Animation Magazine reports that THE CLEVELAND SHOW, a spinoff of the popular FAMILY GUY, had a very successful premiere.  Over 9 million viewers tuned in to Fox on Sunday to catch the start of the new MacFarlane animated series.

Fox overall placed second to NBC’s night-leadingSunday Night Football, lead by the season premiere ofFamily Guy, which drew about 10.2 million viewers, up 16 percent from last year.

Fox ordered a second season of THE CLEVELAND SHOW even before it debuted, so there will be plenty of CLEVELAND to go around.

Variety reports that British animation studio, Aardman, is branching out into live action, namely the CBBC and WDR project MEN IN COATS.  MEN IN COATS is based on the internet hit by the same name, using pantomime/slapstick, puppetry, and tongue-in-cheek magic to create a clever and charming show.  Created for children 7 to 11, MEN IN COATS has the kind of wholesome, but clever funny that made Wallace and Gromit international stars.

The new departure for Aardman, which is based in Blighty’s West Country capital of Bristol, follows a live-action show involving characters Wallace and Gromit, whose adventures in animations such as “The Wrong Trousers” are popular with family audiences.

Like Gordon Ramsay’s new show GORDON RAMSAY: AT YOUR SERVICE, MEN IN COATS is making the trip to Mipcom in Cannes to look for a buyer.  Check out the clip below to see the project that got Aardman excited about live action.

Variety reports that Gordon Ramsay, celebrity chef and fiery character, is being transformed into a stop-motion animated series called GORDON RAMSAY: AT YOUR SERVICE.  Cuppa Coffee Studios, makers of CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH, and, Glenn Martin, DDS, is on board to create and animate, and the property will be shopped around during Mipom in Cannes.  This new show is touted as a comedy is based on the wildness of Chef Ramsay himself taking

“the essence of who he is and have a bit of fun with it,” according to Adam Shaheen, prexy of Cuppa Coffee.

Animation Magazine reports that David O’Reilly was awarded the Cartoon D’Or by the Cartoon Forum for his CG short PLEASE SAY SOMETHING.  The film consists of 23 episode, each 25 seconds long and documents the relationship between a mouse and a cat.

“This film was ultimately the result of several failed experiments at using 3D animation to convey serious drama,” he says. “I wanted to make a film which was entirely contained in its own world without referencing older animation techniques or live action… a pure expression of the tools we use.I wanted to prove you could produce emotion and authenticity with something blatantly artificial and unrealistic. You can even do it without facial expressions. I also just wanted to tell a good story!”

PLEASE SAY SOMETHING has making the festival circuit this year, quickly becoming a favorite and also taking a Golden Bear Award from the Berlin International Film Festival.  Click this link to see PLEASE SAY SOMETHING and here to see his animated music video for U2, I’LL GO CRAZY IF I DON’T GO CRAZY TONIGHT.

Variety reports that Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios have a new animated film in the works.  Chris Wedge, director of ICE AGE, is directing the animation adaptation of William Joyce’s children’s book “The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs.” Wedge and Joyce have worked together in the past to create animated features such as ROBOTS for Fox and Blue Sky.  However, after getting the go ahead from Fox, Wedge shopped around for a new studio for the project and nearly had a taker in Pixar.

Sources said that Disney and Pixar jumped and got as far as thinking they had a deal with Wedge. But when they moved to close with Fox on the project’s underlying rights, Pixar, Wedge and his UTA reps were surprised to discover that Fox wasn’t letting go of “Leaf Men” after all.

LEAF MEN tells the story of a band of bugs terrorized by a spider queen.  Desperate for help they call on the mythical Leaf Men help them defeat the queen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Animus Films and NHO Entertainment have filed a lawsuit against World Events, the holder of the TV property VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE.  NHO and Animus claim that World Events and their partner Kickstart Productions illegally shopped the VOLTRON property around during an exclusive period, and conspired to make a VOLTRON movie without NHO or Animus on the contract or the payroll.

World Events and Kickstart volleyed back on Tuesday, with a spokesperson for the defendants saying “this lawsuit is frivolous and without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” adding “fortunately, these baseless claims do not in any way encumber the film or any other Voltron project, and we are excited to proceed on the long-awaited Voltron feature film with our partner Atlas.”

That is good news to VOLTRON fans and Atlas Productions who acquired the film rights back in July.  However, this does not mean that the feature is completely off the lawsuit hook.  Though NHO and Animus claim that Kickstart peddled the property without consulting them, they still want a piece of any movie made.

