Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • New Doo Surfing to Disc

    With its irresistible blend of camp, comedy and creepiness, Scooby-Doo has entertained generations on television, home video and recently the on the big screen. Fans can now look forward to Warner Home Video’s release of Aloha Scooby-Doo!, an all-new, full-length animated feature coming to DVD and VHS on Feb. 8.

    Aloha Scooby-Doo! finds the Mystery, Inc. in Hawaii, where a big surfing contest is disrupted by the grumblings of a nearby volcano and the disappearance of a star surfer. Scooby and those meddling kids must battle the mysterious “Wiki-Tiki” and attempt to solve the mystery before the volcano erupts. The pic features the voices of Casey Kasem, Tia Carrere, Mario Lopez and Teri Garr.

    Special DVD features include a National Geographic featurette on Hawaii, surfing and ancient customs; an interactive challenge with multiple levels; a Q&A session with the Scooby gang; and an original soundtrack featuring songs from Don Ho and Dick Dale.

    The last direct-to-video Scooby-Doo adventure, Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster, was recently nominated for an Annie Award. It will compete for Best Home Entertainment Production with the Disney releases Lion King 1-1/2 and Mickey, Donald & Goofy: The Three Musketeers when the awards ceremony is held on Jan. 30 in Glendale, Calif. Aloha Scooby-Doo! will be available for $24.98 on DVD and $14.94 on VHS.

  • Healy to Head Animation Production for IDT Ent.

    Former DreamWorks head of digital production Janet Healy has been appointed president of animation production for IDT Ent. Healy comes to IDT fresh off the success of the DreamWorks animated feature Shark Tale, on which she served as a producer.

    In her new post, Healy will oversee all budgets, staff and production schedules for all IDT Ent. animation projects. In addition, she will be responsible for developing and implementing a strategic plan that will maximize the production effectiveness of all the IDT Entertainment animation studios.

    As head of digital production for DreamWorks Animation, Healy oversaw the digital and computer graphics process for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. She would later be instrumental in transforming DreamWorks’ Glendale, Calif. 2D animation facility into a 3D animation studio.

    Prior to joining DreamWorks in 1999, Healy worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation as head of digital production. There she oversaw the computer graphics work on such major animated films as Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000 and Dinosaur. She also played a key role in setting up the Northside Digital Studio for Walt Disney Feature Animation.

    Before Disney, Healy was a key executive at visual effects juggernaut Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), first serving as co-head of production and later becoming senior visual effects producer. In that capacity, she oversaw the visual effects and animation on more than a dozen projects, including such digitally groundbreaking films as Willow, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Jurassic Park.

    Among IDT’s upcoming animated features is Yankee Irving, a Capra-esque father-and-son story that Christopher Reeve was directing at the time of his death. Read more about that project at www.animationmagazine.net/article.php?article_id=3067.

    Reeve was one of several celebrities tapped by IDT to help facilitate its emergence as a computer animation powerhouse. IDT’s DPS Film Roman is working with crooner Harry Connick Jr. on a one-hour, 3D-animated holiday special titled The Happy Elf. Meanwhile, IDT’s Canadian CG animation house, Mainframe, is working on the direct-to-video animated feature Boom Boom Goes the Circus with skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.

  • Clone Wars Gets DVD Date

    Star Wars: Clone Wars, arguably the best thing to come out of George Lucas’ space opera franchise in decades, is making its way to home video on March 22. The Emmy Award-winning and critically acclaimed micro-series aired throughout the year on Cartoon Network in the form of three-minute-long interstitials designed to get fans psyched for the upcoming live-action feature, Star Wars: Episode III–Revenge of the Sith.

    Directed by Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky with art direction by Paul Rudish, Clone Wars chronicles some of the epic battles that occur between Episodes II and III of the film saga. The cartoon even introduced General Grievous, a new villain who will figure prominently in the next movie.

    All 19 three-minute chapters and the five-minute-long Chapter 20 are assembled together in this release, which comes out one day before Cartoon Network premieres the all-new Star Wars: Clone Wars Volume 2.

    Copies of Star Wars: Clone Wars Volume 1 can be pre-ordered at StarWarsShop.com.

