Animation News II

Daikun · **Daikun**

Taken from Toon Zone:

AngelHedgie · **AngelHedgie**

Who the fuck rehired Kellner?!?
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Proud creator of the Wikipedia RX-78 mobile suit series article.

Best line from a Cartoon Cartoon: "Sometimes love hurts, Pud'n. And I love you very much."

MegamanTrigger · **MegamanTrigger**

"Loonatics" has been catching a lot of flak down at the GameFAQs, board since Wednesday.

And to honest, I agree with them. You do not take some of the greastest icons of American animation and slaughter their good names and forms like that.
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"Just checking."

"Is everything all right?"

"Yep. Two dead bodies, everything's normal."

ToonamiL · **ToonamiL**

I'm skeptical about the whole Loonatics. Are they trying to help drive a nail in Looney Tunes? This will probably not rejuvenate a 'dying series'. Besides, if it is a 'dying series', then why don't they just make more of the classic shorts we grew up with (I was there when Nick were showing it while CN was doing the same)? Or what about just bring the old shorts back into mainstream for 30 minutes every day? If they want more, they'll order Boomerbang, right?

But another series, Duck Dodgers, doesn't really butcher the Looney Tunes. It's a continuation of the original. This Loonatics will get cancelled before the first season's over. Guaranteed. I'll watch, just to see how bad they screwed it up. Let's just hope they don't do the same with Mickey and friends (who, by the way, was rejuvenated years back in the form of House of Mouse, where they played NEW shorts).

Daikun · **Daikun**

New York City-based Noodlesoup Productions, Inc. is expanding to form a new original content creation division - Noodlesoup Entertainment - that will solely focus on the development and production of high-quality original animated feature films and television programming.

Noodlesoup is best known for its breakout Cartoon Network hit series, The Venture Bros., as well as for the work of its commercial division's campaigns for MSN and Earthlink. Noodlesoup Ent. is already beginning development on several new programs with major U.S. distributors.

Jeffrey Nodelman, the award-winning animation director and founder of Noodlesoup, has been named chief creative officer of Noodlesoup Entertainment while Nathan Graf, who had served as the COO of Noodlesoup, becomes CEO, overseeing all business operations of the company including its "for hire" production projects.

"This is a very positive move for the studio as it expands beyond the production services business," said David L. Simon, a member of Noodlesoup's board of directors. "With Jeff's unique talent and storytelling abilities, we will now be able to actively peruse the means to create and retain equity in our original projects."

"The extraordinarily talented group of people we have here have done their jobs so well, allowing us to expand our operations and grow the studio on both a creative and an economic basis," said Nodelman. "This move will let me spend more time on the projects we have in development, while allowing me to begin pursuing opportunities for additional co-productions and new properties."

Added Graf, "Jeff and I look forward to complementing each other in new and different ways, moving forward that will help to benefit the company as it enters a new phase in it evolution. Strategically, this works well for both of us. By my taking the reins of the day-to-day needs of the service sector business, Jeffrey can now concentrate on what he does best and not be saddled with responsibilities that detract from his creative endeavors."
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Toonami visual schedule - UPDATED AUGUST 2, 2015

Daikun · **Daikun**

GENEON ENTERTAINMENT ACQUIRES NORTH AMERICAN MERCHANDISING, TELEVISION AND HOME ENTERTAINMENT RIGHTS TO SUPER-POWERED PROPERTY VIEWTIFUL JOE

Deal Brings TV Tokyo Animated Series To North America

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Geneon Entertainment, a leader in introducing anime to the United States, announced today that it has acquired the North American merchandising, television and home entertainment rights to TV TOKYO Medianet, Inc’s Viewtiful Joe. With a staunch following, Viewtiful Joe has become a global sensation since its debut on the Nintendo GameCube, which ultimately spawned a successful television series and licensing program in Japan. Geneon Entertainment will expand the property into North America through licensed toys, action figures, clothing, publishing, food and beverages, electronics and more. In addition, the company is currently in talks with major children’s television networks and programming blocks to secure broadcast distribution and will also release the Viewtiful Joe series on DVD.

“Viewtiful Joe has already proven itself to have wide-ranging appeal and our expertise in introducing properties into this market will help ensure the program’s success,�? said said Yosuke Kobayashi, president/CEO, Geneon Entertainment. “The series’ clever story line and compelling characters lend themselves naturally to licensed merchandise and we believe that the North American audience will embrace it.�?

