Jan 28

Tinkle Comics’ Shikari Shambu will be travelling the world in 2020

Posted in: Animation

The very popular comic, Tinkle has always been one of the reasons to cultivate the habit of reading in kids. With the various comic strips, stories, riddles, puzzles and fun activities, the comic has managed to remain a top favourite among young readers and adults alike.

2019 saw Tinkle exploring story arcs in old and new series. Tantri the Mantri managed to become king, the Defective Detectives, DD, followed the mystery of the strange gadgets of the Bunkum Trunkum, while the YogYodhas trained to defeat the deadly genius, Ugra.

The arcs became hugely popular and looking at the love received, Tinkle will be having shorter arcs in 2020 for favourite characters including Tantri, Shikari Shambu and YogYodhas. “Shikari Shambu will be travelling around the world starting with Madagascar initially, moving to the Scandinavian nations in the summer, Japan during the Olympics and Australia later this year,” said Tinkle editor-in-chief Rajani Thindiath. 

Shambu will travel and interact with animals indigenous to those countries in his adventures there. And it sure is going to be fun, a lot of fun! Shikari Shambu is a conservationist and not hunter, although known as one. Created by former Tinkle editor Luis Fernandes, artist V. B. Halbe brought Shambu to life and currently Tinkle art director Savio Mascarenhas keeps Shambu’s charm alive.

March onward, Tinkle will also have a range of super interesting features like Name Place Animal Thing (NPAT); Top That, a trivia feature and Dear Tinkle, a helpline column for kids.

Looks like we need to make space in our shelves, for a whole bunch of Tinkle comics is ready to occupy your mind and bookshelves too!

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Jan 28

India’s RMG market is seeing a paradigm shift with casual and hyper-casual games

Posted in: Animation

The country’s mounting middle class are actually willing to pay for the content and the experience from the online gaming sector in the form of mobile gaming. Automatically an increase in the demand for digital games can be noticed which further pushed the upward curve of innovative gaming platforms in India.

Today at the tap on a screen, one can download games onto a smart device and this has surged the popularity of real money gaming in hyper casual section.  Few days back AnimationXpress spoke to women hyper casual players who play games while travelling in Mumbai local trains and we found out majority of them like playing them because it doesn’t require much of brain racking (it require skill to master it) and it can be easily played while travelling in local trains. What will happen when they start getting return in terms of real money by playing hyper casual games? The response will be similar to the popularity buzz of Indian fantasy sports or Rummy.

WinZo Games co-founder Paavan Nanda

Earlier in an interaction WinZo Games co-founder Paavan Nanda says, “Gaming has changed the contours of the entertainment industry and the onus lies majorly on the easier availability and affordability of smartphones and cheap data rates in India. Today on an average a user spent around 55 minutes on mobile phone playing games. The three key segments of online gaming, which has seen engagement includes – real money games (RMG), mobile-centric/casual games and esports.”

Junglee head of games Puneet Mehrotra

Today Indian gaming community is at the point where RMG has the potential to become the key driver of the gaming economy. Real money gaming has evolved since the past generations with new trends and features and it has now become that unexplored place where everyone wants to explore RMG with hyper casual and casual games.

As Junglee Games head of games Puneet Mehrotra shares, “A lot of companies are now experimenting with RMG versions of casual and hyper casual games; this is the space to watch this year. These are exciting times at Junglee Games. 2020 will see us venturing out into casual games RMG space.”

Baazi Games founder Naavkiran Singh

Today the RMG space has evolved from rummy to fantasy sports and now it is hyper casual and casual games. To an online news portal Entrepreneur Baazi Games founder Naavkiran Singh said “In under 10 years, the gaming industry in India has recorded a yearly turnover of over Rs 1000 crore, with more than 100 organizations have mushroomed in the RMG area. The RMG online market in India is evaluated to associate with Rs. 2,200 crore and is pegged at a development rate of 30 per cent per annum.”

Factually, it can be observed that there is a convergence of real money gaming in its multiple forms of entertainment, video streaming, live playing that involves real time money too. As users in the real gaming money market are growing at a steady pace  therefore from medium players to big players all are diving to transform the prospect of real money gaming in casual and hyper casual games.

Even indie game developer and founder duo Karan Khairajani and Surojit Roy initiated the journey of

Pocket league co-founder karan Khairajani

Pocket league co-founder Surojit Roy

hyper-casual gaming platforms with a team of eight members. The hyper-casual game platform Pocket League, an android app launched in early November 2018 where one can earn real cash by playing hyper-casual games available in the platform. Hyper casual games are something where the gamers can be anybody irrespective of age and one can play the game irrespective of time and place as well. Both Roy and Khairajani have been huge fans of hyper-casual games, which have been heavily popularised by Ketchapp and Voodoo, over the last few years.  These games are easy to get into yet hard to master and mastering these games requires a lot of practice and skill. Pocket League enables gamers to compete against each other for real money.

