Sesame Workshop in New York City laid off 30 of its employees on Tuesday (June 25) per Deadline.com. Only last May, the non-profit producer of the acclaimed children’s series Sesame Street, terminated 30 employees to save costs in a tough economic climate.
CEO H. Melvin Ming said in a memo sent to staff, “We at Sesame Workshop are not immune to the challenges of today’s economic environment. After careful review, we have concluded that we must operate, and achieve our strategic priorities with fewer resources. Therefore, we have reluctantly determined that we must reduce our workforce by approximately 10%.”
Former Newsweek, Inc. CEO and Nickelodeon executive Tom Ascheim, who joined the company in 2012 as exec VP of the Sesame Learning program, was among the staffers who were let go this week. Sesame Learning will be absorbed into other divisions of the company, Ming said today. The Corporate Strategy and the Business Systems Programming groups will also be dissolved as of July 1st. Sesame Workshop’s Global Education department will also be melded into other units.
“We remain optimistic about our future and remain committed to our mission of helping children reach their highest potential here and around the globe,” a spokesperson for Sesame Workshop told Deadline, while admitting to the layoffs.
41 Entertainment, Arad Productions and Namco Bandai announced today that the premiere and encore performances of Pac-man and the Ghostly Adventures on Disney XD delivered solid ratings with back-to-back airings of episodes 1 and 2 on June 15 and 16 to rank as the network’s top rated shows for the entire week of June 10-16, 2013 in key demos.
The show was the top-rated property on Disney XD among key demos of Kids 2-11, Boys 2-11, Kids 6-11, Boys 6-11 and Boys 9-14. In addition, Episode 1 improved on its lead-in by 80% in Kids 6-11 while episode 2 delivered 72% better than its lead-out in the demo.
The show’s exec producer Avi Arad noted, “These great ratings confirm what we believed: that great animation and storytelling for this iconic character would connect with kids. It really has.”
Shin Unozawa, Chief Operating Officer of NBGI said, “We are very pleased with the progress of this property and these ratings validate our decision, which we announced last week, to commission a second season of episodes. We are very committed to this project.”
Spin Master Ent. and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions (ShoPro) have announced that their new series Tenkai Knights is coming to Cartoon Network later this year.
“We’re so excited for Tenkai Knights to be launching on Cartoon Network,” says Spin Master Entertainment’s Jennifer Dodge, who is also exec producing the toon. “Together with ShoPro, we plan to tell great stories about the Tenkai Knights and their adventures.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Spin Master,” says Akira Fujita, ShoPro’s exec director. “The partnership of our two companies fuses leading innovation with great storytelling. We are excited to now introduce Tenkai Knights to children around the world!”
The show centers on four brave heroes— Guren, Ceylan, Chook and Toxsa who accidentally stumble into an inter-dimensional portal and become Bravenwolf, Tributon, Lydendor and Valorn—collectively known as the legendary Tenkai Knights! A follow-up to the company’s Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Tenkai Knights will feature 52 episodes, webisodes, an interactive website as well an extensive toy line, complete with a full 360° integrated marketing campaign.
Spin Master will distribute Tenkai Knights in North & South America, ShoPro in Asian territories, and VIZ Media Europe in EMEA territories.
Fans of Disney’s acclaimed preschool series Doc McStuffins are going to feel better about the their summer TV viewing options. A new short-form series extension called The Doc Files will join the Disney Channel lineup on Monday, July 22 at 9:25 a.m. and on Disney Junior at 7:55 p.m.
The Doc Files will feature a look into “Doc’s keen deductive skills as she shares an in-depth look at specific cases and diagnoses after the clinic doors close for the day. Produced using a combination of CG and 2D flash animation, each episode opens with Doc dictating a toy patient’s chart and recalling how she solved the case from allergies to splinters to the importance of healthy eating and exercise.”
