New Weekenders On ABC's Saturday Mornings
Disney's THE WEEKENDERS is set to premiere on ABC's "Disney's One Saturday
Morning" line-up Saturday, February 26, 2000 at 8:30 am. Each episode
follows a quartet of friends over one weekend from Friday after school to
Sunday evening. The series will be directed by Steve Lyons and is produced
by Walt Disney Television Animation.
Spain's New Hit Series Mimi And Mr. Bobo
Vitoria, Spain-based Mb Producciones is reaping a huge success from its new
animated series MIMI AND MR. BOBO. Since its debut on TVE, the average
share the series has received is 25.8. The show airs Saturday at 9 am and
re-runs at 8:30 am on Sundays. Mb Producciones is currently in negotiation
to create merchandise for the program with several well-known Spanish toy
and book companies. The company is also in the developing stage of a
feature based on the characters of the MIMI AND MR. BOBO series.
CartoonNetwork.com Plans To Expand
On February 1, 2000, Cartoon Network announced a broad expansion of
CartoonNetwork.com, the network's entertainment destination on the Web.
Kicking off the expansion is a heavy increase in original, interactive
entertainment. Over the next year, CartoonNetwork.com will more than double
production of its Web Premiere Toons. In addition, CartoonNetwork.com will
triple the number of games on the site; add functionality including
shopping and advanced search functions; and create a safe community aspect.
CineGroups & Saban To Power WunschPunch
Montreal-based CineGroupe and Saban International Paris will co-produce a
new half-hour series entitled WUNSCHPUNCH. The show will be based on the
novel by Michael Ende, whose previous novel, THE NEVER ENDING STORY was
made into a live-action feature. Radio Canada will broadcast the series in
Canada and TF1 will air it in France. Hubert Gariepy and Bruno Bianchi will
produce the series and Philippe Amador will direct.
Treasure The Teen Angst
The BBC, CINAR and HALO Productions will team up to brighten the world with
the teenage angst of the new animated series TREASURE. The show follows the
teenage tribulations of Treasure, her ever-frantic mother and critical
grandmother. The series will air on BBC prime time sometime in late 2000,
early 2001. The show has also been sold to YTV in Canada. TREASURE is based
off a popular newspaper column by Michele Hanson.
TOPIX/Mad Dog Reflects On Ricola Ad
TOPIX/MAD DOG clears the air for the newest Ricola ad. Produced for ad
agency, DKB & Partners, a 30-second spot entitled "Reflections" was created
to promote Ricola's new line of herbal health dietary supplements.
TOPIX/Mad Dog created the reflections of the Ricola Matterhorn on windows,
soap bubbles, sunglasses and cars. The spot was produced at TOPIX/Mad Dog
by Diana D'Amelio and the senior Flame artist was James Cooper.
Test Drive 6 Drives Out Of ATTIK
San Francisco-based ATTIK has brought to the finish line the spot for the
Infogrames video game TEST DRIVE 6. In the 30-second spot entitled "Movie
Trailer," director Simon Dixon placed a live-action driver in the seat of
the high-speed graphic environment. Clips of the real life racer are
intercut with game footage. The senior producer on the project was Lisa
Laubhan and the live-action producer was Doug Lay.
Boris Bundled With Avid Xpress DV
Versions of Boris Graffiti LTD and Boris FX LTD are now bundled with selected Avid Xpress DV non-linear video editing and delivery systems. Graffiti LTD, one of the most flexible title animation toolsets available, provides superior creativity and workflow for Avid system users by extending the titling capabilities in Avid Xpress DV. Boris FX LTD enhances the Avid Xpress DV toolset with the same dynamic special effects found in the award-winning Boris FX.
John K's New Series The Ripping Friends
Spumco's John Kricfalusi will be bringing his offbeat humor to a new Fox
Kids Network series entitled, THE RIPPING FRIENDS. Scheduled to hit the air
Fall 2000, the show will follow the adventures of 4 wacked out superheros.
Kricfalusi will provide at least one of the voices for the series. This
show will be Kricfalusi's first television series since Nickelodeon booted
him off of his brain child REN AND STIMPY.
Animation World Network Gets More Creative
Animation World Network is excited to announce that it has been acquired by
Creative Planet (www.creativeplanet.com), a network of business-to-business
Web sites for creative professionals. Dan Sarto, COO and co-founder of AWN
said, "This transaction will afford AWN the opportunity to continue its
aggressive growth strategy and sustained position as the leading Internet
site for the animation profession." AWN brings to Creative Planet its vast
Fox Kids Fires Up In Italy
In the spring, Fox Kids Europe will launch a local TV affiliate in Italy
and initiate a fully localized Web site to coincide. The new channel will
be distributed by cable and direct satellite to about 400,000 subscribers
via the Stream pay television system. The channel will broadcast entirely
in Italian 15 hours a day with such well-known shows as X-MEN, MIGHTY
MORPHAN POWER RANGERS and INSPECTOR GADGET. The scheduled launch date for
the new net will be April 1, 2000. Following the Italian launch, Fox Kids
Charles Schultz Special On CBS
On February 11, 2000, CBS will air a special celebrating the career of THE
PEANUTS creator Charles Schultz. The hour-long GOOD GRIEF, CHARLIE BROWN: A
TRIBUTE TO CHARLES SCHULTZ will be hosted by CBS' former news legend Walter
Cronkite. The special will feature clips from the PEANUTS series and
specials, plus an interview with Charles Schultz. The legendary comic strip
artist retired at the beginning of the year in order to concentrate on
beating his newly diagnosed cancer.
