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On-Demand children’s entertainment portal Toon Goggles (www.toongoggles.com) will introduce a new and enhanced look for its app on July 15. The new app will include a section with over 50 HTML5-based games with regular game updates planned throughout the year (HTML5 based-games can be played on all mobile devices). The new update offers kids and their parents an increased selection of free content to choose from, with children-appropriate, pre-approved advertising. Premium membership will still be available, offering Toon Goggles fans the chance to opt-out of the ad-supported content if preferred.
The app update will now permit users to register and create a free account by choosing a personal username and avatar. New parental controls allow parents to choose to limit their children’s access to the preschool and educational programming categories, if desired.
“These additional features are designed to engage our users even further,” said Jordan Warkol, Toon Google’s director of business development. “As a kid-safe and parent-friendly entertainment destination for children and their parents we wanted to give children an enhanced and more interactive experience within our Toon Goggles application.”
Toon Goggles is available online at www.toongoggles.com and as an app on the iTunes App Store (iOS), Google Play (Android), Windows 8 and on all Sony phones and tablets, and pre-installed on a variety of devices. Toon Goggles can be found on the Sharp Aquos LED TV, Techno Source’s Kurio7 Android Tablet for Families, Oregon Scientific’s Meep! tablets and on Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD and Nook HD +. Among the toons currently available on the portal are YooHoo & Friends, Action Dad, The Treetop Sisters, ABC Monsters, Imp, Angus & Cheryl and Monk the Dog.
Toronto’s Side Effects Software has unveiled its Houdini Engine, which allows for deep integration of Houdini technology into a wide variety of Digital Content Creation tools. Now both film and game studios can load Houdini Digital Assets into their go-to applications and build a more integrated procedural pipeline that does not rely on baked-out data.
The Houdini Engine is a compact API which extracts Houdini’s core technologies into a powerful procedural engine for film and game studios to integrate into proprietary applications. Experimental plug-ins for popular DCC apps such as Autodesk Maya and the Unity game engine are under development at SideFX Labs.
“The Houdini Engine makes it possible for more CG artists to experience the power and flexibility of our procedural workflow.” says Kim Davidson, President and CEO, Side Effects Software. “ In essence, we have turned Houdini into the world’s most powerful plug-in for any number of DCC apps.”
The Houdini Engine is also being used to power plug-ins for Autodesk Maya and the Unity game engine editor which will be released in the coming months as experimental software from SideFX labs. Side Effects is making these plug-ins available to artists to solicit feedback from the wider CG community before taking them to market. All CG artists interested in testing these plug-ins are invited to go to labs.sidefx.com to sign up for the upcoming technology preview.
“When it comes to creating game assets, Houdini’s procedural workflow is a massive time saver,” says Jacinda Chew, Studio Art Director at Insomniac Games. “Even better, with the release of the Houdini Engine we can bring Houdini Digital Assets directly into our proprietary level editor and game engine. Artists and designers can use the interface they are most familiar with to create assets procedurally or use their regular toolset to create or customize assets and instances manually. This means we can build and iterate faster. And as an independent developer heading into the next generation of consoles, that’s a big, big win for us.”
Several new stars have joined the voice cast of Nickelodeon’s The Legend of Korra for its second season, ew.com reports. Among the new additions are Aubrey Plaza, Lisa Edelstein and James Remar.
Plaza (Parks and Recreation) will voice Eska, one of Korra’s Waterbending cousins, and whose twin brother, Desna, will be voiced by Joan of Arcadia‘s Aaron Himelstein. Veteran TV actor Remar (Dexter) will lend his voice to Tonraq, the powerful Waterbender who is Korra’s father, while Edelstein (House) will play Kya, Tenzin’s sweet-yet-impatient sister.
John Michael Higgins (Best in Show) has also been cast as Varrick, an eccentric capitalist and self-proclaimed “Biz-Bender,” while Adrian LaTourelle (Sons of Anarchy) will play Unalaq, Korra’s uncle and Chief of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, who seeks our fearless heroine’s help.
