Animation Magazine

Author: Ryan Ball

  • UPDATED: Selick, Anderson Talking Post-Aquatic Toon

    On Oct. 28, we reported that director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone), is in talks to make an all-animated feature with director Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tennanbaums). While Selick couldn’t go into details about the project at the time of the interview, Daily Variety reports that it will be an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book, The Fantastic Mr. Fox for Revolution Studios.

    Selick completed stop-motion animation effects work for Anderson’s latest effort, Buena Vista Picture’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which is set to arrive in theaters nationwide on Dec. 25. The film stars Bill Murray as an eccentric oceanographer who reconnects with his estranged son while tracking down a giant shark that killed his partner during the filming of a documentary. Selick and lead animators Tim Hittle and Justin Kohn animated various sea creatures, including the mysterious shark. Read all about it in the upcoming January issue of Animation Magazine.

    "We were talking about doing an all-stop-motion feature together, and that’s likely to happen," Selick tells us. "[Anderson] is halfway through a screenplay and initially we were talking about that and then he said, "Oh, by the way, I’m doing this other feature [(Life Aquatic)] and decided I wanted to use stop-motion."

    Selick recently joined Vinton Studios as supervising director and will play a key role in the animation house’s aggressive move into feature film development and production. His first project with the studio will be a CG short film titled Moongirl. He is developing a stop-motion feature adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s children’s book, Coraline, with producer Bill Mechanic and his Pandemonium Films. Vinton Studios bought the rights to the project in September.

    "It’s not a green lit feature, but they did buy the book," Selick comments regarding Coraline. "We have co-financing in place and we already have a script. I have to adapt it now for animation because it was originally intended as a mix [of animation and live action]. I think that by spring we’ll probably have it set up with a distributor and have other financing in place so we can go into production."

    As The Fantastic Mr. Fox continues to cook in development, a new live-action adaptation of Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is in production at Disney with Johnny Depp starring as eccentric candy mogul, Willy Wonka. Depp is also providing a lead voice in Tim Burton’s upcoming stop-motion feature, The Corpse Bride, being produced by principals of Vinton Studios for Warner Bros. That film is in production in London and is slated for an October 2005 release.

  • ION Fest Opening Gala Tonight

    The ION Int’l Animation, Gaming and Shorts Film Festival kicks off tonight, Oct. 28, with an opening night gala honoring the Emmy Award winning studio DPS Film Roman and legendary toon house Fleischer Studios. The award presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m. at The Pacific Theatres in Culver City, followed by a red-carpet after party at the Culver Hotel at 9 p.m.

    Culver City Mayor Steven Rose and ION Festival founder and president Chris Davies will be among the evening’s hosts. Presenting the special award to DPS Film Roman is voice actor Maurice LaMarche (Inspector Gadget, The Critic, Tripping the Rift, Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain King of The Hill, The Incredible Hulk, Looney Tunes).

    The event will also feature the first-ever Max Fleischer Lifetime Achievement Award, presented this year to Fleischer Studios. Stan Handman, a former employee and established historian of Max Fleischer, will present the award.

    At the after party, attendees will be able to try out Senet Ent.’s GameHex, live gaming stations that allows players to recline in immersive sound chairs with built-in surround audio.

    FREE TICKETS!

    As an Animation Magazine reader, you can receive 20% off the regular price of tickets to the ION Film Festival. Simply go to the site (www.ionfilmfestival.com) and type in the code word: corp or mention us at the box office.

    Animation Magazine is also giving away 150 tickets to the ION Festival screenings, which will include the multi-award-winning short, Ryan, by Canadian filmmaker Chris Landreth, as well as the Los Angeles premiere of Bill Plympton’s eagerly awaited new feature film, Hair High. The first 150 Animation Magazine members to email

    mailto:animationmagazine@ionfilmfestival.com

    subject=Animation_Magazine (paste link into browser) will receive the tickets.

    Sponsors of the fest include Animation Magazine, CG Networks, Senet Ent. Gaming Stations, Pearl Vodka, Rutherford Hill Chardonnay, Alice White Cabernet, Virgin Cola, Coldstone Creamery and Noahs Bagels. Information on all screenings can be found at www.ionfilmfest.com/selection.php

    ATTENTION:

    The Ion Festival organizers have informed us that there have been a few schedule changes for the ION Summit panels. Please call (310)360-8333 to confirm times and possible cancellations.