Created by Emmy- and Humanitas Prize-winning writer/producer Chris Nee, Doc McStuffins is produced by Ireland’s Brown Bag Films and Disney. The show, which debuted on Disney Channel and Disney Junior on March 23, 2012, follows the adventures of a sensitive six-year-old girl who can “fix” toys with a little help from her stuffed animal friends in her playhouse clinic. The series has been a ratings hit and has been lauded for creating a positive African American role model (especially in the medical field) in the media. The series reached over 100 million unique viewers in 160 countries and 19 different languages in first quarter 2013 and was 2012’s #1 cable TV series in Kids 2-5. The Doc Files is a production of Brown Bag Films and indie L.A. studio OddBot Inc., in assoc. with Disney Junior.
Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University has grossed over $31.7 million in Latin America during its opening weekend, setting a new all-time record for Pixar in the region. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Dan Scanlon-directed pic was on the top of the box office chart in Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.
The film performed especially well in Argentina, breaking both box office and ticket sale records for a debut with more than 802,000 tickets in a four-day weekend that turned out to be one of the strongest in local history, with approximately 1.6 million people attending cinemas. However, the Pixar prequel placed behind Toy Story 3 and Cars 2 openings in Brazil and Mexico.
Monsters University brought in $82.4 million in the U.S. and $54 million in foreign ticket sales, scoring over $136.9 million globally.
There are lots of people in this world who think they have a good idea for an animated show, but few of them actually do something about it. A good concept, paired with a striking visual, can sometimes be the starting point to a project that ends up being animated and picked up by a TV or new media outlet. The positive-thinking folks who entered Animag‘s Pitch Party contest all took the time to think of an image and a few words to describe what they think would make a good toon for today’s demanding audiences. We hope that they all spend time polishing their ideas and honing their talents, because as anyone who works in this business will tell you, follow-through and persistence is about 80 percent of the job.
Animag‘s annual Pitch Party contest works as an extremely targeted ad campaign designed to help indie and up-and-coming artists present their ideas to a panel of industry professionals. The contestants who purchased a 1/6th page in this issue (which has a huge bonus distribution at San Diego’s Comic-Con confab in July) also have the chance to showcase their ideas to the animation community at large.
We are very happy to announce that this year’s Top Prize winner is Paul Trineer who received the highest score from our panel of judges for his pitch for a show called Chili Conn Carnie. As part of his prize package, Paul will be reimbursed his entry fee and get to pitch to the judge of his choice directly. Our three top winners will also take home a copy of the award-winning Toon Boom Storyboard Pro license to help them continue with their future projects.
We would like to thank every one of our spirited 2013 Pitch Party contestants. Many of our previous editions’ winners and runners-up have had success with their toon ideas (you can visit www.animationmagazine.net to read up on some of their experiences). As one of our seasoned judges pointed out, “We hope that everyone continues to work on their pet projects and pitches. It’s important to pay attention to what kind of shows each company currently airs to get a good feel for what types of programming we like to greenlight and develop. If you think you can produce your show on your own, go ahead. By all means, don’t let anything stop you. Once you create a short and put it out there, you never know how many people will end up noticing it.”
Our 2013 Pitch Party Winners
First Place: Paul Trineer’s Chili Conn Carnie
Chili Conn Carnie
This year, our judges flipped for Paul Trineer’s clever pitch about a boy who finds himself the recipient of all kinds of crazy carnie powers thanks to a magical medallion. Ted Biaselli, VP of programming for the Hub, said, “The art is pretty strong, and I like the idea of something fun happening in a carnival world with sideshow freaks and other characters like that.” PBS’ Linda Simensky added, “It’s a slightly confusing concept, but a cursed medallion always sounds like fun.” Nickelodeon’s Jenna Boyd said she liked the image and the kid hero. “I’m not sure the carnie concept is one that this generation of kids will be familiar enough with, although it is a funny idea.” Hasbro Studios HasLab’s Michael Ross added, “The poster really conveys the look and feel of the series. He just needs to be careful to distinguish it from Gravity Falls.”
