And still they come …. Thanks to Mark Mayerson for spotting Europa Film Treasures,  another interesting (to say the least) site for online films; part of the “Treasures from European Film Archives” project, it promises films from 28 European film archives, ranging from the UK’s British Film Institute and the Imperial War Museum to Russia’s GosFilmoFond and Spain’s Filmoteca Española. So far, there are only a handful of titles available, including George Pal’s Philips Broadcast of 1938 (1938) (see above) in its French release version (La Grande Revue Philips) (from Lobster Films, a private archive run by Serge Bromberg, who is also Artistic Director of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival); the copy seems cleaner than than the one on The Puppetoon Movie DVD, though the colors lack its saturation; a plus is it includes English subtitles for the Dutch titles.

Besides animation, the site’s offerings range from John Ford’s early feature, Bucking Broadway (1917) to the Slippery Jim French trick film, Pickpock ne craint pas les entraves (1909), as well as documentaries and erotica among other categories. Most of the films are European, but films from elsewhere are included as well.

Besides films, there is news of archival and festival screenings, and promised sections on documentation (including “bibliographies, a glossary of technical terms, and a presentation of professional networks”) and teaching resources that will include “teaching aids, as well as recreational activities suitable for a young audience.”

The eagerly-awaited American debut of Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parannaud’s Persepolis reminds us that Europe is not a casual producer of animated movies. (I will save my comments on the film until after it opens in Atlanta in February.) In fact, Europe has long been very active in this area for many years, though only a handful of films have had any visibility in the American marketplace; if they do get a US release, it is usually via home video and cable.

When the Oscar for Best Animated Film was introduced in 2001, this seemed to provide an incentive for overseas producers to try to break into the American market; as a result, avid animation fans in Los Angeles can catch Oscar-qualifying screenings for a handful of films the Academy and distributors promptly ignore. But this lack of visibility in the United States does not mean there is not a viable market for these films.

For instance, Jose Pozo’s Donkey Xote, whose main character owes much to Shrek, recently opened at 300 theaters, a record for a Spanish film. Variety‘s review calls it, “A lively but clumsy comic retelling of the Cervantes classic, pic reps Spanish cinema’s finest computer animation to date, but its humdrum script leaves it flailing at windmills. Home B.O. since Dec. 5 release has been solid but not special, with surefire sales to Spanish-speaking territories unlikely to be replicated elsewhere.” However, with a €15 million ($22 million) budget, it is not hard to see it making a profit.

Germany has a long record of making popular animated film which never seem to get into other markets. However, according to Variety, Michael “Bully” Herbig’s Lissi Und Der Wilde Kaiser (Lissi and the Wild Emperor), a comic take on the popular true-life story of the marriage of Bavaria’s Princess Elizabeth and Austria’s Emperor Franz Joseph, may have a chance to do just that. It notes that Lissi “”isn’t Germany’s first CG-animated feature, but technically it’s on a level with anything from the DreamWorks Animation stable.” According to Screen Daily, it was also the “only German film to reach this year’s Top 10 – with $ 19.1m box-office takings.”

By the way, the film marks the animation debut for Herbig, who is best known for his live-action comedies. (Check out images and trailers at the film’s official site.)

Winx Club — The Secret of the Lost Kingdom, directed by Iginio Straffi, which opened in Italy last month hit it big at the box office. According to the International Herald-Tribune,

For the uninitiated, Winx are fairies, six comely – and fashionable – teenage fairies with a successful television series to their name and a good start on silver-screen stardom. “Winx – The Secret of the Lost Kingdom,” the first full-length movie featuring the fairies, was No. 1 at the Italian box office when it opened two weekends ago throughout Italy, just as truckloads of Winx Club-branded merchandise – dolls, purses, DVDs and so on – jump-started the pre-Christmas rush.

One oft-touted statistic: Winx outsell Barbie in Italy.

The film, which cost €25 million ($36.8 million) is on the high side for a European effort, as it also involved building a new CG studio in Rome. (The TV series was done in 2D.) However, with Winx having generated some €1.5 billion ($2.2 billion) in worldwide merchandising over the past 4 years in , it would seem a reasonable gamble.

The Hollywood Reporter seems to agree, noting that the film has,

So far … sold to almost 46 territories. The film should do well in the markets in which the show and Winx merchandising are popular, such as Europe and North America. The international rollout is set for the beginning of 2008, giving the animation team an extra month to rework glitches in the Italian version.

However, as far as the film goes, its verdict is a bit less positive:

The fairies are a disturbing mix of sexiness and sexlessness, the CGI animation rather straightforward and at 90 minutes the story should wear out older viewers’ patience. The continuous harping on good having to win out over evil seems less a message than a slogan in lieu of story development.

The stereotypical teenagers’ endless chatter about their joys, sadness and fears — not to mention clothes — is punctuated by action/battle scenes that ultimately lack suspense. You don’t have to know the Winx Club world to quickly gather that none of its perfectly pretty boys and girls could experience anything other than a happy ending. Nevertheless, there’s plenty of colorful eye candy to look at along the way, mostly the fairies’ outfits and hairstyles, for which they are known and loved.

For more on the Winx Club check out Rainbow Entertainment’s website, or the many clips available on YouTube.