september 1998 television & post-production · vol. 3 issue 6 september 1998 television &...

September 1998Vol. 3 Issue 6

Television &Post-ProductionCorto Maltese Comes to TV

WhatÕs New on the Tube?

Disney Television and Archives

Animation Writers UniteInternational Dubbing

Vol. 3 Issue 6 September 1998

Table of ContentsSeptember 1998 Vol. 3, No. 6

Editor’s NotebookExpanding television...

Letters: [email protected]

Dig This!Complicated computers are used to simulate the simple cut-out animation technique on South Park andBlue’s Clues.

Tooning in the 1998 Fall SeasonJoseph K. Bevilacqua highlights what’s new in animation for the U.S. 1998/99 television season, fromCBS to Cartoon Network.

Disney’s Little Big Screen:Turning Animated Features Into TV SeriesLike clockwork, Disney’s big screen adventures turn up on television. Mike Lyons reveals the mechanismbehind this marketing plan.

The Color In Mind: Corto MalteseEurope’s favorite adventurer, Corto Maltese, is coming to television town. Russell Bekins investigates howHugo Pratt’s graphic novels are being adapted. Includes a Quicktime movie.

Giuseppe Laganà and Animation in Italy: Rebuilding an IndustryRussell Bekins takes us inside Giuseppe Laganà’s Italian studio, Animation Band, Ellipse’s production part-ner on Corto Maltese.

Better For All Concerned:The Writers Guild of America’s Animation Writers CaucusHot on the heels of a major break through, Craig Miller discusses the goals of the Animation Writers Cau-cus.

Waste Management in AnimationLaws have been made and the environment should be on everyone’s mind. Environmentalist Lesli Rynykexplains the Canadian Waste Management Act and subsequent Animation Waste Management Plandesigned to decrease waste at Canuck Creations.

International Theatrical Dubbing: It’s More Than Meets the EyeDebra Chinn outlines the unsung world of international theatrical dubbing. Getting Anastasia to sing in28 languages is no easy task...Includes a Quicktime movie.

3D Meets Reality!Compositing 3D elements into live-action footage is a very important facet of post-production. Bill Flem-ing instructs us on how to get it just right.

Here’s A How de do Diary: JuneWhat’s going on with Barry Purves and his Channel 4 production? Find out in this month’s installment.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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POST-PRODUCTION

OTHER


Roots:An Experiment in Images and MusicBärbel Neubauer divulges her creative process and discusses the production of Roots, an experimentalfilm mixing images and sound. Includes a Quicktime movie.

Comic-Con:Where Comics Are KingPete Nicholls traveled to San Diego to report on Comic-Con in a year when comics reigned and anima-tion was strangely missing...

Anima Mundi:The Audience is KeyEdmundo Barrieros relays the events of Brazil’s Anima Mundi, possibly the world’s most energetic andenthusiastic festival.

The Film Strip Tells AllWilliam Moritz discusses Richard Reeves’ Linear Dreams and Bärbel Neubauer’s Moonlight and helps toput them in perspective. Includes Quicktime movies of both films.

Dreamweaver is Pretty Darn DreamyMacromedia’s Dreamweaver impressed Dan Sarto. Read on for why this web authoring tool is hard tobeat.

Fireworks: Does it Have a Special Spark?Webmaster Ged Bauer gives Macromedia’s Fireworks a try to determine whether it is the “all-in-one-be-all-end-all” web graphics application that it claims to be.

Inside Disney:The Archives and Animation Research LibraryKatie Mason interviews the folks behind preserving Disney’s history and artwork at the Walt DisneyArchives and Animation Research Library.

Animation World News Writers Make Prime-Time Pact With Fox, Anne Sweeney Tops Disney/ABC Cable Networks, Fantastic Plan-et in Rotation and more...

On A Desert Island With. . . .TV Toon TalentsTony Craig, Roberts Gannaway and Pascal Morell

Next Issue’s Highlights

This Month’s Contributors

Cover: Corto Maltese will come to television for the first time as an animated series. Learn more in Rus-sell Bekins’ article, “The Color In Mind: Corto Maltese.” © Ellipse Program/Imedia/ConG. All RightsReserved.

© Animation World Network 1998. All rights reserved. No part of the periodical may be reproducedwithout the consent of Animation World Network.

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TABLE OF CONTENTSTHE STUDENT CORNER

FESTIVALS, EVENTS

FILMS

SOFTWARE

HIDDEN TREASURES

NEWS

Expanding television...

Well, the fall season isupon us once again. Themost notable mark this

year is the expansion of animationinto prime-time. While The Flint-stones started the world of prime-time animation, no one hasrevived it, and profited from it, likeFox. Ready to expand its currentsuccess, Fox is adding three prime-time shows this year: Futurama,Family Guy and The PJs are allbeing introduced mid-season.That’s quite an influx! However,there is more. The success ofshows like The Simpsons, which isa tremendously popular phenom-enon whether we are talking live-action or animation, and King ofthe Hill, have inspired others totake part in the game. ComedyCentral was one of the first to takethe plunge with Dr. Katz andSouth Park. Their risks have provenprofitable. South Park has been ahuge victory for them, grabbingthe network’s highest ratings todate. Now, Bob and Margaretpromises to be another, albeit lesscrude, hit. Furthermore, withalmost simultaneous Canadian,U.K. and U.S. distribution Bob andMargaret could be an internation-al success early in its airing career.Now even NBC, a major U.S. net-work, is getting involved by airingthe U.K.’s Stressed Eric. What isinteresting to note is that insteadof Bob and Margaret and StressedEric being spawned in the U.S.and then distributed globally,these are co-production deals thatare bringing these shows to multi-ple, international outlets at once.

We have long heard of thebooming animation field and we

have long fearedthe inevitable reces-sion. First theexpansion was infeatures, then it wasin home video,now it is in prime-time animation. Wehave been savedfrom heavy reces-sions and havee x p e r i e n c e dgrowth due to newoutlets continually opening up.Prime-time could be our next sav-ior and even offer another chanceto expand. Here’s hoping thesenew prime-time shows are every-thing they are cracked up to beand that the audience responds inkind!

This is also the second sea-son of FCC-friendly programmingin the U.S. Despite all the panicand suspicion that children weregoing to turn away from the tubein droves, Disney and ABC haveproven that pro-social program-ming can be popular—and theratings agree. Children haven’tturned off. In fact, good shows arejust plain good shows and if thestories and characters are engag-ing, children will watch and, hey,maybe even learn something.

The Writers Guild of Ameri-ca’s Animation Writers Caucus alsodeserves congratulating thismonth as they have struck a dealwith Fox’s prime-time schedule torepresent the network’s animationwriters, offering them a newround of benefits. Long under theartists’ MPSC banner, this signingdelineates a shift as explained byCraig Miller in his article “Better ForAll Concerned: The Writers Guildof America’s Animation Writers

Caucus.”There is anongoing strugglebetween artists andwriters that is uniqueto animation and thathas been heightenedin the last few years.Some shows areheavily writer-based,causing storyboardartists to feel very put-out indeed. Still,other shows let the

artists have their way...and some-time these shows wander withouta sturdy foundation. With theinflux of live-action personnel intoanimation this misunderstandinghas only grown. Live-action folksoften want to see the final script!Not understanding that in anima-tion a final storyboard is moreclose to the actual final show thanany script. Naturally, in a healthysituation it is a blending of writingand ‘boarding that makes a suc-cessful product and each produc-tion needs to find its own middleground.

Kudos also go to the WaltDisney Company for avidly pre-serving their history. There is nodoubt that when we consider ani-mation we have to discuss Disney.I’d like to thank them for seriouslyarchiving their history and art-work. These materials are atremendous resource, not only toDisney historians, but all anima-tion scholars. To learn more abouttheir collections, please read KatieMason’s “Inside Disney: TheArchives and Animation ResearchLibrary.”

Until next time, Heather


by Heather Kenyon

The Animated Film Collector’sGuide Clarification

In his review of my book,The Animated Film Collector’sGuide (Townsend 3.5) EmruTownsend states that it “aims to bethe collector’s bible, replacing ourdog-eared Whole Toon catalogsas reference material.” The WholeToon catalog was still defunctwhen I began writing, but it wasnever my intention to replace itwith my book. The Animated FilmCollector’s Guide should beregarded as a supplement to, nota replacement of, Whole Toon.

I wrote my guide as a com-panion to Giannalberto Bendazzi’sCartoons and Leonard Maltin’s OfMice and Magic. After readingthese books, I wanted to see thefilms described by Bendazzi andMaltin, but had a hard time locat-ing them because, while a surpris-ingly large number are availableon video, many are hidden awayin compilations. Other titles areavailable only from obscuresources such as foreign, indepen-dent, and educational distributors,the filmmakers themselves, or areout-of-print. Most of the films avail-able from these sources are notlisted by Whole Toon., but com-prise about half of the informationin my book. The other half willlead you to Whole Toon., the bestsingle place to buy animation onvideo.

Sincerely,David Kilmer

Two More AdditionsThere are two additional

books that can be recommendedin terms of Jerry Beck’s June article“The Essential Animation Refer-ence Library” (Beck 3.3) While theyprobably don’t have the produc-

tion values of what Mr. Beck haslisted, I think both these bookswould be helpful. One is How toDraw Animation Storyboards byBob Singer, published by ComicArt Publications. While the produc-tion on this book, admittedly, ispoor, the information it provides tothe novice is very educational. Itincludes chapters on staging andplanning storyboards for psycho-logical effect and continuity to thescript. It also contains storyboardsby Singer, Moebius, Floro Dery,Will Meugniot and Alex Toth.

And speaking of AlexToth...Alex Toth: By Design writtenby Alex Toth and Darrell McNeil,published by Gold Medal Publica-tions, is an excellent visual historyof Toth’s career in animationincluding models of charactersand props from many Hanna-Bar-bera series including Space Ghost,Jonny Quest, Sealab 2020, TheThree Musketeers and SuperFriends. Also included is a story-board sequence from SuperFriends. The massive amount ofwork Toth did in the field can beenlightening and intimidating atthe same time. I hope you don’tmind my referring to these addi-tional books, but these should def-initely be in the essential anima-tion library.

Sincerely,Neil Hansen

Kudos on Asian IssueI found the article “China-

The Awakening Giant: AnimationAnd Broadcasting In The Main-land” (Vallas 3.5) by Milt Vallas veryinformative and enjoyable as itreminded me of many experiencesand hardships I have gonethrough in the past and continueto go through today. I have beenworking in China since 1990 and

still return to China on a regularbasis to conduct business for ani-mation. I am thrilled every time Ireturn to cities like Shanghai.

I want to thank you forfinally publishing some seriouspieces on animation production inAsia. There is a great deal of workand hard effort that is done overhere and most of the Westernpublic has no idea that the anima-tion they are watching is pro-duced in Asia. China is quicklybecoming a powerhouse in thisindustry and will continue togrow. Later this month Beijing willhost their animation conventionwhere outside industries and localproducers will get together andcompare notes on the ever-expanding business of animationin China. I will be there.

Again, thanks for the articleMilt!

Best Regards,Rick Allen

Mulan RetortIn response to Andy Klein’s

review of Mulan (Klein 3.3):Eddie Murphy was pretty

darn funny in Mulan. If you askme, he made that movie. To sayhe was not as funny as JamesWoods in Hercules is, well, prettylame.

Mulan has more heart to itthan Hercules. The fact thatMushu confesses to Mulan in hertime of desperation was a greatturning point for the characterand gave a little more dimensionthan would be afforded other-wise. Mushu was a great lead-infor the audience and a mirror forMulan.

Sincerely,Olun Riley


[email protected]

In this age of technology, many“old-fashioned” animation tech-niques have been abandoned

for computer-generated imagery.However, a new trend is emerg-ing, one which uses the computeras a tool to achieve the look of old-fashioned techniques while takingadvantage of the ease of produc-tion that technology offers.

Case in point: South Parkand Blue’s Clues. “What couldthese two radically differentshows—one for adults and onefor pre-schoolers—have in com-mon?,” you may ask. The answeris that they both use computer ani-mation software to create a lookthat many uninformed viewersassume is the product of painstak-ing cut-out animation. What mostpeople don’t know is that quite abit of technology is at work toachieve that “home-grown” look,shadows, textures and all.

South ParkAt a production studio hid-

den away in Marina Del Rey, Cali-fornia, animators and technicaldirectors on the South Park TVshow and feature film use high-end equipment: Silicon Graphicsworkstations running Alias|Wave-front’s PowerAnimator software tocreate a virtual plane—in 3Dspace—on which “flat” computer-

generated characters are animat-ed. Even the texture of construc-tion paper is applied in the com-puter, and that “no-platen” shad-ow look is achieved by separatingthe character’s parts with a smalllayer of space as would occur inreal cut-out animation, which is, incase you were wondering, thetechnique Trey Parker and MattStone used to create The Spirit ofChristmas, the animated short thatspawned the Comedy Centralseries. Monica Mitchell, a produc-tion manager on South Park,pointed out that it would havebeen nearly impossible to producethe show with construction paper.“Time and flexibility are the bottomline,” she said, noting thatchanges to the show are oftenmade the day before broadcast.

Blue’s CluesAt Nickelodeon’s digital stu-

dio in New York, animators onBlue’s Clues are using Macintoshcomputers running Photoshopand Adobe After Effects softwareto combine animated sets andcharacters with a live-action host.

Even storyboards are created inQuark, so that they can be revisedafter various stages of the show’sextensive kid-testing process.While live-action is being shot onvideo (against a green-screen,color-key background), artists cre-ate props and characters out ofclay and simple materials, thenphotograph them with a digitalcamera. The images are thencleaned-up and dressed-up, aprocess series co-creator anddesigner Traci Paige-Johnson callsmaking the images “yummy,” thenimported to After Effects wherethey are animated and composit-ed with the live-action footage.Series co-creator and executiveproducer Todd Kessler said that

when the show was being devel-oped, the technology decisionscame out of the needs of the con-tent. “The whole idea behindgoing ‘low-tech’ and animating ondesktop computers was to spendas little as possible on equipment,so that we could spend the largestportion of our budget on creativetalent.” Nickelodeon recently start-ed production on a new seriescalled Little Bill which will employthe Blue’s Clues process.

Both Blue’s Clues andSouth Park creators use the com-puter as a very sophisticated cam-


by Wendy Jackson

Time and flexibility are thebottom line. - Monica Mitchell

Both Blue’s Clues and SouthPark creators use the comput-

er as a very sophisticatedcamera...

South Park. © Comedy Central.

DDiigg TThhiiss!!Using computers to simulate cut-out animation

techniques on South Park and Blue’s Clues.

era which enables the productionprocess to be broken down intostages that can be handled by dif-ferent teams of people: story-boards, design and layout, lip-sync, and animation. Both showsuse relatively small productionteams—ranging from 15 to 30people per episode, compared tothe huge staffs, both in-house andoverseas, needed to produce atypical 2D or cel-animated series.We can expect to see more of thiskind of computer use in anima-tion, blurring the line betweenCGI and traditional animation, andbreaking through once-prohibitivecost and time barriers.

What else should we dig? Everymonth, Animation World Maga-zine will highlight the most inter-esting, exciting happenings in ani-mation, in “Dig This!” Send us yourideas, suggestions, videos, prod-

ucts or works-in-progress today.You dig?

EditorAnimation World Magazine6525 Sunset Blvd. Garden Ste. 10Hollywood, CA 90028 U.S.A.E-mail: [email protected].


Wendy Jackson is associate editorof Animation World Magazine.

Note: Readers may contact anyAnimation World Magazine con-tributor by sending an e-mail to

[email protected].

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Blue’s Clues. © Nickelodeon.

When Blue’s Clues was beingdeveloped, the technologydecisions came out of the

needs of the content

One year after the UnitedStates federal governmentbegan enforcing its

requirements for television stationsto air three hours per week of edu-cational programming, only ahandful of cartoon shows canactually claim they are meetingthe mandate. The best is ScienceCourt, which is now transforminginto “Squigglevision.” However,there are plenty of high qualityshows. Stalwarts such as TheSimpsons, Rugrats and Dr. Katz:Professional Therapist have beenjoined by equally well-writtenshows such as King of the Hill,Daria and Bob and Margaret. CBSis filling their animated Saturdaymorning lineup with shows basedon children’s books and Nick-elodeon’s first ever half-hour ani-mated series The Wild Thornberryswill debut as part of the network’snew prime-time block for kids, theNickel-0-Zone.

More cartoon shows thanever before will soon be gracingyour TV screens. The 1998 fall sea-son features animation of nearlyevery conceivable genre from sub-tle to broad comedy, from experi-mental shorts to derivative action-adventure half-hours. The onlystyle that seems to be still missingis serious drama. But why com-plain? The so-called “animationboom” of the early 1990s has final-ly arrived eight years after it was

reported to haveoccurred. Here are thehighlights of what we canexpect!

Network

CBSLast season, CBS

switched to news and live-action “FCC-friendly”shows. Their ratings wentinto the basement. Thisseason they are takingtheir cue from ratingsleader ABC’s Saturdaymorning line-up by creat-ing an animation block of30-minute shows aimed atyoung viewers and pro-duced entirely by Canada’sNelvana Limited. All butone show is based on popularchildren’s books. As you will see asyou read on, Nelvana is responsi-ble for more TV animation thanany other company today. CBS’snew Saturday morning seasonpremieres Saturday, October 3 at8:00 a.m. (ET), 7:00 a.m. (PT).

Flying Rhino Junior High isbased on the books written andillustrated by Ray Nelson and Dou-glas Kelly and revolves around theantics of Earl P. Sidebottom (a.k.aThe Phantom of the Auditorium).Birdz is an original comic adven-ture series about a family of birds,which centers around their mis-chievous ten-year-old EddieStorkowitz. Franklin is a turtlelearning how he fits into the worldand how the world fits him. It isbased on books by Paulette Bour-

geois and Brenda Clark. Anatole,based on the book series by EveTitus, centers on a dignified mousewho’s a loving husband and fatherto six charming children. DumbBunnies is based on Dav Pilkey’sScholastic books and centers on afamily of lovable, fun loving, andextremely naïve bunnies. MythicWarriors: Guardians Of The Leg-end is from the paperback series,“Myth Men,” by Laura Geringer,illustrated by Peter Bolinger andpublished by Scholastic. It is abouta modernized Mt. Olympus wherePerseus is a master kickboxer andIole dons a punk haircut.

ABCDisney’s ratings power-

house “One Saturday Morning”block premieres September 12 at


TToooonniinngg iinn tthhee 11999988 FFaallll SSeeaassoonnby Joseph K. Bevilacqua

Birdz. © Nelvana Limited.All Rights Reserved.

Fox is adding three prime-timeanimated shows to its mid-sea-

son, early 1999 schedule.

8:00 a.m. (ET), 7:00 a.m.(PT). The schedule startsoff with their highest pro-file show, Disney’s Her-cules, an outgrowth ofDisney’s 1997 animatedfeature film, whichchronicled the lifelongexploits of the mythicalhero. The series expandsupon the Greekdemigod’s feats duringhis formative, hero-in-training, “high school”years. The voice castincludes the film’s TateDonovan, James Woods,French Stewart, SandraBernhard, and DiedrichBader, along with anamazing roster of gueststars including JasonAlexander, Jennifer Anis-ton, Lou Gossett Jr., MervGriffin, Jennifer LoveHewitt, Harvey Korman,Bob Keeshan (CaptainKangaroo), Lisa Kudrow, HeatherLocklear, Wayne Newton, DavidHyde Pierce, Charles Nelson Reilly,Carl Reiner, William Shatner andBetty White. Fifty-two episodes willalso premiere in syndication, Mon-day-Friday, beginning August 31.(Check local listings.)

“Squigglevision,” referringto the trademark animation styleof creator and executive producerTom Snyder, will take the wit andappeal of Science Court andexpand upon it by adding mathand vocabulary elements to theseries. With the help of two new

animated characters, Fizz andMartina, viewers will now be guid-ed through the half-hour programfrom the Squigglevision TV studio.If the show is as well-written andfunny as Science Court this showshould be a winner.

Disney’s Doug, Recess,Pepper Ann, and 101 Dalmatians:The Series all return with 13 newepisodes each. Disney’s Doug willalso be seen in syndication Mon-day through Friday beginningAugust 31. (Check local listings.)Reruns of The New Adventures ofWinnie the Pooh will continue forthe new season as well. Some ofthe vintage shorts on The BugsBunny & Tweety Show includeHomeless Hare, Ain’t She Tweet,Bunny Hugged, and Trick orTweet. Schoolhouse Rock, theEmmy Award-winning, three-minute, animated vignettes,

rounds out ABC’s chil-dren’s programminglineup.

FOXKim Basinger,Alec

Baldwin,Jerry Springer,Regis Philbin, KathieLee Gifford, Ed McMa-hon, Mark Hamill,George Carlin, MartinMull, Fred Willard, themusical group theMoody Blues andsports casters JohnMadden and Pat Sum-merall are among theguest voices on the10th season of TheSimpsons. The seasonpremiere is scheduledfor Sunday, September20 at 8:00 p.m.. Foxmoved King of the Hillto Tuesday nights inJuly hoping to use it toanchor the evening.

Since the end of last season Foxhas been ending each show witha “The Hills are moving to Holly-wood” teaser. Some fans thinkingit is real have been outraged. Willthe Hills really move to Hollywoodor is it just a publicity stunt? I’m nottelling. Both The Simpsons andKing of the Hill are some of thebest written and acted animationon TV today.

Fox is adding three prime-time animated shows to its mid-season, early 1999 schedule. Thefirst of these is The Simpsons’ cre-ator Matt Groening’s Futurama,which has been picked up for 13episodes. The comedy series willbe produced by Twentieth Centu-ry Fox in association with Groen-ing’s Curiosity Company. Groeningwill be executive producer. RoughDraft Animation, a studio based inLos Angeles and Korea, which


Disney’s Hercules. © The Walt Disney Company.All Rights Reserved.

What name value the greatdirector of Schindler’s List andSaving Private Ryan brings tochildren’s cartoon shows is a

mystery.

does Simpsons production workhas been selected as the sole pro-duction company.

Newcomer Seth MacFar-lane’s Family Guy, is a surpriseentry into the marketplace. WhileFuturama and The PJs wereplanned and in production, Fami-ly Guy is a relatively unplannedpilot by MacFarlane, a 24-year-oldgraduate of Rhode Island Schoolof Design who was recently dis-covered by Fox executives. Mac-Farlane’s student film first broughthim to Hanna-Barbera’s attentionwhere he made Larry and Steve, aWhat A Cartoon! short for CartoonNetwork in 1995. Then what wasstarted as a short for MAD TV blos-somed into a 13-episode, prime-time pick-up. David Zuckermanhas been hired as an executive

producer along with MacFarlane.Zuckerman was previously anexecutive producer on King of theHill. Roy Smith, formerly of Saban,and Peter Shin, formerly of KlaskyCsupo, will be co-animation pro-ducers, and John Bush, formerlyof Hyperion, will be line producer.

Another new show is ThePJs (time TBA) with Eddie Murphyas the voice of the super of theProjects (the PJs.) The show is asatirical look at urban family valuesin a big-city housing project thatwill attempt to skewer “culturalstereotypes, sacred cows andnotions of political correctness.”The PJs is the first prime-time seriesto be created in “foamation”—thetechnique used by Will Vinton Stu-dios (California Raisins, Nissancommercials). Murphy is produc-ing the series, with Ron Howardand Brian Grazer as executive pro-ducers. Let’s hope all three of thesenew series live up to Fox’s traditionof prime-time success.

Fox Kids Network, whichruns weekday afternoons and Sat-urday mornings on Fox, has a

vamped-up 1998-99 schedulewhich includes eight new animat-ed series starting in the fall. Newto the Fox Kids Saturday morninglineup will be Mr. Potato Head(Film Roman/Chiodo Bros.) whichcombines computer generatedimagery (CGI), puppetry and live-action production technology;Godzilla: The Series (ColumbiaTriStar) which picks up where theblockbuster movie ended; WoodyWoodpecker (a new remake fromUniversal), Mad Jack (Saban), SilverSurfer (Saban) and Captain Ameri-ca (Saban). New to weekday after-noons will be Scholastic’s TheMagic School Bus (Scholastic/Nel-vana), Spy Dogs (Saban) andOggy and the Cockroaches (Gau-mont) which will be combinedwith Space Goofs (also Gaumont)as The Space Goofs and OggyShow. Current shows beingrenewed for 1998-99 includeSteven Spielberg Presents Toonsyl-vania (DreamWorks), Life WithLouie (Hyperion), Spider-Man(Saban), Ned’s Newt (Nelvana)and Sam & Max (Nelvana).

NBCTesting out this prime-time

fad, NBC began airing the animat-ed series Stressed Eric in theirWednesday night prime time line-up starting on August 12. This isthe first time NBC has aired a reg-ular prime-time animated seriessince The Famous Adventures ofMr. Magoo aired on Saturdaynights during the 1965/65 TV sea-son. Stressed Eric, a co-productionof Absolutely Productions, the BBCand Klasky Csupo, stars a Britishmain character with a strongaccent, so NBC has re-dubbed thetrack with an American voice actor(Hank Azaria) to make the dia-logue more comprehensible to itsAmerican viewers.


Nickelodeon’s first ever half-hour animated series The WildThornberrys will debut as partof the network’s new prime-

time block for kids the Nickel-0-Zone.

The PJs. © Touchstone.

Kids’ WB!“Batman, Batman, every-

where!” This should be Kid’s WB’snew slogan. First there is The NewBatman/Superman Adventureswhich will air Saturdays from 8:00to 9:00 a.m. and Monday throughFriday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.. TheCaped Crusader will be featured inall new adven-tures for the Satur-day morningshow but willrotate repeats ofBatman: The Ani-mated Series andThe Adventures ofBatman & Robinfor the weekdayversion. The char-acters in the newBatman have adistinct look inorder to differenti-ate the show fromthe series’ two pre-vious incarnations in an attempt tomake it clear that each of thesethree series is set in a different timeframe. The Superman half of theshow follows the legendary “manof steel” in all-new episodes set inpresent-day Metropolis.

But hold on to your bat-belts! There’s even more “capedconfusion” with an entirely sepa-rate Batman series set in the earlypart of the 21st century. BatmanBeyond is an all-new futuristicchapter in the world-renownedlegend of Batman. The new mil-lennium has dawned and GothamCity has embraced the future,becoming an enormous mega-lopolis etched in neon with sleekfuturistic vehicles and behemoth

people movers. It’s a city moldedby corporate master plans, corpo-rate wealth, and occasionally, cor-porate greed. In an environmentsuch as this, corruption lurks justbelow the surface of order, wait-ing for the opportunity to breakthrough and get a toehold fromwhich to flourish.

Monday through Friday at3:30 p.m. and Saturday morningsat 11:00 a.m., WB presents Warn-er Bros.’ Histeria! which presentshistorical subject matter in anamusing way while trying to fulfillthe FCC educational program-ming requirement. Crazy charac-ters such as Father Time, Big FatBaby, Loud Kid, Mr. Smartypants,and Lydia Karaoke visit with suchfigures from the past as Joan ofArc, William Shakespeare, or Abra-ham Lincoln. Brats of The LostNebula is a new sci-fi adventureseries from The Jim Henson Com-pany and combines puppetry andcomputer-generated imagery sup-posedly in a way never beforedone for television. It’s yet anothershow about good versus evil, as ifthere weren’t enough of those onthe air already. Brats will air Satur-days at 10:00 a.m.

Columbia TriStar’s “aliens

live among us” comic adventureMen In Black: The Series (based onthe hit movie) begins its secondseason, airing Saturdays at 9:00a.m. Warner Bros. classic charac-ters, Sylvester and Tweety, returnfor all-new escapades of TheSylvester & Tweety Mysteries (Sat-urdays at 11:00 a.m.).

Just as Disney iscompelled to slap itsmoniker on nearlyevery cartoon show itowns, so does StevenSpielberg. What namevalue the great direc-tor of Schindler’s Listand Saving PrivateRyan brings to chil-dren’s cartoon showsis a mystery. Some“Steven Spielberg Pre-sents…” shows havecome and gone(Freakazoid, for exam-ple) but Steven Spiel-

berg Presents Animaniacs contin-ues to air Monday through Fridayat 7:30 a.m. and Steven SpielbergPresents Pinky & The Brain, Mon-day through Friday at 3:00 p.m.Now WB adds Steven SpielbergPresents Pinky, Elmyra & The Brain(Saturdays at 10:30 a.m.). AfterACME labs is destroyed Pinky andThe Brain seek refuge in a petstore where they are bought bythe overzealous pet-lover Elmyra,of Steven Spielberg Presents TinyToon Adventures fame. It’s kind ofsad that the perfect duo formulaof Pinky and the Brain will bespoiled by this loud-mouthed,rehashed character.

The WB Network (prime-time) will also try out a pilot basedon the syndicated comic strip BabyBlues during the ‘98 holiday sea-son, testing it out for a possibleseries.


