*Friday, May 7th - Sunday, May 9th, Valencia, California, USA.
Students in the Character Animation program at CalArts will screen theirfilms at the Bijou at CalArts, 24700 McBean PKWY, Valencia, California.Open shows: May 7th at 8 pm; May 8th at 7 pm; and May 9th at 1:30 pm and 7pm. Producers Show: Thursday, May 13th at 7 pm. For more information call(805) 253-7818.
WATERSHIP DOWN, a $10 million TV series of 26 half-hour episodes based onthe novel by Richard Adams and the feature film directed by Martin Rosen,both of which are also called WATERSHIP DOWN, is being produced by Britishindependent Alltime Entertainment and Toronto-based DECODE Entertainment.Beth Stevenson, of DECODE, and Simon Vaughan, of Alltime, are producing;Neil Court, of DECODE, is executive producing with Steven DeNure and MartinRosen. The series will debut this Fall in the UK on ITV and Canada on YTV,
A May start date has been set for the production of MONSTERS, INC.(tentative title), a new computer-animated feature to be produced by PixarAnimation Studios under their arrangement with Walt Disney Studios. Thefilm is targeted for release in 2001. MONSTERS, INC. is a comedy set in aparallel world of monsters who live on the screams and fear of children.But because end-of-the-millenium kids are jaded and not easily scared, themonsters' world is in danger of becoming extinct. When one of the monsters,
A BUG'S LIFE, a Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar AnimationStudios film, has climbed to $358 million in worldwide box office receiptsto become one of the top-grossing animated films of all time. With itsdomestic gross of $163 million, the film has already become the fourthbiggest animated feature released in the United States (behind THE LIONKING, ALADDIN and TOY STORY). Internationally, A BUG'S LIFE has agross-to-date of $195 million and has set records in the United Kingdom,
Macromedia (NASDAQ:MACR) has announced a 47% increase in revenues for thefourth quarter ended March 31, 1999. Revenues for the fourth quarter were$44,097,000 as compared with $30,012,000 in the same period a year ago.Gross profit increased 44% to $39,867,000 as compared with $27,653,000 inthe fourth quarter a year ago. Net income rose to $7,343,000, or $0.16 pershare, during the fourth fiscal 1999 quarter, compared to net income of$1,991,000, or $0.05 per share, a year ago.
A boxed set of TV shows made by Sid and Marty Krofft in the 1970's collectsepisodes from thirteen Krofft programs, including the short programs thatwere part of "The Krofft Super Show," and will be released by Rhino HomeVideo on May 18 in the USA. These shows are not animated, but their cheesy"special effects" have a camp appeal for many fans of animation, especiallyfor the children of the Seventies.
Tape 1 (120 mins.) includes:
H.R. PUFNSTUF - "Book, Flute, & Candle" Episode 12. Jimmy finds Freddie The
Spice up your resume with recruiter and career coach Pamela Thompson atthe Women in Animation Dinner Meeting on Tuesday, May 4 at 7 pm. The eventtakes place at Acapulco Restaurant, 3113 W. Olive, Burbank, California. $25member, $35 non-members. RSVP by May 1 at (310) 535-3838. Please bring aresume and pen.
Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis' new film, WHEN THE DAY BREAKS, willcompete with ten live-action films, and one animated film, BILLY'SBALLOON by Don Hertzfeldt (LILY + JIM), for the top prize in the ShortFilm competition at this year's 52nd Festival de Cannes in Cannes,France. The Festival takes place Wednesday, May 12th through Sunday, May23rd. Wendy Tilby is perhaps best known for STRINGS. For moreinformation visit the festival's official homepage atwww.festival-cannes.fr/cannes99.
