Digital
Media FX News Archives
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Saturday
- November 24, 2001
- Monsters, Inc. Nears Mega-Blockbuster
Status
- New Animation
Festival Hits Michigan Area Next Year
- Escanflowne Movie Being Released
January 25, 2002
- News Link of the Day
- Cinar Cuts 54 Staff
Monsters,
Inc. Nears Mega-Blockbuster Status
(by digitalmediafx.com) Monsters, Inc. made $10 million
on Friday to bring its box office total to $178 million as it
nears the $200 million mega blockbuster mark. Friday's $10 million
take is a huge gain over last Friday's $5.7 million that Monsters,
Inc. made. Monsters, Inc. has now moved to within $90
million of Shrek's record this year. Shrek made
$267.5 million nationally. It may reach that mark too with the
Christmas holiday season around the corner and rumors that Pixar
and Disney will add outtakes to help create more repeat visits.
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New Animation
Festival Hits Michigan Area Next Year
(by digitalmediafx.com) Animation festivals and competitions
have become quite popular across the country -- but rarely has
there been a Midwest festival. That's about to change as Kalamazoo,
Mich., will host the Midwest's first animation festival of its
kind May 17-19, 2002 -- offering $15,000 in cash prizes and featuring
a novel cartoon-creating competition -- the Cartoon Challenge.
The Kalamazoo
Animation Festival International (KAFI), organized by the Kalamazoo
Valley Community College's (KVCC) Advanced Technology Center for
New Media, will feature the Cartoon Challenge, 24 levels of competition,
seminars and workshops by outstanding professionals and public
screenings of the festival's best animated submissions.
"Our
goal is to provide a public forum for animation screenings, encourage
and showcase animation artists, promote animation as an art form,
and offer educational outreach to both media artists and the public,"
says KVCC President Marilyn Schlack. "We're especially pleased
to create the Midwest's first animation festival -- filling a
void in the region."
Judging will
be a two-tiered process. A screening panel of professionals and
students will review the entries and determine the Top 100 to
advance to the festival -- by April 23. Then a team of second-level
judges will review the Top 100 to determine the winners of the
cash awards.
Those who
decide to test their animation talents in the Cartoon Challenge
will bring their five person creative teams -- as many as 10 such
groups -- to Kalamazoo prior to the festival to produce their
30-second entry under deadline pressure. The teams won't know
the topic until the weeklong competition begins. The competition
begins May 12 and concludes with a public screening and awards
presentation May 19.
Separate from
the Cartoon Challenge will be four units of festival competitions:
student films, non-commissioned films, commissioned films and
a school competition -- each having various sub-categories. The
non-commissioned films unit, for example, features sub categories
such as independent short works, films for children, commercials,
public service announcements and first films.
The seminars
and workshops will feature topics on early production of animated
films, animation classics, current techniques and technologies,
the role of animation in the greater context of American culture,
career prospects, and violence in animated games.
Other KAFI
events include public screenings of the top juried entries and
an old-fashioned excursion to a venerable downtown movie house
for a showcase of pre-Talkies cartoons -- complete with an organist
providing mood music, and some of the most unique cartoons produced
up until the 1960s.
For more information on the festival, click
here.
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Escanflowne
Movie Being Released January 25, 2002
(by digitalmediafx.com) Bandai Entertainment will launch Escaflowne
into theatrical release on Friday, January 25, 2002 within top
U.S. and Canadian markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago,
San Francisco and Vancouver. The anime movie will then expand
to a wider national release in February 2002.
A motion picture
production based on one of the most popular anime titles, Escaflowne
is celebrated animator Shoji Kawamori's vision of a world where
good and evil hinge on a girl's ability to find meaning for her
own life.
Escaflowne
blends romance and fantasy to tell the story of Hitomi Kanzaki,
an ordinary high school student whose life has lost all meaning.
Feeling at her most desperate, she wishes that she could just
disappear into thin air -- a wish that is immediately granted
when a mysterious man suddenly materializes and catapults her
away from Earth. Hitomi is instantly thrust into Gaia, a strange
new world ruled by sword and sorcery, where a fierce battle rages
between a rebel group and the ruling Black Dragon Clan for power
over the legendary dragon armor called Escaflowne. For the first
time in her teenage life, Hitomi realizes she can make a difference
-- this time the fate of a world is in her hands.
Escaflowne
has its roots in the acclaimed anime television series "The
Vision of Escaflowne," which aired in the U.S. on the Fox
Kids Network and YTV in Canada. Since the series' successful telecast,
fans nationwide seem to have embraced the story of Hitomi, Van
Fanel -- prince of the ravaged kingdom -- and the legendary god
of protection, Escaflowne.
"Escaflowne
epitomizes Japanese anime, providing a compelling film that breaks
down the barrier of animation as an entertainment genre for children
only," says Ken Iyadomi, Executive Vice President, Bandai
Entertainment. "For fans of anime, as well as for all moviegoers,
Escaflowne is a visual feast, and an exciting story brilliantly
told with battle scenes and breathtaking displays of supernatural
power that unfolds on the screen."
The Director
of Escaflowne is Kazuki Akane, who also directed "The
Vision of Escaflowne" television series; Cast includes Kelly
Sheridan, Kirb Morrow, Paul Dobson, Andrew Francis, Brian Drummond
and Venus Terzo.
The producers
are Masuo Ueda, Minoru Takanashi, Masahiko Minami and Toyoyuki
Yokohama. The movie was written by Ryota Yamaguchi and Kazuki
Sekine.
Animators
include Hajime Yatate and Shoji Kawamori. The movie score is being
composed by Yoko Kanno and Hajime Mizoguchi.
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News Link
of the Day - Cinar Cuts 54 Staff
According to The Globe and Mail:
"Cinar
Corp. the children's television producer, which has been
plagued by a string of financial scandals said on Friday
it had cut 54 staff and appointed new auditors.
The troubled
Montreal-based firm said the cuts would take place in its corporate
offices and entertainment division, reducing its staff in the
city from 164 to 110..."
Click
here for the full story.
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