AWN Headline News

DENNIS KANG, a graduate of Robert Bateman Secondary School in Abbotsford,Canada, has been awarded a $5,000 entrance scholarship by the CENTER FORDIGITAL IMAGING AND SOUND (CDIS). Kang will begin his post-secondarystudies this October in CDIS's full-time Character Animation Program.Established in 1979, CDIS is one of Canada's oldest and most successfulprivate media arts colleges with graduates working world-wide in today'smost interesting fields.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment previously announced that the 60thAnniversary Edition of Disney's classic PINOCCHIO would be the first Disneyanimated feature to be released in the DVD format [Animation Flash8/24/99]. Now they have announced that a new VHS edition of PINOCCHIO,fully restored and THX-certified, will be available on the same day as theDVD version, October 26, 1999 in the US. This version will include a"Making of Pinocchio" bonus section, which will only be available on the

Santa Monica, California-based Station X Studios is licensing theproduction version of its proprietary animation software tools, code named"Project: messiah," as a commercial software product. The high-endanimation production software, developed to animate the studio'sforthcoming live-action/CGI feature film DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: THE MOVIE, canbe used on computers utilizing the Microsoft Windows NT operating systemwith either Intel compatible or Alpha compatible processors. A Mac version

MTV and sister Viacom unit Simon & Schuster Interactive are producing sixCD-ROM (for PC and Mac) and PlayStation entertainment titles for MTV'sDARIA over the next five years. The first title, DARIA'S SICK, SAD LIFEPLANNER will ship this October for the PC. DARIA, which debuted in March of1997, spun off Beavis and Butt-Head's only female "friend" into her ownshow. The series is about Daria Morgendorffer, a smart and sardonicteenager blessed with an uncanny ability to turn potential disaster to her

The 6th Multimedia International Market (MIM) takes place September 15-17in Montreal, Canada. The tradeshow includes the International Golden MIMscompetition which will award prizes for the best CD-Rom, Web Sites andOthers (Business Solutions, Multimedia Software, Special Effects). For moreinformation Tel. (514) 288 3931, Fax: (514) 288 0641, or E-mail:info@mim.qc.ca. Also visit www.mim.qc.ca.

Cartoon Network has promoted James Porges to vice president of off-channel commerce. Porges will manage the businessdevelopment of consumer products and off-channel presence of all CartoonNetwork-branded multi-character efforts, including publishing, music, homevideo, and theme parks. He will also manage all original Cartoon Networkcharacters such as The Powerpuff Girls and Johnny Bravo. Prior to becomingdirector of brand management, Porges was director of Cartoon Network Clubsat Turner Home Entertainment.

San Francisco, California-based Macromedia, Inc. has announced Macromedia FlashWriter, a free downloadable plug-in for Adobe Illustrator, which willenable Illustrator users to save their artwork natively to the Flash Playerfile format (SWF). Illustrator users will now be able to deploy theirartwork to the Web immediately without having to reformat it as a bitmappedfile. Flash is the industry standard for high-impact, vector-based Websites that deliver motion, sound, interactivity and graphics. Flash Writer

Magicians Penn & Teller willguest star on the September 10th episode of SHO.com's WHIRLGIRL, Showtime'sanimated online series about a sexy, 21st century cyber-heroine. "We sawPenn & Teller's wise-guy approach to magic and their cult-like appeal as aperfect fit for the WhirlGirl audience," says WHIRLGIRL creator DavidWilliams of New York-based Visionary Media, producer of the series."Besides, who else but Penn & Teller could pull off the'Throwing-Knives-at-a-Super-Heroine-On-A-Roulette-Wheel' stunt?" The

Lucasfilm's STAR WARS EPISODE ONE:THE PHANTOM MENACE passed the $300 million mark in overseas boxoffice,making it the eleventh most successful film of all time outside of NorthAmerica. It opened last week in Switzerland with $1.1 million, thefourth-biggest opening there. In three regions where it was in its secondweek of release, it took in $7.5 million in Germany for a total of $24.7million; $2.7 million in Spain for a total of $10.9 million; and $893,000in Sweden for a total of $3.1 million. The film's total gross from 27