News on the Web - May 2004

May 31, 2004
First Look: 'Polar Express'
USA Today (also here) notes, “When moviegoers take a ride on The Polar Express this November, they'll see a new film technology that director Robert Zemeckis likens to an oil painting. The effect makes the film experience like watching the pages of the classic Christmas story come alive. 'I wanted it to look like a movie in an oil painting, then have all the warmth, immediacy and subtleties of a human performance,' Zemeckis says in this first look at the movie. ... The classic children's tale by Chris Van Allsburg is about a boy who takes a night train to visit Santa in the North Pole.” It then describes the motion capture process used to film the actors and how they are integrated into the backgrounds. “To achieve the artistic effect, Zemeckis called upon a team of artists led by Doug Chang, who created the palette for the way the images will look, based on Van Allsburg's distinctive illustrations.”

Redford, Tippett and Monsters
The Alameda (California) Times-Star has this interview with Phil Tippett, the special effects legend whose company Tippett Studios has been around for 20 years. The occasion of the article is that his “first film as director, Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, debuts on DVD and VHS Tuesday,” and his wife Jules, who“runs the studio. 'She's my boss and my wife,' Tippett, 53, says. 'There's a line from Chinatown in there somewhere. It works out pretty well.' Perseverance and keeping things fun are among his secrets to success. 'You try to keep a sense of humor and laugh, and hopefully hook up with the right playmates who are like-minded,' he says. The trick for Starship Troopers 2 was to keep moving. The 1997 original cost $140 million. The sequel was budgeted at $6 million. 'We moved very, very quickly,' Tippett says. 'That was extremely painful, particularly toward the end. I shot with two cameras the entire time. ... Essentially, I used a Robert Altman model, with a camera on all the time.'”

Digital Art: Paychecks
San Francisco Business Times has this article on “Emeryville's Ex'pression College for Digital Arts [which] expects to more than double its revenue from 2001 to 2004 as talent demand from multimedia players like Pixar, Electronic Arts and Industrial Light and Magic ramps up. Started by Dutch billionaire Eckart Wintzen and current Ex'pression President Gary Platt in 1999, the school fed the voracious demand for technically savvy workers during the dot-com boom. But even after that bubble burst, the for-profit company has prospered by catering to a growing demand for workers to help on movies driven by computer graphics and video games rich in visual and audio detail. ... That growth will come in part from a new plan, unveiled in May, to offer bachelor's, rather than associate, degrees. But college founders and placement staff also chalk it up to a hot job market in video games and digital cinema, as well as to the strengthening over time of Ex'pression's reputation. ''Finding Nemo changed the entire landscape in the movie business, and everyone wants to make a Nemo,' said Platt. 'It had a huge impact. It's been a big thing for us.'

What Have We Learned, Smarty Jones?
Will Hickman in his current Knot Magazine sports column ends by ruminating on this childhood passion for Charlie Brown TV specials. He begins by recalling that, “When I was little, I had a lot of cartoon movies on tapes, as little kids tend to do. In particular, I had, I think, every Peanuts special ever made, which is impressive, because there are a lot of them, including one for every single holiday. (It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown!) Anyway, my favorite by far of these, which I watched regularly, all year round, was a decidedly weird film entitled What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? In it, the Peanuts gang goes to France, and Snoopy drives them around in a little French car that regularly electrocutes him for some reason. They spend most of their time lost. Then, abruptly, they wind up at Omaha Beach in Normandy. Linus proceeds to describe the D-Day invasion to Charlie Brown, in detail that would make Spielberg proud, while the animation changes from the typical warm Charles Shulz variety to something that looks like it was lifted from Pink Floyd's The Wall.”

In Brief: Arthur's Magic & Shrek 2's David Lipman
The Independent in this brief article on Cinesite, reports, “The British film animation and special effects industry has turned into a £1.4bn business thanks to the success of blockbusters such as the latest Harry Potter movie and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .... Cinesite, one of the UK's top three post-production houses, said yesterday that it plans to double its workforce to cope with a huge increase in work from Hollywood giants such as Warner and Walt Disney. The company, part of the Kodak group, is supplying all 500 visual effects shots for the Jerry Bruckheimer epic King Arthur.” ... The Australian has this short interview with David Lipman, “the Australian-bred and South African-born [Hollywood animation producer who] returned to Sydney for the first time in eight years to spruik his latest blockbuster, the animated hit Shrek 2. 'I desperately wanted to go to film school ... but they told me I was too young so I went to an arts college instead,' said Lipman, who made his first animation by hand on a Super 8 camera. ... Lipman says there are talks for a third instalment, but he won't be involved. Last word? 'I'm all Shrekked out.'”

May 30, 2004
Faith, Hope and Anime
Jeffrey Rotter in The New York Times has this review of Breaking the Habit, the final music video from Linkin Park's Meteora album directed by “Kazuto Nakazawa (credited here as Nakazawa), a Japanese anime master best known in this country for his work in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Vol. 1. ... Breaking the Habit looks like a video game programmed by German expressionists, with flat, ghoulish figures floating through a densely layered landscape.” He concludes by saying, “Breaking the Habit may be morally simplistic, but it's a blast to watch. This is a thrilling video, elegantly animated and compellingly paced. And Mr. Nakazawa was a shrewd choice for a band whose largely adolescent audience is already interested in anime. Furthermore, his style is a good aesthetic sparring partner for the band — where Linkin Park blends dark emotions with shiny pop, Mr. Nakazawa's animation contrasts cartoon cuteness with a grim view of humanity. And anime, unlike live action, gives Linkin Park's treacly message enough ironic distance to make it palatable to teens. Best of all, Breaking the Habit makes reclaiming your life seem fun and easy.”

Tails from the Toffee That's Good for You
Scotland on Sunday has this interview with children's writer Marghanita Hughes, whose creation, Toffee the Highland calf “is about to become a household name in her homeland when her animated adventures hit the small screen. Narrated by Monarch of the Glen’s Hamish Clark (who plays Duncan), also possessed of big soft eyes and unruly curls, the series is to be on air 'very soon', confides Hughes. 'It won’t be long now. There are 13 episodes to begin with. Hamish’s narration is captivating and children are completely absorbed by it. The animation is going to be big, it’s an enormous leap for us and it’s a little scary just thinking about it,' she says.”

May 29, 2004
In Brief: PBS Kids' Channel, 'Hum Tum' & Nataraj Pencils
Current reports, “PBS is talking with the producers of Barney & Friends and Sesame Street [HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop] about creating a digital cable network for preschoolers that would earn license fees from cable operators. The channel, co-branded with local stations, would replace the existing PBS Kids service that 74 stations now air as a DTV multicast service.” The service would be expected to include a healthy dose of animated programming. ... India Abroad has this review by Tanmaya Kumar Nanda of Kunal Kohli's Hum Tum, a movie which “is interspersed by the animated characters of Hum and Tum [pictured], which Karan has created and syndicates for a newspaper, who argue constantly about the gender divide. The animated characters effectively are the Sutradhars who inject debate into the narrative. Here, they merely move the story along a seven-year timeline. As a narrative device, they add little, even though Kohli must be cheered for the experiment. If anything, in fact, the cartoons prove that Indian animation is as good as any in Hollywood and credit for the execution must go to Prakash Nambiar of Kathaa Animations.” ... According to Indian Television, “Using 2D animation technique to depict the strength of Nataraj pencils over its counterparts, O&M Mumbai has recently released new television commercials for its client Hindustan Pencils. On the decision to prefer animation over live-action, [O&M senior creative director Sumanto] Chattopadhyay said, 'Our scripts called for animation. And since children are part of the target audience, we felt it would add the fun element that would appeal to them. We all felt that working on a category like this allows one to think in a childlike manner. And to be creative in any sphere you have to, in any case, tap into the child inside.'”

May 28, 2004
‘Shrek' Sticks a Fork in Disney Mythos
Shrek 2 The Santa Cruz Sentinel columnist Wallace Baine says, “These are bleak days for the Disney empire. Top man Michael Eisner is making more enemies than Donald Rumsfeld. After a rebirth in the 1990s, Disney’s great animation division is close to comatose. Its partnership with Pixar (Toy Story, Finding Nemo) has dissolved. And, on top of all that, there’s Shrek 2. DreamWorks’s huge hit animation, which opened to record box office last week, takes a few overt swipes at Disney icons. But more fundamentally, it is an attempt to forever bury the Disney mythos, which not only informed Disney movies, but reinforced the American Dream as well.”

