Warner Bros.’ DC Entertainment has promoted largely from within as new president Diane Nelson announces her management team for the newly reorganized comic book company.
In a statement released Thursday, Nelson appointed Dan DiDio and Jim Lee co-publishers of DC Comics, while making writer Geoff Johns the company’s new chief creative officer. The company also promoted Patrick Caldon to the position of executive VP of finance administration and brought in former ABC Family executive John Rood as executive VP of marketing and business development.
The move marks the beginning of a new era for DC and the fans of its many superhero comics. The transformation into DC Entertainment under Nelson is part of Warner Bros.’ desire to better exploit DC’s 75-year library of comic book characters in multiple media.
DiDio moves up from the post of senior VP and executive editor of the DC Universe, while Lee rises from the title of editorial director of Wildstorm Studios. They replace Paul Levitz, who had worked as a writer, editor and executive at DC for more than 30 years and announced last September he was returning to writing comics after Nelson took over as president of the company.
Prior to joining DC in 2002, DiDio worked in television, where his credits indclude stints as senior VP of creative affairs for Mainframe Entertainment and executive director of children’s programming for ABC.
Jim Lee began his career in comics as the popular artist on such Marvel titles as Alpha Flight, Punisher War Journal and X-Men. In 1992, he co-founded Image Comics and established the comic book production company WildStorm Studios. Lee came into the DC fold in 1998, when he sold WildStorm to the company. He has drawn such popular comics for DC as Batman: Hush and All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder with Frank Miller, and has lead the design of the upcoming DC Universe Online video game.
Johns is a prolific writer whose DC stories featuring the likes of Green Lantern, The Flash, Teen Titans and Justice Society of America have been fan favorites in recent years. He also has written for television, including episodes of Robot Chicken, Titan Maximum, Smallville and Marvel’s Blade: The Series. He began his career as an assistant to filmmaker Richard Donner, who directed 1978’s Superman: The Movie.
Caldon formerly was VP of finance and operations for DC Comics and MAD Magazine. He has worked with DC Comics since 1985.
Rood returns to Warner after a decade at Disney-ABC, where he most recently was senior VP of marketing for ABC Family.
To celebrate their 200th issue, Animation Magazine asked some of their favorite animation heavyweights to tell them about the movie/TV show or characters that made them realize they wanted to work in the toon business. Here are their responses:
Shane Acker Director, 9 "When I think back to what were my earliest animation inspirations, two characters come to mind: Gollum from the 1977 Rankin and Bass production of The Hobbit and Medusa from the 1981 movie, Clash of the Titans. The emaciated, amphibious design of the Gollum creature seemed to really fit the character from the books and there was such complexity to his character; such tragedy that he really affected me on an emotional level. The Medusa creature also affected me in an emotional way by scaring the crap out of me. In both instances I was affected by the magic of animation and its ability to make you believe the impossible."
Craig Bartlett Creator, Dinosaur Train, Hey Arnold! “I'd have to go with A Charlie Brown Christmas, because it broke all the rules of cartoon storytelling, and had its own unique vibe, much closer to how I experienced life than the animated stories I'd seen up until then. I was around Charlie Brown's age when it premiered on TV, and I was shocked how bummed out about Christmas it was allowed to be. The wide shots with the kids walking in the snow to that beautiful, sad music were revolutionary. I wanted to grow up to make a cartoon that could be that eloquent.”
Eric Coleman Senior Vice President, Original Series, Disney TV Animation "Growing up I loved a lot of cartoons—Popeye, Scooby, The Flintstones. But if you’re asking me which characters were my absolute favorite, then it’s Looney Tunes by a long shot. At the time I just enjoyed Bugs, Daffy, and the gang because they were funny. But I think I was also secretly learning to appreciate great comic timing, beautiful animation, fantastic scoring, and the true meaning of breakout characters."
Eric Fogel Co-Creator, Glenn Martin, DDS “When I was a freshman at NYU, I saw a midnight screening of a film called Street Trash. The movie was awful, but I'll never forget the animated short that preceded it: Danny Antonucci's Lupo the Butcher (1987). What an awakening! A caustic, cautionary tale about safety in the workplace, Lupo combined a goofy cartoon look with over-the-top profanity and violence. It was like watching Tom & Jerry on steroids. That film opened my eyes to a world of animation that was strictly for grownups and inspired me to pursue a career path that was a bit more...twisted.”
