Uncategorized Archives

Jun232017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Shanghai Media Group ties up with Tiny Island Productions for sci-fi animated kids series Dream Defenders

Shanghai Media Group’s WingsMedia in association with Tiny Island Productions has launched a new collaborative slate on their planned mega-franchise Starship MZ starting with a media franchise based on sci-fi animated kids series Dream Defenders. As part of its sci-fi intellectual property strategy, WingsMedia hopes to grow Starship MZ properties into China’s equivalent of the Marvel Universe franchise. When Starship MZ launches this year, Tiny Island Productions will create content based on Dream Defenders which will lead to a new TV series, feature film and comics, all adapted for the China market. Last year, WingsMedia’s original science-fiction reality show Starship MZ: 2049 proved to be a success with audiences nationwide. The Starship MZ franchise will leverage the populari

Jun222017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Throwback Thursday: Seven best animated superhero movies

Animation, Uncategorized

With the Wonder Woman doing excellent business overseas, we thought of digging into our treasure trove to find out seven best animated superhero movies that have been immensely liked and revered. Here they are: The Incredibles The Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and written and directed by Brad Bird. The film follows a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers and live a quiet suburban life. Mr. Incredible's desire to help people draws the entire family into a battle with his longtime enemy—Syndrome, who was once his fan and now plots to wipe out every single superhuman being on Earth with his killer robot. We love this movie so much that we term it is as our second favourite Pixar movie after Findi

Jun172017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Annecy and Mifa report record attendance; announce winners

Animation, Uncategorized

The Annecy International Animation Festival and Moving images Film Academy (Mifa) have reported record attendance at this year’s event. The Festival wraps up today. An estimated 3,000 professionals from 74 countries attended Mifa this year’s four-day event. The festival has also reported surpassing 10,000 accreditations for this year. Demand also was high for the recruitment sessions with more than 900 applicants invited to take part in 75 recruitment sessions. More than sixty studios including Illumination MacGuff, Pixar, LAIKA, ILM, Cartoon Network Asia, Mikros Animation, Xilam and TeamTo met young professionals on the market from all over the world. The professionals included 56% French, 37% European and 7% non-European. Along with the organisers of the festival announced the na

Jun152017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Tenerife to celebrate the first edition of the Ibero-American Animation Quirino awards next year

Animation, Uncategorized

The island of Tenerife awaits the dawn of next year when it will celebrate the first edition of the Ibero-American Animation Quirino awards. The same was announced at the Annecy International Animation Festival today. The trophies have been named in honor of the creator of the first animated feature film in history when Quirino Cristiani directed El Apóstol in 1917. An Argentine production, the film had as many as 58,000 drawings in 35 mm as well as several mock ups representing public buildings and the streets of the city of Buenos Aires. Cristiani’s work reached even Walt Disney who travelled to Argentina in 1941 for the premiere of Fantasy. That is why the Quirino awards are meant to be a homage to the Ibero-American talent and creativity. The main aims of these awards are: to value

Jun132017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Nurture Rights expands its Dinosaur Roar! universe

Animation, Uncategorized

With the launch of a licensing and publishing programme based on an all-new ‘The World of Dinosaur Roar! Pre-school brand, London-based kids media company Nurture Rights has expanded its Dinosaur Roar! universe. Inspired by the classic 1990s picture book Dinosaur Roar! by Paul Stickland and Henrietta Stickland, each title in the new series will teach pre-schoolers about dinosaurs with fun facts and a pronunciation guide. Written by Jeanne Willis, the new book collection has launched with inaugural titles Dinosaur Roar! The Tyrannosaurus rex and Dinosaur Boo: The Deinonychus. Upcoming titles due to appear starting in July include Dinosaur Stomp: The Triceratops and Dinosaur Munch: The Diplodocus. Following the book launch, Nurture Rights will manage a wide-ranging licensing campaign f

