Author: Ryan Ball

Having made a name for themselves on the Internet with short, animated musicals lampooning politicians like George Bush and John Kerry, brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis of JibJab.com are taking on big box retailing with a new toon premiering tonight, Oct. 13, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In Big Box Mart, an unsuspecting consumer learns an economic lesson the hard way when his high-skilled factory job is shipped overseas to accommodate the “everyday low prices” he’s come to expect from his favorite retailer. At the end of the song, the only work he can find is as a janitor at Big Box Mart.

“It’s virtually impossible for small businesses to produce goods in America inexpensively enough to sell to big box retailers,” comments Gregg Spiridellis. “It’s an issue that affects everybody and that’s why we decided to tackle it.”

While their previous animations employed cut-out images of well-known public figures, the Spiridellis brothers decided to cast fans in this latest production. In “Big Box Mart is about bad things happening to real people,” notes Evan Spiridellis. “Thanks to the Internet, we were able to invite our audience to be a part of the production in a way that’s never before been possible. It’s very exciting.”

In September, JibJab posted a casting call and thousands of visitors uploaded their photos. The animators received more than 6,700 images and were able to include 1,000 fan faces in the movie. Michael Fagan of Long Island won the starring role after uploading a webcam photo of himself.”

“There is an incredible opportunity to create a new kind of media company that engages its audience in the fun of the creative process,” says Gregg. “That’s the kind of company we’re trying to build.”

Following its premiere on The Tonight Show, Big Box Mart will be available for download at JibJab.com and MSNVideo.com. JibJab has a number of other productions in the works for launch in the coming months. The next experiment, dubbed “Face Off,” will have thousands of people making silly faces and uploading them to JibJab.com in a competition for prizes.

DIC Ent. has entered into an exclusive home entertainment licensing agreement with Entertainment Resource Inc. (ERI), which will distribute DIC’s classic "Movie Toons" catalog of features on DVD. The first wave of releases, scheduled to roll out on Nov. 1, will be double features showcasing the adventures of the Archies, Dennis the Menace, Zorro, Sabrina and more.

The "Movie Toon" titles will provide more than two hours of entertainment with English and Spanish tracks and special features including bloopers, behind-the-scenes featurettes, pencil tests and fun facts.

Initial double headers will include The Archies: Jugman and Dennis the Menace: Cruise Control; The Groove Squad and Sabrina: Friends Forever; The Amazing Zorro and Treasure Island; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Time Kid; and Globe Hunter: Around the World in 80 Days and Dinosaur Island. Future titles will include such family favorite franchises as My Fair Madeline and Inspector Gadget’s Greatest Gadgets, which will be released as singles.

In addition to the properties mentioned, DIC’s vast library of 2,800 half-hours of animation includes Trollz, Strawberry Shortcake, Madeline, Liberty’s Kids, Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Sonic The Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros.and Care Bears.

In addition to downloading the latest tracks from the Black-eyed Peas and The White Stripes, iPod owners will soon be ripping color video files of their favorite shows from Disney outlets ABC and Disney channel. In conjunction with yesterday’s unveiling of the video-capable iPod, the Walt Disney Company and Apple announced that they will jointly distribute Disney TV programming for download on Apple’s iTunes Music Store, as part of the launch of iTunes 6.

Initial iTunes video offerings will include past and present season installments of ABC’s Lost, Desperate Housewives and Night Stalker, along with Disney Channel favorites That’s So Raven and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. Current season episodes of the ABC shows will be available for download the day after they broadcast, while the entire first season of Lost and Desperate Housewives will be available for download immediately.

“Disney and Apple are offering customers a new and exciting way to experience television,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “To be able to download your favorite TV shows right from iTunes for just $1.99 and then watch them on your computer and iPod is revolutionary.”

Jobs, who is also the CEO of animation powerhouse Pixar, will surely want to make such films as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles available on his new gizmo. And since Disney owns distribution rights to all Pixar films to date, this latest deal bodes well for a new pact between the two companies, which is scheduled to expire after next year’s release of Cars.

iTunes 6 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Music Store and is available as a free download immediately from www.apple.com/itunes. Purchase and download of songs from the iTunes Music Store for Mac or Windows requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. Television shows are available in the U.S. only for $1.99 per episode.

Comedy Central has added a pair of animated projects to its list of series in development. If all goes as planned, the home of South Park and Drawn Together will also house an anime spoof titled Ghost Foot and a superhero send-up dubbed Freak Show. The network’s 2006 development slate, its largest to date, was announced today by Lauren Corrao, exec VP of original programming and development.

