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MARCH 2001 VOL.5 NO.12 4 Editor’s Notebook What good is technology?

6 The Technology Circle Over the past five years the changes in special effects technology for film and television have been monumental, causing large shifts and new issues for production companies and the software/hardware companies that service them. Bruce Manning outlines the issues and then sits down with Richard Taylor to discuss. Visit us online to see enlarged images and additional information on Richard’s work.

12 Low-Cost Solutions, High-End Results With today’s new software packages becoming more and more efficient for less and less money, one can definitely do more with less. John Edgar Park discusses the different software and hardware combos that can get you on the fast track to great looking CGI work. Go online to see detailed specs on Strata 3D and Hash Animation:Master online at: http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.12/5.12pages/parkblurring.php3.

16 Making It To The Web Exporting your animation to Flash so that it plays smoothly and soundly over the Internet is getting more complicated with every new product crowing about its “Flash-export capability.” Mark Winstanley is here to make sense of it all for you. 2001 ADDITIONAL FEATURES

20 There Once Was A Man Called Pjotr Sapegin From Russia to his new home of Norway, Pjotr Sapegin is bringing his own twisted sense of humor to his re-worked fairy tales. Who is this man behind a salt controlling troll, a genital loving cat and a rat seeking romance? Chris Robinson investigates.

30 The Challenges of the Big Screen Cartoon The innate pitfalls, and opportunities, in successfully adapting a television show to the big screen are many. With millions in profits going to those who achieve the magic combo, and straight-to- video relegation for those who fail, it is a tight rope more studios are trying to rush across. Gerard Raiti takes a look.

35 The Animation Pimp This month the Animation Pimp Chris Robinson takes on the U.S. job drain to Canada and reveals it is actually a two way street and has been for many a year… ARCH

TELEVISION 37 Cartoons Aren’t Real! Ren and Stimpy In Review Have you ever thought that Ren and Stimpy’s popularity was based on their abstract representation of our early ‘90s fears and anxieties regarding political uncertainty and the AIDS epidemic? M Well, Martin “Dr. Toon” Goodman has.

42 Ahoy! An Intelligent Children’s Show At Last! Tired of Teletubbies and need another bizarre pre-school fix? Well check out Consortium of Gentlemen’s Yoho Ahoy on the BBC. Soon you’ll know every word… Go online to see a QuickTime movie clip!

MARCH 2001 VOL.5 NO. 12 FILMS/VIDEOS

44 Fresh from the Festivals: February 2001’s Film Reviews Jon Hofferman joins us to review short films: The Dance of the Saracen Asparagus by Christophe Le Borgne, Maria Vasilkovsky’s Fur & Feathers, Run of the Mill by Borge Ring, Andreas Hykade’s Ring of Fire and Paul Fierlinger’s long-awaited Still Life with Animated Dogs. As always, visit us online to download and view a QuickTime movie clip from each movie!

47 New from Japan:Anime Film Reviews Fred Patten reviews the latest anime releases including: Outlaw Star, Cardcaptors, Cardcaptor Sakura, The Vision of Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop and Generator Gawl.

53 Supplemental Disney DVDs Surpass the Competition With the new Toy Story: The Ultimate Toy Box and Fantasia Anthology, Disney has clearly pulled ahead of the competition, putting together expansive bonus selections and features to showcase these great animated films. Gerard Raiti reports. EVENTS

56 The Scarves of Sundance Accepted into Sundance’s first online festival, Romanov creator Chris Lanier heads off to Hollywood, Utah as one of the few, the proud, the animators in a sea of live-action hype. A must read, featuring illustrations created by Chris Lanier!

67 Standing at the Crossroads Traveling all the way to la Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean, Jean Detheux discovers a 2001 remote location struggling to join the technology revolution and raising questions about our rampant globalization.

74 Toy Fair 2001:The Big Hits To Come Jacquie Kubin visted New York City’s Toy Fair and has a full report on the hot properties for 2001 and beyond. What’s going to be in your Happy Meal? Read on…

NEWS 79 Animation World News Oscar nominations to Father & Daughter and Periwig-Maker, iFilm Secures $10 Million, Sega Ends Dreamcast, Interplay Nabs Matrix Gaming Rights, Australian Government Sets Out To Ban Political Web Game, AtomFilms Brings Content To Pay-Per-View and much more.

80 Next Issue’s Highlights 5 This Month’s Contributors ARCH Cover: Richard Taylor’s The Visitors shows alien “mother ships” revisiting the earth to uncover their eggs, which have been nesting under the cover of desert mountains. © Richard Taylor. M

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March20013 Editor’s Notebook by Heather Kenyon What good is technology? where the "tech heads" have world, the same models can be empowered the artists by provid- used for the video game, televi- s we can read about in ing them with the correct tools sion series, packaging and then John Edgar Park’s "Low- that will enhance, and not encum- put onto the Web through clever ACost Solutions, High-End ber, their work. As effects tools interfaces and applications. Results," the advances in tehnolo- (software and hardware) become In this new world, we must gy are astounding and offering more and more complex, varied all, especially the artist, be savvy. new opportunities to the masses, and specific, the more important Case in point, Jean Detheux, an as we can see by Mark Winstanley’s are those in the know. Bruce artist who had to switch quite sud- "Making It To The Web." However, Manning clearly states in "The denly due to an allergy from using Richard Taylor is dead on when he Technology Circle" that all tools are organic materials to the computer. says, "Special effects are no value in possible need on a project…not Rather than being afraid of this in themselves or by themselves." just the latest and the best. While medium, intimidated, he has Sure, animation geeks like us will every software version might not grasped it wholeheartedly as a go to movies just for the effects be selling across the board any- new opportunity to speak in his and ogle at them with glee, but more, effects studios need to unique voice. In fact, in "Standing we know when the package they know about the tools that are at the Crossroads," he asks many are wrapped in is terrible. And so available in order to stay on top in pertinent questions not just to the does the general movie going a wildly competitive arena. inhabitants of la Réunion, but to all public. Technology is great, and Then there are those that of us. Regardless of which tools, technology will get us those eye- do it all. Those that are not only what technology, comes our way, popping effects better, faster and artists but also highly, highly we must always strive to master it, stronger, but they are of no use knowledgeable of what tools are in order to use it to speak, not only unless properly utilized to tell a at their disposal and how to get to the project, but about our- story or impart the desired emo- the most out of them. This is a selves. tion. new breed, a new multi-media Effects studios need a staff breed, that is going to become Until Next Time, that knows every plug-in and more, and more, apparent -- and Heather every version of the available tools. not only in the commercial realm. They are the unsung heroes who Chris Lanier and Andy Murdock provide the correct tools to the are two such artists with this artists. The artists in turn must use approach. Chris’ description of these tools to make us feel the Andy’s latest work, which he saw story. This is another tremendous at Sundance, is amazing! task: getting the timing just Across this issue from article so…making the character perform to article evolved this idea of using what becomes a classic gesture. It many tools to create one final is amazing to me the melding of product. In Jacquie Kubin’s discus- left-brain and right-brain people sion of the recent Toy Fair, she that go into each and every proj- states that properties with many ect. Somewhere in the middle approaches to the consumer are ground lies a wonderful turf, the winners. In this new digital

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March20014 [email protected]

Colombia Is Animating Anime? ANIMATION WORLD NETWORK Thanks for Animation If you had told me that I’d 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 600 World Magazine. It is wonderfu1! be renting and buying anime Los Angeles, CA 90036 Phone : 323.634.3400 In my country it is very difficult to videos a few months ago, I would Fax : 323.634.3350 learn about the animation world have thought you were crazy but Email : [email protected] and you permit that. Thanks again thanks to Fred Patten’s informative and long may it continue (maybe “New from Japan: Anime Film in Spanish?). Reviews” (Patten, 5.11), I’m sold. Thanks for opening my eyes! [email protected] Edwing Solorzano Independent Animator Kitty Hughes PUBLISHERS Medellin, Colombia Ron Diamond, President Sold! Dan Sarto, Chief Operating Officer More Kudos for the Web I met Heather Kenyon on EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Guide Saturday, February 17, 2001 at the Heather Kenyon I just wanted to thank you Women In Animation annual for the kind words about my car- meeting...she gave me some infor- ASSOCIATE EDITOR toon and let you know that it was mation about where to find cels Rick DeMott an honor to have Bill and Ted #6 and also told me about EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR chosen as one of Rick’s Picks. The www.awn.com. Well, I just Joan H. Kim first Rick’s Pick of 2001! I check in checked out the site and it is on AWN’s Web Animation Guide GREAT. What a resource! I’m so CONTRIBUTORS Rick DeMott often and was pretty shocked and glad to know about it. Thanks for Jean Detheux excited to see Bill and Ted up pointing me to it Heather. I wish Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman Jon Hofferman there. I’ll probably “cross the line to I’d discovered it long ago. Heather Kenyon crudity” again but I’m really glad Joan Kim you liked #6. I’ll try to have more Best regards, Jacquie Kubin Chris Lanier “moments of clarity!” Keep up the Carolyn Miller Bruce Manning good work. John Edgar Park Fred Patten Gerard Raiti Mixing fart jokes with social com- Chris Robinson Mark Winstanley mentary since 2000, Paul Younghusband Josh Faure-Brac Bill and Ted cartoon maker guy. OPERATIONS Annick Teninge, General Manager

DESIGN/LAYOUT Alex Binotapa Jeremy Keller

WEBMASTERS Jeremy Keller Alex Binotapa

ADVERTISING SALES Jay Stokes

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March20015 The Technology Circle by Bruce Manning

require days of work and heavy equipment can now be accomplished with the click of a mouse or push of a button. However, as simple as this sounds, the prolifer- ation of special effects software has brought with it a host of new issues. As things continue to change quickly, there is a great deal of speculation about the future of software and hardware companies. The marketplace is flooded with software designed to produce special effects and the companies developing this software just keep publishing new versions. Some special effects professionals are of the opinion that Richard Taylor’s The Visitors. Courtesy of Richard Taylor. all these new versions aren’t really first started in the visual effects and Evans and Sutherland’s, one necessary and are being produced business at a prominent of the first digital composite com- just to keep an acceptable profit IHollywood effects company by puter systems. My favorite camera margin for the stockholder. But the name of Robert Abel’s. was known as “camera two.” It how long will this mode of busi- Shooting visual effects as a cam- was a dark place. There you could ness work for the software/hard- eraman, I never dreamt I would shoot 35 mm rear screen projec- ware companies? Do we really see the changes in technology tions, you could flop cel anima- need all of these new versions? that have taken place in the indus- tion, and it was a computer-con- Not every release is as dramatic an try. Back then Robert Abel’s was trolled tracking camera all in one. upgrade as we are seeing right the top of the line. He got his Little did I know, like every camera now with the latest release of 3D name by doing high-end commer- in the building, this camera would Studio Max. Is the demand becom- cials, spending every last dime of become a giant boat anchor ing less? Large studios frequently the budget to make it just right. when digital technology came have proprietary software at their He worked with a lot of innovative along. disposal and when do the small people, who are now very suc- boutique effects companies cessful. Among some of the equip- During the past five years upgrade? How do they contend ment we used were optical print- the changes in special effects tech- with re-training while on tight ers, Oxberry down shooters, com- nology for film and television have budgets and even tighter dead- puter-controlled tracking cameras been monumental. What used to lines?

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March20016 Proprietary Needs ILM or another powerhouse, you Another blow to the sellers probably have some of the bright- is that major companies have their est minds at your disposal. own versions of certain software Rachel Dunn, one of Digital packages. For example, the effect Domain’s top 2D composite artists of animal fur is a “must have” look with credits such as Dante’s Peak, that digital artists have been trying Fifth Element, Red Planet, Titanic, to perfect for years. Many studios The Grinch and Super Nova, have written their own software explains: “If a studio can afford to versions for animal fur and muscle write custom software they will Screenshot of the color correction mod- systems. If they’re not happy with because writing their own propri- ule included in Discreet Logic’s flame* an off the shelf version, they have etary software gives them the package. © Discreet. the means to create their own. exact features they need in order to do their job. Most store bought Push and Shove software is written for a broad con- Of course to stay in busi- sumer market. Software compa- ness, software companies have to nies are trying to make everyone stay competitive. Let’s say a soft- happy. The larger studios don’t ware company comes out with a need that. They custom tailor their software package like Shake by proprietary software for their own Nothing Real for $600 and it rivals in house artists.” Discreet Logic’s flame*, which is a software package that costs about $10,000. What’s flame* going to A screen capture of Shake 2.3’s “Hope” do? They have to make their soft- imagery. © and courtesy of Precipice Pictures and Nothing Real. ware very special to justify the $10,000 price ticket. So, they will In fact, there are some large continue to add features. When it houses where almost all of the comes to flame*, and inferno*, software is proprietary and there some feel it’s too much software are some major advantages in this. for TV production. flame* now has Proprietary software can save particle generators and other such money and time for large effects fancy features. A lesser software companies. They’ve been working package might work just fine for a so long with their own product Rachel Dunn, one of Digital Domain’s top number of jobs. that they’ve built infrastructures 2D composite artists. It seems obvious that new such as file formats, geometry for- “Our proprietary software versions are being produced solely mats and image formats around it. Nuke is very powerful. We have to make more money and to have For better or worse, they’re mar- about 10 or 12 guys writing soft- a new release to publicize. ried to their own proprietary software for Digital Domain. A lot of However, some of the features ware and it’s difficult for them to the software we write is transla- that software writers produce break away and use a non-propri- tion. We take store bought soft- aren’t the ones that the effects etary system. Another nice thing ware and write links to it so it will artists really need. Developers about proprietary software is that work with Nuke. So we can get come up with features that aren’t one can just walk into the office Alias|Wavefront’s Maya to work necessarily useful, but are next door and ask a programmer with Houdini, to work with announced with trumpeting to write something up really quick Softimage, to work with Ultimatte importance. Therefore, while new — a cool plug-in or some other and so on and so forth. We can versions are being released the nice application. There’s no wait- take a blue screen model and read necessity of owning these new ing, or required detailed explana- it through five different software versions is being diminished. tion necessary. Plus, if you are at packages to get what we need.”

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March20017 Enter the Boutique bells and whistles. They can also There’s a whole Another factor that is shoot blue screens themselves. lot stuff out there changing the face of the way There are a couple ways to view effects are done today is the shear this development. Some think this you can waste amount of shots that need to get is a healthy development and cre- done for certain projects. Some ates a competitive atmosphere, your money on. feature films have up to a thou- others think differently as small stu- sand effects shots. Producers often dios are burned to the ground try- “We at DD find ourselves don’t want to send a thousand ing to meet deadlines and make bouncing back and forth between effects shots to one house. For profits in a cut-throat world. quite a few different software that matter there are very few packages when we’re doing com- effects studios that can even han- positing because some packages dle a thousand shots! Sending do better than others on certain projects to multiple companies is things. We will bring an image one way of cutting costs and sav- through a whole chain of software ing time. Some of these compa- packages just to massage it into nies are small, highly specialized the shape we want. The artists boutiques. One possible drawback and managers at Digital Domain about smaller boutiques is that really evaluate the software care- they don’t have stages and cam- fully because there’s a whole lot eras, while the bigger studios do stuff out there you can waste your have access to motion control money on.” cameras, big stages and all the

Richard Taylor.

Been There, Done That Richard Taylor of Tropix Films, a Santa Monica-based production company, was one of my favorite directors at Robert Abel. He is also a well-versed industry veteran. Starting at Robert Abel’s in 1973, he did all the miniatures on the first Star Trek the Motion Picture. He was one of Tron’s visual effects directors and did the original 7-Up bubbles un-cola commercials. Along with the Duracell battery campaign featuring CGI toys and an arm-length list of other credits, his Cowardly Baskets for Reebok won three Clio’s with Rhythm & Hues. His talents have enabled him to maneu- ver forward through analog and jump to digital. I recently sat down with him and we reminisced about the past and speculated about the future. Richard Taylor’s Seven Stones Man. Courtesy of Richard Taylor.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March20018 Bruce Manning: What’s the future film and do my own matte paint- for software/hardware compa- ings. I send it to them, and they nies? send me back a composite. Or I make a composite. The walls are Richard Taylor: I think that it’s burning down. pretty infinite depending on how you look at it. If you’re talking BM: Have the glory days passed about the visual arts it gets faster, for hardware? better, more accessible to everybody and easier to use. I use all the latest stuff. I happen to be an There are ways Adobe Photoshop 6.0, a must have for every animation, visual effects toolbox. © effects director so I do a combina- to make slower 2001 Adobe Systems Incorporated.All tion of media — effects animation rights reserved. and live-action all put together. machines do RT: Photoshop. The new Digital matte painting, total char- Photoshop 6 has the ability to acter animation, 2D animation — clever things. send sound and can do all kinds of you name it. They all get blended other things. It’s not just graphics together through the software RT: The revitalization of Apple anymore. That’s for sure. When I whether you’re using Photoshop with Steven Jobs jump started that do a high-res print presentation, I or After Effects, Maya or hardware company. Sony use Bryce by Corel, which is an Lightwave. Different companies PlayStation 2 is a renovation. There incredibly simple program to oper- have different tools, but you need are companies that are plugging ate. That program is so easy for a to speak those languages. All the together Sony PlayStation 2’s that novice to use it’s unreal. software companies are making will do incredibly complex anima- things easier to do for more peo- tion. Rather than going out and BM: Do visual effects studios need ple. buying big mainframe computers, all these new software packages? I look at my dailies with the you can plug 10 of them together special effects companies that I and you’ve got an incredible ren- RT: Some of them have their own work with over the Internet. I get dering machine for graphics and software, and/or some combina- QuickTime movies played down to visuals. tion. Certain companies like me over the Internet at very high- Rhythm & Hues have their own res. I talk to them by phone and BM: What’s your favorite store proprietary software like Voodoo. we work through media. I shoot bought software? It’s very cumbersome, but very ver- satile. How many people know Maya vs. Lightwave vs. whatever? Do people need to know all three? Everyone kind of learns Photoshop. When it gets into 3D programs or into animation programs, do you need to know Flash? The question is, can all these different programs be homogenized? The closer they come to each other the better.

BM: Lately smaller boutiques are doing special effects on big films using out of the box software. How is that affecting larger stu- Richard Taylor’s XLR8. Courtesy of Richard Taylor. dios? ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March20019 RT: If the product is television, which is low-res, you can get a G4 You can do things and glue together some stuff in a now, you never Winnebago and have the most powerful visual effects studio on would have wheels, if you wanted too! It considered ten depends on how much work and how many scenes that particular years ago. boutique can do. Digital Domain, Rhythm and Hues, or Sony, those would have considered ten years places get most of the big work. ago. To compare opticals to the These large firms are sub-contract- digital world, that’s like comparing ing a lot of their work to these the space shuttle to a stagecoach. smaller boutiques and you don’t Once things became digital, it even know it. Many of the smaller became another reality. In the dig- boutiques will get a job, or a ital world, we see movies like scene, or a movie, and that’s it. Independence Day and X-Files. They’ll do a movie, one project. To Richard Taylor’s The Prismix. Courtesy of The visuals are so complex today, keep the momentum of a place Richard Taylor. compared to what they used to going you need a sales force, the really relates to is speed and versa- be. Being able to do particle glow right representation in the meet- tility in the end. There are ways to and organic creatures and things. ings at the right time, bidding on make slower machines do clever There’s no comparison with the multiple movies. You can get one things. It’s an economic battle, just things that were done with optical movie and the major studios aren’t like anything else. The new tech- printers. Digital is better by far. afraid to burn some little effects nology always makes you better, Whether they’re better stories, or studio down to do their movie. but sometimes it’s not worth the better movies, that’s another ques- Smaller companies will buy the job high investment. You have to tion. and the large studios will say, ‘We decide that for yourself. need that scene,’ again and again. BM: Are moviegoers more sophis- It’s not right. The smaller compa- The new ticated now? nies will do whatever it takes to keep the door open. The big stu- technology RT: I don’t know if they are more dio doesn’t care if they’re success- always makes sophisticated or more worn out by ful after the movie or not. All they the incredible barrage of visual want is their effects the best they you better, but stuff they see. There’s so much stuff can get, for the best price. that’s so complex, and so well sometimes it’s not done. But a special effect in a BM: Can the price of new tech- worth the high movie for a young kid doesn’t nology put companies out of busi- mean anything anymore; it’s just ness? investment. another gun barrel flash to him. People expect an incredible RT: People are still using hand BM: Are movies better now with amount of complexity. The drawn animation. Nothing kind of the technology boom in software? amount of visual information in goes away. Maybe you work a lit- Look at movies like Star Wars, today’s society is barraging people tle slower than somebody, but if Close Encounters and Aliens, so much that they just kind of you do quality work, it doesn’t mostly done with optical printers. expect more. It’s not intellectual. matter. When do I get rid of my It’s kind of reactionistic, visceral. VHS and when do I buy DVD? It’s RT: Yes, technically they are better. People watching television don’t a constant problem. When do I They’re more seamless. You can do watch the whole content of the get rid of my DSL and put in a T1 things more perfectly now. You movie, they just kind of skip line? It’s a continual battle. All it can do things now, you never around, to see what catches their

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200110 eye. You have to make something As I left Tropix Films and Then these pioneering giants that cuts through. Either a great Richard Taylor, I walked down spent years trying to pay off their idea, or something visually stun- toward the Third Street bills for technology and hardware ning. When they come together, Promenade. He got me thinking… equipment that had already that’s the best. That doesn’t hap- Would I wake up tonight in a cold become obsolete. Do we have to pen much. You have movies that sweat next to my Mac G4, scream- spend more money? Sometimes have phenomenal special effects ing at it, “Where’s all this technolo- you do, sometimes you don’t. It in them, which people don’t give gy going?!” No probably not, depends on the application. We a shit about. If your heart’s not into because I realized that, today it’s a will buy that particular plug-in for it, they’re not good stories. Special mixed media. There will always be that particular job and in most effects are no value in themselves new software, faster boxes and cases, the old tools, the old soft- or by themselves. better tools. ware, will always be around just in case. BM: Did you see that new John The programs Travolta movie? Visit us online to see enlarged that I have in my images and additional information RT: Oh yeah, Battlefield Earth. Mac G4 would on Richard’s work. Rhythm & Hues worked on that. That’s a great example of phenom- blow Tron away. Bruce Manning, enal visual effects and lots of a writer and filmmaker, shoots things going on, but you can’t Historically there have been with a Mitchell 35mm film cam- stand the movie. examples of companies being put era. In the past 10 years he has out of business because of tech- stock piled an impressive, eye- BM: Do you like old movies? nology. Richard Edland, Boss Film popping array of images. He and Robert Abel are good exam- edits with a Mac G4 and all the RT: Yes, I do. I like John Ford pic- ples of pioneering companies, Adobe software he can jam into tures like The Searchers, 2001, of which spent very large amounts of it. You can find Bruce on his course, and Seventh Samurai. money on expensive technology Website at That’s just a variety of older films I and hardware equipment. The http://www.footage-now.com/ thitography and direction. All the next year the technology cost was things that make a movie work. cut in half and their newly sprung You can’t make the same thing competitors had much lower bills. Note: Readers may contact any twice. Timing has a lot to do with Animation World Magazine things. Watch television now. If contributor by sending an e-mail people watched Friends back in to [email protected]. the ‘60s you wouldn’t know what the hell they were talking about.

BM: When you see an old movie do you think, “Oh man we can do that better now.”

RT: Well, yeah look at Tron. I look at that and say, “Boy could we do better than that now!” I could do more on my G4. The programs that I have in my Mac G4 would As a visual effects director on Disney’s blow Tron away. I know what we Tron, Richard Taylor has witnessed amaz- could do now. We now have ing growth in visual effects technology Ferraris instead of bicycles. since the film’s release in 1982. © Disney Enterprises, Inc.All rights reserved.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200111 Low-Cost Solutions,

High-End Resultsby John Edgar Park animation and rendering tools. Many also include inverse kinematics, particle systems, dynamics, ray-tracing and scripting systems. What usually sets the pricier packages apart from the others is the depth, not breadth, of their options. The bottom line is: all of these packages are being used to create wonderful animation. Waving the flag high for inexpensive, high-quality 3D character animation software is Hash, Inc.’s Animation: Master (www.hash.com). Running under Windows 98/NT/2000 and Mac The Hash logo adorned by KeeKat created by ReelFX and Blit Wizbok created by OS and costing only $299, this Victor Navone. © Hash, Inc. All Rights Strata 3D is a good entree into 3D ani- Reserved. mation. It boasts a full feature set, an package boasts a tremendous excellent renderer and is available for price-to-performance ratio. The Softimage. The modeling system free from www.strata3d.com. © Strata. inverse kinematics (IK) and skin- excels at organic shape creation. ning functions found in In addition to traditional Phong ow is a great time to pur- Animation: Master rival those and raytracing, it has a very nice chase a 3D animation found in high-end rivals Maya and cartoon shaded renderer. Nsolution. The line separat- ing low-cost and high-cost software is blurring. You no longer have to invest tens of thousands of dollars in a Unix workstation running high-end software in order to create stunning animation, but what solutions provide the best bang for your buck? The good news is: there are a lot of choices out there. Now here’s the bad news: there are a lot of choices out there!

