I’ve just heard from Christina Lutz of 1 Animation Network, a new cable venture hoping to start broadcasting on digital TV services early next year. They hope to fill the animation void left by Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney and program independent, international, adult-skewing and classic animation. They are based in Chicago and are looking to acquire independent shorts. If you have something to offer, give Christine a call (312.527.4444) or drop her an e-mail at lutz@1antv.comI’ve already suggested they look into Columbia’s Totally Tooned In package (and other Classic Media properties). We’ll get further updates on their progress in the next few months.

If you live in these areas, check out your local ANIMATION FESTIVAL:Los Angeles: Sunday August 15, 2004, Los Angeles Comic Book & Science Fiction Convention at the Shrine Auditorium Expo Center, in collaboration with Cartoonmogul.com, will present a new brand of independent animation festival: a 2-hour program with online animators from across the US and from as far away as the Netherlands.London: August 24-29 The London Animation Festival will be running a Spumco/John K retrospective; and tributes to Prtitt Parn, Phil Mulloy, Estonian animation and other rarely shown eye candy.Chicago: September 24-26 Cineme International Animated Film Festival, a competition, conference and film showcase which will include sneak previews from Nickelodeon and anime premieres.Ottawa: September 22-26 Ottawa 04 International Animation Festival North America’s biggest and best! Miyazaki, Popeye, Fred Crippen, Harvey Birdman, Soviet Propaganda and much much more!

Would Michael Eisner ever adopt a corporate policy of “no secrets management”? Would Eisner limit the pay of Disney executives to help them stay in touch with the average studio employee? Would he ever change one of his core business practices because of a confrontation with a protester? Of course not, but these are all things that Whole Foods supermarket founder/CEO John Mackey has done. There’s an inspiring profile of him in last month’s issue of FAST COMPANY that proves that operating an ethical humanitarian corporation is not incompatible with financial success.

When Disney president Robert Iger appeared on Fox News Channel last week to promote the new children’s Disney Dream Desk computer, Fox host Stuart Varney managed to subvert the discussion about computers into an attack on “Gay Days,” an annual gathering at Disney World organized by private groups. Media Matters writes about the incident and includes a video clip with this surreal line from Varney: “I mean, in June you have ‘Gay Days’ at your theme parks. You got any ‘Gay Days’ on the Mickey computer?”

Catnapped!Several more obscure Japanese anime features will be having rare theatrical showings in Los Angeles in the next couple of months. Laemmle Theatres is hosting the Chanoma Film Festival at the Fairfax Theatre in Hollywood one week each month. This series includes the best Japanese family films, with two films being showcased each month.JUNKERS COME HERE an excellent Miyazaki flavored fantasy from director Junichi Sato (Salior Moon) and producer Kazuo Komatsubara (Naussiaca) will play September 10th through 16th, each day at 3:10pm and 7:35pm.
CATNAPPED! a zany funny animal adventure written and directed by Takashi Nakamura, (animation director of “Akira”) will screen December 10th through December 16th daily at 1pm, 4:30pm & 8pm.
THE DAY THE EARTH MOVED from director Toshio Goto is (like Barefoot Gen) the story of survival of several children during the massive 1995 earthquake in Kobe City. December 10th through December 16th daily at 2:45pm, 6:15pm & 9:45pmMore information, images, and trailers can be seen at www.chanoma.org

I had a great time at a screening of the Korean animated SKY BLUE last night at the Egyptian Theatre.The visuals are incredible. The story was the usual post-apocalyptic haves versus have nots plot with pro-enviromental overtones, but unlike the recent and similiar all-cg KAENA, this film is always compelling, due to the director’s choices of shots, cutting and on screen action. I wasn’t bored for a moment.Producer & co-writer Sunmin Park was on hand for a Q&A, revealing that we had just watched an High-Def screening of the film (it was as good as any 35mm print I’ve ever seen - say goodbye to film). She said the film was composited in HD and is a combination of traditional hand drawn animation (quite good), CG, miniatures and live action… and it worked for me.She said they were in talks for U.S. distribution and hoped to get it released (for Oscar consideration) this year. The English dub was satisfactory, but not great - lip sync was off and some of the secondary actors were poor. All in all, I’d recommend seeing SKY BLUE, especially in a theatre, when it comes out.

To commemorate his 70th birthday, Donald Duck gets his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this Monday, August 9 at 10:30 am. The unveling will take place at 6840 Hollywood Blvd. in front of the Disney Store/El Capitan Theatre.

A Brew reader from Singapore writes the following note regarding MY COMMENTS on the new Lucasfilm animation studio in Singapore. I can’t confirm the validity of the info within, but for the sake of discussion, it’s worth posting the email here.

I am SO HAPPY that you saw that George Lucas’ attempt to set up a studio here had nothing to do with artistic conviction. Truth is that one of our businessmen, Sim Wong Hoo, owner of Creative Technology, is a shareholder in Lucas’s THX sound system. He called up the chairman of the Economic Development Board one day, asked him if “he’d like to contact Lucas,” and the Chairman agreed straight away. And that is how it all began.

BTW, there are good graphic novels made by Singaporean artists, like MALINKY ROBOT AND STINKY FISH BLUES. But then again, dude got his work started only via grant from the Xeric Foundation founded by Peter Laird, and was educated at Cambridge in Philosophy and the Rhode Island School of Design…so can you say we MADE him what he was?