Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • Possum Golden at Student Academy Awards

    Filmmaker Chris Choy from California Institute of the Arts took gold at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 33rd annual Student Academy Awards competition on Saturday at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Choy’s Possum was deemed the top animated film, making him $5,000 richer and guaranteeing him a spot in the animated short competition at next year’s Oscars.

    The silver award in the animation category went to The Dancing Thief by Meng Vue from Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Fla. Vue receives $3,000, while the $2,000 bronze award goes to Thomas Leavitt from Brigham Young University, who placed third with his film, Turtles.

    Before having their films screened and voted on by Academy members, the wining students first had to compete in one of three regional competitions. Each of those regions was permitted to submit to the Academy up to three finalist films in each of the four categories.

    The Student Academy Awards were presented by actress/writer Nia Vardalos (My Big, Fat Greek Wedding), filmmaker Kevin Smith (Clerks) and Academy President Sid Ganis. A complete list of this year’s winners can be found at www.oscars.org.

  • DIC Acquires Copyright Promotions

    DIC Ent. has extended its reach into the European marketplace with the acquisition of privately-owned, pan-European licensing agency Copyright Promotions Licensing Group Ltd. (CPLG). DIC’s first international pick-up, CPLG has offices in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and The Netherlands, and will continue to operate from its London headquarters as a stand-alone agency under CEO Kirk Bloomgarden.

    Bloomgarden has worked with closely with DIC CEO Andy Heyward as CPLG served as DIC’s European licensing agency, handling such brands as Strawberry Shortcake, Classic Trolls and now McDonald’s. With a client roster that also includes DreamWorks Animation, MGM, Marvel, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Viacom and The Football Association, CPLG has created European licensing programs for Shrek, The Simpsons, Spider-Man, Star Trek, The Pink Panther, Peanuts, Strawberry Shortcake, Dora the Explorer and Care Bears.

    DIC is also expanding its broadcast presence in the U.S. with a new Saturday morning children’s programming block that will debut on CBS on Sept. 16. Dubbed Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party, the three-hour strip will feature the new toon series Horseland and Kooky Kitchen, as well as established favorites Sabrina: The Animated Series, Trollz and Madeline.

  • Teen Titans Makes Console Bow

    THQ’s new video game based on the popular Warner Bros. Animation series, Teen Titans, is now available for PlayStation2 and GameCube. Licensed from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developed by Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M), the game marks the console debut of the superhero franchise starring young versions of DC Comics characters. Majesco previously released a Game Boy Advance title based on the property.

    The action-adventure game allows gamers to play as as Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg and Raven, switching from one Titan to another in real time.Using each character’s unique attacks, players fight more than ten notorious villains from the series, including Slade, Cinderblock and Jinx. Furthermore, the multi-player mode lets fans of the show team up with or play against up to three other people simultaneously.

    Created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, Teen Titans made its comic book debut in 1964 and soon grew into its own monthly comic book series that ran for seven years. The New Teen Titans followed in 1980 and became DC’s most popular comic book of the decade that followed. The revamped version dealt more with the teenage angst aspect and serves as the basis for the animated series, produced under the guidance of Emmy Award winner Glen Murakami.

    Teen Titans for PlayStation2 and GameCube is available now for the suggested retail price of $19.95. For more information on this title and the rest of THQ’s 2006 product lineup, go to www.thq.com.

  • Cars Races into Theaters

    Automobiles come to life in Cars, the latest feature to roll off the Disney/Pixar assembly line. The film opens today to mostly positive reviews, though critics on the whole have been a bit harder on this one than any previous effort from the toon studio that brought us Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles. In the race for the box-office cup, Cars is out to lap 20th Century Fox’s remake of The Omen, which has earned just over $17 million since opening on Tuesday to take advantage to of the date (06/06/06).

    Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker John Lasseter (Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug’s Life), Cars is set in a world populated by talking autos and revolves around Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie racecar who takes a detour to the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs and discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line. Voiced by Owen Wilson (The Wedding Crashers), Lightning slows down long enough to get to know the townspeople, including a 1951 Hudson Hornet voiced by film legend Paul Newman, a snazzy 2002 Porsche voiced by Bonnie Hunt and a rusty tow truck voiced by stand-up comic Larry The Cable Guy. Also lending their voices to the production are Tony Shalhoub, Michael Keaton, Cheech Marin, George Carlin, Katherine Helmond and John Ratzenberger, as well as racing superstars Richard Petty, Mario Andretti, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Darrell Waltrip and Michael Shumacher.

    In the family film arena, Cars still faces competition from DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge, which has managed to retain a top-five slot since opening four weeks ago. To date, the latest CG feature from DreamWorks Animation has raked in nearly $118 million domestically and around $123.6 million worldwide. Hedge also has the third highest theater count with 3,527, behind Cars (3,985) and Fox’s X-Men: The Last Stand (3,680). Cars will screen in 210 digital projection venues.

    Disney and Pixar are hoping its racing tie-in will help Cars challenge DreamWorks’ Shrek 2, which holds the toon record for the biggest opening weekend with $108 million, followed by Pixar’s own The Incredibles and Finding Nemo with $70 million each. Buena Vista Opens Cars in half a dozen markets overseas today, but will hold off the opening in the U.K., Spain, Germany and italy until after the World Cup soccer finals.

    Opening in more limited release this weekend is director Robert Altman’s eagerly awaited A Prairie Home Companion, a fictional look at what goes on behind the scenes of humorist Garrison Keilor’s long-running, live public radio variety show. The Picturehouse release will meet arthouse competition from Paramount Classics’ An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s acclaimed global warming documentary which has managed to make more than $2 million in just a handful of venues. It opens in 45 more locations this weekend.

  • Imagi Mounts Gatchaman Feature

    Hong Kong-based Imagi Animation Studios, which is currently in production on the new animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, has teamed with Tatsunoko Production of Japan to create a CG feature based on the long-running Gatchaman anime franchise.

    Gatchaman was created more than 30 years ago and has become one of the longest-running drama series in anime history. U.S. audiences know the property better as G-Force, Battle of the Planets and Eagle Riders, which were much-edited versions that aired in the 1970s and 80s. The series follows five teenagers who come together and change into superheroes to save the world from monsters and intergalactic evil.

    To date, the Gatchaman legacy boasts 205 TV episodes, one feature film and three direct-to-video features. Imagi’s new feature is being written and directed by Kevin Munroe, who is also spearheading the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flick, which will be distributed domestically by Warner Bros. and internationally by The Weinstein Co.

    Imagi produces the CG-animated TV series Zentrix, which airs in Hong Kong, Japan and France. Also in the works are two animated features. The CG-animated Cat Tale will feature the voices of Sean Astin, Elisha Cuthbert, Stanley Tucci and Alan Cumming, and an anime feature based on the live-action Highlander franchise is being directed by acclaimed genre master Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, The Animatrix ‘World Record,’ ‘Program’).

  • Where My Dogs At? Creators On the Horn

    We recently spoke with Jeffrey Ross and Aaron Lee, creators of Where My Dogs At?, a new animated series debuting on MTV2 this Saturday, June 10, at 12 p.m. The show is part of MTV2’s new Sic ‘Emation block, which you can read all about in the July issue of Animation Magazine. For your listening pleasure, we’ve posted portions of that telephone interview in the Animag Fun Bag at www.animationmagazine.net/wac/fun_bag.html.

    Stand-up comedian Jeffrey Ross is best known as the official celebrity roastmaster, presiding over the televised roasts of such Hollywood denizens as Pamela Anderson and Drew Carey. He and comedy writer Aaron Lee met while working on a roast of talk-show host Carson Daly, and have been writing partners ever since.