A parody of popular Japanese action cartoons, Ghost Foot promises convoluted storylines, hyper-violent battle scenes and, of course, a magic foot. The show is written and created by Steve Kerper (HBO’s Hard Core TV) and is being produced by Kerper and Asterisk (Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central’s TV Funhouse). Comedy Central has ordered an animatic for the program.

Network execs will also evaluate an animatic for Freak Show. From the minds of David Cross (Arrested Development, Mr. Show) and Jon Benjamin (Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, Home Movies). This animated series will chronicle the exploits of a band of freak show performers who also happen to be second-rate superheroes. When the world-famous justice squad rejects a mission from the government, the freak squad is on the case. The poor-man’s Justice League will consist of Siamese twins Tuck and Benny, The World’s Tallest Nebraskan, Primi the Premature Baby, The Bearded Clam and The Log Cabin Republican. The show is being produced by Radical Axis (Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies).

Also among the projects being considered for 2006 is Public Nuisance from Morgan Spurlock, star and creator of the hit documentary Super Size Me. Like his award-winning film, the series will include animated segments as Spurlock and his band of activist pranksters explore hot social topics such as sex in America, celebrity culture and the separation of church and state. Public Nuisance is produced by Warrior Poets and co-produced by Sony Pictures Television. Spurlock will serve as exec producer.

Other highlights of the new slate include Happy Madison’s Gay Robot, a live-action adaptation of a character featured on Adam Sandler’s comedy album Shhh… Don’t Tell, and Parallel Ent.’s Naked Trucker, a variety talk show pilot based on the long-running L.A. stage show The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show, featuring Dave “Gruber” Allen (Freaks and Geeks) and former Saturday Night Live player David Koechner (Waiting…, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy).

Turner Broadcasting’s boys’ action animation channel, Toonami, has picked up BKN New Media’s Kong–The Animated Series for broadcast in the U.K. The property is slated to premiere this November in the shape of a brand new 40-episode animated series and a 74-minute animated movie titled Kong: King of Atlantis.

Kong–The Animated Series has the clone of the original King Kong taken back to the prehistoric world of Kong Island. The scientist who cloned the great ape has developed an experimental DNA cyberlink that enables her 18-year-old grandson to merge with Kong to become an even more powerful force. The sereies will debut on Tuesday November 1 at 6 p.m.

Kong: King of Atlantis will have its U.K. premiere during Toonami’s popular Destination: Friday block on November 11 at 5.30pm. It will then have its network premiere on Cartoon Network on November 19. When the sunken city of Atlantis rises out of the sea, Kong is tricked into helping Queen Reptilla take over the storied metropolis and become its new ruler. Jason and his friends team up with a beautiful Atlantis warrior and race against time to convince Kong that the Queen is evil and save the citizens of Atlantis.

Created by animation veteran Richard Ungar and seasoned writer Sean Catherine Derek, the series has been picked up in various territories, including Canada, India, Indonesia and the U.S. The movie has been sold to 80 countries around the world.

In a deal worth $10 million, New York-based BKN recently outsourced animation to India’s UTV Toonz, the animation division of UTV Software Communications Ltd. Initial productions included under the pact are Kong—The Next Generation and a 26-episode, 3D-animated series yet to be named.

The Kong animated productions are getting a boost from the excitement surrounding director Peter Jackson’s big-screen remake of the classic 1933 film about an oversized gorilla who falls for a blonde actress. Featuring state-of-the-art digital animation, the new movie from Universal will stomp into theaters on Dec. 14.

In its continuing efforts to extend its reach in the U.S. market, European animation company MoonScoop has acquired 51% of U.K.- and U.S.-based independent animation studio Mike Young Prods. (MYP) and its distribution arm, Taffy Ent. The deal brings together two successful animation catalogs including MoonScoop’s Code Lyoko, Titeuf, The Fantastic Four, Funky Cops, Doctor Dog and Little Vampire, and MYP’s Toddworld, Dive Olly Dive and Pet Alien. While both companies will continue to operate as usual, MYP will now be known as Mike Young Prods., a Moonscoop Company.

The new joint venture also leverages the experience of veteran executives on both sides. MoonScoop’s Benoit di Sabatino, Christophe di Sabatino, Axel Dauchez and Nicolas Atlan will work with MYP/Taffy Ent. principals Mike Young, Liz Young, and Bill Schultz to maximize production and licensing resources from locations in Paris, Los Angeles and Angoulême, France.

