Midweek Linksfest

So many articles, so little time. (And I'm running around to studios the next few days, so a mid-week mini-festival of links is in order. I don't have time just now for a pithy think-piece.)

Director Kevin Lima expounds on his dreams and career:

[Re: Enchanted]: “How does a Disney animated film balance all of these [different] genres?” Because very, very often in those films, especially in the Renaissance of Disney animation with The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, they tended to balance a lot of different genres. You know, this movie is a romantic comedy, it’s a musical, it has action-adventure elements and it’s a 2D and 3D animated film, all in one. So, I looked back to what we had done with those classic films and used that in my structure.

(Variety details Lima's latest film project here).

Runaway production to Iowa (not just to the arid Middle East) ... where the corn is as high as a pachyderm's eye.

A family-owned animation company servicing the entertainment industry has moved to Winfield from Los Angeles after Iowa legislators created new tax incentives for film companies locating in the state.

The Iowa Film, Television and Video Project Promotion Program was passed in 2007 to provide tax incentives to attract the film industry, job diversity, and talent to the state. The Iowa Film Office of the Iowa Department of Economic Development operates the program.

“It created fertile ground for companies to relocate to Iowa,” said Stephen M. Jennings, founder and co-president of Grasshorse Technologies Inc. “It was the deciding factor in our transition to Iowa.”

Nick is trailing the Disney Channel into the wonderful world of live-action:

Nickelodeon will follow the Disney Channel into the live-action family-movie business in August with "Gym Teacher," a comedy starring Christopher Meloni ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit") as Dave Stewie, a humiliated Olympian turned "Rambo in polyester shorts and a whistle,"

On the other hand, a new cartoon series arrives on Nick in late April:

"The Mighty B!" [launches April 26], Amy Poehler's new cartoon series about Bessie Higgenbottom, an "aspirational superheroine who's kind of intense and gets advice from her index finger ..."

Disney is getting into the anime game, adapting some of its animation titles to the Japanese market:

US entertainment giant Walt Disney on Thursday unveiled pilot versions of television animation series it is producing in first-of-a-kind tie-ups with Japanese animation studios.

The move, first announced earlier this month, marks a change of strategy for Disney, which has traditionally distributed US-made characters Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck around the world.

A Japanese adaptation of the popular US "Lilo and Stitch" series will start in late 2008 as "the first Disney animation made in Japan and set in Japan," an official at the Japanese arm of Walt Disney said.

Okay, we're over the middle-of-the-week hump. I want everybody to sprint to the finish.