Disney Cartoon Sequels Could Damage Pixar — Analyst
According to The Hollywood Reporter (here and here), “In a private meeting this week with a leading Wall Street analyst, Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner confirmed earlier company statements that the studio has several sequels in the works to the blockbuster films Pixar has created for the company. While analyst Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch apparently regards that as a positive for Disney, she cautions that such sequels could have an 'adverse impact' on Pixar, which called off contract extension talks with Disney in January, ending a partnership that resulted in such hits as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. The unproven writing and graphics quality of Disney's work with computer-guided-image animation may have an unintentional 'contagion' impact since consumers may subconsciously associate these films as Pixar product,; Reif Cohen said.”

'Strindberg and Helium,' a Sweet Flowering of Youthful Creativity
Absinthe and Women The New York Times has this story by John Rockwell about “four miniature animated films viewable on the Internet under the title [August] Strindberg and Helium .... I find these films, which can be seen and heard free on www.strindbergandhelium.com, funny and sweet and adorable. They were conceived by two members of a San Francisco comedy troupe called Killing My Lobster, most of whom went to Brown University in the mid-90's. Erin Bradley, who wrote the text, is the voice of Helium, and James Bewley is Strindberg. The films were animated by Eun-Ha Paek, who is part of a computer graphics collective called Milky Elephant, then in San Francisco, now in Brooklyn. Strindberg's words are drawn from his novel Inferno and his Occult Diary. Some reasonable (if humorless) people might find Strindberg and Helium trivial. For me, these films represent a delicious skewering, affectionate and satirical, of European dead-white-male pretensions by American pop culture by way of Japanese anime (its not far from Helium to Kitty, as in Hello, Kitty), with no slight, and all due deference, to Europe, Japan or the United States.”

Simpsons' Episode Assailing Patriot Act Will Rank Among Program's Classics
Frederick B. Meekins in Michnews.com writes, “The Simpsons is a series at its wittiest when it pokes fun at issues with broader social implications. Classic episodes that come to mind include the ones spoofing the Masons, the UFO cult, and Homer's Drudge-style webpage. Joining these will no doubt be the one alluding to the Patriot Act.” He concludes, “For years, Conservative interest groups have castigated The Simpsons as inappropriately subversive. Instead, Conservatives ought to look to the show as a source of satire occasionally allied with their movement exposing in a humorous manner the folly and stupidity regularly gaining an upper hand throughout society as a result of misguided policies and faulty assumptions inherent to the liberal way of life.”

May 27, 2004
Plea for Subsidy to Motivate Animators
Peppa Pig According to The Financial Times, “The [British] animation industry is calling for public funding to support home-grown productions, arguing that the sector behind global favourites such as Wallace & Gromit and Bob the Builder is losing out to subsidised foreign cartoons. The Producers' Alliance for Cinema & Television [Pact] launched the campaign on behalf of British animators yesterday as new data revealed UK output accounted for just 20 per cent of all animation transmitted on terrestrial television last year. ... John McVay, Pact's chief executive, said UK animators were not just having to compete against subsidised products from other countries but were also being forced into co-productions with companies already benefiting from such help. UK animators were then being forced to sign away intellectual property rights to overseas co-production partners because of their greater financial contribution. For example, under the terms of a co-production agreement the merchandising rights for Watership Down belong to a Canadian company.” The story in The Guardian concludes, “Pact will argue in presentations to the government that animation, easier to export than other language-based productions, could improve the trade balance. The plan could increase new animation, from 30 hours a year to 80 by 2005.” See also the Pact announcement and the Optima Report.

Color Chips To Set Up Base In Philippines
The Financial Express reports, “Color Chips India Ltd, engaged in 2D and 3D animation, has proposed to open a wholly-owned subsidiary in the Philippines to augment its current capacity and to facilitate timely completion of ongoing projects. ... When contacted, Sudish Rambotla, the company’s chairman and managing director said that two new projects from overseas companies have called for an additional manpower apart from advanced technologies. ... The company had recently recruited a batch of 50 professionals in the Philippines and they were brought to its Hyderabad centre to supervise the ongoing projects of the company, apart from helping the 400-member team of the company.” This is certainly not the first time an Indian studio has turned to the Philippines for help and, given the severe talent shortage plaguing the Indian industry, it will probably not be the last.

In Brief: Teen Arrested for Cartoon, Mayfair Animator & Disney & Pixar After Divorce,
Camp Chaos Bay City News reports (here and here), “A 14-year-old Walnut Creek [California] boy was handcuffed and arrested at Walnut Creek Intermediate School on Wednesday for an animated cartoon he posted on the Internet that officials determined was threatening to teachers. The boy's mother, Karen Hamadanyan ... described the cartoon as 'South Park-quality satire.' and said, 'I don't particularly like it and I don't like the language but he is a graphic artist. Parts of it were actually funny.'” ... Northeast Philadelphia News Gleaner has this short profile of Anthony Tobin, a Mayfair resident who “is one of the animators for VH1's second season of Camp Chaos [pictured]. ... Tobin animated background and props for the series using the program Flash.” ... MTV has this rundown of the animation plans for both companies after the parting of the ways, including summaries of such films as Disney 's Chicken Little, as well as Pixar's next two films, The Incredibles and Cars.

May 26, 2004
Welcome to Planet Pixar
This month's cover story in Wired has this cover story on Pixar, which describes the studio's history and philosophy in some detail; it also talks about Brad Bird [pictured] and his much-anticipated first CGI film, The Incredibles, and starts, “When Brad Bird arrived at Pixar in 2000, the first director ever recruited from the outside, he was skeptical about the company's reputation as an animator's paradise. You can't blame him. Already an industry legend for getting The Simpsons and King of the Hill off the ground, Bird was furious with Warner Bros. for botching the release of his labor of love, The Iron Giant. 'They were closing down the animation division while we were still working on it,' he says. 'Every week there another exec would be gone. When they released the film, we didn't even have a poster!' So on Bird's first day at Pixar he showed up with a video camera and recorded everything, from the reception desk to the view from his office. He wanted evidence Pixar wouldn't disappear beneath his feet. ... 'The knees of Pixar are trembling under the weight of my ignorance,' he says .... 'If you were to list the 20 hardest things to do in CG, I ordered double portions of all of them: hair, hair underwater, fire, explosions, humans, human clothing, clothing falling through the air,' he says. 'I was told by some that what I wanted was impossible, that it would cost 10 gazillion dollars and take 10 years. Fortunately there was another group that said: Bring it on.'”

Figures to Marvel at as DVD Deal Struck
Marvel Comics characters According to The Toronto Star, “Coming straight to home video: Marvel comic-book characters in Canadian-made animation. Marvel Enterprises, which owns a library of 4,700 characters, including Spider-Man, X-Men and Captain America, announced a deal with Vancouver-based Lions Gate Entertainment that gives the filmmaker rights to characters in exchange for a share of profits from eight DVD movies. In addition to paying licensing fees for character rights, Lions Gate will pay to produce, distribute and market the films while Marvel will play a large role in creating content. The first of the films is scheduled to be released toward the end of 2005.” See also story in The Vancouver Sun, which notes Marvel will spearhead creative development and production, choosing the animation studio(s) that may or may not include Lions Gate's Montreal-based animation wing, CineGroupe.”

Kronos Asks What Music Looks Like
Steven Winn has this review in The San Francisco Chronicle of “Last weekend's Visual Music concerts by the Kronos Quartet” which tried to take on the question of “What do we see, if anything, when we listen to music?” The program was “accompanied by lush video, classic cartoon snippets (seemingly limited by a technical misfire on opening night), a projected musical score, color-saturated lighting and movable musical sculptures.” He also delves briefly into the history of visual music, including Disney's Fantasia, and concludes by saying, “Music's ability to move, amuse, infuriate and inspire is a complex matter. Somehow, whether it's as murky as a half-remembered dream or as sharply etched as a Disney cartoon, our visual apparatus must play some role in the sensory overtones it sets off. We're listening, consciously or not, with eyes wide shut.”

The War Culture
In this Sophists.org essay, Manuel Valenzuela says, “It is the barrage of cartoons and movies such as those marketed by Disney that are conditioning our society to accept violence, death, destruction and by consequence the wars draped in the American flag. Why is it that every single Disney animated film must engage its characters in battle, war, conflict, death and violence? Why is every story and plot infused with battles only solved by violent clash? It is these forms of storylines that make it acceptable for our young to imitate and indeed believe that human society relies on Disney-like solutions to fantasy-filled problems. Disney characters seemingly always wage violent conflict with each other, pitting good versus evil, with the desired outcome always assured as long as violence is the means by which it is achieved. Why must violence be such an incessant ingredient to Disney’s success, to the great detriment of our children and society? Is the War Culture so immersed and addicted to violence that even the perceived creators of goodness and happiness must flood the big screen with a violence that has been a part of the human condition since the beginning of time?”