But the suit does higlights the work indie producers do on a project, and the way that work is recognized when and if that project comes to fruition. “We want the movie to get made,” Young said. “We just want to make sure we’re involved in some way and are compensated.”

Animation Magazine reports that the Disney/Marvel merger has hit a major road block.  The heirs of the comic artist Jack Kirby - creator and collaborator such characters as the Incredible Hulk, x-Men, the Fantastic Four, and others - have served 45 notices of transfer of copyright not only to Disney and Marvel, but to Sony, Paramount, Fox, Universal and all other companies that hold Kirby character copyrights.

Under U.S. law, a transfer of copyright can be terminated by the original copyright holder, their heirs or estate after the original copyright term expires. Under those terms, the rights to Fantastic Four — the comic book series that launched the Marvel Universe of superheroes — could be reclaimed in 2017.

Of course the question now is did Kirby create these notable and profitable characters as work for hire to the Marvel company which would make the copyright Marvel’s, or as an independent contractor in which copyright would be decided in court.  This move by the Kirby heirs falls right on the heels of the announcement of the Disney/Marvel deal, and it is yet to be seen if Kirby’s heirs are in it for the money, or truly worried about how Disney would handle Kirby’s creations.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony’s feature CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS reigned supreme this weekend at the US boxoffice, pouring in $30.1 million.  Opening on 1,828  RealD 3D and Imax screens, MEATBALLS was the 3D movie of the weekend.  The Sony film is doing well internationally as well.

Opening overseas at 1,238 screens in 15 markets, Sony’s “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” in 3D got off to an unimpressive start with a total boxoffice gross of $6 million. It ranked No. 5 on the weekend. Premiering overseas simultaneously with its No. 1 domestic bow, the family-oriented animation outing, based on Ron and Judi Barrett’s book about a scientific experiment causing food to rain from the sky, premiered No. 1 in the U.K. with $2.8 million from 537 sites.

Though the world is eating up MEATBALLS, this weekend showed a surprising rise in international popularity in Disney/Pixar’s UP.  This weekend UP took the number 1 spot in the world boxoffice with $13.7 million.  From it’s release in May, UP has been showing in a plethora of foreign markets, and keeping a steady flow.  The Hollywood Reporter says,

Disney has said that “Up” on a local currency basis is so far on track to exceed the final foreign tallies of Pixar predecessors “Wall-E” (total overseas b.o. of $310 million) and “Ratatouille” ($415 million).  ”Up” has generated cumes of $38 million from France, $6.7 million from Brazil, $8.5 million from Australia and $32.4 million from Spain — making it that market’s biggest animation release of all time.

Animation Magazine reports that Zebediah de Soto, the digital effects artist, is going to take a shot at remaking the horror classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.  De Soto plans to revamp the zombie flick with 3D, more character backstory, and an “American-style anime” look.

The director plans to use a real-time effects system he developed with partner Gus Malliarodaki at their New Golden Digital Effects company. The system is called “The Beast” and it allows filmmakers to direct CG performances the same way as live-action ones.

Like the zombies in George Romero’s original movie, the remakes just keep coming.  It was redone in 1990 and again in as a 3D flick in 2006.  They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery.  If this is true, then NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is one of the most loved movies in the world.

With the recent 3D boom in movies, studios are jockeying for limited screens to show them on.  In fact, so much so that a new 3D Entertainment Summit was put on to deal with the problem.  Variety reports that films were “cannibalizing” each other, eating away at 3D screen time and not allowing each other to have a full run.  One of the key speakers was Henry Selick, director of CORALINE, and soon the animated movie became a rallying point for the need for more 3d screens.

“I feel positively about designing the film for 3D and disappointed about how few people got to see it in the ideal way,” said Selick.


Opening on Feb. 6, “Coraline” found itself wedged behind “My Bloody Valentine” but managed to book approximately two-thirds of the 900 available 3D screens for three weeks. Then Disney’s “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” knocked it out of 3D theaters, though some rebooked “Coraline” when the Disney pic disappointed.


“In a very small window, we did almost 85% of our business on those screens vs. 2D,” Selick said. But he also said he thought the final $75 million total would have been much higher if the pic had had all the 3D screens available at the time.

However, despite the concerns of filmmakers, the 3D screens are a big moneymaker and are outperforming 2D screens.  Many companies claim that due to the steep rise in interest, more 3D screens will be up in the near future.  It remains to be seen if the theater companies’ idea of the near future will suit that of the studios.