Unilever stops advertising for food and beverages to kids below 12 years

Unilever has announced to be discontinuing all marketing and advertising initiatives of its food and beverage brands which are primarily targeted to children.

The company will not market the products to children under the age of 12 across traditional media channels, and below the age of 13 on social media and digital media channels, and plans to take execute this decision by the end of 2020.

Any form of marketing and advertising will not be permitted to any brands owned by Unilever. They won’t have any celebrities, influencers or social media stars who have the power to influence children. As per Unilever’s blog post, a limitation will also be imposed on the use of cartoon characters too, though some characters will be featured across point-of-sale materials, like certain selected products that quality a specific nutritional profile.

Unilever’s decision came after the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced childhood obesity as a matter of concern and one of the most serious public health issues of the 21st century. According to their blog post, Unilever wants to help parents and children make wise and informed decisions while buying and consuming food and beverages.

The implementation of this plan will be led by Unilever’s ice cream business as children are the main TG for ice creams. It’s expected that this decision will hit the business.

Unilever’s Wall’s – the name behind brands such as ‘Max’, ‘Paddle Pop’, ‘Twister’ along with others, will adopt a unique brand promise – “Responsibly made for kids” and will be based on principles of – responsibly communicated, responsibly developed and responsibly sold.

While these developments were announced, there has been no word from Hindustan Unilever (HUL). Industry people are of opinion that if it implies, it’s going to affect the media and advertising sectors as HUL is one of the biggest advertisers in the country.

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‘Mulan’ release threatened by Coronavirus in China

Coronavirus is not only affecting the health of masses across the world, but also various industries at large. 

After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the virus as a state of global emergency, Disney’s theme park business in China has already hit a low and now its box-office industry is also going to be hampered.

Disney is releasing the live-action remake of its 1998 animated classic, Mulan about a Chinese warrior woman in North America on 27 March. With a budget of $200 million, Mulan was expected to have a good opening and great run in the world’s second-biggest movie market after the United States. But now it has been threatened by the public health crisis.

The release date of Mulan in China is not revealed yet, as the dates in China are decided by the Government instead of the studios, so the dates are often confirmed just weeks before a film is set to open. Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC earlier this month, “At this point, we’re not sure when [Mulan will release in China].”

It’s not a very good sign for Disney, as a senior analyst Jeff Bock said, Mulan is “tailor-made for success in China. Mulan has significant roots in Chinese lore and China is a major part of Disney’s global release strategy, and could easily be Mulan’s biggest market by a fair margin. Mulan has an international cast led by Yifei Liu, and appears to be a more straightforward epic compared to the animated version.

More than 1,300 people have died and over 60,000 have been infected, mostly in mainland China. The outbreak of the virus has forced the shut down of businesses all over the country, including movie theaters. Disney’s theme parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong, have also been shut until further notice.

A Disney spokesperson said that the studio is monitoring the situation closely.

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Yoozoo Games opens pre-registration for ‘DoomCar’

Yoozoo Games has opened pre-registration of strategy RPG DoomCar is now open for Android devices.

The game opens with the year 2057, where massive space vessels of unknown origin suddenly appear on earth and lay waste to the world with unrelenting and overwhelming force. On a barren and post-apocalyptic wasteland, the annihilation caused by faceless alien invaders leaves humans battling for resources.

Society has chosen a lethal new order of vehicular society, one that might just survive the toxic and hostile environment. Powerful, atmospheric, electromagnetic waves prevent most electronics from functioning; so armoured combat vehicles are the only way to get around and fight over increasingly scarce resources.

DoomCar is a strategy RPG wrapped in a distinctly dystopian world. Players can collect and upgrade over 100 vehicles, source new equipment (or simply steal it) from all manner of NPC factions. the task is to engage in the ultimate battle royale; with rogue-like modes making every road trip a new and maniacally dicey experience. Players can also tailor war chariot battle formations, individual driver skills, professions, affinities, and progression.

Create the ultimate team, take on all comers and become the despotic driver of your dreams. The game has a  rich variety of single-player, cooperative, PvP, and clan vs clan modes which will satisfy even the most competitive amongst you.

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Lucid Labs’ new platform makes game dev collaborations easy

Collaboration in the gaming community has been a practice for years given the burgeoning demand for gaming content. Earlier most collaboration used to take place when the developers met face to face at a social gathering, gamer networks, game jams, gaming cafes and so on. Since the inception of digital age collaborations among game makers have become possible online especially through social media platforms. From social media, today developers have the option to collaborate on platforms which have been created especially to connect, collaborate and create games. Two months ago  Lucid Labs founder Chirag Chopra launched gaming platform WeMake (dot) Games (WMG), which is one such platform for game makers to connect, collaborate and create gaming content.