Software Today’s 3D software packages are all-in-one marvels that range in price from a few hundred dollars to many thousands. They Monkey, created by Raf Anzovin at Anzovin Studios with Hash Animation:Master. © all contain modeling, texturing, Hash, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200112 For a nice example of work done in Animation: Master, visit www.navone.org and look for Victor Navone’s Alien Song movie. This terrific piece led to Navone landing a job with Pixar Animation Studios to work on the upcoming feature Monsters, Inc. The mid-level price point software includes Maxon Cinema 4D ($1700; www.maxoncomput- er.com), ElectricImage ($2000; www.electricimage.com), NewTek LightWave ($2500; www.newtek.com) and Discreet 3D Studio Max ($3500; www.discreet.com). These applications have been used to create award-winning animations The Krislin Company has built a 3D animation studio around Discreet’s 3D Studio Max and effects for broadcast and film. 4, as seen with the Baloonatiks series. ©2001 AEGI. It is perhaps this encroachment of moderately priced software upon You no longer have confines of a tight budget. Under the territory of high-end software the supervision of George Elliot, that has spurred price reductions to invest tens of president of Krislin-Elliot Digital, from Alias|Wavefront and Softimage. thousands of dollars… they are working in 24fps with 3D Studio Max, in particular, has a a 3:2 pull-down. This allows the great number of plug-ins available in order to create traditional 2D animators to stick to fill the gaps between it and stunning animation. with a familiar frame rate and Maya or Softimage. allows them to render fewer Walt Kubiak, founder of far since a few releases back that frames than a rate of 29.97fps The Krislin Company (www.krislin- we’re doing better work for the would dictate. company.com), has built his 3D same amount of money. To be In another cost-saving animation studio around Discreet’s honest, Max has become, for lack measure, they made the decision 3D Studio Max 4. The upcoming of a better word, more ‘Maya-like.’ to use the built-in bones and skin- Baloonatiks series was created From pre-production to post, we ning tools within Max. They have entirely in the alpha, beta and final created thirteen and a half hours been more than happy with the release versions of Max 4. Says of animation in 16 weeks.” results, and have saved consider- Kubiak of the decision to go with The 60 animators working able money by not adding mid-level software instead of one in Krislin’s Toronto office, Krislin & Character Studio (Discreet’s charac- of the higher-end packages, Elliot, have used a few tricks to get ter animation add-on for Max) to “Technology has come along so the best look possible within the their tool set.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200113 The final animation frames for the Baloonatiks series were rendered on the 60 animators’ Windows NT workstations. Rather than set up a separate renderfarm, Krislin & Elliot uses Max 4’s built-in network render license during off- hours. With an allowance of up to 1000 render nodes per seat of Max, most studios will run out of available machines before they’re required to buy a network render license. Over the past few years, 3D graphics workstations have John Monos’ student film was rendered with BMRT. © John Monos. increased in power 256MB of RAM is recommended. are found on cards from Elsa, while decreasing in The price of RAM fluctuates a lot, Creative Labs and Hercules, or cost. but is currently cheap, so splurge built into workstations from Dell, and get 512MB – 1GB. HP, Fujitsu and Compaq. ATI Hardware Hard Drives: Here you will Radeon and Matrox G400 cards Over the past few years, want to spend a bit more for high- also turn in excellent performanc- 3D graphics workstations have er performance. Ideally, get a sep- es at a low price. increased in power while decreas- arate drive each for your operating in cost. This is partly a result of ing system, applications and ren- Recommendations Moore’s Law (which states that the dering. The system needs to Different users have differ- CPU speed doubles every two access all three simultaneously ent needs. Are you just making the years) and partly a result of the during rendering; and with three switch from 2D to 3D? Get your demands of 3D gamers being met drives you won’t run into bottle- feet wet with something like by the graphic card vendors. It is necks. ATA66 and ATA100 IDE Animation: Master – it’s not a huge now possible to run most 3D pack- drives running at 7,200 RPM are investment and may satisfy all of ages adequately on a basic con- good, Ultra160 SCSI drives are bet- your character animation needs. sumer-level PC. But what should ter. SCSI costs more and requires A free software package to you look for when selecting your an add-on controller card, but still consider is Not A Number’s own graphics workstation? reigns as performance king. Blender (www.blender.nl). It is a Processor: Speed is king. 10–20GB per drive is good, with a fully featured 3D program that Go for one notch under the fastest larger drive for storage/rendering. runs under the Linux OS. While its and you’ll save big bucks, for little Look at drives from Seagate, interface doesn’t conform to the noticeable speed difference. Here’s Quantum and Fujitsu. A good familiar look of Mac and Windows a list of the ones to watch for: place to check for reviews is 3D programs, it is very powerful Pentium III 1GHz, Pentium 4 www.storagereview.com. and could be an excellent choice 1.3GHz, AMD Athlon 1.1GHz, and Graphics Card: The 3D for the animator who is technically PowerPC G4 667MHz. If you are graphics cards out there today can minded. willing to spend twice as much to really push polygons around. Another freebie worth look- increase rendering speeds, and nVidia (www.nvidia.com) offers ing into is Exluna’s Blue Moon your software/OS will support it, consumer-level chipsets, like the Rendering Tools (BMRT; www.exlu- consider getting a dual CPU setup. GeForce 2 and professional ones na.com). A RenderMan-compliant Memory: A minimum of like the Quadro 2. These chipsets renderer with movie credits such

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200114 depth of knowledge in that one program. You are unlikely to out- grow a high-end app, with its depth of features and extensibility. Ultimately, these are just tools to aid the animator. In the right hands, almost any software will yield wonderful results. The line between low- and high-end software has blurred, which means you can now go forth and create wonderful 3D animation — affordably.

John Edgar Park received his B.A. in Drama from the University of Virginia. He is a 3D artist with NovaLogic, Another image from John Monos’ student film rendered with BMRT. © John Monos. Inc., a Los Angeles-based video as The Cell and Hollow Man, this can save you money by providing game developer. powerhouse was written by Larry an efficient production pipeline. Is Gritz, formerly of Pixar. While the workflow of a low-end app a Note: Readers may contact any Exluna has plans to commercialize good fit with the other tools in Animation World Magazine the technologies in BMRT, it is cur- your studio? Could you easily inte- contributor by sending an e-mail rently available as a free down- grate your animation with live- to [email protected]. load. action background plates? What other plug-ins or additions will you In the right hands, purchase to round out your ani- almost any software mation tools? For example, Alias|Wavefront’s Maya Unlimited will yield wonderful includes very solid camera-match- results. ing in the form of Maya Live, cloth simulation, paint effects, a fur A mid-level 3D package plug-in, a compositor and more. may be the last 3D app you ever Purchasing these things alongside buy. They are capable of doing your core 3D program can push work on a production level of the the price up pretty quickly, making highest quality. If you are ready to Maya’s $16,000 price tag seem a make the plunge and buy one, it’s bit more reasonable. a good idea to try them all out Another consideration is first. After all, you’ll be spending long-term planning. You won’t lots of time with your 3D software, want to switch programs every so be sure it’s a good fit! Demo ver- year. These are complex applica- sions are available from many tions; mastery can take years to manufacturers; for others it may achieve. You may find yourself say- be necessary to contact a sales ing, “I’d like to start in this one, but representative to take a test drive. then move to Maya when I’m So, what are the advan- ready.” Bad idea. In truth, many tages of paying for a top-shelf animators stick with one main pro- package? A compelling one is that gram; leaving it becomes increas- of production integration. They ingly unpleasant due to their

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200115 MakingItToTheWeb by Mark Winstanley developed to deliver high impact squeeze through the mail slot on graphics and sound over a small your front door, while an index amount of bandwidth. Flash per- card with the recipe slips right forms this feat by delivering only through, and you can recreate the the instructions to recreate the cake on your side of the door. images on the user’s computer, Now don’t get me and not the images themselves. It’s wrong, you can scan animation like the difference between some- sequences and import them into one sending you the recipe for a Flash all day, but your files can end cake versus the cake itself. That big up being huge and unable to be chocolate cake isn’t easy to seen by anyone except those with nimation has been a prominent force on the AInternet since its inception. Even when the image files were tiny animated gifs, they were still...well, animated. Long before streaming video became an Internet buzzword (and sore disappointment), Web graphics with the look and feel of animation became the norm when viewing web pages on just about any site. Eventually the technology pro- gressed and we’ve arrived in 2001 where programs like Macromedia’s Flash enable fill blown animation delivery across the Internet, without the wait and choppy playback A screenshot of Macromedia Flash 5’s action script panel. © Macromedia. of streaming video.

Flash Is Still King The biggest factor in getting your animated pieces onto the Internet and viewable by thousands of net surfers is the size of the pipeline over which they’re delivered. Even though DSL connections and cable modems have proliferated, most of the world still subsists on 56K dial-up modems whose narrow bandwidth pro- hibits the delivery of smooth consistent streaming video. This is Another screenshot of Flash 5 showing how bezier handles come in handy in. © where Flash comes in. Flash was Macromedia.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200116 the fastest of net connections. tion except it seems to lose details although it contains some interest- One solution to the problem is to that you have to go back and put ing departures from standard draw the image sequences in in again by hand once you’ve usability, like using Alt+Backspace Flash itself, although if you’re used imported your images into Flash. to execute an undo instead of the to more traditional tools to create Streamline has often been likened almost universal Ctrl-Z key combo. your animations, this may be cum- to have a rotoscoping effect. I’d like to see some serious demos bersome and produce less than Adobe’s compositing software on their Website of pieces convert- satisfactory work. Another solution After Effects 5.0 will begin ship- ed using AXA Web, although I can is to use one of the many after ping in the second quarter of say this about any of the other market plug-ins or stand alone 2001 and is reported to be boast- products discussed here as well. products that promise to take ani- ing a number of new Web MediaPEGS, a leader in 2D mations created in an environ- enhancements as well. animation production systems, will ment other than Flash and trans- soon release i-Pegs, a “lighter” ver- form them into Flash compliant, Flash is such a sion of their award-winning Pegs bandwidth friendly deliverables. hot delivery software currently used by hun- Flash is such a hot delivery plat- dreds of studios around the globe. form that every company seems to platform that i-Pegs is designed solely for want to add “Flash-export capabil- every company Internet use and is described as a ity” to the list of their product’s user-friendly solution to taking pre- merits. The problem lately is that seems to viously created animation with although many companies are want to add sophisticated movement and promising this miracle of content backgrounds to the Net using morphing, not all are able to deliv- “Flash-export incredibly small bandwidth. While er. We’ll take a look at some of the capability” to not yet released this product will most popular here, and the pros be interesting to see once it is and cons of each. the list of available and of course, will be a their product’s natural fit for those already using For More Traditional Folks the Pegs software system. First up are the products merits. used to transform scanned images A newer product to hit the Taking the Web 3D and animation cels into Flash com- market dealing with scanned The 3D world has really pliant vector image outlines. The images is NetGuru/AXA Software’s taken off on the Internet lately. I most popular for a long time AXA Web 1.0 whose tagline is “To think it’s everyone’s goal at this has been Adobe’s Streamline the Vector Go the Spoils” referenc- point to start producing band- (www.adobe.com). Streamline takes ing the vector image format that width friendly 3D animations and scanned images and converts lets Flash deliver high quality ani- games without having to go learn them to line art that is then ready mation in a small package. AXA a whole new set of tools. One of to be imported into Flash or Web is a product that is targeted the more standard tools in 3D cre- Adobe Illustrator. Streamline works directly at the traditional animator ation is 3D Studio Max, now ship- quite well although it suffers from offering the ability to take scanned ping in its hottest revision - 3ds the over generalization of many cel animation and “vectorize” it for Max 4 (www.discreet.com). With Adobe products. They don’t exact- use in Flash. It can detect more an enhanced character studio and ly come out and say anywhere, detail than Streamline and deliver purported support for exporting to “Streamline was designed for ani- an output that requires less touch Web friendly formats such as mators and perfect to integrate up when finally brought into Flash, it seems to be the hot ticket with Macromedia Flash.” On the Flash. Originally launched late last for getting 3D onto the Web, other hand Adobe’s products have year, it is scheduled for a relaunch although their Website lacks any a consistent look and feel and this spring after some refinement real demonstration of direct export most releases are fairly stable, with update’s by AXA to improve the capability. Streamline already in its 4.0 revi- software overall. A beta copy I test- Fear not, others have come sion. It works fairly well for anima- ed seemed to be fairly free of bugs up with plug-ins for 3D Studio Max

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200117 Discreet’s 3D Studio Max 4. © Discreet. 3D Studio Max 4 includes an enhanced character studio and support for exporting to Web friendly formats such as Flash. © Discreet. that allow you to take 3D content Fear not, others dard for high-end visual and spe- and bring it right into Flash. Vecta cial effects development. In 3D (www.vecta3d.com) was the have come up November, Cambridge Animation first to allow direct 3D export into with plug-ins Systems announced a plug-in for Flash. Available as both a stand- Maya to output to Flash directly. A alone application and a plugin for for 3D Studio check of their Website reveals no 3D Max it delivers very good 3D Max that allow direct information or demonstra- vectorized graphics with a small tion of this product or its capabili- file size. The look is often angular you to take 3D ties. Not surprising, since convert- and not very fluid, but you can’t content and ing Maya content into a compact beat the small file sizes, or the vectorized image format for Flash price of the plug-in! Thankfully bring it right is certainly no easy task. I’m there are some good examples on into Flash. intrigued to see if and when this their Website. Another plug-in for product is released in a workable 3D Max was just announced by capable of some pretty fluid and form. Electric Rain (www.electricrain.com), smooth 3D export for Flash. the makers of Swift 3D. The Swift Electric Image (electricimg.com) Another Option 3D standalone application has recently released their newest ver- Last but not least in our list been a great way to create 3 sion of Amorphium, titled of cool ways to deliver animation dimensional graphics and easily Amorphium PRO. Good examples on the Internet is proof that Flash export them into Flash. Building on their Website prominently illus- isn’t the only game in town for on the success of Swift 3D, Electric trate and advertise Amorphium’s delivering cool interactive content Rain has developed their RAViX II™ ability to produce 3D animated in a Web-friendly package. rendering technology to take con- content specifically for the Web Pulse 3D (www.pulse3D.com) has tent directly from 3D Studio Max through Flash. The visual quality is developed their own proprietary into Flash. With a release date of very good although some of the technology and Web browser Spring 2001, it’s sure to be a big file sizes seemed a bit large for the plug-in to deliver incredibly cool hit this year. number of frames and content of streaming 3D animation and inter- A completely different com- the animations. This product is active content! It’s not as popular pany with a similar sounding impressive and definitely worth as the Flash format but Pulse’s pen- name has developed a product checking out. etration increases every day. With that is a standalone creation tool Maya has long been a stan- some big names signed on to use

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200118 the format, Pulse is generating ble via the Web than would be est releases and announcements. quite a buzz. What’s somewhat of using traditional streaming video. a buzz-kill though, is the fact that Take a look at the tools you use Mark Winstanley is a high-end you must buy a license to put most often and the applications Internet developer and consultant Pulse content on your Website. and plug-ins here that integrate to Hollywood studios and The tools to create the content are with those tools to find a conver- entertainment creators, both free however and integrate direct- sion pathway that best suits your online and offline. A Flash pro- ly with 3D Studio Max, whose needs. If some of the options seem grammer, he is the editor and newest release may prove to be pricey, try and get a demo version, author of four books on Flash the fuel Pulse needs to compete or insist on being able to view and co-founder of head to head with Flash for the demos online of the output FlashCore.com, the Global New title of ‘Coolest Content Delivery achievable with the product. This Media Creative and Technical Format;’ although the inclusion of is always a good idea since it Community. His email is: the Flash plug-in with every new seems many of the claims present- [email protected] computer sold today gives ed by some of the companies out- Macromedia the competitive pace the impact of their online Note: Readers may contact any edge. examples. Animation World Magazine Hopefully we’ve covered Good luck and happy ani- contributor by sending an e-mail enough ground here to give you a mating! to [email protected]. broad view of the options available to take content you’ve creat- Make sure to check our ed in one format and transform it Technology News in Animation into another that is more accessi- World’s Headline News for the lat-

Steam utilizes Discreet’s 3D Studio Max for an “Innerlevel” theatrical commercial for KCRW Radio’s publicity campaign. Image courtesy of Steam/Discreet.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200119 There Once Was A Man Called Pjotr Sapegin by Chris Robinson House, The Saltmill). He evolved “Art was work and it was nothing out of generations of circus acro- much to talk about; just do it.” bats, poets, painters and writers. While they may not have spoken As a child, he lived in a big court of art, Sapegin and his young of brick buildings, which belonged mates did indeed talk. “We defi- to the art union. The courtyard nitely were talking too much. We provided a world of discovery for all were in the conspiracy against young Pjotr. The enormous back- the stupidity of the state, and that yard contained hips, heads and was deliciously dangerous.” noses of revolutionary heroes, During long vodka sessions at the which lay scattered beside moulds kitchen table, politics, flying for marble statues. The landscape saucers, urban legends, adven- continually changed as the sev- tures in the dark and the mysteri- Pjotr Sapegin.All images courtesy of and © Norsk filminstitutt. ered limbs of marble were trans- ous mountains of Tibet were all formed one by one into gigantic topics of conversation. “I knew at Art, the eternal expression of the odes to Lenin. least five people who personally soul, key to life’s mysteries. saw the abominable snowman. The dark chaos beneath the shim- “My parents did not One lady was even carrying his mering sheath of banausic sobri- participate in the child.” ety. Sapegin enjoyed his years That’s what generations of poets, production of as a young man in the Soviet painters, writers and charlatans Lenin’s head, so Union and what life of youth is would have you believe. Humans complete without physical yearn- all of them and all of them lie, they were as poor ings. While never the most athleti- equivocate and spin. as rats.” cally gifted of beings, he did Security, stability and comfort shel- embrace the sports passion of the tered behind Childhood Among Body Parts 1970s: slalom skiing. Of course the facade of currency, Pjotr was born in Moscow. there were no hills in Moscow, but the roots of these gestures of the Moscow was dirty. Sure it was there were deep valleys. “It was grandeur. green, there were trees and parks absolutely breathtaking and just and even grass, but it was dirty imagine most of our equipment nce upon a time there and ugly. But for Pjotr, the ugliness was self-made, and often self-con- was a man named Pjotr smelled good. The aroma of dust, structed.” Karate replaced slalom OSapegin. He came from snow, marble was the stuff of in the ‘80s. “It was like in Japan in the far away Eastern or Western, dreams. “The landscape is one of 1800, we had rival schools and depending on your point of view, the strongest memories from my secret societies.” Oh and of course country of Russia before moving to childhood. My parents did not par- there was that other youthful the Nordic regions where he ticipate in the production of Lenin’s pleasure: sex. Erotic games were became an internationally success- head, so they were as poor as the bane of Sapegin and his ful maker of animation films (Mons rats.” Pjotr’s parents were painters, friends’ existence; flirting, looking the Cat, One Day a Man Bought a but this was no Bohemian Mecca. for adventures in odd circum-

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200120 stances and generally dreaming of conquering the milky bosom of any girl acknowledging them. Time passed. Scents, secrets and desires lay scattered among the cluttered compartments of conspicuous memories. Privileged Pjotr grew and grew and not surprisingly he became an artist. First, he studied with a painter and then he attended a school of theatre. Five years passed and one day Pjotr awoke a state theatre designer. “I got my first artistic job as a theatre designer at the age of 18. It was great to build a world, which is different and live there separated from the rest of life by A scene from Edvard, Sapegin’s first film, utilizing live-action and clay animation. the parameter of the stage.” A beautiful island paradise nestled asses of Norwegian children gramme, the hungry Sapegin and within the walls of a dirty, hostile before leading them to their lands a friend licked their lips and began sea. of dreams, groans and smiles. As a dreaming of an animation series tender of the youth of tomorrow, made with the fat bucks of the “I knew at least he did not come cheap, but soon Olympics. The idea was to have a five people who the call of the soul grew louder parallel Olympics with different than the cries of the children and creatures coming from all kinds of personally saw the Pjotr found himself immersed in countries. Inspired by the ocean abominable snow- the manual creating of art for side aroma of a nearby seafood magazines, theatre and whatever restaurant, the famished duo man. One lady was would enable his family to eat. On based their character on a “pink, even carrying his this new road Pjotr met the cellu- shapeless, flexible, fresh, tasty” loid poets of the soul and turned shrimp. Then they dumped the child.” toward the chemicals of sound idea as it was too close to the par- and light to learn new means of alympics (for special people) and Changing Venue finding life’s cure. Realizing that took their delicious shrimp and He found success over the the Norwegians, aside from Ivo turned him into Edvard. Edvard years and produced work for Caprino, had relatively little experi- took his name from the composer many performances. As Pjotr ence making animation films, Pjotr, Edvard Grieg, who while lacking matured and came to understand the virtuous, honest and pious, the qualities of a genius, could his soul, he sought change. The who had never animated in his compose some scintillating film strange power of desire carried life, spun that tangled web and scores. The wide range of emo- him to the shores of Norway and next found himself standing with a tions expressed in his work was her alluring landscape. At first, the stop-motion camera among the perfectly suited to Sapegin’s ani- harsh Nordic climate greeted the new voices of Norwegian moving mation with its melodramatic Russian with indifference. He images. reflections of Chaplin, Keaton and began by cleansing the chewed Sapegin had a new home, the other silent shadows from cin- remains left scattered on cheap a new career, but no money. ema’s birth. china by the palettes of the peo- Fortunately for Sapegin the The premise of Edvard is ple. Eventually Pjotr climbed the Olympics were in town. Realizing simple. A Chaplinesque ‘shrimp’ sweet thighs of fame and was per- that there was now a pot of gold wanders around the Nordic mitted to feed, care and wipe the in the Norwegian cultural pro- seascape adapting to the strange

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200121 environment around him. Sapegin tion of the Edvard series, although made five Edvard films and they all “If you see a cat at times Edvard’s randiness seems combine live-action and clay ani- eating a mouse, more attuned to the primal antics mation. Even in the first film, of English comedian Benny Hill. Edvard (1992), Sapegin’s talents that’s when the cat Like Chaplin and Keaton’s charac- are apparent. Edvard meets a is at his best, he’s ters, Edvard is a perceived unsung young woman and subsequently hero or loser. Of course, Edvard is turns into everything he is feeling nice, he’s smiling, additionally handicapped by the (heart, flowers, sculpture) for her. he looks very, very reality that he is a clay sea creature In the rather strange, The Naked who is about the size of my middle Truth (1993), Edvard is introduced cute.” finger. Like the great silent comics, to the bare essentials of humanity that he is on a passing ocean liner Edvard wants desperately to fit in as he encounters a group of nud- and chasing the dame of his to the surrounding society. He ists on the beach. During his dreams. Unfortunately the lass is wants nothing more than to be adventure Edvard assumes the too busy fleeing the perverted loved and accepted for what and form of all the body parts he sees come-ons of a hapless old timer to who he is. Unfortunately no one and also that of a hot dog... notice Edvard. Seeing that his can even see him. Sharing more Unbearable Lightness of Longing dream is bothered by the half- with Chaplin’s tramp, Edvard is is the most technically accom- soused tourist, he sabotages the even willing, unlike Keaton’s char- plished of the five films and fore- man’s libidinous plans and sends acter, to shed his identity to gain shadows later films with Sapegin’s him fleeing. Just as Edvard seeks acceptance. detailed, multi-textured back- to comfort the woman, a hand- One can’t help but think grounds. The backgrounds were some stranger comes to take his back to Sapegin’s rocky landscapes created by painting on a mirror dream away. From here the direc- and the discombobulated stones and leaving parts of the surface tor inflicts the utmost cruelty on of his youth. Just as the yard was open to reflect other backgrounds. the shrimp by attaching him to the continually transforming with Edvard sees a beautiful woman fall drunk’s ass where he is slammed body parts appearing and reap- asleep on the beach. Lonely, against walls before being flushed pearing, Edvard is a constantly horny Edvard falls immediately in down the toilet. Fortunately it is all shifting figure in search of a stable love and imagines ways to wow a dream. centre of being. As in Keaton’s his sleeping beauty. Finally he Silent comedy serves as a films, landscapes are ever present builds a boat for the woman. She major influence in the construc- in the Edvard series and play a piv- awakens, smiles and waves, but alas it is not Edvard she acknowledges but a beau in a boat. Once again Edvard is left alone. Seemingly taken from Sapegin’s Russian backyard, Stand In (1995) has Edvard jumping into action as he reads about a statue of a baby being stolen. With echoes of Starewicz’s The Mascot, Edvard takes to the streets and tries to replace the statue. He assumes various forms until he hears the roar of the audience. But we soon see the applause is for the return of the statue, which subsequently leaves Edvard crushed...literally. In the final film, Ippolita the Little Amazon uses a combination of cut-outs and clay to present a dynamic The Cruise Ship, Edvard dreams stage design. ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200122 failed Hercules project. With a stream of rejections and a ‘God knows how I needed money then” reality, Sapegin divided the Greek hero into a girl (Ippolita) and a goat (Esmeralda). What is instantly striking about Ippolita is the influence of Sapegin’s stage design. Using a combination of cut-outs and clay, the wild, roaring backgrounds explode within the frame lending an expressive theatrical element to the film. Having been abandoned by their tribe (which is visually represented through a jolt- ing fusion of blacks and reds), Ippolita and Esmeralda journey through ancient Greece. Along the way they encounter a variety With the release of Mons the Cat in 1995, Sapegin made his mark in the animation industry by telling a Norwegian folk tale. of Herculean-like labours. A chameleon-like bull, that despite otal secondary character dictating More importantly the sacrifices of being killed by calm Esmeralda’s the direction of Edvard. At the poor Edvard temporarily fed and arrow, pursues the duo in different same time, Edvard shares many clothed the Sapegin family. forms. They are saved by the characteristics with his creator, mighty hand of Appolon, the god notably the fact that both were “Then I said, of light and music. After being new to their environment and ‘Ah, hah,’ that’s forced from Hesperide’s garden, learning to adapt to and under- they encounter Atlas who offers to stand the surrounding culture. where a lot of get them golden apples if they will Edvard’s story is very much Pjotr’s; things are hidden in hold the world up. After ditching although to my knowledge Pjotr the worm-infested pommes, they was never flushed or crushed... animation…” repay Appolon’s favour by saving well not literally anyway. him from a beast. The duo then Despite Edvard’s modest A New Myth carry on what Appolon calls, the popularity in Norway, it is rapidly Given Sapegin’s inexperi- beginning of their journey. Their apparent by the second or third ence, it is no surprise that his work journey ends as it begins. film that he is a one-dimensional environment was rather primitive. Sapegin’s work is casual character. Edvard’s chameleon Working on 16mm for his first film, and sober. We wonder whether transformations and Benny Hill Sapegin constructed his own glass we wander through a life in hard-ons could only carry the films table. “I had window frames, you progress. Ippolita and Esmeralda so far. On the way out, tired of know winter window frames, so I walk through life unaware. being mocked and tortured by his just piled up twelve layers and it Heroism arrives serenely. A creator, the shrimp flashed a final was great. It was the only time I serendipitous greeting unrecog- explicit pantomime to his creator. didn’t get any reflections on those nized. And so Edvard now rests, we window frames. It was so easy Ippolita is a keen inversion hope, in peace. and actually fast. So I thought, and parody of a masculine, virile Edvard served Sapegin ‘Yep, that’s probably my thing to world. Sapegin re-constructs the well. He worked on the series from do.’” Sapegin first began experi- masculine world of Greek myths 1992-1996 and the films afforded menting with the glass table for through the unassuming, assured Sapegin the opportunity to devel- his film, Ippolita the Little Amazon. eyes of a woman giving her a op and hone his animation skills. Ippolita emerged out of a silent strength. Ippolita remains an

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200123 important film for Sapegin because it was his first experience with a female character: “It was the first time I tried to work with a female main character and I absolutely loved it.” Not really knowing women by definition, Sapegin found himself less in control of his character than usual. Sapegin found this manner of working exciting and liberating in the ways that it led him toward new ideas and storylines.

