Saban Brands announces that pop music star and YouTube celebrity Megan Nicole will guest star in an upcoming episode of the Netflix original series Popples — the new kids show inspired by the iconic ’80s toy brand. Nicole will voice Squeaky Pop in the episode “Fallen Pop Idol” and provide an original Popples song, “Together with My Friends.” The episode premieres worldwide on Netflix on March 11 as part of the 10-episode second season of the show.
“I’m so excited to be a part of Popples and lend my voice for a great original song and cool new character in the series,” said Megan Nicole. “With super fun characters and storylines, I was instantly drawn to this show and can’t wait for everyone to see Squeaky Pop take the stage!”
The songstress has over 3.5 million subscribers on YouTube. Rising to online fame in 2009, Nicole released her debut album Escape in 2014 before embarking on her nationwide Sweet Dreams tour. Fans can pre-order the Popples song “Together with My Friends” or download it upon its March 4 release through iTunes and Amazon.
Popples follows the wacky adventures of the Best Popple Pals, Bubbles, Sunny, Lulu, Izzy and Yikes. The amazing creatures are able to pop into and out of balls and roll around their city of Popplopolis. In “Fallen Pop Idol,” famous pop star Squeaky Pop comes to Popplopolis for a concert. Bubbles, her biggest fan, is chosen as her personal assistant, but Squeaky Pop soon turns out to be more than she bargained for.
Technicolor, an underlying rights holder in The Deep, and DHX Media have finalized an agreement with the U.K.’s BBC that will bring the underwater animated adventure series to CBBC beginning this month.
“CBBC is poised to take the plunge into The Deep and join the Nekton family on their thrilling aquatic adventures as they uncover the mysteries of the undersea world,” commented Cheryl Taylor, Controller, CBBC. “This beautifully animated series is action adventure with a real heart.”
The Deep is a co-production of DHX Media (Canada) and A Stark Production (Australia) and is based on the award-winning graphic novel series created by Tom Taylor, illustrated by James Brouwer and published by Gestalt Comics. Taylor serves as co-creator and lead writer of the series, with Brouwer as co-creator and art director.
The series follows the adventures of the Nekton family — a team of brilliant underwater explorers. With state-of-the-art technology and an unquenchable thirst for discovery, the Nektons explore the ocean’s depths, encountering swimming leviathans and sunken cities that hold the secrets of the mysterious Guardians. The Deep (26 x half-hour; kids 6-12) premiered in January on Family CHRGD (Canada). Additional broadcasters include Super RTL (Germany), The Seven Network and ABC3 (Australia), Ketnet (Belgium), NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden) and YLE (Finland).
9 Story Media Group has licensed a raft of kids and family content to blim, Televisa’s new over-the-top subscription video-on-demand service. Blim launched February 22 and is set to roll out across multiple territories in Latin America.
Under the deal, Televisa has acquired over 80 episodes of animated and live-action children’s programming, including Almost Naked Animals (seasons 1-3), Finding Stuff Out (seasons 1-3) and Monkey See Monkey Do (season 1).
“We are thrilled that our content has found a home with Televisa’s new SVOD service, blim,” said Federico Vargas, Director, Distribution for 9 Story Media Group. “Televisa’s long standing record as a major media powerhouse positions the 9 Story brands for optimal success within the territory.”
Call for Entries: KLIK Wants Your Films
Amsterdam animation festival is now accepting submissions of shorts, student shorts, commissions, documentaries and music videos for the 2016 event (Oct. 25-30).
In case you missed out on the live Twitter and Facebook coverage by our intrepid Editor-in-Chief Tom McLean from the Oscars press room, we are pleased to announce and congratulate the key animation and vfx winners of the 88th Annual Academy Awards.
Best Animated Feature went to Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera for Inside Out, while Chilean filmmakers Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala took the Best Animated Short prize for the heartrending Bear Story. And the break-out indie sci-fi hit Ex Machina delivered gold in the Visual Effects category for Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett — the first woman to win in the category in over 20 years.
“I will say primarily what we were after was entertainment and fun, and then as we got in there we realized this has something very deep and applicable to every human being. And the weird thing about emotions are they’re completely invisible to us most of the time. We know we feel angry, but we don’t stop and really rationalize what’s driving all of that, and so this film has the potential to help people kind of unpack and think about some of these things that they don’t normally,” Inside Out director Pete Docter told reporters backstage. “We have heard from a lot of folks, teachers, especially parents of special needs kids who have said this film has given them a new vocabulary to talk about emotions for the first time, and that is nothing we were aiming for, but it is such an amazing byproduct of the movie. And we’re so thankful that we are able to contribute in that way.”
