Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • Rat Fink, Speed Racer Cruise Home

    Car toons are the order of the day as two auto-related animated DVDs make their way to retail. Tales of the Rat Fink, a feature-length documentary on legendary car customizer Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth is joined on shelves by a fifth volume of episodes from the classic anime series Speed Racer. Also released today are installments of Legend of the Dragon and Hello Kitty.

    Produced and directed by Ron Mann (Comic Book Confidential, Grass) Tales of the Rat Fink is a largely animated doc on the man who started the customized car craze and created the alternative rodent character Rat Fink. The film features the voices of actor John Goodman, Simpsons creator Matt Groening, classic car buff Jay Leno, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, author Tom Wolfe, professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, comedy duo The Smothers Brothers and screen icon Ann Margret. Bonus features include a rare interview with Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, a painting jam with Roth and Von Dutch, a virtual art gallery, an Interview with Mann, a deleted scene, the theatrical trailer and a music video by The Sadies. The Shout! Factory release carries a suggested retail price of $19.98.

    Speed Racer Vol. 5 offers the final eight episodes of the popular animated television series produced by Tatsunoko Productions Co. Ltd. in the late 1960s. In the series, teenager Go Mifune strives to become a champion racecar driver in his high-peformance automobile dubbed Mach 5. However, trouble is always lurking and Go must rely on the help of some close friends and a mysterious driver named Racer X. The Lions Gate offering lists for $19.98 and comes packaged with a limited-edition mini metal license plate.

    Legend of the Dragon from Genius Products features the first four episodes of BKN’s animated action-adventure TV series. Created and produced by Rick Ungar (Biker Mice from Mars), the series is set in China, a land of ancient mysteries and modern wonders where old meets new, dark meets light and the universal balance of Yin and Yang is held in harmony by The Golden Dragon. When the guardian of the temple passes on, a new Golden Dragon must be chosen from a brother and sister, twins born in the Year of the Dragon. Fans of the series can pick up the DVD for around $19.95.

    Hello Kitty: Stump Village’A Place of Fun includes five episodes of the clay-animated series based Sanrio’s popular consumer products brand. The show revolves around the title feline and other Sanrio characters including red-hooded rabbit My Melody and mischievous penguin Bad Badtz-Maru. Released by Geneon Ent., the DVD lists for $14.98.

  • Eidos Celebrates Tomb Raider Anniversary

    Video gamed developer/publisher Eidos Interactive Ltd. has confirmed that the title of the next Tomb Raider game will be Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary. A tribute to the impact the character Lara Croft has had on gaming and pop-culture at large over the past ten years, the game is being developed by Crystal Dynamics and will be available in North America in the spring of 2007 for PlayStation 2, PSP and PC.

    The first Tomb Raider was released in 1996 and its busty, adventurous heroine quickly became favorite with gamers, helping the title sell more than 7 million units worldwide. “Lara Croft is more than just a video game character,’ says Eidos’ director of marketing Matt Gorman, ‘she is a digital celebrity and icon for the video-game industry, as well as a strong, powerful character that people of all ages connect with.”

    Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary will employ an enhanced Tomb Raider Legend game engine as Miss Croft sets out in pursuit of a mystical artifact known only as the Scion. The puzzles incorporate environmental interaction and physics-driven solutions, while the level design and flow of gameplay are inspired by the original game.

    “We are re-telling an incredible story using today’s technology,’ says Gorman. ‘We’ve taken all of the key moments from the original game and put them into the context of a brand new Tomb Raider adventure.”

  • Come to AniMag’s Toon Saloon!

    Get to know some respected, professional animators and watch some cool stuff in an intimate setting as we present the inaugural Animation Magazine‘s Toon Saloon on Thursday, Nov. 9 at McG’s Irish Pub & Grill in Chatsworth, Calif. Kicking off at 7:30 p.m., this first live event will focus on the art of stop-motion animation and will feature a veritable who’s who of the Los Angeles stop-mo scene.

    Joining us for this special night of animation are the Chiodo Brothers, a trio of talented filmmakers who are perhaps best known for their cult-favorite feature film Killer Klowns from Outer Space. Stephen, Charlie and Edward will be screening early childhood epics and a sampling of their body of professional work, which includes the classic Tim Burton short Vincent, the features Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Screamers, as well as a number of innovative animated commercials. They may also be signing copies of their new children’s book, Alien Xmas, which they hope to adapt as a stop-motion feature.