  • Tokyopop Preps New Nickelodeon Manga

    Tokyopop is gearing up to release more graphic novels based on the Nickelodeon series All Grown Up and The Amanda Show, as well as the upcoming Paramount/Nickelodeon theatrical feature The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. The new full-color cine-manga titles will hit stores just in time for spring.

    All Grown Up, a spin-off of Nickelodeon’s hit Rugrats franchise, has the former toddlers tackling middle school misadventures. The series is produced by Rugrats creators Klasky Csupo Inc.

    Also aimed at the pre-teen crowd, The Amanda Show offers a twisted brand of sketch-comedy starring Nick’s Amanda Bynes.

    The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie takes the loveable yellow cube and his underwater pals to the big screen with a caper film that sends SpongeBob and Patrick on a quest to return the stolen crown of King Neptune. The pic was produced at Nickelodoen Studios and is co-directed by series creator Stephen Hillenburg and Sherm Cohen. It bows on the big screen on Nov. 19.

    All three Cine-Manga titles will carry a suggested retail price of $7.99 per volume.

  • Comedy Central Debuts New Shorties

    Comedy Central’s inspired blend of stand-up comedy and Flash Animation, Shorties Watching Shorties, returns tonight at 10:30/9:30 central with new episodes. The show debuted in late April, introducing audiences to two wisecracking infants who sit in front of the TV watching animated versions of standup comedy routines.

    Shorties Watching Shorties stars comedians Patrice O’Neal and Nick DiPaolo as the voices of the title toddlers. Tonight’s episode will use animation to illustrate comedy bits by Patton Oswalt, Mitch Hedberg and Dane Cook. O’Neal and DiPaolo are also regular guests on Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd with Collin Quin.

    The series is exec produced by Denis Leary and his Apostle partner Jim Serpico. Serpico, Tom Sellitti and animator Eric Brown created the show, which grew out of Comedy Central’s series of 30-second interstitials titled House Arrest.

    Comedy Central, which last night premiered the new animated series, Drawn Together, is also expanding its toon lineup with the pickup of Odd Todd, based on the animated webisodes from creator Todd Rosenberg. The series of shorts chronicling Rosenberg’s days of unemployment were featured on www.oddtodd.com. That website previously spawned a book, The Odd Todd Handbook: Hard Times, Soft Couch, which was published by Warner Books last year.

    Shorties Watching Shorties airs regularly on Wednesday night following South Park. To watch clips, view behind the scenes footage and download images from the show, visit www.comedycentral.com.

  • Ex-Disney, Warner, DreamWorks, Universal animators Create New Studio

    Talented artists behind some of the biggest animated features and television shows of recent years have banded together to form CAAT Studios, a new a full-service animation facility located in North Hollywood, Calif.

    The acronym CAAT, Classical Animation & Advanced Technology, conveys the new studio’s mission, which is to be a provider of traditional, CG and Flash animated product for a variety of clients. The studio is currently animating commercials for an unnamed Fortune 500 company and portions of a major film franchise for one of the world’s top entertainment brands. In addition to producing service work, the team is developing of a feature film and animated television series.

    “We like to keep one paw in the past and one paw in the future,” says CAAT Studios co-founder David E. Kuhn. “We offer quality animation produced just around the corner, eliminating the need for costly shipping of art and providing our clients excellent communication and control over their work.”

    Kuhn’s has worked for Warner Bros. on the TV shows Animaniacs and Taz-Mania, as well as the feature films Scooby-Doo and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. His credits also include the Disney features Pocohontas, Hercules, Fantasia 2000 and The Tigger Movie.

    CAAT artistic director Toby Bluth directed The Story of Santa Claus for CBS and Babes in Toyland for MGM. His other animation credits include art director on Disney’s The Tigger Movie and Three Musketeers.

    Line producer Lorri Bond was most recently VP of classic animation for Warner Bros., where she oversaw all initiatives that involved the Looney Tunes brand. Bond has served as associate producer, voice director and development exec on such TV shows as Baby Looney Tunes, Bugs ‘N Daffy and The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show. She also spearheaded the release of Looney Tunes DVD compilations and created the Warner Bros. Fine Art Program.