“We are really happy right now,” said Bear Story director Gabriel Osorio, taking the stage to accept the Short award. “We want to thank the Academy, our families and everyone in Chile that have supported us and trust in our work. Personally I want to dedicate this achievement to my grandfather, who is the one who inspired this story and to all the people like him who have suffered in exile. We really hope that this must never happen again. Thanks.”
“Thank you all. We are from a small country called Chile. This is the first Oscar for our country, so this is very important for us,” added producer Pato Escala. “Thank you all. Un gran aplauso para todos. Viva Chile!“
George Miller’s vfx-fueled Mad Max: Fury Road was the big surprise of the night, raking up a number of craft awards: Production Design (Colin Gibson, Lisa Thompson), Film Editing (Margaret Sixel), Costume Design (Jenny Beavan), Makeup (Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega, Damian Martin), Sound Editing (Mark Mangini, David White) and Sound Mixing (Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff, Ben Osmo).
Another vfx industry favorite, The Revenant, received both the coveted Best Director award for Alejandro Inarritu and the Cinematography honors for Emmanuel Lubezki … Oh, and the long-awaited first Oscar for Leonardo DiCaprio.
Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington, and Sara Bennett Win Best Visual Effects for Ex Machina
Hollywood’s most prestigious awards finally took place Sunday night, as the 88th Annual Academy Awards welcomed the glitterati back once more to celebrate outstanding achievement in filmcraft over the past year. And the animation industry watched with bated breath to see who would take home the statuettes in the Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Short Film categories, which were both very interesting, diverse contests.
Disney-Pixar’s Inside Out won the Feature prize, and in a year plagued yet again by controversy over lack of diversity in the Oscars, the filmmakers touched a bit on this issue in their backstage interview when asked about Filipino co-director Ronnie Del Carmen’s contributions — though he was not present at the time.
“…You look at all the nominees tonight in animation, a lot of talk about diversity, you see in this category films from around the world, from Japan and from Latin America and from good old California, and we are proud to be among that group. I think animation leans that way,” said director Pete Docter.” Ronnie is a great artist that represents that. We create stories, stories come from everywhere, and so someone like Ronnie really brings that to Pixar. We are proud of him, and he is definitely sharing this with us.”
Producer Jonas Rivera also spoke briefly about his Mexican-American heritage — as well as the long writing process behind the film (“It is a torturous path [referring to the question] in that it was a big hunk of life, and obviously the writer, you could speak to that, but we love our process and our team so much that in a weird way this is sort of a heartbreaker because it’s over,”) and his favorite reaction to the film:
“I’m a huge fan of NWA and Ice Cube, and we were lucky enough, this is so name droppy, but here we are, we were lucky enough to sit next to them, the Straight Outta Compton table at one of these things and I got to meet Ice Cube, and I introduced myself as a producer of Inside Out not knowing what I’d get, and he said, Oh, man, that movie’s dope. And I got to be honest with you, that was a pretty good moment for me.”
For the short category winners — director Gabriel Osorio and producer Pato Escala’s Bear Story
— the win marked an important milestone as the first Oscar for a film from Chile (“It’s the first Oscar for our country, so we just want to say #OscarSoChilean,” Osorio quipped). The filmmakers talked about the importance of greater audience access to international productions like through the Shorts HD theatrical program.
“It’s really an amazing opportunity to get this message through, this message about the importance of family, about the importance of the family must be together and cannot be separated for any reason, for political reasons or whatever other reason,” said Escala. “So for us it’s really great. It’s certainly an incredible opportunity.” He added that they hope that their film helps communicate this message to the next generation to prevent future suffering due to political turmoil. “That’s really our hopes as animators, as communicators and as filmmakers.”
“We want to represent our own voice in animation,” said Osorio when asked about his drive to be an animator. “A Chilean voice, a Latin American voice. It’s going to be different from what Europeans or in North America, like it’s going to be different, you know, it’s going to be like another kind of a visual aesthetic. Another kind of … point of view. So, that’s why. We want to bring you like what’s happening in Latin America right now, what happened before, what’s going to happen in the future. And it’s incredible, you know, for the one of you that ‑‑ that has been to Latin America you are going to understand me. It’s very unique. It’s very different. And for those who don’t know Latin America, please be our guest.”
