Just in time for Oscar weekend, the Disney archives have released a newly discovered sketch from 1938 short Mickey’s Toothache, part of an unfinished cartoon that was created to give the rodent star a more complete character. The sketch shows Mickey being chased by a dentist’s chair and archenemy Pete.
Artist Ferdinand Horvath has Mickey experience a psychedelic nightmare after he visits the dentist and takes in too much laughing gas. According to Disney Archives director Becky Cline, the overdose sends Mickey into a “nightmarish world inhabited by living teeth, dental floss, a psychotic dentist’s chair and a vengeful pair of dental pliers.”
Mickey’s then-nemesis Pete also makes an appearance, and Mickey is finally put on trial led by a judgmental wisdom tooth who accuses Mickey with tooth neglect.
The previously forgotten piece of artwork was discovered in the Walt Disney Archives, hidden in a folder lost for more than 74 years. It was unearthed just a few months ago.
“Mickey’s Toothache” is just one of several discoveries being planned as part of this year’s D23 Disney Fanniversary Celebration. The Horvath image will be included in a 90-minute presentation showcasing some of this year’s other major Disney anniversaries in 10 different U.S. cities (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Newark, Orlando, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.).
Horvath played an important part in Mickey’s evolution in the early years of the studio. Born in 1891, Horvath spent time in a Russian concentration camp where he taught himself to draw before immigrating to America in 1921. He worked for the studio between 1934 and 1944, produced over 70 animated shorts and was also involved in the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
For more info about the Disney event, visit www.D23.com.
Valencia, Calif,-based California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has partnered with online course platform Coursera to offer a variety of free massive open online courses (MOOC) to students all over the world. Three CalArts’ classes will launch in Fall 2013: Introduction to Programming for Digital Artists, taught by Ajay Kapur, Ph.D, Director: Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence and Design (MTIID) at CalArts; Creating Site-Specific Dance and Performance Works, led by Dean of CalArts Sharon Disney Lund School of Dance Stephan Koplowitz; and Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers, with CalArts’ Provost and Faculty in the School of Art Jeannene Przyblyski, Ph.D.
“It is our goal at Coursera to offer our students a rich variety of academic opportunities,” said Coursera co-founder, Andrew Ng. “As an institution focused solely on the arts, CalArts provides a unique roster of rigorous arts-based courses that are now accessible to students globally.”
“We are deeply gratified to be the first arts institution included in Coursera’s selection of top universities,” said CalArts president Steven Lavine. “As an internationally renowned school of the visual and performing arts, developing the creativity of individual students is a key to the CalArts education—and Coursera, the premiere innovator in its field, is the ideal partner for extending our reach to students around the globe. Creativity is a key to success in today’s world and we can now offer students far beyond our campus the ability to hone and develop their own creative problem-framing and problem-solving skills.”
Those who successfully complete CalArts’ Coursera offerings will receive a Statement of Accomplishment signed by the instructor. Coursera classes are open to all students and free of charge. Students can now register for classes at www.coursera.org.
In-demand writer Ryan Engle has been tapped to write the new live-action Ben 10 movie, produced by Joel Silver, Andrew Rona and Steve Richards, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Cartoon Network is financing the pic, which is not set up at a studio yet. Albert Torres (Henry Poole Is Here), penned the first version of the movie.
Engle wrote the hot script On a Clear Day, which led him to write New Line’s adaptation of the popular Rampage video game and New Regency’s adaptation of Black Bull Media’s comic The New West.
Ben 10 follows the extraordinary adventures of ordinary teen named Ben Tennyson who is able to morph into 10 powerful monsters after he finds an alien watch called the Omnitrix in the woods. Created by Man of Action Studios’ Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle (Generator Rex, Ultimate Spider-Man), the show first debuted on Cartoon Network in 2008. The franchise has inspired four different animated series and five TV movies and enjoys a $2 billion licensing program, which includes video games, toys and comic books.
Management-production company The Gotham Group, which reps a lion’s share of animation professionals, and talent management outfit Principal Entertainment Los Angeles have launched a joint venture. The companies will continue to operate at Gotham’s offices on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles says The Hollywood Reporter.
