Not A Creature Was Stirring

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a.... Click to watch what happens next. Merry Christmas Eve, From Animax.

Animation 2.0

Animax's Michael Bellavia is speaking at Animation Magazine's upcoming event: Toon Town 2.0. The January 26, 2010 event has a cross section of companies in the LA animation industry leveraging new media platforms for the creation and distribution of their animated programming -- from shorts to games to ecards and even old-timey stuff like TV.

And a Beer

Merry Christmas from Bob & Doug McKenzie and Animax Entertainment. From the vaults, the McKenzie Brothers' classic: Twelve Days of Christmas. Click to watch.

Thomas Gets Underwire Support

Wired Magazine Underwire Blog has a feature on Dave Thomas, his return to Second City for the 50th Anniversary and an update on all his goings-on including a bit on Animax Entertainment. Read the blog post here.

Watch AMEX on Animax

Animax Entertainment is profiled in the new AMEX Open Forum Small Business Rules video series. It features our team, some of our work -- in particular Bob & Doug and Popzilla -- and our approach to staying in the game.

Watch the video and tweet us about it.

Make Your Own Christmas Carol

'Tis the Season! This year, Animax and our family fun site FunNugget.com worked with Babelgum and Fuel to create a new kind of interactive holiday card. Make Your Own Christmas Carol! Don't have a great singing voice? Don't worry, the funny guys from The Carolers series on Babelgum supply the voice work. Click on the various Carolers to make your holiday tune and then send it to your friends. Only 22 days until the big day, so get your carol on now!

Animax is Thankful

Animax just got our vanity Facebook url http://www.facebook.com/animaxent - yes, we are that shallow. Thanks to all the folks who became a fan to push us over the hurdle. Thanks also to all the clients, past and present employees, friends, family and everyone else we came into contact with this past year. It's been an interesting ride this year and we appreciate you letting Animax be a part of it.

Enjoy spending quality time with your adopted turkey tomorrow!

LA Business Journal article

The Los Angeles Business Journal ran a profile article on Animax Entertainment in association with our being added to a top 3 spot on the list of the fastest growing companies in Los Angeles.

We're #3 out of Top 100

Last night the Los Angeles Business Journal ran an event showcase the Top 100 fastest growing companies in Los Angeles for 2005-2008. Animax Entertainment placed #3 on the list.

It's been a nice awards stream for Animax:

• LABJ: Ranked #3 in all of Los Angeles
• Inc. 500: Ranked #402
• Platinum MarCom Award

And there's more to come. Next week we find out from the San Fernando Valley Business Journal what our exact rank is on their Top 50 list and in another couple weeks we find out if we win the category as a Finalist in the DPAC Awards.

Animax Among Fastest in LA

First Animax was added to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies in America. Then we found out we were among the 50 fastest growing companies in the San Fernando Valley. Now we hear we were added to Los Angeles Business Journal's list of the 100 fastest growing companies in all of Los Angeles, again measuring our growth between 2005-2008. Catch us if you can.

Animax is Top Banana

Animax Entertainment just got another nice honor. The San Fernando Valley Business Journal just informed us we made their Top 50 list of fastest growing private companies in the region. They tracked our performance from 2005-2008. We won't know our ranking on the list until the November 18th reception, but even being in the top 50 is great news!

This comes on the heels of just having been profiled in the SFVBJ and on Animax being added to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies in America.

LA Times Profiles Dave Thomas

The Los Angeles Times Sunday edition included a fun profile of Dave Thomas. Dave talked about comedy, Ashton Kutcher, celebrities, Popzilla, SCTV and Animax.

Adweek Q&A with Animax

Adweek's Becky Ebenkamp sat down with Animax Entertainment's Dave Thomas for a bit of Q&A. The article covers all of our latest projects and then some.

Twitter Marketing

Animax just started using Twitter actively and has seen first-hand how it truly is a powerful social networking tool.

We are on the advisory panel for the Social Media track for the upcoming Engage Expo in San Jose. Tonda Bunge, tweeted that she was looking for speakers for the track. We retweeted her tweet it and gave a shout out to Kodak's CMO, Jeffrey Hayzlett. In a matter of minutes we heard back from him that they were going to send someone to the conference.

