AWN Headline News

Is Pikachu anti-Semitic? The answer is no, even after questions to thecontrary circled when parents complained of a swastika-like symbolappearing on the Japanese language cards for Pokemon's Golbat and Ditto.These two cards, not yet released in the U.S. card collection, include aJapanese symbol called a "manji," which is a mirror image of a swastika.The symbol, however, is a centuries-old, Japanese symbol for good fortune.Not wanting to create any bad financial karma, Nintendo has announced thatit will discontinue the questionable cards.

Shockwave.com has announced that they have signed Trey Parker and MattStone, the creators of SOUTH PARK, to concoct 39 new works. The new showswill first air on shockwave.com beginning in March. Stone and Parker's newdisfunctional toons will range from 2 to 5 minutes and could be one-offshorts or pieces of an on-going series. In the L.A. Times on December 8,1999, Stone was quoted as saying that "the real allure of [the deal] isthat we get to create another TV series but on a much smaller scale. We

TROLLBACK & CO., a newly formed visual effects and design studio, finisheda new spot for ROWECOM, a start-up internet service company. The commercialfeatures a fast-paced mix of books, maps and other layered images in conjunction withlive action footage by director Elena Colombo. The spot was produced for thecreative team at Boston-based McKay Communications. The spot started airing October18 on CNBC North America and Europe (including the United Kingdom).

INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC just finished up the new Will Smith video WILL2K forColumbia Records and Sony Pictures. Robert Caruso directed the vid that sendsmega-star Will Smith on a Millenium eve time traveling spree. The futuristiceffects were created with ILM's newest motion capture software.

Read Heather Kenyon's interview with ILM's Seth Rosenthal in AnimationWorld Magazine.

TOY STORY 2 has repeated its performance in the top spot at the U.S. boxoffice. The film took in approximately US$28.3 million over the weekend tobring its two week total to $117.3 million. The remaining three films inthe top four also stayed the same from Thanksgiving with: THE WORLD IS NOTENOUGH, with primary visual effects by Digital Film, Cinesite London, andMagic Camera, coming in second with a gross of $10.6 million and a cume of$90.4 million; END OF DAYS, with primary visual-effects by Rhythm & Hues,

The war between TOY STORY and POKEMON over kids' piggy bank change hasmoved to a new battle field -- the local burger joint! McDonald's Corp.,the U.S.-based, world-wide burger chain, has released TOY STORY 2 toys inconnection with the recently released film. The McDonald's promotion,featuring a collection of 20 different characters from the TOY STORY 2movie, will be distributed with each Happy Meal purchase. The chain willalso offer six TOY STORY 2-themed candy dispensers for $1.99 each with the

BARRY SCHULER, President of America Online, Inc.'s Interactive Services Group,has joined the Board of Directors of OXYGEN MEDIA. At AOL, Schuler oversees thecompany's online services unit that includes the flagship AOL service,CompuServe, Netscape and AOL Devices. Schuler joins Oxygen's CEO GeraldineLaybourne, Oprah Winfrey, Marcy Carsey, and others on the board of theprivately-held company.

HOUSE OF MOVES MOTION CAPTURE STUDIOS, the leader in motion capture services, has promoted JARROD PHILLIPS to Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Phillips also serves as Executive Producer.

WILD BRAIN, INC. signed Oscar-winning producer NINA RAPPAPORT to head theproduction company's computer graphics endeavors. After joining Wild Brainin May of this year as a freelance producer, Rappaport helped bringtogether the talent needed to produce the company's slate of CG projects.Before coming to Wild Brain, Rappaport was Executive Producer at Blue SkyStudios in New York. Her feature film credits include producing the effectson JOE'S APARTMENT and A SIMPLE WISH and executive producing STAR TREK:INSURRECTION.

Sega Dreamcast, the most advanced videogame system to date, has gone platinum.Sega of America, Inc. announced that the 128-bit, Internet-ready videogamesystem has sold one million units in North America since its launch onSeptember9, 1999. This milestone came six weeks ahead of corporate predictions andbeforethe after-Thanksgiving holiday shopping frenzy. The platinum mark forDreamcast has broken sales records by other high-profile consumer andelectronic products.