Toon Masters by the Beach
The World Animation and VFX Summit wraps up another successful edition.
Some of the top creative stars working in the animation and visual effects industry shared their valuable knowledge at the sixth edition of Animation Magazine’s World Animation and VFX Summit last month.
The four-day event kicked off with a wonderful evening awards gala, held at the Hotel Casa del Mar in Santa Monica. This year, voice actress Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson), producer Lori Forte ( Ice Age movies, Ferdinand), director and Disney animator Glen Keane ( Dear Basketball), French distributor PGS (co-founder Philippe Soutter), Frederator Studios founder and CEO Fred Seibert and DreamWorks TV Animation topper Mark Taylor were the distinguished recipients of the 2017 Hall of Fame Game Changer award.
The Hall of Famers received poignant tributes by their colleagues: The Simpsons exec producer Al Jean, Fox Family Animation president Vanessa Morrison, director John Musker ( Moana, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid), kids TV producer Tom Lynch, former Nickelodeon and TV Land exec Herb Scannell and DreamWorks Television Animation head Margie Cohn. The ceremony was hosted by the always witty and wonderful Tom Kenny, the actor extraordinaire who is best known for voicing SpongeBob SquarePants.
Attendees had the opportunity to enjoy two days of informative panels and lively discussions at the California Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, Calif. Among this year’s inspiring speakers at the Summit were: Kyle Balda, Kobe Bryant, Vanessa Chapman, Stephen Clee, Mo Davoudian, John Derevlany, Joel Douek, Audrey Ford, Ruth Fielding, Michaela Hart, Guillaume Hellouin, Max Howard, Kevin Tod Haug, Terry Kalagian, Ken Katsumoto, David Kwok, Michael Hefferon, Cory Jamieson, Glen Keane, Dorota Kobiela, Iryna Kostyuk, Gregory Little, Tom McGrath, Peter McHugh, Chris McKay, Max Miceli, Chris O’Reilly, Sascha Paladino, Serge Patzak, Sandra Rabins, Timothy Reckart, John Robson, Adam Rumanek, Richard Scott, David Simon, David Soren, Carlos Saldanha, Sander Schwartz, Philippe Soutter, Frank Saperstein, Irene Sparre, Mark Taylor, Toper Taylor, Nicolas Trout, Tom van Waveren and Lin Zhang. The third day of the Summit featured master classes taught by Mary Duda, Archita Ghosh, Butch Hartman and Fred Seibert.
The 2017 Summit showcased panels on the making of some of the year’s top animated features such as Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, The Boss Baby, Loving Vincent, Despicable Me 3, The LEGO Batman Movie, The Star and Ferdinand. It also focused on some of the innovations in new media, co-production opportunities, the future of streaming
A hyperactive gray rabbit appears as a precursor to Bugs Bunny in from Leon Schlesinger, directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton. Huey, Dewey & Louie debut in Disney’s Donald’s Nephews (Jack King). Chuck Jones directs his first WB short, The Night Watchman. The manic mallard gets his first solo short, Daffy Duck Goes to Hollywood. RKO releases Disney’s Oscar-winning Ferdinand the Bull, directed by Dick Rickard. Born this year are Italian cartoon icon Bruno Bozzetto (March 3) , mature animation maverick Ralph Bakshi (Oct. 29) and anime director Noboru Ishiguro.
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