Fox Cuts 70% Of Its Animation Staff
After five years in existence, Fox Animation Studios is laying off nearly
70% of its Phoenix-based toon factory's staff. The restructuring of the
animation department will include more contract work outside the studio.
President of animation at Fox, Chris Meledandri said a foundation of 65-100
of the now 320 employees will remain, including, of course, studio staples
Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. Fox will continue to perform pre-production
work including storyboarding, character design, production design and
Mondo Media Musters Up $20M In Financing
Mondo Media, a leading creator and distributor of serial-based animated
content, announced Monday, February 14, 2000 that it has secured $20
million in its second round of financing. The newest round was led by
Macromedia and Foundation Capital. Additional funding partners in the round
included Sofinnova Ventures, Red Rock Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank and
Phoenix Growth Capital. Mondo Media also added new syndication partners
that include Excite@Home, AltaVista, AtomFilms and washingtonpost.com.
Voice Of Slinky Dog, Jim Varney, Dies
Jim Varney, the comic who most recently provided the voice of Slinky Dog in
TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2, died on Thursday, February 10, 2000 at his
Tennessee home of lung cancer. He was 50 years old. Best known for his
Ernest character in commercials, television and films, Varney also provided
voice over work for characters on the THE SIMPSONS. Varney was the star of
several Disney Ernest films, most notably ERNEST GOES TO CAMP and ERNEST
SAVES CHRISTMAS. Doctors diagnosed Varney with cancer in August 1998, and
The Tigger Movie Bounces Into 4th
Bouncing into U.S. theatres this past weekend was Disney's newest animated
flick THE TIGGER MOVIE. The throw-back to classic Disney flicks finished
the weekend in fourth place in the U.S. box office, making US$9.43 million.
THE GREEN MILE, with primary visual effects by ILM, Rhythm & Hues, POP and
Matte World Digital, is still bringing in green bills for Warner Bros.,
making another $3.09 million and bringing its total gross to $124.4
million. With other kid fare like THE TIGGER MOVIE and SNOW DAY hitting the
Oscar Nominations Announced
When the day broke on February 15, 2000, an old man wasn't humdrum about
joining a list of Oscar nominees that included three misses and my
grandmother who irons shirts! The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and
Sciences has released its list of nominations for this year's Oscar
competition. In the category of animated short films the nominees are:
Aardman Animations' Peter Peaks' HUMDRUM; Torril Cove's MY GRANDMOTHER
IRONED THE KING'S SHIRTS; Alexander Petrov's oil paint on glass in IMAX
Interactive Effects Releases Piranha HD 3.1
Interactive Effects, producers of high-end visual effects systems Piranha
and Amazon Paint, recently announced the release of Piranha 3.1 for Silicon
Graphics Workstations. The new version expands the systems' capabilities in
areas such as video support, digital audio and disk/graphics performance,
as well as adding new features such as Mipmap Texturing, high speed soft
edged rotosplining and improved image tracking capabilities. Also new to
Corel And Adobe Get Flashy
This week both Corel and Adobe announced that they were adding support for
Macromedia Flash to some of their flagship products. Adobe will be adding
support for Flash to their popular web development tool GoLive, which means
that Adobe users should be able to easily integrate Flash animation into
their existing GoLive projects. Corel also announced that it would be
adding support for Flash to Corel LINUX and CorelDRAW 9. Corel LINUX will
be the first Linux OS to include the Macromedia Flash Player as a standard
Intergraph Cuts Zx10 Prices
Intergraph Computer Systems recently announced that they are dropping the
prices of their range of Zx10 ViZual Workstations. The Zx10 is Intergraph's
latest range of high-end workstations that are built around Wahoo
technology and are powered by Intel Pentium III 750 MHz/100 MHz front side
bus processors. A wide range of graphics options are available, from
high-end 2D to mid-range 3D and the industry's fastest high-end 3D graphics
-- Intense3D's Wildcat 4110 VIO Graphics. Now this technology is available
Moss Fills New President Seat At CINAR
CINAR ENTERTAINMENT has filled the newly created seat of president with
PETER MOSS. In his position effective March 1, Moss will focus on
developing CINAR's entertainment business in North America, Latin America
and Asia. Before joining CINAR, Moss served as programming and production
VP for YTV, Canada's youth network. Moss has regularly worked in pre-school
programming with the Children's Television Network and the CBC.