    Also scheduled to appear are Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh from Screen Novelties. The duo put themselves on the map when they helped stop-motion legend Ray Harryhausen finish his short film The Tortoise and the Hare in 2002. They have since overseen animation on the popular Adult Swim series Robot Chicken and Moral Orel and are currently finishing an animated pilot titled Monster Safari for Nickelodeon.

    Among the other participating animators is Jason Hite, who will be screening his short sci-fi film Stasis. Currently making the festival rounds, Stasis is an atmospheric and nightmarish vision of rebirth inspired by Metropolis, Frankenstein, The Matrix and the designs pf H.R. Giger. Other professional animators have expressed an interest in participating, so expect a few surprises as well.

    McG’s Irish Pub & Grill is located at 21356 Devonshire St. (corner of Devonshire and Canoga) in Chatsworth, Calif., 91311. As seating is limited, early arrival is advised.

  • Perlman, Hu Coifed for Afro Samurai

    Ron Perlman and Kelly Hu have joined Samuel L. Jackson in the voice cast for Afro Samurai, a five-part animated series premiering on Spike TV on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007. Based on a graphic novel by Takashi Okazaki, the toon is produced by Japanese animation studio Gonzo in partnership with GHK and FUNimation.

    Afro Samurai tells the epic story of a black samurai who is hunting down the gunman who murdered his father. Samuel L. Jackson serves as exec producer and also lends his voice to the title character. Original music for the series is being created by hip-hop artist and producer The RZA, who collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on the Kill Bill movies. The project was written by Takashi Okazaki and Tomohiro Yamashita (English version was penned by Derek Draper and Christine Yoo.)

    Perlman will voice the character Justice, the gunslinger being tracked by Afro Samurai. The hard-working character actor recently reprised the title role in Cartoon Network’s animated movie Hellboy: Sword of Storms, which debuted on Saturday, Oct. 28. He’s also voicing the lead role in Swordplay Ent.’s upcoming animated feature Conan: Red Nails.

    Perlman comments, “Aside from the opportunity to work with Sam Jackson, whom I admire intensely, the animation of gonzo is as startlingly cutting edge and exciting as anything I’ve seen to date’and that includes 56 years of cartoon watching!”.

    Action star Kelly Hu will lend her voice to Okiku, a friend from Afro Samurai’s past who is forced to betray those she loves in order to save the one most dear to her. She has been seen on the big-screen in X2: X-Men United, Cradle 2 the Grave and The Scorpion King. and is currently shooting a half-hour comedy for ABC titled In Case of Emergency. Her other TV credits include Martial Law, Sunset Beach and Nash Bridges. FUNimation Ent. plans to release Afro Samuari on DVD in the spring of 2007.

  • Oddworld Creators, Vanguard to Make CG Pic

    The developers of the cult-favorite video game Oddworld are getting into the feature animation biz via a partnership with Vanguard Animation, according to Daily Variety. Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna of Oddworld Inhabitants are reportedly working with Shrek producer John Williams of Vanguard to produce Citizen Siege, an adult-targeted, CG-animated feature film.

    More akin to The Matrix and The Terminator than the many kid-centric toons on the market, Citizen Siege is described as a dark political thriller set in the near future. Lanning will direct with Williams producing. Most of the production will be handled by Vanguard’s Vancouver facility, where the animated feature Space Chimps is currently in production for distribution by 2Oth Century Fox in 2007. Citizen Siege will not be a part of Fox’s distribution deal with Starz Media, which owns a 30% stake in Vanguard Animation.

    Citizen Siege will be made for around $40 million with the aid of outside investments and foreign pre-sales being sought at this weeks’ American Film Market in Santa Monica, Calif. Oddworld Inhabitants also plans to launch a Citizen Siege video game property and is seeking a publisher.

  • Hyde Park Game for Street Fighter

    Daily Variety reports that Hyde Park Ent. and Japanese video game publisher Capcom Ltd. are going to take another stab at making a feature film franchise of the popular Street Fighter video game. Universal first adapted the title in 1994 with martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead, but this latest attempt will reportedly focus on one of the game’s female combatants, Chun Li.

    Hyde Park and Capcom will jointly produce the pic and the script is being written by Justin Marks, who is also attached to pen the upcoming Voltron movie for Mark Gordon Prods.

