In April 2021, CITIA will welcome its first three resident artists to the Papeteries – Image Factory in Annecy, as it launches a new program dedicated to the visual development of feature films tied to the city’s famous animation festival.
“The development of the Artists’ Residency, which focuses on feature films, is an important and historic step for Annecy. Land of the Festival, Annecy will now become land of creation,” said Mickaël Marin, CEO, CITIA. “This is also an additional commitment for CITIA to support works and artists that are the mainstay of our action. I would like to thank the partners who have agreed to accompany us in this wonderful project. More than ever we need to support creation and culture. It is for our common good.”
The Annecy Festival Residency has been created with support from the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the Haute-Savoie Department, the CNC and France Télévisions.
With international positioning, top-of-the-range mentoring and a unique showcase on the professional world of animation, the Annecy Festival Residency offers a three-month time capsule (April 5 to June 27, 2021), focused on artistic reflection and evolution.
Announcement of the selection: beginning of October 2020
Residency: April 5 to June 27, 2021
From today and until August 30, project leaders can send in their applications. The selection will be announced at the beginning of October 2020. As a signatory to the 50/50 Charter, CITIA pays particular attention to respecting gender parity.
“The Region is proud to be associated with the Annecy Festival’s launch of a new residency project, which fits perfectly in the Region’s strategy developed around the four areas of expertise in film,” said Laurent Wauquiez, Chairman of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region. “The current health crisis has made it clear to us that it is vital to continue to create and enable young talents to express themselves, via this new residency project, but also via this year’s digital edition of the Festival. In these uncertain times it is indispensable to safeguard the irreplaceable link with the works and artists.”
“Haute-Savoie is the land of animation film, and the Department has backed the dynamics of this sector for over 40 years: its Audiovisual Production Support Fund has already assisted almost 40 works to see the light of day. So, it is perfectly natural that it supports the new project helmed by CITIA to welcome artists to our territory. Creation, production, moving image education, youth training, international broadcasting and now artist residencies: Haute-Savoie supports all stages and all those concerned within animation film,” said Christian Monteil, Chairman of the Haute-Savoie Department. “Over time this has become one of our territory’s emblems. The resources provided by the Department are massive and testify to a long-lasting commitment. The health crisis that we are currently traversing only highlights the absolute necessity of this investment in favour of quality artistic and cinematographic content.”
“Write, think, hesitate, and take your time, this is how we need to bring forth the beginnings of a creative project! France Télévisions is enthusiastically involved in the Annecy Festival’s residency project, this will be the opportunity for our group to meet new artists and possibly initiate new feature film projects that are always “long-term journeys” for the years to come. More than ever we are supporting French creation and even more specifically the animation sector. Encouraging and meeting new talents should remain essential in the creative cycle,” said Cécile Négrier, Head of France 3 Cinéma, and Tiphaine de Raguenel, Head of Youth Audiences and Animation.
Q&A: Amir Nasrabadi Wraps an Eventful 1st Year as EVP/GM, WildBrain Vancouver
A lot has changed at the ever-growing WildBrain Studios (www.wildbrain.com) kids’ and family entertainment co. since Amir Nasrabadi joined the Vancouver team as Exec Vice President & General Manager. (Even the name — Nasrabadi was appointed to DHX Media in April 2019, and the company rebranded in September.) The exec brought years of experience culled from serving in senior positions across a variety of departments at top studios, including Illumination Ent., Paramount Animation and The Walt Disney Studios, where he was VP of finance & operations for DisneyToon before launching and running Vancouver-based Pixar Canada in 2009.
Nasrabadi returned to Vancouver to join WildBrain on June 10, 2019 and, after a full year of overseeing the production of animated hits such as Blaze and the Monster Machines, Carmen Sandiego, Chip and Potato, Fireman Sam, Ninjago, Polly Pocket and Apple’s Peanuts projects (including Snoopy in Space), was able to carve out a few minutes to reflect on the past 12 months and give Animag a glimpse at what’s to come.
Snoopy in Space
Animation Magazine: Can you tell us about some of the new activities at the studio? What can we look forward to in the next six months?
Amir Nasrabadi: Well firstly, what a time we are living through – I hope Animation Magazine readers and our community are managing to stay safe and well. I want to start by letting everyone know that our studio and our company fully support the peaceful protesting against racial injustice in the U.S. and everywhere. As a first-generation immigrant and having lived in Los Angeles for over 35 years, this situation is impactful to me in many ways. Silence is no longer an option, and I want to be clear – Black Lives Matter.
One of the first things I prioritized when I started at WildBrain was to move diversity within our studio to the top of our priority list. Our studio population of over 700 is gender balanced at 50/50, but our leadership positions are not there yet. We have lots of work to do still. As new projects are greenlit we are actively making room for new and under-represented voices to move up into leadership positions. It will take some time, but we will get there.
Generally, at WildBrain – since our rebrand from DHX Media – the past 12 months have seen significant advances at our studio that we’re very excited by and which lay the foundation for further growth, both creatively and in terms of our size.
I came into the role with three main areas of focus. Firstly, to make sure the studio culture is healthy, vibrant and artist-focused, so we can thrive creatively – that’s essential. The second was to identify opportunities for enhancing our technical pipelines and innovation to support a higher level of quality in production. Last, but by no means least, is to elevate the artistry coming out of our studio by building out an Artist Management function as well as bringing in a handful of institutional creative leaders to provide hands-on guidance and mentorship as our studio and our crews continue to evolve artistically.
We have been undergoing a somewhat quiet revolution, but the result has been a next generation of projects to come out of WildBrain Studios that we feel is taking our work to a whole new level.
Another element is our shift to focus on premium quality content, which includes looking at branching out to feature film work, and even smaller creator-led original short films. We are working on finding the right opportunities in both these veins and we have some interesting prospects that we hope to be able to share with you soon.
What are some of the recent technical and creative advancements that you have witnessed at the studio?
Our 2D work has really progressed incredibly in the last little while, largely led by Carmen Sandiego, Snoopy in Space and Dorg Van Dango (a co-production with Cartoon Saloon). All three display the level of quality and spectrum of style we can achieve. Snoopy in Space and Carmen Sandiego have both picked up nominations or awards in the Annies, and more recently, our studio has collectively received eight Daytime Emmy nominations.
As we dive into the next batch of Peanuts content, we are adding a Lighting & Shadows department, which will take the next batch of original content to another level of quality, with a stunning art style led by our Production Designer, Pascal Campion. We have also just announced a reboot of Johnny Test for Netflix, which we are producing in 4K (our second 4K project after Snoopy in Space). Public and fan reaction to the news and the redesign has been super positive, and it’s a fun project that animators really get to flex their comedic muscles on.
On the 3D side, we are utilizing the Unreal game engine for the first time on a new season of an established preschool series. We are thrilled to be working closely with Epic Games on the integration and development and are excited to be at the forefront of a large-scale deployment of this application within our pipeline. We feel that the introduction of Unreal will drive significant qualitative improvements on this project and provide our directors with a new and exciting process. Our modelling, surfacing and rigging teams have also taken a huge leap forward with our first bi-ped fur characters on Go, Dog. Go!, a co-production with DreamWorks. The next generation of 3D work that you see from us will be noticeably different, and we really can’t wait to show it off and keep building on it.
Johnny Test
Are you currently hiring new talent?
We are crewing up on some really exciting shows, so recruitment in all areas, especially at the supervisor level, will be a firm focus in the coming months. We’re looking at nearly 200 positions to fill over the next several months!
As mentioned earlier, a major focus has been building a roster of institutional creative leaders. We already had lots of really strong animation directors/supervisors in house, who have really stepped up to the plate as leaders in the studio and have also been recognized externally for their achievements – Melanie Daigle and Flávia Güttler were both recognized by Animation Magazine as Rising Stars [2019 and 2020, respectively], and Kaitlin Sutherland was selected to participate in Women in Animation’s Five in Focus program [now Animation Career EXCELerator].