Enter Mons Nestled beside his window frames with eyes scanning for greener pastures, Sapegin’s inner bulb lit: he would become rich by making commercials. Using some Another still from Sapegin’s successful Mons the Cat. left over film, he made the hilari- appearance) sits by the water (Sapegin’s voice is heard at the end ous Fishballs. The film was shot in eagerly seeking out food. He asking, “How was it?”) that he 1 1/2 days on 35mm and was to rejects a female fish and then a was making an anti-commercial. be part of Sapegin’s new commer- male fish appears, but rather than Sapegin simply could not go gen- cial portfolio. Fishballs is a dramat- take the whole fish, the cat grabs tly without first biting the ‘hand’ ic departure in style from Edvard at his pearly white genitals. that feeds. and clearly foreshadows the crisp Sapegin received no commercial Distribution and funding, clay animation and stylish, colour- offers. While Sapegin expresses those tired, repetitive refrains, ful flowing backgrounds of Mons surprise that he did not get jobs, remain a problem for Sapegin. the Cat. In Fishballs, a young there is no doubt that the sly trans- Funding comes primarily from the Mons the Cat (making his first planted Russian was well aware Norwegian Film Institute, which also distributes his films. There is a competition for project funding a couple of times a year. Short Animation and Documentary pro- posals are lumped into one bin and if the idea is worthy enough to be among the top ten, one gets financing. Films are shown in theatres but no money is paid to the filmmakers. TV channels buy films, sometimes even show them, but there is very little money for a short film. So for independent animators like Sapegin, he must rely primarily on international festivals to find an audience and a buyer. The animation ‘boom’ has found its way to Norway, however the problem remains the same: Fishballs, a film Sapegin shot in 1 1/2 days on 35 mm leftover film. most of the money is going to “big

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200124 companies who just found out ing capitalist marketplace? Maybe, As might be expected, where the money is in our human- but Sapegin was more interested Sapegin works with very few peo- istic bad conscience towards chil- in the cat. “The cat as an animal is ple. “The ideal set is that I have dren’s time.” the perfect anti-hero because it is one more person working with In Sapegin’s eyes the basically a nasty character. He kills, me, and this person is some kind Norwegian animation community he steals, he isn’t really faithful, he of orchestra leader.” At the is quite different from other coun- never serves, but at the same time moment, Sapegin’s team consists tries because of the gap between he’s so loveable. If you see a cat of Janne Hansen, a Volda College generations of animators. Most of eating a mouse, that’s when the graduate. Sapegin also works with the people in the industry are cat is at his best, he’s nice, he’s smil- Lisa Fearnley, who shot One Day a quite young and have never had ing, he looks very, very cute.” Just Man Bought a House. “She is a an any role models. While this can be like a tycoon as he is taking down exceptional, exceptional photog- an overwhelming situation, it another country. rapher.” removes many pressures and What is perhaps most remark- allows the animators to be more “The story came able about Mons the Cat is the liberal and adventurous. Of course out of an accident quality of the clay animation. It with freedom and a staunch seems incredible that an artist with refusal to work for the ‘bad guys,’ when I had to kill a no previous animation experience most of the animators are opening rat, and I tried to could master the medium so and closing studios and fighting to quickly. But as always there is a lit- find funding. With age comes persuade her with a tle secret. A former colleague in fatigue and with fatigue comes sausage…” Moscow used to work with clay compromise. “Young people don’t and while Sapegin never saw her really know all those things which Mons was shot in only four work, he did see her puppets at we know already because we weeks, but Sapegin spent about home. “We’d been making some have families and sick parents. We two months just trying to figure toys for kids and I sort of stole a lot have to pay bills, the house and out how to end the story: “In of her aesthetic in a way. But I also the car and God knows what. And Mons the Cat I used the actual thought that if I worked with ani- they must have Sundays and they media of animation as an expres- mation ever I would try to make it must have holidays off, and they sive tool, as a storytelling tool. And as close to live-action as possible. don’t hear anything.” Despite the then I said, ‘Ah, hah,’ that’s where When you look at real people out uncertainty, Sapegin likens this a lot of things are hidden in ani- in the street they are made out of younger generation to the early mation, so you have to see why different material, which by defini- days of the National Film Board of you are making this film not in live- tion is different from the environ- Canada and believes that many of action but in animation, what pos- ment they live in, so I thought I will today’s artists “will become the sibilities it gives you, how you can probably try to find an environ- masters for a new generation.” play with an environment with the ment which is contradictory to the Following Fishballs, reality of animation.” physical substance of the charac- Sapegin made Mons the Cat, his With Mons, we see ters. That’s why I went for clay, first international ‘hit.’ Mons the Sapegin’s most concerted use because also of my theatre model- Cat is based on a Norwegian folk of mobile, multi-coloured ing experience. That’s where my tale. After refusing to eat his cat- backgrounds that sweep in and backgrounds actually came from, fish, Mons in turn chews up the out of each scene. Originally, from theatre models.” entire village community until he Sapegin had intended to make the explodes á là Monty Python and backgrounds entirely in clay, but A Loving Rat everything returns to normal...a his “rotten clay” was too soft and One Day a Man Bought a dream. Mons now enjoys his cat- would not hold a solid form. So House is a twisted tale about a fish without complaints. Sapegin heated the clay with a man who moves into a house only A haunting nightmarish lighter and used it as crayons on a to discover another occupant: a tale of a hyper consumer living on glass surface. He would use this rat. Unwilling to share his new overdrive within a wild, free flow- technique again in The Saltmill. home, the man embarks on a

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200125 Sapegin worked on the story together. On one level, The Saltmill is a tale about how the sea became salted, but deeper still it is about the accidental discovery of independence and identity. In a small town, all the salt is owned by a greedy old man. The Sea has no salt. The town has no salt. A young man digs for salt everyday. He is a ‘yes’ man who works only for a sandwich...unsalted of course. While digging the man discovers a cave and within it a salt troll. The man trades his sandwich In 1997, Sapegin finished One Day a Man Bought a House, a love story told in an uncon- to the troll for control of the salt. ventional and comedic manner. The man hastens immediately to series of methods to exterminate misunderstanding. Sapegin slams the local tavern and offers the the rat. However, each murderous conventions and expectations patrons salt for their fish and chips. gesture (including the use of the turning the inappropriate or Still being the ‘yes’ man, the idiot infamous Malaysian pitbull cat) is unnatural into new possibilities. savant gives the rich man all of the mistaken as a sign of affection. The Not that I suggest that we all run salt and tells him the secret to rat, a woman, soon believes that out and start humping animals, owning the mill. The greedy man the man loves her. She dolls herself but instead we should look sets sail in a boat, says the magic up, approaches the man and they beneath the surface and embrace words and drowns in the sea as marry and live happily ever after. the film as a light tale that ques- the salt pours into his boat. Sapegin wrote the original tions our perceptions. Things we Sapegin finds folk tales a story and his wife re-wrote it for take for granted should not be challenge to work with because the film. The story was actually taken for granted. they are constructed on different made in 1995 and was in produc- moral issues, so they must be tion for almost three years. This “My backgrounds twisted around. “If you really look perverse bestial fairy tale is actually at folk tales, they are completely based on a true story...well, sort actually came pre-Christian, they came from pre- of. “The story came out of an acci- from…theatre moral time, and to tell the story dent when I had to kill a rat, and I which will communicate with our tried to persuade her with a models.” society, you cannot just tell the folk sausage and she ate the sausage tale because people will get then I couldn’t kill her because I Sapegin worked on One absolutely confused with what thought she now thinks that I’m a Day and The Saltmill concurrently. you are actually saying.” By alter- nice guy.” Once again, bills were outstanding the ending of the film, The Adapting his stage experi- ing. “It was such a bad day and I Saltmill, like One Day, became a ence, Sapegin creates some stun- said, ‘Fuck a duck, we have to do tale based on misunderstanding. ning noirish chiaroscuro lit back- once more like we did on Mons,’ The young man in Saltmill finds his grounds that seem taken from a four weeks later everybody got independence completely by acci- Hitchcock or Orson Welles film. paid, and we just kept rolling. So dent and despite his utter stupidi- Combined with Randall Myers noir that’s how it started, as usual.” ty. In Sapegin’s surreal fairy tale tinged score, the backgrounds Once again, Sapegin returned world, there are no grand ges- add a playful and ironic atmos- to a folk tale for his story tures, no mythical heroes, no pro- phere of tension and uncertainty. source. The script was written by found logic, only everymen who, Perversity aside, One Day a Studio Magica colleague, Lars like Beckett characters inadvertent- Man Bought a House is a tale of Tommerbakke, but both he and ly bump into solutions.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200126 the Corner was to give back the original meaning to Shakespeare’s poetry which for all its high brow reception, was basically written to score with chicks. “In the Corner of the World was an extreme experi- ment. It came from an idea after I saw Shakespeare In Love, which I liked very much and everybody else hated it absolutely, my partners hated it, my son hated it also, because it was wimpy. I thought it was great.” Currently Sapegin is working on a variety of projects including an interpretation of Hamlet and Bernard Bityourtongue. “It’s a The Saltmill is a tale based on a misunderstanding, which leads a young man to discover book which was written by a very his independence. famous crime novelist and me. It’s Another New Beginning prisingly, are not animation peo- a crime story with two murders, Sapegin recently left Studio ple. “I have to prove to them that for children. So this book is going Magica, a studio he co-founded this genre can exist next to live- to be an animation film, and it’s upon arriving in Norway, with to action. I have to prove that I’m half live-action. It’s a story which form Zoofilm. “It became a little capable of doing things and it’s happens in a puppet theatre and boring and I felt we were moving basically great.” the marionettes have a life of their towards different cities. We had a The first Zoofilm project, In own and one of them is a big studio. It became a bit heavy the Corner of the World, is a short killer, basically.” Sapegin has also and I also want to work with Shakespeare “pick-up” film. In the approached Canada’s National experimental things and they Corner returns to the style of Film Board about co-producing a want me to do television series.” Edvard using clay characters on top secret project involving Zoofilm was formed in May 1999 a manipulated live-action back- Puccini. with two other partners who, sur- ground. The concept behind In Despite a prosperous 1997,

In the Corner of the World — Sapegin’s animated film based on Shakespeare’s sonata number 18.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200127 Norwegian. “I am a Norwegian filmmaker, and I am planted absolutely, thoroughly. I just don’t wanna go back to Russia; it’s a really hectic place.”

Chris Robinson is the artistic director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival and founder and director of SAFO, the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival. He is a board member of ASIFA International and editor of the ASIFA magazine, ASIFA News. Robinson has curated film programs and served on festival juries throughout the world. He Winner of a top prize at the Montreal Children’s Film Festival, Snails. writes a monthly column ("The However, Pjotr has a very good Animation Pimp") for Animation “I absolutely refuse theory on this. “I absolutely refuse World Network and has written to accept the to accept the definition of art on numerous articles on animation. these two sections, figurative and His iconoclastic tendencies have definition of art on non-figurative, because abstract led him to be called the "John these two sections, art is one of the components in fig- Woo of diplomacy" and most urative art. It’s a part of figurative recently, "the enfant terrible of figurative and art and by working in abstract animation" by Take One maga- non-figurative…” media you are cheating yourself in zine. He is currently working on a a way because you will end up documentary with Otto Alder on where Sapegin made four com- with a story which is maybe not Estonian animation; a biography mercials for the National Lottery on the screen but you hear it in of writer, Richard Meltzer; and a and four for a radio station, recent back of your head. So, if you book on animation entitled, financial frustrations forced him to develop abstract things up to a Unsung Heroes of Animation. re-consider his artistic direction. “I certain point, it will start to Apparently he's a Canadian. thought, ‘Okay, let’s just give up become figurative. That is what I and make a straightforward ani- am doing, always using abstract Note: Readers may contact any mation silly for children.’” But poor things in a composition in story- Animation World Magazine Pjotr still couldn’t get it right. “We telling. It’s kind of hidden inside in contributor by sending an e-mail made the film and sent it to some the paintings, in the figurative to [email protected]. Danish consultants and they said, paintings.” ‘What kind of film is this? It’s no For now this life in progress action and the main character is a carries on beyond these pages well behaved girl.’” Nevertheless, and our slanted tale of one life Snails, recently won a top prize at must come to an end. Young Pjotr the Montreal Children’s Film is now older Pjotr. He has grown Festival. far from the acrobats, karate Given Sapegin’s highly styl- experts, snowmen and marble ized backgrounds, it would seem landscapes of his youth. His new natural that he look the other way Nordic life is one of rats, cats, salt and perhaps try more abstract and seas. Financial insecurities non-narrative animations. aside, Pjotr is happy, busy and

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big on business | big on content | big on interaction | big on intelligence The Challenges of the Big Screen Cartoon by Gerard Raiti

South Park’s Kenny, Stan and Kyle before their dramatic transition to the big South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut hit the- screen! © Comedy Partners, Inc.All rights reserved. atres in 1999 successfully riding the wave from television to feature film. © Comedy Partners, Inc.All rights reserved.

igger, Longer and A Chance to Shine parents to when you were Uncut.” These are the When a cartoon like younger, and then think about, in “Badjectives that subtitled Disney’s Recess makes it to the sil- turn, how many of these movies the South Park feature film of ver screen, it is a global testament you have had to sit through with 1999. These same adjectives to the endearment these charac- your children or grandchildren. brashly typify the mission state- ters have garnered in a relatively Now, think about how happy they ment, the ethos, upheld by ani- short period of time. A movie ver- were (and back to how happy you mation studios when cartoons sion of a cartoon justifies a show’s were) to attend the movie. The big transition to the big screen. Then popularity. On the other hand, it screen is an experience, and for again, you should hope that after also indicates that the cartoon is children especially, it becomes paying $5 to $10 for a movie tick- edging that much closer to that that much more of an experience et, the film represents something big movie vault in the sky. Does more than what is broadcast every anyone even watch South Park Saturday morning. The innate pit- anymore? Exactly. falls, and opportunities, in bring- Nevertheless, big screen ing a television show to the the- cartoons are genuinely about the aters successfully however are fans. True, this tribute to fandom many. With millions in profits often yields millions in profit dollars going to those who achieve the for studios if done well, but this is magic combo, and straight-to- just an unfortunate side effect on video relegation for those who fail, which companies have to bite the Rugrats in Paris, the latest feature to come forth from Nickelodeon’s hit TV it is a tight rope more studios are bullet in chagrin! Think of the car- series Rugrats. TM & © 2000 Paramount trying to rush across. toon movies you dragged your Pictures and Viacom International Inc.All rights reserved. ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200130 when the movie features the property designed for an 11 or 22 Germain feels “betrayed the idea world of characters they have minute venue? Disney’s Recess: of the series.” He can justifiably spent their Saturday mornings and School’s Out creators and writers make this comment being one of after-school hours watching. This Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere the co-creators of Rugrats in 1989 creates the urgency of why big discussed with Animation World for Nickelodeon. “The success of screen cartoons must be “bigger, some of their first fears regarding The Rugrats Movie had to do with longer and uncut” when com- the excursion. “When we were the success of the series. It pared with their small screen asked to [make a Recess movie,] betrayed the concept in terms of counterparts; studios are reward- our gut reaction was, ‘No, let’s not both animation and story.” The tel- ing fans for devotion. do it.’ When we started playing evised Rugrats revolves around the There are also some with the idea, we were told it had “small” events of toddlers’ first tremendous benefits when bring- to be big — bigger than anything experiencing the world. Many felt ing cartoons to movie-form. While we’ve ever done before. It couldn’t that the first movie strayed too far a typical television show is half an be a big TV show.” by putting the children in such hour in length, cinematic versions frightful situations as being alone average around eighty minutes. in a forest. An adventure to the This added time allows for grander In these tough back of a closet is one thing…an adventures with more complicated financial days, overnight stay in a scary wood plot twists and character develop- studios will while being stalked by a wolf is ment. In the case of Tommy, quite another. This made many Chuckie and the other Rugrats, be wearier in parents uneasy. their movie and its sequel allowed how they Ansolabehere continues, them to “boldly go where no baby produce these “We didn’t want [Recess: School’s has gone before!” Coupled with grand, Out] to be a 3-part TV episode. It higher budgets that allow for bet- doesn’t have to be the greatest ter animation, sound and “celebri- cinematic adventure ever, but it’s got to be ty” voice talent, big screen car- cartoons. bigger. Our shows are about the toons align all the intrinsic vari- small things in life that aren’t dealt ables to maximize the potential of While they attribute the with these days. If you’re in film, it sending characters on their great- move of many small screen has to be high concept and big, est adventure ever. Above all, the wonders to the big screen as a but you have to make something cinematic experience is a draw sign of studio commercialism — card in itself. This is why George “Genuinely we think it’s kind of a Lucas chose to re-release the Star commercial move on the part of Wars Trilogy in 1997 — not only studios…It has to do more with to make a substantial amount of economics and business than art.” money but also to give an entirely — they are advocates that big new generation of Star Wars fans screen cartoons should maintain the opportunity to experience the the integrity of the original series movies on the big screen, the way while taking it to the next level. they were intended to be seen. “[Recess] has always been talking The hype around big screen ver- about the world within the micro- sions draws a new crowd and re- cosm of a playground — taking invigorates fans that perhaps have small things and treating them as strayed. big… School is about more than just cramming information down Staying True to Character kids’ throats. Recess is where kids There are, however, risks learn to interact socially. It’s invalu- when transitioning cartoons to the able. We couldn’t abandon that Recess: School’s Out is currently a big hit big screen. How do you balance for the movie.” This is in contrast to at the U.S. box office. © Disney this call for high adventure with a The Rugrats Movie, which Paul Enterprises, Inc.All rights reserved.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200131 tat, there is no way they can func- of us and get the script out tion optimally. Nevertheless, as faster…which is unusual.” pitiful as Tom and Jerry: The Movie When producing DuckTales: was, there is no way Film Roman The Movie, the Disney crew was could have produced ninety min- given such a limited time to utes of a cat chasing a mouse create the film that it was not pos- because there is no way to sustain sible to incorporate any songs. “So that humor while staying innately we had to make a lot more plot true to the original core of the than we would have liked. It show. turned out kind of frenetic. I think it worked better on TV because of “If you’re in the commercials. They broke up the plot so it wasn’t one long film, it has to chase, which is really what the be high concept movie was.” and big, but you have to make something good within the parameters.” DuckTales:The Movie follows Scrooge McDuck as he takes his nephews to Egypt — Joe on a 74-minute chase to find a pyramid that contains a magic lamp. © Disney Ansolabehere Enterprises, Inc.All rights reserved. Catching the Wave While finding the delicate good within the parameters.” balance between the show’s origi- Germain and Ansolabehere are nal emotional center and the continuing their beliefs in creating demands of the theater is tough, Disney’s Lloyd in Space for ABC. It writer/producer Alan Burnett sum- is refreshing to know that they are marizes his foray into big screen maintaining the Disney tradition toonage very succinctly: “Making by making good shows, by just movies takes a lot longer.” As a doing what they believe in. writer for Disney’s DuckTales: The Movie and Warner Bros.’ Batman: Against the Very Nature? Mask of the Phantasm, much pres- Tom and Jerry:The Movie has the popular Renewed popularity in The sure was put on him to produce a cartoon cat and mouse assisting an Jetsons and Tom & Jerry in the great story in a limited amount of orphan in her trials with a corrupt guardian. © Warner Bros. early ‘90s led to the production time because the movies had to of their respective feature-length be released no later than a year In fact, Disney was in such films. Both are examples of how and a half from the conception a rush to release a DuckTales not to transfer half-hour icons into date. Studios tend to rush the pro- movie that the original plan was to ninety-minute farces. However, are duction of big screen cartoons in take one of the multi-part episodes the adapters to blame or the gen- order to capitalize on a show’s (i.e., the origins of Bubba Duck or eral nature of these particular car- popularity before it wanes. “In the Gizmo Duck) and release it theatri- toons? Both are historically funny case of Batman: MOTP I had my cally. “[Disney staff] were going cartoons because the humor of group of story editors, Paul Dini, through the episodes seeing what their characters is sustainable with- Martin Pascoe and Michael could be a movie,” Burnett in a twenty-minute storyline. But Reaves, and what I did was write a explains. “When they tried blow- sometimes, when characters are very detailed treatment so that I ing some of them up on a bigger removed from their natural habi- could split it up amongst the four screen the quality of the animation

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200132 began as a home video, and one of the executives saw some computer animation that was being applied to the movie and decided that it should go into the theatres. It turns out the computer animation was a small part of the animation we were doing. Fortunately, the animation at the climax was good which helped a great deal.” Although Batman: MOTP was not a disaster, it was a sign- post to Warner Bros. regarding their philosophy of animated superhero movies. The subse- quent Batman animated movie, As the tagline goes,“Beyond good. Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero Beyond evil. Beyond your wildest imagi- was a direct-to-video release, as nation.” The Transformers:The Movie suc- ceeds in furthering the series’ develop- Warner Bros.’ Batman: Mask of the was Batman/Superman Movie ment. © DEG. Phantasm feature has Batman set to solve another mystery, but fails to prepare him (a.k.a. World’s Finest from the TV for the big screen. © Warner Bros.All series), and Batman Beyond: Joe: The Movie. Within twenty rights reserved. Return of the Joker. Any of these minutes of The Transformers: was too poor.” This resulted in movies, especially World’s Finest, The Movie, the two “stars” of DuckTales: The Movie as we know could have made it to the big the movie, Optimus Prime and it. The big and small screens are screen, but Warner Bros. chose Megatron, kill each other in battle. very different and those studios the more innocuous route by The result of their deaths and the that try to create a half-hearted releasing them to video. “I do think onslaught of new villain Unicron mishmash often fail. So while it is there is a market for superhero or led to a new breed of Autobots advantageous for studios to rush action-adventure animation out and Decepticons, led by Rodimus cartoon features, the result can there,” commented Burnett. “It just Prime and Galvatron respectively. often lead to sub-par stories and takes someone who is willing to This radically altered The Transformers animation. spend the money to produce TV series for the remainder of its something that is really fun and tenure. It Isn’t All Gravy good looking.” In these tough financial Batman: MOTP experi- days, studios will be wearier in enced an extremely short theatri- how they produce these grand, cal run in late 1993. The movie “The primary cinematic cartoons. But the was released less than sixteen goal is to cash Rugrats features, along with the months after Batman: The in.” — Alan Pokemon movies, Beavis and Animated Series premiered on Fox Burnett Butthead Do America, Digimon: Kids in 1992. Burnett explains how The Movie, South Park: Bigger, Warner Bros. had little hope for Nudging Along TV Longer and Uncut and now Batman: MOTP in theatres, for There is also the case of Recess: School’s Out have all been example, in Los Angeles, it was when cartoon movies advance the at least respectable at the box only screened as a matinee, which storylines of their TV shows in an office if not smash hits, which is extremely atypical in such a large exponential fashion. This can serve means, of course, that there will market: “I think part of the prob- as a boost to a show which be more! The brightest beacon on lem was the animation. What we is becoming stale, or to a writing the horizon looks to be The were getting back from overseas staff in need of new plots. Powerpuff Girls movie. It will be was not up to par with what we Case examples of this are The the first movie produced at wanted. The movie originally Transformers: The Movie and G. I. Cartoon Network’s new studio and

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200133 is slated for Summer 2002. Once greatest adventure ever!” for that Gerard Raiti, a native of Baltimore again under the crush of high show. As Alan Burnett reminds us, currently residing in Nashville, quality demands and little time, “The primary goal is to cash in. It’s has reported on animation, Cartoon Network is taking a gam- a fine goal as far as I’m concerned. Broadway musicals and comic ble that the Girls will still be hot in The problem is that [studios] want books for various publications 2002. If it were released this sum- something as quickly as possible. including Fandomshop.com mer, at what may be the peak of You always want more time to and Newsweek. He also holds the show’s popularity, it would be make these films right.” Whether the Diploma of the Royal Schools a guaranteed success…however, animated or from the faster-paced of Music, U.K. in classical piano what results it yields in 2002, will live-action production realm, as and music. be determined by the fickle Burnett is demonstrating through demands of the pre-teen set. his involvement in the forthcom- Note: Readers may contact any In the meantime, fans can ing Batman Beyond movie, fans Animation World Magazine enjoy their favorite shows on tele- will be waiting, and hoping, that contributor by sending an e-mail vision and hope that one day they their favorite show is next on the to [email protected]. will be able to experience “the big screen gravy train.