Mr. Potato Head. © 1998 Hasbro, Inc.

Rugrats...was the highest-ratedchildren’s program on televi-

sion for the 1997-1998 season.

PBSAfter taking home

an Emmy Award for Out-standing Children’s Ani-mated Program, Arthurkicks off the series’ thirdseason on PBS, with 15new programs and 50encore broadcasts offavorite episodes fromprevious seasons. Thedaily, animated half-hourprograms are based onMarc Brown’s popularchildren’s books about anaardvark. Arthur isbrought to public televi-sion by WGBH Boston and CINARFilms and will premiere Monday,November 16, 1998.

Cable

Cartoon NetworkEd, Edd n’ Eddy premieres

November 16 at 8:00 p.m. Thehalf-hour series tells the story ofthree best friends who bandtogether to tackle life’s most daunt-ing challenge—puberty. Ed, Eddn’ Eddy was created by DannyAntonucci, creator of Lupo theButcher and director of a.k.a. CAR-TOON inc., located in Vancouver,Canada. The Powerpuff Girls, pre-miering November 18 at 8:00p.m., is based on animator CraigMcCracken’s two original cartoonshorts produced for Cartoon Net-work and Hanna-Barbera’s WorldPremiere Toons project. The seriesis produced by the same anima-tion team behind Dexter’s Labora-tory.

Space Ghost Coast to Coastkicked off its fifth season on Friday,August 7 at 11:30 p.m. (EST/PST).Some of the guests interviewed forthis season include supermodelsTyra Banks and Rebecca Romijn,actor/director Ben Stiller, directorsJim Jarmusch and Kevin Smith,comedian Garrett Morris and a lotmore.

Dexter’s Laboratory, Gen-ndy Tartakovsky’s story of a boygenius who creates fantasticinventions in his beloved laborato-ry will air new episodes Mondaythrough Friday at 7:30 p.m.beginning August 31. Dexter’sLaboratory was Cartoon Network’shighest-rated series of both 1996and 1997. Twenty-six newepisodes of Cow and Chicken,from veteran animator David Feiss,will follow the further misadven-tures of the surreal pair of siblings.Cow and Chicken airs Tuesdaysand Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. start-ing September 1. The new seasonof Johnny Bravo will be broadcaston Mondays and Fridays begin-ning August 31.

Toon DisneyBeginning this fall, a west

coast U.S. feed of Toon Disney will

be made available tocable affiliates in both thepacific and mountaintime zones. Currentlyavailable in more than sixmillion homes, Toon Dis-ney’s fall programmingslate will include sevenadditional series. 101Dalmatians, Quack Pack,Mighty Ducks, Gargoyles,The Adventures of Sonicthe Hedgehog and HelloKitty and Friends will jointhe Toon Disney sched-ule in September whileCare Bears will be added

in October.

Disney ChannelDisney Channel makes its

first foray into completely comput-er-generated animation with itsnew series for young children,Rolie Polie Olie, debuting October4. Renowned children’s bookauthor and illustrator WilliamJoyce created this 13-episodeweekly series, produced by Nel-vana Limited. Joyce was recentlynamed one of the 100 people towatch in the next millennium byNewsweek magazine. Rolie PolieOlie follows the touching, tumul-tuous and sometimes hilariousworld of Olie, a simple robotic“everyboy” who lives in a magical,mechanical world.

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon’s first ever half-

hour animated series The WildThornberrys will debut as part ofthe network’s new prime-timeblock for kids the Nickel-0-Zone.From Rugrats creators KlaskyCsupo, the series follows theadventures of girl hero Eliza andher quirky family who travel theworld from Africa to the Amazonin search of exotic, endangered


Ed, Edd n’ Eddy. © Cartoon Network.

Bob and Margaret is a brilliant-ly subtle and funny show.Themiddle-class story lines tran-scend any country’s border.

and mysterious animals to star intheir nature documentaries. Theshow will air Tuesdays and Thurs-days at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT) startingSeptember 1.

Catdog, which chroniclesthe comical misadventures of aunique creature with two heads,one body and no trace of a tail,will premiere on Monday, October5 at 5:00 p.m. (ET/PT). A guestappearance by country singinglegend Randy Travis and Helga’sadmission of her undying love forArnold, kick-off the third season ofHey Arnold! airing Mondays andWednesdays at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT)beginning August 31. Kablam!,the alternative animation antholo-gy series, returns for a third seasonwith a new segment and threespecials. The new episodes debuton Friday, September 4, at 8:00p.m. (ET/PT). One of the new seg-ments this season, JetCat!, is basedon Jay Stephens’ Dark Horsecomic book trilogy Land of Neil,which was recently nominated foran Eisner award, the comic bookindustry’s highest honor. The threespecials are Life with Loopy Birth-day Galabration on October 23, aValentine’s Day special with TheOff-Beats in February 1999 and aspecial with Henry & June inMarch 1999.

Punctuating the new sea-son of Rugrats episodes is theaddition of a new Pickle to thefold. The Rugrats’ lives change for-ever in an episode entitled “TheFamily Tree,” which premieresMonday, September 21 at 8:00p.m. (ET/PT). The episode willrepeat on Saturday, September 26at 8:00 p.m. in SNICK and Sunday,September 27 at 10 a.m.. “TheFamily Tree” is the cliffhangerepisode to The Rugrats Moviewhich will be released Thanksgiv-ing 1998. Rugrats, created by

Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo andPaul Germain, was the highest-rated children’s program on televi-sion for the 1997-1998 season.

The Angry Beavers kick-offall new episodes with an “AngryBeavers Halloween” special airingon Monday, October 26 (TimeTBA). Angry Beavers will also pre-miere with new episodes in SNICK(Saturday nights) throughoutNovember. Steve Burns and thegang return for all new episodesof Nick Jr.’s, Blue’s Clues beginningMonday, October 12 at 9:30 a.m.(ET/PT) as well.

Launched in July 1998, OhYeah! Cartoons (Sundays at noon -ET/PT) is a unique cartoon labora-tory that introduces three newcharacters every week. Created byFred Seibert, the series is meant asa place where new animation tal-ent and seasoned veterans cancreate something new and excit-ing. Similar in concept to his ‘WhatA Cartoon!/World Premiere Toons’series on Cartoon Network, “OhYeah!” is aimed at younger chil-dren. The result is a series lessannoyingly loud and “in yourface.” Most of the shorts are subtleand well executed. Some, such asMax & His Special Problem, arebrilliant. The idea of trying out“one shot” cartoon shorts beforecommitting to a series wasinspired by the old Warner Brossdays. Like the early Looney Tunesand Merrie Melodies, Oh Yeah!has more misses than hits, but ifNickelodeon can commit to theshow for the long haul and letthese animators develop theircraft, they may just have a hit ontheir hands.

Little Bear is based on thechildren’s books by ElseHolmelund Minarik with illustra-tions by Maurice Sendak. LittleBear tells the story of a young cub

taking his first steps of indepen-dence, always under the gentleguidance of his caring mother.The 30-minute series airs fourtimes per week on Nickelodeon.Rupert first appeared in Britain inthe pages of Express Newspapers,over 75 years ago. The white bear,known by his red sweater and yel-low checkered trousers and scarf,has generations of fans and isloved by children everywhere forhis values of courage, kindness,honesty and loyalty. The 30-minute series airs four times perweek on Nickelodeon.

Fox Family ChannelNews Corp./Saban co-ven-

ture Fox Kids Worldwide has veryanimated plans for its newly-acquired cable network, The FoxFamily Channel which launchedon August 15 with a kids’ daytimeschedule that includes 50% origi-nal, first-run programming. Fol-lowing the lead of competitor’ssuccess with program packaging,Fox Family Channel will debutwith a slate of four themed,“branded” daytime blocks. “Morn-ing Scramble” for kids of all ages,will include the animated seriesWowser (Saban), Bit the Cupid(Saban), Little Mouse on the Prairie(Saban), Eek!Stravaganza (Nel-vana), All Dogs Go to Heaven(MGM Animation) and the live-action series Pee-Wee’s Playhouse(Don’t miss those great animated“Penny” sequences!). The secondblock, “The Captain’s TreasureHouse,” is aimed at pre-schoolers


It is hard to believe that suchcharming and well-written

shows as Daria and King of theHill would have started life asspin-offs of something as awful

as Beavis and Butt-head...

with animated showslike The Magic Adven-tures of Mumfie (Britt All-croft Productions) andTabaluga (EM-TV). “TicTac Toons,” an all-anima-tion block, will featureBobby’s World (FilmRoman), Saban’s OliverTwist (Saban), Heathcliff(Saban), The Real Ghost-busters (Columbia Tri-Star), and Classic HarveyToons (Harvey Enter-tainment). The last kidsblock of the day beforefamily-oriented prime-time programmingstarts is “The Basement,”which will premiere theanimated series BadDog (Saban), MonsterFarm (Saban), WaterMelon (Saban) and Bad-aboom (in developmentat Saban), a compilationof outrageous anima-tion.

A recent addition is DonkeyKong Country, a real-time, 30-minute animated series based onthe successful Nintendo game,premieres on the revamped cablechannel, Sunday, August 16.Medialab puppeteers worked with3-D animation motion-capturetechnology to create DonkeyKong Country’s unique look. Don-key Kong is an easy-going, peaceloving ape who has a big heartbut a small brain—a bit of a boob-in-the-woods. Fox Family Channelalso has a lot of new shows indevelopment, so expect additionsto their program throughout theseason.

HBOPippi Longstocking is the

story of the rambunctious nine-year-old with the active imagina-

tion and pigtails that defy gravitybased on the cult classic children’sbooks and movies from Sweden.Pippi Longstocking premiered Sat-urday, July 4 and airs Saturday andSunday mornings at 7:00 a.m.HBO is also expected to launch a25-part animated series called ALittle Curious in January 1999. Pro-duced by Curious Pictures, theshow will feature mixed-media,CG, cel and stop-motion anima-tion.

Comedy CentralBob and Margaret is based

on the 1995 Academy Award win-ning short film Bob’s Birthday, cre-ated by husband and wife teamDavid Fine and Alison Snowden.The show focuses on the ordinarylives of a middle class dentist andhis foot-doctor wife. Although

some might be challengedby the British dialect, Boband Margaret is a brilliantlysubtle and funny show. Themiddle-class story lines tran-scend any country’s border.The series premiered June22, 1998. Only 13 showshave been produced so farbut they will be stretchedout, with frequent repeats,for the entire season.

Bob and Margaret ispaired with the CableACEAward-winning series Dr.Katz: Professional Therapist,now in its fifth season, toform a Monday night pro-gramming block. Bob andMargaret airs Mondays at10:00-10:30 p.m., Saturdaysat 6:00-6:30 p.m. and 2:30-3:00 a.m., and Sundays at12:30-1:00 a.m. (ET/PT). Dr.Katz: Professional Therapistairs Mondays at 10:00-10:30p.m., Saturdays at 3:00-3:30a.m., Sundays at 12:30-1:00

p.m. and Monday through Fridayat 8:00-8:30 a.m. and 1:30-2:00p.m. (ET/PT).

It’s the return of a “fecalicon” and more, as six newepisodes of South Park beganAugust 19. Episode topics include:an independent film festival comesto South Park; Kenny contractschicken pox; the kids build rivalclubhouses; Mr. Garrison takes hisclass to the new planetarium;South Park citizens begin sponta-neously combusting; and theannual rodeo pulls into town. This


Syndication leader BohbotKids Network’s weekday

schedule features a mix of oldand new shows...

Celebrity Deathmatch. © MTV.

series offers the worst that televi-sion can spoon out. It is nasty andbadly produced. The creators haveconfused mean-spiritedness andsarcasm for genuine humor, andthe acting is amateurish and near-ly inarticulate. However, it remainsamazingly popular. South Park airsWednesdays at 10:00-10:30 p.m.and 1:00-1:30 a.m., Saturdays at10:00-10:30 p.m. and 2:00-2:30a.m., and Sundays at 12:00-12:30a.m. (ET/PT).

MTV: Music TelevisionMTV will continue mixing

new and old episodes of CelebrityDeathmatch, Eric Fogel’s outra-geously violent claymation serieswhere clay figure renderings oftoday’s biggest stars are pittedagainst each other in a ring.Although the show is meant tocomment satirically on the icons ofcontemporary culture and the

claymation is fun to watch, it is dif-ficult to recommend any televisionthat, show after show, constantlybombards the viewer with theidea that conflicts should besolved through aggression andviolence. Celebrity Deathmatchairs weeknights at 7:30 p.m. and10:00 p.m. (ET/PT).

It is hard to believe thatsuch charming and well-writtenshows as Daria and King of the Hillwould have started life as spin-offsof something as awful as Beavisand Butt-head, but it is true. Dariachronicles the experiences of 16-year-old Daria Morgendorffer, wholives in a new town, Lawndale,with her stressed-out, career-fixat-ed parents and her relentlesslycute and popular younger sister.MTV will continue to air repeats ofDaria and plans new episodessoon. It airs Monday nights at10:30 p.m. (ET/PT). Cartoon Sushi,

the showcase foracquired animatedshorts from the U.S.and abroad, as wellas pilots created inMTV’s own NewYork-based anima-tion studio, airsThursdays, 10:30p.m. (ET/PT).

SyndicatedThere

are several syndicat-ed shows returningwith new episodesincluding 3-D com-puter generatedBeast Wars (pre-mieres the week ofSeptember 14) fromClaster Televisionand Sachs FamilyE n t e r t a i n m e n t ’sZorro (premieres theweekend of Sep-

tember 19). New traditionally-ani-mated syndicated shows includeClaster Television’s The Lionhearts(premieres the weekend of Sep-tember 19), which revolvesaround the domestic life of Leothe Lion and his lion family andSachs Family Entertainment’s Mon-key Magic (also premieres theweekend of September 19), whichis based on one of the mostbeloved Chinese classic master-pieces.

Another new show fromMainframe Entertainment (BeastWars) is War Planet which is beingsyndicated by The Summit MediaGroup. With a budget of $18 mil-lion for 13 new episodes this inno-vative CGI series looks like a hitand a success with the toy manu-facturers as well. Summit is alsobringing to U.S. syndication Robo-cop Alpha Commando, The NewAdventures of Voltron: Defenderof the Universe, and Japan’s popu-lar Pokémon.

Syndication leader BohbotKids Network’s weekday schedulefeatures a mix of old and newshows: Jumanji, based on theRobin Williams movie; ExtremeDinosaurs, about annoyingly hipdinosaurs; Mummies Alive! wherethe spirit of an ancient Egyptianresides in an ordinary 12 year-oldboy; Pocket Dragon Adventures,“where wizards, magic and mis-chief abound;” Action Man, cen-tering on an international topsecret agent; Captain Simian &The Space Monkeys with superintelligent monkeys battling theevil NEBULA for a second season;Extreme Ghostbusters, the secondseason of yet another Ghost-busters rip-off; Street Sharks featur-ing four brothers who have beenmutated into half-shark, half-human creatures; Highlander -The Animated Series, based on the


Rolie Polie Olie.© 1997 Nelvana Limited.

original Highlander movie; MightyMax, the curious 11-year-old boywho has been chosen to rescuethe world; The Mask - The Animat-ed Series based on the Jim Carreymovie; and Adventures Of SonicThe Hedgehog, featuring that hip,irreverent and impetuous creature.

Sundays from 8:00-10:00a.m., Bohbot Kids Network pre-sents: Princess Gwenevere AndThe Jewel Riders which returns fora third season; Double Dragon,featuring masked twin superheroes who defend Metro City;Ultraforce, a futuristic, science-fic-tion series; and Skysurfer StrikeForce, another action cartoon thatreturns for a third season.

The FutureFor the first time in 40

years, Mickey Mouse will be ani-mated in new cartoons by WaltDisney Television Animation in ashow called Mouse Works. Theshow will package new cartoonsfeaturing Mickey, Donald Duck,Daisy, Goofy and Pluto, into 13,weekly 22-minute episodes sched-uled for release in early 1999. Inthe development of the show, RoyDisney, currently vice chairman ofthe board of the Walt Disney Com-pany, has been working closelywith Disney TV’s L.A.-based seniorvice president Barry Blumberg andexecutive producers Roberts Gan-naway and Tony Craig. As in theearly Mickey Mouse “Silly Sympho-ny” cartoons, music is establishedas the driving force to provide ref-erence for character motion andmovements. At present Disney hasnot decided which of its manyoutlets will air this new show.

Last year, the “What a Car-toon!” anthology on Cartoon Net-work promised two cartoons byJohn Kricfalusi, creator of Ren &Stimpy, starring Ranger Smith of

Jellystone Park. Yogi and Boo Booare also coming along for the ride.At press time Spumco is still pro-ducing these cartoons for broad-cast later this year. If they turn outas good as the storyboards I’veseen, it will be worth the wait.

Dilbert, the corporateeveryman and cartoon hero of theworkplace, makes his televisionseries debut in the animatedprime-time comedy Dilbert. (Janu-ary 1999). The television series isbased on the comic strip createdby Scott Adams that makes it seemfunny and okay for the corporateworld to keep the little guy down.Voices for the series include:Daniel Stern, Chris Elliott, KathyGriffin, Gordon Hunt, Larry Millerand Jackie Hoffman.

The WB Network hasordered 13 episodes of TheDowntowners, an animated seriesdeveloped by Bill Oakley and JoshWeinstein for Castle Rock Televi-sion. It is slated to air as a prime-time show in fall 1999. The showis described by WB as “the firstprime-time animated comedy tofocus on the lives of twentysome-things and teens.” It will star fourroomates living in a downtownloft in a fictional big city, and their

assortment of colorful friends andneighbors. This is the first animat-ed series to be developed by Cas-tle Rock’s Television unit, whoselive-action credits include Seinfeld.

Bill Cosby will team up withNickelodeon to produce an ani-mated preschool series called LittleBill, based on a book seriesauthored by Cosby. Little Bill willpremiere in the fall of 1999 onNick Jr. Cosby’s series will investi-gate life through the eyes of a five-year-old boy who is on a quest tounderstand the world.

As part of a multi-year deal,Fat Dog Mendoza will be the firstof two original series co-producedby Sunbow Entertainment andCartoon Network Europe for air in1999. The series is described as ahilarious blend of the bizarre andfamiliar but at press time, no fur-ther details were available aboutthe show.


Joseph K. Bevilacqua, a protegeof Daws Butler (the voice of YogiBear), is a veteran radio comedywriter, producer, actor, as well as

cartoonist. His programs haveaired on public radio stations

nationwide since 1980 and havebeen honored by The Museum of

Television and Radio as part oftheir “Contemporary Radio

Humor” exhibits. He is currentlydeveloping animation scripts with

his wife and creative partner,Lorie B. Kellogg. Their comedycan be heard in RealAudio and

seen in comic strips on their website, “Joe & Lorie’s Comedy-O-

Rama.”


[email protected].

Coming soon: Dilbert. © UPN.All RightsReserved.

The Further Adven-tures of Dumbo?Fantasia Frolics?

Bambi: the Series? If tele-vision had been aroundin the Forties, wouldthese titles have been areality? Difficult to tellhow far Walt Disneywould have gone, buttoday’s popular Disneyanimated features go onto live forever—not onlyin the memory of genera-tions who will enjoythem for years to come,but also any child upearly enough on Satur-day mornings.

As the studio’s animatedfeatures become increasingly pop-ular, audiences clamor for more.To answer the call quickly and effi-ciently, Disney has taken to adapt-ing some of their more recent ani-mated films to a format once for-eign to the Mouse House: televi-sion. Hits such as The Little Mer-maid, Aladdin, The Lion King andeven the classic 101 Dalmatianshave spawned TV siblings. Withtheir characters and stories soentrenched in the mainstream,creating new weekly situations isthe first and usually most dauntingtask.

A New GenreRoy Price, director of devel-

opment and current program-ming for Walt Disney TelevisionAnimation (WDTVA), used thisanalogy: “It’s sort of like if youwanted to take the theme of a

symphony and transport it into arock and roll song. You could do it,as they showed in A Whiter Shadeof Pale, but you have to be awarethat the demands of the medium,or the genre, are a little different. Ifyou just tried to play the sympho-ny for minutes at a time, it won’tbe satisfactory. It won’t please thesymphony lover or the rock androll aficionado. So, you have to bemore sensitive to what works inthe shorter time frame and the dif-ferent demands of the medium.”

Disney has indeed metthese demands, as Television Ani-mation has become a strong armof the company since its inceptionover a decade ago with shows likeAdventures of the Gummi Bears

and The Wuzzles. Oneof the people there forthe flash point was TadStones, an animatorwho began his careerat Disney in feature ani-mation in 1974. Laterhe moved to televisionand went on to serveas executive producerof the series Aladdin, aswell as director of thefilm’s two lucrativedirect-to-video sequels.

He stated thatadapting a popular fea-ture for the smallscreen comes with

inevitable hurdles. “No matterwhat you do, no matter howmuch you spend and put into it,you’re not going to be spendingas much as a feature film,” admit-ted Stones. “Everybody under-stands that this is a TV series, butthey still compare it directly to thefeature films. So, basically we’regetting something done on a tele-vision production schedule, albeita lush one, compared to some-thing that was four years in themaking and is lavished with com-puter effects and digital ink andpaint. That hurts us too, becauseit’s daunting when someone over-seas is drawing something ‘off-model.’ We give them notes andwe try to refine something, butthere’s only so much that we cando.”

Adapting for the TubeThese limitations, however,

have not stopped Disney from


DisneyÕs Little Big Screen:Turning Animated Features Into TV Series

by Mike Lyons

This fall,WDTVA will debut Hercules, an animated series on ABC’sSaturday morning line-up. © The Walt Disney Company.All Rights

Reserved.

The feature-to-series trend hasalso opened up a controversy...

experimenting and taking somechances with its characters. Casein point is Timon and Pumbaa, aseries based on the comic sidekicksfrom Disney’s behemoth of ani-mated blockbusters, The LionKing. Instead of re-creating thelush, lyrical mood of the film weekafter week, supervising producersTony Craig and Roberts Gann-away decided to shape Timon andPumbaa in a more Tex Avery-ishvein. “What we tried to do, tokeep it fresh, was expand on theirpersonalities as a comedy team,”noted Gannaway, “in the traditionof good comedy teams like BobHope and Bing Crosby or Martinand Lewis. The other thing thatwe did to try and keep it interest-ing was to not have them lockedinto the Serengeti, but allow themto travel the world and meet dif-ferent kinds of animals.”

Gannaway and Craig havealso translated one of Disney’smost beloved films, 101 Dalma-tians (which recently got a new‘leash’ on life thanks to a popularlive-action remake), for the smallscreen. “The animated feature andthe live-action film are really aboutthe human characters,” notedGannaway. “The objective of theTV series was to make ashow about the puppies’individual personalities. Thisisn’t really explored in themovie beyond a ‘tagging’ ofthe different types.”

In addition, the pro-ducers have given the newDalmatians it’s own highlystylized look, different fromthat of the original film andhave even tackled whatmany would have thoughtverboten: Disney’s most pop-ular screen villain, CruellaDeVil. “We needed toexpand her so that she

would become more of a greedycharacter,” said Gannaway. “It’sbeen daunting, because she issuch a great villain.”

This fall, WDTVA will againplace their own distinct stamp ona new series, when Hercules, Dis-ney’s loopy feature from last year,makes its way to ABC’s Saturdaymorning line-up, as a weekly ani-mated series.

“What we’ve done in Her-cules is what we’ve always tried todo in every series which is keep

the tone,” said Stones, who willalso be serving as executive pro-ducer for the new show. “We lookat the feature film and we say,‘What do people like?’”

The answer to this was theoriginal’s irreverence and the pro-ducers of Hercules, the series,found that the best way to capturethis was through what they call a“mid-quel.” That is, the events thattake place on the show, take placenot before or after those of thefilm, but at a point within thestory. So, instead of taking the saferoute and relaying Herc’s exploitsas a strong-man here among mor-tal earthlings, the series will focuson the character during histeenage years, allowing the showto tackle issues of romance, teenangst and a main character stillstruggling to find his place in theworld. As Stones noted, “By ignor-ing continuity and trying to staytrue to the elements of humor andadventure in the film, we came upwith a much stronger series that

really stands on its own.”Most of the original voice

cast from the film will return,including a real surprise:James Woods in his blister-ingly bad role of Hades.With Woods signed on, theproducers suddenly foundthat there was a flood of rec-ognizable names who want-ed to be part of the show.“Every episode was cast as ifit was a feature film,” saysStones of this unexpectedluxury. The new show willboast over 150 celebrity voic-es including: Seinfeld’s Jason


Timon and Pumbaa. © The Walt DisneyCompany.All Rights Reserved.

Roberts Gannaway and Tony Craig (seated). © The WaltDisney Company.All Rights Reserved.

No one under the Disneyumbrella is safe from the lure

of television...

Alexander as Poseidon, Mike (Man-nix) Connors as the hard-boiledcop, Chipacles, Regis Philbin asthe voice of Typhoon and gameshow host Wink Martindale, some-what typecast as Sphinx Martin-dale. In addition, a majority of theshow’s 65 episodes will also fea-ture songs.

Working With Other DivisionsWhen films such as Her-

cules make the leap to the smallscreen, the producers usually getlittle else but the blessing of theartists and filmmakers from theoriginal film. “They don’t worryabout a series when they’re doingmovies,” noted Stones. “They’reworried about the movie andthat’s it.” In fact, the proliferation ofanimated features into series hasinspired some good nature rib-bing at the studio. As Stonesremembered, “When [directors]Ron Clements and John Muskerwere developing Hercules, theysaid, ‘Hey Tad, we’re doing a pilotfor a series.’”

The feature-to-series trendhas also opened up a controversy,however, as many animationpurists now believe that Disney is“cheapening” its own product. “To

me, I don’t think it’s a taste thing,”admitted Stones. “I don’t see howa spin-off of any kind takes awayfrom the original. When Disneydid ‘Dance of the Hours’ [in Fanta-sia] people complained becausethey couldn’t listen to that piece ofmusic without seeing dancing hip-pos. Maybe they did ruin thatmusic, but then so did Alan Sher-man, when he did ‘Hello Mudda,Hello Fadda.’”

“I think the good thing isthat it extends the life of the char-acters,” said Gannaway. “It keepsthe characters out there for theaudience to enjoy.” Gannawayand his partner, Tony Craig, haverecently been entrusted with Dis-ney’s first big screen star, MickeyMouse. The ‘Big Cheese’ will cometo television this fall in his first ani-mated series, Mouse Works, prov-ing that no one under the Disneyumbrella is safe from the lure oftelevision.

The show has been pro-duced under the guidance of

Walt’s nephew, vice chairman ofthe board, Roy E. Disney, who hasbeen keeping a careful eye on theclassic characters, now alsoknown as company icons. “He’slooking at all the scripts and all thestoryboards,” noted Gannaway.“Roy is watch-dogging the showand this relaxes a lot of other exec-utives.”

It’s actually very fitting thatDisney’s biggest hero of the bigscreen would make his way to thesmall screen in such a top-notchmanner. After all, it was Walt him-self, who in the 1950s, pioneeredthe idea of quality family televisionwith such shows as Disneyland,Zorro and The Mickey MouseClub.

Like those classic shows,the features-to-series evolve ontheir own, becoming creative andentertaining variations on an orig-inal theme, not just cogs in a cor-porate machine. “Everyone alwayssays, ‘Oh, you guys also have toworry about the merchandisingand the dolls and everything.’ Youdon’t. All you’re concerned with is,‘Am I putting a good story on thescreen?,’” noted Stones, adding,“You’re really just focused on yourproject, you’re not thinking, ‘Is thisgoing to be a good Disneylandride?’”



[email protected].

Mike Lyons is a Long Island-basedfreelance writer, who has writtenover 100 articles on film and ani-mation. His work has appearedin Cinefantastique, Animato! and

The Disney Magazine.

Mouse Works. © The Walt Disney Company.All Rights Reserved.

All you’re concerned with is,‘Am I putting a good story on

the screen?’ - Tad Stones

It was a job to beapproached withboth trepidation

and glee: the fea-ture animationadaptation of the“classic” and oftenconfusing graphicnovel The Ballad OfThe Salt Sea by thelegendary HugoPratt. With a cult following toplease on one hand, and a televi-sion audience on the other, howwould they strike a balancebetween the popular, and fidelityto the original? They sacked thefirst group of writers. Then a funnything happened: they beganstudying the story and graphics...

Is a French productionteam breaking all the rules whileadapting the graphic novels ofHugo Pratt?

All Hail the MasterFirst appearing in 1967,

The Ballad Of The Salt Sea is agraphic novel about the adven-tures of a rakish and ethically chal-lenged adventurer, Corto Maltese,a “gentleman of fortune” in an erano longer accommodating tosuch roles. A member of a band ofpirates nominally allied with theGermans in the South Pacific in1913, Corto becomes interested inthe welfare of two kidnappedBritish children. As the shiftinginterests of governments at warhalf a world away begin to makethemselves known at their well-hidden pirate base, he must find away to keep the children safe and

himself alive.Let’s be up-front about it: it’s

a weird, arcane, and complicatedwork, like a Joseph Conrad novelin graphic form.