Over the past few months we’ve brought on board some more amazing talent in this regard. These hires include Sony and Pixar animation veterans Matthew Shepherd and Jon Mead. Both bring a breadth and depth of experience to our animation teams that we have not had in the past. In addition, on one particular project we have welcomed the powerhouse team of Clay Kaytis, Raymond Persi, Erik Wiese and Ben Gluck. I’m lucky to have worked with all four of them at various points in time while in L.A and can personally attest to their superior character and talent. We’re delighted to have them on board and look forward to adding to the ranks with more talented people this year. Our message is very much that we are a home for creative people, where experienced artists can lead and take ownership and everyone can develop their craft.
What was the biggest lesson you learned over this past year?
People first. I’ve always been a proponent of a strong, artist-driven culture to promote and harness team spirit and creative energy – it helps to collectively drive and inspire, and it’s the glue that holds everything together. But more important than that is the welfare of our people. This year, COVID-19 has shown all of us how laser-focused we can be in the face of uncertainty and adversity. That our output and spirit are still strong is testament to how important this lesson has proven to be. This year has been the biggest leadership challenge in my career and I’m so proud of how we’ve responded as a team through this tough time. I have especially high gratitude for our tireless support departments in IT, HR and Facilities who have truly accomplished what was previously thought to be impossible.
How did the COVID-19 work-at-home situation change the way the animation teams work on a daily basis?
We responded very quickly to the lockdown – with a phenomenal, almost overnight effort, we deployed work-from-home solutions to 700 employees. I’m proud to say that we are running at nearly full productivity thanks to the support departments I mentioned. The situation has shown that remote work is a viable option in the animation world. We’re taking that to heart, and plan to expand our capacity via work-from-home solutions even when the pandemic ends. We are in no hurry to bring teams back into the office and while there are a number of factors to consider, we are looking at what it means to offer all our employees the option of working from home or being at the studio. I think we will look back at this moment in time as pivotal for our industry … in a positive way.
Dorg Van Dango
What do you think sets the WildBrain brand apart from other animation outfits?
I mentioned our team culture as being a big part of who we are and what we stand for, and I think this significantly enhances the experience of working here. We’re a company that puts our artists and creative first and ensuring that our pipelines and tools are up to the task. Our diversity of work speaks for itself as our ‘brand’, and we are privileged to work across an incredible slate of original and heritage IP, as well as across a number of amazing service projects for a world-class clientele. Our talent is an award-winning collective of creatives who we champion throughout their careers, and as a group WildBrain has considerable size and scope while still being nimble enough to embrace new opportunities.
The work we do at WildBrain Studios is a crucial part of the creative force that drives the overall WildBrain company. We have a lot of very creative people working around the world, not only in content production, but also in broadcasting, distribution, licensing and brand management.
Who are some of your all-time animation idols?
Chris Meledandri, whom I’ve had the fortune of working alongside, is someone at the executive level that I’ve admired in terms of his ability to balance storytelling with commercial appeal.
But my fondest memories of truly appreciating animation as a unique craft and artform was in my earlier days at Disney – watching the pencil tests and in-progress animation scenes of famed classical animators such as Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Nik Ranieri, Dale Baer and Ruben Aquino. Those days seem like yesterday to me…
For more info about the studio, visit www.wildbrain.com
***This article originally appeared in the June-July ’20 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 301)***
Believe it or not, it has been 10 years since J.G. Quintel’s Emmy-winning series Regular Show debuted on Cartoon Network. This summer, Quintel is back with a new series that centers on a married couple and their five-year-old daughter and their two best friends/roommates who all live together in a home in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. The first season of the series, which is called Close Enough, is premiering on HBO Max in July.
The new show, which is produced at Cartoon Network Burbank studios and Saerom Animation (Korea), was inspired by Quintel’s own experiences of being a young father and trying to balance work with the commitments of marriage and parenthood. “The idea for the show had been percolating for a while,” says Quintel during a recent interview with Animag. “As we were wrapping up Regular Show in 2017, I was looking for new ideas. The first show coincided with me having a job and being out of college, and Close Enough is about getting married, starting a family, trying to buy a house. It’s about transitioning from being just yourself and doing whatever you want to taking care of other people in your life.”
The show’s main character, Josh, is both based on Quintel and voiced by him. Josh and his wife Emily live with two of their best friends who are now divorced, which certainly complicates their daily lives. And although they have encounters with time-traveling snails, stripper clowns and murderous mannequins, there are elements of truth and real experiences in each episode. “Even the building they live in is based on the place I first lived in Los Feliz in L.A.,” admits Quintel. “It has the exact same floor plan!”
J.G. Quintel
Triumphant Trailer
Close Enough was originally picked up by TBS in 2017, but it was shelved, and as the streaming wars heated up, the show landed on HBO Max. “We dropped the trailer three years ago, and that’s how we actually pitched the series,” says Quintel. “We used the same Regular Show team and Saerom to create that trailer, and it actually looks like it was put together from a complete show. But it was completely fabricated as a selling tool so that they could see what we were aiming to do. After that, we went through development, and now, after waiting for a long time, it will finally air in July!”
For Quintel, who graduated from CalArts 15 years ago, the series offered a chance to have fun with all the adult subjects he couldn’t tackle when he was working on a kids’ show. “We deal with family life and adult situations,” he says. “Just because it’s an adult show, it’s not crass just for the sake of being crass. Yes, we can do that, but I like to be pushed to find creative ways to play with the adult jokes. It’s really more about having heart and characters that you care about. The stories have to do with super relatable things, but they all go totally out of control to take advantage of animation and explore things that you can’t do in live action.”
Close Enough
“I’ve finally switched over to Storyboard Pro for this show,” says the 2D animation die-hard. “I was holding out and using Post-its on paper forever. It’s funny, because it has burned into my work habits: I actually draw on the tiniest iPad now, and I think it works at that size, although digitally you can make it a lot bigger.”
Quintel points out that unlike Regular Show, which was a storyboard-driven show, Close Enough is a script-driven one, and is written by a team of 10 writers before getting boarded and animated. “I felt like it gave us more control, but we wanted to keep what makes board-driven shows so alive and interesting to look at in terms of animation,” he explains. “We found a really good balance that makes for a really cool show. The writers’ sole purpose is to crack the story and come up with jokes and punch up scripts and make sure they’re as funny as can be. But on the flip side for the board artists, you can look for people who don’t spend as much of their time writing, but focus more on animation and drawing. It’s interesting to have two sets of people who are really strong in their specific fields and combine them together, as opposed to finding people who can do both. Then, you have trade-offs like they’re really funny, but not quite as good at drawing, or vice versa.”
Another big difference is that Quintel and his team have human characters to play with, instead of a blue jay and a raccoon! “In this world, everything behaves more realistically,” says the show creator. “This show is about maintaining a little bit of what was great about Regular Show. I really like watercolor backgrounds and things that look realistic, so that hasn’t changed. But as far as making it more palatable for an adult audience, we wanted viewers to see that these are people that they know and could hang out with. So, hopefully that will draw them in, before it gets to the surreal parts! My artistic sensibility hasn’t changed, and even story-wise what I love is taking a mundane relatable situation and ramping it up to 11. Taking it to places where you can’t even imagine.”
Close Enough
The animation veteran says he’s enjoying doing the voice of the main character on this show just like he did with Mordecai on Regular Show. “You know my range isn’t that great,” he says with a laugh. “I mean I can kind of do my own voice and that’s about it. So the funny thing is I’m going to keep doing it for this show as well.”
Quintel, who is now putting the finishing touches on the first season of the show, says he thinks it’s amazing that animation is the hottest game in town. “It’s great to see everyone is getting a crack at doing shows, and cool that more and more people are accepting animation as their first choice when they want to watch something,” he says. “Streaming services are gunning for more animation and trying many different things today and are not afraid to venture beyond the old traditional models. I think we’re going to see a lot of cool things that we’ve never seen before.”
He leaves us with these thoughts. “I hope that people who watch our show think it’s a really fun show about things they can relate to in their lives and they can relate to it,” he says. “I always write about my own personal experiences. There’s a lot of that in this show. It’s one of my favorite things when people say ‘Oh that happened to me’ or ‘I know that person’. It’s all about taking situations we have all dealt with and looking at it in a funny way.”