The announcement was made by Gotham CEO Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and PELA partners Marsha McManus, Larry Taube and Liz Robinson. Gotham’s Lindsay Williams and Lee Stollman will oversee the logistics of the new relationship.
“The intersection between PELA’s impressive talent representation capabilities and Gotham’s broad expertise across the animation, film and television worlds will expand opportunities for all our clients,” said Goldsmith-Vein.
Gotham clients include Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Bloomsbury Walker US, Soho, Dark Horse Comics, and Arcana. Other clients include Henry Selick, Danny Strong, Dave Eggers, Steve Buscemi, David Gordon Green, Zach Helm, Thor Freudenthal, Wentworth Miller and Emily Kapnek.
Principal’s roster includes Seth Rogen, Jim Parsons, Sandra Oh, Cheryl Hines, Alexander Skarsgard, Tom Wilkinson, Andy Serkis, Brendan Gleeson, Steve Zahn, Christopher Eccleston, Sally Hawkins, Joanne Frogatt, Taylor Kinney, Katy Mixon and Kate Burton.
Gotham and Sony Animation are working on The Maze Runner, an adaptation of James Dashner’s 2009 young adult sci-fi novel of the same name. Goldsmith-Vein is also exec producing a new Sony animated feature written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter David Reynolds (Finding Nemo).
Warner Bros. Animation has unleashed more information about the new DC Universe Animation Original Movie, Superman: Unbound. Set for a May 7 DVD and Blu-ray release, the film is based on the Geoff Johns/Gary Frank 2008 release Superman: Brainiac. The PG-13 rated pic will be offered as a Blu-ray combo pack for $24.98 and DVD for $19.98, as well as On Demand and Digital Download.
The feature finds the Man of Steel handling day-to-day crime while helping acclimate Supergirl to Earth’s customs and managing Lois Lane’s expectations for their relationship. Personal issues take a back seat when the horrific force responsible for the destruction of Krypton – Brainiac – begins his descent upon Earth to focus on Metropolis. Superman must summon all of his physical and intellectual resources to protect his city, the love of his life and his newly arrived cousin.
The film’s voice cast is led by Matt Bomer (White Collar) as Superman, John Noble (Fringe, The Lord of the Rings films) as Brainiac, Stana Katic (Castle) as Lois Lane and Molly Quinn (Castle) as Supergirl. Frances Conroy, Wade Williams, Diedrich Bader, Stephen Root and Alexander Gould also lend their voices to the project. The pic is directed and produced by James Tucker (Justice League, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) also directs the film from a script by Bob Goodman (Warehouse 13, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns).
The Blu-ray Combo Pack also offers a sneak peek at Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, the next DC Universe Animated Original Movie, and the featurettes “Kandor: History of the Bottle City” and “Brainiac: Technology and Terror,” as well as audio commentary from Mike Carlin, Bob Goodman and James Tucker, four bonus episodes from Superman: The Animated Series (“The Last Son of Krypton, Part 1”; “New Kids in Town”; and “Little Girl Lost, Parts 1 & 2”), all handpicked by producer Alan Burnett, and a cool digital comic—an excerpt from the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.
Italian animation producer Play Entertainment is preparing a brand new season of animated adventures for its popular series Angel’s Friends. Created by Simona Ferri, Play Ent.’s CEO, the show was first created in 2007. To date, two seasons of the show (104 x 13-minutes) have been produced, in addition to a “Sunny College” TV Movie. The first season has been sold to more than 40 territories and has more than 100 licensees on board throughout the world across all key categories.
Adventure, friendship and love are the main themes explored in the Angel’s Friends storylines. Raf, Urie, Sweet and Miki together with their eternal enemies Sulfus, Kabalè, Cabiria and Gas are coming back to the Golden School to attend the second year of learning in order to become real Guardians.
The second season of Angel’s Friends will air in Italy on Boing (Turner Entertainment Networks). The new licensing plan will be launched during the next Bologna Licensing Trade Fair. The property, targeted girls 6-11 years, is managed by CPLG in the following territories: Italy, France, UK&Eire, Iberia, Germany and Benelux. Mondo TV distributes both seasons of the show worldwide. For more info about the property, visit www.angelsfriends.it.
