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cartoons stuff
DREAMWORKS ANIMATION-PARAMOUNT DEAL STARTS eminovitz
Posted: 2/01/2006
DreamWorks Animation SKG announced Wednesday that it will begin operating under its new seven-year distribution deal with Paramount Pictures for the rights to distribute DreamWorks Animation films in theatrical, home entertainment and TV markets on a worldwide basis, beginning with the company's next release, Over The Hedge.
As previously announced, the new agreement was contingent on the closing of Paramount's acquisition of the company's previous distribution partner, DreamWorks Studios.
As disclosed in last month's announcement, Paramount Pictures will be responsible for the marketing and distribution of DreamWorks Animation films, and will earn the same 8% distribution fee that had previously been paid to DreamWorks Studios. The new agreement with Paramount expires by the end of 2012, which is two years longer than the original distribution deal with DreamWorks Studios. As a result of the new deal, DreamWorks Animation received $75 million in cash which it has used towards the repayment of debt.
Over the Hedge opens in theaters May 19.
ANIME BOSTON ANNOUNCES 2ND ROUND OF GUESTS eminovitz
Posted: 2/01/2006
Voice actors Vic Mignogna, Carrie Save and Kari Wahlgren, along with industry insiders Jonathan Klein, Tom Wayland and David Williams, will attend Anime Boston 2006, the New England Anime Society announced Friday.
Anime Boston 2006 will take place from May 26 to 28 at the Hynes Convention Center and the Sheraton Boston Hotel.
Vic Mignogna is a professional music composer/producer and veteran actor who received great acclaim for his portrayal of Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist. Most recently, Mignogna has been cast as Hikaru in Macross. He is known for such roles as Dark in D.N. Angel, Tatsu in Peacemaker, Kurz in Full Metal Panic, Broly in Dragon Ball Z, Kougaiji in Saiyuki, Mamoru in RahXephon, Hiroki in Princess Nine, Goemon in Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Shougo in Megazone 23 and as Gawl in Generator Gawl. He has also done characters in Sin: The Movie, Spriggan, Gasaraki, Noir, Steel Angel Kurumi, Orphen, Excel Saga, Neon Genesis Evangelion (director's cut), A.D. Police, Aura Battler Dunbine, Rune Soldier, Neo Ranga, Yu Yu Hakusho, Gamera, Those Who Hunt Elves, Dirty Pair, All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku DASH!, Nuku Nuku TV, Saint Seiya, Kino's Journey, Angelic Layer, Gravion, Kaliedo Star, Case Closed, Kiddy Grade and many others.
Carrie Savage has played such characters as Fuko in I, My, Me! Strawberry Eggs, Rakka in Haibane Renmei, Hakufsu in Ikki Tousen, Nancy Makuhari in R.O.D the TV, Maromi in Paranoia Agent, Shima in Stellvia, Sayoko in Melody of Oblivion, Koyomi in Girl's Bravo, Maia in Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, Arimi in Marmalade Boy, Nina in Ultra Maniac, Ran in Texhnolyze, and Peppo in Gankutsuou, The Count of Monte Cristo. She has also voiced a few characters in recent video games and more anime such as Samurai 7, Dear.S, Rumiko Takahashi Anthology, Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Sakura Wars the Movie, Dangaizer 3, Aquarian Age the Movie, Ghost Talker's Day Dream.
Savage also has a heavy background in theater. She also loves traveling around the world helping struggling children and adults in Third World countries, such as those in Africa and the Philippines, and feels very lucky to have been able to do so.
Kari Wahlgren was first introduced to anime audiences as guitar-bashing, Vespa-riding Haruko in FLCL. Since then, she has voiced characters in several anime shows, including Fuu in Samurai Champloo, Robin in Witch Hunter Robin, Cher in Wolf's Rain, Lavie in Last Exile and Scarlett in the movie Steamboy. She can currently be heard as Satomi and Luca the Cat on Cartoon Network's new anime series IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix, and will provide the voice of Ariel for the upcoming Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles movie. Wahlgren is also active in original animation, most notably providing the voice of Nova, the Yellow Monkey in Disney's Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! Wahlgren can be heard in numerous episodes of American Dragon: Jake Long, A.T.O.M. (Alpha Teens on Machines), and the new Cartoon Network series Ben 10.
Wahlgren's video game roles include Raine in Tales of Symphonia, Jedi Serra in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds. Wahlgren stepped out from behind the microphone to play Tink in the indie film Neverland with Wil Wheaton. This is her first appearance at Anime Boston.
Jonathan Klein is the vice-president, co-founder and co-owner of New Generation Pictures, Inc., a company that has been translating, subtitling and dubbing anime for such major companies as Geneon/Pioneer, Bandai, Urban Vision, Central Park Media, The Right Stuf and TOKYOPOP. During the last seven years, New Generation Pictures has worked on more than 250 different projects for both U.S. and international release. Klein's work has mainly been as the producer of both English-dubbed and subtitled versions for anime, including R.O.D the TV, Hellsing, DearS, Daphne in the Brillant Blue, The Melody of Oblivion, Texhnolyze, Ghost Talker Daydream, Ikki Tousen, Haibane Renmei, I My Me! Strawberry Eggs, NieA Under 7, Amazing Nurse Nanako and many other titles. Klein also directed Anime Insider Magazine "Best Dub of 2004", Paranoia Agent.
He has just completed a new video game project for Namco. Beyond working as producer and director, Klein's responsibilities include scriptwriting, script adaptation and even working behind the microphone as a voice actor. Klein has several upcoming anime titles currently in production, some which may be shown at Anime Boston. This is his first appearance at Anime Boston.
Tom Wayland is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in acting. Wayland got his start performing in various theatrical productions, ranging from Hamlet to Jesus Christ Superstar and Stomp. After a stint as a rock star roaming the East Coast's rock clubs, Wayland ran out of money and had to get a job -- so he started work at Central Park Media. In more than four years at CPM, Wayland has produced more than 200 different anime programs before moving on to voice directing on such titles as Alien Nine, The World of Narue, Shootfighter Tekken and Ichi the Killer.
