Feb
20
Feb
19
GKIDS and Fathom Events announced that the latest feature from Japan’s STUDIO4°C’s Children of the Sea is coming to select U.S. cinemas this spring.
Directed by Ayumu Watanabe (Space Brothers), featuring a score by award-winning composer and longtime Studio Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, My Neighbor Totoro), the beautifully animated Children of the Sea, is adapted from Daisuke Igarashi’s manga of the same name.
The unconventional sketching style, fairy tale abstract drawings and undoubtedly beautiful anime makes the art stand out from others.
The official synopsis to Children of the Sea goes like this:
When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does. Ruka’s dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans’ fish.
The post Beautifully animated ‘Children of the Sea’ US trailer sails online appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
19
French animation production and distribution company Dandelooo announces sales for the new 2D animation series Stinky Dog, commissioned by France Televisions.
Based on the books written by Colas Gutman, with illustrations by Marc Boutavant the slapstick series targets six to 10-year-olds and follows the comical and hectic adventures of a maverick mutt, Stinky Dog, and his flattened best friend Flatty Cat, a couple of oddballs who live in a garbage can.
The series is co-produced by Dandelooo, Folivari, France (Didier & Damien Brunner), the Belgian production company Panique! (Patar & Aubier) and the Catalan animation studio Pikkukala (Pablo Jordi).
China’s leading digital distribution and IP management company Jesten Huashi, Spanish pay TV children’s channel Canal Panda and Danish pubcaster DR TV will be taking home the Stinky Dog.
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Feb
19
On Kids & Family and ZAG expand into China to announce partnership with Fantawild
Posted in: Animation
ON Kids & Family (Mediawan Group) and ZAG have partnered with Fantawild in a joint venture to develop the world-famous animated brand Miraculous in China. Fantawild has acquired all Chinese rights to the property and will invest and participate in the development of the feature film. The partnership will establish Miraculous in China in all segments of business, including the launch of the series, the theatrical release of the film, licensed merchandise and promotional products, and location-based entertainment.
“ZAG and ON Kids & Family have opened a new chapter in their respective history. The joint venture allows our companies to strengthen their market position in China, expand into a country with great potential, and play a direct part in the phenomenal growth of the Chinese market,” said ON Kids & Family co-founder and CEO Thierry Pasquet.
Fantawild is one of the leading entertainment companies in China, active in the production and creation of content, the company is renowned for Boonie Bears. Fantawild is the owner of the largest chain of theme parks in China, with 29 parks in operation and 10 in construction. It is ranked the fifth theme park group worldwide by TEA (Themed Entertainment Association).
“This is a thrilling move for Fantawild,” shares Fantawild Group executive president and Fantawild Animation president Daisy Shang, “Miraculous is a robust property that promotes girl power, and it’s exciting to finalize our agreement and bring it to China. The show is loved by kids globally, and we trust that the Chinese audience will also find it just as inspiring.”
Created by ZAG and produced with ON, the 3D-CGI-animated aspirational action comedy series Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir is everyone’s superhero story. Targeted to girls six to 12 and boys four to seven and with a fangirl base of Miraculers (girls 15–25), Miraculous is the winner of the 2018 Teen Choice Award for Choice Animated Series.
“We at ZAG are so grateful that kids and families around the world have embraced the world of Miraculous. China has always been a very special territory. Despite the growing demand, we remained patient and extremely selective in choosing only the best partner, which we have finally found with Fantawild. Fantawild’s expertise in creating experiential entertainment for kids and families with their theme parks compliments our content perfectly. We are beyond proud to be partners, and are excited for the future of Miraculous in China,” declared ZAG founder and president Jérémy Zag.
Miraculous airs in over 120 countries across the globe, and has over nine million global subscribers on YouTube. A theatrical release is currently in production at ZAG.
The post On Kids & Family and ZAG expand into China to announce partnership with Fantawild appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
19
Disney and Pixar’s Onward celebrates its world premiere, which welcomes stars from the film to the red carpet, including Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Kyle Bornheimer, Ali Wong, Tracey Ullman and John Ratzenberger, as well as filmmakers and celebrity guests.
Disney-Pixar’s Oscar winning legacy continued as the endearing Toy Story 4 took home the statuette for Best Animated Feature. For the millions of fans out there, Disney-Pixar’s next offering Onward is all set to release on 6 March, starring the fun Marvel duo Chris Pratt and Tom Holland!
Chris Pratt stars in Onward as Barley Lightfoot, the big brother to Tom Holland’s Ian Lightfoot.
When teenage elf brothers Ian and Barley Lightfoot (voices of Tom Holland and Chris Pratt) get an unexpected opportunity to spend one more day with their late dad, they embark on an extraordinary quest aboard Barley’s epic van Guinevere. Like any good quest, their journey is filled with magic spells, cryptic maps, impossible obstacles and unimaginable discoveries. But when the boys’ fearless mom Laurel (voice of Julia Louis-Dreyfus) realizes her sons are missing, she teams up with a part-lion, part-bat, part-scorpion, former warrior – aka The Manticore (voice of Octavia Spencer) – and heads off to find them. Perilous curses aside, this one magical day could mean more than any of them ever dreamed. Directed by Dan Scanlon and produced by Kori Rae, Disney and Pixar’s Onward opens in theaters on 6 March 2020.