If you’ve been dying to own a piece of original, hand-crafted material from LAIKA’s Oscar-nominated feature ParaNorman, your wish will be granted on Friday (Feb. 22). Variety – The Children’s Charity of Southern California will host an online auction of two props from the popular stop-motion pic, directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell.
The internet auction is coordinated through Profiles in History, the world’s largest auctioneer of original Hollywood Memorabilia, www.profilesinhistory.com, and will begin on Friday, February 22nd and will end Monday, March 4th. Proceeds from the auction will go to help inspire hope, enrich lives and build a better future for children with special needs in Southern California.
Including a letter of authenticity from LAIKA’s studios in Oregon, where the stop-motion-animated feature was lovingly hand-crafted on-site, the auction lot is for two props that were made in-studio and then featured on-screen; in the film’s story, the town of Blithe Hollow, where ParaNorman’s 11-year-old hero Norman Babcock lives with his family, commissioned a historical plaque commemorating the famous capture of a witch from 300 years ago, along with the accompanying mold “cast” of the witch’s head. In the frightfully funny, magically emotional, and hilariously spooky ParaNorman, the revelation comes that the centuries-old witch’s curse is real and is about to come true – and only Norman will be able to stop it from going into overdrive and harming the townspeople, by summoning up courage and compassion in a wild race against time.
In addition to its Academy Award nomination, ParaNorman has won two Annie Awards and been cited as best animated feature film by 14 critics’ groups, more than any other 2012 animated feature.
Reel FX announced today that Oscar nominee Shane Acker (9) will direct the studio’s upcoming untitled CG-animated feature based on the Dark Horse Comics series Beasts of Burden, written by Evan Dorkin and illustrated by Jill Thompson. The film is being written by Darren Lemke (Turbo, Shrek Forever After). Aron Warner, Reel FX’s President of Animation, is producing the film alongside Mike Richardson from Dark Horse Entertainment and Andrew Adamson from Strange Weather.
The script is set in the charming town of Burden Hill, where there might be more to the strange antics of the dog residents than meets the eye. The town is inhabited by the supernatural, and when its paranormal activity becomes even more abnormal than usual, it’s up to a group of fearless canines called the Watch Dogs to protect everyone from the mysterious things that go bump in the night.
Acker is the latest filmmaker Reel FX has attracted to its growing animation slate, which already includes the Day of the Dead-themed project, The Book of Life (Guillermo del Toro producing/Jorge Gutierrez directing), which Fox will release in theaters on October 10, 2014; and Turkeys (Jimmy Hayward directing, starring Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson), which will be released in theaters on November 14, 2014 by Relativity Media.
Reel FX recently announced that Warner, the Oscar-winning producer of the animated blockbusters Shrek, Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, had joined the growing movie studio as President of Animation.
Warner notes, “Reel FX is continuing to partner with some of the leading filmmakers in animation. Shane is an immense talent and will bring his fresh vision and approach to this adaptation of Beasts of Burden.”
Says Acker, “It’s a pleasure to be working with such accomplished producers and filmmakers on this incredible project. There is a real independent spirit at Reel FX — the studio is full of energy and fresh ideas—which is necessary to bring this unique story to life.”
The animated space monkeys of Breakthrough Entertainment and Atomic Cartoons are jumping with joy today as they’ll be heading over to Nickelodeon worldwide this spring. The 26 x 26 2D toon centers on halpless simian astronaut brothers Gus and Wally who have hilarious intergalactic adventures in space. Rocket Monkeys will air on Teletoon Canada as well.
“Rocket Monkeys is a great fit for our global network, a funny, energetic, laugh-out-loud comedy that we are confident our audiences around the world will love,” said Jules Borkent, senior VP of global acquisitions and international programming at Nickelodeon.
The animated series is created by Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson and developed by producers Alex Galatis and Mark Evestaff. Executive producers are Ira Levy, Joan Lambur and Peter Williamson.
