News - 10/06/09...

MIPJunior Wrap: A Weekend Postcard from Cannes

It could have been the perfect sunny weather or various reports that the global economic woes would be slowly lifting by the time the new year rolls around. Whatever the reason, the kids programming and animation professionals attending MIP Junior at Cannes’ glam Carlton hotel this weekend (Oct. 3-4) seemed to be enjoying a renewed sense of optimism and energy. As one indie animation producer put it, “It couldn’t possibly be worse than what we saw at the MIP-TV market this spring.”

According to event organizer, Reed Midem, over 1143 shows were available for 500-plus buyers to screen at the digital library. Although the show got to a slow start on Saturday, you could hardly move through the jam-packed lobby of the Carlton on Sunday.

Mahmoud Bouneb, exec general manager of pan-Arab Al Jazeera Children’s Channel delivered the event’s keynote on Sunday, in which he discussed the challenges of the Arabic production center to compete in the international marketplace.

He noted that the channel has projects in development in various locations such as New Mexico and that it has a budget of $100 million for its two channels (30% of which goes to preschool channel Baraem TV). He added that the network is seen as a strong, independent performer, but it’s publicly funded and not actually profitable at this moment.

Meanwhile, a few blocks down the Croisette at the Martinez Hotel, DQ Entertainment and ZDF-Germany hosted a special screening of a complete episode of their new CG-animated series The Jungle Book. Co-produced with TF1-France, NBC Universal, ABC Australia and Moonscoop in France, 20 episodes of the impressive-looking show will be ready by the fall of 2010. After the screening, DQE’s president Tapaas Chakravarti acknowledged the hard work of the multi-national production and also presented a special Achievement Award to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, which was accepted by Josh Berger, president of Warner Bros. Entertainment, U.K. Chakravarti also mentioned that plans are underway to produce the second season of the show in stereoscopic 3-D for home viewing. On Wednesday, DQ plans to make another big announcement about a hot new project the studio is launching. (Tapaas has a great flair for dramatic presentations, so we’ll be all ears!)

In other Junior news, on Saturday afternoon, the jury for the 2009 Licensing Challenge picked Formula Fun Intl.’s Franco and the Formula Fun as this year’s winner. The 52 x 12 CG-animated series is set against the world of motor racing and follows the adventures of a six-year-old boy named Franco and superhero cars that trek the world and fight the evil schemes of supervillain Rossi the Chameleon.












The other selected nominees were Fuss Farm (Electric Circus, Wooki Kim), Geronimo Stilton (Moonscoop/Atlantyca), Manon (Cyber Group Studios), The Happets (Anera Films S.L.) and The Hive (The Hive Enterprises Ltd.)

The big newsmakers are waiting for this week to grab the headlines at MIPCOM (Monday thru Thursday). Among the hottest tickets is a special 20th Anniversary tribute to The Simpsons on Tuesday where series creator Matt Groening and exec producer Al Jean will share creative insights about their phenomenal toon and will chat with Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me). On Wednesday, Groening will receive the key to the city of Cannes from the mayor. Jerry Seinfeld, Lisa Kudrow and Joan Rivers are among other familiar faces from the American TV landscape who are slated to make appearances at the Palais this week. Stay tuned for more daily reports and the announcement of the most-screened animated shows at Junior.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Zombieland Eats up Meatballs, Toys

The walking dead of Zombieland may have taken the weekend box office gold medal, but 3-D animated features took the silver and bronze.

Zombieland lead the weekend by a comfortable margin, earning an estimated $25 million in its first thee days of release.

That put it comfortably ahead of Sony’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which continues to do well in its third weekend of release with a $16.7 million take. That puts the total domestic gross for the 3-D CG-animated movie at about $82 million.

The re-release of Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story and Toy Story 2 as a 3-D double feature came in third place, selling $12.5 million worth of tickets. Together, the Toy Story re-release and Cloudy outgrossed Zombieland.

The weekend’s other new releases were the Ricky Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying, which took in about $7.4 million for fourth place, and the Drew Barrymore-directed roller derby comedy Whip It, which came in sixth place with $4.9 million.

VFX-heavy comic-book adaptation The Surrogates came in fifth place in its second weekend out, taking in $7.4 million for a total of $26.4 million.

Also still in release is the Focus Features animated movie 9, which took in $1.4 million in fourth weekend out. That brings its domestic total to $29.4 million.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Spore Grows into Blue Sky Feature Film

Video-game giant Electronic Arts is teaming up with Fox, Blue Sky Studios and director Chris Wedge for a computer-animated feature adaptation of Will Wright’s Spore.

Wedge, who directed previous Blue Sky releases Ice Age and Robots, is set to direct the film, according to Variety.

Wedge recently set up another animated feature film at Blue Sky, Leaf Men, and also is set to direct a live-action film for Warner Bros. called The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Writers Greg Erb and Jason Gremland have been hired to write the script based on the game, in which players create creatures and worlds and then share them with other gamers to create an entire universe.

Game creator Wright previously came up with the Sim City and The Sims video game franchises.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Wallace & Gromit’s Invention Sells Down Under

ABC Australia is the most recent broadcaster to sign on for Aardman Animation’s new series Wallace & Gromit present A World of Invention.

The broadcaster has pre-bought all six 29-minute episodes of the series, which is a live action at various contraptions and inventions, with the animated duo playing host.

The series is set to begin broadcasting in late 2010, with Aardman looking to secure more international deals at this week’s MIPCOM conference in Cannes, France.

“With several award-winning films and television series to their name, it is exciting to be taking Wallace and Gromit into a new genre and we are delighted that ABC has made a further commitment to our programming,” says Alix Wiseman, Aardman’s head of sales. “We are confident that Wallace & Gromit present A World of Invention has great international potential and will appeal to family audiences worldwide.”

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Springfield Comes to Cannes for MIPCOM Simpsons Bash

The Simpsons are taking over MIPCOM to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iconic animated television series.

The celebration, put together by Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution with MIPCOM organizers will include keynote addresses Oct. 6 from series creator Matt Groening and executive producer Al Jean. The pair also will participate in an international press conference that also will include Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner, the voices behind Homer and Marge Simpson.

On Oct. 7, the mayor of Cannes will proclaim Simpsons Day in the city and present Groening with a yellow key to the city. That evening, Groening will receive the first ever MIPCOM Creative Icon Award at a yellow-carpet dinner.

“The irreverent humor of The Simpsons has traveled around the world. It is a remarkable example of a show that for two decades has combined creative richness with huge commercial success without compromise,” said Laurine Garaude, acting Director of Reed MIDEM’s Television Division. “We are proud to be a part of the celebration of this truly global television phenomenon.”

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Report: Canada, U.S., France Tops in Animation Output

A new report on global animation output ranks Canada, the United States and France as the most prolific animation nations.

The report, titled The Global Animation Industry and put together by analysts at Screen Digest, had Canada producing the most hours of animation in 2008, with 382, followed by the United States at 330. The value of the United States’ output, however, was greater than that of Canada — $376 million versus $265 million —due to the higher budgets of U.S. productions.

France, meanwhile, lead Europe with 259 hours produced — down from 395 in 2006 — while the United Kingdom surpassed Italy for the No. 2 spot.

In a ranking of companies’ output, Canada’s Nelvana was the top producer worldwide by average output over the past three years, ahead of Disney and Nick.

“There is perhaps no genre of film or television more global than animation,” says Screen Digest Senior Analyst Tim Westcott. “A popular film or TV series in one country can quickly translate into a global phenomenon. And success in these primary markets can feed through into DVD and licensing and merchandising revenues."

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Sunday Afternoon with a Kid With A Rocket Launcher

Two separate independent projects, with little in common outside of both being made essentially by one person, each with a lot of dedication. First up, Matthew Reis’ Kid With a Rocket Launcher:



Reis’ film is quite an ambitious project. Toon Boom just did an article on how it got made, and Reis has posted an extensive production blog.

Danny Ochoa, an indie animator residing in San Francisco, was commissioned to direct and animate a music video by local Bay Area band The Greening. I think it captures the proper underground comix feel:



Danny tells us:

Yes, I made the entire cartoon by myself… Written, directed and animated. The cartoon took me a year to complete because I had to work nights on it and had a day job at the time. It was rendered entirely in Flash and I tried to keep the look of the cartoon as traditionally hand drawn as possible, as almost every frame was meticulously hand drawn with a wacom tablet.

I love underground comics and cartoons from the golden age of animation so I tried to combine those two looks to the cartoon. The characters in the video are actually from a comic I have been self publishing for years called Molly & Jo. I hope to someday pitch “Molly & Jo” as an animated series and hope that the video is the first step in that direction.

(Thanks cartoonbrew)





The Apple and the Worm

Animator David Nethery pointed me toward this intriguing 2D animated feature coming from Denmark, The Apple & the Worm, directed by Anders Morgenthaler (Princess). It was apparently made totally paperless, drawn on Wacom Cintiq tablets, using TVP Animation software. If any of our bilingual readers can translate the trailer’s introductory dialogue, please send us a comment.

The poster and still images are posted here and a very good article about the film and the director is up at Denmark Film Institute.

