NFB storms Ottawa fest

The National Film Board anticipates a strong presence at this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival, Sept. 22-26.

The OIAF will see five NFB productions in competition: Chris Landreth’s universally acclaimed Ryan (a copro with Copper Heart Entertainment in association with Seneca College); Michele Cournoyer’s Accordion; Pjotr Sapegin’s Through My Thick Glasses (a copro with Pravda); Craig Welch’s Welcome to Kentucky; and Theodore Ushev’s Vertical. The board will also screen a dozen films in the Showcase programs.

Also at the fest, Landreth will host a Master Class on using Alias Maya on Ryan. NFB animator Chris Hinton will cohost another session in which he will discuss the technology at play in his new film Cnote.

-www.nfb.ca

Business steaming at Cuppa

Toronto’s Cuppa Coffee offers various new projects produced and financed by Decaf Distribution, its in-house sales unit.

The US$1.6-million Christmas special A Very Barry Christmas airs on CBC in December, while Bruno is a one-hour special about a monkey aimed at preschoolers, airing on Nickelodeon Worldwide in January, with sales in 68 countries. Also for preschoolers is the music-based Tigga and Togga (26 x 5).

Cuppa copro series include: Captain Mack with Kickback Media, Jojo’s Circus with Cartoon Pizza for Playhouse Disney and The Wrong Coast with Blueprint Entertainment and Curious Pictures for The Movie Network.

Cuppa is also busy on a special animated episode of Ken Finkleman’s CBC series The Newsroom to air in January 2005. Creative techniques blend rotoscoped and treated live-action footage with traditional 2D animation.

-www.cuppacoffee.com

Studio B getting A’s

Vancouver’s Studio B Productions has several reasons to celebrate. Founders Chris Bartleman and Blair Peters received the Lions Gate Innovative Producer Award recently at Banff, and their series Yvon of the Yukon snagged two Leo Awards. Meanwhile, two of the B’s properties have broken into the U.S. market: Yakkity Yak on Nickelodeon and D’Myna Leagues on The WB.

The studio is currently in production on 26 x 22 eps of the new series Being Ian, set to air on YTV in January 2005. It is also in development on Annie for Family Channel (production starting January ’05) as well as My Pet Robot for TVO and Bad Hair Rae for YTV, both of which go into production in fall ’05.

-www.studiobproductions.com

DKP big on CGI

Another recent acquisition of IDT, Toronto’s DKP Studios, which itself took over the assets of Calibre Digital Pictures in June, has been busy primarily with straight-to-video CGI.

It is hard at work on the

CGI feature Yankee Irving, directed by Christopher Reeve with eyes on a 2005 release. DKP also recently completed two of six new episodes of the VeggieTales home videos for Tennessee-based Big Idea. In the world of toy promotions, the shop created the DVD

N-Strike, an interactive CGI story to launch Hasbro’s Nerf N-Strike line.

DKP is also working on the second group of 13 eps for the CGI/live-action series Shoebox Zoo on CBC and BBC.

-www.dkp.com

Something old, something new at Decode

Toronto’s Decode Entertainment has a couple of new series on the go. Delilah & Julius (26 x 22), about international teen spies, is a copro with Halifax’s Collideascope Digital Pictures for Teletoon. Meanwhile, Deputy Diaper (26 x 22), in development with YTV, follows the adventures of a town lawman and his sidekick Stinky.

The shop also has three series going into season two. The preschool CGI The Save-Ums! (52 x 11) returns with its particular brand of techno-edutainment, while Franny’s Feet (39 x 22) is back to whisk its little girl away to more fantastic adventures via magical shoes. Lastly, Girlstuff/Boystuff will present 39 new 11-minute eps about a group of six teens.

-www.decode-ent.com

Halifax is on the moon

Out of the ashes of Salter Street Films, the Halifax Film Company, headed by Michael Donovan and Charles Bishop, has grown with the addition of the new preschool stop-motion series Lunar Jim, about a character who lives in a village on the moon. It is produced in association with Toronto’s Alliance Atlantis and CBC.

Meanwhile, Poko returns for another season, as the stop-motion character and his pals Minus and Mr. Murphy meet new friends and face new challenges. It is produced with AAC in association with CBC. Both series are underway at Halifax’s Electropolis Studios.

-www.halifaxfilm.com

Mainframe bursting

Mainframe Entertainment, recently acquired by U.S.-based IDT Entertainment, is bursting at the seams. The Vancouver shop reports 100 new hires to handle its current slate, including CGI versions of Popeye (for King Features Syndicate and Fox) and Inspector Gadget (with DIC Entertainment).

Popeye’s Voyage: The Quest for Pappy will air as a half-hour at Christmas and will be released on DVD by Lions Gate. Inspector Gadget Saves the Day… Maybe is a TV special with distribution geographically divided among Mainframe, DIC and Lions Gate.

Mainframe is also working on the 26 x 30 CGI series Beat Freaks, about young monster misfits, and Cartoon Network has opted to air the shop’s Leo Award-winning one-hour Scary Godmother Halloween Spooktakular in October.

-www.mainframe.ca

Atomic Betty sales explode

Vancouver’s Atomic Cartoons is in production on its proprietary series Atomic Betty, which recently launched on Teletoon and goes to air this month in the U.S. on Cartoon Network. The animated series follows the adventures of a seemingly normal Saskatchewan girl who is in fact defender of the universe. The shop reports that partner Breakthrough Animation has presold the series to more than 55 countries. France’s Tele Images Kids coproduces.

