René Laloux, French director of the animated cult classic FANTASTIC PLANET (1973) died of a heart attack on March 14. He was 74. An obituary (in French) can be found HERE.

Tying-in with today’s debut of SCOOBY-DOO 2, Slate.com posted a piece trying to figure out the worldwide appeal of Shaggy, Velma and the rest of the Scooby gang.
They talk to group of reporters and TV producers, but are unable to come up with any concrete conclusions. The Washington Post’s Hank Stuever summed it up best: “Kids should meddle, dogs are sweet, life is groovy, and if something scares you, you should confront it.” What needs to be explained about that?
(Thanks to Mark Mayerson for the link.)

Not to dwell on the FILMATION library, but this follow-up story of its sale to ENTERTAINMENT RIGHTS notes that the company plans to use the library to start another “kids channel”. Seeing as Ted Turner began CARTOON NETWORK on the bulk of the Hanna-Barbera library, this is an intriguing idea.But do we need another “kids channel”? The obvious answer is: No. We’ve already got CARTOON NETWORK, NICKTOONS, TOON DISNEY, BOOMERANG… not to mention NICKELODEON, DISNEY CHANNEL, ABC FAMILY, HBO FAMILY, WAM!, DISCOVERY KIDS to name but a few.What we need is a “Classic Cartoon channel” aimed at grown-ups. A TV LAND or TCM for vintage animated films. A home for the UPA cartoons, the Terrytoons, the Harveytoons, Walter Lantz, Screen Gems, Ub Iwerks, Fleischer and Famous Studios libraries; classic independent and international animated shorts and feature films; as well as episodes of Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Roger Ramjet, Beany & Cecil and Q.T. Hush.ENTERTAINMENT RIGHTS and VOOM’S ANIMANIA HD are poised to enter a crowded marketplace - hoping to build a business using classic (and not-so-classic) animation as cornerstone programming. I wish them luck. To paraphrase HE-MAN: “They have the Power!”. The power to create a new kind of animation station - one that doesn’t exist, but can and should.

Here’s a nclass=”image”ew book that I’m planning on getting when it comes out next month: DUMB LUCK, a retrospective of the work of illustrator (and TEACHER’S PET creator) Gary Baseman. The book, described as “both an art manifesto and a raw celebration of idiocy”, totals over 300 pages and is the first major compilation of Baseman’s work. The book is being published by Chronicle Books, one of the finest art/pop culture book publishers around. On a side note, while Chronicle hasn’t published many animation books in the past (with the exception of the two terrific ‘art of’ books for MONSTERS INC. and FINDING NEMO), they’re starting to do more of them now. I know because I’m currently writing two animated-related books for them, one of which will be out in early 2005, the other in early 2006. More details to come.

AWN has a nice behind-the-scenes look at the production of Mike Gabriel’s new hand-drawn/digitally rendered animated short LORENZO. The Disney-produced short had been slated to open in front of THE LADYKILLERS but that plan was nixed at the last moment. A source tells me that Disney is trying to place the film in front of another upcoming Touchstone Pictures release.

Here’s a press release from ADULT SWIM. Most interesting thing, in my humble opinion, is Matt Groening introducing his favorite episodes of Futurama during a weeklong stunt, Sunday, May 23 through Thursday, May 27.

Good news for all you FILMATION freaks. A company called Entertainment Rights just bought the Filmation library from Hallmark Entertainment.
I’m sure they will start releasing season-one boxed sets of WALDO KITTY, BLACKSTAR and THE GROOVIE GHOULIES any moment now.
Here’s the announcement.

I’ve always been suspicious of Miramax’s relationship with animated features. Before they were bought by Disney, the company had picked up and released a handful of oddball animated films (LIGHT YEARS, TOM & JERRY THE MOVIE, FREDDY AS F.R.0.7). But since its Disney relationship, beginning with their release of ARABIAN NIGHT (1995), I’ve suspected that Harvey Weinstein’s company has been releasing animated films that Disney had secretly purchased, but were afraid to release themselves under the Disney or Touchstone labels.We all know Disney bought the Miyazaki films, so it’s clear they handed PRINCESS MONONOKE (1999) off to Miramax.
But why in the world would classy art film producer-distributor Miramax pick up the Pokemon franchise? POKEMON 4-EVER (2002) and POKEMON HEROES (2003) have been box office duds, but it’s transparent to me that Disney wanted to pull this anime fad out of theatrical competition - thus grabbed the opportunity to get the final films in the series to quietly dispose of them - through Miramax.Miramax has never done well with any of its animated features - so why do they continue to try? The answer since 1995 is that they are doing Disney’s bidding - following the corporate mentality to dominate the now-competitive U.S. animation market. Miramax is on track to release Miyazaki’s next film (HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE) and today announced a deal to acquire Sylvain Chomet’s new animated feature (through Miramax’s Dimension Films label).Despite the layoff of its greatest animation asset (its traditional animation staff), Disney is still competing in the animation arena… outsourcing 2D to India, doing CG in London and picking up French & Japanese cartoons for Miramax release.