Stories both new and of the last week in the linkage of our lives.
Brittany Murphy died today, and the Guardian has a nice overview (with clips) of her career:
Murphy looked like she had a sense of humour and a striking lack of pretention – her longest running gig was voice work for US animation King of the Hill.
Robert the Sponge is re-upped for another season:
... Nickelodeon announced Tuesday that it will bring back SpongeBob, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and others from the hit series for 26 original episodes, bringing the total number of episodes for the series to 178 ...
Variety gives the new chipmunks opus a "thumbs up".
Ticketbuyers who scurried to see the smash hit "Alvin and the Chipmunks" two Christmases ago likely will want to double their pleasure with "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," a frenetic but undeniably funny follow-up that offers twice the number of singing-and-dancing rodents in another seamless blend of CGI and live-action elements. The new pic comes off as more specifically kid-centric than its predecessor, but should nonetheless have similarly nostalgic appeal for baby boomers who remember the title characters as '50s novelty-record phenomena, '60s primetime cartoon stars and '80s Saturday morning TV attractions. Theatrical prospects are huge; homevid potential, humongous. ...
And The Princess and the Frog will (again) have its work cut out for it.
Then there is the animation industry on the other side of the world.
... While the Indian market has not taken to animated content, an Indian animated property is creating a flutter in overseas markets. Little Krishna, the maiden project of Big Animation , a part of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s (ADAG) Reliance MediaWorks, was first acquired by Viacom Media's animation entertainment channel Nick for the South Asian territory.
Now, international television content distributor Evergreen Entertainment has bought the film for global distribution. Produced by Big Animation and Iskcon’s India Heritage Foundation, Little Krishna is the first Indian animation content Nick and Evergreen Entertainment have ever bought.
Big Animation has made Little Krishna in two formats—13-half hour episodes and three feature films of 85 minutes each. The 13-part series is already being broadcast on Nick in India and earlier this month won the best animation award at the Asian Television Awards in Singapore ...
“We had a good run in India and for the first time an Indian original animation IP is making its presence felt globally. The deal with a global distribution giant like Evergreen was the icing on the cake. It will give a boost to Indian animation. We are also looking to have the series dubbed in local languages across all countries and from this month, Little Krishna will be available on every major shelf in the country.” ...
I'm not sure how "Little Krishna" will play in a Muslim or Catholic country, but good luck ...
And we'll end with TZ's recitation of the possible but not necessarily obvious.
* Pixar will release a film that flops at the box office. When this happens, it will be a shock to the 3D CGI animated film system.
* Zemeckis will continue to chase his mocap boondoggle while Katzenberg continues to chase his 3-D boondoggle as long as the money holds out for them.
* Classically animated films will continue to play a smaller role in theatrically released animation. Princess and the Frog may resurrect hand-drawn animation for Disney, but none of the other major studios are set up for that style of storytelling any longer and they still won't see much value in doing it.
If 3-D is a boondoggle, then a lot of people are heading for trouble, not just Jeffrey. (And if you're working next week, try to knock off early on Thursday. It will be good for your soul.)
Posts
5 comments:
People love to predict gloom and doom on things they are jealous of. Bottom line is, no one knows anything.
Very sad to hear about Britney Murphy
I heard The Oblongs is coming back. That was a Film Roman show. Would they have to keep doing it there or could they take it elsewhere? If they can, must it be a TAG shop? It was also a WGA show, with Warner Bros. Television as the writers' shop. I'm just not familiar with how long union contracts last.
Companies have a habit of doing what's best for their perceived self-interest. They can always form a new non-union entity to produce an older show that was discontinued but brought back.
I have no idea what they will do in this instance. We'll wait and see.
There have been too many other 3D CGI success in the past few years for a Pixar failure to be a shock to the system, especially since every upcoming Pixar picture has had a rumor about it that it was an impending debacle. If it actually turned out to be true once, people would just say "we were expecting it".
Now if a Pixar and a DreamWorks and a BlueSky picture all failed in the same year, that might get some panic going.
Companies have a habit of doing what's best for their perceived self-interest. They can always form a new non-union entity to produce an older show that was discontinued but brought back.
I wouldn't bet on Warner Bros. Television opening a non-union subsidiary when they have Warner Bros. Animation. I was thinking more along the lines of them subcontracting it to a company that's not union like Film Roman. Maybe Rough Draft or Bento Box.
Post a Comment