  • Sony, NVIDIA Develop Next-Gen GPU

    As gamers wonder how Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) plans to top the PlayStation 2 game console, the company and NVIDIA Corp. today announced that they have been collaborating on advanced graphics technology for the next-generation computer entertainment system. The companies are jointly developing a custom graphics processing unit (GPU) incorporating NVIDIA’s next-generation GeForce and SCEI’s system solutions for systems featuring the Cell processor under development by IBM, Toshiba and Sony Group.

    The collaboration between SCEI and NVIDIA falls under a broad, multi-year, royalty-bearing agreement. The powerful custom GPU will be the graphics and image processing foundation for a broad range of applications from computer entertainment to broadband applications. The agreement will also cover future Sony digital consumer electronics products.

    “In the future, the experience of computer entertainment systems and broadband-ready PCs will be fused together to generate and transfer multi-streams of rich content simultaneously," says Ken Kutaragi, exec deputy president and COO of Sony Corporation, and president and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "In this sense, we have found the best way to integrate the state-of-the-art technologies from NVIDIA and SCEI.”

    “We are thrilled to partner with Sony Computer Entertainment to build what will certainly be one of the most important computer entertainment and digital media platforms of the twenty-first century,” added NVIDIA president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. “The combination of the revolutionary Cell processor and NVIDIA’s graphics technologies will enable the creation of breathtaking imagery that will surprise and captivate consumers.”

    The custom GPU will be manufactured at Sony Group’s Nagasaki Fab2, as well as OTSS, a joint fabrication facility of Toshiba and Sony.

  • Eurimages Boosts Nocturna, Others

    Daily Variety reports that Eurimages has earmarked $4.7 million to help fund nine international co-productions, including the animated features Azur et Asmar from Michel Ocelot, La Reine Soleil from Philippe Leclerc and Nocturna by Victor Maldonado and Adrian Garcia. The toons each stand to receive as much as $780,000.

    Azur et Asmar, the latest feature from French director Ocelot (Kirikou and the Witch), employs African-style art to tell the story of two boys–one Muslim and one Christian–whose friendship is threatened by cultural and socio-economic differences. The bilingual fable will be told with a combination of French and Arabic and is slated for release in 2005.

    Based on a book by Christian Jacq, Leclerc’s youth adventure flick, La Reine Soleil (The Queen Sun) revolves around ancient Egyptian rulers Tut-Anch-Amun and Nofretete. Leclerc’s first feature, Les Enfants de la Pluie (Children of the Rain), premiered at the Annecy Int’l Festival of Animation in 2003.

    Nocturna combines 2D and 3D techniques to tell the story of Tim, an orphan who sees a star fall from the sky and is instantly transported into a world of dreams, darkness and the mysteries of the night. A collaboration between Filmax Animation of Spain and Animakids of France, the predominantly Spanish production was Initially budgeted at around $12 million. Red Kite Films, a division of award-winning, Scottish animation production company Red Kite, plans to release the film during the 2006 holiday season, marking the company’s first foray into theatrical-release animated features.

  • Ultimate Matrix Collection Loaded on DVD

    Just when you thought you had your Matrix collection complete, here comes a new DVD box set that puts your lovingly assembled trilogy to shame. Isn’t that always the case? Just in time for the holidays, Warner Home Video milks the franchise in grand style with today’s release of The Ultimate Matrix Collection, a 10-disc, extra-loaded box set that includes all three films and the fantastic animated spin-off, The Animatrix.

    The Ultimate Matrix Collection offers five entirely new DVDs packed with fresh supplemental materials including two new audio commentaries on each film, Enter the Matrix videogame footage and more than 100 featurettes and documentaries. The set is priced at $79.92.

    Of course, there also has to be the extra-special The Ultimate Matrix Collection Limited Edition, which includes a limited-edition Neo mini-bust figurine and an 80-page collector’s book. This one will set you back $129.92.

    The Animatrix disc comes with making-of documentaries on each film, profiling the evolution of each one’s unique style through design and animatics. There are also biographical profiles of the various directors and animation producers involved, and a featurette titled Scrolls to Screen: The History and Culture of Anime, which explores the phenomenon of the art form through glimpses of the genre’s greatest achievements and the observations of creators, historians and other leaders in the field.

  • Top Cat, Flintstones Rock on Disc

    Manhattan’s slickest alley cat is finally on disc today as part of the Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection Series from Warner Home Video. Top Cat: The Complete Series arrives along with The Flintstones: The Complete Second Season and each deluxe collector’s box set features loads of bonus features.