Michel Gagne Effects Animator, Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones, The Incredibles “At age 11, Watership Down made a huge impression. The moody artwork, dramatic storytelling and beautiful heartfelt score by Angela Morley captured my young imagination. As a young teen, La Planete Sauvage, with its poetic and contemplative narrative, helped shape my taste for the fantastic. As a 16-year-old trying to decide what to do as a career, Lady and the Tramp came to my hometown’s theater and showed me how beautiful classical animation can be. The Secret of NIMH with its magic and mysticism made me want to work with Don Bluth. That was the beginning of my career.”
Jorge R. Gutierrez Creator, El Tigre “Two films punched me in the face and made me want to be an animator! I went to a very strict all boy Catholic school and I remember ditching school to go see The Nightmare Before Christmas on opening day. Seeing that beautifully scary & whimsical world full of amazingly designed characters and gorgeous locations made my little eyeballs explode! Then my first year at CalArts, the Pixar guys came down and showed us Toy Story. At that very moment, it seemed one could do anything in our beloved medium in any technique.”
Peter Hannan Creator, CatDog “There were a lot of animated things that made me think about wanting to do animation myself, from Rocky and Bullwinkle to Pinocchio to Tex Avery to the Grinch to Charlie Brown to Betty Boop to Bambi Meets Godzilla. But the cartoons that just stuck in my mind, and that I probably watched and re-watched more than anything, were Popeye cartoons—especially the musicals, especially Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor. ‘I'm afraid of nobody under the sun. All I say is ‘Boo!’ and my enemies run!’ I loved Popeye, I loved the songs, and I think I especially loved the idea of saying, ‘Boo!’ and having my enemies run.”
Butch Hartman Creator, The Fairly OddParents, T.U.F.F Puppy “What most inspired me to get into the animation business were the endless (unedited) reruns of Looney Tunes cartoons I watched on Detroit's famous Channel 50 during the 1970s. I knew I liked funny stuff, and I knew I liked cartoons. I just wanted to try animating or writing something that came close to the awesomeness of the ‘Rabbit Season/Duck Season’ bit that Chuck Jones did. Hopefully I'll get there someday!”
Mark Henn Animator, The Lion King, Enchanted, The Princess and the Frog "The two movies I saw as a young boy which most inspired me were Cinderella and The Reluctant Dragon. Cinderella was my earliest Disney film I saw in the theaters. I was taken with Cinderella herself, as well as Frank Thomas's animation of the step mother. The Reluctant Dragon sequence showing Robert Benchley watching Ward Kimball animate Goofy had me hooked on animation. From that point on I wanted to be a Disney animator."
Byron Howard Director, Bolt, Rapunzel "Chuck Jones is my hero. My anvil-dropping, wabbit-twacking, 'ooh-that-dirty-bee' hero. When I was just a little pencil-stub, I wondered why his cartoons were funnier than all the others. As I grew into awkward, gangly animator-hood, I realized that this was not only due to Chuck's superior draughtsmanship but also to his unbelievable sense of timing. My other hero is Chuck's main writer, Mike Maltese, who made me appreciate the importance of having brilliant writing talent behind your script."
Jeffrey Katzenberg CEO, DreamWorks Animation "My singular influence was the man who showed us all how to make the magic—Walt Disney. He set the bar high, continually challenging himself and his team to stretch the bounds of animated storytelling. During my 10 years at his company, Walt’s presence went far beyond being the 'name above the door.' In the Disney Archives, he left an extraordinary record of his creative thought processes that guided us as we sought to produce new animated films worthy of his legacy. Walt once said, 'If you can dream it, you can do it.' I can think of no better anthem for all of us who work at this incredible art form.”
Bob Kurtz Animator, The Pink Panther, George of the Jungle “So many wonderful animated films and filmmakers have influenced me. Frederic Back and Oscar Grillo come to mind quickly, along with Marc Davis and T. Hee. And who doesn't love Disney's Pinocchio or Dumbo, or now Up? Great films! If I have to pick just one film I think it would be UPA's Rooty Toot Toot by John Hubley. Besides being smart, funny and inventive, that film made me aware of how close animation is to the dance. That animation is choreography and we don't have to be limited by realistic actions. Thank you, John Hubley, for your innovations.”
