Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • Don Knotts Dies at 81

    The entertainment industry is mourning the loss of legendary actor Don Knotts, who passed away Friday in Los Angeles at the age of 81. Since finding stardom as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, Knotts has enjoyed a long television and film career that included a good amount of animation voiceover work. His last role was that of Mayor Turkey Lurkey in the CG-animated Disney hiy Chicken Little.

    Knott’s first brush with animation, as well as his first leading role, came with the 1964 feature film The Incredible Mr. Limpet, in which he is transformed into an animated talking fish. Years later, his distinctive voice would be utilized in such animated productions as The Little Troll Prince (1985), Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987), Cats Don’t Dance (1997) and 101 Dalmatians: The Series (1997). More recently, he lent his voice to an episode of Nick at Nite’s Fatherhood and played the character Wormie in the TV and home-video series Hermie & Friends.

    At the time of his death, Knotts was surrounded by his wife Francie, his children, Karen and Thomas, and his longtime friend and partner in comedy, Andy Griffith. The funeral will be private and the family is planning to hold a memorial service in the coming weeks.

  • Granada Int’l Gets Funky, Kwala

    European television distributor Granada International has picked up new animated shows from independent producers Honeycomb Animation in the U.K. and Timoon Animation in France. The deals give Granada worldwide distribution rights to Honeycomb’s Funky Town and Timoon’s Boowa Kwala (excluding French-speaking territories).

    Funky Town is a spin-off of the animated pre-school series Funky Valley. Honeycomb is producing 40 five-minute installments of the series, which has been commissioned by Five in the U.K.

    Boowa and Kwala is based on the popular web-based characters created by Up to Ten. The series of 52 five-minute episodes is in production for delivery by the end of the year.

    Granada has also acquired broadcast rights to Initial Kids’ new live action series, Bel’s Boys, which has been commissioned by ITV. The company will introduce all three children’s properties in October at MIPCOM Jr. in Cannes, France.

  • Doogal Dogged at Box Office

    It was a slow opening weekend at the box office for Doogal, the latest independent animated feature released by The Weinstein Co. The comical fantasy about animal pals who save the world earned an estimated $3.6 million to debut at No. 8, well behind three-week holdover Curious George.

    Based on the ’60s British children’s TV series The Magic Roundabout, Doogal stars Saturday Night Live‘s Keenan Thompson as the voice of a pooch who must find three magical diamonds before they fall into the hands of evil sorcerer Zeebad, voiced by Daily Show host Jon Stewart. Doogal is joined on his quest by friends Dylan (Jimmy Fallon), Brian (William H. Macy) and Ermintrude (Whoopi Goldberg).

    Doogal‘s opening take is no doubt disappointing to The Weinstein Co., whose first animated release, Hoodwinked, recently opened to $16 million and went on to earned more than $54 million worldwide.

    Despite getting Americanized by The Fairly OddParents creator Butch Hartman and the Hoodwinked team of Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards and Tony Leech, Brit import Doogal failed to draw family audiences away from Disney’s Eight Below, Sony’s The Pink Panther and Universal’s 2D-animated kid pic, Curious George.

    Curious George earned an estimated $7 million over the weekend to claim the No. 5 spot in its third week. While it hasn’t been the most profitable toon in recent years, the monkey movie has taken in around $45 million and is doing better than Warner Bros.’ Harrison Ford thriller, Firewall.

    It was another good week for men in drag as the $6 million Tyler Perry’s Media’s Family Reunion debuted to a whopping $30 million to grab the top spot. Eight Below posted a distant second with around $15.7, followed by The Pink Panther with an estimated $11.5 million. The 20th Century Fox spoof, Date Movie, came in at No. 4 in its second week with just north of $9 million.

    The next animated feature on the Weinstein plate is Exodus Film Group’s 2007 CG comedy feature, Igor, about a 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 company has also acquired the rights to Escape from Planet Earth, a comedy feature pitch to be written by Tony Leech and Cory Edwards (Hoodwinked). Based on an original idea by Leech, the CG feature centers on neurotic alien Gary and a motley crew of intergalactic species held captive by U.S. government forces in Area 51.