The sales teams of both companies will work in collaboration to exploit their properties across multiple revenue streams. MoonScoop’s Maia Tubiana will continue to serve as VP and exec producer, overseeing a number of productions including Dr. Dog, and Lionel Marty will remain head of MoonScoop’s sales team. Taffy Ent. exec VP Regis Brown will continue to oversee the sales of MYP’s growing catalog and acquisitions.

Commenting on the acquisition, MYP/Taffy owners Mike and Liz Young issued a statement saying, "We are really excited about the future. Moonscoop has been great creative and business partners for the last 3 years. We enjoyed the dating relationship so much we decided to get married! Our collective resources will make us a very strong player in the worldwide business of family entertainment."

MoonScoop is focusing its internal growth on building long-term youth franchises for its major properties, and will be seeking further external acquisition to help achieve this objective.

Toon studio ANIMAX informs us that its new Flash-animated short, The Paranoid in "hell-evator," premieres tonight, Oct. 12, as part of the Happy Tree Friends & Friends show on G4-videogame tv (www.g4tv.com.)

Hell-evator appears to be the first installment in a planned series of Paranoid shorts. In this misadventure, a simple lift trip proves to be a horrifying experience for the title character, a thin man in a hooded sweatshirt who’s always on edge. The film was conceived by actor/writer/director Dave Thomas (SCTV, Strange Brew), who is co-founder and creative director of ANIMAX. Animation for the short was handled by ANIMAX’s director of animation, Al Rosson.

Thomas and fellow actor Rick Moranis created the popular characters Bob and Doug McKenzie on SCTV and spun them of on the big screen with Strange Brew. ANIMAX has animated a pilot trailer for an animated Bob & Doug series, which can be seen online at www.animaxinteractive.com. The Paranoid can also be downloaded at the site.

Happy Tree Friends & Friends is anchored by Mondo Media’s cult-favorite shorts involving cute woodland critters who fall victim to gory accidents and homicidal acts. The twisted fun kicks off at 12 a.m. ET/9 p.m. PT on G4.

Having successfully imported Wallace and Gromit to movie theaters in the U.S., British toon house Aardman Animations now has plans of reworking its clay-animated Creature Comforts TV series for viewers in the states, according to Daily Variety. The show will be one of a number of television projects Aardman will develop with Gotham Group.

Creature Comforts was hatched in 1989 as a short film which went on to win the Oscar in 1991. Directed by Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park, the film used audio interviews of people on the street and used them as voice tracks for stop-motion animals living in a zoo. The concept was expanded into a hit U.K. TV series in 2003 and now follows the path to American sets recently traveled by Brit re-dos such as NBC’s The Office.

There’s no network home for the Americanized Comforts yet, but Aardman and Gotham Group reportedly plan to begin pitching it around town by the end of the year. Aardman is now in production on season two of the British version and is producing a computer-animated kung fu chicken series titled Chop Socky Chooks. In addition, the company is working on the CG feature.

All this activity continues as Aardman reels from Monday’s warehouse fire that destroyed sets, props and other historical archives representing the studio’s rich history as an award-winning leader in clay animation. The unplanned fall cleaning may prove symbolic as the company focuses more and more on computer-generated 3D toons such as Flushed Away, its third feature collaboration with DreamWorks Animation. For the time being, clay rules the day in Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which owned the North American box office last weekend and debuts in its native U.K. this Friday.

Sure, The Smurfs may have their share of haters amongst serious animation professionals, but do we really want to see them devastated by an air raid? A new 25-second Unicef spot set to air in Belgium depicts just that as the Smurf village falls victim to the horrors of war.

Sources say the spot opens with the iconic, blue characters singing and dancing around a campfire when bombs begin to fall from the sky, leveling the village and leaving the Smurfs lifeless on the ground as the once-peaceful landscape burns. The jarring imagery is followed by the message, “Don’t let war affect the lives of children.”

The animated piece was approved by Smurfs rights holder IMPS and the family of late Belgian comic book scribe Peyo, who created the jolly gnomes in 1958. The controversial spot is part of efforts on behalf of the Belgian branch of Unicef to raise money for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi.

Apparently, Publicis, the advertising agency responsible for producing the spot, wanted to show dismembered Smurfs left in the wake of the attack in order to really drive the point home. And while the final version is not that gruesome, it is not to be shown before 9 p.m. so as not to disturb young viewers.

