Bob Kurtz produces first Pink Panther film title done in more than a decade

Bumbling French Inspector Jacques Clouseau returns to the big screen in the form of Steve Martin in the new The Pink Panther movie that opens in the U.S. on Feb. 10, 2006. Like all the previous Pink Panther films (since the first in 1964), the movie features an animated title sequence. Bob Kurtz and his team at Kurtz and Friends Animation have produced this first Panther film title done in more than a decade. Read the interview with Bob Kurtz at AWN.

Electric Pants

Was Benjamin Franklin really the first man ever to ask the question that has at some stage in our lives occured to each of us, "What happens when you electrify your pants?".

His attempt was surely the most memorable as not only did he devise an ingenious way of sending lighting into his trousers he did so with merely a kite and his house key. If only everything were so simple. He went on to invent the bifocal lens and the odometer but how he imagined anyone using it without a car is beyond me. Maybe he attached it to his newly electrified slacks in-order to keep track of the many furlongs he found himself jogging after each jolt to his undergarments.

He was, no doubt about it, a man of many talents. He could play the violin, harp, guitar and the glass armonica. Sadly nobody knows what this is.

Here then, in honour of his 300th birthday which is probably in about two years time, I present a small (100k) flash animation entitled, Electric Pants.

Foxlucky.com.

Japanese Govt. injects funds to Animation Studios

In an effort to help its local industry produce another global sensation, the Japanese government is offering financial support to cash-strapped animation houses, reports THE JAPAN TIMES.

A survey by the government-affiliated Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) found that the anime market in the U.S. is worth $4.36 billion, which is 3.2 times the value of Japanese exports of steel products. You can see why it's important for them to keep the cash cow moo-ing.

POKEMON, as an example, has garnered an estimated 2 trillion yen ($18.5million) in sales of videos, games, character goods and related products, according to a July 2003 report released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

In fine tradition of the industry, many animation houses in Japan have been taken advantage of by TV stations that drum down prices (now there is a surprise ;} ), delay payment and even usurp copyrights from content creators. The Japanese government revised laws in April 2004 to help financing, education and overseas market information. As part of the new government initiative, 500 million yen ($4.6 million) will be invested into an international market to help connect local producers with buyers abroad.

Show us your Pixar

Wired News has a story this coming issue on Pixar. Apparently the media seem to think that 2D animation is dead. Personally I think that while I enjoy the films done so far in 3D there is only so far you can go with it before it becomes too close to reality and therefore a bit redundant to produce. Mind you I think it won't matter 2D or 3D, if the story is good then the film will be a hit.

Pooh chucked out of court

A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge dismissed the lawsuit against Disney, brought by Stephen Slesinger Inc. the owners of the Winnie the Pooh merchandising rights. Concluding they "tampered with the administration of justice" by hiring a private investigator to remove documents from Disney's garbage bins.

Slesinger sued in 1991, seeking additional royalties and the end of the Pooh licensing agreement. Disney only filed its motion for sanctions more than a year ago.

Slesinger issued the following statement:

"Of course, we are appealing to take our Pooh rights back. This decision unfortunately sends a strong message to corporate America that it is okay for companies like Disney to steal and renege on its contractual promises, and just fine to destroy a million pages of evidence along the way. This is just one round in a very long and complicated relationship and another delay of justice. What is in the garbage documents is that Disney committed fraud and the judge has thrown out the baby with the bathwater. This has not removed Disney's ongoing obligation to pay royalties to Slesinger family or remedy its unauthorized uses of Pooh."

I've never seen so much corporate interest in pooh or its royalty.

Disney Orlando closes it's doors for someone else to open

A group of Disney Orlando animators announced they've formed Project Firefly Animation Studios. The new 2D and 3D studio will be based in the Universal Studios Florida back lot. Project Firefly has original projects in development for theatrical and video release.

The co-founding partners' credits can be seen on such films as BROTHER BEAR, LILO & STITCH, MULAN, TARZAN, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, THE LION KING, POCAHONTAS, HERCULES, TREASURE PLANET and FANTASIA/2000.