  • UPA Tribute to Animate Hollywood

    Bosustow Media Group will present a special program titled ‘UPA: Magoo, McBoing Boing & Modern Art’ on Sunday, March 26, at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The fun will kick off at 6:00 pm and continue until 9 p.m., featuring screenings of such UPA classics as Bobe Cannon’s Gerald McBoing Boing (1951), John Hubley’s Rooty Tooty Toot (1952), Ted Parmelee’s The Tell-Tale Heart (1953) and Pete Burness’s When Magoo Flew (1955).

    The program will also feature shorts produced for the groundbreaking CBS TV series The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show (1957-58), a behind the scenes peek into the studio during the production of Madeline (1951), a preview of the forthcoming documentary, The Boing That Shook The World, and other UPA rarities.

    Animation historian and author Jerry Beck will moderate two panels illuminating the studio’s creators, its films, and enduring legacy. Panelists will include veteran UPA animators and designers Bill Melendez, Alan Zaslove, Willis Pyle, Fred Crippen and Sam Clayberger. They will be joined by contemporary animator Mark Kausler (Beauty and The Beast, The Lion King), Lou Romano (production designer of Pixar’s The Incredibles) and author/historian Amid Amidi (Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation). These experts will bring memories and insights to the program of UPA films. Additional invited guests will include June Foray, Leonard Maltin, Stan Freberg, Chico Hamilton and John Canemaker.

    A silent auction featuring animation art items wil be held in the Egyptian foyer prior to the tribute. There will also be information tables with pamphlets about the UPA documentary being produced, animation books and details on program sponsors. In addition, animation celebrities will be on hand to sign autographs during a pre-event buffet in the Lobby.

    Tickets can be had for $9 and are available at the Egyptian Theatre box office, through Fandango ticket service or the event organizers. Tickets for the buffet are $15. Lern more about the UPA documentary project at www.upapix.com and www.thejeffreyfoundation.com.

  • Frank Miller’s 300 Journaled Online

    Warner Bros. is offering anxious fans a behind-the-scenes look at the production of its feature film adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel, 300. A production blog and video journal are now available at 300themovie.warnerbros.com, where PSP and video iPod owners can download an exclusive look at journal entry No. 3.

    Having found success as an author of gritty comic-books, Frank Miller is becoming a force in Hollywood following the success of Miramax’s Sin City, which he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. Warner Bros.’ take on his 300 is described as a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against the massive Persian army of Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). The cast will also include Dominic West (The Forgotten) and Richard Cetrone (Serenity).

    300 is being directed by Zack Snyder, who helmed the 2004 remake of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. The epic will feature visual effects by Meteor Studios and Hybride.

  • Gym Partner Swinging on Cartoon Network

    Cartoon Network viewers are in for some serious monkey business as the cable network kicks off its newest original series. My Gym Partner’s a Monkey begins its regular run tonight, Feb. 24, at 9 p.m. after giving viewers a sneak peek at the premiere episode on Feb 20.

    Created by the husband-and-wife team of Tim Cahill and Julie McNally Cahill, My Gym Partner’s a Monkey centers on a young boy named Adam Lyon, who, because of an administrative snafu, finds himself attending a school created for zoo animals. Life at Charles Darwin Middle School poses many challenges, but new friend Jake Spider Monkey helps him avoid some of the biggest dangers, including school bully Virgil ‘Bull’ Sharkowski.

    The Cahills wrote and produced the 1995 short Carrotblanca, which starred Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes gang in a parody of Casablanca. They also wrote three seasons of Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries and Histeria!, as well as the direct-to-video features Tweety’s High-Flying Adventure and Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring.

    Thirteen episodes of My Gym Patner’s a Monkey are in the can and Cartoon Network has already started work on the second season. Writing and layout for the story are handled at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, while animation is handled by Saerom Animation in South Korea.

    Featuring a talented voice cast includes Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) as the voice of Jake Spider Monkey, My Gym Patner’s a Monkey airs regularly Fridays at 9 p.m. on cartoon Network. Read more about the show in the March print edition of Animation Magazine.

  • Kappa Mikey Bows on Nicktoons

    Anime gets an American twist in Kappa Mikey, a new animated series debuting on Nicktoons on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. Nicktoons’ first original series and the first global acquisition by MTV Networks, the action/comedy will begin rolling out across Nickelodoen’s international channels in May.