Adler Steps Up To Senior VP Time Warner
EDWARD ADLER has stepped up to the position of senior VP of corporate
communications at TIME WARNER. Adler will oversee all aspects of
development and implementation of the media conglomerate's global corporate
strategies. Since 1997, he has been a VP of corporate communications and
will continue to serve as the company's chief spokesman.
Disney Will Close Canadian Doors
Rumored since last fall, Walt Disney Animation Canada Inc. announced
Monday, February 14, 2000 it will close the doors of its animation studios
in Canada by the spring. Opened in 1996, the Toronto and Vancouver branches
of Walt Disney were created to produce primarily direct-to-home video films
in connection with Walt Disney Television Animation. The company slowly
started winding down production last fall and will completely close around
French Ellipse & Expand Form New Euro TV Company
Expand Images and Ellipse Programme, France's two leading television
production companies, announced on February 10, 2000 plans to merge. The
new studio, entitled Expand, will have an approximate revenue for 2000 of
FRF1.4 billion (US$210.2 million). The deal will enable both parties to
increase their international content output for the expanding European
market. As part of the deal, CANAL+ Images and Finexpand signed an
agreement solidifying their relationship as shareholders in the new studio.
AtomFilms & Blockbuster To Partner
AtomFilms, a pioneer and leader in next-generation entertainment, announced
that it has entered into an agreement with Blockbuster, the global leader
in rentable home entertainment, for selected, syndicated, short-form,
digital content from AtomFilms to be video streamed on a co-branded section
of blockbuster.com. Beginning Spring 2000 and lasting for 2 years,
AtomFilms will provide both content and streaming-related technologies for
the short-form content component of the Blockbuster Web site. The
Johnny Bravo Live On Cartoon Network
Johnny Bravo will host a talk show and chat with callers live on Cartoon
Network. The toon's flamboyant personality will be brought to life with
Alive Animation's Multi-Standard Instant Cartoon Images (MICI) system.
Programmed to pose Johnny in hundreds of positions, the MICI system also
instantly lip synchs the voice actor to his alter-ego. THE BIG BRAVO-LIVE!
will begin airing February 21 - 25, 2000. This historic event can be
attributed to the success of Johnny Bravo's new weekday morning talk show
Charlex's "Thank You" For The Nation Football League
CHARLEX, a visual effects post-production house, helped the National
Football League thank their fans with a 60-second spot aired during
American football's biggest game, the Super Bowl. Headed by Alex Weil,
Charlex founder and director, the Charlex artists used a mix of film,
digital effects, graphics and editing to create the look of the "Thank You
2000" spot. The commercial begins on a shadowy checkerboard. Suddenly light
floods into the room as a uniformed football player makes his way to an old
Joe Cartoon Co. Sues For Cybersquatting
Joe Cartoon Company has filed a lawsuit against two entities, John
Zuccarini and Cupcake City, for the violation of the newly enacted
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. The lawsuit is one of the first
cases filed under the anticybersquatting statute in the U.S. The act
outlaws the unauthorized use of an Internet domain name that is
"confusingly similar" to another name, for the purpose of intercepting
users of the pre-existing domain. Filed with United States District Court,
Class In Session At Eruptor.com
On February 29, 2000, comic book artist Marc Silvestri, creator of
WITCHBLADE, CYBER FORCE and DARKNESS, will be teaching fans and aspiring
artists how it's done through the first semester of on-line classes offered
at Eruptor.com. Silvestri will present a live, three-part series on
Eruptor's Web-based university, Eruptor College, to help students learn how
to produce layouts, refine characters and develop stories for comic books