Trineer, who holds a B.F.A in classical animation from Montreal’s Concordia University, says he started in the animation biz later than most. “It was actually my girlfriend (who later became my wife) who convinced me to change directions and pursue my passion,” says the talented artist. “So, I quit the bar business and went back to university to get an education in animation and I never looked back. In short, I went from ‘Bar Fly’ to ‘Toon Guy.’”
He has been working in the industry up in Canada as an animator, sheet director and animation director/supervisor for the past few years.
“I thought it would be fun to watch a show that centers on a regular kid—who consistently forgets to take out the garbage—but is destined to use his newly acquired super powers to battle ‘evil doers,’” says Trineer. “The twist was to have his powers be those that replicate only the traits of Carnival Folks like the Rubber Man, Human Light Bulb or even the Half-Ton Lady, to name a few.”
As far as his plans for the future are concerned, he says he’s hoping to get his show made and have it picked up by a toon studio. He adds, “After that, it’s global animation domination!”
Second Place: Chris Gruszka’s Night Watchdog
Night Watchdog
Chris A. Gruszka’s Night Watchdog pitch also appealed to many of our judges—and almost tied with our first-prize winner. The Hub’s Biaselli said the pitch had a great look and was simple and easy to understand, while Cartoon Network’s Curtis Lelash also admired the strong image. He added, “There are some similarities to Courage the Cowardly Dog, maybe, but it’s easily one of the most intriguing pitches that made me curious to see more.” Marvel’s Cort Lane thought it was a fresh idea and that there was a nice contrast between the funny animal cartoon with monster/horror parody angles.
Gruszka is a St. Paul, Minnesota-based animation prof who owns his own traditional 2D animation production house called SeeGru Ink & Animation, where he primarily works on TV commercials and web and corporate videos. He also recently illustrated a couple of books and has a web comic about two aliens on Earth called Proberz.
Gruszka first came up with his lead beagle character about 20 years ago, but he didn’t have any stories or ideas about him. “All I had was that he wore a baseball hat,” he tells us. “Then last year, I entered the Pitch Party Contest with an existing idea I created that had been all worked up (including a pitch bible and even some finished animation) called HeroGuy and CockRoach Lad, which didn’t place high enough.”
He decided to enter his ball cap-wearing beagle this year. “The hat reminded me of a security guard hat and the thought of a dog living in a world of humans along with a human wife and human problems kind of just snowballed … I thought the combination of this tired Night Watchdog in a scary dark place would make for a striking visual.”
The creative artist says he really wants to help create something for TV whether it’s his idea or someone else’s. “That’s my dream,” he says. “I love doing character designs and helping to create worlds. Lately, I have focused more on trying to get some of my own ideas and IPs in front of the right people in the hopes of creating my own shows. I really want to work in animated television, where traditional 2D is still very strong.”
Having loved drawing and cartoons since he was a very young boy, Chris studied graphic design and worked as a graphic designer until he got into commercial animation in 1994 and founded his own company in 2001. “I love cartoons!” he says. “It’s as simple as that.”
Third Place: Dustin Yee’s Hard Time Candy
Hard Time Candy
The Animag staff got a big kick out of Dustin Yee’s imaginative take on our favorite sweet treats, and so did many of our judges. The Hub’s Biaselli loved the idea of a candy prison. “There’s so much surrounding childhood obesity that the idea of doing a show about candy seems dead on arrival—however, when you make candy the villains, there is some potential,” he said. “The look is great, too.” Michael Ross said he like the jumping-off point for the series, but he felt the idea needed more “oomph” to make it as a strong toon. “I think the designs are a huge plus,” he pointed out.
Dustin says he has been a comic-book and animation fan since he was six and he has a huge amount of admiration of Eastman and Laird and their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. “As a kid, I wanted to be an animator or a comic-book artist so I could do something like TMNT,” he recalls. “I moved more towards comics in my late teens, particularly digital color for comics, and dedicated myself to that pursuit.”