    MTV2’s new toon block also includes the new series The Adventures of Chico & Guapo from actor Orlando Jones and scribes P.J. Pesce and Paul D’Acri, and a fresh season of creator Eric Fogel’s Celebrity Death Match. Clips from all three shows are also available for download in the Fun Bag.

  • Four Pitch Party Slots Still Open!

    As our deadline for submissions came up this week, we managed to find room for four more pitches! That means you still have a chance to submit your great animated show idea for a chance to have it viewed by industry luminaries who have the power to greenlight new projects!

    To get into the competition, go to www.animationmagazine.net/pitch_party_06.html to view the instructions and be among the first four to complete the process.

    In addition to getting worldwide exposure in the pages of Animation Magazine, your pitch ad will be reviewed by our distinguished panel of Pitch Party Judges, which includes Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, Sony Pictures Animation senior VP of development Nate Hopper, Nickelodeon animation development director Peter Gal, Kids’ WB! senior VP/GM Betsy McGowen, [adult swim] director of development Nick Weidenfeld and DIC Ent. chief creative officer Michael Maliani, to name just a few.

    What’s become of past winners?

    Nicholas Night won our first annual Pitch Party with his property The Hair-Raising Adventures of Aaron & Ned. The win resulted in a development deal with Spyglass Ent., and a video game option from SecondSun Ent. Though Aaron & Ned is still looking for a home, Melwood Pictures, an animation company founded by Max Howard and John McKenna, brought Night on board to help further develop his ideas and take them to the networks.

    ‘Winning the Pitch Party contest was a significant factor in moving my career forward,’ Night tells us. ‘I am currently creative director at Melwood Pictures, with several series properties in development, a feature that has been optioned, and a 26-episode “bridge” series (ages 4-7) deal on the table.’

    ‘I liked getting the chance to put an idea out there to test the waters and see if anything would come of it. It was a fun opportunity for some exposure in the industry,’ adds Matt Hebb, whose The Adventures of No-Beard, Boy Pirate was the third-place Staff Pick in last year’s competition. ‘I did wind up meeting (and getting a job from) the person who placed second in the professional judge voting at the Comic Con. I already knew four of your other contestants from school, but it was great getting to meet him and it was the job he gave me that has launched my comic book career.’

    Other past contestants tell us that the exposure increased traffic to their web sites and helped them establish important industry contacts. Chris Leathers says he thinks winning the 2004 Pitch-Party with My Annoying Little Brother influenced his placement as lead 3D artist on the first season of the Nicktoons’ series Kappa Mikey. In addition, Dennis Salvatier ended up getting a 12-month option from Cybergraphix Animation for his Pitch Party entry, The Bolt.

    Last year’s winner, Leo Antolini (Edgar and Kipp) also tells us he learned a lot about the art of pitching as a result of the contest. “I met with Peter Gal from Nickelodeon and gained some great experience, useful feedback and good contacts out of the whole thing.”

    Be one of this year’s success stories. Go to www.animationmagazine.net/pitch_party_06.html and submit your pitch now!

  • English Ratatouille Trailer Online

    As Disney/Pixar’s Cars parks in theaters today, Apple has posted a new trailer for the toon factory’s next CG-animated release, a rat flick titled Ratatouille. Previously posted online in French, the trailer is now in English with better quality compression at www.apple.com/trailers/disney/ratatouille.

    Directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), Ratatouille stars comedian Patton Oswald as the voice of a skinny rodent who lives in a Paris eatery and fancies himself a gourmand. His quest to obtain these tasty treats, however, prove dangerous, as the trailer illustrates.

    Developed by Oscar-winning Pixar short director Jan Pinkava (Geri’s Game) and scripted by Emily Cook and Kathy Greenberg, Ratatouille is slated to hit theaters on June 29, 2007. Moviegoers who see Cars this weekend will no doubt catch the trailer on the big screen.

  • Aardman Brings Big Jeff to MTV2 U.K.

