AWN Headline News

Michael Webster, who established Walt Disney's television animation

division in 1984, passed away at the age 60 following a long battle with

multiple sclerosis. On Saturday, January 29, 2000, Mr. Webster succumbed to

complications from pneumonia at his home in Port Townsend, Washington,

U.S.A. During his 42 year tenure, Webster created the Walt Disney

Television Animation division and served as its senior VP until his

retirement in 1992. He oversaw production of the Emmy-winning NEW

ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT INC., a leading worldwide interactive entertainment

company, has appointed JAY ANDRONACO as manager of public relations and

BRADFORD W. LOUCKS as vice president of sales. Andronaco will oversee

public relations initiatives for Acclaim's recently announced Extreme

Championship Wrestling (ECW) license, including the launch of the first

video game title on February 17, 2000, ECW HARDCORE REVOLUTION. In

addition, Andronaco will manage media relation initiatives for select

Funkmation Studios, an animation house providing services for film,

television, CD-Rom and the Web, has floated into a new home in Brooklyn's

Navy Yard. The animation house will share the new space with New York

Studios' film and television sound stage. Funkmation's credits include:

SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH CD-Rom; storyboard and background design on

COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG; Flash animation on Partner Re's screen savers;

and a 2D animation pilot with C&C Films entitled MAXIMUM BLACK. The new

Tom Snyder Productions' HOME MOVIES has found a new home at Cartoon

Network. The Atlanta-based toon channel has ordered 13 episodes for 2000.

The order also includes five episodes, which originally aired on UPN last

spring and eight new episodes, to be produced beginning in February. HOME

MOVIES is about Brendon Small, a restless, creative third-grader, who uses

his video camera to deal with his problems. The cast includes Brendon

Small, Melissa Bardin Galsky and H. Jon Benjamin. The show is very funny as

The Emmy award-winning producer of THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, JUDE

BRENNAN, has joined the ever-expanding roster at OXYGEN MEDIA. Brennan will

occupy the newly created bi-coastal position of senior vice president of

programming. Brennan will helm the television programming schedule for the

network. The new Oxygen channel will launch nationwide on February 2, 2000.

For the last 20 years, Brennan has served as vice president of creative

OLIVE JAR STUDIOS has opened their doors to a new executive in charge of

special venue and theme park productions, MARK RHODES. Rhodes will help the

company's new West Coast branch increase business in both long format

productions and theme park attraction work, as well as aid in the

commercial division. When at Universal, Rhodes supervised two separate

animation projects produced by Olive Jar for Universal Studios' new Islands

of Adventure theme park, which opened in Summer 1999. Rhodes' other

Tim Burton, creator of NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, has inked a deal to

bring a series of animated shorts featuring his Stainboy character to

shockwave.com. Viewers will be able to download the charcoal-drawn

superhero's first five-minute short sometime in Spring 2000. Under the

terms of the deal, Burton will keep full artistic control over the

characters and properties. The William Morris Agency brokered the deal

which allows for the cross over to TV if the shorts become a hit on the

On Thursday, January 27, 2000, Disney announced their decision to change

the direction of their Go.com from an all purpose portal and search engine

like AOL.com, Lycos and Yahoo! to strictly an entertainment and leisure

destination. This announcement comes on the same day as The U.S. Court of

Appeals for the Ninth Circuit repealed the stay [AF 12/7/99] on a previous

injunction that bans the use of Go.com's green and yellow traffic light

logo. Disney was given the stay to allow them the chance to remove the logo

* Thursday, February 10, 2000. Westwood, California, U.S.A.

The Women In Animation Writers' Group will meet at Saban Entertainment at

7:30 pm. This month's topic is the animation premise and general animation

structure. The charge for the workshop is US$5. RSVP required. For more

information please contact Jean Ann Wright at: Tel.: (818) 360-8321 or

E-mail: jjwright@gte.net.