Disney XD will premiere the new animated series Packages from Planet X this Saturday (July 13) at 8:30 a.m. as part of its Randomation Animation Block. The new toon centers on the adventures of 15-year-old Dan Zembrosky from the bizarre town of Iron Bay who suddenly receives strange, cryptic packages from an evil alien planet. The packages arrive in various forms and Dan and his two best friends use them to their own advantage, whether it be to make the soccer team, pass a test to avoid summer school or get out of trouble, all while keeping the mysterious contraptions out of the hands of Copernicus, an evil alien who is plotting to take over the world.
In the premiere episode, Dan uses a space mixer package to help him win the annual Harbor Feast with Troll’s recipe for spicy lava balls, but winds up creating a food monster instead.
Packages is created by Jeff Harter (Care Bears: Big Wish Movie) and exec produced by Chris Bartleman, Steven DeNure, Kirsten Newlands, Jeffrey Conrad, Sean Gorman and Ryan Wiesbrock. The show features the voice talent of Vincent Tong as Dan, Ty Olsson as Troll, Britt Irvin as Amanda and Brian as Copernicus. The show is a DHX Media Inc Production in association with Teletoon, American Greetings and The Walt Disney Company Limited.
to view all of this year’s entries and vote for your favorites. All pitches are presented as 1/6th-page advertisements that offer new ideas for animated shows that that just may get picked up for development. Results of the online reader poll will be announced along with the picks of our distinguished panel of industry judges and Animag staffers in the next issue of Animation Magazine (which has a huge bonus distribution at Comic-Con in San Diego).
The Pitch Party offers independent artists an opportunity to advertise their animated properties for a greatly reduced rate in the pages of Animation Magazine, which is read all over the world. Each of our esteemed judges then review all entries and collectively select one winner for the opportunity to pitch their idea to the participating execs of their choice.
This year’s amazing panel of judges are:
Ted Biaselli, VP Programming, Hub Network
Barry Blumberg, EVP, Alloy Digital | President, SMOSH
The winners of this year’s event will get to pitch their project to the judge of their choice in person!
As an online voter, you too can help get someone noticed by the animation community and possibly get their big break! You only have one week to get your votes in, so do it now!
This is Canadian producer, director and author Marcel Jean‘s first year as the artistic director of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. We recently chatted with him about the 2013 festival, taking over from longtime fest director Serge Bromberg and his vision for the world-renowned event.
Animag: This is your first year as the artistic director of the Annecy Festival. What are some of your favorite parts of the job so far?
Marcel Jean: Selection and programming are my favorites: I like to watch films, I like to pick the best ones and I like to build the programs. I’m happy when I have 50 short films to watch in a single day. It’s exciting to watch hundreds of recent films in a period of three months and at some point have a picture of the state of animation.
What was the most difficult aspect of stepping into this new position?
I receive so many proposals from people from all around the world and I have to say no to most of them, even if they’re valuable films or programs. As a programmer, I would like to have more screening rooms, more money to invite musicians, more places to present exhibitions, etc.
What is your take on the global animation scene in 2013?
In terms of short films, the first thing I noted was the strength of the animation from France. The economical situation in Europe is not very good and the production of animation shorts in different countries suffers from this, especially in the U.K., in Portugal and in Italy. The quality and the variety of animation schools in France and the strong financial support from the government tend to preserve the production there.
I was happy to see the vitality of independent U.S. animation and the quality of the Canadian projects. Another important factor is the emergence of independent production in China: We’ve selected three Chinese shorts in competition this year. It’s a premiere in Annecy.
Regarding the feature films, the biggest surprise was the geographical origins of the films: South Africa, Brazil, India. It’s good to see that films from these countries can compete with the best films from countries that are historically important producers.
What are some of your favorite animated movies/or animated characters of all time?
Norman McLaren’s Begone Dull Care and Neighbors, John Hubley’s Rooty Toot Toot, Jan Svankmajer’s Dimensions of Dialogue, Pierre Hébert’s Memories of War, Priit Pärn’s Breakfast on the Grass, Quay Brothers’ Street of Crocodiles, Georges Schwizgebel’s La course à l’abîme…
Begone Dull CareRooty Toot TootDimensions of Dialogue
I love the works of Max and Dave Fleischer: Koko is a fantastic character and some of his films are among the most original in the history of animation. The Clown’s Little Brother and Koko’s Earth Control are among my favorites. I also have a crush on Betty Boop… But who doesn’t?
