Village Gamer

Toronto – LG Electronics Canada, a leader and technology innovator in Home Electronics, has announced the inaugural LG Life’s Good FilmFest (LGfilmfest.com), a global film competition open to budding movie makers of all skill sets and abilities. Unlike most film festivals, the Life’s Good FilmFest is free to enter for film-makers, and free and open for all to enjoy this fall.

“There really is no other film festival like the LG Life’s Good FilmFest,” says Tim Barnes, Marketing Team Leader, LG Electronics Canada. “We wanted to create a Film Festival that celebrates Life’s Good, inspiring film-makers to tell their uplifting stories, and allowing film enthusiasts to enjoy those stories. Bring the two together through free and open access inspires us all to celebrate Life’s Good. That’s what we’ve done with the Life’s Good FilmFest.”

Starting today, film-makers can enter their submissions into one of four categories: Animation, Fashion & Music, Sports and Narrative. Each entry must be no longer than five minutes in length and express an uplifting, life affirming message that best demonstrates the notion that “Life’s Good”. There will be four prizes awarded. Three of the four category winners will receive $10,000 in prize money. The fourth category winner, who is chosen as the overall winner, will receive the grand prize of $100,000 in prize money. The entry deadline is 5pm ET, October 16, 2009. Each submission will be judged and winners are to be announced in early January 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto – Corus Entertainment’s YTV announced today a special sneak peek of the highly anticipated CGI animated comedy series, The Penguins of Madagascar, on Friday, June 26 at 8 p.m. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, creator of the Academy Award® winning Shrek, in association with Nickelodeon, The Penguins of Madagascar will premiere on Saturday, September 12 at 9 a.m. in YTV’s Saturday morning hosted cartoon block CRUNCH.

A 26-episode series, The Penguins of Madagascar centers around the adventures of four cute unsuspecting penguins, Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private, as they carry out missions to maintain order and rule the roost in their habitat, New York’s Central Park Zoo. It’s not an easy feat for these determined little penguins as their nemesis and new party animal neighbour, King Julien and his lemur sidekicks Maurice and Mort, are always getting in their way.

Beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday, June 26, the sneak peek event will kick off with the premiere episode iCarly: iMake Sam Girlier, starring TV tween queen Miranda Cosgrove, followed by a second episode of Nickelodeon’s iCarly and the SpongeBob SquarePants’ one-hour special, Atlantis SquarePantis at 7 p.m.
Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto – The National Film Board of Canada’s animated short, Runaway by Oscar-nominated director, Cordell Barker, was honoured with the Jury’s Special Award at the 2009 Annecy International Animated Film Festival on Saturday, June 13. Barker received this same honour in 2001 for his Oscar nominated animated short, Strange Invaders.

Runaway

Annecy International Animated Film Festival is wholly dedicated to animation and is the biggest and most recognized event of its kind in the world, often being referred to as the Cannes of animation.

About Runaway

What would happen if the world were a driverless train thundering recklessly over bumpy tracks? Cordell Barker’s new short animation, the colourful Runaway, provides a caustic answer. Set to music by Benoît Charest, Runaway is Cordell Barker’s third animation film with the NFB. Born in Winnipeg, Barker made his first film, the much-loved musical animation The Cat Came Back (1988), at the NFB. Voted one of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time, the film went on to win over 15 awards and honours, including an Academy Award nomination. His second film with the NFB, Strange Invaders (2002), garnered him a further 15 awards, including a second Oscar nomination. Runaway is produced by Derek Mazur for the NFB. In May, it was awarded the Petit Rail d’Or for Best Short Film in Cannes. The general public is invited to download and share a copy of the film’s embeddable trailer available at http://www.nfb.ca/film/runaway_teaser/

Toronto – The National Film Board of Canada is proud to present the world premiere of Chris Landreth’s The Spine, a bold new film whose dazzling artistic style pushes the limits of animation. Landreth’s latest is the eagerly awaited follow-up film to Ryan, his 2004 Oscar winner for best animated short. From the same creative team that produced Ryan, The Spine is entirely computer animated and features the voices of Gordon Pinsent and Alberta Watson. The Spine uses bizarre but strangely believable imagery to tell the story of an ordinary married couple whose lives are in turn tragic, absurd and beautiful. It premieres at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival (June 8-13) in Annecy, France and will have its North American premiere at the World Wide Short Film Festival (June 16-21) in Toronto, Canada.

For The Spine, Landreth joins forces again with producers Steve Hoban (Copperheart Animation), Mark Smith (Copperheart Animation) and Marcy Page (National Film Board of Canada), who had collaborated with him to make Ryan. The Spine is a poignant story of redemption that takes us into the relationship between a man and a woman trapped in a spiral of mutual destruction. Dan and Mary Rutherford, married 26 years, sit unhappily in a couples’ group counselling session. Angela, another troubled participant in this group, wonders why their marriage has become so lopsided, so twisted. But when Mary leaves Dan, he undergoes a beautiful transformation. What will happen when she returns? Director and scriptwriter Landreth has created an insightful and daring look at the ways individuals evolve, adapt and break.
Read the rest of this entry »

Vancouver – At this month’s ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver seminar, animation director Eric Darnell shared his journey from Pre-Med student to animated feature film director. Who would’ve thought that problems with Organic Chemistry and watching a televised football game would lead to becoming the director of animated hits Antz, Madagascar and Madagascar 2, with a third and final Madagascar installment currently in production.