Not only that, making games is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and there are times when makers lose their willpower to keep going. This tool becomes handy to convey a message to the makers that they are not the only one. In conversation with Animationxpress Chopra shares, “I’ve been making games with a talented remote team from the past five years but there were times when I felt isolated and lacked motivation due to working out of my room. But I realised looking at other developers’ games and progress always motivated me and kept the fire burning. With that in mind, I conceptualised an idea about a community where people can not only share screenshots and their games in development but also their daily tasks and goals for others to stay accountable.”

The platform provides a unified platform for game makers to interact and socialise with each other. There is a provision for users where they can explore multiple different channels, can share what they are working on, have discussions and share their daily progress with the public, all without leaving the platform.

According to Chopra the platform is free to join, since they are close to beta so, therefore, users need to sign up and they could roll out their invites periodically. On the platform community game makers aims to hold each other accountable to stay motivated by sharing their daily goals and progress with the world.

Chopra operates WMG under the label of Lucid Labs and has crafted three games so far, each with a remote team. All these years, Chirag felt the need for space where it’s easy to see what everyone is working on and use that as a motivator to make progress daily.

They have over 300 users interacting with the tool and the response has been phenomenal according to Chopra. Chopra believes that the users are actively participating in shaping up the community. “We regularly get feedback and suggestions on our Discord channel. We’ve also received notes from users about how the platform is helping them stay active and motivated in their dev journey,” he added.

 

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Vaibhav Studios reveals adorable Nick ident for Valentine’s Day!

Vaibhav Studios had a funny yet relatable video as a gift for Valentine’s Day! After its Samosa and Vada Pav rap ident for Indian kids broadcaster, Nickelodeon garnered tremendous response on social media, the studio revealed its recent ident ‘Train’ to celebrate the day of love!

Produced by Vaibhav Studios, the new ‘Train’ ident is supercool and will resonate very well with audiences across the country, especially those who travel by train on a daily basis. The concept itself is a fresh one after its amazing stints with food items. 

Said co-director and animator at Vaibhav Studios, Dapoon Rai Dewan, “For the next or upcoming idents, Nickelodeon wanted us to do something other than food animation. Hence we started brainstorming a few ideas and finally hit upon animating the letters from the logo itself. I personally wanted to do something on romance and was wondering if we could pair up the two N’s. Also because in the logo, the two N’s are at either ends of the word with the rest of the alphabets filling in, it seemed to me like the other letters had separated them from each other. Based on this basic idea, we brainstormed a few stories and somehow the local train concept clicked!”

The 32 second clip gives an interesting picture of how local train passengers struggle to find their feet in the train (quite literally), during peak hours which include couples too. The animation is real, engaging and clearly shows the toil and passion behind executing the concept brilliantly. 

The team at Vaibhav Studios usually lock the story first and then gets down to pre production, followed by storyboard and animatic to have the basic flow of the film in mind. The characters are designed and the style of the animated film is finalised. Once the preproduction is locked, the characters and the sets are modeled in CGI and textured.

“We chose to go the minimalistic way with limited colour schemes so that our characters could stand out. The next stage is rigging, of the characters’ design and movement that includes a lot of to and fro between the animators and the riggers on nailing it down. They have done an excellent job in creating super flexible rigs for the main characters despite the limitations in their design. We also created a separate rig for N’s tube like shape during the dance and switched it with the main rig whenever required.

Once that is done, we get into animation. Here we animated the character on 2’s with quick snappy, cartoony movements. I must mention that the last shot was quite a challenge for us to get it right. With so many characters flushing inside a compact space, we wanted the feeling of being stuck inside a local train or bus with everyone stacked up against each other. The animators worked with the riggers to create blend shapes and even resorted to animating the vertices on every individual character to achieve that look, and lock the final frame of that shot. Then they animated the shot backwards. 

After animation, the lighting artists step in to create the mood of the scene, and finally the shots are rendered and comped. I would also like to mention our music director Roto Shah who has single handedly done the entire background score and foley, and has done a tremendous job!,” further added Dewan about the process.