    The Street Fighter movie is scheduled to debut in 2008 to coincide with the game’s 20th anniversary. To date, the interactive franchise has sold more than 25 million units for consloles and has generated more than a billion dollars at retail. Buyers can get more details on the Hyde Park/Capcom film at this Week’s American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica, Calif.

  • Wrake’s Rabbit on DVD

    Those of you who missed British animator Run Wrake’s award-winning short film, Rabbit, on the festival circuit can now purchase it on disc. The numbered, limited edition DVD features an 8-page booklet and a number of other extras and can be ordered at www.runwrake.com/shop.

    An off-the-wall morality tale, Rabbit evokes science text book illustrations from the 1960s to tell the story of two young children who become consumed with greed when they slaughter a rabbit for its fir and find inside it a golden idol with special powers.

    Rabbit was nominated for a BAFTA and won awards for Best Short Film and Best Film at the Cutting Edge at the British Animation Awards. The film also received the Special Distinction prize from the jury at this year’s Annecy fest, in addition to winning the Grand Prix at the Imago Film Festival in Fundao, Portugal, the McLaren award for Animation at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Best Animation Award at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival.

    More information on Run Wrake and his previous animated works can be found at www.runwrake.com.

  • Going Where No Machinima Has Gone Before

    No longer limited to writing fan fiction, Star Trek enthusiasts can now make their own movies through machinima, an animated art form that allows users to tell stories with a video-game engine. One such ‘Enterprising’ filmmaker is Geoffrey James, whose feature film Borg War has become a bit hit in serialized form at http://Machinima.com.

    “Making the movie only cost $200 in software and the time I would have normally spent playing video games,” says James, who directed and produced Borg War using visual assets and sound clips from various Star Trek video games. The film was nominated for the Best Series and Technical Achievement awards last year by the Academy for Machinima Arts and Sciences (AMAS), and is currently featured in the exhibit “Star Trek: 40 Years of Fandom” at New York City’s Museum of the Moving Image.

    In addition to serving as a creative outlet for crafty gamers, machinima can lead to actual work in the interactive entertainment industry. A handful of ‘machinimators’ whose work has appeared on Machinima.com have been recruited by major development studios and Atari and other publishers have been known to hire machinima artists to create promotional material.

    Borg War has earned the respect of the machinima community by getting more views on Machinima.com in a single month than Red vs. Blue, Rooster Teeth Prods.’ hugely popular serial based on Microsoft’s Halo games. According to James, Borg War been viewed more than 100,000 times as a series of nine ten-minute episodes. The finale will be released on Nov. 3rd.

  • Slinky to Spring to Action on the Big Screen

    Another popular children’s toy is ready for its big screen close-up. Montreal-based Image In Media (a subsidiary of Section Rouge Media) announced today that it will co-produce a feature inspired by H2V’s popular Slinky toys. Pierre Bematchez, president of Image In Media says his company will be looking for partners and seek completion of financing for the feature immediately.

    ‘We have been negotiating for some time to participate in the development of this classic property,’ says Bernatchez. ‘We believe that the combination of our expertise in financial packaging and distribution combined with the creative expertise of Henrique Vera-Villanueva of H2V Spring will result in a new array of products based on Slinky.’

    Bernatchez says his company’s first priority is to develop and finance the movie. ‘We will be meeting with several potential partners starting at the upcoming AFM in Los Angeles at the beginning of November to set the foundations to enhance brand equity,’ he adds.

    Slinky was invented in 1943 by Richard James, a naval engineer who was experimenting with tension springs. During the experiment, one of the springs fell to the floor and began to “walk.” James’ wife, Betty, had a vision for a toy based on the spring and searched the dictionary to find a suitable name for it. She came across the word “Slinky,” a Swedish word meaning stealthy, sleek and sinuous.

    The Slinky toy debuted at Gimbels Department Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1945. Although Betty and Richard were initially sceptical about how their toy would sell, they changed their minds when all 400 Slinkys for sale were snapped up in 90 minutes. Since then, over 300 million Slinky toys have been sold worldwide. In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service issued a postage stamp for Slinky celebrating the 100 American icons of the last Century.

    Although this is the first time the enterprising spring gets its own movie, Pixar fans may also recall the delightful Slinky Dog character in John Lasseter’s Toy Story movies, voiced by the late Jim Varney.

