Kinsane Entertainment Inc., a global kids and family, multi-platform media company owned by Rainshine Entertainment, announces the acquisition of book adaptation rights for best-selling author Suzanne Selfors’ comedic Wedgie and Gizmo. Kinsane will develop the literary franchise as an animated series, as mobile games, consumer products, and more for worldwide release.
Published by HarperCollins and debuting to critical and commercial acclaim in 2017, Wedgie and Gizmo is the story of a blended family, as told from the alternating and singularly distinctive voices of the family pets: a deluded evil genius guinea pig named Gizmo and his happy-go-lucky rival, an equally deluded Welsh Corgi called Wedgie.
The book series begins as Elliot, his dad and Gizmo move into their new home, already occupied by Jasmine, Jackson, their mom and their mysterious Abuela — and of course, the sweet but annoying dog, Wedgie. Evil genius Gizmo’s hilarious and constantly derailed plans for a guinea pig uprising are turned on-end as the rodent becomes more convinced that blissfully ignorant Wedgie is his preordained super foe … determined to thwart GIZMO’S ambitions at every turn. As the fuzzy pets create chaos within the home and beyond, the books deftly explore the dynamics within a newly merged, multi-racial household during their process of becoming a family.
Shortly after publication, Wedgie and Gizmo received Amazon Best Book of the Month recognition, a Cybils Award from children’s and young adult book bloggers, a nomination for Japan’s prestigious Sakura Medal, finalist status for an Audible Audie Award, and 15 or so additional distinctions.
A 100% owned subsidiary of Rainshine Entertainment, an award-winning, multi-studio global entertainment conglomerate, Kinsane Entertainment, Inc. was co-founded by Kurt Inderbitzin, Indrani Pillai and Saahil Bhargava. Writer/producer Donna Ebbs will lead creative development on Wedgie and Gizmo for multiple platforms.
“We are so thrilled to welcome Wedgie and Gizmo to the family. It’s rare that a piece of material comes your way, and everyone who reads it — and I mean everyone — can’t wait for the next installment,” commented Kurt Inderbitzin, Co-Founder & CEO of Kinsane Entertainment. “When I read it, I found myself laughing out loud, but it was incredibly touching at the same time. That’s the magic of Suzanne’s writing, and what we will amplify in the series and within every part of this amazing brand.”
HarperCollins Director of Media Annabell Saks added, “Wedgie and Gizmo has certainly found a great home at Kinsane Entertainment. We can’t wait to see this beloved series come to life on multiple platforms under their trusted guidance.”
“These fur babies are all grown up!” said proud pet parent and author Selfors. “Kinsane Entertainment will give them the opportunity to fly to new heights in animation, video games, toys and beyond.”
Anime NYC Powered By Crunchyroll today announced its 2020 event has been cancelled due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event, the second largest Japanese popular culture convention in the U.S., was scheduled for November 20-22 in the Javits Center in New York, NY. Its 2020 edition has been cancelled entirely, and its next installment is now scheduled for November 19-21, 2021.
Anime NYC Powered By Crunchyroll was to celebrate its fourth year this year and set to bring together over 50,000 passionate attendees, premiere screenings, celebrity guests, and major Japanese entertainment brands including Crunchyroll, Aniplex of America Inc., Bandai Namco Arts, Bluefin, Funimation, GKIDS, HIDIVE, Kinokuniya, Kodansha, Sentai Filmworks, SUNRISE, VIZ Media and Yen Press. In previous years, the event has played host to guests such as producers and directors Yoshiyuki Tomino, Eunyoung Choi, and Fumihiko Sori; voice actors Aoi Yuki, Rie Kugimiya and Setsuo Ito; and musical guests Aimer, Guilty Kiss and Luna Haruna.
“After tremendous deliberation, we feel postponing until 2021 is the only right decision we can make,” said Anime NYC Show Director Peter Tatara. “We look to create an exciting, inviting, safe, and healthy celebration for New York’s anime community — and there’s no way to currently achieve this without putting this same community at coronavirus risk.”
All attendees who purchased tickets to Anime NYC will have the option to roll their tickets over to 2021 or receive refunds. Likewise, all exhibitors will have the option to move their booths to 2021 or be refunded. Attendees and exhibitors should all look for email communications in the next 72 hours with additional details.
Due to the continued COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, cities and states across the U.S. have limited large gatherings and begun to use convention centers, themselves, as virus testing sites and hospitals. Anime NYC is only the latest large event to postpone, and most conventions, conferences, and other major events across the U.S. have cancelled throughout 2020’s spring, summer, fall, and winter months.
While Anime NYC 2020 won’t physically take place, the team behind Anime NYC looks to present alternative and online programming and events before November 2021. Last month, Anime NYC launched the Anime News Network Connect presented by Anime NYC project, which features ongoing online anime events together with industry partners. Anime NYC will have more announcements, too, around additional ways it looks to celebrate the anime industry and anime fandom while physically remote.
For updates and more information, see animenyc.com or follow the event on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @animenyc.
Face-off with an arch nemesis from Boss Baby’s past in the new interactive special DreamWorks The Boss Baby: Get That Baby!, coming to Netflix on September 1. In a chewpie-triggered simulation exercise, a series of missions will test your potential as you climb the ranks of the professional ladder all the way from “Mail Room Baby” to the coveted title of Boss at Baby Corp. Choose wisely, as your decisions will help you defeat villains like cat-loving Bootsy Calico, babblist fraud Happy Sedengry and elderly curmudgeon Fredrick Estes on your race to the top.
Executive produced by Emmy Award winner Brandon Sawyer (The Penguins of Madagascar), the special features the voice talents of JP Karliak (Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production) as “Boss Baby,” Pierce Gagnon (Looper) as “Tim,” Kevin Michael Richardson (All Hail King Julien) as “Jimbo,” Alex Cazares (The Casagrandes) as “Staci,” Diedrich Bater (Veep) as “Junior Fancy,” Rhys Darby (Jumanji 2) as “Happy Sedengry,” Wendie Malick (Hot in Cleveland) as “Wendy McCracken,” Jake Green (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts) as “Bootsy Calico” and Victor Raider Wexler (Trollhunters) as “Frederick Estes.”
CBS All Access animated variety-news series Tooning Out the News launches its Tooning Out Election 2020focus this week with special coverage from the Democratic National Convention. With the tagline, “Real election. Cartoon coverage,” this week’s episodes will gather special guests and offer viewers up-to-the-minute updates and breaking news from the DNC with a super panel of hosts and analysts from the toon’s “Big News,” “Hot Take” and “Virtue Signal” segments.
