In Production

Philip Einstein Lipski, Amalie Naesby Fick & Joergen Lerdam, 82 mins., 3D computer, Nordisk Film Production (Denmark), Einstein Film (Denmark) & A. Film (Denmark) The Little Vampire, Karsten Kiilerich & Richard Claus, 82 mins., 3D computer, stereoscopic 3D, First Look (Netherlands), Comet Film (Germany) & A. Film Production (Denmark) Zombillenium, Arthur de Pins & Alexis Ducord, 74 mins., 3D computer, stereoscopic 3D, Maybe Movies (France) & Belvision (Belgium) Zooks, Kristoff & Dimitri Leue, 90 mins., 2D computer, 3D computer, cross-media concept, Potemkino (Belgium), SANCTA (Belgium) & The Fridge (Belgium)

Preschool The Wind in the Reeds, Arnaud Demuynck & Nicolas Liguori, 65 mins., 2D computer, La Boîte...Productions (Belgium), Nadasdy Film (Switzerland) & Les Films du Nord (France)

Young Adults & Adults Bombay Rose, Gitanjali Rao, 90 mins., 2D computer, drawing, Les Films d’Ici (France) & Cinestaan International (United Kingdom) The Tower, Mats Grorud, 75 mins., 2D computer, stop-motion, Tenk.tv (Norway), Les Contes Modernes (France) & Cinenic Film (Sweden) concept, Lupus Films (United Kingdom) & Melusine Productions (Luxembourg) Benjamin Renner & Patrick Imbert, 78 mins., 2D computer, Folivari (France), StudioCanal (France) & Panique! (Belgium) [

There’s nothing quite like having a front-row seat to history being made. That’s what it feels like looking back through the pages of Animation Magazine from 1993 through 1995, as we continue our 30th anniversary retrospective.

It was a period where animated content for all ages was exploding in popularity on television, feature animation was still riding the upswing of the Disney Renaissance, resulting in one of the medium’s most-popular and beloved features; and technology continued to transform production, with major advances being made almost daily.

Computer animation became reality in these years, with the first issue of 1993 including a “Who’s Who in Computer Animation,” as well as a cover tease for an article on the CGI “masterpiece” music video for Peter Gabriel’s tune “Steam.” This issue also featured a collector supplement, a feature than ran for a short time in the magazine spotlighting animation art and collectibles.

The summer issue included a look at the digital revolution in post production, while the autumn tome from that year featured on the cover Margaret Loesch and the hits of the Fox Children’s Network, which had broken out with such popular shows as X-Men, Tiny Toon Adventures, Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego and Batman: The Animated Series. It also included a controversial viewpoint from Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, a feature that recurred as a column.

The final issue of 1993, perhaps more than any other, put its finger on the creative pulse of animation at the time, featuring everyone’s favorite moronic head bangers Beavis & Butt-head as part of a look at outrageous animation.

That also was the end of the practice of putting animation creatives or executives on the cover, often interacting with their creations. From 1994 on, the magazine’s covers began to focus more directly on high-quality artwork from animation projects, playing to one of the art-