The Smurfs hit the U.S. airwaves in 1980, introducing Saturday morning cartoon viewers to the adventures of Smurfette, Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf and the rest of the diminutive gang. The show aired on NBC until 1990, spawning numerous specials and a feature-length film titled The Smurf’s and the Magic Flute. Paramount Pictures is now planning a trilogy of CG-animated movies to debut in 2008 via Nickelodeon Films.

Toon Disney in the U.S. has picked up the animated features Dragons: Fire & Ice, Dragons: The Metal Ages and Silverwing: The Movie Trilogy from Bardel Distribution. Set to air this fall, the films will be presented to additional buyers at MIPCOM next week in Cannes. B Wooding Media (BWM) represented Bardel in the transaction.

The Dragons movies will air as part of the popular Jetix block at 7 p.m., and will be supported with cross promotions through retail partners Megabloks and Lions Gate Ent. Dragons: Fire & Ice runs 72 minutes and is inspired by the internationally successful toy line from Megabloks. This first installment in a series of animated films is set amid an age-old war between the kingdoms of Draigar and Norvagen. The great Dragons who brought peace and wisdom have almost completely vanished when young royals Dev and Kyra learn that other dark forces are at work and that they are the only ones who can save the Kingdom. In the follow-up film, Dragons: The Metal Ages, the war has ended and the king of the Dragon world has been restored to the throne. However, peace is threatened once again as Dev and Kyra uncover a centuries-old conspiracy. The pics are produced by Bardel Ent. in association with Megabloks.

Bardel’s Silverwing (13×22 or 3×72) is based on the best-selling book trilogy by author Kenneth Oppel. The fantasy adventure series follows the adventures of a teenage bat whose bravado leads him on an epic odyssey. The story begins with famed tale of the great battle between the birds and the beasts. Since they chose not to take sides, the bats were banished to the nighttime skies, never allowed to see the sun. Dared by a bully, our hero, Shade, breaks the centuries-old law and must set things right when he brings dire consequences upon his colony. The series first aired in the fall of 2003 on TELETOON.

Based in Los Angeles, B Wooding Media specializes in production financing and international distribution of children’s programming. In addition to Bardel, clients include Genius Products Inc. (Baby Genius, Kid Genius) and AB Svensk Industri (Roofters).

Bardel Ent. Inc. is a Canadian entertainment company involved in the acquisition, development, production and distribution of animated programming and products for children and families. The company can be found on the web at www.bardelentertainment.com.

Ribert & Robert’s WonderWorld, a CG-animated pre-school property set to show at MIPCOM in Cannes next week, has been picked up by 87 National Public Television Stations across the U.S. Distributed exclusively by MarVista Ent., the series will reach approximately 43 million homes and 111 million viewers this fall.

Blending live action and animation, Ribert and Robert’s WonderWorld is an educational series starring Ribert, a charming, energetic toad with a heart of gold, and his best friend, Robert. The show has received an All-star rating from the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media, a national, not-for-profit organization with a mission is to teach children critical viewing skills and to increase the visibility and availability of quality children’s programs.

MarVista will debut 13 new half-hour episodes at MIPCOM, bringing the total number available episodes to 26. International broadcasters will be able to buy the finished, ready-to-air version of the series or localize the episodes by introducing their own local host and artists.

Produced by Deos Animation Studios, Ribert and Robert’s WonderWorld has been invited to participate in The KIDS FIRST! Film and Video Festival, the largest children’s film festival in the world. The event will be presented in more than 75 cities in collaboration with children’s museums, non-profit film centers and similar groups.

MarVista Ent. was founded by Whamo Ent. key execs Joseph Szew and Fernando Szew; Porch Light Ent.’s former senior VP of worldwide sales and exec producer Michael Jacobs; and George Port, former president/founder of Anchor Bay Ent. The company is the beneficiary of the Whamo Ent. library, which contains 3000 hours of television programming including 45 animated feature films. In March of 2005, MarVista signed a multi-year, multi-picture development, production and distribution agreement with Waterfront Pictures for six animated specials budgeted at $1 million apiece.

Deos Animation Studios has developed a diverse collection of animated projects over the years, including The Christmas Brigade, Comedy Bytes, The Bigmouths, The Bitbots and A Very Wompkee Christmas. The studio has engineered its own animation pipeline dubbed SAM, an integrated network platform that controls every aspect of the process.

More information on Ribert & Robert’s WonderWorld can be found at www.ribert.com.