The craftspeople behind this animated video are :

Concept and Story

Dapun Rai Dewan and Vaibhav Kumaresh

Direction

Dapun Rai Dewan, Ajit Aher and Vaibhav Kumaresh

Music and sound design

Roto Shah

Technical direction  

Bhavesh Gondaliya

Character Design

Dapoon Rai Dewan

Storyboards and Animatic

Dapoon Rai Dewan

Modeling   

Tapas Jana, Bhavesh Gondaliya

Texturing

Avinash Gulhane and Rajib Debnath

Rigging 

Abhijit Ghodke, Bhavesh Gondaliya and Amlan Sarkhel

Camera Layout

Tapas Jana

Animation

Ajit Aher and Dapoon Rai Dewan

Lighting and compositing 

Sagar Kulkarni and Jayesh Panchal

Production manager – Sweta Nayak

Studio assistance – Baadal Chaurasiya 

Team Nickelodeon India –

Suchita Karmokar (Vice President, Creative Services, Kids Cluster)

Sanhita Das (Creative Director, On Air Promotions, Kids Cluster)

These series of unique, funny and innovative animated content always bring a smile and a breath of fresh air. 

Last frame texture

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As the new look of Batman has released, we take a look at previous portrayal of the caped crusader in cinema

While Robert Pattinson is our new Bruce Wayne, the caped crusader of Gotham has been portrayed by multiple actors over the years. With the new look of Batman (played by Robert Pattinson) surfacing online, let’s take a look at the multiple spins and shades in a variety of movie depictions through the years.

1. Lewis G. Wilson

Image result for lewis wilson

Being the first and youngest actor to essay the role of Batman, he was draped in the batman at the age of 23 in the 15-part 1943 Columbia serial Batman. While the depiction drew flak for wearing the utility belt below his chest, many criticised his boston accent.


2. Robert Lowrey

Image result for robert lowery Batman

Lowery played the character inside the serial, 1949’s Batman & Robin. 36 year old Lowery, at the time, was a veteran actor who had worked across movies like The Mark Of Zorro (1940), The Mummy’s Ghost (1944), and Dangerous Passage (1944).  He also guest-starred on an episode of The Adventures of Superman, marking the first time a Batman actor shared show time with a Superman actor.

3. Adam West

Image result for Adam West

Being one of the most famous batmans, West played the the Caped Crusader from 1966 through 1968 in the Batman television series and the film spin-off. West’s campy and gregarious portrayal of Gotham’s Guardian pervaded the landscape across every medium, along with a 1966 movie and various different animated content.


4. Michael Keaton

Image result for Michael Keaton batman

Keaton’s casting led to such controversy that 50,000 protest letters had been despatched to Warner Bros.’ workplaces. In a bid to appease the critics, Batman co-creator Bob Kane was employed as a result of the film’s ingenious advisor. Keaton’s suitability acquired favorable evaluations, and Batman killed on the sphere office. Choice journal wrote, “Michael Keaton captures the haunted depth of the character, and seems considerably lonely and obsessive with out Robin spherical to share his exploits.”


5. Val Kilmer

Val donned the batsuit in 1995 and received mixed reviews. Director Joel Schumacher called the actor “childish and impossible.” He was only in one movie, Batman Forever. The New York Events had written, “The prime costume is now worn by Val Kilmer, who makes an excellent Batman nevertheless not a larger one than Michael Keaton.” Bob Kane felt in some other case, saying he thought Kilmer did the perfect job of all the actors to have carried out Batman as a lot as that point. He exited the batcave after one movie.


6. George Clooney

Batman & Robin was a disastrous mess on many levels, fraught with homoeroticism, kitchkiness, and infamous Bat-nipples. Clooney had once said, “Joel Schumacher suggested me we on no account made one different Batman film on account of Batman was gay.” The actor moreover generally known as the movie “a waste of money.” Easily, one of the worst batmans we have seen.


7. Christian Bale

Christopher Nolan after choosing Christian Bale for the coveted role had shared, “he has exactly the stability of darkness and light-weight that we had been searching for.” Bale was liked for 2005’s Batman Begins. He received high acclaim for Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). He stepped down from the role in favour of other projects.


8 Ben Affleck

Initially folks were not happy to see him essay the role of their favourite caped crusader in 2015 but he performed rather well despite a weak script. Reports suggest he won’t be reprising the role anytime soon.


9. Robert Pattinson

Image result for Robert Pattinson batman

Known for playing Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Vampiric Edward in Twilight, Pattinson is the latest Batman who will star in them ‘view-driven noir and emotional Batman story’. We hope he carries the torch and does justice to the role.

While the movie won’t be out until June 25, 2021, the first look of the Batman is out.