Atomic is also servicing the Nelvana 26 x 30 series Jacob Two-Two.

-www.atomiccartoons.com

More on Breakthrough…

Toronto’s Breakthrough Animation says it has started financing season two of Atomic Betty, with new scripts in the works.

It has also begun preproduction on the 26 x 30 series Miss BG, a copro with France’s Ellipsanime and broadcast partners TVO, TFO and France 5, with assistance from the Shaw Fund, CTF and Telefilm Canada. It is in development on Rocket Rodents with Steven Schnier and YTV, as well as Captain Flamingo with Heroic Films and YTV.

Breakthrough Animation is a new division of prodco Breakthrough Films & Television, seeing BFT founders Ira Levy and Peter Williamson partnering with producer Kevin Gillis.

-www.breakthroughfilms.com

Bardel wraps Dragons

Vancouver’s Bardel Entertainment recently wrapped production on its sword-and-sorcery CGI feature Dragons – Fire & Ice, which will preem on Teletoon and air on Cartoon Network in the U.S., ahead of worldwide direct-to-video distribution. Alliance Atlantis and Lions Gate will release Oct. 12 in Canada and the U.S., respectively.

The project is based on the popular toys from Montreal-based Mega Bloks, with which Bardel is in development on a second movie. Bardel will be hawking Dragons – Fire & Ice at MIPCOM 2004, making distribution from B Wooding Media.

-www.bardelentertainment.com

Dragon to fly at MIPCOM

Montreal’s Cite-Amerique has collaborated with Germany’s Scopas Medien AG and South Korea’s Image Plus on the stop-motion preschool series Dragon, based on the books The Dragon Tales by Dav Pilkey. The show will be launched at MIPCOM Jr. and MIPCOM next month. FRV Media International, the parent of which recently acquired Cite-Amerique, will distribute in North America, Latin America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The series is available in 26 x 12, 104 x 2:30 and 26 x 7 formats. It was developed for Treehouse, Germany’s ZDF and South Korea’s Image Plus.

The makers describe the animation style as comparable to the likes of Bob the Builder. The series features the titular character in an imaginary world experiencing situations kids can relate to.

-www.cite-amerique.com

9 Story high

Toronto 2D digital animation studio 9 Story Entertainment is currently working on the 26 x 22 2D/3D adventure series Skyland, a copro with France’s Method Films airing locally on Teletoon, as well as on the YTV special If the World Were a Village, in association with Corus Entertainment.

Production on season two of the preschool series Peep and the Big Wide World, produced with WGBH Boston in association with Discovery Kids, TVO and Alliance Atlantis, begins in the fall. Service gigs include the CCI Entertainment pilot Foolish Girl for CBC, Jacob Two-Two (YTV) for Nelvana, Ask Me (Treehouse) for Corus Entertainment and Mischief City (YTV) for Shaftesbury Films. The studio’s development slate includes Futz! for Teletoon, Murphy the Rat for Family and Best Ed.

-www.9story.com

Alchemy arrives

A newer player on the scene, Vancouver FX and animation studio Digital Alchemy Entertainment recently provided animation sequences for the ABC family drama series The Days. It also supplied animation shots and more than 100 FX for The VigRX Party Special on Spike TV.

Closer to home, Alchemy did opening animation and titles for the soon-to-be-released local feature Crossing, directed by Roger Larry. The shop has also produced GIBB and Brand ‘X’ Mas, two CGI shorts that have been making the festival rounds.

-www.alchemyentertainment.com

Jack is one Smiley Guy

Toronto’s Smiley Guy Studios has produced an all-new season of Odd Job Jack, the half-hour comedy featuring the voice of Don McKellar as a character bumbling his way from one place of employment to the next. The new season, airing on The Comedy Network, boasts guest spots from Barenaked Ladies, Christopher Plummer, Catherine O’Hara, Don Knotts and Jeff Tweedy of alt-rock combo Wilco.

SGS is also servicing the S&S Productions series Sons of Butcher for Teletoon and producing a series of shorts for The Comedy Network entitled BigFoot: In Me Own Words.

-www.smileyguy.com

Yowza goes digital

Toronto’s Yowza Animation has opened a 3D branch called Yowza Digital, bringing in Pete Denomme, former prez of defunct Calibre Digital Pictures, to join Yowza founder Claude Chiasson and business exec Laurie Thompson. Yowza Digital recently delivered an animated pilot for Disney TV, and is in production on a series of direct-to-video features. It is also in development on a project called Kikki Nouveau for Infusion Entertainment.

Yowza Animation is at work on a sequence for the forthcoming Fox feature Fat Albert, and says it will soon announce participation on another Hollywood film.

-www.yowzaanimation.com

Pork & Beans fuels development

Pork & Beans Productions is in full-on development mode. The Vancouver studio is planning out Monster Mayhem, an action/comedy series aimed at the eight-to-14 set that fuses the dime novel detective story with monster movies of that bygone era.

Also on the development sked is Working Stiffs, a comedy for teens and young adults about misfit angels and demons whose job is to bring the recently deceased to their final destination.

-www.porkbean.com

Life’s a Chilly Beach

Full-service Toronto animation house March Entertainment is the studio behind CBC’s oh-so-Canadian Chilly Beach, about the goofy goings-on in a northern Canuck resort town. The series launches its second season in October.

In the winter months, the Ceeb will air the March-produced Maple Shorts, a televised fest featuring the work of Canada’s top talents in the area of Flash animation.

-www.marchentertainment.com