(Thanks cartoonbrew)





What to make of Mickey’s mixed signals

Jim Hill talks about all of the recent changes at The Walt Disney Company. To be specific, what Bob Iger will be looking for from the new head of Disney Studios

It’s been quite a month for the Mouse, don’t you think? Inside of one single 30 day span, The Walt Disney Company has:

* - Revealed that it would be spending $4 billion to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and its library of 5000 characters
* - At the D23 EXPO, the Studios announced a new production label – Disney Double Dare You – which would specialize in creating “ … new animated films full of chills and thrills for audiences of all ages”
* - Dick Cook stepped down as Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, ending his 38-year career with the Company
* - Disney decided to downsize Miramax, which had previously produced many of the Studio’s prestige pictures like “Shakespeare in Love,” “The English Patient” and “The Queen”






















I gotta tell you, folks. From the e-mails that I’ve been receiving, Disneyana fans aren’t exactly thrilled with all of these changes that seem to be coming so fast. For every piece of good news (EX: The $300 million-plus that Disney Parks & Resorts will be spending to expand the Fantasyland portion of WDW’s Magic Kingdom), there are two other stories that then give these people pause (EX: The Company’s recent announcement that the 5th Avenue “World of Disney” flagship store will be closing on December 31st and/or this morning's news that Rich Ross, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide, has been tapped as Dick Cook’s replacement).

So what are you guys making of Mickey's mixed signals? As one JHM fan recently put it in a note to yours truly:

“I feel like I’m not going to be able to recognize the place in 5 to 10 years. Couldn’t they get someone like John Lasseter to replace Dick Cook?”





















(L to R) John Lasseter & Dick Cook

Sorry, but John’s plate is full right now. Some might even say too full.

I mean, think about it. As of this moment, John Lasseter is riding herd on:

* - All of the features & shorts that Pixar Animation Studios & Walt Disney Animation Studios currently have in production and/or development
* - Consulting on all of the theme parks, rides, shows & attractions that Walt Disney Imagineering has in its pipeline
* - Overseeing Pixar’s own expansion plans (i.e. that 20,000-square-foot studio that they plan on opening this Fall in Vancouver. Not to mention Pixar’s $325-million plans to expand its corporate headquarters. Which – over the next 20 years – will add three new buildings to the Emeryville campus [including a six-story, 1,801-space parking garage] as this studio grows from its current staff of 730 to 2000 employees)
* - And let’s not forget that Pixar’s move into live-action production. Which officially gets underway next month with Andrew Stanton’s “John Carter of Mars” begins shooting in Utah








Copyright 2009 Lasseter Family Winery. All Rights Reserved

* - And did I mention the Lasseter Family Winery in Glen Ellen, CA. ? Or that John & Nancy’s five sons are growing up very fast these days? Which makes Lasseter’s family time seem that much precious

So – in short – John Lasseter’s dance card is full. Very full. Which is why taking on the additional responsibility of running Walt Disney Studios was just a physical impossibility.

Besides running the movie side of the Mouse House these days would seem to be kind of a thankless task. To me, anyway. Think about all of the 800-pound gorillas that you’d regularly have to deal with if you had that job …













Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved

Jerry Bruckheimer
Tim Burton
John Lasseter
Steven Spielberg
Robert Zemeckis

… With each of these guys then expecting that their latest film will get your full attention. That their upcoming production will get the best possible release date. More importantly, the lion’s share of that year’s promotional budget.

That’s why I don’t envy Rich Ross (who – just this morning – has officially been confirmed as the new head of Walt Disney Studios). In replacing the much beloved Cook, Ross is going to have a very tough act to follow. More importantly – given everything that’s going on in the entertainment business these days (i.e. the drop in DVD sales, consumers failing to fully embrace Blu-ray, etc.) -- picking projects that will actually pay off for the Mouse House in the long run is going to be a real challenge.






















Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide.
Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved

That said, it was almost an inevitability that Rich would wind up in charge of the Studios. After all, as head of Disney Channels Worldwide (with its “… 94 kid-driven, family inclusive entertainment channels and/or channel feeds available in 163 countries in 32 languages), Ross had risen as high as he realistically could go within that arm of the Mouse House. And given that – on the heels of the success of the “High School Musical,” “Hannah Montana” and “Camp Rock” franchises—other entertainment companies have come sniffing around, trying to lure Rich away from Disney with promises of higher salaries & bigger challenges at their studios … Mickey had to do something to keep Rich on the reservation. Which is why Dick got tossed under the bus.

On the upside, I have heard some awfully nice things about Ross. That he is just the sort of team player that Iger is looking for when it comes to the new head of Walt Disney Studios.

Case in point: Last year, as Disney Company officials were mapping out plans to maximize the profits that the Studio expected to make off of “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” the issue of ringtones came up. And it was determined that Disney could make several million dollars if they just sold off pieces of music from the “HSM3" soundtrack to a company like Verizon to use for ringtones.


















Copyright 2008 Disney. All Rights Reserved

But at that same time, The Walt Disney Company was targeting young cell phone users. The Mouse had set up a mobile storefront, an instant-messaging chat system as well as virtual world widgets. All with the hope that this new business initiative would then allow Mickey to tap into the super-lucrative mobile market for 9-to-14 year-olds.

And even though it meant taking a pass on that $3 - $4 million that a company like Verizon would have put on the table, Rich still said “No.” Opting to try & help a just-getting-started division of The Walt Disney Company instead.

A generous gesture like that does not go unnoticed by someone like Bob Iger. Who has his own long term strategy for The Walt Disney Company which involves a more diversified base of business (which is where things like the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. come in). So that – in this era of expanded choice – the Mouse House would ultimately be the place that consumers circled back to. Thanks to the Company’s huge stable of characters as well as its long history of delivering quality content.














Bob Iger discusses the value that will be added to The Walt Disney Company by acquiring Marvel Entertainment, Inc.

Bob is looking for Rich to continue that tradition. Only this time around, Iger is looking for Ross to take his ability to select TV shows & movies that Disney Channel viewers really responded to and then applying that talent toward picking out winning productions for Walt Disney Studios.

I know, I know. It’s kind of weird to have The Walt Disney Company staging events like the D23 EXPO – which seem to celebrate the Mouse House’s heritage – while, at the same time, Bob Iger is making all of these decisions that appear to be radical departures from the way Mickey usually does business (i.e. the Marvel Entertainment acquisition, Disney Double Dare You, letting Dick Cook go, shutting down the 5th Avenue Disney Store, etc.).

All I can tell you is that – based on conversations that I’ve recently had with Mouse House insiders – that there is actually a plan in place. One that – over the next 10 years or so – will significantly change the way that consumers typically thinks of The Walt Disney Company. But in a good way.












Copyright 2009 Disney. All Rights Reserved

To be honest, much of what is being done these days is so that – further on down the line – The Company will be better positioned for international expansion (i.e. a Disney theme park in Shanghai that features the Company’s classic characters as well as Marvel’s assortment of superheroes is sure to be twice as appealing to the Chinese populace). But – at the same time – projects like “Disney Double Dare You” will help expand audiences expectations. At least when it comes to the sorts of films that come out of Walt Disney Studios.

Look for Iger and Tom Staggs, Chief Financial Officer of The Walt Disney Company, to expand further on where the Mouse House is heading on Thursday, November 12th. Which is when Bob & Tom will be revealing the financial results of fiscal year 2009. And – after going into detail about how the Company performed in the last quarter as well as looking back over 2009 as a whole – Iger & Staggs will then talk a bit more about 2010 and beyond.

Which (at that point) should include some preliminary information about how Rich Ross is going to revise Walt Disney Studios’ production slate.





ABC Warriors

We've run across a cool bit of animated footage for fans of the UK's flagship '2000 AD' comics magazine.

Firestep Animation has created a brief trailer based on the comic 'ABC Warriors'. At present we have little information about what the trailer actually represents. Firestep states that it was made with the full cooperation of Rebellion, who holds the rights to the 2000 AD catalog. The Manchester-based animation studio is best known for 'the Infinite Quest', an animated Dr Who adventure for the BBC.

'ABC Warriors' focuses on a team of war robots designed to defend against Atomic, Bacterial and Chemical warfare.







First Look: JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRISIS ON TWO EARTHS

MTV Splash Page presents that sizzler reel for 'Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths' that you'll find on the recently-released 'Superman/Batman: Public Enemies' DVD.







Package Art From Upcoming "Green Lantern: First Flight" Soundtrack Score CD Release

The World's Finest has a first look at the package artwork for the upcoming Green Lantern: First Flight soundtrack CD release from La-La Land Records.

To view images from the upcoming Green Lantern: First Flight soundtrack CD release from La-La Land Records, available to order beginning October 6th, 2009, please click on the thumbnails below.















To view more images and to read a review of the new Green Lantern: First Flight soundtrack CD release coming from La-La Land Records, please visit the Green Lantern: First Flight subsite here at The World's Finest.

The CD release of Green Lantern: First Flight is a limited edition collector's release of 1500 copies which will be available only through the La-La Land Records website and other online soundtrack specialty stores. The Green Lantern: First Flight soundtrack CD release from La-La Land Records will be available to order beginning October 6th, 2009. A downloadable version of the soundtrack is currently available on iTunes, through the New Line Records label.

