Film Roman Inc, the producer of The Simpsons and King of the Hill, has struck a deal with Launch Media Inc. under which Film Roman will provide content for the Launch CD-ROM - a monthly interactive guide to music and movies that is sold in retail stores and available by subscription. The Launch CD-ROM currently reaches an estimated 1 million users monthly with approximately 300,000 subscribers.
The post-New Years box office was quiet as usual with DreamWorks The Prince of Egypt on top of the animation heap grossing 6.1M for fifth place. To date, the high-budgeted religious flic has grossed nearly $75M domestically and $83.7M internationally. Disneys live-action/CGI Mighty Joe Young stayed put in sixth place with $5M for a 17-day total of $34.9M. Disney/Pixars A Bugs Life fell from fifth to seventh with $4.7M and a 52-day cume of $143M.
Silicon Graphics Inc, a company that built its reputation on UNIX-based systems used to create visual effects for countless films, has unveiled new workstations based on Intel processors and the Windows NT operating system. Dictated by a changing marketplace, the new systems will appeal to a wide group of users who need the computing power but not the prohibitive prices. However, SGI believes that these systems will not replace the high-end UNIX workstations but will rather complement them.
Actor/comedian Eddie Murphy and Oregon-based Will Vinton Studios have teamed up to create "The PJs," the first stop-motion animation series to air in prime-time. Set in a big city housing project, the "foamation" series centers around a unique cast of characters led by building superintendent Thurgood Stubbs (voiced by Eddie Murphy). The premiere episode, "Hangin' With Mr. Super," airs Sunday, January 10, at 8:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on FOX network following "The Simpsons." The show moves to its regular day and time on Tuesday, January 12 at 8:30 p.m. (ET/PT) following "King of the Hill."
This past Thursday, Peter Schneider was named to the new position of president of The Walt Disney Studios; the annoucement coming just one day after Disney CEO Michael Eisner said the company needed to perform better with Disney-branded live-action movies.
Jean-Claude Forest, who created the provocative sci-fi comic strip character Barbarella and designed sets for the '60s movie starring Jane Fonda, passed away December 30, 1998 at the age of 68. Forest created the seductive 41st century adventurer in 1962 originally appearing in V Magazine. The cult favorite Roger Vadim-directed movie released in June 1968, "Barbarella," secured her place in fandom history.
On Friday, January 8, the Walt Disney Company recalled 3.4 million copies
of "The Rescuers" video release due to two objectionable non-consecutive
frames in the 110,000-frame movie. The frames in question feature a
live-action naked torso of a female in a background image inserted as a gag
by a cameraman when the movie was originally filmed in the 1970s. The 1992
home video release of the animated film didn't use the original print and
therefore didn't have the objectionable images. Under ordinary viewing
New York-based Tape House Digital has changed their name to Black Logicannounced Alfie Schloss, Vice President, Marketing. Black Logic is afull-service visual effects company offering graphic design, high-endcompositing, 2D and 3D computer animation and live-action production.Founded in 1992, the company's mission is to become one of the East Coast'spre-eminent visual effects and computer animation companies. Schlossstated, "This is not merely a name change. As Black Logic we have
* Sunday, January 3 - Saturday, January 9, 1999. Sydney, Australia.
Flickerfest, 8th International Short Film Festival will consist of a main competitive program, a short documentary competition and additional programs and forums aside from the competition. For more information, visit www.flickerfest.com.au or call 61 (0)2 9211 7133.
* Monday, January 4 - Friday, January 8, 1999. San Francisco, California, USA.
The Attik, a worldwide design agency, has opened offices in Sydney, Australia to create a stronger global presence. In the past two years, the company has also launched U.S. offices in New York and San Francisco. The new office in Sydney will be headed up by Simon Needham who will relocate to Australia with a number of other colleagues from the London, U.K. home office. This is a natural progression for us. We are a global design company.
Adobe Systems Incorporated, a leading provider of publishing and imaging software, has announced an acquisition of GoLive Systems, Inc.s assets including GoLive CyberStudio, a professional web design and publishing software, and the GoLive Web Publishing System. CyberStudio has been used to produce web sites for Music Boulevard, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Records and The Associated Press, among others.
The animation art gallery, American Royal Arts (ARA), has been selected as the exclusive distributor of limited edition cels and fine art giclees for DreamWorks SKGs The Prince of Egypt. The pieces range anywhere in price from $345 to $1575 and feature classic moments from the film.
