* Tuesday, December 14, 1999. New York, New York.
MR. WONDERBIRD, the 1953 animated feature directed by Paul Grimault,will have a rare screening as part of the weekly Light+Screen FilmFestival. MR. WONDERBIRD is a surreal adventure following a lively bird whorallies a group of imprisoned lions and a lamenting polar bear in thedefense of two young lovers who are pursued by a mad king, a giant robotand a battalion of flying policemen. The film features an English-language
TheThreshold.com, a leading on-line entertainment network for brandedentertainment, has announced the premiere of its newest show, POKEMON MUST BEDESTROYED. Daily, the series will feature a new POKEMON character beingdestroyed in a delightfully merciless way. Web-surfers and haters of the"pocket things" will be able to vote on the next day's method of destruction. After thecomplete genocide of the little creatures, the network shall remain open shouldanything else need to be permanently eliminated. TheThreshold.com
The Harvey Entertainment Company has partnered with Landmark EntertainmentGroup to create themed attractions from Harvey's cast of classic toons. Toons likeCASPER, THE FRIENDLY GHOST, RICHIE RICH, LITTLE AUDREY, and WENDY THE GOODWITCH will be the spark of ingenuity behind several location-based entertainmentcenters. Landmark's past film-inspired rides include STAR TREK: THE EXPERIENCE,JURASSIC PARK: THE RIDE, and TERMINATOR 2: 3D. Tony Christopher, CEO ofLandmark Entertainment Group believes, "Families are looking for entertaining things
Venice, CA-based, Blur Studio, a leader in 3D animation, effects anddesign, has spawned a new theme park and special venue division. The new venture will behelmed by veteran ride film director Yas Takata. The new studio comes off theheels of Blur's success with the creation of last year's METEOR ATTACK, acustom film attraction for the Tobu Zoo Park in Tokyo, Japan co-directed by Takata andBlur co-founder Tim Miller. The film has since been licensed by IwerksEntertainment to play at venues around the globe. Takata has directed
Iwerks Entertainment, Inc., an international leader in location-basedentertainment attractions, and Stan Lee Media, Inc., comic book icon StanLee's Internet entertainment company, are making Web history by molding the firsttheme park and specialty attraction experiences for the out-of-home market,based on Stan Lee's Internet entertainment material. Lee's Web-based superheroes will be brought to ride simulations, 3D/4D FX attractions and largescreen venues by Iwerks. Lee, in the first quarter of 2000, will launch his
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, The Learning Channel will feature a specialentitled ULTIMATE SPECIAL EFFECTS. Premiering Sunday, November 28th from8pm to 11pm ET/PT, the special event will be comprised of three showshighlighting the effects in recent films like THE MATRIX, THE HAUNTING,ARMAGEDDON, and STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE.
Charles M. Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown, his dog Snoopy and the rest ofthe PEANUTS gang, has been diagnosed with colon cancer. The cancer wasdiscovered when the 76-year-old Schulz underwent emergency surgery lastTuesday for a blocked abdominal aorta. Schulz' wife Jean said doctors aredetermining the best course of treatment, which can include surgery, radiationand chemotherapy. One concern for doctors is that Schulz, who turns 77 onFriday, is still recuperating from the abdominal surgery. Since being moved
*Saturday, December 4, 1999. North Hollywood, California, USA.
Glenn Vilppu will be presenting a free slide show at 4:15pm at theAnimation Union, 4729 Lankershim, North Hollywood. Glenn will be discussinghis sketching tour to Scandinavia in July, 2000. For more information call(818) 994 2402.
The new Bond flick THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH beat out Tim Burton's SLEEPYHOLLOW for the top spot in the U.S. weekend box office. The thirdinstallment of the 007 series, with star Pierce Brosnan in the lead role,grossed $37.2 to become the best opening for any Bond flick and the biggestdebut in MGM history in the states. The primary visual effects for the filmwere done by Digital Film, Cinesite London, and Magic Camera. Burton'sSLEEPY HOLLOW, based off the Washington Irving story, finished second with
Crater Software recently made an agreement with Chromacolour Internationalwhich will see Chromacolour's industry leading colour palettes incorporatedinto Crater Software's popular CTP animation system. CTP is alreadyproviding animation studios with a cost effective solution to 2D celanimation and cartoon production, however, the software will benefit evenfurther from having such a well known and widely used colour paletteavailable for artists and animators to utilize. For more information on CTPand Crater Software visit www.cratersfotware.com.
Metacreations, the developers of cult 3D package Bryce and popular 2D paintprogram Painter, recently announced that a new version of its famous KPTplug-in for Photoshop was now available. The new version is made up of 8filters -- Materializer, Equalizer, Gel, LensFlare, Turbulence, Reaction,Projector and Goo -- plus, there are two bonus filters: SceneBuilder andSkyEffects. The plug-in does, as in previous versions, share the consistenteasy to use interface across all of the filters. It also shows previews of
A cloud has eclipsed the world of animation since the passing of belovedvoice-over actress, Mary Kay Bergman. A prolific artist, she has recentlyprovided the voice for Daphne Blake in the two most recent SCOOBY-DOOdirect-to-video flicks; Batgirl/Barbara Gordon in BATMAN: SUBZERO; and allbut one of the female voices on Comedy Central's SOUTH PARK. She is alsobeen the "official" voice of Disney's Snow White since 1989. Mrs. Bergmanhad recently received an Annie Award nomination for her work in the SOUTH
MICHAEL PERIK, the Learning Company's chairman, and its president, KEVINO'LEARY, have moved on from MATTEL, INC. A search has begun for a newperson to helm Mattel Interactive, the division which includes all units ofthe Learning Company, Mattel Media and the company's Intel Play venture. Inrelated news, Mattel has said that FRANCESCA LUZURIAGA will be the newchief operating officer of Mattel Interactive, responsible for finance,information technology and new business development. In addition, the
CINAR CORPORATION, creators of two-time Emmy winning ARTHUR and RICHARDSCARRY, appointed LOUISE SANSREGRET as Vice President of their newlycreated position in Investment Relations. Sansregret will focus her talentson various special corporate and community-based projects, as well asmanaging donations and sponsorships. In addition, SUZAN AYSCOUGH hasreturned to CINAR to take over as Vice President, Communications. Ayscoughwill over see corporate communications and product communications.