Special guests will be Major Garrett, Chief Washington Correspondent for CBS News (Tues., August 18); Sarah McBride, Democrat candidate for Delaware in the U.S. Senate (Wed., August 19); Jennier Palmieri, political advisor and former White House Communications Director (Thurs., August 20); and Rep. Jim Himes, U.S. Congressman representing Connecticut’s 4th district.
L-R: Major Garrett, Sarah McBride, Jennifer Palimieri and Rep. Jim Himes
Tooning Out the News features a cast of animated characters, led by anchor James Smartwood, lampooning top news stories and interviewing real-world guests, newsmakers and analysts. New five- to seven-minute segments are available Tuesday through Friday, culminating in a weekly full episode. The series is executive produced by Stephen Colbert and Chris Licht of CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and RJ Fried and Tim Luecke from Showtime’s Our Cartoon President.
When 1987’s The Puppetoon Movie was finally released to Blu-ray in 2013, it was met with wide acclaim as both an animation event and a much-deserved, loving tribute to film pioneer George Pal. Now, a second volume of amazing Pal creations is coming soon in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack — available or pre-order now!
Producer Arnold Leibovit (The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal, The Puppetoon Movie, 2002’s The Time Machine) presents a landmark collection of beautifully restored stop-motion animated shorts. Leibovit’s mentor and friend George Pal began his storied career by creating a series of groundbreaking animated shorts between 1932 and 1947, utilizing his own puppet replacement technique. These stunning films earned Pal an Oscar, and saw him nominated for several more. Pal later went on to produce or direct such fantasy film classics as The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, When Worlds Collide, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao and The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm.
The new The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 Blu-ray/DVD set was made possible by the assistance of Paramount Pictures (the original distributor of The Puppetoons) and the astounding discovery of several long-lost Pal films from Europe, a few of which will appear on this second volume. The result is a brilliant collection of films that have not been seen in decades — and some never outside of Europe — all meticulously restored in high definition.
The set collects 18 films, which even includes a couple of rarely-seen Pal-produced cel-animated shorts from the 1930s. All films are from original 35mm Nitrate IB Technicolor prints, or the original Three-Strip Technicolor successive negatives. These shorts are all new to home video, except for Ship of the Ether, which appears here for the first time in HD. Of special interest to fans will be licensed appearances in these films by none other than Bugs Bunny and Superman, both at the height of their popularity when these shorts were made.
Pre-order The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 at www.puppetoon.net.
Berlin-based animation and VFX studio Woodblock — one of the contributors to new Netflix animated feature addition Latte & the Magic Waterstone — announced the appointment of Conrad Ostwald as Head of Production. Ostwald’s extensive skills in production management are a key addition to the independent studio’s ongoing mission to streamline pipeline and production processes.
Ostwald began his career at Buck New York, spending six years refining his skills in design, animation and project management. Returning to Berlin in 2013, he freelanced as a motion designer and VFX compositor in a number of leading studios including Rise FX, Sehsucht and Parasol Island, before joining Foam Studio in 2018 as Head of Production. After simultaneously tackling creative tasks whilst enhancing his production management skills, Ostwald joined Woodblock.
As Head of Production, Ostwald will ensure that projects of all sizes will run smoothly, both for the team at Woodblock and for clients. An experienced artist, Ostwald is acutely aware of the issues that can arise throughout production, allowing him to foresee and tackle any potential setbacks in advance. In addition to this, he will utilize the skills developed from working at numerous studios to further streamline Woodblock’s pipeline and production processes, acting as a source of communication between artists and clients.
“Woodblock has always been one of my favorite studios in Berlin,” said Ostwald. “They’re a wonderful team, covering such a wide range of creative and technically challenging productions – whether this is character animations, full commercial campaigns, or cinematic CG shorts. Knowing that there are entire shows in development really excites me both as a producer and a creative. I’m grateful for the opportunity to run these bigger productions whilst developing formats beyond a commercial focus.”
“I can’t wait to spend my days working with such a large and international group of talented people, sharing knowledge and discussing our professional and personal ambitions at the office or over drinks in buzzing Kreuzberg,” he added.
Ilija Brunck, Managing Partner at Woodblock, commented, “We are excited to have Conrad finally join the team. His skill set – especially his sophisticated organisation and communication skills – is a key addition to our ongoing mission of streamlining our production workflows. He also adds a treasure trove of connections that can enhance our expansive network of artistic talent. All of us here at Woodblock are looking forward to working with Conrad as he refines, develops, and broadens our line of work with his strong motivation and wonderfully positive attitude.”
Learn more at woodblock.tv or follow the studio on Instagram (@woodblock.tv).
Cloudco Entertainment, owner of iconic entertainment brand Care Bears, signed a long-term deal with Moonbug, the world’s largest digital kids media company for content creation, distribution and management of the Care Bears YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/carebears), starting immediately.
Cloudco and Moonbug partnered to produce a YouTube-first show featuring the Care Bears characters and original pop music. The 26-episode 2D animated series, Unlock the Music, complements the Care Bears: Unlock the Magic TV series in style and tone while incorporating elements that make it appropriate for the specific digital platforms. Moonbug co-owns the show and is responsible for global distribution, along with distribution of the Care Bears back catalogue on YouTube which features content from the brand’s nearly 40-year history.
Moonbug, a kids’ entertainment company founded in 2018 by entertainment veterans, brought in a $145 million investment last fall in order to expand its portfolio of content to help children build essential life skills. Last month, Moonbug announced that it has raised an additional $120 million in capital and acquired two YouTube kids channel juggernauts: CoComelon, the world’s most-viewed YouTube channel with 3.5 billion average monthly views, and Blippi, an educational live-action YouTube channel with 24 million subscribers and an average of 570 million monthly views. Moonbug’s other core brands include Little Baby Bum, with more than 80 million YouTube subscribers, and a recently launched slate of new products in conjunction with master toy partner MGA/Little Tikes.
“As existing fans of the Care Bears, it was easy to see the potential of partnering with Cloudco to introduce Moonbug’s existing large fanbase to such a fun and meaningful kid’s brand,” said Dan’l Hewitt, Head of Global Business, Moonbug. “With our extensive platform and audience insights, and a lot of new and fun music videos that we think are creatively appealing to all audiences – we’re confident that The Care Bears will be climbing to the top of the charts.”
“We’re excited to partner with the likes of Moonbug and equally proud of the all-new music and music videos featured in Care Bears: Unlock the Music,” said Sean Gorman, Cloudco Ent. President. “The Care Bears is a brand inherently built around diversity, inclusiveness, fun and pop culture and I can’t think of a better moment in time for such things – and these bears – to be front and center for a new generation of kids.”