    Being hyped by Nickelodeon as ‘the first anime television series created and produced in the U.S.,’ Kappa Mikey tells the story of Mikey Simon, an unknown American actor from Cleveland, Ohio, who wins a contest and becomes the biggest anime star Japan has ever seen. But fame comes with a price and our hero must deal with paparazzi and the other trappings of public life as he gets to know his TV costars and adjusts to Japanese Culture.

    The Flash-animatd series, created by Larry Schwarz of Animation Collective, will premiere during Nicktoons’ Three-Headed Monster primetime programming block that runs from 7 p.m. until midnight. The block will feature interstitial appearances by Mikey, who will host a series of behind-the-scenes peeks and first-look clips from the show.

    Kappa Mikey will debut with two back-to-back half-hour episodes. In ‘The Switch,’ we learn how Mikey goes from nobody to king of Japanese TV and almost burns himself out on the celebrity life before the first episode of his show. The installment will be followed by ‘Mikey Impossible,’ in which Mikey accidentally destroys a castmate’s 500-year-old bonsai tree and has to replace it before his new friend returns from vacation.

    In addition to Kappa Mikey, Scharz is the creator and exec producer of such original Animation Collective productions as Thumb Wrestling Federation, Leader Dog and Tortellini Western for Nicktoons and Ellen’s Acres, HTDT and Princess Natasha for Cartoon Network.

    If you miss the premiere of Kappa Mikey, Nicktoons will air encore presentations throughout the weekend. The international rollout in May will see the show debut on Nick Asia, Nick U.K., Nick Spain, Nick France and Nick Europe, among others.

  • Doogal Makes U.S. Roundabout

    A British animated feature gets Americanized in Doogal, the latest CG toon to be released theatrically by The Weinstein Co. After striking gold with the modestly budgeted Hoodwinked, the company is hoping Doogal meets with similar success as it rolls into theaters in North America today.

    Doogal was released in Europe last year under the title Sprung: The Magic Roundabout. The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom creator Butch Hartman and the Hoodwinked team of Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards and Tony Leech were then brought in to tailor the pic for audiences on the other side of the pond.

    The redo involved bringing on a new voice cast that includes Saturday Night Live player Kenan Thompson as candy-loving mutt Doogal and Daily Show host Jon Stewart as the evil sorcerer Zeebad. Doogal is joined on his quest to save the world by friends Dylan (Jimmy Fallon), Brian (William H. Macy) and Ermintrude (Whoopi Goldberg). Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench serves as narrator, while additional voices are provided Chevy Chase, pop star Kylie Minogue, actor Ian McKellen, filmmaker Kevin Smith and current Saturday Night Live cast member Bill Hader

    Doogal takes place in a magical world where three special diamonds can be united to create a force powerful enough to freeze the sun. When Zeebad escapes from his ancient prison and vows to exact revenge by deep-freezing the earth forever, our heroes band together to find the diamonds beore he can get his hands on them. In the process, they must climb icy mountains, navigate fiery pits of molten lava, sail across vast oceans and pass through a booby-trapped temple guarded by an army of ninja skeleton warriors.

    The movie is based on the classic British children’s TV series The Magic Roundabout, created by Frenchman Serge Danot in the late 1960s and adapted into English by Eric Thompson. In addition to McKellen and Minogue, the European version of Doogal featured the voices of Ray Winstone (King Arthur, Sexy Beast) Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge!, Vanity Fair) and recording artist Robbie Williams. That version was directed by Jean Duval, Frank Passingham and Dave Borthwick.

    Doogal opens in around 2,300 theaters across North America, taking on holdover family efforts The Pink Panther from Sony Pictures, Eight Below from Disney and the animated Curious George from Universal.

  • Condolora Moves Up at Cartoon Network New Media

    Paul Condolora, VP and general manager for Cartoon Network New Media, has been promoted to the senior VP post in the division. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Condolora will continue to report to Mark Norman, senior VP of business operations for Cartoon Network U.S. and Boomerang.

    Condolora’s new duties will include further developing new Cartoon Network and [adult swim]-branded products and services for burgeoning distribution platforms such as broadband, VOD, wireless and interactive television. In addition to overseeing creative development and day-to-day operations for CartoonNetwork.com, AdultSwim.com, CartoonNetworkYA.com and TickleU.com, Condolora will work closely with sales and marketing teams in the Turner Network Sales (TNS) New Media division, under the direction of Dennis Quinn.