Twentieth Century Fox TV’s head of animation Jennifer Howell is leaving the studio to pursue other ventures, says Deadline.com. Howell, whose contract ends in May, has been at her post since 2008 and has been responsible for developing shows such as the hit toon Bob’s Burgers, the upcoming Murder Police and last year’s flops Napoleon Dynamite and Allen Gregory. Fox TV chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman are currently looking for her replacement.
Howell also led the joint Fox/20th TV Fox Inkubation initiative focused on breaking new animation talent by evaluating potential shows through completed two-minute shorts rather instead of script development. The program was dismantled last year after Fox began to prepare for the launch of a late-night animation block, bringing in former Adult Swim head Nick Weidenfeld to oversee it. Prior to Fox, Howell was exec VP of Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s production company Important Films and a former supervising producer on South Park. Fox TV’s animation director Evan Shames is also leaving his post to focus on his writing.
Special effects pioneer Petro Vlahos passed away at 96 on February 10. Vlahos, who improved the composite-image process known as the blue-screen effect for the 1959 epic Ben Hur also set new standards in special effects in the memorable Dick Van Dyke dancing with the penguins in Disney’s 1964 feature Mary Poppins. His contributions to the art form built the ground work for vfx-driven features such as Star Wars and Titanic.
“It’s hard to emphasize the import of his inventions,” Bill Taylor, vfx supervisor noted. “He created the whole of composite photography as we know it.”
He advanced the blue-screen effect in a major way by minimizing a strange side effect — halos that appeared around actors and objects when footage shot against a blank screen was fused with action shots. The process would eventually include green screens.
Vlahos also held a patent for a similar technique called sodium vapor composite photography. His version yielded results that were considered superior to the blue-screen process. The innovation was used in films such as Mary Poppins, The Love Bug, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Birds.
In addition, Vlahos held more than 35 patents, including low-cost screen-brightness meters, camera-crane motor controls and a method for detecting distortion in soundtracks. He also founded Chatsworth-based Ultimatte Corp. in 1976 to research and develop composite technology. Two years later, he received an Emmy Award for his work. Vlahos and his collaborators were awarded an Oscar for the composite processes they developed in 1965. He also shared another Academy Award with his son, Paul, for creating Ultimatte’s blue-screen process.
Irish company Telegael has set up a brand new stop motion studio, Beochan, in Casla in Connemara to create the second series of the prehistoric pre-school animation Igam Ogam for Five, S4C, TG4 and ZDF Enterprises.
Preproduction is taking place at Welsh independent Calon’s Cardiff studio while animation and postproduction are underway in the West of Ireland. The series will be broadcast in the autumn on Channel Five’s Milkshake and S4C.
The director and many of the animation staff who worked on the first series in Cardiff have moved to Telegael’s newly established bespoke state of the art facility where they have been joined by animation professionals from all over Ireland. The studio will create 40 jobs in the region.
“We are pleased to be able to undertake this significant investment in Beochan which will be the first dedicated stop motion studio in Ireland,” said Paul Cummins, CEO of Telegael. “We hope Igam Ogam will be the first of many stop motion series and feature films to be made here.”
ZDF Enterprises will distribute the series internationally.
Turner is launching a major marketing campaign for its Toonami brand in the Asia Pacific region. As part of the launch campaign for the block, which officially premiered on Dec. 1, animation fans are invited to attend events, enter an innovative competition and be a part of the brand’s development online.
Lucien Harrington, Turner International Asia Pacific’s VP of branding and communication said, “Toonami is a brand that thrives on fan engagement. Since we launched on December 1, we’ve received great feedback from our action-loving audiences and this campaign puts them front and center. At the upcoming Toonami Inception ’13 events in Singapore and Manila, and with the NAMI online competition, boys and girls will have the opportunity to connect with their TV heroes in a whole new, interactive way.”
In Singapore, the Toonami Inception event promises to be the biggest superhero gathering this side of the planet. On February 23, from 1-9pm at *SCAPE, the city’s center of youth culture, fan-boys and girls will have a chance to experience an effervescent combination of music, art, games and technology. Superman, Iron Man, Ben 10 and many other favorite heroes will pop up in illusion art displays and augmented reality applications. They’ll be able to shoot hoops with local basketball heroes, the Singapore Slingers, and get branded with show logos at the Graffiti Zone. Live hip-hop beats from local DJs throughout the day will complement b-boy performances from The Toonami Crew, and unique artwork from Billy Ma.