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Of gaming and opportunities, a look into the Indian esports ecosystem

Esports is a fairly new buzzword in the country. While esports tournaments have been a part of the India’s gaming ecosystem for quite some time, in the past couple of years, the popularity has surged high enough to attract international attention and now many are scrambling to get a slice of it.

Back in 2018, the ecosystem witnessed a number of significant tournaments like ESL One, DreamHack and COBX Masters and according to Esports Observer, the prize money given out across all tournaments was around Rs. 3.5 crore. However, 2019 brought in a major shift in paradigm; the prize money grew by 180 per cent to around Rs. 10.7 crore.

With the advent of more prospects in an industry which is just blooming in the country, more enthusiasts are being attracted. These young individuals from across India want to get into this industry, however, not just  as esports athletes which is the common perception, but in other disciplines too.

“I am from Kerala and shifted to Mumbai in 2012. Although I was a gamer, I found a completely different scenario, when it came to gaming, in Mumbai. Initially, I played Counter Strike, at small LAN events as bigger tournaments were not around that time,” says 26 year old Nishant Murlidharan.

Nishant Murlidharan

While Murlidharan was still pursuing his engineering back at that time, he enjoyed gaming and wanted to give a shot at content creation as well. He initially created a channel, uploaded some whimsical videos of himself playing and eventually stopped uploading after a while as the viewership did not measure up to much.

After a brief hiatus, he continued gaming and started streaming on YouTube and met with mediocre success even after graduating and securing a job as a data analyst. Eventually he got into playing PUBG, the PC version. Soon he received a lot of support from the Indian PUBG community on discord, however, that too was limited.

The break came in April 2019 when he published a montage video of some of his best plays and it caught the eyes of some of the major Indian PUBG pros including Scout, who reacted to the video on his channel. Post that, Murlidharan started amalgamating subscribers in bulk. Fast forward to now, he is a full time streamer and also plays with a team of PUBG PC players and has some impressive tournament achievements to his name. He also has a streaming partnership with Gaming Monk.

His YouTube channel called iFlicks has around 70,000 subscribers (iFlicks is also his gamer tag).

Although, Dota 2 and CS:GO have been the stars of the esports ecosystem, in India specifically, there’s an evident shift that is being seen. Tencent’s PUBGM or PUBG Mobile has dominated in 2019 in terms of prize pool in the country. A super Esports title like Dota 2 is experiencing a decline in viewership leading to teams dropping their rosters. However, it might not be very surprising. As the paradigm shifts largely from PC to mobile given the availability of smartphones and viewership accessibility, the majority share of tournaments, events and eventually prize pool is poised to shift into the mobile segment as well.

For  long-time Indian gamers, the shift came as a little challenging because mobile esports is very new but the good news is that it is gaining popularity by the day. However, not every player is already adept when he or she has to switch platforms. The dynamics of gameplay and controls change drastically which switching from console or PC to mobile entails, especially when you are not playing casual games. However, it has not deterred them from adapting and exploring opportunities.

“I am a PC gamer. I started with Call Of Duty 4 in 2011 and I played that game for about seven years consecutively,” says Pratik Mehra, the coach of Fnatic India PUBGM team.

Although he hails from a PC background, he is coaching the mobile team of one of the most premium esports organisations in the world.

Why?

Prateek Mehra

After winning multiple national and international events of PUBG PC, Mehra saw an opportunity in the mobile segment as it had more audience, prize-pool and overall opportunities.

Says Mehra: “I didn’t know how to play on mobile. However, because in PUBG 30 per cent is shooting and other 70 per cent is your strategy, your location, etc., I had an edge. I was the IGL (in game leader) of my team, who brings the team together and makes the shot calls. I am using my experience as a coach here. I will be guiding them about the strategies and more.”

For now, he says, he will continue streaming and creating content and also hone his skills on mobile and once he masters that he would stream PUBGM as well.

The appointment of a coach somewhat portrays the upward scale of the Indian industry. A handful of organisations or teams in India have had coaches for esports teams, let alone for a mobile title. A monthly earning of a coach can be somewhere between Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000, depending upon the title and the organisation. PUBGM has around 20 to 25 tier 1 teams in India and is evidently leading the market in terms of player-base and viewership. However, other titles are also enthusiastic about getting a slice of the market.

In 2019, Garena conducted its first tournament in India for the title Free Fire titled Free Fire India Today League with a total prize pool or Rs 35 Lakh divided among top 10 teams. The event was inaugurated by the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju.

