Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • S4C Boosts Wales’ Toon Biz

    Three animation companies in Wales will benefit from a ‘500,000 (approx. $944,000) development and production fund provided by U.K. broadcaster S4C. Awarded as part of a competitive tendering process, the money will be split between Calon in Cardiff Bay (‘250,000), Griffilms, with offices in Caernarfon and Cardiff (‘150,000), and a partnership between Caernarfon-based Cwmni Da and Dinamo in Cardiff (‘100,000).

    The companies will use the fund to develop and deliver multi-platform animation projects that reflect S4C’s program priorities in the family, late-night and children’s categories. Ranging in length from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, the short films and promotional materials will be created over a two-year period.

    ‘S4C is committed to developing a range of creative animation projects across different genres and for multi-platform use, from short promotional trails which can be zapped to mobile phones to prime-time programming,’ says Meirion Davies, S4C’s Commissioning Editor Entertainment, who coordinated the animation tender process. ‘We look forward to working alongside the talented teams at the successful companies.’

    Calon is currently in production on S4C’s new animated pre-school series, Holi Hana, a co-production with Five and Germany’s ZDF with support from the EU’s Media+ program and the National Assembly for Wales. Meanwhile, Griffilms is working on a 30-minute animated film based on the Welsh legend of Gelert for S4C’s 2007 holiday schedule, and Dinamo is producing CWM Teg, a series of 20 five-minute nursery rhymes for the broadcaster.

  • Editor’s Note: Can the New Disney Regime Revive 2D?

    We reported back in March that Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger told shareholders that 2D animation would be considered as an option for feature production under the new animation studio structure headed by Pixar’s Steve Jobs and John Lasseter. Now it appears that the Mouse House is putting its money where it’s mouth is. During a panel at Comic-Con, director Eric Goldberg (Pocahontas) mentioned that Disney is developing a 2D feature titled The Frog Princess. And while the news is music to the ears of animation fans everywhere, one has to wonder if even Pixar, the current gold standard for CG animation, can make 2D profitable again.

    Word of Disney’s plans to produce a 2D feature came on the same week that hundreds of Disney employees got pink slips in the latest round of layoffs. This time, Walt Disney Feature Animation was virtually unaffected, mostly because there’s already been enough belt tightening in that department. Now it seems the studio, which dumped its 2D animators when it switched to an all-CG pipeline, will again be bringing in traditional animation talent to introduce the latest Disney princess. But will the project be the start of a 2D renaissance, or a box’office dud that reminds Disney why it abandoned hand-drawn animation in the first place?

    Disney’s last 2D theatrical feature, Home on the Range, opened to just $13.8 million in 2004. The studio followed it up with the 3D Chicken little, which raked in more than $40 million during its first weekend, despite garnering its share of unenthusiastic reviews. And with that, the hand-drawn legacy that once roared like a Lion King went out like a lamb. Universal was bold enough to give it one more go with its 2006 big-screen adaptation of Curious George, but the studio didn’t exactly go bananas for the film’s $14.7 million opening weekend.

    ‘CG is where it’s at,’ is the message studios were receiving. Inspired by the hundreds of millions of dollars being raked in by movies like DreamWorks’ Shrek and Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo, producers created a modern-day gold rush. Soon, every Hollywood major and a growing list of independent studios were announcing CG features in development. However, as any grizzled old prospector will tell you, any gold reserve mined too heavily will eventually run dry. While Shrek sequels and Pixar flicks will continue to make money hand-over fist, CG is no longer the sure thing it once was, as evidenced by the weak performances of entries such as Disney’s Valiant, which opened to around $6 million, and Warner Bros.’ The Ant Bully, which debuted last weekend to just over $8 million.

    So perhaps a 2D feature done right will bring some much-needed variety to the theatrical toon landscape, and if anyone can do it right, it’s John Lasseter and crew. What do you think? Could Frog Princess be the triumphant return of an art form, or the final nail in its coffin? Be sure and sound off in the latest Question of the Week.

  • FUNimation Picks Up Robotech Movie

    Navarre Corp.’s FUNimation Ent. has acquired home video, broadcast and theatrical rights to the feature film Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles from Harmony Gold. The new flick is a continuation of the popular 1980s series, which left fans with a cliffhanger nore than 20 years ago.