In 2004, Wayland founded TripWire Productions, and has gone on to direct numerous dubs for home video and TV broadcast, including Mew Mew Power and Magical Do Re Mi, seen nationally Saturday mornings on Fox. Wayland has also become much more active as an actor, landing recurring roles in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Jammerhead, Mew Mew Power as Minimew, GI Joe Sigma Six as Stormshadow, Magical Do Re Mi as Oliver, Marvin and Reanne's Dad, One Piece as about 8,000 different villains and pirates, and several straight-to-video releases, including Knight Hunters, Gokusen and Shura no Toki.
David Williams is currently an ADR director for ADV Films, as well as its DVD producer and voice on the Internet. He has directed Angelic Layer, Pretear, Najica, the original Nuku Nuku OVAs, Dirty Pair, and many others. He's produced more DVDs than he can remember, and had more skin grafts due to online flame wars than he wants to remember. He's often invited to anime conventions where he can be seen wandering the con with his "What would you do for a DVD?" badge, giving out DVDs to clever and amusing otaku.
His roots in the industry go deep, having been an anime fan since before there was an anime industry in the U.S. and with ADV from the beginning when his living room was used as a production facility for its first show, Devil Hunter Yohko.
Anime Boston is New England's premier convention for fans of Japanese animation and art. First opening its doors in 2003, Anime Boston has offered a gathering place for fans of anime, manga, video games and related works. Anime Boston 2005 featured more than 130 hours of video programming, more than one dozen contests, and was one of the largest anime conventions in the United States, with more than 7,500 attendees. More information about Anime Boston is available at www.animeboston.com.
Founded in 2001, the New England Anime Society Inc. is a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization dedicated to furthering public education and understanding of the Japanese language and culture through visual and written media. More information about The New England Anime Society is available at www.neanime.org.
CORETTA SCOTT KING, MLK'S WIDOW, DEAD AT 78 eminovitz
Posted: 1/31/2006
Coretta Scott King, who spent the rest of her life continuing her late husband Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s quest for equality and human rights, has died at 78.
She died at Santa Monica Health Institute, a holistic health center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, south of San Diego, said sister Edythe Scott Bagley of Cheyney, Pennsylvania. Family members said that she died over Monday night.
Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young broke the news Tuesday on NBC's Today show. She had gone to California to rest and be with family, Young said.
Oprah Winfrey provided the voice of Coretta Scott King in Our Friend Martin (1999), an hour-long animated special from DiC Entertainment animated special. Coretta Scott King also appeared in live-action archival footage.
Flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning.
The widow of assassinated civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. suffered a serious stroke and heart attack last August.
"We appreciate the prayers and condolences from people across the country," the King family said in a statement.
"It's a bleak morning for me and for many people and yet it's a great morning because we have a chance to look at her and see what she did and who she was," poet Maya Angelou said on ABC's Good Morning America. "It's bleak because I can't — many of us can't hear her sweet voice -- but it's great because she did live, and she was ours. I mean African-Americans and white Americans and Asians, Spanish-speaking -- she belonged to us, and that's a great thing."
She was as strong as her husband, Young told a news conference. "She was strong if not stronger than he was. She lived a graceful and beautiful life, and in spite of all of the difficulties, she managed a graceful and beautiful passing."
Coretta Scott King was born on April 27, 1927 in Marion, Alabama. She worked as a waitress to earn her way through Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
While studying voice at the New England Conservatory of Music, she planned to follow a singing career when a friend introduced her to young Baptist minister Martin Luther King, a Boston University student.
"She said she wanted me to meet a very promising young minister from Atlanta," Coretta Scott King once said, adding with a laugh: "I wasn't interested in meeting a young minister at that time."
On their first date, she recalled, he told her: "You know, you have everything I ever wanted in a woman. We ought to get married someday." That happened 18 months later on June 18, 1953. She and Martin Luther King Jr. married at her parents' home in Marion, Alabama.
She was a support to her husband during the most difficult times of the American civil rights movement. After his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968, she raising their four children and kept his dream alive.
She wrote a book, My Life With Martin Luther King Jr. In 1969, she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Georgia governor Sonny Perdue ordered flags at all state buildings to be flown at half-staff and offered to allow King to lie in state at the Capitol.
Coretta Scott King is survived by her four children: Yolanda Denise (born in 1955), Martin Luther King III (1957), Dexter Scott (1961) and Bernice Albertine (1963).
OSCAR NOMINEES FOR BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Dave Koch
Posted: 1/31/2006
And the Nominees are:
Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
OSCAR NOMINEES FOR BEST SHORT ANIMATED FILM Dave Koch
Posted: 1/31/2006
And the Nominees are:
Badgered
The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation
The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
9
One Man Band
"MIDSUMMER DREAM" WINS SPAIN'S GOYA AWARD eminovitz
Posted: 1/30/2006
"El Sueño de Una Noche de San Juan," known in English as "Midsummer Dream," has won the Goya Award for best animated film.
The 20th edition of the Goya Awards, Spain's version of the Oscars, took place late Sunday night in Madrid.
Directed by Ángel de la Cruz and Manolo Gómez, El Sueño de Una Noche de San Juan was released by Dygra Films and Appia Filmes. The voice cast in the English-language version included Romola Garai, Bernard Hill, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Richardson, Fiona Shaw and Toby Stephens.
The only other nominee in the category was Baltasar Pedrosa's Gisaku, released by Filmax Animation and SEEI.
The Goya for best animated short went to Tadeo Jones, by Enrique Gato Borregán (La Fiesta P.C.). Other nominees were La Gallina Ciega, by Isabel Herguera; La Leyenda del Espantapájaros, de Marco Besas (Elemental Films, SL); and Universidad de las Islas Baleares student films La Luz de la Esperanza, by Ricardo Puertas, and Semilla del Recuerdo, by Renato Roldán.
Winning five awards, including best film, was Spanish director Isabel Coixet's The Secret Life of Words (La Vida Secreta de las Palabras). The English-language film, starring Tim Robbins, Sarah Polley and Julie Christie, also won trophies for best original screenplay, best director, best production and best supporting actor.
