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Friday
- November 23, 2001
- Monsters vs. Shrek - And
the Winner is...
- Monsters, Inc.
Makes $4.2 Million on Thanksgiving Day
- American Companies Want CINAR
Board Gone
- News Link of the Day
- Cal State Launches Centers in Oakland
Monsters
vs. Shrek - And the Winner is...
(by digitalmediafx.com) DreamWorks and Disney are in full
promotional mode for the upcoming Academy Award battle between
Monsters, Inc. and Shrek for Best Animated Feature.
According
to the New York Times, "You may remember that before DreamWorks,
Mr. Katzenberg had been running Walt Disney Studios during the
renaissance of its animation division in the 1980's and 90's.
But he had a very public falling out with his former mentor Michael
Eisner, chairman of Disney, that ended in an ugly court case.
That the two
were facing off in a new Oscar category might have been drama
enough. Add to that the Disney-DreamWorks rivalry, and the Hollywood
gossip mills have been working overtime."
The newspaper
also reveals that part of Disney's strategy was to not submit
Atlantis: The Lost Empire for Oscar consideration, but rather
to put its entire effort behind Monsters, Inc. It is expected
that when final nominations are announced, all the movies will
be 100% CGI (Final Fantasy and Jimmy Neutron could
be outside contenders), with the possible exception of Waking
Life, if it is found eligible for a nomination.
If PDI/DreamWorks
wins the award, it will send PDI's Aron Warner to the stage to
accept the award versus Jeffrey Katzenberg. While there's no official
word on who Disney/Pixar will send, it will likely be John Lasseter
and Pete Docter.
Both studios
want this first ever Oscar award very badly and are positioning
themselves behind the scenes to influence votes via strategic
promotions to Academy members. There's little doubt that the competition
is between Shrek and Monsters, Inc. and that the
competition will be close (in which both movies received 8.5 -
out of 10 - ratings from Digital Media FX).
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Monsters,
Inc. Makes $4.2 Million on Thanksgiving Day
(by digitalmediafx.com) Monsters, Inc. made $4.2 million
yesterday (Thanksgiving Day) to bring its box office total to
$168 million. That's enough to move it above A Bug's Life
into the #8 spot of the Top
10 Animated Movies of All Time (box office results,
not adjusted for inflation). By the end of the weekend, the movie
is expected to climb above Tarzan and Snow White
into the #6 position.
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American
Companies Want CINAR Board Gone
(by digitalmediafx.com) According to the National Post, "American
corporate raiders have sent a letter to Cinar Corp., the Montreal
animation company, demanding a special meeting of shareholders
to throw out the board of directors." CINAR has been through
years of controversy and tax fraud allegations causing its stock
to plummet and resulted in CINAR being delisted from the Toronto
Stock Exchange. Companies holding just over 5% of CINAR stock
called for the meeting, which is allowed under the Canada Business
Corporations Act.
Earlier this
year, CINAR filed a lawsuit against the ousted company founders,
Ronald Weinberg and Micheline Charest, over the problems the children's
animation company has faced and actions the founders took against
the company. The lawsuit prompted the following response from
Weinberg and Charest:
"We are
surprised and extremely disappointed that the Company and it's
advisors would react to the results of our work by taking legal
proceedings against us. This is especially so when the details
of the Company's lawsuit essentially confirms the results of our
work... Notwithstanding that the Company has now chosen to take
an adversarial position in response to our claims against it,
we remain committed to doing everything we can to help the shareholders
of the Company by working to find a transaction that will be in
the best interest of all the shareholders."
When a special
committee voted to oust the founders in August 2000, Weinberg
said the following while strongly disagreeing with the decision:
"CINAR
is a world recognized industry leader with tremendous people and
assets. Our goal has always been to improve the business that
we founded over 20 years ago. Our whole working lives and hearts
are invested in CINAR. We will do whatever we can to co-operate
with the company and our fellow shareholders.
The American
companies who have members seeking the shareholder meeting to
replace the board include Chapman Capital, Palestra Capital and
Highland Capital Holdings. A recent attempt to sell CINAR fell
apart at the last minute.
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News Link
of the Day - Cal State Launches Centers in Oakland
According to the East Bay Business Times:
"...The
SFSU Oakland Multimedia Center, celebrated its opening Nov. 13
in 22,000 square feet of remodeled classrooms, meeting rooms and
state-of-the-art Macintosh computer labs at 2201 Broadway. Located
in the art deco-style Breuner Building two blocks east of the
Paramount Theatre, the program is part of the university's College
of Extended Learning and will feature classes starting Nov. 19
in Web design and production, Flash, information design, graphic
design, digital video, three-dimensional modeling and animation,
among other subjects..."
Click
here for the full story.
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