    ‘Robotech is the series that introduced an entire generation to anime,” says Gen Fukunaga, president and CEO of FUNimation. “FUNimation is very excited to be part of the team that will bring expectant fans the ending they have been waiting for in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles.”

    Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is directed by Tommy Yune, who worked on visual effects for the original TV series and produced the video games Robotech: Battlecry, Robotech: The Macross Saga and Robotech: Invasion. In the film, Scott Bernard, Vince Grant and a host of other characters from the series fight to end a decades-long struggle against an enigmatic alien race known as the Invid. However, the mysterious disappearance of the legendary Admiral Hunter will unfold in a treacherous mystery that could tear apart our young heroes and threaten their very survival. Mark Hamill (Star Wars, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm) and Chase Masterson (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Manticore) lend their voices to the production.

    According to FUNimation, Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles will give the franchise an updated the look by incorporating CG graphics with the classic anime style. FUNimation plans to release the movie on DVD on Nov. 21.

  • South Park Hits to Hit Disc

    Celebrity meltdowns and controversial jabs at religion aren’t just happening on the Pacific Coast Highway, they’re also a staple of Comedy Central’s long-runnning animated show, South Park. Series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have hand-picked ten of their favorite episodes to be included in a new home video release titled South Park The Hits: Volume 1. Slated to hit retail on Tuesday, Oct. 3, the compilation will also feature The Spirit of Christmas, the original short film that started it all, available for the first time.

    Episodes to be featured in the Comedy Central Home Entertainment release are ‘Awesom-O,’ “Best Friends Forever,” “Casa Bonita,” “Good Times with Weapons,” “Red Hot Catholic Love,” “Scott Tenorman Must Die,” “Towelie,” “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers,” “Spoiled Whore Video Playset” and the infamous Tom Cruise/Scientology installment, ‘Trapped in the Closet.’ In “Good Times with Weapons,” Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny get a hold of martial arts implements and transform into bulky anime characters. “The thing I’m most proud of in this episode is the song,’ says Parker. ‘I think we hit the song perfectly. I think we got the anime pretty good, but that song …”

    Parker and Stone’s picks will be accompanied by new audio commentary and the fan-favorite bonus episodes “Fatt Butt & Pancake Head” (a.k.a. J. Lo and Ben Affleck), “It Hits the Fan,” “Timmy 2000” and “The Death Camp of Intolerance.”

    South Park debuted on Comedy Central in August of 1997 and remains the network’s highest-rated series. The series won last year’s Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (less than an hour) and is nominated again this year for the ‘Trapped in the Closet’ episode. Now in its 10th season, the show will return with seven all-new episodes starting on Oct. 4 at 1 p.m.

  • Luxology Debuts modo 202

    Speed is the key to modo 202, the newest edition of Luxology’s 3D modeling, painting and rendering software, which is now available for purchase. In addition to boasting a peak rendering speed more than 40% faster than modo 201, the update promises to enhance workflow with performance gains, tool improvements and innovative extensions to its overall toolset. Luxology representatives are currently at SIGGRAPH in Boston demonstrating modo 202 at the ATI booth (#1513). The release is also available to artist for hands-on trials in the Guerilla Studio at the computer graphics show, and video presentations that can be downloaded from the Luxology website at www.modo3d.com.

    Rendering workflow with modo 202 is streamlined by improvements to the render window, including convenient ways to interactively adjust gamma display and flip between ten images for render review. The render window now provides an editable Limited Region control for quickly rendering a specific portion of the image. In addition, the release is designed to provide faster, more accurate image map re-sampling and improvements in global illumination quality and performance.

    Other enhancements include a new create SubDiv option for the popular Pen tool, a thicken tool for adding inner or outer thickness to geometry, and a new object-to-object baking capability that captures the surface detail of a complex object and automatically applies it to a simpler object for real-time applications. In addition, the interactive UV relax feature with pinning capability is designed to simplify the process of untangling overlapping UVs. Painting workflow is addressed with a visible image ink display mode which lets artists place an image over a model and brush that image onto said model. Support for Autodesk FBX and X3D formats are also extended for expanded interoperability with other 3D applications, including Autodesk’s 3ds Max and Maya.

    Available now for both the Windows and Mac OSX platforms, modo 202 is retails for $895. Current modo 201 users can upgrade free of charge and users with earlier versions of modo can upgrade directly to modo 202 for $395. A free 30-day full-featured evaluation version can be downloaded from www.modo3d.com.