Mosley, an ambitious indie animated feature from filmmaker Kirby Atkins, is taking the next steps on its global journey by featuring in a special screening at the Annecy 2020 virtual festival (June 15-30; annecy.org). The film, the first animation co-production between New Zealand (Huhu Studios) and China (China Film Animation), will be available to fest registrants around the world for the duration of the event.
The film’s story follows a family of four-legged creatures known as “thoriphants,” who work as beasts of burden for a bitter farmer named Simon on an isolated plot of land. One night, Mosley and his young son, Rue, discover a cave with ancient drawings of creatures just like themselves — except these have hands and walk upright. The discovery sets Mosley on a dangerous quest to find out what happened to his ancestors, and perhaps realize his own true nature.
Starring John Rhys-Davies, Rhys Darby, Lucy Lawless and Temuera Morrison, as well as Atkins and his daughter, Leah, Curt Cloninger and country singer John Phillips.
The 20th Nippon Connection film festival, the world’s largest Japanese cinema event, kicked off its online program Tuesday. Running through June 14, the Frankfurt, Germany-based festival is presenting more than 70 short and feature-length films to a global audience for just 5 euros ($6 USD) per Nippon on Demand ticket for a movie or short film program.
Interested folks around the world can also log on to Nippon Connected to discover Japan’s multifaceted culture through daily live lectures, concerts and workshops.
With this year’s program focus being Female Futures? – New Visions of Women in Japan, one of the can’t-miss programs this year is a Nippon Animation presentation of diverse, innovative indie shorts created by female directors in the country in the program Constant Metamorphosis – Independent Animated Shorts by Women.
This selection celebrates the careers of remarkable animation artists Makiko Sukikara (Deep-Sea’s Rainbow, While the Crow Weeps, Wild Pear), Yoko Yuki (Shimizu Bonno “Shara Bon Bon,” A Snowflake into the Night, 100percentElectrical), Lisa Fukaya (Mimi, Rabbit Tales) and Sarina Nihei (Rabbit’s Blood, Small People with Hats, Trifling Habits, LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP).
The fest’s animation highlights also include Hello World, a stunning science fiction love story set in Kyoto in the year 2027 from director Tomohiko Ito (Sword Art Online movies & series, Occult Academy); and Her Blue Sky from Tatsuyuki Nagai (Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day), which explores the connection between two sisters whose fates unexpectedly change. Both features will be premiere screenings for German audiences.
During a time when students cannot go to school, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and recent events have further highlighted the dramatic inequity and racial injustice of our system, the LA Promise Fund’s ArtsMatter program is connecting young black and brown students with entertainment executives and providing them robust media arts curriculum.
The LA Promise Fund and Paramount Pictures are giving 200 elementary and middle school students from L.A. County first-hand exposure to the entertainment industry, the field of animation and SpongeBob SquarePants!
A virtual learning program has been developed to teach the animation process, while also incorporating timely social emotional learning and writing skills. Members of the Paramount Animation team have created video tutorials explicitly for these students and this program. Videos address a diverse set of topics including character design, voice casting, and cinematography.
As the culmination of this learning program, students will be conducting virtual “pitch meetings” in which they present their original concepts for new animated characters and stories to executives and creatives from Paramount Animation.
Students will all be rewarded with a screening of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (watch the trailer here), and select students will have the chance to take their creations to the next level by translating their work into three-dimensional renderings using the professional program, ZBrush Core. Free subscriptions for students have been provided by Pixologic.
The program will feature Paramount Pictures’ President of Animation Mireille Soria and Senior VP of Animation Katherine MacDonald.
The student presentations will be held Wednesday morning, June 10 via Zoom.
Bluey, the Emmy Award-winning, 2D animated Australian series that has won over preschoolers and parents alike, is bounding onto screens for an all-new second season July 10 on Disney Channel (U.S.) and DisneyNOW. All season two episodes will subsequently air on Disney Junior.
The first season of the heart-warming show, produced by Ludo Studio and brought to viewers by BBC Studios, will continue to air on Disney Junior and Disney Channel, and will remain available to stream on Disney+.
“Bluey has won the hearts of kids and parents with its beautiful animation and honest take on modern family life. The show offers relatable situations for engaging kids every day, which is so important to parents at this current time,” said Henrietta Hurford-Jones, Director of Children’s Content Partnerships, BBC Studios. “Disney Junior and Disney Channel are the perfect homes for a brand new season of inspirational episodes, bringing families together for a genuine co-viewing experience that delivers laughs as well as real, impactful messages.”
“We love that kids and parents are embracing Bluey all across America. It’s really wonderful to see a kids program from Australia resonating so much with U.S. audiences,” said Bluey EPs and Ludo co-founders, Charlie Aspinwall and Daley Pearson. “We love hearing from fans on social media and hope everyone enjoys this new season, as much as we enjoyed making it!”
Season 2 introduces viewers to more of Bluey and Bingo’s friends and extended family, as well as a variety of imaginative and ingenious games, including Tickle Crabs, Fancy Restaurant, Rug Island and many more. The season also shines a spotlight on Bandit and Chilli’s relationship with their daughters, as they continue to juggle work and childcare.
In addition, Anthony Field, the world-famous original and current Blue Wiggle of The Wiggles, lends his voice to characters featured in two of the new episodes, including one of the season premiere episodes, “Dance Mode.”
On July 27, the first volume of Bluey Season 1 will be available for purchase through Apple iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu and other digital retailers. There will be six volumes – a new one available every three weeks – priced at $9.99 USD each.
To further extend all the fun and gameplay of the popular series, the eagerly awaited debut line of Bluey toys from Moose Toys is set to launch at retail nationwide later this summer.
Bluey arrived stateside with an impressive pedigree and reached 16 million total views across Disney Channel and Disney Junior in Q4 2019. Q1 2020 marks Bluey as a top six Disney Junior series with kids and girls 2-5, and a top five series with boys 2-5. Across Disney Junior and Disney Channel in Q1 2020, Bluey reached 15.6 million individuals over the age of 2, reaching 21% of all kids 2-5 (NMR Live+7 data).
In Australia, Bluey is the #1 series ever on ABC iview (per OzTAM). Since its launch in 2018 Bluey Season 1 has had a total of 261 million program plays and the sophomore season already has a total of 43 million program plays since its launch on March 17, 2020 (OzTAM). It was also the #1 children’s series of 2019 on metro broadcast television and peaked at the top spot of the iTunes children’s chart.
The Australian Toy Association named Bluey the 2020 Preschool License of the Year, with the debut line of toys a huge success in Australia and among the must-have Christmas gifts of 2019.
Sony Pictures Animation is returning to the incredible multiverse of heroes explored by Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2. Lead Animator Nick Kondo announced the kick-off of production with a “First day on the job!” Tweet Monday.
Originally announced for an April 6, 2022 release, Columbia Pictures will now see the Spideys swinging back to theaters on October 7, 2022.
Few details have been revealed for the sequel. Annie Award winner and Daytime Emmy nominee Joaquim Dos Santos (Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra) is directing and The Expendables scribe Dave Callaham is writing the script. Voice star Shameik Moore is expected to return as the voice of Miles.
Dos Santos’ directing credits also include DC shorts Jonah Hex, The Return of Black Adam, Green Arrow and The Spectre, as well as TV’s Justice League Unlimited, G.I. Joe: Resolute and Voltron: Legendary Defender.
Callaham’s upcoming writing credits also include Wonder Woman 1984, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Disney’s Hercules live-action revampt.
The original 2018 flick (directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman; produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller) won rave reviews from audiences and critics alike — as well as the Best Animated Feature Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Annie Awards, as well as five additional Annies and a slew of other honors. The movie raked in $190 million at the domestic box office and $375 million globally.
Three indie animation studios based in the San Francisco Bay Area — Baobab Studios, KuKu Studios and Tonko House — have joined forces to build a community for Bay Area animation professionals, one which inspires local creativity while raising the bar for independent animation worldwide. The Bay Area Animation Alliance (BAAA) will hold regular events that focus on education, craftsmanship, and community.