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ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200134 Monthly provocative,drunken, idiotic ramblings from the North… From a Canadian perspective, what I find funny, is this belief that Canadians have a special animated gift. Shit, ya think studios are coming up here for our unique Blame the talent? Disney came to Canada because of tax breaks. Studios hire Canadians because we are essen- tially cheap labour. No, it’s not USA near being a sweatshop but it’s really the same idea. But what’s the anger for? The jobs you’re all losing are cog Illustration by Andreas Hykade. in the wheel jobs. Christ…you can Courtesy of Chris Robinson. by Chris Robinson use as much brainpower driving a “…[A]nimators wanted to keep source of these targets is all cab (a dream of mine while we’re cartoons in Hollywood.” wrong. If you wanna find a source on the topic). Additionally, for of blame take a look at free trade. decades Canada has watched One look at this quote from This has been the bane of the exis- many of its finest (ummm…let’s Rick DeMott’s article, “Picketing tence for both our countries. take Mario Lemieux or Ted Lindsay) In Front Of PBS! Just Blame It Nelvana can compete because and shittiest people (Kricfalusi?, On Canada?” (DeMott, 5.02) in they receive tax credits from the Celine Dion, Shania Twain) lured January 2000’s Animation World provincial government. These tax to the U.S. by that damn dollar. Magazine and one would figure credits allow them to lower their I’ve always felt that a minor- that citizens of the United States of costs and provide a better offer. ity of Americans are akin to the America invented the process and You wanna talk about wasted tax special ed. class of the world. development of animation (a.k.a. dollars, just take a look at Canada Always a little behind…never quite cartoons). Sorry, but I think it was where tax credits are being provid- getting it. Well, folks, as much as I a Frenchman, and given that ed with the supposed intent of sympathise with some of ya, Canada is French and English, we encouraging Canadian produc- you’re getting it now. Welcome to have more right to claim ‘cartoons’ tions. Unfortunately, none of this a world that’s been eaten up by than Hollywood. And heck, given stuff is really benefiting Canadian your ‘owners’ for decades. Sure the amount of Canadians working ‘culture’ (and I ain’t talking you’re worried about feeding your down there including Kricfalusi, Margaret Atwood books. She kids, keeping your house etc., but Steve Williams, Nik whatever his stinks. It could be SCTV or Kids in what you gotta realise is that your name is who creates those nasty The Hall…just something with material abundance (couple o’ Disney villains, Canadians be the definable Canadian roots) as such. cars, all sorts of crap) has come at ones keeping this machine a float. Sure it’s creating a few jobs, but it’s the expense of other people Now Hollywood does deserve just service work for American ‘round this here world. Shit, they some credit. Ya all certainly kidified shows…and in the end that can’t feed their kids…can’t find animation. No denying that. means one less Canadian show on homes…can’t even imagine cars, Thank you. Bravo. the air thanks to PBS and our computers and swimming pools. Read recently that Americans provincial government. I also won- Some of these very people live in were pissed off that Canadians der why Canada suddenly bears America! Yeah, sure we’ve all were taking jobs away. Seems the brunt of the blame when heard the soaps before and last January PBS said they were Mexico, Vietnam, Korea and other sheeeet I’m as material as the rest gonna go with Toronto-based countries have been taking jobs of you, but please, please, please Nelvana as creators of their anima- away for years. Course I guess it’s keep your whining to yourselves. tion schedule. Rightly, American easier to blame a fellow cracker for Do you have ANY idea how fortu- animators were freaked to the your troubles. Then again, ain’t nate you are? point of protest. However, the many crackers left to blame. Every damn corner of the

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200135 world I visit bears an icon of the fabled Montreal Canadiens, Love, America at its worst, notably once a symbol of cultural and lin- Your kindly neighbour of the McDonalds and Disney. See guistic diversity, are now owned North you’ve got your damn jobs at the by an American! Big deal you say? cost of someone else, somewhere Well, considering they’ve put Hottie Animator o’ da Month else. When I was in Vietnam and many Canadian businesses and Sonia Bridge. The most deter- other countries I saw less and less families out of work, it is a BIG mined animator I ever met…and inclination toward encouraging DEAL. she’s hot...and she’s Canadian. original material that speaks for Now I’m sure many of you the cultural voices and an increas- are fine people who maybe even The Animation Pimp is sponsored ing reliance on, for example, voted for Nader (gee, that turned by Canadian squirrels. Thanks to Disney films. Ya know what that out well), but it’s time you opened Dickie Meltzer for loathing the fug- means…that means governments up your perpetually narrow geo- gin’ States before I was born. et al don’t want to encourage orig- graphic eyes to see that the rest of inal productions (see Nelvana/PBS the world has long suffered at the Chris Robinson is a writer, festival deal). Instead they fork out for hands of corporate America. director, programmer, junky and distribution rights to Hollywood Welcome to the club. has been called the John Woo of junk. It’s cheaper to buy American Is there a bright side? Shit diplomacy. His hobbies include product than to sweat trying ya…you now got a brain dead horseback riding, pudpulling, to make something a little differ- duffus as your leader and he’s canoeing and goat thumping. ent. damn eager to start a killin’ folks. If This cultural colonisation there’s a good thing about killing Note: Readers may contact any is of course especially bad in folks, it means job openings. Animation World Magazine Canada. Everywhere I turn, I see a And while we’re talking contributor by sending an e-mail Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Denny’s, about jobs, give us back our hock- to [email protected]. Starbucks and Disney store. Even ey teams!

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200136 RenandStimpyinReviewCartoonsAren'tReal! by Martin “Dr. Toon” Goodman he idolatry, accolades and endearments are long Tover; so, for the most part, are the recriminations, accusations and bitter parting shots. Animation insiders who aligned their sympathies with either camp, as well as the fans who chose sides, have moved on to different interests. The Ren and Stimpy Show, animation’s version of the Dreyfus affair, ceased production in 1995, and today it lies buried under strata of imported anime, several incarnations of the Cartoon Network and the recent small-screen triumphs of Nickelodeon and Disney TV. For those who followed this unique, creator-driven series from its premiere in August of 1991 through the controversial and contentious firing of head man John Kricfalusi in September of 1992, all that remains are memories, regrets and whatever episodes were handily captured on videotape. Ren and Stimpy acquainted viewers with Ren Höek and Stimpson J. Cat and ushered in a new age of creator-driven animated series. © Viacom International,Inc.All rights No Dead Ringers reserved. Still, the past cannot be Cook’s Two Stupid Dogs and tic Chihuahua and an obese, erased or forgotten; there was a Disney’s Shnookums and Meat. brain-damaged cat demolished Ren and Stimpy, not to mention a Even The Simpsons, Matt the previous forty years of com- George Liquor, a Mr. Horse and a Groening’s primetime hit, found mercial animation. We saw Muddy Mudskipper. The visual occasion to cameo the pathologi- Superman’s fists crash through style of American animation was cal pets; ad captandum vulgus. walls of concrete, and we winced coated with Spumco for more The commentaries, magazine cov- as the chips flew by at hyper- than a decade, and the cultural ers, campus viewing parties and speed; as we turned to peer mainstream of the country was merchandising were omnipresent, through the hazy dust of that tweaked as well. Two clones were and the “Log” song vied with destruction, Superman shouted: spawned almost immediately “Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy” as a cul- “YOU EEDIOT!” and vomited up a (allowing for the vagaries of pro- tural signifier of cool. With one hairball at our feet. duction schedules), Donovan brief star turn, a scrawny, dyspep- There have been many

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200137 to behave like amphetamine- spirit. This is not the same, nor is it drenched buzz saws when as simplistic, as stating that John K. angered, frightened or bent on showed us “the dark side of car- aggression; this played into toons.” Ren and Stimpy could be Clampett’s tendency to direct car- bright and funny, and many of toons at an almost preternatural their adventures were more pace. In truth, while elements of endearing than disturbing. However, these can be seen — animation the dog and cat were organic to a does tend to build on its degree that separated them from precedents, and Clampett was any other animated creations to Kricfalusi’s spiritual mentor — The date. This allowed Kricfalusi and Ren and Stimpy Show was built on the Spumco crew to inflict grotes-

Donovan Cook’s Two Stupid Dogs chroni- a much deeper foundation where queries upon the pair and their cled the irreverent adventures of a big superficial comparison to animat- supporting cast that rivaled — and dog and a little dog.TM & © 2001 ed precedents does not apply. surpassed — those dreamed up Cartoon Network.An AOL Time Warner Company.All Rights Reserved. Although Ren once assured his by animators such as Jan fatuous feline friend that cartoons Svankmajer. Nickelodeon’s frantic attempts to explain the appeal and weren’t real, John Kricfalusi interference and censorship pre- popularity of this show, but in brought to them an uncomfort- vented viewers from seeing keeping with postmodern culture able touch of reality that had no tongues torn out and eaten (Sven and our abbreviated attention forerunner in modern animation. Hoek), disembowelment (Rubber spans, all of them were either Nipple Salesmen), exsanguination done at the time of Ren and Pain…Real Pain… by a giant leech (Nurse Stimpy) Stimpy’s ascendancy or shortly What had never been and the quaffing of water from a after the exile of Good King John explored before (at least not to this dirty toilet (Big House Blues). As it — a revisionist view is in order! The depth) was the concept that car- was, the show’s fans got to enjoy show has been described by ana- toons and their characters could mucus, farts, parasites, nasal hair lysts and pundits as “Tex Avery on harbor a deep, resonant patholo- and sundry other effluvium in drugs,” a maniacal evolutionary gy that infected both body and abundance. This was only the offshoot of the classic Looney Tunes, a postmodern take on Hanna-Barbera kidvid, or some posthumous stepchild of Bob Clampett’s rule-shattering may- hem. These are not unwarranted comparisons if one considers the wild takes and casual violence of the Avery cartoons or the emotional sturm und drang that boiled through Clampett’s creations until the force of that maelstrom distort- ed their bodies. Still, the differences between John K.’s cartoons and those that influenced them are considerable. For one thing, Avery’s attitude toward his characters was far too impersonal, and the damage done to them left little impact on Disney’s The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show first aired in 1993 featuring orig- the viewer. Clampett’s characters inal music by Drew Neumann and Nathan Wang. © Disney Enterprises, Inc.All rights had an emotional life, but tended reserved.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200138 beginning. into a screaming klaxon, neon- Stimpy and his canine housemate The Ren and Stimpy Show pink eyes dilating into twin novae (Kricfalusi “outed” the couple, as if featured filth, illness, disease and inches above his jagged, mono- that was necessary, in an interview mutilation to an unprecedented lithic teeth. Contrast these exam- with The San Francisco Examiner degree, making these horrors an ples with Bob Clampett’s The Great on January 28, 1997). It matters integral part of the show. Close- Piggy Bank Robbery (a favorite, little if Ren and Stimpy were gay; it ups and held shots of parasites, incidentally, of Kricfalusi’s): Daffy matters considerably that Ren and blood-rilled eyes and hairy, Duck begins the cartoon in a Stimpy were often diseased or inflamed skin often resembled manic state, engages the action exposed to copious bodily fluids. plates from pathology textbooks, by knocking himself out, and How did all of this contribute to highlighting the fragility of our never slows down until the finale; the overwhelming popularity of flesh and the insidious diseases we are always laughing. It is Ren, the Ren and Stimpy Show? After and injuries that threaten it daily. and not Daffy, who illustrates the all, illness and insanity are typically In Ren’s Toothache, exposed true process by which rationality is unpleasant subjects let alone a nerve endings writhe in the dog’s gradually replaced by raging dis- template for what were allegedly pestilent gum sockets. Consumed organization, and the effect on us children’s cartoons. The answer by sickness in Nurse Stimpy, a is vastly different. Stimpy under- lies not in comparison to other car- glazed Ren sweats feverishly from went a similar meltdown in Nurse toons, but in comparison to anoth- his pores, as mucus sputters in his Stimpy, but the full range of the er medium, that of folk and fairy nostrils. Mr. Horse’s fall in Fire Dogs slobbering cat’s repressed sadism tales. violates the rule of cartoon invul- was best displayed in Stimpy’s nerability; he shatters his spine. As Inventions, a parable of mind con- with those textbooks, it is hard to trol that must rank as one of the stop turning the pages to see the most chilling cartoons ever ani- next sickening insult to our mortal- mated. ity; we retain our morbid fascina- tion with the overturned car, the TheRenandStimpy autopsy table, the visceral thrill of the gory crime scene. Show featuredfilth, Nor was illness confined to the body; Ren Hoek was violently illness,diseaseand psychotic, and Kricfalusi com- mutilationtoan plained of how Nick executives wheedled him to give the unprecedented Chihuahua a softer side. Ren may A Modern (and Gross) Fairy Tale have been easily frazzled, bad- degree... Over the past seventy years tempered and abusive by nature, or so, psychologists (primarily of but in episodes where he actually The series boasts countless the psychoanalytic school) reinter- lost his mind, it was the result of a examples of bodily wastes and flu- preted many of the world’s most slow, cumulative process that took ids lumped and puddled about in popular fairy tales, finding in them most of the episode to develop. In flippant denial of the paranoid a common thread: they were Space Madness, Ren goes slowly AIDS nation we had become by believed to be abstract representa- mad over the course of a galactic the 1990s. Sven Hoek slaps a tions of fears, needs and anxieties journey. When the boys enlist In used, bloody bandage on Stimpy’s common to both children and The Army, the rigors of military life delighted nose, and soon the two adults. It was through these sym- drive Ren insane late in the are both waist — or is it waste — bolic tales that powerlessness cartoon. Witness Ren’s stunning deep in Stimpy’s litter box, sharing could be confronted, anxieties descent into menacing lunacy at “a private moment.” Stimpy, in (including sexual ones) safely the conclusion of Sven Hoek. Only another notorious episode, gives expressed and dealt with, and after his fragile sanity was over- “birth” to an animated fart, per- wishes fulfilled. Chief among the whelmed would Ren detonate haps the symbolic love child of proponents of this theory were

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200139 ance. Perhaps the most striking example of this was the episode Black Hole, which finds the duo stranded on a bizarre, hostile planet; they begin to mutate into pro- gressively hideous versions of themselves before imploding at the end of the cartoon. John Kricfalusi became a folk teller for the 1990s, however unwitting or subconscious the process might have been. Kricfalusi’s genius was twofold: not only did he tap into the collective unconscious of a nation and retrieve its angst, he then circumvented the prevailing studio system and prosocial mias- ma that hung over television animation in order to mirror these fears back to us. Nickelodeon, An unlikely friendship between two strange and unique characters helped make John which was probably expecting Kricfalusi’s Ren and Stimpy popular viewing for many folks. © Viacom International,Inc. All rights reserved. something more in the spirit of The Angry Beavers or CatDog, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and international force into the explo- was little prepared for cartoons more recently, Bruno Bettleheim sive Middle East where suspicions that carried such elemental, arche- (who saw these tales as a way to of chemical, biological and typal force; their response was to negotiate growth through devel- nuclear “weapons of mass destruc- censor and protect. Yet, there was opmental stages). In this way, for tion” ran rampant. The term “New no other way to tell these stories; example, George Liquor can be World Order” was bandied about fairy tales, which have been with viewed as a grinning, evil ginger- in the media and the White House us since the 1500s, are cruel, bread witch to Ren and Stimpy’s but few could define what this frightening and capricious by their Hansel and Gretel, or perhaps the actually meant or what it held for very nature. In the history devouring Oedipal figure (Liquor the future. While we waited to see of American animation, only “owned” the pair in at least two what came next, terrorist activity Kricfalusi and Walt Disney fully rec- episodes) of psychoanalytic lore. increased around the globe. If ognized this fact. The Ren and The world of the early American society was ever pre- Stimpy Show was a landmark in 1990s was an anxious and uncer- pared to accept revisionist fairy animation history, but few contain place. The aforementioned tales, this final decade of the mil- temporary critics seem to have AIDS epidemic spread across the lennium — portentous for this fact noted how deeply its roots were globe like some malignant viral alone — was the ideal time. buried in history — and in our- stealth fighter; by the time of Kricfalusi’s Ren and Stimpy selves. Kricfalusi’s ouster in 1992 the shorts thus struck several resonant Martin “Dr. Toon” Goodman is a disease had claimed 200,000 chords among both children and longtime student and fan of ani- American lives. Frightening new adults. On a surface level, they mation. He lives in Anderson, viruses such as Ebola were sifting were funny, subversive cartoons Indiana. out of the rainforests. The fall of with an offbeat retro look, but Communism brought instability a deeper examination revealed Note: Readers may contact any and conflict to a suddenly frag- them to be an encapsulation of Animation World Magazine mented Eastern Europe; genocide some of our darkest fears, ones in contributor by sending an e-mail in that area and Africa permeated which the soul and body are pow- to [email protected]. the headlines. America led an erless against a world out of bal-

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200140

Ahoy! An Intelligent Children’s Show At Last! by Chris Robinson

All images © BBC Worldwide Ltd. ow most of you know that I’m not exactly a Nmainstream animation fan, however now that I’ve got a youngster I certainly watch a lot more kid’s animation then I did.

Frankly, before I became a parent The Yoho Ahoy cast of characters aboard the pirate ship Rubber Duck. the idea of a TV show made for babies and toddlers kind of sick- the show was the obvious Buster of U.K company, Consortium of ened me. But now I understand Keaton influence on the antics and Gentlemen (COG), specifically that it’s impossible to hang with dead pan glares of the cast. At Mole Hill, Mark Slater and produc- the kid all day. TV becomes tempt- the same time, each five-minute er Julian Roberts. Mole Hill might ing. Of course we’re careful. We episode finds the characters, very be known to some in the anima- guide what the boy watches. As much like Keaton, using their tion world through his work on such, I’ve become fully exposed to material environment to solve a The Plague. Prior to Yoho, Hill and this new world of kid’s TV. problem. Slater worked on the children’s Honestly, most of it has been series, PB Bear. While the trio have fairly unimpressive. Teletubbies Ah,What Gentlemen worked together for years, COG was good for a lark, however, I Every episode focuses on was established specifically for want to strangle most of the sick- one of the ship’s crew who have Yoho Ahoy. While the company eningly sweet characters that outlandish, nautical inspired has a number of ideas in develop- parade across the screen. names: Bilge, the bitter, peg- ment, Yoho is their only series Thankfully, this past fall in legged captain; Booty, the snotty under the COG banner to date. my post-festival leisure time, I dis- princess type; Grog, the handless The primary creator of the covered this bizarre little show that cook; Cutlass, the butch pirate; show is Mole Hill who came up takes place on a pirate ship. This Poop, the always yawning deck- with the concept and design. puppet animation show features a hand; the innovative Jones; Swab; Yoho Ahoy was inspired by the gang of little pirates who say noth- Plunder; Plank; Flamingo; a cat birth of his daughter, a love of ing more than “Yoho” and “Ahoy.” and some rats. pirates, sleep deprivation and the The first thing that struck me about Yoho Ahoy is the brainchild awareness of “how cute babies

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200142 Grog the cook with shipmate Jones awaits the approach of some rats.

Captain Bilge spies Cat on deck as he vies for a fishbone. can be.” Says Hill, “I’ve always liked of the parameters of the BBC (i.e. On board the ship, Booty the princess pirates and wanted to do a series no violence), Roberts notes that serves tea to Plank while Flamingo looks combining pirates, babies and they have a great deal of freedom. on. French rococo painting.” Hill also “All scripts and storyboards have to only more TV folks could follow acknowledges the silent comedy be submitted to BBC before shoot- the lead of this innovative, intelli- influence: “I wanted it to be like a ing but it’s rare for comments to be gent crew. So watch Yoho Ahoy Buster Keaton film.” made other than, ‘Okay.’ This is and pray that this merry trio of Slater and Hill then worked not due to any slackness at BBC, troublemakers makes more great out the world of characters and it’s just that we are on the same television for me and the boy. defined the universe that they wavelength.” And by the way, Grog lost lived in. According to producer, A cynic might say that the his hands in a fondue accident Julian Roberts, “The primary aim of lack of dialogue is an easy way to before the series began. the show is to entertain and sell to an international market. Of amuse its audience. What children course, that’s true, but the little A QuickTime movie clip available should take away from the show is pirates also communicate a wide for download online at: the understanding that although array of emotions through the http://www.awn.com/mag/issue rubbing along with your peer tone of their voice in speaking 5.12/5.12pages/robinsonyohoa- group can be difficult, it can also those two words, and also hoy.php3. be fun.” through very expressive body language. One can’t help but feel the Chris Robinson is the artistic direc- The Two Word Production COG group have slightly higher tor of the Ottawa International When Yoho Ahoy is in full ambitions. Says Roberts: “’There is Animation Festival. production there are about 15 no art,’ someone said, ‘Without people working. There are set the resistance of the medium.’ Note: Readers may contact any builders, three animators, an edi- Mole and Mark don’t like to make Animation World Magazine tor, a musician and a small pool of things easy for themselves. Maybe contributor by sending an e-mail writers who work with Mark Slater. if you up the resistance of the to [email protected]. Both Slater and Hill serve as direc- medium you up the quality of the tors. It takes about two months to art?” make each episode: three weeks To hear such words come to shoot, two weeks to edit and from the mouths and minds of tel- about a week to do sound. evision animators, brings warmth While COG is well aware to my small, blackened heart. If ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200143 ingly hostile environment. Eruptions and sinkholes gradually Fresh from the Festivals: give way to the eponymous hordes of asparagus, which wreak their vengeance in a variety of February 2001’s multi-hued forms. Yet the little man survives the assault and, shaken but triumphant, prepares for the Film Reviews next step toward his liberation. Le Borgne’s film, made with by Jon Hofferman pencil and aquavel on paper, again demonstrates the ability of ithin the world of ani- 85 F, DK 2200 Copenhagen, simple drawings to create a very mation, most experi- Denmark. Tel: 45-35-82-70-60. Fax: particular world and to serve as a Wmentation occurs 45-35-82-70-61. Email: [email protected]. powerful tool in dealing with within short format productions, URL: http://wwwafilm.suite.dk. sometimes recondite subject mat- whether they be high budgeted Ring of Fire (2000), 15 min., ter (and threatening vegetables). commercials, low budgeted inde- directed by Andreas Hykade, The Dance is helped immeasur- pendent shorts, or something in Germany. Info: GAMBIT, Alexander ably by a carefully synchronized between. The growing number of Funk, Konigsale 43, D-71638 score composed by Agnès Alouges short film festivals around the Ludwigsburg, Germany. Tel: 49- and performed by a small cham- world attest to the vitality of these 7141 125-179. Fax: 49-7141-125- ber group of winds, strings and works, but there are few other 175. E-mail: a.funk@gambit- percussion and the voice of venues for exhibition of them or film.de. URL: http://www.gambit- Catherine Mouchet. even written reviews. As a result, ringoffire.de/. distribution tends to be difficult Still Life with Animated Dogs and irregular. On a regular basis, (2001), 27 min., directed by Paul Animation World Magazine will Fierlinger, USA. Info: Susan Senk highlight some of the most inter- PR, Susan Senk, 18 East 16th esting with short descriptive Street, New York, NY, USA. Tel: overviews. 212-206-8974. Fax: 212-229-0266. Email: [email protected]. This Month: La Danse des Asperges Don’t forget to visit us online The Dance of the Saracen Asparagus, directed by Christophe Le Borgne. © Sarrasines (The Dance of the at: http://www.awn.com/mag to Christophe Le Borgne. Saracen Asparagus) (1999), 4.5 view a QuickTime movie clip from min., directed by Christophe Le each film. The director studied engi- Borgne, France. Info: Cartooneurs neering at the Ecole Centrale de Associes, 162 rue du Chateau, The Dance of the Saracen Asparagus Lyon and, since 1996, has been a 75014 Paris, France. Tel: 33-1- In this humorous first work, member of Cartooneurs Associés, 45422356. Fax: 33-1-43206470. director Christophe Le Borgne where he has worked on several Fur & Feathers (2000), 5.5 min., goes inside the brain of a psy- series for French TV. He also pub- directed by Maria Vasilkovsky, USA. chotherapy patient as he con- lishes his cartoons in magazines. Info: Maria Vasilkovsky, P.O. Box fronts the vegetative demons from The Dance of the Saracen 31035, Los Angeles, CA 90031, his childhood. Pictured as a down- Asparagus was screened at USA. Tel: 323-221-3797. E-mail: trodden figure in a prison suit Annecy 2000 and a number of [email protected]. alone in a barren black and white other festivals. Og møllen Drejer (Run of the Mill) landscape, the protagonist — (2000), 8 min., directed by Borge guided by the clinical, soothing Fur & Feathers Ring, Denmark/Netherlands. Info: voice of the therapist — must deal Using the low-tech medi- A.Film, Aase Moresco, Tagensvej with the incursions of an increas- um of paint on glass, Maria