  • ‘Corpse Bride’ Joins Potter Cast

    Academy Award nominee Helena Bonham Carter has enrolled for the next semester at Hogwarts. Having recently lent her voice to the Oscar-nominated stop-motion features Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the actress will play Voldemort follower Bellatrix Lestrange in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth installment in the blockbuster series based on the books by J.K. Rowling.

    Bonham Carter joins returning Potter regulars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, David Thewlis, Fiona Shaw and Richard Griffiths. Also signing on for the latest flick are Imelda Staunton as Dolores Umbridge, George Harris as Kingsley Shacklebolt, Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks, Kathryn Hunter as Mrs. Figg and 14-year-old Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood.

    Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be released by Warner Bros. in 2007. The film is being directed by British filmmaker David Yates (The Girl in the Cafe, Sex Traffic, State of Play) and produced by David Heyman and David Barron from a screenplay by Michael Goldenberg, whose credits include Contact, Peter Pan and Spike Jones’s adaptation of kid lit favorite Where the Wild Things Are.

  • Mainframe Directors Resign

    IDT’s Stephen Brown, Morris Berger, Marcelo Fischer and John Hyde have stepped down as directors of Canadian CG animation powerhouse Mainframe Ent. Inc. with the completion of the studio’s sale to RNK Capital Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Rainmaker Income Fund. First announced on July 21, the sale closed on July 31, giving Rainmaker 62% of outstanding shares of Mainframe previously held by IDT and its affiliates. Rainmaker has not yet provided nominees to Mainframe to replace the vacancies created by the resignations of the IDT nominees.

    Warren Franklin, president of Rainmaker Animation & Visual Effects, has replaced Mark Prior as CEO and a Trustee of Rainmaker. He and current Mainframe CEO Rick Mischel will jointly run the combined company, which will employ more than 300 artists and technicians for work on television, film, commercial and video-game projects.

    To date, Mainframe has produced more than 269 half hours of CG-animated television, 16 animated direct-to-video features and three CG television specials. Titles to the company’s credit include the lucrative Barbie line of home video movies, MTV’s Spider-Man series, the Scary Godmother specials and the groundbreaking series ReBoot. The studio’s clients include Sony, Mattel, Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Electronic Arts (Canada).

  • Toon Boom Pre-Sells Studio V3.5

    Toon Boom Animation hopes to lure animators with the promise of greater power and ease as it begins pre-launch sales of Toon Boom Studio V3.5. The upcoming release boasts a more user-friendly interface with a welcome screen and help wizards, as well as timeline improvements. Other enhancements include animated elements for quickly animating drawings, a real-time drop shadow effect, greater interoperability with other software via PDF export and improved tools such as Select Scene Operator, Contour Editor, Color Transform and Texture and Gradient Mapping

    Toon Boom Studio V3.5 will be released in September but can be purchased now for the pre-launch special price of $299.99 (Promo Code:TBS350823). V3 and V2.5 users can upgrade for $99.99.

    Toon Boom won a primetime Emmy for engineering in 2005. The company’s client base includes both independent animators and major studios such as Nelvana, Klasky Csupo, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal, Mercury Filmworks, Alphanim, LuxAnimation, Cosgrove Hall, King Camera, Cromosoma and Lanterna Magica. High-profile productions created with Toon Boom products include Sylvain Chomet’s Les Triplettes de Belleville, Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Nickelodeon’s Rugrats, Paramount’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and Universal’s Curious George feature. For more information, go to www.toonboom.com.

  • Digital Domain Gets Financial Boost

    Academy Award-winning vfx studio Digital Domain has a little extra cash to play around with thanks to a $31 million investment from Falcon Investment Advisors and GunnAllen Financial. Falcon principally Rafael Fogel will join the Digital Domain board of Directors, which is led by Digital Domain Co-Chairmen John Textor and action-flick director Michael Bay.

    While Digital Domain plans to use the investment for general corporate purposes such as retiring debt, the company will also put some of that cash toward making technological breakthroughs, especially when it comes to photo-realistic digital humans.

    “This cutting-edge development will revolutionize the entertainment industry,’ says Digital Domain CEO Carl Stork. ‘It will change the way we think about live-action and will even allow directors to bring back personalities of the past to ‘perform’ new material. We will debut our initial efforts in this area in early fall.”