The idea for his pitch came to him one day as he was doodling and created a little girl with lollipops on her head. “She took on a bratty, hyper, candy-obsessed personality,” Dustin says. “So I thought it’d be funny to do a comic that dropped her into a situation of moving to a new town that didn’t have a candy shop, and watch her freak out and run up and down every street. When her search leads to a seemingly abandoned candy shop in the forest, surrounded by a moat, the Alcatraz-for-candy angle took off from there into a Charlie & the Chocolate Factory meets Dick Tracy kind of concept. The Hard Time Candy title fell into place later.”
Dustin, who has been a comic colorist for the past 10 years and made some comics of his own along the way, says he would like to continue down that path in the near future. “I love creating characters, high concepts and stories, and I’ll pursue that in whatever outlets I can find access to,” he adds. “I plan to pitch a short that I’m really excited about to Frederator’s incubator program this year. And, hopefully, the judges who voted for Hard Time Candy in the Pitch Party will let me send them comics and other materials going forward!” They’d better, or else we know some tough candy criminals who’re going to make them an offer they can’t refuse!
Animag Staff Picks
First Place:Night Watchdog (Chris Gruszka)
Night Watchdog
Second Place:Hard Time Candy (Dustin Yee)
Hard Time Candy
Third Place:Fast Sloths (Stephanie Komure / Joseph Medina)
Fast Sloths
Online Readers’ Picks
First Place:The Tinies (Jazz Paws/Michael Kursher)
The Tinies
Second Place:Fast Sloths (Stephanie Komure / Joseph Medina)
Fast Sloths
Third Place:The Surf Seekers (Stacie Crist Harmon)
The 2013 Palm Springs International ShortFest announced its Festival award winners on Sunday (June 23). This year, the well-attended North American short festival (June 18-24) served up 330 short films from over 3,000 filmmaker submissions available in the film market. A total of $110,000 in prizes, including $16,000 in cash awards, were awarded in 19 categories.
Here are the winners in the animation categories:
Audience Favorite Animation Short
A Girl Named Elastika. Directed by Guillaume Blanchet. A spirited girl made of rubber bands journeys across her corkboard universe in this delightful stop-motion film. (Canada)
Runner-up: Chopper. Directed by Lars Damoiseaux, Frederik Palmaers. (Netherlands)
Best Animation Short
First Place ($2,000) – Arts & Crafts Spectacular #2. (Germany), Directed by Ian Ritterskamp & Sébastien Wolf. This surreal claymation extravaganza wryly celebrates the close encounter of such disparate pop figures as Popeye and Yoko Ono during a be-in at a museum somewhere in time.
Second Place ($500) Chopper. (Netherlands) directed by Lars Damoiseaux & Frederik Palmaers
Best Student Animation
First Place – Harald. (Germany), Moritz Schneider
Harald is a champion wrestler with a monster mother for his coach. Though his true love is growing flowers, coach mom doesn’t wanted him distracted by such trifles, so when she takes away his latest plant, Harald is forced to sieze the day.
Second Place – The Magnificent Lion Boy. (UK), Ana Caro
Emeryville, Calif-based Athena Studios has signed CG animation production manager Brice Parker to the newly created position of Producer. Parker will oversee development of the studio’s forthcoming original stop motion and visual effects projects.
Parker spent eight years with Disney/Pixar, where he managed Pixar’s DVD Team, Theme Parks Project Teams, and Toons Art Department. He also produced the Pixar In Concert symphony. In addition to Pixar, Parker’s experience includes working in Visual Effects Production Management for the Jurassic Park and Matrix film franchises. He also holds a story credit on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Parker also serves, along with Athena Studios CEO Jon Peters, on the Board of Directors for the Visual Effects Society (VES) Bay Area Chapter.
“Athena Studios is embarking on an exciting new chapter of original content development, and I’m thrilled to be at the epicenter of that vision,” says Parker. “The studio is already recruiting world-class talent to join its roster, and is poised to establish itself as a new creative voice in the Bay Area. We’re already hard at work on some phenomenal projects.”
Athena Studios was launched in Summer 2012 as a full service production facility designed to help companies with production and vfx services. Athena offers a fully lit green screen studio for daily or long-term rental. Athena also provides stop motion, CG and post services, including digital restoration and color grading.
