AWN Headline News

Toon In is AWN's guide to what's new on the Net. This week's installment features new shorts from Stan Lee Media and Aardman Animations 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 18, 2000!

Roy Disney has agreed to help director Richard Williams restore his masterpiece, THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, to the version he had originally intended to make. The heart-wrenching saga of the THIEF began after Williams success on WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? With the backing of Warner Bros., the filmmaker set out to finish his then 20 years in the making feature about a mute cobbler and an unsuccessful thief. The stipulation attached to the project was that Williams must finish the film for a 1992 release. The production fell behind schedule and Warner Bros.

* Friday, September 22, 2000. Ottawa, Canada.

Harvey Entertainment has announced their acquisition of the U.S. rights from Pearson Television International for the feature-length film A MONKEYS TALE. The film follows the story of two tribes of monkeys one tree dwelling and one ground dwelling and what happens when one curious ape falls into the other tribes world. The film recently won best animated feature at the Hollywood Film Festival and the Toronto Sun Animation Award at the Sprockets International Film Festival for Children.

Like its doomed toon brother CLERKS, SAMMY has been sacked by NBC after only airing two episodes. The network pulled the plug on the long-shelved comedian David Spade series after it was down 1.1 million views from its lackluster debut of 4.1 million. The beleaguered toon scored a dismal 1.6 rating among adults 18-49 in its Tuesday 8:30 pm time slot. The cancellation isnt much of a surprise, especially when insiders have said that the series ranked as one of the networks lowest-scoring shows in front of test audiences.

In London for the sold out SIMPSONS live script reading stage show, SIMPSONS creator Matt Groening confirmed that a SIMPSONS feature is in the planning stage. Groening said, "Its a little daunting coming up with a half-hour TV episode, let alone a full-length feature. No deals have been struck, but we will do one." The television classic is now in its tenth season and is the longest running sitcom on U.S. television

New York-based Charlex was brought in by British Petroleum to give a face-lift to their image. "The challenge was to make an interesting commercial using only the British Petroleum logo," said Charlex founder and spot director Alex Weil. "It was an idea originated by BP themselves, but nobody has been able to make it sufficiently interesting until we got hold of it. As [creative director] David Fowler put it, The idea went from the trash can to Charlex. Its a good thing too.

Smarterville, Inc., a Web-based childrens media company, announced that Peter Doctorow, former president of Knowledge Adventure, has been named as president and chief executive officer. Founder Ben Sharpe will remain as chief technology officer. "We are excited to add Peter Doctorow to our team," said Ben Sharpe, Smarterville founder and chief technology officer.

TOPIX/Mad Dog was tapped to create the visual effects for the HDTV animated retelling of the Prodigal Son tale entitled, CHOICE. The 25-minute film was produced for Expo 2000s "Pavilion of Hope" in Hanover, Germany. Presented in six languages, the film started airing in June and will run until October. The project was animated by Canuck Creations in Toronto and digitally scanned, inked and painted in Viet Nam at One Shot Pro and Planet Wave. "Originally, our job was to handle the post to finish off the process and put the footage into continuous form.