The post Chris Pratt and Tom Holland live it up at ‘Onward’ world premiere appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
19
Fun Union appoints Edutainment Licensing as distribution partner for animated series ‘PinCode’
Posted in: AnimationEdutainment Licensing has been appointed as the distribution partner for FUN Union’s exciting adventure series, PinCode in the UK, Australia and New Zealand as well as worldwide for school and library digital platforms.
The 3D series for primary school children aged four to seven years, focuses on the adventures of Captain Pin and his crew and each episode contains an important and valuable science lesson. PinCode has two seasons – season one and two have 52 x 13-minute episodes.
“We are delighted to be partnering with FUN Union to bring quality, uplifting, entertaining and educational content to our partners”, says Edutainment Licensing owner Denise Deane.
The crew members, under the leadership of Captain Pin, explore the principles of physics, chemistry and biology while traversing the world. Each character has its own unique personality and strengths, bringing humour, fun and friendship to every challenge, making science lessons supercool.
FUN Union CEO added, “Our show highlights positive STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) role models for kids aged six to 11. Edutainment Licensing is specialised particularly in this type of content distribution, so we couldn’t imagine a better partner for PinCode. Today’s children are remarkably creative, inventive and curious. They inspired us every day.”
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Feb
19
Mattel launches Olympic-inspired items
Posted in: AnimationMattel revealed their first products collection across brands to celebrate the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The collection includes items from the toyco’s Barbie, Hot Wheels and UNO brands.
This international product line, rolling out this spring, highlights inclusivity and innovation, with toys reflecting the five new sports added to the Olympic program in Tokyo – baseball/softball, sport climbing, karate, skateboarding and surfing – all to inspire a new generation of athletes and fans around the world.
The Hot Wheels brand is creating a mini collection including die-cast cars designed to represent different sports dating back to the first Olympic Games in Athens. The new Barbie products, meanwhile, include five dolls representing the new sports being recognized at this year’s event. UNO is also celebrating the Olympics with a new offering, featuring the games’ mascot Miraitowa on a limited-edition deck.
Mattel announced that Thomas & Friends, along with Fisher-Price, contributed to an 11 per cent decline in its infant, toddler and preschool segment (to the tune of US$1.25 billion) for fiscal 2019. Overall, Mattel’s gross sales for the full year were flat at US$5.06 billion.
The post Mattel launches Olympic-inspired items appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
19
Late basketball legend Kobe Bryant had made his name as a filmmaker with the Oscar-winning Dear Basketball (2017), an animated short about his career as an athlete which he wrote, produced, and starred in. Bryant was not only developing more animation projects through his production company, Granity Studios, but also had plans to launch an animation studio of his own.
According to Bruce W. Smith, the creator of animated short Hair Love, Bryant even met with Sergio Pablos, the creator of the Despicable Me, franchise, for dinner and a discussion about future animation projects.
In an interview, Smith mentioned that Bryant was heavily invested in starting an animation studio. “For the past six months or so, Kobe and I had been in deep talks about making that happen… Kobe was beginning his second act, and animation was going to play a huge part in that… He fashioned himself in thinking like a Walt Disney… He had this book series that he created… The best way to describe it is Harry Potter meets tennis, almost. It was an amazing concept… He had that podcast called The Punies, for kids, that he wanted to make into an animated series,” said he.
Smith has had a prominent and long career with Walt Disney Animation Studios. His credits include supervising animator on Tarzan and The Princess and the Frog. He’s also the creator of the popular series The Proud Family (2001–05), which is being rebooted.
The post Kobe Bryant had plans to launch his own animation studio appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
19
e-Masters Chengdu 2020 postpone qualified Indian teams await for rescheduled dates
Posted in: AnimationThe number of deaths from the Coronavirus outbreak in mainland China rose by 136, pushing the nationwide death toll to 2,004, according to China’s National Health Commission today. The outbreak has shaken the industry and it has negatively impacted the ecosystem around the globe. Gaming and Esports industry is no exception. A few days back, Overwatch league was cancelled and WESG Asia Pacific finals are also cancelled and many more are adjourned or cancelled because of the outbreak. The virus is contagious and in order to control the spread of the coronavirus the management are taking decisions to adjourn the matches for some time or cancel the matches.
After careful consideration and recommendations from public health experts group, consultation to the local authority of the host city and discussion with our co-organising partners, AESF announced the postponement of the inaugural AESF e-Masters Chengdu 2020 due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Two qualified teams for the quarter-finals were supposed to set their journey to the Chengdu-China for the quarter-final match scheduled for 22 February till 25 February 2020 followed by the final from 28 February 2020 till 1 March but the dates are to postpone because of Coronavirus epidemic. Among the qualified teams for the quarter-final, two qualified Indian teams are also supposed to join the tournament but due to Coronavirus epidemic the tournament has been postponed and they are now waiting for the rescheduled dates.