Other titles like Clash Royale and most recently Call Of Duty Mobile are around as well.

As more titles are entering the esports scene, so are the opportunities.
 

Kiran Noojibail

30 year old Kiran Noojibail is the director of esports and broadcasting at LXG and one of the more prominent Indian shoutcasters (the person who gives commentary about the gameplay). Says he “I played Dota semi-professionally from the year 2007 to 2010. Back then there was barely any scope in terms of tournaments and the ones that were there had a registration fee and you would get something very minimal if you win, mostly a refund of your registration money if you were the runners up. Hence there was no means of making this a proper full-time profession.”

Going under the tag of ‘Shadeslayer,’ Noojibail casts multiple number of games ranging from Overwatch, Dota 2, Counter Strike Global Offensive and even PUBG.

He further continues, “After I completed my engineering and finished my work in 2015, I wondered what I could do. I was a trained public speaker; I had very good knowledge of Dota from the time when I had played it. I decided to give a shot at casting and started doing so in April 2015. That’s when I started working on my first gig as a shout caster.” 

Since then he has cast some of the major tournaments across India  and overseas.

The payment for shoutcasters in India can vary on certain aspects like talent, event and model. While at some events, they are paid in terms of the entire event they are also paid in accordance to matches, or even rounds.

With the advent of mobile, Noojibail says that the competition has increased in the market. As the audience grows to a sizebale number, the more tournaments will be around and more talented people from across the country will join the scene.


However, it also brings in more opportunities in other spectrums of the industry as well. Just like any other industry, the general profiles of cinematographers, post production crew, event agencies, designers, community managers, public relation individuals, marketing individuals, business development executives, social media handlers and many more will continue to increase.


Devesh Kabdwal has been instrumental in the earlier-mentioned COBX Masters. He donned the hat of VP media and marketing for COBX Gaming and even managed the company’s flagship team, Signify. Managing two teams of CS:GO and Dota 2 respectively, he said that even though the market is shifting into mobile first, the ways of managing a team and tailoring an esports brand remain the same.

Devesh Kabdwal

Both of Signify’s teams had a fine run during their tenure and dominated the scene in India, however according to Kabdwal, they had always aimed at competing in the South east Asian scene which is much more matured in terms of the PC market.

Said he, “Managing a team aspiring to be a formidable presence in the South East Asian scene alongside trying to create a brand came with challenges, but it has always been exciting.”

However, according to him, since the viewership was not as colossal as it is now thanks to mobile, it was a challenge to convince brands to get in. As the PC market has limitations in its audience base, it has been traditionally hard to get the mainstream brands on board, however mobile poses a much more lucrative ecosystem.

Just like traditional sports, esports in itself brings opportunities for athletes, irrespective of their traditional educational degrees. Pressure from parents to lean into a rather mainstream profession after completing education is somewhat a norm of Indian households. And in that line of competition, esports or rather ‘gaming’ does not hold a candle.

For some though, it was pure passion that took them ahead in the scene.

Akshay Dhodi, now 26, began playing professionally when he was 18. He dropped out of school when he was in the ninth standard, owing to family issues. He spent his days playing Dota 2 in LAN cafes despite his parents nagging him about how he was wasting his time, his life away. He paid off his cafe bills by helping others reach higher points in games and from college and cafe tournaments. In 2011, he got an offer to join Team Buriza in Hyderabad and he has not looked back since.

He joined the Asus ROG  team and became one of the better known players of the Indian Dota scene. Recently after leaving ROG, he is playing for a team named Whoops!, and is looking for a sponsorship.

Akshay Dhodi

Says he, “[Even though mobile is dominating] I am trying to increase my MMR (Matchmaking Rating) in Dota 2 and my sole focus is on this game. If the future does not bring much to me from this title, I might consider moving to some other title.”

An esports athlete in India gets around Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 as salary, depending on the organisation. However that is just for PC games. If reports are to be believed, Indian mobile esports players are getting paid somewhere between Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh, which is considerably higher than their PC counterparts.

However, it does not come as a surprise as more viewership generates higher ROI.

Esports and gaming in general is solidifying its place in the Indian market. Quite a few international biggies are already eyeing the market if reports are to be believed. 2020 will be an enormously critical year for the Indian scene. After dominating the US charts, COD Mobile will try to cement its position in the mobile-loving country. Albeit it will be hard to chip away PUBGM‘s already existing brand loyalty, it will not be impossible to make a dent to start with. This in turn will  force Tencent to up its game further in the nation.