    Digital Domain has created visual effects for such blockbuster films as Titanic, The Day After Tomorrow and I, Robot. in May of this year, the company was by an affiliate of Wyndcrest Holdings, a Florida-based private investment and acquisition firm whose principals include Bay, Textor, Stork Jonathan Teaford and football great Dan Marino.

  • Ledger is Joker in Next Batman

    At the end of 2005’s Batman Begins, the stage is set for the introduction of a certain grinning criminal mastermind. Now Warner Bros. Pictures has confirmed rumors that Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger will play the role of The Joker in the upcoming sequel. Director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) and star Christian Bale (The New World, American Psycho) will return for another round with DC Comic’s caped crusader in The Dark Knight.

    “I’m excited to continue the story we started with Batman Begins,’ says Nolan. “Our challenge in casting The Joker was to find an actor who is not just extraordinarily talented but fearless. Watching Heath Ledger’s interpretation of this iconic character taking on Christian Bale’s Batman is going to be incredible.”

    The Dark Knight is set to go into production in early 2007. The screenplay was written by Jonathan Nolan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and Batman Begins scribe David Goyer. The film will be produced by Christopher Nolan, along with Emma Thomas and Charles Roven. Christopher Nolan recently wrapped production on on Touchstone Pictures’ The Prestige, which stars Bale and Hugh Jackman as rival magicians in turn’of-the-century London.

  • Unnatural History Coming to Public TV

    Public television producer Thirteen/WNET New York has teamed with Unnatural Prods. to co-produce a 3D-animated educational children’s series titled Unnatural History. Over the years, the entities plan to create 65 episodes of the show, which will send four curious kids on a chase through time to stop an agency of neo-ludites from stealing the inventions of the past.

    Through its combination of comedy, action, adventure and learning, Unnatrual History will aim to help kids appreciate the technology they take for granted in their lives. The series is co-created and exec produced by Jonas McCord and Seth Piezas of Unnatural Prods. Exec producing for Thirteen is director of children’s and educational programming Sandra Sheppard, who is also exec producer of the PBS Kids animated series Cyberchase.

    Unnatural Prods. is a joint venture between McCord’s Shyanne Ent. and Piezas’ Fluid Animation. McCord is an Emmy, Peabody and Motion Picture Academy special award-winning writer/producer/director who has been working in film, television and theater for more than 20 years. His television credits include The Young Riders, The Dirty Dozen andEarth: Final Conflict, and he recently produced Robert Towne’s acclaimed Colin Farrell/Salma Hayek feature, Ask The Dust, along with Cruise/Wagner Prods. Piezas spent four years at Pixar Animation Studios, building a list of credits that includes Toy Story II, Monsters Inc. and The Incredibles. Fluid is now in production on their original animated series, Lucy: Daughter of the Devil, for Cartoon Network’s [adult swim].

  • Sony Checks into Hotel Transylvaina

    As Warner Bros.’ Monster House, holds its own at the box office, Daily Variety reports Sony will create its own monster abode with its third toon feature, Hotel Transylvania. The film falls in line behind Sony Animation’s summer 2007 release, Surf’s Up. The studio will see if it has what it takes to compete with the Pixars and DreamWorks of the world when it releases its first CG family movie, Open Season, on Sept. 29.

    Hotel Transylvania will visit Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolf Man and other classic creeps, who all hang out together and try to cope with the notion that they are no longer relevant in modern times. The film will be directed by Open Season co-director Anthohy Stacchi and head of story David Feiss. Open Season producer Michelle Murdocca is producing and the script is being written by Surf’s Up scribe Don Rhymer, whose credits also include Big Mama’s House.

    At present, Hotel Transylvania is slated to hit theaters in 2009, which leaves the 2008 window vacant. The studio’s toon adaptation of Judi and Ron Barrett’s kids’ book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, may end up on the fast track to fill the spot.

  • E3 to Get Smaller

    The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, is famous for being big, loud and out of control. Every spring, the major players in the video game industry converge in Los Angeles to out-do one another with massive display booths featuring giant screens on which their latest titles or gadgets are unveiled before ravenous crowds as product demonstrators work their stages like rock stars. But all that may be a thing of the past, according to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The organization behind the event has announced that E3 is evolving into a more intimate event focused on targeted, personalized meetings and activities.