In Brief: House of the Rising CG Artist, Anime Ascent, Pixar's Fence,
The Asahi Shimbun reports, “The Osaka prefectural and municipal governments, together with about 10 companies, plan to launch a project called Digital Tokiwaso to support young computer graphic animators. The project is based in name and spirit on the legendary Tokyo apartment house that produced a host of famous cartoonists, including Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka, in the post-war period. The cartoonists said that sharing the same roof enabled them to constantly encourage and inspire each other. ... Metro Newspapers, in providing this preview of the 10th annual FanimeCon, which takes place in San Jose over Memorial Day weekend, it concludes by noting, “The convention takes place simultaneously with the rerelease of the original Godzilla. Gojira ought to be the convention's mascot. Like the King of Monsters, anime was, at first, misunderstood, carelessly dubbed by idiots and disrespected by critics. And like Gojira, it's seemingly invincible.” ... The Oakland Tribune reports, “A controversial fence around the Pixar campus will stay when the company expands with three office buildings and a six-story parking garage, despite neighbors' protests. The Emeryville City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the planned 20-year expansion.”

May 25, 2004
'Shrek 2': Sequels & Relaxation Technique
Reuters reports, “Record-breaking Shrek 2 cast a bigger box-office spell than first imagined, convincing distributor DreamWorks SKG that even grumpy green ogres can live happily after — at least for two more sequels. ... The head of DreamWorks animation, Ann Daly, said that with the success of Shrek 2 the studio would move ahead, one at a time, with plans for a third and fourth installment. ... Daly said DreamWorks was in final talks with the principal voice actors to return, including Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz as the newlywed green ogres with horn-shaped ears, Eddie Murphy as the talking Donkey, and Antonio Banderas as the swashbuckling Puss in Boots.” ... Back Stage has this interview with John Cleese, which goes beyond his voice work as the king in Shrek 2. In talking about voice work, he says, “Ninety-nine percent of the time you're absolutely on your own and very dependent on the director to tell you exactly what's going on, since it exists in his head. By and large, it doesn't really exist outside of his head. It hasn't been animated yet.”

Indian Animators Ride Outsourcing Wave
According to Reuters (also here), “In films, television shows and electronic games, latecomer India has started to gain favour over more established animation centres such as Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and the Philippines. India is winning animation contracts for the same reasons it has become such a hot outsourcing destination for other industries: lower costs, a large English-speaking workforce and a track record in meeting Western companies' technology needs. ... Diversification by big Indian entertainment firms into animation, and players backed by large companies such as Tata's Elxsi, Reliance's Paradox and the Escorts Group's Escotoonz, will also help boost growth. But analysts remain sceptical. 'Not many firms have gone beyond being a sweatshop,' said Apurva Shah, an analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher. 'I think it's tough for an Indian firm to be another Pixar.'” ... Meanwhile, Webindia123.com notes, In what may be the first of its kind Hindi film where an animated character will act alongside actors, Friends Forever is one such film. The film has an animated character named Zampano, who will act with Bollywood celebrities, Hrishita Bhatt and Ashmit Patel. Zampano is a mischievous, fun-loving character.”

May 24, 2004
'Shrek 2' Lands Far, Far and Away Ahead of Summer Pack
Shrek 2 Hollywood seems to delight in tripping over box office numbers when new records are made; thus, Box Office Mojo exclaims, “A fractured fairy tale broke records as it mended a heretofore soft summer. The widest release ever yielded the biggest single day gross ever, the highest bow ever for an animated movie (topping Finding Nemo's $70.3 million), the second best weekend ever (behind only Spider-Man's $114.8 million) and the first uber-opening of the summer. The $70 million Shrek 2 raked in a whopping $108.0 million over the weekend at 4,163 theaters, bringing its five-day haul to $129.0 million since debuting Wednesday — the third biggest 5-day bow ever.” It also reports that polling by DreamWorks indicated Shrek 2 was attracting a much wider audience than the original film. It adds, “Shrek 2 is now well-positioned to become the #1 movie of the summer [and] is on a $330 million plus trajectory.” See also The Hollywood Reporter story.

A Demure Pixar Takes No Notice of Eager Suitors
Finding Nemo According to The New York Times (also here), “Coy is rarely a word used to describe Steven P. Jobs. So it is more than a little surprising that he seems almost uninterested in finding a new partner for his Pixar Animation Studios once its joint venture with the Walt Disney Company ends next year.” It notes that he has so far declined invitations by such companies as Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. “According to one of those executives who asked not to be named, Mr. Jobs told him 'he was not ready to talk.' ... Many analysts, and even some of Disney's competitors, say what Mr. Jobs wants most is to remain with Disney. Pixar's family-oriented films are a natural fit with Disney's wholesome image, and are easy to market alongside stalwart Disney characters like Cinderella. ... The problem, according to people who know both [Jobs and Disney CEO Michael Eisner] is whether the two can reconcile their fractured relationship.” This problem could be solved, it notes, if Roy Disney's efforts to oust Eisner succeeds. Also, Jobs does not really have to make a decision on what to do until early next year.

Are the Airline's Animated Ads Any Good?
United Lightbulb commercial Slate has this review by Seth Stevenson of the United Airlines animated commercials, which he initially did not like. “But after I thought on it some more, I started to like the campaign. For one, it's gorgeous. In terms of sheer visual splendor, no other ad out now comes close. Each spot was made by a different animator (or animators), and each animator has either won or been nominated for an Academy Award. The rose-for-mom spot, in particular, is breathtaking. Russian artist Alexander Petrov paints on a pane of glass, using his fingers. He photographs the painting and then — before the paint dries — swishes and swoops it around to create the next frame in the sequence. The effect is slurrily enchanting. As for the light bulb spot [by Joanna Quinn] (and I found this somehow even more impressive), the entire thing is simply hand-drawn with a No. 2 pencil. (The color in the light bulbs was added later.)” See also USA Today story on these commercials.

In Brief: Social Consciousness & History of Children's TV
The Daily Star reports,“[Bangladeshi] multi-media company Shailee Digital Prakashoni will soon launch Chhutir Diney — an educational cartoon script to develop the moral sense in our children. This is a presentation of live, 3-D and 2-D animation on CD.” There are several components to the story and notes, The last attraction is a wonderful presentation in 3-D animation of Tagore's famous song Megher koley rod heshechhe. ... Chhutir Diney is a powerful tool to promote moral values amongst children. However, the question is whether it will be accessible to the downtrodden children of our country as well .” ... Voice of America has posted this transcript of a broadcast giving “a history of children's television in the United States.” It's all rather brief, but does cover the role of animation.

May 23, 2004
The Season Finale That Isn't a Season Finale
The New York Times notes, “The episode of The Simpsons that will be shown tonight at 8, the finale of the Fox hit's 15th season, includes pointed social satire, Capraesque small-town sentiment, broad physical humor and sly self-referential jokes. What it doesn't have, in a time when sitcoms like Friends and Frasier featured plot arcs that played out over the course of a year, is any reference to the fact that it's the last show of the season. In The Simpsons, everything is neatly tied up at the end of an episode. ... That consistency is one reason the show is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history.” The story goes on to discuss how the show is written and includes interviews with executive producer Al Jean and Don Payne, who wrote tonight's episode.

In Brief: Crest Rides High & Ryan Laney
News Today reports, “Mumbai-based Crest Communication Limited has posted gross revenue of Rs 17.77 crore [US$3.92 million] and incurred a net loss of Rs 16.91 crore [$3.73 million]. Adjusting for extraordinary items for expenditure, the company sustained a loss of Rs 1.97 crore [$435,000] at the operating level. ... In what has been an investment phase to build itself as one of the leading CGI (computer generated images) studios, the company had to deploy over $10 million in a continuous manner. Besides, it has scaled up from a team of six animators to the present 250 in the last three years.” ... The Plainview (Texas) Daily Herald has this profile of Ryan Laney, a 32-year-old native son who is a technical director and graphics artist for Sony Imageworks. It notes, “he was technical director for Day After Tomorrow, a disaster movie, and lead technical director for Hidalgo, a movie set in the desert. ... Right now, he´s working on a movie called Stealth that will be out next summer. 'It has both live explosions and those created on the computer. Explosions are a very complex beast.'”

May 22, 2004
'Shrek 2': Box Office & A Hoot for All Ages
Shrek 2 Box Office Prophets reports, “The game of one-upmanship between Pixar and DreamWorks reached a new high on Friday as Shrek 2 earned a sensational $27.9 million. This total virtually equals the $28.0 million that Finding Nemo had on its best day, meaning that any increase whatsoever in Saturday box office will give Shrek 2 the biggest single-day box office total ever for an animated release. A shattering of Finding Nemo’s weekend record of $70.2 million is a virtual certainty as well, meaning that DreamWorks has regained the throne…at least until The Incredibles arrives in theaters on November 5th.” ... Business Week has this analysis of the importance Shrek 2 has to both to Hollywood in general and to DreamWorks Animation's competitiors. It notes, “according to the show-business trade Variety, movie execs are counting on Shrek II to add some box-office vim to what has been a lousy year. ... A successful Shrek II would be significant for another reason: It would illustrate just what a steep mountain Disney must climb to regain its preeminence in movie animation. Home on the Range, Disney's own big animated feature this year, was a dud. It cost $110 million to make but has only grossed $47.3 million in its first six weeks.”