Phil Lord Director, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Clone High “The shorts in the International Tournée of Animation. I made my parents take me to this rank arthouse to see them annually in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, when I was barely a middle schooler. It was the first time I saw Bill Plympton, Ren and Stimpy, and The Simpsons. I saw that cartoons could be divergent, subversive, contemporary, intelligent and wildly funny. It was also the first time I saw so many people with thick glasses and bad posture assembled in one place. I said to myself, "Ah, these are my people.”
Mark McCorkle Producer, The Penguins of Madagascar “It was perfect that I was pondering my inspiration to pursue a career in animation during the holidays, since that's when it all began for me. The stop-motion work that the folks at Rankin-Bass did on Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town was magical. The understated simplicity of A Charlie Brown Christmas and the comic genius of Chuck Jones' How the Grinch Stole Christmas were brilliant in completely different ways. That such a range of styles and techniques could achieve the same goal—entertainment that would endure for generations—made me fall in love with animation.”
Tom McGillis President, Fresh TV “For me, it was Battle of the Planets. The year was 1978 and my excitement over Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica was barely containable. Then I discovered this awesome animated show about five fearless kids who called themselves G-Force and defended Earth from the evil Zoltar. They wore bizarre bird costumes and whizzed around the universe in a flaming bird contraption. Little did I know, I was actually watching an English version of the classic Anime series Gatchaman from 1972. Warner Bros is planning a CGI Gatchaman feature for 2011. Bring it!”
Christopher Miller Director, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Clone High “The 1953 Chuck Jones short Duck Amuck. Watching this cartoon as a kid I realized the freedom of imagination and the creative possibilities that only animation can provide. Later watching it as a young adult I saw it as a ‘meta’ exploration of the animation process and the relationship between the animator and the worlds s/he creates. And on top of that, it's really, really, really funny.”
Jamie Mitchell Director, Co-Exec Producer, Special Agent Oso “My inspirations in exactly 100 words: Drawings of Heinrich Kley, Honoré Daumier and Bob Pauley, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, Hal Fosters Prince Valiant, Bob Mitchell's 7 UP commercials: ‘Intermission’ (1971), ‘See the Light’ (1975); Further Adventures of Uncle Sam by Bob Mitchell and Dale Case; Yellow Submarine’s Eleanor Rigby sequence; Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bongo, Tinker Bell, The Jungle Book, Walt/Roy, Bill Peet, Mel Blanc, Carl Stalling, Harman/Ising; Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, Gumby; Fantasia’s Dance of the Hours; Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels; The Incredible Mr. Limpet; The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Nilsson’s The Point, Ward Kimball's Steam Engine, and the Original Disney Animation Building.”
John Musker Director, Disney’s Princess and The Frog, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules “On film it was Sleeping Beauty in its original 1959 release. The Prince leaping that drawbridge and fighting his way through those thorns to fight that terrifying woman/dragon Maleficent: that was the James Cameron action spectacular of 1959 to a highly impressionable six year old. I continued to see Maleficent in my closet for a year or two after that. Then Bob Thomas' Art of Animation book that I found in the local public library explained the animation process using examples from Sleeping Beauty, and it all burned deep into my six-year-old brain.”
Everett Peck Creator, Duckman, Squirrel Boy “When I was a little kid I saw a 35mm copy of Steamboat Willie. I guess that got me started down the path to animation, although to this day I have no idea what the parrot says at the end.”
Bill Plympton Indie Director/Animator, I Married a Strange Person, Idiots and Angels, Guard Dog “I think one of the most influential films I saw was The Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit by Bob Godfrey. I was in college at the time and I'd never seen an independent film before. I loved Disney and Warner Bros. of course but they never showed indie films on TV. So it was a complete revelation to me that one could make a film without studio support. And of course the humor and style were completely different from anything I'd ever seen. This was my first hint that I could make animation by myself and as you know that's been my style throughout my career.”
Dan Povenmire Creator, Phineas and Ferb “The movie that really did it for me was The Jungle Book. Not only was the animation and the story great, but the songs got stuck in my head when I was five and never got out. Even now, 40 years later I can still sing every word of every one of those songs. Also, it was the first animated movie in which I was actually aware of the strength of the lines and posing. It was the first time I saw it as an art form and not just entertainment.”
