Alive and Kicking
Every year in September, we would all get ready for the rich collection of worldwide animation festivals, markets and events. Obviously, things are a bit different for all of us. Although we are beginning to witness the slow return to normal in several countries in Europe, we are still far from going back to filling up convention halls and auditoriums. Things may not go back to the pre-Pandemic norms until a vaccine is readily available, but it’s a good sign that some events like Cartoon Forum and MIPCOM are doing their best to keep the events live, but paying serious attention to the COVID-19 safety guidelines.
The pandemic certainly made a huge impact on the state of the theatrical movie business. While streamers like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon and Hulu all got a big boost in their numbers because of the stay-at-home boom, much-anticipated summer titles such as The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, Mulan and Minions: The Rise of Gru were either delayed or went the pay-per-view route.
Fortunately, we still have a lot of excellent animated projects to tell you about. Our cover story, The Fungies!, is a fun and creative new toon that began its run on HBO Max last month. We had a chance to catch up with the show creator Stephen P. Neary, who told us about the inspirations and challenges of having your own show picked up by a major animation studio (Cartoon Network).
We were also thrilled to hear from Ottawa Int’l Animation Festival director Chris Robinson, who gave us his unfiltered look at the surreal experience of planning a major global event for a virtual audience. You can also read about some of the online event’s highlights — including interviews with Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen, the visionary director of the feature My Favorite War, and animation veteran Kaspar Jancis, who is back this year with the acclaimed short Cosmonaut. We’ll have more coverage of the festival and an up-to-date schedule of the panels and classes later this month on our website and daily e-newsletters.
If you want a quick look at all the creativity bubbling around the world, all you have to do is take a look at some of the fun and highly original animated shows being introduced at Cartoon Forum and MIP Junior. Make sure you check out the previews for both shows as well as our spotlight on Pixelatl Festival, which is truly a labor of love for festival director José Iñesta and his dedicated team. Our hats off to all the passionate lovers of animation who are continuing to fight all of this year’s crazy challenges to keep the art form and related businesses alive and thriving.