    ‘The world of interactive entertainment has changed since E3Expo was created 12 years ago,’ says ESA president Douglas Lowenstein. ‘At that time we were focused on establishing the industry and securing orders for the holiday season. Over the years, it has become clear that we need a more intimate program including higher quality, more personal dialogue with the worldwide media, developers, retailers and other key industry audiences.’

    As organizers met for serious discussions about the future of the event, many feared that the 2007 E3 was in danger of cancellation. However, ESA confirms that the show will go on in Los Angeles, but will focus more on press events and small meetings with members of the media, retail and development sectors. Game demonstrations will still be an important part, though the noise and hoopla will be more confined.

    ‘It is no longer necessary or efficient to have a single industry ‘mega-show,” Lowenstein comments, pointing out the emergence of a number of video game-related expos around the world, including the Games Convention in Leipzig, the Tokyo Game Show and company-specific events held by Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft. ‘The new event ensures that there will be an effective and more efficient way for companies to get information to media, consumers and others.’

    The new direction for E3 will take shape over the next few months and the ESA plans to release further details about the show in the near future. For more information about the ESA, go to www.theESA.com.

  • Cartoon Network Hits iTunes

    Johnny Bravo and Meatwad are among the animated stars making their way to iTunes through a partnership between Turner Broadcasting System and Apple. The deal makes hit programming from Cartoon Network, [adult swim] and CNN available for purchase and download on the iTunes Music Store at (www.itunes.com). Fans can log on now to catch episodes from the first season of Johnny Bravo, as well as installments of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Sealab 2021, The Venture Bros. and more. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Squirrel Boy may be added as soon as next week.

    iTunes currently has more than 150 TV shows available for $1.99 per episode. The service previously carried free [adult swim] podcasts, which have been among the top downloads on the site over the past three months. Once downloaded, the shows can be viewed on personal computers, iPods and other portable video devices.

    The iTune store also features a selection of Pixar and Disney short films, more than 9,000 music videos and more than three million songs from major music companies and independent labels. iTunes 6 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Music Store and is available as a free download from www.apple.com/itunes.

  • More Beavis and Butt-Head on Disc

    Following closely on the heels of the second volume, Beavis and Butt-Head’Mike Judge Collection Vol. 3 offers an additional 42 episodes personally hand-picked by Judge. The Paramount DVD release includes the uncut version of the classic ‘Frog Baseball’ installment, along with other favorites that aired on MTV from 1995 to 1997. Edited by Judge, the box set includes some of the duo’s most moronic adventures and 15 music videos by such artists as Soundgarden, Alice Cooper and Sonic Youth. Extras include Taint of Greatness: The Journey of Beavis & Butt-Head, Part 3, in addition to rare special appearances and promos. The disc offers 256 minutes of entertainment and carries a suggested retail price of $38.99.

    Also available on disc today is Broken Saints, the popular Flash-animated graphic novel that has built a dedicated following on the Internet. The Fox Home Entertainment release employs limited animation to tell the story of four strangers who receive a series of apocalyptic visions and learn that their fates and the fate of the world are tied to a massive conspiracy and a mysterious orphan girl with a terrifying secret. The four-disc set includes all 24 episodes and a generous helping of bonus features. Extras include commentary by series creator Brooke Burgess on every episode, a making-of featurette, a production featurette, a voice-over and audio featurette, a Sundance Film Festival featurette, an Art Institute panel discussion with Burgess, a Walker Nation Art Center lecture session with Burgess, the Broken Saints soundtrack, Broken Saints Tarot Tree character profiles, a stills gallery, fan video footage and artwork and a number of Easter Eggs. The set lists for $49.98.

    For the tykes, today’s DVD grab bag features VeggieTales: LarryBoy and the Bad Apple, the latest in Big Idea’s popular series of direct-to-video CG-animated features that illustrate biblical ideas with talking vegetables. This one aims to teach kids about the importance of battling temptation and making good choices. The title is available for the suggested retail price of $14.98.

  • Autodesk Unveils Max 9, Maya 8

    Autodesk kicked off SIGGRAPH 2006 in a big way, announcing the latest versions of both 3ds Max and Maya. This is the first time both computer animation software packages have been demonstrated under one roof at the annual computer graphics conference and expo, which is being held through Aug. 3 in Boston, Mass. Since Autodesk’s acquisition of Alias, Max and Maya are now being developed with a focus on interoperability between the two products via the FBX file format.