Anime fans have been looking forward to the release of classic TV series Marine Boy, which originally ran on Fuji TV in the 1960s. Marine Boy was one of the first color cartoons to produced in Japan by Minoru Adachi and animation company Japan Tele-Cartoons. Alongside Speed Racer and Kimba: The White Lion, Marine Boy was was one of the original handful of imported television series that captured youngsters’ imaginations and put Japanese anime in the stateside consciousness.
Warner Archive Collection will distribute Marine Boy: The Complete First Season. The three-discs, 26 episodes release centers on the adventures of a teenager with some amazing inventions at his disposal, Marine Boy battles evil on and under the seas on behalf of the Ocean Patrol, aided by his father, Dr. Mariner, and the brilliant Professor Fumble. Joining Marine Boy in his missions are his white dolphin, Splasher, young mermaid friend Neptina, and fellow Ocean Patrol agents Bullton and Piper.
The series even shared some pedigree with Speed Racer, most notably featuring several members of the rival series’ voice cast—like Corinne Orr, the voice of Marine Boy, Neptina and Clicli (as well as Trixie on Speed Racer); Peter Fernandez as Piper and Dr. Mariner (and the original voice of Speed Racer) and Jack Grimes as Professor Fumble and Splasher (Chim-Chim). Jack Curtis provided the voice of the narrator for both series.
The DVD is priced at $29.95. For more info, visit www.wbshop.com.
Ottawa’s Amberwood Entertainment and Big Jump Productions are pleased to announce a joint venture for a new animated pre-school series entitled Shutterbugs.
The series was created at Big Jump with conceptual designs by Kris Pearn (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2), and an educational curriculum developed by Barbara McKay-Ward. Brad Birch has also been tapped as the executive story editor.
“We are very excited to be collaborating once again with Big Jump,” says Jonathan Wiseman, senior VP and president at Amberwood, “We’ve secured a strong team to date for this production and look forward to adding a commissioning Canadian broadcaster.”
Rick Morrison, president at Big Jump says, “Shutterbugs is our inaugural foray into proprietary content and we are very pleased to have Amberwood aboard. We look forward once again to delivering great, entertaining content to market.”
Shutterbugs is a colorful series that offers young viewers an opportunity to understand their world through comedy, discovery, exploration and reasoning skills.
Mike and Sulley and the rest of the gang of collegiate scarers of Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University managed to scare up lots of tickets sales at the box office this past weekend. Pixar’s 14th features brought in $82 million in U.S. theaters and $136.5 million worldwide. Directed by Dan Scanlon, the movie is the No. 2 Pixar opening of all time, right behind Toy Story 3, which brought in $110 million in 2010.
Arriving at No. 2 for the weekend was Brad Pitt’s well-reviewed zombie pic World War Z, from Paramount, which opened to $66 million. According to box office watchers, this was the best opening of an original live-action movie since Avatar and Pitt’s largest U.S. opener. WWZ also made $45.8 million in 25 other markets, making its global take a nifty $111.8 million.
It’s been a good couple of weeks at the box office in the U.S. since the weekend revenue was an estimated $236 million, notable as it’s the second best of the year after Memorial weekend and among the top 10 weekends of all time.
Here is the complete box office Top 10 List:
1. Monsters University, Weekend $81.1 million (worldwide $126.5 million)
2. World War Z , Weekend $66.0 million
3. Man Of Steel, Weekend $41.0 million, Cume $209.8 million
4. This Is The End, Weekend $12.6 million, Cume $57.4 million
5. Now You See Me, Weekend $8.1 million, Cume $94.7 million
6. Fast & Furious 6, Weekend $4.8 million, Cume $228.6 million
7. The Purge, Weekend $3.3 million, Cume $59.4 million
8. The Internship, Weekend $3.3 million, Cume $38.3 million
9. Star Trek Into Darkness, Weekend $3 millon, Cume $216.7 million
10. Iron Man 3, Weekend $2.1 million, Cume $403.1 million
We were saddened by the recent death of British animation director and designer John Wilson, who passed away on June 21st at the age of 93 (according to animator Michael Sporn’s blog). Born in Wimbledon, London, Wilson began his career as a commercial artist with Willings Press Service at the age of 19. He served with the London Rifle Brigade in Africa during WII and was seriously injured, but he eventually recovered and found work at Pinewood Studios in the art department, working on classics such as The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946). His animation took off at Gaumont British Animation studio in the late 40s and he later worked at UPA and Disney in the 1950s.