Joanna Priestley Indie Animator, All My Relations, Utopia Parkway, Missed Aches “For over two decades, my favorite animated film has been The Man Who Planted Trees (L'homme qui plantait des arbres, Canada, 1987) by Frédéric Back. I have seen it 25 or 30 times and still feel a deep thrill when I hear the opening string music. The film is based on two stories published in 1953 by French author Jean Giono. Most people think the film is based on a true story, but Giorno said ‘Elzéard Bouffier is a fictional person. The goal was to make trees likeable, or more specifically, make planting trees likeable.’
Frédéric Back balances luscious, pastoral imagery with bleak monochromatic landscapes and glimpses of violence. The drawings are exquisite and scenes like the final zoom from the face into the eye of the old man are etched into your memory forever. It has a brilliant score and sound design by Normand Roger with Denis Chartrand and thoughtful editing by Norbert Pickering. See this movie!”
Troy Saliba Animation Supervisor, G-Force “I was a big fan of Disney's 101 Dalmatians, Jungle Book and Sword in the Stone. That was the era where they started photo copying pencil drawings onto cels, instead of inking them. These movies really looked like moving illustrations to me. I think that is what truly inspired me to learn animation. Being able to generate a living performance with nothing but a pile of paper and a pencil.”
David Schaub Animation Supervisor, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland “I was a huge fan of Disney cartoons as a kid, and I still remember the day the light went on for me. It was a flip book that I got from a Disneyland souvenir store. There they were—Chip 'n' Dale and Mickey Mouse coming to life right there in my hand as I flipped the pages! It was pure magic, and I felt like the magicians had just revealed their secret. That awakening inspired many epic creations in the corner of every phone book I could get my hands on. There was no turning back from there.”
Bob Schooley Producer, The Penguins of Madagascar “The Fisher-Price Movie Viewer changed my life. In the pre-video days when Disney still rationed their classics to a once-every-seven-years theatrical rarity, this little no-batteries-required film loop viewer allowed me to obsesses and analyze. I could click frame by beautiful frame over abridged Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse shorts. Cranking back and forth, the mystery of squash and stretch was revealed. Thanks to the kid controlled speed, the Tortoise could zip and the Hare crawl. Or go backwards. It was a quick leap from this toy to making my own Super-8 cartoons. I was hooked.”
J.J. Sedelmeier Animator/Producer, TV Funhouse, Harvey Birdman “It was the Fleischer Superman cartoons that did it for me—and I'd only seen them in black and white! Next to that, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Yellow Submarine. And the Jean Marsh hosted International Animation Film Festival on PBS in the mid-1970s. This program introduced me to so many of the classic films from Eastern Europe … Sisyphus, the work of Peter Foldes, and lots of stuff from Zagreb.”
Fred Seibert Exec Producer and President, Frederator Studios “When I was a kid I loved Bugs Bunny, Huckleberry Hound, and the Flintstones. And fortunately, my formative years were spent watching TV when there wasn't enough original programming. So the studios dusted off everything in their libraries and the stations played it all. Felix the Cat, Farmer Gray, Koko the Clown, Crusader Rabbit, Astro Boy, Tom & Jerry, the Disney, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Fleischers, and all the independent [cartoons]—they seemed to be on all the time. It was a magic moment. All kinds of cartoons worked and I think I loved them all.”
Henry Selick Director, Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas "There's no single animated character, TV show or feature that got me going in animation. Instead, there's a whole list of things that have tickled my animation fancy from my early childhood through my college years. Some favorites include: The cyclops from Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and the sword-wielding skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts, Tubby in George Pal's Tubby the Tuba, Chernabog from Night On Bald Mountain and Mickey Mouse in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in Fantasia, the Pink Elephants sequence from Dumbo, Pinocchio, 101 Dalmatians, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, Mighty Mouse Playhouse, Gumby, Davey and Goliath, Mr. Magoo, UPA’s Rooty Toot Toot, Caroline Leaf’s Orpheo, Ryan Larkin’s Walking and The Street, Co Hoedeman’s The Sand Castle, Jiri Trinka’s The Hand, Jan Svankmeyer’s Jabberwocky, Norman McLaren’s Pas de Deux and Neighbors, Allegro Non Troppo, and Yellow Submarine.”
Linda Simenski VP of Children’s Programming, PBS “My favorite cartoons were the Bugs Bunny cartoons and I watched them faithfully every day after school. I had decided around seventh grade that I wanted to write Bugs Bunny cartoons, and someone finally told me that most of them—the good ones—had been produced long before I was born. A few years later, a guy in my filmmaking class in high school made his own animated film. We all crowded around to watch his 8mm Don Martin-looking film about a food fight, and at that exact moment, I knew I wanted to be an animator. A few months later, after making my own incredibly mediocre animated film, I realized I actually did not want to be one. But in college, as I watched the 16th Annual Tournee of Animation, I decided that I was still going to have to find some sort of job in animation!”