Due to the financial benefits outsourcing of animation has become more prevalent in the industry. Project Firefly is a full service animation studio providing 2D and 3D animation and artwork for theatrical and video releases, television series, commercials, interactive/Internet media, children's books and educational films.

{ps.} I don't think they have focussed on their core business plan and I feel they are spreading themselves a little too thin with so many services to offer. There are always ambitious intentions at first but the key to success is to conquer one service and maintain that standard first. I look forward to their first animated project, hopefully before they've started producing their plush toy range.

Paul McCartney's New Cartoon

Hot from the Scotsman newspaper:
Sir Paul McCartney has produced another cartoon special about a squirrel called Wirral. Everybody say Aaaaaah.
Sir Paul said: "In animation it’s good to have a bit of a childlike quality about yourself and I certainly have, it’s just something that’s in me". Doesn't explain why he hasn't written a decent song in a quarter of a century, though.

http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment.cfm?id=240822004

Triplets Of Belleville

What's Wrong With Disney?

Sylvain Chomet is the director of Triplets Of Belleville (check out this revue:)
http://www.dirtymonkey.nu/archives/004360.html

In the wake of Disney's patent inability to deliver a decent product over the last ten or fifteen years and their subsequent conclusion that 2D Is Dead Long Live 3D, "Triplets" has hit the screens to rave reviews. Chomain, its director, was once a Disney employee in his native Toronto, (a studio which has since been closed by Disney). His views of that time, of Disney, of incompetent artistic management and of the atmosphere in a Disney studio will stir a sense of recognition in animators all over the world.
How many times must the idiots be told? It's not about 2D or 3D. It's about the script.(this is a NY Times article. cut and pasted here because I can't be confident that it is accessible by non-subscribers, Sorry NY Times.)

T.-CYR-LA-ROSIÈRE, France — When I'm making a film I like to imagine that the movie screen is transparent and behind it the audience can see the teams of artists scribbling away. Deep down, I believe that the energy of a team of enthusiastic animators filters through the screen, filling up the theater and allowing everyone to share the magic of the moment.

It can work the other way, too. There are movies where I have imagined that the animators on the other side of the screen are as bored as can be — yawning, punching the clock like civil servants, looking at their watches. In these instances, I have wanted to dash from the theater.

I bring this up to try to answer a question I am asked with some frequency: why is there so much bad animation? After all, animated movies today are enjoying newfound respect — the Academy Awards' decision to add a category for best animated feature in 2001 is one sign of that. But in some ways, animation has been a victim of that success.

For many years the only successful animated movies were Disney productions aimed squarely at children — dependable moneymakers, perhaps, but nothing to make other studios salivate. Then in 1988, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" proved that adults would flock to see a movie with animation, giving a new generation of producers and movie studio executives a taste for the genre — and the money it could bring in. As a result there are two kinds of animated films today: those made by corporations and those made by humans who love the art of animation. The difference between the two is vast.

The Pixar movie "Finding Nemo" — which like my own movie, "The Triplets of Belleville," is up for the best animated feature Oscar tomorrow — was the top-grossing movie in the world for 2003. Its success will no doubt bring a tidal wave of 3-D animated copycats, but only a few will have its high quality.

Here's why. The early Disney films, "Roger Rabbit," and "Nemo" were inspired by creative people (Walt Disney, Richard Williams and John Lasseter, respectively) who had a strong vision and instilled it in their animators. Each, in his own way, was a pioneer of animation. But it's rare to find a movie project where such a vision can flourish.

An inexperienced producer might think that making an animated film is easy. Take a cute story, tell it with funny drawings, sprinkle it with gags, market it to an unsophisticated audience. A potential investor might equally assume that doing an animated film involves coloring and drawing all day and is by nature fun.

Well, in almost 20 years of doing animation, I have only rarely come across a studio of fulfilled artists. Most of the artists who worked with me on "The Triplets of Belleville" tell me of their boredom or disappointment with the projects they are working on now. (One of the most talented artists has given up animation to do tattooing.)

I know from experience that dispirited animators tend to make lifeless films. In the late 90's, I worked at Disney's animation studio in Toronto, developing characters for a "Hercules" sequel. It was the most frustrating and informative period of my career. Everyone had his own office with large windows and views over Lake Ontario. Coming to work in the morning, I felt as if I was walking into a bank. No one saw each other, no fun was had and there was no sense of teamwork.