    “In the five years that Paul has been with Cartoon Network New Media, formerly Cartoon Network Online, business development from branded franchises and original content under his direction has expanded more than five-fold,” says Norman. “All of these areas will become even more important going forward as ‘convergence’ finally becomes a reality, and our core audience of kids and young adults’as well as advertisers’come to expect our unique properties and characters to be available on all platforms and at all times.’

    Condolora joined Cartoon Network Online in 2000 as VP of business development from Sony Pictures Imageworks in Los Angeles, where he was the head of the multimedia department. In this capacity, Condolora supervised more than 20 projects including visual effects for feature films and television shows, Internet games and promotional web sites. He also managed the U.S-based software development for Sony’s AIBO entertainment robot. Prior to his role at Imageworks, Condolora was the director of special projects for Sony Pictures Entertainment, focusing on business development.

  • Samurai 7 Tapped for IFC, VOOM HD

    FUNimation Ent.’s Akira Kurosawa’s Samurai 7 will make its U.S. broadcast debut via a deal struck with Rainbow Media. The anime program, produced by GONZO Digimation, will first air on VOOM HD Networks’ ANIMANIA HD on March 1, followed by an April 1 start date on IFC.

    Based on Kurosawa’s classic epic, The Seven Samurai, the animated show is set in a small village in feudal Japan that falls prey to marauders who return every harvest to raid the crops. Faced with starvation, the villagers set out on a mission to recruit down-on-their-luck samurai to defend them.

    Samurai 7 has already met success in the U.S. on home video, and should prove a popular addition ANIMANIA HD, which recently picked up Monster Distributes’ toon properties PicMe and Jungle Beat to air alongside such cartoon classics as The Pink Panther, Dick Tracy, Mr. Magoo and Felix the Cat. Samurai 7 also fits in well at IFC, which regularly airs vintage samurai films, including the works of undisputed genre master Kurosawa.

    ANIMANIA HD, available nationally on Dish Network (Ch. 9474), will premiere Samurai 7 on Wednesday, March 1, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT as part of the channel’s new Wednesday Animayhem block. IFC will air the half-hour series on Saturday, April 1, at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT in conjunction with its Samurai Saturdays movie feature.

  • Telescreen Bringing Fairytaler to MIPTV

    One of the world’s greatest storytellers is back in Hans Christian Andersen’The Fairytaler, a new animated series from Telescreen. The company will be at MIPTV in Cannes this April drumming up business for the show, which employs 2D animation to illustrate 30 classic fairytales in 26 half-hour episodes.

    Hans Christian Andersen – The Fairytaler promises to offer a definitive collection of Andersen’s beloved stories, which have been given a modern twist for a new generation.

    Home video deals for Fairytaler have already been inked with Clasikaletet in Israel, Tony Taglienti in the U.K. and Foreign Media Group in Turkey.

    In Portugal, TBZ will serve as an agent for merchandising, publishing and video.

    Telescreen handles TV and home video distribution and merchandisingfor the show worldwide, excludig Nordic countries. The company will showcase all of its latest projects at booth R33.05 at MIPTV.

  • ABC to Master Sci-Fi

    Having launched the anthology series Masters of Horror on Showtime, IDT Ent. and Industry Ent. are bringing Masters of Science Fiction to network television. According to Daily Variety, ABC has given the go-ahead to Masters of Science Fiction, which will highlight the works of such visionary writers Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison.

    The network has committed to four episodes, which may include Ellison’s The Discarded and Asimov’s The Last Question. Bradbury, who most recently scripted an adaptation of his novel The Martian Chronicles for Mel Gibson’s production shingle, is also in talks to pen episodes based on his story Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed.

    IDT’s Morris Berger, Steve Brown and John Hyde will exec produce the new series, along with Industry’s Keith Addis, Brad Mendelsohn and Andrew Deane. Hyde and Addis reportedly targeted ABC because of its success with Lost, an hour-long drama infused with supernatural elements.

    Masters of Science Fiction is slated to start lensing in Vancouver this May so it can join ABC’s 2006-2007 lineup. IDT will handle home video distribution through its Anchor Bay label, and will also oversee foreign sales.