  • Seals Do Shakespeare in Theaters

    Today sees the limited theatrical debut of Phil Nibbelink’s independently produced 2D-animated feature, Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss. More than five years in the making, the pic was animated entirely by Nibbelink, a former Disney Animator, who used Flash to facilitate his hand-drawn, 2D style.

    In Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss, Shakespeare’s classic of star-crossed lovers from warring families is retold with seals. When Juliet’s father gives her hand in marriage to the monstrous elephant seal Prince, Juliet must fake her death in order to be reunited with Romeo. The plan goes afoul, however, and our heroes embark on a desperate race against time with some help from friends Friar Lawrence and a kissing fish named Kissy.

    While at Disney, Nibbelink animated on The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, Basil the Great Mouse Detective and Oliver and Company, and was a directing animator in London on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He later teamed with Steven Spielberg to form Amblimation in London, where he directed An American Tail: Fievel Goes West and We’re Back. In 1998, he started Phil Nibbelink Prods. with his wife, Margit Friesacher, as producer. After making direct to video films such as Puss in Boots and Leif Ericson: The Boy Who Discovered America, the duo dove into making a 77-minute 35mm animated family film with Nibbelink handling all the animation and lending his voice to the production.

    Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With a Kiss debuts today, Oct. 27, in a handful of theaters in Los Angeles and Northern California. To see a list of theaters, view the trailer and learn more about the movie, go to www.romeoandjulietfilm.com.

  • Animating Earl

    It’s always a joy when your favorite things in the live-action realm bleed over into the world of animation. This week we had a chance to visit Jargon Ent. in Burbank, Calif., where a small team of talented animators were finishing work on a two-minute stop-motion segment for NBC’s hit primetime comedy series My Name Is Earl. Featuring a guest appearance by Christian Slater, the episode will be two minutes longer than the average half-hour Earl installment and will air on Nov. 16 as the series’ big sweeps week show.

    In the episode, one of the characters has an accident and starts to see everything in stop-mo vision. This meant that all the main characters’Earl, Randy, Joy, Darnell and Catalina, had to be created as 12-inch puppets by master puppet fabricator Rob Ronning and his team. Ronning, whose credits include Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and the TV series The PJs, Robot Chicken and Moral Oral, had the task of taking characters that are already cartoonish and further exaggerating their features and eccentricities.

    A lot of people will mistakenly refer to it as clay animation, but the Earl puppets are actually constructed of 1085 silicone cast over wire armatures. The replacement lips were cast in pliable wax to allow the animators a little more play with the dialogue, and only the eyelids are made of clay. The exquisitly detailed sets were constructed by Roy Wood, who directed Dream Ent.’s hilarious stop-motion disaster flick spoof, Disaster!. That film is slated to arrive on home video in soon.

    The lion’s share of the Earl animation was handled by Joe Mello and Screen Novelties’ Chris Finnegan, who have worked together on Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. Tennessee Reid Norton, another L.A. stop-mo fixture, was brought in later to help them meet their deadline. Mello says the only problem with the silicone, coincidentally, was animating the giggle in the Joy puppet’s breasts. ‘I couldn’t get them to move very well because they were covered in hard silicone,’ he recalls. ‘I had to slice all around them and dig some out.’

    Emergency breast enhancements notwithstanding, Mello says it’s been a real joy to work on a show he loves, rather than just doing a parody of it for some other series like Robot Chicken. The scenes that he, Finnegan and Norton are animating were first shot live action with the actual actors to give the animators some reference to work off of. Norton tells us their job is to push the already cartoonish performances even further. ‘Look at Jason Lee’s moustache,’ he says. ‘You wouldn’t think a moustache could be so expressive but it’s all over the place.’ Mello adds, ‘At first, the Earl people didn’t want anything too cartoony, but once they saw it, they said, ‘On second thought, lets make it cartoony.”

    The folks at Jargon have had just four weeks to get an animation studio up and running and get the segment in the can. Norton mentions that there was no time for R&D on the shoot, so everyone had had to come up with clever solutions on the spot and most of the shots had to be done in one take, a concept that was foreign to Earl‘s live-action production team. Also, there were no back-up puppets, so the animators had be very careful not to damage any of the characters.