    3ds Max 9 supports 64-bit technologies for artists working in next-generation games development, design visualizations, and film and television visual effects production. The company says rendering has also been greatly improved with the mental ray 3.5 rendering core. Other key features include a layered blending system that can be added to custom rigs and controllers; optimizations in wireframe and edge display; XAF files that can be saved and loaded onto bipeds for easy transfer of information to and from custom rigs; improved file referencing and tracking of work-in-progress assets; Enhanced hair and cloth, including the ability to style hair in the viewport; and Point cache 2, which allows artists to bake mesh deformations into a file for faster rendering.

    “With Autodesk 3ds Max 9, we’ve focused on addressing the challenges our customers face when working with larger amounts of complex data, as well as scaling to bigger production teams,” says Marc Petit, Autodesk’s media & entertainment VP. “Digital artists using 3ds Max 9 will gain improvements in core performance, productivity and pipeline efficiency.”

    Maya 8 offers a combination of 64-bit support, multithreading and algorithmic optimizations that enable artists to load massive datasets and interact with them more efficiently. Key areas such as skinning, draw tessellation and subdivided polygon proxy meshes have been multi-threaded to scale with the number of processors or cores available, accelerating formerly time-consuming tasks.

    Other enhancements in Maya 8 include the ability to override viewports with a user-defined renderer such as a game engine; an optimized mental ray 3.5 core for better rendering performance and memory usage; Polygon Bridge and Transfer Polygon Attributes; support for high dynamic range (HDR) and floating-point images; support for interactive viewing of native and custom mental ray shaders and better integration with other Autodesk products including 3Ds Max and Toxik. A complete list of new features can be found at www.autodesk.com/maya.

    Autodesk expects to have 3ds Max 9 available in English in October for the suggested retail price of $3,495. The English version of Maya 8 should be available this month fro around $1,999 for Maya Complete (standalone) and $6,999 for Maya Unlimited (standalone). The 64-bit version of Maya 8 will be supported on Windows and Linux, while the 32-bit version will be supported on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

    Inaddition to Max and Maya, Autodesk’s media and entertainment 3D product portfolio includes the VIZ 2007 animation, modeling and rendering software, and Autodesk MotionBuilder 7.5 character animation software. All products are being showcased at the Autodesk booth (#1706) at SIGGRAPH.

  • Burnett, AOL Get Flushed Away

    Mark Burnett Prods., the reality-show juggernaut behind such hit primetime series as Survivor, The Amazing Race and The Apprentice, has teamed with DreamWorks Animation, Aardman Features and AOL to create the new online game Flushed Away Underground Adventure. DreamWorks’ first online game with custom animation integration, the title will available in early October for fee exclusively at www.aol.com/flushedawaygame.

    Based on DreamWorks’ upcoming animated feature, Flushed Away Underground Adventure will provide a variety of challenges for players of all ages. Kids and their parents will enter an immersive, 3D environment where they can solve individual puzzles for digital prizes and a chance to win a grand prize sweepstakes to be held during the film’s opening weekend.

    Mark Burnett Prods. is developing the game, which will feature new character animation designed exclusively for the AOL experience. Burnett and DreamWorks previously collaborated on the boxing reality series The Contender and the upcoming filmmaking contest, On the Lot. AOL and Burnett first partnered on Gold Rush, an interactive challenge based on pop-culture knowledge that that premieres on AOL in September.

    Co-produced by U.K. animation house Aardman Animaitons, Flushed Away stars Hugh Jackman (X-Men: The Last Stand) as the voice of Roddy, a highrise-dwelling fat rat who leaves the posh life when he gets flushed down the toilet and into the sewer where he makes new friends and learns how the other half lives. Kate Winslet is Rita, a tough-as-nails sewer-boat driver who captures Roddy’s heart and Sir Ian Mckellen is the frog villain, Toad. The voice cast also includes Andy Serkis, Bill Nighy and Shane Ritchie. Audiences will take the plunge on Nov. 3.

  • Disney Channel Sends in Replacements

    Disney will debut its original animated comedy series The Replacements on Disney Channel on Friday, Sept. 8, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). A production of Walt Disney Television Animation, the show, about tween siblings who use a mysterious agency to replace the adults in their lives will then settle into its regular time slot on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m.