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200144 Fur & Feathers, directed by Maria Vasilkovsky. © Run of the Mill, directed by Borge Ring. © A.Film A/S. Maria Vasilkovsky. Vasilkovsky has created an accom- Run of the Mill composed the music for Run of plished and evocative, if some- An earnest and at times the Milll — has worked on a large what disjointed, romantic fable in somewhat heavy-handed and number of shorts, commercials which a man and a woman — overly literal anti-drug film, Run of and features, including Heavy and their animal alter-egos — go the Mill employs traditional cel ani- Metal (1981) and Valhalla (1986). through a series of physical and mation, supplemented by Toons In 1984 he won an Academy emotional transformations on their and Photoshop, to look at the Award for Anna and Bella. He cites way to a soaringly happy ending. effects of drug addiction on a typ- Norm Ferguson, Art Babbitt, Ward While the particulars of this dys- ical nuclear family. The main char- Kimball and Eric Goldberg as functional love story remain a bit acter is a young boy who suc- favorite directors and John murky, the often striking visuals cumbs to the seductive powers of Hubley’s Moonbird and Crac, by display the kinds of pleasing meta- chemical stimulation, growing up Frédéric Back, as two favorite morphoses, altered perspectives inside a bubble that allows him to films. and shifting relations between fig- float above the prosaic events ure and ground that distinguish going on around him. This symbol Ring of Fire this especially fluid method of ani- also effectively helps to portray in Ring of Fire is an impressive mating. Rendered in shades of stark terms the family dynamics of exercise in personal iconography, blue that give the whole an appro- the situation, as the ever-growing a kind of cubist Western that deals priately nocturnal feel, the film fea- bubble becomes the center of obliquely with male bonding, sex, tures a tango-like score by John everyone’s life — an insular world masculinity and loss of innocence. and Kassandra Woodring Hawk that the boy’s increasingly desper- Director Andreas Hykade employs that is an apt accompaniment to ate parents are unable to pene- an exaggerated black-and-white the animalistic mating dance. trate. drawing style more commonly Maria Vasilkovsky was born Veteran Danish director found in comics to excellent effect, and raised in Moscow and, after Borge Ring uses a pallette of creating a strange and ominous emigrating to the U.S., attended greens, browns and yellows and landscape in which two “cow- the Rhode Island School of Design simple line drawings to tell his boys” engage in a series of and Cal Arts, from which she story of unrealized potential and ritualized encounters. Traditional received an MFA in 1998. Fur & frustrated love. In his notes for the Western icons take on unexpected Feathers is her thesis project. Her film, Ring refers to an autobio- Expressionist forms, while an influences include Alexander graphical element, and it’s possible intermittent first-person voiceover Petrov (The Cow), Mark Shagal that both the film’s power and its explains little but suggests much. and Caroline Leaf, to whom she weaknesses derive from his own (“We never fell. We never even gives credit for her technique. experiences as a parent and his stumbled. We just waited for the Vasilkovsky is based in Los closeness to the subject. spirits to rise from out of the Angeles, where she works as a Originally trained as a jazz ground.”) freelance animator. musician, the director — who also The film was made in ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200145 widescreen format (!) using a combination of ink on cels and 3D animation over a period of about two years. The terrific score, which incorporates traditional Western themes and is a perfect blend of the heroic and the ironic, was written and performed by Steppan Kahles. Ring of Fire has screened at major festivals around the world and has won a clutch of awards, including the Grand Prize at Ring of Fire, directed by Andreas Hykade. © Gambit Films. Ottawa and Special Jury Prizes in Hamburg and Rome. personal universe. Fierlinger’s story Since then he has produced Andreas Hykade studied (which was previously explored in roughly 1000 films of varying animation at the Filmakademie his Drawn from Memory) extends lengths, including the Teeny Little Baden-Württemberg. Ring of Fire, from Czechoslovakia during the Super Guy series for Sesame his first professional film, was pro- darkest days of the Communist Street. He received an Oscar nom- duced by GAMBIT-Michael regime through his current exis- ination in 1979 for his short, It’s So Jungfleisch, with which he’s had tence with his wife and collabora- Nice to Have a Wolf Around the an association since 1994. The film tor, Sandra, in the eastern U. S. House. Still Life with Animated was funded by MFG Film Fund Moving between present and Dogs was funded by ITVS and had Baden-Württemberg and the past, the film touches on such top- its premiere on PBS on March 29, German Federal Film Board and ics as the nature of love, political at 10:30 pm. Ministry of the Interior. oppression and artistic freedom, as well as the animator’s relationships Jon Hofferman is an independent Still Life with Animated Dogs with a variety of quadrapeds and filmmaker, writer and graphic Paul Fierlinger’s autobio- bipeds. designer, as well as the creator of graphical Still Life with Animated Still Life features the same the Classical Composers Poster Dogs is a funny, bittersweet mem- whimsical cel animation — (www.carissimi.com). He has a oir that uses the dogs he has marked by loosely drawn charac- B.A. in Philosophy & Religion and owned throughout his life as an ters and blocks and splashes of an M.F.A. from UCLA’s School of organizing principle to explore his color — that distinguishes Drawn Film & Television. Appropriately from Memory and Fierlinger’s enough, he is currently working other films like Drawn from Life for on a documentary about the the upstart Oxygen network. It’s nature of religious experience. the perfect complement to the animator’s wry and frequently rueful Note: Readers may contact any voiceover, which has the elo- Animation World Magazine quence and complexity of a writ- contributor by sending an e-mail ten essay. Sandra Fierlinger served to [email protected]. as painter, assistant animator and production manager, while the sound effects and music were provided by John Avarese, who has worked with the Fierlingers on at least a dozen films. Paul Fierlinger has been a professional independent anima- Still Life with Animated Dogs, directed by tor since 1958, when he made his Paul Fierlinger. © ITVS. first TV commercial in Prague.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200146 New from Japan: Anime Film Reviews by Fred Patten round 1995, Japanese Outlaw Star, developed by direc- animation (anime) began tor Mitsuru Hongo and writers Apouring into North Hajime Yadate, Takehito Ito and America, Europe and across the Katsuhiro Chiba, based on Ito’s globe in video form. Most of these 1994-95 comic book, arguably titles were unknown outside of comes closest in spirit, including Japan and never covered by ani- the Lucas-authorized 1985 Droids mation journals. Whether a title is and The Ewoks. The setting is our highly popular or very obscure, a distant future in which the high-quality theatrical feature or a whole galaxy has been colonized, cheap and unimaginative direct- although the dominant culture Outlaw Star was directed by Mitsuru to-video release, they all look the is Chinese with “science” that Hongo.© Bandai Entertainment. same on a store shelf. Therefore, includes Tao mysticism and feng Animation World Magazine will shui. Gene Starwind and Jim she can explain any more. The regularly review several new Hawking are two orphaned bud- inexperienced trio find themselves releases (including re-releases not dies running a cheap repair serv- on the run in the Outlaw Star from previously covered) that have ice on a frontier planet. Gene, 20, Hilda’s old enemies including both some merit and about which our is the cocky brawn of the team, the law and the pirates, as they readers should know. while Jim, a precocious 11-year- take on interplanetary salvage old genius (a combination of jobs, enter a spaceship race, and Outlaw Star. Treasure Island’s Jim Hawkins and generally just survive long enough TV series, 1998. Director: Mitsuru scientist Stephen Hawking), is the to acquire new companions Hongo. V.1 - V.13, video, 2 brains. They get caught up in the (including an obligatory furry alien episodes/50 minutes each. $24.98 outlaw Hilda’s search for a fabled pal, the cat-girl Aisha) to augment subtitled/$19.98 dubbed. V.1 - galactic treasure. An “outlaw” is their crew, while they gradually V.3, DVD (bilingual), V.1 & V.2, 9 anyone strong and free enough to decipher the clues that will lead to episodes/225 minutes each; V.3, 8 live outside the authority of either the treasure of the Galactic episodes/200 minutes. $44.98. the officious Stellar Police or the Leyline. The plot allows for Distributor: Bandai Entertainment. rapacious space crime guilds. padding in the middle, which is Gene, Jim and Melfina (an android well used to flesh out personalities TV animation has been try- girl) have just been taken by Hilda and allow some character growth ing for over twenty years to come to a hidden experimental space- while exploring exotic planets. The up with a good counterpart to the ship which includes clues to the dialogue is constantly witty and original Star Wars. The 26-episode treasure, when she is killed before there is plenty of excellently-direct-

Outlaw Star is TV animation’s answer to Star Wars. © Bandai Entertainment.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200147 Cardcaptor Sakura is clearly designed for young girls. When it was acquired for American TV to ride the Pokemon bandwagon, the decision was made to re-edit it to appeal to both boys and girls. It was renamed Cardcaptors, and it began with what was episode #8 in Japan, “Sakura’s Rival,” introducing Li. Other changes include Americanizing many names (Sakura is Sakura Avalon; Tomoyo is Madison Taylor), and turning Li’s sister into a jealous girl- friend. Only 17 Cardcaptors episodes were re-produced for the first season (shown on KidsWB! Cardcaptors is the U.S. version of Cardcaptor Sakura. © Pioneer Entertainment. from June 17 to December 2, ed suspenseful action, whether Tombstone. V.12, Hot Springs 2000; now in reruns), in a com- escaping from a space pirate Planet Tenrei. V.13, Labyrinth of pletely different order. The two ver- ambush or a giant sun’s gravity Despair.] sions are so different that it was well. The story includes frequent not possible to combine them in surprises (nobody expected Hilda Cardcaptors. V.1, Tests of the same video release with just to die so early, if at all) and the Courage. V.2, Power Match. V.3, different English and Japanese jazz-themed mood music by Kou Misdirections.V.4, New Lessons. audio tracks. Instead Pioneer and Ohtani is tres cool (I am listening (More to come.) (The edited Nelvana have agreed on two sep- to the soundtrack CD as I write this American version.) TV series, arate DVD releases. Cardcaptor review). If you haven’t already 1998-2000. Supervising Director: Sakura, uncut with four episodes guessed, well, Outlaw Star is one Morio Asaka. 60 minutes. Price & per video, is available only in of my favorites in over twenty format: $14.98 dubbed VHS/$24.98 Japanese with English subtitles. years of watching anime. The dubbed DVD. Distributor: Pioneer Cardcaptors is only in the English series was shown on Japanese TV Entertainment. dub, three episodes per video. from January 8 - June 26, 1998, and has just been added to The Cartoon Network’s Toonami block starting this January 15th. What took them so long? (Production by Sunrise.) [While the DVD collections are untitled (merely called DVD Collection 1, 2 and 3), the 13 video titles are as follows: V.1, Outlaw Star. V.2, Into Burning Space. V.3, Beast Girl, Ready to Pounce. V.4, Creeping Evil. V.5, A Journey of Adventure...Huh? V.6, Adrift in Subspace. V.7, Advance Guard from an Alien World. V.8, The Seven Emerge. V.9, Between Life and Machine. V.10, Law and Watch Cardcaptor Sakura is see how Cardcaptors was edited for the U.S.TV market. © Lawlessness. V.11, The Dragon’s Pioneer Entertainment. ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200148 Cardcaptor Sakura. V.1, The lion cub, very obviously designed Clow.V.2,Everlasting Memories. for plush-toy potential), who had V.3,Friends Forever.V.4,Sakura, been asleep on the job, gives Fight! Sakura a magic baton so she can (Later volumes to come.) (The recapture the cards, each the per- unedited Japanese version.) TV sonification of a different elemen- series, 1998-2000. Supervising tal (Wind, Rain, Fire, Wood, Director: Morio Asaka. 100 min- Shadow, etc.) before they use their utes. Price & format: $24.98 subti- arcane powers to cause havoc in tled VHS/$29.98 subtitled DVD. the world. At first the only person Distributor: Pioneer Entertainment. who knows Sakura’s secret is her best friend, Tomoyo Daidouji, a This DVD release is ban- rich girl with the hobby of design- nered as “The Original Japanese ing clothes. Tomoyo insists on Uncut Version.” That is an impor- referring to Sakura in super-hero tant distinction. Pioneer is also releasing terms (“upholder of justice”) and “The American Cut Version” (produced creating a new “battle costume” by Nelvana for KidsWB!) which is dress for each of her adventures titled Cardcaptors. The two are quite (while Kero-chan provides fashion- different. show commentary for the audi- Cardcaptor Sakura is the ence). Tomoyo also tags along to latest big hit in the Japanese “mag- videotape the adventures on her ical little girl” genre that began camcorder. The lighthearted plot with Sally the Little Witch in 1966. gradually grows dramatic as (Sailor Moon is a well-known Sakura starts encountering more 1990s example.) This is also anoth- powerful and darkly ominous er winner from the mega-popular cards; and a new cardcaptor, the CLAMP team of 4 woman cartoon- boy Li Shao Lang from Hong ists who have created several of Kong, tries to push her aside and the most popular comic book take over the “man’s job.” As the series of the 1990s, which have series progresses, the background been turned into even more pop- of the special cards and Clow, their ular anime series; Rayearth and X, wizard creator, becomes important to name two. The Cardcaptor as Sakura and Li learn to work together. Sakura comic-book serial by Twenty years ago, most CLAMP began in a girls’ monthly magical little girls anime TV series magazine in June 1996. It became let the six-to-twelve set fantasize a 70-episode weekly anime TV themselves with the power to try Appealing to older teen girls, The Vision series from April 7, 1998 through out grown-up roles instantly: a of Escaflowne is a TV series directed by March 21, 2000; there were also nurse in one episode, or a busi- Kazuki Akane.© Bandai Entertainment two theatrical features in the sum- nesswoman, a TV news anchor- mer of 1999 and 2000. woman, etc. A decade ago the The Vision of Escaflowne. V.1, Sakura Kinomoto is a 10- fashion was to transform them Dragons and Destiny. V.2, year-old fourth-grader whose into teen pop singing idols with a Betrayal and Trust. V.3, Angels father is a college archaeology horde of handsome boy admirers. and Demons. V.4, Past and professor. She opens an ancient Sakura goes for the late ‘90s Present. V.5, Paradise and Pain. book in his study, which is a case trends: Tarot cards and the trap- V.6, Fate and Fortune.V.7, Light for a mystic set of Clow Cards (a pings of New Age mysticism, an and Shadow. V.8, Forever and Tarot-like deck), which come to life unlimited wardrobe and your per- Ever. and escape. The deck’s supernatu- sonal paparazzi. (Animation pro- TV series, 1996. Director: Kazuki ral guardian, Kero-chan (a winged duction by Madhouse.) Akane. V.1 & V.2, 4 episodes/100

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200149 minutes each. V.3 – V.8, 3 poser Yoko Kanno. It was one of Westerns to cop and private eye episodes/75 minutes each. Price & the first anime titles released when dramas, including spoofs of both format: $19.98 dubbed VHS/$29.98 Bandai entered the American popular movies like Alien and bilingual DVD. Distributor: Bandai anime video market in September news events like the Unibomber in Entertainment. 1998. Continued popularity in America. Third, it is one of the best Japan resulted in a June 2000 the- mixes of traditional animation and Escaflowne, plotted and atrical feature, Escaflowne: A Girl CGI outside of theatrical quality story-edited by Shoji Kawamori in Gaea, which Bandai intends for animation. Fourth, its jazz score by with character design by an American theatrical release this Yoko Kanno has won awards and Nobuteru Yuuki, has some similari- summer. With all this popularity, made it a top-selling sound track ties with Cardcaptor Sakura; both Escaflowne was picked up for the CD in Japan. (Episodes have are primarily for girls, use Tarot Fox Kids network, debuting on music-themed titles like “Asteroid cards for a motif and were edited August 19, 2000. But it was so Blues,” “Stray Dog Strut,” “Waltz for for American kids’ TV. Otherwise heavily edited (not surprisingly, Venus,” “Heavy Metal Queen” and they are very different. Escaflowne since one of the main villains, “Ganymede Elegy.”) Fifth, its mood is a fantasy-drama-romance for Dilandau, is arguably the most shifts leave viewers guessing older girls. Hitomi Kanzaki, a high psychotically sadistic killer in any whether the next episode will school girl who tells her friends’ anime) that those familiar with the be drama, comedy, suspense, fortunes with Tarot cards, is original series complained that the romance, fast-paced action or an caught up in a dimensional portal result was hopelessly confusing. intellectual puzzle. When Cowboy and brought to Gaea, a world Ratings were poor, and Fox Bebop first appeared in primetime combining elements of high fanta- dropped it after only nine sy, Medieval warfare and techno- episodes. The uncut Escaflowne logical sci-fi. It is the eve of warfare has been available in America on between the conquering Zaibach video for two years now, but the Empire and several smaller king- current DVD release has special doms trying to remain free. Hitomi features such as music videos and initially just wants to return to cast interviews. (Animation pro- Japan, her family and friends. But duction by Sunrise.) ties are gradually formed with the new people she meets, human Cowboy Bebop. and otherwise, notably young TV series/OAV, 1998. Director: King Van of Fanelia (wearer of the Shinichiro Watanabe. V.1 - V.13, holy Escaflowne battle armor), video, 2 episodes/50 minutes handsome knight Allen of Asturia each. $24.98 subtitled/$19.98 and the cat-girl Merle. Hitomi’s dubbed. V.1 - V.6, DVD (bilingual), skills with Tarot divination give her V.1 & V.2, 5 episodes/125 minutes an important role in the resistance, each; V.3 - V.6, 4 episodes/100 and a reason for Hitomi’s mystic minutes each. $29.98. Distributor: affinity to the world is provided. Bandai Entertainment. The political history, warfare and ecology of Gaea are given suffi- Cowboy Bebop is arguably cient depth to appeal to male the most imaginative anime cre- viewers. By the time an opportuni- ation of the past decade. First, it is ty comes to return to Earth, Hitomi designed for adults and older must decide which world is her teens. Its characters drink and get true home. The Vision of Escaflowne hangovers; they smoke, lighting was a smash success with teens in up cigarettes under No Smoking 26 episodes on Japanese TV (April signs. Second, it is an improbably Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, Cowboy Bebop is one of the most imaginative 2 — September 24, 1996), with successful blend of every TV anime TV series. © Bandai music by fan-favorite anime com- genre from interplanetary sci-fi to Entertainment.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200150 from April 13 to June 26, 1998, Women. V.3, Ballad of Fallen university town in the near future only 13 of the 26 episodes were Angels. V.4, Heavy Metal Queen. (2007) while battling what looks considered suitable for TV broad- V.5, Jamming With Edward. V.6, like a giant mechanical bug. cast due to such adult themes as Toys in the Attic. V.7, Jupiter Jazz. Gawl “generates” into a similar drug addiction; the others had V.8, My Funny Valentine. V.9, beetle/scorpion creature to defeat to be bought as direct-to-video Mushroom Samba. V.10, Wild it. Cryptic dialogue establishes that releases. (The whole series was Horses. V.11, Boogie Woogie they have come from a future in later broadcast in an adult 1:00 Feng-Shui. V.12, Brain Scratch. which humanity is oppressed by am timeslot from October 23, V.13, The Real Folk Blues.] these tyrannical Generators, to 1998 through April 23, 1999.) Set in 2071 A.D. after space travel leads to the colonization of the Solar System, Spike Spiegel and Jet Black are two bounty hunters bringing freelance justice to the sprawling frontier society that has grown up among the bubble- domed cities on asteroids and satellites from Venus to Saturn. Despite their genuine good-buddy relationship, each clearly has a past that he is keeping extremely private. They pick up an unlikely assortment of hangers-on (a sultry femme fatale, a juvenile computer hacker of dubious gender and sanity, a Welsh corgi who may be smarter than they are) that becomes a surprisingly charismatic and endearing regular cast. There Generator Gawl is an unlikely teen comedy TV series directed by Seiji Mizushima. © A. are in-group jokes (don’t miss the D.Vision Films. “next episode” previews after the Generator Gawl. V.1, Human find and stop the scientist who is closing credits, which may be Heart, Metal Soul. V.2, Future about to discover the cytogenetic straight or may give a new mean- Memory. V.3, Secrets and Lies. secret that will enable humans to ing to the episode just seen), visu- V.4, Out of Time. transform into these super-power- al references (an unidentified car TV series, 1998. Director: Seiji ful monsters. They get themselves in one episode is a Tucker Mizushima. 3 episodes/75 minutes enrolled into the university as stu- Torpedo, for those who can rec- each. $19.98 dubbed VHS/$29.98 dents to search for the elusive Prof. ognize it), and cryptic plot ele- bilingual DVD. Distributor: A. D. Nekasa. Their search is comically ments (why is Earth in ruins and Vision Films. hindered by Masami, an impulsive being bombarded by meteorites?) fellow student (and the daughter that are only slowly clarified, as are This is a good example of of their landlady) who gets a crush the casts personal secrets. A the- how the anime industry can turn on handsome but aloof team atrical feature is in production for a anything into a teen comedy; in leader Koji, but mistakes the spy- summer 2001 release in Japan. this case, The Terminator plot ing Gawl for a pervert trying to (Animation production by Sunrise.) crossed with the insectile/arach- ogle the girls. They are also dra- [The six DVD volumes are noid monsters from the John matically hindered by enemy titled only 1st Session through 6th Carpenter version of The Thing. Generators; obviously the ruling Session, but they contain the thir- The first episode introduces three tyranny in the future has its own teen individual video titles of: V.1, mysterious teen boys, Koji, Ryo agents at the university to make Asteroid Blues. V.2, Honky Tonk and Gawl, who materialize in a sure the Prof.’s research is not inter-

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200151 rupted. The formula for the first villains really are and giving them ple in America remains Takaya half-dozen episodes is that Gawl a bit of motivation to make them Productions/MOVIC’s 1987 Bio- and Masami humorously bedevil more than just generic “bad guys,” Booster Guyver). each other, partly deliberately by is saved for the unexpectedly seri- Gawl to distract her from Koji so ous climax. This is fortunately Fred Patten has written on he can conduct his spying; then not too long in coming, since anime for fan and professional another of the enemy’s Generators Generator Gawl was only a 12- magazines since the late 1970s. attacks in giant bug form, and episode TV serial (October 6 to Gawl must battle it without any of December 23, 1998). Production Note: Readers may contact any the other students noticing. Ryo is studio Tatsunoko (Speed Racer Animation World Magazine crippled with guilt for having and Battle of the Planets/G Force) contributor by sending an e-mail turned Gawl into a Generator, pioneered the sci-fi sub-genre of to [email protected]. even though he agreed to it for teens who are reluctantly or invol- their own defense. Gawl’s carefree untarily transformed into superhu- foolhardiness is partly a mask for man monsters to protect mankind his own despair at no longer with Casshan: Robot Hunter in being entirely human. Some plot 1973, and is still milking it today depth, notably revealing who the (although the most popular exam-

Bonus HTML Features Every on-line (HTML) issue of Animation World Magazine contains additional features not found in the download or print Acrobat version, such as QuickTime movies, links to Animation World Network sites, extended articles and special sections. Don’t miss the following highlights that are showcased exclusively in this month’s Animation World Magazine HTML version:

• The Technology Circle Over the past five years the changes in special effects technology for film and television have been monumental, causing large shifts and new issues for production companies and the software/hardware companies that service them. Bruce Manning outlines the issues and then sits down with Richard Taylor to discuss. Visit us online to see enlarged images and additional information on Richard’s work. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.12/5.12pages/manningtechnology.php3.

• Low-Cost Solutions, High-End Results With today’s new software packages becoming more and more efficient for less and less money, one can definitely do more with less. John Edgar Park discusses the different software and hardware combos that can get you on the fast track to great looking CGI work. View detailed specs on Strata 3D and Hash Animation:Master online at: http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.12/5.12pages/parkblurring.php3.

• Ahoy! An Intelligent Children’s Show At Last! Tired of Teletubbies and need another bizarre pre-school fix? Well check out Consortium of Gentlemen’s Yoho Ahoy on the BBC. Soon you’ll know every word…Go online to see a QuickTime movie clip! http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.12/5.12pages/robinsonyohoahoy.php3.