HOLLYWOOD, CA – FEBRUARY 28: Producer Jonas Rivera (L) and director Pete Docter accept the Best Animated Feature Film award for Inside Out onstage during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)HOLLYWOOD, CA – FEBRUARY 28: Director Gabriel Osorio Vargas (L) and producer Pato Escala Pierart, winners of Best Animated Short Film for Bear Story, pose in the press room during the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Loews Hollywood Hotel on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
This year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival will celebrate 130 years of comradeship between France and Korea, which was established with the first treaty of friendship, trade and navigation between the two countries signed on June 4, 1886. In honor of The Year of France-Korea 2015-2016, Annecy’s artistic director Marcel Jean has planned special screenings for the 2016 fest, taking place June 13-18.
A review of 21st century Korean animation will comprise screenings “that testify to the emergence of new authors, invigorating explorations of form and an admirable technical expertise,” says Jean. These include a feature film, work-in-progress feature and two 72-minute shorts programs.
Director Sangho Yeon will be back at Annecy for the third time with his latest feature, Seoul Station, playing in the Official Selection. The film is a highly original blend of horror and social realism, which Jean says “represents the modernity and singularity of Korean animation.”
Attendees will also get a look at early footage for Jae-hoon Ahn’s The Shaman Sorceress, based on the 1930s novel by Don-lee Kim. “Different religions are still clashing around the world. The film explores why people adhere to religion and the meaning of it all by telling a story of an indigenous religion and external one that cause conflict within a family,” says Ahn.
Highlights of the short film programs include Yumi Joung’s Dust Kid (2009) and Love Games (2012), Lim Choi’s The Father (2009), Sung-gang Lee’s A Monster in the Reservoir (2012), Han-bit Lee’s Serenade (2010) and Dahee Jeong’s Man on the Chair (2014), among others.
Annecy will also celebrate the emergence of female filmmakers in Korean animation over the past 15 years, such as Sae-byul Hwangbo, Yumi Joung and Dahee Jeong. Korean animation schools and emerging talent from their ranks will also be highlighted, as will buzzworthy feature film directors like Sangho Yeon, Sung-gang Lee and Baek-yeop Sung.
Splash Entertainment co-CEOs Nicolas Atlan and Mike Young have announced that a deal to secure worldwide rights to The Nutcracker from New York City Ballet and The George Balanchine Trust has been finalized, and Splash will now step up its production activities to develop, produce and distribute Daisy and The Nutcracker — a 3 x 45′ set of educational live-action and 3D animated specials. The project is co-created by NYCB and Mermaid Media, written with Gabe Pulliam (Olivia, Octonauts).
Daisy and The Nutcracker will feature real dancers from the world-renowned New York City Ballet and is based on the magical world that choreographer and NYCB co-founder George Balanchine created in 1954. The production has been performed in the city every year since its premiere and is seen by more than 100,000 people annually.
The specials take place in the heart of snowy New York City, where each holiday season the Ballet performs the Christmas classic at Lincoln Center. The story begins when the performance ends and the backstage world of the theater — full of sets, costumes and the legendary Christmas tree — seems quiet and dark. The star, Daisy, is a high-spirited ragdoll that one day magically awakens in the middle of a production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Although she knows nothing of ballet, Daisy plows headlong into every situation as she strives toward her dream of being a ballerina.
Toronto-based TV, film and digital media company Mark Media has appointed Yvan Pinard to the new role of Director, CG and Visual Effects for its Toronto studio. The announcement was made by Leo He, Mark Media’s COO.
Pinard is tasked with leading and building Mark’s team of 3D artists and directing the studio’s CG animation pipeline. He will also be producing a series of CG animated shorts for Shuyan, an upcoming kung fu action game property.
A 3D Animation & Visual Effects for Film and Television graduate of Montreal’s NAD Centre, Pinard has aspired to work in 3D production since the age of 15. After graduation, he worked on several film productions as a compositing artist, leading him to successfully manage a team of 3D artists at SHED — an award-winning post-production studio specializing in motion design and visual effects in commercials — for eight years prior to his post at Mark.
Pinard’s film credits include Extreme Ops, Book of Eve, Far Side of the Moon, The Blue Butterfly, Stay, Cursed, The Fountain and The Legend of Secret Pass (compositor); and Beauty and the Beast (post-production director).
Cyber Group Studios has appointed Those Licensing People to handle U.K. and Eire licensing rights for Zou. Broadcast in the U.K. on Disney Junior, Zou is a top performing show centered on a zippy little zebra whose daily adventures expose him and his viewers to valuable life lessons in a safe, family environment.