    Top Cat premiered on primetime television in 1961 and ran for 30 episodes. Inspired by the hit ’50s comedy series, The Phil Silvers Show, the toon follows the misadventures of a smooth-talking New York City puss and his Manhattan alley cat pals, Benny the Ball, Choo-Choo, Spook, the Brain and Fancy-Fancy. The feline felons are always out to make a big score or pull the ultimate swindle while eluding the relentless Officer Dibble.

    The Top Cat four-disc collector set features more than nine hours of content, including 90 minutes of DVD bonus features. Three episodes offer commentary by animation historians Jerry Beck, Earl Kress and Mark Evanier, as well as Leo de Lyon, who voiced the show’s Spook and The Brain characters. Fans also get a storyboard showcase, a retrospective featurette titled Hoagy’s Alley: The Making of Top Cat, a sing-along, an art collection, the Top Cat Kellogg’s commercials and interviews with series writer Barry Blitzer and voice actors de Lyon, Arnold Stang (Top Cat) and Marvin Kaplan (Choo, Choo).

    The Flintstones: The Complete Second Season is also available in a four-disc collector set that contains 32 episodes and more than 800 minutes of original TV programming and enhanced content. Extras include commentary on three episodes by layout artist Jerry Eisenberg, writer/animation historian Earl Kress and cartoonist/Hanna-Barbera historian Scott Shaw. There is also a retrospective documentary titled Carved in Stone: The Flintstones Phenomenon, sponsor interstitials, a song selection, an archival tutorial on how to draw Fred Flintstone and an art gallery featuring rare animation cells and backgrounds accompanied by Bedrock sound effects.

    Warner Home Video is also releasing the theatrical feature, The Man Called Flintstone, on DVD for the first time. The spy spoof was produced right after production of the original Flintstones series ended and was intended as a swan song for the characters.

    Top Cat: The Complete Series and The Flintstones: The Complete Second Season list for $44.98 on DVD. The Man Called Flintstone is available on DVD for $19.97.

  • Showtime Taps Toons for Christmas

    Cable network Showtime is programming a Christmas day marathon with a family-friendly lineup that includes such animated films as The Wild Thornberrys, Hay Arnold! The Movie and Charlotte’s Web 2: Wilbur’s Great Adventure, as well as the CG-laden blockbuster, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams.

    Spy Kids 2 will get the marathon rolling at 7 a.m. on Dec. 25. Live-action films on tap include the feature adaptation of Children’s book favorite Madeline, the Pierce Brosnan tear-jerker Evelyn, the family drama Carry Me Home and The School of Rock starring Jack Black.

    For more information on each of these films, including a synopsis, rating information and Showtime advisories, log onto www.sho.com.

  • EA Wages Battle for Middle-earth

    Electronic Arts today announced the release of the eagerly-awaited PC game, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth. Based on the Academy Award-winning film trilogy, the real-time strategy game puts fans in command of the heroes and armies from all three movies.

    In Battle for Middle-earth, gamers choose between the armies of Gondor, Rohan, Mordor and Isengard, each offering its own distinct heroes, strengths and weaknesses. Players prepare for war by creating offensive and defensive strategies set in memorable battle locations taken directly from director Peter Jackson’s feature trilogy. The game’s developers made extensive use of the film saga’s digital assets and musical score. Some of the trilogy’s actors even lend their voices to the project.

    Officially licensed by New Line Cinema, The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth was developed at EA’s Los Angeles studio under the EA GAMES brand. The game is rated “T” (Teen) for violence and caries a suggested retail price of $49.99. For more information, visit the game’s official web site www.eagames.com/official/lordoftherings/

    thebattleformiddleearth/us/index.jsp

  • Oz Effects and Animation Fest Fetes Express

    The Australian Effects and Animation Festival (AEAF) concluded over the weekend at the Sydney Convention Centre at Darling Harbour. The festivities wrapped up with an awards ceremony held on Sunday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. The AEAF Awards are among Australia’s top honors for animation and visual effects in TV, feature films, commercials, short films, education and training, music videos, games and web content.

