DreamWorks Animation shares soar on earnings

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Shares of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc soared more than 25% Wednesday, a day after the Hollywood studio reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and a contract extension for CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Several analysts also upgraded their ratings on the stock, saying concerns about future DVD sales and other challenges have been priced more than enough.

DWA shares closed up 25.2% at $23.87 on the Nasdaq, easily outpacing a broadly higher market.

Goldman Sachs analyst Ingrid Chung upgraded DWA shares to "buy" Wednesday, arguing that recent negative catalysts and earnings estimate cuts are now behind the company. She raised her price target to $27 from $23. Lazard also upgraded the stock to "buy."

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3D animation really rocks

YOUNGSTERS were given the chance to create a 3D animation using cutting-edge computer technology.

The 14 budding film-makers from Swindon, aged between 13 and 18, came up with their three-minute film at a studio in the Wyvern Theatre.

Entitled Prehistoric Pet Shop it focuses on a caveman who thinks he has bought a parrot egg from his local pet shop. But after it hatches he realises he’s been given a tyrannosaurus rex egg. The dinosaur then chases him out of his house.

The funny animation was made possible thanks to a £4,000 grant from First Light Movies in conjunction with the British Film Council.

The youngsters were helped along the way, using the same computer software the Madagascar animation films were based on, by twin brothers James and Mark Carroll.

The Park South brothers set up evil.twin.artworks and have successfully run their own animation studio for the last decade. They use traditional animation for television, interactive online games, music videos, corporate videos, architectural visualisation and special FX.

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Japanese animation showcase heads for Hong Kong

Hong Kong has been chosen as the first city outside Tokyo to host a popular Japanese animation exhibition to ride on the wave of previous successes in the host country.

The C3 in Hong Kong: Japanese Character and Hobby Exhibition will be held at the Kowloon Bay International Trade and Exhibition Centre from April 24 to 26 to showcase Japanese cartoons, comics and animation.

Organizers, noting a growing popularity of Japanese animation in Hong Kong, decided to bring the event overseas for the first time to cash in on the rising trend.

"Hong Kong people seem to have the deepest understanding of Japanese culture outside of Japan and so we thought it an appropriate city for our popular event," organizer Retsu Tamura explained yesterday.

"C3 has been the world's largest animation and toys exhibition, and focuses on the three Cs - character, culture and content - of Japanese animation," he said.

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NYC show explores Japanese comic books, animation

NEW YORK — The gallery of the normally serene Japan Society has been overtaken by scenes of ruined cities, rocket travel, giant fighting robots, prostitution and teenagers in the throes of eating disorders.

The carnage and dysfunction are central to the elaborate fictional worlds of Japanese comics (manga), animated films (anime) and video games now on display in Manhattan.

On a recent weekend, two mothers and their kids huddled over a model of the 1980s video game Pac-Man, trying to get the yellow circle to devour all the dots in a maze without being killed by ghosts.

In another room, a couple of teenage girls crouched down to get inside a small tea house-like enclosure lined with hundreds of manga, some the size of telephone books.

Elsewhere, six anime were being simultaneously projected along a long wall in a room with cubicles where visitors could sit comfortably and watch the same excerpts on smaller screens. (The complete films are shown at scheduled times in the society's basement auditorium on Fridays through Sundays, free of charge with admission.)

The exhibition, "Krazy! The Delirious World of Anime + Manga + Video Games," has been drawing large and diverse crowds — young, old and in-between — since it opened March 13.

Last spring, the Vancouver Art Gallery launched a larger version of the show, aimed at exploring the connections between the pop world of comics, animation and gaming and more highbrow expressions of visual culture.

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Graphic novelist embraces dark side of animation

The 2007 film Persepolis reminds us that animated features need not be comedies for kids or fairy tales with familiar messages.

Nor need they be in English, in color or elaborately drawn on computers.

The feature, named for the ancient capital of Iran, is the coming-of-age autobiography of its creator, Marjane Satrapi, who chronicled her Iranian childhood in a graphic novel. She and French animator Vincent Paronaud adapted it into a feature, retaining its simple style.

The film, an Oscar nominee for best animated feature, is the next entry in the Ohio Wesleyan University Community Film Series at the Strand Theatre in Delaware.

The narrative recalls the excitement of Satrapi's family when the shah was overthrown in 1979, then the confusion of a restless young girl when Islamic fundamentalists took control and dictated that women cover their heads. The rock 'n' roll that excited young Marjane was driven into the black market.

As she matures, Marjane lives in Vienna, Austria, where she encounters the joys and pains of budding love, and longs to be reunited with her family.

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