For precisely that reason,the author of the serial, HugoPratt, has become a cult figureunto himself. Going with his fatherto Ethiopia in 1937, during theItalian attempt to establish acolony there, he was enrolled inthe Italian police force. During thewar years, he was captured by theSS as a spy, escaped, and wentover to the Allies. Pratt’s graphicnovels are sometimes seen asextensions of his adventurous life.They are unusual for their intellec-tual underpinning, often confus-ing plots, historical figures, compli-cated characters, and carefullyresearched, exotic locations. Heirto the Belgian School of graphicnovelists, his full-color paintedimages are a beauty to behold.They have earned him a die-hardfollowing in Italy and France, with

over five millioncopies sold.

Ellipse, a pro-duction wingof the Frenchb r o a d c a s t e rCanal Plus,hopes to turnthe Corto Mal-tese books intoa series of six

TV movies, beginning with theBallad Of The Salt Sea. Still to comeare: Under The Sign Of Capricorn,Corto Maltese In Siberia, The Gild-ed House Of Samarkand, and TheCelts. Additionally, there will be aseries of short episodes based onsome of the other Corto Malteseadventures. Italian TV station RAIand the Animation Band in Milan,Italy will be co-producing some ofthe segments. It’s a fitting matchfor the Italian author and artistwho spent most of his working lifein France. Scripting on The BalladOf The Salt Sea has been going onfor a year, and they are now in thestoryboard stage, with the first filmexpected out in the fall of 1999. Ithasn’t been easy, though.

To Europeans weaned onthe adventure-driven comic bookseries, a film adaptation is the popequivalent of doing Shakespearein London—it had better be good.Conventional wisdom says thatpleasing the cult and pleasing thepublic at large might be two dif-ferent tasks, however, the filmsmust sustain the larger audiencefor the duration of the ambitiousproject.


The Color In Mind: Corto Malteseby Russell Bekins

A background from the animated Corto Maltese. © EllipseProgramme/Imedia/ConG.All Rights Reserved.

Can such subtleties be broughtto life in a faithful adaptation

of this odd graphic novel?

Give the Children What TheyWant?

Producer Sophie Glass’ cre-dentials have brought her aunique insight. When working forAlia, she produced an animationseries based on the classic chil-dren’s books Les Malheurs DeSophie by the Contesse de Segur.“It was a very psychological seriesabout a girl who has trouble beinga child.” The adaptation of thisclassic material led her to shuncondescending to children. “Chil-dren love being sad,” she pointsout, though is quick to add thatno one really knows what kidswant.

Pascal Morelli agrees, andpoints to the adaptation of thepopular French comic Asterix as amodel for everything that couldgo wrong. Despite the untranslat-ed Latin quotes, sophisticatedsocial satire and plays on words,“The adapters felt the need toreduce Asterix to a level he hadnever sunk to: that of a four-year-old child... The adapters tookAsterix for the Smurfs. We mustremember that for decades, it wasclaimed that comic books, andanimated films, could only tell sim-ple stories.”

With this in mind, they setout to aim the project for teensand adults.

What’s a Camel?“What’s a camel?” asked

executive producer of the project,Robert Rea, with a self-effacingsmile. “It’s a horse designed byexecutive producers.”

When director Pascal

Morelli first approached Prattabout doing an animation filmbased on Corto Maltese, this jokeepitomized his dilemma. HugoPratt was infamous for rejectingoffers to adapt hiswork to film orany other media.Rea approachedhim with the ideaof an “artist-dri-ven” animationseries with PascalMorelli directing,and found thewriter-artist sur-prisingly open.“He was awarethat there had tobe changes in thestory itself,” Rearecalls.

Morelli was then workingin Los Angeles as a storyboardartist and advisor to director PhillipKauffman. The faxes hummedback and forth between Morelliand Pratt. Unfortunately, Prattdied in 1995, before Morelli everhad a chance to meet him in per-son. Morelli, though sad about thefact, is in a way relieved. “Whoknows,” he grimaced, “I mighthave been thinking that he hadbeen saying this, but when I methim he might say, ‘That’s not whatI meant.’“ This ambivalence wouldlater prove ironic.

For Morelli, whose anima-tion background was largely in theUnited States (Calamity Jane forWarner Bros. TV, Vor-Tech for Uni-versal, and Gadget Boy for DIC), itwas a homecoming project. Hehad discovered the Corto Malteseseries when growing up inFrance. “When I was a kid, a lot ofthings happened in the novelsthat I didn’t get,” Morelli admitted.“At first I had a hard time readingthem, but then it became magic. It

was R-rated. Everybody was goodand bad at the same time, likeClint Eastwood in a Sergio Leonemovie.”

The TextBut can such subtleties be

brought to life in a faithful adapta-tion of this odd graphic novel?From the American viewpoint, itseems an impossible task. It justdoesn’t follow the formula.

In Pratt’s story, Corto Mal-tese is first met tied to a raft in theSouth Pacific. He is picked up byRasputin, a fellow pirate whomPratt seems to have dredged froma frozen river in Moscow where healmost met his end. Their friend-ship is based on threatening to killeach other, and a mysterious tie to“The Monk,” whom we later cometo know as the leader of theirpirate band. We quickly discoverthat Corto is complicit in a numberof crimes, including piracy, kidnap-ping, and even the murder of aship’s crew. He is passive, laconic,and frequently, seems uncon-cerned for how things turn out.This is our hero?

In Hollywood, it would bede rigeur to make Corto active,atone for his sins, and be the star.


One of the many faces of Corto Maltese. © Ellipse Pro-gramme/Imedia/ConG.All Rights Reserved.

Let’s be up-front about it: it’s aweird, arcane, and complicated

work...

That’s another problem. Inthe Hollywood version, Cortomust be central to the action, butCorto is frequently gone, or notthe key character in many scenesof the epic (he is wounded andout of action for a good deal ofthe “second act”). Much of the talerotates around a young Britishbrother and sister, kidnapped byRasputin to be ransomed to theirfamily. As the action comes to aclose, events center on the girland her relationship with theBritish admiral who comes to herrescue. The dialogue and actionfocus on the kangaroo court trialof a “noble” German submarinecaptain who has been privateer-ing across the Pacific. Sound com-plicated? It is. It’s barely linear sto-rytelling. Concern over these, andother thorny issues of story devel-opment, led the first draft of thescript to come in more JohnWayne than Sergio Leone. Allslam-bam action and adventure, itseemed like a simple-mindedadaptation of Terry And ThePirates. Clearly, another approachwas needed. They had a camel ontheir hands.

“If you want an action-adventure story why use HugoPratt?” Morelli shrugs. “These char-

acters are not built to be superheroes.”

The Significance of AbsenceThe team spent six months

studying the story and the “testofungi,” the subtext. “The story isabout two things,” Morelli contin-ued. “The growth of two teens,and the turn of the century. It’sabout adventurers who used tolive freely, but can’t any more. TheMonk and his gang steal and that’sit. But the world is changingaround them. That’s why I like TheWild Bunch. It’s about the end ofthe world for adventurers.”

“It’s a very original way totell stories,” Glass insisted. “It lookslazy and elliptic, but it’s not so lazyas it seems. There are deep thingsgoing on underneath.” It is bring-ing out this “testo fungi,” or sub-text, that is their job. Interpolatingbetween the frames of Pratt’s booklies in the looks and glances, therange of expressions that fill inwhat is not said. “Corto’s silencesare revealing,” Morelli said, gestur-ing, “and even his absence is sig-nificant.”

The central relationshipbetween Corto Maltese and theyoung teen girl (whom some crit-ics say is the central character of

the story) has been made“stronger” in Morelli’s words.Though there’s only one scenewhere she attempts to seduceCorto, there is an undercurrent ofromance. “She starts out cute, butshe’s turning from a girl into awoman. We’re going to look athow she moves.”

This study included discov-ering new elements in the artworkitself and the setting. “He did notsimply use the background of thepicture to indicate locations, butmade it a narrative element,”Morelli continued. Things are con-fusing for a reason. “It’s as if youwere in Yugoslavia during the war.Things readily apparent from theoutside are not when you’re in themiddle of it.”

Morelli acknowledged thatthere are flaws in the material.“When Platt wrote the story, hedidn’t always know where he wasgoing,” he shrugged. One exam-ple of this is the artwork of CortoMaltese himself. He looks differentat the start of the story than at theend, as if the character evolved inthe author’s mind as the storyunfolded. This meant a challengefor the artists. “They had to choosewhich Corto to use,” Glassrevealed.

They also confronted a cen-tral character with more than oneflaw. “Corto is about what is do-able at any given time,” Rea assert-ed, underlining the theme of situ-ational ethics and the SergioLeone movie. He changes from


Corto in shadow. © EllipseProgramme/Imedia/ConG.All Rights

Reserved.

Corto in close-up. © EllipseProgramme/Imedia/ConG.All Rights

Reserved.

It’s as if you were in Yugoslaviaduring the war.Things readilyapparent from the outside arenot when you’re in the middle

of it. - Pascal Morelli

pirate to gentle-man in the courseof the story. Hisfriendship withR a s p u t i nembraces bothlove and hate; heis openly contra-dictory. He’s not ahero in the ordi-nary sense of theadventure genre. Don’t expect tosee a wisecracking, Bruce Willistype in the lead, Rea warned. “It’smore irony than humor.”

That sounds suspiciouslyFrench to the Hollywood ear.

Change for LessGlass cast out among her

animation writing friends andchose veterans Thierry Thomas tooversee the writing, and JeanPêceaux for the text. “Thomas wasa friend of Pratt’s and deeply pas-sionate about the images he haddrawn. Pêceaux knew the story byheart,” he said. In a typical session,Pêceaux would propose to cut ascene, and Thomas would arguethat the image was too importantto be cut. Thomas would thenpropose eliminating a portion ofthe text, and Pêceaux woulddefend it as being vital to the flowof the narrative. “They ended upbeing completely faithful to Pratt,”Glass smiles.

Well, not quite. Theywound up dumping an actionscene where the pirates shell andsink a Japanese navy boat threat-ening their hideout as just plaintoo confusing. You see, the Japan-ese were allied with the British atthe time and the pirates are alliedwith the Germans, and...you getthe idea.

But dropping an actionscene?? Unheard of.

But that suits Morelli just

fine. “You have to keep a balance-between the elements, you don’tchange too much to get less.”

The Significance of CortoThere are a number of

important reasons to follow thisproduction carefully. The first isthat it represents a return toEurope of an important animationdirector, and a hope that the vastexodus of European talent to theStates will reverse itself. The sec-ond is that this looks like years ofwork for cartoonists, animators,storyboard artists, and so on. Thethird is that it represents a grandexperiment in marketing to teens,who are staying away from sim-plistic animation features indroves.

“Our market research indi-cates that there is a real interest inthese (adventure) themes fromage ten and up,” Rea clarified. Ifthey are successful in thisapproach, they will show the wayfor other animation producers inthe burgeoning adult-cum-teenmarket in Europe.

Hollywood might just haveto listen.

Most of all, this productionis a test of how to satisfy the hard-core fans of a graphic novel series

while making itaccessible to thepublic at large.How do you doit?

“I don’tknow,” sighedMorelli. “In oneof the trialepisodes we’vedone, fans of the

book thought we had copied theart from the book exactly. Theylooked at the page and discoveredthat it was all beige, because Prattwas concerned that people beable to read the text. The task isreally to find the color that every-one had in mind.”

Note: The on-line version of thisreview includes a Quicktime movieof Corto Maltese:http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6bekinscorto.html



[email protected].

Russell Bekins is a disgruntledexpatriate of the film industry,

now living in Bologna, Italy. Serv-ing his apprenticeship as storyand multimedia analyst for Cre-ative Artists Agency, he went on

to be a creative executive forTidewater Entertainment at Dis-ney Studios, where he achievedhis level of incompetence in stu-dio politics. He is now workingon theme park attractions andconsulting on multi-media pro-jects, as well as struggling withthe subjunctive tense in Italian.

Another background from the animated Corto Maltese. © Ellipse Programme/Ime-dia/ConG.All Rights Reserved.

Corto is about what is do-ableat any given time.

- Robert Rea

Giuseppe Laganàbegan his careerat the Italian

state-owned CartoonFilm; the studio thatproduced the animatedshorts for the immortallyweird Italian televisioncomedy variety seriesCarosello. He workedwith such industry leg-ends as Harry Hess andJimmy Teru Murakami.Later, he was a back-ground artist for Bruno Bozzettoon Allegro Non Troppo, the classicsurrealist Italian answer to Fanta-sia.

“From about 1980 to 1994,there was a huge crisis in ItalianAnimation,” he lamented, “a black-out.” He survived by doing titlesfor television, videos, industrialsand educational films.

A New BeginningAt his Milan-based compa-

ny, Animation Band, the studio’sthirty-odd employees are enthusi-astic about Laganà’s leadership.“He’s been an assistant, a back-ground artist, illustrator, and direc-tor,” waxed background artistGiorgio Campioni. “He’s doneeverything, so when he offers apiece of advice, you know that

he’s coming at itfrom experience.”

Since 1995,when he pro-duced and direct-ed 26 six-minuteepisodes ofLaura’s Sky—afantasy seriesabout the myster-ies of the universefrom the perspec-tive of a girl andher cat—Laganà

and his Animation Band havebeen going full tilt. They have alsocompleted another animationseries based on the Italian comicstrip Lupo Alberto,which might bebest described asa cross betweenBloom Countyand Road Runner.

Such inten-sive productionhas led the com-pany away frommore chaotic,i l lustrator-basedproduction meth-ods. “It wasalways a strug-gle,” recalled pro-duction directorDiego Lo Piccolo.“We were simplytilting at wind-mills.” In order tokeep up with thedemands of thenew series, theyhad to adoptindustry standards

in terms of scripting, storyboard-ing and animation. “It was achange from this, to this,” illustrat-

ed Lupicolo, flipping his hand overto expose the palm—the Italianequivalent of ‘from day to night.’A Growing Future

The hard work andmethodology is paying off. Anima-tion Band has been selected to do


Giuseppe Laganà and Animation in Italy:Rebuilding an Industry

by Russell Bekins

Giuseppe Laganà.Sketch by Russell Bekins.

At his Milan-based company,Animation Band, the studio’s

thirty-odd employees areenthusiastic about Laganà’s

leadership.

Lupo Alberto. © 1998 Silver/McK.

Executive producer RobertRea, confronted with the needto choose an Italian productionpartner, shrugs that the deci-

sion was no contest.

an important portion of the pro-duction on the upcoming CortoMaltese series, along with Ellipsein France. Executive producerRobert Rea, confronted with theneed to choose an Italian produc-tion partner (a stipulation of Italiantelevision network RAI), shruggedthat the decision was no contest.

“They were simply the most reli-able studio.”

We [Europeans] have along way to go to overcome theadvantages you have in the Amer-ican market,” Laganà asserted. “Asingle language, for example.” ForAnimation Band, the “new” meth-ods and developing a core of writ-ers who know animation havebeen key.

“For a lot of years, we werecontinually losing talent to Ameri-ca,” Laganà lamented, “now thatan industry is developing, itappears that people are return-ing.”



[email protected].

Russell Bekins is a disgruntledexpatriate of the film industry,

now living in Bologna, Italy. Serv-ing his apprenticeship as storyand multimedia analyst for Cre-ative Artists Agency, he went on

to be a creative executive forTidewater Entertainment at Dis-ney Studios, where he achievedhis level of incompetence in stu-dio politics. He is now workingon theme park attractions andconsulting on multi-media pro-jects, as well as struggling withthe subjunctive tense in Italian.

For Animation Band, the“new” methods and developing

a core of writers who knowanimation have been key.

Corto Maltese. © Ellipse Programme/Ime-dia/ConG. All Rights Reserved.

Bonus HTML FeaturBonus HTML FeaturesesEvery on-line (HTML) issue of Animation World Magazine contains additional features not found in the downloador print Acrobat version, such as Quicktime movies, links to Animation World Network sites, extended articles andspecial sections. DonÕt miss the following highlights that are showcased exclusively in this monthÕs AnimationWorld Magazine HTML version:http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6cover.html

•• TThhee CCoolloorr IInn MMiinndd:: CCoorrttoo MMaalltteesseeIncludes a Quicktime movie of the animated series, Corto Maltese, which is featured on the cover of this issue.http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6bekinscorto.html

•• IInntteerrnnaattiioonnaall TThheeaattrriiccaall DDuubbbbiinngg:: IItt’’ss MMoorree TThhaann MMeeeettss tthhee EEyyeeContains four Quicktime movies of the title character in the Fox animated feature film Anastasia singing songsfrom the film in English, Portugese, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Russian, Turkish, Polish and Greek. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6chinndubbing.html

•• TThhee FFiillmm SSttrriipp TTeellllss AAllllIncludes Quicktime movies of Linear Dreams by Richard Reeves and Moonlight by B�rbel Neubauer.http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6moritzfilms.html

•• RRoooottss:: AAnn EExxppeerriimmeenntt iinn IImmaaggeess aanndd MMuussiiccIncludes a Quicktime movie of Roots by B�rbel Neubauer, and a link to the AWN Vault featuring the authorÕsfilmography.http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6neubauerroots.html

The Animation Writers Caucuswas founded in May, 1994.The purpose of the Caucus is

to assist Animation Writers andhelp them to better the circum-stances under which they work.By providing shared information,health benefits, educational andnetworking opportunities, and acode of ethics, the WGA Anima-tion Writers Caucus makes thefield of animation better for allconcerned.

So reads the introductoryparagraph to the “Directory of Ani-mation Writers” published annual-ly by the Writers Guild of America(WGA). Clear and concise, it givesan idea of what’s behind the Ani-mation Writers Caucus (AWC), butit doesn’t really go to its heart.

The WGA is a labor union,“a collective bargaining agent,”whose main purpose is to protectthe financial and professional livesof writers, even writers who don’tnormally come under the Guild’scharter. The organization is con-cerned about them and the con-ditions under which they work,too. Whether or not an animationscript was ever written under aGuild contract, the WGA wantedto work to aid animation writers.

The Birth of the CaucusIn 1994, Brian Walton,

executive director of the WGA,gathered together a group of ani-mation writers and asked what theGuild could do to help writersimprove things. A few meetingswere held and, from that, theWGA formed a new department,

the Department of IndustryAlliances, which was specificallymandated to look into organizingand improving conditions for writ-ers working in Animation, Interac-tive and other “new media,” andReality Programming.

In May of 1994, the first for-mal meeting of the AnimationWriters Caucus was held. Open toanyone who has written at leastone half-hour of produced anima-tion, the Caucus started with 42members. Today, the Caucus num-bers around 300. However, thefirst four years of the organization’sexistence have been spent doingmore than just collecting mem-bers. The Caucus has accom-plished a lot.

Among the most importantthings that the Caucus has donehappened in the last year. Anima-tion is now being written under

the aegis of a Writers Guild ofAmerica contract! The first showdone under a Guild contract wasthe show my partner and I creat-ed, Pocket Dragon Adventures,which debuts worldwide in Sep-tember. Over 30 animation writ-ers worked on the show andreceived Guild benefits and pro-tections. News of that contractopened the floodgate anddozens of inquiries have sincecome in. Recent developments

include a series of made-for-videoGarfield movies which have beendone under Guild contract and anew prime-time animated series,The PJs, to air on the Fox Network,which is being written with fullGuild protections for its writers.And, in a major deal signed inAugust between the WGA andFox, four more prime-time animat-ed shows will be produced underGuild contracts: The Simpsons,King of the Hill, Futurama andFamily Guy.

Benefits AboundOther achievements the

Animation Writers Caucus hasaccomplished include giving avoice to the wants and needs ofanimation writers. Long a part ofthe Motion Picture Screen Car-toonists Union (MPSC), Local 839of IATSE, writers make up less than10% of that union’s membership.The rest of the members are artists.So focused on art and artists is theMPSC that, to this day, MPSC doesnot have a formal job classificationfor writers, instead they are includ-ed with storyboard artists underthe rubric of Story Persons.


Better For All Concerned:The Writers Guild of America’s Animation Writers Caucus

by Craig Miller

The WGA is a labor union, “acollective bargaining agent,”whose main purpose is to pro-tect the financial and profes-sional lives of writers...

As signified by the quote atthe start of this article, the WritersGuild publishes an annual Directo-ry of Animation Writers which itdistributes free of charge to ani-mation studios, networks, agents,production companies, and oth-ers. This listing of writers, theircredits, and their agents or othercontact information, makes it easyfor those seekinganimation writersto find the writerwho would bestfit a project andaides writers infinding work.AWC sponsors anongoing series ofpanels and semi-nars on variousaspects of theanimation indus-try. Some, suchas the recentpanel of industryexecutives andthe upcomingagents panel, arefor members onlyand are held atthe Writers GuildBuilding in LosAngeles. Otherstake place atindustry events such as NATPE, theWorld Animation Celebration orthe San Diego Comic-Con. Theseevents serve to keep membersinformed of changes and trends inthe industry, as well as to keeppeople aware of the involvementof writers in the animationprocess.

Networking is alwaysimportant, and AWC events allowfor animation writers to meet andget to know other writers andexecutives in the industry—alwaysimportant in getting jobs or figur-ing out who to hire—and for shar-

ing information. Bosses in allindustries tell employees not totalk, not to let anyone else knowwhat one is making or benefitsone is receiving. That’s becausethey don’t want people to knowwhat to ask for. Sports stars havelearned better. Their contractsmake the papers and the next guynow knows what’s possible. The

same is true in the entertainmentindustry. Knowing what dealshave been made gives an advan-tage to members and their agents.Having opportunities to learn thisinformation makes all the differ-ence. While the above sounds dry,it’s a very social atmosphere. Fun,and sometimes even food, reigns.Laughter is a hallmark of AWCgatherings.

An additional importantadvance is health coverage. Muchanimation work is still non-union,and even when writers work atMPSC houses, not all animation

writers achieve sufficient hours toqualify for that union’s medicalplan. However, two differenthealth plans are available throughthe WGA. A low-cost yet highquality self-pay plan is available toAWC members, and their families,who haven’t yet written under aWriters Guild contract. For thosewriters who have, they and their

families may beeligible for theno-cost WGAHealth Plan.

Additionally,members ofthe AnimationWriters Caucusreceive all Guildpub l i c a t i on sand mailings,and can jointhe Guild’s FilmSociety andattend all openGuild events.

To furtherindicate itsstrong and on-going supportof animationwriting, theGuild has justapproved anew award.

This award honors a writer fortheir entire career, for the workitself and/or the writer’s contribu-tion to the field of animation. Thefirst WGA Animation Award will bepresented at the AWC’s annualmeeting in October 1998.

Writers and UnionsFun, information and

awards are all good things, butanimation is a business, and ani-mation writers, like animationartists, work in it. The support andprotection of a strong union isimportant to the quality of life for


Pocket Dragon Adventures, which debuts worldwide this month, is the first show doneunder a Guild contract. © 1998 BKN Kids Network and Real Musgrave.

people working in the industry.The Writers Guild of America datesback to 1921, when it was found-ed as the Screen Writers Guild.Over the years, radio writers andtelevision writers became includedin the membership until 1954,when the Writers Guild of Americawas formally established as a Col-lective Bargaining Agent, a unionrepresenting writers in the enter-tainment industry.

But animation writing wasnot included in the WGA’s charter.Why? Well, because in the earliestdays of animation, few if any for-mal scripts were written. Conceptsmay have been written out butthe actual writingof the feature orshort was done instoryboards. It was-n’t until the 1970s,when the half-hour television car-toons started hold-ing sway, that realscripts wereemployed on aregular basis. Butbecause writingwas traditionallydone by story-board artists andthe “gag men” and“story men” work-ing with them, ani-mation writersremained includedin the Motion Pic-ture Screen Cartoonists union.

Today, few cartoons andfeatures are written in this older

fashion. For example, Disney’s fea-ture films have formal scripts.These scripts are boarded andreworked at the storyboard level,with sequences changed, added,or deleted. Then new scripts arewritten, including these alter-ations, and the process repeatsagain and again.

Even though scripts nowexist as the primary form, anima-tion writers have continued to beincluded in the MPSC Why is thata problem for writers? Why shouldthey want to be represented bythe WGA? Because 90% or moreof the members of the MPSC areartists. Their problems and needsare different from those of writers.One hundred percent of the Writ-ers Guild of America membershipare writers. Animation writing isvery much like writing for live-action. The scripts look much thesame. The keys to storytelling, be itadventure or comedy, hard or soft,

live-action or animated, are thesame. The only significant differ-ence is that animation writing is

more visually-oriented. There’s noquestion that animation writershave more in common with themembers of the WGA than theydo with the rest of the member-ship of the MPSC

Among other things, mostanimation artists—be they anima-tors, in-betweeners, storyboardartists, or ink-and-paint artists—work on overall employment con-tracts, paid by week, on an on-going basis. While some anima-tion writers are on staff, most arefreelancers, working on individualscripts. They get paid by theassignment, not the week. Whenit comes to contract negotiation,especially against such hard bar-

gainers as the Associa-tion of Motion Pictureand Television Produc-ers (AMPTP), whichrepresents Disney andWarner Bros. amongothers, it’s hard to getthe 90+% of the mem-bership of MPSC whoaren’t writers to holdout for contractdemands that applyonly to writers.

Fighting for UniqueRights

There are manyways of abusing work-ers or not giving themthe respect they aredue. The WGA wouldlike to see a number of

abuses that have been common inthe animation industry changedor stamped out. One such is the


An Animation Writers Caucus booth at the World Animation Celebration.Pictured, left to right, are AWC members Brooks Wachtel, Francis Moss and

Richard Mueller. Photo courtesy of the WGA.

Long a part of the Motion Pic-ture Screen Cartoonists Union(MPSC), writers make up lessthan 10% of that union’s mem-

bership.

The Writers Guild of Americadates back to 1921, when itwas founded as the Screen

Writers Guild.

Cattle Call process of hiringwriters. A studio beginningproduction on a televisionseries would let the word outto all writers about a meet-ing. Dozens and dozenswould attend, hoping for achance to work. The show’sproducer or story editorwould talk about the show,Series Bibles would bepassed out, and everyonedismissed; sent home towrite a page or more foreach of three, four, five ormore story ideas/premisesthey came up with for theshow. Literally hundreds of storyideas would come in, sometimesfor as few as six or twelve openassignments, with the writers notknowing how futile their attemptsat work were.

Another issue is screencredit. A writer’s task is importantto any film or television program.There’s a saying that, to build agreat building, you need a strongfoundation. Everything starts withthe script. If it’s bad, the best ani-mation in the world won’t save it.Plus, without a script, there’s noth-ing to animate. Writers deserve toreceive credit for their work. Intelevision, in particular, this wasfrequently a problem. Some showsused to run “gang credits” at theend of each episode. Everyepisode had the same set ofnames so one didn’t really knowwho wrote the episode one justsaw. Furthermore, if someone was

hired late in the season, thatwriter’s name never appeared onany episodes.

Still another abuse is unlim-ited rewrites. Studios would tell awriter to rework premises, out-lines, and scripts again and again.Both the MPSC and WGA rulesstate that a script fee obligates thewriter to deliver up to two drafts ofa script if requested by the studio.Some studios were notorious forasking for four or more drafts ofeverything, but they wouldn’t payextra for this extra required work.The problem was exacerbated bythe MPSC contract, although cer-tainly not deliberately. MPSC’s min-imum rate for a half-hour televi-sion script is thousands of dollarsbelow the going rate. The con-tract stipulates that, for the mini-mum payment, a writer will deliv-er two drafts of a script. Paymentover scale—the amount above thecontractual minimum—applies torewrites at the rate of $750 perdraft. So if the going rate is $2,000over scale—and it is—then allscript fees include the right for thestudio to ask for two or more extradrafts before they even begin tothink about paying for the extrawork.

The WGA’s Animation Writ-ers Caucus is not really aboutgetting writers out of oneunion and into another. It’san eventual goal of manyCaucus members but it isn’tthe only thing the group isabout. While money is animportant issue, it’s far fromthe central issue.

The AWC is about making adifference. That sounds tritebut it’s also true. Everywriter—everyone in anyjob—has the right to betreated with respect. No oneshould be taken advantage

of. No one should be made to dowork without being fairly compen-sated. The WGA wants to see theabuses of writers that have longbeen standard in the industry elim-inated. The Animation WritersCaucus is the instrument to thatgoal.

Visit the WGA Animation WritersCaucus web site in AWN’s Anima-tion Village:http://www.awn.com/wga-awc


AWC sponsors an ongoing series of panels and semi-nars on various aspects of the animation industry.

Shown here is Craig Miller, left, with fellow panelist andAWC member Gordon Bressack at the 1998 Animation

Opportunities Expo. Photo courtesy of the WGA.