Stay tuned for further updates on this and other upcoming releases from La-La-Land Records.





Production Money, Production Hours in the Animation Biz

To follow up on yesterday's post, another reason that U.S./ North American animation employment is holding up in the teeth of a global recession:

... Canada has emerged ahead of the USA and France as the most prolific source of animation for television, with 382 hours produced in 2008 worth Euro181m ($265m). US production output totalled fewer hours-330-but was worth Euro256m ($376m)-a mark of the higher budgets invested by the major US players.

France was the leading producer in Europe by a long way, with 259 hours produced in 2008, although output has fallen from a high of 395 hours in 2006.

The UK was the next largest producer in 2008, with a significant rise in production taking it past Italy ...

These kinds of reports mostly side-step the issue of sub-contracting and employment hours in different countries. And television animation is only a single sub-set of what constitutes "animation." There is feature production, broadcast graphics, video games, visual effects and internet cartoons, to name a clutch of others.

The point to be made here is that animation has been an ever-growing segment of what constitutes "today's entertainment" for some years now. There is no large-scale, live-action epic that can now do without animation. (Just look at the credit scroll on the back of any high-budget feature at which you eat popcorn and you'll know what I mean.)

If you have a teenager at home, they're likely immersed in interactive animation via a games console or computer. Three of the top fourteen box-office attractions now playing on U.S./ Canadian theater screens are 100% animated.

And so on and so forth.

When I entered the movie business back when Gerald Ford was El Presidente, little of this was happening. Animation was confined to Saturday morning cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and a handful of others, and every 3-4 years Disney would turn out an 85-minute, hand-drawn feature.

That, by and large, was it.

So when people express shock when we point out that "animation employment is growing," understand the context. Yes, there has been displacement of experienced artists. Yes, there's been "creative destruction" along the way. But the animation universe is way larger than it was twenty, even ten years ago.

And the applications for animation keep right on expanding.

(Thanks Animation Guild Blog)





Animated New Yorkers










Not Manhattanites screaming for taxis, but the magazine's on-line animated cartoons. (Who said hand-drawn toonage was dead?)

Some of these are droll, others not so much.

(Thanks Animation Guild Blog)





Day 2 at Reanimania ’09: Thomas Edison, Touch Fx and Yoshi Tamura

Two films competing at the Reanimania festival are relentless in their vision. The Canadian Edison & Leo by N. Burns and the Brazilian Passaros by Filipe Abraches.

You have not seen a film like Edison & Leo before; a stop motion feature that takes extreme liberties with the life story of Thomas Edison. It does so with plenty of dark humor contained in a father-and-son narrative that surpasses Darth Vader and Luke’s in dysfunctionality. Edison is portrayed as a cheating, robbing and selfish husband/inventor/father. After alienating his older son, accidentally killing his wife, he electrically charges his younger son, Leo, and calls him his “greatest invention”. Electric Leo grows up unhappy until the day he decides to challenge his father. Along the way, many instances of John Watersesque drama occur. There’s even an attack by the Pasana tribe on the Edison house.

Passaros is a hand drawn short film that makes powerful use of bird motifs. An elderly woman feeding hundreds of caged birds on her rooftop receives a younger, male guest. As they dine together, authority figures barge inside the kitchen, sack the man and lock him in one of the woman’s cages. After being freed by the woman, the man whose face has come to resemble that of a bird’s, reaches the edge of the building and decides to flee for his life. The close ups of birds, coupled with the mastery of shapes in the animation (watching the woman dicing and preparing the bird dinner is intense) are what give this dialogue-less film its unique eeriness.

Another noteworthy film competing in the short film competition is Desanimé by Anne Leclerq. This puppet animation dealing with loneliness relies on micro-movements such as eye twitches to put the viewers in the emotional space of the protagonist, a young woman. The film also cleverly combines animation with live action. In a couple of exterior shots near the end of the movie, the woman walks amongst crowds of live action. She clearly looks like she does not belong with these people, but that is the point: she’s a secluded person. The combination of both mediums dramatacizes the emotion.

On day 2 began MARANI, Reanimania’s animation market. The company that started it off was Touch Fx, a local animation studio. There are not that many animation studios in the Caucasus region. According to Touch Fx, there aren’t any that specialize in high quality CG feature animation. None besides them: Touch Fx is a commercial effects studio turning to feature production. They have two movies on the way: Kukaracha, a co-produced animation with Russia and The Kam, a mo-capped cowboy movie that is completely theirs. Tests sequences from both movies looked impressive and entertaining. Touch Fx churns out a lot of work with a small staff. A couple of talented directors, one IT and effects guru, one art department lead, one character and setup lead, one senior animator and a handful of modelers, riggers and junior animators. Even the CEO of the company, Vahe Sarkissian, models in his spare time. All of this as they do advertisement spots here and there. The company plans to finish both films in the next two years. I believe Touch Fx will go far but not without presenting themselves better. Their demonstration could have been prepared better: sure the lady with the butterfly wings welcoming the attendees looked cute, but she was not distracting people from the fact that a Q & A session was absent from the showcase.

What you did not want to miss after Touch Fx was the second part of Yoshi Tamura’s workshop entitled “2D Animation: Motions and Emotions”. Mr. Tamura, a feature animator with a credit list that includes The Princess and the Frog, Igor and Tarzan shared many of his secrets with a group of ten inquisitive animators at the Naregatsi art center. What made Tamura’s workshop interesting was his insistence on researching poses and thinking about the filmmaking aspects of a given scene before actually animating. In brief, here is the method Tamura elaborated on during the workshop:

-Understand the movie you’re working on, know its logline and believe in it.

-Get to know the characters you are working on. Even if they are secondary, know what their psychology and motivations are.

-Do thumbnail drawings of the scene you are working on. Mr. Tamura spends half his time doing thumbnails. He calls this the fun and research stage, and believes that you are never wasting your time doing thumbnails: this is how you obtain the best acting and composition for your scene.

-Refer to your own life experience when thumbnailing your poses. This will help the audience refer to their own when watching the movie.

-Discuss you work with your supervisor and move on to the next stage: the pose test.

-The pose test is a rough animation that features only timing and spacing of thumbnail drawings or models if working in 3d. This stage shapes the animation style of the motion.

-After discussing the scene, move on to the first pass of animation which features the main poses (or accents) of the animation. At this stage you will include accel/deceleration and again review your work: your timing can longer change so you might have to get rid of secondary accents from your animation if they are not legible.

-After more feedback, go to the 2nd pass and add details such as facial animation.

The example Tamura used to explain this methodology was a short sequence from Igor in which Pinky is talking to and pointing at Brain.

In this Youtube clip, Yoshi Tamura breaks down a shot he worked on from Flushed Away in which the protagonist is angrily banging his phone against wall. Mr. Tamura does a great job in explaining how the filmmaking aspects of the shot (the camera framing and the audience’s identification with the character) defined the poses he used in the animation of the character. Along the way, he also touches upon a difference between working in 3d and 2d.





Upcoming in North America

First Showing notes Games Workshop is developing a 70 CGI animated sci-fi direct to DVD Warhammer 40,000 film called Ultramarines. Codex Pictures will be producing the project

More can be seen here














*
Ghost in the Shell 2.0 preview

Discotek Media
Newly announced release plans include

Fist of the North Star TV Series 1-152
Lupin the Third Episode 0 First Contact
Sea Prince and the Fire Child (also known as Shiriusu no Densetsu)



The Fist TV series will be released in 4 boxsets.



Discotek still releasing the Crying Freeman anime series, Prisoner Scorpion Jailhouse 41, Burning Paradise, and Taxi Hunter. these will all be out in 2010

FUNimation
Afro Samurai - Complete Murder Sessions (Spike Version) will collect the full anime on November 3rd for $37.98

Hasbro
The Blu-ray Blog notes that Warren Ellis penned animated series, G.I. Joe: Resolute will be released on DVD November 3, 2009 - MSRP $19.99

Special Features:

“Now You know” teaser promo
Interviews with Filmmakers
Storyboards
JOE Files





Upcoming in Japan
Anime Vice's fall anime preview

Random Curisoty's Fall Anime Preview

Promos and Previews
Professor Layton anime movie

InuYasha Final

Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai

Thriller Restaurant

Durarara!! - from the author of Baccano, from the people who adapted Baccano



Mai Mai Miracle







Ani no Miyako looks at BLACK?ROCK SHOOTER & Studio Ordet

Anime
A look at the upcoming Yamato Rebirth

TV Asahi confirmed Crayon Shinchan will continue its broadcast despite the death of creator Yoshito Usui, with new episodes airing on October 16th. A new anime movie will open next spring.





The Business

PW has confirmed Kodansha's entrance into the North American manga market. The new line of manga will be called Kodansha Comics, which will be published under Kodansha USA Publishing and distributed by Random House. As was previously known, the line will launch with Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and Shirow Masamune's Ghost in the Shell. More titles will be announced later in the year.
Kodansha has stated the intention to continue to license some of its titles in the U.S.

*
A must read - JAniCA Club Blog Translation: What’s Going On in the Anime Industry Right Now?! - anime director Osamu Yamasaki's comments on animator's pay





Astro Boy Previews

NYCIFF will be presenting advanced screenings of Astro Boy October 17th and 18th at the IFC Center with a "Blast-Off Party" on the 18th.