Although even today a large number of people believe when real money is involved in gaming they directly consider it as ‘game of luck’ which is illegal, which seems to be a prevailing stigma. Today the other side where real money is involved is in skill based games or game of skill which is legal as per the Supreme Court order and this has boosted a lot of fantasy sports platforms and Rummy platforms in 2019. And now in 2020 it is time for casual and hyper casual games where one requires certain skills and need to follow patterns to ace it. Earlier there was no opportunity for audience to earn money through casual games but now player can earn real money by playing and winning at hyper casual games.

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Jan 28

Music Unites: Herbie Hancock & Kamasi Washington in Conversation

Posted in: Animation
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Jan 27

Netflix wins it big at the 47th annual Annie Awards

Posted in: Animation

Netflix hauled it big at ASIFA-Hollywood’s 47th annual Annie Awards on 25 January, Saturday night, with Klaus and I Lost My Body bagging awards for Best Feature and Best Indie Feature respectively.

In fact, Sergio Pablos’ innovative 2D Santa origin story led the pack with seven Annies, including – direction, character animation, character design, production design, story-boarding, and editing), while Jérémy Clapin’s existential French thriller about a severed hand took home three awards – writing and the amazing score by Dan Levy.

Both Klaus and I Lost My Body, are competing against Pixar’s frontrunning Toy Story 4 in the Oscar race, which had to return bare-handed at the Annies. Only Disney’s Frozen 2, which was shockingly left out of the Oscar race, earned two Annies for Feature FX and Voice Acting for Josh Gad’s lovable Olaf.

Disney also won if for Avengers: Endgame taking Best Live Action Character Animation from Weta Digital. This provides a boost for Marvel’s VFX Oscar hopes, with Wednesday’s VES Awards as the next stop.

Here’s the full list of nominations:

Best Feature

Klaus – Netflix, The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine production

Best Indie Feature

I Lost My Body – Xilam for Netflix

Best Direction – Feature 

Klaus – Netflix, The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine production

Director: Sergio Pablos

Best Writing – Feature 

I Lost My Body Xilam for Netflix

Writers : Jérémy Clapin and Guillaume Laurant

Best Character Animation – Animated Feature 

Klaus – Netflix, The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine production

Animation Supervisor: Sergio Martins Character: Alva

Best Character Design – Feature 

Klaus – Netflix, The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine production

Character Designer: Torsten Schrank Character: All Characters

Best Production Design – Feature 

Klaus – Netflix, The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine production

Production Design: Szymon Biernaki Production Design: Marcin Jakubowski

Best Storyboarding – Feature 

Klaus – Netflix, The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine production

Storyboard Artist: Sergio Pablos

Best Editorial – Feature 

Klaus – Netflix, The Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine production

Pablo García Revert

‘Frozen 2’

Best Music – Feature 

I Lost My Body – Xilam for Netflix Composer: Dan Levy

Best FX for Feature 

Frozen 2 – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Benjamin Fiske, Alex Moaveni, Jesse Erickson, Dimitre Berberov, Kee Nam Suong

Best Character Animation – Live Action 

Avengers: Endgame – Weta Digital

Animation Supervisor: Sidney Kombo- Kintombo

Best Voice Acting – Feature 

Frozen 2 Walt Disney Animation Studios

Josh Gad for Olaf

Best Special Production

How to Train Your Dragon Homecoming – DreamWorks Animation

Best Short Subject

Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days – Ciclope Filmes, National Film Board of Canada, Les Armateurs

Best VR

Bonfire – Baobab Studios

Best Commercial

The Mystical Journey of Jimmy Page’s ‘59 – Telecaster Nexus Studios

Best TV/Media – Preschool

Ask the Storybots Episode: Why Do We Have To Recycle? – JibJab Bros. Studios for Netflix

 

Best TV/Media – Children 

Disney Mickey Mouse Episode: Carried Away Disney TV Animation/Disney Channel

Best TV/Media – General Audience 

BoJack Horseman Episode: The Client – Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix

 

Best Student Film 

The Fox & The Pigeon – Michelle Chua

Best FX for TV/Media 

Love, Death & Robots Episode: The Secret War Blur for Netflix

FX Artist: Viktor Németh FX Artist: Szabolcs Illés FX Artist: Ádám Sipos FX Artist: Vladimir Zhovna