Baobab Studios, creatively led by Eric Darnell (writer and co-director of all four Madagascar films and Antz), has won six Emmys, including for Outstanding Directing for an Animated Program and Best Interactive Media three years in a row, two Annie Awards and two Kidscreen Awards.
Tonko House was founded by Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, former Pixar Art Directors and creators of the Academy Award nominated short film, The Dam Keeper. Their studio has gone on to successfully release the Eisner-nominated graphic novel trilogy of the same name, and exhibit Tonko House’s artwork and creative vision at museums and galleries throughout Japan and Korea. The studio’s first animated series, Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems, won the Cristal for Best Television Production at the Annecy Animation Festival.
Kuku Studios, founded by Pixar alums Alex Woo, Stanley Moore and Tim Hahn, launched its first animated series Go! Go! Cory Carson early this year on Netflix in partnership with VTech Electronics. Kuku has recently entered into a multi-year overall deal with Netflix with which it is currently in production on its first animated feature film.
The studios wanted to use their creative strength to act upon their beliefs. So, one of the BAAA’s first public initiatives is creating an online art charity auction to combat racial inequality. Together, the three studios are creating original art for auction, and donating the proceeds to the Equal Justice Initiative. EJI is an organization with a mission to end mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the U.S., to challenge racial and economic injustice, and to protect basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
BAAA events will feature speakers such as Pixar co-founder and inventor of the alpha channel, Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, and Dr. Jan Dul, one of the world’s leading experts on ergonomics and creativity.
“We had nothing like [BAAA] when Ed and I were starting Pixar — there were no other CEOs to even think about chatting with. I’m envious that you all get to start with a community,” said Smith during a recent talk with the three studios. “I hope that this is the beginning of a very long history for BAAA.”
Smith refers directly to how BAAA first came to fruition: through friendship. The three animation studio heads, Alex Woo (KuKu Studios), Robert Kondo (Tonko House) and Maureen Fan (Baobab Studios), met monthly for years to support each other as both friends and CEOs. They expanded their personal bond to their growing studios: sharing insights on pitching, negotiating, giving each other feedback on work and collaborating on projects. The three realized they shared a desire to create a stronger, more robust and resourceful community for independent Bay Area animation professionals and studios.
“We are excited to expand our events to the entire San Francisco Bay Area,” said Fan. “The Bay Area Animation Alliance is about our shared values of inspiring the best work possible, celebrating artists, and creating community — with the goal to combine efforts to help raise the bar for animation worldwide.”
“Practically, we want to help each other to improve our collective knowledge and contribute to our community by sharing our work and experience,” said Kondo, addressing the three studios recently. “Emotionally, we hope to support and inspire each other along the tumultuous path of being independent and pursuing big dreams.”
Part of the inspiration for Baobab, Kuku and Tonko is looking back at the footsteps of their cinematic forefathers, and looking ahead as they make their own footsteps. The fellowship of renegade Bay Area filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Saul Zaentz helped give rise to the Golden Age of Cinema. These filmmakers inspired, supported and challenged each other to break new cinematic ground, and in the process, laid the groundwork for a Golden Age of animation with Bay Area studios with lasting historical impact like Pixar and PDI.
Woo said, “As their filmmaking grandchildren, we independent studios have been the direct beneficiaries of the countless contributions they’ve made to the industry and the craft of film and animation, and we hope to continue their tradition of friendship, shared passion and camaraderie for the next generation of filmmakers.”
To learn more about the Bay Area Animation Alliance and attend one of their upcoming events, visit baanimationalliance.org or follow @baanimationa on Twitter / Instagram.
Mondo TV Iberoamerica — part of Mondo TV Group, one of the largest European producers and distributors of animated content — has announced a major expansion for its fast-growing production centre Mondo TV Producciones Canarias.
Already enjoying a key role in pre-production and complete visual development for many Mondo TV productions and co-productions, Mondo TV Producciones Canarias (part of Mondo TV Iberoamerica Group) will expand its offering to include a 3D CGI production capability.
The strategic upgrade of offices and equipment will be accompanied by a recruitment drive that will target experienced illustrators and animators. The new facility, which will be up and running in September 2020, is already negotiating a contract for its first project.
The new studio will fundamentally change both the future strategy of the Spanish subsidiary and the production dynamics of the entire Mondo TV Group, bringing much more work, formally entrusted to third parties, in-house – with all the cost savings and quality control benefits that implies.
It will also, of course, allow Mondo TV Producciones Canarias to offer an expanded animation and co-production service, adding 3D CGI to its 2D and pre-production services. In addition, extending the capabilities of the production centre offering will also enable Mondo TV to generate more new IPs in-house.
Meteo Heroes
Launched in 2016 with an initial focus on pre-production, Mondo TV Canarias in Santa Cruz de Tenerife quickly grew its role within the Mondo TV Group, taking on pre-production services and complete visual development for multiple animated series, starting with Invention Story and including some of Mondo’s biggest recent animation projects such as MeteoHeroes and Robot Trains S3.
Mondo TV Canarias has also built an impressive roster of IPs through strategic co-productions such as the spooky comedy Bat Pat S2 (with RTVE) and Nina & Olga, the animated adaptation of the globally popular preschool publishing property Olga the Cloud (with Enanimation).
“This development is the realisation of my father Orlando Corradi’s dream – and a giant step forward for the Mondo TV Group,” said Matteo Corradi, President & CEO of Mondo TV Group. “The launch of an internal facility for 3D CGI animation will enhance both the quantity and quality of Mondo TV Group output, and further boost the international reputation of Mondo TV among producers of animated programming. We will, of course, continue to collaborate with the third-party studios that have distinguished themselves in recent years, but with our own animation studio we will move towards a future where in-house excellence will be a driving force. In fact, thanks to the even tighter and closer quality control this new facility will enable, we will be able to create our top programs entirely in-house.”
Maria Bonaria Fois, CEO of Mondo TV Iberoamerica, said, “This strategic decision is a big step for the entire Group. We are proud of the results achieved by the Canarian studio since its very beginning, and confident that the new 3D studio will bring us even more recognition on the international animation market.”
Nickelodeon is ready to crank up the cartoon volume to celebrate the 100th episode of its top-ranking kids’ hit, The Loud House. Premiering Wednesday, June 10 at 12 p.m. ET/PT, the milestone episode “A Star Is Scorned” centers on Lola, who ropes Lily into her plans to break into show business with a double-dose of cuteness.
Animation Magazine caught up with busy show veterans Mike Rubiner (Executive Producer) and Karen Malach (Producer) to get an inside perspective on what makes kids keep clamoring for Lincoln and the Louds a hundred episodes later.
Debuted in May 2016, The Loud House ranks as TV’s #2 animated series with Kids 2-11 and 6-11, second only to Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants. The chaotic, comedic adventures of 11-year-old Lincoln Loud and his 10 sisters were recently greenlit for a fifth season. The show has even expanded into comic books, a digital album, game app, its own podcast and a spin-off series, The Casagrandes.
Karen Malach and Mike Rubiner
Can you tell us how long you’ve been working on the show now?
Mike Rubiner: Almost since the beginning. I started as the story editor in the summer of 2014. That was when we were just getting the show off the ground, planning and writing the first few episodes. Then in 2017 I became the Executive Producer.
Karen Malach: I started working on the show in July of 2015 – five years next month.
Did you think The Loud House would be such a big hit when you began working on it?
Malach: Actually, I did. It was so endearing, sweet and funny – once we started recording the voices, it really came alive for me and I knew we had something very special.
Rubiner: I had a hunch it would do well. The premise was so simple and appealing – a boy with 10 sisters – and the characters were so fun and distinctive. But I had no idea it would become as big a hit as it did.
What do you think sets the series apart from other animated family series available today?
Rubiner: I think it’s unusually grounded for a cartoon – it’s about real kid and family issues. Even if the stories go off in a crazy, cartoony direction, we always want kids to be able to relate to what our characters are going through, and to see their own lives in the show. The show also has a lot of heart. We always want it to be funny, but if we can make it touching, too, all the better. And then there’s the unique look of the show – that retro comic-book feel, which gives it a lot of warmth.