'Kid from Toledo' Still Animated after Decades of Illustrious Work
The Toledo Blade has this profile of Fred Laderman, better known in animation circles as Fred Ladd. “Honored yesterday as a distinguished graduate of Ohio State University, Mr. Laderman is considered an industry trailblazer — the first to transform Japanese animation into an American commodity.” It relates how he came to do Astro Boy, the English-language version of Osamu Tezuka' s Tetsuam Atom (Iron Fisted Atom Boy), the first Japanese animated TV series, as well as Tezuka's Kimba, the White Lion. It also notes he “became a well-quoted figure in a debate that still simmers today” about the debt Disney's The Lion King owes Kimba. I am also quoted in the piece, as I am currently helping Ladd write his autobiography.

In Brief: Schmoozing in Israel & NBC's Seinfeld Fraud
The Los Angeles Jewish Journal, in reporting on a trip to Israel by members of the Entertainment Division of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, makes reference to the fact that, “Last year, U.S.-based IDT Entertainment, the parent company of L.A.-based animation studio DPS Film Roman and several other entertainment entities, opened DPSI animation studio in Beit Shemesh, Israel. Started by just eight employees, the Israeli studio now employs 130 people, works on numerous animated television shows and has begun work on its first full-length feature.” ... The San Diego Union-Tribune television critic Robert Laurence's weblog complains that, “Even in the world of bogus TV hype, this one was a beaut. For several days, NBC hyped Jerry Seinfeld's supposed return to prime-time TV. 'For one night only, Jerry Seinfeld is back!' said the network promos. And: 'Bonus Seinfeld Surprise.' ... The surprise we got from Seinfeld and NBC Thursday (May 20) turned out be — Ta-DAAAHH!! — a commercial. Not just any commercial, but a five-minute commercial, directed by formerly-classy movie director Barry Levinson. I won't even help perpetuate the fraud by telling what the product was, but the commercial starred Seinfeld, with the animated figure of Superman, wandering around Times Square in New York.”

May 21, 2004
'Shrek 2': Shrek's Green Fairy Tale & Modesto's Marc Miller
The Motley Fool opines,“If the DreamWorks sequel disappoints, then Steve Jobs and his army of animators [at Pixar] can gloat and once again claim exclusive rights to the incipient form. But, if lightning strikes for the proverbial second time, then maybe Jeffrey Katzenberg and his team of creative techies will gain the confidence needed to propel their animation unit to new heights. And I can tell you this: Disney's Michael Eisner is in a bind because although he'd like to see some thunder stolen from Pixar, that'll mean his old nemesis, Katzenberg — whom Eisner was reported to have called a midget behind his back — will be guffawing once again at the chief Mouseketeer.” ... The Modesto [California] Bee has this mini-profile of 1991 Beyer High graduate Marc Miller who “worked in the lighting department at PDI/DreamWorks” on Shrek 2.

The New Animania
The Three Musketeers The Denver Post has this story (also here) on on the growing popularity of animation and the importance of the DVD market to this growth. It notes, “The explosion in the DVD-buying market will guarantee a steady stream of new studio cartoons, even if they are straight-to-video efforts like Disney's upcoming Three Musketeers. The whole genre is enjoying a creative renaissance even as it relies more heavily on supercomputer hard drives. After all, great ideas — not microchips — turned Shrek, Nemo and Ice Age into hits. ... Disney's renewed commitment to putting cartoon characters straight onto the newly profitable DVD, skipping the risks of the box office. Lion King 1½ has sold $150 million in DVDs, topping all theatrical movies this year except The Passion of the Christ. The video-only sequel to Lilo & Stitch has made $90 million, [Scott Hettrick, editor of DVD Exclusive] said. His take on the math: A big-screen animation costs $100 million to do it right, plus at least $40 million in marketing costs. If it did well and made $85 million, the studio would see only $50 million as its share.”

Emeryville Gives First Nod to Pixar Expansion
The Berkeley Daily Planet reports, “In a unanimous vote Tuesday night in front of a divided community, the Emeryville City Council passed a resolution to help movie giant Pixar Animation Studios take a major step towards tripling the size of its Emeryville campus. While Amaha Kassa, a local environmental activist ... accused the City Council of being 'afraid to ask anything of businesses and as result businesses don’t feel they have to be accountable to the community,' the Emeryville city manager called the council decision 'a step in the right direction for other businesses' considering locating in the city. ... The decision means that Pixar will not have to file a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR), and is the largest potential city hurdle the project has to pass.”

DVD-Day for Disney's WWII films
Der Fuehrer's Face Michael H. Kleinschrodt in The New Orleans Times Picayune raves, “A treasure trove of World War II-era animation is the highlight of a new collection of Walt Disney Treasures titles released to DVD on Tuesday. The series ... comprises four new titles: Walt Disney's Tomorrowland, Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Vol. 2, The Chronological Donald, Vol. 1, and On the Front Lines.” He draws special attention to the latter, which includes Donald Duck's “starring role in Der Fuehrer's Face [pictured], a runaway hit that won the Oscar for best animated short subject in 1943.” It also includes the 70-minute feature Victory Through Air Power. See also reviews of this and other discs in the series by Thomas K. Arnold in USA Today and Terry Lawson in The Detroit Free Press.

In Brief: Gill Fox Dead at 88, Hanna-Barbera on DVD, Ed Catmull in Utah, Ray Harryhausen in Toronto, Mickey on State Street, Disney Cartoons and Mentally Ill
The Associated Press has this short obituary of Fox (also here), “a Pulitzer Prize-nominated cartoonist who worked on animations from Betty Boop to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .... NPR's Day to Day radio news magazine has this audio of Charles Solomon's review of “newly released DVDs of classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 1960s.” ... The Salt Lake Tribune has this report on the keynote speech Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull gave at the Utah Innovation Awards luncheon at the University of Utah, which says, “In creating such cartoon movie hits as Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo, Ed Catmull learned business axioms can be as useless as, well, Buzz Lightyear's decorative rocket packs. ... It turned out, he said, that constant tweaking, re-evaluation, rewriting and, when necessary, having the courage to start over, were part of the recipe for successful movie animation.” ... The Toronto Star has this interview with Ray Harryhausen, who was in town touting his book, Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life. He says, “In my early days, I was very modest and it took me a long time to learn that modesty was a dirty word in Hollywood.” ... The Chicago Sun Times notes, “15 Mickey Mouse statues will flank State Street for the next two months. Each is over 6 feet tall, is constructed of polyurethane and weighs 700 pounds. All have been designed by celebrities such as Tom Hanks and Susan Lucci, sports figures such as Andre Agassi and artists such as Gary Baseman. The one-of-a-kind works of art on display here actually are part of a collection of 75 that were first unveiled at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World on Mickey's 75th birthday in November. Chicago is one of the first of a dozen cities that will feature a selection of the statues. ... This brief item in The Montreal Gazette reports (also here), “Some of Disney's magical cartoon characters encourage children to shun, fear and ridicule the mentally ill, says a new study published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.”

May 20, 2004
'Shrek 2': Earns Record $11.8, Products Roll & Improved 'Shrek' Tech
Reuters reports (also here), 'Shrek 2 debuted to a record $11.8 million at domestic box offices on Wednesday, marking the best performance by an animated film opening at midweek, its backers at the DreamWorks film studio said on Thursday. ... The previous best one-day debut at midweek by an animated movie was Pokemon The First Movie ... that opened in 1999 on a Wednesday to $10.1 million at domestic box offices.” ... Reuters also has this report (also here) noting, 'As theater curtains rose on Shrek 2 on Wednesday, another rollout was taking place in stores and supermarkets nationwide that could be just as big and maybe even greener than the animated ogre's film sequel. ... The product marketing push is the largest in the 10-year-old studio's history. It comes as talk swirls in Hollywood and on Wall Street that principals Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg are considering selling stock in the studio's animation unit through an initial public offering later this year. ... Based on the first film's success, DreamWorks has licensed about 80 companies to make Shrek items from watches to skateboards, bed sheets to backpacks, and toothpaste to computer games.” ... And The Orange County Register has this brief story about how, 'In Shrek 2, animators have made significant advances in their computer-generated art from what was possible only a few years ago when the first Shrek was made. Most of the advances are subtle, but are easy to recognize on screen. Producer Aron Warner said the two main technological advances are called sub-surface scattering and global lumination, both of which deal with how light reflects on objects.”