Michael Surrey Animator, The Princess and the Frog, The Lion King "Inspiration for me to get into animation started way before I knew I could do this for a living. Watching cartoons Saturday morning with a bowl of cereal was the norm for me growing up. Warner Bros. shorts with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and friends and of course the endless supply of Hanna-Barbara cartoons. But it was at about seven years old when I was home sick from school fighting off a fever watching TV, when I was introduced to Tom & Jerry and Tex Avery. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The stuff they were doing was so crazy and funny and it made me wonder, how can I do that? It pushed me to try different things with my drawing and is what propelled me into pursuing animation as a career. To this day I am inspired when I look at Tom & Jerry and Tex Avery shorts. It's timeless knowledge for an animator."
Online short film site Atom.com is expanding its presence on television.
Comedy Central has ordered a third season of the half-hour late-night series Atom TV, while its sister network MTV2 will debut a new best-of series called The Atom Show.
Both series will feature the best of the short films made for the site by animators, comedians and short filmmakers.
Atom TV is set to begin its third season in the Monday at 2:30 a.m. time slot on Comedy Central, while The Atom Show will air Fridays at 11:15 p.m.
“We are thrilled to return to Comedy Central and to start spending our Friday nights with MTV2,” said Scott Roesch, general manager of Atom.com. “Playing on both networks is going to give us access to an even bigger audience seeking original comedy on every platform.”
Another Atom-generated web series, Five-On, is set to make the transition to TV show on Comedy Central as the new series Ugly Americans debuting March 17.
Additional details, including specific premiere dates, will be announced this spring.
The animated children’s series the WotWots is coming to Canada from New Zealand.
The series, created by Richard Taylor and Martin Bantyon, will debut Feb. 22 at 6:15 p.m. on Canada’s Treehouse channel.
The series and its 52 10-minute episodes will be seen in an estimated 8 million home in Canada. In addition to the Friday slot, it will air Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. and Sundays at 1:40 p.m.
Launched in New Zealand on TVNZ in 2009, the WotWots has become one of the country’s most popular preschool properties and is currently seen on TV2 and TVNZ6 daily. It’s been a hit in Australia and the United Kingdom.
"We are absolutely thrilled to be launching the WotWots in Canada on Treehouse,” said Taylor, co-founder of Weta Workshop. “The series is already enjoying great success in other territories so we look forward to seeing similar results in Canada”.
The WotWots is produced by Pukeko Pictures and made at Richard Taylor’s Weta Workshop. Pukeko Pictures is a new business partnership between Taylor and children’s television creator Baynton. Taylor and Baynton previously teamed up to create the award winning children’s program, Jane and the Dragon.
Nickelodeon’s President’s Day special The Penguins of Madagascar: Dr. Blowhole’s Revenge scored in the ratings as the top basic cable program with total viewers for the night.
The new episode, which guest starred Neil Patrick Harris, ranked as basic cable’s No. 1 telecast with total viewers (4.6 million, +19%) in the 8-8:30 p.m. time period. It was also broadcast and basic cable’s top telecast with kids 2-11 (8.3/2.9 million, +34%) and kids 6-11 (9.9/2.1 million, 167%) on Monday.
Dr. Blowhole’s Revenge also ranked as broadcast and basic cable’s No. 1 animated telecast with total viewers on Monday.
Martin Scorsese’s most recent film, Shutter Island, is the sold major movie release of the week.
The Paramount release, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley, opens in about 2,500 theaters.
It enters the fray against last weekend’s champion, the romantic comedy Valentine’s Day, as well as a still-formidable Avatar and more recent VFX-heavy holdovers such as The Wolfman and Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.
Avatar’s position as the top 3D movie of the year will be challenged next weekend by the release of Tim Burton’s new take on Alice in Wonderland.
The 3-D update of the animated Disney classic Beauty and the Beast has been pushed back to sometime in 2011.
Disney-Pixar animation chief John Lasseter told MTV that no date had been chosen for releasing the film, which was originally due out Feb. 12. Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the original release of Beauty and the Beast, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
The new 3-D version of the film has been in the works for some time, and preview footage was shown last summer at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
Lasseter says that while he’s very enthusiastic about 3-D, updating the studios’ classic films to the new format is not a top priority.