    Another major concern is keeping the puppets clean since any dirt will show up in high-definition. The animation is being shot in 6K resolution on Cannon digital still cameras by director of photography Jim Matlosz, who says he learned everything he knows about shooting animation while working as an assistant to Pete Kozachik on The Nightmare Before Christmas. Ironically, Matlosz makes his bread and butter shooting high-speed photography for commercials, but says he’s equally comfortable shooting hundreds of frames per second and one frame at a time, though he admits it usually takes about a week to fully acclimate to the measured pace of stop-motion after coming off a high-speed shoot.

    Sean Buck of Jargon Ent. says he’s had a good time overseeing the Earl shoot and tells us the company will welcome more stop-motion work should it come along. ‘There’s such a great talent base to draw from,’ he notes. ‘I’d like to do an animated kid’s show, maybe something blending robots and dinosaurs, stuff kids are into.’

    Buck adds that Jargon’s philosophy is very anti-Hollywood. The company pays the rent by offering 3D animation, web design, interactive video and 24-frame playback services, but also helps independent filmmakers get their projects finished by offering access to its Avid and Final Cut Pro editing suites. Jargon also helps out with sound and has a sizeable screening room where they host Monday Night Football every week as a way of getting people together for informal networking. More information on the company can be found at www.jargonent.com.

  • Nick Offers ‘Shriekin’ Weekend’

    A full slate of Halloween specials is on tap this Friday through Sunday during Nickelodeon’s ‘Shriekin’ Weekend.’ The programming event will feature the premieres of holiday-themed episodes of The X’s, Mr.Meaty and Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, as well as a non-stop Halloween Day marathon of Nick favorites including SpongeBob SquarePants, Catscratch, The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom.

    The ‘Shriekin’ Weekend’ kicks off on Friday at 7 p.m. ( ET/PT) with the SpongeBob episode ‘Scaredy Pants,’ the Catscratch‘s installment ‘Scaredy Cat’ and The Fairly OddParents‘ ‘Scary Godparents.’ Debuting at 8:30 p.m., the new Mr. Meaty installment ‘Nosferateens’ has Josh and Parker becoming ‘undead’ for a little on-the-job trick-or-treat fun after finding a caped creature in the freezer. Following at 9 p.m. is The X’s episode ‘The Haunting of Home Base,’ in which bratty spy kid Truman stays human while his parents and sister turn into zombies. Danny Phantom has ‘Fright Knight’ at 9:30 p.m.

    For tots, Nick. Jr. will air encore presentations of new episodes of Backyardigans (‘Monster Party’), LazyTown (‘Haunted Castle’), Wonder Pets! (‘Save the Black Kitten’) and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy (‘Monster Madness’) on Oct. 27 and 31 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Teens ant tweens can then catch the premiere of the ‘Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts and Zombies’ episode of TEENick’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide on Sunday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m.

    Saturday’s five-hour marathon starts at 2 p.m. and also features Jimmy Neutron‘s ‘Nightmare in Retroville’ and Rugrats‘ ‘Curse of the Werewuff.’ The fun will carry through to Tuesday, Oct. 31, when Nick airs a 15-hour marathon of twenty holiday specials starting at 6 a.m.

  • MacFarlane Deal Stalls Family Guy

    Contract negotiations with Family Guy creator and exec producer Seth MacFarlane have delayed the start of production on the sixth season of Fox’s animated primetime series, according to Daily Variety. The crew was set to begin working on the new episodes on Monday but have been instructed not to show up just yet.

    Though the process of striking a new deal has been moving slowly over the past year, both 20th Century Fox and MacFarlane’s people say the talks are still friendly. MacFarlane’s current contract will expire in several months and, with the success of Family Guy and American Dad, he’s is in a good spot to demand more money, obviously more than Fox is comfortable shelling out at this point. However, there’s no show without Macfarlane, who not only exec produces both animated hits, but also supplies key voices.

    Fox and MacFarlane need to reach an agreement soon if episodes are going to be ready to air during the 2007-2008 season. In addition to Family Guy and American Dad, MacFarlane is overseeing the upcoming live-action Fox comedy The Winner along with Ricky Blitt.

  • MGM Puts Panther on iTunes

    MGM’s animated Pink Panther TV series from the 1990s is now available for purchase and download in the iTunes Store, adding to the growing roster of programs offered from the studio’s library. In addition to 32 half-hour Pink Panther episodes, the studio is adding 22 half hours from the first season of The Addams Family and 32 hour-long installments from the first season of the beloved science fiction series The Outer Limits.