    Supervising animator Shawn Keller joins CAAT after recently completing work on the DreamWorks hit, Shark Tale. He was one of the youngest animators ever to be hired at Walt Disney Feature Animation and worked on such films as The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Atlantis and Home on the Range.

    Kevin "Kexx" Singleton, educational director, earned an Emmy Award for art direction on the PBS series Clifford the Big Red Dog and has worked for Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures. He is currently creating an animated children’s science program for CAAT.

  • U.S. Theatrical Date Set for Appleseed

    The anime feature Appleseed, which was released theatrically in Japan earlier this year, will open in select cities in the U.S. on Jan. 14, 2005. Released by Geneon Ent., the sci-fi film is based on the manga by Masamune Shirow (Ghost In The Shell) and directed by Shinji Aramaki (Bubblegum Crisis). It made its North American debut during the American Film Market in February.

    Appleseed is set in the year 2131, after most of the world has been devastated by war. The story chronicles the battle between mankind and bioroids, a race of cybernetic pseudo-clones designed to aid humans in domestic capacities. But when ideologies flare and aggression rises to the surface, the thin veneer of peaceful coexistence is shattered.

    The pic combines 2D character animation and 3D motion-capture technology. The film’s unique look was dictated by director Aramaki and producer Fumihiko Sori, whose credits include CG animation work on the Hollywood blockbuster, Titanic.

    Appleseed is the first film to fall under the new Geneon Films umbrella, a division dedicated to marketing and distributing live-action and animated feature films from Asia. Geneon Ent. also acquired North American and European distribution rights for the film Tetsujin 28th. The company previously released the anime masterpiece Akira, as well as the hits Patlabor WXIII and Onmyoji.

  • Toddworld Expands with Video Deal

    With the new animated preschool series, ToddWorld, slated to air next month, HIT Ent. has acquired rights to distribute and market the property on DVD and VHS in the U.S. and Canada. The deal is part of a new multi-year agreement with Taffy Ent., the worldwide rights owner for the series, produced for Discovery Kids by Mike Young Prods.

    ToddWorld revolves around Todd, an artistic and unusual six-year-old who navigates common kid challenges with help from friends Pickle, Stella, Sophie, his dog Benny, Mitzi the cat, other animal pals and an occasional alien visitor or two. Each half-hour episode uses offbeat humor and whimsical storylines to convey uplifting and reassuring messages of acceptance, tolerance and the importance of self-confidence.

    The series was created by author/illustrator Todd Parr and writer Gerry Renert of L&G Licensing+, which oversees global merchandise, publishing and brand marketing for ToddWorld.

    ToddWorld will join the lineup on TLC’s Ready Set Learn! block for preschoolers on Monday, Nov. 8 and will air weekday mornings at 8:30 a.m. ET/PT. Beginning Nov. 15, it will occupy the 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. slots weekday mornings on the Discovery Kids Channel. The property will then premiere on home video with the launch of four titles in spring 2005.

  • Simpsons Library of Wisdom Opens New Books

    While Homer Simpson may not be fond of books, his fans certainly are, judging by the 5 million copes of Simpsons titles in print. That number is sure to grow with the release of the new series, The Simpsons Library of Wisdom, from Perennial, an offshoot of HarperCollins Publishers. The first two releases, The Bart Book and The Homer Book, are now available and will be followed by other volumes in November.

    The books in this new series explore the human condition and the meaning of life through the eyes of the show’s characters. In The Bart Book, the spiky-haired mischief maker will share his School Survival Guide, secret codes, pullable pranks, dream tattoos, favorite El Barto "tags," and the Christmas list to end all lists. The Homer Book will offer readers a chance to find out what’s on Homer’s mind, discover the mysteries of his fridge, hang out in his favorite haunts and meet his friends and enemies.

    In 1990, Perennial and Simpsons creator Matt Groening launched a successful publishing partnership that has to date seen the printing of more than 30 Simpsons titles including the New York Times best-selling episode guides and comic book collections.

    Unleashed on an unsuspecting viewing public in 1989, The Simpsons has gone on to become longest-running sitcom in primetime television history. Fox has renewed the show through 2005, ensuring a 16th season.