Siren Entertainment, an Australian company, has released eight volumesof THE MILTON THE MONSTER SHOW, available in both VHS PAL and NTSCformats. In the fall of 1964, THE MUNSTERS and THE ADDAMS FAMILY,sitcoms about families of monsters, appeared on US TV. Attempting tocash in on their subsequent success, Hal Seeger Productions produced THEMILTON THE MONSTER SHOW for ABC's 1965-1966 season. Milton is a giantFrankenstein monster-type created by Professor Weirdo and Count Kook.His creators meant Milton to be scary, but he turns out to be a
The Kushner-Locke Co. has announced that they have entered an agreementwith Toei Animation to license Toei's animated product. Toei has one ofthe largest animation libraries in the world. K-L plans to use the newlyacquired product to launch its own Spanish language animation channel inLatin America. The deal gives K-L 1400 half-hour episodes, in the firstthree years, of Toei animated product including the popular seriesSAILOR MOON and DRAGON BALL Z. Toei is one of the leading animation
Cartoon Network has greenlit Gavrilo Gnatovoch's LONGHAIR AND DOUBLEDOMEfor production as a seven minute series pilot. The short featuresLonghair, a fastidiously sophisticated and self-serving Cro-Magnon, andhis charmingly earnest yet irksome friend, Doubledome, as they endeavorto evolve alongside their oafish neighbors, the Neanderthals. An airdate has not been announced. Gavrilo Gnatovich runs his own studio KNOCKKNOCK CARTOONS in Cleveland, Ohio, which is a commercial animation house
Andreas Wessel-Therborn, animator, will speak on The Animator on Animating as part of The Careers in Animation Third Annual Lecture Series. Mr. Wessel-Therborn has worked on THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, SPACE JAM, BALTO, TARZAN, and FANTASIA 2000. The event takes place Tuesday, May 4, at 7 pm in the Glendale Community College Auditorium, 1500 North Verdugo Road, Glendale, California, USA. Admission is $5 in advance, or $7 at the door. Tickets are available from GCC Bookstore Business Office (818) 240-1000, ext. 5695; or ASIFA-Hollywood (818) 842-8330.
Will Vinton Studios has produced two 3 Musketeers candy bar spots forM&M/Mars Inc. The spots, "Trailer" and "Corruption," each with :15 and:30 versions, feature 3D stop-motion animation of the Three Musketeercharacters scaling castle walls and fighting off evil guards. The spotswere directed by Matthew Brunner, produced by Sara Mullock, and animatedby Mike Johnson, Tony Merrithew, and Jean Poulot for agency UniworldGroup Inc.
On Monday in the USA, toymaker Hasbro introduced a series of actionfigures, play sets, vehicles, and other toys based on STAR WARS: EPISODE I- THE PHANTOM MENACE, the prequel to the STAR WARS trilogy. Most Toys R Usstores and some FAO Schwarz and K-B Toys stores opened at 12:01 a.m. on May3, and within hours their stock was sold out. "It was unbelievable.Insane," says AWN's Heather Kenyon, who visited four stores in the LosAngeles area. "People were leaving with shopping carts filled up. It was
In its fifth week of release, THE MATRIX, the special effects heavy action film starring Keanu Reeves, finished second in the USA weekend box office race and grossed $8.7 to bring its total gross to $129.7.
Michel Ocelot's new feature film, KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS, will bescreened as part of the DGA (Directors Guild of America) film festival,City of Lights: A Week of French Films. The screening will take placeSaturday, May 1 at 1 pm in Los Angeles, California. For ticket information,call (310) 289 2000. There are currently no plans to release the film inthe USA, so this may be your only chance to see what appears to be, basedon the pressbook images, a very beautiful film. The story is based on
Sean Montgomery, Robin Scher and Jason Lee, Mo Willems and Tom Robins.
This month, we picked four of this issue's contributors to participate. William Moritz is a professor who teaches animation at the California Institute of the Arts. He's also worked on All My Lost Loves, a thirty minute independent animated film funded in part by an AFI Grant. Maureen Furniss is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Film Studies Program at Chapman University in Orange, California. Her most recent project is the book, Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics. Steven Dovas is director...
Paul Fierlinger talks to David Kilmer about his amazing life as a Czech growing up in America during World War II and then as an American living in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. He also discusses life as an independent animator with all of its ups and downs.
Frank Gladstone, Head of Artist Development at DreamWorks, and Clifford Cohen, founder and president of AnimAction, have joined forces as members of UNICEF's International Animation Consortium for Child's Rights to create an animated PSA that addresses the Right to a Name and a Nationality. The PSA will be screened on June 4 at the Annecy Film Festival in Annecy, France. Also at the Festival, Mr. Cohen will speak about "How Animation Can Change People's Thinking."