This Cloudco/Moonbug partnership also aligns with the relaunch of Care Bears toys with new master toy partner, Basic Fun!. The new toy line rolled out successfully at Walmart.com and is now in-store at Walmart and Target as well as Amazon.com and a number of other online and brick and mortar retailers across the U.S., U.K. and Canada.
Care Bears: Unlock the Magic TV series is now airing on Boomerang and Cartoon Network in the U.S., Tiny Pop in the U.K., Nickelodeon/Noggin in Latin America, Tiji in France, and many other broadcasters worldwide.
On Friday, September 4, Disney+ will debut 10 episodes of its first original talk show Earth to Ned, produced by The Jim Henson Company and Marwar Junction Productions. The fresh take on the late-night format stars larger-than-life extraterrestrial creatures Ned and Cornelius as they interview some of the biggest stars in our galaxy.
This brand new talk show is hosted by alien commander Ned and his lieutenant Cornelius, who call off the invasion of Earth after they fall in love with human culture. Broadcasting from the bridge of their spaceship, hidden deep underground, Ned and Cornelius interview Earth’s greatest resource: celebrities. With the help of the ship’s artificial intelligence, BETI, and the destructive CLODs (Cloned Living Organisms of Destruction), Ned must keep his show a secret from his home planet or suffer the wrath of his father, the Admiral of the Galactic Fleet.
Each episode focuses on a topic or theme that is both equally unique to earthlings and fascinating to Ned, including comedy, sports, social media and fashion. Ned beams in celebrity guests from across the known universe to put on the ultimate chat show, and the more he learns about our human culture, the more obsessed he becomes.
Celebrity guests this season include Joshua Bassett (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series), Rachel Bilson (The O.C.), Michael Ian Black (Wet Hot American Summer), Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Gina Carano (The Mandalorian), RuPaul (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Taye Diggs (Rent), Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), Bindi and Robert Irwin (Crikey! It’s the Irwins), Gillian Jacobs (Love), NeNe Leakes (The Real Housewives of Atlanta), Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!), Joel McHale (Community), Andy Richter (Conan), Olivia Rodrigo (High School Musical: The Musical: The Series), Eli Roth (Hostel), Kristen Schaal (Gravity Falls), Paul Scheer (The League), Jenny Slate (Zootopia), Raven Symoné (Raven’s Home), Reggie Watts (The Late Late Show with James Corden) and Billy Dee Williams (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back).
Earth to Ned is produced by The Jim Henson Company and Marwar Junction Productions. The series is executive produced by Brian Henson and Vince Raisa from The Jim Henson Company and Joseph Freed and Allison Berkley from Marwar Junction Productions.
Ned, Cornelius, BETI and the army of CLODs are brought to life by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the team behind some of Hollywood’s most iconic characters.
With an ambitious program of conferences and business meetings, Mexico’s Pixelatl association presented the program for its virtual 2020 festival late last week, promising that “it will not be another cycle of online conferences like so many that have emerged lately,” but an international bonding and learning experience for all artists and entrepreneurs in the creative industries of Mexico and Latin America.
The event, which will take place September 1-5 online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be attended by top executives from major international networks such as Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Netflix, Fox, Discovery Kids, Sony Pictures Animation, Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation TV, Amazon Studios, the BBC, PBS and Televisa, among others, which will be open to business meetings with participating studios to see their ideas for new intellectual properties or service work capabilities.
“In the midst of the economic crisis, a consequence of the COVID pandemic, the creative industry can be an engine of economic recovery for Mexico and Latin America,” said José Iñesta, Pixelatl’s director.
Iñesta explained that thanks to the business meetings and connections created in previous years, several Mexican animation studios have obtained contracts to provide animation for some of the most popular series that are transmitted by international networks, SVODs or through other international channels. In addition, Cartoon Network, Discovery Kids, Netflix and NatGeo Kids have purchased intellectual properties that were presented to them at Pixelatl.
“Each Festival is part of a process that takes place over the course of the year, the best 10 or 12 series or animated film projects that are presented to the networks are selected from the Ideatoon call. Some of the previous year’s projects are already being produced,” explained Iñesta. “For the delegates of the studios that attend, a pre-agenda of business meetings is prepared based on information that they fill out after registering their participation. Also, there is a help desk during the networking event to help networks find more appointments with studios from Latin America.”
Recruitment:
National and international studios participate in the event to recruit new talent. In previous years, for example, Quebec companies have hired Mexican creators both to work remotely from Mexico and to relocate to their studios in Canada. Moreover, bigger studios take advantage of the event to meet new talent and emerging artists with an eye to recruiting.
“This year, major studios will be recruiting and doing portfolio reviews, like Laika, Bento Box, Disney and Nickelodeon,” said Christian Bermejo, Pixelatl’s Artistic Director.
Women in Animation:
During the press conference, Bermejo was in charge of presenting details of the Pixelatl Festival program, pointing out that it was designed to highlight and promote female talent in the industry. For this reason, among the main guests at the festival are Rebecca Sugar, creator of Steven Universe, and Mexican creator Sofia Alexander, who will present a stellar presentation of her upcoming Crunchyroll Original Series, Onyx Equinox.
Other prominent guests include Taneka Stots, who has also been a comic-book editor; Julia Pott, creator of the acclaimed HBO Max animated series Summer Camp Island; art director Linda Chen, who is currently working at DreamWorks TV on Guillermo del Toro’s Tales of Arcadia series; the Germany-based Dutch illustrator “Loish,” whose illustrations go viral on social media globally; and Bolivian animator Matisse Gonzalez Jordán, who will present a pilot developed for Cartoon Network.
Learn more about previously announced speakers here.
Additional Highlights:
With over 100 activities making up the 2020 Pixelatl Festival program, some other standouts include:
The exclusive premiere of a new Cartoon Network show
Four talks and panels by Nickelodeon Animation, from an artistic and business perspective
A panel with the supervising directors of iconic adult animated series BoJack Horseman, The Simpson, American Dad!, The Midnight Gospel and Paradise PD
An exploration of the Star Wars universe with a panel of ILM executives and artists
Disney Animation panel with legendary animators
A presentation with the creators of new FOX flagship series Duncanville
The complete program and information on attending Pixelatl Festival will be available at elfestival.mx.
Lezhin Entertainment has partnered with Anime-Planet to provide exclusive content for Anime-Planet’s online reading portal, which offers a legal way to read manga, light novels and webtoons through partnerships with the industry.
With this agreement, Lezhin will offer hundreds of webtoon episodes through Anime-Planet’s portal that are exclusive to the Lezhin Comics platform, spanning popular genres such as BL, GL, romance, action and more. Users can read selected episodes for free on Anime-Planet and get links to read more at Lezhin Comics.