What kind of advice would you give animators who dream of having their shorts or projects accepted and rewarded at Annecy?
I beg you, don’t try to make a film to please me! You must find your own style, you must stay honest to yourself, work hard and do the best you can. Be an animator, not a painter or an illustrator.
Don’t be afraid to take some risks. When you receive more than a thousand submissions, you keep the films that stand out. So if you want to experiment, go for it without fear. If you want to tell a story, don’t be shy on emotion. If you want to be funny, make sure you are really funny.
For more info about this year’s event, visit www.annecy.org.
If you’re one of the fortune people who will be attending this year’s awesome Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Market this month, you will realize this fact sooner or later: It’s not humanly possible to take in all the amazing screenings, special events, panels and activities of this one-of-a-kind event. So we thought it would be a good idea to make sure you won’t miss some of the 2013 edition’s high points.
My Mom Is in America and Has Met Buffalo Bill
1. Catch an Indie Gem! Yes, you’ll be able to watch big studio features like Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 2 or Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University almost anywhere in the world all summer long. So why not try and enjoy a beautifully produced, hand-drawn gem from France, Germany or Korea this year? Among the titles available for discriminating aficionados are Enzo D’Alo’s Pinocchio (Italy), Fernando Cortizo’s The Apostle (Spain), Marc Boreal and Thibaut Chatel’s My Mom Is in America and Has Met Buffalo Bill (France), Anthony Silverston’s Khumba (South Africa) and Toshiyuki Kubooka’s Berserk Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey.
The Event
2. Appreciate the Art of the Short. Nobody can predict which creative narrative short will take home the much-coveted Annecy Cristal prize this year. Last year, it was Michaela Pavlátová’s clever Tram, which went on to sweep the top awards at festivals and events all year long. Who will be the talk of the town in 2013? Jiri Barta’s Yuki Onna, Julia Pott’s The Event, Jeremy Clapin’s Palmipedarium, Hayai Toru’s Not Over, Daniel Sousa’s Feral, George Schwizgebel’s Chemin Faisant—or a surprise unknown title nobody has ever heard of? The suspense is killing us already.
The Congress
3. Learn from the Best. One of the most amazing aspects of the festival is the level of access you can have to some of the top animation professionals working in the world today. Each day, there are several panels and workshops planned to allow attendees to learn as much as possible from these toon stars. This year, DreamWorks’ head of character animation Kristof Serrand will talk about how a character is created and developed in pre-production (Tuesday, June 11 at 4:30 p.m.). Also on tap is a look at the making of four international animated features, Cafard, Khumba, The Congress and Oggy and the Cockroaches: The Movie. There will also be several panels addressing the best production pipelines, pre-viz, animation and vfx tools and advances in delivering state-of-the-art projects. So listen carefully, take good notes and you can impress all your friends.
Bill Plympton
4. Be Open to Chance Encounters. Judging from the wealth of top animation helmers and producers invited to Annecy this year, it’s quite possible for you to meet many of your toon heroes in one of the town’s packed bars or charming canal-side restaurants. Get ready to snap pics of your idols and post them in your favorite social media outlets for all buddies to see back home. After all, who doesn’t want a photo with Bill Plympton, Matt Groening, Sylvain Chomet or Joanna Priestley, right?
Mickey Mouse in ‘Get a Horse’
5. Check Out the Hush-Hush Mickey Short! Disney has been very secretive about an enigmatic short titled Mickey Mouse in ‘Get a Horse.’ This “never-before-seen,” black-and-white, hand-drawn short features Walt Disney as the voice of the iconic mouse. The plot finds Mickey, his cheerful gal pal Minnie Mouse and their pals Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow enjoying a pastoral musical wagon ride—until Peg-Leg Pete shows up and tries to run them off the road! Presenting this “lost” Mickey short at Annecy will be filmmakers Lauren MacMullan (Wreck-It Ralph, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Simpsons), Dorothy McKim (Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice, The Ballad of Nessie, Meet the Robinsons) and legendary Disney artist and animator Eric Goldberg. We have a feeling that this is going to be one of those one-of-a-kind events that make Annecy such a magical experience.