Best Character Animation – TV/Media 

His Dark Materials Episode: 8 BBC Studios

Lead Animator: Aulo Licinio Character: Iroek

Best Character Animation – Video Game 

Unruly Heroes Magic Design Studios

Character Animator: Sebastien Parodi Character: Heroes Kid version, Underworld NPC Lead Animator: Nicolas Leger Character: Heroes (Wukong, Kihong, Sandmonk, Sanzang), All enemies (except Underworld levels) and cinematics

Best Character Design – TV/Media 

Carmen Sandiego Episode: The Chasing Paper Caper Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing and DHX Media for Netflix

Character Designer: Keiko Murayama Character: Carmen Sandiego, Paper Star, Player, Shadowsan, Chief, Julia Argent, Chase Devineaux

Best Direction – TV/Media 

Disney Mickey Mouse Episode: For Whom the Booth Tolls – Disney TV Animation/Disney Channel

Director: Alonso Ramirez Ramos

Best Music – TV/Media 

Love, Death & Robots Episode: Sonnie’s Edge Blur for Netflix

Composer/Lyricist: Rob Cairns

Best Production Design – TV/Media

Love, Death & Robots Episode: “The Witness” Blur for Netflix

Production Design: Alberto Mielgo

Best Storyboarding – TV/Media 

Carmen Sandiego Episode: Becoming Carmen Sandiego: Part 1 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing and DHX Media for Netflix

Storyboard Artist: Kenny Park

Best Voice Acting – TV/Media 

Bob’s Burgers Episode: Roamin’ Bob-iday 20th Century FOX / Bento Box Entertainment

Cast: H. Jon Benjamin Character: Bob

Best Writing – TV/Media 

Tuca & Bertie Episode: The Jelly Lakes – Tornante Productions, LLC for Netflix

Writer: Shauna McGarry

Best Editorial – TV/Media 

Love, Death & Robots Episode: Alternate Histories Blur for Netflix

Bo Juhl Nominee: Stacy Auckland Nominee: Valerian Zamel

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Jan 27

Dream11 eyeing for $500 million fundraising round

Posted in: Animation

As Indian Premier League 2020 around the corner, which is expected to begin at the end of March, Mumbai-based fantasy gaming startup Dream11 is now raising fresh funds. The company is said to be on the verge of nearly doubling its valuation as Tiger Global looks to become its latest investor.

Dream11 is speculated to be raising $500 Mn in funding, which will be led by Tiger Global. An unconfirmed Livemint report said that Tiger Global will acquire new shares and also secondary shares from Dream11’s existing investors such as Kalaari Capital, Think Investment and private equity firm Multiples.


Tiger could spend as much as $200 million to buy new shares as well as shares from the Dream11’s early investors Kalaari Capital, Think Investment, and private equity firm Multiples at a valuation of $2.5 billion, said a report.

With the help of this new investment, Dream11 will be worth more than double its $1.1billion valuation in the month of April 2019. The company is also working with the investment bank Credit Suisse for securing funds.

“A lot of investors have been interested in Dream11. They have built a large profitable business with almost no big competitor and still a lot of avenues for growth remaining,” said an investor tracking the space, one of the three mentioned above requesting anonymity said.

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Jan 27

Hasbro Consumer Products Expands Licensing Agent WildBrain CPLG’s Representation to the Benelux Region

Posted in: Animation

Hasbro has appointed WildBrain CPLG as its new sub-representative in the Nordics, beginning 1 January 2020, and has now expanded WildBrain CPLG’s rights to include The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Under the agreement, WildBrain CPLG will represent Hasbro’s Merchandise, Publishing, Promotions and short-term Location Based Entertainment business across both Benelux and Nordic regions.


 “Benelux is a region with tremendous potential to develop Consumer Products” says Marianne James, Vice President of Hasbro Consumer Products in EMEA. “We are thrilled to expand WildBrain CPLG’s relationship beyond the Nordics and take some of Hasbro’s most powerful and beloved brands such as NERF, MONOPOLY, PLAY-DOH and MY LITTLE PONY to the next level, unlocking new licensing opportunities with local licensees and retail partners.” 

Maarten Weck, Executive Vice President & Managing Director, WildBrain CPLG, adds: “We are delighted to extend our relationship with Hasbro. Benelux is a market with significant growth opportunity for Hasbro’s diverse portfolio of brands, and we are already working closely with the Hasbro team to build a comprehensive consumer products programme in the region.”