The second season of the show, which is titled Book 2, begins six months after the end of the first season, as Korra won the battle against Amon and the Equalists. In this upcoming season, she will face even more challenges as “the physical and spirits worlds collide.” The new season will have 14 episodes and will debut later this year. You can check out a panel devoted to the popular Nick show at Comic-Con on Thursday, July 19.
Loved by both critics and Nick audiences, the first season of Korra debuted in April of 2012. The show is exec produced by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and Joaquim Dos Santos. The animation is produced by Nickelodeon and Korea’s Studio Mir. In addition to Book 2, the show will have two more stand-alone seasons.
The clever Gru and his lovable Minions displayed their lasting appeal once again as Universal/Illumination’s blockbuster pic Despicable Me 2 became the No. 1 movie at the box office for the third weekend in a row. Directed by Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin, the film made an estimated $44,754,000 in the U.S., bringing its total cume to $229,237,000. The CG-animated sequel also managed to dazzle the overseas audience with a $243.2 million box office. Overall, the movie has made about $472.437 million worldwide since its U.S. debut on July 3rd.
Meanwhile, Guillermo del Toro’s much anticipated robots-vs.-monsters epic Pacific Rim opened at No. 3 in the U.S., accumulating about $38.3 million Stateside, and an additional $53 million in foreign territories.
Disney/Pixar’s popular Monsters University dropped to the Number 6 position, with an additional $10.6 million at the U.S. box office, making its U.S. cume $267.760 million and its global gross a very healthy $474.160 since its release on June 21.
The next big animated contender to keep an eye on will be DreamWorks Aniamtion’s Turbo which zooms into theaters on Wednesday, July 17. The Hollywood trades have already weighed in all the pic, which is co-written and directed by DreamWorks veteran David Soren and features the voice talent of Ryan Reynolds, Samuel Jackson, Paul Giamatti, Bill Hader, Michael Pena, Maya Rudolph and Michelle Rodriguez.
According to Variety’s Peter Debruge, “Closer in spirit to Pixar’s Ratatouille than anything the folks at DWA have yet made, this endearing underdog story finds the publicly traded computer-animation studio taking a welcome risk. The result is plenty appealing, especially for younger auds, though it will be a stretch for this snail tale to snare the crowd it needs to recoup its nine-figure budget.”
However, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Todd McCarthy was less forgiving. He noted,” An attractively designed but narratively challenged, one-note film that skews younger than the norm for big animated features these days and has limited appeal for little girls, this second Fox release (after The Croods) from DreamWorks Animation since the latter left Paramount looks to do mid-range business with family audiences.”
Nickelodeon Animation Studios CG artists have ratified a new Animation Guild, IATSE 839 contract on Friday (with a Yes vote from 90.1% of the bargaining unit’s 61 employees who voted). The key issue at play was bridging from Nickelodeon’s corporate insurance to the Motion Picture Industry Health Plan, to insure uninterrupted health coverage for covered employees who change employers. The new contract also includes salary minimums and severance pay.
As Animation Guild business representative Steve Hulett noted in a statement, “Five years ago, the Animation Guild went to work organizing Nick’s CG department. We had a number of setbacks, but last year, thanks to Guild organizer Steve Kaplan, communication with employees accelerated and support for the Guild increased dramatically. Early in February, Nickelodeon agreed to a neutral card count and negotiations for a contract started soon thereafter.”
“Talks went on for months. TAG had a (17-member) negotiating committee of unit employees, most in their early to mid-twenties, and they were focused and tenacious through several long days of work. I doubt we could have reached agreement without them. Nick negotiators Bill Cole and Kevin Ellman were tough but flexible, and had a lot to do with the parties reaching agreement.”
For the past nine years, the Guild has had a contract with Nickelodeon covering traditional animation artists. Talks on extending union contract protection to Nick’s CG artists began in March of this year and went on through July.
Final negotiations over the Memorandum of Agreement wrapped on July 10, with ratification by unit employees taking place at the studio’s Burbank facility on Friday afternoon.
Disney XD has announced plans to premiere its upcoming Marvel’s Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. series on Sunday, Aug. 11 (11 a.m.-12 p.m.). The two-part episode will be followed by a new episode of Marvel’s Avengers Assemble (12:00 – 12:30 p.m., ET/PT) in a special super-sized Marvel Universe block on Disney XD.