'Shrek 2': Animated Careers
DreamWorks Animation publicity is particularly aggressive about placing home town boy/girl makes good-type stories of rank-and-file animation artists, which can sometimes be refreshing. For instance, The MetroWest (Massachusetts) Daily News has this profile of Newton native and senior character animator David Spivack, detailing the scenes he worked on. '[From] an animation standpoint, Spivack says his favorite Shrek character is Donkey. 'Because his performance is so broad and humorous, you can do a lot with body movements,' he says. ... To succeed as an animator in the computer-generated field requires 'a high tolerance for tedious things,' says Spivack. 'Because it's not easy and it takes a lot of concentration. When you're finished with it, it still has a long way to go usually as the director will ask for changes.'” ... The Springfield (Ohio) News Sun profiles Phil Garrett, a Springfield native who served as an animation production supervisor, and Wittenberg grad Jason Waltman, who works in the studio's effects department. It notes Garrett is, 'One of three supervisors at DreamWorks’ Pacific Data Images ... the 1988 North grad is the link between a director and 60 artists, making sure the latter does what the former wants it to do. 'It's a classic management-type role. You're a manager, but you're dealing with artists. It's a weird position: art meets commerce.'” As for Waltman, he says, 'I think people in general know the limitations and they know what to ask for. Sometimes the artists ask for things that just aren't possible. But with every movie, new features are added. If you compare a frame from Shrek to Shrek 2, it's visually more pleasing. Take human skin. It almost looks too real in Shrek 2,' Waltman said. 'In Shrek 3, the hair will look extremely real.'”

‘Swim' Puts Cartoon Network in Fast Lane
The Associated Press has this story about the success of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block, which includes such programs as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Family Guy and Sealab 2021 (pictured). It’s an eclectic mix of sharp writing, inventive subject matter and diverse visual styles that began nearly three years ago, but was in the plans since the channel’s conception in 1992. 'We just try to do things we haven’t seen, shows and styles you don’t see everywhere, that you don’t get in other types of sitcoms or sci-fi things. If it’s a superhero, it’s a superhero with a completely crazy spin,' said Mike Lazzo, the Cartoon Network executive in charge of Adult Swim. 'We don’t even subconsciously say, let’s do something like this. We say, let’s work with that person because they’re interesting and see what they come up with.' One of those people is Andre 3000 of OutKast, who has done some artwork for the duo’s albums and is developing an animated series for Adult Swim.'”

Business Briefs: State Funds to Question Disney Board & Pixar's Fence
Reuters reports (also here), 'Six state pension funds critical of Walt Disney Co. expect to grill company directors on long-term strategy and succession plans for Chief Executive Michael Eisner at a meeting on Friday, people familiar with the meeting said. ... The meeting comes about a week after Disney reported strong quarterly earnings, which Eisner claimed as a vindication for his growth strategy. Some critics, however, have questioned whether Disney's earnings growth is sustainable and want the board to demonstrate that it can hold management accountable.” ... The Oakland Tribune has another report on the brouhaha at the 'The Emeryville City Council [which] was poised Tuesday to approve Pixar's plan to build three new office buildings and a six-story parking garage .... The expansion would take place over 20 years and create 1,300 new jobs. The council did agree Pixar's expansion would not create significant negative impacts to the community. But the unified front dissolved over the location of a fence — or whether there should be a fence — along Hollis Street when two new office buildings go up.” Pixar's objection to the removal of the fence being the main point of contention.

In Brief: 'Ryan' Applauded & PJ's Idea
Canadian Press, reporting from the Cannes Film Festival, says, “Ryan, [a] NFB co-production by director Chris Landreth, is a 3-D computer-animated film about Ryan Larkin, once one of Canada's top NFB animators, now a panhandler. Pleased with the 'thunderous applause' his short film received, Landreth said young French filmmakers who are on the cutting-edge of the animation industry have been impressed by the computer graphics, as well as the way the work combines animation and documentary.” ... According to The Chicago Sun Times, “A Chicago filmmaker documented life in the Robert Taylor Homes, then turned it over to Oprah Winfrey, hoping for his big break. Now he says he was ripped off. In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, filmmaker Daryl Murphy said actor Eddie Murphy, director Ron Howard, Fox Broadcasting Co. and a host of other defendants stole his ideas and plugged them into the animated series The PJs [which was produced by the Will Vinton Studios]. Winfrey is not named in the lawsuit.”

May 19, 2004
More 'Shrek 2' Reviews
The reviews for the new DreamWorks film directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon continue to be on the positive side, though a few have their reservations. For instance, Stephen Hunter in The Washington Post feels the film has “a piecemeal plot that seems to go nowhere and be about nothing and wind up no place, somewhat effectively camouflaged by a number of intriguing but incidental bits.”He concludes it is “very pretty to look at, very hard to care for.” ... Ty Burr in The Boston Globe says, “Having no inherent reason to exist, second films must struggle to convince us otherwise. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a movie plunge so far over the cliff before pulling out of its nosedive and soaring into the air (motor spluttering) as Shrek 2. ... But the story line remains the weakest and most forced part of Shrek 2, and sometimes you pray for it to just get out of the way.” ... On a more positive note, Rick Groen in The Toronto Globe and Mail gushes that, “It's lightning quick, it's ultra-slick, it's awfully funny and, needless to say, it's state of the art, digitally animated right down to the last perfect hair on that donkey's smart ass. ... In short, the Shrek franchise is alive and well — Model 2 is zippier, sleeker, with ever-improving graphics, vast commercial potential and the same sly ability to reach out and hook the whole family.”

Living in Animation
Rediff has this home-town-girl-makes-good profile of Vanitha Rangaraju-Ramanan, a lighting technical director on Shrek and Shrek 2, who grew up in Trichy, in southern India. It notes, “In Shrek 2, she ... worked on hair design for several key characters, including the King and the Queen. 'Hair is one of the hardest things to do in computer graphics, mainly because it is extremely geometry-intensive,' she says. 'For example, having one character with a full head of hair strands is equivalent to roughly 100 characters without hair.' ... Lighting technical directors also help the artistes achieve their goals, she continues. 'You act as a liaison between the technical side of the production and the artistic side, because you have both technical and artistic knowledge and skills. 'In Shrek I was a lighting technical director,' she says. 'In the new film, I moved up to become more involved in the creative process directly as a lead lighter. You get more hands-on with the work.' ... She would love to make a short film when she gets time, she adds, asserting that it will be animated. 'That is the medium I enjoy the most,' she says, chuckling more. 'So do my nieces and nephews.'”

Portrait of a Filmmaker's Descent into Panhandling
Ryan The Ottawa Citizen has this report (also here) from the Cannes Film Festival, which begins by noting, “Thirty-five years ago, a Canadian animator named Ryan Larkin was nominated for an Oscar for an innovative movie called Walking. Today, he lives at Montreal's Old Brewery Mission and panhandles outside Schwartz's Delicatessen on St. Laurent Boulevard. How he got there is the subject of Ryan, a movie that is part animation and part documentary: 13 minutes of creatively jagged imagination that pictures Larkin with only part of a face and an open skull. Ryan looks inside that skull to find a disturbing mixture of resignation, anger and waste. ... Lambeth's [3D animation] technique pays homage to some of Ryan's animation, which was made by making hundreds of original drawings: He shows Ryan walking in profile as a salute to Walking, the 1969 Oscar contender made at the National Film Board of Canada. But it is wholly original work that is both twisted and realistic looking, save for the fact that Ryan has only part of a head and that there seems to be something boiling in behind his brain.”

'Japanimation' Makes Cannes Debut
According to Agence France-Presse, “Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's futuristic art movie Innocence is the first example of 'Japanimation' to be selected in competition for the Cannes film festival's coveted Palme d'Or. The visually stunning animated film, which gets its festival screening on Thursday, blurs the line between humans and machines, dream and reality. ... The use of both traditional two-dimensional animation and three-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) to twist viewers' perceptions are among the film's visual effects that have drawn rave reviews in Japan, where the film was released in early March. ... Innocence is one of two animated films out of 18 movies in competition this year, along with Shrek 2 .... Cannes is belatedly recognising Japan's animated movie genre. In the 2003 Academy Awards, Hayao Miyazaki won the Oscar for best animated feature with Spirited Away, which a year earlier became the first animated film to win a Golden Bear award at the Berlin film festival.” See also shorter version of the story here.