    The Pink Panther character was created by Friz Freleng and David DePatie for the opening and closing credits of United Artists’ 1963 live-action Pink Panther film starring Peter Sellers. The popularity of the character led to a series of animated theatrical shorts and a regular Saturday morning TV series that debuted n the late ’60s. The property was resurrected on a number of occasions. MGM tapped actor Matt Frewer (Eureka! Max Headroom) to give the once silent character a voice for its series, which debuted in 1993.

    ‘We have over 10,000 hours of television programming so making MGM hit series available to the iTunes community is a great way for us to continue our expansion in the new media world,’ comments Doug Lee, exec VP of MGM’s New Media Division.

    MGM’s New Media Division was formed in April of this year to get more mileage from the studio’s vast programming library. Earlier this year, MGM released the popular science-fiction series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis to the iTunes Store, located at www.itunes.com.

  • Genius Grabs Discovery Kids Fare

    Through a multi-year deal with Discovery Communications, burgeoning distribution company Genius Products LLC has become the exclusive U.S. home entertainment distributor of Discovery Kids programming. Jointly owned by Genius Products Inc. and The Weinstein Co., the division will handle upcoming DVD launches of the animated Discovery Kids Channel series Kenny The Shark and Tutenstein, as well as Paz and The Save-Ums from the Ready Set Learn! preschool block on TLC and Discovery Kids Channel.

    Discovery Kids’ first-ever home entertainment distribution agreement will see Genius aggressively rolling out Discovery Kids properties beginning in February 2007, delivering a minimum of 16 titles per year. Home video release dates for the Discovery Kids titles will be announced on an ongoing basis.

    Genius Products recently picked up exclusive home video distribution rights to 16 animated properties from the home entertainment arm of BKN International A.G., and acts as the U.S. distributor of animated programs from Germany’s BFC Berliner Film Companie Distribution GmbH. Other animated titles handled by Genius in the U.S. include PorchLight Ent.’s The Secret World of Benjamin Bear and Jay Jay The Jet Plane, as well as the classic properties Curious George, Paddington Bear and My Little Pony.

  • EA Opens Chicago Studio

    Electronic Arts has opened a new video game development studio in downtown Chicago. Located at 215 West Ohio Street, EA Chicago houses the team best known for the hit EA SPORTS Fight Night franchise. With 150 employees on staff, the studio will focus on creating next-gen titles for PlayStation 3 sand the Xbox 360, including the hip-hop lifestyle game DEF JAM: ICON and a new intellectual property in the fighting genre.

    EA chose Chicago because it offers a unique cross-section of talent drawn from across the Midwest. The company has plans to bring another 100 developers into the facility by next year. “We are pushing next-generation development and technology to the limits and looking for the best talent to help us to create innovative games,” says Kudo Tsunoda, VP and general manager of EA Chicago. “We are in a great location downtown in a unique building that gives us access and visibility to the best resources and creative minds of this thriving city.”

    Interested applicants can email their resume to http://jobs.ea.com.

    EA’s worldwide studio headquarters is located in Vancouver, British Columbia, and its other North American development studios are located in Montreal, Canada; Redwood City, Calif., Los Angeles, Calif.; and Orlando, Fla.

  • 3000 Co-Creator Launches Ani Division

    Tom Lynch, who created the new Cartoon Network series Class of 3000 with Outkast’s Andre ‘3000’ Benjamin, has added an animation division to his independent production company, The Tom Lynch Co. Best known for his string of live-action teen/tween hits including South of Nowhere and Romeo!, Lynch made his first foray into animation with 3000 and plans to continue making toon programming for television, film and the Internet through Tom Lynch Co. Animation.

    ‘Having started my career in rock ‘n’ roll, I’m very excited to be going from tunes to toons,’ says Lynch, who began his television career as the producer of Night Tracks and Don Kirschner’s Rock Concert. He and has since created and produced a number of series including KIDS Incorporated, The Secret World of Alex Mack, The Jersey, Caitlin’s Way and Scout’s Safari. ‘Animation gives us fantastic new freedom to create characters, situations and concepts that can travel far and wide, artistically speaking, while remaining firmly planted in the reality of human nature.’

    In addition to Class of 3000, Tom Lynch Co. Animation will a web-based series following the comedic adventures of Voki, a character created by Los Angeles artist Brendan Lynch. The webisodes will be aimed at kids 6-14 demo and will be followed by an illustrated children’s book.