Based on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube console games, developed by Capcom Co. Ltd., a worldwide leader in the development and publishing of video games, Viewtiful Joe is a combination of Japanimation and American comic-style character design that is ripe with action and loaded with comedy. Joe is just a normal guy with two great loves: his girlfriend Silvia and Captain Blue, an action movie superhero. When Silvia is magically captured through a movie screen by a celluloid monster, Joe gets himself swallowed into the screen to save her. There, Joe meets Captain Blue just as the superhero is about to retire, exhausted from his lifelong battle against villains known as Jadows. With special superpowers bestowed upon him by Captain Blue himself, Joe transforms into Viewtiful Joe to vanquish the enemies in Movie Land.

Named Game Of The Year by USA Today*, Viewtiful Joe is among many gamers’ favorite franchises worldwide, garnering several accolades including the G-Phoria awards, SpikeTV Video Game Awards and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Games Awards. As a producer and distributor of entertainment content, Geneon Entertainment has a slate of licensing programs, including the popular hip-hop style property Samurai Champloo and the highly anticipated Tesujin 28, due out in theaters later this year.

About TV TOKYO Medianet, Inc.

Based in Tokyo, Japan, TV TOKYO Medianet, Inc. is the licensing arm of TV TOKYO Corporation which is best known for hit series such as “Yu-Gi-Go!�?, “Pokemon�? and “Beyblade.�? All rights to the “Viewtiful Joe�? series outside North America are handled by TV TOKYO Medianet.
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Toonami visual schedule - UPDATED AUGUST 2, 2015

AngelHedgie · **AngelHedgie**

Henshin-a-go-go, baby.
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Proud creator of the Wikipedia RX-78 mobile suit series article.

Best line from a Cartoon Cartoon: "Sometimes love hurts, Pud'n. And I love you very much."

AngelHedgie · **AngelHedgie**

Chris of MAHQ has an interview with Bandai Entertainment's Jerry Chu, in which Jerry talks about BEI's plans for the US market this year.

On the Gundam front:

Daikun · **Daikun**

After a bidding war, 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios have landed the rights to adapt Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who as a CG-animated movie.

Horton the elephant, one of children's book author Dr. Seuss' most lovable characters, will be CG-animated by Fox's digital boutique Blue Sky Studios, which launches its second feature, Chris Wedge's Robots, on Friday.

Christopher Meledandri, president of 20th Century Fox Animation, who supervises New York-based Blue Sky, approached Dr. Seuss Enterprises and author Theodor Geisel's wife and estate executor, Audrey Geisel, almost two years ago to discuss the possibility of creating a 3D-animated movie based on one of Dr. Seuss' books.

"I have always wanted to find a way to do a digitally animated Dr. Seuss movie," Meledandri said. "I have loved Dr. Seuss since I was a little kid."

FILM-FRIENDLY STRUCTURE

Meledandri was most interested in Horton Hears a Who because of the book's narrative structure. "It's one of the few Dr. Seuss' books that has a story with three acts," he said. "One of the challenges of translating some other Dr. Seuss properties to the big screen is the simplicity of the story. Horton has a great beginning, middle, and end. And it has a fantastic theme: A person is a person no matter how small."

Audrey Geisel, who collaborated with Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment on the live-action features How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat, initially was resistant to adapting any of her husband's books as CG movies, according to Meledandri.

"Her largest concern is that any film adaptation is respectful of what Ted Geisel was creating in his books," he said. "We discussed the CG animation and the talents of artists at Blue Sky and (we) offered the opportunity to take those fantastic drawings that her husband created and bring an audience into those worlds in a way that the audience actually believed those worlds existed."

To help persuade Geisel, Meledandri had Mike De Feo, head of Blue Sky's modeling department, sculpt a pivotal scene from the book. The model showed the Mayor of Whoville holding little Jo-Jo up above his head. Fox also created a painting of Horton and a sculpture.

"She was really touched by that," Meledandri said.

CLINCHING THE DEAL

Once Audrey Geisel demonstrated an interest in bringing Horton to the screen, a number of studios, including DreamWorks and Sony, entered the picture, but Meledandri was able to close the deal by giving Audrey Geisel, who will serve as executive producer on the movie, certain creative approvals.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises declined comment.

Fox has also acquired rights to the second book in the Horton series, Horton Hatches an Egg.

Blue Sky is in the early stages of visual development on Horton. A director is expected to be announced in a few months. Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, who both worked on The Santa Clause 2, have been tapped to write the screenplay.