The deal adds Zou to a slate of properties that also includes 1461 Ltd.’s current productions Boy and the Dinosaur, Rollie and Friends and Boys vs. Girls. Those Licensing People have full licensing rights across all sectors, excluding DVD, VOD and SVOD, and are looking for appropriate U.K. publishing and toy partners to launch Zou lines in the country which will serve as a foundation for a wider L&M expansion.
Cyber Group Studios is currently in production on season 3 of Zou, which will bring the total package to 156 x 11. The animated preschool series has sold to over 150 countries in 30-plus languages, and currently airs in the U.S. on Sprout and NBC Kids. Zou season 3 has been commissioned and pre-bought by Disney EMEA and will premiere on Disney Junior France by the end of the year.
Snapper Productions has signed a deal with Abbey Home Media for the U.K. home entertainment rights to its animated preschool series Q Pootle 5. Abbey will release a first DVD, Pootle the Explorer, on April 11. The release will feature seven episodes from the British Animation Award-nominated series, which airs on CBeebies in the U.K.
The series is based on the best-selling books by children’s author and illustrator Nick Butterworth, and follows the adventures of a friendly little alien and his friends as they tackle everyday problems of the final frontier. Q Pootle 5 has enjoyed an impressive viewer response in the U.K. and abroad since its launch in 2013. Produced by Snapper, animated by Blue Zoo and distributed internationally by ZDF Enterprises, the show has sold to over 70 countries.
In addition to the new home entertainment deal, Q Pootle 5 has acquired a number of licensing partners in the U.K. These include Walker Books for global TV tie-in publishing; Immediate Media for spots in CBeebiesWeekly and Toybox magazines; Egmont for standalone magazines; Jumbo for games and puzzles; VMC for accessories; C&M Licensing for nightwear, underwear, socks and onesies; and Rainbow Productions for character costumes.
DVD Clip: LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales
An all-new adventure set after the victory celebration on Endor retells the Star Wars saga from C-3PO and R2-D2’s POV — out on disc March 1.
Best Visual Effects Supercut Video
Relive highlights of this cutting edge of film craft, which has been honored at the Oscars since 1929.
On Saturday, the Motion Picture Sound Editors presented the 63rd MPSE Golden Reel Awards at a black-tie ceremony held in the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. Recognizing the past year’s achievements in sound editing, awards were presented in 24 categories spanning feature film, television, animation, documentary and other media titles. The 2016 Filmmaker Award was presented to director Sam Raimi, and the year’s Career Achievement Award was bestowed on supervising sound editor and sound designer Richard King.
This year, the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing & Music: TV Animation was awarded to Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – “Annihilation Earth”. Receiving the award were Supervising Sound Editor Jeff Shiffman (MPSE), Supervising Dialogue Editor Elliot Herman, Supervising Foley Editor Roger Pallan, Foley Artist Alex Ullrich, Sound Effects Editors Jeff Shiffman and Jesse Drake (MPSE), and Dialogue/ADR Editor Anna Adams.
The award for Best Sound Editing & Music: Animation – Feature Film went to Disney-Pixar’s Inside Out, with the winners being Supervising Sound Editors Shannon Mills and Ren Klyce, Supervising Dialogue Editor Daniel Laurie, Supervising Music Editor Stephen M. Davis, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, Foley Artists John Roesch and Alyson Dee Moore, Sound Effects Editors David C. Hughes, Malcolm Fife and Jeremy Bowker, and Foley Editor Tom Brennan.
Other MPSE Golden Reel Award 2016 winners included:
Direct to Video Animation – Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Neverbeast (Disney)
TV Short Form – Dialogue – Game of Thrones “Hardhome” (HBO)
TV Short Form – FX/Foley – Game of Thrones “Hardhome” (HBO)
Feature Film – Music Score – Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Disney)
Feature Film – FX/Foley – Mad Max: Fury Road (Warner Bros.) and The Revenant (Fox)
Game Cinematics – Halo 5 “Guardians” (Microsoft Studios)
An original animated superhero adventure suitable for the whole family is heading for Google Play, with Bling set for an exclusive debut on the service. The film will be available for free starting March 3 ahead of its theatrical release.