11 clips of the movie

MovieTickets.com's Guide to Imagi Astro Boy

guide to the movie's villains

clip from Astro fight in Ham Egg's robot gladiatorial fights

TV Spots





Anime on North American TV

Cartoon Network's Adult Swim will be airing Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody on November 28th and Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion on December 5th.





Worth Checking Out...

Insight

Kevin Conroy on Reprising the Dark Knight for "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies"

Anime Dream on the Korean/Japanese animated film Blade of the Phantom Master

Reverse Thieves on Turn A Gundam, a distinctive Gundam with Syd Mead design, Yoko Kanno music, and giant robots clashing with World War I tech



Kid Fenris on Southern Cross (one third of Robotech)



Savage Critic on Otomo's Domu and Urasawa's Monster

























Goldberg Involved in Disneyland’s Halloween Ad

Guillermo Navarro directed this new live-action/animated spot for Disneyland’s Halloween Time event, which runs from September 25th to November 1st. I spotted Eric Goldberg in the background of a scene in a “making of” video on the Disneyland site. He directed the animation by way of Duck.







ASIFA-East and SVA present Mary and Max

In celebration of International Animation Day, SVA and ASIFA-East present MARY AND MAX, a clayography feature film from Academy Award® winning writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs, featuring the voice talents of Toni Collette, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries and Eric Bana.

Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, MARY AND MAX tells of a pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle (Collette), a chubby, lonely 8-year-old living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia; and Max Horovitz (Hoffman), a severely obese, 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger’s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City.

As MARY AND MAX chronicles Mary’s trip from adolescence to adulthood, and Max’s passage from middle to old age, it explores a bond that survives much more than the average friendship’s ups-and-downs. Like Elliot and Coombs’ Oscar® winning animated short HARVIE KRUMPET, MARY AND MAX is both hilarious and poignant as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and many more of life’s surprises.

October 28th, Wednesday 7pm
SVA
School Of Visual Arts
Visual Arts Theatre
333 West 23 Street
(Bet. 8th & 9th Ave)
NYC
www.schoolofvisualarts.edu
www.maryandmax.com

(Thanks asifa east)





'The Joker Blogs' Offer Peek Inside Dark Knight Nemesis' Therapy

There was no shortage of posthumous awards for Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker in "The Dark Knight," and fans have only added to the fame of the late actor's unique take on the character by donning convention costumes inspired by the character and creating animated skits and mash-ups. And then there's The Joker Blogs.

The video series, which currently includes 17 episodes posted over the last year, claims to be a collection of taped therapy sessions between Joker and Dr. Harleen Quinzel (destined to become the Joker's accomplice, Harley Quinn) conducted at Gotham's infamous Arkham Asylum. It also features an impressively spot-on impression of Ledger's freakishly scary Joker.

The most recent episode of the series hit the 'Net last week, and features a plea from Quinzel to help find the recently escaped Joker.

While The Joker Blogs has been posting new episodes for over a year now, the Joker's escape in the most recent video offers a great excuse to go back through the archives and watch the entire series from the start. Here's the pilot episode:



Kudos go out to the crew who created The Joker Blogs, as I don't think I've seen a better Joker performance that channels Ledger's particular spin on the character.

You can check out the full series on the official website for The Joker Blogs.





SGU debut is Syfy's best franchise debut; Dollhouse drops











Syfy's Stargate Universe debuted on Friday as the network's best franchise premiere in four years, drawing 2.3 million viewers and beating Fox's Dollhouse but trailing The CW's Smallville.

SGU took in a 1.7 household rating. The newest series in the Stargate franchise attracted 1.32 million adults ages 25-54 and 1.12 million adults 18-49.

Among the show's milestones:

♦This is the best performance for a Stargate franchise season premiere on Syfy since season two of Stargate Atlantis on July 15, 2005.
♦Among adults 18-49, the 1.12 million viewers is the best performance for a Friday series premiere since Battlestar Galactica debuted on Jan. 14, 2005.
♦Stargate Universe's 2.3 million total viewers surpassed the 2.1 million total viewers that watched Dollhouse on Fox at 9 p.m.

As for the Fox series, The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed reported that the second week's episode, "Instinct," dropped 20 percent from its season premiere the week before, which doesn't bode well for Joss Whedon's series. The ratings represented a new low for the series that doesn't seem to have a bottom.

Other Friday ratings:

♦CBS' Ghost Whisperer drew 7.6 million viewers and Medium 7.7 million, giving CBS a win for the night.
♦Week two of The CW's Smallville drew 2.4 million viewers, an 18 percent drop.

News - 10/05/09...

Dick Cook resigns/fired from Disney

Dick Cook, Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, either resigned or was fired today depending on the source. Several box office bombs and a lack of profitability are the main reasons being given for his leaving. The New York Times has what seems to be the official version, while Nikki Finke has the behind the scenes version of the story.





Robot Chicken Crew Pitches Primetime Show to Fox

The producers of Robot Chicken and the just-premiered Titan Maximum are set to pitch an animated primetime project to Fox.

The network has ordered a presentation and script from Stoopid Monkey Productions’ Seth Green, Matthew Senreich and Tom Root, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The project reportedly uses family life and high school as a backdrop, and has an overall tone in line with Family Guy — for which Green provides voices.

The project would be done in traditional 2D animation as opposed to the stop-motion used on Robot Chicken and Titan Maximum, both of which air on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Astro Boy Breaks into China With Day and Date Opening

Imagi Entertainment’s new CG adaptation of Astro Boy is set to bow Oct. 23 in China — the same date as its U.S. release.

The move is notable for breaking into the October blackout period that China reserves for domestic films only — a move made possible by Astro Boy’s status as a Chinese-U.S. co-production, Variety reports.

Based on the classic Japanese manga by Osamu Tezuka, the new version of Astro Boy was made by Imagi at its studios in Sherman Oaks, Calif, and Hong Kong. Distributed by Summit Entertainment, the China opening should give Astro Boy an extra boost in that growing market.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





NBC Airs DreamWorks Holiday Specials

NBC is set to air a pair of new DreamWorks Animation specials based on the popular movies Monsters vs. Aliens and Madagascar.

Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space reunites the voice cast from this spring’s movie hit, including Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland and Rainn Wilson. The special, in which the monsters investigate strange Halloween goings on, is set to air Oct. 28 from 8-8:30 p.m. and repeating from 8:30-9 p.m.

The special is produced by Latifa Ouaou and directed by Peter Ramsey from a screenplay by Adam F. Goldberg.

The second special, Merry Madagascar, features the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Cedric The Entertainer and Andy Richter and is set to air on Nov. 17 from 8-8:30 p.m. and again on Nov. 28 from 8-8:30 p.m. In the special, Santa’s sleigh crash lands on Madagascar, forcing the castaway zoo animals to fill in for him.

Merry Madagascar was written by David Soren, Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath. The executive producer is Mireille Soria; Joe Aguilar is the producer and David Soren is the director.

"We are thrilled to have two new DreamWorks Animation shows on NBC this holiday season," said Ann Daly, chief operating officer of DreamWorks Animation. "The creative teams from the hit feature films were reunited to make these new specials and we hope they will become annual holiday favorites for families."

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Toy Story Movies Return in 3-D

The Toys are back in town.

The re-release of Pixar’s Toy Story and Toy Story 2 as a 3-D double feature arrives this week for its two-week limited run in 1,745 theaters. The special presentation also includes the first look at Toy Story 3, due out next summer, also in 3-D.

Other new films trying to keep the toys from the top spot are the horror comedy Zombieland, opening in slightly more than 3,000 cinemas; the Ricky Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying, which arrives in 1,707 theaters, and Drew Barrymore’s roller derby comedy Whip It, at 1,720 locations.

Also expected to stay in the box office race is Sony Pictures Animation’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs — whose 3-D version will lose some of its screens to the Toy Story films.

The Focus release 9, a stop-motion film directed by Shane Acker, also remains in release.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)




Cartoon Forum Showcased Strength in Europe

The animation industry in Europe is in a good position to compete on a worldwide level at this year’s Cartoon Forum Rogaland in Stavanger, Norway.

The 20th annual event, which ended Friday, drew more than 700 animation professionals from across the continent and previewed 61 new projects. According to event organizers, some 310 hours of content with a budget of 148 million euros were presented at the show.

The ten projects that garnered the most interest among broadcasters, investors, producers and distributors were:

• Boo Boo Dolls (Germany)
• Granny O'Grimm (Ireland)
• Skybabies (UK)
• Kinky & Cosy (France)
• Me and my Robot (France)
• The Flying Squirrels (Spain)
• The Secret Life of Suckers (Spain)
• Copy Cut (France)
• Pigly (France)
• Dustbunnies (UK).

The event takes credit for increasing the number of European co-productions, which are up from last year, as well as the growth of animation outside the established production powerhouses of Ireland, Belgium, and the Nordic countries.

Honored at the Cartoon Tributes, presented at the fest, were NRK as Best Broadcaster, Cake Entertainment as Best Investor/Distributor and Brown Bag Films as Best Producer.