There’s no question that ani-mation writers have more in

common with the members ofthe WGA than they do with

the rest of the membership ofthe MPSC.

Craig Miller is chairman of theWGA’s Animation Writers Caucus.

Miller has been an animationwriter for over a decade. Alongwith his partner, Marv Wolfman,

he created the series Pocket

Dragon Adventures and servedas executive producer, story edi-tor and, of course, wrote many

episodes of the series.


[email protected].

When we watch an ani-mated feature or Satur-day morning cartoon,

we watch in awe of the art, toescape reality, or to be enter-tained. If we stop to think aboutthe effort put into the creation ofanimated pieces, we usually thinkabout the amount of peopleinvolved in the production or theamount of hours it took to create.Rarely, is the amount of wastegenerated over the course of theproduction considered.

LegislationIn March of 1994, the

Province of Ontario passedOntario Regulation 347 in theWaste Management Act (theequivalent to an Assembly Bill,such as Assembly Bill 939 for theState of California). This regulation,a guiding device of the act,requires all organizations inthe Industrial, Commercial,and Institutional (ICI) sec-tors to perform a wasteaudit every five years. Inaddition, they must possessand follow a waste man-agement plan to reducewastes. This regulationdoes not exclude themotion picture industry:live-action or animated.The Ministry of Environ-ment and Energy (MOEE)

reserves the right to enter a busi-ness and ask for their last auditresults, read their managementplan, and inspect their property toensure the plan is being carriedout as documented. Penalties forfailure to comply with Regulation347 can be as extensive as jail timeand a fine. The goal of this regula-tion is to have a 50% reduction inwaste by the year 2000 and 80%by the year 2003 (MOEE, 1998).The problem lies in that the filmindustry in Ontario, a growingbusiness for the province, doesnot understand that this law gov-erns them.

Canuck Creations Incorpo-rated Animation, a specialized sec-tion of the industry, is expandingrapidly. Sheridan Collage, locatedjust outside of Toronto, is one ofthe largest animation schools inthe world. Walt Disney Studios hasa large production studio in theToronto area as well. In addition,there are numerous small produc-tion companies in Ontario whichcollaborate with the major studiosto produce some of today’s ani-

mated features and television.One such company is Canuck Cre-ations located in downtownToronto. Its President, AlanKennedy, founded Canuck Cre-ations Incorporated in 1993. Sincethen, Canuck Creations has beeninvolved in such productions asSpace Jam (1996) for WarnerBros., Anastasia (1997) for Fox Ani-mation, and the recently released,Quest for Camelot(1998), again,for Warner Bros. However, theone item that really makes this pro-duction company unique is thatthey possess a waste manage-ment plan tailored to their busi-ness.

Problems EncounteredCanuck Creations was

approached in February of 1997to participate in a study of anima-tion waste generation. It includedparticipation in a waste audit andthe creation of a waste manage-ment plan. They were, in fact, theonly company out of 48 contactedin North America to agree to theproject. For the most part, compa-

nies refused to respond tothe messages left on theirmachines regarding the pro-ject. However, there were afew interesting excusesused to avoid participation:- They are not a productioncompany (despite being list-ed under ‘Production’)- They only have an office inToronto.- They only produce com-mercials.- They only produce docu-mentaries.


Waste Management in Animationby Lesli Rynyk

© Canuck Creations.

In March of 1994, the Provinceof Ontario passed Ontario

Regulation 347 in the WasteManagement Act.

- They are too busy at the momentto be concerned with this.- They are not in production at themoment.- They do not have enough staff towarrant a management plan.- They are not interested in havinga management plan.- They are too small of a company.- They are possibly interested andwill call back (i.e. don’t call us,we’ll call you).- The production assistant justtakes the waste to the landfill anddumps it.

Judging by the influx ofenvironmentally-based story linescoming to both the big and smallscreens, it appears that it is impor-

tant to be involvedin a project that pro-motes environmen-tal awareness. How-ever, when it comesto being part of thereality of carryingout the message,the preference is toescape into theimaginary worldthat has been creat-ed in hopes theproblem will goaway. However, it isnot going to goaway until everyoneaccepts responsibili-ty for their actionsand chooses tomake it go away.Canuck Creationstook the first step bychoosing to partici-pate.

P r o b l e m swere not restrictedto the film industry.Many environmen-tal organizationspossessed onlybasic informationon waste manage-

ment, did not understand thescope of the project, or would notreturn phone calls. The informa-tion available today is limited notonly in quantity but in quality aswell. Much of the informationabout waste management veeredin the direction of landfill process-es. In addition, the informationavailable was extremely out ofdate. As for resources about wastemanagement and the film industrytogether, it simply does not exist.Nevertheless, there is an Anima-tion Waste Management Plan.

An Environmental AuditAn animation company can

be very similar to a regular officeas there are large amounts ofpaper and other stationary beingused, however fluctuations in pro-duction can vary. This gives an ani-mation company oscillating ratesof waste production. Also, smallercompanies tend to have their ser-vices contracted by larger studiosthat supply them with the materi-als needed for the project to main-tain uniformity. This changes thecomposition of their waste witheach job.

Due to the uniqueness ofthe business, a regular wasteaudit, consisting of a detailedinvestigation of the actual wastesproduced by a business during aperiod of a week or month, wasnot appropriate. One week or onemonth would not portray an accu-rate account of the wastes pro-duced over the course of a year. Inaddition, depending on the typeof projects the company isinvolved in, each year may also bedifferent. Therefore an environ-mental audit was conducted. Thisconsists of walking through thestudio space, asking questions tothe staff, and assessing the pur-chasing records of the company.In Canuck Creations’ case, theirpurchasing records covered a peri-od of one and a half years.

Over the course of the year,visits to the studio were carried outevery two to four months toupdate visual data, the purchasingrecords were broken down intonumerical data, and additionalinformation was sought from


Canuck Creations is located in a converted warehouse-stylespace in Toronto. Photo courtesy of Canuck Creations.

The Ministry of Environmentand Energy reserves the rightto enter a business and ask fortheir last audit results...Penal-ties for failure to comply canbe as extensive as jail time...

other sources in attempts topiece a management plantogether. Despite the fact thatthere are very limited resourcesfor this type of project at themoment, the bulk of the infor-mation needed was in the audit.Canuck Creations is a paper-based business with paperaccounting for almost 30% oftheir supplies. However, it wasfound that by changing pur-chasing habits, they could cuttheir continuously purchasedsupply numbers in half and curbcosts by 26%. For example, thepurchase of 66 rolls of scotchtape with plastic dispensers costsCanadian $143.44, which ismore than 66 rolls of scotchtape without plastic dispensersat $131.62, plus the cost ofinvesting in a couple of commu-nal permanent dispensers at$4.98 each. This total comes to$141.58. It may only be a cou-ple of dollars but it is the elimi-nation of plastic dispensers thatcannot be recycled that is impor-tant. Through reducing theneed for scotch tape all togeth-er, the costs and wastes will bereduced. In addition, the use ofmultipurpose tape can eliminatethe need for various types of tape,and/or buying tape in bulk pre-vents excess packaging. Bothideas reduce costs and wastes.

The Management PlanOnce the wastes were

identified and alternatives werefound, it was only a matter oforganizing a plan. The easiest way

to construct a management planis to divide the business andwastes into sections. For CanuckCreations, their plan was dividedinto four areas: Reception, Anima-tion, Computer/Video, and Kitch-enette/Lounge. Then the wastesare grouped by means of tactics toeliminate them. Are they going tobe recycled, reused, or reduced?In addition, how does the compa-ny plan on carrying out each ofthese points? It is important foreach company to identify theirgoals in their plan as well. Theyprovide guidance as to how andwhen the plan should be carriedout. Usually management planshave the same goal as the provin-

cial/state legislation. However,goals should be reasonable. ForCanuck Creations Incorporated,50% waste reduction by theyear 2000 is an achievable goal.

Changing Our WaysThere are many ways to

change our habits without com-promising the quality of creativi-ty. In fact, creativity in findingnew paths to change canenhance the quality of ourwork. Imagination is the key tothis business and to improvingthe environment. This can bedone with simple acts such as:eliminating note-pads and post-it notes, and using scrap paperand/or white boards instead;changing to mechanical pencilswhere applicable, and refillablepens (please note thatbiodegradable pens onlydegrade out in direct sunlight,not in landfills); doing as muchwork on the computer as possi-ble before printing; getting afax/modem and an Internetaccount to communicate via themodem (most magazines areon-line as well); investing in per-

sonalized coffee mugs instead ofStyrofoam cups; purchasing sugarin bulk instead of single packets;and utilizing a reusable coffee fil-ter. Buy products that can bereused many times or for a multi-tude of things. They may costmore now, but they will save morethan money in the future. Anothersolution is to send old art suppliesto schools for kids to create theirown masterpieces. Children donot care if paintbrushes are notperfect, or if the colors are not theright shade. Trees are purple intheir world. Non-profit organiza-tions are another sector often look-ing for donations, which will alsoguarantee a tax write-off.


Canuck Creations’ clean-up and photocopyarea. Paper accounts for almost 30% of the stu-

dio’s supply costs. Photo courtesy of CanuckCreations.

It was found that by changingpurchasing habits, they couldcut their continuously pur-

chased supply numbers in halfand curb costs by 26%.

More ambitious movesinclude: leasing equipment suchas computers, photocopiers, print-ers, etc. since old equipment canbe returned to the dealer; insistingthat art suppliers take back pack-aging or eliminate it all together;requesting larger companies takeback unused supplies at the endof projects; choosing glass andaluminum containers over plasticsince plastic is a petroleum-basedproduct and different grades/types make recycling difficult;investing in a composter for foodscraps as the soil produced is richin nutrients that gardens thrive on;inquiring about organic/veg-etable-based inks for printers andphotocopiers; finding a companythat is willing to refill cartridges forprinters and photocopiers; andchoosing graphite over lead forpencils.

The FutureOften, many of our pur-

chasing decisions are made fortoday’s convenience, without con-sidering the inconvenience it willmake tomorrow. Animation is abusiness that prides itself on thedetail of the final product. Thesame detailed care should go intothe decisions regarding the prod-ucts used to create that final show.It is important to read labels, askquestions, and demand changes.We have to be careful with howwe treat the environment as it willcome back and haunt us and ourchildren later. We are as much apart of it as it is of us.

Canuck Creations took abold step forward through thedevelopment of their waste man-agement plan. However, there is along road ahead and they are onlyone company. The concept ofwaste management plans in thefilm industry is a relatively newidea but a needed one. This pro-ject has proved that both fields,environment and film, can be diffi-cult to work with, and amalga-mating the two is even harder. Yet,in the long run it is worth it andcost-effective. The local Ministry/Department of the Environmentcan provide more information onwaste management planning andlegislation. Furthermore, the EarthCommunications Office (ECO) is anon-profit organization that pro-motes environmental awarenessthrough the media. They arealways interested in projects thattake environmental action in thefilm industry. We can make aworld of difference both on andoff the screen. We just have to bewilling to take that first step.



[email protected].

Lesli Rynyk recently graduatedfrom the University of Waterloo inWaterloo, Ontario, Canada earn-ing her Bachelor of Environmen-tal Studies (BES). This project waspart of her Senior Honours Thesiscombining her interests in media

arts and the environment.

For Canuck Creations Incorpo-rated, 50% waste reduction bythe year 2000 is an achievable

goal.

ANIMATION WORLD NETWORK6525 Sunset Blvd., Garden Suite 10

Hollywood, CA 90028Phone : 323.468.2554Fax : 323.464.5914Email : [email protected]

[email protected]

Ron Diamond, PresidentDan Sarto, Chief Operating Officer

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFHeather Kenyon

ASSOCIATE EDITORWendy Jackson

EDITORIAL INTERNKatie Mason

CONTRIBUTORS :Edmundo Barreiros

Ged BauerRussell Bekins

Joseph K. BevilacquaDebra K. Chinn

Bill FlemingWendy JacksonHeather Kenyon

Mike LyonsKatie MasonCraig Miller

William MoritzBärbel Neubauer

Pete NichollsBarry PurvesLesli RynykDan Sarto

OPERATIONSAnnick Teninge, General Manager

WEBMASTERJeff Williams

DESIGN/LAYOUT :Jeff Williams/ Steve SmallADVERTISING SALES

Dan Sarto

International Theatrical Dubbinghas recently been the focus ofmany major studio “players” here

in Los Angeles. With the growinginterest in feature films worldwide,American studios are realizinghow to capture yet another rev-enue market and greater boxoffice share by dubbing their fea-ture films into foreign languages.

A well-managed dubbingprocess ensures that the integrityof the original version is preserved,creating higher standards in theinternational environment. Thisnot only makes a positive impacton the U.S. films’ internationalrelease, but also assists in increas-ing the value of the product by“branding” recognition and culti-vating a reputation which is syn-onymous with quality. In order toachieve a high level of quality, it isnecessary to implement a dubbing

process which includes manycomponents.

True dubbing “re-creates”all aspects of the original versionof the film into a foreign lan-guage. It should not be confusedwith “voice-over work,” which haslimited parameters. For instance,voice-over work suggests merelyreading dialogue from a script

without dubbing’s mandatoryvoice testing and casting. Voice-over work also includes limitedediting, meaning there is minimalsynchronization and minimal on-screen or off-screen dialoguechecks.

What Does it Take?Once the dubbing studio

in the international territoryreceives a Voice Test Kit (“VTK”)from the U.S. studio, the voice test-ing process begins. The VTK con-tains items such as: dialogue lists,character profiles and synopses,

voice casting recommendations,edited voice testing tapes withedited voice samples for eachcharacter, and when needed, sto-ryboards, model sheets and sizecomparison charts, as well as castlists of the original version’s actorswith profiles on each of them. Thedubbing studio is responsible forauditioning and casting talent for

all of the characters in a film. Insome cases, if the film involves awell-known actor, the local territo-ry may have a voice talent alreadycast for that celebrity. In anima-tion, some studios contract certainactors to play their trademarkedcharacters. No other voice actorscan then portray that character inthe defined territory.

As soon as the cast is inplace and approved by the U.S.studio, the dubbing studio willschedule the work sessions. Ascript is sent to the dubbing studioeven if it is not final, so that thedubbing facility can begin to trans-late and adapt U.S. slang and ter-minology to the native tongue.This is not easy! Imagine taking outall of the street talk in a U.S. rapsong, re-interpreting it and thentranslating it into Italian to therhythm of the music. Once the

dubbing studio receives dubbingmaterials, recording begins. Dub-bing materials include: a betacamSP with designated track configu-rations, a finalized script, a view-ing cassette of the final picture,vocal playbacks which are guidetracks to help singers performvocales, and finally, a 35mm pic-ture and 35mm sound track ele-


International Theatrical Dubbing:ItÕs More Than Meets the Eye

by Debra K. Chinn

Twentieth Century Fox dubbed the animated feature Anastasia into 28 languages.© 1997 Twentieth Century Fox.All Rights Reserved

In order to achieve a high levelof quality, it is necessary to

implement a dubbing processwhich includes many compo-

nents.

ments for the facility to use to per-form final mixing. The overall dub-bing process of recording, editingand mixing takes approximately sixto eight weeks.

Before dubbing takes placehowever the U.S. studios need todo a little homework in order tomake the process complete. Clear-ly separating music and effectstracks from dialogue tracks isimperative. The music and effects,or M&E, track needs to be clean,in other words, not contain anysounds that may need to bedubbed. For instance, if a song isplaying in a scene’s backgroundand the singing is in English, weneed to think if this needs to be onthe M&E track, meaning it willstay, or if it should be on the dia-logue track and replaced with anative language. Nothing is worsethan marrying a dubbed dialoguetrack back to the M&E only to hearEnglish! It can also be very costlyand time consuming if the originalversion needs to be re-mixed, andthe dubbed version re-done.

The U.S. studio also needsto provide textless titles for the filmas well. Each title card needs to beshot blank, without any writing onit, and provided to the dubbingfacility. This way, the facility canwrite the credits in the native lan-guage and superimpose themover the blank title cards. Other-wise, the titles would be too con-fusing to read with both Englishand the territory’s language bat-tling for attention. Another consid-eration that goes all the way backto the pre-production artists is lim-

iting the amount of signage in thecartoons or animated features.Signs on buildings, placards thatpeople hold and food cartons, areall hot spots for trouble. If drawninto the final cartoon, they cannotbe replaced and just remind view-ers in other countries that theproduct was not originally madefor them.

Dubbing:A Modern Day MustDubbing animated features

is now becoming the mainstreamfor major U.S. studios. Some stu-dios have been dubbing animatedproduct for the last 30 years, buthave been limited to home videoand television releases. The poten-

tial for large audiences for animat-ed feature film product promiseswidespread attendance and thus,dubbing is becoming a must.Young children in non-Englishspeaking countries are usually lim-ited in their English skills so dub-bing has always had a presence inthe animation realm. As the worldgrows smaller, dinner and a moviehave become a common familyevent all over the world. As aresult, American movie studios arefinding a greater opportunity toincrease audience size due to theattendance by both child and par-ents. Return visits to the theaterare also now becoming common-place because in animation, thereis always a hero, heroine and vil-lain, as well as many other funny,colorful characters which childrencan relate to and want tosee…over, and over and overagain!

Live-action features such asTitanic and Armageddon are new


FilmLines, the dubbing studio in Russia. Photo courtesy of David Shufutinsky/FilmLines.

True dubbing “re-creates” allaspects of the original versionof the film into a foreign lan-

guage.

Young children in non-Englishspeaking countries are usuallylimited in their English skills sodubbing has always had a pres-ence in the animation realm.

to the dubbing world but are nowmaking their own production andfinancial niche within the interna-tional dubbing circles. Internation-al theatrical distribution groups inmany countries are now activelyparticipating in assisting major stu-dios with the distribution of bothsubtitled and dubbed films. Dub-bing, rather than subtitling, makesfilms more appealing to a broaderaudience, and if marketed correct-ly, can help turn a pretty penny ofprofit for the U.S. studio.

Dubbing is often referredto as “foreign post-production”due to its similarities with thedomestic post-production process.Dubbing not only involves voicetesting and casting of internation-al talent, recording, editing, andmixing, but also, ultimately, shoot-ing an optical soundtrack negativeand manufacturing a check printfor distribution in the respectivedubbing country or territory.Though this foreign post-produc-tion process increases the costs of

international distribution, itensures more “value-added”advantages when a film actuallygoes out for marketing in a territo-ry. Countries such as France, Italy,Germany and Spain are prime ter-ritories for dubbing feature films,not only due to their respectivemarket share in the internationaldistribution community, but alsodue to the recognition and pres-ence that the internal companiesworking with U.S. film industrycounterparts gain.

Expanding the Need to Dub

In assisting 20th CenturyFox with dubbing their first ani-mated feature, Anastasia into 28languages, I had the opportunity

to travel to Russia to help directthe Russian language dub version.Once the voice tests were submit-ted by a local dubbing studio inMoscow, reviewed and approvedby Fox, the dubbing processbegan in the middle of Decemberon the coldest day in 150 years! Inthe -41° Celsius, very old, but sub-stantially equipped, dubbing stu-dio, I remember sitting next to thedirector, finishing up a McDonald’scheeseburger, and working on thedirection of the character,Rasputin. Suddenly, I thought, ‘Isthis one of life’s unspoken ironiesor what?’ I was sitting in a film stu-dio which was originally built andused for propaganda for Lenin. Itwas Lenin’s uprising that causedthe downfall of the Romanovs.

In some countries, like Rus-sia, 90% of the feature films, tele-vision and home video productare dubbed due to the fact thatless than 20% of the populationspeaks and understands English.Due to the recent social and polit-


A sound engineer using a computer to match tracks at FilmLines, the dubbing studio in Russia. Photo courtesy of David Shufutin-sky/FilmLines.

In assisting 20th Century Foxwith dubbing their first ani-

mated feature, Anastasia into28 languages, I had the oppor-

tunity to travel to Russia...

ical events which have occurred inRussia and many of the other C.I.S.territories [the Commonwealth ofIndependent States, or C.I.S., isthe new determination for theEastern European countries thatused to be part of the SovietBlock], these areas are nowembracing the “ways of the West,”which includes everything fromdubbed DVD product to dubbedfilm features and “sing-along” toysand books.

Another reason why dub-bing is becoming a greater neces-sity is due to the fact that a newbreed of international filmmaker ismaking a mark in their own coun-tries by emulating, and therebycompeting with, the work ofmany American films and filmmak-ers.

Being culturally aware is a

must in dubbing. A good dub isbased on accurate translation andcreative and efficient adaptation,in addition to a good director,sound engineer and mixer. Agood facility with newer equip-ment helps too. Once we had torecord voice actors in a room thatwas home to not only the record-ing studio, but also the account-ing department! Without a wall toseparate the two departments,recording had to stop each timeaccounting wanted to send a faxor received a phone call.

Theatrical dubbing is nolonger seeing a “dubbed” moviewith amusing lip synchronizationand very awkward and compro-mised voice acting. It’s an art, as iscreating an original filmed featureversion. Let’s take it a step further.We produce the entire film all overagain, in another language, andensure that the voices match theoriginal talent, the performancesmatch the characters, and mostimportantly, if Eddie Murphy in Dr.Dolittle says, “I’m so cool,” weneed to make sure that the audi-ences from China to the Czech

Republic know, he means he’sproud of himself—not freezing ofcold.

Note: The on-line version ofthis article contains four Quicktimemovie clips of the title character inthe Fox animated feature filmAnastasia singing songs from thefilm in English, Portugese, Ger-man, Hebrew, Hungarian, Russ-ian, Turkish, Polish and Greek.http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6chinndubbing.html


Debra K. Chinn is director of FoxInternational Theatrical Dubbingat 20th Century Fox Film Corpo-

ration and handles all internation-al live-action and animation the-

atrical releases.


[email protected].

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Once we had to record voiceactors in a room that was

home to not only the record-ing studio, but also the

accounting department!

Today, stop-motion effects inclassic films like The SeventhVoyage of Sinbad have been

replaced with 3D composites.Merging 3D and reality is one ofthe most challenging aspects ofdigital effects. I’m sure you’ve seenthis art at its perfection in films

such as Dragon Heart, Men inBlack and Starship Troopers. Inthese films the compositing wasexceptional. The creatures seemedto be one with the environment.Of course, these are the few filmswhere the composites were a suc-cess. The sad fact is that only 1 outof 25 films will do the compositescorrectly. More often than not thecomposited characters are over-litand with the wrong light color—making them stand out like a bea-con. One painful example of thisproblem can be seen in the film

Alien: Resurrection where the 3Daliens are self-luminous whencrawling through the dark corri-dors of the spaceship. They arebrightly lit, yet the environmentaround them is dark. As a result, itcompletely destroys the believabili-ty of the shot.

Mastering Composite LightingOK, so what’s the secret to doing aperfect composite? Well, it’s actual-ly not terribly difficult as long asyou know the main points of con-cern when compositing. Let’s takea look at the most critical points toconsider when compositing 3Deffects with live-action.

Light ColorIt would seem that a bright

white light is most frequently usedwhen doing composite work. The

problem is that light is neverwhite! In fact, it’s anything butwhite. You see, the color of lightvaries depending on the heat ofthe light, which is rated in Kelvins.For example: sunlight during mid-day has a blue hue to it becauseit’s a very hot light, about 16,000Kelvins. On the other hand, a can-dle flame is cool with a Kelvin rat-ing of 3,500, so it has a red hue toit. The closest thing we have towhite light would be florescentlight, which is slightly green incolor.

Now you’re wonderingwhy we don’t see these colors inthe world around us. Well, weactually do but our eyes compen-sate for the color shifting of lightthrough a process known as chro-matic adaptation. Basically, oureyes attempt to convert all light towhite. They are usually very accu-rate, though there is a 5% marginof error, meaning we will seesome evidence of the actual lightcolor in the environment aroundus. To test this, just look at anyobject in the far distance, such asmountains, during a sunny dayand you’ll see a slight blue hue tothe colors.

Keeping this in mind, you’llneed to determine the actual colorof light in the live-action scene soyou can properly light your char-acters so they become part of the

33DD MMeeeettss RReeaalliittyy!!


by Bill Fleming

Blue Sky|VIFX created the creature visual effects for Alien: Resurrection.© 1997 Twentieth Century Fox.

Lighting is the most importantaspect of compositing.

scene. Of course, direct light coloris only one part of the formula.There is another light to consider:indirect (reflected) light.

Indirect Light ColorIn reality, light is reflected

off the objects in the environment.This is known as radiosity. Thislight, as it is reflected off the sur-face of an object, will take on thecolor of the surface. Basically,when light is reflected off a surfaceit will assume the color traits of thesurface and the light source com-bined. The strength in color willlean toward the surface colors. Ifyou have a red wall in a room, thelight reflecting off it will be slightlyred-–not much, but about 5% red.Therefore, if you are compositing a3D character into that room, you’llneed to add the reddish hue tothe reflected light sources for thecharacter to blend into the envi-ronment properly.

Light color was one of themajor faults in the composite workin Alien Resurrection. The alienswere in a gray metal passageway,

yet the lights illuminating themwere white. The actual color ofthe light should have been gray.Of course, there was anotherproblem with the light: the intensi-ty.

Light IntensityLight intensity plays a major

role in compositing 3D effects intolive-action. As 3D artists we havethe tendency to light all of ourimages directly. The problem isthat in reality there are very fewdirect light sources. For example:outside there is only one directlight source, the sun. All otherlight is typically reflected, whichmeans it’s diffused. Reflected lighthas far less saturation than directlight.

In the case of the aliencreature, the model should havebeen lit entirely with indirect lightso it blended into the passageway.There were no direct lights in thepassage. All of the lights werereflected off the metal walls or fil-tered through the protective cov-ers of the lights. The direct lightsheated up the character far toomuch to blend with the environ-ment around it. Indirect light iseasy to simulate through the useof point lights in the scene. A pointlight is omni-directional so it simu-

lates the volume of indirect lightvery well. Simply place point lightsaround the character to simulatethe indirect light. Be sure to applysome of the reflected object colorto the lights to ensure the effect isaccurate.

That does it for the mostcritical points to consider whencompositing 3D and live-action.Now, let’s take a look at how theactual compositing process is han-dled.

Compositing 3D Effects withLive-Action

For the purpose of this dis-cussion, we’ll take a look at a sin-gle cel of an animation in produc-tion at Komodo Studio. The goalof the project is to composite agoblin into video of an actual for-est. In addition to the charactercomposite, there are several itemsadded to the scene to turn the for-est into a goblin forest. Let’s take alook at the steps in creating 3Dcomposites with live-action.

Step 1: Creating the Fore-ground Models

When doing compositework you are often required toplace a character behind an exist-ing object in the scene. Thissounds complicated but it’s actual-


Figure 1.3 Creating the ground plane.© Bill Fleming.

Figure 1.2 Creating the foreground objects.© Bill Fleming.

Figure 1.1 Importing the live-action shotinto the 3D modeler. © Bill Fleming.

Indirect light is easy to simu-late through the use of point

lights in the scene.

ly very simple. The firstthing you need to do isimport a frame from thelive-action into yourmodeling program asshown in Figure 1.1

Then you createthe objects in the scenethat will be in the fore-ground. In the case ofthis animation it’s thetwo trees in the middleof the image. Using theimage as a template,build a basic mesh thattakes on the form of thetrees. When completed,you’d have somethinglike the image in Figure1.2.

Of course, forour character to blendinto the scene we needa ground plane so itappears as if he’s stand-ing on the leaves. Sincethe leaves are ratherchaotic, we need achaotic ground planeor the surface will betoo flat underneath thegoblin’s feet. To do this,I created an uncompli-cated plane with about100 polygons. Then I jit-tered the polygons and subdivid-ed them to make a bumpy sur-face. This process was repeatedseveral times to produce thejagged, yet organic, ground planeshown in Figure 1.3.

Now, when the goblinmodel is placed on the ground, itwill actually sink into the leaves.

You’ll also notice theground plane was rotated tomatch the perspective of theimage. We could have kept theplane parallel but then we wouldhave needed to rotate the camerain the render and that would

cause the trees to be out of pro-portion with the image.

All right, now we’re readyto look at Step #2.

Step 2: Staging and Surfacingthe Scene

The key to an effectivecomposite is to match the surfac-

ing of the source image.This is done through theuse of a projection map.A projection map is basi-cally nothing more thanthe source image pro-jected onto the modelsfrom the front. The dif-ference between a pro-jection map and a nor-mal image map is that aprojection map coversthe whole scene. Basi-cally, the image is pro-jected over the entirescene, so anything withthe surface using theprojection map willreflect the scene. This isa great tool for com-positing.

You need to loadthe source image intothe background of thescene as a template.Then load the modelsand position them overthe elements in thebackground image asshown in Figure 1.4.

You can see that I’vealso added the goblinmodel and the mush-rooms and rock, whichare part of the scene’s

transformation into a goblinworld. Figure 1.5 shows how themodels are all rotated to be paral-lel to the ground plane so theshadows drop properly.

