A website devoted to Walt Disney has been launched atdisney.go.com/disneyatoz/waltdisney/home.html. The site coversDisney's entire career, and features clips from Disney's animated andlive-action films, as well as family photos and home movies.
San Francisco, California-based Mondo Media, Inc. has announced a one-year deal with Netscape Communications, a subsidiary of America Online, Inc., to provide Netscape's Netcenter Web site with two weekly animated shows which will be presented under the banner of MONDO MINI SHOWS. LIKE, NEWS is written and directed by Don Asmussen, a regular cartoonist for TIME and GEORGE magazines, and features a sarcastic teenager with a nose ring who "interviews" newsmakers such as Saddam Hussein and Al Gore.
Tens of thousands of gameboys in the US and Canada flocked to retail outlets early on the morning of Thursday, September 9 as the Sega Dreamcast videogame console was made available for the first time in North America. As Sega expected, sales for the console during the first 24-hours set a new record for biggest 24-hours in entertainment retail sales with a total of $97,904,618.09 (about 500,000 players at a retail price of $199). The previous record was held by STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE, with its $28 million boxoffice on its first day of release in May 1999.
The Harvey Entertainment Company has selected New York-based Xceed, Inc., amarketing and communications company that specializes in interactiveservices, to develop a family oriented portal to exploit Harvey's brands onthe Web. Harvey Entertainment owns the rights to an extensive list ofwell-known cartoon characters, including Casper, the Friendly Ghost, RichieRich, Baby Huey, Wendy the Witch and Hot Stuff. Potential programming forthe portal include Harvey's classic animation library, stories from Harvey
New York-based studioNEXT.com Corporation and Voyager Entertainment, Inc.have announced a partnership to bring the Japanese television series, STARBLAZERS, to the Internet. The series first appeared on US television in1979, and lasted for three seasons. The story of STAR BLAZERS is about agroup of heroic voyagers who, in order to save Earth from invasion, journeyon the starship Argo to battle the diabolical forces of Gamilon, the evilstellar empire. "There has been further interest to bring back STAR BLAZERS
The first episode ofSATURDAY NIGHT FRED, a CartoonNetwork.com Web Premiere Toon, debuted onAugust 30, 1999. The cartoon features clips from the 1963 season of THEFLINTSTONES that have been re-edited, with new voice-overs, to create newstories featuring Fred, Barney, and the rest of the Flintstones cast fromthat year. Viewers can either download the show as a QuickTime file, orview it as a streaming file. In both cases, it is possible to interact withthe show by replying to questions whose answers determine the direction the
Broderbund has released TOTALLY MAD, a seven CD-ROM compendium thatdocuments the history of MAD MAGAZINE. Included are the entire run ofissues up to 1998 from almost 50 years of MAD's history, along with videoclips of staff and artists, songs and animated cartoons from the currentsyndicated TV show including Spy vs. Spy and 14 animated marginals drawn bySergio Aragones. Back issues can be browsed page by page, or searched forarticles on specific topics. This is a collector's dream. Requires Windows95/98. Retail price is US$69.95.
Sega DreamCast, the superconsole with a built-in 56K modem (for internetgame play) that will bring the most-advanced and realistic video gameplayever developed to consumers when it is launched on September 9, 1999, hasset a record with 300,000 pre-orders, surpassing the previous record of100,000 held by Sony PlayStation. The new 128-bit, Internet-ready SegaDreamCast is fifteen times more powerful than a Sony PlayStation, ten timesmore powerful than a Nintendo 64 and has four times the graphics processing
MTV and sister Viacom unit Simon & Schuster Interactive are producing sixCD-ROM (for PC and Mac) and PlayStation entertainment titles for MTV'sDARIA over the next five years. The first title, DARIA'S SICK, SAD LIFEPLANNER will ship this October for the PC. DARIA, which debuted in March of1997, spun off Beavis and Butt-Head's only female "friend" into her ownshow. The series is about Daria Morgendorffer, a smart and sardonicteenager blessed with an uncanny ability to turn potential disaster to her
New York-based MTV Networks Online, a unit of ViacomInc., has formed MTV Interactive (MTVi), a new Internet-only music company,which will include music super-brands vh1.com, mtv.com and sonicnet.com.Nicholas Butterworth, former president of SonicNet, was named president andCEO of MTVi, and will report directly to Fred Seibert, president of MTVNetworks Online and Chairman of MTVi. "We think there is great value informing a company that includes three of the Internet's best music sites,"
Magicians Penn & Teller willguest star on the September 10th episode of SHO.com's WHIRLGIRL, Showtime'sanimated online series about a sexy, 21st century cyber-heroine. "We sawPenn & Teller's wise-guy approach to magic and their cult-like appeal as aperfect fit for the WhirlGirl audience," says WHIRLGIRL creator DavidWilliams of New York-based Visionary Media, producer of the series."Besides, who else but Penn & Teller could pull off the'Throwing-Knives-at-a-Super-Heroine-On-A-Roulette-Wheel' stunt?" The
On Friday, September 3 a cartoon by Adam Sandler will premiere onwww.adamsandler.com, the official Adam Sandler website. Little is knownabout the film, and Sandler's website refers to it only as a "surprise,"but the title is said to be THE PEEPER. Adam Sandler was a cast member ofSATURDAY NIGHT LIVE from 1991-1995, and star of recent hits such as BIGDADDY and THE WATERBOY. He has also had several hit comedy albums such as"They're All Gonna Laugh at You." His best known song is "The HanukkahSong."