Wilson launched his own studio Fine Arts Films in 1954, where he directed the 1956 short Petroushka (with music by Igor Stravinsky). He is perhaps best known for directing the animated trailer to the 1953 feature Irma la Douce, the feature Shinbone Alley (1971) and the well-known animated opener to the 1978 blockbuster musical Grease. He also created animated musical numbers for The Sonny and Cher Show in the 1970s.
Burbank-based animation studio Bento Box Entertainment, which is best known for producing the animation for FOX TV’s Bob’s Burgers and Comedy Central’s Brickleberry, is now developing and producing original animated content, says Deadline.com. The studio which was founded four years ago by Mark McJimsey, Joel Kuwahara and Scott Greenberg, has launched a new creative development and original programing division, which will be headed by veteran comedy executive Mike Clements.
Clements has 14 years of experience as a network comedy executive at Fox and the WB Network. He has worked on such animated series as The Simpsons, King of the Hill, The PJs and The Oblongs. For the past eight years, he ran development for Tom Werner’s Warner Bros. TV-based company, serving as executive producer on animated comedies The Life & Times of Tim and Good Vibes.
“At this point in time, we were looking to find somebody who can help elevate us in the marketplace, and Mike has great relationships with creative talent,” Greenberg told Deadline. “The company’s expansion shows the industry that we’re serious about our commitment to grow and be an independent studio while still working closely with partners to make their shows.”
With studios in Burbank and Atlanta, Bento Box is also working on the animation for Fox’s upcoming series Murder Police, IFC’s Out There, Hulu’s The Awesomes and YouTube’s Glove & Boots.
Tokyo-based digital content studio Polygon Pictures has launched a new computer graphics R&D service and consulting agency called J. Cube Inc.. Heading the shop is Paolo Berto Durante who will leading a dynamic team of visual developers at the new outfit, which focuses on R&D to design a modern pipeline for shading, lighting, rendering, and compositing. Durante has over a decade of experience in the CG tech development industry. He is also a co-founder of Jupiter Jazz Ltd., the Hong Kong-based company responsible for developing AtomKraft, an interactive 3D toolkit for Nuke.
Located at Minato-ku in Tokyo, Japan, J Cube is led by Polygon president and CEO Shuzo Shiota. The 30-year-old studio brings together over 300 creators from around the world, who work on a variety of projects, including CG-animated series such as Transformers Prime, TRON:Legacy and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. PPI also manages licensing for the studio’s original character properties like the popular penguin duo Rocky & Hopper.
The live-action adaptation of Tatsunoko’s classic anime Gatchaman (also known as Battle of the Planets / G-Force) has been generating a lot of buzz in the animation community. The movie, which will be released on August 24 in Japan, has a very strong pedigree: It’s directed by Sato Toya, whose credits include the live-action Grave of the Fireflies, Gokusen and Kaiji 1 & 2. The character designer is Shinji Aramaki, the man behind the look of Appleseed, Appleseed Ex Machina and Space Pirate Captain Harlock, while the script is written by Yūsuke Watanabe (20th Century Boys, Gantz).
Here is the official synopsis for the movie:
“Galactor, a mysterious group whose technology far surpasses that of humans, has declared war on the entire world and has already subjugated half of it. A mysterious crystal-like object called a stone, is humanity’s only hope. Those who are able to draw out the power of the stones are forced to train to become special agents in a five-person team called Gatchaman.”