For a complete list of events, please visit www.annecy.org.
Jonathan Rothbart and his vfx teams recreate a world long abandoned by humans for M. Night Shyamalan’s sci-fi adventure After Earth.
What would our planet look like a thousand years in the future, if a series of cataclysmic events forced humans to evacuate it? That was the central question facing vfx supervisor Jonathan Rothbart and his team as they set out to work on director M. Night Shyamalan’s sci fi adventure After Earth. The feature, which stars Will and Jaden Smith, centers on a resourceful father and son who are stranded after their spaceship crash lands on this strange, new world.
Rothbart, whose numerous vfx credits include game-changers such as Avatar, Iron Man and Men in Black, says he was drawn to the project because it provided him with the opportunity to create original creatures and digital environments which were also grounded in reality. Overall, the film features about 750 vfx shots, created mainly by Tippett Studio and Pixomondo, with Iloura, Spy Post, Creative-Cartel and Svengali among the other shops offering support. Tippett created the film’s central alien creature (which is being transported in an aircraft by Will Smith’s character), while Pixomondo delivered the environmental work and space travel sequences. Rothbart also praises the work done by Australian studio Iloura, which included visualizing the new planet’s environments and well as many of the animals, including baboons and an okapi stampede, which sadly ended up in the cutting-room floor.
“It’s a bit different from other sci-fi movies as M. Night and our production designer Tom Sanders wanted to depict a more Utopian, organic version of the future, in which humans have learned their lesson and are living more harmoniously with the world around them,” explains Rothbart. “Our big challenge was to create a futuristic design that you haven’t seen before. We did a lot of research into the real world. We even studied the animals at the Oakland Zoo and did cycles with them, to prepare us for the movie’s characters.”
After Earth
The film’s new planet, which is called Nova Prime, is a bit reminiscent of the world of the 1976 classic Logan’s Run, says the supervisor.
“We start out in this future world and then move to a ship in space, and then back in an uninhabitable Earth, after that ship crash lands. There are many animals running around and it’s a super lush world, which is a sharp contrast to the barren world they’re coming from.”
Many of the film’s vfx shots involve Jaden Smith’s character (Kitai), surviving the elements and interacting with birds, baboons and the mysterious alien creature called Ursa. The Tippett team strove to design a creature that felt organic and had realistic skin and bone structure.
After Earth
“You want this creature to have a texture and a sensibility that is something you’d see as a hunter,” explains Rothbart. “At the same time, you want it to be unique because it’s an alien species, so it can’t be like any of the animals we are familiar with on Earth. That was the big goal—to make it familiar enough that it seemed real, but also it had to be original enough to seem alien.”
As Jenny Fulle, the film’s vfx producer and founder of Creative-Cartel, puts it…
“This isn’t your typical sci-fi fare that we are used to seeing on the big screen. This is an emotional story about a father and son and how they’re separated and reconciled. There’s some amazing creature work in the movie, the sequence with a giant CG bird, a baboon attack, Kitai jumping off a waterfall that is a spectacular CG environment, and the sequence that involves the main creature.”
After Earth
In one of the most challenging sequences of the film, Kitai has to jump on top of the alien creature’s back. Because the Ursa is a giant beast, they couldn’t have Jaden land on a tall stand-in’s back. So instead, they shot the actor jumping on a hydraulic mechanical bull and then digitally replacing the bucking animal machine with the alien creature.
“We were throwing him around like crazy,” says Rothbart. “His dad, who’s also producing the movie, was cool with that!”
Sony’s After Earth was released in the U.S. on May 30 and will continue to open in theaters around world throughout June.
Montreal-based animation software giant Toon Boom announced today at the Annecy Market the launch of its “What I Like About Harmony” contest. Open to all Harmony users around the world, this contest is a wonderful opportunity to invite the global Harmony community to express what they feel about the software.
To enter the contest, entrants submit a video of themselves, video blog style, talking about one specific aspect of Harmony that they like. Entrants may submit multiple entries in their own language. All winners will be awarded with a permanent license of the two-time Emmy-winning Toon Boom Animation software of their choice.
Toon Boom will award these contest categories: “Our Favourite Entry”, “Most Original Submission” and “Viewer’s Choice”.