Once the models are inplace, you need to apply the pro-jection map of the backgroundimage to the tree and groundmodels. Now the last step in theprocess is the lighting, which wenow know to be the most crucial.

Step 3: Lighting the ElementsLike we discussed earlier,

lighting is the most important


For the purpose of this discus-sion, we’ll take a look at a sin-gle cel of an animation in pro-

duction at Komodo Studio.

Figure 1.5 Proper rotation of the models for shadow casting.© Bill Fleming.

Figure 1.4 Positioning the models for the composite image. © BillFleming.

aspect of compositing. In the caseof this scene, we need to place alight above and behind theobjects to simulate the sun in thesource image. It will take a bit oftesting but you want to positionthe light so the shadows cast bythe new elements match thesource image.

The next step is to applythe indirect light to the scene sothe new elements blend properly.Once again, this takes a bit ofexperimentation but it’s well worththe results. What I did was placefive lights in the scene. The firstwas a direct light to re-create thesunlight behind the models. Thesecond was a direct light in theupper left to add volume light. Theshadows were turned off on thelight so there wouldn’t be conflict-ing shadows in the scene. Thethird was a direct light in theupper right for the same purpose.An additional point light, with noshadows, was added near themiddle of the trees to light themup. Finally, a light was added tothe character to pull him off thebackground. You will almostalways need character lights so

they don’t overshadow them-selves—particularly when they areback-lit.

The results of the composit-ing effort are shown in Figure 1.6.As you can see, both the goblinand the new elements are con-vincingly blended with the live-action shot. We can now see thatour little goblin friend Grumpy istracking a snail who is destined tobecome soup for dinner.

Pulling It TogetherWhile compositing 3D

effects with live-action can be a bitof work, it’s really not terribly diffi-cult as long as you pay close atten-tion to the lighting in the shot andtake the time to add the elementsthat make the composite reallyconvincing. The ground planethat simulated the leaves was veryeffective at drawing the 3Dobjects into the scene. Nothing is

more artificial than a straight seambetween objects. The jaggedground plane literally wrappedthe leaves around the compositedobjects. Grumpy’s feet are nearlyburied in them.

Put a little attention todetail into your composites andyou’ll soon be showing those Hol-lywood “big guys” how it is done!



[email protected].

Bill Fleming is president of Komo-do Studio, a 3D studio specializ-ing in photorealism. He is the

author of many 3D books, includ-ing the 3D Photorealism Toolkit,published by John Wiley & Sons.He also serves as editor in chiefof Serious 3D magazine, a 3D

magazine featuring nothing butintermediate/advanced tutorials

for artists interested in taking their3D graphics to the next level.

As you can see, both the goblinand the new elements are con-vincingly blended with the live-

action shot.

Figure 1.6 The final composite. © Bill Fleming. 1.7 The original source image before the composite effect.

© Bill Fleming

Editor’s Note: Lumps,warts and all, foreight months BarryPurves will share hispersonal productiondiary with us for hiscurrent project withChannel 4, tentative-ly titled Here’s A Howde do. This film willtake a look at threemen: Gilbert, Sullivanand Richard D’Oyly Carte. D’OylyCarte brought Gilbert and Sullivantogether and formed the D’OylyCarte Opera Company, which per-formed Gilbert and Sullivan operasfor 100 years. While the trioworked together for roughly 25years, their relationship wasstrained at best. How will the pro-duction of their story go? All wecan do is read along monthly andfind out...

June 1st - June 5thWeeks do not come more

traumatic than this one. Afterhearing The Last Post played by ayoung bugler, as my father’s coffinwas lowered into the ground, Ihave nothing left.

I did come into work on

the Friday, and wished I hadn’t. Atthe moment the film looks verywobbly, with people not thinkingclearly and a lot of mistakes beingmade—well, not mistakes somuch as not being in top gear.

The pressure really ison, and people aren’tthinking clearly, myselfincluded. There is somuch to think about.Each department,rightly, assumes theirsis the most importantdepartment, but inpractice, it can’t worklike that. I’m afraid peo-ple will just have to

wait their turn.What I need now, is anoth-

er holiday. I would love to be ableto walk into the studio and juststart filming. I don’t want to knowthat the lens does not fit the cam-era. Nor do I want to know thatevery title we have suggested hasbeen rejected—at this late stage,this is ridiculous.

June 8thWe moved into the new

studio today. All very exciting. Itwas empty at nine and full of thedetritus of filming by six. A realtransformation. To see all thatequipment constantly amazesme—so much stuff for such asmall film.

The people in the neigh-boring studios and offices thoughtthe idea of a film going on was allvery glamorous, and offered theirservices! When I told them it wasanimation, they all said, “Oh, likeWallace and Gromit.” Oh well, atleast they know Gilbert and Sulli-van.

The week ahead is daunt-ing. How can we get ready intime? Of course, there is nochance of a rehearsal for me. I get

the puppets and I start.Jean-Marc, the camera-

man, arrived from Paris. I don’tthink the language will be a prob-lem. Our passion for work will getus through; though, of course,Gilbert and Sullivan is a little of anunknown quantity.

June 9thThe place is now looking

like a functional studio, and I’mnot even allowing the lack of acamera or puppets to put me off.They will be here in time. We’vestill so much to do, but most of thesets and props have arrived andare sitting patiently, giving theappearance of something aboutto happen.

I’m finally getting thebarsheets for the first episode(again, cutting it close). I realizedhow complex this film is—can wedo it? There will only be four of usactually involved in the shooting(Jean-Marc—the cameraman,Mark—the production manager,Karen—my P.A. and myself), withthe occasional work experienceperson.

We have a tough fourmonths ahead. Actors alwayscamp it up, talking about facingEverest every performance. I dounderstand.

Had a great chat to MichaelCurry, who was responsible formost of the animation in theBroadway Lion King. We are ten-


by Barry Purves

Barry Purves

Each department, rightly,assumes theirs is the most

important department, but inpractice, it can’t work like that.

I suppose animation isexpensive—full stop!

Here’s A How de do Diary: June

tatively involved in a project. HowI would love to work with him, butthis is not the ideal project.

I was alarmed at my bankbalance. Surely the directorshouldn’t have to be overdrawn.The cash flow is very wrong here.

Sadly, yet another veryclose tragedy hits our family.Enough is enough. As I wasreceiving condolence phone calls,so I am making them. A ghastly sit-uation.

June 10thWell, we have a camera

and I’ve seen it turning over, sothat’s exciting. Plus, a few lightshave been pointed at D’oylyCarte’s head, and it shines won-derfully. No complete puppets yet,but I saw a painted D’oyly Carte,minus his hands. He does look asif he has been troubled with sleep-less nights. A loose strand of hairmakes an enormous difference.

Now we are getting near, itis clear we are seriously under-staffed and under-financed. Theconstant answer of, “We can’tafford it, Barry,” is frustrating. Toget so near a huge film but tohave to scrimp on everything isdifficult. Mind you, this is a rela-tively large budget. I suppose ani-mation is expensive—full stop!

I’m a little worried aboutthe organization of this film. It’shappening in an organic way. Icould do with a bit more solidplanning.

What’s this World Cupthing...and what were thosebizarre bumble bees doing?

June 11thCarte arrived and looks

splendid! He’s currently asleep inbed and that’s the last rest he’llhave for four months. I have tosend him back before the big dayas there’s a slight fault with hiscomplex mouth. All the variouslevers for the lip movements alsocause the teeth to move and Idon’t fancy Carte hitting a high Cwith quivering lips and teeth.

A few tantrums and moodson the set today, reflecting the Vic-torians (though I still don’t knowwho’s playing which role). It’sunderstandable I suppose as weall have had so much to thinkabout this week, setting up aworking studio and sometimescommunication gets forgotten.

Karen’s little Bethany camein singing, “to fit the bit of a wit ofa chit and that’s the long and theshort of it” - “chit” though getschanged into something else.Help!!! I’m corrupting a minor.

June 12thTwenty-two years ago I

wrote a final thesis at ManchesterUniversity entitled, “Gilbert andSullivan in Performance.” Nowhere I am, only 300 yards from thesame university building, making afilm about Gilbert and Sullivan. It’sironic that I’ve been round theworld and end up where I started.

My cousin Judy’s funeralthis morning was quite disturbing,but like my father’s last week,everyone talked about all thegood she achieved and how thatlives on. I suppose this is what myfilm is about. The men may havegone but the joy and love of life intheir music and words live on. It’s agood way to be remembered.When I go I will really not leaveany descendants, so I have tohope my small, rather insignificant

films become some sort of memo-rial.

The puppets finally arrivedtonight and they are splendid—but I’ll have to be so careful tokeep them clean. Their white bitsare dazzling. Also the lighting onthe head is going to make themvery rich and opulent. I know peo-ple associate animation withbrightness and color. Not in myfilms!!! I love shadow and rich tex-ture. It is looking good, but we stilldo not have all our necessaryequipment. Why not? Our startingdate has been etched in stone forfour months.

June 14thJean-Marc and I worked all

day in the studio, and Mark was inthe office. We are nearly there andit looks ravishing. Jean-Marc and Iare very excited, but of course, I’vegot final night nerves. We wouldhave to start with such a complexlong shot! I’ll be happy if we getstarted tomorrow.

But have I thought ofeverything?

Please let this go well!

June 15thA bunch of “Good luck on

your first day” flowers from Sue,(the director I trained up), got theday off to a good start. Very kindof her. She understands howimportant today is.

With one turning up thepressure a bit, we managed tostart at 1:30. We had a false startunfortunately. Having to do all thecamera moves, light transition and


Actors always camp it up, talk-ing about facing Everest everyperformance. I do understand.

It was that day when I realizedthat for better or worse, I cannever make the film that is in

my head.

so on manually, really tests theconcentration and coordination.That takes all my mind—not muchleft for animation. However, wegot 16.5 seconds done of this 33-second shot. It’s hard to see whatit was like as the videoimage is so dark; aworking light wouldbe another thing toforget. Nor was thevideo able to playback the music (a bitlike asking a ballerinato imagine the orches-tra as she dances),so...all in all, it was astrain, but I thinkD’Oyly Carte wasthrashing about onthe bed all right. A bittoo much thrashingperhaps.

Whilst all this isgoing on the financialsaga behind thescenes continues tobe an embarrass-ment.

June 16thToo knackered

to write much, after atruly epic day. G and S are nowhere and look wonderful, thoughI’ve found them difficult. I’ve foundeverything difficult. It was that daywhen I realized that for better orworse, I can never make the filmthat is in my head. Schedules,budgets, lack of equipment all seeto that, but ultimately, it is myfault. I really am not the accom-plished animator I am in my imag-ination. So much compromise:you don’t always get what youwant, but you can get what youneed.

June 17thA wasted morning trying to

track down the only Steenbeck inManchester—there’s a sign of thetimes. Anyway, the rushes lookedgreat, though we were unable tosee them with the music. I thinkthe story comes across! The ani-

mation sadly is somewhat rough.It’s clear I’m being spread a littlethin. It does have energy though.

I’ve still not settled into thepuppets yet—there’s been norehearsal time at all.

Such pressure.

June 18thThere is such a conflict hav-

ing to wear both a director’s hatand an animator’s hat. I want totake my time over the animation,

or let Jean-Marc tinker with thelighting, but the director in me iscontinually having to crack on atan alarming speed. It is a shame tohave to make a race out of this—Imust not let that be the important

issue. I feel that I have failed todayas we have only done eight sec-onds with all three puppetssinging and dancing. Under anycircumstance that is pretty goodgoing. I am distinctly hampered bynot being able to animate to themusic and singing. I havebarsheets, but I need the shot tobuild up with the music, as I do it.Some of the animation was dis-tinctly underpowered, when Itried to synch it up with a taperecorder. All this is so primitive.Poor Jean-Marc is suffering with-out an assistant; just someone totidy up the miles of cables andglue everything down would save


It’s clear I’m being spread a lit-tle thin.

The tableaux scene from Episode One: HMS Pinafore with Gilbert, Sullivan and D’Oyly Carte dressed ascharacters from the Opera. Image courtesy of Barry Purves.

so much time. However, in spite ofeverything, we have 44 secondsof film this week, and it chargesalong. Carte started to sing todayin a soprano voice—will the audi-ence accept that, especially as heis singing tenor in a minute?Hopefully, once people work outwhat is happening, they’ll comealong for the ride.

What a big world outside...

June 19thA bit of a downer today—

too much doubt. I’ve spent allthese years trying to develop andbe sophisticated. Sadly, themechanics of animation get in theway. Perhaps that is part of anima-tion: surmounting the technicalside and getting some expressionout of lumps of brass and cloth.

I had to mark some exampapers for the University, as if I hadfree time. One lady said that filmwas the medium most free of con-striction. From where I’m stand-ing, I could not agree less.

I’m sure that even CitizenKane did not quite match Welles’vision.

June 22ndThe trauma of yesterday still

lingered a bit this morning and Iwas a little tetchy. Amanda, my sis-ter, and I had cleared Ma and Pa’shouse, and packed away genera-tions of memories into a small van.We then had the sad task of clear-ing all the flowers off the graveand replanting it. What a sight welooked. Leaving the house wasshutting an enormous emotionaldoor.

Understandably, I was lessthan sparkly this morning, but thethree puppets got into their stride,and were quite jolly. I was a littleimpatient with Jean-Marc for tak-ing so long to re-light in betweenshots, but he’s not wasting time.It’s time, of which we are so short.I was not able to stop shooting togo to see the rushes. I can’t wait tosee it all cut together. We nowhave turned a minute.

Clare Kitson called and thesaga of the titles continues -“Beyond the Pinafore,” “ModifiedRapture,” and “Cultivated; Cele-brated; Underrated” are thefavorites now. They don’t exactlytrip off the tongue.

A fax from Pixar, asking if I’dbe interested in some teachingthere. Yes, sirree!!! That’s quite athrill to be asked. I can feel myselfgetting nearer and nearer to com-puters.

Read Barry’s previousmonthly diaries in AnimationWorld Magazine, starting with theJune, 1998 issue.



[email protected].

Barry Purves is a Manchester-based filmmaker. Through his

production company, BareBoards Productions, he has

directed several stop-motion ani-mated films and commercials,

including Next, Screen Play, Rigo-letto and Achilles.

nimationAWorld StoreStorehttp://www.awn.com/awnstore

Never beforeavailable!!

Original Productioncels from the Oscarnominated film TheBig Snit by director

Richard Condie

I feel that I have failed today aswe have only done eight sec-onds with all three puppets

singing and dancing.

Editor’s Note: Roots is ametamorphoses of colorand form which is paint-ed, drawn and stampeddirectly on blank filmand corresponds torhythm and music. Themain symbols of the filmare the sun and sunwheels. The film hasbeen included innumerous festivals andwon “Best Abstract Film”at Zagreb in 1996. Bär-bel Neubauer nowdescribes her creative processwhen producing her animatedworks of art.

“For the jury this is a uni-versal work of art. If you go withthe music, the images also work.The film is a very free improvisa-tion of image and music. It causesassociations and has the ideallength. What was first: the musicor the film? It is good to hear, thatboth developed in parallel.” - Film-bewertungsstelle Wiesbaden,1996

Tools and PreparingRoots is just one of my films

that I create by painting andstamping ink directly on blank film.For Roots, I used photo-retouch-

ing colors, black ink, and OH penmarkers, as well as tiny stencilswith stamp color, which I makemyself from rubber.

When I started to make thisfilm, I had some of the mainimages in my mind. I started by

painting without having a con-crete plan. I had composed someelements of the music on the com-puter so there was a rough struc-ture. From there, both music andimages were then developed inunison.

The ProductionUsing this technique of

painting on blank film I can workas I go along: every image leads tothe next, every sequence to thenext. The colors and forms go tothe sound; the music to the


Roots: An Experiment in Images and Music

by Bärbel Neubauer

Roots. © Bärbel Neubauer

Roots. © Bärbel Neubauer.

When I started to make thisfilm I had some of the main

images in my mind.

Both music and images thendeveloped from there in

unison.

images. If I have enough time towork constantly on a film, it willtake about three to four months topaint a four-minute film. So, if it isan abstract film, there is enough

time to concentrate, in a medita-tive way, on the subject, feelingsand associations.

It is always an experiment,because during this time I realize

what I am lookingfor. There existsno repetition ofanother film. Theexperiment takesplace with thematerial and them o v e m e n t .Images and col-ors are the sameas numbers andkeys of music.Because of thisc o n n e c t i o nbetween imagesand music, I havetruly enjoyed thetechnique of mak-ing hand-craftedfilms over the last

few years. Knowing much moreabout film than music in 1990, theimages helped me to learn aboutthe sounds.

My MeaningWhile painting Roots I con-

centrated on the sun. I chose thetitle because the sun is the root oflife, movement and vitality. Alsothe graphic look of the word - thetwo “o’s” being two suns - fittedinto my associations. Most of thefilm is designed in bright andwarm colors, like daylight. At thebeginning of the last third, how-ever, there is a (soft) break, anddarker passages introduce the finalsequence of metamorphoses. Ipainted the film as it developed.There are no cuts, and everyimage is used only one time.

Note: The on-line version of thisreview includes a Quicktime movieof Roots by Bärbel Neubauer: http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6neubauer -roots.html

Visit the AWN Vault for distributioninformation on Roots and BärbelNeubauer’s complete filmography:

http://www.awn.com.





[email protected].

Bärbel Neubauer is an indepen-dent filmmaker based in

München, Germany.

The experiment takes placewith the material and the

movement.

In a city not so far away...

The biggest comic bookindustry convention in the countrybrought industry professionals, aswell as fans, from all over theworld to San Diego to check outthe latest and greatest. All of thecomics industry’s biggest nameswere at Comic-Con Internationalin San Diego held from August 13-16, 1998. Marvel, DC and slews ofothers were all there publicizingtheir own projects and scopingout their competition. More than600 exhibitors made up of not justcomic companies, but also toyand T-shirt companies and smallercollectible shops, filled the mas-sive, futuristic convention center.One related industry, however,was somewhat lacking in pres-ence and that was animation.

Then and NowIn past years, various ani-

mation studios and networks haveused Comic-Con International as amarketing tool. Two years ago,Cartoon Network set up a large,cube-shaped, walk-in booth com-plete with interior ramps that ledattendees past walls covered withmounted television sets and char-acter and prop designs. The

designs were from one of the Car-toon Network’s latest shows,Jonny Quest. The television setsran episodes from another one ofthe network’s new programs, Dex-ter’s Laboratory. This was the Car-toon Network’s way of really get-ting attention from fans and com-petition alike.

This year there were com-paratively few exhibitors represent-ing the animation industry thatactually set up booths where onecould leisurely stop by, ask ques-tions and learn more. HBO Anima-tion was there, along with HashInc., Animevillage.com and a fewothers. Hash was showcasingtheir new, and quite impressive, 3-D animation software Anima-tion:Master with a live demo on aPC. Animevillage.com had a ratherlarge, walk-in booth that,although not as big or elaborateas Cartoon Network’s “QuestCube,” was quite grand nonethe-less. There were also exhibitors likeDC and Bongo Comics that are

somewhat involved with anima-tion, but nonetheless, did not real-ly emphasize their involvement inproducing it. Sure, DC’s hugevideo wall presented animation,but that has been their token gim-mick for the past few years.

A Real Reason to GoOn the other hand, there

were many animation screeningsand panel discussions in the con-ference rooms upstairs. On Friday,Mulan’s George Takei and directorTony Bancroft answered questionsabout the movie in an informativepanel discussion. Later in theweekend, there were also discus-sions regarding animation, like:how and why blockbuster moviesend up as cartoons on TV, how

the character of Superman isreinterpreted for each type ofmedia he is produced in, andhow to create cartoons thatappeal to both adults and chil-dren.

There were a few screen-ings featuring previews of thenew Voltron, Speed Racer 2000,War Planets, Fox Kids’ Fall line-up, and Bill Plympton’s movie, IMarried a Strange Person. Alsofeatured was a popular voice-over actor’s workshop. On Satur-


by Pete Nicholls

The San Diego Convention Center was thehub of comic activity. Photo courtesy of the

San Diego Convention Center.

This year there were compara-tively few exhibitors represent-

ing the animation industry...

Sure, DC’s huge video wall pre-sented animation, but that hasbeen their token gimmick for

the past few years.

Comic-Con:Where Comics Are King

day, Cartoon Network screened areel of cartoons produced by thenetwork that have never made itto broadcast. This was a big hitwith fans and was one of theevents that made the panel dis-cussions and screenings reallyworthwhile. Professional story-board artist Ira Sherak explainedthat he enjoys the panel discus-sions more than the exhibitionhall, stating that without the paneldiscussions and screenings,Comic-Con International would be“just a big toy convention.”

Platinum Studios’ chair-man, Scott Rosenberg, who wasthe main thrust behind the cre-ation of the successful film andcartoon series Men In Black, hasbeen traveling to San Diego forComic-Con for 23 years. He saysthat as a professional and a fan it’sa trip he enjoys making, citing thatit’s a good place to get a feel foreverything that’s going on in theindustry. His associate and Plat-inum Studios’ vice president ofproduction, Gregory Noveck,explained that it’s a great place totalk to the people that are creatingfuture media and to “see what’sgoing on inside their heads.”

But in the End...The convention organizers

are aware of animation’s draw.They used images of Bart Simpsonon their banners advertising theconvention in downtown SanDiego. It seems, however, that theanimation industry doesn’t quiterealize how many more fans andprofessionals would attend theconvention if animation was bet-

ter represented. Independentcomic artist and first time Comic-Con attendee, Stew Noack feltthat, “It would be a plus if therewere more animation.”

In previous years, it seemedas though the convention wasgetting smaller, and a bit less suc-cessful in bringing fans and pro-fessionals together. Perhaps this ispartly the comic industry’s fault,but this year the convention tri-umphantly showed off the newand hopeful within the comicbook industry. The animationindustry, however, in many ways,left itself out in the cold


The bustling showroom floor at Comic-Con ‘98. Photo courtesy of Pete Nicholls.

On the other hand, there weremany animation screeningsand panel discussions in theconference rooms upstairs.

This is Pete Nicholls’ fifth consecu-tive trip to Comic-Con Internation-al. He has been collecting comic

books and watching cartoonssince the early Seventies. Since

then, he has written cartoons forHanna-Barbera and has an ani-

mated kids series in developmentat Wild Brain Studios.


[email protected] characters were everywhere!Photo courtesy of Pete Nicholls.

Imagine a festival with no emptyseats...

This is the most predomi-nate characteristic of AnimaMundi, the only animation festivalin Latin America. In its sixth edi-tion, it couldn’t be any other way.The audience participation waseven better than in previous years.Plus, for the first time, all of theexhibits were also taken to SãoPaulo, the largest city in Brazil. Theevent’s burgeoning success wasnoted by the growing internation-al interest which was noticeable inthe movie and video presenta-tions. “This year we have moreand better films, and the sponta-neous participation has increaseddue to the growing prestige of thefestival. With each festival morepeople are getting in touch withus, willing to participate,” saidBrazilian animator Marcos Magal-hães, Cannes award winner andone of the directors of AnimaMundi.

Everyone ParticipatesMore than 20,000 people

passed through two of the mostimportant cultural centers indowntown Rio de Janeiro, eitherto watch films and videos or toparticipate in one of the many on-going workshops, which intro-duce the public to basic animationtechniques. “One of the bestthings in this festival is its setting.In the same space there are manyart forms: animation, fine arts andtheater. For me, who likes to bringother forms of art into animation,

it sounds perfect,” said NewZealand-born animator Erica Rus-sel, one of 1998’s guests of honor.

The amount of peopleattending screenings is really oneof the highlights of this festival. “It’senthusiastic,” agreed Americananimator Marv Newland, anotherguest of honor at this year’s AnimaMundi. Hours before the day’s tick-ets start to be sold, long lines format the doors of the two culturalcenters. Most of the attendingpublic are teenagers, who hangaround the festival all day long,watching every film they can andjoining in the open workshops.

A Bright Brazilian FutureThe success of these work-

shops is so great that this year aspecial one, dedicated exclusivelyto children under eight, was creat-ed. The result was a fantastic,entertaining and educationalexperience that will be repeatednext year. However, there wereactivities dedicated to a more spe-cialized audience as well. Eachyear artists come to Brazil to share

their experiences in special cours-es held for aspiring animators. Thisyear’s guest was Ray Aragon, whogave lectures on animationdesign. “Everybody is interestedand participates. From what I’veseen, there seems to be a greatfuture for animation in Brazil,” hesaid.

The results of AnimaMundi’s five previous years ofexhibits and workshops have start-ed to appear at this year’s festival.Many Brazilian films and a specialvideo exhibit of local artists’ pro-ductions have shown that thequality of work, in commercial ani-mation, by young independentartists, and by Brazilians employedat some of the world’s most impor-tant animation studios, will soonarrive. “A couple of the Brazilianfilms in this special exhibit are verygood,” said Erica Russel, who isinterested in discovering moreabout Brazilian animation andother aspects of the country’s cul-ture. The growth of local produc-tion was recognized with the cre-


Anima Mundi: The Audience is Keyby Edmundo Barreiros

Hours before the day’s ticketsstart to be sold, long lines format the doors of the two cultur-

al centers.

From what I’ve seen, thereseems to be a great future for

animation in Brazil. - RayAragon

ation of a special prize for filmsmade in Brazil. The audience inRio and São Paulo was responsiblefor choosing one single title to winthis new award. The winner wasthe lyrical O Espantalho (Scare-crow), by Alê Abreu, a beautifullove story between a girl and ascarecrow.

A Lot of Local ColorThe local sights and quality

of professionals at Anima Mundihad been experienced before byGeorges Lacroix, France’s 3D ani-mation pioneer. This year markedhis third trip to Brazil; each visitwas to give lectures and work-shops at festivals and large com-munications companies. His firstvisit to Anima Mundi in Rio leftLacroix with very good impres-sions of the event. “I know festivalsfrom all over the world, but theambiance of this one is great,” heobserved.

The charms of Rio deJaneiro are also one of the event’sspecial attractions. The festival

takes place in the district called theCultural Corridor, a group ofstreets downtown with well pre-served architecture of the XVII toXIX centuries. Beaches, of course,are also a reason to make anima-tors from all over the world acceptan invitation to travel way downSouth to Anima Mundi—especiallyif the artist is a surfer, like MarvNewland. “I was going to bringdown my longboard, but theorganization has rented one forme and I will use it on my first freeday to ride some waves at a beachcalled Prainha, an ecologicalreserve,” he said in the AnimatedChat after his lecture and presen-tation of his films, making for oneof the best moments at the festival,and surely its funniest night.

After two weeks of livingand breathing animation, the pub-lic in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo

had to say good-bye to the festivaluntil August 1999. Before thatthough, they chose the winners ofAnima Mundi 1998. In a move dif-ferent from other festivals, the win-ners are not chosen by a jury, butrather by the audience. Thisdemocratic solution honored theU.S. short Geri’s Game by JanPinkava, and Una Nit, by SpaniardJordi Moragues, as the best pro-ductions in film and computergraphics, both in Rio and SãoPaulo. The Best Film for Childrenprize, however, was different inthe two cities. Rio chose GermanEs Wird Regen Geben (Looks LikeRain), by Benedikt Niemann, andSão Paulo chose the CanadianDuel, by Pavel Koutsky. All fourwere masterpieces that have leftstrong impressions in the minds ofBrazilian animation fans. Thesememories will last until next year,when the two cities will again,host Anima Mundi; an event thathas become an important part inthe cultural life of the two mostimportant Brazilian cities.


New this year was the workshop for chil-dren ages two to eight. Photo courtesy of

Anima Mundi.I know festivals from all overthe world, but the ambiance of

this one is great. - GeorgesLacroix


[email protected].

Edmudo Barreiros isa journalist born and

based in Rio deJaneiro. He writesabout animation,

comics and pop music for majornewspapers and magazines in

Brazil. He has been the text edi-tor of the Anima Mundi cata-

logue since 1997. Most impor-tantly, he looks much better in

person than in the funny portraitshe sends to Animation World

Magazine.

The Best Brazilian Film award winner, O Espantalho (The Scarecrow), by Alê Abreu.Photo courtesy of Anima

Len Lye and Norman McLarenmade such an impression withtheir abstract films painted

and scratched directly onto filmthat when some other cameralessfilm begins to screen at a festivalone often hears several disgrun-tled voices saying, “McLaren andLye already did this”—as if nothingnew could be done with the tech-nique. Drawing or scratchingdirectly onto film strips is just atechnical means, and nobodywould think of saying, “Paintingon cels? That’s already been done,so I won’t watch this new film...”Several people like, the Italianbrothers Arnaldo Ginna andBruno Corra, the German HansStoltenberg and the Belgian HenriStorck, painted abstractions onfilm before Lye and McLaren, butthese films do not survive for us tosee or judge. Films like Lye’s ColourBox and Free Radicals or McLarenand Evelyn Lambart’s Begone DullCare are superb masterpieces thatone can see over and over, andremember fondly. Plus, the tradi-tion of direct abstract film contin-ues: the great Basque painter JoseAntonio Sistiaga made a feature-length direct abstract film, EreErera Baleibu Icik Subua Aruaren,released in 1970, while Lye andMcLaren were still alive. Believe itor not, all 75 minutes of it are fas-cinating, with a cumulative satis-faction. Sistiaga’s 1989 7-minuteImpressions In The High Atmos-phere is a breathtaking master-piece. A central circle, stableexcept for its fluctuating enamel-

like textures, is surrounded by rest-less, swirling currents. His 199114-minute Nocturne is again adeeply moving, and very beauti-ful, film.