  • Batman, Superman Sequels Fly at Warner

    A report in Daily Variety confirming sequel plans for Warner Bros.’ Batman Begins and the upcoming Superman Returns is not so much news as it is a foregone conclusion. Still, it’s cool to know that directors Christopher Nolan and Bryan Singer are both expected return to helm their respective tentpole followups.

    Nolan’s brother, Jonathan Nolan (Memento), has been tapped to write the yet untitled Batman sequel now that Begins scribe David S. Goyer has moved on to adapt DC Comics’ The Flash. Actor Christian Bale is expected to don the cowl and cape again as the Dark Knight, and newcomer Brandon Routh is also under option by the studio to appear again as the Man of Steel.

    Batman Begins opened last summer and took in around $370 million worldwide. Superman Returns is currently in post-production and is slated for release on June 30. Both films mark the return of film franchises that started out strong but eventually fizzled out with sequels of declining quality. It remains to be seen how well these revivals will fare as Warner Bros keeps them going in the future. The studio is likely to look at measures to keep the budgets under control, considering Superman Returns has cost nearly $200 million so far. Half of the money was put up by private equity wellspring Legendary Pictures, which also split costs and profits with Warner Bros. on Batman Begins.

    Christopher Nolan is now shooting an adaptation of Christopher Priest’s novel, The Prestige, for Disney. When Superman wraps, Singer will move on to Warner Bros.’ remake of Logan’s Run and another Warner effort titled The Mayor of Castro Street before returning to Metropolis.

  • Bauhaus Debuts Boardomatic v2

    Bauhaus Software today announced Boardomatic v2, a new fully digital storyboarding system for Bauhaus Mirage, the company’s award-winning 2D animation product. Designed for 2D animators and storyboard artists accustomed to working on paper, Boardomatic v2 combines a customizable template system, automatic pan generation, print formatting and more.

    ‘Storyboards are the critical first step of every animation and live action production,’ comments Bauhaus president Paul Ford. ‘Boardomatic 2’s patent-pending technology provides the complete suite of tools needed to produce fully-digital storyboards with the same accuracy and far greater flexibility than paper-based workflows. From thumbnail to final printed board output, Boardomatic 2 is a first-ever, speed-optimized digital emulation of the same process used for years throughout the industry.’

    Key Boardomatic v2 allows for both fully digital and scanned-image board creation. Key features include storyboarding and thumbnail templates for quick and easy industry-standard horizontal or vertical storyboards; the Digital Thumbsheet tool for creation of digital thumbnails and single or batch transfer to storyboard panels; an advanced pan creation system with 12- and 16-field guides for automatic creation of custom pans; powerful text tools for inserting dialog, timing and other data; and automatic print controls, including a wide variety of horizontal and vertical board layouts for printing to any standard printer or Adobe PDF format. In addition, project management and utilities options allow for sub-project management and custom UI preferences.

    According to Bauahus, Boardomatic beta testers have reported more than as fifty percent time savings compared with storyboarding on paper alone. The option of outputting Boardomatic 2 files to PDF also makes sending finished boards to outside production facilities faster and easier.

    Boardomatic will ship on March 3, 2006, and is available for a limited time at the introductory price of $149 through the Bauhaus Software web store. Boardomatic and the Mirage suite of products are available through both the Bauhaus website (www.bauhaussoftware.com,) and authorized distributors worldwide. Bauhaus Mirage is available for both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

  • ASIFA-Hollywood to Celebrate Animation’s 100th

    The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive will celebrate the 100th birthday of animation on April 6. An open house at the archive facility in Burbank. The festivities will revisit the humble beginnings and various milestones of the art form, which has gone on to become one of the greatest American creative contributions to the arts.

    The organization is counting from the April 6, 1906 release of J. Stewart Blackton’s seminal film, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces. “Although there were many early films that experimented with stop-motion and other techniques related to animation, Blackton was the first to create ‘drawings that live’… sequential drawings that make a character come to life on the screen,’ says Stephen Worth, Director of Asifa-Hollywood’s Animation Archive. ‘The meaning of the word ‘animate’ literally means ‘to give life to’. Blackton gave life to a whole new artform with his pioneering efforts.”