The contest deadline is midnight EST, August 12, 2013. Visit contests.toonboom.com for more info.
The Toon Boom team will be at MIFA at Annecy, France, this week, Booth 2.007 from June 12–14, 2013.
“What I Like About Harmony” Contest
About Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Toon Boom Animation Inc. (www.toonboom.com), a Corus® Entertainment Inc. company and a 2012 and 2005 Primetime Emmy Engineering Award recipient, is the worldwide leader in digital content and animation creation software, delivering products and services online to its global community. Toon Boom carries user-friendly applications for all, catering to children, home users, creative professionals as well as students, educators and schools. Toon Boom is fully dedicated to education and goes far beyond just developing technology and curriculums that enhance the classroom experience. Toon Boom is an influential advocate of bringing industry and education together, while partnering with value-added partners to help students achieve their goals.
At the high-end studio level, Toon Boom offers a wide product range from powerful pre-production tools to leading-edge animation production solutions. Relying on its extensive expertise in animation production, Toon Boom provides consulting services in the fields of optimization, pipeline integration, production assistance and custom development.
To mark the 85th birthday of celebrated American illustrator and author Maurice Sendak, Google has created a lovely animated Doodle, which debuts on June 10. Best known for penning beloved classics such as Where the Wild Things Are (1963) and In the Night Kitchen (1970).
Several of Sendak’s popular books were adapted into animated TV shows, including the TV special Really Rosie (1975), Little Bear (1995-1996) and Seven Little Monsters (2000-2003). Where the Wild Things Are was adapted into a live-action feature in 2009, directed by Spike Jonez. Sendak passed away on May 8, 2012 in Danbury, CT, from complications of a stroke.
Drafthouse Films and Films We Like have co-acquired North American rights to Ari Folman’s much-anticipated The Congress, starring Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Jon Hamm and Paul Giamatti. The animated-live action hybrid opened the Cannes Director’s Fortnight sidebar this year and will hit theaters and VOD next year.
Folman’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated 2088 feature Waltz with Bashir, is loosely based on Stanislaw Lem’s science-fiction novel The Futurological Congress. The plot centers on a middle-aged actress played by Robin Wright, who agrees to take part in a revolutionary experiment to create a digital replica of herself (albeit a younger one) to take over her career. The catch is that the real Wright can never act again.
“The Congress cements Ari Folman’s position as one of the most innovative and provocative filmmakers working today,” said Drafthouse Films CEO Tim League. “It will be a joy to share his creative vision with American audiences.”
Conan O’Brien, who cut his teeth as a writer on The Simpsons (1992-93) before embarking on his career as a latenight talk show host, will be revisiting his toon roots. This time around, though, he will be voicing himself on an upcoming episode of Family Guy.
According to ew.com, in an episode prepped for the next season of the show, Peter and Quagmire are frightened by a bee and accidentally scream in perfect harmony. That leads them to form a singing duo called Griffin and Quagmire, and land on Conan’s talk show.
Michelle Dockery, Bill Maher, Jeff Daniels are among the other celebs popping up as guest voices on the 12th season of the show, which kicks off this fall.
Amazon Studios is launching Amazon Storyteller, a new free online tool (still in beta) that turns scripts into storyboards, complete with characters and dialogue that can then be shared with others for feedback.
“We’ve found that many writers want to see their story up on its feet in visual form but find it harder than it should be to create a storyboard,” said Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios. “Storyteller provides a digital backlot, acting troupe, prop department and assistant editor—everything you need to bring your story to life. We want to see great stories turned into movies and television shows and we’ll continue to develop new features and tools that help people develop great stories.”
Storyteller begins by scanning a movie script that has been uploaded to Amazon Studios. It identifies the scenes, locations and characters from scene descriptions, and “casts” them from a library of thousands of characters, props and backgrounds. Filmmakers can recast or change locations, or they can upload their own images. Storyteller places the cast in front of the right background so that filmmakers can focus their time on the emotion and energy of scenes by using pan and zoom, changing the facial expressions and positions of characters, adding vehicles or props or adding captions with descriptions or additional dialogue.
Once completed, the storyboard can be published on Amazon Studios where other users are able to view it and give feedback on the project. For more info about using this free tool, visit www.amazonstudios.com/storyteller.