Pixar Threatens to Leave Emeryville in Spat over Fence
The East Bay Business Times reports (also here), “Pixar Animation Studios threatened to leave Emeryville during an emotional eruption at the Emeryville City Council late Tuesday. Pixar, creator of box office hits like Toy Story and Finding Nemo, will leave Emeryville, a company executive said, if the council embraces a proposal to eliminate much of the eight-foot-high metal fence that surrounds the company's campus. The company delivered its ultimatum as council members seemed to be seriously considering the teardown. Pixar facilities director Tom Carlisle delivered the threat in an impassioned speech, leaving some council members sputtering and much of the city staff looking ashen. In the end, the council decided to table the contentious decision for a week.” ... The plan seemed to be gaining momentum during the meeting. Several community members spoke in support of it, and Councilman Richard Kassis voiced support for it. 'We all bought into that you guys need a fence,' Kassis said of the company's 1998 move to Emeryville, at which time Pixar had already insisted it would need a barrier around its campus. 'But ... for the life of me I cannot understand why this item, a brick building, cannot serve as a secure fence.'” See also earlier report in The Oakland Tribune, which begins by noting, “Residents here [in Emeryville] turned out in force Tuesday night both to support Pixar's three-building expansion plans and to ask that the company do more to help the community.”

Dept. Of Prevention: Pitching Rubbers
The New Yorker has this article about The Three Amigos, a PSA by Brent Quinn promoting the use of condoms, which is being used in South Africa's fight against HIV. “'We really need to destigmatize the condom,” Brent Quinn said the other day, as he sipped from a Margarita. “Let’s make the condom lovable. It’s kind of a crap word. If you say, ‘Hey, have you got an Amigo?’ it’s a bit more lovable. Quinn, who is forty-five, is a South African screenwriter and comic who recently started an unlikely humor campaign to stop the spread of AIDS. He was talking about it at a burrito joint downtown shortly before returning to Johannesburg, following a week of meetings, in Washington and New York, with various government and international organizations ... seeking funding for worldwide distribution of ... The Three Amigos, which has become a cult sensation in South Africa.” See also storyhunters.com report on the article.

Rome: First a Game, Now on TV
Rome: Total War Wired News reports, “As video-game graphics evolve to portray increasingly realistic environments, TV producers are turning to game developers for help in re-creating history. The History Channel is the first TV network to utilize a not-yet-released PC game to visually re-create epic battles and tell the story of key confrontations in Roman history. Decisive Battles, a 13-episode, half-hour series that debuts July 17, makes use of British video-game developer The Creative Assembly's Rome: Total War PC game (pictured), which Activision will publish this fall. ... Margaret Kim, director of programming and executive producer for the History Channel's Decisive Battles show, hopes that the fresh perspective the video game brings to history will attract a new audience to the channel. ... In particular, the History Channel is hoping the use of video-game graphics will score points with younger viewers.” See also Hardware Zone story.

LSU Festival Plan Animates Organizers with Vision for BR
The Baton Rouge Advocate says, “Like the once-declining industrial town of Middlesbrough, [England] which in the 1990s transformed itself by embracing technology from its local university, LSU [Louisiana State University] officials want to apply computer research to turn Baton Rouge into a technology hub. But first things first. LSU hopes to showcase its creative technology with an international film festival, a program that will include some heavy hitters from Hollywood, and could help launch a new industry. The first Red Stick International Animation Festival is planned April 20-23 at the downtown Shaw Center for the Arts. ... Organizers pitched the event Tuesday with presentations from their English mentors, who founded Middlesbrough's Animex international festival.”

May 18, 2004
'Shrek 2' Reviews
The first batch of reviews are in for Shrek 2 and, as expected, they are mostly estatic. The Associated Press' Christy Lemire says, “Whatever was wrong with Shrek — and there were more weaknesses than its beloved status would suggest — has been eradicated or improved upon with Shrek 2, a rare example of a sequel that’s better than the original. ... the most important change of all, and the most fundamental, is in the screenplay. While the Shrek script consisted of little more than a litany of pop culture references, many of which already felt stale, Shrek 2 has a strong story line, with more fully developed characters.” ... CNN's Paul Clinton agrees, concluding that “Shrek 2 is downright wonderful. It's the best comedy of the year so far.” ... However, A.O. Scott in The New York Times (also here) demurs somewhat, saying, “For myself I accept Shrek 2 for what it is — a slick and playful entertainment that remains carefully inoffensive beneath its veneer of bad manners — but I don't really love it. ... Certainly Shrek 2 offers rambunctious fun, but there is also something dishonest about its blending of mockery and sentimentality. It lacks both the courage to be truly ugly and the heart to be genuinely beautiful.”

'Shrek 2 ' — Can the Ogre Sell the Stock?
The effect of Shrek 2's prospects on the financial health of DreamWorks SKG continues to generate interest among financial reporters. The latest is this CNN/Money story, which says, “even if DreamWorks SKG's sequel to its 2001 hit turns out to be as big a box office and profit hit as anticipated, investors should be wary of the studio's plans for an initial public offering [for its animation division]. That's because the company's track record has been uneven at best, and it faces increased competition and the typical difficulties seen by stocks of stand-alone movie studios. ... Independent stock analyst Dennis McAlpine said DreamWorks' uneven record compared to Pixar should give pause to potential investors. 'Pixar's movies have been better than average and better than what DreamWorks has seen,' said McAlpine. 'The reviews are good on Shrek 2. It's not I don't have faith in DreamWorks. I just don't know how you make it an attractive investment.'”

Pixar Draws Critics for Expansion Plan
The Oakland Tribune reports, “Pixar, the famous animation studio beloved for such hits as Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and Toy Story, is not getting the same adoration for plans to expand its Emeryville campus. According to plans headed to the Emeryville City Council tonight, the studio is seeking approval to construct three more buildings and a six-story parking garage within its 21-acre fenced enclave bounded by Park Avenue, 45th Street, Hollis Street and the Promenade Project on San Pablo Avenue. ... But while many neighbors like Pixar, they say the company could do more to reduce what will likely be significant traffic and pollution impacts as more employees are added. Other residents and a few elected officials say the company could do a better job of integrating its campus into the community by removing fences or adding more attractive landscaping along Park and Hollis. At the same time, those elected officials don't want to rock the boat too much for fear of losing the company headquarters to another city; Pixar relocated from Richmond to Emeryville in 1999.”

Animator Offers Dose of Abstract & Dutch Animation Stars Illuminate Seoul
The JoongAng Daily has this brief interview with Adriaan Lokman whose Annecy Award winning short film, Barcode, was seen at The Korea-Dutch Animation Festival. It says, “from Barcode, he created Barcode Live, a live animation using a computer program he developed in the Netherlands. The setting he envisioned for Barcode Live was clubs with electronic music.” Asked if he considers himself an abstract animator, he says, “I'm still surprised by it. I don't think Barcode is abstract. I made it very simple, and I threw a lot of things away. There are certain rules to moviemaking. I thought about it, but I thought this way, it's easier to attract the audience's attention for a film that is already strange. In eight minutes, you don't have a lot of time for people to get used to the film's language. On the other hand, Barcode Live is not narrative, it's totally abstract.” ... The JoongAng Daily also provides this overview on what's showing at the Korea-Dutch Animation Festival

On NBC's Lineup, 'Pride' but No Shame
The Washington Post in reporting on a show touting NBC's fall lineup notes, “In what has to be a broadcast network first, NBC on Monday trotted out a partially paralyzed mauling victim as part of its dog-and-pony show to promote its new prime-time lineup to advertisers. Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn talked to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall via satellite about NBC's new animated Tuesday comedy, Father of the Pride. It's about a pride of white lions that perform in the 'world famous Siegfried and Roy show,'” However, the fact that the act has closed down since Horn suffered a stroke after being mauled during a performance in October, the “ jokes [in the clips shown advertisers] took on a tacky inappropriateness, as when Animated Roy says to Animated Lion Family, 'Goodbye my lions, or should I say “GRRRRRR!,” ' as he crouches down and tries to look like a wild cat.”

In Brief: Pooh's Honeypot Wrangling, IDT's Graphics Empire & Measle and the Wrathmonk
Measle and the Wrathmonk cover According to Reuters (also here), “ A Los Angeles judge who threw out a 13-year-old suit against Walt Disney over Winnie the Pooh royalties, has refused to step down from the case, dismissing a challenge to his impartiality. Another judge must review the motion by Stephen Slesinger Inc., which two weeks ago argued that Judge Charles McCoy favoured Disney and should step down or be disqualified from the case and that his pro-Disney ruling of March 29 should be vacated.” See also the Slesinger Family Statement issued as a press release.
The New York Post asks, “Is an oft-ignored telecom company from Newark poised to be the next global entertainment giant? IDT Corp., best known for its calling cards and its back-end telecom services, has quietly assembled an impressive portfolio of media assets under its IDT Entertainment unit.” It notes that just last week, IDT acquired anime distributor Manga Entertainment and made a deal with “Todd McFarlane to bring the Emmy -winning Spawn series back to life.” It also reports IDT Entertainment's claim to be“ producing more minutes of animation than any other studio in the world.” ... According to Comingsoon.net, “Warner Bros. and [Robert Zemeckis'] ImageMovers have purchased Measle and the Wrathmonk, the first of what will be a three-book series by Ian Ogilvy, reports Variety. The film is eyed as another opportunity to use the 'performance capture' [i.e., motion capture] animation technique to be used this fall in The Polar Express.”