Sheridan College (Oakville, Ontario, Canada) is hosting Sheridan Animates Manhattan on January 25 in New York City. The one-day program brings together leading animation artists in three separate events - The Animation Master Class, The CanApple Animation Forum and The Animation Showcase. The Animation Master Class features a behind-the-scenes look at how animation is used in films from Jurassic Park to Twister. The panel will be composed of Sheridan alumnus Steve Williams, James Straus and Dennis Turner.
The top animated film of this week was DreamWorks' "Prince of Egypt," holding steady in fourth place with $11.2M for a 17-day total of $66.4M. Disney/Pixar's "A Bug's Life" continued to appeal to families with children on Christmas vacation climbing up two notches to fifth place for a weekend tally of $8.8M and a grand total of $136.4M. Disney's special-effects packed remake of the RKO ape flick, "Mighty Joe Young," continued its stay in sixth place taking in $8.1M for a two week cume of $28.1M.
Annecy 99 is scheduled to take place May 31-June 5, 1999 in Annecy, France. The prestigious animation festival is now accepting entries for animated short films, television series, commissioned films and student films. The deadline to register your film for competition is January 15th. For further information, visit www.annecy.org, call (33) 04 50 10 09 00 or fax (33) 04 50 10 09 70.
At the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, Puffin Designs announced version 2.0 of its award-winning visual effects software Commotion. Commotion 2.0 is expected to ship around April this year, and will expand Commotion's current creative tool set with third party plug-in support, a new FX Brush for creating texture and stylized media brush effects, and new text creation and animation tools. Puffin Designs' founder and ILM visual effects supervisor Scott Squires commented that, "Commotion users have completed several challenging projects in recent months.
This week's comic is about impartial politicians...
Featured in the Animation World Store this week: The South Park Collection and David Kilmer's Animated Film Collector's Guide...
Director JC Wegman has completed work on two 1-minute, 30-second animated segments for the NBC pilot "Payback." The animation was produced at Acme Filmworks in Hollywood, California. "Payback" is the American version of the Italian show "You Get What You Deserve," which targets heartless individuals in unfriendly professions and subjects them to vicious pranks. Wegman created animation for two practical jokes, "Towing Yard" and "Parking Enforcement," orchestrated by radio personality Tim Conway Jr. The special will air on NBC, January 2 from 8-9 p.m. (EST and PST).
Comedy Central is helping animation fans ring in the New Year with a four-episode "South Park" marathon running from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m., followed by a countdown to midnight from "South Park." The four "kick ass" episodes are fan favorites chosen by viewers through Comedy Central's web site. Alternately, animation fans in the U.K. can celebrate with BBC2's line-up of animated New Year's programming. Two episodes of Aardman Animations' "Rex the Runt" will air New Year's Eve (December 31) at 2:20 and 2:30 p.m. followed by the "The Old Lady and the Pigeons" at 3:20 p.m.
France's Annecy Festival Director Jean-Luc Xiberras died on December 26, 1998 at 57 years old after a long battle with illness. The Mayor of Annecy, the festival President & Board and the festival staff unanimously saluted his courage and determination for continuing to be a force in the festival's operation during his term of illness.
"Kirikou et la Sorciere" ("Kirikou and the Witch") is a new 70-minute classically animated film by Michel Ocelot released in France on December 9, 1998. The film is about Kirikou, a tiny little boy, who's born in a small African village which has been put under a spell by the flagitious witch, Karaba. Kirikou is determined to set his languishing village free from the clutches of Karaba. The film features music composed by famous African singer/composer Youssou N'Dour.
Imagine having your geeky yearbook photo digitally altered, animated, and then broadcast all over the world. "Mrs. Munger's Class," a segment that airs on ABC's top-rated children's programming block, "Disney's One Saturday Morning," is based on this very concept. Every week, a new short segment brings a page from a school yearbook to life, using computers to superimpose moving lips and caricature the facial features of the fictional Mrs. Munger and her students resulting in humorous and nonsensical conversations.
Atomic Vision Animation and Tub Studio have premiered their first episode of the innovative and stylish on-line animated comic book at www.jonninitro.com. The animated series follows the adventures of Jonni Nitro, an English superspy and heroine living in the near future. The animation is viewable using an Internet browser (i.e. Navigator, Explorer) and Macromedia's Flash 3.0 plug-in. "We've worked hard to create a new style of on-line animation," says Alex Ogle, Atomic Vision founder. "There has never been animation this realistic on the Internet before."