Anime-Planet reaches over 5 million monthly users worldwide and is a leading destination for webtoon fans. In addition to the online reading portal and a similar watch online portal, Anime-Planet features an information database for a wide range of content such as manhwa, manga, webtoons, OELs, light novels and other media, with the ability to keep track of your reading history. Users can discover new content by browsing personalized recommendations or filtering the database using hundreds of curated tags, publisher/label information and many other options.
Lezhin will continue to work closely with Anime-Planet to bring more webtoon content to the community in the future.
“I’m excited for this opportunity to share the amazing webtoons we have at Lezhin Entertainment with a larger global audience,” said Jae Heung Jeon, President of Lezhin Entertainment’s U.S. division. “Anime-Planet, as a leading destination for webtoon information, represents an amazing opportunity to reach a broader audience with Korean webtoons.”
“We’re so excited to announce this partnership with Lezhin,” said Anime-Planet founder Kim Cameron. “Webtoons are incredibly popular to the Anime-Planet community, and Lezhin webtoons in particular frequently appear in our top user ratings, which includes not only webtoons, but also manga, OELs and light novels. Lezhin has a great deal of unique content that will give our community even more choices for supporting the legal publishing industry.”
Founded in 2013, Lezhin is a pioneer in the industry and one of the most popular webtoon companies in the world, offering exclusive all-ages and adult webtoon content in Korean, Japanese, English and French markets. Follow Lezhin Comics on Twitter (@LezhinComics_US), Instagram (@lezhincomics.us) and Facebook (/lzhncomics) to stay up to date on new releases and promotions.
Anime-Planet was created in 2001 by fans, for fans. Anime-Planet offers the ability to track the anime you’ve seen and the manga, webtoons and OELs that you’ve read; has personalized anime and manga recommendations; allows you to legally read and watch content online through industry partnerships; and has a vast content database for anime and manga, tags, characters and staff. Learn more at Anime-Planet.com and follow on Twitter (@animeplanet), Instagram (@officialanimeplanet) and Facebook (/animeplanet).
With the flexible and tech-savvy animation industry proving one of the entertainment factions best able to transition to work-from-home and weather pandemic turmoil, added to the disruption of schooling during lockdown, South Africa’s Gauteng Film Commission and the African Animation Network (organizers of the FUPiTOONS FESTiVAL) have joined forces to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with a series of “mini-workshops,” called FUPiVERSiTY. The program is aimed at highschoolers seeking a pandemic-resistant career path.
“Animation is not only a pandemic-resistant industry, it has the potential to create a significant amount of employment for the youth of South Africa in a period when Africa is positioning itself as a global hotspot for animation services,” said Desmond Mthembu, Senior Manager, Industry Support Development at the GFC. “The GFC’s mandate is to promote Gauteng and South Africa as a film destination, we’d like that to extend to animation services and cement the province as an animation destination.”
“And for that to happen, we need a skilled workforce,” added Nthabeleng Phora, Skills Training and Audience Development & Industry Support and Development at the GFC. “Furthermore, with FUPiVERSiTY being an initiative run by AAN’s FUPiTOONS FESTiVAL, we believe that there are synergies between the young audience that view the festival content and the learners amongst them that would like to explore opportunities within the African animation industry.”
FUPiVERSiTY maps a path for learners to develop skills in animation (Animation Hacks) and writing for animation (Writing 101) with the curricula developed respectively by Thinus van Rooyen, who completed his masters at les Gobelins, France and is currently a professor at Savannah College of Art and Design (U.S.), and Garland-Waide Bradford, Head of Communications at AAN, who has a BA Honours in Media Studies and has written for animated TV series.
“Over a year ago Garland, Thinus and I discussed the challenges of entering the animation industry and reasoned that core skills can be acquired at relatively low expense,” explained Nick Wilson, Head of Projects & Content for AAN. “Essentially, learners only need readily available stationary like pens, pencils and paper. Thereafter, we developed some mini-workshops (3-5 minutes in duration, reasonably cost-effective in terms of data expenses) to convey this message. And to further underscore that learners don’t need expensive equipment to develop and produce decent content, we used a smartphone and a cheap microphone to record the mini-workshops.”
AAN also used the opportunity to blood some very promising interns in post-production, with Monicca Rampine as assistant video editor (who’s duties included color grading), and Joel Mutshaeni as motion graphics designer.
The FUPiVERSiTY mini-workshops will go live on Monday, August 17 on the following platforms:
Marthinus “Thinus” van Rooyen is a professor of animation and an animation director, currently teaching at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the United States. Thinus is a past lecturer at The Animation School in Johannesburg, South Africa. He graduated in 2019 from the prestigious Gobelins l’ecole de l’image in Paris, France. He is co-director of the graduate film Dogs, which was an Official Selection of Annecy Festival 2020.
Garland-Waide Bradford
Garland-Waide Bradford has a career path that has varied from corporate work as a PR manager in communications strategy to media work as an insert producer for factual television. Growing up in a township meant that many educational opportunities were out of reach due to access and financial constraints. Garland completed his BA Honours in Media Studies in 2017. His focus has been on media management and has been studying models of sustainability in the media for several years. In 2017 he started his journey as Head of Communications with the African Animation Network, where he hopes to use his skills to empower aspirant African animation professionals to further their global reach.
Having just celebrated its 15th anniversary, Portland-area animation studio LAIKA — creators of the Oscar-nominated stop-motion features Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and 2020 Golden Globe winner Missing Link — has laid off 56 of its 362 employees in cost-saving measures driven by COVID-19 safety concerns. The studio intends to rehire these staffers when possible.
“[LAIKA] holds the safety and well-being of its employees as its highest concern,” a representative told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday. “With no end in sight to the pandemic, we have rolled off 56 staff from our crew with the intention to hire them back at a future date when we can expand the number of people we can safely have in our buildings.”
While most animation and visual effects studios were quickly able to shift to work-from-home systems when the global pandemic shut down in-person production, the detailed sets and large number of props, puppets, facial replacement pieces and rigging LAIKA uses to create its animated epics can require a huge amount of space and multiple animators working in tandem, depending on the scope and complexity of the scene.
However, the studio is in active pre-production on its yet-to-be-announced sixth movie. Only essential staff are currently working on site at the Hillsboro, Oregon headquarters, with the majority working from home.
LAIKA President & CEO Travis Knight (director of Kubo and the Two Strings) told THRback in April that the studio would continue full pay and benefits for all employees during the shutdown, saying, “When this ends, and it will end, the world will need storytellers more than ever.” At the time, LAIKA was expecting to be closed through May 1 at minimum.
You can read more about LAIKA’s process in Animation Magazine‘s 2019 feature story on Missing Linkhere.
Marie Moore has been named Senior Vice President, Communications of the Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics division, it was announced Friday by Tom Ascheim, President, Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics.