Kodak, and in particular Hayzlett, have been very active in embracing social media in all its forms to market their products and participate in consumer conversations. There's even a Chief Blogger on board.

In 2007, Animax worked on one of Kodak's earlier forays into social media. Working with Ketchum and TCS, Animax produced a branded entertainment series called "Ink Is It" and an industry shaking event at Saturday Night Live studios to support the launch of Kodak's new All-in-One printer line. The campaign was recognized as one of the top Technology Campaigns of the Year by PR Week and won multiple Silver Anvils from the Public Relations Society of America.

Nick Game of the Week

Nickelodeon launched Battle for the Barn, its latest Game of the Week. Add aliens, spaceships, radioactive waste, eye-lasers and monster size versions of your favorite Barnyard characters into the mix and you have a fun online game all wrapped in fun classic B-movie style. Play it now on Nick.com.

Mustache May Day 2009!

International Mustache Month usually occurs in February, but Animax didn't get our hair follicles in gear until April this year. So May Day was Mustache Day for the Animax staches to be revealed, and the photos are hair-raising. Even some of the ladies(?) got in on the action.

Pushing Mankind Forward

Well, this video is really old now so the archival look is really appropriate. Nobody has ever seen it except for a few select Animax employees from the early days. Created for Sundance Channel it never saw the light of day and it might not live out there in the universe for too long so take a gander at it while you can. It's a Flash animated peek into the not so distant future.

Watch SLOTCAR !!!

Get your engines started! Hardee’s® has signed on as the premier sponsor of the original Animax Unplugged video series, SLOTCAR which can be seen at http://www.slotcar2009.com. The no-holds-barred, explosive webisodes, produced by Animax Unplugged, launches online this week and parodies one of America’s largest and favorite sports – stock car auto racing. Watch the teaser now!

Animax has a proven track record having won the first-ever Broadband Emmy for ESPN’s “Off-Mikes.” SLOTCAR will be directed by Richard D’Alessio (Unplugged TV), who has three Cannes Lions and has worked alongside Barry Levinson and Jerry Seinfeld on the pioneering series, “Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman.” D'Alessio was also the creative force behind “Knob Hockey,” a similar branded entertainment series spoofing the NHL.

The first full webisode featuring a Hardee’s slotcar will launch Sat., Feb. 7th on http://www.Slotcar2009.com and http://www.hardees.com. Carl’s Jr., is also a series sponsor and will be featured in future webisodes on http://www.carlsjr.com.

Read the full press release.

NY Toy Fair Mixer

If you're going to NY Toy Fair then it's your lucky day. You're invited to a mixer for everyone interested in Online Toys & Gaming. Come mingle with folks interested in virtual worlds, online games, interactive toys and games, video games, elearning, computer software, USB and web connected toys, etc.

When: Monday, February 16th (President's Day)
Time: 6:30 - ?
Where: Coopers Tavern @ New Yorker Hotel
481 8th Avenue & 34th Street | New York, NY 10001 | 212.244.0719
What: Cash bar with 10% off food and drinks if you say the secret word

RSVP to mbellavia[@ ] animaxent.com. See you then.

Canuck Contest Results

We will announce the results of the first ever Animax Canucks Cartoon Script Contest at the upcoming Kidscreen Summit. The 10th Annual Kidscreen Summit takes place February 11-13th, 2009 in New York City. Animax Entertainment will award the top three finalists with cash prizes and the top award winner with a development option. The contest was open to all Canadian citizens submitting material.

Happy Holidays, Hosers!

Animax just released it's 2008 Holiday card and it features Bob & Doug McKenzie animatedly singing the classic "12 Days of Christmas." We also tagged it with the trailer to the upcoming "Bob & Doug" TV show which debuts in 2009. Last year's card which won numerous awards is also available as well as all our cards since 2002 are available on our holiday site as well.