IRISH BROTHERS WIN AGAIN FOR MOVIE END CREDITS eminovitz
Posted: 1/30/2006
Once again, London-based animation company VooDooDog, run by David Z. Obadiah and Irish brothers Paul and Noel Donnellon, has won an award for Best Main Titles at the New York Festivals.
This year, VooDooDog won the Silver Award for its end credits for feature film Nanny McPhee.
As well as writing the script, Emma Thompson stars as a governess who uses magic to guard over seven misbehaving youngsters in her care.
"VooDooDog has created a credit sequence for Nanny McPhee filled with color and wit and fun. The drawings are quirky, cheeky and original in exactly the ways we wanted the film to be," Thompson said.
The end sequence shows the seven kids in the Victorian-era film as they make loads of trouble.
VooDooDog won the Gold Medal last year for its opening animated title sequence for HBO's The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. The sequence was also nominated for an Emmy.
Meanwhile, numerous awards for animation have been given out at The New York Festivals' TV, Cinema & Radio Advertising Showcase:
Best Animation: Cel
2006 Silver WorldMedal
History Of The World
Advertiser: DTC: Diamond Trading Corporation
Company: J. Walter Thompson
2006 Bronze WorldMedal
Manifest
Advertiser: Kaiser
Company: Vetor Zero
2006 Finalist Certificates
Egg ESP; Advertiser: VW New Beetle; Company: DDB Berlin
Help; Advertiser: Fairy Bliss; Company: th1ng
Shrimp; Advertiser: Dairy Queen; Company: Grey Worldwide
White Room; Advertiser: VW Fox; Company: DDB Berlin
Years; Advertiser: Crush; Company: Idb/Fcb Chile
Best Animation: Computer/3D
2006 Gold WorldMedals
Attacks; Advertiser: ASICS; Company: Aimaq · Rapp · Stolle Werbeagentur GmbH
Tooheys Extra Dry: War Of The Appliances; Advertiser: Lion Nathan Australia; Company: Filmgraphics Productions
2006 Silver WorldMedals
Rock / Sabertooth / T-Rex; Advertiser: BC Dairy Foundation / Milk; Company: DDB Canada, Vancouver
What Moves You_xB; Advertiser: Scion; Company: Attik
2006 Bronze WorldMedals
Birth; Advertiser: Hyundai; Company: fin design + effects
Harmony; Advertiser: Optus; Company: Filmgraphics Productions
2006 Finalist Certificates
ATI: Dangerous Curves; Advertiser: ATI Technologies; Company: rhinofx
Burning Butterfly; Advertiser: Sunrise Department; Company: Digit Digit Limited
Butterfly / The Music; Advertiser: Coca-Cola Ltd. / Fruitopia; Company: 4stroke
Cell; Advertiser: Interpharma; Company: Jung Von Matt AG
MATTEL NOT SO SWELL AS QUARTERLY EARNINGS DROP eminovitz
Posted: 1/30/2006
Despite promising sales for its licensed products on DVD, sales of Mattel Inc.'s Barbie and Hot Wheels brands have fallen, the company said Monday.
Fourth-quarter earnings dropped 2% to $279.2 million (69 cents per share) from $284.3 million (68 cents per share) in the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, worldwide gross sales for Barbie and Hot Wheels dropped 11% each. Animated series and videos of both lines have been released by Mainframe Entertainment.
However, Mattel shares rose almost 7% in trading Monday, with profits exceeding Wall Street forecasts considerably. Shares rose $1.02 on the New York Stock Exchange to close at $15.80. They went up 18 cents to $15.98 in after-hours trading.
Mattel reported net income of $417 million ($1.01 per share), compared with net income of $572.7 million ($1.35 per share) the previous year.
Net sales were $1.84 billion, almost as much as the $1.85 billion in the same period last year. Gross sales for the fourth quarter dropped 3% in the United States, but they rose 3% in international markets.
Mattel chairman and CEO Robert A. Eckert said Monday that the Barbie brand is doing well, with strong sales of several DVDs providing the evidence. However, sales of the actual doll haven't done as well, partly because of a misguided attempt to sell Barbie to girls based on age groups, he added said.
"The brand is in better shape than the doll business," Eckert told analysts. "We're entering the next chapter of the Barbie turnaround. It's going to take time, but we're not going to waver until we see improved performance."
Eckert said that Mattel will develop new marketing and advertising strategies for Barbie this year.
Last year, sales of Barbie kept dropping amid competition from such brands as Bratz. Mattel replaced the executive in charge of overseeing Barbie and other major brands.
Executives said that Mattel should experience improved sales this year from several other lines of toys, especially those associated with major movie releases.
Mattel will release Hot Wheels cars in connection with June's release by Pixar Animation Studios of Cars. It will also make toys tied to DreamWorks' Ice Age 2.
GOLDEN GLOBES HONOR ANIMATED FEATURES IN '07 eminovitz
Posted: 1/30/2006
Next year's Golden Globes will offer a new category when the awards are announced in January 2007.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association voted last month to establish the category of Best Animated Feature Film, starting with the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards in 2007, president Philip Berk announced Tuesday.
This marks the first time that the Golden Globes will have a separate category for animated features.
Eligible films must be "feature-length (70 minutes or longer) with no more than 25% live action. If less than eight animated films qualify, the award will not be given, in which case the films would be eligible for Best Picture. Otherwise they would not be eligible for the Best Picture category. The category will be limited to three nominations per year," said Berk in making the announcement.
"The members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association have recognized several animated feature films in the Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) category in recent years, including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Chicken Run and Shrek," said Berk. "Animated features have become an important component of the studio lineup, so there was an overwhelming consensus that this new category be created."
The Incredibles was nominated for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) in 2004, while Finding Nemo was nominated in 2003. Neither won the award.
DISNEY SENIOR EXEC JOHN CAREY JOINS CRITTERPIX eminovitz
Posted: 1/30/2006
Northern California computer-generated animation company CritterPix Studios announced Monday that it has named John Carey senior vice-president of production.
As a 30-year show business veteran, Carey has established and maintained CG pipelines for several animated feature productions and companies. He was most recently vice-president of production and technology at Walt Disney Pictures, where he led a team of over 150 professionals which managed both technology and film production. Carey also served as chief technical officer for Toronto-based C.O.R.E Entertainment.