    This year’s winner in the animated feature film competition was Warner Bros.’ The Polar Express, featuring cutting-edge digital visuals by Sony Pictures Imageworks. Also in the running were Shrek 2 and SharkTale from Dreamworks. Meanwhile, the award for feature vfx went to Weta Digital’s work on New Line’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which beat out Imageworks’ accomplishments on Spider-Man 2 and Framestore CFC’s work on Thunderbirds and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban;

    Best Short Film went to Birthday Boy by Sejong Park from Australian Film Television and Radio School. The film has reportedly been shortlisted for nomination for the Academy Awards. Best Student Film kudos were awarded to Kane Elferink from the Enmore TAFE Design Centre for The Demise of Sir Drinks-a-lot.

    On the TV side, Animal Logic won the vfx award for its work on the SCI FI Channel’s miniseries, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, which was produced in Australia.

    Other winners:

    Music Video

    Joint winners:

    Goldfrapp, Twist —The Mill

    Powderfinger, Sunsets — Liquid Animation

    Commercial VFX

    Petronas Primax, "Feel The Power" — FUEL

    Commercial Animation

    Scion tc 3D Artist — Ambience

    Education & Training

    Introduction to Antennas – Navy Video

    Titles Idents & Stings

    Athens Olympic Titles – Seven Network

    Web Animation

    "Orpheus and the Underworld" ("Winged Sandals") – Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

    Presenting more than 20 international speakers over three days, the AEAF is Australia’s leading digital arts forum bringing together some of the world’s most influential visual effects artists and computer animators. The event is now included as part of an expanded Digital Media Festival, which also includes the Digital Video Festival and Digital Imaging Festival and Exhibition.

  • Incredibles Leads Annie Noms

    The Disney/Pixar blockbuster The Incredibles came out on top as ASIFA-Hollywood, the International Animated Film Society, today announced nominations today for the 32nd Annual Annie Awards. The CG superhero comedy leads the pack with 16 nominations. The winners will be announced at the Jan. 30 awards ceremony hosted by Tom Kenny in Glendale, Calif.

    The Incredibles will be vying for the Best Animated Feature, along with Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence from DreamWorks’ Go Fish Pictures, Shrek 2 from DreamWorks Animation and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie from Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures.

    Pixar’s latest has also garnered nominations for individual achievements in character design, animated effects, character animation, directing, music, production design, storyboarding, voice acting (Samuel L. Jackson as Frozone and Brad Bird as Edna Mode) and writing.

    DreamWorks Animation is close behind with 14 nominations overall for Shrek 2 and Shark Tale. The return of everyone’s favorite Ogre inspired nods for animated effects, directing, music, storyboarding, voice acting (Antonio Banderas for Puss in Boots) and writing. Shark Tale received its nominations for animated effects, character animation, character design, production design and writing.

    In addition to noms its feature counterpart received, the SpongeBob SquarePants series is in the running for Best Animated Television Production. Other nominations in this category include My Life As A Teenage Robot from Frederator/Nickelodeon, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Star Wars: The Clone Wars from Cartoon Network Studios, and The Batman from Warner Bros. Animation.

    While Disney’s 2D swan song, Home on the Range, was shut out of the feature competition, it’s directors, Will Finn and John Sanford, were nominated for Directing in an Animated Feature Production. They go up against Andrew Adamson, Conrad Vernon and Kelly Ashbury for Shrek 2; Brad Bird for The Incredibles, Stephen Hillenburg for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and Mamoru Oshi for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

    Up for Directing in an Animated Television Production are The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius helmers Keith Alcorn ("Love Potion #976/3″) and Shaun Cashman and Phil Cummings for “Attack of the Clowns,” as well as Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends directors Eric Pringle (“Who Let The Dogs In”) and Brian Sheesley (“Nursery Crimes”). Rounding out the category is Genndy Tartakovsky for Samurai Jack (“Tale of X-49”)

    Meanwhile, the race for Best Animated Short Subject will be run by Barley Films’ Agricultural Report, Mark Kausler’s It’s The Cat, Walt Disney Pictures’ Lorenzo, Blur Studio’s Rockfish and Chris Langreth’s Ryan.

    In narrowing the field for Best Home Entertainment Production, ASIFA overlooked toy tie-ins such as Barbie and BIONICLE in favor of Warner Bros. Animation’s Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster and a pair from DisneyToon Studios–The Lion King 1-1/2 and Mickey, Donald & Goofy: The Three Musketeers.

    The Annie Awards honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 21 categories. For a complete list of Annie Award nominations, go to http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/.