Two Additions to the TraditionTwo younger filmmakers

have also devoted themselves tomaking abstract films directly onthe filmstrip: Richard Reeves inCanada and Bärbel Neubauer inAustria and Germany. Their fine

work demands special attentionboth for its excellent craftsmanshipand its beauty. Richard Reeves hadmade five short works before thecurrent Linear Dreams. The last ofthese, the 1994 one-minute ZigZag, shows not only the fine senseof rhythm and design necessaryfor the composition of visualmusic, but also a nice sense of wit:an abstract figure is buffeted backand forth between the geometricswings.

Richard Reeves’ EvocativeImagery

Linear Dreams, at sevenminutes, has an epic sweep. Itbegins with a pulsating sound likea heartbeat and images of a throb-bing red circle with nervous,scratched lines touching it fromthe sides, as if they were electric ornervous impulses that were feed-ing it vital energy. In rhythmicbursts we see a rich variety of tex-tures and mandala-like circularconfigurations turning in counter-point to linear formations. Occa-sionally, we catch almost sublimi-nal glimpses of strange creatures,perhaps the totem animals of ashaman’s visions. Toward the end,the abstract mandalas begin toyield to images of mountains, sin-gle at first, then moving across along range of peaks, again sug-gesting a shaman’s flight. Howev-er, the “energy” mandala reap-pears at the very end for a neatclosure.

The sound, also hand-drawn by Reeves, consists of very


The Film Strip Tells Allby William Moritz

Linear Dreams. © Richard Reeves.

McLaren didn’t do everythingthat can be done with the

direct film...

beautiful visual images rangingfrom simple conglomerations ofcircles and triangles to elaboratestructures like peacock feathers,snake skin, or spotted hides ofexotic animals. Occasionallythese drawn sounds wereprocessed through regular elec-tronic sound equipment to givethem an echo or reverberation,which works very well with thefast-paced, evocative imagery.

Reeves worked for threeyears on Linear Dreams, from1994 until early 1997, using avariety of techniques, includingscratching, painting in layers,and airbrushing. All the workwas well worth it. The film isfine, and, like good pieces ofmusic, bears seeing often,numerous times, as each view-ing yields new surprises andfresh perceptions.

Bärbel’s Lovely AbstractionsBärbel Neubauer made

some 20 representational shortfilms in the 1980s. Her lovely 1993Saturday Afternoon evokes themood of a pleasant holiday bylargely abstract images, with occa-sional glimpses of a staircase, awindow, or other objects woveninto the abstract textures as trans-formations, so that a cluster ofdots fly away as birds.

The 1994 Algorithms iswholly abstract, and the anima-tion exceptionally fine, with lushtextures, sometimes like leaf pat-terns or butterfly wings, some-times plain, sometimes with col-ors, but almost always layered,with complex figures and motionson more than one level at thesame time. In one sequence, athree-dimensional triangle (drawnwith thickness) rotates completeturns while other elements andbackground textures all perform

movements and changes of theirown—an astonishing accomplish-ment for imagery drawn andpainted directly on film. The sense

of color, by the way, is alsoexquisite, with an excellent bal-ance of delicate shades androbust hues on the variousforms and background textures.

The 1996 Roots continuesin the same vein as Algorithmsbut the complexity of layering ismiraculously even more intri-cate. A variety of figures—circleswith spokes, stars, clusters oflines, floral motifs—move at thesame time (up to 20 figures atonce) in intersecting trajectories,passing behind and in front ofeach other. At one moment aball with a reflection on it turnscompletely around while thecomplicated movement contin-ues behind it.

For all of these abstractdirect films, Neubauer composesand performs her own music:something unique in the annalsof absolute film (except, perhaps

for some of the middle Jordan Bel-son films). She combines a mixtureof rhythmic elements that she canprerecord on electronic sampleswith live performance on clarinetand other instruments. Thesecompositions have a very personalsound, casual and relaxed, andwell-fitted to the mood profile of

the visual imagery.

Moonlight and CraftNeubauer’s latest work,

Moonlight, has taken a new tech-nical tack: it is scratched into blackfilm stock rather than painted onclear film stock. One is remindedimmediately of Len Lye, who


Richard Reeves working on Linear Dreams.Photo courtesy of Darlene Amendt.

Linear Dreams. © Richard Reeves.

Reeves worked for three yearson Linear Dreams...using a vari-

ety of techniques, includingscratching, painting in layers,

and airbrushing.

made a similar changefrom early painted filmsto the late black-and-white scratched master-pieces such as Free Rad-icals. I am happy toreport that the analogyholds parallel in thatMoonlight has thatsame magical qualitythat Free Radicals does,although it is funda-mentally quite differentand wholly original.Stan Brakhage said thathis film Mothlightshowed the world as amoth might see it, but I always felt

it was a little bit more frenetic thanthe moths I knew. Neubauer’sMoonlight, however, does havesome authentic flavor of how anight creature might see its world.

Scratched into black emulsion, sothat little edges of green and goldremain around some things, weseem to move through grassesand leaves, see stars, and thereflection of the moon mirrored ina pool of water. Intricate beadedstrands, as if dewdrops clung to aspider web, move past little blos-soms and branches. A nocturne toreckon with.

One of the other miraclesof Moonlight in particular, and allNeubauer’s abstract films: she does

not use any editing. All ofthe effects, the layeringsand the precision move-ments, are rendereddirectly onto the samefilmstrip, frame by frame,with no chance for mis-takes. This is a worldaway from McLaren who,at the National FilmBoard of Canada, couldanimate in short pieces offilm, painting in black onclear leader, then havethe scenes colored byoptical printing and edit-ed so that only the good

parts were used. Not that McLaren

wasn’t an excellent artist whocouldn’t do very precise work—quite the opposite. However, hedidn’t do everything that can bedone with the direct film, and for-tunately, we have new brilliantartists like Reeves and Neubauer tocarry on in fresh territory.

Note: The on-line version of thisreview includes Quicktime moviesof Linear Dreams by RichardReeves and Moonlight by BärbelNeubauer:http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6moritzfilms.html.


Neubauer’s Moonlight...doeshave some authentic flavor of

how a night creature might seeits world.

Moonlight. © Bärbel Neubauer.

Moonlight. © Bärbel Neubauer.

William Moritz teaches film andanimation history at the California

Institute of the Arts.


[email protected].

Fortunately, we have new bril-liant artists like Reeves and

Neubauer to carry on in freshterritory

Ihaven’t used every single newweb authoring tool on the mar-ket, and chances are I never will.

I’m much too busy cheating atDuke Nukem. So, I honestly can’tsay that Macromedia’sDreamweaver version 1.2 is betterthan every other such program onthe market. What I can say is thatsince I began using this product, Iam hard pressed to find a reasonwhy I would ever need or want toswitch to another web pagedevelopment program.

The program boasts a com-prehensive array of features thatlet both novices and experts alike

design and create professionallooking web pages. The graphicaluser interface displays the rightamount of information withoutbeing cumbersome, unwieldy orconfusing. The window andpalette layout is tight and func-tional without making me dizzy.No more tennis elbow movingeverything around before I canactually use the program to dosomething. How novel.

Quickly Getting to WorkSeveral things about the

program immediately impressedme. First, I was able to edit somepretty sophisticated pages in min-utes, without glancing at the man-ual, clicking the help button, orcalling our webmaster on theintercom. Creating several newpages, in thiscase somecommerce cat-alog proto-types, wasequally as easy.New tablescan be insertedon the pagequite easily,their place-ment, width,border size andother attributesc o n f i g u r e dfrom the Prop-erty Inspectorpalette in asnap. I poppedon some

graphic images and correspond-ing URL links just as quickly.

I’m the type of developerthat would rather reformat oldfloppies than spend hours poringthrough documentation. When Iget stuck, I go straight to theindex, and work my way back-wards through the manuals tofind the reference materials I need.Dreamweaver’s documentation isclearly written, and the on-linehelp is indeed helpful. The Macro-media web site is dedicated tosupport the Dreamweaver userand the developer community hasproven extremely useful. Forexample, poring over several real-life code examples helped meunderstand some of the moreadvanced program features involv-ing rollovers, where the user can


Dreamweaver is Pretty Darn Dreamy

by Dan Sarto

© Macromedia.

The graphical user interfacedisplays the right amount ofinformation without being

cumbersome, unwieldy or con-fusing.

A screen shot of the AWN home page being operated on withDreamweaver.

program different “behaviors” tooccur when a mouse passes overa certain section of the page.

Technical SupportIt never ceases to amaze

me how many software compa-nies leave their users high and dryafter purchase, providing websites containing pitifully outdatedand incomplete FAQs and expen-sive “incident” packages as thesole means of technical support. Isit any wonder that third-partytechnical “how-to” manuals nowoutsell low-fat cookbooks? Productpurchase is only the beginning. IfI’m going to invest hundreds ofman hours and thousands of dol-lars of developer time in such atool, the software developershould be as serious about theproduct as I am, especially webpage design tools.

The browser battles withtheir Java tug-of-war, standardschanges within the HTML andDHTML specifications, compound-ed by the varied and buggy ver-sions of browsers that populatethe bazillions of PCs around theworld, make web site develop-ment a complex and often difficulttask. Macromedia’s Dreamweaverprogram is built and promoted asa professional tool that anyonecan use, and their support site isample evidence of their commit-ment to the developer base. I seeno reason to doubt Macromedia’sintention and capability to devel-op and upgrade Dreamweaver asthe realities of development forthe web shift in the near future.

Something for EverybodyThe second thing that real-

ly impressed me about the pro-gram was that, with one mouseclick, I could open Dreamweaver’sHTML Inspector, a raw html edit-ing window where I could edit thecode side by side with theDreamweaver Document Win-dow WYSIWG graphic editingscreen. Despite the fact that byplaying with html code, I consis-tently destroy more perfectly goodweb pages than I ever create, I amnot deterred from my quest to editthe code directly. Programminginstincts die hard. I like to seewhat’s under the hood. Okay, I justlike to futz with html code and seewhat all those letters in bracketsreally do. While not a full-fledged

html editing engine, Dream-weaver’s HTML Inspector allowsme to futz all I want, and a singleclick back on the main screeninterprets my raw code edits inreal time within the DocumentWindow display. For more sophis-ticated raw html code editing, theprogram comes bundled withBBEdit for Macintosh users, andAllaire’s HomeSite for Windowsusers.

The program’s sophisticatedweb design capabilities should notconfuse or intimidate the morenovice user. One doesn’t trip overthe more advanced features to getstarted creating simple pages. TheDocument Window displays thepage much as it would look in abrowser - a simple menu choice


Dreamweaver’s interactive help pages.

Is it any wonder that thirdparty technical “how-to” man-uals now outsell low-fat cook-

books?

goes one step further and displaysthe page in any or all of thebrowsers installed on the comput-er. The Property Inspector, a float-ing tool palette, lets one very easi-ly change font size, color, imagesource, alignment, link a URL, etc.

Conversely, advancedusers, or users wishing to makethe jump to the latest, state-of-the-art web design concepts and tech-niques, should find Dreamweaverstuffed with capabilities many ofus hacks may never use.

Web sites Big and SmallChief among these capabil-

ities are: support for DynamicHTML (DHTML), and timeline-based animation and objectbehavior management, behaviorsupport for such actions as imageswapping, pop-up boxes, mouseactions, and sounds, the ability tobuild pages in support of differentversions of both Netscape Naviga-tor and Microsoft Internet Explorer,conversion of DHTML enabled

pages back to 3.0 version browsernon-DHTML enabled page code,and importing and editing of exist-ing pages without mangling thecode structure (referred to as

Roundtrip HTML).For those managing or

planning larger sites,Dreamweaver provides a libraryfor commonly-used page compo-nents. From code snippets toentire page templates, edits madewithin the Dreamweaver Librarywill update any page that includesthose library components. Foranyone who has ever mis-spentthe prime of their youth replacingnavigation bars and bannergraphics on every page within aweb site, this library function isworth its weight in Cheetos and

Diet Coke.Dreamweaver stands out

among the new generation ofweb authoring tools for a numberof reasons. It’s support for timelinebased animation and the stylesheets of DHTML give seriousdevelopers tremendous controlover the look and performance oftheir web pages. Powerful pageediting features gives one the bestof both the WYSIWG and HTMLcode editing worlds. Plus, it’s intu-itive and quite easy to use. Putthese features all together, andyou get a program that’s prettyhard to beat.



[email protected].

Dan Sarto is an accomplished“hack” technologist and co-pub-

lisher of AWN.

The program’s sophisticatedweb design capabilities shouldnot confuse or intimidate the

more novice user.

Dreamweaver’s HTML Inspector.

For a long time a suite of pro-grams has dominated thegraphics world; Adobe Pho-

toshop, Adobe Illustrator andQuark Xpress. Then there are pro-grams like FreeHand, Pagemaker,and Corel Draw which definitelydeserve an honorable mention inthe must have category for graph-ics. But really, graphics are graph-ics, whether it’s for a letterhead,logo, magazine ad, or World WideWeb page, right? Wrong. Accord-ing to the brains at Macromedia,you no longer need an expensivesuite of programs to fill all yourimage editing, drawing, and lay-out needs. Well, color me skepticalbecause the software industry isfilled with a lot of programs thatmake promises that they do notkeep. If I had a nickel for everyprogram that claimed to be the“all-in-one-be-all-end-all” applica-tion, I’d be rich. Let me introduceto you Macromedia Fireworks, the“Premier Production Tool for Creat-ing Web Graphics.”

Jumping InThe first thing I look for in a

new program, is how quickly I canjump in and start producing greatworks of art—or at least a newbanner ad. It’s probably the mostoverlooked aspect of a new appli-

cation. Companiescan hype all theywant, but if youneed to spend toomuch time trying toget the thing towork, any advan-tage the new pro-gram offers quicklyloses value.

Despite allmy cynicism, Fire-works passes thistest with flying col-ors. The manualwith the most neces-sary information ispaper thin. Theinterface and toolsare a literal morph ofIllustrator, QuarkXpress and Photo-shop. One draws with the samekind of tools that are found in Illus-trator. The same methods andtools for layout in Quark are pre-sent and Photoshop layer applymodes are included in Fireworksas well. It even goes so far as touse a lot of the same terminologyin the menus and commandsfound in the common applica-tions. A clear, and successful, effortwas made to assure that artistsfamiliar with popular graphic pro-grams would feel at home fromthe minute they opened Fire-works.

Smoothing Out the Hops, Skipsand Jumps

That said, it’s time to moveon to the inner workings of theprogram. Does Fireworks deliver

on its promises? Is it a web graph-ics workhorse? Will it steal a mar-ket share away from the reigningchampions? The answers are yes,yes, and quite possibly. The fact isthat Fireworks is a powerful pro-gram. You can create complex,vector-based objects and text,export it as a JPEG, GIF, AnimatedGIF, or even a Java-scripted

rollover. Normally, you woulddraw that in Illustrator, maybe a lit-tle work in Quark, and rasterizethe image in Photoshop. Fromthere a cryptic export into a JPEGor GIF. Which format do you use?You have to rely on experience


Fireworks: Does it Have a Special Spark?

by Ged Bauer

© Macromedia.

If I had a nickel for every pro-gram that claimed to be the

“all-in-one-be-all-end-all” appli-cation, I’d be rich. A pleasant surprise was Fire-

works compatibility with othergraphics programs.

and gut instinct,and sometimesyou’ll have to do itagain. For some ani-mation, you’ll haveto move to a spe-cialized GIF anima-tion program. If youwant a Java-scriptedrollover button, youwill have to findeither someone todo it for you, learnhow write Javayourself, or “bor-row” the code froma generous website. During thathop, skip, jump,

and back flip, you are likely to losecolor accuracy, sharpness, lots oftime, and your mind.

The same scenario in Fire-works goes a lot smoother to saythe least. You do not need toswitch programs to adjust theposition of an element, or tochange the point size of text. It’s alladjustable in Fireworks, and itstays that way. It’s always possibleto edit each element in your com-

position, which is nice becauseeverybody changes their mind.Instead of guessing during theexport like you would in Photo-shop, Fireworks gives you anaccurate display, and lets youcompare between JPEG and GIFfile formats, even at varying quali-ties.

Making the GIF animationsand Java rollovers takes merelyone step in Fireworks: just makeyour multiple frames of animation(if you are doing a Java rolloveryou make your “Up,” “Over,”“Down,” and “onClick” versions ofthe button), and export as youwish. Fireworks will generate anycode (even Java) necessary for anexported graphic. All you have todo is ask.

More ExtrasA pleasant surprise was

Fireworks compatibility with othergraphics programs. It’s possible toimport Photoshop (and still keepthe layers separate), GIF, JPEG,

TIFF, BMP, ASCII (Text) Illustrator,CorelDRAW, and FreeHand docu-ments. An even bigger surprisewas the fact that vector-baseddrawings, from Illustrator, Free-Hand, and CorelDRAW, were fullyeditable when imported into Fire-works. The only major drawbackwith importing and exporting,and Fireworks in general, is that itdoes not seem that one canexport a vector-based file fromFireworks, to use later in anotherprogram. Meaning that if youdraw a complex and time-con-suming composition in Fireworks,you will have to redo it in Illustra-tor or FreeHand if, for example,you want to use it for any printedwork. Maybe this could be anaddition for the next version.

With all the great thingsthat Fireworks can do, should youthrow your present army of graph-ic programs out the door? No.Although Fireworks delivers on alot of promises, you still need thenuances and pure power that avariety of programs can provideyou. You need the vast array ofPhotoshop filters and the printingand layout capabilities of Illustratorand Quark. To wrap things up, Iam definitely sold on Fireworks. Itsaves time, effort, and a lot ofguess work that is necessary whenjumping from program to pro-gram and back again. It is a wel-come addition to any web design-er’s toolbox, especially mine.


Although Fireworks deliverson a lot of promises, you stillneed the nuances and purepower that a variety of pro-

grams can provide you.

The tools palette inFireworks is no different

from other graphicsprograms.


[email protected].

Ged Bauer is the former webmas-ter of Animation World Network.

An Adobe Illustrator document opened in Fireworks can still be edited as if it was cre-ated in Fireworks.

Walt’s business card.Maquette models fromBeauty and the Beast. A

Mickey Mouse children’s book inBulgarian. Background art from101 Dalmatians. Boxes of memosfrom Roy Disney. These are a fewof the treasures of Disney historywhich the company has saved inThe Archives and The AnimationResearch Library.

The Walt Disney Archiveswas created in 1970 and is a col-lection of books, periodicals, cor-porate correspondence, and otheritems from the history of the com-pany. Founder Dave Smith statesthe purpose of the archive is “tocollect and preserve all the historyof Disney and make it available tothe people who need it. It is pri-

marily for company use but seri-ous students and writers doingresearch on Disney subjects canmake an appointment to use thecollection as well.”

The Animation ResearchLibrary emerged from the Anima-tion Department’s morgue in thelate 1980s. It houses art from all ofDisney’s 36 animated features andnumerous short subjects. It catersto artists in Disney’s Feature Ani-mation division and is not open tothe public.

An Interview with Dave Smithof The Disney Archives

Katie Mason: You founded theArchives in 1970. What movedyou to do this?

Dave Smith: I had been workingas a librarian at UCLA for fiveyears, and I’d done a little workwith Disney. On my own, I’d pre-pared a Disney bibliography, list-ing Disney films, television shows,books and things like that. I got toknow people at the Disney Com-pany while I was doing that.When they decided to do some-thing about preserving their ownhistory, I was in the right place atthe right time. I wrote a proposalfor them, saying they might wantto set up an archive and they hiredme to come and do it. We startedfrom an empty office, but we’vegot a lot of stuff today.

KM: What was the company’sinterest in creating an archive?


IInnssiiddee DDiissnneeyy::TThhee AArrcchhiivveess aanndd AAnniimmaattiioonn RReesseeaarrcchh LLiibbrraarryy

by Katie Mason

© Disney.All Rights Reserved.If you think of all the compa-nies in this country, not many

others reuse their past asmuch as Disney does. -

Dave Smith

Dave Smith and the Walt Disney Archives. Photo courtesy of the Walt Disney Compa-ny.All Rights Reserved.

DS: We were starting to lose somekey old-timers here in this compa-ny. Walt Disney died in 1966, RoyDisney died in 1971, and up untilthat time if you’d had a questionabout the early days of the com-pany, you could go and talk to theperson that worked on SnowWhite or Steamboat Willie forexample.

If you think of all the com-panies in this country, not manyothers reuse their past as much asDisney does. So many things thatDisney did years and years ago arestill important in the company’sprojects today. A good example isSnow White and the SevenDwarfs, a film we made back in1937. We put it on video cassetteand I think it’s the second largestselling video cassette ever.

But, of course, we can usethat film in so many other ways.We can do books, records, educa-tional materials, computer soft-ware, an attraction at Disneyland,run it on the Disney Channel, putan illustration on our Disney cruiseship. There’s so many new differ-ent ways we can use these pro-jects than we did so many yearsago. When you’re delving intoyour company’s past so much, youneed a department that’s puttogether the information that youneed to have access to—that’swhy the archives were set up.

KM: How do you go about pre-serving animation history when somuch is being done on comput-ers?

DS: The question that we’re asking[here at the Archives] is how arewe preserving the business corre-spondence of executives whenthey’re doing it on e-mail. Youlearn so much about a companythrough the correspondence of itsexecutives. If they’re doing a lot oftheir work on e-mail or over thetelephone, which seems to be alot more common today, it’s goingto be a lot harder to document.When people come along 20years from now [it will be harder]to know what was going on in1998.

KM: Do they have all of Walt’s cor-respondence?

DS: We have all of that. That was,thank goodness, maintained byhis secretaries and it’s wellarranged by year and then alpha-

betical by each year. It must be acouple hundred boxes of corre-spondence. We have Roy Disney’scorrespondence too and variouscorrespondence of other execu-tive officers of the companythrough the years. I’m sure someday we’ll get Michael Eisner’s cor-respondence.

A Discussion with Lella Smith,Doug Engalla, and Vivian Proco-pio of the Animation ResearchLibrary (ARL)

KM: Why did the AnimationResearch Library start?

Lella Smith: The company waslooking for a vehicle whereby anydivision of Disney could come inand get images for their projectswhether it be Art Classics, Walt Dis-ney Imagineering, or DisneyCruise Lines. They come to the ARLand that image can be providedto them as reference.

It is easily the largest anima-tion library in the world and a pret-ty valuable asset to the company.Not only because of its value, butbecause [the material is] used andre-used.

Vivian Procopio: Mainly, the art-work here is geared to help theupcoming artist to learn how ani-mation was done in the past andfor inspiration and ideas. Otherprojects include the books that arepublished on animation. [Authors]usually come here for reference toput in their books.

Doug Engalla: Walt Disney ArtClassics tend to turn to the anima-tion art to stay as faithful to theoriginal as possible. It’s such asophisticated audience out there,they will still step through a videoand look and see how close it is.


Mainly, the artwork here isgeared to help the upcomingartist to learn how animationwas done in the past and forinspiration and ideas. - Vivian

Procopio

Floor-to-ceiling boxes in one of the vaultsat the Animation Research Library. Photo

by Katie Mason.

It’s a very savvy audience.

LS: Plus, the Disney companylikes the product to be on-model. It’s our hope that theywill come to us and get theactual image and the result willreally look like Mulan.

VP: As precise to the charac-ter—design, color, and all thedifferent elements—as possi-ble.

LS: Even TV animation, if theyhave a spin-off, wants to makecertain that the characters aretrue to the original film, so theycome here.

KM: So an animator could go backand study exactly how the princekissed Snow White and modeltheir newer animation on that?

LS: Yes. It’s here for the animatorsto use. We’re actually under Fea-ture Animation so we have a reallove and dedication to them.They’ll come here and they’ll flipdrawings. It’s really interesting towatch because even artists whofeel that they are really, reallyadvanced in animation will comeand look at a Milt Kahl or a MarcDavis and say, “Whoa. I gotta gopractice drawing again.”

DE: Recently, we had backgroundand layout artists from a currentproject look at art from Lady andthe Tramp. Subject-wise it doesn’tlook like it relates at all to whatthey’re doing, but technique-wise

it was very helpful for them.

LS: One thing they were trying todo was evening scenes, which arereally hard to do, so Doug pulledseveral of the night scenes.

KM: How is the art preserved?

LS: We had a whole line of materi-als developed for animation. Thereare all kinds of archival companiesthat focus on supplies for museumcollections, but we had very differ-ent needs, different sizes. We

found a polyethylene that goesbetween the layers of the celsso that the paint doesn’t stick.We have a sleeve that we canslip the paper backgrounds intobecause the backgrounds areoften just a long piece of paperand if you touch them you cannot only get oil on them but itdamages the paper. We alsodeveloped a cel mat holderthat would allow the weight tobe around the edges of thecardboard folder so that youcould hold it and not press thecels on top of each other.There’s a lot more known about

the damage of rubber bands andpaper clips and staples and we’redoing our damnedest to get allthat out. So we’ve been workinghard to find ways to protect the artbetter.

KM: How do you go about pre-serving animation art in an era ofdigital ink and paint and comput-er animation?

LS: We are getting more of the col-lection digitally and that’s a chal-


Walt Disney Art Classics tendto turn to the animation art tostay as faithful to the original

as possible. - Doug Engalla

Each box in the Animation Research Library con-tains carefully numbered pieces of artwork. Photo

by Katie Mason.

Rows of maquette models from Beauty and the Beast. Photo by Katie Mason.

lenge for us because we have tocontinue to learn as we go. Butwe’re able to work very closelywith CAPS [Computer Animationand Production System whichunites Scene Planning, Scanning,Color Model, Ink and Paint, andCompositing]. Some of the imagesmay simply be stored on-line andwe’ll pull from those. Now we canlook into the Fame system, whichtells where everything is movingand how many layers were on topof a background. It’s not asstraightforward as it was beforebecause you’d go and pull a celand put in over a background andyou’d have a cel set-up. But we’reworking very closely with the tech-nology division. Since the color iscreated on the computer, we findourselves working more with thecomputer folks.

DE: Luckily though, we’re still verytraditionally-based as far as anima-tion is concerned. There willalways be a desire, even in thedigital age, to see the foundation.Even if currently we’re unable toprovide a color image for some-body on the outside, we still havecharacter designs and pre-produc-tion art that is very important toany feature project.

LS: But the exciting thing for us iswe’re trying to keep up with tech-nology. Technology is not neces-sarily a bad thing for us. Wherepreviously we were only able toprovide a color copy, now we canscan the art and give a digital filein any format people need so theycan go right to press, and that’s a

good thing.Researchers can make an appoint-ment at the Disney Archives onlyby calling (818) 560-5424.



[email protected].

The exciting thing for us iswe’re trying to keep up with

technology. - Lella Smith

Animation World Network’srecruiting section offers free postings

and access to artist resumes as well as recruitment advertisements

““The rThe recrecruiting siteuiting siterreaches thousands ofeaches thousands ofarar tists frtists from allom alldisciplines, quickly anddisciplines, quickly andefef ficientlyficiently. A. AWN cerWN cer tainlytainlylives up to its namelives up to its nameworld-wide.world-wide.””

-Machi T-Machi TantilloantilloDirDirector of MTVector of MTV

AnimationAnimation

- RECRUIT TOP TALENTAT A FRACTION OF

THE COST OF PRINT ADVERTISING

www.awn.com/career

CAREERCAREERCONNECTIONSCONNECTIONS

Katie Mason was an editorialassistant at Animation World

Magazine.A longtime animationreader and fan, she watches car-

toons each Saturday morningand is currently studying toward

her university degree.

Business

Writers Make Prime-Time PactWith Fox. The Writers Guild ofAmerica has forged an agreementwith Twentieth Century Fox tocover writers working on prime-time animated shows The Simp-sons, King of the Hill, Futuramaand Family Guy. This is of greatsignificance for animation writ-ers and WGA’s Animation WritersCaucus, because it gives anima-tion writers on these shows thesame benefits as their live-actioncounterparts, such as mandato-ry payment for re-writes andaccess to the WGA health insur-ance plan. WGA’s acting execu-tive director Brian Walton said,“It is our hope that this far-sight-ed agreement will lay the frame-work for similar contracts in thisgenre.” The negotiating teamfor the deal included Larry Doyleand Dan Greaney (The Simp-sons), Alan Cohen and Jim Dau-

terive (King of the Hill),Chris Sheridan (FamilyGuy) and Pat Verrone(Futurama), as well asWGA staff Paul Nawrocki,Jane Nefeldt, Susan Ger-akaris, Christine Albrecht-Buehler and Kay Schaber.In a separate agreementsigned with Imagine Tele-vision in May, the guildalso established a contractfor writers on another Foxprime-time animatedseries, The PJs.