"We don’t have any plans yet for further 3D-izing of our older films," he told MTV. "But it’s always a possibility. I’m excited that people are loving 3-D and it seems to be not just a fad, but something that will stay."
Pixar released in October 3-D versions of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 in advance of this summer’s Toy Story 3 in 3-D.
The popular collectible toy GoGo’s Crazy Bones is being developed for an animated TV series by Canada’s Breakthrough Films.
The property, owned by Spain’s Martomagic and PPI Worldwide Group through Bulldog Licensing Ltd., features hundreds of characters that each has its own personality, strength, power and score. The toys, which are both collectible and used in various games, were released in 2009 and have earned a large fan following all over the world.
“We are looking forward to working alongside Martomagic and PPI to create an extraordinary and entertaining children’s property with unique storylines and memorable characters that will appeal to the property’s established international fan base and attract new audiences around the world,” said Ira Levy, executive producer and co-founder of Breakthrough Films & Television.
Martomagic and PPI have expressed their “excitement to be working with the professional team at Breakthrough in producing the television series and bringing GoGo’s Crazy Bones alive in viewers’ homes.”
Cookie Jar Entertainment is bringing a long-running live-action hit to animation with the debut Sunday on Canada’s CBC of Doodebops Rockin’ Road Show.
The 26 x 30 min. series, a co-production with Argentina’s Illusion Studios and Germany’s Optix Entertainment, will air as part of the Kids’ CBC block on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. and Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m.
The series continues with Deedee, Rooney and Moe Doodle as they take a musical journey to new destinations with pals Bus Driver Bob and the dog BopBop. Each episode will feature two original songs performed by the original cast members, who also provide voices for their characters.
“We’re thrilled to partner once again with Kids’ CBC to bring this fantastic new animated show to Doodlebops fans throughout Canada,” said Jamie Waese, head of current programming, Cookie Jar Entertainment. “We are certain that the show’s positive messages and exciting music will continue to resonate with fans of the popular, long-running live-action series as well as a new generation of fans.”
Once each year at the DeMille Barn in Hollywood, the Animation Guild, ASIFA-Hollywood and Women In Animation present An Afternoon of Remembrance, “a non-denominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community”. This year the event takes place on Saturday, March 13th, at 1pm (A reception precedes the memorial at 12 noon). Tributes will be paid to many, including:
Wayne Allwine, Ray Aragon, Dina Babbitt, Bob Broughton, Art Clokey, Vincent Davis, Virginia Davis, Jaime Diaz, Roy E. Disney, Bob Dranko, Heinz Edelmann, Ric Estrada, Victor Haboush, Dallas McKennon, Marty Murphy, Tony Peters, Arnold Stang and others.
The Afternoon of Remembrance is free of charge and is open to all. No RSVPs necessary. Food and refreshments, 12 noon, Memoriams, 1 pm. The Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn) is located at 2100 N. Highland Ave. (across from Hollywood Bowl) in Hollywood, California.
It regards James Cameron's small art film, and it's a good one.
"Is it animation? Is it a new category? ... I don't know where it fits. I will tell you this, animators have to work very, very hard with the motion-capture data. After the performance is captured, it's not just plugged into the computer which spits out big blue people. It's a hybrid."
Well, yeah.
Just like Out of the Inkwell and Gulliver's Travels (the Fleischer edition) and Don Bluth's later work. There was lots of live-action emoting in the mix with all of them, but the final results needed animators sitting and desks. Lots and lots of animators. Likewise Avatar.
So to describe it as pure flesh-and-blood actor's performance is more than a little wrong.
The last few months, various conglomerates and law firms have phoned in to ask about contracts for new animated shows. (Had one today, in fact.)
Funny how companies have figured out that animation is cost effective and, as an added bonus, has a dandy commercial shelf life. And that adults like it too. The media is apparently picking up on the trend:
HBO launches The Ricky Gervais Show and the second season of The Life & Times of Tim on Friday (9 and 9:30 p.m. ET/PT), and FX recently introduced Archer (tonight, 10 ET/PT). They join Comedy Central's South Park, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block and Fox's Sunday lineup with offerings aimed more at grown-ups. ...