Marvel’s Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. is described as an action-packed, fun-filled animated series starring Marvel’s strongest super heroes – Hulk, She-Hulk, A-Bomb, Red Hulk and Skaar. In this first Marvel produced Hulk animated series, this Gamma group forms an unlikely family living under one roof, battling evil villains and proving to the world they are not monsters – they are Hulk-sized heroes. The agents must work together to tackle threats while learning to balance Hulk-sized action with everyday family-sized problems. From stopping Ego the Living Planet from crashing into Earth to trying to house-break their giant red pet T-Rex, A-Bomb documents their heroic deeds and thrilling adventures in a reality-based web series.
Beginning Thursday, August 1, the series premiere episode “Doorway to Destruction, Part 1” debuts exclusively for verified users on WATCHDisneyXD.com and the WATCH Disney XD app for Kindle Fire, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, as well as Disney XD On Demand. On the same day, DisneyXD.com/HULK will launch the Gamma Storm Smash game, where fans can play as the Hulk or other agents of S.M.A.S.H. as they blast their way through a treacherous Gamma Tornado to reach the Negative Zone for a final Boss Battle against Annihilus.
From Monday, August 5 through Sunday, August 11, the series premiere episode is available free on iTunes.
The show is exec produced by Jeph Loeb; and co-exec produced by Joe Quesada. Creative consultant is Paul Dini, and supervising producers are Todd Casey, Cort Lane and Henry Gilroy.
Voice stars include Fred Tatasciore as Hulk, Clancy Brown as Red Hulk, Seth Green as A-Bomb, Eliza Dushku as She-Hulk and Ben Diskin as Skaar.
Indie U.S. distributor GKIDS has announced that it will release the award-winning Spanish feature Wrinkles in early 2014. The English-language version of the movie, which is based on Paco Roca’s graphic novel and directed by Ignacio Ferreras, includes the talents of George Coe (Archer, Kramer vs. Kramer), Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises, Full Metal Jacket) and Martin Sheen (The Amazing Spider-Man, The West Wing). The GKIDS-produced dub will be available in all English-language foreign territories, with Marina Fuentes at Six Sales handling international sales.
The traditionally animated feature centers on the experiences of aging bank manager Emilio who is dispatched to a retirement home by his family. His new roommate is a wily, wheeler-dealer named Miguel, who cheerfully swindles small amounts of cash from the more befuddled residents but is also full of handy insider tips that are crucial to survival. Viewers are introduced to daily pill regimens, electric gates, and an eccentric cast of characters who rebel against institutional authority, while doing everything in their power to avoid being assigned to the dreaded top floor assisted living wing. The hand-drawn animation style allows the film to move freely between the reality-bound daily lives of the ‘inmates’ and their more colorful dementia-induced fantasies, leaving plenty of room for both tears and laughter and pulling no punches in its critique of society’s attitude towards the elderly.
The film has garnered wide critical acclaim, multiple festival awards, and took home two Goya Awards in its home country of Spain. For more info, visit www.gkids.com/films. Here’s the trailer for the movie:
How to Train Your Dragon 2 fans got an extra treat on Friday as the trailer for the much-anticipated sequel from DreamWorks Animation became available online. The 3-D pic, which is written and directed by Dean DeBlois and produced by Bonnie Arnold and Chris Sanders will arrive in theaters on June 20, 2014.
Based on the original series by Cressida Cowell, this second chapter of the trilogy features the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who also participated in the first movie. The original 2010 pic was a huge critical and box office hit and made $494.9 million worldwide. It was nominated for two Academy Awards.
The sequel will take place five years after the first feature and will center on Hiccup and his friends in their late teens.
“At the end of last film, all these Vikings who were previously somewhat landlocked are now on the backs of dragons so the entire Northern Hemisphere opens up to them,” says DeBlois. “And with that Hiccup’s curiosity increases, the map expands and inevitably they are going to come across new dragons, new cultures.”
Hiccup then discovers a larger conflict brewing between humans and dragons and he finds himself at the center of it.
