Plato has made her on his MiniDisk Walkman.
Eyeball has livened up the newest spot for Nikes latest shoe line, Presto! The spot that airs in Nike stores shows off the bright colors of the shoes with slick retro style. Director Limore Shur said, "We were after a moving, driving, fun-looking piece to exemplify what the shoes are all about. I think we achieved that. There was a nice aesthetic appeal to the whole thing." Curious Pictures used Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop and Discreet edit* to blend the graphics with the colors and product shots.
Curious Pictures has completed the opening for the new Cartoon Network series THE BOB CLAMPETT SHOW. The spot highlights the mix of Clampetts styles from his Warner Bros. shorts to his later puppet work. In Flame, the Curious artists created smiles on the puppets faces and a film transition into a puppet theatre. Steve Patrick was the creative director for Cartoon Network and Denis Morella directed the open for Curious Pictures.
Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design (RMCAD), located in Denver, Colorado, has added a new animation program to its bachelor degree program. Currently, the college offers five other Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Graphic Design and Interactive Media, Illustration, Painting, Sculpture and Interior Design. The schools goal is to delve into the medium of animation as the only interdisciplinary visual art that merges art, writing, storytelling, drawing, design, sculpture, acting, filmmaking, art direction and film directing.
* Thursday, September 21 Saturday, September 23, 2000. Visby, Gotland, Sweden.
* Friday, September 22 Sunday, September 24, 2000. London, U.K.
* Saturday, September 23, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
* Saturday, September 23 Saturday, September 30, 2000. Split, Croatia.
* Saturday, September 30 Friday, October 6, 2000. Cannes, France.
AtomFilms has appointed veteran TV executive Mikael Shields senior VP entertainment Europe. At the Netcaster, Shields will shepherd acquisitions and development of entertainment properties, negotiating and managing co-productions and content partnerships in Europe. He will work out of the year-old London office of the Seattle-based company. Previously, Shields served as CEO of U.K. television production company EVA Entertainment. He was a founding shareholder of EVA and helped negotiate the firms sale to Pearson Television in February 1999.
Slingshot Entertainment is set to release a compellation DVD featuring Brilliant Digital Multipath Web shorts. DVD Intl., which distributes interactive movies IM YOUR MAN and TENDER LOVING CARE, will distribute DVDs featuring the series SUPERMAN, XENA, ACE VENTURA and THE MUMMY. The release will feature further computer rendered graphics and 15-20 minutes of linear programming to advance the interactivity of the story.
On Tuesday August 8, 2000, David Spades new animated series, SAMMY, made a lackluster debut in the bottom of its 8:30 pm time slot. Despite a decent lead-in by a rerun of 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN, the new primetime toon drew only 4.1 million viewers and a 1.8 rating/6 share for adults 18-49. The long shelved series follows the reunion of a newly famous son and his deadbeat dad. How long will the series last only time can tell. The last two heavily hyped primetime toons, GOD THE DEVIL & BOB and CLERKS, never made it past six episodes combined.
Berkeley Breathed, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and childrens author, is set to make his directorial debut with the filmed version of his newest book, EDWURD FUDWUPPER FIBBED BIG. Nickelodeon Movies and Storyopolis are set to produce the seven-minute short. The book will be released next month by Storyopolis and Little, Brown Co. Sources say the film will screen in theatres in the fall, which might signal its attachment to the release of RUGRATS IN PARIS, but no official word has been announced.
Former Disney chairman Joe Roths Revolution Studios will turn the Web series, LIL PIMP, into a Flash-animated feature. The MediaTrip.com series will be the first feature length film to be animated using Macromedias Flash software. Creators Paul Gilstrap and Mark Brooks with their team of four animators are set to scribe, produce and direct the project. Production on the flick could begin as early as three to four weeks. No monetary details have been released, however Gilstrap and Brooks look to make most of their money from backend revenues.
* Thursday, September 14, 2000. New York, New York, U.S.A.
* Wednesday, September 20 Thursday, September 21, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
* Saturday, August 5 Friday, August 11, 2000. Trondheim, Norway.
The theme of the 12th SAS Conference is "Digital Challenges - Expanded Boundaries." The conference will discuss how technological changes have effected the industry in the present, past and future. Topics will include technology and budgets, classic animation in the future and motion capture.
* Thursday, August 17 Friday, August 18, 2000. New York, New York, U.S.A.
* Sunday, September 10, 2000. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
* Tuesday, September 19 Sunday, September 24, 2000. Ottawa, Canada.
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With several debuts around the globe, THE PATRIOT has won the war for international box office supremacy. Premiering at #1 in Germany, the Mel Gibson-starrer grossed a hefty $3.23 million. Slipping to second, THE PERFECT STORM garnered $1.29 million, raising its German cume to $8.62 million. Down one to #4, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 added another $1.01 million to its $22.42 million German cume. At #8, THE TIGGER MOVIE rounded up an additional $206,761, bringing its German cume to $3.97 million. In its 10th week in Germany, GLADIATOR grossed $119,979 in tenth, advancing its cume to $19.99 million.