• Fresh from the Festivals: February 2001’s Film Reviews Jon Hofferman joins us to review short films: The Dance of the Saracen Asparagus by Christophe Le Borgne, Maria Vasilkovsky’s Fur & Feathers, Run of the Mill by Borge Ring, Andreas Hykade’s Ring of Fire and Paul Fierlinger’s long- awaited Still Life with Animated Dogs. As always, visit us online to download and view a QuickTime movie clip from each movie! http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.12/5.12pages/5.12festival.php3.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200152 SupplementalDisneyDVDs SurpasstheCompetition by Gerald Raiti Island, Who Wants to Marry a entertaindom, Disney is the para- Multi-Millionaire and Big Brother, mount of supplemental DVD consumers want…no, no…they material. As director John Lasseter demand behind-the-scenes infor- reminds in the Toy Story supple- mation. No aspect of a movie mental disc, Walt Disney always should remain hidden from the gave his employees three instruc- public. The private life of celebrities tions: tell a great story, tell it with is public news — go right ahead great characters and push the and ask Entertainment Tonight. technology to new limits. Disney Aren’t we all a little touched by the DVDs continue this tradition. As breakup of Tom and Nicole? Now Animation World has reported in the once slow-selling DVD format “Catch the DVD of Chicken Run” of 1997 caters to both techno- (Kubin, 5.10) and various Headline savvy aficionados and lavish News items, movies like Chicken information-bereft consumers. Run and Iron Giant have good Moreover, DVDs are currently a supplemental footage, but neither greater cash crop to the entertain- film’s history has such intrigue that ment industry than most pundits it requires a full-fledged supple- Disney’s Fantasia/2000 DVD. © Disney foresaw. mental DVD. Two Disney DVD Enterprises, Inc.All rights reserved. three-disc boxed sets elucidate this best: Toy Story: The Ultimate Toy VDs are the panacea for Box and Fantasia Anthology. videophiles. Since their These films are technological and Dintroduction in 1997, they cinematic behemoths. If ever a have offered consumers dazzling scenario existed where behind- displays of digital imaging and A Medium for Animation the-scenes, supplemental material sound, arguably the closest a con- What does any of this have is advantageous, it is for these sumer may ever get to re-creating to do with animation? Well, of all films. a cinematic experience in the media genres, animation epito- Specifically, these movies home. Despite all their advantages mizes the need for behind-the- contain many firsts. For example, over VHS, such as portability and scenes footage. One could debate Toy Story was the first full-length random-access searching, their how live-action, multimillion-dollar, computer animated motion pic- greatest feature is their ability to special effects laden films like ture; Fantasia was the first create interactivity with the viewer. Titanic or The Perfect Storm could full-length symphonic, animated Bonus or supplemental footage offer the consumer better bonus motion picture. Nevertheless, provides the means to achieve content, but upon further exami- there is more to these movies than this. nation, one should realize that the moving pictures. The DVD ver- In today’s growing age of majority of today’s special effects sions of these films allow viewers commercial voyeurism as evi- are computer animated. to delve into the stories behind the denced by Survivor, Temptation Of all the companies in movies.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200153 The Toy Story:The Ultimate Toy Box is a three CD set, The Fantasia DVD in the Fantasia Anthology pack which fills in the entire history of the Toy Story phe- is the 60th anniversary edition, offering loads of nomena. © Disney Enterprises, Inc.All rights reserved. bonus content. © Disney Enterprises, Inc.All rights reserved.

Enter the Toy Box lution exists for Woody as he trans- the angle control on DVD remotes In Toy Story: The Ultimate forms from a large villainous cow- that allows viewers to toggle Toy Box, the supplemental DVD boy doll to a leader and buddy. between storyboards, raw CGI begins with John Lasseter casually and the cinematic version in cer- inviting viewers to explore the tain scenes. world of Toy Story with him. Every aspect of the film and its sequel is Fantastic! explained through interviews with The Fantasia DVD in the Disney and Pixar personnel. Fantasia Anthology is the 60th Everything is included from the anniversary edition. It represents original Toy Story pitch in 1991 to the original, unaltered “road Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a show” version of Fantasia from Friend in Me” demo. 1940 when the film was only There are seven main cate- shown in twenty-five cinemas, gories to explore for both Toy much as Fantasia/2000 was only Story and Toy Story 2 respectively: Since Toy Story was such a (really) shown in forty IMAX the- History, Design, Story, Computer technological milestone, it is not aters last year. DVD interactivity Animation, Music and Sound, surprising that the technical docu- allows viewers to select audio Deleted Animation, and Publicity. mentation in the supplemental commentary by Roy Disney, James Disney DVDs excel because they disc is astounding. The entire CGI Levine, John Canemaker and Scott have a surfeit of information. In process is analyzed though every MacQueen. The commentary ana- the Design category, for example, phase from storyboards to shading lyzes, sometimes excessively, and Buzz Lightyear’s evolution is and lighting. A Pixar animator nar- details every aspect of what is mapped through 99 different rates each stage, which often con- occurring onscreen. From the his- designs starting with Tinny (from cludes with numerous images tory of animators to anecdotes Tin Toy) then Lunar Larry and later through which to meander. The about technological aspects of ani- Tempus from Morph. A similar evo- technical highlight comes through mation, DVD grants the option for

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200154 total immersion in the film and its a hippopotamus, and she feels studios treat their animated fea- history. insulted until she sees the charac- tures as just another summer This is in addition to the ter sketches, and the mistake is rec- release, Disney is well aware they forty-minute “Making of Fantasia” tified. are adding to their heritage and documentary, which narrates Perhaps I am biased toward they document every step of the every aspect of the film’s creation Disney DVDs. Maybe other ani- way. That is how Disney DVDs sur- from the inception of Walt’s brain- mated DVDs have outstanding pass their competition. Great child to the “Concert Feature” to bonus content. Then again, some movies and great documentation explications of the multi-plane films just leap into the culture; they make great DVDs possible. That is camera. This is all in addition to push the boundaries of cinematic the only way it works. the Fantasia Legacy DVD, which storytelling in such innovative functions much as the supplemen- ways that they magically capture Gerard Raiti, a native of Baltimore tal disc does in Toy Story: The the population. Many live-action currently residing in Nashville, Ultimate Toy Box. It is replete with movies like The Wizard of Oz has reported on animation, interviews and historic footage accomplished this as well. But Broadway musicals and comic explaining the creation of each Disney movies tend to achieve this books for various publications animated short in Fantasia and more often than other studios’ ani- including Fandomshop.com and Fantasia/2000. mated movies. Consequently, Newsweek. He also holds the Moreover, the bonus con- Disney DVDs have more of a Diploma of the Royal Schools of tent is not just historic but also behind-the-scenes story worth Music, U.K. in classical piano and humorous at times: one archived telling. When a movie’s title music. video depicts a room of Disney becomes commonplace in society, animators studying a female ballet the reasons why are worth shar- Note: Readers may contact any dancer to learn realistic techniques ing. Moreover, the Disney Studio Animation World Magazine in depicting the dancing hip- recognizes the importance of both contributor by sending an e-mail popotami in Fantasia. The anima- documenting their films and the to [email protected]. tors start describing the dancer as DVD ancillary market. While other

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200155 The Scarves of Sundance by Chris Lanier that taxing, but in fact, when we hit the Utah tarmac, I’m more looking forward to getting a full night’s sleep when Sundance is over, than I am looking forward to Sundance itself. The mountains loom huge and imposing as we head toward Park City from the airport; no matter how fast the bus might be traveling, the progress goes stately- slow, because the mountains hardly seem to budge. The trees are so dwarfed by the mountains, they register as brown-gray stub- ble that’s been erratically shaved — a few hangover swoops of the blade — to make way for the snake-line descent of pinpoint skiers. Six miles out from Park City, we hit Kimball Junction, which looks like a big joke at the expense of American civilization — there’s a McDonald’s, a Best Western, a Wal- Mart all huddled close together, in a wide and forbidding expanse of snowy nothingness — a corporate wagon train circled against the All illustrations by Chris Lanier. wilderness. Mountains ring this hris Lanier is a San from-the-trenches account of an scene, scaling the biggest building Francisco-based animator, animator lost in the wilds of down to shoebox size. The impas- Cwhose animated short, Hollywood, Utah, reconstructed sive vastness gives me deep atavis- Scarf Mania, was selected for the from notes he jotted down in his tic twitchings — this landscape Sundance Film Festivals’ inaugural journal. could kill you without the slightest online film competition. The 17 expenditure of effort. You could be films selected for the online com- Day 1 snuffed from exposure, or just petition were featured on the By the time we step off the plain dumb loneliness out here. Sundance Festival Website and plane in Salt Lake City, it’s already The ludicrous, monstrous size of displayed at the “Digital Center” in been crazy for a month. My life the homes one sees in the hills downtown Park City, Utah, where has been a blur of press list scan- seem to be precisely about this — the Sundance Festival takes place. ning, press kit assembly, video making futile elbowings out into Lanier was at the festival for six dubbing, postcard designing, trav- the clear cold air. days, from January 19th to el arrangement juggling — it Someone getting off the January 24th; what follows is a doesn’t sound like it would be all bus is a director of a film in com- ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200156 petition. The star of the film is also plex. When Kristin relayed the the various offshoots — on the bus. You can feel the folks room number of this “other room,” Slamdance, Lapdance, Nodance, on the bus perk up at this, ‘Ah! I had a good laugh. It was the Scamdance. The surfaces are We’re sharing the bus with a star!’ same room number we’d been ini- already at least three layers thick, It doesn’t matter they’ve never tially booted from. Very lucky for posters and flyers drooping off heard of this star before — the fact us, to’ve chosen a room with a other posters and flyers: publicity that she has gone through the rit- spontaneously self-repairing water as an endlessly self-regenerating ual, allowed her spiritual essence heater. eczema. to be transmuted by the camera’s The strangest thing about glass eye, is enough to bestow the I’m more looking forward Park City during Sundance is halo of celebrity upon her. That’s something invisible — the negoti- the problem, being an animation to getting a full night’s ation of eye contact. There’s no director — you don’t really have a such thing as a casual glance star to pimp. Though an animated sleep when Sundance is here. Eye contact is one long stut- character, at least, is always at my tering of checking and double- beck and call — so long as there’s over, than I am looking checking; furtive shopliftings of a pen and the back of an enve- forward to Sundance recognition. The double-take is de lope or a scrap of napkin at hand. rigeur, the quadruple-take not My wife Kristin has come itself. unheard of. Anyone walking up out with me — she makes me look the street has the potential to be a good by association – using the We walk down to main star, so they have to be measured opportunity to live out a vicarious street at night, just to get a sense against screen-memories. A hair- parallel-universe existence as a of place. The commercial part of style, an expression in the eyes, movie star. Ralph Carney, the musi- Park City is basically one street, can set off shockingly immediate cian for my short, has also come muffled on either side by steeply recollections — these strangers’ along. He also provided the music rising hillsides. It has the brittle, faces we’ve spent so much time for a second short in the online gingerbread feel common to all with. We’re all caught in a Web of festival, the hilarious Great Big towns that rely on outsiders for helpless rubbernecking. Cartoony Club Show. Thank God their livelihood, whether they be he decided to go. His sense of tourists, skiers or filmgoers. The Day 2 humor is a real anchor for my san- architecture seems to ingratiate Park City is far more lively ity. itself somehow. There are shop this morning – main street is a con- We check into the condo windows full of upscale ski-town stant stream of models, producers, we’ve rented in Park City. Five days kitsch — oil paintings of skiers in actors, gawkers, wanna-bes, previous, I’d received a call from gilt frames, expensive rugs with imposters, freaks, human bill- the folks I’d booked the room mountain scenes woven in, that boards, masochists and martyrs. through — they told me I couldn’t sort of thing. Even poor Kokopeli Over it all hangs the scent of have it, because the water heater has been forced into service, press brains marinating in cel-phone had blown. I had to wonder if “the ganged from the petroglyphs of radiation. water heater has blown” was Park the southwest in order to lug We all show up at the Park City lingo for, “We double-booked, snowboards across the front of City location of the online festival, and the other guy can pay more innumerable sweatshirts. One ski and it’s something of a disappoint- than you,” but with no way to ver- lift springs up into the mountains ment. Evidently, last year, when ify my suspicions, I said I’d take directly from main street — a black the dot-coms were flush and slop- another room at another place, net stretches over the adjacent py with money, they raised a big further out from town. Kristin, street, to stop anyone who might stink in Park City, setting up camp however, got back on the phone slide off their seat from dropping along main street, raising a ruckus, with them, and after an hour of directly into traffic. bloviating through bullhorns, back-and-forth, miraculously guilt- Any available kiosks have demanding Sundance get with ed them into getting another been wrapped in layers of posters the program, and take notice of room in the original condo com- for films attached to Sundance, or the digital “revolution.” I get the

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE February200157 the online festival is located, takes up the lower floor of a mall on main street. There are a handful of monitors, tuned to the festival Website, each outfitted with a set of headphones. The headphones are a sensible way to deal with potential distractions, to help the viewer focus in on the work, but ultimately it feels anti-social. Kristin and I can’t really watch the films together; one of us has to wait around while the other finishes up, which is rather boring. This is less problematic than the fact that the monitors are completely over- whelmed by the exhibits of the digital sponsors. The festival monitors seem like an afterthought between the giant HDTV displays, which show loops of contentless content — montages of slo-mo football passes, rodeo riders dis- aligning their spinal columns on horseback, see-sawing, circus acrobats throwing highlights off their spangles in trapezial revolu- tions, kids “adorably” playing on the beach in fast motion — and sense that Sundance is of two sorts of distortions (all selection sys- the arrays of high-end digital cam- minds about the online aspect of tems are, but the Web magnifies eras. Instead of looking like a festi- the festival: while they’ve made a them). Also, arriving at Sundance val, the lower level of the mall sincere effort to acknowledge the I’ve found the online festival has looks like a trade show. world of online filmmaking, there been segregated from the main Way at the back of the is a sense that their hand was, to festival in terms of publicity — sponsor exhibits, there’s a small some degree, forced. Through the instead of being a part of the main room set specially aside for the selection process, there was a feel- festival brochure, the online festi- online festival. It’s not very inviting, ing that Sundance wanted to keep val has its own, separate brochure. and seems hastily improvised — the online festival at arm’s length And the exhibition choices were a black curtains are drawn over all — most likely to diminish the little flat-footed — for instance, on the walls, and there’s one table repercussions if it ended up a bust. their site, all the films are shown in with four monitors set up on it. It Understandably (and I think sensi- RealPlayer format, regardless of looks like some goth teenager’s bly) they’ve been careful to avoid their original Web format. Perhaps multimedia den, inexplicably fitted the egregious hype that swirls they wanted to standardize the with fluorescent lights. It’s very off- around the Internet as a matter of exhibition, and not force the view- putting to the casual viewer — the course. ers to juggle a number of different first thing you see, on entering, However, I was disappoint- players, but for the films made in are four people sitting at monitors, ed that the online selections were Flash, it makes no sense. It’s like with their backs turned to you — not going to be judged by a jury shoving steak through a meat while we’re there, we see several — the winner will be chosen by grinder. people look in, then hastily beat a online voting, which is prey to all The digital center, where retreat.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200158 We’re supposed to be best possible experience for the “The hand is actually my doing a Q&A, but only the other filmmakers. hand,” he announces. filmmakers show up — so we ask Before we take off, Ralph “You mean you actually each other questions. There’s Obie cracks me up by taking a picture of traced it as the model?” Scott Wade, who directed Julius me, and then one of the “online “No, I took a series of pho- and Friends, a great animation tak- festival.” The flash gets absorbed in tographs of it, from different ing place in a planned community the black curtains, and bounces angles, that I used to map on the for cartoon characters (perfect off the four screens — we both surfaces...” he pauses. “And the entertainment for kids; it’s smart know how spectacular the shot is eye is from an actual eye — the and fun and doesn’t talk down to going to look — like the storage textures are taken from an eyeball them at all) and Jenni Olson, who room assigned to an MIS depart- I borrowed from an eye bank.” directed the live-action short ment. “They let you have an eye?” Meep! Meep!, which sets a voice- “Well, I returned it to them.” over narration about a doomed That’s the problem, being “So the eye...” lesbian relationship against calm, “Right, the cornea I used to fixed shots of an urban landscape an animation director — get the texture, somebody back in (this urban landscape happens to New Zealand is probably walking be San Francisco — as it turns out, you don’t really have a around, looking through it, right I’ve come out to Utah to meet a lot now as we speak...” of people in my back yard; 8 of the star to pimp. 17 online films were produced in Tonight we finally catch a Ralph comes back from an the Bay Area). Jenni suggests we movie: The American Astronaut, a evening walk clutching a brown at least get our shorts running on very pleasingly bizarre sci-fi musical paper bag. A crinkle of brown the monitors that are available. In western. It’s preceded by an ani- paper, and he shows us the label a little comedic touch, I can’t get mated short, Infection, by James — Jack Daniels. It takes Kristin and into the Sundance Website. Some Cunningham. It’s a 3D CGI car- I approximately 2 seconds to dig anti-porn software has been toon — Cunningham explained shot glasses out of the condo cab- installed on the machine, and the before the screening — that was inet. We need it bad, and it ain’t Sundance site is verboten, as it made partly in reaction to a newly- cuz of the cold... doesn’t have a rating. elected right-wing government in We go to the official party This is all very frustrating for his native New Zealand, which tonight, in honor of Julianne Angela Teran, who’s been my liai- revoked the right to free higher Moore, who’s received an award son with the digital festival for the education, and saddled the cur- today. It’s sponsored by past month. It’s a pleasure to meet rent generation of students with Champagne Piper-Heidsieck, but her finally, after innumerable email sizable loans. The hero of Infection the free champagne’s already run exchanges and phone calls. She’s is a three-fingered hand that out by the time we get there. We extremely warm, and has been a sneaks into a government data don’t know anyone and feel com- great help through the pre-festival center, and deletes students’ out- pletely at sea in the transplanted- process. She’s bent over back- standing debt. He has to fight off Hollywood vibe. In one corner of wards to get me set up for any the guardians of the data center the ski lodge, people are lining up opportunities the festival might — gruesome giant eyeballs, with to have their photographs taken offer and I certainly don’t envy her, hands and ears growing out of alongside a huge bottle of (pre- having to guide the first online fes- them. Some robotic hypodermic sumably Piper-Heidsieck) cham- tival through its initial baby steps. needles get mixed up in the pagne. A weird totem to build a Any festival is a logistical night- action...and let’s just say that there weird little ritual around. At one mare — adding technological hasn’t been a better film for con- point we try to head up to the sec- problems on top of it all must be a noisseurs of punctured-eyeball ond floor of the party, but are prime recipe for sleepless nights anxiety since Un Chien Andalou. turned back, because we don’t and daytime migraines. She takes I see Cunningham in the have an extra-special VIP pass. her job very seriously; it’s obvious hallway after the screening, and “Filmmakers aren’t VIPs?” I ask, she sincerely wants to provide the tell him I liked his short: incredulous. We’re about to pack it

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200159 up, when we see Elisa Greene, Wildbrain’s publicist, and George Evelyn, the director of The Great Big Cartoony Club Show. They manage to save the party for us. It’s the first time I’ve met George — he has a native garrulousness that seems to have, over the years, matured into a philosophy of life. The Internet has given him a second wind as an animator. He was instrumental in getting the Cartoon Network Website to buy off on the notion of producing a number of self-contained short subjects — no series potential, no merchandizing tie-ins, no re-pur- posing of old copyrighted characters into obnoxious contemporary “relevance.” The Internet has been the greatest boon to the cartoon short since trailers booted them off the movie screens — George has taken the ball and run with it and it’s obvious he’s delighted.

Day 3 A night of perturbing and idiotic dreams. The waking world offers more of the same. Someone on the street is wearing a card- mistake. I’ve laid out a ridiculous that it’s an allegory of the wee little board sign: “Will Work for amount of money and time in digital filmmaker, lost among the Distribution.” Someone else has a anticipation of Sundance, and I’m scarves of Sundance…and the hand-puppet, a shapeless brown feeling like a sucker. Is anyone ever joke’s getting less and less funny mass with eyes. “I’m H.R. Puke-n- going to show up at the digital by the minute. shit!” it announces. The puppeteer center? Does anyone give a crap Kristin and I go from restau- is wearing a hat with a dotcom at all? rant to restaurant. They’re all address — I’m glad the fellow is The short Sundance select- choked with huge lines. Someone doing his part to perpetuate the ed for the festival is called Scarf standing in front of one restaurant image of the Internet as the most Mania – it features a hapless every- propositions us: “Do you want to high-tech toilet stall in human his- man character, named Romanov. come inside? Right now, inside, tory. Cameramen and sound guys He travels to a city whose cultural Elvis Mitchell is interviewing Forest swinging boom mics are already and economic life revolves around Whittaker.” “But is there food? Can converging on H.R. for sound the wearing of scarves, and we eat?” “Yes, the buffet’s open.” bites... Romanov just can’t get the hang We dash inside. Folks are pressed It takes forever for me to of it — he keeps getting tangled up against glass partitions, and get food into my gut this morning. up, etc, and as a result he’s a against the outside windows too, Big mistake — the emptiness in my laughingstock. Scarf Mania is sup- completely out of earshot, but stomach is getting impatient and posed to be a comedy of alien- looking intently at the two men, crawling up my brain stem. I’m ation, but I’m feeling it a little too who are just sitting and talking. wondering if I’ve made a horrible intimately right now. I’ve joked That’s the signal of the famous —

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200160 and what makes them like zoo ani- Awards, Mark and myself. The you’re also more likely to get neg- mals — people will watch them moderator is John Sloss, a lawyer ative comments as well; anonymi- even if they’re not doing anything and producer; he opens by sheep- ty, it seems, is the handmaiden of interesting. ishly admitting he was involved in vituperation, but the slams are Unfortunately the buffet the infamous Pop.com — the usually pretty entertaining, if looks pretty unappetizing, and online entertainment venture you’re an appreciative student of we’re back on the street. Finally involving Spielberg, Katzenberg grammatical novelty and uninten- we find a pizza place that, for and Ron Howard — which man- tional typographical avant- some reason, is almost entirely aged to burn through several mil- gardism. Sometimes I fantasize all deserted. Like an oasis in the lions of dollars, blazing straight the rants delivered over the Net desert of schmooze. Soon, with a into bankruptcy before actually are written by the same person — nice helping of bread and cheese materializing anything on the they’re all chapters in a cumulative in my stomach, I’m teetering Web. Pop.com is always brought work, and if they were to be toward equilibrium — bring it on, up first in the inevitable lists of assembled in one place, we’d be I’m ready to face the day. failed Internet entertainment ven- witness to one of the greatest con- I’ve managed to elbow my tures, and unfortunately it comes ceptual fiats of post-modernist liter- way onto a panel, “Digital freighted with undeserved implica- ature. Finnegan’s Wake, as if writ- Filmmaking: The Filmmakers.” tions — namely, if Spielberg can’t ten by Joyce’s eighth-wit brother. Mark Osborne is the first co-pan- make entertainment fly on the There’s a lot of talk about elist I meet (or, instead of panelist, Net, then who can? Which of how the Web solves problems of I should go by the title they’ve course is running the thing back- distribution and delivers hereto- printed on our badges: “Digital wards. The whole Hollywood fore unreachable audiences. An Dialogian.” The Sundance folks are infrastructure is tuned to such dif- interesting schism on the panel insistent about it — Mark called up ferent economies of scale, it’s arises — the Flash animators the offices: “Hello, I’m one of the almost inevitable they’d get (myself and George) are in love panelists…” to be rebuffed with, tripped up and bogged down. with Webcast, but all the folks “No, no, you’re not a panelist — using the Web as a vehicle for you’re a dialogian”). I’m a big I get the sense that video keep running against the admirer of Mark’s film, More, obstacle of poor image quality — which I first saw on ifilm.com. It’s a Sundance is of two minds the Web hasn’t caught up to video masterful claymation short, with yet (when we run Mark’s More bits of 2D animation interpolated about the online aspect of through the pixelated blockiness in precise and deliberate counter- the festival… of RealPlayer, it’s obviously torture point. In the few short minutes of for him since the film was original- its running time, Mark manages to We get to run some of the ly shot for IMAX). Because of the accumulate a surprising emotional directors’ shorts off a laptop, technical exigencies of the Web, weight. I think it’s a brilliant short, through a big screen facing the animation (specifically Flash ani- one of the best short films I’ve seen audience. It’s nice getting a mass mation), as a tool of communica- — and it’s great to meet the fella reaction, hearing people laugh in tion, has gained an inflated impor- behind it, and find out he’s a nice the right places, etc. These are the tance. Before the panel’s over, I guy, quite friendly and accessible. instamatic satisfactions you don’t even get to trot out my pet argu- The panel is quite well- get when you put work up on the ment that there are aesthetic attended, putting to rest my anxi- Web and people watch it on their strengths to be found through the eties that people aren’t interested own time. Although when the current limitations of bandwidth in this stuff. The other panelists are question comes up from the audi- — it forces filmmakers to use edit- George Evelyn, Jennifer Arnold, ence, all the directors say they pre- ing strategies favoring clever whose Mullet Chronicles (a serial- fer the kind of audience feedback arrangements of juxtapositions ized documentary dedicated to they get through the Web — less and comparisons to build stories. “mullet pride”) are in the online immediate but also less nerve- Jennifer throws out La Jetee as a festival, Ariella Ben Dov, the festival wracking, and usually more in- film that would be perfect for the director of the Queer Short Movie depth and heartfelt. Of course, Internet — a series of still images,