Northern California shop Tippett Studio is exploring new revenue-generating possibilities in the app world and original content creation. The company president and CEO Jules Roman told The Hollywood Reporter that the studio is trying to diversity and broaden its horizons.
One of these ventures is the launch of the Tippett Creature Shop for the Efexio app, a free iOS or MacOS-supported app that includes a marketplace for animation. The Tippett Creature Shop will provide roughly 65 original animations. One animation per month will be available free of charge, and the rest can be purchased for $1.99. The app allows users to download the Tippett-created animation of their choice (say penguins or dinosaurs) and put multiple characters in their videos or photos. “You can change the lighting, move the camera around. … [A character] could be running toward you, away from you, side to side. It can be used in different ways,” Roman said.
“[VFX] companies that are California-centric are really in bad shape,” she told The Reporter. “You have to find other opportunities. We love working on movies, but we can’t compete with tax credits being offered elsewhere. … I hope that somehow there is some resolution that we get some balance, but meanwhile we are going to rally on.”
Tippett had to lay off about 40 percent of its staffers after finishing its work on Sony’s After Earth. The shop is currently working on several feature projects including A Million Way to Die and Horns. Before After Earth, the shop did top-notch work on the Twilight movies, Ted, Mirror Mirror, Enchanted, The Smurfs and Charlotte’s Web.
Fox is making a big promotional push for its upcoming Animation Domination High-Def (ADHD) block at next week’s Comic-Con, per The Hollywood Reporter. The studio is holding 11 panels for new and returning shows, as well as new drama Sleepy Hollow, documentary series Cosmos. The channel is also introducing special posters, featuring Family Guy, The Simpsons and Cosmos.
To promote the ADHD block, which premieres on July 27, Fox is setting up a 57-foot Axe Cop balloon between First and Second Avenues, where a mini-golf course tied to High School USA! and an animated GIFs station is located. A special outdoor screening of Axe Cop and High School USA! is also planned for July 19 at 8:30 p.m. There will be four Comic-Con exclusive figurines (Axe Cop, Grey Diamond, Liborg and Army Chihuahua Man) at the ADHD headquarter.
You may want to save some appetite for the ADHD pizza truck which will serve pizza to attendees from July 18-20 from 12-4 p.m. and 8 p.m.-12 a.m. and July 21 from 12-4 p.m.
This month, ShortsHD (www.shortstv.com) spotlights the work of animation pioneer Joan C. Gratz. The special spotlight features an interview with the Oscar-winning animator who is best known for her Oscar-winning short Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase. Gratz pioneered the animation technique known as claypainting. Working with bits of clay, Gratz blends colors and etches fine lines to create a seamless flow of images. Gratz was also honored this past February at the Shorts Awards for Visionary Animator.
The month-long ShortsHD focus will showcase which include screenings of Khubla Khan, Lost and Found, Dowager’s Idyll, Dowager’s Feast, Puffer Girl, Pro + Con and Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase, a lovely clay-animated homage to the work of 35 renowned artists.
Gratz’s personal films range in content through painterly expression of poetry, improvised abstraction and animated social documentary. While at Will Vinton Studios, her work included design and animation for the Oscar-nominate Rip Van Winkle, Return To Oz and The Creation. She established her own studio, Gratzfilm, in 1987 to produce and direct her own films and to explore a broad range of animation techniques and ideas independent of commercial constraints. Her most recent short films are Kubla Khan, an animated painting of Colridge’s opium inspired dream and Lost and Found, transforming high-relief clay images to evoke life’s passages.
Here is a brief Q&A we recently did with the talented animator:
Animag:How did you get your start in animation?
Joan C. Gratz: While I was obtaining a degree in architecture, I began painting and filming the process. Soon it was the record of the changes and not the end paintings which were of interest to me. Rather than ending up with thousands of canvases, the result was a slender roll of 8mm film. The process seemed magical.
Why do you think your Mona Lisa short has had such a timeless appeal?
Gratz: The film contains claypainted replicas of key works of 20th century painting.
My idea was that the transforming images would create a feel for both the individuals graphic style and the relationship between artistic movements. I think much of its appeal comes from seeing familiar static paintings come to life.
What are your memories of the Oscars that year?