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Jan 27

Studio100 names Vanessa Windhager as Global Distribution sales executive

Posted in: Animation

Vanessa Windhager

Studio 100 Media has announced the appointment of Vanessa Windhager as its Global Distribution sales executive. She’ll be reporting to Studio100 Global Distribution head Dorian Bühr.

Joining the international sales department with immediate effect, Windhager will be responsible for all global distribution activities for the company in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

With extensive experience in the TV industry and content sales, Windhager has over the past seven years worked for NBC Universal International Television Distribution, most recently as sales manager Liaison. There, she was in charge of distribution in Switzerland, as well as managing various product categories in Germany and Austria. Prior to this, Windhager helped open and establish CBS Studios International’s first office in Germany.

Commenting on Windhager’s appointment, Bühr said, “We are delighted to have Vanessa on board.  With her long-term experience in the industry, she is a great addition to our team for the important markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.”

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Jan 27

Wildbrain cplg taps Rebecca Morris to head Client Services team; promotes Sophie Bloomfield to head of Creative Services

Posted in: Animation

WildBrain CPLG, one of the world’s leading entertainment, sport and brand licensing agencies, has brought back Rebecca Morris to the newly created role of Client Services director.

Morris will head up the rebranded Client Services unit, previously the Business Development team, based at the company’s head office in London. The Client Services team is focused on managing licensor relations, centralising sales and marketing information and streamlining processes between licensors and WildBrain CPLG’s 14 regional offices. Morris will report to WildBrain CPLG and WildBrain Spark Business Development VP  Steve Manners.

(Left to Right) : Rebecca Morris, Gaby Dior, Ellie Rose, May Chiem

Morris previously held the position of director of Product Development and Brand Assurance at WildBrain CPLG for three years, before stepping away from the industry.  In her new position, Morris will lead a team which includes: senior client Services manager Gaby Dior (previously senior business development manager); client services executive May Chiem (previously business development executive); and the recently appointed Ellie-Rose Cousins who joined earlier this month as client services executive.

Returning back, Morris said, “I’m delighted to return to WildBrain CPLG and I’m very much looking forward to working closely with my fantastic team to ensure we’re identifying and maximising growth opportunities for our partners, while ensuring efficient and streamlined processes for our internal teams across all local territories.”

Commenting on the new appointments and developments, Weck said, “With these latest developments, it’s already shaping up to be a significant 2020 for us as we take important steps to ensure we’re delivering the best possible service for all our partners. We’re delighted to welcome back Morris to head up the Client Services team, which has a new name to better reflect its activity, and to promote Sophie to spearhead the invaluable offering of our Creative Services department.”

Sophie Bloomfield

Additionally, WildBrain CPLG has promoted Sophie Bloomfield to head of Creative Services. Previously Design Manager, Bloomfield has been with WildBrain CPLG for three years and will now lead the Creative Services team which is responsible for all aspects of the WildBrain CPLG branding, style guide direction and development, trend reports, trade marketing, creative strategy and look books in addition to creative pitches to licensees and retailers. Bloomfield reports to WildBrain CPLG’s EVP and managing director, Maarten Weck, and works with designers, Yana Maslova, who is based in the company’s Russian office, and Marika Colombo, who is based in the company’s Italian office.

“As we continue to support both our licensors and internal sales and retail teams with creative pitches, style guide direction and trends, I’m very much looking forward to expanding our work across the portfolio and delivering both creative and commercially competitive projects for our partners. We’ve got some exciting creative projects in development and I look forward to seeing these come to life over the coming months,” added Bloomfield.

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Jan 27

French culture minister Franck Riester’s rendevouz with Bollywood producers

Posted in: Animation

The French Minister for Culture Mr. Franck Riester recently came to Mumbai to interact with the audio-visual industry and explore cooperation opportunities in this domain. During the first leg of his programme, Mr. Riester interacted with some of the key representatives of the music industry for content creation, sharing and co-productions.

The French Minister for Culture Franck Riester

Then, at a business meet called Destination France specially organized to showcase what France has to offer as a film shooting destination for Indian and French industry professionals, Mr. Franck Riester provided key highlights, incentives and benefits that makes France an attractive proposition. He reiterated the commitment of the President of France and his entire government to strengthen Indo-French relationships and particularly that of the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs and himself through the establishment of a dedicated commission for Indo-French film and images projects. This commission will be responsible to allow the full commitment of all French stakeholders in developing projects between France and India (shootings, coproduction, distribution) and act as a single window connect for the Indian stakeholders to ensure that all projects are realized as smoothly as possible.