  • Incredibles Leads Annie Noms

    The Disney/Pixar blockbuster The Incredibles came out on top as ASIFA-Hollywood, the International Animated Film Society, today announced nominations today for the 32nd Annual Annie Awards. The CG superhero comedy leads the pack with 16 nominations. The winners will be announced at the Jan. 30 awards ceremony hosted by Tom Kenny in Glendale, Calif.

    The Incredibles will be vying for the Best Animated Feature, along with Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence from DreamWorks’ Go Fish Pictures, Shrek 2 from DreamWorks Animation and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie from Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures.

    Pixar’s latest has also garnered nominations for individual achievements in character design, animated effects, character animation, directing, music, production design, storyboarding, voice acting (Samuel L. Jackson as Frozone and Brad Bird as Edna Mode) and writing.

    DreamWorks Animation is close behind with 14 nominations overall for Shrek 2 and Shark Tale. The return of everyone’s favorite Ogre inspired nods for animated effects, directing, music, storyboarding, voice acting (Antonio Banderas for Puss in Boots) and writing. Shark Tale received its nominations for animated effects, character animation, character design, production design and writing.

    In addition to noms its feature counterpart received, the SpongeBob SquarePants series is in the running for Best Animated Television Production. Other nominations in this category include My Life As A Teenage Robot from Frederator/Nickelodeon, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Star Wars: The Clone Wars from Cartoon Network Studios, and The Batman from Warner Bros. Animation.

    While Disney’s 2D swan song, Home on the Range, was shut out of the feature competition, it’s directors, Will Finn and John Sanford, were nominated for Directing in an Animated Feature Production. They go up against Andrew Adamson, Conrad Vernon and Kelly Ashbury for Shrek 2; Brad Bird for The Incredibles, Stephen Hillenburg for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and Mamoru Oshi for Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

    Up for Directing in an Animated Television Production are The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius helmers Keith Alcorn ("Love Potion #976/3″) and Shaun Cashman and Phil Cummings for “Attack of the Clowns,” as well as Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends directors Eric Pringle (“Who Let The Dogs In”) and Brian Sheesley (“Nursery Crimes”). Rounding out the category is Genndy Tartakovsky for Samurai Jack (“Tale of X-49”)

    Meanwhile, the race for Best Animated Short Subject will be run by Barley Films’ Agricultural Report, Mark Kausler’s It’s The Cat, Walt Disney Pictures’ Lorenzo, Blur Studio’s Rockfish and Chris Langreth’s Ryan.

    In narrowing the field for Best Home Entertainment Production, ASIFA overlooked toy tie-ins such as Barbie and BIONICLE in favor of Warner Bros. Animation’s Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster and a pair from DisneyToon Studios–The Lion King 1-1/2 and Mickey, Donald & Goofy: The Three Musketeers.

    The Annie Awards honor overall excellence as well as individual achievement in a total of 21 categories. For a complete list of Annie Award nominations, go to http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/.

  • Lions Gate FHE Secures Rights to New Barbie Series

    Toymaker Mattel has extended its partnership with Lions Gate’s Family Home Entertainment (FHE), which will distribute the first release in Barbie Fairytopia, the all-new line of computer-animated, direct-to-video features starring the world’s most popular doll. Barbie Fairytopia will launch in March 2005, just in time for the Easter holiday.

    FHE has had tremendous success as the distributor of Mattel’s Barbie Princess series of videos, which encompasses the best-selling titles Barbie in the Nutcracker, Barbie As Rapunzel, Barbie of Swan Lake and Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper. That last entry hit stores in September and has already topped charts as the No. 1 kids video purchase this holiday season, according to Nielsen Video Scan.

    The Barbie Fairytopia series promises to immerse young viewers in a whole new world for Barbie, one filled with new characters, more colors and magical fantasy adventure. Mattel will support the property with a full line of dolls and other toys based on the movies. The launch will also be backed by the biggest spring media and public relations campaign ever for a Barbie toy and video.

    Barbie Fairytopia will be released on DVD and VHS on March 8, 2005, for the suggested retail price of $19.98. The DVD will include such interactive games as Boogie with Barbie and Pixie Hide and Seek.