Gratz: It was a great collection of nominees that year, some of whom were also my good friend, that made it especially meaningful. A computerized Snow White announced the winner, unfortunately there was a glitch and I didn’t realize I had won. Now the technology has advanced so that should never be a problem.
Tell us about your most recent work Lost and Found?
Gratz:Lost and Found is high-relief clay with a strong directional light. The resulting film looks like sculpted wood and shifting sand. I animate directly under the camera but with a monochromatic pallet. Light and shadow and texture become the most important elements.
What is the best piece of advice you received about working in animation?
Gratz: I never received advice about animation. I was advised by a cinematographer that one should never let your home be used for a shoot. This was while he was filming a music video directed by Jim Blashfield for Joni Mitchell. They were good about repairing the fused wiring and restoring the place.
Can you tell us about your work on the upcoming animated anthology The Prophet?
Gratz: The film is based on the popular book by Kahlil Gibran. Salma Hayek is one of the key producers and voice talents. Other voice talent includes Liam Neeson, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina and Quvenzhané Wallis. Seven directors including Bill Plympton and Tomm Moore and Paul Brizzi are directing and animating chapters from The Prophet. Roger Allers, who directed The Lion King is responsible for the framing story. It is scheduled to be finished in the spring of 2014.
Who is your favorite animated character and why?
Gratz: My favorite film is Richard Condie’s The Big Snit; it’s about couple obsessed with Scrabble even as world is destroyed. As a committed Scrabble player I can identify with them.
Who are your animation heroes?
Gratz: I have two types of animation heroes. The owners of big studios who actually share the credit on their projects. Peter Lord and David Sproxton at Aardman come to mind. My other animation heroes are the truly independent filmmakers whose work represents their singular voice and graphic talent. Many great directors fall into that category. Joanna Quinn from Great Britain, Regina Pessoa from Portugal and Paul Driessen from Holland are examples.
What would you say is the secret of durability in the animation business?
Gratz: Do what interests you. Use commercial work as a way to provide the funds you need for your own films.
What is your take on the animation scene today?
Gratz: Computer animated features, are becoming more and more sophisticated. In terms of my own personal interest, they have little appeal. I am not their demographic. As critic once said ” you can admire the technique without enjoying it.” There is still a lot of great animation that reflects a personal point of view and esthetics.This has not changed and it keeps me coming back to festivals around the world.
Animation has become such a juggernaut within the film industry that it seems as though everyone has tried their hand in it at one point or other, up to and including British Royalty. That isn’t just a glib one-liner, either. There actually was a television cartoon show created by a member of the British royal family: Budgie the Little Helicopter, the pet project of H.R.H. The Duchess of York.
Budgie, which was produced by Fred Wolf Films Dublin for the licensing outfit Sleepy Kids, first hit the airwaves in 1994, and an awful lot has happened in twenty years. Budgie aired in America over Fox Kids, which doesn’t exist anymore. Neither does Sleepy Kids. Neither, for that matter, does the title “H.R.H. The Duchess of York.” The creator of Budgie has been “demoted” to Sarah, Duchess of York (still, it could be worse), nee Sarah Ferguson, then familiarly known as “Fergie.”
The point here is, back in 1994, the notion of a member of the Royal family creating a television show was pretty astonishing. The show was based on a series of children’s books that the Duchess had written, but did that mean that H.R.H. remained actively involved in the production of the show? “The answer is a flat yes,” Fred Wolf told me back in 1994, adding:
“The Duchess is the sole creator of these books, and I have to give her credit for the uniqueness of the story, because it came from her own experience in her learning to fly a helicopter. She was taking flying lessons. To my knowledge, there are no animated characters that are helicopters. There are animated boats, animated trains, animated this and that, but this was the first helicopter. So being the creator of Budgie the Little Helicopter, like any creator or author, she does follow it through. She reviewed all the scripts, and she is very much involved in the development of Budgie as an animated piece of art, as opposed to an illustrated piece of art. She had a lot of intelligent and astute contributions to that factor. This was well before I ever met the Duchess, but it made our association a very good one in the sense that someone is very assured and they know what they want, and we give it to them, and they know that maybe there could be something different added to it.”