Malach: We have a large cast of characters – which can be difficult for production at times, but very effective at making an impact on a wide range of viewers. There is something for everyone. All the characters have such varying personalities that I think we’ve done a really good job appealing to a varied audience, whether it’s the kid who is a sports enthusiast, or the kid who is the family clown and joker, or the kid who is a diva princess, which is my personal favorite.
What has been the biggest challenge for you?
Malach: I would say that the biggest challenge has been this work-from-home transition. The crew is so used to being close, and we truly enjoy working around one another. It is difficult to only see each other through video conference screens. We make it work, and it is working about as well as it can, but it definitely feels different because we are not physically together during what is proving to be a trying time.
Rubiner: Now that we’re in our fifth season, the biggest challenge is keeping things fresh, finding new stories to tell. At this point, we’ve told somewhere around 250 stories. Our writers have their work cut out for them, but fortunately they’re an amazingly talented and hard-working team.
What is the most memorable response you have had from fans when they realize you work on The Loud House?
Rubiner: It’s always nice to see kids’ faces light up when I tell them I work on the show. They often have lots of questions about the characters – “What’s going to happen with Lincoln and Ronnie Anne?” is a big one. It shows that they’re really invested in the characters. It’s also really great when parents say they watch the show with their kids and actually enjoy it, rather than fleeing the room.
Malach: I’ve enjoyed having parents tell me how much they enjoy watching the show with their kids – they love the fact that we’ve illustrated some diverse family dynamics and really appreciate that we’re representing the LGBTQ community with the characters of Clyde’s dads and our dear Luna. There really is something for everyone in these episodes.
What has been the biggest lesson you have learned from working on the series?
Malach: The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you can find extremely talented, capable and driven people and then trust them to do their thing. It is easy for some people to be intimidated by others who are very talented, but there is a real value in trusting them to use their talents for the good of the project. If we all have confidence in what we bring to the table while supporting and welcoming the talents of others, everything runs more smoothly, and we can create a stronger product.
Rubiner: Probably that you’re only as good as the team you put together. From the beginning, we had a really talented, dedicated and collaborative crew, as well as an incredible cast of voice actors. Our whole team has always been really passionate about the show, and that’s what has made it so good.
Has the stay at home order had any impact on the production of the show at all?
Rubiner: We’re very fortunate to be working in animation, because we’ve been able to keep moving forward. Thanks to technology, we’re able to do everything we normally do by working remotely. Recording our cast has been the biggest challenge, but even that we’re starting to figure out. I think we all feel very lucky to have jobs right now, even if we get the occasional Zoom fatigue (or in our case, BlueJeans fatigue).
Malach: We’ve been able to work seamlessly, which is amazing. Of course, we have challenges, but nothing we haven’t been able to overcome. It is a particularly good time to be in animation, that’s for sure. We all try to stay positive and recognize how fortunate we are to stay working when many other people in different fields have lost their livelihoods.
Do you have a favorite episode?
Malach: C’mon now, that would be like asking to pick my favorite child. Actually, I do have a favorite – It was called “Really Loud Music” and it was a musical we did in Season 3 where we told the whole story through songs. It was awesome and so much fun – working with some amazing song writers. Shout out to Doug Rockwell and Michelle Lewis!
Rubiner: That’s a hard one – there are so many I love! I can’t pick a favorite, but here are a few I’m especially fond of: “Really Loud Music” (the two-part musical starring Luna), “The Sweet Spot” (the kids fight over the best spot in Vanzilla), all the crazy Luan-centric April Fools episodes, “Suite and Sour” (the Louds cause chaos at a resort hotel), “Absent Minded” (Clyde becomes a school Jr. Administrator), “A Grave Mistake” (Lucy wants to become president of the Morticians Club), “Tripped” (the Louds go on a road trip) … But really that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The Season 4 finale of Adult Swim‘s Rick and Morty features a touching Easter Egg paying tribute to friend of co-creator Justin Roiland and series line producer Mike Mendel, who died unexpectedly in September. The multi-Emmy-winning producer behind the notorious “Pickle Rick” episode was 54 years old. You can read more about the episode at CinemaBlend (caution: spoilers ahoy).
Rick and Morty
Rocket Licensing has signed a deal to manage the consumer products program for new stop-motion animated, award-winning series Kiri and Lou in the U.K. and Eire. The series, starring two little prehistoric creatures, was launched in New Zealand, Canada and Australia and now airs weekdays on CBeebies in the U.K. This delightful series has had a strong initial reception in the U.K. and during its first week, Kiri and Lou was the most requested CBeebies brand. In four weeks, it has achieved over 2 million requests on iPlayer. New episodes are premiering on June 8, and a freeHide and Seek app is now available to download from the App Store and Google Play.
Kiri, a feisty little dinosaur, and her best friend Lou, a gentle creature with a long and remarkably sensitive trunk, are the stars of the series, which is aimed at children aged two to five, and created using clay creatures, set in a peaceful, beautiful forest formed from cut out paper. Central themes are music, the environment, nature, feelings and friendship, and values such as kindness, thoughtfulness and empathy. Each episode follows the charming creatures in a fun adventure story with an emotional theme.
Written and directed by prominent New Zealand writer, actor, musician and director Harry Sinclair, Sinclair, the series also features original songs co-written for each episode with well-known NZ musician, Don McGlashan. A Kiri and Lou album will be released later this month. The loveable characters are also voiced by famous names, including Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) as Lou.
Kiri and Lou
WildBrain CPLG, one of the world’s leading entertainment, sport and brand licensing agencies, has been tapped by Haven Global to represent sibling YouTube superstars Vlad and Niki in EMEA and Russia. Brothers Vlad and Niki (aged 7 and 5) star in one of world’s biggest and fastest growing YouTube kidfluencer channels, garnering four billion monthly views. Originally launched in English in 2018, Vlad and Niki now have 15 YouTube channels across 12 languages and have amassed 90 million subscribers worldwide.
The energetic videos center on the brothers’ daily adventures, which are brought to life with fun special effects and animation, superhero narrative, toy testing and catchy songs. WildBrain CPLG will work with Haven to build an extensive consumer products programme in EMEA and Russia for the highly popular kidfluencer duo, covering all merchandise categories and promotions.
“Fans worldwide have a remarkable opportunity to watch the boys’ content in their native languages – English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and more. With an uplift of 40% in views in the last month alone, it is an extremely exciting time for the brand. We are thrilled to be joining forces with WildBrain CPLG to grow the retail and licensing footprint in the region,” says Tom Punch, Managing Director of Haven Global.
Vlad and Niki
Bikini Bottom comes to Apple Arcade in the recently launched exclusive game SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit, from Nickelodeon and development partner Old Skull Games. The game features lots of fun cameos from the hit animated series.
Trouble has come to Bikini Bottom! The evil “mastermind” Sheldon J. Plankton has once again hatched a plan to steal the secret Krabby Patty formula. This time he has enlisted his army of cousins to capture all of SpongeBob’s friends! Play as SpongeBob on his epic, most side-scrolly quest through Bikini Bottom ever. Explore, collect coins and spatulas, and crush obstacles as SpongeBob races to rescue his friends, defeat Plankton’s minions and take back the formula. Keep an eye out for your favorite Bikini Bottom residents… you never know who you might run into!
SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit
Elmer Fudd won’t use a gun in HBO Max‘s new Looney Tunes Cartoons, the producers told the New York Times. Instead, the crafty hunter will stalk wascally wabbits using just sharp objects and high explosives. The series premiered at the service’s launch on May 27 and has seen high demand from subscribers. Read more about the show here.
“We’re not doing guns. But, we can do cartoony violence — TNT, the Acme stuff. All that was kind of grandfathered in,” executive producer Peter Browngardt told the paper. “We’re going through this wave of anti-bullying, everybody needs to be friends, everybody needs to get along. Looney Tunes is pretty much the antithesis of that. It’s two characters in conflict, sometimes getting pretty violent.”