Horton Hears a Who is slated to follow Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios' Ice Age 2 in late 2007 or early 2008.
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Toonami visual schedule - UPDATED AUGUST 2, 2015

Nobuyuki · **Nobuyuki**

I shudder to think how they'll pad this one out to feature-length... I think Chuck Jones got it right the first time (of course, I always think that Wink

)
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"When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."- C.S. Lewis
Wink

"Superman can't be emo. He can't cut himself."-CP

Daikun · **Daikun**

Ice Age 2 teaser trailer
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Toonami visual schedule - UPDATED AUGUST 2, 2015

Nobuyuki · **Nobuyuki**

MipTV Tradeshow News: About a week ago the folks at Anime on DVD were told to keep an eye out for some interesting Geneon news to come out of the MipTV tradeshow in France, which is one of the many shows throughout the year where new series, properties and licenses are looked at, promoted, bought and sold and all that fun stuff. Thanks to an extremely reliable source, they've got three pieces of news that can pretty much be called exclusives (until now Razz

):

One: Geneon Entertainment (USA) is involved in a new Hellsing OVA series. No number of episodes is listed but they're talking 35 minutes per episode and based on actual manga material.

- According to the flyer linked at AoD, it appears that a veteran team has been assembled to make this happen, with Studio Orphee stalwarts Yosuke Kuroda (Gungrave & Trigun, among numerous other series) and Hideyuki Kurata (creator of R.O.D., also quite accomplished) as the writing team, while Haibane Renmei director Tomokazu Tokoro and animation studio Satelight (Heatguy J and Geneshaft) make the pretty drawings. Cool

Two: Geneon Entertainment (USA) has the new Manglobe series called Ergo Proxy by Shukou Murase. It is listed as 23 episode with Murase as director and Dai Sato as the writer.

- Manglobe's just finished project: Samurai Champloo Cool

Three: Geneon Entertainment (USA) has acquired the rights to the Erementar Gerad anime series.

- This was previously announced as an ADV Films license back on 02/18/2004 due to their name showing up in the production credits via the Moon Phase site but this information supercedes that.
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"When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."- C.S. Lewis
Wink

"Superman can't be emo. He can't cut himself."-CP

Daikun · **Daikun**

Eleven-year-old Thomas Adams thought Warner Bros. had gone daffy when he saw the company's plans for a new cartoon called Loonatics, based on Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes pals.

The grimacing, hollow-eyed, power-fisted prototypes of a futuristic Bugs, Wile E. Coyote, and Road Runner struck the boy as dark and scary. In the words of Daffy Duck, he found them "dethh-picable."

Now, nearly two months after starting an Internet petition drive against the TV series' Fall debut, Thomas has gotten the company's attention.

Warner Bros. Entertainment spokesman Scott Rowe said his company wants the thousands of fans upset by the made-over characters unveiled in February to know "that's NOT all, folks."

Those "early drawings" have been revised into characters that are softer and less menacing, he said.

"We heard the outcry from fans, including Thomas," Rowe said.

That's enough to draw an emphatic "YESSS!" from the lanky fifth-grader who started the stir with fewer than 20 signatures on a piece of paper at his private school.

Thomas couldn't figure out what was up with the plans to turn the old Looney Tunes gang into their Japanese anime-styled descendants. The prototypes depicted sword-eared superheroes, such as "Buzz Bunny" (later renamed "Ace" after Seven's Heaven filed suit, claiming to the rights to the original name), battling evil in the year 2772.

"Those weren't the Looney Tunes I know," said the boy . . .

Thomas' parents, Rachel and John Adams, suggested he might have more success by taking his drive to the Web. A family friend who runs an Internet design business was willing to help.

Between piano lessons and shooting hoops, the boy pedaled his bike to the friend's house over several evenings to work on the site's content. On February 28, www.saveourlooneytunes.com came online.

The petition asked Warner Bros. to create entirely new characters for the series instead of "ruining" the old ones.

Within days, the response had overwhelmed the family's home computer. By late March, more than 25,000 people from around the world had signed the petition. After a CNN story on Thomas aired in mid-April, the site had tallied 80,000 signatures and 95,000 hits, the family said.

"Keep up the fight," fellow fans urged in their Emails, calling the boy an inspiration.

The passion of fans for the old characters is understandable, said Bob Bergen, the voice actor behind Porky's stutter and Tweety's "putty tat" the past 15 years.

"They've been around since the 1930s," he said. "They've been around as long as classic motion pictures."

Bergen, who decided at age 5 he wanted to be Porky Pig and "just pursued it," is not involved in the new series' development, but he cautions fans against rushing to judgment before it airs.

"The kids who are going to be seeing this are not as versed in classic Looney Tunes as these fans are," he said. "Let the target audience be the judge."

Loonatics -- scheduled to air Saturday mornings come fall on Kids' WB! -- is aimed at 6-to-11-year-olds. Test groups loved it, Rowe said.