I was lucky enough to see the original "Hercules" development drawings of Gerald Scarfe, a talented British illustrator. They were inspired. But over time, studio input robbed Mr. Scarfe's characters of their life. What the studio did to them was criminal — like adding water to wine.

Once, my team in Canada was sent to Los Angeles to meet the people in charge of our project there. By this time we were on the sixth rewrite of the script, and we had a daylong brainstorming session in which we were locked in a big room with executives and so-called creatives. One executive suggested a rewrite incorporating an idea she had in the car that morning. Heads nodded, notes were scribbled and script No. 7 was born. It was like watching a runaway steam train being driven by a flock of headless chickens.

In a sign of how eager corporations are to have animated characters that can be franchised and spun off, work on the "Hercules" sequel had started before the first "Hercules" movie had been released. As it turns out the film flopped and the plug was pulled on the sequel, but already money equivalent to the whole budget for "Triplets" had been spent.

My lasting memory of the office in Toronto was the great view — and the worn patches on the carpet where I paced around in my cage, obsessing about how I could get out. Disney Studios had become a dinosaur, its energy sapped by the need to eat its weight in food every day. The Disney animation studios haven't made a groundbreaking movie since the late 1980's. No wonder Pixar has left Disney behind in the world of animation.

Animation deserves to be considered serious filmmaking. But to nourish itself and its audience, an art form has to keep evolving toward something greater — not just a multimillion-dollar budget and a tie-in deal with a burger chain.

Sylvain Chomet is the director of "The Triplets of Belleville."

Marvel speaks with Pixar

Marvel vice chairman Peter Cuneo expressed interest in increasing the number of "James Bond-type" movie franchises in play to 15. Marvel Enterprises has met with Pixar and other producers to interest them in translating their comic book characters into filmed entertainment. Pixar may very well yet pick up and take off in another direction yet. Marvel really doesn't have the character or family entertainment value that Pixar are targeting. We'll have to wait and see.

2004 IMAGINA AWARDS

Winners of the 2004 Imagina Awards have been announced. The jury panel graciously chaired by Stan Winston (is he still around?), consisted of Ornella Barreca, independent producer (Italy), Tom Jacomb, producer (Vanguard Animation - U.K.), Thomas Langmann (producer and actor, BLUEBERRY - France), Marc du Pontavice (ceo of Xilam Animation -- France) and William Sargent, (ceo of Framestore-cfc - U.K.).

The awards presented to the best digital graphic works were "based not only on their technical qualities but also on the emotions they generate."

The winners are:

* Grand Prix Imagina (Short): ANNIE & BOO- Germany
Direction: Johannes Weiland
Production: Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
Co-production: Schaefer Filmproduktion

* Special Prize of the Jury (Short): L'HOMME SANS TÊTE -- France
Direction: Juan Solanas
Production: Onyx Films, Iguana Films, La Maison

* Prize for Schools and Universities (Short): ANNIE & BOO -- Germany
Direction: Johannes Weiland
Production: Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
Co-production: Schaefer Filmproduktion

* Prize for Best Direction (Commercial): JOHNNIE WALKER FISH -- Germany
Direction: Daniel Kleinman
Production: Spectre
Post-production: Framestore cfc

* Prize for Best Rendering (Commercial): AUDI DRINK LIKE A FISH - U.K.
Direction: Frank Budgen
Production: Gorgeous Enterprises
Post-production: Framestore cfc

* Prize for Best Script (Short): CORTEX ACADEMY -- France
Direction: Frédéric Mayer & Cédric Jeanne
Production: Glpipa

* Art Direction Award (Short) ANNIE & BOO -- Germany
Direction: Johannes Weiland
Production: Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg
Co-production: Schaefer Filmproduktion

* Prize for Best Feature Film: THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS - U.S.
Direction: Andy & Larry Wachowski
Production: Warner Bros.

* Prize for Best Animation: THE LORD OF THE RINGS II - THE TWO TOWERS
-- New Zealand
Direction: Peter Jackson
Production: New Line Cinema