In her new role, Moore will be responsible for developing the internal and external communications strategies and leading the communications team for KYAC’s businesses, including Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) as well as Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation (television). Moore will report jointly to Ascheim and Johanna Fuentes, Warner Bros.’ executive vice president of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. Moore starts on Monday, August 17.
“I’m excited that we’re able to add someone with Marie’s expertise and media relationships, as well as deep ties across the WarnerMedia organization, to the team,” said Ascheim. “She’s a respected, innovative communications executive, and we’ll look to her to help us craft our messaging, not just about our incredible programming, but also our desire for continued expansion in the kids, young adults and classics space.”
Marie Moore is a WarnerMedia communications veteran and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Communications, TNT, TBS, truTV and HBO Max, a post she left at the end of 2019. In that role, she was part of the senior management team with oversight of the communications strategy for WarnerMedia Entertainment’s suite of top-rated linear cable networks TNT, TBS and truTV, and execution for HBO Max. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President, Communications for TNT and TBS.
Before joining WarnerMedia, Moore spent eight years at AMC Networks, most recently as Senior Vice President, Public Relations, IFC. She also served as Vice President, Corporate Communications, AMC and WEtv.
Earlier in her career, she served as Vice President, Corporate Technology Practice at Cohn & Wolfe, Director of Media Relations, Cable and Communications at Cablevision and an Account Manager at Connors Communications.
Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics brings together Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang and TCM, as well as Cartoon Network Studios and Warner Bros. Animation. Among the iconic franchises, series and characters under the GKYAC banner are Looney Tunes, DC’s animated Super Heroes, Rick and Morty, Craig of the Creek, the classic Hanna-Barbera library, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Warner Bros.’ unrivalled film library, and many more.
GKYAC’s mission is to be the premiere global provider of kids, family, young adults, and classics content and brands. The group’s programming supplies unique and compelling content for HBO MAX, WarnerMedia’s direct-to-consumer platform. Warner Bros. GKYAC’s content is currently distributed in 192 countries around the world and the division’s networks are in 500 million homes, delivered through more than 65 channels in 31 languages.
Crunchyroll has shared the brand-new trailer for upcoming Crunchyroll Original series Noblesse, which will premiere in October. The show about a centuries-old “Noble” charged with protecting other bluebloods is directed by Yasutaka Yamamoto (Hinomaru Sumo), with Shunsuke Tada as chief director, Sayaka Harada on series composition and Akiharu Ishii handling character designs and chief animation supervision; produced by Crunchyroll and WEBTOON.
Synopsis: Raizel awakens from his 820-year slumber. He holds the special title of Noblesse, a pure-blooded Noble and protector of all other Nobles. In an attempt to protect Raizel, his servant Frankenstein enrolls him at Ye Ran High School, where Raizel learns the simple and quotidian routines of the human world through his classmates. However, the Union, a secret society plotting to take over the world, dispatches modified humans and gradually encroaches on Raizel’s life, causing him to wield his mighty power to protect those around him…
After 820 years of intrigue, the secrets behind his slumber are finally revealed, and Raizel’s absolute protection as the Noblesse begins!
The top anime brand has also announced the cast for the series, which includes:
Cadis Etrama di Raizel will be played by Tarusuke Shingaki (Mirio in My Hero Academia)
Frankenstein will be played by Daisuke Hirakawa (Momotaro in Hozuki’s Coolheadedness)
M-21 will be played by Kousuke Onishi (Neinhart in Fairy Tail)
Tashiro Yusuke will be played by Ryota Iwasaki (Inasa in My Hero Academia)
Kase Manabu will be played by Yohei Hamada (Bathin in As Miss Beelzebub Likes it.)
Noblesse is based on the WEBTOON comics series of the same name, written by Jeho Son and illustrated by Kwangsu Lee. Fans can get a special sneak peek at the seires from the creators during the Virtual Crunchyroll Expo, being held September 4-6 (free pass registrations open now at www.crunchyrollexpo.com.
Noblesse is the latest Crunchyroll Original series to premiere this year, alongside In/Spectre, Tower of God and The God of High School, to name a few.
As if 2020 couldn’t get more surreal, this week saw a Twitter tiff between a presidential campaign adviser and a beloved mild-mannered cartoon mom.
On Wednesday, Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis tweeted that Joe Biden’s recently announced VP pick and former Democratic presidential nominee contender Kamala Harris “sounds like Marge Simpson.” Fans quickly leapt to The Simpsons matriarch’s defense on the platform.
Marge Simpson the capable woman who always has to clean up the mess made by Homer Simpson and her son Bart became the Chief Justice, her daughter the President of USA that Marge Simpson ??? #MargeSimpson#TheSimpsonspic.twitter.com/rYHxZNtlod
But viewers know that Marge isn’t afraid to fight her own battles. The official @TheSimpsons account responded with an animated video soapbox for the “ordinary suburban housewife” of Springfield on Friday.
Marge (who is played by Julie Kavner in the record-breaking animated sitcom) says in the video:
“I usually don’t get into politics, but the President’s senior adviser, Jenna Ellis, just said Kamala Harris sounds like me! Lisa says she doesn’t mean it as a compliment. If that’s so, as an ordinary suburban housewife, I’m starting to feel a little disrespected. I teach my children not to name call, Jenna.
“I was gonna say I’m pissed off, but I’m afraid they’d bleep it.”
The suburban housewife” descriptor is a reference to another Tweet, in which Trump declared, “The ‘suburban housewife’ will be voting for me. They want safety & are thrilled that I ended the long running program where low income housing would invade their neighborhood. Biden would reinstall it, in a bigger form, with Corey Booker in charge!”
***This article originally appeared in the August ’20 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 302)***
One of the major draws of the annual SIGGRAPH confab is its ability to match animation and vfx studios with recent college graduates and job applicants. To help our readers, we asked some of the top studio recruiters and hiring execs about the key positions they were looking to fill and the skill sets they’re looking for in their ideal applicants:
Brooke Keesling
Bento Box | Brooke Keesling, Head of Animation Talent Development
Now Hiring: We have been hiring all year, and we’ve been very busy in production even during quarantine, with all of our artists and producers working safely from home. As I type this, we have openings for Storyboard Artists, Directors, Designers (Background, Character, Prop, Color), Art Directors, Animation Checkers, Producers, Post Production Supervisors, etc. We are incredibly busy right now and are so excited to hire many talented people and welcome them to Bento Box. We have many shows in production (Bob’s Burgers, Central Park, Duncanville, The Great North, to name a few) as well as in development. It’s a terrific time to break into animation!
Portfolio Tips: Make sure that your portfolio is current and organized, so we can easily find the work that you’d like us to see! And make sure to check our careers website regularly, since we are always adding new positions!