    In The Replacements, orphans Riley and Todd come across a comic book ad for the Fleemco Co. which promises a new set of parents for $1.98. Their quirky new family consists of a British international spy mom named Agent K, a daredevil dad named Dick Daring and C.A.R.T.E.R., a cynical talking spy car who used to be Agent K’s partner. Riley and Todd soon realize that they can replace any adult in their life simply by making a call to Fleemco owner Conrad Fleem. The series is created by children’s author and illustrator Dan Santat (The Guild of Geniuses) and is exec-produced by Jack Thomas The Fairly OddParents and directed by Heather Martinez (SpongeBob SquarePants).

    Nancy Cartwright, better known as the voice of Bart Simpson, will voice Todd in the series while Grey Delisle (The Fairly OddParents) lends his voice to Riley. The voice cast also includes Kath Soucie (Pooh’s Heffalump Movie) as Agent K, Daran Norris (Veronica Mars) as Dick Daring, David McCallum (N.C.I.S.) as C.A.R.T.E.R, Lauren Tom (King of the Hill) as Tasumi and Jeff Bennett (Lilo & Stitch: The Series) as Shelton. The show’s main title theme is perfromed by power pop band The Wondermints, whose previous screen credits include the Austin Powers films.

  • X-Men Make Last Stand on DVD in October

    X-Men: The Last Stand, the summer’s biggest movie before Captain Jack Sparrow pulled into port, is set to arrive on home video on Oct. 3. The Fox Home Entertainment release will include three alternate endings, ten deleted/extended scenes and commentary from director Brett Ratner. There will also be a special collector’s edition that will be packaged with an exclusive X-Men comic book written by franchise creator Stan Lee, his first original Marvel Comic in five years. Completists will also be able to pick up The X-Men Trilogy Pack featuring all three films.

    In X-Men: The Last Stand, lines are drawn between mutants when a cure for mutations is discovered and certain tortured superheroes are seduced by the possibility of leading normal lives. Hugh Jackman returns to lead the good guys as Wolverine, while Frasier star Kelsey Grammer joins the cast as Dr. Hank McCoy, a hairy, blue mutant also known as ‘Beast.’ The film features visual effects work by MPC, Soho VFX, Weta Digital, Cinesite, Framestore CFC, Rhythm & Hues and Kleiser-Walczak. The DVD will be available for the suggested retail price of $29.98 and includes commentary by writers Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg, and producers Lauren Shuler-Donner, Ralph Winter, Avi Arad and David Gorder. Fans will also find a couple of Easter eggs and an inside look at the upcoming Ben Stiller fantasy-comedy, A Night At The Museum.

    X-Men: The Last Stand Collector’s Edition will include a 100-page commemorative book featuring Lee’s original comic, “The Unlikely Saga of Magneto, Xavier and Stan.” The comic boasts art by some such legendary Marvel artists as iJohn Romita Jr. (Spider-Man), Pasqual Ferry (Ultimate Fantastic 4), Leinil Francis Yu (The Avengers), Howard Chaykin (Hulk Girl), Ben Oliver (Ultimate X-Men), Ron Frenz (Spider-Man), Sean Chen (-Men: The End) and Ron Lim (Silver Surfer). Also included are Lee’s personal favorite selections for three classic X-Men comic reprints. The edition will list for $39.98, while the X-Men Trilogy Pack sells for $44.98.

  • NaturalMotion Debuts Third Product at SIGGRAPH

    NaturalMotion Ltd., developer of the Dynamic Motion Synthesis-based animation solutions endorphin and euphoria, announced that it will unveil a third product line this week at the SIGGRAPH computer graphics convention in Boston, Mass. The product launch will take place aboard The Lady Christine, an ocean cruiser parked at the infamous Boston Harbor.

    Attendees who board the Lady Christine can also catch product demonstrations of the new endorphin 2.6 and euphoria, which was introduced last year at SIGGRAPH and is now being used to provide unique gameplay moments in a number of next-generation games including LucasArts’ 2007 Indiana Jones release. NaturalMotion product demos will also be available at the Autodesk (#1706) and AMD (#806) booths, and interested parties can get hands-on experience with endorphin at the Guerrilla Studio in room 52.

    During SIGGRAPH, NaturalMotion will be raising funds on behalf of one of its own team members, JP Collins, who is participating in the 27th annual Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC). The two-day, 190-mile cycling event is organized to raise awareness and funds for Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. More information on contributing can be found at http://www.pmc.org.

    A complete overview of NaturalMotion’s SIGGRAPH events is available at www.naturalmotion.com.