  • Warner Swings Top Cat to DVD

    Manhattan’s slickest alley cat is finally coming to disc as part of the Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection Series from Warner Home Video. Top Cat: The Complete Series will be released on Dec. 7, along with The Flintstones: The Complete Second Season. The deluxe collector’s box sets will feature 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 will feature more than nine hours of content, including 90 minutes of DVD bonus features. Three episodes will 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 will 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 will also be available in a four-disc collector set that will contain 32 episodes and more than 800 minutes of original TV programming and enhanced content. Extras will include commentary on three episodes by layout artist Jerry Eisenberg, writer/animation historian Earl Kress and cartoonist/Hanna-Barbera historian Scott Shaw. There will also be 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 will list for $44.98 on DVD. The Man Called Flintstone will be available on DVD for $19.97.

  • Comedy Central Wants Viewers………Drawn Together

    Cartoon icons and TV reality shows get lampooned in equal measure with tonight’s debut of Comedy Central’s latest animated adult comedy, Drawn Together. Captain America, Betty Boop, SpongeBob SquarePants, Pokémon, Josie and the Pussycats, the Disney Princesses–no one is safe from the sharp sword of satire in this 10:30 follow-up to South Park.

    Drawn Together is presented as if it were a real primetime reality series complete with hot tub hijinks and confessional breakdowns. Eight completely different cartoon characters from various genres and styles are thrown together in one house to have their lives taped for the viewing public. The housemates include Captain Hero, a not-so-moral do-gooder reminiscent of the Saturday-morning TV superheroes of the ’70s; Clara, a 20-year-old sweet and naïve fairy-tale princess; Toot, a pudgy, black-and-white heartthrob from the ’20s; Foxxy Love, a sexy mystery-solving musician; Spanky Ham, a foul-mouthed Internet-download pig; Ling-Ling, an adorable Asian trading card creature; Wooldoor-Sockbat, a wacky Pokémon-type creature; and Xandir, a strong young adventurer inspired by the great video game warriors.

    Comedy Central has ordered eight episodes of the show, created and written by Matt Silverstein and Dave Jeser, who serve as exec producers. Silverstein and Jeser previously served as writers on Comedy Central’s The Man Show and Fox’s Action and Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Zoe Friedman is the executive in charge of production for Comedy Central. The series is animated by Rough Draft.

  • YTV Orders More Being Ian

    Canadian broadcaster YTV has ordered an additional six episodes of Studio B’s original series, Being Ian. Studio B is in production on 32 half-hour installments of the show, which is slated to launch on YTV in January 2005. Just in time for Halloween, YTV will host a special preview episode titled Little Camp of Horrors on Oct. 30 at 3:30 p.m. ET/PT.

    Created by Ian James Corlett (Yvon of the Yukon) and designed by internationally acclaimed independent filmmaker Marv Newland (Bambi Meets Godzilla), Being Ian is aimed at kids 9-12 and follows the adventures of Ian Kelley, a boy with an incredible imagination and a fascination for films. The show blends Flash, stop-motion and 3D Maya animation to bring Ian’s daily exploits and off-the-wall fantasies to life.

    Studio B produced the original series as Yvon of the Yukon, What About Mimi? and D’Myna Leagues, which currently air in more than 22 countries around the world. The studio’s international co-productions include Something Else and Yakkity Yak, which currently air on Nickelodeon in the U.S. and TELETOON in Canada. Also in production are 26 half hours of Class of the Titans for TELETOON.

  • Batman Begins Game to Take Flight

    Holy joystick! As anticipation builds for the new Batman movie, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, DC Comics and Electronic Arts (EA) today announced that they have joined forces to bring the Batman Begins video game to multiple platforms in 2005. The game will be released on June 17, day and date with the film, for PlayStation 2, the PSP (PlayStation Portable) handheld system, Xbox, GameCube and Game Boy Advance.

    Jason Hall, senior VP of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, comments, "Batman Begins is the darker depiction of Batman that we’ve all been waiting for, and we are teaming with EA to bring players an edgy, action game that captures this tale,"

    Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics, adds, "This will mark the first time that a Batman video game has been developed to complement a film event, and we look forward to inviting players to step into the movie’s reality and make the world of Batman their own."