  • No Alternate Board for Roy Disney

    In a letter sent Friday to the Walt Disney Co. Board of Directors, Disney dissidents Roy Disney and his Shamrock Holdings business partner, Stanley Gold, said they would not follow through on a threat to present an alternate slate of candidates for election to the Board at the company’s 2005 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

    With Disney CEO Michael Eisner set to step down in 2006, Disney and Gold feared the Board would fill the post with Bob Iger, Eisner’s right-hand man. The Board has since committed to conducting a thorough search for a new CEO. Disney and Gold state in their letter, "Our decision is based on the actions the Board has taken in recent months in response to the shareholders’ unprecedented 45% no-confidence vote in Mr. Eisner at the 2004 Annual Meeting. Needless to say, we are assuming that the Board will continue to act in good faith to fulfill the promises it made to Disney stockholders over the course of the last nine months."

    In addition to undertaking a "thorough and bona fide search" to find a new CEO by June 2005, the Board has promised that Eisner will step down as both CEO and as a Board member upon culmination of this process.

    Disney and Gold say they are encouraged by the Board’s response to the last annual meeting, but admit they are disheartened by Eisner’s rejection of all three independent Board candidates recommended by a group of six leading public pension funds. They are also disappointed that the Board has rejected a pair of stockholder proposals, one that would make the CEO/Chariman split permanent and one that would permit stockholders to nominate up to two independent directors on the company’s proxy.

  • Denise Upped to Exec VP at Imageworks

    Visual effects producer and senior VP Debbie Denise has been promoted to exec VP of production infrastructure and exec producer at award-winning visual effects and digital character animation company Sony Pictures Imageworks. Denise most recently completed production on the CG feature, The Polar Express, on which she also received an associate producer credit.

    With this promotion, Denise continues in her role as an exec producer while overseeing Imageworks’ production infrastructure. Together with exec VP Jenny Fulle, she will lead all aspects of Imageworks production, from client relations and bidding to production management and staffing.

    "We have accomplished so much in building Imageworks literally from the ground up," says Denise. "We relish the challenge that comes with artistic vision. It’s stimulating to work beyond the boundaries of what has been done before and our ability to meet that challenge expands the possibilities of what we can do."

    Denise joined Imageworks with effects wiz Ken Ralston in 1995. She began her career in visual effects at ILM, where she served as visual effects producer on Death Becomes Her (1992 Academy Award, Best Visual Effects) and Forrest Gump (1994 Academy Award, Best Visual Effects). In April 1995, she was named interim head of production at the Northern California-based studio.

    At Imageworks, Denise is in production on Monster House, a computer-generated fantasy film that will employ the performance capture technology developed for The Polar Express. She is also working on The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. Past credits include exec vfx producer turns on 50 First Dates, Seabiscuit, Matchstick Men, Peter Pan, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath and the Academy Award-nominated Stuart Little.

  • Scribe Runs to Stan Lee’s Lightspeed

    There’s yet more superhero news hitting the street and this time comic book legend Stan Lee is at the center of it. Lightspeed (working title), a property he created, is heading to the SCI FI channel and Steve Latshaw has been hired to pen the script. Latshaw previously wrote SCI Fi’s Curse of the Komodo, a telepic that had island inhabitants terrorized by a giant CG lizard.

    Lightspeed, to be filmed in live-action with digital effects, is the first of three action movies to be produced by Lee and his POW! Ent. Inc. for the SCI FI Channel’s 2005-2006 original programming slate. Latshaw was signed to the project by Andrew Stevens of Andrew Stevens Entertainment Group and Jeff Franklin of FWE Inc.

    POW! (Purveyors of Wonder) Ent. Inc., founded by CEO Lee, Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman, is in the business of creating and licensing intellectual property for the entertainment industry, including feature films, television programming, animation projects, video games, merchandising and related entertainment venues. The company, which was acquired by Arturion Ent. last May, is developing an animated TV Christmas special based on the popular new children’s book, Stan Lee’s Superhero Christmas. The book is published by Harper Collins and is now available at all major bookstores and POW! further anticipates the production of a DVD title during the fourth quarter of 2005.

    Lee has created such enduring pop culture icons as Spider-Man, The Hulk and X-Men. He and IDT Ent., which owns a minority equity interest in POW!, are developing Stan Lee Presents, a series of six new animated productions for DVD and broadcast.