France TV Distribution has announced a spate of animated series sales ahead of the approaching MIFA market (June 15-20), being held virtually this year.
Super Caribou, produced by Autour de Minuit (48 x 11’ + 2 x 22’ / 44’ specials). Windy-Mount’s superhero flies to Germany with Studio Hamburg’s presales for Kika and NDR. Our antlered friend will also be visiting Spain with Canal Panda pay TV, and Slovakia’s RTVS channel.
Rabbids Invasion season 3, produced by Ubisoft Motion Pictures (234 x 7’). The world’s wackiest and most intrusive rabbits cross the Atlantic to join Radio-Canada’s ICI.Tou.Tv Extra SVOD platform.
The Owl & Co season 2, produced by Studio Hari (156 x 7’ + 1 x 13’ special). The Owl and his whole gang are also packing their bags to travel to Canada, to Radio-Canada’s FVOD platform ICI.Tou.Tv.
Science of Botheration, series produced by Vivement Lundi ! (39 x 5’). This hybrid animated series has also been chosen by Radio-Canada for its FVOD platform ICI.Tou.Tv.
Aside from its sales success, France TV Distribution has continued to develop its animation catalogue with the acquisition of a new promising series: Ana Pumpkin, produced by Folimage and Les Armateurs (52 x 5′). It follows the daily adventures of a five-year-old girl and her dog. With the help of her loving, confident family, Ana explores the world around her in her own way, full of joy and curiosity, even if she sometimes finds out that her way is not always the best. In any case, she never gives up and always follows up on her ideas, even the strangest ones!
“Our sales team is really proud that Super Caribou has seduced strong networks like NDR and KiKa in Germany. This confirms the quality and creativity of the French indie animation production that has the power to travel around the globe, like our series produced by Autour de Minuit. And we are confident that our new program Ana Pumpkin will be as charming and irresistible as Super Caribou!” said Julia Schulte, SVP International Sales.
Ana Pumpkin
Kabillion, the free go-to platform for kids and family series (available on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Sling and XUMO) is gearing up for two special programming holidays this summer: Father’s Day (June 21), featuring dad-themed content from popular series, and Independence Day. Featured programming for the summer includes:
Kabillion:
WWE Slam City “We all Scream for Ice Cream” / “Sundae in the Park with Punk” (Featured in June/July)
LEGO City “Jungle Rumble #1” #2 and #3 (Featured in June/July)
Batman Unlimited “Boardwalk Battle” (Featured in July)
Bakugan Battle Brawlers “The Story of Vestroia” (Father’s Day)
Dream Defenders “Hi, Dad” (Father’s Day)
Future Card Buddyfight “Mage Garga! A Magic World Buddyfight!” (Father’s Day)
Hero 108 “Prince of Seagulls” (Father’s Day)
Sonic X “Shadow World” (Father’s Day) / “A Revolutionary Tale” (Independence Day)
Barbie: The Sweetest Journey (Featured in June/July)
Bobby’s World “Beach Blanket Bobby” / “Swim By Me” (Featured in June/July) / “Fish Tales” (July) “My Dad Can Fix Anything” / “A Day with Dad” / “Dad’s Big Day” (Father’s Day) “Independence Bobby” / “See America Last” (Independence Day”
Chloe’s Closet “Flower Power” / “Sun Daze” (Featured in June) “A Camping We Will Go!” (June/July)
VFX Legion, the architect of a pioneering remote pipeline with seven years’ experience working exclusively with home-based artists, is building-out its pre-production services. James David Hattin, the creative director and founder of the LA/B.C.-based company, announced the expansion of its end-to-end capabilities in response to the increased demand for cost-effective high-quality remote visual effects services as feature films, and episodic series move forward in the wake of COVID-19.
“During pre-production, collaborating with writers and producers gives our team an in-depth understanding of the specific challenges and issues that projects face,” says Hattin. “Coming on board early in the process enables us to develop cost-effective digital solutions that increase production value and support storylines that engage audiences and optimize their visual experience.”
James Hattin
Hattin dedicated over a year to build a pipeline with cost-effective, streamlined workflow and the collaborative virtual work environment that the next-generation remote business model provides. VFX Legion launched in 2013, introducing a new visual effects culture that harnesses digital connectivity’s full potential to align its services with the needs of an industry in a digital era.
“Producing visual effects is a collaborative process with a lot of moving parts,” says Hattin. “It takes considerable time to develop, hone and road-test a remote pipeline to ensure it has the efficiency and accessibility needed to consistently deliver large shot counts of visual effects that meet tight deadlines and the high standards of the industry.”
COVID-19 has increased the demand for imagery that cameras are unable to capture in restricted production environments, raising the stakes for visual effects companies. With years of experience working with remote-savvy WFH talent on dozens of films and hundreds of television episodes under its belt, VFX Legion focused on applying its technical ingenuity and creativity to developing efficient out-of-the-box digital solutions that meet the challenges of this new norm.
CG ceiling replacement (Warrior)CG energy prison (Legends of Tomorrow)
Hattin helms the company’s pre-production services and oversees each project. Head of Production Nate Smalley, along with a veteran team of visual effect producers and supervisors, brings the technical ingenuity, experience, artistic vision and in-depth understanding of filmmaking needed to significantly expand the boundaries of films and television shows during the new norm.
“We put a lot of emphasis on maintaining clear and ongoing communication with clients. Our robust pipeline streamlines workflow, creating a client experience that’s indistinguishable from traditional studios,” says Hattin. “Management and artists collaborate as a single team from pre-production through every phase of production, ensuring that our work reflects the client’s vision — while we strive to exceed their expectations.”
A forward-thinking company with a work-from-home business model from its inception,VFX Legion’s ability to reach beyond commuting distance to a studio, has enabled Hattin to build a global collective of 200+ experienced work-from-home artists culled from an industry-wide pool of talent.
“The efficiency, scope and scalability of our workforce uniquely positioned us to push boundaries with dynamic digital solutions for television shows and feature films confined by a new normal,” adds Hattin. “Collaborating with our team during the early stages of jobs ensures that projects take advantage of visual effects’ full potential and the flexibility of our cutting-edge remote capabilities as the pandemic continues to impact productions — and into a future with unanticipated challenges.”
Before & After, CG Replication of the Lincoln Monument (Madam Secretary)Before & After, CG Replication of the Lincoln Monument (Madam Secretary)
VFX Legion earned a reputation for creating photoreal computer-generated environments for shows such as Madam Secretary, How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal — season after season — invisibly blending footage with virtual locations where their storylines unfolded, while providing a full range of visual effects that augment practical film.
The company’s credits also include Suits, Eye Candy, Revolution, The Catch and Gone. To date, every TV series VFX Legion has worked with since its launch in 2013 has returned to work with the company every season, through to series finales.
VFX Legion’s feature film credits include Hardcore Henry, The Gift, 12 Strong, Ithaca, Lowriders, Ouija, Ouija 2, Killers Anonymous, The Circle, The Keeping Hour, Souls of Totality, Stephanie, The Veil, #RealityHigh, After,Jem and the Holograms, Sinister 2, Ma and Superfly.
After facing Nox, a mage who controlled the gears of time; Qilby, a distinguished representative of Yugo’s people with exceptional powers and intelligence; Ogrest, an ogre who lives at the top of Mount Zinit and is the source of a series of catastrophes that have struck the world; and the omniscient Oropo, a philosophical adversary who forced our heroes to confront their worst fears, what threat awaits the World of Twelve this time?
At the end of Season 3, we left Yugo and his friends at the gates of Ingloriom, the kingdom of the gods. The floating lands seemed completely devastated. What happened? Where are the Twelve Gods? Is there a connection between their recent victory and the chaos in Ingloriom? How far will our heroes have to go this time to make it through? These questions form the starting point of the new fourth season.
Wakfu is also a video game in the same style as Dofus. With Waven, Ankama’s next game, they form a trilogy that takes place in the Krosmoz universe. Season 4 represents the next chapter in the adventures of the Brotherhood of the Tofu, and the pivotal moment between the Wakfu Era and the age of Waven.