The film stars Tôri Matsuzaka as Ken aka Gatchaman, Gô Ayano as Condor No Joe, Ayame Gôriki as Jun The Swan, Tatsuomi Hamada as Junpei The Swallow, Ryohei Suzuki as Ryu The Owl, Gorô Kishitani as Dr. Nambu and Eriko Hatsune as Naomi.
The original 1972 animated series was created by Tatsuo Yoshida and produced in Japan by Tatsunoko Productions and later adapted into several English-language versions. The show led to an animated feature release and two TV sequels, Gatchaman II (1978) and Gatchaman Fighter (1979). In 1994, the original series was remade as a condensed OVA series. A CG-animated feature film version of Gatchaman had been in production by Imagi Animation Studios for release in 2012, but was canceled because of the studio’s financial troubles.
This week, the top licensed properties and products of the past year were honored with the International Licensing Excellence Awards at the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas. Skylanders by Activision Publishing was named Overall Best Licensed Program of the Year and Hot Topic received the Best Retailer of the Year Award for The Hunger Games.
This year’s 15 awards recipients were chosen from a ballot of nominees via an industry-wide search and determined by a vote of LIMA’s membership.
LIMA’s International Licensing Excellence Awards honor the best, most successful licensed properties, products and campaigns in five distinct categories: Art or Design; Character or Toy Brand; Corporate Brand; Film, Television, Celebrity or Entertainment; and Sports. In addition, awards are presented for the Best Licensed Promotion of the Year, Best Retailer of the Year and Overall Best Licensed Program of the Year.
Here are some of the animation-related winners:
ART OR DESIGN
Best Art or Design Program of the Year The Very Hungry Caterpillar/The World of Eric Carle (by Eric Carle Studio/The Joester Loria Group)
Best Art or Design Licensee of the Year
Kids Preferred for The Very Hungry Caterpillar/The World of Eric Carle)
CHARACTER OR TOY BRAND
Best Character or Toy Brand Program of the Year Skylanders (by Activision Publishing, Inc.)
Best Character or Toy Brand Licensee of the Year – Hard Goods
LEGO (for Marvel Super Heroes)
Best Character or Toy Brand Licensee of the Year – Soft Goods
Alfred Angelo (for Disney Fairy Tale Weddings)
FILM, TELEVISION, CELEBRITY, OR ENTERTAINMENT
Best Film, Television, Celebrity, or Entertainment Program of the Year Marvel’s The Avengers (by The Walt Disney Company/Marvel Entertainment)
Best Film, Television, Celebrity, or Entertainment Licensee of the Year – Soft Goods
Vans (for Yo Gabba Gabba!)
RETAILER
Best Retailer of the Year
Hot Topic (for The Hunger Games)
OVERALL BEST LICENSED PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
Skylanders (by Activision Publishing, Inc.)
For a full list of this year’s nominees and more information about the annual Awards program, visit the LIMA website, www.licensing.org.
This weekend is shaping up to be an interesting battleground between new arrivals Disney/Pixar’s much-awaited prequel Monsters University and Paramount’s intriguing Brad Pitt zombie movie World War Z. Pixar’s follow-up to the 2001 Monsters, Inc. has been receiving strong reviews and is expected to score about $70 million at the box office. Both Monsters U and World War Z begin their “weekend rollout,” on Thursday at 8 p.m.
Directed by Don Scanlon, Monsters University features a top-notch voice cast which includes Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Frank Oz and Helen Mirren. This 14th movie in the Pixar filmography has so far received a 77% [updated] on the Rotten Tomatoes critical overview website, which is lower than the studio’s 2012 effort Brave (78%) and Pixar’s 2010 favorite Toy Story 3 (99%), but higher than 2011’s Cars 2 (38%). Blue Umbrella, another well-reviewed short from Pixar, directed by Sachka Unseld, plays with the feature.