As we’ve already reported, Irish director David O'Reilly took the Cartoon d'Or 2009 for his short film Please Say Something.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Toon Boom Sets Up Doggy Day School Pipeline

Brazilian studio Mixer and Canada’s Cite-Amerique’s new co-production, Doggy Day School, was made possible by Toon Boom Animation’s digital pipeline tools.

The companies used the Storyboard Pro and Harmony tools in particular to create 26 11-minute episodes of the series.

Work on the series is divided between the two studios, with Cite-Amerique doing art direction and character design, while Mixer does the rest of production.

“We were looking for a technology that allows us to reach a high quality level and the Toon Boom pipeline really impressed us with its agility and fluidity,” said Tiago Mello, Mixer’s executive director of infant-juvenile content.

Doggy Day School is set to premiere on Nickelodeon on Oct. 12, and will start airing in 2010 on TV Cultura (Public Broadcasting) in Brazil.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Little Airplane and HIT to Co-Produce Preschool Series

Preschool titans Little Airplane Productions and HIT Entertainment have agreed to develop original content for the worldwide market.

“I am thrilled to be working with HIT Entertainment; they are re-emerging as a real creative force in the preschool business," said Josh Selig, president of Little Airplane. "It is also very helpful that they are experts in all the areas that Little Airplane is not, including distribution, licensing and merchandising. I expect this to be a very happy marriage."

“This agreement underscores HIT’s commitment to working with the top creators in our field to make the highest quality children's programs possible," said Christopher Skala, senior VP of programming and new content development for HIT. “Little Airplane is one of the industry’s most respected and prestigious producers of pre-school television and we are very excited to be working with Josh and his teams in New York and London.”

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Classic, Timeless to Deliver Postman Pat Movie

Classic Media has teamed up with Timeless Films to make a 3-D animated Postman Pat feature film for 2011.

The film will be produced as stop-motion, with CG and 3-D effects, with Timeless set to distribute the film in the United Kingdom and Internationally.

The film’s script is by Kim Fuller, whose credits include Spice World, The Tracey Ullman Show and Red Dwarf.

The movie is set to build on the momentum the property has with the release last year on CBeebies of the series Postman Pat Special Delivery.

“Postman Pat is enjoying a renaissance at present with a successful TV series, strong licensing program, promotional campaigns with leading U.K. brands and a nationwide theater tour rolling out in 2010—the announce of a theatrical film deal in 3-D is the icing on the cake,” says Andrew Kerr, executive director of consumer products and marketing for international at Classic Media.

(Thanks Animation Magazine)





Actor Eric Peterson gets special award at Geminis

Canadian actor Eric Peterson, the voice of Teebo in the first season of the 1985 Nelvana series Ewoks, will receive a special award at the Gemini Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Emmys.

Peterson, 63, will be presented with the Earle Grey Award, which goes to an actor or actress for a body of work in Canadian television and/or for significant contributions to the international profile of Canadian TV.

Born in Indian Head, Saskatchewan, Peterson voiced Jess in the English-language dub of the IG Film anime series Lost Universe. He was also in the voice cast of several episodes of Nelvana's Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C3P0, as well as the studio's 2001 TV special Franklin's Magic Christmas.

He portrayed Mitch Sago in Barna-Alper Productions' animated mini-series The Dark Years, which aired on History Television in 2007.

Peterson's career has also included work in film and radio. He most recently portrayed Oscar Leroy in the hit live-action comedy series Corner Gas. His extensive credits include seven seasons as Leon Robinovitch in the series Street Legal (a role which garnered him three Gemini Awards), roles in Canadian film and television movies of the week including Trudeau and Earth, and guest appearances on countless Canadian series including This Is Wonderland, Slings and Arrows, DaVinci's Inquest and Traders.

Last year, he won the ACTRA Toronto Award of Excellence for a significant body of work and union activism.

Gemini special awards will be presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television at the upcoming 24th Annual Gemini Awards Industry Galas, taking place October 19 and 20 in Toronto, and the Broadcast Gala, taking place November 14 in Calgary, Alberta.





Wild Brain SF Shuts Down, Special Agent Opens for Business










Earlier this week, Wild Brain co-founder Phil Robinson and Wild Brain producer Amy Capen officially announced the launch of a boutique Bay Area-animation studio called Special Agent Productions. Details from the launch press release can be found at SHOOT. Over the past year, I’ve been hearing rumblings about turmoil at Wild Brain, but I was confused as to why the founder of the studio had left to start his own shop. It turns out that Wild Brain in San Francisco was shut down. A source who asked not to be named offered some details about what’s been going on these past few months:

Basically, Wild Brain SF closed shop end of June. It was rumored that the board of directors/new management decided that the San Francisco branch was too much of a liability. There was a lot of politics behind that decision (i.e. the success of the TV business model of Yo Gabba Gabba!; the fact that the board and most of the executives are based in LA), and it got really ugly towards the end. It seems they wanted to cut their losses and open a new Flash studio in LA (which I heard is gobbling up all the Cartoon Network artists right now for a Ricky Gervais pilot).

Everybody scattered to the wind. Scary time. Since Phil and Amy were the main commercial people, they decided to form their own boutique shop and take the strength of their commercial reputation with them (i.e. Esurance, Lamisil).

Special Agent’s first project out of the gate is a 90-second Erin Esurance Bollywood-themed spot that premiered this week on IFC, and which can be seen on Special Agent’s website.

UPDATE: I just heard from the gang at Ghostbot, and they worked with Phil to produce the new Bollywood spot. Ghostbot, for those who may be unfamiliar, has animated many of the best Esurance spots to date.

(Thanks cartoon brew)





Cartoon Brew TV #22: Disney’s The Princess and the Frog



This week on Cartoon Brew TV, we offer an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip, courtesy of the Walt Disney Company, from their forthcoming hand-drawn feature, The Princess and the Frog.

In the video, supervising animator Bruce Smith (Bebe’s Kids, The Proud Family) discusses the character of Dr. Facilier, the villain of the film, and how voice actor Keith David influences the animators work and the character’s performance. David is shown performing and being directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. There are also some brief bits of pencil tests and color footage that hasn’t appeared anywhere else on the web.

After witnessing Disney abandon their hand-drawn films several years ago, and watching the rest of Hollywood consumed by CG, it’s incredibly exciting seeing classical character animation being produced on this scale. Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. The Princess and the Frog marks the return of a beloved moviegoing tradition: the classic Disney fairy tale, and no one is rooting harder for this film to be a success than I. Based on this preview, and clips screened at Comic-Con, I’m convinced the studio is on the right track.

We thank the Walt Disney Company for allowing Brew readers this early peak at their film. The Princess and The Frog opens in LA and NY on November 25, 2009, and nationwide on December 11, 2009.

(Thanks cartoon brew)





Nickelodeon Celebrates "King Julien Day" on October 12, 2009

Nickelodeon will be celebrating King Julien Day for this year's Columbus Day, October 12, 2009, with a marathon of The Penguins of Madagascar from 5:00 - 8:00 PM (Eastern/Pacific), culminating in a new episode premiering at 8:00.

The description of the event and episode summaries follow:

Celebrate “King Julien Day” on Nickelodeon on Columbus Day – Monday, October 12!

On Columbus Day, October 12, Nickelodeon pays tribute to everyone's favorite lemur, King Julien with a special marathon of its top-rated series The Penguins of Madagascar from 5-8pm ET/PT with a new episode premiering at 8pm. Last quarter, an average of 3.2 million people watch The Penguins of Madagascar every weekend.

In this new episode, Julien loses his "groove" after a dancing rivalry with Darla the baboon gets out of control. Without his ability to shake his booty, King Julien is inconsolable, but after some intense begging, he convinces the penguins to help him get his groove back.

Also in this episode, a citywide blackout hits the zoo, and the animals begin to panic. Instead of listening to the penguins' rational plan, they turn to King Julien, who institutes "jungle law." The entire zoo is then thrown into chaos and the penguins attempt to gain control over the rioting masses before the entire zoo is destroyed.





NY Times on Development of 3-D Versions of "Toy Story"

The New York Times has taken a look at the development of the 3-D versions of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 (free registration required). Disney Chief Creative Officer and director of both movies John Lasseter again described the process as "digital archaeology" to get the older movies running on the studio's current hardware. The article also quotes lead stereographer Bob Whitehill, who describes how he used 3-D strategically to advance story points rather than just use it as a gimmick, such as how he "blew out the 3-D to make (the human world) feel dangerous and deep and overwhelming."





EA and Fox to Produce "Spore" Movie

Variety reports that Electronic Arts and Twentieth Century Fox will be producing an animated feature film adaptation of the video game Spore, in which players create organisms that must adapt and evolve in a larger, multi-player universe. Greg Erb and Jason Oremland (The Princess and the Frog) are writing the script, with Ice Age director Chris Wedge named as the director and Blue Sky Studios set to do the CGI animation.





"Batman: The Brave and the Bold" Returns to Cartoon Network on October 16, 2009

Cartoon Network has announced that new episodes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold will begin airing on Friday, October 16, 2009, at 7:30 PM (6:30 Central). It will join Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Ben 10: Alien Force in a Friday-night action-oriented programming block.