Esports Federation of India (ESFI) director Lokesh Suji Lokesh Suji said, “For us, the well being and safety of our esports athletes is the top priority. Though the teams were very excited and energized to represent India at e-Masters, this situation was an unfortunate event. All our thoughts and well wishes are with the people who have been affected by the virus and pray for their speedy recovery. The event has just been postponed, it will eventually happen. On the bright side players now will have more time to practice”
The official post of the AESF also revealed that the decision for the postponement was to ensure the safety of their athletes, officials, organisers, the fans and media.
Understanding how the Indian teams (who are qualified for the quarer finals of AESF e-Masters Chengdu 2020 ) are responding to the postponement, Animationxpress has reached out to them and this is what they said:
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne player Arun “Neohartrix” Mozhi Varman qualified for the quarter-final expressed that “I am deeply saddened to see the situation in China with respect to the Coronavirus. As an esports enthusiast, it is not the best start to a new year. With Chinese esports industry growing rapidly, there was a slew of esports tournaments which got cancelled during the last 45 days including the WESG final at Macau in January. Many have been postponed until further notice which includes CFPL, CFML, LPL and LDL.
Unfortunately, e-masters is postponed, too. So, we are not sure when exactly the LAN event will take place. At this point in time, it is imperative to support the efforts of China and bring about a cure for the virus which is on a killing spree. On a lighter note, esports athletes outside of China get to practice more for the delayed events, which can help, maybe or not.
We should also appreciate the generosity of giants Tencent & Netease who donated about $43m USD and $15m USD respectively to fight Corona.”
Arena of Valor team (comprises of Sonukaran J M Shinil R, Aditya Katoch, Manmohan Singh and Aakash Chadalavada, Dwayne Fernandes) Nefarious captain Sonukaran J M expressed “It’s concerning to know the situation in China and how much it is affecting the business and processes that are interconnected with the rest of the world. While the postponing of the match will buy us more time to practice, the cause of the ban is what worries us more about the people there. We pray that things will return to normal and those amazing people will bounce back from this international tragedy.”
The team has also highlighted the fact that the delay in the Indian server update is a cause of concern for them. And with the postponement of the dates, they are hopeful that they receive the update before the event date is announced. With that, they will get enough time to practice in a new patch and will be able to adapt to the changes.
AESF has also expressed that they will continue to monitor the situation closely and the rescheduled dates for the AESF e-Masters Chengdu 2020 will be announced in due course of time.
The post e-Masters Chengdu 2020 postpone qualified Indian teams await for rescheduled dates appeared first on AnimationXpress.
Feb
19
It’s just been a month since noted Indian animation studio, Digitoonz Media and Entertainment opened a branch in Kolkata, and they’re already working on multiple projects.
Specialising in 2D and 3D animation, Digitoonz is a full-service animation production company that has worked on several animated TV series and feature films across different genres. So far, their strength has been primarily 2D animation and now are pushing themselves to enhance their 3D animation, capability in CGI and VFX pre-production.
Vikas Kumar
Shared Digitoonz CEO Vikas Kumar with Animation Xpress, “We are working right now on multiple shows, two of the recently finished shows are Rick & Morty and Glitch Tech which are now streaming on Netflix. It’s a big satisfaction that we got the opportunity to work on both the shows. We are also working on eleven projects, handling from both Delhi (seven projects) and Kolkata (four projects) studio. Besides that, we are also working with a Pune based Partner studio on some commercial projects. We can proudly say all the projects we are working on right now belong to bigger platforms and major parts of the assignments are handled in house.”
With a manpower of 350 artists, Digitoonz’s previously finished shows Mirette Investigate was broadcasted on TF1, France and Sony YAY! India. Co-production has been working well for them and have successfully finished two seasons of Misha the Purple Cat (26 x 7 and 52 x 7) and right now working on the third season of 52 episodes of seven minutes which is scheduled to be finished by this year end.
Added further Digitoonz production head Mantosh Kumar, “We are working on some high end TV series which is scheduled to be finished by 2021 which of course is a long form of work. Another CGI project we are working on is a feature film project. We are all set for the big year ahead.”
Though mostly, they are working on co-production projects at the moment, the Digitoonz team are constantly working on exploring ideas and concepts to come up with IP of international standard.
Mantosh Kumar
Said Mantosh, “Yes. We are working on an IP but right now it’s on very initial stage. Our test team is engaged in some potential test and pilot project for our future projects. We have done several high quality animated work so we know how the pipeline works from start to end. While working on overseas projects for years now, we are able to see the difference between domestic and international content and what audiences consume. In order create an IP one need to focus on –
- Need of potential writer who can take the story and existing design in constructive and convincing script form.
- Funds
- Platform to broadcast
We want to do something better with the IP than what we are doing so far as a service provider. Hence, we are working on all three dimensions to reach our goal.”
Previously, serving as the project manager, Mantosh is presently handling five different projects – 2D Harmony Animation and CGI, with the help of production coordinator and animation supervisors.
The post Upcoming catalogue of Digitoonz includes service work and IP development appeared first on AnimationXpress.
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