Bling features the voices of Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), Carla Gugino (The Brink) and James Woods (Justice League Action). The CG animated adventure follows lowly theme park mechanic Sam, who dreams of marrying his childhood sweetheart. Believing that only a bling ring will win her over, Sam plans a perfect proposal — only to be thwarted by the arrival of the supervillain Oscar, who shows up with an evil scheme involving a ring of his own. After their rings are mistakenly swapped, Sam teams up with some robot superheroes to track down his bling and save the city — and his love life.
Bling is distributed by Momentum Pictures and produced by DigiArt in association with Digital Idea and Celsius Entertainment. The film will be available for free on Google Play from March 3 through April 10 in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Albania, Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Botswana, Cambodia, Fiji, Iceland, Jamaica, Macedonia, Malta, Namibia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Organizers of the Middle East Film & Comic Con have announced the initial lineup of special celebrity guests for the 2016 event, which will take place in Dubai from April 7 to 9. Headlining the three-day convention is Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee, who will participate in an exclusive live video stream Q&A from Los Angeles.
In addition to the inimitable Stan Lee, MEFCC will welcome Veronica Taylor, who provided the English dub voice for Ash Ketchum in the Pokemon series; Fabian Nicieza, co-creator of the infamous (and now, box office smashing) character Deadpool; and Back to the Future‘s Doc Brown — Christopher Lloyd.
2016 marks the fifth year for MEFCC, which last year was named Best Exhibition at the Middle East Event Awards. Organized by The Alliance LLC, MEFCC is expected to bring in over 70,000 fans from 30 countries to the three-day fest at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Additional guests and other program highlights like workshops, screenings, exclusive merchandise and musical performances will be announced soon.
Panda Beats Monkey as China’s Top-Earning Animation
DreamWorks Animation’s China-U.S. co-pro Kung Fu Panda 3 have overtaken Monkey King: Hero Is Back at the B.O., reclaiming the No. 1 spot for the franchise.
Sweden’s Svensk Filmindustri has announced a new children’s entertainment SVOD service: SF Kids Play. The ad-free streaming service will feature a blend of classic domestic properties as well as international hits.
SF Kids play is set to launch on Monday, February 29. Offerings will include homegrown properties such as Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking and Karlsson on the Roof, as well as animated hits from outside the country like Maya the Bee, Roary the Racing Car and Peppa Pig. All content will be available to download for offline viewing.
“It’s a treasure chest chock full of movies and series, packaged in a new concept, and it’s fantastic to be able to offer all of this to families with kids in the entire Nordic region,” said Jonas Fors, the CEO of AB Svensk Filmindustri. ”The movie industry is, like many other industries, constantly developing. AB Svensk Filmindustri faces many exciting challenges, and this is a way of broadening our business.”
Next Wednesday, March 2, a new trailer for Disney-Pixar’s Finding Dory will debut on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. But to “wet” your appetite, the studio has offered up a cute little “Have You Seen Her?” teaser spot:
Out June 17, 2016, Finding Dory is directed by Andrew Stanton and co-directed by Angus MacLane, and features the voices of Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton.
The long-awaited sequel reunites everyone’s favorite forgetful blue tang, Dory, with her friends Nemo and Marlin on a search for answers about her past. What can she remember? Who are her parents? And where did she learn to speak Whale?
Shout! Factory and Planeta Inform Film Distribution have entered a deal to distribute the animated comedy feature Quackerz in the U.S. and Canada. Shout! has secured all distribution rights to the film, including theatrical, broadcast, VOD, digital and home entertainment. A strategic rollout across major platforms and in packaged media is planned for this year through the Shout! Factory Kids imprint.
Set on a faraway island, Quackerz centers on Longway, the son of the Mandarin duck Emperor and a next generation Sun Duck, who unknown to him possesses the fantastical power to control the energy of the sun. The emperor strives to protect Longway from danger by keeping him ignorant of his abilities. But when an evil witch discovers his secret, Longway and his new charming friend Erica must unite all the ducks and defeat her in her mission to destroy the sun.
Directed and co-written by Victor Lakisov and produced by Rome Animation & Film Studio and A-VFX Studio, Quackerz is a CG comedy adventure featuring the voices of Robbie Daymond, Michael Gross, Enn Reitel, Alanna Ubach and Andrea Becker. The project is an international coproduction between Russia, U.S. and China, with outsourced work performed in Estonia, Canada and Spain.
Lakisov co-wrote Quackerz with Bob Underwood, John Mickevich and Vadim Sveshnikov. Vsevolod Zorin, Ruben Atoyan and Oksana Brovchenko were producers on the project.