Interview with Dean Kalman Lennert

Back in February, Lineboil highlighted this traditionally animated short currently in production by Dean Kalman Lennert. I loved the little bit that I saw online, and because Dean is a fellow NY’er, as well as that fact that I have a soft spot for almost anything traditionally animated, I thought it would be great to interview him about the film and share it with all of you.

Also, recently, I had the unique opportunity to see a full WIP of the film without sound, and with some rough animation, and it’s all coming together very nicely and on it’s way to becoming a beautiful film.

As a bonus, Dean was kind enough to share 2 exclusive clips from the film including a completed rough shot that was done by Stewart Shaw. So check them out and then continue on to read more about Dean’s film, Dear Anna Olson.

Shot 15
]

Shot 28
The second clip I couldn't grab. Go HERE to see it.

DAN FORGIONE: First off, tell us a little about yourself, and how you originally got into animation.

DEAN KALMAN LENNERT: I started working professionally in 1986 when a fellow stop-motion animator recommended me as a model fabricator for a Diet Slice commercial. By the end of that project, I had moved onto the animation team doing both stop-motion and 2-D effects. But I first got bitten by the animation bug at the age of 9 when I watched a segment on the PBS show Zoom about how to create your own cartoons using paper cut-outs and the family home-movie camera. I substituted some model dinosaurs for the cut-outs, made that first film and have been hooked ever since.

DAN: Can you give us a brief synopsis of the film, Dear Anna Olson?

DEAN: Dear Anna Olson is a parable of how small, positive actions can have profound impact on peoples’ well-being. In this film, Anna Olson is living in a nursing home. Lonely, she sends out notes tied to balloons. One of these notes travels from person to person, each of who are moved to share their stories. When the note returns to Anna her world is positively changed.

DAN: With over 20 years in animation working in a variety of styles and mediums (stop motion, traditional, CG), what challenges have you faced in adapting from one medium to the next?

DEAN: Aside from getting used to the different tools and work practices that each medium requires, there really weren’t too many immediate challenges in moving from one technique to another. The challenges usually occurred after I was acclimated to the new working environment and, as Murphy’s Law dictates, popped-up in the midst of a production. But I feel, that for any animator, this is where the real learning begins.

I remember during my time at J.J. Sedelmaier Productions having to adapt to the wide variety of drawing styles and techniques of some very well known illustrators doing design work for the studio. Whether it’s the intricate cross-hatching techniques of David Levine, the bold graphic line of Douglas Frazer, or even the looser style of Gary Baseman, you had to be able to place your work next to theirs and have J.J. not be able to tell the difference. And I’m not talking about just copying each illustrator’s work. You had to understand how they thought about and approached their art. And usually had about a half a day to master each style and then the animation would begin. It was one of the most valuable learning experiences of my career and helped to make me a very flexible animator very quickly.

DAN: With a wide variety of animation experiences under your belt, what experience most influenced your production process for this short?

DEAN: While this doesn’t actually come under the heading of production process, per se, I would have to say that, stop-motion’s ability to move in and around a space inspired how I thought about and designed many of the shots in this film. I really like to explore the z-axis in my hand-drawn work. And while this can be easily achieved with a variety of computer software, I feel that doing the work by hand brings a little something extra to these shots. Maybe the imperfection makes it more human?

DAN: When you first started the film, did you have any idea it would lead to asking for donations and financial support?

DEAN: It had always been my intension to seek outside funding to cover the production costs for the film and expected this money would come from arts grants. And while the production has received some support from this quarter, the vast majority of our funding, thus far, has come from many very generous individual donors.

DAN FORGIONE: How and when did you finally realize you would need to take this route?

DEAN: About four years ago I decided that, if I was ever going to finish this film in any reasonable amount of time, I would need to have a proper budget in order to hire extra help, pay for the supplies and professional services and, perhaps most importantly, free up my own time. At that point I had a pretty regular stream of freelance coming in and that left very little time for the film.

DAN: Despite higher costs and delays in production, you have stuck to your guns with more traditional methods of production. What is your approach to creating an animation budget?

DEAN: Start by generating a list of everything you think you’ll need for the production: crew, equipment, supplies, services, studio space, travel, insurance, legal fees, etc. Then begin contacting vendors and getting price quotes. I would typically call several vendors offering the same service to get a price range and average these to get my final figures. I would also use these opportunities to discuss the project and find out how to best prepare my work prior to delivery so that things will go as smoothly as possible on their end. These conversations often yield information about items and/or services that may have been overlooked in the initial budget outline.

The crew salaries were based on what I was getting paid as a freelancer. I chose to go with a footage-rate (X number of dollars for every 16 frames) for the animation and a per-piece-rate for the final production art rather than with a day or hourly rate. This helps to control overages, especially when your crew is working off-site, as all of mine are.

Very important: don’t be afraid to pay yourself a living wage! In my case I just needed enough to supplement my pay from teaching. However, I get the impression that many independent artists feel a little guilty when it comes to paying themselves a reasonable rate for doing their own work. To that I ask this question, would you work at a studio that wasn’t paying you enough to at least cover your basic living expenses? Probably not as that kind of distraction, and the imminent need to take on a second job (if you had any extra time to do so), would be completely counterproductive. Then why should you have that stress when working on your own production? Your salary must be included in the budget.

Dear Anna Olson’s budget has the start-up costs for the distribution launch figured in. This includes prints, screeners, festival fees, postage, publicity materials, travel expenses, etc. I also added in a 5% contingency fee to the total, because you never know… And finally, on top of all that, the 6% fiscal sponsor’s administrative fee to maintain our not-for-profit status. And that’s the whole budget “soup to nuts!”

DAN: What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in raising the money and justifying the budget to potential donors, other than the troubled economy?

DEAN: I’d have to say that the first big challenge I faced was just to keep myself from throwing-up at the idea of directly approaching people for money. When I decided to pursue this film as a full-time endeavor my producer, Jennifer Kirby, and I sat down to discuss how to best go about raising the cash for the budget. She pointed out that I would be more effective than she at raising the funds simply because potential donors want to meet directly with the artist instead of the perceived businessperson on the production. It took a little time (I almost blacked-out in the middle of Broadway & 26th Street in NYC on my way to asking for my first major donation) but I eventually got used to (I won’t say comfortable with) this new title of ‘fund-raiser’.

As for the budget, I have never had to justify that to potential donors. If they ever had any questions about it I would simply let them see the complete itemized budget and that seemed to put the issue to rest. The main thing is selling them on the idea of the film and why it should be made. The story-reel and my natural enthusiasm for this project usually helped in this regard.

But, without a doubt, the biggest challenge currently hampering our fund-raising efforts is the troubled economy. And while we’re always keeping an eye out for those larger contributions, the new strategy is securing a lot of smaller donations. When my first television interview promoting the film cleared 1,000 views on YouTube I couldn’t help but post “If each of those people (watching the clip) just made a $40 donation I’d have the rest of the animation budget taken care of! Perhaps one of the toughest challenges I face as a fund-raiser isn’t so much trying to secure that large individual contribution but convincing the vast majority of people, whose gifts may be more modest, that their support is just as important.”

DAN: How has the above influenced the production in terms of getting animators to help out on the film?

DEAN: Having a budget and being able to pay people is a good incentive for getting them interested in the project. And now, with the economy so bad, I have more artists who are available and willing to work than the budget can handle.

DAN: In regards to the film’s style and design, what was your biggest source of inspiration when you started?

DEAN: When I started the project animators like Paul Driessen, Caroline Leaf, the Hubleys, Bill Plympton, Richard Condie, John Canemaker, were all influencing the look of the film in one way or another. But it wasn’t until I saw Frederic Back’s film CRAC! that it all started to gel. Then I saw a bootleg copy Richard Williams’ The Thief and the Cobbler and really went nuts over how far the principles of hand-drawn animation could be pushed.

DAN: Has it changed or evolved since starting it?

DEAN: Some of the color design has changed but the overall look of the piece has remained pretty much the same. To insure this, I’m constantly referring back to the earlier animation so that the work doesn’t become slick all of a sudden.

DAN: In an interview, you mentioned you wrote back to Anna Olson. Have you met her in person, or continued any correspondence? If so, has she had any influence on the look and feel of the film, either directly or indirectly?

DEAN: I did write to her initially but have never received a reply.
Early on in the production I had arranged to spend a day in a nursing home recording ambient sound and some of the residence. In speaking with one of the facility’s administrators about the film, and how it was inspired by my actually finding the note from Anna Olson, I was told that it is a fairly common practice at nursing homes to send notes out via balloons so residents, who may not have many visitors, will (hopefully) receive some mail from the outside world.

DAN: As far as getting animators to help, do they need to meet certain requirements?

DEAN: In general, they need to be familiar with hand-drawn animation techniques, have solid drafting skills and a strong understanding of the principles of animation, as well as a willingness to fully explore the performance potential within their assigned shots.

DAN: And what can they expect in return if brought on board production?