    Together, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and EA are overseeing all development and production aspects of the game, while EA will handle distribution. The title is being developed by U.K.-based Eurocom for the consoles, and by Vicarious Visions for the handhelds.

    The Batman Begins film explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight’s emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents’ murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne, played this time by Christian Bale (American Psycho, Laurel Canyon, Equilibrium), travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.

  • Gold Circle, Platinum Studios Ink $200 Million Deal

    In what is being called the largest deal in history between studios, financiers and comic book producers, independent comic book company Platinum Studios will see a number of its properties go to the big screen through New York-based Gold Circle Films. Under the $200 million, multi-project agreement, 10 motion pictures will be developed around characters from Platinum Studios’ library.

    Gold Circle production exec Zak Kadison brought the Platinum Studios deal to the company, where he will oversee production with Paul Brooks, president of Gold Circle Films. The first four projects are Seen, a thriller about a photographer who finds himself stalked after accidentally photographing a crime; Casting Shadows, a psychological thriller about a group of friends whose seemingly harmless magical games turn serious when one of them turns up dead; Book of Mercury, based on the comic book stories by Alan Moore about a magical book with the power to rewrite the future; and In Law and Order, an action-comedy about an FBI agent forced to team up with his tough cop dad and his mother-in-law, a fiery liberal judge.

    The four projects will begin production as early as 2005 with Brooks and Platinum’s chairman, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, producing. Gold Circle’s Norm Waitt and Scott Niemeyer will exec produce.

    Rosenberg comments, "With this $200 million fund from Gold Circle, there are no layers. We find a project and talent and can be in production within a year. From a financial standpoint, we participate at every level in a real way. Gold Circle has crafted a very forward thinking deal, and it is the first one of its kind that we have accepted, even though we’ve been approached with others."

    Founded by Rosenberg in 1997, Platinum Studios is known for comic-to-film adaptations and currently has features in development with Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Miramax Films and DreamWorks, among others. In addition, Rosenberg’s Malibu Comics has the Men in Black franchise at Sony.

    Gold Circle Films, which is backed by Gateway Computers billionaire Norm Waitt, previously released My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time. The company recently signed a first-look distribution arrangement with Universal Pictures. The first releases from this deal will be the thriller, White Noise, starring Michael Keaton. It opens nationwide January 7, followed by the February 4 theatrical release of the Debra Messing romantic comedy, The Wedding Date.

  • Mulan Returns to Disc

    Disney’s 1998 animated hit, Mulan, is out of the vault today with a two-disc special edition DVD. Fans of the film will enjoy a new digital transfer, a never-before-heard deleted song and a load of other extra features produced exclusively for this release.

    Mulan is the story of a young Chinese girl (voiced by Ming-Na Wen of TV’s ER) who sets out to prove her worth by disguising herself as a boy and joining the Imperial Army in her father’s place. With the help of her wisecracking guardian dragon, Mushu (Eddie Murphy), and a lucky cricket named Cri-Kee (Frank Welker), Mulan strives to earn the respect of her fellow warriors and their courageous Captain Shang as she trains to fight for her Emporer and the fate of her country. The film also stars the voices of B.D. Wong (TV’s Law & Order: SVU), George Takei (Star Trek), Pat Morita (The Karate Kid), Miguel Ferrer (Traffic).

    Bonus features include deleted scenes, new music videos, games, a behind-the-scenes documentary, early presentation reels, animation progression reels, audio commentary, storyboard-to-film comparisons, a Mulan’s World DisneyPedia entry and a selection of songs from the film. The Buena Vista Home Entertainment release lists for $19.99 on DVD and $15.99 on VHS.

  • Holiday Specials Abound On Home Vid

    Today’s slate of home video releases includes a raft of holiday specials going back to the 1983 animated classic, The Wind in the Willows. Also on shelves today are I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown; Garfield Holiday Celebrations and two volumes from the Dora the Explorer library.

    Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s book comes to life through animation in The Wind in the Willows, a 20-year old stop-motion animation favorite getting another look today thanks to A&E Home Video. Produced by Cosgrove-Hall, the film takes place in early 20th Century Britain, where friends Mole, Rat, Badger and Toad enjoy a series of musical adventures. Extras includes an interview with co-producer Brian Cosgrove, Toad’s Road trivia game and a photo gallery. The title carries a suggested retail price of $19.95.

    The new Peanuts holiday special, I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown!, premiered last Christmas on ABC and now it’s available on disc and tape courtesy of Paramount Home Video. The special centers on Rerun, the lovable but ever-skeptical younger brother of Linus and Lucy. Stressed out by his big sister, Rerun turns to best friend Snoopy for holiday cheer and ends up getting a dog of his own when he invites Snoopy’s canine brother, Spike, for a visit. But when Spike shows up, the real trouble begins.

    Like the other Peanuts TV outings, I Want a Dog for Christmas is directed and produced by Bill Melendez (long-time voice of Snoopy) and exec. produced by Lee Mendelson. The hour-long, 50th Peanuts animated TV special carries a suggested retail price of $14.99 on DVD and $9.95 on VHS.

    Garfield’s Holiday Celebrations includes the TV specials Garfield’s Halloween Adventure (1985), Garfield’s Thanksgiving (1989) and A Garfield Christmas (1987) on one disc. Produced by United Feature Syndicate and Film Roman Prods., the specials originally aired on CBS in the U.S. The Fox Home Entertainment release retails for $14.98 on DVD.

    There’s more holiday fun with the release of Dora the Explorer: Dora’s Christmas (2004), complete with a Santa’s Super Scavenger Hunt game. Available for $16.99 on DVD and $9.95 on VHS, the Paramount Home Video release arrives with Dora the Explorer: Dora’s Ultimate Adventures, a three-disc DVD collection featuring the episodes Map Adventures, City of Lost Toys and Rhymes and Riddles. The anthology runs 291 minutes and is priced around $30.

  • Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent Bows on DVD

    Geneon Ent. today brings chills and thrills to disc with the release of the anime series Paranoia Agent. Available for the first time in the U.S. are 13 episodes of the psychological spine tingler from acclaimed director Satoshi Kon, the visionary behind the features Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress and Perfect Blue.

    Produced by animation studio Madhouse (Gungrave, Trigun, Texhnolyze), Paranoia Agent is a supernatural journey into paranoid delusions and questionable reality that revolves around a mysterious boy on rollerblades who has been attacking people in Tokyo. The show was written by Seishi Minakami (Boogiepop Phantom).

    Paranoia Agent is available on DVD for $29.98. A limited edition collector’s box is also available for $39.98.

  • THQ Holds Onto Nick Game Licensee

    In a deal reportedly worth $75 million, THQ Inc. will continue to churn out interactive titles based on such popular cartoons as SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents. The video game publisher has extended its long-standing master licensing agreement with cable broadcaster Nickelodeon through 2010. New Nickelodeon properties to be exploited as part of the new deal include The Barnyard, Danny Phantom and everGirl.

    "Since the inception of our partnership in 1998, THQ and Nickelodeon have pioneered kids gaming, releasing six number one titles and selling through more than 20 million units worldwide,” says Leigh Anne Brodsky, president of Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products. "THQ has been a great partner to date and we look forward to building our videogame business into an even more important category for Nickelodeon."

    THQ and Nickelodeon first partnered for the 1998 release of Rugrats for PlayStation. Since then, the two companies have launched games based on more than 10 leading Nickelodeon brands. Through their "games first" agreement, they launched the original cross-media property Tak and the Power of Juju in October 2003 and followed it up with Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams earlier this month.

    As the contract neared expiration, THQ appeared to be facing some serious competition from Midway Games, which was recently acquired by Sumner Redstone, owner of Nickelodeon’s parent company, Viacom.

    THQ and Nickelodeon’s 2006 line-up will include games based on SpongeBob, OddParents, Nicktoons, Tak and Paramount/Nickelodeon Movie’s holiday 2005 theatrical release, The Barnyard Movie. THQ develops and publishes wireless content based on selected Nickelodeon properties through a separate agreement with Nick.com.

  • Shark Tale Can’t Hold Grudge

    DreamWorks’ animated hit, Shark Tale, circled the top spot at the box office for three consecutive weeks but lost a Grudge match this past weekend. Sony’s The Grudge, the latest Hollywood remake of a hit Japanese flick, scared up an estimated $40 million to knock Shark down a peg in the celluloid food chain.