Carey's appointment comes on the heels of San Rafael-based CritterPix naming former Interwoven chief financial officer Dave Allen as its chief financial officer. These moves round out an executive staff that also includes veteran animation producer Gary Goldman and CG animation director Ralph Zondag (Dinosaur), all reporting directly to founder and CEO Kelly Williamson.
"John has a unique, creative, art and technology background. He will play a critical role in finalizing the implementation of our hardware and software platforms and overall workflow environment," said Williamson. "He has the type of industrial-strength experience which is needed for us to produce one high quality animated movie per year, starting with our sea otter comedy/adventure Ollie, summer 2008."
"I'm delighted to join CritterPix," offered Carey. "It isn't often you can find a young movie studio that has as many great projects lined up, and has attracted both the creative and managerial talent that CritterPix has been able to put together. We will be building world-class feature animation workflow systems that will enable CritterPix to develop top quality 3D animation movies more cost effectively than has ever been done before."
Hollywood and Wall Street analyst Hal Vogel congratulated the company on these recent appointments: "These executives bring a wealth of experience to CritterPix and will help put the company on the fast track of production for its first animated feature."
PIXAR REPORTEDLY TAKING OVER "TOY STORY 3" eminovitz
Posted: 1/29/2006
Instead of producing "Toy Story 3" itself, the Walt Disney Company will end production and hand the kit and caboodle over to Pixar Animation Studios Inc., "sources familiar with the situation" told Reuters on Thursday.
The handover is a condition of Disney's deal to buy out Pixar, the news agency reported.
Disney had begun production on Toy Story 3 at its new animation unit -- known as Circle 7 -- in Glendale, California. Circle 7 was created while Disney and Pixar were still negotiating terms of a new Pixar distribution agreement.
The future of Circle 7 has not been decided, although it will not be closed immediately, said one source.
Then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner ordered the production of Toy Story 3 after the two companies broke off talks nearly two years ago over a new distribution agreement. Disney's present agreement lets it make sequels to animated films co-produced by it and Pixar.
Roger Iger, Disney's CEO since October, gave sequel-making rights to Pixar as part of the merger accord. "It was really important to me that the people who made the films originally... get a shot at making any films that were derivative," Iger told analysts durnig a conference call last week.
The third Toy Story would have seen astronaut Buzz Lightyear getting recalled to Taiwan after several malfunctions.
ARTHUR BLOOM, 63, ANIMATED POLITICAL COVERAGE eminovitz
Posted: 1/29/2006
"60 Minutes" founder Arthur Bloom, who pioneered animated graphics in political coverage on American TV, died Saturday at his New York home following a battle with cancer. He was 63.
Bloom first directed the early newsmagazine 60 Minutes and stayed with it for 38 years. He donated his own stopwatch, which ticked at intervals throughout the show.
Every four years from 1974 to 1990, Bloom was hired by CBS to direct live political coverage. Demanding better graphics, he introduced early computer-enhanced animation for CBS News.
These included "bumpers," the visuals shown between coverage and commercials, which featured red, white and blue exploding firecrackers and galloping donkeys and elephants used as symbols for the Democratic and Republican Parties. He became so well-known for the devices that employees of CBS News had bumper stickers made reading "Bloom's Bumpers."
Born in Manhattan on April 19, 1942, Bloom soon moved with his family to Miami Beach, Florida. That's where he spent his childhood, except for three years in California.
Bloom went to private schools. Soon after he graduated, he moved to New York and was hired by CBS -- joining its mailroom at age 18, according to the network.
While working at CBS, he attended New York University and eventually earned a bachelor's degree.
Bloom helped train 60 Minutes correspondent Dan Rather to succeed Walter Cronkite as the anchor of CBS News in 1981.
Bloom's talent and humor "were the very spirit of CBS News," Cronkite said.
"Artie Bloom was the most accomplished director of television news programs in history," recalled Rather. "The record shows he was the best. More importantly, he was a superb husband, father and friend whose trademarks were loyalty and a sense of humor."
Arthur Bloom is survived by his wife of 40 years, Marla; children Scott of Westport, Connecticut and Jill Bloom Butterman of Grandview-on-Hudson, New York; brother Richard of Sarasota, Florida; and four grandchildren.
"WRAITH OF COBBLE HILL" TIES FOR SUNDANCE PRIZE eminovitz
Posted: 1/29/2006
Adam Parrish King's stop-action "The Wraith of Cobble Hill" tied with Carter Smith's gay-themed "Bugcrush" for the jury prize for shorts at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Winners of the festival's Grand Jury Prizes, World Cinema Jury Prizes and Audience Awards were announced Saturday night at the closing award ceremony in Park City, Utah.
The Wraith of Cobble Hill was shot on 16mm black and white film. The characters were constructed from plasticine, latex, steel armatures and clay molds.
Every element that makes up the sets was hand-constructed in miniature -- the bricks on the buildings, the embroidered doilies in the bedrooms, and the comic books, whiskey bottles, dog food, TV dinners, ice cream, and canned asparagus in the corner store. The project took almost five years to complete and was shot in the small studio space of a one-bedroom apartment in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles.
For the first time in the Festival's history, both the Grand Jury Prizes and Audience Awards for Documentary and Dramatic Competitions were presented to the same two films.
The Grand Jury Prize: Documentary and the Audience Award: Documentary were given to God Grew Tired of Us, directed by Christopher Quinn. In the late 1980s, 27,000 Sudanese lost boys marched barefoot over thousands of miles of barren desert, seeking safe haven from the brutal civil war in their homeland. The film chronicles the experiences of three of these boys who seek refuge in the U.S. as they work to adjust to a strange new world.
The Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and the Audience Award: Dramatic were presented to Quinceañera, written and directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer. Disaffected Latino teenagers come of age in a gentrifying community in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles. Westmoreland and Glatzer have molded their mostly unknown ensemble into a tender portrait of a changing world and in doing so, have illuminated modern realities of family and hope.
The Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for American independent film, and an important new platform for international independent film, screening films that embody risk-taking, diversity and esthetic innovation.