While DreamHack open has already been confirmed for 2020, no other major tournaments have been announced.

As esports and content around it starts penetrating further into regional feeds, the viewership is likely to increase manifolds and hence the awareness. As a result, brands would be willing to invest more for visibility in a youth dominated country.

As far as Indian Esports go, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Watch out for the wave!

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Netflix’s first ‘Stranger Things 4’ trailer is out

The first teaser for Stranger Things 4, the upcoming fourth season of its breakout series, and it teases a shocking reappearance of a beloved character. Although the teaser doesn’t too disclose too much about the upcoming season, it seems as though the series is set to expand its footprints beyond the borders and feature Russia.

Here’s the clip

In 1980s Indiana, a group of young friends witness supernatural forces and secret government exploits. As they search for answers, the children unravel a series of extraordinary mysteries.

Fans have already been speculating based on the post-credit sequence in the final episode of the third season that Chief Jim Hopper (David Harbour) is back, despite appearing to have sucked into in the extradimensional portal.

Hopper’s survival might be related to the latest supernatural meddling in the Upside Down, condisering that the Russians were shown to have a captive Demogorgon monster in the previous episodes.

We don’t have the release dates yet but we can’t wait to watch the series.

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Nickelodeon adds three senior animation executives

Nickelodeon has added new executives to its to newly created senior positions in animation studio headquarters in Burbank. The new hires are former Fox Animation executive Darlene Caamaño Loquet as SVP of Nickelodeon Movies; former 20th Century Fox TV SVP casting Liz Paulson as SVP of Nickelodeon Animation casting and talent development; and former Walt Disney Animation Studios executive Camille Eden as vice president of Nickelodeon recruiting and talent development.

From left to right: Liz Paulson, Camille Eden and Darlene Caamano Loquet

All three will be reporting to Nickelodeon Animation Studios EVP Ramsey Naito. “Nickelodeon Animation is focused on three vital elements to drive our business forward — building the culture, developing talent and creating great animated content for kids and families everywhere — and Darlene, Liz and Camille are the perfect leaders to bring our creative-lead mission into the future,” said Naito.

In these newly created roles, Caamaño Loquet will oversee Nickelodeon’s movie business, building and managing a slate of content for features and SVOD services. Paulson will run animation casting and talent development for the animation studio which will include development and current series productions, movies and short form content; and Eden will lead the recruitment for the animation studio, finding and placing new talent that will help develop a growing slate of series and feature productions.

At Fox Animation, Caamaño Loquet brought in and packaged several projects including The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Zita the Space Girl and graphic novel Nimona. She began her executive career at DreamWorks Animation / Patchwork Productions.

Paulson at 20th Century Fox Television, oversaw scripted and animation television projects, including American Horror Story, 9-1-1, Empire, Bob’s Burgers, Bless The Harts and Fresh off the Boat, among others.

Eden’s credits at Walt Disney Animation Studios include Frozen 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Moana, Zootopia, Big Hero 6, Frozen and Wreck-It Ralph.

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Disney-Pixar’s ‘Onward’ to release in India on 6 March

Disney-Pixar has announced the release date for its next animated adventure, Onward in India. The urban fantasy film is slated to hit big screens on 6 March.

Set in a suburban fantasy world, Onward is about two teenage elf brothers who embark on a quest to spend a day with their deceased father and discover if there is a little magic left in the world.

“The story of Onward is inspired by my own relationship with my brother and our connection with our dad who passed away when I was about a year old. He’s always been a mystery to us. A family member sent us a tape recording of him saying just two words: ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’. Two words. But to my brother and me – it was magic,” said director Dan Scanlon.

Scanlon’s personal inspiration for Onward kicked off development for Pixar Animation Studios’ 22nd feature film. Chris Pratt has voiced the character of Barley Lightfoot, the big brother to Tom Holland’s Ian Lightfoot. The other cast members include Julia Louis Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer.

Added Scanlon, “We started with the characters first. We wanted to tell the story of two brothers. We knew one would be shy and awkward, and we wanted to pair him with a brother with a completely opposite personality-someone who has every intention of teaching him about life-but maybe doesn’t really know a lot himself.”

Both Holland and Pratt are equally excited about Onward and recently expressed how proud they are of this film, on Twitter.

“Holland (who voices for the younger brother) has an infectious charm and sincerity that makes you root for him in every character he plays. Pratt (who voices for the elder brother) brings equal parts huge heart and fantastic humour to his character,” noted producer Kori Rae.

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