SHOWTIME will launch a newadvertising campaign for the network's exclusive, weekly online seriesWHIRLGIRL, which premiered on SHO.com in February 1999. The new campaign,designed in-house by SHOWTIME's Red Group led by Showtime Networks'Executive Vice President, Creative & Marketing Len Fogge, will debut inprint, outdoor, and on the world wide web in August. Valued atapproximately US$1 million, the campaign will run through October 1999. Togenerate greater awareness of WhirlGirl, the network will target national
French company Infogrames Entertainment has released 'Bugs Bunny Lost inTime' for Sony PlayStation. In this video game Bugs encounters old nemeses,including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Witch Hazel, Rockyand Mugsy, Merlin the Wizard, the Bull, and Daffy Duck in settings rangingfrom the Stone Age and Pirate eras all the way forward to Dimension X.Suggested retail price is US$39.95.
Burbank, California-based Renegade Animation has animated a cute catcharacter as one of the office assistants for the newly released MicrosoftOffice 2000. The assistant is the intelligence center of the Office helpsystem. Users can ask it questions in their own words and it provides help.The cat was rendered with cel animation, and Darrell Van Citters directed.FunArts Software, a company that creates and produces office assistants forMicrosoft, commissioned the animation from Renegade.
Activision, Inc. has acquired Elsinore Multimedia, a software developmentcompany that designed the Cabela's Big Game Hunter series for Activision'sHead Games Publishing unit. As a result of the acquisition, which wascompleted on June 29, 1999, Elsinore has become a wholly owned subsidiaryof Activision. Based in Hollywood, Florida, Elsinore Multimedia is asoftware development company that produces products for the Windowsplatform. In addition to the Cabela's Big Game Hunter titles, the company
Glen Cove, New York-based Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. has announced resultsfor its fiscal 1999 third quarter ended May 31, 1999. The Company reportedthird quarter net revenues of $80.0 million, an increase of 9% comparedwith $73.2 million in the third quarter of the prior year. During thequarter, Acclaim shipped All Star Baseball 2000 for the Nintendo 64 andGame Boy Color, Bust-A-Move '99 for Nintendo 64 and PlayStation,Bust-A-Move 4 and WWF Attitude for Game Boy Color, and Machines and South
Infogrames and DreamWorks will release ANTZ for Game Boy Color this fall inthe US. Based on the animated film, the game will star the famous ant Z, aninsecure little bug who has high hopes of finding Insectopia, a mysticalworld where food is plentiful and all insects live in peace. ANTZ allowskids to jump into the action. Ant-oriented hazards presented to theminiature heroes include acidic termites, out-of-control water droplets,gum-soled shoes and, the sun-filled, magnifying glass. Infogrames is a
Los Angeles and Denmark-based ITE (Interactive Television Entertainment)has launched a webstore at Throutandneck.com, a website for the seriesTHROUT AND NECK which currently airs on the Game Show Network. Whileinteractive television has been popular all over the world, THROUT AND NECKis the first real-time animated action series to be broadcast on Americantelevision. Throutandneck.com features interactive games that can be playedonline, colorful graphics, clips from Behind the Scenes of the series,
THE BANANA SPLITS will return via Cartoon Network Online's Web PremiereToon series in 2000. Produced by Hanna-Barbera and Sid & Marty Krofft, THEBANANA SPLITS ADVENTURE HOUR was originally broadcast on NBC from 1968-70,and the show was repeated throughout the 1970s. Episodes currently airSaturday mornings on Cartoon Network. The live-action variety show featuredrock musician characters in fuzzy animal suits: Fleagle, a beagle; Drooper,a lion; Bingo, a gorilla; and Snorky, an elephant. The foursome would
Nickelodeon and Humongous Entertainment have released BLUE'S 123 TIMEACTIVITIES, a new CD-ROM game based on Nickelodeon's popular preschooltelevision show, BLUE'S CLUES. BLUE'S 123 TIME ACTIVITIES allowspreschoolers to practice pre-math and problem-solving skills with Blue andher friends. Individually paced, multi-level learning activities help kidsdevelop logical thinking and deductive reasoning skills, practice simplemath, and explore numerical estimation and prediction. In the game,
Activision, Inc., in collaboration with Disney Interactive, Inc., has released a game based on Walt Disney Pictures' and Pixar Animation Studio's computer-generated animated film, A BUG'S LIFE, for the Nintendo 64 game console. A BUG'S LIFE lets players run, fly and slide through an interactive journey. In the game players take on the role of the film's hero, Flik, an inventive but occasionally over-enthusiastic ant, who enlists a group of flea circus bugs to help him in his quest to save his colony from the hands of the villainous Hopper and his legion of grasshoppers.
Lucas Learning has released THE GUNGAN FRONTIER, the first simulated worldStar Wars game on CD-ROM. As heroes of the Battle of Naboo, players arecalled before the Gungan High Council to handle a critical mission. Theircity is threatened by overpopulation, and players must establish a newcolony on a nearby moon. The Gungans need to create a new world filled withfantastic creatures and plants from across the galaxy. Players discover howthese alien animals and plants interact and how they depend on each other
On Friday, May 14, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS),created to advance and recognize outstanding achievement in the interactivearts, announced the recipients of its second annual Interactive AchievementAwards. The awards were presented at an event held May 13 at the VarietyArts Theater during the Electronic Entertainment Exposition in Los Angeles.ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME (Nintendo of America/Nintendo Co. Ltd.) won sixawards including Interactive Title of the Year, Adventure Game of the Year,
IBM and Nintendo have announced a multi-year $1 billion technologyagreement to support Nintendo's next home video game console, code-named"Dolphin." As part of the agreement, IBM will design and manufacture aunique 400 MHz central processor featuring IBM's industry-leading 0.18micron copper technology. The chip, dubbed the "Gekko" processor, is anextension of the IBM PowerPC(TM) architecture. It's designed to be morepowerful than those found in any current or planned home video game