  • The Nicktoons Film Festival Announces: Screening 7′

    The Nicktoons Film Festival continues this Sunday with Screening 7, a selection of six shorts made by animators from around the globe. A co-production of Frederator Studios and Animation Magazine for Nicktoons, The Nicktoons Film Festival airs on the Nicktoons cable channel Sunday nights 10 p.m. (EST) and 7 p.m. (PST), with a repeat at 1 p.m. (EST) and 10 p.m. (PST). The films featured in Screening Number 7–are Welcome to My Life by Elizabeth Ito of Glendale, Calif.; Kactus Kid from Lancast Mota Dos Santos and Renato Canini of Brazil; Robot Family: The Slick Salesman by Chris Harding of Prairie Village, Kansas; Wingnut from Conrad Chu of Alameda, Calif.; Medusa by Pierce Davison of Australia; and Martini and Meatballs: Avery’s Game by Mike Csunyoscka of Canada’s Nelvana.

    The Nicktoons Film Festival:

    Screening 7—"Of Monsters and Machines"

    Airdate & Time: December 5, 2004, 10 p.m. (EST); 7 p.m. (PST), Nicktoons

    Film #1: Welcome to My Life (Length: 4:42; hand-drawn 2D)—This black-and-white mocumentary takes a hilarious look inside the lives of monsters living among us. Viewers learn that though these creatures may look different, they are really no different from the rest of us. Pleasantly reminiscent of Aardman’s classic clay animation short, Creature Comforts, Welcome to My Life won the Peer’s Pick at CalArts and was an official selection of the San Diego Asian American Film Festival. ( Contact Elizabeth Ito at minkymail@yahoo.com.)

    Film #2: Kactus Kid (Length: 7:00; Flash and Traditional 2D)—Brazilian filmmakers Lancast Mota Dos Santos and Renato Canini take us way back with this cowboy yarn set in Idle Ville, "the least-known city in the west." There we find Jack Wondertaker, the peace-loving undertaker who mounts his valiant horse, Twister, to fight for truth and justice as his alter ego, the Kactus Kid. When a mysterious, gun-toting stranger arrives in town, our hero fears that he may be an assassin who has come to put an end to Kactus Kid. Fans of old UPA cartoons should get a kick out of this English-subtitled short featuring humorous commercial breaks for such products as Wells Fargo delivery, Dust Storm powdered milk and Scalpex hair tonic. (Contact Lancast Mota Dos Santos and Renato Canini by e-mailing Denise Ehlersat ehlersd@terra.com.br.)

    Film #3: Robot Family: The Slick Salesman (Length: 2:15; Digital 2D)—We all know the feeling. You sit down to have dinner with the family when the phone rings. "Could be important," you say to yourself, only to find yourself being chatted up by a slick telemarketer who won’t take "sorry, we’re not interested" for an answer. Apparently, even metal automatons have this problem. Filmmaker Chris Harding uses simple visuals and pitch-perfect acting to put a hilarious twist on this common annoyance. (Chris is probably carefully screening his calls, so e-mail him at chris@chrisharding.net.)

    Film #4: Wingnut (Length: 2:45; 3D CG)—Conrad Chu uses beautifully rendered 3D images and haunting music to tell the story of a lonely robot who finds that his squeaky joints can be an asset when it comes to making new friends. The short won the Academy of Art University Spring Show Animation Award for special achievement in 2004. (Contact Conrad Chu at conradchu@bbcberk.org.)

    Film #5: Medusa: Pilot (Length: 3:00; Stop-motion animation)—This first installment in a 13-part series for SBS Television in Australia shows how difficult it is to be a mythological character in modern times. Needless to say, dating can be a pain for the snake-haired Medusa. Will the bloke take one look at her and turn to run, or will he turn to stone? A former ABC Young Filmmaker of the year, Davison founded Davison Bros. Prods. with his brother, Seymour. They say they are currently working out how to animate an octopus knotting gloves, just for fun. Also in the pipeline are various dramas and animations about mathematics, propaganda and Ho Chi Minh. (Contact producer Jacob F. Jord at Jacob@papercutmedia.com.)

    Film #6: Martini and Meatballs: Avery’s Game (Length: 5:00; Flash)—A unique 2D visual style marks this funny and action-packed installment from Canadian toon house Nelvana. Our canine heroes think they’re quite clever when they build a giant gorilla robot, but things get out of control when a video game console falls into the beast’s brain and sends it rampaging across the city and toward a nuclear power plant. Can the gang stop it in time, or is it game over for everyone within a 200-mile radius? Tune in and find out. (For more information drop Hally Butera a line at halleybutera@corusent.com.)