Best Approach: Many people contact me through LinkedIn and email, which is delightful. But the main thing we’d like people to do is apply at our website (www.bentoboxent.com) — that’s where we can see all of the talented applicants in one place, and that is the first step in our hiring pipeline.
As I said before, Bento Box is extremely busy right now and we are always looking for a diverse array of talent! Check our website often, and please keep applying: We recruiters at Bento Box always do our best to help talent find a spot in our studio!
Helpful Tips: I love seeing work in a variety of platforms and formats such as Vimeo, Instagram, Twitter, personal websites, zines, comics, etc. As long as we can find the work that you want us to see, you’re all good. For instance, if you’re applying for a Character Designer job, make sure to send us a link to your character designs. I know it sounds basic, but you would be surprised how much searching we recruiters have to do sometimes!
Biggest No-Nos: Sometimes we find amazing artists who have no contact information listed, or their email address is no longer working. Please make sure that your current email address is easy to find so we can reach out to hire you. Also, if your portfolio is password protected, please include the password in your application.
Matt Roberts
Disney Feature Animation | Matt Roberts, Artistic Recruiter
Now Hiring: The bulk of all our current hiring is focused on our next film, Raya and the Last Dragon, with just a splash of recruitment focused on our unannounced film that will follow it.
Available Positions: Since we’re well into production on Raya, our hiring has been focused on disciplines for shot production such as Character TDs (especially for technical animation/character fx) and Lighting. We are also looking for Look Development Artists (our title for CG texture/shading artists) for future roles.
Best Approach: Our recruitment team is on LinkedIn. Those interested in our opportunities can also check our Open Positions page on www.disneyanimation.com and can follow us on social media as Walt Disney Animation Studios on LinkedIn, @DisneyAnimJobs on Twitter, and @DisneyAnimationCareers on Facebook.
Portfolio Tips: To make your application as specific as possible to the job you’re applying to and to read the job posting carefully for the preferred format for work. If a specific format is requested, such as a reel as opposed to still images or specific file format such as .mov or .pdf, it’s because it’s the preferred presentation format of the hiring managers to view the full potential of your work and will only set you up for potential success with your application.
Desired Skill Sets: This can vary depending on the role, but universal criteria that tends to be true to most of our disciplines are appeal, observation, storytelling and versatility of craft (as in, whatever specific role you’re applying for, you can show a range of skill and variety of work within that discipline).
Biggest No-No: I’d say forgetting to include a password to a password-protected reel. You’d be surprised how often this happens. Including both a link and its accompanying password to your reel on your resume can definitely help cover your bases to ensure the password isn’t lost in the application process.
Now Hiring: DreamWorks Animation is actively hiring for many TV and film projects in development and production at the studio.
Available Positions: Story, Art, Previs/Rough Layout, Storyboarding, CG (Animation, Effects, Character TD, Crowds, Lighting, Riggers) and Production
Best Approach: Please apply for open positions or express interest for future positions at DreamWorksAnimation.com.
Portfolio Tips: Present your latest released work and tailor your submissions to suit the job you are applying for by reviewing the job description. In all our disciplines, we are looking for a balance of your strong unique artists’ point of view and your ability to adapt to the different art directions and story needs of our varied DreamWorks projects. Show us work that demonstrates your innovative ideas, solid fine art foundations, technical ability, storytelling, acting, history, and passion. Also, check out our #CareerTipsTuesday at facebook.com/DreamWorksCareers.
Desired Skill Sets: More than being an expert with one software program or technique, we are looking for artists and production people who love collaboration, contributing to a variety of styles needed for art and storytelling, problem solving and a sense of fun. You can learn to use the newest tool set if you have a well-developed eye and a taste for creating the unknown.
Biggest No-No: Forgetting to provide the password to your reel or portfolio!
Netflix Animation
Netflix Animation
Now Hiring: Netflix is in an exciting position to have an unprecedented number of shows in production across features, kids & family series, preschool series and adult series. We are actively working on projects in development, pre-production and production.
Available Positions: As we continue to grow as a studio we are always looking to connect with the amazing talent in the industry. We will be looking to hire artists not only this summer but throughout the year in the front-end production areas like storyboard artists, storyboard revisionist, visual development artists, character designers and production management.
Desired Skill Sets: Each position will have a job description outlining the specific needs but overall we look for amazing artists that are passionate and looking to help shape the new wave of animation! We look for creativity and imagination, storytelling sensibilities, communication and collaboration, and the ability to innovate!
Best Approach: Imagine getting a birthday card from someone who only signed their name to the bottom. We all get these on occasion from people who have maybe sold us life insurance in the past. They are easily disregarded; open-read-toss. Now, imagine a card where along with the typical corny prose included in birthday cards that person added their own personal note. Something you both shared, an experience, etc. It’s harder to toss that second card because the person invested their time beyond just signing their name. It’s the same with candidates reaching out to studios. I
If in their email or PM via social media they offer a thought like, “Hey there, I loved what you guys did on the XYZ episode of the 123 Show. So cool! I think the work I do could add a certain something-something to that show, can you please take a look?” it elevates them from those who just send a CV or a link. It’s all about branding and investment. How are they different from other candidates? What can they add to the mix that we may be missing — be it a unique style, a unique story? We are thirsty for new voices to come in and expand our points of view; be that via art, storytelling or elsewhere in the production pipeline.
Portfolio Tips: This is going to sound as worn out as an old doormat, but it is still true: best images first and best work only! Some artists think that quantity of work trumps quality. That’s rarely the case. We’d rather see fewer well-executed images than many that fall into the so-so category. By displaying so-so work, the candidate is telling the recruiter, “I don’t know the difference between the good stuff and the stuff that needs more work.” That’s not the message a candidate wants to convey.
As the expression goes, “Kill your darlings!” A candidate should be severe in curating their portfolio, only their best work! It might be wise to ask a peer artist or a trusted professor to help in this culling/selection process as they can offer a more impartial opinion.
Biggest No-Nos: Every recruiter has a story about No-Nos. One recruiter on our team shares that at an animation conference, a candidate followed her into the bathroom to strike up a conversation. Others will share tales of candidates that reach out on a weekly basis to ask for an update on their status. We as a recruiting community need to do better about communicating back with candidates, far too often the norm is that a candidate will apply and after getting an automatic “Thank you for your interest” email they receive no further correspondence. This ghosting must be frustrating and it’s something we should address.
It’s welcomed to check in once a month or so, better still when the candidate has new work that they want to share, but checking in repeatedly without new work just feels awkward.
Candidates need to know that the feeling of helping a candidate find the right role for them, one that we know they’ll crush, is why we do this.