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200161 put together with consummate gotta love the conspiracy theories. Kristin takes a shower to freshen intelligence. Mark says the medium is about up, then lays down in her PJs on We get some good ques- communication, small communi- the couch. “So are we going to tions from the audience, and a ties, small economies of scale — the party?” she asks, her eyelids few comments that sound like things that are handmade and already drooping sleepily over the sales pitches. One person explains personal. That’s the exciting poten- top rims of her pupils. “Who’re you his project — something that’s tial of the Net, and that’s what will kidding? You’re gonna go in your been inevitable for some time always escape the Hollywood PJs?” She shrugs, “We’re at now, but which he’s evidently put guys — they’re institutionally inca- Sundance. We’re supposed to be into practice — an online film pable of grasping it. In retrospect, going to all the glamorous par- where everything in it is for sale. I’m disappointed that so much of ties.” I call up Elisa, because I don’t You like the Ming vase on top of the Q&A centered around eco- want to be rude, and ask her the armoire? A couple mouse- nomic models, with relatively little about the party — but she and clicks, and Fed Ex has it on the said about the cultural content of George are pretty crashed out, way. A couple more clicks, and the online film. The new economic and are going to bail after all. armoire’s on the same flight. The models being formed are interest- When I hang up and report the entire house the movie is set in, in ing, and may have wide repercus- news, everyone sags in relief. And fact, is for sale: “If I just sell that, sions for the development of the my favorite stupid show, Blind I’ve already covered my produc- art form — particularly promising, Date is on — the best dialogue on tion costs.” George shoots back: “If to me at least, are peer-to-peer television, improvised on the spot somebody buys the house, does it models, and the eventual advent by lonely singles with strange exhi- disappear from the movie?” In fact, of micropayments — but some- bitionist tendencies. We yuk it up George is on to something: imag- times it seems the only interest as we watch the self-professed ine an episode of Friends, where people have in art, is an interest in “Hillybilly” clear the dance floor by you can buy every article of cloth- art-as-commerce-by-other-means. dry-humping the air; and then yuk ing, and as soon as you do, said It bespeaks a disappointing lack of it up some more at the second article disappears from the thespi- curiosity about the human animal, couple, which features a self-pro- an-slash-mannequin. The only about the texture and the sub- fessed “poet” with a Kenny G ‘do, snarl in this scheme, is that you’d stance of the mind. who actually wins over his date by have all these hetero guys deplet- talking up Norse mythology and ing their credit cards with bra and Scarf Mania is supposed quoting Thoreau. Sure, we’re just panty purchases. We’ll have to as lame as these folks — watching wait for fashion to take a few more to be a comedy of bad TV from the middle of bold steps toward androgyny for Sundance, fer crissakes — but at this sort of thing to work out. alienation, but I’m feeling least our lameness isn’t being tele- To the real-estate-agent- vised. cum-auteur, I want to say, “Excuse it a little too intimately me, but don’t you find this at all right now. Day 4 horrific?” but bite my tongue. I This time, in my daily trek to don’t suppose he’ll be making We get back to our room, the “online festival,” I meet Jakub many movies about poor folks, and get sucked into one of the Pistecky, whose short Maly Milos is unless perhaps they work as shoe- episodes of Jazz, playing on TV. in the lineup. He’s a handsome fel- shiners in some swanky resort. They’re taking it up through Art low, with close-cropped black hair After the panel’s over, a few Blakey, Coltrane, Clifford Brown, and compact, precisely arranged folks come up to Mark and I, who Ornette Coleman. Kristin keeps features. He’s currently working at are malingering to talk up a few asking if we’re going to go to the ILM, on the next Star Wars movie; stray points. Someone half-jokingly party tonight — Elisa can get us I decide to be cool and not ask ventures the theory that Spielberg into some Hugo Boss shindig (I him a single damn question about et. al. created Pop.com to run it have no idea who or what Hugo it. into the ground deliberately, and Boss is — but I’m not about to Jakub appears to be having take down the Web with it. You admit this to anybody out loud). a far better time in Park City than I

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200162 gies are providing receptive forms for old, shunted-aside artforms: motion-capture provides an entry point for dance and gestural theatre; CGI provides an entry point for sculpture and puppetry. For our last two nights, we’re staying with the Quackenbushes, a couple who are friends with Kristin’s dad, in Salt Lake City. It’s a relief to not have to talk about movies and deals (perversely and against my will, earlier in the day I’d been drawn into an extensive conversation, with a complete stranger, about the lack of fire in Harrison Ford’s latest thespian activities). Instead, we talk about books, the election, and the oddball physics experiments Joe Quackenbush, a science teacher, cooks up for his class. It’s heaven, really. There’s a world outside the am. He’s not worried in the slight- Mark Osborne is the first screen. est about making connections or schmoozing his career up a notch co-panelist I meet (or, Day 5 — he’s just here to see movies and In the morning I have a go to parties. In all, a far more instead of panelist, I live Web-streamed interview with sane approach. Last night he was Streaming Media magazine and at an Ozzy Osbourne party, that should go by the title Res magazine — they’ve set up a was opened by someone named table at the digital center. The the “Reverend B. Dangerous” or they’ve printed on our interview is run by Rae Zander and somesuch, who hung a 50 lb. badges: “Digital Scott Smith, both great folks, and camera from a perforation in his the interview is actually kinda fun. tongue, and then followed up by Dialogian”). Then I get to turn the tables, and having the heaviest guy in the conduct an interview myself, with audience step on the back of his to replicating “reality,” the more it Eric Henry and Syd Garon, the head, grinding his face into a pile loses its purely expressive poten- directors of Wave Twisters, which of broken glass. In short, Ozzy is so tial. is running as part of Sundance’s far past his bat-head munching Jakub solves this problem midnight screening series. days, he’s taken to delegating. by resorting to puppetry; the char- Wave Twisters is the anti- I like Jakub’s short quite a acters in Milos look like they’ve Fantasia/2000; both take pre- bit. It’s a 3D computer animation, been carved in a woodshop. Milos recorded music as the basis for ani- with a genuine fairytale quality has a face reminiscent of the faces mation, but where Fantasia/2000 (fairytales of the Grimm variety, of Jiri Trnka’s animated puppets — looked backwards — both in with plenty of dirt under their almost immobile, but deeply terms of the use of respectable peasant fingernails). A lot of CGI expressive — the face has the sug- and safe music, and in its story- animation seems, to me, to be gestive emotional expressiveness telling sensibilities, which harken heading toward a cul-de-sac of of a mask. We have a good con- back to cozy ‘50s conventions — thoughtless mimesis; the closer versation about this. It seems we’re Wave Twisters is incredibly fresh, computer-generated imagery comes at a point where new technolo- new and forward-looking. The ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200163 soundtrack that provides its aural spine is an album by DJ Qbert. The film is an insane piece of work. The “story” involves a space orthodon- tist spreading the gospel of turntable culture — and every scratch, beat and sample has a visual correspondence. So much information flies at you — in a combo of 2D animation, 3D animation and cheesy video effects, scrambled together in an appropriately “turntablistic” collage that the first time I saw it (a rough cut shown at RESFEST), I felt like my brain was vibrating in its skull case, overloaded past the limit of absorption. The one place where it falls down, is in its sexual politics. It’s always a disappointment when something stylistically avant-garde is politically retro and the female I’ve managed to wheedle my way onto the guest list for “character” in it is just a pin-up, given nothing interesting to do. the big party tonight… The filmmakers feel awful about it, too. They were working off a public.” We have to wait out in the back quite a few to get a decent soundtrack where the female cold for several minutes before buzz going. The Beat Junkies are vocal samples were all along the “the list” arrives. People are surly, up first, throwing records down lines of “save me” and “help me,” trying to cut line, throwing atti- one after another, the two of them stuff lifted off old adventure and tude right and left. One person swapping duties across two sci-fi records which comes off satir- leaves the line, then elbows her turntable setups. The work they’re ical on the CD, but they didn’t cut way back, giving Kristin an evil doing over the turntables is myste- against it in the visuals in a mean- eye, asking her if she “has a prob- rious work, with perhaps a little ingful way, and the spoofing lem.” Some French lady behind deliberate mad-scientist mystifica- aspect of the vocals doesn’t come me keeps saying, “Zees ees incred- tion — they attack the vinyl as a through. In the interview, Eric says ible. Zey said zey would have sree combo of musician and perform- morosely: “I have no excuse. I girls checking zee list, but zere is ance artist. It’s not sufficient, for went to Oberlin.” only one! Zees is so ineeficient. instance, to just slide a used up Because I’ve done the inter- Zey said zey would have sree girls. record off the turntable, and tuck it view with Eric and Syd, I’ve man- Oh, I don’t know why I am putting back in its sleeve — the record’s aged to wheedle my way onto the up weef zis!” A mystery for the gotta be lifted with a quick snap, guest list for the big party tonight, ages. “I feel like I’m in New York,” and twirled on the axis of two which is both for Wave Twisters Kristin says. I say, “I feel like I’m in index fingers — the record sud- and a documentary on turntab- High School.” denly not a disc but a brief blurred lism called Scratch. The large We get inside and knock globe — the spinning longitude bouncer guarding the door back a few drinks — this being lines tracings of music. Both Beat announces to the throng outside Utah, the alcohol content is lower Junkies bob on the stage like two that: “Only those people on ‘the than the norm, and despite the pistons in a motor, synched on the list’ will get in — this is a private deoxygenating compensations of same axle. party, not open to the general high altitude, you have to knock It’s great fun to dance to,

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200164 because the music is “played” by back. It’s a testament to the out- with the bone in 2001. This alter- being interrupted and interpolat- there aesthetics of the film, that nates with more fine-tuned scrap- ed — you have to listen closely, to when it starts rewinding, running ing with serrated bits of leaves and keep track of where it’s heading. backwards and getting all pixelat- available scraps of gum wrapper. I After a while, Qbert gets up on ed, most of the audience thinks examine the shit-smeared sole of stage to do a little scratching, this is actually part of the movie. my boot like a gypsy inspecting before heading out to the Wave tea-leaves at the bottom of a cup. Twisters premiere. I have no idea Day 6 I’ve stepped directly into a bad what record he has up there, for What is it about stepping omen, but unfortunately, crawling scratching purposes — he warps into a pile of dog crap, that it back into bed and pulling the cov- the sound all out of shape, peeling always resonates with metaphysi- ers over my head for the remain- hidden noises out of the original cal implications? I score a direct hit, der of the day isn’t an option; I’ve grooves. The record screeches up first thing in the morning, right gotta persevere, forge ahead, one like tires in a car wreck — then dis- into the winter tread of my boot. foot scraping against the icy black- solves into a flock of mechanical The citizens of Salt Lake City are top in a hygienic limp. birds. The crowd whoops it up. treated to the spectacle of Eric and Syd are at the dig- At the screening itself, the defeated Sundance director, ital center, both looking fairly they’ve got a two turntable setup stranded at the curb for a good 15 wiped out from their big night. for Qbert to give a scratching minutes, one foot shivering in a The perfect capper for their demonstration. On one turntable faded black sock, beating the boot evening was trying to get back he runs the beat, on the other he’s itself against the pavement again into their party after the screening got a Barbie record — something and again, like the murderous ape — and not being allowed in. Their that came with a picture book — he runs the phrase, spoken in insipid whitegirl diction: “Turn the page when you hear the sound of the chime” (and then there’s the crystal ding! of the chime). He pro- ceeds to spin the phrase fast, then slow, then backwards; then he makes up rhythms from repetitions — the audience responds to the conceptual kick of it — eloquence through stuttering. “Turn the page t-t-t-turn the page Turn Turn Turn the page.” He finally launches full bore into it, running the line “when you hear the sound of the chime,” then pulling out the chime into a long, complex, fluttering arpeggio — that ends with a perfectly timed and clear ding! It’s a perfect intro for the film, which unfortunately gets off to a rough start — there’s no sound at first. They rewind the film and start it over again. This in itself is a great advertisement for digital projection — if Wave Twisters had been projected in 35mm, there would’ve been no way to reel it

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200165 publicist had to come and save These are the sorts of producers and curious bystanders them from the bouncer. moments that make the festival can be brought together in fruitful A nice bonus — Andy worthwhile — impromptu shar- networks. An actual screening of Murdock happens to be in the dig- ings of oddball visions — the out- the online films would be nice. ital center when I peek in to give a patients swapping their hallucina- While the online experience tends last goodbye to Angela (who, tions for the sake of mutual enjoy- to be an intimate one, with one or unfortunately, isn’t there). He’s tall ment. two people sitting close to their and sandy-haired, and like all the monitor, a festival experience is other filmmakers I’ve met, very These are the sorts of a necessarily communal one. friendly. I’d seen his Sundance- Screenings concentrate peoples’ selected short Rocketpants at RES- moments that make the attention and curiosity, and create FEST, and told him I liked it — it’s a a real dialog with the work. A nice slice of whacked-out dream- festival worthwhile — screening becomes an “event” that imagery, featuring an Elvis Presley- impromptu sharings of people feel they are a part of. looking fellow with robotic nether Interactive online films, which parts, rocketing around a bizarre oddball visions… don’t have a linear narrative, could landscape. He shows me the car- be shown as demonstrations, with toon he’s currently working on — Parting Thoughts and Notions the filmmakers guiding the audi- he’s got a tape in a digital camera, I hope Sundance continues ence through a few variations. pops open the side screen and to have an online component to There’s no reason why monitors plugs some headphones into the their festival. It’s good for online couldn’t be provided in addition, thing for me. So I sit and watch work to get notice and to be for the curious to work out their while he sits and watches me brought into greater dialogue own variations when the screen- watch. It’s a couple minutes of a with a wider audience. The more ing is over. In this way, Sundance strange, cybernetic ecosystem, opportunities for people working could provide a bridge to the work with natural forms overlapping in the online field to come togeth- — acting as an educator and de- with artificial ones. It starts with a er and meet each other, the mystifier. hummingbird with a sparkplug for greater the chances are for cross- Despite all the hype and a head, darting its beak into a fertilization and sideways sparks of anti-hype surrounding online film, flower — the stamen of the flower inspiration. By facilitating this, festi- the Web is here to stay as a venue bends to the back of the bird’s vals contribute to the evolution of for truly independent film — films head and closes the circuit, flash- the art form and Sundance could that are done on the cheap, films ing sparks across the interval. certainly cultivate a role as one of that evolve out of a deeply per- Other mechanical animals appear: the midwives of this newly emerg- sonal vision, films that push the a motorized millipede that erases ing medium. boundaries of narrative structure. the distinction between insect While I understand the If the focus is on the work, and locomotion and the repetitive philosophical impulses behind there’s plenty of good work online, rhythms of an engine and a peli- Sundance’s decision to keep the a situation that will only improve, can that looks like it’s descended online festival on monitors, in its no other excuses need be made. from the notional helicopter that native environment so to speak, I appeared in Da Vinci’s sketch- hope they rethink this. Of course it Chris Lanier is the creator of the books. It starts getting deeply would be possible to relegate the Web cartoon Romanov, running weird when a tree-borne fruit online festival completely to on www.wildbrain.com. shrivels and disgorges, as its pit, “cyberspace,” without any physi- the head and torso of a human cal, corresponding presence in Note: Readers may contact any infant...then the tape cuts out. Park City — but I think this would Animation World Magazine “That was insanely beautiful,” I say. be running in the wrong direction, contributor by sending an e-mail “Thanks,” Andy says, “I have no and wasting the cultural capital to [email protected]. idea where it’s going. But I like to Sundance brings to the enterprise. work that way. Keeps it fresh, so I Sundance has great value as a don’t get bored with it.” physical place, where filmmakers,

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200166 Standing at the Crossroads by Jean Detheux

La Réunion’s beach, late afternoon.All photos courtesy of Jean Detheux. One knows the plane left Paris 11 hours ago, yet one could have landed somewhere on the out- skirts of Nice! he Fourth Crossroads of in not having access to all those A Unique Status the e-mage of the Indian terrific small compact Peugeot, Being part of France and TOcean (4ème Carrefour de Renault, Citroën, VW, Fiat, Lancia Europe, la Réunion benefits from l’e-mage de l’Océan Indien) was and other well designed, well some formidable aid programmes; held from January 29 to February made, attractive and efficient mod- programmes that could make the 2, 2001, on Reunion Island. This els), the road marks are the same, difference between a remote island is situated 500 miles off the even the billboards and houses “third world” status and a vibrant east coast of Madagascar, but is a seem — almost — similar. Yet, “first world” economy opened to genuine European region, part of if there are strong similarities the new technologies. The deci- France, in the Indian Ocean! (A between Saint-Denis de la sion-makers of la Réunion have “DOM” — a “département d’outre- Réunion and a generic Southern decided to invest heavily in the mer” — as the French call it, an French city, there are also striking new technologies and are overseas district.) The population is differences: first, at this time of extremely pro-active in trying to about 730,000 inhabitants, and year (summer “down there”), the create the kind of infrastructure the island enjoys the typical infra- heat can be overwhelming, espe- and economy that could take the structures found in most European cially if it comes with the humidity island out of its present state — regions. only the monsoon regions can suffering from between 40 and Arriving there, one is struck produce. The plants are different 50% unemployment — and usher by a strange sense of “déjà vu;” too, and if one has a chance to it into the new millennium. one knows the plane left Paris 11 step out of the car and listen, the In place for several years, hours ago, yet one could have bird sounds are unmistakably the strategy is focused on a two landed somewhere on the out- “tropical.” pronged approach: develop the skirts of Nice! The cars are the Yet, this is Europe, and infrastructures (including lines of same (North Americans miss a lot France. communication) while training the

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200167 Scenes near the beach at dusk The rocky cliff shore of Cap Méchant or Mean Cape. designed to lure (in the good arts and artistic trades of la sense of the term) those looking Réunion) and the Institut de for new places to do business in l’Image de l’Océan Indien (ILOI or animation cinema and fiction cine- Image Institue of the Indian ma production. Ocean). The island has already One potential weak link in shown that it can meet the this chain could be the connection demanding standards of CD-ROM between the island and the rest of production and 2D animation. It is the world, but at the time of writ- now aiming its sites at 3D anima- ing, there are serious efforts being tion, Web technologies and fiction made to remedy that. ADSL is cinema, with substantial aid for increasingly available, and the partial financing of local produc- fiber optics cable “SAFE” (South tions now available. La Réunion Africa Far East) is being brought in has some absolutely smashing and from South Africa. The island itself varied landscapes (from tropical is already extensively wired, so this shores through strange alpine major problem is being addressed meadows all the way to moon-like by people who are only too aware volcanic craters) which ought to of the importance of the pipes. attract companies looking for Rather than going through Views of Piton de la Fournaise, a basaltic unusual shooting locations (the a lengthy listing of all the aid pro- shield volcano that forms the southeast light too is quite unique). grammes available to investors, I half of Réunion Island. The local workforce (50% will refer the reader to the “Comité local labour force so that they can of the island’s population is under de Pilotage de l’Industrie” (“CPI,” sustain and meet the needs that 25 years old!) has access to a vari- the industry steering committee) the new technologies bring to the ety of high quality education and its “chargé de mission,” Mr. island, and find and bring home channels in new technologies, IT Paul Hibon, who can be reached all the possible forms of help and communications, including via email at: [email protected]; which can be used to attract the artistic education provided by phone: 02 62 922492; fax: 02 62 potential investors. In this regard, the “école supérieure des beaux- 922488; and URL: http://www- Europe, France and la Réunion arts et des métiers artistiques de la cpi.asso.fr. Many of these pro- can pack quite an attractive punch Réunion” (superior school of fine- grammes can actually cover 50%

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200168 A lovely tent-lunch on the harbour of Le Port following a Crossroads presentation.

or more of all production costs help applies to productions made and can be applied over time to in French. However, if such a proj- many aspects of those costs, ect (non-French) ever surfaces, we including capital costs, taxes, can guarantee you that whatever labour costs and much more. is needed will be done to make it viable and eligible to the same All the Island Offers financial help as are the French The Crossroads conference language based projects.” I want started with a presentation by rep- to emphasize the strong sense of resentatives from the State, Region “can do” attitude exuded by those and CNC (National Cinematographic in decision-making positions, Alain Séraphine participating in an intense discussion. Centre) on the following theme: something quite unlike much of “La Réunion, land of production the European bureaucratic “red and fabrication of animation cine- tape” and hurdles with which this ma.” This presentation stressed the person is only too familiar. immense commonality of the This was followed by a efforts brought to Réunion by the delightful lunch served buffet-style different levels of government. It under tents along the harbour (“Le served as a strong reminder that Port”). Many participants took the island is a part of Europe advantage of this opportunity to and France, and reflected the meet one another. The food was European approach of helping remarkable; a mixture of Indian regions, something we North (“cari” as in curry, “Massalé” as Americans may want to reflect in Massala), Créole (“boudin,” upon. (Should we just “dump” less sausage), French (Bordeaux and productive/fortunate regions, or Beaujolais wines, pastries), local help develop them with public rum, including “rhum arrangé,” a moneys?) rum in which herbs and spices Another question pertinent have been steeped, and exotic to North American projects was fruits. I ate the very best mango asked during this presentation: ever. “Mangue Joseph” is a small, “Can all this financial help apply to roundish fruit, very different from projects that would not be realized the usual oval fruit that I was famil- Azmina Goulamaly, the new Pipangaï in French?” The answer was iar with, and a source of unbeliev- director. twofold: “As of right now, the reg- ably deep and long lasting ulations are such that much of the flavours. ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200169 Cyberspace, Pipangaï and Movies head start in entering the Web The next day started with a age, especially as far as e-com- review of e-learning, e-commerce merce is concerned, but it does and communications both on the not yet seem to be the case. What Internet and Intranet as seen from I also noticed however was that a French perspective. The modera- these two young French IT spe- tor was Gérard Cauvain of cialists demonstrated not only a Les Gobelins (http://www.gob- thorough knowledge of their field, elins.fr/public/index.html), a well- but also a well rounded “general known school of multimedia (pho- culture” as evidenced by their tography, animation cinema, many references to things outside design, video, multimedia) in Paris. the narrow confines of their con- The Gobelins in general, and centration. (I don’t know too many Gérard Cauvain in particular, have North American “geeks” who a lot to do with what is now hap- could intelligently discuss the rela- pening on Réunion. They take part tive merits of L.-F. Céline’s early and in the training being offered by late works!) Gérard Cauvain of Les Gobelins, France’s ILOI and, as the Gobelins is in the Later that day we visited leading animation school. forefront of “continuing educa- Pipangaï and were given a tour of That same evening, we tion,” it is a natural for responding the building. We saw all the usual were invited to a party where appropriately to the unique needs trappings of such institutions, with Pipangaï celebrated its fifth of such remote areas. many young islanders busy work- anniversary. Pipangaï, the second ing on current projects. SGI com- largest European animation studio I wonder if puters were everywhere, and (in production volume), can deliv- there was a focused yet relaxed er up to fifteen half-hour 2D ani- “globalization” isn’t atmosphere, a feel of quiet confi- mations per month. The studio having a homogenizing dence. has already produced in excess of That evening, Georges 300 half-hour animated episodes effect on places even as Lacroix was given “carte blanche” sold in over 80 countries. It spe- far away as Réunion. to create and present a screening cializes in colorization, back- of his choice. Georges is a formi- ground painting and compositing Among the presentations, dable figure in French animation. — basically, catering to the needs two young graduates from the He’s been a visible player in much of animation studios in need of Gobelins talked about Intranet of French media from illustration qualified yet affordable labour. communications and new tech- to art direction. He was artistic During this party, Alain nologies (Arnaud Lacaze Masmonteil, director at L’Express, a French Séraphine passed the torch to http://www.infotronique.fr) and magazine, from 1973 to 1980 and Azmina Goulamaly, now the new the stakes of e-commerce (Julien created Fantôme, an animation director of Pipangaï. Séraphine will Dufour). What was immediately studio specializing in digital 3D focus his formidable energy and obvious were the differences in sit- images. (Fantôme was later talents on the ILOI (Indian Ocean uation between France and North purchased by Neurones, now Institute of the Image), an institute America. Figures showed that the Neuroplanet, only to be cannibal- that, along with the School of Fine percentage of the population now ized so it seems.) Georges had his Arts, could do much to not only wired is a lot less in France than in hand in many award-winning ani- develop local qualified labour, but the U.S. and Canada, but even mation movies, with Fables also set the scene for the emer- more significant, were the per- Géométriques and Insektors being gence of genuine local talent and centages of those who are wired the better known examples. His vision (something that could go a and trust on-line transactions. I present focus seems to be mostly long way toward lessening the would have thought that France, on organizing international con- dependence of la Réunion on with its Minitel network ferences dealing with new tech- projects from abroad). (see http://www.minitel.fr) had a nologies pertaining to the art of ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200170 animation. He’s done work for succession of intense sessions, bit of time spent on motion-cap- the Annecy animation festival most of which dealt with the ture and how Protozoa and amongst others. He also teaches theme “New Tools for New DotComix, a sister company, use directing at the Angoulême Concepts.” this procedure. The examples pre- Cartoons National Centre (Centre sented seemed to show that if National de la Bande Dessinée motion-capture — as is — may d’Angoulême) and at Réunion’s have had its day, it may now have ILOI. The evening was an oppor- hit a wall of sorts. If animation is tunity to see one man’s selection of art (that could be an open ques- many animated pieces reflecting tion), then surely it must deal with his experience, his tastes and giv- transposition (you know, “art is ing us a glimpse of what makes what makes us see” or “it is the lie him tick. that makes reality more real”). Georges put together a Motion-capture seems to have fall- long programme, which included en for the literal, bypassing/avoid- the works of Tex Avery, Tim ing that transposition all together. Burton, Michaël Dudok de Wit, DotComix especially seems Yuri Norstein (that Hedgehog in to bring to my mind questions the Fog poetic masterpiece), a col- Georges Lacroix relaxes after a long day! about the differences between lection of Pixar shorts (Geri’s Eric Bessone and Pierre entertainment and art; a recurring Game, For the Birds, etc.) and Maréchal of Sensable Technologies theme for me during this and much more. (http://www.3d-touch.com/) other such events. I keep running He also decided to show demonstrated FreeForm (http://www.3d- into a question that could be samples of the ILOI’s recent interns’ touch.com/FreeForm/index.htm), phrased this way: “Isn’t it time to work. This was, for me, a bit of an which through its touch sensitive choose between South Park and eye opener as it showed that, arm/tool makes it possible to Rembrandt?” And I don’t agree technically, these kids had nothing model virtual clay in real-time, with those who say that we now about which to envy their North while receiving tactile feedback can have both. I believe we can American counterparts. However, I from the work via the tool. This have “something” when we try to could not help notice (and I was makes it possible to work on virtu- have both, but both “it ain’t!” not the only one) that there was al clay through both visual and The predominantly French one big factor absent in all the tactile senses, with almost no audience seemed to respond pieces we saw: no trace or sense learning curve (if one is already favorably to the offerings from of what the French call “le terroir.” familiar with clay/foam modeling). DotComix. I however noticed that, It is hard to translate, but it is Quite a trip! One can even enter for most of them, the deeper con- something like, “a taste of the the clay piece and work on it from tent of (for example) Duke 2000 local/native soil.” There was no the inside. A selection of keyboard was totally absent. The French can presence of the Indian Ocean in commands makes it a breeze to often project a lot of meaning (or general and of Réunion in particu- change the size of the tool tip and miss it all together) in all things lar. This, of course, reflects yet more. This was a hit with many “American” (need I say, “Jerry another personal opinion, but I people; they just had to have their Lewis?”). I asked pointed questions wonder if “globalization” isn’t hav- hands on it. to several members of the audi- ing a homogenizing effect on After that, Jane White ence and very few knew of places even as far away as of Protozoa (http://www.proto- Doonesbury, or even less of what Réunion. These short animated zoa.com/) gave us a virtual tour of this comic strip represents in terms films could indeed have been the studio, including footage of of the post-Vietnam War American made anywhere! their work with Sesame Street (as psyche. in Elmo interacting with “live furni- Interestingly enough, I see The New Technologies ture” through the motion-capture a common thread developing Friday was a different day of foam rubber pieces being between motion-capture, virtual all together. We were treated to a manipulated). There was quite a 3D modeling, 3D animation and