FXX has greenlit Chozen, an FX animated comedy pilot from Danny McBride and his Rough Pictures partners Jody Hill and David Gordon Green. The show is FXX’s first original series for the new cable channel, which will launch on Sept. 2. Chozen is expected to premiere in the first quarter of next year.
The new animated show is written by Grant Dekernion, former writer’s assistant on McBride, Hill and Green’s HBO series Eastbound & Down, which was axed this week.
The series centers on a gay white rapper who finds a new life, message and skills after he is released from prison. The lead will be voiced by Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live). Dekernion will write and rap the songs for the lead character of the series, which he is executive producing with McBride, Hill, Green as well as Adam Reed and Matt Thompson of Floyd County Prods. (Archer) for FX Prods. The cast also includes McBride, Hannibal Buress, Michael Pena, Nick Swardson, Kathryn Hahn and rapper-actor Method Man.
“Chozen is an outrageous and ballsy comedy, but it’s also a very smart examination of the rap culture,” Nick Grad, president of original programming at FX Networks and FX Prods. told Deadline.com.
A Guangzhou-based cinema chain manager told The Hollywood Reporter that Chinese authorities are forcing theater owns to end the run of DreamWorks’ The Croods two weeks earlier than planned. The film was originally scheduled to run through June 24. Film regulators had previously cancelled screenings of Django Unchained in April.
The Croods has been a huge success in China, generating more than $63.7 million in the country as of Thursday. But the government is trying to boost numbers for locally produced animated features, which haven’t been performing well in China.
Paramount’s Star Trek Into Darkness was released in China on May 28, and Warner Bros.’ Man of Steel is slated for a June 20 opening.
Disney Channel is treating fans of Phineas and Ferb with a new trailer for the big Mission Marvel crossover special, which premieres this summer. This is the first time the popular Disney animated show welcomes characters from the Marvel universe.
Billed as an “epic television event,” the special finds Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk finding their way to Danville after Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s latest “inator” scheme removes their powers and immobilizes them. It’s up to Phineas and Ferb to team up with the Marvel Super Heroes to help them regain their powers and defeat Marvel Super Villains—Red Skull, Whiplash, Venom and M.O.D.O.K.—who are working together with Dr. Doofenshmirtz to use his power-draining technology to create mayhem.
The trailer will air during this week’s Phineas and Ferb episode on June 7 at 9 p.m., but you can also enjoy it here:
DreamWorks has released details about the studio’s new animated musical feature titled Larrikins which will feature music by composer/comic/actor Tim Minchin. Based on an idea penned by Harry Cripps (Supernova) and produced by Christina Steinberg (Rise of the Guardians, National Treasure), the feature centers an uptight bilby (a desert-dwelling marsupial), who has lived a sheltered life in the safety of his family burrow. When he ventures out and becomes privy to a dangerous secret, he finds himself launched on a musical adventure across the mystical and untamed Australian outback.
“Our whole team is incredibly excited about this project,” said DreamWorks’ Chief Creative Officer, Bill Damaschke. “We’ve been looking to work with the immensely talented Tim Minchin on something for a while, and there is no doubt that this project is a perfect fit. He and Harry Cripps will be a fantastic team.”
Minchin, who will likely take on a larger creative role in addition to writing the music/lyrics for the film, co-wrote Matilda the Musical which was awarded a 2012 Olivier Award for Best New Musical and is currently nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical Score.
Says Minchin, “I was lucky enough to grow-up in Western Australia and know that the Australian outback is vast and spell-binding and heart-stoppingly beautiful, and the characters that inhabit it are unique and hilarious and tough and cheeky. I am hugely excited to be working with Harry and the DreamWorks Animation team in their mission to capture some of this unique aesthetic and quirky, iconoclastic culture on film. It’s going to be bloody good fun.”
The new CG-animated feature version of The Little Prince is shaping up to be quite an A-list affair. The pic, which is being directed by Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne, has attracted the likes of James Franco, Rachel McAdams, Jeff Bridges, Marion Cotillard, Benicio Del Toro and Paul Giamatti to provide voices per The Hollywood Reporter. The animated feature is produced by Onyx Film’s Aton Soumache (Renaissance) and Dimitri Rassam (Iron Man: Armed Adventures, Upside Down) who also produce the popular CG-animated French TV series based on the popular book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. The TV show, which debuted in 2010 in France, is a co-pro between Method Animation, DQ Entertainment, Fabrique d’Images, LPPTV, Sony Home Ent. and the Saint Exupery-d’Agay Estate.