    MTV2, MTV Networks’ music channel serving the U.K. and Ireland, has picked up a series of animated shorts from Bristol-based Aardman Animations, the studio behind the Oscar-winning feature Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The 10 new toons featuring the character Big Jeff range from 90 to 180 seconds in length and will be scattered throughout the MTV2 schedule starting mid June.

    The Big Jeff films were created, written and directed by Aardman’s Tom Parkinson and exec produced by Miles Bullough, Peter Lord and Dave Sproxton. Big Jeff is described as a back-to-basics, macho Australian who loves nature, drinking beer, taking hallucinogens and being naked, save for his cork-hat and disco roller boots. Episodes have Jeff presenting his own unorthodox guide to survival in the Bush, losing himself to a bizarre trance while learning the digeridoo and hanging out with an experimental hippy named Mother Hendrix.

    Aardman’s broadcast division develops and produces TV specials, series and shorts. Recent credits include award-winning stop-motion productions Creature Comforts for ITV1 and Angry Kid for BBC3, and the CG-animated Planet Sketch for CiTV. Projects now in production include Chop Socky Chooks for Cartoon Network and TELETOON, Shaun The Sheep for CBBC and WDR and an American version of Creature Comforts for CBS.

  • FUNimation Channel Joins Verizon Net

    Navarre Corp.’s FUNimation Ent. has inked a deal with Verizon to distribute the FUNimation Channel as part of the Verizon FiOS TV service. The 24-hour digital anime network will be added to the FiOS TV Premier package this summer, offering some of the most popular anime brands in the U.S.

    According to FUMimation president and CEO Gen Fukunaga, the Verizon deal is another step in FUNimation’s strategy to expand the awareness of and demand for anime in North America. FUNimation offerings will join the Verizon’s FiOS TV lineup of all-digital programming featured on more than 20 high-definition channels. The service is now available in parts of north Texas, Florida, California, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York, and will extend to other markets in 2006.

    FUNimation Channel is now available to video service providers across the nation. The service is exclusively distributed by OlympuSAT, and Ocean Communications affiliate which distributes independently owned and operated digital networks on individual transponder platforms and currently represents more than 20 diverse channels through their Hispanic and Faith & Families Packs.

  • Reeder to Head MarVista Acquisitions

    Feature film and television producer/distributor MarVista Ent. has appointed Zac Reeder to the newly created post of head of acquisitions. Reporting to Michael D. Jacobs, president of production and distribution, Reeder will be responsible for bringing in kids’ animated fare and other independently produced programming for the company’s international distribution division and its U.S. home entertainment label, which will launch this September.

    Reeder and Jacobs previously worked together at PorchLight Ent., where Reeder served as head of acquisitions and acquired hundreds of hours of television programming and feature films over his eight-year tenure. Before PorchLight, he was founder and president of independent film production and distribution company 4 Corners Ent. Reeder currently serves on the advisory boards of several prominent film festivals including the San Diego Film Festival and the Heartland Film Festival.

    MarVista is looking to acquire a number of projects during the coming months, and will be sending Reeder to U.S. and overseas events to meet with independent producers of all genres. Reeder will first be attending the BANFF television festival, followed by trips to New York’s IFP, the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival.

  • Comic-Book artist, Animator Toth Dies

    Influential comic-book artist and animator Alex Toth died of heart failure at the age of 77 on May 27 at his home in Burbank, Calif. Having worked on such DC comics as Green Lantern, Zorro and Hot Wheels, Toth moved on to animated television in the late ’60s with such Saturday morning kids’ shows as Space Ghost, Jonny Quest and Super Friends.

    The Manhattan-born Toth was mentored in high school by Milton Caniff, creator of creator of Terry and the Pirates, an action-adventure comic strip that ran from 1934 to 1946, and Steve Canyon, which was syndicated until shortly after his death in 1988.

    Toth was hired by DC Comics editor Sheldon Mayer in 1947 and moved to California in the late ’50s. In the late ’70s, he created the character Jesse Bravo, who appeared in the comic book Bravo for Adventure. By that time, however, Toth had become fed up with the increasing level of violence in comic books and had begun creating storyboards for Hanna-Barbera. He was reportedly at his drawing board when he died.