That matchmaking takes time, or it takes no time at all; sometimes it’s like magic, but most times it’s like that machine they use when you are getting new glasses (You know the one, A or B? B or C?) with the recruiter showing various candidate’s work to the teams and looking for the one that best aligns the talent of the candidate with the needs of the show. Trust me, if the production sees how that candidate addresses that need, the recruiter will jump to connect!
Jana Day
Sony Pictures Animation | Jana Day, Executive Director, Recruiting
Now Hiring: Sony Pictures Animation is actively recruiting for two movies in production (one is the Spider-Man: Into theSpider-Verse sequel slated for 2022) and several in development. We also recruit for TV animation development and we have multiple projects moving through the process at any given time.
Available Positions: We have the creative front end of production. We look for visual development artists (character, environment, props, color & light and 3D vis dev), story artists and editors.
Best Approach: Sony Pictures Animation posts on our website, SonyPicturesAnimation.com, as well as LinkedIn and Twitter. You can also find our individual recruiter pages on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Helpful Tips:
Keep it simple. Your portfolio website should be easy to navigate and show only your best work. Include work that shows appeal, versatility, solid draftsmanship, originality and a range of styles and designs.
Show all the work from beginning to rendered piece. We like to see how you think and how you overcame certain challenges. The final pieces are great, but there is beauty in the process.
Build relationships. We are a small industry and there are so many resources available to connect with other artists. Connect through alumni networks, animation events or associations. Connect and share your work.
Be patient. We work in an industry that can be churning away at 100 miles a minute one day, and the next it can slow to a crawl.
Feedback. We look at all the artwork, but we can’t always provide specific feedback to everyone.
Rejection happens. It’s not that we don’t like your artwork, it just means we don’t have a style match for you at that particular point in time.
Desired Skill Sets: Our artists work across a wide variety of projects. We don’t have a specific house style. Our artists are always pushing themselves in their designs or storytelling. They look for unique ways to tell a story and want to work with artists that enjoy pushing the boundaries.
To do this, we look for artists with excellent draftsmanship, a good sense of design and color, versatility in styles and approaches. Someone that can color inside the lines, but more importantly, can also color outside of them. Someone with a sense of unique appeal, highly creative and unusual. We like team players that take direction well but are also easily adaptable and can turn their artistic direction on a dime.
Biggest No-Nos: Be prepared. Research the studio to which you are applying to and become familiar with the projects. It’s frustrating when we receive a generic cover letter or email addressed to another studio. Review and edit: Have someone take a quick look at your work before you hit send. Edit out any work that may not be as successful. It’s always better to leave us wanting more than asking questions about why you left an image in.
Make sure that recruiters can access all of the artwork in your portfolio. If you have any of your work password protected, make sure recruiters have access to the password, prior to any reviews happening.
Ben Kalina
Titmouse Studios | Ben Kalina, COO and Exec Producer
Now Hiring: We are hiring pretty much across the board over the next three months including in: storyboard, design, animation, composite, production and post-production. Titmouse is working on 15 series and multiple short-form projects (advertising, pilots, development, shorts, etc.).
Helpful Tips: Keep your online portfolios up to date and treat it like a physical portfolio. Include the best of your relevant work, not every piece you’ve ever created (or make those available somewhere else). We keep portfolios on file and refer back to them as openings come up. I always tell people: just because we’re not looking for someone today, doesn’t mean I won’t be looking for someone by Friday. We hire through online submissions and recommendations. We have a lot of people submit work through our website, but referrals from current and past employees always go a long way. In-person events at schools and festivals are also great because you get to know the artists. You can find listings at titmouse.net/careers.
Antonio Caballero
Desired Skill Sets (Answered by Antonio Canobbio, SVP and CCO, Titmouse): The main requirements once you pass the obvious ones, academic skills in art and animation seen in your portfolio, we are looking for weirdos that want to spend their life drawing and making cool stuff. Now, an animated project is rarely completed by yourself, so we are also looking for people that work well in a team and enjoy the process of collaborating. For the D&D first edition nerds like me, here are the necessary stats to get a job with us:
Strength 3
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 10
Dexterity 5
Constitution 3
Charisma 5
Portfolio Tips: With online submissions, people have a tendency to send work as-is without really thinking about the job they’re applying for or who’s reviewing it. There’s also a trend in applying to all open positions at the same time, using the same materials. We see a lot of people applying for character design, BG design, production assistant, director, line producer — all at the same time. We love hiring people who are multifaceted, but we want artists to keep in mind that these are different positions and require different types of portfolios, applications and resumes. Each time you apply, make sure to update your portfolio and highlight new/key skills.
Patty Willert
Warner Bros. Animation | Patty Willert, Director of Artist Management
Now Hiring: We are actively hiring on several projects both in production and development. We remain very busy at the studio producing a number of series and home entertainment titles, in addition to a lot of exciting projects in development.
Desired Skill Sets: We are looking at a range of skills from design, boarding, art direction to writing and production management.
Portfolio Tips: Organize your work clearly and try to use a portfolio site that shows your work to its best advantage. Send along the password to protected areas when you reach out to me directly.
Biggest No-Nos: Do not send out blanket intro emails to everyone at a studio. We often have artists who think this is helpful, but sending the same note to 50 people is a bit sloppy and disruptive. Be thoughtful and precise with how and why you are connecting.
Season three of the Emmy Award-nominated Big Hero 6 The Serieswill debut Monday, September 21 (7:30 p.m. EDT/PDT) on Disney XD and DisneyNOW. Each episode of the new season will feature two 11-minute stories and follow the Big Hero 6 team as they face off against Noodle Burger Boy and his team of evil mascot robots in order to protect San Fransokyo.
Season three guest voices include K-pop stars Nichkhun Horvejkul (2PM) as twins Kei and Aki, one-half of boy band 4 2 Sing, and Jae Park (Day6) as twins Taka and Yuka, the other half of boy band 4 2 Sing; Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Killing Eve) as Cobra, a charming and crafty villain; and Nichole Bloom (Superstore) as Olivia, a passionate comic-book fan.
Based on the Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Academy Award-winning feature film, Big Hero 6 The Series continues the adventures and friendship of 14-year-old tech genius Hiro, his compassionate, cutting-edge robot Baymax and their friends Wasabi, Honey Lemon, Go Go and Fred as they form the legendary superhero team Big Hero 6 and embark on high-tech adventures protecting their city from an array of scientifically enhanced villains. In his normal day-to-day life, Hiro faces daunting academic challenges and social trials as the new prodigy at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.