Five Davey Award Wins

The Davey Awards, the largest and most prestigious competition for smaller firms, honor the "Creative Davids" who derive their strength from big ideas, not big budgets. Well, Animax just won four Silver Daveys and a Gold. We won for our work with clients like Kodak, SocialVibe, Dippin' Dots and we even won an award based on our own promotional work for Animax. Go team!

Flash Zombies

Animax was overrun by Flash Zombies last week - luckily we are safe now. As seen in Cold Hard Flash.

Happy Halloween

Animax got spooky again this year... Check out the photo album.

World of Hosers

Hhmm... Seems like MediaCaster Magazine may have jumped to conclusions about the Animax partnership with RocketOn. They connect a few dots about Animax and the upcoming "Bob & Doug" animated TV show featuring the McKenzie Brothers made famous by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis when in the article they posit: "Bob & Doug sipping a virtual brewski in a great white Web world?"

Or maybe they saw this placeholder site... World of Hosers - the first ever virtual world focused on the favorite pasttime of Bob & Doug McKenzie.

Canada Writing Contest

On the heels of launching a new studio in Toronto with former Nelvana exec Patricia Burns installed as head of production, Animax Entertainment is casting its net wide for animation concepts via a Canadian script-writing contest. If you're Canadian, enter the contest here. (From Kidscreen Magazine)

Valley Flash is Live

The newly formed Valley Flash is live streaming it's first ever meeting right this minute from Animax. Check it out.

Membership Has Privileges

Animax is proud to have received a Lifetime Membership in the International Banana Club! Specifically, we are on the Board of Apeels.

Ta Da!

The Animax website relaunched with more in-depth access to our portfolio. The site was built using Adobe Flash with a very nifty Adobe Flex backend that finally gives us a nice way to manage our award winning portfolio of work.

Not everything is in our public portfolio though -- a lot of our virtual worlds work needs to stay hidden since some of our clients are shy. Email us if you want to see all of our top secret, stealth projects.

Someone Stole Our Logo!

skin up by *FilthyLuker on deviantART

Official Animax & McKenzie Brothers Release

Animax Entertainment issued a spanking new press release on the upcoming Bob & Doug McKenzie animated series and the recent announcement about Fox joining on board the TV pilot. Check out the trailer.

Animax Gets Multiple Facelifts

If you haven't noticed, the main Animax site got a bit of a sprucing up - stay tuned for another tweaking. Our blog also got a little love - our readers deserve it.

Animax "in" TV Guide

It was recently brought to our attention that Animax Entertainment has had a 6 Degrees of Separation kind of relationship with TV Guide. The Ashley Tisdale front page online video is only the most recent example.

Then a bunch of Dave Thomas, our Executive Creative Director, as well. Even some available for sale on ebay and here !

Recovery Anniversary

Earlier this week Animax Entertainment celebrated it's Sixth Anniversary in high spirits at a local saloon. Our anniversary coincided with the airing of an episode of one of our favorite TV shows - Slacker Cats - on ABC Family that is produced by Film Roman and for whom we did some Flash service work.

Animation Magazine Articles Us!

In Animation Magazine's SIGGRAPH issue there is a nice article about Animax Entertainment. You can get a sneak of it here. A few corrections:

• We won the Emmy last year. This year we were nominated again but we didn't win.
• We haven't opened up in Van Nuys yet - we are desperately seeking 10,000 sqft of space so if you have some in your backyard, let us know.
  
• Michael's last name is Bellavia not Begroskjlsi - the print edition supposedly butchers it.
  
• They left out that we are super duper people.
• There were other items that shouldn't have been in the article but we can't really talk about what those items are and why they shouldn't have been in there but trust us when we say they shouldn't have been.
  

And by the way if you're at SIGGRAPH - we'll be there too tomorrow so hunt us down.

Comic Con on Animax

Well the next few days, a bunch of our folks are heading down to San Diego to attend the show. A couple projects we worked on are actually launching down there so we wish much success. Go team.

Hummer-ing Along with ESPN

Season 4 of ESPN's Off-Mikes just launched. Crazy that it's already been four seasons! This season kicks off with a bunch of classic episodes. (Thank God because we are still cranking out the rest of the season's 5 new ones.)