May 17, 2004
A Monster Hit but No Happily Ever Afters
Shrek 2 The New York Times notes, “With the release this Wednesday of Shrek 2, DreamWorks SKG will probably enjoy the benefits of something that has lately been in exceedingly short supply: a hit. Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen created DreamWorks in 1994, promising an entertainment powerhouse for the 21st century. But a decade on, the television production business has not had a hit in years, the music division was sold off last year, the Internet ambitions popped with the rest of the dot-com bubble and the live-action movie division is significantly smaller than its major competitors. Which is why many analysts and Hollywood executives say the possibility of DreamWorks Animation, the most marketable part of the company, going public this fall may be the best hope of cashing out for longtime investors like the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.”

For This Animated Movie, a Cast of Household Names
The New York Times has this story on Foodfight! (also here), the CGI movie due out next year. It notes, “Threshold Entertainment , a modestly sized animation and special effects company that has never made a full-length animated film before, hopes to go Toy Story one better [in using name brands] with Foodfight!, [which] takes place in a supermarket after the lights go down. ... In the movie, Charlie [the Tuna], Mr. Clean, the Coca-Cola polar bears and other well-known product icons come alive at night after the customers have left. Joining with characters created by Threshold ... they try to save the store from the evil Brand X. ... To hold down costs, Threshold outsources most of its work. It employs only 22 digital animators at its headquarters in Southern California; it expects to use about 100 others, many of them working from their homes in Australia, Europe and South Korea. Threshold has also struck a deal with IBM to use its Linux server farm in Poughkeepsie, NY, when extra processing power is needed to supplement Threshold's 120 on-site PC's.” The film, however, still does not have a domestic distributor.

After Eisner: Stanley Gold's 'Short List'
Business Week has this interview (also here) with Stanley Gold who, with Roy Disney, is attempting to oust Michael Eisner from his leadership of the Walt Disney Co. He notes, “I have said publicly that if they [the Disney board of directors does not get rid of Eisner], we'll do something to dislodge the board.” Asked when, he replies, “Well, their next annual meeting is at the beginning of next year.” As to who would be on his short list to replace Eisner, it includes News Corp. President Peter Chernin, Viacom President Mel Karmazin, Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner's chairman of entertainment and networks, and MTV Networks chief Tom Freston. As to Pixar Chairman Steve Jobs?, he says, “He's definitely on the short list. He has proven that he has creativity, talent, and the people on the creative side love to work for him. The result is that his product is very good, and it makes money. This is not rocket science.”

Local Films Get High Tech
Arahan The Korea Times has this report on the increasing use of digital special effects in Korean movies. It says, “Although local movies have increased the use of computer graphics, most of them were merely mediocre or disappointing in terms of their special effects in the past. But the latest local movies such as 'Taegukgi' and Arahan (pictured) seem to now be able to compete with the technology of Hollywood films like The Matrix trilogy. People tend to expect comic book-inspired films like Arahan or sci-fi epics like Star Wars to be full of scenes enhanced by computers. However computer graphics are also used in such realistic movies as the recent Korean War epic Taegukgi and the traditional folk story-based film Chunhyang (2000), though it might be harder to tell. ... In battle scenes from Taegukgi, 500 extras were made into 100,000 soldiers, and images from different locations were merged to create fictional traditional towns in Chunhyang.”

India Director to Have Animation Academies in Dubai, Kathmandu
Indo-Asian News Service reports (here, here and here), “Indian film director Ketan Mehta's animation academy plans to set up overseas centres in several cities, including Dubai, Kathmandu, Colombo and Bangkok, to cater to the rising demand for skilled animators. The three-year-old Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) is producing scores of trained personnel to meet both domestic and overseas demand for animators .... 'In Dubai we are already in talks to set up our own institute with an investment of around Rs. 2.5 million ($550,000) but in other places like Kathmandu we are planning either a joint venture or the franchise route as we have done at many places in the country,' said [Naveen Gupta, vice president of MAAC]. Gupta sees great potential in catering to the demand in the entire Middle East through the academy in Dubai. Within the country, MAAC is planning to start around half a dozen academies this month, including three in Bangalore.”

May 15, 2004
Shrek, Meet Your New Father-in-Law
John Cleese voicing Shrek 2 The New York Times has this interview with Monty Python alumnus John Cleese, who is “the voice of King Harold [in Shrek 2], a narrowly rational potentate who tries to foil the marriage of his daughter, Fiona (the voice of Cameron Diaz) to the title character (Mike Myers).” He says, “I think animation is taking on an importance that's very different from what it used to have. In the old days, I don't think anybody knew particularly well who did the voices in Bambi. And now, all of a sudden, not only are the actors doing it, but so are all the young writers. I'm writing an animated movie at the moment for DreamWorks [about cavemen]. And my son-in-law, he's now working in animation. He's written a very zany comedy.” ... See also a separate interview with Cleese in The San Francisco Chronicle.

The Man Who Made the Monsters Move
Charles Solomon has a review of stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen's autobiography, Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life, in The San Francisco Chronicle. He notes, “After years of neglect, Harryhausen and his work are belatedly getting the attention they deserve. The artist recently received a star on Hollywood Boulevard, he appeared in a cameo in Spy Kids II, and Pixar animators named a trendy restaurant after him in Monsters, Inc. His new memoir lives up to the subtitle An Animated Life, as it focuses almost exclusively on his career, from his early short films to the features that showcased his special effects wizardry. ... It's astonishing to discover just how little these effects-heavy films cost. In his account of making The Valley of Gwangi (1969), Harryhausen notes, in the late 1960s a typical effects budget for us would have barely been $35,000-$40,000. He later comments that the $16 million budget of Clash of the Titans (1981) exceeded the sum total of all the Schneer/Harryhausen collaborations up to that point — 14 features!”

Bill Moritz Tribute Issue of Animation World Magazine
I usually don't include animation publications here, but I will make an exception to the special issue of Animation World Magazine devoted to the late Bill Moritz, whose passing I have previously noted. Bill was a pioneering animation historian, with special interest in Oskar Fischinger and other abstract filmmakers, as well as German animation. The issue is basically an anthology of Moritz's writings for Animation World Magazine, some of which I had the honor of editing, and includes articles on such topics as Lotte Reininger, Mary Ellen Bute, Frédéric Back, Feodor Khitrik, and visual music, which is practically a book in itself. There is also Cindy Keefer's profile of Bill and Robin Allan's review of Moritz's last book, Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger, along with tributes by the likes of Jerry Beck, Giannalberto Bendazzi, John Canemaker, Christine Panushka and myself, among many others. Highly recommended.

May 15, 2004
'Shrek 2' Gets Rapturous Reception
“The team of Shrek 2 arrive at the top of the steps of the Palais des Festivals,”is the caption for this photo issued by the Cannes Film Festival, where the film had its world premiere. In this regard, Reuters reports, “Critics have given a rapturous reception to Shrek 2 at the Cannes film festival, guffawing over the tale of a green ogre who finds true love. 'Thank you for that,' DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg said on Saturday after the critics, often notoriously hard to please at Cannes, welcomed the follow-up to the worldwide hit for voiceover stars Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz. With global appetite raging for animation movies, Katzenberg said work had already begun on Shrek 3 and Shrek 4.” ...Along the same lines, BBC News says, “The film may be in the running for the festival's prestigious Palme d'Or award — but its stars have played down their chances of winning.”... At the same time, The Associated Press gushes, “Even the snooty Cannes Film Festival loves computer animation, which has become such the rage in Hollywood that it has virtually displaced traditional hand-drawn cartoons on studio slates.” It then adds, “Filmmakers say it's largely Hollywood's follow-the-leader mentality that has elevated computer animation over the traditional cartoon form ... 'CG is the new thing that people are interested in animation, and 2-D had a huge run there. It had about a 17-year golden age that it's kind of coming off of,' said Kelly Asbury, co-director of Shrek 2. 'Now there's a new form of animation. There's going to be a CG film that doesn't succeed, and people are going to say, 'Oh no, people aren't interested in CG anymore.'”