DEAN: Well, they’ll be getting paid a reasonable footage rate for one thing. But aside from that, what sort of experience will they come away with? I think that I’d rather have one of the animators from the project, Stewart Shaw, answer that question:

For me, it was a tremendous growing experience as an aspiring animator as far as working under a director for the first time, and the challenges of creating a performance that fits within a larger whole as seamlessly as possible. I was tested in my willingness to “fully explore the performance potential” in a shot, but my labors were understood, appreciated, and my work respected in whole.

It was a chance to be part of a unique personal statement, something beautiful and poignant, and in this digital age, incredibly rare. As a lover of animation, the opportunity to participate in a labor of love, even one other than my own is rewarding in and of itself. (Stewart is now an animator working at Blue Sky Studios.)

DAN: If you were to start from scratch, what would you do differently in terms of production, if anything?

DEAN: During the many years that Dear Anna Olson existed as a side project I was learning so much at the studios about how a professional production is run. Having that information from the start would have saved me a lot of grief and wasted time.

But, if I had to choose one thing I’d do differently it would be to draw smaller. This is a lesson I learned when I had a chance to meet Frederic Back and see some of his production art for The Mighty River. The first thing that struck me was how small the drawings were. Much of the artwork for that film was drawn within a 6 field. I asked him about this and he replied, “If I drew any bigger I would never finish my films.” This rationale was echoed a couple of years later by Richard Williams when he was lecturing about a Shell Oil commercial he had done. In this case they had a very short schedule for completing the job so the decision was made to speed up the production by working within a 6 field. The epilogue to this latter story is they were awarded a second commercial in the same style with a more reasonable schedule. They decided to work in an 8 field and it wound up taking twice as long.

DAN: With the recent delay in production, what is the new goal for completing the film, and what will it take to reach that goal?

DEAN: The new goal is to raise the full balance of the budget. After that has been attained I will be able to hire back some artists and animators and have the film wrapped-up in ten months. For the immediate future, however, I’m looking at becoming a crew-of-one to make the remaining funds last as long as possible and keep the production moving forward as best I can. While I still intend to spend as much time as possible at the animation table, fund-raising will be taking up a greater share of my time.

So, if anyone reading this would like to make a tax-deductible contribution remember, no amount is too small! During our 2006/2007 Challenge Grant Campaign individuals, not unlike like yourself, helped to raise a total of $5,125 above our $25,000 target with gifts ranging from $25 to $4,986. So each and every donation counts!

Dear Anna Olson speaks to how small, positive actions can have great impact on the lives of others. Now it’s your chance. Take your own action to make a difference, and consider a tax-deductible gift in support of Dear Anna Olson today:

There you have it, and I hope you enjoyed it. Dean is currently the Acting Executive Director of Animation at the Maurice Kanbar Institute for Film and Television, and teaches Advanced Animation Production and Stop-Motion Animation at NYU. To read more about the film, donate time or funds, or to just check in on the film’s progress, visit the website or the Facebook page. I wish the best to Dean, and can’t wait to see what I’m sure will turn out to be a great looking film.

(Thanks Lineboil)





Upcoming in North America

4Kids' 25th anniversary, feature length TMNT project "Turtles Forever" will screen in theatres across the US as part of a one night Fathom event October 29th at 7:00pm, ahead of its upcoming DVD release.

During a fight on the Technodrome and accident occurs that sends the Technodrome and everyone aboard (The 80's TMNT, Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady) into the current TMNT cartoon universe.





































*
Fanboy Review reports that Jeff Nimoy (Digimon, Bobobo, Zatch Bell, Naruto, GTO) will be writing the English language dub script for Madhouse (Ninja Scroll, Paprika) produced Lilo and Stitch spin-off anime Stick!

Halo Legends - The Babysitter (Preview) (Spike TV)







The Business

Laika (Coraline) laid off 63 computer graphics employees to narrow focus to stop motion animation.

Studio publicist Maggie Begley wrote in to clarify: “It’s not accurate to say that the studio is abandoning CG altogether. They will continue to use CG opportunistically in stop motion films and will continue to develop CG projects in house for further down the road.”

*
AniPlex, the anime production arm of Sony Music Entertainment will be increasing there output from the current level of one or two works a year.

From the Trading Markets report

A 13-episode story about a military girl will be aired starting in January, followed by another in April and two more in July.

Producing an anime program costs 14-15 million yen (US$153,538-164,505), several million yen more than making animation based on comics.

Sony Music Entertainment will also bring its original anime film to theaters next year, with showings planned in more than 10 cities.

The company sees new anime works as "a perfect opportunity" to create breaks for up-and-coming musicians under its label, says an official.

*
Did you know that Troma (the Toxic Avengers people) distributed My Neighbor Totoro in North American theatres?
UK's tabloid The Mirror offers a history of Troma's business with an overstated look at the Totoro bits.

*
Canned Dogs offers an early obituary for Gonzo

New Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama wants a full review of the more than 100 billion euros stimulus spending

When Hatoyama’s new cabinet took office this week he repeated his election pledges to focus spending on consumers.

Former PM Taro Aso's planned manga museam was named as one initiative that's likely on the chopping block

And, the cancellation of the new facility for exhibiting and preserving Japanese pop culture, including animation and manga, was announced by Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Tatsuo Kawabata.

"We would rather focus on fostering human resources, including creators, who will contribute to promoting media arts," said Kawabata.

"It is indispensable that we make our utmost efforts to develop and promote Japan's world-leading media arts. In this respect, we and bureaucrats have a shared understanding," Kawabata told reporters after conducting hearings with all the departments of the ministry.

Kawabata also said that he has requested the Cultural Affairs Agency to propose alternative promotion measures apart from building a new facility. Diverting the construction cost to human resources development, as well as including it in future budget discussions from fiscal 2010, will also be considered.

"While companies are willing to pay tens of millions of yen to sponsor a cartoon show, those who actually create animation on the ground only get a few million yen. I am also aware that there are many young people who are forced to give up animation jobs because they cannot make a living," Kawabata said.

*
Gainax co-founder and otaku scholar Toshio Okada is being sued by the operator of a defunct mobile phone-based Internet site related to his book. (Sayonara Mr Fatty, released in North America by Vertical Inc).

T2 Mediapal, the company that developed the software for the site, filed suit against Okada, at the Tokyo District Court demanding some 22 million yen in damages in connection with the closure of the site due to a rights dispute regarding royalties and rights between mobile phone Internet sites.

Okada has stated that he had "informed the mobile carriers about the situation with the other site, which was operating without a copyright agreement.

"The complaint is a false accusation, and very regrettable," the writer concluded.

*
Imagi International announced that Ting Chuk-kwan has assumed the role of Acting CEO and has been re-designated as an executive director. William Courtauld will cease to act as the Acting CEO due to health reasons. Imagi International is the parent company of Astro Boy producer Imagi Animation Studios.

*
Anime News Network reports that Anime Expo organizers, the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), has ended their six year relationship with Chase Wang's BAM! Marketing, Publicity & Promotions





Crayon Shinchan Creator Dies in Hiking Accident

Missing Crayon Chinchan creator Yoshito Usui has been confirmed dead following a mountain hiking accident in Gunma Prefecture . Police announced that Usui was found with a digital camera containing a photo point down a steep cliff.

"Usui apparently took that one last shot and then slipped and fell," an official from Futabasha Publishing said. "We are completely shocked with this consequence."

The comedy manga followed the adventures of a precociously vulgar kindergarten student. The mischievous character was long a target of parent groups, who blame the manga and its anime adaptation for disrespectable behavior.

*
For fans - a melancholy Yuichiro Sueyoshi MAD video colllecting Shinchan animation





Worth Checking Out...

The Automobiles of Anime and Manga: Exhibit to Open in October at the The Toyota Automobile Museum - featuring Initial D, Detective Conan, Speed Racer and the Lupin III film Castle of Cagliostro

Insight

A transcript of Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino's comments at New York Anime Festival

Let's Anime on anime based on western lit

New York Times on Evangelion 1.0

Colony Drop - Boring-As-Hell Robots And The Mecha They Pilot: Good Morning Althea

Ren and Stimpy's John K rhetorically asks What Are The 2 Most Prominent Features Of Anime characters? - some visual impression here

Artist Takashi Murakami on how he paints

Firm Uses Gundam Model-Making to Test Job Applicants

Media
manga Hulks out

















Stop motions of
Gatchaman
Voltron
Macross
Gundam

Lupin III goes high tech in 1989





Toonage in Foreign Lands

The congloms are well pleased with animation. And why not?

Disney scored a one-two punch at the foreign box office with "Up" and "Surrogates" combining for over $24 million during a typically moderate autumn session on Sept. 25-27.

... With domestic cume having hit $292 million, the worldwide total for "Up" has gone to $507 million, moving it into the company of 66 other pics that have topped half a billion dollars in combined international and domestic grosses ...

Fox reached the [one billion] mark first in early July in the wake of opening "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and had hit $1.69 billion as of the end of the third quarter -- having already exceeded its 2008 total of $1.6 billion -- with the third "Ice Age" contributing a stunning $682 million.

"Ice Age 3" was still generating biz in the final fall frame with $2.4 million, mostly from its fifth Italian session of $1.4 million for an Italo cume of $41 million ...

The conglomerates are going to be pursuing the animation gambit for the foreseeable future. When you get a string of animated movies collecting $500 .... $600 ... $700+ billion in box office receipts, you know you're onto something. And want to keep doing it.