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200171 the creation of “autonomous virtu- mostly about, a very serious inves- come up with this one: conscious- al humans.” They all have to tigation of the interface between ness! Our consciousness seems to accept, as a given, the a-priori exis- the virtual and the “real.” The work a lot by association, so that tence of “the world,” a world questions that were brought up (as has been shown so well by made of solid objects moving in during the day, and the way in Herman Hesse) a scent can trigger empty space. This is rooted in which they were dealt, set a tone the vivid recollection of a sound what Husserlian Phenomenology that was quite different from the and vice versa. This ability we have would call a “naive” world view rest of the event. We were no to experience as “real” that which (not necessarily pejorative), and I longer looking passively at presen- is physically not “there” is what the believe we already have found tations of a general nature. We autonomous virtual human has a many indications that this is far were being challenged by ideas long way to go to acquire. It is our from being a true reflection of our that looked at our very notion of very subjectivity that may save us experience of our reality, our “liv- what it is to be “human.” The work from (total) assimilation (yes, a ing present.” of Stéphane Donikian (and others Borg joke). Later on, Ludovic Duchâteau such as Daniel Thalman) forces a In a more “practical” way, introduced Virtools (http://www.next- deep reflection on the nature of this type of research opens up url.com/) and demonstrated how our being. doors for applications such as vir- Virtools Creation can bring behav- tual interactive games and remote ioral 3D authoring to people who When the demonstra- manipulation, as in surgery or have little or no programming tion of how a virtual dangerous environments. In this background. The Virtools Web latter field, Jean Noël Portugal has Player could be an interesting human is being pro- a lot to offer (http://www.dra- plug-in for viewing 3D animation grammed was made, maera.com/). It is also worth not- on the Web, but it is not yet avail- ing that Jean Noël Portugal and able for the Mac at the time of we went step by step Stéphane Donikian share some of writing. into its makeup. their research, which has led to Mendel3D (http:// commercial applications such as www.mendel3d.com) was pre- When the demonstration those offered at http://www.irisa.com. sented as a new set of tools to of how a virtual human is being I felt that these topics, all create and deliver 3D content programmed was made, we went brought up during the last day of on the Web. The file sizes these step by step into its makeup. I was the conference, were important things can reach are amazingly hard pressed to find “something” enough to warrant a conference small, something that I am sure that had not yet been catalogued, of their own, as much had to be will be of interest to many a and was delighted (relieved?) to left out due to time constraints. Webmaster.

On Being Human We also had our first encounter of the day with Maurice Benayoun (http://www.z-a.net and http://www.benayoun.com/) and the creation of virtual worlds in which both “real” humans and virtual humans can interact. Some of his better known works are The Tunnel Under the Atlantic (Montréal and Paris, 1995), World Skin (Ars Electronica, 1998) and Tunnel Paris/New Delhi (Paris and New Delhi, 1998). This set the tone for what the day would be The beauty of the alpine meadows.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200172 Larger, Larger, Larger Issues la Réunion, they benefit from seri- This was an event that ous public aid to develop their comes back to me in two ways. As infrastructure. The Web is explod- a showcase of la Réunion as a ing and the need for original good place to do business (in ani- material is greater than ever. That mation and fiction cinema), it was need can only continue to grow, a real success. All the people we surely this could provide the incen- dealt with demonstrated an amaz- tive to bank on one’s idiosyn- ing good will and much compe- crasies? tence, insuring that their desire and commitment to see this type Is it possible to find the of industry be established deeper universal in the on the island will most likely suc- ceed. I cannot stress enough all particular? the financial benefits potential As an example. Montréal investors can derive from implanti- was recently given the opportuni- ng some or all of their operations, ty to see Passage, a co-production and the value of the enormous by the Théâtre Talipot (from la amount of benevolence and com- Réunion), the Centre Dramatique petence they will for sure meet de l’Océan Indien, the Théâtre de locally. la Ville de Paris and the Théâtre Near a beach on Réunion Island; is this On the other hand, much de Saint-Quentin-en-Yveslines. This perhaps a “tree of passage?” of what happened led to reflec- show was a terrific success in tions about the kind of world we Canada, from where I am writing. We shall not cease from exploration are now busy creating through Passage is the quest of a man who And the end of all our exploring this rampant globalization. With searches far and wide for his iden- Will be to arrive where we started that in mind, I wonder if la tity and freedom, and who finds it And know the place for the first Réunion isn’t focusing its sight on when entering a cave in the very time. too short a vision, aiming at a same way one enters one’s self. In —Little Gidding V, Four Quartets short term success (as a service there, he finds that at his deepest (1943) industry to the global animation core, he is not alone, far from it. market), but in the process, risking The show was presented in a mix- Jean Detheux is an artist who, the longer term negative outcome ture of French, Créole, Zulu and after several decades of dedicat- of not developing its own unique more. The “idiosyncratic language” ed work with natural media, had content. Asia is quite capable of was not at all a barrier to compre- to switch to digital art due to delivering those services at the hension, the “meaning” was felt sudden severe allergies to paint lowest possible costs, but it may more than “understood.” fumes. He is now working on not be able to deliver truly unique Is it possible to find the uni- ways to create digital 2D anima- content (unless it too revises its versal in the particular? tions that are a continuation of thrust). Is it possible for remote his natural media work. He has In my examining this prob- areas to develop this respectful been teaching art in Canada and lem, I see how much it also exists relationship with their uniqueness, the U.S., and has works in many in, for example, North America, a and in the process make a success public and private galleries. continent were there are many of sharing it with the rest of the remote areas which, if we stay world? In a very real sense, it Note: Readers may contact any within the “global” models and belongs to the rest of the world, Animation World Magazine agenda, will never be able to com- but aren’t we “the rest of the contributor by sending an e-mail pete head on with urban centres. world” to each other? to [email protected]. Unless, once again, the remote A few memorable lines areas develop their unique and from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets irreplaceable content and, like on keeps popping into my mind:

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200173 TTooyy FFairair 2020001:1: The Big Hits To Come by Jacquie Kubin ew York City...Whether the toy spins into a car- Ntoon or the cartoon evolves into a toy, this year’s 98th American International Toy Fair was the place to find out what’s hot in upcoming animated properties. For those who look beyond the packaging, the annual Toy Fair allows a sneak peek into what franchises might hold possibilities for theatrical, cartoon and video game work as toys grow into multi-media franchises.

Taking Gaming to the Big Screen Video gaming represents one of the greatest liaisons between the toy license and animated property. According to a communications industry report The characters of Dragonball Z seen out and about the city in a Humvee.All photos released by New York merchant courtesy of Jacquie Kubin. bank Veronis Suhler last summer, games to be one of the number interactive game sales will grow one license growers. Toy Fair allows a sneak 21.7%, reaching $13.8 billion in This year’s most popular peek into what fran- sales by 2004 leading video video game turned licensee franchise will be the Lara Croft Tomb chises might hold pos- Raider universe being brought to sibilities for theatrical, national attention through the summer release of Paramount’s cartoon and video live-action, theatrical release star- game work… ring Angelina Jolie (June 15, 2001). The venerable Lara Croft Chronicles. For PC play is Tomb first put video game developer Raider: The Last Revelation, Eidos Interactive on the map with Chronicles and The Lost Artifact. the release of the Playstation game Tomb Raider game play has also Tomb Raider I in 1996. That one been developed for GameBoy game has led to hours of interac- Color and the Macintosh plat- tive animation with multiple edi- forms. THQ’s Tomb Raider starring Lara Croft for GameBoy Color from Eidos tions for Playstation including Found ready for retailer’s Interactive’s enormous Tomb Raider fran- Tomb Raider II: Classic, Tomb shelves when the movie is chise. Raider III: Classic and Tomb Raider: released this summer are Tomb ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200174 London town. With partners such as Sony and Viacom, as well as the highly successful video game franchise, one would have to imagine that a Tomb Raider cartoon will not lag too far behind the movie. Trying to edge their way into the collectible card game market is Seattle-based Interactive Imagination and the Magi-Nation franchise that begins with a role- playing card game, Magi-Nation Duel, that began shipping last Fall. The card game has been followed by a GameBoy Color video game and by Christmas this year, Magi- Nation will reach storybooks, comic books, action figures and toys. In addition, SEGA, Nickelodeon

The second anime inspired “McFarlane’s 3D Animation from Japan” figures. and Konami have all signed up to help grow the Magi-Nation animated properties.

Big Screen Hits Taking a Darwinian approach to toy licensing, Planet of the Apes (July 27, 2001) represents the very first, and still one of the most popular, collectible licensing franchises. First released in 1968, Planet of the Apes has grown to include five original theatrical releases, a 1974 episodic television series, a television movie and 13 animated cartoon episodes that ran from September of 1975 through September of 1976. With a franchise that has never faded far from consumers, 20th Century Todd McFarlane’s Dark Ages Spawn:The Samurai Wars depicting Lotus the angel warrior on the left and Dojo, Jyaaku’s evil minion and host body, to the right. Fox and Tim Burton will reinvent a world gone backwards when Raider inspired apparel, col- Plus, they can create adventures Planet of the Apes is released to lectibles, novelties, books, station- with the 6” Lara Croft figure assort- movie theaters this summer. ary and action figures by ment featuring scenes from the With special effects by Playmates Toys. Though they have movie, including Lara with a Industrial Light & Magic and make- released Tomb Raider figures in Bengal tiger, on her street assault up by the legendary Rick Baker, the past, new releases are based motorbike, facing down a deadly the movie trailers show promise as on the character as portrayed by white shark or battling a leg- do Hasbro’s 6-1/2” action figures Jolie. Fans can collect three differ- endary yeti in the forests, a croco- featuring the major heroes and vil- ent 9” Lara dolls dressed in either a dile in the South Pacific or a lains from the movie, which wet suit, jungle or Area 51 outfit. Doberman on the rooftops of include Mark Wahlberg as Leo

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200175 Davidson the astronaut, model license. The line will include stan- Estella Warren as the human dard 6” figures, mini figures, super- Daena, Helena Bonham Carter as sized figures, plush and beanie Ari, Michael Clark Duncan as Attar toys and playsets. and George Clooney as the Ape For fans worried that Mr. General. Played by actor Tim Roth, McFarlane might be going soft, General Thade with Battle Steed also viewed at Toy Fair were more will make a fine addition to a of his trademark Spawn figures, Planet of the Apes collection, as the second anime inspired “3D will the ultra Attar, a 12” figure Animation from Japan” figures, with electronic sounds from the “Movie Maniacs IV,” a continually The highly anticipated Disney/Pixar the- movie, including Attar’s ferocious expanding rock n’ roll series that atrical release Monsters, Inc. seems a nat- roar. Fans of the original movies will include Jim Morrison and ural as far as plush toys are concerned. will want to watch the film for a Metallica, and some of the most cameo appearance by Charlton twisted, disgusting and detailed Goodman as Monsters, the kind Heston. figures ever made, The Tortured that hide in the closet or under the New to both toys and the Souls. Created by Mr. McFarlane bed, who work for Monsters, Inc., movie screen is Shrek (May 18, after collaborating with horrorist a “scare factory” that collects 2001), an animated fairy tale Clive Barker, these six figures, power for their city from the about the giant monster Shrek and which include Agonistes, screams of little children. A CGI his quest for the perfect wife. A Lucidique, Mongroid, Scythe Meister, tour de force in the same vein as DreamWorks/PDI CGI animated The Vix and Venal Anatomica, will Toy Story and Bugs Life, this film film, Mike Myers is the voice of the inspire the most chilling night- promises an extensive licensee life giant Shrek, Eddie Murphy offers mares. when wise-cracking one-eyed comedic wit as The Donkey and Another huge push next Mike Wzowski (Crystal) and cute, Cameron Diaz is The Ugly Princess. year will be for Monsters, Inc. furry, blue James P. “Sully” Sullivan Toy master Todd McFarlane has (November 2, 2001), a (Goodman) are banished to life in entered this childlike fantasy world Disney/Pixar theatrical release fea- the human world when they acci- creating action figures and plush turing the voice talents of Billie dentally let a small child, Boo toys with his first master toy Crystal, James Coburn and John (Mary Gibbs), into Monstropolis. Toys, including action figures, elec- tronics, board games and plush, are being developed by Hasbro. Due to Disney’s standing relationship, a kids meal tie-in with McDonald’s is also planned.

Other Big Screen Hopefuls Harry Potter (November 2001) seems to be an extremely wide spread toy license with Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast releasing a card game, Electronic Arts creating video games and Mattel releasing a complete line of Harry Potter inspired games and toys. Every fan of Harry Potter and dragons will want to have a Roarin’ Snorin’ Norbert pet that Harry Potter’s release promises to proffer a diverse merchandising future that includes “comes to life” with realistic move- the Roarin’ Snorin’ Norbert pet which moves his tail and head, as well as flaps his wings up and down. ments as he moves his tail and

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200176 ed with a Dairy Queen kids-meal tie in. Irwin Toys, a 75 year-old toy maker, launched its most extensive animation-based toy line in history revolving predominately around anime shows acquired for Cartoon Network’s popular Toonami block. Part of this new line includes Dragonball Z action figures, vehicles and accessories that align with the action-adventure series. Another acquired from Japan Toonami hit, Sailor Moon has been a favorite with girls, teens and college students. At the Nickelodeon’s Jimmy Neutron, coming to the big screen, small screen, your computer show, Irwin Toys featured a new screen and toy stores everywhere. packaging line including 25 dolls head and flaps his wings up and representing the five Sailor Scouts down. The hottest toys as well as dolls for Sailor Uranus, In addition to Harry Potter, include a multi-media Sailor Pluto, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Warner Bros. is releasing Osmosis MiniMoon, Princess Serena and Jones (August 2001), an animated franchise… the Wicked Lady. Irwin Toys also buddy-cop action-adventure com- Small But Powerful grabbed the license for the ever- edy starring Chris Rock as the From the Cartoon Network, growing in popularity pre-school voice of the main character The Powerpuff Girls (April 2001) PBS sensation Caillou. Osmosis Jones, a white blood cell are expanding their video line One of the most popular living in the body of a construction with the April 3 release of two children’s universes is Dragon Tales worker Frank Detomello. In the new videos, “Boogie Frights” and (March 2001) with Sony Pictures “City of Frank,” Osmosis doesn’t “Twisted Sister,” and a special edi- Family Entertainment and Sesame like to play by the rules and fun tion DVD, “The Mane Event.” Workshop releases “Keep on ensues when he is assigned a new These releases are being support- Trying” and “Let’s Play Together” on “cold-tablet” partner. Trendmasters is handling Mr. Jones’ line of action figures and toys. Other video/cartoon properties that continue to expand include Digimon: The Movie (February 2001) with the Fox/Bandai release expecting to do well in theaters before releasing to video. Other properties to watch include Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. Mattel has the toy license for this Paramount/Nickelodeon CGI animated film due out in November releasing morphing toys just like Jimmy Neutron invents. The ever-popular Powerpuff Girls merchandise continues to showcase a plethora of must have items for every fan.

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200177 on American television and, quite possibly, movie screens. At the end of the event, one thing was very clear. The hottest toys include a multi-media franchise stretching from Saturday morning cartoons, through video games and on to the silver screen. Looking ahead to next year, a few animated properties announced include (all dates 2002): • The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line; December) • Eloise in Paris (Di Novi Pictures; television and film; Summer) Nick Jr.’s Bob the Builder series created by HIT Entertainment PLC and Keith Chapman • The Country Bears (Walt Disney plans to expand merchandising along with the popularity of the show. Pictures with the Jim Henson video in March. U.K.’s BBC, the Bob the Builder tel- Creature Workshop; animatronic Bob the Builder (May evision series has become an inter- puppets; date TBA) 2001), the popular Nick Jr. cartoon national success currently sold in • Scooby-Doo (Warner Bros.; CGI created by HIT Entertainment PLC over 100 countries worldwide. animation and live-action; date and Keith Chapman, will be releas- The Hasbro toy line will include a TBA) ing two new, as yet unnamed broad range of products including • The Wild Thornberrys titles this May through New Home plush, figures, play sets, board (Paramount/Nickelodeon/Klasky- Video. The hard working Bob games, puzzles and electronic Csupo; date TBA) promises to build out as a leading novelty products under their licensee for the pre-school set with brand names Playskool, Tiger, Jacquie Kubin, a Washington, Hasbro unveiling a new product Milton Bradely and Parker DC-based freelance journalist, line. Released in April 1999 on the Brothers. enjoys writing about the electron- Another HIT Entertainment ic entertainment and edutain- product is Angelina Ballerina (Fall ment mediums, including the 2001), a tiny mouse that wants to Internet. She is a frequent con- dance. Originally released by tributor to the Washington Times Mattel’s American Girl as a book and Krause Publication maga- with plush toy tie-in, Angelina zines. She has won the 1998 Ballerina will launch on television Certificate of Award granted by this fall. the Metropolitan Area Mass Being broadcast in the Media Committee of the U.K., Butt-Ugly Martians is a 30- American Association of University minute CGI episodic cartoon fea- Women. turing Doo-Wah-Diddy, B. Bop-A- Luna and 2-T-Fru-T who have Note: Readers may contact any been sent to Earth for purposes of Animation World Magazine invasion, only to befriend three contributor by sending an e-mail Earth friends, Mikey, Angela and to [email protected]. Cedric, and the invaders become Currently airing on the U.K.’s CiTV with the protectors. Hasbro has great success, The Butt-Ugly Martians’ toy scooped up this property’s master license expects to put these characters in front of a lot more viewers and in many toy license and we can expect to more homes. see more of the Butt-Ugly Martians

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200178 Animation World News Compiled and written by Rick DeMott Technology news compiled and written by Paul Younghusband Get your headline news first every day on-line at http://www.awn.com/headlines Plus, have industry news delivered to your e-mail every week in the Animation Flash,AWN’s weekly industry newsletter. Subscribe today at www.awn.com/flash/ Awards Internet and Interactive l Oscars Do Not Reject Father & Daughter & Periwig-Maker l This Week's Web Animation Guide For Friday, February 9, 2001 l BAFTA Nominates Chicken Run As Best British Film l Infogrames Nails Men In Black, Peanuts' Rights l Maya Wins Best Of Show At Macworld l Brilliant Digital To Release Multipath Player For Mac l Nick Announces Kid's Choice Noms l Interplay Nabs Matrix Gaming Rights 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Awards l Distant Corners Gains Creature Feature Rights l This Week's Web Animation Guide For Friday, February 2, 2001 Business l Spielberg & Howard Webtoons Debut On Monday, February 5 l New F/X Studio Mr. X Launches l Australian Government Sets Out To Ban Political Web Game 4 l Gaming Firm Spawns F/X Studio In North Carolina http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Internet%and%Interactive l Kaydara Gains $5M In Venture Capital l Realviz Raises $9.39 Million People l Animation Stock Ticker For Tuesday, February 6, 2001 l Warner Home Video Shuffles Staff l iFilm Secures $10 Million l Brilliant Digital Hires New CFO/COO l Sega Ends Dreamcast l Ed Catmull Named Pixar President l DreamWorks Backs Out Of GameWorks l Executive Producer Mandy Martin Enters ATTIK l Animation Stock Ticker For Tuesday, January 30, 2001 l Harvey's Mischel Takes Pres Post At Rumpus l Pukka Launches Pukka Post & Pukka Web 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=People l Animation Stock Ticker For Tuesday, January 23, 2000 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Business Technology l Caligari Unleashes trueSpace5 Commercials l Discreet Begins Shipping frost 2.5 l LocoMotion Animates Tropical Party With Vicon Motion--Capture l Digimation Ships Phoenix 1.5 l iXL Parodies The Matrix Effect For Comedy Central TV Funhouse Promo l DPS AniMate Released For dspReality & dpsVelocity l ATTIK Launches Wrigley's Big Red Into 2001 l Rainbow Studios Switches To 3DBOXX l R!OT Pulls Off Great Escape For Ford l DigiCel Releases FlipBook PT l Quiet Man Livens Up Regional Sport Spots For Fox l eReview Producer Premieres At NAPTE l ViewPoint Blooms 3D Venus Spot For Gillette l Discreet Ships 3ds max 4 l PRoGRESS Speeds Up New Cisco Campaign l ReelSmart Motion Blur Now Available For Shake, Avid & Discreet 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Commercials l SOFTIMAGE|XSI 1.5 Now Shipping 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Technology Events l Mainframe's Fraccia Speaks At The University of Washington Television l Mogra Festival Is The Online Festival Of After Effects Art l AtomFilms Brings Content To Pay-Per-View 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Events l U.S. Primetime TV Ratings For The Week Of January 15-21, 2001 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Television Films l Hannibal/Tiger Slash Records At US Box Office Video l Cast Away Sinks To Third l Mattel, Mainframe Bring Barbie To Nutcracker Feature l Adam Sandler's Meatball Animation Makes Feature 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Video l New Int BO Champ Castaways Competition 4http://www2.awn.com/mag/news.php3?item=Films

ANIMATIONWORLDMAGAZINE March200179 Next Issue’s Highlights Producing Animation, April 2001

n April Animation World Network will kick off Catherine Winder and Zahra Dowlatabadi’s new book Producing Animation with a special indepth look at how animation is produced. IFrom feature films to television from Europe to the U.S. we will detail how schedules and budgets are put together. Sylvia Edwards will compare traditional animation television show schedules and budgets to CGI TV series, a rapidly growing trend. Feature film producer Steve Walsh will take us inside putting together a European feature film, while Evan Backes will outline the recent production timelines of several large U.S. releases. Jacquie Kubin will detail the schedules and budgets of the gaming world, and James Dalby will take us into the nuts and bolts of Webisodes. Independent animation producers and directors will also discuss how they have financed their most recent works. We are also going to look at the history of television animation distribution with television animation veteran Buzz Potamkin. Plus, Sony Pictures Family Entertainment’s Sander Schwartz will then outline how he thinks the distribution world will shake out in the future. In other stories, we will have a profile of Marc Du Pontavice’s Xilam and their latest projects like the ultra-cool looking Rapido. In regular columns, Glenn Vilppu will continue his sketching on location tips, and anime reviews and the latest from the festivals will be included as well. A full line up of events will also be featured from France’s high tech Milia, to Iran’s 2nd International Animation Festival Of Tehran, and then onto the long-running Brussels Cartoon and Animation Festival. We will also have a special report on Cartoon Movie 2001 which will be happening in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany from March 15 - 17, 2001. NATPE and MIPTV will also be profiled. Upcoming Editorial Calendar

Producing Animation April 2001 Recruiting and Jobs May 2001 Independent Animation June 2001

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