First published in 1943, de Saint-Exupery’s classic centers on the adventures of a pilot who encounters a mysterious boy after his plane crash-lands in the African Sahara. The pilot, voiced by Jeff Bridges, learns that the boy may be a prince, who used to live on a distant planet (Planet-Asteroid B-612) with his beloved rose, a sheep and a fox.
The property has been adapted for both film and TV a number of times. One of the most noted adaptation was Stanley Donen’s live-action musical take on the property, which starred Richard Kiley as the Pilot, Gene Wilder as the Fox, and Bob Fosse as the Snake, with music by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Paramount distributed that 1974 movie, and is said to be interested in releasing the latest version as well.
DreamWorks Animation has signed an initial co-operation deal with China’s Dalian Wanda Group to work together on future projects, the heads of the two companies announced at a public panel discussion in Chengdu on Thursday. According to a report on the Sichuan Online site (ifeng.com), the Glendale-based studio, which already has launched a Shanghai-based Oriental DreamWorks Co. will be working with Wanda on various projects.
In related news, Katzenberg told Bloomberg News that The Croods has done incredibly well in China.
“[Chinese audiences] love animation. The stories are very affirmative, the movies always embrace very positive themes, they celebrate the best of humanity, they’re optimistic films, their characters are hopeful characters, and I think those are things that the audience here responds very, very well to. I think they love happy endings. Animation has a common denominator that transcends languages, cultures, countries, everything.”
When asked about dealing with censorship from the Chinese government, Katzenberg responded…
“For us, we tell the stories that we like to tell…The stories that we tell and the way in which we tell them is very appealing to this market, so again, your approach to thinking about it is not how we go about it. We’ve been bringing movies here for more than a dozen years, we’ve never been asked to change a single frame of a single film. I know people often are concerned about censorship, I’m sure for some movies and some films and some filmmakers, it’s an issue. It’s never been one for us. We don’t make movies that seem to have any issues for the censors.”
“With the development of information technology, there’s a great future for the animation industry,” said Wang Jianlin, owner of the Wanda Group, who also owns the U.S. theater chain AMC. “I’ve known Jeffrey for a long time but it’s only recently that we reached this agreement.”
The two CEOs didn’t reveal any further details about their partnership.
Joining Katzenberg on this Chengdu trip is the talented, Oscar-winning director Jennifer Yuh, whose Kung Fu Panda 2 has become the highest-grossing animated film ever released in the country, with over $99.1 million in tickets sales in 2011. Yuh is also directing the third installment of the Kung Fu Panda franchise for a December 23, 2015 release date. Incidentally, Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province, the largest breeding ground of pandas in China!
Guru Studio has tapped Knockout Licensing and Super RTL Merchandising to handle the licensing for its Daytime Emmy-nominated show Justin Time in North America and Germany, respectively. Knockout (Downtown Abbey, Boo – The World’s Cutest Dog, Lil’ Panda) has acquired the consumer product rights to the preschool property in the U.S. and Canada. The licensing program includes plans for toys, apparel, dress-up and adventure playsets and will debut at Licensing Expo in Las Vegas later this month. The show airs on PBS Sprout and NBC Kids, Discovery Familia and Netflix. Boutique publishing house Immedium has printed two tie-in books (Pancake Express and The Big Pet Story), penned by show creator Brandon James Scott.
Justin Time – The Big Pet Story
PowerA and Rovio Entertainment, creator of the popular Angry Birds franchise, announced a multi-year North American licensing partnership to create consumer products based on Rovio’s properties. The license includes the creation and distribution of mobility cases, video game accessories, carrying cases, controllers, and headphones for gaming. The deal overs Rovio’s most iconic brand properties such as the original Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Space, and Bad Piggies. For more info, visit www.PowerA.com and www.rovio.com.
Angry Birds
Global Pursuit, the joint-venture between Gamania Digital Entertainment and Brand Reality, has signed a deal to represent Pretty Ugly to expand the Uglydoll brand and develop licensing efforts in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Categories will include apparel, accessories, stationery, publishing and toys. Uglydoll was first launched in 2002 by Pretty Ugly, and the plush character toys have since moved into books, apparel and other licensed goods.