The series has been a huge success, and is lucky enough to have a large and loyal audience that truly loves it. But like its fans, the series has grown up over the years, and now addresses topics that are gradually moving beyond the kids’ animation category. A crowdfunding approach will let Ankama take the series to places it wouldn’t be able to go without its fans. By supporting the campaign, backers are giving the Wakfu team total creative freedom and the opportunity to further develop the story and the characters with no artistic constraints.
Each episode costs several hundred thousand euros. This Kickstarter campaign will fund a part of their production. Ankama had committed to producing three episodes once the first goal of 100,000 euros is reached, and each additional 100,000 euros unlocks another episode. (At the time of this article, the fund was just shy of $390K.) Rewards will be given for different levels of support: in-game gifts, art or collectors’ items, figurines and more.
Leading the team, Anthony Roux (a.k.a. ToT), the creator of the Wakfu universe, will be in charge of the script, and will make sure to meet all of his commitments to the community. Each of the characters reflects an important person in his life, so the community can count on him to give those characters the adventures they deserve.
With three TV series (Kerub’s Bazaar, Wakfu, Abraca) and two theatrical feature films (Dofus – Book I: Julith, MFKZ) under its belt and several projects currently in progress, Ankama is known as an important player in the French entertainment industry. Ankama has also acquired plenty of crowdfunding experience through its board game division (Monster Slaughter, Krosmaster Blast, Monster Slaughter Underground, Arkeis), and has proven the seriousness of its efforts and its ability to fulfill its commitments.
Shout! Factory, a multi-platform media company, and Anime Limited, the esteemed U.K. distributor of animation, have announced a North American home entertainment distribution deal for the popular action-suspense anime series B: The Beginning. This gripping, character-driven mystery thriller was created and directed by Kazuto Nakazawa (Parasite Dolls) and the renowned studio Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell, Psycho-Pass). The series music is composed by Yoshihiro Ike (Blood: The Last Vampire, Tiger & Bunny), with the theme song provided by former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman.
Shout! Factory plans to bring the first season of B: The Beginning to the home entertainment marketplace later this year, with plans for a Blu-ray and an EST release on select digital platforms. The announcement was made today by Melissa Boag, Senior Vice President of Family Entertainment at Shout! Factory, and Andrew Partridge, Founder & CEO of Anime Limited.
Known for their beautiful collector’s editions and for bringing some of Japan’s best anime to the rest of the world, the distribution partnership between Anime Limited and Shout! Factory supports Shout’s quest to identify and expand the potential of filmed entertainment across all retailers and digital platforms.
“We’re thrilled to be embarking on this new relationship with Anime Limited,” said Boag. “They’re well-known for their expert, high quality releases and forward-looking business strategy, and we’re excited to partner with them.”
“We’re excited to be collaborating with Shout! Factory to bring our ultimate edition of B: The Beginning to U.S. audiences. Working with Shout! Factory provides access to their experience and expertise in the US, while developing the Anime Limited collector’s edition in a brand new market,” commented Partridge. “Shout! Factory is the ideal company to set out on this new venture with and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do together.”
The deal was negotiated for Shout! Factory by Jordan Fields, Shout’s Vice President of Acquisitions, and for Anime Limited by Andrew Partridge, Founder and CEO of Anime Limited.
Annecy Festival (www.annecy.org) will present its Special Awards on Friday, June 19 during the 2020 virtual festival. Awarded in complement to the official festival competition prizes, these 10 honors are presented in partnership with major organizations, platforms and other key players in the animation business in Europe and around the world, as well as local and youth juries. Specific Award juries will select each Special Award winner from the Official Selection films.
New this year will be the first ever YouTube Award at Annecy, for a film in competition in the Graduation Films category. The winner will receive 10,000 euros to help finance a new production. The YouTube Award jury is dubbing actress Brigitte Lecordier; actor, scriptwriter and producer Cyprien; and producer David Alric.
The Canal+ Youth Award jury is Géraldine Soto (Head of Acquisitions, Co-productions and Children’s Pre-purchasing), Chrystel Mussy-Masucci (Children’s Editorial Manager) and Nathalie Leffray (Assistant Director of Children’s Animation Development).
The André-Martin Awards for a French Short Film and for a French Feature Film will be decided by Mohamed Beyoud (Artistic Director, Meknès International Animation Film Festival), Cécile Giraud (Cinema Mediator, Nouvelle-Aquitaine Independent Cinemas), Alexis Hunot (Animation Film Activist), Marie-Pauline Mollaret (Chief Editor, Écran Noir), Bernard Payen (Head of Programming, Cinémathèque française), Igor Prassel (Artistic Director, Animateka International Animation Film Festival) and Matilda Tavelli (Co-director, Animatou Festival).
The Best Original Music Award, sponsored by the SACEM, in the Short Films and Feature Films categories will be judged by Christophe Héral and Annecy Festival Director Artistic Director Marcel Jean.
The FIPRESCI Award (International Federation of Film Critics) jury is Andrea Crozzoli (Italy), Naama Rak (Israel) and Bernard Génin (France).
Surveying the program for the Festivals Connexion – Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Award — in partnership with Lumières Numériques & Mèche Courte — are Calmin Borel (Managing Director, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival), Emmanuel Bernard (Director Studio Albyon) and Anne-Sophie Rey (Coordinator, Festival d’un Jour et de l’équipée – Valence Romans Agglo).
The Vimeo Staff Pick Award will be picked by Jeffrey Bowers (Senior Curator), Meghan Oretsky (Curator), Ian Durkin (Lead Curator) and Ina Pira (Curator).
Festival Special Awards:
City of Annecy Award – Perspectives. The jury for the Perspectives category comprises three students from the Gabriel Fauré High School in Annecy, and they will present the City of Annecy Award.Hugo Barthelemy, Maéna Boyer & Elina Pralong.
Junior Jury Award for Short Film Jury (11-13 years old): Léo-Paul Amédéo, Thomas Kruger & Wendy Poirier.
Junior Jury Award for Graduation Film and Young Audience Award Jury (14 years old): Elvira Babcia, Morgane Omet & Eloïse Williamson.
Following Cinedigm’s acquisition of global streaming service Viewster, and the recent surge of anime viewership on its flagship platform CONtv, Cinedigm announced the launch of CONtv Anime, a new 24/7 linear and AVOD network dedicated to streaming Japanese anime films & series.
The new linear channel begins streaming today across CONtv’s widespread footprint of more than 120 million connected devices and platforms including Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, iOS Android, Vizio and many more. The channel will be available embedded into additional platforms and Smart TV brands across North America over the coming quarter.
Additionally, Cinedigm will rebrand and transition the programming of Viewster, the global ad-supported streaming service Cinedigm acquired in 2019, into CONtv Anime in the coming weeks, providing an additional footprint of more than 175M connected televisions and devices globally, including major brands such as Philips, TCL, Vizio, LG, Sharp, Magnavox, Sony, Hisense and Vestel, among others.
Following the launch and transition, CONtv Anime will be available on the majority of major devices and television brands worldwide, reaching approximately 295 million devices globally.
CONtv Anime features 24/7 programming of anime content for curious newcomers and ardent anime enthusiasts alike, focusing on a diverse range of genres spanning from cyberpunk and the supernatural, to tense dramas, epic fantasy sagas,and everything in-between. Featuring content from top-tier producers, CONtv Anime viewers can enjoy a wide selection of popular offerings presented in English or with dubbing. Notable titles include Bubblegum Crisis, AD Police, Vampire Princess Miyu, as well as a library of hard-to-find classic and cult hits, recent releases, fan-favorites and acclaimed films & series.
“According to the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, the global market for anime exceeds more than $19 billion dollars annually, and as evidenced by the popularity of the genre on top SVOD platforms like Netflix and HBO Max, anime has gone mainstream,” said Erick Opeka, President of Cinedigm Networks. “Our goal is to provide consumers an amazing, fan-curated channel, 100% for free, deeply embedded into their favorite devices around the globe.”