  • Toon Boom Introduces Storyboard

    Toon Boom Animation Inc. today announced the release of Toon Boom Storyboard, a storytelling aid for both traditional and paperless animation methods. Developed in conjunction with professional storyboard artists, Toon Boom Storyboard is designed to speed up production planning by offering advanced drawing capabilities and the ability to preview the animatic in real-time with dynamic camera moves. Producers can also review and shuffle unlimited panels digitally and maximize the use of their existing assets.

    Features of Toon Boom Storyboard include a complete set of drawing tools that includes a pressure-sensitive brush for use with a digital graphic tablet and pen,

    customizable caption fields for inserting fully searchable textual content, and an advanced timeline for controlling timing and automatically generating an animatic with sound tracks and transitions. Export capabilities include printing, image sequences and Harmony/Opus, EDL, SWF and QuickTime file formatting.

    Toon Boom Storyboard is now available as an Early Access Program to all animation studios using Toon Boom Harmony and Opus. The commercial release is scheduled for Aug. 1, and will be launched at SIGGRAPH 2006. For additional information on Toon Boom and its products, go to www.toonboom.com.

  • Spider Riders Corralled by Kids’ WB!

    Coliseum, the action-adventure brand of Cookie Jar Ent. Inc., announced that its new animated series, Spider Riders, will makes its U.S. debut in the Kids’ WB! Saturday morning lineup on Saturday, June 17 at 10:30 a.m. (ET/PT). The show was introduced at MIPTV in April and recently began airing on TELETOON in Canada and Japan’s TV Tokyo, scoring high ratings on both accounts.

    The Spider Riders series is based on the Cookie Jar Ent. book Spider Riders ‘ Shards of the Oracle, written by Emmy award-winners Tedd Anasti and Patsy Cameron-Anasti, and published by Newmarket Press. The anime-inspired show takes place in the world of Arachna, where a young boy named Hunter Steele discovers the Inner World populated by people who ride 10-foot tall battle spiders to defend their land from the evil Invectids. Hunter soon learns that the only way out is to overcome his fear of spiders and train as a Spider Rider, with the ultimate goal of becoming the Arachna-Master.

    A co-production between Cookie Jar and leading Japanese advertising agency Yomiko, Spider Riders is directed by respected Japanese helmer Koichi Mashimo (.hack//SIGN, Gatchaman Fighter) and animated at Japanese studio Bee Train (.hack//SIGN). The series is produced by Emmy Award-winner Steve Hodgins. A total of 52 half hours are on the current production slate.

    Following the June 17 premiere, Kids’ WB! will air another one-hour block of Spider Riders on June 24, beginning at 10:30 a.m. (ET/PT), followed by a two-hour mini-marathon starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 1. The series will then settle into its regular Saturday Morning time slot at 10:30 a.m. on July 8.

    Viewers will also be able to get into the spider-riding action with immersive role-playing game at spiderriders.com. The game will become a massively multi-player online experience open to players around the world.

  • Comic Books Attack on Stars

    With 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: The Last Stand burning up the summer box office and Warner Bros.’ Superman Returns sure to follow, premium cable channel Starz is set to air When Comic Books Attack, a 24-hour marathon of comic-book based movies such as Hellboy, Sin City, Tank Girl, Steel, Judge Dredd, Blade: Trinity and Nick Fury: Agent of Shield. Also debuting on the network later this month is Starz The Hollywood Reporter: Comic Books on Film, a new half-hour documentary special that will examine the successful trend of bringing these pulp stories of hyper heroics to the big screen.

    Starz The Hollywood Reporter is a weekly entertainment news program that focuses on the big business of making movies. The comic-book special includes interviews with Superman Returns star Brandon Routh, Batman Begins‘ Christian Bale and X-Men trilogy castmates Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry. It will premiere on June 25 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the movie marathon. To see a preview of Starz The Hollywood Reporter: Comic Books on Film, go to http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/starzencore/20060602/comic_book_lf_w_grfx_w.wvx.

