January 8- 14, 2001 News

Monday, January 8, 2001

New Animated and Anime DVD Releases
Here is a list of animated and anime productions being released to DVD tomorrow (only three):

Cartoon Crazys - The Great Animators
Famous Studios
Jubei-Chan the Ninja Girl - Vol. 4: Final Showdown

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The Emperor's New Groove Surpasses $60 Million
Over the weekend, The Emperor's New Groove animated movie from Disney surpassed the $60 million mark, an amount most critics said the film couldn't surpass after its dead opening weekend. Since the holidays, The Emperor's New Groove has had consistently strong performances, leaving it with $62 million through Sunday and no family films upcoming to compete against it.

Tuesday, January 9, 2001

Box Office Results for Animated Films
Here are the Box Office results for animated films last weekend:

The Emperor's New Groove
$7.4 Million ($2,690 per screen average - 34% decrease)
6th at the Box Office (down from #5 last weekend)
Total to Date: $62.4 Million

Rugrats in Paris
$1.05 Million ($1,248 per screen average - 51% decrease)
19th at the Box Office (down from #15 last weekend)
Total to Date: $73 Million

Cyberworld 3D
$157,364 ($4,141 per screen average)
32nd at the Box Office
Total to Date: $4.6 million

Dinosaur
No longer in theaters.
Final Take: $137.7 Million

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Kaydara to Bring FiLMBOX to Mac OS X
Kaydara Inc. today announced that the new version of FiLMBOX®, Kaydara's real-time character animation system, will support Mac OS X. FiLMBOX for Mac OS X will provide both a hub for 3D data and a strong set of real-time 3D authoring tools, allowing Mac users to previsualize, storyboard and develop character animation.

FiLMBOX is a real-time character animation system designed to provide the basis of a complete digital media pipeline. Engineered specifically for the efficient creation and re-purposing of 3D character content, FiLMBOX combines real-time animation performance with the video and audio tools necessary for mixed-media 3D content authoring. FiLMBOX for Mac OS X will provide Mac users with the tools required to integrate 3D character content into film, game, broadcast and Web production. FiLMBOX is currently available on Windows NT, SGI IRIX and Red Hat Linux platforms.

"Kaydara is committed to providing its customers with the best real-time
character animation tools available," said Dan Kraus, director of business
development for Kaydara. "Not only is Mac OS X a powerful environment for
graphic applications but it also offers a unique environment for visual
effects production. We believe Mac OS X will hold a very important place in
the future of 3D content creation."

"Mac OS X's incredible graphics capabilities, with OpenGL for spectacular 3D
graphics, make it a fantastic platform for real-time 3D production," said
Clent Richardson, Apple's vice president of worldwide developer relations.
"FiLMBOX for Mac OS X is a powerful tool for real-time 3D animation and authoring that is sure to impress creative professionals worldwide, and Apple is thrilled to welcome this product to the Mac."

Pricing and Availability
FiLMBOX for Mac OS X will be released in mid-2001. Pricing and availability
details will be announced prior to shipment.

Wednesday, January 10, 2001

Three Animated Movies in Top 20 DVD Sales
Three animated movies coninue to perform well in DVD sales, once again making this weeks Top 20 DVD Sales list. In its fifth week of release, the animated Chicken Run movie placed 15th in overall DVD sales last week. Placing 18th in its sixth week of release is Disney's Fantasia 2000. Finally, placing 20th in its 10th week of release is Toy Story 2.

* * *

Maya 3 Coming for Mac OS X
Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, today announced that its Maya Complete 3 software for Mac OS X is scheduled to ship in the second quarter of 2001. Maya, a leading 3D animation and effects package, is one of the largest, most technically sophisticated programs to be built for the Mac OS X. The Mac version of Maya 3 will be entering the beta phase of its development within the next 30 days. Maya's rebuild as a Macintosh application will help traditional graphics artists bridge the gap between 2D and 3D.

"Alias|Wavefront developed many of Maya's unique features with the needs of traditional 2D graphics professionals in mind," states Richard Kerris, Director of Maya Technologies at Alias|Wavefront. "We were considering 2D artists when we developed the powerful brush-based techniques of Maya Artisan and created a 3D plug-in, based on Maya's amazing Paint Effects technology, for Adobe's After Effects software. Now, with Maya for Mac OS X we are clearly demonstrating how committed we are to making 3D graphics more accessible to the 2D artist."

Maya Complete 3 for Mac OS X will become available in Q2, 2001 for $7,500 USD, the same price as Maya 3 for the IRIX and Windows NT, Windows 2000 Professional platforms. International pricing may vary. The core features of the Mac OS X version of Maya will be the same as those in Maya for other platforms.

Thursday, January 11, 2001

Animated Failures Looked Good on Paper
The Washington Post has released an article about the Box Office results for year 2000 movies. In one part, the article states "The year 2000 shot down many pics that looked good on paper," listing Titan A.E. and The Road to El Dorado in its short list. It called Chicken Run a homerun for Dreamworks, stating that it succeeded "in animation where Fox and Warner Bros. have failed." The article also stated that Fox lost up to $100 million on Titan A.E. Click here to read the entire article, which mostly focuses on live action films.

Friday, January 12, 2001

Academy Award Visual Effects Nominees
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that it has lowered the nomination list for Best Visual Effects to seven movies. Those movies are:

Cast Away
Dinosaur
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Gladiator
Hollow Man
The Perfect Storm
X-Men

The list will be further narrowed to three by February 13, when the official Academy Award Nominations are announced.

* * *

Anime: More than Pokemon
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has published an article that talks about anime and how it is more than Pokemon. It also has some incorrect "facts" saying that Princess Mononoke hit the US "a couple of years ago". The article begins:

"Do you remember a couple of years ago when the English-language dubbed version of Princess Mononoke opened in the United States?

The second-highest grossing film ever in Japan (after Titanic) was coming to America to change the way we think about cartoons. And while I guess the film did OK in the United States -- according to the Internet Movie Database it grossed about $2.3 million in U.S. box office (as opposed to something more than 18 billion yen in Japan, about $155 million) -- it didn't really make much of a dent in the collective consciousness.

It came out on video a couple of weeks ago. I dutifully rented a copy and spent a couple of hours watching it. It seems, well, anticlimactic..."

Click here for the full story.

Saturday, January 13, 2001

Discreet is Back on Its Feet
According to the Montreal Gazette,

"Not long ago, Discreet Logic Inc. was one of the brightest, brashest lights on the Montreal multimedia scene - never shy to brag about its special-effects software used to help produce movie blockbusters such as Titanic and Forrest Gump.

Quirky company founder Richard Szalwinski enjoyed spectacular initial success with the digital-animation firm he launched in 1992, using a $27,000 grubstake. He took Discreet public on the Nasdaq in 1995. By early 1998, his company briefly broke through $1 billion Canadian in market capitalization.

Then things fell apart. After management turmoil, an aborted acquisition and a series of quarterly profit shortfalls, Szalwinski agreed in August 1998 to sell the company to U.S. software giant Autodesk Inc. The price paid to Discreet's shareholders in Autodesk shares had to be chopped twice before the takeover was finally completed in March 1999..."

Click here for the full story.

Sunday, January 14, 2001

Rugrats Lead Billion Dollar Toddler TV
According to USA Today:

"...The success of Nickelodeon and Rugrats, the highest-rated kids show in cable or broadcast with nearly 27 million weekly viewers, is just one sign that children's programming, both animation and live-action, is enjoying a golden era. Daring animation and inventive stories are bubbling up from many sources in a business where toy promotions served as a leading program inspiration little more than a decade ago..."

Click here for the full story.

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