The event will then move to Manila on March 24 where, at Eastwood City Central Plaza, Toonami fans in the Philippines can kick off the start of the summer season.
Audiences across Asia are also invited to participate in an online competition and play an active part in the channel’s origins. Entrants must go to www.ToonamiAsia.com to watch a short video about NAMI, an artificial life-form from the future, and then submit their own ideas to complete the background to NAMI’s story. The winning concept will be produced into an animated clip and a unique comic book.
A couple of days ago, we had the chance to catch up with Timothy Reckart, the young animator who wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated stop-motion short Head Over Heels. The project, which centers on the troubled marriage between a woman who lives on the ceiling and her husband who lives on the floor, is the only student film competing against studio fare such as Disney’s Paperman and Fox’s Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare” in the Animated Short Academy Awards race. The short also took home the top prize for Best Student Project at the Annie Awards last month. Reckart and producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, had a busy week touring some of the animation studios in L.A. and northern California—but they both seemed to be genuinely excited about the recognition their 11-minute short has been receiving worldwide.
“Stop motion has to be a labor love because it is a very physical art form and requires a lot of focus,” notes Reckart, a Harvard grad who took off for the U.K. to attend the prestigious National Film and TV School. It took Reckart and a team of 40 about 15 months to finish the 10-minute short. “This was the first film I made whose point was to make an emotional connection with the audience—and that helps in the long haul,” he recalls. “It was somewhat inspired by my experience in England being in long-distance relationship with my girlfriend who was in Boston. The performances were also based on my own grandparents.”
Head Over Heels
Reckart opted for the U.K. school because he’s been a fan of the British history of stop-motion animation and because one of his heroes, Aardman animator Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit) was also a former alum. Since the project is dialogue-free, Reckart and company spent the first four months working on storyboards and animatics.
“We bypassed the script stage, because the subject is not really suited in words. It’s difficult to describe the upside-down nature of the relationship with ambiguity.”
Head Over Heels
In addition to landing an Oscar nom, Reckart has several other reasons to recommend film school to animation aspirants.
“In addition to learning the craft, I was able to work with other talented, interested people at school,” he says. “The school environment takes care of that for you—I didn’t have to go out and hunt for good collaborators.”
Head Over Heels
Going to the Oscar nominees luncheon and visiting the animation studios in California have made the past few weeks a heady period for both Reckart and Cronin O’Reilly.
“It’s been a rush,” says Reckart. “I haven’t really taken a step back to take it all in. It’s really rewarding to to work so long and hard on a film, and a year later, to receive the recognition from the people who inspired us to get into film in the first place—it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Head Over Heels
As he looks back at the wealth of animated projects that saw the light of day in 2012, Reckart says it’s been an amazing time to work in stop-motion.
“Five out of 10 animated features and shorts nominated for Oscars are stop-motion projects,” he says. “As both a fan and a stop-motion animator, I’m very proud to be part of this trend.”
Head Over Heels
Reckart, who has formed a new production company to develop both film and TV projects in Los Angeles and New York, says meeting Tim Burton at the Oscar luncheon for all the nominees has been incredible.
“I was a serious fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas in high school. To finally meet this guy who greatly inspired me earlier, I could hardly believe it. It’s also been great to tour the studios with all the other animated short nominees, because we all work in the same field and have this great connection working in this somewhat obscure medium.”
Timothy Reckart at the Annie Awards
So why does he think his inventive short has struck a chord with audiences?
“I think people have been connecting to the truth of the story and the way it deals with romance in a way that is not pure Hollywood,” he explains. “It explores this idea that love doesn’t just keeping going. It’s not a perpetual thing. You have to put effort and work into your relationships and friendships. As the film was screening at festivals, we had people up to us and say, ‘I really want my husband or wife to see this film…it perfectly describes certain days when we really feel like the couple in your short!’”
You can learn more about Tim Reckart and his short here:
Flying Bark Productions’ managing director Jim Ballantine has announced the director, producer and line producer for the CG-animated feature, Maya the Bee.