French Minister for Culture Franck Riester

Speakers included Minister Franck Riester – Ambassador, Emmanuel Lenain – Dominique Boutonnat, président of CNC (French national agency for cinema and moving images) – Stephan Bender interim CEO of Film France (national commission of films)

Indian guests at the round table included Redchillies Entertainment CEO Gaurav Verma, Telangana location manager Narravula Gopi Krishna, Dipti Jindal representing Nadiadwala grandsons production while at a lunch session, minister met up with Film Producer Sajid Naiadwala and Excel productions film writer Kassim Jagmagia.

With content industry in full bloom and digital media becoming more prominent, international partnerships have become imperative and hopefully this one will yield desirable outcome too.

Honorable Minister of Culture of France concluded his journey at Ubisoft Mumbai. His excellency was received and felicitated by Mr. Jean-Philippe Pieuchot, Managing Director, Ubisoft India Studios; and Ms. Marie-Sophie de Waubert, Vice President – Corporate Affairs, Ubisoft. Ubisoft is a french company which has had its presence in India for quite some time now.

 

IIT speech

During the second half of his programme in Mumbai, he met the Director of IIT Powai Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri and delivered a powerful lecture to a packed auditorium in IIT on ‘how the economics of culture is reshaping the world’. Among other powerful examples he gave that of the development of Smart Cities.

“The Smart Cities Mission is a significant opportunity to promote creative industries in India which, in turn, will lead to substantial growth in other sectors, such as tourism and hospitality. The Smart Cities Mission is meant to improve people’s living standards and develop clean and sustainable environment. A key ingredient to this is the access to art and cultural institutions which define the livability of a city. Hence arises the need to establish creative clusters/ art and cultural districts within Smart Cities that are designed to attract, retain and nurture the creative workforce that our cities need to succeed in the new Economy. France is already collaborating with the Indian government on smart city projects in Chandigarh, Nagpur and Pune among other cities,” shared he.

Connecting technology to art and culture, he went on to explain, “Today’s museums are increasingly high-tech, involving multimedia, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, audio-visuals to enhance viewer experience.” 

Discussing the economics of France’s cultural and creative industries, he said that these industries account for 6,40,000 jobs and generate 91 billion euros worth of revenue, 32 billion euros worth of export and account for more than two per cent of the country’s economy.

It was a fruitful end to a day-long visit with meeting all the key actors that would be one more step forward to closer ties between India and France.

 

 

 

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Jan 27

‘Toy Story 4’, ‘Splash’ and much more! Here’s what’s coming to Disney+ in February 2020

Posted in: Animation

Disney fans across the world are surely waiting to get their hands on the company’s streaming service, Disney+, which got around 10 million subscriptions withing 24 hours of the launch. While the service is already up and running in the U.S.A and is scheduled to launch in the UK soon, Disney fans around the world will have to wait till they can get their hands on the precious content library.

As for India, the users would be able to watch all the content on the OTT platform Hotstar, which came after the merger of Disney and 20th Twenty Fox which owned the Star group. The content, according to a report, will be streamed on the platform after the conclusion of this year’s Indian Premier League or IPL.

While we wait to get our hands on the platform, here’s everything that is coming on Disney + in February, 2020.

1 February

Big Business

The Sandlot 

Wicked Tuna seasons one and two

Around the World in 80 Days 

Descendants 3: 2 February

Toy Story 4: 5 February

7 February

Diary of a Future President (new episode)

Disney Family Sundays (new episode)

One Day at Disney (new episode)

Marvel’s Hero Project (new episode)

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made 

Old Dogs: 9 February


14 February

Splash

My Dog, The Thief 

Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings 

Because of Winn-Dixie

Disney Family Sundays 

Diary of a Future President (new episode)

One Day at Disney (new episode)

Marvel’s Hero Project (new episode)

Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United: 16 February

20 February

Marvel Rising: Operation Shuri 

Marvel Rising: Playing with Fire 

21 February

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, season 7 episode 1

Diary of a Future President (new episode)

Unlikely Animal Friends seasons one and two

Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings 

Disney Family Sundays (new episode)

One Day at Disney (new episode)

Marvel’s Hero Project (new episode)

Star Wars Resistance season 2: 25 February

28 February

Diary of a Future President (new episode)

Marvel’s Future Avengers season 1

Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, season 7 episode 2 

Shop Class (series premiere)

Imagination Moves seasons 1 to 3

I Captured the King of the Leprechauns

One Day at Disney (new episode)

Marvel Hero Project (new episode)

That is a long list of things coming to Disney’s platform in February. If you are at a place from where you cannot access the platform. You can use a Disney+VPN to catch all your favourite content!

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