Jun122017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

On demand network Toku now on Amazon Prime

Uncategorized

The round-the-clock live and on-demand network TOKU of Olympusat is now available on Amazon Prime members. It will serve up its collection of distinctive anime, live-action titles and cult film and TV classics from Asia dubbed in English on Amazon Channels. “TOKU caters to a wide audience of anime, tokusatsu and Asian programming fans which is why we are thrilled to work with Amazon to bring our cutting-edge content to more viewers on more devices,” said Jesus Piñango, Director of TV Content Strategy at Olympusat. “Amazon Prime and Amazon Channels are a great stride in the distribution of our network, as well as in our commitment to support multicultural content and offer unrivaled content,” he added. TOKU’s on-demand content includes fan-favourite anime series such as Ladies Versu

Jun122017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Distribution360 sells number of its series to Starz

Animation, Uncategorized

Toronto-based Distribution360 has sold a number of series to US premium cable and satellite network Starz. The network has acquired US pay-TV and SVOD rights of Skatoony, Snapshots, The Mystery Files, The Prime Radicals and Atomic Betty. The deal includes the first two seasons of Skatoony, a mixed-media game show that pits tweens against cartoons. It has been produced by Distribution360, the parent company of marblemedia for Teletoon. It is based on an original Cartoon Network format. Season one of Apartment 11-produced The Mystery Files is also a part of the deal along with The Prime Radicals, a live-action show about kids using math to solve misadventures that’s produced by GAPC Entertainment for TVO. The first season of Atomic Betty’s, produced by Skywriter Media and Entertainm

Jun122017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Team TO announces pre-sale of comedy series Take it Easy

Animation, Uncategorized

Leading European CGI studio TeamTO has announced the presale of its maverick new comedy series Take it Easy Mike to leading European networks France Télévisions (France) and SUPER RTL (Germany). Currently in full pre-production, the ambitious series has been given to go-ahead signal, with its delivery planned for 2018 and broadcast scheduled for early 2019. At the heart of the series is Mike, a refined pug with boundless energy and sophisticated tastes who’s set on seducing Cindy, the lovely neighbour’s dog. Sadly, his plans never seem to work out as a bunch of trouble-makers always interferes. Freddy and Mercury the racoons, Fluffy the cutest kitten and the turtle trio have a knack of showing up at the worst possible moments dragging Mike into a series of unforeseen twists and turn

Jun102017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Xilam promotes F. Xavier de Maistre as EVP

Animation, Uncategorized

Award-winning French animation production company, Xilam has promoted F. Xavier de Maistre as EVP of the organisation and Human Resources to help usher the company through its present development and manage its future growth. His responsibilities will include leading recruitment strategies, optimising in-house organisation and management as well as forecasting for future positions. Maistre will also continue to head-up Xilam’s corporate communication division which he has overseen ever since the company’s animation wing entered the stock market in 2002. Maistre said, “With its 400 (and growing) employees, spread over four different sites – Paris, Angoulême, Lyon, Ho-Chi-Mihn-Ville – I am excited at the prospect of taking on more varied responsibilities, with the emphasis this time o

Jun62017 by Ashish MitraNo Comments

Studio Rovio effects several changes to its BoD; elevates Mika as new Chairman

Studio, Uncategorized

After the departure of its chairman Kaj Hed, Angry Birds developing studio Rovio has effected some changes to its board of directors with a new chairman taking over. After almost a decade in the position, Kaj Hed has stepped down. After his going, Mika Ihamuotila will lead the board having already been a member for four years. Incidentally, Ihamuotila is also a member of the board at Nordic media group Sanoma Corporation and executive chairman for Finnish textile and clothing design company Marimekko. "I am more than excited about my new role as the chairman of Rovio," he said. "I have had the opportunity to build Rovio's future as a Board member since 2013. Rovio is a great company with strong and profitable growth last year. It is a privilege to take part in writing Rovio's succe...