The series voice cast includes Maya Rudolph as Aunt Cass, Ryan Potter as Hiro, Scott Adsit as Baymax, Jamie Chung as Go Go, Khary Payton as Wasabi, Genesis Rodriguez as Honey Lemon and Brooks Wheelan as Fred. Returning this season is Jenifer Lewis as Professor Granville, Jane Lynch as Supersonic Sue, Horatio Sanz as El Fuego, Andy Richter as Globby, Alan Tudyk as Krei, Haley Tju as Karmi and David Shaughnessy as Heathcliff.
Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley and Nick Filippi, the team behind the Emmy Award-winning global hit Disney Channel series Kim Possible, serve as executive producers. The series is a production of Disney Television Animation and carries a TVY7-FV parental guideline.
This weekend, Mainframe Comic Con will present an ambitious and interactive, real-time convention experience for fans of comics, pop culture, wrestling and more.
Kicking off with a preview night on Friday, August 14, Mainframe Comic Con will feature over 150 superstar guests and more than 60 live, streaming panels. The convention experience will also include artist alley shopping and live comic-book auctions. All donations made to Mainframe Comic Con will support the Hero Initiative, the first-ever federally chartered not-for-profit corporation dedicated strictly to helping comic-book creators in need.
“The current health crisis has resulted in the cancellation of conventions and fan events worldwide, leaving the fandom community eager for something new, while remaining in the safety and comfort of their own homes,” said Mainframe Comic Con Co-Creator Chad Ramsden. “This weekend’s Mainframe Comic Con is the most ambitious online convention to date, with interactive panels, artist alley shopping, and more.”
Mainframe Comic Con’s live format allows for audience questions and fan interaction with their favorite celebrities and comic creators. Media guests include cast members of AMC’s NOS4A2, voice stars of the iconic Justice LeagueUnlimited animated series (Phil Lamarr, Clancy Brown, George Newbern, Michael Rosenbaum, Carl Lumbly, Susan Eisenberg, Maria Canals-Barrera & Andrea Romano), Ozark‘s Lisa Emery and Batman‘s Robert Wuhl.
Justice League Unlimited
Comic-book creators include Brian Bendis, Sophie Campbell, Al Ewing, Matt Fraction, KellySue DeConnick, Jock, Tom King, Jonboy Meyers, Paolo Rivera, Mark Waid and Chip Zdarsky.
Panels will feature publishers including AHOY Comics, Albatross Funnybooks, AMA, Archie Comics, Heavy Metal Magazine, Humanoids, IDW, Magnetic Press, Source Point Press and Top Cow, and showcase projects including The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing and Insider Art.
“Mainframe Comic Con is the biggest virtual convention space ever created, with four separate panel halls, each streaming 16 hours of live, Q&A panels,” said Mainframe Comic Con Co-Creator Chuck Lindsay. “What’s exciting is that fans will have the ability to go from one panel to the next with no lines. And if you miss a panel like The Walking Dead Cast Party, featuring more than 20 members of the cast coming together for a first-of-its-kind online dance party, you don’t need to worry, because all Mainframe Comic Con panels will be posted next week on YouTube.”
Ahead of the convention, guests shared their excitement for the interactive event:
“Mainframe Comic Con means a great conversation hosted by great people for a great cause — and it’s the closest any of us are getting to actual conventions for a while, with neither lines nor lanyards to drag us down.”
— Eisner-winning writer Matt Fraction (The Invincible Iron Man, Sex Criminals)
“It’s been really sad to suddenly feel so disconnected from all of the people that I was going to see in-person this summer while going to comics shops and conventions to shareCount Crowley. I really had to mourn the loss of those moments we’d been planning and that ‘d been dreaming about for so many years. Mainframe created a space where I could talk to so many of those people — even if I was on my homemade set through a Zoom video. It felt like I got to connect with and celebrate with so many people. Our virtual cosplay contest was a highlight of this very bleak year for me!”
— Actor/author David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man, The Dark Knight; Count Crowley: Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter)
“Toxie the Troma and I congratulate Chuck and his great team at Mainframe Comic Con. They have the best, most professional and educational virtual convention out there!”
— Lloyd Kaufman, President of TROMA Entertainment
All panels can be attended for free. Fans can also purchase private celebrity meet & greets, and will be able to purchase rare, collectable comic books in Artist Alley, including the first appearance of Spider-Man, the Hulk and Wolverine and the first issue of The Avengers.
Learn more and tune in to the Con at www.mainframecomiccon.com or follow on Twitter (@MFComicCon), Facebook and Instagram (@MainframeComicCon)
In a brand-new episode of Big City Greens premiering on Disney Channel this Saturday, August 15 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, titled “Cheap Show,” the family wants to visit a street fair, but Bill wants to stay home to save money. Hungry for entertainment, Cricket sits down for a “bored story” as Tilly recounts an exciting Kaiju battle for him — through storyboards! Check out the clip below.
Big City Greens follows the offbeat adventures of 10-year-old Cricket Green, whose natural curiosity and enthusiasm lead him and his family – older sister Tilly, father Bill and Gramma Alice – on epic journeys and into the hearts of his new neighbors.
The voice cast is Chris Houghton as Cricket Green, Artemis Pebdani (ABC’s Scandal) as sweet Gramma Alice, Marieve Herington (How I Met Your Mother) as quirky older sister Tilly Green and Bob Joles (Puss in Boots) as hard-working father Bill Green.
New episodes premiere Saturday nights on Disney Channel.
Just when you think Warner Bros.’ famous cat and mouse duo have done it all, they pop up in magical world of holiday favorite The Nutcracker! Warner Bros. Home Ent. will release a new special edition Blu-ray and DVD of Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale Special Edition on Oct. 27. In this special festive adventure, the duo is enjoying a dazzling winter wonderland which has been brought to life through holiday magic and Tchaikovsky’s beautiful music. The feature, which was directed by Spike Brandt (Duck Dodgers) and Tony Cervone (Space Jam, Scoob!), was first released in 2007. The package also includes the 1941 short Tom and Jerry The Night Before Christmas and the 2014 direct-to-DVD special Tom and Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers.
Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale Special Edition tells the story of Jerry Mouse, who is a devoted fan of The Nutcracker and is magically transported into his own version of the classical ballet one Christmas Eve. The film is inspired by classic Tom and Jerry cartoon shorts that were originally created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It is a heartwarming, and hilarious take on the world-famous holiday ballet about a little girl who goes to the Land of Sweets on Christmas Eve with her favorite gift, a toy nutcracker, which ultimately transforms into a handsome prince.
Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale Special Edition will retail for $19.98 SRP ($24.98 in Canada) for the Blu-ray which includes a Digital Code (US and Canada) and $14.97 SRP ($18.94 Canada) DVD. The movie also be available to own on Digital for $14.99 SRP (US and Canada) on October 27, 2020.