Eric Darnell

Throughout the seminar, which was a fire-side styled chat with Glenn Entis, Eric shared some of his early, experimental work with the audience. While I did enjoy the innovative styling of the collage-animation done for REM’s “Get Up” music video, my personal favourite was animation short Gas Planet, seen below. Eric has a knack for capturing just the right expressions in his characters, to the point where dialogue is simply not required in getting the point of the animation across. Gas Planet was the recipient of the Ottawa Animation Festival’s Special Jury Prize.

I think that the one, most valuable piece of advice which Eric had for aspiring animation directors was using whatever personal time they had to create their own experimental pieces. He stated that by pursuing such interests, “the experience will make your future, paid work better, and can take you to places which you never imagined. Real life experiences make you a better director – seemingly unrelated events help you bring more to the table.” Eric also went on to state that “as the director, you are the caretaker of the story, and it is important that you have very strong writers on your team.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto – Breakthrough Films & Television and its distribution company Breakthrough Entertainment have signed a co-production and broadcast deal with History Television (Canada) and Discovery Communications for Greatest Tank Battles (10 x 60’) a military, CGI documentary series that recounts the most dramatic, monumental tank battles in history. The announcement was made today by Nat Abraham, Head of Distribution at Breakthrough Entertainment.

“Breakthrough has a long tradition of delivering top rated and critically acclaimed history series,” said Peter Williamson, Executive Producer. “Greatest Tank Battles blends computer generated images and documentary storytelling and will be our most exciting series yet.”

Greatest Tank Battles will launch on History Television in Canada, Discovery Communications’ Military Channel in the United States, and on Discovery Networks throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto – Corus Entertainment Inc.’s Nelvana Enterprises has reached an agreement with Chorion to become the Canadian licensing agent for its successful Mr. Men and Little Miss brand, to include merchandise such as apparel and accessories, toys and novelty items, as well as live stage shows and character appearances.

Based on the classic 1970s book series by British author Roger Hargreaves that has sold over 100 million copies, the Mr. Men and Little Miss property has a global presence with both children and adults.

The animated television series, The Mr. Men Show, features an ensemble of 25 characters such as Mr. Bump and Little Miss Sunshine, and uses an innovative sketch comedy format. The television series has been sold in 18 territories worldwide and recently launched in Canada on Corus’ kids specialty network, YTV.
Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto – Cookie Jar Entertainment’s new series, Peter Pepper’s Pet Spectacular has been greenlit for production in 2009. This is the first Canadian – South African animation co-production where the work will not be subcontracted outside of either country. The co-production between Canada’s Cookie Jar Entertainment, a leading global independent producer of children’s entertainment, and Clockwork Zoo, South Africa’s biggest animation studio, is scheduled to air on CBC.

“We are thrilled to co-produce this wonderful series with Clockwork Zoo,” said Toper Taylor, President and COO, Cookie Jar Entertainment. “This marks a great moment in animation and we believe that Cookie Jar’s history of making quality children’s entertainment along with Clockwork Zoo’s creativity and strong presence in South Africa’s animation industry will make this a successful series.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto –  CCI Entertainment Ltd. in association with MotionWorks GmbH, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation are proud to announce the launch of Artzooka! a new multinational, multiplatform children’s property that takes both art and entertainment to a whole new level. The series will be a mix of live action and animation and will be produced in various languages. The initial order includes 26 episodes in English which have been bought by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Artzooka! is a mix of fun, intrigue and surprise and shows kids that everyone can be an artist and that art can be made out of anything and everything. The series will present unique and innovative ways of being creative as well as provide children with a solid foundation on a range of art techniques. The property will feature cutting edge digital elements and electronic art and will include bizarre, animated characters that contribute to the shows upbeat, off-the-wall energy. All of the art projects will be easily mastered and accessible to all children while at the same time being inventive and dazzling.

Read the rest of this entry »

Iconic Canadian Duo Return in an All-New Animated Global Original Series

Toronto – Canada’s favourite pair of ‘hosers’, the McKenzie brothers, return to primetime on Global in an all-new half-hour animated comedy series, Bob & Doug. Premiering Sunday, April 19th – 7:30pm ET/PT, the 22-episode Original Series, starring SCTV alum Dave Thomas (“Grace Under Fire”) and comedian Dave Coulier (“Full House”), will join Global’s highly successful Sunday night line-up alongside such animated favourites as “Family Guy” and “The Simpsons”.

“Bob & Doug builds on the hilarity of the Canadian cult classic while offering viewers a fresh animated look at these beloved characters,” said Christine Shipton, SVP, Drama and Factual Content, Canwest Broadcasting. “It is an outstanding addition to our strong and unique original slate.”

Driven with character stereotypes reminiscent of the celebrated film “Great White North”, the series is centered around the fictional Canadian town of Maple Lake, Bob and Doug’s lives as garbage men and their gang of friends who often gather at the ‘Skate ‘n Bowl’.

Read the rest of this entry »