  • Weinsteins Pre-sell Igor Worldwide

    Since introducing Exodus Film Group’s CG-animated Igor at Cannes last month, The Weinstein Co. has secured presales in nearly every territory around the world. Still in pre-production, the feature film is based on the animated short Igor: Unholy Frijoles, which is now in production at Exodus and should debut within the next year.

    Written by Chris McKenna (FOX’s American Dad), Igor tells the story of a mad scientist’s hunchbacked lab assistant who has big dreams of becoming a scientist in his own right by winning top prize at the annual Evil Science Fair. The short film boasts the voices of Christian Slater, Jay Leno, Steve Buscemi and John Cleese, but it is not yet known which cast members will return for the feature.

    Key international sales for Igor include Momentum in the U.K., TF1 in France, Constantine on Germany and Switzerland, Aurum in Spain, West Film group in Russia, EEAP in Eastern Europe, RCV in Benelux, Europa in Brazil, Italia in the Middle East Lusomundo in Portugal, Jung-A Ent. in South Korea, Film Pop in Turkey and Applause in Taiwan.

    The Igor feature is being produced by John D. Eraklis and veteran animation exec Max Howard, who has collaborated on such hit films as Disney’s The Lion King and Aladdin, and Warner Bros.’ Space Jam and The Iron Giant. Howard is also set to produce the upcoming Exodus toon features The Hero of Color City and Amarillo Armadillo.

    Since last year’s successful theatrical debut of the computer-animated Hoodwinked, The Weinstein Co. has been snatching up CG features left and right. In addition to Igor, the company will handle distribution for the new Teenage Mutant Turtles film and the upcoming features Opus, Cricket in Times Square and Hood Vs. Evil, the sequel to Hoodwinked. The Weinsteins are also reportedly producing a live-action version of the Disney favorite Mulan, and hope to cast Memoirs of a Geisha star Ziyi Zhang in the title role.

  • French Minimoys Trailer Online

    The French version of Yahoo Movies has posted the first trailer for writer/director Luc Besson’s live-action/CG animation hybrid feature, Arthur and the Minimoys. Of course, the trailer is in French, but for those who don’t speak the language, there are some nice images and cool animation to look at.

    Arthur and the Minimoys tells the story of a 10-year-old boy who hopes to save his grandmother’s home from being demolished by seeking his grandfather’s treasure, which is hidden in the land of the tiny Minimoys. With the help of Princess Selenia and her brother, Betameche, Arthur encounters a string of adventures on his way to the forbidden city ruled by the evil M the Malicious. The English-language voice cast features Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Mia Farrow, Freddie Highmore and David Bowie.

    Judging by the trailer, the film is reminiscent of Henry Selick’s James and the Giant Peach. Young Arthur is first played by a live actor but becomes a computer-animated character once he enters the land of the Minimoys. In addition to some nice animation, the production appears to offer plenty of action, of which Besson is no stranger. The director of The Fifth Element and La Femme Nikita has already announced plans to make at least two sequels to Arthur, which is based on a series of children’s books he wrote. The first film was budgeted at around $80 million, making it the most expensive European animated feature to date. The second and third installments are slated to begin production this fall.

    Arthur and the Minimoys will be released in France this December, and The Weinstein Co. has picked distribution rights for English-speaking territories. The trailer is available for download at http://fr.movies.yahoo.com/features/arthur_et_les_minimoys.

  • Finally, Legit Popeye DVDs

    For years now, fans of the classic Popeye cartoons have only been able to get them in poorly transferred and shoddily produced cheapo DVD releases. The good news is that Warner Home Video, Hearst Ent. and King Features Syndicate announced yesterday that they have finally reached an agreement for the worldwide distribution of both the original theatrical animated shorts and the television adventures of the world’s most famous spinach-eating sailor man.