Even Bolt, hardly a barn burner, has sniffed up $314 million around the world. So yeah, a lot more toonage will be getting produced.

(Thanks Animation Guild Blog)





Armenia Celebrates 70 Years Of Frame By Frame With Its First Animation Festival







The first Yerevan international animation film festival, ReAnimania ’09, kicked off today in Armenia’s capital. The fest began with the screening of Animal Crisis, a Spanish comedy competing in the feature category. While this film’s drawbacks come from the limitations of Flash animation (i.e.. crappy front view walk cycles), it does take the medium away from the cinematically flat and minimal to the world of Warner hurt gags and Ren and Stimpyesque dirtyness. It does so with an Orwellian script and a pleasure in mutilating Disney archetypes: the heroic stallion, the seedy lion and the treacherous Hyena. Think of this film as South Park with animation principals applied throughout. My favorite instant of the film: watching a Flash hippo clap. A never before seen motion; at least by me.

Other highlights from the first day included an intimate interview with Michel Ocelot of Kirikou and Azur et Asmar fame. The conversations with the director set the tone of the festival. When Ocelot was asked why he is interested in making films for children, he replied that he does not think about his audience when starting to work on a film. He only strives to do a good job. Ocelot believes that animation should go in the direction that graphic novels have taken a while back: dealing with issues in a way that audiences from any age group can appreciate. In the mind of the French animation author, "Animation is never just for children."

This statement was concurred by Vrej Kassouny, the interviewer and director of the festival. Kassouny stated one of the main goals of Reanimania is to make its audiences aware that animation does not equal to films for children. Animation is an art form, and like any art form you can work with it in different ways.

With retrospectives on Armenian animation, Bruno Bozzetto and Alexander Shiryaev; the Pitching & Producing for animation and 2D workshops, competitions in feature, short, graduation, TV an educational films; forums and studio showcases, Re-Animania is surely to shed some new light on animation during the next three days. It runs until Oct 6th at Kino Moscow in Yerevan, Armenia.

Find the festival schedule and read about the history of Armenian animation on ReAnimania's site.





True story: Darth Vader breaks down while driving R2-D2's car











David "Darth Vader" Prowse was driving down the M1 highway in Northamptonshire, England, when his car broke down earlier this week. But the officers who showed up to assist him learned this wasn't just any old Mercedes the Sith lord was driving. It was previously owned by Prowse's fellow Star Wars actor Kenny Baker, the man inside R2-D2.

According to the BBC:

"The car was previously owned by my good friend Kenny Baker who was R2D2," said Prowse.

"He used to keep a little ladder inside the boot so he could climb up and put his suitcases inside.

"When he had finished, he'd put the ladder back and used a cord to shut the boot. "I decided to leave the cord there as a reminder of the car's previous owner."

Okay then.

Prowse eventually made it to his destination, a reunion of the 501st UK Garrison, which is a charitable group of people who like to dress up in Star Wars costumes.

"I'm the Commander in Chief Worldwide so it was really important that I was there, and when I broke down my boot was full of memorabilia and photos," Prowse explained.

The picture is of an unrelated car, but it seemed fitting.





Hobbit money problems resolved. What's next?










Another hurdle to Guillermo del Toro's The Hobbit has fallen: MGM, one of the studios producing the movies, has reportedly come up with enough cash to move forward with the production, which was in jeopardy as late as last week.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

A recent proposal by MGM's new CEO Steve Cooper to defer interest payments on its debt load for the next three months on Thursday won a crucial endorsement from J.P. Morgan.

The investment firm leads a lenders steering committee that has been agitating for a dramatic restructuring of the Lion's operations and its ownership structure. In exchange for an agreement to limited interest forbearance, J.P. Morgan secured a few changes in existing debt terms.

Concern over MGM's hold on Hobbit is at the heart of the activity. In a 50-50 rights partnership with Warner Bros.' New Line unit, two Hobbit pics are being developed.

The first Hobbit movie is eyeing a 2011 release date.





Kevin Smith On Disney Buying Marvel: 'It's Just Smart Business'

When Kevin Smith dropped by Splash Page HQ recently to chat about his new book, "Shootin' The Sh*t With Kevin Smith: The Best Of The SModcast" (on shelves now), our conversation covered a pretty impressive number of topics. Along with telling us some of the things he's learned not to talk about on the air (and in the book), he told us about the new character he invented for his DC series "Batman: The Widening Gyre."

Heck, we even talked about one of the biggest stories of the year thus far: The Walt Disney Company buying Marvel Entertainment. Check it out:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

"I saw a lot of cats who were like, 'Oh, this is the end, they're raping my childhood again,'" said Smith of the online uproar when the deal went public.

"No, they're not," he said. "[DC]'s been owned by Time Warner...for many years now. ... If you like DC's output, why the f--- is Marvel being owned by a corporate entity going to be any different?"

Elaborating on a sentiment he expressed online many times regarding the deal, Smith told MTV News, "Disney isn't dumb."

"They're not buying Marvel so they can say, 'Now put everyone in f---ing mouse ears and s---," he explained. "Disney was here long before us and they'll be here long after us. They'll be here when it's just the cockroaches and radiation."

"The Disney company looked at a hole and said, 'We don't have boys. Right now we have girls. We've done that princess thing to death. We have every f---ing girl. There's not a girl in America of middle-class family and above who doesn't have a f---ing Disney princess costume somewhere in her closet," he said. "They don't have that with boys. You can't say the same thing: 'Ain't a boy in America that doesn't have a Peter Pan costume.'"

"They identified that boys loves comics...and this Spider-Man and this Iron Man seem to be doing things," continued Smith. "They're like, 'Let's buy it. We don't have to develop a boy brand. We'll buy a boy brand, plug it into Disney and then go on. Now we're sated. We've now got this part of the market."

Smith reiterated that fans shouldn't be worried about seeing Punisher and Goofy team up any time soon.

"That's just smart business, and smart business dictates that they're not going to change the way they've done business," he explained. "They're going to let them keep doing what Marvel does. That's why they bought them."

"They said, 'You guys are obviously successful at reaching a demographic we can't—[so] continue to do so!'" he laughed. "We just want to make the money from it. We're Disney!"





'The Phantom' TV Trailer Arrives Online

Way back in April, we got our first glimpse at concept art from "The Phantom," SyFy's television miniseries based on the classic purple-suited hero created by Lee Falk. Now, the first trailer for the project has popped up on the 'Webs, giving us a better idea of the series' premise and a look at how that concept art was translated into an actual costume.

Originally posted on YouTube, the "Phantom" trailer features a significantly younger take on the masked crimefighter, and even offers a nod to the different look he'll be sporting in the series.



"The Phantom" debuts in 2010 on SyFy.





First look at Robert Rodriguez's bloody, violent Predators












We're as interested as you are in any info about the plot of next summer's Robert Rodriguez-scripted Predators reboot. Today we got some tidbits from our friends at the Latino Review, who got a chance to read a 90-page script dated July 12, 2009 and shared some of that insider info with the rest of us.

The draft is a "bloody, violent, Hard-R script" that pits a team of seven kidnapped humans against Predators on the aliens' home planet. Reportedly, the team of seven are:

Royce, a Steve McQueen type
Cuchillo, a Mexican enforcer for a drug cartel who has twin uzis strapped to his back
Nikolai, a bear of a Russian armed with a four-barrel gas-powered rotary machine gun
Isabelle, a French woman armed with a sniper rifle
Stans, a San Quentin prisoner with a shaved head, armed with a prison-made knife
Mombasa, an African member of the Sierra Leone death squad
Hanzo, a Yakuza enforcer
Edwin, an unassuming man who was formerly on the FBI's most-wanted list.

We can't want to see them in action on the screen next year, but until then, check out Latino Review for more details.




Watch the new trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street



A new trailer has gone live for Warner Bros.' contemporary re-imagining of the horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, starring Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger.

The film is being directed by award-winning music video and commercial director Samuel Bayer (Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"), marking his feature film debut.

A Nightmare on Elm Street opens April 30, 2010.





Bay updates Transformers 3 and calls Megan Fox on her BS









Michael Bay

Great news for you fans of idiotic noisy giant-robot movies starring pickup-truck-rolling, left-hand-crushing young men and trash-talking, raven-haired gum-popping starlets: Director Michael Bay has said the third installment of Transformers is coming out in 2011, not 2012, and is already gearing up for production.

Writing on his official blog page, the Bayster makes the announcement himself:









Megan Fox in Transformers

Well its official: We have a great Transformers 3 story. The release date is now July 1st 2011. Not 2012.

Today is Day One. This morning started with an ILM meeting for five hours in San Francisco. Currently I'm flying with writer Ehren Kruger to Rhode Island to talk to Hasbro about new characters.

P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.

Reading between the lines it feels to us like Bay is trying to publicly let Fox know he's read her BS statements about him in the news, isn't amused and wants her to shut up and get back to work. You may recall Fox was quoted comparing the auteur to Hitler, leading some anonymous "crew members" to accuse her of being a rude diva, leading Bay to say, no, really, she's great, I love her. Whatever.

When does District 10 begin?