    Blackton was a “lightning sketch artist” billed in Vaudeville as “The Komikal Kartoonist.” Inspired by Thomas Edison’s recent invention of moving pictures, he teamed with Albert E. Smith to form Biograph Films, the first movie studio. Together, they used simple in-camera effects to create “trick films” before Blackton ventured to incorporate his drawing abilities and make what is widely regarded as the first American animated film. A downloadable movie file of Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is available at www.animationarchive.org/animations100.

    Asifa-Hollywood is building a museum, library and digital archive devoted to the art of animation in Burbank, Calif. Launched late last year, the facility houses as a database of images, biographic information, movie files and photos for use by researchers, students, artists and the general public. More information can be found at www.animationarchive.org. Cartoon fans can also sign an animation birthday card at www.animationarchive.org/birthdaycard.

  • Comedy Central Making Love with Jenna Jameson

    Comedy Central announced plans to launch its first animated mobile series and has tapped porn superstar Jenna Jameson to lend her voice. Samurai Love God will launch this quarter cross mobile carriers with eight two-and-a-half minute episodes.

    The Daily Show with Jon Stewart correspondent Ed Helms will star as the voice of the Samurai Love God, who comes from a distant and erotic land where the ancient secrets of seduction are passed down through generations of Kama Sutra-reading, oyster-popping, orgy-loving horn dogs. Jameson will provide the voice of P-Whip, comedian Lisa Lampanelli will play Kay-Ock Block and comedian Christian Finnegan will join the cast as Chip and James.

    Created by Eric Mahoney, Samurai Love God represents the first of many mobile talent deals Comedy Central is hoping to forge as it further expands into multi-platform entertainment. The network recently unveiled its 2006 original broadband programming slate, which includes the new animated series Golden Age from Augenblick Studios. Each episode of Golden Age reveals what happened to retired cartoon characters such Jerome the gumdrop from the ‘Let’s Go Out to the Lobby” film strips that played before movies in the 70s. The toon wil join Comedy Central’s broadband video-on-demand service, Motherload, along with other new entries such as the dark and twisted Reading Rainbow parody Daisy Garden Story Time from cult comic strip creator Nick Gurewitch (The Perry Bible Fellowship).

  • China Bans Live-Action/Toon Pairings

    Don’t expect to see Garfield 2 or the upcoming Charlotte’s Web popping up in theaters in China. According to Daily Variety, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has put a ban on films and TV programs that pair live actors with animated characters, a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

    An order issued on Feb. 15 states that live-action/toon hybrids will not receive distribution or distribution licenses. The strange measure is intended to boost the production of local, Mandarin-language animation by curbing the amount of foreign animation on Chinese television. It’s unclear, however, why productions that mix live-action and animation are being singled out. It may have to do with a general uneasiness with content of a supernatural nature. The government has previously banned such movies as Babe, the Academy Award nominated family flick that employed CG effects to make animals talk.

    In the past couple of years, Chinese broadcasters have opened their doors to animated programs from Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. In addition, Warner Bros. and BKN have both entered into partnerships to develop and produce animation tailored to Chinese audiences. Still, children’s channels in the country are scrambling to fill airtime and the local animation industry isn’t yet able meet the growing demand for content.

  • Diesel Gets Behind Wheelman

    Action star and video-game entrepreneur Vin Diesel is teaming with Midway Games and Viacom’s MTV Games, MTV Films and Paramount Pictures to launch a new game and feature film property titled The Wheelman. MTV Films and Paramount Pictures have purchased motion picture rights to the video game, which Diesel is developing through his Tigon Studios. The Fast and the Furious actor will also star in the film.

    In the movie and game, Diesel will play an expert wheelman who comes out of retirement to protect a woman from his past. Scribe Rich Wilkes, who worked with Diesel on XXX, has been tapped to write the screenplay. Overseeing the production for MTV Films is exec VP David Gale, senior VP of development Loretha Jones and senior director of development. Jason Weiss. Heading up efforts for Paramount are senior VP of production Dan Levine, VP of production Matt Jackson and director of creative affairs Eben Davidson. Overseeing for Tigon Studios are VP Samantha Vincent and product development exec Coz Lazouras.

    The Wheelman will be the second of three titles produced under the recently announced MTV Networks/Midway partnership to market, jointly sell in-game advertising and collaborate on soundtrack development.

    “We believe The Wheelman is a groundbreaking new model for our industry,” says Midway president and CEO David F. Zucker. “We intend to create a broad-arcing experience, simultaneously developing entertainment properties across a number of mediums, with Vin Diesel right at the center of it all.”.