of their own. The real-time class will allow Silvestri to answer questions
Harvey Forms New Fashion Company
The Harvey Entertainment Company and PG Capital, an apparel industry
investment company, have finalized a joint venture for a new apparel
company, Harvey Fashion LLC. The new company will be responsible for
manufacturing, selling and marketing a complete apparel collection, based
on the popular Harvey Classic Character library. Paul Guez will serve as
chairman of the board and CEO. The creation of Harvey Fashion LLC replaces
and extends the scope of an earlier Harvey apparel venture planned with
Macromedia Introduces Freehand 9
Macromedia, the leading provider of web design tools, recently announced a
major upgrade to its famous FreeHand design and layout software. FreeHand 9
is set to change the way designers approach their work by offering a
powerful toolset for their vector graphics, regardless of whether their art
is intended for print or Web. FreeHand 9 is expected to ship in March on
both Macintosh and Windows platforms, and will be offered as both a
stand-alone product and in the new Macromedia Flash 4 FreeHand 9 Studio,
Director Buckley Rides With LastMinute's e-Cowboy Spot
Director Dick Buckley of FLYING TIGER FILM and visual effects director Alex
Seiden of CYCLOTRON@POST PERFECT N.Y. rounded-up the e-Cowboy's for the
Super Bowl debuted LastMinuteTravel.com spot. Produced for New York-based
agency, Burkhardt & Hillman, the 30-second commercial is a modern spin on
the Sergio Leone spaghetti western. Reinforcing LastMinuteTravel.com's
message that great things happen at the last-minute, the e-Cowboys find
themselves quickly departing on a cyber-booked vacation, to escape an
Ring Of Fire Walks With Christopher Reeve in Super Bowl Spot
RING OF FIRE made the crippled walk in Nuveen & Co.'s Super Bowl spot.
Andrew Douglas of SATELLITE was brought in to direct the futuristic spot
where paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve walks to a podium to receive an
award. The super feet was done for Minneapolis, Minnesota-based ad agency
Fallon McElligott. Ring of Fire's founder, Jerry Spivack, served as
creative director and visual effects supervisor for the commercial. Ring of
Fire isn't new to creating outstanding Super Bowl spots, their 1999
Much Grief, Charles Schulz Passes
On the eve of the final PEANUTS comic strip, creator Charles Schulz died of
a heart attack at his Santa Rosa, California home. He was 77 years old. As
reported [AF 11/21/99], Charles Schulz had decided to retire from drawing
his weekly comic strip after several strokes and newly diagnosed cancer had
left him partially blind in one eye and too weak to keep up with the
rigorous routine. A private funeral will be held later this week. He is
survived by his wife, Jeannie; two sons Monte and Craig; and daughter Jill
A Closer Look: AWN Increases Speed
Animation World Network has been acquired by Creative Planet, a network of
business-to-business Web sites for creative professionals focusing on the
art, technology and business of content creation...
DreamWorks Acquires Pacific Data Images
Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks, officially announced on
February 9, 2000 that his company has acquired the majority of interest,
approximately 80%, in Pacific Data Images (PDI). As reported [AF 2/8/00],
this deal comes on the heals of PDI founder and Chairman, Carl Rosendahl's
departure from the company to pursue "other creative interests." However,
Rosendahl will remains as a consultant for the newly named company,
PDI/DreamWorks. Katzenberg said that Palo Alto-based business will remain a
Chairman Rosendahl Leaves PDI
On February 4, CARL ROSENDAHL, founder and chairman of Pacific Data Images,
announced to his staff that he is exiting PDI after 20 years "to pursue
other interests." Rosendahl's remaining stake in the visual effects house
has been acquired by DreamWorks. Previously owning 40% of the Palo Alto,
California-based facility, DreamWorks now commands 80% of the company. More
details are soon to be announced.