"On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Sundance Institute and the close of the 22nd Sundance Film Festival, we celebrate the winning artists and their films, and have been fortunate to share their stories, diverse voices, and original aesthetics with our Sundance audiences," said festival director Geoffrey Gilmore.
"This year we've seen a number of films that deal sensitively with the timely and complex issues of cultural assimilation and community. Clearly, these compelling stories along with the quality of filmmaking have resonated with audiences and jury members alike."
CARTOON, KRAFT VOICE LEN CARLSON DEAD AT 68 eminovitz
Posted: 1/28/2006
Canadian voice actor Len Carlson, the narrator of the 1967-69 cartoon series Rocket Robin Hood and the TV commercial pitchman for Kraft Jet-Puffed Marshmallows and Miracle Whip, died Thursday of a heart attack at 68.
The soothing salesman for Kraft foods in the 1970s and 1980s, Carlson was one of the most prolific voice actors in Canada. In fact, he substituted for the title character of Rocket Robin Hood in 1968-69.
In Spider-Man, though uncredited, he voiced such characters as nemesis The Green Goblin, as well as Parafino, Bolton, Jan Caldwell, Captain Ned Stacy and Vegio.
He voiced such other Marvel characters as Captain America. Carlson was the voice of Bert Raccoon (as well as Pig Two, Pig Three and Mr. Knox) in the Atkinson Film-Arts series The Raccoons, broadcast on CBC.
"He was very physically active, so his death was a shock," agent Richard Menich told the Toronto Sun.
Carlson first worked as a pro athlete, according to Menich. He was a running back for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and a pitcher for the minor-league Seattle Pilots. After his sports career was sidelined by injuries, he became an actor.
Carlson was a Minimus PU in Breakthrough Films' Atomic Betty and portrayed Buzz in Nelvana Limited's Cyberchase. The two series are still in production, and are broadcast by Canadian youth channel YTV.
Other series in which he had voice roles included Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (Herc Stormsailer and Terror Tank), Popples (Putter), Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater (Papa Kitty), Dinosaucers (Quackpot and Allo), ALF: The Animated Series (Sargent Staff and Cantfayl), Police Academy (Captain Harris), C.O.P.S. (Brandon "Big Boss" Babel and Sgt. Colt "Mace" Howard), The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! (Ganon and Moblins), Captain N & the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 (Ganondorf "Ganon" Dragmire), Swamp Thing (Swamp Thing), Space Strikers (Dacar), The NeverEnding Story (Vermin), Monster by Mistake (Gorgool), Donkey Kong Country (Gen. Klump), Birdz (Mr. Pip), Pippi Longstocking (Thunderkarlson), Flying Rhino Junior High (Principal Mulligan), Rolie Polie Olie (Pappy), Pecola (Officer Kumada), Medabots (Doctor Meta-Evil, Hobson and Samurai) and Beyblade (Gideon).
He was also in the voice casts of Beetlejuice and Captain N: The Game Master (both 1989), Hammerman (1991) and Mischief City (2005), and guested as Senator Robert Kelly in several X-Men episodes.
In the 1990 Lacewood Productions animated feature film The Nutcracker Prince, he had several roles, including that of the King. He had a voice role in the 1996 National Film Board of Canada short Shyness, which won a Gold Apple from the National Educational Media Network.
Len Carlson is survived by wife Judy and daughter Corrine. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at Marshall Funeral Home in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
Bert Raccoon in The Raccoons... one of Len Carlson's many voice roles.
SOUTH PARK, DORA, SPONGEBOB NOW ON ITUNES eminovitz
Posted: 1/26/2006
Hit television programming from Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2 and The N is now available for purchase and download on the iTunes Music Store (www.itunes.com), MTV Networks and Apple announced Thursday.
The new content features such top-rated animated favorites as South Park, Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants. Nickelodeon's Dora is the first preschool program available on iTunes.
With the addition of 14 shows from MTV Networks, iTunes now offers over 40 TV shows for $1.99 per episode for viewing on a computer or iPod.
"The iTunes Music Store provides an innovative way for us to get our wide range of programming to our viewers," said Jason Hirschhorn, chief digital officer of MTV Networks. "MTV Networks' brands feature some of the most popular programs in television today, and iTunes allows us to connect our content to even more audiences. We're committed to having our programming on multiple platforms as our audience's media consumption behavior evolves."
"Video has proven to be a smash hit on iTunes, with over eight million videos sold," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice-president of iTunes. "We're thrilled to add 14 new shows from MTV Networks which include such a wide range of programming from MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central."
The new programming spans MTV Networks' varied brands and includes full seasons of hits from:
* MTV: Beavis and Butt-head -- the animated series following the adventures of Beavis, a blond guy in a Metallica shirt, and Butt-Head, a dark-haired guy in an AC/DC shirt.
* From MTV2: Wonder Showzen -- an absurd comedy/variety show spiked with a team of puppets, kids, cartoons, old educational films and political social satire.
* Nickelodeon: Dora the Explorer -- the number one program on commercial TV with kids two to five years of age; SpongeBob SquarePants -- TV's overall top-rated kids' show.
* Comedy Central: South Park -- the Emmy Award-winning series, soon to begin its 10th season, remains the network's highest-rated series; Drawn Together -- presenting a world where cartoon characters from various genres of animation are brought together to live under one roof.
The iTunes Music Store features a selection of over 3,000 music videos, Pixar and Disney short films, a variety of hit TV shows, and more than two million songs from the major music companies and over 1,000 independent labels.
LADY & TRAMP GETS SPECIAL HOLLYWOOD SHOWING eminovitz
Posted: 1/25/2006
In celebration of Valentine's Day, puppy love, and the soon-to-be-released 50th Anniversary edition DVD of Walt Disney's animated classic Lady and the Tramp, Hollywood's legendary El Capitan Theatre will present a special two-week engagement of the film from February 2 to 14.
The screening will debut a magnificent new digitally restored Cinemascope version of the film, Lylle Breier senior vice-president of worldwide special events for Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, announced Wednesday.