This issue of Animation WorldMagazine includes an articleabout the WGA’s Animation Writ-ers Caucus, by founding memberCraig Miller.

SAG Speaks ForCartoon Voices.A tentative agree-ment coveringvoice-over perform-ers working in tele-vision animationhas been reachedbetween The Screen Actors Guild(SAG) and negotiators represent-ing approximately 60 animationproducers, including Disney,

Warner Bros. and DreamWorks.The terms of the tent tive agree-ment have been approved bySAG’s negotiating committee,but was not be released publiclyuntil they were approved byguild members. To facilitate this,a special meeting for SAG mem-ber television animation per-formers was held on Wednes-day, August 19 at 6:30 p.m. atthe Sheraton Universal Hotel inUniversal City, California.People

Musical Chairs.Anne Sweeneyhas been named president ofDisney/ABC Cable Networks,filling a position left vacantwhen Geraldine Laybourne leftin June to form her own mediacompany. Since 1996, Sweeneyhas been president of the Disney


by Wendy Jackson

EvenDilbert readsthe news...Image © UPN.All RightsReserved.

The PJs is one of Fox’s many prime-time animatedshows which will now have writers contracted

through the Writers Guild of America. © Touchstone.

Anne Sweeney has been named president ofDisney/ABC Cable Networks. Photo courtesy of

the Walt Disney Company.

THEANIMATIONFLASHwww.awn.com/flash

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The Flash is the best newsletter in the cartoon business. It treats the news of animation with the respect it deserves. I look forward to getting it every week.Fred SeibertExecutive Producer/Creator of "Oh Yeah! Cartoons!"Nickelodeon

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It has really proved itself as a one-stopresource for international animationnews, information and commentary.Jerry BeckAnimation Historian

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Channel, a title she will retain withthe promotion, which will add sev-eral programming outlets underher wing: Lifetime, A&E, The His-tory Channel and E! EntertainmentTelevision, as well as ABC’s Satur-day morning line-up. Prior to Dis-ney, Sweeney was at FX for threeyears and at Nickelodeon for 12. .. . Film Roman has hiredMitchell Solomon as president ofits new feature film division, whichis currently developing live-actionfilms. He was previously seniorvice president of production atFilmcolony. . . . Fox Kids Net-work has hired Patricia LaVigneas vice president of on-air promo-tions. She was previously with thead agency Pittard Sullivan’s Euro-pean office in Munich but willnow be based in Los Angeles.. . . .London-based multi-media andanimation studio Pepper’s GhostProductions has hired Alan Mar-ques as head of digital produc-tion. He was previously at TheMagic Camera Company. . . . LosAngeles-based Sony PicturesImageworks (SPI) has hired ani-mation director Henry Andersonto work on the feature film StuartLittle. Anderson was most recentlyat Blue Sky|VIFX in New York. SPIhas also hired George Joblove asvice president of technology, anewly-created position. He waspreviously technology director atR/GA Digital in New York. . . .Everland Entertainment, distrib-utors of the Veggie Tales animatedhome video series, has hired RickForsythe as executive director. Hewas previously with Rainfall Edu-cational Toys, Chariot Media andFamily Christian Stores. . . .DreamWorks has cast severalmovie stars to play the voices ofcharacters in its animated featureShrek. Mike Myers will play thetitle character, a monster who was

originally going to be voiced bythe late comedian Chris Farley.The film will also feature voices byCameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy,John Lithgow and Linda Hunt.Shrek, slated for release in 2000, iscurrently in pre-production at PDIin Palo Alto, California. . . . RobertRehme has been re-elected presi-dent of the Academy Of MotionPicture Arts And Sciences(A.M.P.A.S.) for a second consec-utive one-year term. He was alsopresident for one term in 1992-93.The A.M.P.A.S. Board of Governorswas also recently elected.William C. Littlejohn has beenre-elected to the short films andanimation branch, which is alsorepresented by Carl Bell and JuneForay, whose three-year terms arestaggered to renew in 1999 and2000. . . . The board of directors ofThe Writers Guild Of America(WGA) West voted last week toterminate the contract of its execu-tive director Brian Walton, whohas held the position for 13 years.This issue of Animation WorldMagazine includes an articleabout WGA’s Animation WritersCaucus. . . . . Blue Sky|VIFX’s presi-dent Richard Hollander has

been named an industry advisorfor the American Museum of theMoving Image in New York. Thecompany will also participate intwo upcoming presentations atthe museum: “T-Rex: Back to theCretaceous” and “Behind theScreen.”. . . . London-based Car-toon Network U.K. has promot-ed Brett Foraker to the newly-created position of creative direc-tor, a role in which he will overseeproduction of on-air promos. . . . San Francisco-based Curious Pic-tures has promoted DenisMorella to the newly-created posi-tion of creative director of the WestCoast office. He joined Curious inSeptember, 1996 after serving as adirector at (Colossal) Pictures. Curi-ous also promoted HollyEdwards from to senior producer.She joined Curious in January,1997. . . . Composer Carter Bur-well will write the theme song forthe animated series Dilbert whichwill premiere on UPN in January. .. . Tim Hill, creator of Nick-elodeon’s Action League Now!(part of the Kablam! series) willdirect the live-action/puppet fea-ture film, Muppets in Space for theJim Henson Company and Colum-bia Pictures. This will be a first-timefeature film directing job for Hill. .. North Hollywood-based FilmRoman has hired several newrecruits to work on the animatedseries, Family Guy. Roy Smith(formerly of Saban) and PeterShin (formerly of Klasky Csupo)will be co-animation producers,and John Bush (formerly of Hype-rion) will be line producer. . . .David Silverman has joinedPixar Animation Studio to directanimated features. After Silvermanexited his post at DreamWorksFeature Animation several monthsago, there was widespread specu-lation about where he would be


Denis Morella, creative director of Curi-ous Pictures, San Francisco. Photo cour-

tesy of Curious Pictures.

headed next. Before joiningDreamWorks, he was a key cre-ative on The Simpsons, andworked with Matt Groening todevelop the show. Pixar has notyet announced on which film Sil-verman will be working. . . . Chil-dren’s Television Workshop(CTW) has named AliceCahn group president, televi-sion, film and video, filling aposition vacated in May byformer vice president of pro-duction Marjorie Kalins. Cahnis no stranger to CTW; shewas previously director of chil-dren’s programming for PBS,which airs several TV seriesproduced by CTW. . . . TheJim Henson Company hiredSusan Frank as executivevice president of corporatemarketing worldwide. Shewas previously executive vice pres-ident of worldwide marketing andpromotions for the Fox Children’sNetwork, where she worked withMargaret Loesch, now presidentof Jim Henson Television. . . .Warner Bros. Online has hiredHarry Medved as director of pub-lic relations. He previously held asimilar position at InterActiveAgency. . . . The late Roy O. Disney(d. 1971), brother and businesspartner of Walt Disney and fatherof current Walt Disney Companychairman Roy E. Disney, has beenhonored with a star on the Holly-wood Walk of Fame. The memori-al was dedicated on July 27 infront of the Disney-owned El Cap-itan Theater on Hollywood Boule-vard. Down the street, Walt Dis-ney’s star was one of the original1500 installed in the Walk of Famein the 1960s. . . . .So long, LosAngeles, Bonjour Paris! DavidStainton has been promoted tothe position of senior vice presi-dent of creative affairs for Walt

Disney Feature Animation. Inthe new role, Stainton will relocatefrom Los Angeles to guide produc-tion in WDFA’s Paris studio, focus-ing mainly on the production ofthe animated feature film, Tarzan.Stainton joined Disney in 1989and was most recently vice presi-

dent of creative affairs. . . . ElieDekel has been named executivevice president of Fox FamilyWorldwide’s new consumer prod-ucts division, which will overseethe company’s home video, pro-motions and licensing & merchan-dising activities. Dekel, who joinedSaban Entertainment (now part ofFox family) in 1990, was promot-ed from the position of executivevice president of marketing &advertising for Fox Family World-wide. . . . Dream Quest Images,the feature film visual effects divi-sion of the Walt Disney Company,has hired V. Scott Jones as vicepresident finance/chief financialofficer. Most recently, he was afreelance financial consultant, sub-sequent to serving as CFO andcorporate treasurer at AmericanCybercast Corporation. He hasalso held finance managementpositions at ABC and The Walt Dis-ney Company. . . . Mike Judge,creator of Beavis & Butt-head(MTV) and co-creator of King of

the Hill (Fox), has signed a four-year contract with Fox Television,in which he will develop live-action and animated series for thenetwork. He will also retain hisposition as executive producer ofKing of the Hill and will continueto voice its characters, Hank Hill

and Boomhauer. Daily Variety(8/4/98) estimates the newdeal is worth U.S. $16 million.. . . . Actor Hank Azaria (Apuand Moe on The Simpsonsand Bartok in Anastasia ) willbe the voice of Eric Feeble inthe American dub of the ani-mated TV series Stressed Ericfor NBC. Although the origi-nal soundtrack is in English,NBC dubbed a new voicetrack over the main charac-ter’s British accent to make thedialogue more comprehensi-

ble to American viewers. A co-pro-duction of Absolutely Productions,the BBC and Klasky Csupo, theshow will premiere on NBC onAugust 12 at 9:30 p.m. . . . ActorMichael J. Fox has signed withColumbia Pictures to play thevoice of the lead character—acomputer animated mouse—inthe live-action/computer anima-tion feature film, Stuart Little. Addi-tional characters will be voiced byactors Gene Wilder, BrunoKirby and Jennifer Tilly. The film,being directed by Rob Minkoff, willfeature visual effects by Sony Pic-tures Imageworks and will bereleased in late 1999.The film,being directed by Rob Minkoff, willfeature visual effects by Sony Pic-tures Imageworks and will bereleased in late 1999...Manhattan Transfer has hired CGartist Grant Adam to work in itsvisual effects department. He pre-viously ran his own company,Uncommon Characters, in Victo-ria, Australia. . . . Animator/illustra-


Mike Judge, superstar. Photo courtesy of MTV.

tor Rob Zammarchi, artist MattDuchame and graphic designerKaren Kutka have joined the staffof Boston-based Fablevision Stu-dios. . . . New York-based BrianDiecks Design has hired designerAmanda Hayes and assistant pro-ducer Marcia Finn. . . . Atlanta-based Crawford Communica-tions has acquired the companyTaylor McCormick Graphics, andhired its founding owners RobertTaylor and Michael McCormickas director of computer graphicsand CG animation director, respec-tively, for Crawford’s 3-D animationand digital effects division. . . .

Karl Cohen Recovering. KarlCohen, president of ASIFA-SanFrancisco, animation historian andauthor of Forbidden Animation:Censored Cartoons and BlacklistedAnimators is recovering from astroke suffered late last month. Hehas canceled his engagements tospeak at the Society for AnimationStudies Conference, the NuArt Cin-ema in Los Angeles and theOttawa Animation Festival. How-

ever, some of these upcomingevents will still take place as sched-uled, but with Cohen’s colleaguesfilling in for screenings of filmshighlighted in Cohen’s book, For-bidden Animation. Get-well wish-es for Karl may be sent to AWN,where they will be forwardeddirectly to him at a hospital in SanFrancisco. Please send clearlymarked cards and letters by mailto: Karl Cohenc/o AWN6525 Sunset Blvd. Garden Suite10Hollywood, CA 90028 U.S.A.No e-mail messages, please.Films

Antz To Premiere In Toronto.The Toronto International Film Fes-tival will host the world premiereof DreamWorks SKG and PDI’scomputer-animated feature filmAntz at their closing night gala onSeptember 19. The film will offi-cially open in theaters (U.S. andCanada) on October 2. Antz willalso be screened atthe Ottawa Interna-tional AnimationFestival on openingnight, September29.

The Happy PrincessToon In Develop-ment. Scottish Tele-vision and Siriol Pro-ductions are devel-oping a 30-minuteanimated cartoonfor children aboutthe life of the lateDiana, Princess ofWales. Word of theanimated project—based on thebook The Happy Princess byNicholas Allen—is upsetting someU.K. groups, including the Church

of England. The HollywoodReporter [7/28-8/3/98] said “theshow reportedly depicts Diana’sbattles with eating disorders andputs blame on Prince Charles forher misery with royal life, thoughno mention is made of the Pariscar crash that ended her life lastyear. Instead, the story ends withDiana skipping with children inheaven.” Should they change thename of this project to “TheUnhappy Princess?” A ScottishTelevision spokesperson confirmedthat the series is in development,and that it has been pitched toseveral broadcasters and co-pro-duction partners (including DICEntertainment), but stressed that“it’s too early to tell” what the fateof the project will be.

South Park Feature In Produc-tion. Comedy Central has green litproduction of an animated featurefilm based on the TV series SouthPark, created by Trey Parker andMatt Stone. The target release forthe still untitled film is March 1999,

to coincide with “Spring Break.”The film will be produced inVenice, California by a separateproduction team than the TV


Grant Adam, a CG artist at ManhattanTransfer. Photo courtesy of Manhattan

Transfer.

Antz. © DreamWorks LLC.

series. Like the series, the film willbe produced on SGI computersusing Alias PowerAnimator andMaya software.

Fantastic Planet In Rotation. ReneLaloux’s animated feature film,Fantastic Planet (1973) is beingtheatrically re-released in the U.S.by Cinequanon Pictures in honorof its 25th anniversary. The bizarre,Bosch-esque science-fiction film isdescribed as a “jolting futuristicstory of a rebellion by oppressedhumanoids against a race ofgigantic androids on a distantplanet.” Not the typical animatedfeature fare to which Americanaudiences are accustomed! Thefilm was co-produced in Franceand Czechoslovakia andco-written and designedby Rene Laloux andgraphic artist RolandTopor. It was the first ani-mated feature to win anaward at Cannes (SpecialJury Prize), and hasinspired many other film-makers. A new 35mmprint of the film has beencreated from the originalEnglish dubbed versionfirst released in the U.S.in 1974 by Roger Cor-man. It will be accompa-

nied by Laloux and Topor’s ani-mated short, Les Escargots,(1965). The films’ relaunch willpremiere at Los Angeles’ NuArtTheater, October 9-15, then onto New York and other cities inNovember. Since its originalrelease, Fantastic Planet has onlybeen released on laserdisc andon unauthorized bootleg videotapes, which used badly dupedprints that were edited to omitkey sequences. Thus, this theatri-cal return of Fantastic Planetshowcases the film in its com-plete form, as it was envisioned

by Laloux, who currently resides inFrance. After the theatrical run,Cinequanon plans to release anofficial, higher-quality video in1999.

Rene Laloux’s book, Drawings ThatMove—One Hundred Years ofAnimated Films was reviewed byGiannalberto Bendazzi in the April1996 issue of Animation WorldMagazine: [http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.1/articles/laloux.html].Television

The WB Is Set To Go Down-town. The WB Network hasordered 13 episodes of TheDowntowners, an animated series

developed by Bill Oakley and JoshWeinstein for Castle Rock Televi-sion. It is slated to air as a primetime show in fall 1999. The showis described by WB as “the firstprime time animated comedy tofocus on the lives of twentysome-things and teens.” It will star fourroomates living in a downtownloft in a fictional big city, and theirassortment of colorful friends andneighbors. This is the first animat-ed series to be developed by Cas-tle Rock’s Television unit, whoselive-action credits include Seinfeld.The WB Network will also try out apilot based on the syndicatedcomic strip Baby Blues during the‘98 holiday season.

TV Tidbits. Curious Pictures isworking on a 25-part animatedseries called A Little Curious forHBO. It will feature mixed-media,CG, cel and stop-motion anima-tion, and is slated to debut in Jan-uary 1999. . . . Twentieth TV,Twentieth Century Fox’s syndica-tion arm, has had tremendoussuccess pre-selling the animatedseries King of the Hill for U.S. syn-dication starting in fall 2001. Theshow’s planned 100 episodes willair as reruns on stations coveringover 90% of U.S. households. So,while Fox may be taking a ratings

risk by separating Kingof the Hill from TheSimpsons (it is movingto Tuesday nights thisfall), they have securedan audience for thereruns of the showthree years from now!. .. . FUNimation’s Japan-ese animated seriesDragon Ball Z has beensold in syndication toCartoon Network,which will air the showfive days a week start-


Rene Laloux’s classic Fantastic Planet will bere-released theatrically this year. Photo cour-

tesy of CQN Releasing.

The Downtowners. © 1998 The WB Network.

ing in September. In a separatedeal, Irwin Toy has just signed onas the master toy licensee forDragon Ball Z. The company plansto produce a full line of action fig-ures, vehicles and playsets. Drag-on Ball Z started in Japan over tenyears ago and has been airinginternationally in Europe, but wasonly first introduced to Americanviewers in 1995. . . .

July Nielsen Ratings.By specialarrangement with Nielsen Media

Research, AWN will now publishthe Nielsen ratings for animatedprograms on a monthly basis inthe Animation Flash. The ratingsincluded herein are only for U.S.national network television. How-ever, AWN is interested in publish-ing additional ratings from cabletelevision and ratings systems out-side the U.S. To contribute infor-mation, please contact us at [email protected] following list of animatednational network programs is


The Simpsons: ratings rulers for July. ©Fox.

5.1 The Simpsons (Fox, Sunday, 8:00 p.m.)4.9 King of the Hill (Fox, Sunday, 8:30 p.m.) 2.1 Invasion America (WB, Tuesday, 9:00 p.m.)1.9 Disney’s Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Satur

day, 7/04, 9:30 a.m.)1.9 Disney’s Saturday Morning (ABC, Saturday,

7/11, 10:00 a.m.)1.8 Disney’s Saturday Morning (ABC, Saturday,

7/11, 9:30 a.m.)1.8 Disney’s Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Satur

day, 7/18, 9:30 a.m.)1.8 New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Special

(ABC, Saturday, 12:00 p.m.)1.7 Animaniacs July 4 Special (WB, Saturday, 11:00

a.m.)1.7 Batman/Superman (WB, Saturday, 10:00 a.m.)1.7 Spider-Man (Fox, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.)1.7 Toonsylvania Special (Fox, Saturday, 10:30

a.m.)1.6 Disney’s Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Satur

day, 7/04, 9:00 a.m.)1.6 Disney’s Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Satur

day, 7/18, 9:00 a.m.)1.6 New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Special

(ABC, Saturday, 11:00 a.m.)1.6 Spider-Man (Fox, Monday-Friday, 3:30 p.m.)1.6 Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries (WB, Saturday,

11:30 a.m.)1.6 Toonsylvania (Fox, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)1.6 Toonsylvania (Fox, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.)1.5 Animaniacs (WB, Saturday, 11:00 a.m.)1.5 Animaniacs July 4 Special (WB, Saturday,

10:00 a.m.)1.5 Batman/Superman (WB, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.)1.5 Disney’s Saturday Morning (ABC, Saturday,

7/11, 9:00 a.m.)1.5 Disney’s Jungle Cubs (ABC, Saturday, 11:30

a.m.)1.5 Disney’s Jungle Cubs Special (ABC, Saturday,

10:30 a.m.)

1.5 Men in Black (WB, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.)1.5 New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Special

(ABC, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)1.5 Spider-Man Special (Fox, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.)1.5 Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries (WB, Saturday,

11:30 a.m.)1.5 Toonsylvania Special (Fox, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.)1.4 Pinky and the Brain (WB, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)1.4 Sam and Max (Fox, Saturday, 11:30 a.m.)1.3 Animaniacs July 4 Special (WB, Saturday, 9:00

a.m.)1.3 Disney’s Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Satur

day, 7/04, 8:30 a.m.)1.3 Science Court Special (ABC, Saturday, 11:00

a.m.)1.2 Batman/Superman (WB, Monday-Friday, 4:30

p.m.)1.2 Disney’s 101 Dalmatians Special (ABC, Satur

day, 1:00 p.m.)1.2 Disney’s Saturday Morning (ABC, Saturday,

8:30 a.m.)1.2 Science Court (ABC, Saturday, 12:30 p.m.)1.1 Disney’s Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Satur

day, 7/18, 8:30 a.m.)1.1 Disney’s Jungle Cubs Special (ABC, Saturday,

2:30 p.m.)1.1 Life With Louie (Fox, Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.)1.1 Science Court Special (ABC, Saturday, 12:35

p.m.)1.0 Bobby’s World (Fox, Monday-Friday, 7:00 a.m.)1.0 Disney’s Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Satur

day, 7/04, 8:00 a.m.)1.0 Incredible Hulk (UPN, Sunday, 9:30 a.m.)1.0 Ned’s Newt (Fox, Saturday, 8:00 a.m.)1.0 Superman (WB, Sunday, 8:30 a.m.)0.9 Disney’s Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Satur

day, 7/18, 8:00 a.m.)0.9 Ned’s Newt Special (Fox, Saturday, 8:00 a.m.)0.9 Pinky and the Brain (WB, Mon.-Fri., 4:00 p.m.)

Rating/Program (Network, Day, Time) Rating/Program (Network, Day, Time)

Note: Programming with Disney’s Saturday Morning block changes weekly, which explains the multiple listings of this pro-gram (dates are included for clarification).

ranked by Household Ratings. ARating is the percent of house-holds that tuned into the pro-gram. This percentage can pro-vide us with the number of house-holds that tuned into the programon average during the month.The universe estimate for the1997-98 television season in 98million TV homes. Each ratingpoint represents one percent ofthat universe, or 980,000 TVhomes. Translation: The Simp-sons, with an average 5.1 ratingfor the month of July, wasviewed in an almost 5 million(5.1 x 980,000) households. Thebelow ranking is an average forthe month of July 1998.Commercials

Spotlight. Hollywood-basedAcme Filmworks producedfour 15-second commercials forBankAtlantic, directed byRaimund Krumme (Passage).The spots use Krumme’s signa-ture black & white line art todepict a bank customer literallybattling with obstacles facedwhen dealing with the corpo-rate banking machine. . . . Lon-

don-based aka Pizazz createdthree 30-second animated spotsfor travel agency Lunn Poly/Thom-son. They were animated by MicGraves, Robin Shaw and Joris vanHulzen, using the Animo system,and will air in the U.K. . . . SanFrancisco-based Curious Pic-

tures and New Zealand-basedFlea Circus Films director JohnRobertson co-produced six sec-onds of character animation for aspot for office-supply manufactur-er Manco, Inc. It depicts the com-pany’s character, Manco T. Duckinteracting with a live-actionscene. . . . New York-based PixelLiberation Front created 3-Dcomputer animation for the open-ing sequence of an advertisementfor a new Acclaim Entertainmentvideo game called Forsaken.. . . .San Francisco-based Radium cre-ated 3-D animation and visualeffects for a spot introducing anenergy food bar called Boost. . . .New York-based studio QuietMan created visual effects for a 30-second Duracell ad entitledAnthem. The effects were generat-ed with a Flame system by effectsartist Johnnie Semerad under spotdirector Joe Pytka. . . . Boston-based Fablevision Studios creat-

ed thirteen animatedbumpers for Zoom, thenew (remake) live-actionkid’s series being pro-duced by WGBH. . . .Boston-based View-point Studios and Seat-tle-based Heck Yes! col-laborated on visualeffects and 3-D anima-tion for a DiscoveryChannel network pro-motion for “SharkWeek.” In the sequence,a shark’s fin is seen swim-ming out of the ocean,onto the shore, throughtown, into a viewer’s liv-ing room and rightthrough the televisionset. Animator PerryHarovas used Alias|Wavefront’s Maya to cre-ate the shark’s fin. . . . Video


Raimund Krumme’s Kick in the Shins spot for Bank Atlantic. Image courtesy of AcmeFilmworks.

Pocahontas in her natural state, above, and below,Pocahontas “transformed into a proper English lady” in

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World.© Walt Disney Enterprises.All Rights Reserved.

Pocahontas II In A Store NearYou. On August 25, Walt DisneyHome Video released PocahontasII: Journey to a New World, thedirect-to-video sequel to Disney’s33rd theatrical animated featurefilm, Pocahontas. The film wasproduced at Walt Disney Anima-tion Canada and Walt Disney Ani-mation Japan, and directed byBradley Raymond and Tom Ellery.Additional animation was done bySpaff Animation in Burbank, Cali-fornia. The voice cast features JeanStapleton, Billy Zane, DavidOgden Stiers and Linda Hunt. Poc-ahontas II: Journey to a NewWorld runs 72 minutes, and isbeing offered for U.S. $26.99(SRP).

Black Cauldron Bubbles Up.Walt Disney Home Video releasedDisney’s 25th animated feature,The Black Cauldron (1985) onvideo for the first time on August4. The 80-minute film was co-directed by Ted Berman andRichard Rich, during a period ofminimal success for Disney’s ani-mated features. It is the secondDisney feature to be filmed in70mm format, after SleepingBeauty. The video is priced at$26.99 (SRP).

Harvey To Turn Out 12 Pics In 3Years. Harvey Entertainment haslaunched a new business planwhich intends to produce 12direct-to-video products over thenext three years, commencing in1999. The company has two ani-mated videos coming out beforethen; Casper Meets Wendy andRichie Rich’s Christmas Wish willdebut this fall. Additional Harveycharacters which can be exploitedinclude Baby Huey, Little Audreyand Hot Stuff. Many of these char-

acters will be featured in ClassicHarvey Toons, an animated seriescomprised of Harvey’s library car-toons, on the new Fox Familychannel launching this month.Publications

Hot Of The Presses. Several newanimation-related books haverecently become available. RutgersUniversity Press has publishedReading the Rabbit: Explorationsin Warner Bros. Animation, a com-pendium of essays by Linda Simen-sky, Gene Walz, Michael Frierson,Donald Crafton and others, editedby Kevin S. Sandler. W.W. Norton &Company has published a revisededition of Michael O’Rourke’s Prin-ciples of Three-Dimensional Com-puter Animation. Additional bookswhich are scheduled to bereleased in the near future are ahow-to animation book by Aard-man Animations, Maureen Furniss’Art in Motion: Animation Aesthet-ics (John Libbey & Company), PaulWells’ Understanding Animation(Routledge) and Gene Walz’s Car-toon Charlie: The Life and Art ofAnimation Pioneer Charles Thor-son (Great Plains Publishing).[Gene Walz’s article about CharlesThorson can be found in the Sep-tember 1997 issue of AnimationWorld Magazine: http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.6/2.6pages/2.6walzthorson.html]

Many of these books will bereviewed in Animation WorldMagazine. Stay tuned to the Ani-mation Flash for information. Sup-port AWN! Buy books in the Ani-mation World Store, in associationwith Amazon[http://www.awn.com/awnstore/books].

Harvey Starts Publishing. TheHarvey Entertainment Company,

owners of the cartoon charactersCasper the Friendly Ghost, RichieRich, Baby Huey, Little Audrey,Lotta, Hot Stuff and Wendy theGood Little Witch, haveannounced plans to launch a newchildren’s publication in Novem-ber. The monthly, glossy printmagazine will be called Harvey,the Magazine for Kids and will costU.S. $2.95 per issue. Harvey Enter-tainment has hired Matty Simmons(of National Lampoon and WeightWatchers magazines) as publisherand Julie Lynch, former editor ofHeavy Metal magazine as editor.Music

Rhino Playing Space Ghost &Scooby. Rhino Records, whosecatalog already contains morethan 40 animation-related albums,will release two new music collec-tions of interest to animation fans.In August, Rhino debuted SpaceGhost Surf and Turf, a sequel tothe Musical BBQ album featuringsongs by the Cartoon Networkanimated talk show stars. In Sep-tember, Rhino will deliver ScoobyDoo’s Snack Tracks: The UltimateCollection featuring many never-before-released songs from theHanna-Barbera series. However,Rhino’s second “Simpsons” album,Go Simpsonic With the Simpsons,originally slated for a September 1release, has been indefinitely post-poned for unspecified reasons.