Ovitz Goes Wild & Eisner Retains $1 Million Salary
According to Bloomberg, “Former Walt Disney Co. President Michael Ovitz testified that he should be able to keep his $140 million severance because he saved the company more than that by fixing projects for Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner. Ovtiz's remarks, contained in transcripts filed two weeks ago in state court in Wilmington, Delaware, came in a deposition for a lawsuit by shareholders to recover the money. The suit comes to trial Oct. 18. Shareholders sued Ovitz, Eisner and several directors, alleging the payment for his 1996 firing was a waste of company money.” See also stories in The New York Post and The New York Daily News. ... The Associated Press reports (here and here), “Michael Eisner will keep his $1 million annual salary as chief executive of The Walt Disney Co., although he no longer serves as board chairman, according to the company's quarterly report. His compensation package still remains lower than those given to executives at Time Warner Inc. and Viacom Inc. The company disclosed his salary Thursday in its quarterly filing. ... Analysts said it was not unusual or unexpected that Eisner would retain his full salary, given that he has most of the same responsibilities to run the company he had before he was removed as chairman.”

Mixed Media Probes Divided Nation
Drawing by William Kentridge for the film Sobriety, Obesity & Growing Old. A screening by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image of 12 films by William Kentridge, as well as an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney and a staging of a recent opera, spurred this article in The Age about the South African artist and animator. It notes, “His intense charcoal drawings and animations, largely inspired by his experiences under a harsh [apartheid] regime, have become sought-after collectors' items and a curatorial must-have for museums and galleries around the world. Kentridge's drawings stand alone as powerful, gestural recordings of memories and semi-fictional mis-en scenes, but it is his animations that have left audiences spell-bound.”

May 14, 2004
In 'toon
Shrek 2 USA Today has this story on the animation fortunes of DreamWorks and the imminent release of Shrek 2. It notes, “the studio hasn't had an animated success since the original Shrek. Heck, it hasn't even had a modest live-action hit since its aged frat-boy frolic Old School more than a year ago. Also at issue: The company may offer shares in its animation unit to the public later this year. A new day is about to dawn, and Shrek 2 signals a confident switch in style. ... 'They are chapters in our past,' Katzenberg says of Spirit and Sinbad. Since animated features take about four years to complete, 'Those films were well into production when Shrek came out. We knew it would take a couple of years to achieve a new direction.' ... 'They've figured out a formula that works for them,' says animation expert Jerry Beck. 'It's not so much a change at DreamWorks but a change in audience tastes and attitudes. The Disney style that Katzenberg honed so well and revitalized is not in fashion.' ... Shrek 2 [also] marks the debut of a customized animation logo, which flashes onscreen before the film while strains of the big green guy's theme song are heard.”

'Shark Tale' Takes a Bite Out of Cannes
DreamWorks is taking full advantage of the publicity surrounding the screening of Shrek 2 at Cannes to tout its upcoming Shark Tale. Thus, The Associated Press obligingly reports that, The Cannes Film Festival has had its first shark attack. Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and Jack Black rode a 14-foot inflatable shark Friday along the beach in the Mediterranean resort town to promote their upcoming computer-animated flick Shark Tale, which debuts in October.” While The Scotsman added that, “Fans hoping [Jolie] the Tomb Raider beauty would strip down to a skimpy bikini for the occasion were disappointed — she took to the water in a lifejacket over her jumper and jeans.” Other stories focus on these actors' voice work, including these reports from BBC News and Reuters.

Weta Workshop Wary of Employment Law Changes
The New Zealand Herald reports, “Wellington's Oscar-winning Weta Workshop has told a parliamentary committee proposed changes to employment law would make it more difficult to compete internationally. Weta's submission today to the committee which is considering the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill said the type of work undertaken by the special effects film company was subject to tight time frames, weather conditions, the availability of overseas actors and production facilities. 'This means that we often work through public holidays and change rosters at short notice,' the written submission said.” Weta's submission was on behalf of a group of companies which mainly services “Three Foot Six, producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. ... The bill is designed to strengthen good faith bargaining, protect workers when businesses change hands, and prevent employers undermining the conditions of the Employment Relations Act.”

Disney Foes in Pooh Case Want New California Trial
In not unexpected news, Reuters reports, “The family firm suing Walt Disney Co. over merchandising rights to Winnie the Pooh has asked the Los Angeles court that threw out the 13-year-old suit to grant a new trial. The motion by Stephen Slesinger Inc. responds to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy's March 29 ruling that the firm was guilty of misconduct and stealing evidence. McCoy then threw out the case, a move the Slesingers challenged as too harsh a sanction in their filing made late on Thursday.”

May 13, 2004
GE's NBC Completes Universal Acquisition & Considers MGM Bid
The New York Times reports, “NBC formally announced the completion of its acquisition of Vivendi Universal's entertainment operations yesterday, promising a new entity that will aggressively cross-market its television, movie and theme park properties to drive profits while avoiding the pitfalls of previous media mergers. ... Bob Wright, the current chief of NBC, will be chairman of the new NBC Universal, which will have 7 cable channels, including USA and Bravo; 29 television stations; movie and television production studios; and 5 theme parks.” The deal, was between Vivendi Universal and NBC's parent, General Electric, was criticized by the Center for Digital Democracy for eliminating one of the last major independent outlets for writers. In terms of animation, Universal Cartoon Studios is mainly involved in direct-to-video features, some TV series, and owns the Walter Lantz library. The International Herald Tribune adds that, “General Electric may seek to buy the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer now that its NBC television network has been merged with Vivendi Universal's U.S. entertainment assets, Bob Wright, chief executive of the new NBC Universal, said Wednesday. See also The Associated Press story.

Is DreamWorks' Next Epic an IPO?
Business Week has this story that asks, “Is DreamWorks going to follow Google and launch its own initial public offering (IPO)? It's definitely thinking about it. The privately held movie studio, started nearly a decade ago by superstar director Steven Spielberg and moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, says it's considering a public sale for its animated unit, which has turned out such critically acclaimed hits as Shrek and Antz. However, it does allow that it's looking to unlock some of the value it has built up in the animation unit, which includes PDI, its crown jewel. PDI is the 300-person computer animation studio in Palo Alto that the company bought five years ago, in part to do battle with Steve Jobs and his Pixar Animation Studios. ... How much the DreamWorks animation unit would be worth is unclear. But the valuation could be pegged to a recent $100 million investment in the overall studio by Japanese holding company Kodokawa Holdings for a 2.83% stake. That values DreamWorks at just over $3.5 billion, likely putting the money-generating animation unit at around $2.5 billion to $3 billion.”

'Shrek 2': Where to Go from Happily Ever After?
Shrek 2 Zap2it.com has this background piece on Shrek 2 which seems to buy into DreamWorks promoting both the film's story and its cutting-edge technology in the same way Pixar does. Thus, it notes, “The three-dimensional animation used in the first film was obsolete when they started the sequel two years later so audiences should be prepared for an even more impressive visual experience. The greatest advancement in Shrek 2 is the PDI/DreamWorks bounce shader that shows how natural light would affect the scene or characters. Shrek's face has more expression, thanks to 218 facial muscles alone that were operated by computer. The artistic team went even further, perfecting the use of rain and fur in the film, including animating 50,000 hairs on Prince Charming's head.”

Studio Kasatmata Got its Start in University Lab
The Jakarta Post has this profile of Studio Kasatmata, which notes, “They are a group of 12 university students and recent graduates from Yogyakarta, brought together in Studio Kasatmata, who recently brought us the first locally made, fully three-dimensional animated movie, Homeland. Their portfolio is impressive, ranging from architectural models, animated shorts, music video clips and now a feature-length animated movie. And all of this came about because 'we just wanted to get a kick out of trying', said animator and one of the Kasatmata's founders, Kelik Wicaksono, during a recent interview at Visi Anak Bangsa's headquarters in South Jakarta.”

TV Gets Animated
Harvey Birdman Attorney-at-Law The Christian Science Monitor has this report on the current state of adult TV animation. It notes that,“This year ... a dark horse has charged onto the TV scene: animation, a genre that to date has provided some of the edgiest and most sophisticated shows on TV. NBC, Fox, the SciFi Channel, and Comedy Central — to name a few — plan to add animated fare to their menu next season. Just as The Simpsons essentially saved Fox Network 15 years ago, animated cartoons could become the small screen's pinch hitters, even if they've been benched for a while. 'To a large degree, network programming has quit taking risks and is becoming the same thing over and over again,' says Mike Lazzo, a senior vice president at Cartoon Network. 'And I think that animation is just something different.' (Pictured is Harvey Birdman Attorney-at-Law, which is part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block.)

Well-rendered Television
Jim Munroe in Toronto Eye Weekly stands up for Game Over, the short-lived primetime CGI TV series which got pulled from the air after only a short run. He admits, “I got hooked on UPN's Game Over the first episode I saw. Admittedly, I expected it to suck, presumed it would be a cheap cash-in on videogame hype with a dysfunctional family à la The Simpsons, which one of its producers wrote for. But despite the similarities with that most esteemed clan, the family in </


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