Disney is generating some buzz today for its mysterious Mickey Mouse short, Get a Horse which premieres at the Annecy Animation Festival (Tuesday, June 11) with the release of a new “old-fashioned” poster. Billed as the studio’s “never-before-seen” short, and featuring Walt Disney himself as the voice of the cheerful mouse, the project follows the Mickey and his favorite gal pal Minnie, their buddies Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow on a musical wagon ride until Peg-Leg Pete causes some mischief and tries to run them off the road!
Presenting this “lost” Mickey short at Annecy will be filmmakers Lauren MacMullan (Wreck-It Ralph, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Simpsons), Dorothy McKim (Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice, The Ballad of Nessie, Meet the Robinsons) and legendary Disney artist and animator Eric Goldberg. We’ll keep you posted about this “mysterious” short next week.
Vancouver Film School (VFS) has added a new Animation & Visual Effects campus located in the 106,000 square foot city-owned space in Gastown, which previously housed the city’s short-lived Storyeum theatrical museum.
After $4.5 million in renovations, phase one of this new state-of-the-art VFS campus will open to students in August. Each classroom is designed to optimize the learning experience by giving students access to high-powered software, including the leading render farm management system, as well as more studios and lounge areas to foster collaboration and synergy between VFS’s programs. The space’s many groundbreaking features include a 280-degree green screen studio and a new fiber network.
“We have reinvented the entire space from the ground up, turning it into a leading facility in the heart of Vancouver’s bustling creative core,” says Marty Hasselbach, VFS’s managing director. “At VFS, we stress the importance of being industry-led, so we worked with representatives from the local industry to maximize the space and emulate a true studio experience.”
VFS’s Animation & Visual Effects programs help students become confident production artists, ready for the industry in visual effects, animation, or 3D modeling. From day one, students are guided by industry pros as they create a reel that demonstrates their talent and skills on their way to launching their careers.
“I am beyond excited to move into the new facility,” says Marianne O’Reilly, Head of Animation & Visual Effects at VFS. “Our students go on to achieve great things in film, TV, and games. They’re making a real difference on the world stage, and I believe this space truly does their talent and work ethic justice.”
In keeping with Vancouver Film School’s naming convention, the new campus space will adopt the name ‘151’. The Animation & Visual Effects portion of the facility is 42,000 square feet, double the size of the current campus, and provides students with two 72-seat theatres, editing suites, sound studios, a customized life drawing room, three design studios, and much more.
For more information on VFS’s programs and initiatives, please visit www.vfs.edu.
Relativity and Reel FX announced today that Hispanic radio personality Eddie ‘Piolin’ Sotelo (Ice Age: Continental Drift), drummer for the world-renowned rock band Tool Danny Carey and Australian actor Josh Lawson (The Campaign) have joined the voice cast of Free Birds, directed by Jimmy Hayward (Horton Hears A Who!). The CG-animated feature is set for wide theatrical release in 2D and 3D on November 1, 2013.
Free Birds also features the voice talent of Owen Wilson, who previously voiced Lightning McQueen in Disney/Pixar’s Cars, Woody Harrelson from The Hunger Games, Amy Poehler who voiced Sally O’Malley in Horton Hears a Who!, Lesley Nicol from Downtown Abbey, George Takei from Star Trek, Dan Fogler, who previously voiced Zeng in DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda, Con Air’s Colm Meaney, and Keith David who voiced The Cat in Coraline.
The buddy comedy chronicles the adventures of two turkeys from opposite sides of the tracks must put aside their differences and team up to travel back in time to change the course of history – and get turkey off the holiday menu for good.
Producing are Scott Mosier (Clerks), Craig Mazin (The Hangover Part II), John Strauss (The Santa Claus 2) and David l. Stern (Hotel Transylvania). The screenplay was written by Stern and Strauss, with a rewrite by Mazin.
Based in Dallas, TX, Reel FX develops and produces both animated films and live action movies. In addition to Free Birds, Reel FX’s growing animation slate includes Jorge Gutierrez-helmed The Book of Life (Guillermo del Toro producing) and an adaptation of the Beasts of Burden comic book series (Aron Warner and Andrew Adamson producing).