  • BOXX Celebrates 3December with Big Rebate

    In celebration of 3December, the annual global celebration of 3D computer graphics worldwide, leading workstation company BOXX Technologies is offering an instant rebate of $1,203 throughout the month of December on qualifying workstations bundled with Maya Complete.

    Academy Award-winning Maya software is a powerful integrated 3D modeling, animation, effects and rendering solution used by film and video artists, game developers, visualization professionals and web and print designers.

    BOXX workstations are optimized for media creation applications. Available in single or dual-processor configurations featuring the latest AMD Athlon and Opteron processors and Intel Pentium 4 and Xeon processors, BOXX workstations support popular software from companies such as Adobe, Alias, Autodesk, Discreet, Newtek and Softimage. The systems also offer the capacity for massive internal storage expansion with assemblies that allow for six, eight or 12 hard drives for up to 3.6TB of internal storage.

    For more details about the 3December savings, visit the BOXX web site at www.boxxtech.com, email sales@boxxtech.com or call BOXX toll free in the US at 1-877-877-BOXX or outside the U.S. at 512-835-0400.

  • Express to Chug Ahead?

    After a lackluster debut three weeks ago, Warner Bros.’ big-budget CG holiday feature, The Polar Express, picked up some steam over Thanksgiving weekend. With the holiday spirit growing in moviegoers and no new wide releases on tap, the film’s many pundits wrote off as an expensive flop may gain more ground this weekend and end up being the big engine that could.

    With 3,650 theaters showing it, The Polar Express is on more screens than any other film in this frame. In addition to local multiplexes, the Tom Hanks vehicle is also gracing IMAX venues where it is being projected in stereoscopic 3D, allowing moviegoers to become immersed in Sony Pictures Imageworks’ rich computer-generated imagery.

    If Buena Vista’s reigning box office champ, National Treasure, begins its slide down the charts this week, Express is in as good a position as any holdover to rise up to the No. 1 spot. Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles has done the bulk of its damage at the North American box office and Sony/Revolution Studios’ poorly-reviewed seasonal comedy, Christmas with the Kranks, hasn’t inspired much positive word-of-mouth since its moderately successful debut last weekend. With its holiday theme, Express should also have the edge over Paramount’s and Nickelodeon’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, which is likely to soak up more clams when kids get let out for the winter vacation.

    To celebrate last week’s boost at the box office, the Sony Imageworks crew and other team members behind The Polar Express cut into a big cake designed to mimic the film’s signature image of a train ascending a snow-covered mountain peak, as pictured in the main photo.

    Main Photo: (Some of the Imageworks team: Debbie Denise, Yair Landau, Tim Sarnoff, Jerome Chen and Ken Ralston)

  • Columbus Discovers Marvel Superhero

    In the wake of the blockbuster success Sony Pictures’ has had with its Spider-Man franchise, many of Hollywood’s top talents are keen to get a piece of the superhero action. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Columbus, director of the first two Harry Potter films, has been tapped by Universal Pictures to helm a big-screen adaptation of Sub-Mariner, one of Marvel Comics’ older and lesser known properties.

    The Sub-Mariner comics follow the heroic exploits of a half-man/half-amphibian citizen of Atlantis named Prince Namor. The character first graced comics pages in 1939 and later surfaced in issues of Fantastic Four during the 1960s. There is no word on who will be cast in the title role, though Leonardo DiCaprio was floated as a possibility when the project was first announced.

    Marvel Studios’ Avi Arad and Columbus have reportedly been discussing a film version for six years. David Self (Road to Perdition, The Haunting) was hired to write the screenplay, which takes a fantastical look at a whole unseen world concealed deep within the oceans of the Earth. While no effects houses have yet been named, the production team is sure to employ plenty of computer animation and digital visual effects to bring the ambitious script to the screen.

    Under his 1492 Prods. shingle, Columbus will also produce the film, along with Arad and Kevin Misher of Misher Films. Vice chairman of worldwide production Mary Parent and vp of production Damien Saccani will oversee the film for Universal, while Arad and Kevin Feige guide production for Marvel.

    Before making box office magic with Harry Potter, Columbus made a splash with the hugely successful Home Alone Movies and the Robin Williams hit, Mrs. Doubtfire. Currently on his plate is a feature adaptation of the popular stage musical, Rent.