Alexs Stadermann has been confirmed as director, Barbara Stephen will be the movie’s producer and Alexia Gates-Foale will be the line producer of the stereoscopic project. The trio previously worked together on the television series, The Woodlies and The Woodlies Movie special feature-length episode which were both produced with the assistance of Flying Bark Productions.
“Alexs Stadermann, Barbara Stephen and Alexia Gates-Foale have an enviable work chemistry and energy. Their collaboration on The Woodlies is testament to their creativity. In addition to their powerhouse dynamic, they will bring their own individual career experience and passion to Maya the Bee ensuring this movie will be a local and global success” said Ballantine.
Maya the Bee
Alex Stadermann has worked for many of the major international studios including Walt Disney Studios in Sydney. During his at Disney, Stadermann was the unit director of Bambi II and Tarzan II and supervising animator on Lion King 1 ½. As well as directing two seasons of Aardman’s CG-animated Planet Sketch, he was part of the director’s unit on Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole.
Barbara Stephen has worked as a producer for the last 10 years with a career spanning corporate, advertising and long-form productions. She first joined the children’s television industry in 2007 working as the producer on the hit series, Erky Perky and line produced the pre-school show, Magical Tales. She also worked on the hit series, The Adventures of Figaro Pho before joining Flying Bark Productions as creative producer.
Maya the Bee
Alexia Gates-Foale commenced her career in animation in 2007 and was the Production Supervisor on The Adventures of Figaro Pho and was Production Manager on several Flying Bark Productions projects including The Woodlies.
Combining exquisite environments with natural landscapes, Maya the Bee will follow the lovable character’s desire to escape her heavily regimented existence in the hive and experience freedom to explore at her own will. The original Maya the Bee television series was first produced in the 1970s and was an imaginative blend of fun-filled and thrilling adventures that gained Maya loyal fans from all corners of the globe. Studio100 is also producing a CG-animated series based on the popular insect.
Toronto and L.A.-based children’s entertainment producer and distributor DHX Media has signed a major new VOD deal with Midwest Tape-owned digital platform HOOPLA. This is the first time DHX has sold to HOOPLA and underscores the company’s aim of exploiting digital opportunities for its library of programming on emerging platforms.
The three-year deal will see HOOPLA airing over 1300 episodes of DHX Media content including popular animated shows such as Inspector Gadget, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, Caillou and Madeline.
HOOPLA was launched in 2012 and offers a full array of digital movies, television shows, music, and audiobooks. With a focus on public libraries, the content will be available throughout the US and Canada though VOD streaming.
Josh Scherba, DHX Media’s senior VP of distribution said, “We are firmly committed to seeking opportunities with new platforms, and this is a significant deal for us as HOOPLA has a key audience across North America.”
It was another big weekend of awards for animated titles. Fox-TV’s long-running animated series The Simpsons received a Writers Guild honor for the episode “Ned and Edna’s Blend Agenda” written by Jeff Westbrook. The episode was competing against three other episodes of the show and the “Forget-Me-Not” episode of Family Guy in the category!
Spanish blockbuster Tad, the Lost Explorer (Tadeo Jones) which grossed $24.3 million in Spain, won first-time director, adapted screenplay and animation film at the Goya Awards (Spanish equivalent of the Oscars). Directed by Enrique Gato, the CG-animated feature will also unspool at the Cartoon Movie event in France next month. Also winning a slew of Goyas were Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves, the black-and-white silent reboot of Snow White set in bullfighting milieu of Seville and the tsunami epic The Impossible. The Goya for Best Animated Short Film went to Jaime Maestro for The Smoke Seller.
Let’s not forget that this past weekend also saw another edition of the Streamy Awards, which honor the best of entertainment that is streamed on the Web. Among the winners were Halo 3: Forward Undo Dawn (Best Drama Series), H+ The Digital Series (Best Action/Sci Fi Series), The Walking Dead (Best Derivative Series), Tom Hanks’ Electric City (Best Animated Series) and DRONE (Best Visual Effects).