Go behind the scenes of SpaceGhost Coast to Coast in HeatherKenyon’s July 1998 cover story[http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.4/3.4pages/3.4kenyon.html].Internet & Interactive

Quick Bytes. HotWired is startinga web site devoted to showcasingprofessional and independentweb animation that can stand


alone as entertainment. Creatorswill be paid an honorarium forselected works. E-mail submissionsshould be sent to animations-sub-missions @hotwired.com. . . . Car-toon Network has launched itsweb site at www.cartoonnet-work.com. It features a series oforiginal web animation shortscalled “Web Premiere Toons,” anencyclopedia of cartoon informa-tion called “Department of Car-toons,” and a publication calledSaturday Morning Magazine, aswell as character home pages andgames. The site was developed byCartoon Network Online (headedby creative director Sam Register)in conjunction with New York-based design company, FunnyGarbage. . . . Clickable Magic haslaunched a new web cartooncalled The Hackit and HairballShow at:w w w. c l i c k a b l e m a g i c . c o m /hnh.html. The animated “talkshow” stars a cat named Hackitand a sidekick named Hairball. . . . Education

Craig Scholarship Gets Match-ing Donor. An anonymous donorhas agreed to sponsor a “match-ing challenge” to Women In Ani-mation’s Phyllis Craig ScholarshipFund, established in remembranceof the late animation color artistPhyllis Craig. The target date for acandidate to receive the first schol-arship is the year 2000. Any dona-tion made to the fund within thenext month will be automaticallydoubled. Donations are taxdeductible. Send your check to:Women In Animation Inc. PhyllisCraig Scholarship FundP.O. Box 17706, Encino, CA91416 U.S.A.Please mark the check clearly withthe note “Matching Funds Chal-lenge.”

Animation World Magazine pub-lished an extensive tribute to Phyl-lis Craig in the July 1998 issue[http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.4 /awm2.4pages/2.4tribute-craig. html].

Beware! Employment Scam. Aman going by the name of JohnConstantine Golfis is being investi-gated for a scamwhich has tricked near-ly half a million dollarsout of more than 50unsuspecting peopleand private corpora-tions. Through hiscompany Reel Images,LLC, Golfis has beencontacting job-seekingprofessionals in thecomputer graphicsand animation indus-try, and offering theman opportunity to workfor him out of theirhomes—on the condi-tion that they buy acomputer from him.Prospective employeeshave invested with thepromise that Golfis willpay for half of the com-puter, and upgrade it,for the duration of their

“employment.” On the flip side,Golfis has also obtained moneyfrom investors interested in anima-tion projects which were devel-oped by these prospectiveemployees. These crimes arebeing investigated by the FBI, theFCC and the IRS, as well as severallocal police departments. “Howev-er,” said David Scheid, “the investi-gators are not doing enough.”Scheid, a recent graduate of Tech-nology Development Center (TDC)in Ventura, California gave Golfis$5,000 for a computer which henever received, acting on a five-page employment agreement hehad with Reel Images. Golfis wasrecently working out of an officein Encino, California but is nowbelieved to be out of the state.One of TDC’s computer animationinstructors, Steve Nelle, said, “It’s ashame that someone would takeadvantage of young upstarts, whoare so eager to work in the indus-

try.” Anyone who hasinformation aboutGolfis should write toP.O. Box 965, Simi Val-ley, CA, 93062, U.S.A.

R&H ScholarshipAwarded. Los Angeles-based effects studio,Rhythm & Hues hasannounced the winnersof its third annual Com-puter Graphics Scholar-ship. The scholarship isintended to encourageand reward excellenceamong young artists inthe area of computergraphics. NormallyRhythm & Hues grantsthree digital cinematog-raphy, one modelingand one character ani-mation award whichare divided between


A caricature of PhyllisCraig by Mitch Schauer,

used in an actualepisode of Film Roman’s

Garfield and Friends.

The Hackit and Hairball Show.© 1998 Zoom Cartoons LLC and

Clickable Magic Inc.

the student and his edu-cational institution. Thisyear Rhythm & Huesawarded grants to DavidE. Smith and the Califor-nia Institute of the Arts inthe fields of both com-puter character anima-tion and digital cine-matography. This marksthe first time that therehas been a doubleaward winner. Erik Win-quist and the RinglingSchool of Art and Designreceived the only grantsin the digital cinematog-raphy category. Therewas no winner in thecomputer modeling cate-gory this year. The schol-arship is open to all stu-dents enrolled full-time inan accredited undergraduate orgraduate degree program withinsix months of the entry deadline.The deadline for the 1999 scholar-ship is June 1, 1999. For informa-tion on how to apply, visitwww.rhythm.com.

Animation Program Opens InOttawa. Ottawa, Canada, hometo the longest-running animationfestival in North America, will nowalso be home to a new animationtraining facility. The Ottawa Schoolof Art is launching a new Anima-tion Certificate program, designedfor students who want to create aportfolio appropriate for applica-tion to training programs such asAlgonquin, Capilano or Sheridancolleges. Enrollment will be limitedto 20 students who will be select-ed through a screening process.The application deadline for thisyear’s program is August 28. Forinformation visit:http://eaosa.ottawa.com.

MOMI Animators SchemeDeadline. The deadline to submitapplications for the annual Chan-nel 4/Museum of the MovingImage Animators Scheme wasAugust 22. Open to U.K.-residentrecent graduates of animation pro-grams, the scheme awards severalanimators with a three-month resi-dency in the museum studio and abudget to work on an animatedfilm. For information, call:(44) 0171 815-1376.

Animation World Magazine’s Octo-ber 1997 issue features an in-depth article about London’sMuseum of the Moving Image,including detailed informationabout the Animators Scheme[http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.7/2.7pages/2.7burrowsmomi.html].Call for Entries

“Queer” Animation Wanted.The 12th annual New York Les-bian and Gay Experimental

Film/Video Festival will takeplace November 18-22,1998 in New York City.Organizers are looking forhand-crafted animated filmsor videos involving “sexuali-ties which transgress theheterosexual norm, eithervia the sensibility of themaker or the subject matteror both.” For informationand applications, contactShawn Atkins [email protected] or(212) 921-0081. Or, sendVHS preview tapes directlyto: MIX Festival, 11 JohnStreet, Suite 408, New York,NY 10038 U.S.A. Attention:Shawn Atkins/AnimationProgram.

SPIFF’S Second Run. Thesecond Short Pictures InternationalFilm Festival (SPIFF) will take placeNovember 19-21 in Hollywood,California. The festival was origi-nally created by Joy A. Kennelly tohighlight short films, animation,music videos, and documentariescreated by Sony Pictures Image-works (SPI) employees. The pro-gram has been expanded to fea-ture works under 15 minutes inlength by all filmmakers. The entrydeadline is October 1, and the feeis $55. All proceeds from SPIFF willgo to children’s charities. For infor-mation and entry forms, visitwww.spiffest.com.

Leipzig. The 41st InternationalLeipzig Festival for Documentaryand Animated Films is scheduledto take place October 27-Novem-ber 1, 1998 in Leipzig, Germany.Several prizes are awarded for ani-mation, including cash prizes (lastyear’s winners were MikhailAldashin, Daniel Greaves,Walentin Olschwang, Alexander


Petrov and Craig Welch). Entriesshould be sent on VHS video cas-sette by September 5 to Dokfesti-val Leipzig, Elsterstr. 22-24, 04109Leipzig, Germany. For informa-tion, visit www.mdr.de/dokfestivalor e-mail [email protected]

Ideas in Animation, a monthly,San Francisco-based performanceseries that pairs animated filmswith live music by the SprocketEnsemble, is seeking submissions.New, completed films and works-in-progress, both non-commercialand commercial, from 2 to 20 min-utes in length will be considered.Honoraria will be paid for allworks shown. For information,contact Nik or Nancy Phelps at(415) 681-3189 or send filmsdirectly to Ideas in Animation,2066 30th Ave. San Francisco, CA94116-1148.

Second Shorts Film Fest. TheShorts International Film Festival isnow accepting entries for its sec-ond edition, to be held November9-11, 1998 at Sony Theatres Lin-coln Square in New York City. Theannual festival will feature six com-petition categories: Animation,Comedy, Documentary, Drama,Experimental and Student. Lastyear’s animation winner wasMichael Sporn’s Champagne. Theentry deadline is September 15.Films must be under 40 minutes.For information and entry forms,visit www.shorts.org or call (212)228-4085.Events

Last Month In AnimationThe following is a list of eventswhich took place since the lastissue of Animation World Maga-zine was published. These listingsare published weekly in the Ani-mation Flash, a newsletter which

is distributed by e-mail. Subscribenow! Are there animation eventsgoing on in your area? Share yourregional event news with theinternational readers of the Anima-tion Flash! Please send announce-ments to [email protected], at leasteight days in advance.

* July 31-August 9, 1998. Rio deJaneiro, Brazil.The annual animation festival,Anima Mundi took place. Pro-grams included retrospectives ofwork by Marv Newland, Erica Rus-sell, Georges Lacroix/Fantôme,layout artist Ray Aragon and Trat-toria Di Frame, an animation stu-dio from Sao Paulo. The festivalalso featured animation work-shops using the Video Lunchboxsystem. For information visitwww.animamundi.com.br/

Anima Mundi is reviewed in thisissue of Animation World Maga-zine.

* Thursday, August 6 - Sunday,August 16. Orange, California,U.S.A.Chapman University hosted thetenth annual Society for AnimationStudies conference. Events includ-ed tours of USC and Warner Bros.archives, a screening of films high-lighted in Karl Cohen’s book, For-bidden Animation and children’sanimation workshops at theOrange County Museum of Art.On the 13th-15th, there were pre-sentations of papers by scholarssuch as Ton Crone, Michael Frier-son, Tom Klein, Mark Langer, JohnA. Lent, Richard J. Leskosky, GeneWalz and others.

For information, visit the SAS website in Animation World Network[http://www.awn.com /sas]

Animation World Magazine willreview the 1998 SAS Conferencein an upcoming issue.http://www.awn.com/mag

* Wednesday, August 5 - Monday,August 10. Hollywood, California,U.S.A.The second annual HollywoodFilm Festival included three ani-mated films in competition: Returnof the Sun Devil by Steven Ayrom-looi, Boing by Jeff Daly and Maxand His Special Problem by DaveWasson. Screenings took place onthe Paramount Studios lot. Ticketswere $8.00. For information visithttp://hollywoodawards.com/indexmain.html or call (310) 288-1882

* Tuesday, August 11. Los Ange-les, California, U.S.A.At 7:30 p.m., UCLA Film and Tele-vision Archive’s Ninth Festival ofPreservation featured a programof films from the Animation Preser-vation Project, in association withASIFA-Hollywood. The programfeatured 18 films by the likes ofMax and Dave Fleischer, WalterLantz, Ub Iwerks, Tex Avery,George Pal, Hugh Harman, RudyIsing, Dick Heumer, Tony Sarg,Shamus Culhane, Art Davis,Michael Lah and Sid Marcus, thathave recently been restored by thearchive. The show also includedrare footage of the 1947 ScreenCartoonists Guild strike at Terry-toons Studio. The screening tookplace in the James Bridges Theateron the UCLA campus. Admissionwas $6.00 for adults, $4.00 forseniors and students. For a com-plete list of films, visit www.cine-ma.ucla.edu/festival/default.html.

Animation World Magazine’s April1998 issue includes an in-deptharticle about the UCLA Film and


Television Archive:[http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.1/3.1pages/3.1ucla.html]. Inaddition, the November 1997issue features an article aboutASIFA-Hollywood :http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.8/2.8pages/2.8crane_asifa.html

* Tuesday, August 11. Los Ange-les, California, U.S.A.Women In Animation Los Angeleshosted a mixer at Lumpy Gravy,the restaurant/gallery co-ownedby Gabor Csupo of Klasky Csupo.The event launched a series offundraising animation mixers thatwill take place on the secondTuesday of every month. Theevent will always feature the origi-nal “napkin cartoon” drink special:draw a cartoon on a napkin, get adiscount! Lumpy Gravy is locatedat 7311 Beverly Blvd. For informa-tion call (323) 934-9400.

* Tuesday, August 11 - Wednes-day, August 12. San Diego, Cali-fornia, U.S.A.The Pro/Con convention, an eventfor comics industry professionals,took place at the Hyatt Hotel, andthe Comic Book Expo, a tradeshow open only to industry pro-fessionals, took place at the SanDiego Convention Center, preced-ing the public event, Comic-Con(see below). For information visitwww.comic-con.org.

* Thursday, August 13 - Sunday,August 16. San Diego, California,U.S.A.The 29th International Comic-Contook place at the San Diego Con-vention Center. This massive eventwas, as always, open to the publicand featured hundreds of exhibit-ing companies and comic booksellers, screenings, workshops andpanel discussions such as the

WGA Animation Writers Caucus’“Summer Blockbuster to SaturdayMorning” on Saturday at 11:00a.m. Concurrently, the Comic ArtsConference, an academic eventfocused on comic studies, tookplace in the convention center.Presentation topics included“Comics as Therapy” and “WarComics as Literature and Propa-ganda.” For information on all thatis Comic-Con, visit www.comic-con.com or call (619) 544-9555.

* Friday, August 14 - Wednesday,August 19. Beijing, China.AnimWorld ‘98, the first Interna-tional Animation Art, Technology& Production Fair took place at theBeijing Exhibition Center. Focusedaround the theme “For Tomor-row,” the event featured exhibitingcompanies, screenings and work-shops. For information, contactthe China Great Wall ExhibitionCompany by phone (86) 1068748902 or fax (86) 1068748900.

This event will be reviewed by PaulMarcot in an upcoming issue ofAnimation World Magazine.Meanwhile, for a view of anima-tion in China, read Milt Vallas’ arti-cle, “China: The Awakening Giant”in the August 1998 issue :[http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.5/3.5pages/3.5vallas.html].

* Friday, August 14. Beverly Hills,California, U.S.A.The Academy of Motion PictureArts & Sciences hosted “Battle ofthe Apes,” a double-featurescreening of the first film version ofKing Kong (1933), with stop-motion animation by WillisO’Brien, and the original MightyJoe Young (1949), with stop-motion effects by Willis O’Brienand Ray Harryhausen. Tickets

were $5 for the general public, $3for Academy members. The doorsat 8949 Wilshire Blvd. opened at6:30 p.m. For information call(310) 247-3600.

* Friday, August 14 - Saturday,August 15, Los Angeles, California,U.S.A.At the Directors Guild of Americaheadquarters on Sunset Blvd. inHollywood, the U.S. tour of theResFest launched with a screeningof digital films. The programincluded such digitally-animateddelights as The Smell of Horror byMitch Butler and Roadhead byTommy Pallotta. Tickets were$8.00 each. For details, includingdates of future shows in San Fran-cisco and New York, visit www.res-fest.com

* Saturday, August 15. Los Ange-les, California, U.S.A.Women In Animation’s ComputerAnimation Group meets on thethird Saturday of every month atRhythm & Hues Studios, 5404Jandy Place in the Marina del Reyarea. This is a pot-luck lunch(12:00 noon) with great network-ing opportunities. Admission isfree to WIA L.A. members andnew joining members, $10 fornon-members. Call (310) 448-7500.

* Sunday, August 16. Berkeley,California, U.S.A. Pacific Film Archives hosted thepremiere public screening of WildBrain’s first original short film, ADog Cartoon, directed by DaveThomas. It was accompanied byTimothy Hittle’s Academy-Awardnominated animated short Can-head and the live-action docu-mentary The Mole People, abehind-the-scenes documentaryof the San Francisco animation


world by Bay Area filmmakers MattBoersma and Shari Rubin. All film-makers were present. The showbegan at 3:00 p.m. at the BerkeleyArt Museum Pacific Film Archive,2625 Durant Avenue in Berkeley.For information call (510) 642-3035.

* Tuesday, August 18. Venice, Cal-ifornia, U.S.A.Women In Animation Los Angelessponsored a motion-capturedemonstration and tour of theHouse of Moves studio in Venice.The event started at 7:00 p.m. andwas free. For information call(310) 399-2485.

* Tuesday, August 18 - Sunday,August 23. Burbank, California,U.S.A.ASIFA-Hollywood and Media CityCenter presented Anifest ‘98, aweek-long, FREE animation festi-val. Scheduled events includedevening presentations by produc-er Fred Seibert with Oh Yeah! Car-toons!, animator John Kricfalusiwith “Toons Too Hot for TV” includ-ing The Goddam George LiquorShow, director Genndy Tar-takovsky with Dexter’s Laboratory,and stop-motion animator CorkyQuakenbush who gave awayprops from his outrageous MADTV shorts in a “Space Bass GarageSale Giveaway.” Daytime eventsincluded presentations by voiceactors Nancy Cartwright (BartSimpson) and Lucille Bliss, com-poser Ron Jones, animation guruTom Sito, Disney animators onMulan, as well as many otherartists from Disney, Warner Bros.,DreamWorks and Film Roman. Fora complete schedule of events,contact ASIFA-Hollywood at (818)842-8330 or [email protected].

* Sunday, August 16 - Sunday,

August 30. Edinburgh, Scotland,U.K.The Edinburgh International FilmFestival showcased features,shorts, animation and documen-taries. For information [email protected].

* Wednesday, Aug 19. BeverlyHills, California, U.S.A.The Hollywood Radio and TV Soci-ety (HRTS) hosted the fourth annu-al Newsmaker Luncheon at theRegent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.Heads of children’s programmingwere present from networksincluding ABC, Cartoon Network,CBS, the Disney Channel, Fox Kids,NBC, Nickelodeon, PBS, Show-time, UPN and the WB, to show-case their fall line-ups. This eventwas sold out, however for infor-mation about future HRTS events,visit www.hrts-iba.org

* Wednesday, Aug 19. UniversalCity, California, U.S.A.The Screen Actors Guild (SAG)hosted a special meeting for itsmembers who are television ani-mation performers to review a ten-tative agreement with animationproducers such as Disney, WarnerBros. and DreamWorks, coveringvoice-over performers working intelevision animation. The meeting,open only to SAG members, tookplace at 6:30 p.m. at the SheratonUniversal Hotel.

* Wednesday, Aug 19. Harrison,New York, U.S.A.The Association of IndependentVideo Filmmakers toured the facili-ty of Blue Sky|VIFX as part of theirAugust meeting. The tour of thecomputer animation companywas open only to the AIVF mem-bership, and included a presenta-tion about the company, a walkthrough the facility and a mixer

with Blue Sky|VIFX CEO DavidBrown and producer MichaelFeder. Any professional industryorganization wishing to schedulea similar tour of the locationshould contact [email protected]

* Thursday, August 20. ShermanOaks, California, U.S.A.Women In Animation’s WritersGroup met at Warner Bros. TV Ani-mation, 15303 Ventura Blvd. Themonth’s topics were “New Devel-opment/Properties, Marketing &Merchandising and Standard/Prac-tices,” with speakers includingChristopher Keenan of WarnerBros. Admission was $10 for WIAL.A. members, $20 for non-mem-bers, RSVP required. Call (818)623-0020.

* Thursday, August 20 - Monday,August 24. Hiroshima, Japan.The 7th biennial Hiroshima Inter-national Animation Festival is oneof the leading animation festivals.AWN publisher Ron Diamond waspresent, and writer Gigi Hu will bereviewing the event for our Octo-ber issue. For information visitwww.urban.ne.jp/home/hiroan-im/

* Friday, August 21. Beverly Hills,California, U.S.A.Galerie Morpheus, located at9250 Wilshire Blvd., hosted theopening reception for an exhibi-tion of art work by ChristopheVacher, a background artist at WaltDisney Feature Animation. Theexhibit will be on display throughmid-September. Call (310) 859-2557.

* Saturday, August 22 - Sunday,August 23. Las Vegas, Nevada,U.S.A.The Classic Video Game Show and


Computer Exhibition took placeat the Holiday Inn BoardwalkHotel & Casino. Participants cel-ebrated the joys of Atari andother “vintage” gaming systems.For information visit www.atari-hq.com/atari98.

* Saturday, August 22 - Sunday,August 23. Toronto, Canada.Anime North, an annual animeconvention run by fans, tookplace. The program included ananime art and model show,panel discussions, gaming tour-naments, and special events like“Anime Jeopardy” and “AnimeName-That-Tune.” For informa-tion contact [email protected] orvisithttp://home.ipoline.com/~vegi-ta/an

* Sunday, August 23. Beverly Hills,California, U.S.A.Well, it’s sort of animation...DoveBrothers hosted an auction of mar-ionettes, artwork, memorabiliaand puppets from 50 years of Sid& Marty Krofft productions such asH.R. Pufenstuf. The event startedat 3:00 p.m. in the Beverly HiltonHotel, 9876 Wilshire Blvd. For acatalog, contact (800) 319-2759or visit www.dovebrothers.com.

Attention Animation Flash readers!Are there animation events goingon in your area? Share yourregional event news with theinternational animation communi-ty! Please send announcements [email protected], at least eightdays in advance. Awards

Gemini Noms. The Academy ofCanadian Cinema and Televisionhas announced the nominees forits annual Gemini Awards. The“Best Animated Program or Series”

nominees are: Arthur (Cinar Films),Ned’s Newt (Nelvana), Reboot(Mainframe Entertainment/Allia-nce), Sam and Max (Nelvana) andStickin’ Around (Nelvana/YTV).Nelvana’s Franklin is also nominat-ed in the “Best Pre-School Programor Series” category, along with sev-eral live-action shows. Note: Com-panies listed for each productionindicate the CANADIAN produceror co-producer attached to theshow. Winners will be announcedin October and subsequentlyincluded in the Animation Flash.

AICP Honors Animation. TheAssociation of Independent Com-mercial Producers recently present-ed their annual awards at theMuseum of Modern Art in NewYork City. The animation categoryequally honored three produc-tions. They are: Reebok: Foot Soldiers by CuriousPictures, directed by Paul Berry. Culligan’s Water Softener: StoneFamily by The End, directed byShaun Sewter.

Reebok: Pods by Le Village, direct-ed by Marc Caro.A compilation of the winning AICPcommercials is now touring theworld with shows scheduled forU.S. cities as well as Russia,Poland, China, Japan and theCzech Republic. For show dates &locations, visit:www.aicp.com.

Emmy Noms. The nominees forthe 1998 Primetime Emmy Awardswere announced on July 23 bythe Academy of Television Arts &Sciences (A.T.A.S.). The 1998Primetime Emmy Awards will besplit into two presentations: a cer-emony in Pasadena on August 29and a telecast on September 13 inLos Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium.Animation-related winning showswill be named in the subsequentAnimation Flash newsletter. Thecategory for “Outstanding Animat-ed Program (For programmingone hour or less)” includes fournominations: Cow And Chicken - “Free Inside,Journey To The Center Of Cow,


Foot Soldiers by Curious Pictures, directed by Paul Berry.Image courtesy of Curious Pictures.

I.R. Pixie Faerie” (Hanna-Bar-bera/Cartoon Network).Dexter’s Laboratory - ”Dyno-might& Lab-retto” (Hanna-Barbera/Car-toon Network).King Of The Hill - ”Texas CityTwister” (Film Roman/Fox).The Simpsons - ”Trash Of TheTitans” (Film Roman/Fox).South Park - “Big Gay Al’s Big GayBoat Ride” (Comedy Central).

In addition to this award,A.T.A.S.’ Animation Peer Groupvotes on individual achievementjuried awards. They selected HankAzaria as “Outstanding Voice-OverPerformance” for his role as “Apu”on The Simpsons (Fox) and for the“Outstanding Individual Achieve-ment in Animation” category, pro-duction designer Eric Radomskiwas selected for his work onSpawn (HBO).

There has been somerecent controversy about theA.T.A.S. animation peer groupbecause Walt Disney TV and TVAnimation president CharlesHirschhorn recently applied for aposition in this peer group—which would give him the right tovote for the best animated pro-gram Emmy. In a turn of eventsdetailed in Daily Variety (8/10/98),ATAS reportedly rejectedHirschhorn’s application, and sub-sequently, Disney “threatened toyank a $12,000 ad from Emmymagazine, which is published byATAS.” After some polling and scuf-fling, ATAS then decided to giveHirschhorn the voting position,and Disney reinstated the maga-zine ad. The resulting opinion ofsome industry executives, includ-ing members of the peer group, isthat Hirschhorn “bought” his vote.The complete list of peer grouprequirements is available on theweb site, www.emmys.org.

Anima Mundi Winners. TheAnima Mundi festival has had itsfull run in Rio de Janeiro and SaoPaulo, Brazil. This is a festival atwhich the audience is the jury. Ineach city, the audience selects dif-ferent films, but this year’s selec-tions were surprisingly similar.

Rio de Janeiro selected:Best Film: Geri’s Game by JanPinkava, U.S.A.Second Best Film: Flat World byDaniel Greaves, U.K.Best Film for Children: Es WirdRegen Geben by Benedikt Nie-mann, Germany.Best Computer Animation: Una Nitby Jordi Moragues, Spain.

Sao Paulo selected:Best Film: Geri’s Game by JanPinkava, U.S.A.Second Best Film: Flat World byDaniel Greaves, U.K.Best Children Film: Duel by PavelKoutsky, Canada.Best Computer Animation: Una Nitby Jordi Moragues, Spain.

The “Best Brazilian Animation”prize is voted on by both audi-ences. The winner is O Espantalhoby Ale Abreu, Brazil.

Don’t miss our review of AnimaMundi in this issue!


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OOnn AA DDeesseerrtt IIssllaanndd WWiitthh.. .. .. .. TTVV TToooonn TTaalleennttsscompiled by Wendy Jackson and Russell Bekins

PPaassccaall MMoorreellllii’’ss PPeeooppllee PPiicckkss::For his stay on a desert island, Pascal decided that he didnÕt just want to watch animated movies, he want-

ed to be shipwrecked with five animation creators. One presumes that it would be handy to have an animation stu-dio tucked away somewhere on the sandy waste, but what they might come up with is anyoneÕs guess. Here is hislist of fellow castaways:

1. Bob Clampett Òbecause heÕs the best of his kind.Ó2. Hayao Miyazaki for The Castle Cagliostro. ÒItÕs fun, enjoyable; itÕs the best of Japanese, and it shows his poten-tial.Ó3. John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren and Stimpy, Òfor obvious reasons.Ó4. Joe Horn for his work on Stevie and Zoia. ÒIt shows that everything can be done for no money; itÕs great poormanÕs animation.Ó5. Peter Chung for Aeon Flux Òbecause itÕs totally the opposite of Joe Horn.ÓÒItÕs a shame thereÕs no women on the list,Ó muttered Morelli.

BBoobbss GGaannnnaawwaayy’’ss FFaavvoorriitteess::1. Feed The Kitty (Warner Bros.).2. Charlie BrownÕs Christmas (Bill Melendez Produc-tions).3. The SorcererÕs Apprentice (Disney).4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (MGM).5. Scaredy Cat (Warner Bros.).6. Magical Maestro (MGM).7. Mechanical Monsters (Fleischer).8. Dumbo (Disney).9. Cats DonÕt Dance (Turner). [Incidentally, Robertswas a writer on this film.]10. Toy Story (Disney/Pixar).

Added Roberts, ÒPlus, any Buster Keaton. HeÕsmore animated than most of todayÕs cartoons.Ó

TToonnyy CCrraaiigg’’ss TToopp TTeenn::1. Any Good Times Entertainment animated videoknock off.2. Fat AlbertÕs Halloween Special (Filmation).3. Pinocchio & The Emperor of the Night (Filmation).4. The Tiny Clowns of Happytown. [EditorÕs note: WecanÕt find anything on this one...perhaps Tony dreamedthis one up!?]5. Cool Cat (Warner Bros.).6. Swan Princess II: Escape From Castle Mountain(Rich Animation).7. The title sequence from Gremlins 2, directed byChuck Jones (Warner Bros./Amblin).8. Rubik, The Amazing Cube, the hour-long special(1983 TV series, producer unknown).9. Gene DeitchÕs Popeye extravaganza.10. Vegas Vacation. (It wasnÕt animated, but by God itwas hilarious!)

This month, we asked three people related to this issueÕs theme of television animation whatfilms they would want to have with them if stranded on a desert island. Pascal Morelli is directorof the new animated series Corto Maltese, featured on the cover of this issue. Tony Craig andRoberts Gannaway are both executive producers at Walt Disney Television Animation, where theywork on animated series such as 101 Dalmatians, MouseWorks and Timon & Pumbaa.


This month we are going around the world as we look at independent filmmakers.Rada Sesic is going to discuss the animation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while AndreaMartignoni will take a look at current Italian independent filmmakers. Philippe Moinsis profiling South African animator William Kentridge. Plus, Marie Beardmore willexamine the current market for independents. On the Commercials side of the issue,Karen Raugust is going to take a look at the popular animated frogs and wise-crackinglizards of Anheuser-BuschÕs successful advertising campaign for ÒBud-weis-erÓ beer.We are also going to hear from directors who explain why they enjoy being both inde-pendent filmmakers and commercial directors.

Barry Purves will grace us with yet another production diary and Glenn Vilppu willshed a little more light on life drawing. The 7th Hiroshima International AnimationFestival and the Beijing Expo, along with the Society for Animation StudiesÕ recentpow-wow, will all be reviewed. In addition, Jerry Beck will review Dave WassonÕsnew Oh Yeah! Cartoons! short, Max and His Special Problem.

Independent Filmmakers,October 1998

Independent Filmmakers (October)

Licensing and Merchandising (November)

Family Animation (December)

Animation World Magazine1998 Calendar

september 1998 television & post-production · vol. 3 issue 6 september 1998 television &...

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