Budgie the Little Helicopter
For the record, the Budgie books were illustrated by John Richardson.
Budgie aired all over the world for three seasons, and was followed by a direct-to-video feature, and then it all but disappeared. As for the Duchess, while she has experienced some bumps in the Royal carriage drive since divorcing Prince Andrew in 1996 (forget the scandals; perhaps her biggest indignity was losing her nickname to an American pop singer), she did have one more brush with animation. She appeared as the voice of “The Queen” in the 2004 Disney short, The Cat That Looked at a King, a quasi-sequel to Mary Poppins that was released on the 40th anniversary DVD for the classic film.
After flying high internationally, Budgie the Little Helicopter set down on the heliport of memory.
Vodka’s Jelly Jamm Wins El Chupete Awards: Spanish studio Vodka Capital’s CG-animated preschool show Jelly Jamm recently picked up the Best Animaton in TV/Movie categories and Best Music and Video Clip honors at the Festival Internacional El Chupete. The series, which is now available in more than 150 countries and 18 different languages, reaches an estimated 4 million viewers worldwide, 22% amongst kids aged 4-9 years old. U.K.’s Channel 5 Milkshake block began to air the second series of the show (26 x 11) this month. Vodka Captial is also working on the new animated transmedia mini series (13 x 2) called Bugsted, which will be available on TV, online and smartphones and will also include a game for web and mobile, as well as a set of collectible toys.
Jelly Jamm
Camp Lakebottom Debuts on iTunes Before Disney XD Airdate: Toronto’s 9 Story Entertainment has made the first episode of its upcoming kids’ animated comedy Camp Lakebottom (26×22′) available on the U.S. iTunes TV store as a free download. The premiere episode will premire on Disney XD on Saturday, July 13 (9:30 a.m., ET/PT). Subsequent episodes of Camp Lakebottom will be available on iTunes the day after airing on Disney XD. Episodes of the series can be found at www.iTunes.com/CampLakebottom.
Camp Lakebottom
“Making the first episode available on iTunes prior to its Disney XD premiere offers a fantastic opportunity to engage new fans and generate excitement about the series,” said Natalie Osborne, 9 Story’s exec VP of business development. “Kids watch shows in multiple mediums and a pre-air premiere of the first episode on iTunes is a great way to help young audiences discover new content.”
Camp Lakebottom centers on 12-year-old prankster McGee, who was headed for an awesome summer at Camp Sunny Smiles when his bus took a wrong turn and landed him at old, run down and spooky camp instead.
M. Wartella’s new Brooklyn-based full-service studio Dream Factory Animation has officially announced its arrival on the hand-drawn toon scene. Founded in January 2013 by industry-veteran and New York City underground cartoonist M. Wartella (The Village Voice, Cartoon Network’s MAD), the studio is located in a 100-year-old industrial factory near Williamsburg’s Graham Avenue L stop.
“I’ve produced nearly 300 hand-drawn animated MAD shorts for Warner Bros. since 2010,” says Wartella, “So it seemed like the right time to expand and make these services available to everyone interested in animated cartoons.”
With a staff of some of New York’s top animators in place, the studio is also producing a weekly series of online shorts for WIRED called Mr. Know-It-All, which is based on the magazine’s popular advice column.
Wartella has also devised a proprietary system for creating animated cartoons.
“Using my secret formula, we can produce super-high-quality cartoons in a time frame that would be virtually impossible for any other animation studio to rival,” he claims. “We can turn out a fully-animated 30-second spot from top to bottom in one business day if we have to. This brings traditional animation within reach for almost any commercial business that wants to get noticed.”
Wartella plans to offer personal one-on-one animation classes evenings this fall. He is also inviting any talented cartoonists to drop by during business hours. For more info visit www.dreamfactoryanimation.com.
Disney XD will premiere its new 2.5-hour Randomation Animation block this Saturday (July 13) from 8 a.m.-10:30 a.m. The special toon showcase includes new episodes of Max Steel, Packages From Planet X, Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, Camp Lakebottom and Phineas and Ferb.