In other animation news, The Weinstein Co.’ animated release Escape from Planet Earth managed to rake in over $16.1 million at the U.S. box office, ending at the No. 4 spot at the weekend box office. Directed by first-time helmer Cal Brunker, the sci-fi comedy adventure features the voice of Brendan Fraser, Jessica Alba, William Shatner, Rob Corddry and Sarah Jessica Parker. The pic rated only a 32% on the review-compilation site Rottentomatoes.com, but audiences seemed to enjoy its zippy sense of humor and take on blue, alien life forms. Bruce Willis’ A Good Day to Die Hard was the number-one film at the box office with a $33.2 million weekend.
Tad, the Lost Explorer / The Simpsons / Escape from Planet Earth
Over the weekend, we got word that actor Matthew Modine has signed up to voice the lead character in Ralph Bakshi’s upcoming short The Last Days of Coney Island. The project which has already brought in close to $78,000 in pledges on Kickstarter.com, aims to raise about $165,000 in the next 12 days. Modine will voice the lead character, a four-foot-tall mafia collector who thinks he’s Elvis Presley and sings like Chet Baker. Set in the the famous New York seaside resort, the short will be crowded with “crooked cops, broken hearts, jaded strippers, and singers.”
Modine is a big Bakshi supporter discovered the project by accident while looking around on Kickstarter. He is also hoping to get support from his friends Jack Nicholson, Abel Ferrara and Quentin Tarantino. Toon fans who fell in love with Bakshi’s amazing indie animated features such as Fritz the Cat, Coonskin, Heavy Traffic and Wizards can visit www.kickstarter.com/projects/ralphbakshi/last-days-of-coney-island-0 to support the next chapter in the talented American artist’s career.
Canal+ France has picked up the series I’m a Dinosaur (52 x 2) which was produced by Canadian based Huminah Huminah Animation. The series has also recently been picked up by Discovery Networks for broadcast across Asian territories. The 2D animated series presents the world of the giant creatures as they lived in, more than 65 million years ago. Each dinosaur brings their world to life in their own inimitable style, confiding their quirks, strengths and weaknesses. The series is available in over 40 countries worldwide.
I’m a Dinosaur is based on Brown Bag Film’s ‘I’m a…’ format, with other series including I’m A Creepy Crawly (52 x 2), produced by Monster Entertainment and recently sold to Estonian Public Television, Norwegian Airlines & Irish airline AerLingus, with ABC Australia taking DVD rights. The HD series, which features creepy crawlies introducing themselves and their worlds, launched at MIP Junior last October and was pre-sold to broadcasters in 60 countries including; Discovery Asia, DR Denmark, RTE Ireland, YLE Finland, HRT Croatia, TVO, Knowledge Network, BBC Canada, Noga Israel and Educ.ar – Argentina.
Monster is also developing a game app based on the series with Dublin’s Pixel Wolf Studios with a mid-2013 release date.
Canada’s Bejuba! Entertainment has picked up the TV and home entertainment rights (worldwide excluding Australia and Asia) for the award winning 6-9 CGI animated series, Jack. A third season of 26 x 11 minutes has just been greenlit for a 2014 delivery. Jack is a comedy/adventure series about a curious explorer from another world who wants to learn about Earth and why things are the way they are. Together with his two Earth buddies, and his alien pet, Jack finds out why our tummies rumble or what happens to the rain.
Created and produced by Sparky Animation in Singapore and Groupe PVP in Canada, the series has also received attention from SRC, TVO and Knowledge Network in Canada. Jack has just been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Animation Series. Last year, it won a Gemeaux, the French Canadian television award for best kids’ website, and was nominated for Best Animation Series.
“The series is perfect bridge programming for kids who aren’t pre-schoolers anymore and who want fun and entertainment that’s just for them,” says Tatiana Kober, president of Bejuba! Entertainent. “The show weaves facts about the world in a way kids love…the greenlighting of the third series proves that. We’re delighted to add it to our catalogue.”
Small Screen Distribution handles the show’s Asian and Australian TV and DVD rights.
Bejuba!’s animation catalogue also includes shows such as The Hive, Zooville, Fizzy’s Lunch Lab, Stella and Sam, Big Block SingSong, Jibber Jabber and Ricky Sprocket. The company celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. For more info, visit www.bejuba.com.