World War Z, which is directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Monster’s Ball, The Kite Runner), was the subject of some speculation after Damon Lindelof (Lost) was brought in to rewrite a new ending in the 11th hour in the film’s production. The pic features an excellent performance by Brad Pitt as a U.N. fighter and family man who races against time to contain some contagious zombies around the world. Audiences will also enjoy some fantastic 3-D visuals courtesy of production designer, art director Jon Billington and vfx supervisor Scott Farrar. ILM, Cinesite, Halon Entertainment, Moving Picture Company (MPC) and Legacy Effects are some of the key vfx houses contributing to the movie.
Both Monsters University and World War Z will also face Warner Bros. blockbuster Man of Steel, which has made over $235 million during its first week in release. However the Pixar’s film major competition arrives on July 3 in the form of Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 2, which has already generated a lot of good buzz and was one of the audience favorites at the recent Annecy festival.
Monsters University / World War Z
Here are the trailers for Monsters University and World War Z:
Render farm management solution firm PipelineFX has announced that twice a year, all of its education customers on subscription can double their current license capacity at no additional charge. Using the new Education Burst License program, schools are invited to choose between a one month burst that will start at the beginning of a selected month and a 30-day burst that begins on a date of their choice.
The program – exclusive to PipelineFX – will rectify a long-standing problem for educators, who can predict when their render farm usage rates will spike, but don’t always have the budget to respond to these cyclical shifts. License bursts remedy this by giving schools the freedom to plan for peak periods, like finals, without forcing them to devote any additional resources.
“A problem schools face all over the world is: ‘how do we scale support when our rendering needs go from zero to over capacity?’” said John McIntosh, chairman of the School of Visual Arts. “This burst license policy satisfies that question, and gives us room to breathe in the face of looming deadlines.”
“PipelineFX has always been a customer-first company, and that’s where this idea came from…a customer,” added Richard Lewis, CEO of PipelineFX. “We want to support the animation and visual effects industry, and since schools are the breeding grounds for our industry’s future, we can think of no better place to offer a helping hand.”
Avengers fans can now rest easy as news got out today that actor Robert Downey Jr. has finally signed on to join the rest of the original cast in The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3 sequels. A few weeks ago, there was talk that the well-paid actor (who reportedly made about $50 million from the original superhero movie) might not reprise his original role in the upcoming pics, but according to marvel.com he’s now signed a two-picture deal.
Downey’s contract ran out before everyone else because he had been making movies with Marvel longer, and because he got in before Marvel started issuing their nine-picture deals with all newcomers. The early summer release Iron Man 3 has made over out $1.2 billion worldwide. The next big Marvel milestone pics Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier which open this November and April 2014, respectively. The Avengers 2 is slated for May 1, 2015, and it’s assumed The Avengers 3 will probably arrive in 2018.
Rob Edwards, writer of Disney’s The Princess and the Frog and Treasure Planet will teach a seminar titled “Writing for Animation” on Saturday, June 29th from 2-3:30pm, followed by a Q&A at The Writers Store, 3510 W. Magnolia Blvd. in Burbank, Calif.
Rob is an Emmy nominated writer who has been entertaining TV and film audiences with his writing talents for nearly three decades. Besides his work in animated feature writing that includes Disney’s Oscar nominated: The Princess and the Frog and Treasure Planet, Rob’s career also spans into television comedy where he has written for many notable hits such as House, In Living Color, Roc, Studio 60 and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He is also credited with creating the NBC sitcom Out All Night which starred Patti LaBelle, Morris Chestnut and Vivica A Fox.
In his seminar, Rob will delve into what it’s like to write with a seasoned animation team. But how does one write for and proactively work on an animation film? Many writers spend endless hours alone outlining, plotting and putting their words down on paper. But as a hired writer, one becomes part of a tight team in which the writing schedule revolves around the filmmaking process. Rob will discuss this along with troubleshooting techniques when obstacles arise.
After years of lecturing and live screenwriting workshops, Rob and his team began laboring intensively to build his website: www.robedwards.net in 2012. The site will provide online year-round mini workshops and allow aspiring screenwriters to safely share their work and receive constructive feedback from one another.