    Diesel, who voiced the title role in director Broad Bird’s acclaimed animated favorite, The Iron Giant, can next be seen starring in Sidney Lumet’s Find Me Guilty, a courtroom drama that opens nationwide March 17th. He founded Tigon Studios in 2002 and previously released the well-received The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

  • Animal Lovers Love Wallace & Gromit

    Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is set to pick up another award, this time from The Humane Society. The clay-animated BAFTA winner and Oscar contender from DreamWorks and Aardman is among 20 distinguished news and entertainment media honorees being acknowledged for positive coverage of animal issues at the 20th Anniversary Genesis Awards. The ceremony will be held on Saturday, March 18, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif.

    The Genesis Awards recognize outstanding works that raise public awareness of animal-protection issues. Other recipients will include Miramax’s An Unfinished Life, Warner Bros’ Duma, Shadow’s documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, CBS’ CSI, CNN’s Larry King Live, ABC’s World News Tonight, Primetime and Rodney, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

    In addition to its 20 award categories, this year’s event will feature ‘The Heroes of Katrina,’ a special segment hosted by Ben Stein, which salutes the news media for drawing attention to the plight of the hurricane’s animal victims.

    Presented by The Hollywood Office of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the 20th annual Anniversary Genesis Awards will be taped and edited for a two-hour primetime television broadcast on Animal Planet on Saturday, May 6. Celebrity presenter will include Ed Begley, Jr., Kelly Bishop, Linda Blair, David Boreanaz, James Cromwell, Emily Deschanel, Tippi Hedren, Lauren Holly, Joe Mantegna, Moby, Eric Roberts and Amy Smart.

  • Ultimate Avengers Smashes to DVD

    It’s a banner day for comic-book fans as retail outlets offer Ultimate Avengers, the first animated movie based on Marvel Comics’ best-selling series, The Ultimates. The 2D-animated feature is available now on DVD from Lions Gate Family Home Entertainment, which previously teamed with Marvel on the live-action 2004 feature, The Punisher.

    When Captain America saved the planet in 1945 by detonating a nuclear warhead in the upper atmosphere, he fell back to Earth and was lost in the icy depths of the North Atlantic. More than 60 years later, the world is again facing unspeakable evil and it’s up to the star-spangled one to rise again and lead a team of superheroes that includes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Wasp and Giant Man.

    Marvel debuted The Avengers in 1963, bringing together a revolving cast of superheroes over the course of the series four-decade run. The company then put a modern twist on the property in March of 2002 with The Ultimates. Comic scribe Mark Millar contemporized the characters and story, while Bryan Hitch reinterpreted the visual world with his dramatic, gritty, and realistic drawings. In a bid to please purists, the production team behind the DVD movie tried to stay true to the art and design of the comics.

    Bonus features on the DVD include a featurettes titled Assembling the Avengers and The Ultimate Voice Talent Search, as well as the DVD-ROM game What Avenger are You? an Avengers trivia track and a first look at Ultimate Avengers II. The disc lists for $19.98.

    Also arriving on home video today is Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild, a new direct-to-video sequel featuring everyone’s favorite adopted mouse and the voices of Wayne Brady, Geena Davis, Michael J. Fox, Tom Kenny, Hugh Laurie, Peter MacNicol and Virginia Madsen. While the first two films in the series featured a CG Stewart living with a live-action family, this one is completely animated in 2D as our tiny hero finds adventure during a family trip to the lake. Extras include a music video for ‘Reeko’s Funk,” two games titled Help Stuart Escape and Monty’s Monstrous Appetite, ‘Stuart”s Summer Journal’ read along and step-by step instructions on how to draw Stuart Little 3 characters. The Sony release carries a suggested retail price of 24.94.

    If you missed last night’s debut of the half-hour, primetime special SpongeBob SquarePants: Lost in Time, you can pick up the DVD today. The disc features seven season-four episodes from that send the absorbent one on a series of adventures through time. The installments are anchored by an all-new storyline that finds SpongeBob and pal Patrick in a historical version of Bikini Bottom, where they are mistaken for great knights. Two bonus episodes and a Medieval Moments Jousting Practice game are also offered on the Paramount DVD for $16.99.