The other new twist is that Off-Mikes is now officially a great example of brand entertainment at it's 2.0 finest. This new season is sponsored by Hummer in a very obvious way and in a sly way in every episode. The intro for the series since Season 2 has always had a bunch of visual gags referring to some of the all-time great partners - Sonny and Cher, Batman and Robin and Starsky and Hutch. Well instead of Starsky & Hutch's usual red and white Gran Torino, Mike and Mike get into their souped up Hummer. We even got to animate a Hummer commercial.

For trivia buffs, Hummer wasn't actually the first example of product placement in the Off-Mikes series. If you look closely, you'll also see the Animax banana peel logo in every episode. We even included our phone number on the side of a boat in one of them.

I SPOT ANIMAX

Shoot Magazine just ran an article on Animax's work on the Dippin' Dots mashup tool. Very nice. And top billing in the email blast that went out. So get out there and make your own animated movie!

Animax is Simon Cowell

Guy Kawaski is Randy. Mariel Hemingway is Paula Abdul and Animax Entertainment, actually, Michael, is Simon Cowell. That's the panel of judges in the "The Commuter Pod" Cartoon Write the Next Webisode Contest from our client Mentorography. It's a skills-based writing competition in which participants submit an original storyline script to be eligible to potentially be selected as the winner. Storyline Submissions are due by August 9, 2007 so get cracking.

More Than A West Side Story

Animax Entertainment has been growing by leaps and bounds. So much so that we recently sublet space in our previous home on La Cienega. We're at 5,000+ sqft between our Culver City home (aka Animax West) and the Los Angeles digs (Animax East) and we're still growing.

Double Dippin'

Animax Entertainment wants everyone to make their own animated movie. Now you can channel your inner Walt Disney and create an animated short featuring an A-List movie star who needs no introduction: Packy! That's right, that lovable package whose insides are filled with delicious Dippin' Dots - the ice cream of the future. Working with matrixx Productions, we created the world's first-ever online animation mash-up tool. Enter the contest and you could win $2,500 if you thoroughly entertain the masses.

Click here to see some of the movies.

Platform Win

A few months back Animax Entertainment contributed a short to an animated exquisite corpse experiment for Frederator called FredEx: The Secret Life of Robots. Our short was the first one in the movie - it's called Dating. Well the movie won Best Film For the Internet at the first ever Platform Animation Festival. Way to go team.

Mingle with Animax

Saturday, July 14th, 2007
Main Event: 12P - 6P
Party: 6P - ?
FREE EVENT - FREE PARKING - NO RSVP REQUIRED

525 Venezia St. Venice CA

Between Venice and Washington Blvd just off Abbot Kinney.

Animax Entertainment is sponsoring the LAFlashapaloozastock2. We'll be continuing our hunt for the best local Flash talent. Flash Animators and Programmers please pry yourselves out of your creative lairs, out of your coding basements, away from the soft glow of your Cintiqs and spend one lovely Saturday mingling with Animax. Maybe, just maybe, we'll fall deeply in Flash love together.

Animators, Designers, Flashers, Oh My!

Animax Entertainment is on the hunt again for more people - for both our animation and interactive business units. Junior or Senior level we have a bunch of job postings on Craigslist, AWN, ColdHardFlash, AnimationNation and a bunch of other places. We are actively looking for the following:
- Flash Character Animators
- Flash Character and Background Designers
- ActionScript Developers
- Game Programmers
- Graphic Designers
- Animation PAs
- Interactive Project Managers
- Marketing Coordinator
- Recruiter
- Business Development
- Interns

Did we leave anything out? Please email us at careers AT animaxent DOT COM.

Michael on Board

Michael Bellavia, Managing Director of Animax Entertainment, was just elected to the Board of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council. Nice. If you're not a member already and you are a new media producer, then join.

Keep Oceans Clean Game

There's a new kids game on the Keep Oceans Clean site for The Ad Council. Animax Entertainment designed the original site and produced this game that rewards kids for cleaning up the ocean. Navigate your diver as she swims around the ocean picking up trash and trying to clean up the mess.