The new schedule is as follows:
8 a.m. – Max Steel
8:30 – Packages From Planet X (Series Premiere)
9:00 – Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja
9:30 – Camp Lakebottom (Series Premiere)
10:00 – Phineas and Ferb
Here’s a special clip from DHX Media’s new series, Packages from Planet X:
Indie kids’ entertainment creator/producer/distributor/licensor DHX Media has secured a deal with French network Canal+ to air its CG animated series Monster Math Squad (50 x 11) across a range of key territories. The educational show will air in France, Monaco, Andorra, Mauritius and Switzerland on the Canal+ Premium pay TV channel, as well as regions across Africa through Canal+ Afrique.
Monster Math Squad is produced by DHX for CBC and SRC in Canada, and was created by Jeff Rosen (Poko, Animal Mechanicals, Bo on the Go). The series seeks to promote math fundamentals with its loveable monster stars who help children develop formative math and related skills, including counting, measuring, sizing, sorting, exploring shapes, patterns, time, etc.
Additional key international broadcasters for Monster Math Squad include Discovery Kids Latin America, YLE (Finland), EBS (Korea) and HOP (Israel).
Great news for fans of classic Japanese comics, otherwise known as manga: California based e-publisher Digital Manga Inc. has nabbed the rights to the entire back catalog of the legendary Osamu Tezuka’s work to be made available digitally in the U.S. Yes, including Astro Boy. The deal with Tezuka Productions, confirmed by Anime News Network, will include select printed titles funded through Kickstarter campaigns.
Although best known Stateside for the Astro Boy manga and anime, as well as the his Mushi Productions cartoons (Kimba the White Lion, Princess Knight) and the animated film adaptation of Metropolis, Tezuka’s celebrated career birthed an incredible body of illustrated work, comprising over 700 volumes. These include Buddha, Message to Adolf and his unfinished life’s work, Phoenix.
Titles currently available in print in the U.S. (Black Jack, Message to Adolf and Buddha included) will remain with their current publishers for print, but Digital Manga will take over digital rights.
In the afterglow of last summer’s festival, I knew that Animation Block Party 2013 needed to underscore the significance of our ten-year anniversary. Music has always been a huge part of my workflow. I was the music director of my college radio station and subsequently persuaded future co-workers to listen to endless iTunes mix-tapes. In October 2012, I had one of those Wayne’s World 2 brainstorms, thinking if I booked cool bands that ABP could premiere with a big concert. The Music Hall of Williamsburg was at the top of my list as it’s a superb venue with perfect sound acoustics. I contacted Lisa Schamis, their Private Events Manager and told her I was interested in holding Opening Night at the Music Hall of WB. Lisa thought ABP sounded awesome and was very helpful in scheduling the event. We locked down the date of Thursday, July 25th.
Concert booking can be complicated due to pending tours, records to promote or regions of band etc – various elements must come together for a show to happen. This past winter, Adam Green and Binki Shapiro had a new album available on Spotify. They’re both exceptional singer/songwriters, Adam from the Moldy Peaches and Binki from Little Joy. The self-titled album had an infectiously catchy sound. I spoke with Eric Dimenstein of Ground Control Touring who handles Adam/Binki booking. We talked summer plans and ABP made an offer. They said yes, so we proceeded with the legalese. With a headliner booked, an opening band was needed. Hooray For Earth’s full-length debut “True Loves” was on auto-repeat in my laptop queue. I’d seen them at the Knitting Factory in the dead of February and knew they’d be a great pairing with Adam and Binki. I called their booking agent, Robin Taylor of Inland Empire Touring. We had a long chat, I explained ABP and she thought it sounded like a good fit for Hooray For Earth. We settled on a contract and the music lineup was set.
This may seem like it all happened quickly, but it took many months, not half a paragraph. If you don’t know these artists, definitely listen to them. They’re all for real and will add a huge spark to our tenth anniversary. Of course, ABP is all about animation – and there will be exclusive content at the Music Hall of Williamsburg from Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Pixar. Tim Harrington, a very funny comedian who is also the lead singer of the NYC-based Les Savy Fav, will host the event. You can buy individual tickets to Animation Block Party Opening Night on the Music Hall of Williamsburg website or weekend passes are available via Flavorus.
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