    Directed by Takashi Shimizu, who also helmed the original version, The Grudge stars Sarah Michelle Gellar as an American nurse working in Tokyo, who finds herself in the clutches of a supernatural curse that haunts the house in which she’s living. Big X and Reality Check Studios provided visual effects for the film, which is exec produced by Sam Raimi, director of Sony’s Spider-Man films and the cult classic Evil Dead horror trilogy.

    Despite the demotion to the No. 2 spot, Shark Tale is still getting along swimmingly. The toon comedy earned another $14 million in week four, driving its total to an estimated $137 million. The pic is still ruling the overseas box office, taking in around $30.5 million in 24 markets.

    Miramax’s Shall We Dance, another remake of a Japanese film, crept up with an estimated $8.6 million to beat out Universal’s Friday Night Lights ($6.9 million) for the third spot. Rounding out the top five with around $6.6 million is Paramount’s Team America: World Police from the makers of South Park.

    The DreamWorks holiday comedy, Surviving Christmas, looks like it won’t even survive Halloween. The Ben Afleck/James Gandolfini vehicle debuted at No. 7 with a paltry $4.5 million, according to estimates.

  • Van Helsing Slays Video Competition

    Universal Home Video says it has sold more than four million combined DVD and VHS copies of Van Helsing during the first week of availability. The $160 million action/adventure/horror pic earned approximately $65 million at retail, topping the $51.7 million it opened to in domestic theaters before raking in nearly $300 million at the box office worldwide.

    Directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns), the CG-laden film stars Hugh Jackman as the title vampire killer, who travels to Eastern Europe to rid the world of an ancient evil with the help of the beautiful but deadly Anna, played by Pearl Harbor’s Kate Beckinsale. Adding to the monster mayhem is a smorgasbord of visual effects by ILM, Hatch FX, Illusion Arts and CIS.

    Van Helsing’s DVD extras offer commentary by Sommers, editor/producer Bob Duscay and actors Roxburgh (Dracula), Shuler Hensley (Frankenstein’s Monster) and Will Kemp (The Wolf Man). There are also featurettes titled Bringing the Monsters to Life and The Legend of Van Helsing, a 360° tour of Dracula’s castle, outtakes, a playable first level of the Van Helsing Xbox game and an innovative feature titled You Are in the Movie, which lets viewers experience the filmmaking process from the perspective of the actors via miniature cameras hidden on the set during filming. The disc lists for $29.98 and the VHS version is available for $22.98.

    A Van Helsing Ultimate Collector’s Edition is also available for a limited time. It includes such extras as a 360 degree self-guided tour of Frankenstein’s lab and a series of mini-documentaries titled Van Helsing: The Story, The Life, The Legend, which focus on each character in the film with excerpts, original set designs, ILM effects work, conceptual weapons sketches and more. In addition, this set includes the three classic Universal films that inspired Van Helsing–Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man.

  • Cartoon Network Leashes Nine Dog Christmas

    Cartoon Network has gone to the dogs, inking a multi-year deal for broadcast rights to Earthworks Ent.’s animated holiday special, Nine Dog Christmas. The cable toon channel joins a number of international broadcasters that have embraced the show since its market launch earlier this year.

    Narrated by James Earl Jones (The Lion King), Nine Dog Christmas tells the story of nine extraordinary stray dogs who come to Santa’s rescue when the reindeer flu threatens to cancel Christmas.

    Earthworks’ president and CEO, Peter Keefe (Z Force), who produced Nine Dog Christmas and developed the property’s marketing strategy, says the company plans to expand the holiday special into a major new franchise that will include a sequel titled Nine Dog Night of Fright and a Nine Dog TV series.

    International television market sales for Nine Dog Christmas are being handled by UK based Indigo Film & Television. The special will air on Disney channels in Italy, Germany, Asia and Taiwan, and on Fox Kids/Jetix networks throughout all of Latin America. Warner Home Video will distribute the title on DVD and VHS worldwide.

    A clip of the Nine Dog Christmas can be viewed at www.EarthworksEntertainment.com.