This exclusive engagement, which spotlights a meticulous frame-by-frame digital restoration of the film with superior picture and sound, will kick off at 7 p.m. Thursday, February 2 with a distinguished panel of experts, including comic legend Stan Freberg (who provided the voice of the Beaver in the film), and animators Andreas Deja and Eric Goldberg. A moderator for the evening will be announced shortly.
A special 50th Anniversary 2-disc DVD limited edition of Lady and the Tramp, featuring deleted scenes, new documentaries and commentaries, will be released February 28.
Preceding every show at the El Capitan will be a special live appearance by Mickey and Minnie. Tickets are available at the box office, by phone (1-800-DISNEY6), or online at www.elcapitantickets.com.
Popular KOST-FM radio personalities Mark & Kim will broadcast live from the Soda Fountain The Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store, located next to the El Capitan Theatre, on the morning of February 3, and will be giving away a giant plush version of the Lady character to a lucky listener. A second giant Lady plush toy is being offered to El Capitan and Disney Soda Fountain visitors, with a winner to be selected at the end of the month.
"After viewing the digitally restored version of Lady and the Tramp a few months ago, we decided that it would be great fun to offer our El Capitan guests a special opportunity to see this delightful film on the big screen again," Breier said. "And what better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with one of the most romantic films of all time.
"The Disney restoration team and John Lowry's group at DTS Digital Images have done an incredible job with Lady and the Tramp, and we know moviegoers are going to fall in love all over again with this unique and entertaining classic. The film looks and sounds better than it ever has before, and we encourage everyone to join us for this fun-filled engagement."
Available with an all-new digital restoration with enhanced picture and sound, the DVD release of Lady and the Tramp includes never-before-seen deleted scenes, a newly discovered alternate, original storyboard version of the film; "Finding Lady: The Art of Storyboards;" "Lady's Pedigree: The Making of Lady and The Tramp," with rare footage of Walt Disney; a virtual board game; a virtual DVD-ROM adopt your own puppy feature; and much more.
Originally released in June 1955, Lady and the Tramp was the first Disney animated feature to be filmed in CinemaScope.
PRODUCERS GUILD PREFERS "WALLACE & GROMIT" eminovitz
Posted: 1/25/2006
"Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" was named the year's best animated motion picture Sunday by the Producers Guild of America.
The 17th Annual Producers Guild Awards were given out at the Universal Hilton Hotel.
W&G defeated fellow nominees Chicken Little, Madagascar, Robots and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.
Named best picture of the year was director Ang Lee's gay-cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain. The movie had also won best drama and best director for Lee.
Among the other winners:
Television: Long-Form: The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (HBO)
Television Series: Comedy: Entourage (HBO)
Television Series: Drama: Lost (ABC)
Television Series or Special: Non-Fiction: 60 Minutes (CBS)
Television Series or Special: Variety: The Ellen DeGeneres Show (Syndicated)
Oscar nominations will be announced Tuesday, January 31. Winners will be announced March 5 during the 78th annual Academy Awards.
NFB SWEEPS CARTOON NOMS FOR CANADA'S GENIES eminovitz
Posted: 1/25/2006
"cNOTE," "Dehorse November" and "Ruzz et Ben" -- also known as "Ruzz and Ben" -- have been nominated for Best Animated Short for the 26th Genie Awards, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced Wednesday.
Canada's equivalent of the Oscars, the annual Genies celebrate excellence in Canadian cinema. All three nominees for Best Animated Short were released by the National Film Board of Canada.
Produced by Michael Fukushima and directed by Chris Hinton, cNOTE is an exuberant synthesis of animation and music. Hinton stretches his formidable animation skills in this masterful opus, where the dynamic movement of his visual art dances in syncopation with the bold musical strokes of an original modern classical composition. This music was created expressly for cNOTE as a creative counterweight for Hinton.
In this pas de deux, Hinton and Montreal-based composer Michael Oesterte leap back and forth between picture and sound, building, tearing down and rebuilding until the film exists only as an integrated and unified "one."
Michèle Bélanger produced and Patrick Bouchard directed Dehors November. Yes, Patrick Esposito played harmonica with Les Colocs. Yes, he died from AIDS-related complications. Yes, Dédé Fortin of Les Colocs wrote Dehors Novembre in tribute to Esposito. Yes, Dédé took his own life.
And yes, these events served as creative inspiration for director Patrick Bouchard, a guy from Lac-Saint-Jean, just like Dédé. Yes, the terrible and terribly moving animated film that he created around the song with his puppets (photographed some 17,000 times) is a sordid story of sex and drugs. Yes, there's a syringe as big as a missile, and a harmonica. Yes, there's a hooker, a john, a pimp. And yes, the film evokes the destructive horror of AIDS if left unchecked.
But the song is not the film, and the film is not the song. In the same way that he (literally) got inside his character's head in his film The Brainwashers, Bouchard explores death from the outside in, expressing the unspeakable through dark, striking images. Death seems implacable, obscene and amoral; no respecter of feelings. It is poised to strike at the least opportunity. A magnificant and essential film but with a grim verdict: from vermin to human, life exists by killing life, and death wins every time.
In Ruzz et Ben/Ruzz and Ben (produced by Marcel Jean and Jean-Pierre Lemouland and directed by Philippe Jullien), two inner-city kids attempt to fly a kite amid the skyscrapers and apartment blocks.
One fateful day, their toy breaks free. In searching for it, the youngsters stumble upon a fabulous realm whose existence no one would ever have suspected: a glorious jumble of odds and ends hidden away among the dreary grey buildings. There, the four basic elements -- earth, wind, fire and water -- coexist in a perfect, albeit fragile, balance. As they explore this strange new world, Ruzz and Ben come face to face with the denizen of the place, an astonishing creature, half animal, half vegetable.
The terrified children quickly realize that it has a good heart, immense wisdom, and more than one trick up its sleeve. In fact, this mysterious character has mastered the wind that can make their kite soar. Over the course of this initiatory journey, the little street urchins gain an understanding of nature, and learn to master their fears. A dazzling work of puppet animation, full of delightful twists and brimming with humanity.
In live action, Jean-Marc Vallée's C.R.A.Z.Y leads this year's group of top nominated films with 12 nominations, including Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction. Deepa Mehta's Water comes in second with nine nominations, including nods for Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction, and Michael Dowse's It's All Gone Pete Tong follows with eight nominations.