Casey Bloys, who oversees comedy at HBO, says the pay-cable network isn't specifically trying to launch animation. "What we're looking for are interesting shows. (The creators') point of view was the most important thing." ...
On the business side, animation is easy to dub for international audiences and it performs well in DVD sales, says Modi Wiczyk of Media Rights Capital, which produces Tim and Gervais. Quality animation can now be made "at a basic-cable price," too, Landgraf says.
The animation field is growing, Wiczyk says. "Twenty to 30 years ago, there wasn't a huge bench of people who wanted to make animated comedies. Now, this genre is attracting such bright talent."...
Thirty years ago, there weren't a jillion cable networks. We had three big broadcast companies, and we had low-rent syndicated shows appearing on the independent teevee channels sprinkled across the air waves. That, boys and girls, was pretty much it. Now, however, there's a lot more time to fill, and it can't all be talk and reality shows.
So animation is getting a close look by the multi-nationals because it travels well and makes money. And on our end, we're getting inquiries from various entities about new contracts. But we're telling the smart operators who ask about covering "just the writers" some sad news:
"Sorry, TAG isn't serving as a prophylactic against the Writers Guild of America (west). You want to cover your six writers to the exclusion of directors, storyboard artists, designers and animators, you can't do it with a contract from the Animation Guild, because we won't sign that kind of a deal."
It's pretty much all or nothing, the way we see it. In the next few weeks, we hope to have some newer studios signed to contracts, but the congloms' latest subsidiaries and subcontractors are going to have to decide if they want to cover the whole animated enchilada. Because covering a small slice of it just isn't going to work.
Pixar Chief Discusses Totoro Cameo In 'Toy Story 3' Trailer
If you watched the most recent trailer for Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” very closely, you might have noticed a familiar face among the new characters added for the sequel. In the scene when Woody and friends use a computer, a plush Totoro is visible on the left of the screen. Fans of Japanese animation, specifically the films of Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away;” “Ponyo”), know the big rabbit-looking creature as one of the titular spirits from the director’s 1988 classic “My Neighbor Totoro.”
MTV spoke to Pixar head John Lasseter during a recent “Toy Story 3” promotional event about the crossover.
“Totoro has a cameo appearance in “Toy Story 3,” he acknowledged. “We do little homages in our films, and we thought it was a very appropriate homage to let [Miyazaki and his film company] Studio Ghibli know how much they mean to us.”
Lasseter mentioned his long friendship with the filmmaker and the animation studio, as well as the fact that Disney has been distributing English-language versions of Miyazaki’s films in the United States with Lasseter himself producing the U.S. dubs of “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle” and the latest, “Ponyo.”
This was not the first time Pixar paid tribute to the work of Miyazaki. Two years ago, the studio held an auction in support of the Totoro Forest Project, a charitable effort to preserve a forest in Japan. Featured in the auction were “Totoro”-inspired works from top artists, including “Ratatouille” storyboard illustrators Enrico Casarosa and Ronaldo Del Carmen (whose contributions were reportedly bought at the time by Lasseter).
Lasseter and Miyazaki first met more than 30 years ago and later became friends while the latter was at work on “Totoro” in 1987. Apparently neither speaks the other’s language, but they get along famously anyway.
“I admire him so much,” Lasseter said of the master animator, adding that he thought “Ponyo” was “fantastic.”
Ben studied animation under former Disney animator Milt Neil at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He has been in the animation industry since 1984. He started doing animation for small commercials, then years later moved on to J.J. Sedelmaier Productions working on the "Cluckin' Chicken" parody for Saturday Night Live, which led to MTV, where he worked on "Beavis and Butt-Head", doing storyboard revisions, character and prop design, layout. animation on the hallucination sequence on the feature "Beavis and Butt-head Do "America" and also MTV's "The Maxx", doing character layout. As a freelancer, he's worked for various companies including Disney TV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, HBO Family, Miramax, Warner Bros., Saatchi and Saatchi, General Mills and Comedy Central. Currently, he's still doing the freelancing thing, while developing some personal projects for pitching.
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If you watched the most recent trailer for Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” very closely, you might have noticed a familiar face among the new characters added for the sequel. In the scene when Woody and friends use a computer, a plush Totoro is visible on the left of the screen. Fans of Japanese animation, specifically the films of Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (“Spirited Away;” “Ponyo”), know the big rabbit-looking creature as one of the titular spirits from the director’s 1988 classic “My Neighbor Totoro.”
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