J.J. SEDELMAIER PRODUCTIONS, with J.J. Sedelmaier serving as director, hasproduced a second Milton Bradley/Parker Brothers "Family Game Night"30-second spot. The commercial features classic board games like Monopoly,Clue, and Scrabble. This incarnation is entitled "Special Night" andfeatures the same child-like crayon style from the previous Milton Bradleyspot.
THE MILL, a London-based post house, recently finished up a new Daewoo carspot. The 30-second commercial, entitled "Aerial Fantasy," is directed byDaniel Barber of Rose Hackney Barber and produced by Duckworth Finn GrubbWaters. The Mill's Flame artist Jason Watts set the piece to a base-boomingmix of rock and rap music. The spot features the new Daewoo "Lanos"thrashing the world's largest skateboarding half pipe. The spot will airaround Europe in November and arrive in England come January 2000.
On November 11, 1999, the Hollywood Reporter reported that Columbiapictures has garnered the rights to Marvel Comics' DOCTOR STRANGE: MASTEROF THE MYSTIC ARTS. Don Murphy of Columbia-based Angry Films will producethe potentially live-action feature. The Strange flick joins SPIDER-MAN asthe second Marvel property in development at Columbia. Other comic-bookinspired project currently coming to life at Angry Films include ASTROBOYand PARASYTE.
Production has started up on NUTTY II: THE KLUMPS, the sequel to the $270million hit THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. Eddie Murphy will return to the role ofProfessor Sherman Klump in the Universal Pictures' and ImagineEntertainment flick. Singer and actress Janet Jackson co-stars in the film,which is produced by Brian Grazer (LIAR LIAR, BOWFINGER) and directed byPeter Segal (TOMMY BOY). Tom Shadyac, Murphy, Karen Kehela and James D.Brubaker are the executive producers, and the screenplay is scribed by
In deal between Midway Games Inc. and shockwave.com, the companies willbring classic Midway arcade games to the Net. Using Shockmachine, a virtualdevice, players will be able to download, save and play full-screen,Shockwave versions of games like: Defender, Joust, Spy Hunter, Moon Patroland Marble Madness. The games will remain exclusively on shockwave.com forthree months then they will also be available on Midway's home site andother major Web sites. The partnership will allow each company to link to
Watch for Hidden Evil Trekers! Activision, Inc. will beam Captain Picardand crew into stores the week of November 22, 1999 with their new releaseSTAR TREK: HIDDEN EVIL. The new game takes place nine months after thefeature film STAR TREK: INSURRECTION, featuring story driven missions thatwarp players into an adventure of combat, stealth and exploration. AsEnsign Sovok, a young officer serving on board the Enterprise, game-playerswill battle the Romulans to save the Ba'ku planet.
Eidos Interactive, an interactive software company, will release their hitgame, LEGACY OF KAIN: SOUL REAVER, for Sega Dreamcast. The game wasreleased for PlayStation and PC in August and has appeared on the cover ofevery major U.S. electronic gaming industry magazine. "The ongoing successand industry praise for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver coupled with theimpressive sales figures of Sega Dreamcast make this a great fit," said RobDyer, President, Eidos Interactive. The action adventure game allows
* Cartoon Noir Screening. New York, New York, USA. December 3, 1999.
This feature-length compilation of animated short films features works from the American and European artists. Featured in CARTOONNOIR is: APE, Julie Zammarchi's darkly comic critique of monogamy, meateating, and the daily pattern of human brutality; ALTAIR, Lewis Klahr'scollagist elegy on New York nightlife; CLUB OF THE DISCARDED, Jiri Barta'stale of a family of discarded mannequins who enjoy a quiet life in an
Customers who choose LightWave between now and the release of version 6will receive free upgrades from the current version (version 5.6).LightWave 6-- which is due for release later this year -- is said to be themost significant upgrade to the popular program in its long history as oneof the leading tools for visual effects and digital image creation.LightWave [6] is also the only 3D software system to run on MAC, WindowsNT, Alpha and Silicon Graphics systems. Version 5.6 is available now at a
A sad cloud has eclipsed the world of animation since the passing ofbeloved voice-over actress, Mary Kay Bergman. She recently has provided thevoice for Daphne Blake in the two most recent Scooby-Doo direct-to-videoflicks; Batgirl/Barbara Gordon in "Batman: Subzero"; the "official" voicefor Disney's Snow White; and all but one of the female voices on ComedyCentral's "South Park." Many questions surrounding the details of herpassing have surfaced since fans have logged onto her Web site which only
The Academy Award-nominated, animated short film, LUXO JR., will accompanyTOY STORY 2 for its Thanksgiving release. Directed by John Lasseter (TOYSTORY, A BUG'S LIFE), LUXO JR. debuted at SIGGRAPH in 1986 to wide praiseof its integration of classic character design with a new level of visualrealism. "LUXO JR. was the first computer animated film where the story andcharacters were more important to audiences than the fact that it was madewith a computer," said Lasseter, Pixar's Executive Vice President,