NASCAR Racers Rides Onto Fox
NASCAR fans will soon be treated to the premiere of a new animated TV show
NASCAR RACERS. On Friday, February 5, 2000 at 3:30 pm, Fox Kids will kick
off the new series with a re-broadcast of the 90-minute NASCAR RACERS
telepic. Following the next day at 9:30 am, the series will premiere. The
show will follow the high-speed adventures of four young race car drivers.
Artbeats Releases Lifestyles
Designed for those who produce commercials, music videos, industrial
projects and similar broadcast pieces, 'Lifestyles - Mixed Cuts' is a stock
CD which is packed full of video clips of people. The royalty free
collection of video snippets includes the faces of adults and children,
plus a wide variety of situations including a birthday party, a mother and
daughter out for a walk, professionals in a board room and even a transient
walking along train tracks. The uses are endless. Commercials and music
Toon Boom Releases USAnimation 5.0
Toon Boom Technologies recently released a new version of its 2D cel animation software, USAnimation, which is used by top animation studios all over the world (Walt Disney TV Animation, Film Roman, Warner Bros., Klasky Csupo, Paramount Pictures, Mercury FilmWorks, Sunwoo, Cuckoo's Nest, Cinar). Version 5.0 brings a wealth of new tools to animators, including the new 3D camera, or USAnimation's Real-Time Scene Planning module (which can be used at any time after scanning).
Iowa State Wants To Air Your Shorts
Iowa State University's student television station is looking for animated
films of any kind under 7 minutes in length, for their animation
exposition. The winner will be broadcast locally in April of 2000 to an
audience of around 40-50,000 homes. In addition, animators that participate
will have their Web sites linked to from the station Web site. Submissions
can be on BetaSP, SVHS or VHS tapes. Since the animations will be broadcast
on TV, all submissions must meet FCC rules that include no nudity, graphic
Rifkin Joins MediaTrip.com's Board
ARNOLD RIFKIN, whose Cheyenne Enterprises, LLC, is currently partnered with
such talent as Bruce Willis, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover, has joined
the Board of Directors of on-line entertainment company MediaTrip.com.
Rifkin was a founding partner in the talent agency, Triad Artists before it
was acquired by the William Morris Agency in 1992. Soon after Rifkin went
on head the Motion Picture Department at William Morris before being named
Stipes Steps In At Rainbow
RAINBOW STUDIOS, a digital media company, announced DAVID STIPES has joined
Rainbow Studios' management staff. Stipes role will be to direct and
motivate Rainbow's team of award-winning producers, designers and artists
in current and upcoming projects. Stipes comes to Rainbow from Paramount
Pictures where he served as visual effects supervisor. Stipes designed
visual effects and supervised on-set live-action, motion control, CGI and
digital compositing for STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, STAR TREK: VOYAGER and
Syconet.com Choices Chang As Dir. of Marketing
SYCONET.COM, INC., a leading U.S. distributor of anime videos and DVDs,
announced that ANNELIESE CHANG will become their new director of marketing.
Chang will be responsible for the development of sales and marketing for
the company. Before joining SyCoNet.com, Chang held a management position
at Disney Consumer Products-Licensing, where she managed the product
development for over 20 toy licensees on various Disney properties
including TOY STORY 2, DINOSAUR, MICKEY MOUSE and WINNIE THE POOH. Prior to
Poole Swims At AniManagement
REBECCA POOLE, a veteran Nickelodeon Movies exec, has been appointed to the
newly created position of VP, production, at Burbank, CA-based
AniManagement. Poole will help lead the company's new efforts in animated
and live-action film production. Her responsibilities will include managing
the division's existing client base and the acquisition and development of
original material. Most recently, Poole served as manager, creative
affairs, at Nick Movies. Before joining Nick, Poole worked at American
New at Visual Magic Magazine
Check out the latest "behind the scenes" features and tutorials from Visual
Magic Magazine...
Plympton's Comic of the Week
Plympton's new series of comics extracted from the comic book, "Sleazy
Cartoons of Bill Plympton," is for ADULTS ONLY...
This Week's Animation Trivia Quiz
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz...
FPS Wants to Hear From You
FPS (Frames Per Second), the Canadian animation magazine, now has a
questionnaire on-line that they invite all readers, new and old, to fill
out. The FPS survey is located at
The current issue of FPS (#18) is available for sale in AWN's
where you can subscribe to your favorite animation publications and
The February Issue of Animation World Magazine Is Now On-line!
February is our annual motion-capture and stop-motion issue, and we have
plenty in store as usual. Sharon Schatz interviews Brian Nilles of leading
motion-capture technology firm, Vicon Motion Systems. Gregory Singer goes
behind the scenes on one of the many projects which uses Vicon's
technology, while Laura Schiff introduces us to Webbie Tookay, a new
motion-capture personality. On the stop-motion side of things, Wendy
Jackson covers Aardman Animations' current high flying times as they work