Luc Picard's L'Audition and André Turpin's Familia come in next with seven nominations each, and a five-way tie rounds out fifth place with Best Motion Picture nominee Michael McGowan's Saint Ralph, Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies, Luc Dionne's Aurore, Gary Yates's Seven Times Lucky and Eric Canuel's Le Survenant.
Produced for a third year by CHUM Television, Live! At the Genies will air live Monday, March 13 on Star!, Bravo!, Citytv Toronto and MusiMax at 9 p.m. ET; Citytv Winnipeg, Citytv Edmonton and Citytv Calgary at 10 p.m. CT/MT; and Citytv Vancouver at 9 p.m. PT.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television is a national non-profit professional association dedicated to promoting, recognizing and celebrating exceptional achievements in the Canadian film and television industries. Created in 1979 and today unifying more than 4,000 industry professionals across Canada, the Academy is a vital and integral force representing all areas of the film and television industry.
For more information on the Genie Awards, visit www.genieawards.ca.
UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION HOODWINKS HOODWINKED eminovitz
Posted: 1/24/2006
Little Red Riding Hood was defeated by more evil characters over the weekend as animated story Hoodwinked lost its top spot in the box office to sequel Underworld: Evolution.
Produced by the independent Weinstein Co., Hoodwinked took in $10,409,378 at 3,002 North American locations. The average of $3,467 per screen put it in #2 spot. The film made $28,635,878 over two weeks, according to figures compiled Monday by Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.
In its first weekend, Sony/Screen Gems' Underworld: Evolution garnered $26,857,181 in 3,207 locations for an $8,375 average per theater.
DISNEY BUYS PIXAR Dave Koch
Posted: 1/24/2006
The Walt Disney Company announced today it is buying longtime supplier Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion. Recently losing it's long domination of animation films, and having little to no presence itself in the emerging CG animation industry, Disney is attempting to restore it's lost heritage and image through the acquisition.
Disney will buy the maker of the blockbuster films "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo" in this all-stock transaction. Pixar CEO Steve Jobs will become Disney's largest shareholder. Jobs, who owns more than half of Pixar's shares and also heads Apple Computer Inc., will join Disney's board.
Pixar Executive Vice President John Lasseter will become chief creative officer of the animation studios and principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company's theme parks.
Pixar President Ed Catmull will serve as president of the new combined Pixar and Disney animation studios, reporting to Iger and d**k Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.
"With this transaction, we welcome and embrace Pixar's unique culture, which for two decades, has fostered some of the most innovative and successful films in history," Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said in a statement.
Disney has co-financed and distributed Pixar's animated films for the past 12 years, splitting the profits. But that deal expires in June after Pixar delivers "Cars" and it had once appeared the companies would not renew it amid friction between Jobs and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
But the talks revived under Iger. Disney, the theme park owner that also owns the ABC and ESPN TV networks, and Pixar have been talking for months about a new relationship.
"Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders," Jobs said in a statement. "Now, everyone can focus on what is most important, creating innovative stories, characters and films that delight millions of people around the world."
Under the deal, Disney said it will issue 2.3 shares for each share of Pixar stock. At Tuesday's closing price of $25.99 for Disney, Pixar shareholders would get stock worth $59.78, a 4 percent premium over Pixar's closing price of $57.57. The deal was announced after the markets closed for the day, earlier today.
With Pixar, Disney gains a company that has produced a long-running string of animated blockbusters. Iger wants to strengthen Disney's animated features, the hallmark of the company since its founding and a steady source of characters for Disney's theme parks and other units.
Pixar has served as Disney's de facto animation unit for a decade. Two Pixar movies, "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles," have won Academy Awards for best animated feature film.
Pixar films have been a financial windfall for Disney, which receives 60 percent of the profits.
By contrast, Disney's own animation unit has struggled, producing some modest successes, such as 2002's "Lilo & Stitch," and many flops, including "Treasure Planet" and "Home On The Range."
HONG KONG BUSTS PIRATE CARTOON DVD WEB SITE eminovitz
Posted: 1/22/2006
Hong Kong authorities have shut down a Web site which sold about 12,000 pirated animation DVDs to Japanese customers by mail over six months, local Chinese-language daily Wen Wei Po reported Sunday.
Registered by a Hong Kong resident identified only as Cheung, the site mimicked a legitimate Japanese Web page by providing stock and purchase information in Japanese, the paper quoted customs officials as saying.
Officials estimated that the site made $1 million H.K. ($129,198 U.S.) for Cheung, 22. Arrested along with him were two other males -- another 22-year-old and a 67-year-old.
Japanese instructions on the site asked interested customers to choose online, transferring the price and postage fee to a Japanese bank account -- one of three bought by Cheung on the black market.
Cheung allegedly evaded investigation by heading to Japan each month to withdraw money put in his accounts.
The illegal site went unnoticed by authorities until two months ago, when legitimate copyright holders complained to Hong Kong customs.
Investigators posing as Japanese customers ordered DVDs from Cheung's Web site. They arrested him Thursday, when he attempted to mail three packages of DVDs at an eastern Hong Kong post office.
A later search of Cheung's turned up 160,000 pirated DVDs, described as all high-quality and well-packed.
Cheung received only middle-school education and was described as an "intellectual criminal" by one customs official.
Cheung dresses Japanese-style, is thought to be a big J-pop culture fan and may understand Japanese, the official added.
WALLACE AND GROMIT NOMINATED FOR TOP UK FILM eminovitz
Posted: 1/22/2006
"Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" has been nominated by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for one of the organization's top movie awards.
It's vying with A c**k & Bull Story, The Constant Gardener, Festival and Pride & Prejudice for the Alexander Korda Award for the Outstanding British Film of the Year.
This year's Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) will be presented Sunday, February 19 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.
Five nominees were announced in the Short Animation Film category.
Given the nod were Fallen Art, by Jarek Sawko, Piotr Sikora and Tomek Baginski; Osbert Parker's Film Noir; Kamiya's Correspondence, by Sumito Sakakibara; The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello, by Anthony Lucas, Julia Lucas and Mark Shirrefs; and Rabbit, by Run Wrake.