    Warner Home Video will be the exclusive worldwide home entertainment distributor for all original 231 Popeye animated shorts released theatrically by Paramount Pictures between 1933 and 1957, and the 220 made-for-TV shorts produced from 1960 to 1962. The licensing deal also covers 65 episodes of The Continuing Adventures of Popeye, produced from 1978 to 1981, and 26 Popeye & Son shorts produced in 1987. The DVD release is expected to land on shelves in 2007.

    The theatrical library licensed to Warner consists of 120 black-and-white shorts (106 produced by Fleischer Studios and 14 produced by Famous Studios) and 111 Technicolor cartoons (three produced by Fleischer Studios and 108 produced by Famous Studios). Warner Home Video plans to commence preservation and restoration activities immediately.

  • Bandai Toys with Ben 10

    Bandai America Inc. and Cartoon Network are releasing a line of toys based on Cartoon Network’s original sci-fi action series Ben 10 this month. The slate of products includes a variety of one-of-a-kind action figures in different sizes, alien vehicles and role-play items.

    Ben 10 centers on 10-year-old Ben Tennyson, who finds a strange a wristwatch-like device inside a crashed meteorite and discovers that it has the power to transform him into ten different alien beings, each with unique powers and abilities. The gadget, know as the Omnitrix, helps ben fight evil, but also gets him into trouble when he uses it to satisfy his own curiosity.

    Created by Man Of Action, the collective name for Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau and Steve Seagle, Ben 10 is produced at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, Calif. The show debuted on Cartoon Network in January, with new episodes recently launching in late May. As of June 5, the show has been stripping every weekday at 5:30 pm.

    ‘Ben 10 is one of the most unique toy lines ever created by Bandai America,” says the company’s VP of marketing, Michael Riley. “Not only are we leveraging our past successes in the boys’ action figure aisle, we’re taking traditional product categories and adding lots of new and interesting play patterns to make this dynamic lineup unlike anything out there today.”

    Key products include collectible four-inch figures of all of Ben’s ten aliens, including Heatblast, Greymatter, Fourarms and Stinkfly. Each will come packaged with an exclusive animation disk of 8 cels from the show that can be used with the Alien Laboratory playset. The animation discs can also be used in the Omnitrix Alien Viewer, a device that allows users to see Ben transform right before their eyes. Kids will also be clamoring for Metamorfigures, eight-inch aliens that transform into unique spy gear, including a working flashlight, binoculars and a water gun.

  • aniBOOM Launches Toon Competition

    Interactive animation company aniBOOM today announced the first annual aniBOOM Awards, an online short film competition that will see animation professionals and independent filmmakers vying for $50,000 in prize money. Submissions running the gamut of animation styles are now being accepted and will be will be hosted on the aniBOOM website at www.aniboom.com.

    The full aniBOOM portal will launch on Aug. 15 and will be open to the public for viewing and rating. A total of 25 finalists will be chosen from the films that receive the highest rating in each category. These top contenders will the be voted on by both the general public and a panel of judges to determine the best in each of the five categories’Funny, Drama, Music Videos, Experimental and Crappy. On November 1, these films will be awarded their prizes of $5,000, and the film with the highest score across the board will walk away with the grand prize of $25,000.

    Judges tapped to participate include a former Chairman of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, a former president of Feature Animation at Warner Bros.; and a VP of production and creative affairs at Universal, Turner Pictures and Warner Bros. Feature Animation. However, 70% of the final vote lies in the hands of the viewing public.

    Uri Shinar of aniBoom comments, ‘Our goal for aniBOOM is to facilitate the exposure of animated films, for those with extensive experience in the business as well as those just starting out, and I think the competition is the perfect way to get started on accomplishing this. And it’s really only the beginning of what we’ve got in store for our company down the line.’

    aniBoom, which plans to share online ad revenue with filmmakers, hopes to create a leading cross-media broadband animation hub. In addition to the contest, the new platform will consist of original animated series, special events and a variety of unique content creation tools and applications.