“As consumption of free, ad-supported content continues to skyrocket, Cinedigm is well positioned to meet the demand by drawing on our library of more than 30,000 films and episodes,” said Tony Huidor, General Manager of Cinedigm Networks. “With that in mind, we seek to dramatically grow our portfolio of networks over the next 18 months all focused on specific demographics and interests. We want to fully meet the needs of consumers while delivering great results to our advertising partners.”
The launch is the latest expansion of Cinedigm’s burgeoning global fandom brand, CONtv, the premiere digital entertainment network showcasing the best in genre and fandom movies and television series. Over the last year, CONtv has also become one of the largest digital comics destinations in the world with more than 10,000 titles, via direct relationships with most major independent comic book publishers, providing unprecedented access to a growing roster of premium comics and graphic novels such as The Boys, Transformers, Star Trek, Judge Dredd, Bloodshot, Bob’s Burgers and Vampirella, among thousands of others.
***This article originally appeared in the June-July issue of Animation Magazine (No. 301)***
John Harvatine IV and Tom Root love playing with toys! The two talented creators of Hulu’s hot new stop-motion series Crossing Swords are pretty excited to share their project with the world since they’ve been thinking about doing a show featuring peg toys for a long time.
“One of my first jobs as an animator was working on a Fisher-Price Little People TV show,” recalls Harvatine. “I was in my 20s, and was kind of bummed because this job wasn’t as fun and fulfilling as I thought it would be. So, I found myself daydreaming about these toys doing naughty things to each other. I kept wondering, what if you could take innocent little toys and put them in grown-up scenarios?”
Crossing Swords
Also playing a key role in the development of the show was Tom Root’s whiteboard. “Back in 2011, we had just started Stoopid Buddy Stoodios in Burbank. I’d walk into Harv’s office and we’d talk about what kind of shows we wanted to make in the future,” says Root. “We thought putting these crude looking children’s toys in a fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, medieval setting would be fun.”
Root adds, “Because the building was so new, there was this gigantic whiteboard in the writer’s room that hadn’t been used yet. So, I just started drawing on it — I began by drawing a castle in the middle of it, and every day I started building out from the center, trying to figure out what else would be on this map. This map kept growing, and we realized there was no end to the stories we could tell: There’s a haunted cave in the mountains where all the ghosts and goblins live. There’s a forest where the Robin Hood character could live. There could be a seaport where you could have pirates.”
John Harvatine IV / Tom RootThe series creators mapped out the world of Crossing Swords on a giant whiteboard at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios
Knights, Pirates and Sex Dungeons?
“We could really tell any story we wanted to tell,” Root explains. “So, that’s what made us most excited to pursue the show. It was a good thing that we were excited about it, because that was in 2011, and here we are in 2020, finally able to get it on the air.”
Their much-anticipated show centers on a goodhearted peasant named Patrick (voiced by Nicholas Hoult) who lands a much-sought-after position as a royal castle squire, but soon discovers that his new workplace is a “hornet’s nest of horny monarchs, crooks and charlatans.” Crossing Swords‘ colorful voice cast also includes Luke Evans, Tara Strong, Tony Hale, Seth Green, Alanna Ubach, Adam Pally, Yvette Nicole Brown, Maya Erskine, Breckin Meyer and Wendi McClendon.
Harvatine and Root, who have received two Emmys and four nominations for their work on Robot Chicken, say they’re a bit hazy on the exact development timeline of the show because it took a while to get it from the idea stage to finished product. “We partnered with Sony to produce the show, and then after Sony sold it to Hulu to distribute, things happened quickly over the past two years,” explains Harvatine, who has worked on shows as diverse as The Simpsons, Captain Underpants, SuperMansion and Hot Streets. “Hulu began planning their adult animation master plan, which came to fruition last month with Solar Opposites debuting in May.” The first season of Crossing Swords, comprising 10 half-hour episodes, will arrive on Hulu in June.
Crossing Swords
The duo praises the work of the show’s creative artists who helped craft the look of the show. “Our team, which is led by director of photography Helder K. Sun, art director and production designer John Sumner and animation director Brad Schaffer, has done an amazing job,” says Root. “The fact that everything in this world of peg people had to be made out of wood — typically, we use plastic for our stop-motion projects — was a big ask from John. We put these cute little crude characters in environments that make them look real, thanks to Helder’s lighting and special angles and lenses. Brad helped us communicate what we wanted to achieve to the animators. They did such a great job that after a few minutes of watching the show, you forget that these props are suspended in air, and you actually start to feel for these little wooden toys and understand their emotions.”
Into the Wood
The producers also single out the work of the puppet fabrication (led by Max Shepard) and costume departments (headed by Julia Rosner), which were tasked with creating this massive universe of puppets who are only three inches tall (“Just a little bit shorter than G.I. Joe or Star Wars action figures!”). All the work on the show was done at Stoopid Buddy’s Burbank headquarters — from the writing and designing to the puppet creation, voice recording and VFX work.
Crossing Swords
Harvatine says he’s pleased to see that primitive toys are gaining popularity in our day and age. “That toy aesthetic of a round head and a peg body has been around for a long time,” he says. “We wanted our characters to feel as if they looked like a toy that was around in the 1300s, so that they match the plotlines around them.”
Looking back at their creative journey, both Harvatine and Root are proud of what they’ve been able to achieve over the past few years. “I’m just glad and relieved that the characters and the comedy that we dreamed up on the page actually work as a TV show,” says Root. “I’m pleased that our main character ended up being compelling and likeable. People who gave us feedback on the show told us that they liked going on this journey with Patrick because of his childlike sense of wonder. That’s one way the show is different from Robot Chicken. For a series, you need to have characters that you’ll want to see week after week. It’s harder to do, but it’s more rewarding when it works … and more painful when you have to fix it!”
Harvatine chimes in, “I’m excited about the overall look of the series, that we were able to pull off a show that is made of wood, featuring all the imperfections of the textures. We were able to play with different scales for the characters (bigger versions for the close-ups). The visuals are funny and a little clunky, and all the imperfections make it a fun show to watch. Like Robot Chicken, it feels like a show that you can recreate in your own basement, although it takes a few bucks to make!”
Hulu premieres the first season of Crossing Swords on June 12.
Toronto-based Headspinner Productions and showrunner/producer Diana Moore have begun production on a series of animated shorts created by and starring YouTube sensation Denis Kopotun. Kopotun has over 8.5 million subscribers and more than 3 billion views on his YouTube channel, whose kid-friendly content is a favorite among 6-11 year-olds in the U.S., Canada and around the world.
Michelle Melanson (The Next Step, Stella and Sam, Fangbone!), President of Headspinner Productions, and Moore (Ollie the Boy Who Became What He Ate, Stella and Sam) are executive producing and showrunning the series alongside Kopotun. The 6-11 targeted 2D animated series follows our hero Denis and his cat sidekick Sir Meows A Lot. The episodes are being animated at Cartoon Conrad in Nova Scotia. Financing was secured from the CMF and the Shaw Rocket Fund and the series will stream this fall on Crave and YouTube.
“Millions are already huge fans of Denis,” said Melanson. “Denis is a great friend and role model for kids and we are thrilled to introduce his fans to this super funny animated series.”
“The Denis YouTube Channel became a staple in my household a few years ago, and I’ve been a massive fan ever since,” said Moore. “I think Denis makes incredible content for kids and I’m thrilled to be working with him and Headspinner on this project.”
Kopotun added, “I’m thrilled for this opportunity to take my characters to the next stage. I’ve watched cartoons all my life and getting to work on one of my own is truly a childhood daydream come true!”
All episodes will be available to air and/or stream by September 2020 and all territories are currently available for sales and acquisition. A strong licensing program already exists for the Denis brand for the YouTube channel. Denis and Me merchandise will be added and available in time for the launch of the series.
Headspinner is an award-winning creative production company spearheaded by industry veterans Michelle Melanson and Ken Cuperus. Headspinner is committed to creating and executing great content for the international market. From kids and family to drama and genre, Cuperus and Melanson are driven by an unparalleled passion for the creative industry.