It's not intended to replace the original characters, which appear in new episodes on Cartoon Network (Duck Dodgers, Baby Looney Tunes) and classic shows on the network's station Boomerang.

"We just wanted to create something that would be accessible and fun to a new generation of kids," he said.

He said the redrawn characters will be unveiled at a later date but that Loonatics will remain an action-adventure show.

Thomas, who has dreams of becoming a cartoonist or comedian, hopes Warner Bros. also will continue to create new episodes for the old Looney Tunes gang.
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Toonami visual schedule - UPDATED AUGUST 2, 2015

Nobuyuki · **Nobuyuki**

A summary of Anime Boston announcements as cribbed from Anime on DVD and Anime News Network:

Media Blasters
(hosted by Company president John Sirabella)

- Ah! My Goddess TV will be coming out in the second half of the year. John isn't sure who will be dubbing AMG yet, but it could possibly be Bang Zoom!.

- The Genshiken artbox will be similar to the R2 one. Genshiken will be dubbed in NY.

FUNimation
(hosted by Lance Heiskell & Adam Sheehan)

- The panel kicked off with a summary of all the upcoming releases for the coming year, speckled with plenty of side commentary and jokes to keep attendees entertained.

- Afterwards, they showed a sneak preview of the new dub for Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki OVA 3. The first disc will be released on July 5 of this year, with the first three episodes. Sheehan briefly talked about the dub cast and said that the voice of Ryoko would be played by Mona Marshall, as a replacement of the non-returning Petrea Burchard.

- Heiskell also talked about upcoming FUNimation merchandise, including two Fruits Basket shirts featuring Yuki and Kyo that would be at Hot Topic. He also showed two of their newest felt caps, Momiji and Shigure. While he didn’t have an example to show, he also said that there would be a reversible Hatsuharu cap.

- There will be plenty of other series merchandise available too, including Burst Angel figures of Meg and Jo, a Fullmetal Alchemist and Case Closed trading card game, 2006 calendars for Case Closed, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Fruits Basket, and new shirts and messenger bags for a variety of series.

- There was one new acquisition announced, the Gonzo-made Sunabozu, which will be Desert Punk for the North American release.

- The representatives also mentioned that FUNimation was “going Gonzo�? this year, and would be announcing other Gonzo licenses at other conventions this year.

Bandai Entertainment
(Studio Representative - Jerry Chu)

- Bandai Entertainment made no new licensing announcements at Anime Boston.

- The entire 13-episodes of Avenger will be come out in a single release, with a collector's tin box for $29.98. This was a special arrangement.

- Chu then spoke about Bandai's current co-production deals, Eureka 7 and IGPX. Eureka 7 is being co-produced with Studio Bones, and will cover multiple platforms, centered around the anime. There will be a manga, videogame and soundtrack releases. All aspects of the property are expected to be released in North America. The anime will be 50 episodes in length.

- IGPX is a co-production between Bandai Entertainment, Cartoon Network and Production I.G. Regarding concerns that the title might be "dumbed down" for western audiences, Mr. Chu immediately stated that this would not happen by pointing out that the Cartoon Network producers are working closely with Production I.G to make sure that the show will appeal first and foremost to Japanese fans. The production budget is on par with that of Stand Alone Complex, so fans should look forward to similar quality animation. Clips of IGPX will be unveiled at San Diego Comic Con next month. The series is expected to debut on Cartoon Network this fall.

- Regarding Bandai Manga, Chu said that the company was looking to go about business in a different manner than what fans are used to from North American manga studios. While Bandai Manga will do traditional licensing, their focus will be on original products by Japanese manga-ka and based on already existing, popular anime titles. He expects to make a "huge" announcement regarding the label sometime in the coming week. Releases should start this summer, perhaps in August.

- A Scrapped Princess empty box for the entire series will "more than likely" be available with the last volume.

- As with Stand Alone Complex, 2nd Gig will have Special Edition releases with DTS and packaged extras. Bandai is looking at bundled figurines (Tachicoma were given as a possible example) for the SE releases. 2nd Gig will be broadcast on Cartoon Network.

ADV Films

- The Place Promised in Our Early Days confirmed as licensed. It will be getting a limited theatrical release.

Geneon Animation

- Licensing announcements for Bottle Fairy, Doki Doki School Hours and Starship Operators.

Maybe there'll be more information later in the week.
Reviews are scathing, but if Bandai's really releasing all of Avenger for $30, I may have to get it anyway. (Mashimo fanboy)
And Belldandy makes a great Christmas present. Very Happy

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"When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."- C.S. Lewis
Wink

"Superman can't be emo. He can't cut himself."-CP

AngelHedgie · **AngelHedgie**


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