    Cartoon Network’s Class of 3000 will debut on Saturday, Nov. 3, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT). The half-hour, 2D-animated series revolves around a class of musically gifted children who learn about music and life from Sunny Bridges, an international superstar who left the lime light to join the faculty of the Westley School for the Performing Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. Benjamin voices the role of Bridges and also serves as exec. producer on the series.

  • SpongeBob Has ‘Best Day Ever’

    It will be all SpongeBob all the time on Thursday, Nov. 9 as Nickelodeon kicks off its 24-hour SpongeBob SquarePants “Best Day Ever” marathon. Starting at 8 p.m., the event will count down the best 100 episodes of the series as voted by viewers on Nick.com and Turbo Nick. The marathon will lead up to the premiere of the new SpongeBob cartoon, “Best Day Ever,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 10.

    ‘Best Day Ever’ is the 76th SpongeBob episode. In the installment, our yellow hero has his best day ever, until his friends are not having a good day. At one point he sings the ‘Best Day Ever’ song from Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies feature film The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which will have its Nickelodeon premiere on at 8 p.m., following the new episode.

    SpongeBob SquarePants launched on Nickelodeon in the U.S. in 1999 and has become an international phenomenon and the most successful property in Nickelodeon’s 26-year history. According to the network, nearly 53.7 million U.S. viewers tune in to catch the wacky antics of the absorbent one and his silly Bikini Bottom neighbors each month. The show is also a worldwide sensation. It most recently made its way to China where it quickly became the nation’s No. 1 cartoon series.

  • Comedy Central Grows a Pair

    Comedy Central’s Motherload broadband channel has expanded with the addition of a new animated series about two testicles. From The King of Queens co-creator Michael J. Weithorn comes Baxter & McGuire, which debuts on Nov. 6 and will run over eight weeks. Also joining the comedycentral.com lineup is a live-action series titled Good God, which takes viewers inside God’s workplace starting Oct. 26.

    Written and created by Weithorn and writer/actor/dancer Nick Bakay, Baxter & McGuire is a buddy comedy that chronicles the adventures of the closest of pals who never leave each other’s side. The series is directed by Mike Blum, who created the CG-animated short films The Zit and Oil & Vinegar. Each week, comedycentral.com viewers will follow Baxter and McGuire as they grapple with the various issues those of their ilk must face, such as creeping out of their owner’s shorts during an outing at Shea Stadium and being tossed about wildly during a baseball game.

    ‘With the launch of Baxter & McGuire and Good God, Comedy Central is solidifying its place as the premiere destination for original broadband comedy programming,” says Lou Wallach, senior VP of original programming and development for Comedy Central. “These two new series are examples of the talent community reaching out to us to create innovative, irreverent short- form programming for the digital consumer. It is truly a compliment to the strength of the Comedy Central brand on all platforms.”

    For a sneak peek at upcoming episodes of Baxter & McGuire, click on the following links:

    www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=77171

    www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=77062

    www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=77060

    www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=77061

  • Beowulf Coming At You in 3D

    Robert Zemeckis’ CG adaptation of the epic Old English poem Beowulf is set to get a stereoscopic 3D release on Nov. 16, 2007, the same day it arrives in conventional theaters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the feature film from Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures will be digitally enhanced for projection in Real D cinemas and other large-format 3D venues.

    Written by an unknown sixth-century Anglo-Saxon scribe, Beowulf casts its title character as the one man who can defeat Grendel, a monster terrorizing a Danish kingdom, and his scaly, cave-dwelling mother. The classic tale has been adapted for the screen by fantasy author Neil Gaiman (MirrorMask, Coraline) and Silent Hill scribe Roger Avary, and will feature the voices of Angelina Jolie, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover and Anthony Hopkins.

    Beowulf is employing the patented Performance Capture technology Sony Pictures Imageworks created for Zemeckis’ The Polar Express. The movements and facial expressions of the actors will be captured in computers and applied to computer-generated characters in fully digital environments.

    Zemeckis’ third 3D endeavor, Beowulf is slated to bow in more than 1,000 Real D theaters and other locations equipped for 3D projection, making it the widest day-and-date large-format 3D release to date. IMAX, which has sold a lot of tickets to the 3D version of The Polar Express, is a likely partner, though no deal has been announced.