Past winners of the Short Animation Award include Nick Park (of Wallace & Gromit fame), Sylvain Chomet and Michael Dudok de Wit.
Nominated for best film were Brokeback Mountain, Capote, The Constant Gardener, Crash and Good Night, and Good Luck.
DENNIS MARKS, 73, WROTE ANIMATED TV SHOWS eminovitz
Posted: 1/20/2006
Writer-producer Dennis Marks, 73, who wrote 1992's Tom and Jerry: The Movie and many other animated TV shows and films, died January 10 at his Los Angeles home.
Occasionally a voice actor as well, Marks died of pancreatic cancer, daughter Amanda told the Los Angeles Times.
He was the producer and head writer of the short-lived 1981 Marvel Productions series Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, in which he also voiced The Green Goblin. He also wrote for the 1972 shows The Barkleys (DePatie-Freleng Enterprises) and Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space (Hanna-Barbera).
He wrote for H-B's Jetsons: The Movie (1990).
Born on August 2, 1932 in New York City, Marks was the son of vaudevillians. After receiving a bachelor's degree from Duke University, he served as a public information officer on the Lexington in the United States Navy.
Marks' career started when he was a lyricist for several New York revues. He helped create the 1965 Broadway musical Baker Street.
He also worked on The Jackie Gleason Show in the 1960s. According to his daughter, he recalled Gleason as a difficult person to work for. For several years afterward, he produced the long-running kids' show Wonderama.
Marks wrote for the King Features Syndicate animated series Snuffy Smith and Barney Google (1962-64) and The Beatles (1965-67), as well as Famous Studios' Comic Kings (1962) and Hal Seeger Studios' Batfink (1967). He was a story man for Tom and Jerry Kids Show.
He wrote The Core, a second-season episode of 1984's Transformers, as well as The Origin Of The Hulk, the first episode of the 1982 Marvel series The Incredible Hulk. He voiced Dr. Proto in the nine-episode series.
Marks began working for Hanna-Barbera and Marvel after moving to Los Angeles in 1979. He was in the voice cast of the 1981 Marvel series Spider-Man.
He appeared regularly at the Magic Castle. Magic had been one of his hobbies since he was 13.
Batfink: One of Dennis Marks' many TV series.
SOAP OPERA ACTOR DON STEWART DEAD AT 70 eminovitz
Posted: 1/20/2006
Actor Don Stewart, who acted in several soap operas and provided the voice of Clem in the 1991 Hyperion Pictures animated feature film Rover Dangerfield, died January 9 at his Santa Barbara, California home.
Sewart, 70, had been battling aplastic anemia for about two years and was diagnosed with lung cancer last June. He had lung cancer "despite having lived a very clean and healthy life as a non-smoker," daughter Heather-Michelle said.
Stewart was best known for playing Michael "Mike Bauer on The Guiding Light. He also appeared in the soaps Santa Barbara (as Eric Appleton in 1998 and The Young and the Restless (as Lionel Lockridge in 1985, in a temporary replacement role).
Born in Great Kills, Staten Island in New York City on November 14, 1935, he grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska with older brother George and younger brother and sister Jack and Marilyn.
He spent six years as a United States Air Force pilot after college. He was one of the USAF's youngest commanders. He flew B-47 medium range bombers and became the youngest aircraft commander in the Strategic Air Command. Stewart was later in the Navy and Naval Reserves, flying fighter jets off aircraft carriers.
Leaving the service to seek a career as an actor and singer, he started studying opera, working on and off Broadway. In the early 1960s, he joined the cast of the Broadway musical Camelot, playing a couple of small parts and understudying for Robert Goulet.
Other Broadway productions included The Student Prince (1963) and the Stephen Sondheim flop musical Anyone Can Whistle (1964). He also sang in nightclubs.
Sewart found work at the New York-based Guiding Light in 1968, staying with the series for 16 years. Also in 1968, he had an unbilled role in the TV-movie Prescription: Murder, which introduced the character of detective Columbo.
After he left the show, Stewart moved to California in 1985, appearing in commercials and movies and doing voiceovers. In the 1988 miniseries War and Remembrance, he portrayed Halsey's lieutenant commander (billed as Donald Stewart). He also did stage work and TV guest appearances -- appearing in many roles in Dragnet 1967.
PIXAR STOCK JUMPS ON RUMOR OF SALE TO DISNEY eminovitz
Posted: 1/19/2006
Shares of Pixar Animation Studios reached a record $59.89 in midday trading Thursday, reflecting investor optimism following a Wall Street Journal report that the Emeryville, California firm may be bought by the Walt Disney Company.
Pixar shares climbed 2.8% to $58.87 at the close of Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. Meanwhile, Disney stock rose 4.1% Thursday to $26.24 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The WSJ, citing anonymous sources, said that Disney would be offering a "nominal" premium to Pixar's current $6.7 billion market capitalization.
An unnamed person who has been briefed on the negotiations told the WSJ that the two firms are in "serious" discussions for Disney to buy some -- or all -- of Pixar. The deal may make Pixar CEO Steve Jobs the largest shareholder of Disney, and he may join the board of the Burbank, California-based entertainment giant.
"He would be a very different person to have on Disney's board,'' said media analyst Theresa Wise of Accenture Ltd. in London. "He's not a studio guy, a deal-doer. He's someone from a creative background."
"Iger is seen as someone much more able to build bridges and mend relationships with important partners, she said, adding that under CEO Michael Eisner, Disney "was almost ready to kill the golden goose, almost ready to part ways with Pixar because the relationship was so strained."
Negotiations are calling for a "nominal" premium to the $6.7 billion market value of Pixar, said the financial daily, citing people familiar with the talks.
"This is a situation that both sides would be satisfied with,'' said Peter Jankovskis, director of research at Oakbrook Investments LLC of Lisle, Illinois. The investment firm has over 700,000 Disney shares in its $1 billion under management.
Pixar spokesman Nils Erdmann declined to comment, while Disney spokeswoman Michelle Bergman did not return calls.
The outcome of the talks remains uncertain, and other options are possible, the Wall Street
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