Catch-up and Fried

These past couple months have been absolutely nutty for Animax - we're kinda fried. We haven't been able to keep up with blogging because of the frenzied pace and a lot of what we've been doing we can't fully talk about because of lots of codes of secrecy, but to help you guys catch-up with us, here's what we can say.

On the broadband front:

• Phase 2 of the Kelloggs Yogos site rolled out for Fox's 4Kids. The third phase will be released soon.
  
• Kodak's InkIsIt.com launched into Phase 2 with a focus on helping consumers understand how their printing habits could be better served by the new product line.
• We're working on few projects for the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation, one of which has us in recording sessions with Bob Saget, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ashley Tisdale, Dominic Scott Kay, and (hopefully) a guy who used to drive around in a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.
• We're creating a very kooky mashup activity for a futuristic ice cream company (thankfully there is ice cream in the future!)
  
• We didn't win the Emmy this year for Off-Mikes, but we are going to be producing more episodes for ESPN.com.
• We won a couple Horizon Interactive Awards for our work with Sesame Workshop and the Ad Council, both of whom we have follow on project work with right now.
  
• Michael is running for the PGA New Media Council Board of Delegates so get out and vote.

On the broadcast front:

• We're animating certain episodes for a certain company for a certain TV show.
• We just finished animating other episodes for another company.
• There are some other episodes we worked on awhile ago that are finally, hopefully going to see the light of day but even if they don't we're at least certain we animated them. At least we think we're certain.
  

Commuter Pod

Animax just produced an animated short for Mentorography called “The Commuter Pod” and it was just covered by Plenty Magazine.

PGA Honor

Michael Bellavia, Managing Director of Animax, a.k.a. the person typing this blog post, was just nominated to join the Producers Guild New Media Council Board of Delegates. If you're in the PGA, get out and vote. If you're not, join so that you can!

Slammo Dunk for AOL

Well, the word is out. Maybe a little early, but still it's spreading. Animax Entertainment produced the Flash animation for AOL's new series Slammo and Sloshie’s Super Sexy Interstellar TV Jamboree. The show is a mix of 2D and 3D and is probably one of the lushest looking broadband animation shows ever created. Yeah, we're a tad boastful, but deservedly so.

Happy Easter!

We animated a cute ecard for American Greetings that's perfect for the holiday season. Animax Entertainment wishes everyone a happy holiday.

Animax is Flashed, Cold and Hard

ColdHardFlash covered the Animax Entertainment Emmy news. Thanks, Aaron.

Another Emmy Nod for Animax

Animax Entertainment just received another Emmy Award Nomination! We are nominated for Outstanding Broadband for "Off-Mikes," a Flash animated series that we produce for ESPN. We won the first ever broadband Emmy Award last year in a category called Outstanding Achievement Original Content for Non-Traditional Platform. This year's award definitely has an easier to say name.

Read the press release here.

Springtime at the Clubhouse

There's a new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD coming soon on Disney DVD called Mickey's Great Clubhouse Hunt. Spring flowers are popping up all over the DVD's website and Animax Entertainment has a spring in its step.

Virtual Worlds and Avatars

We recently stumbled upon a new favorite blog - Terra Nova. It covers everything you'd want to know about Virtual Worlds. We've also been reading about all the developments going on in virtual economies. And why would Animax Entertainment care about avatars and immersive virtual experiences? Well, you'll find out soon.

In NYC at Kidscreen

Michael Bellavia is in New York City speaking at Kidscreen this week about emerging media trends and opportunities. If you're going to be there too, feel free to contact us to set up a meeting time.

In addition Tuesday is a big launch day - stay tuned for details on the live event.

Media Silence

Sorry we've been pretty quiet lately but we've been working on a big project that launches next week. Here's a hint - it's not animated. Another hint - it will be mind blowing. Not sure on that last hint, but we'll be sure to let you know when it launches.

While Animax Entertainment scrambles around, take a listen to Schwarzenegger speak about Arnold Palmer.

Featured Revver Creator

We're barely into 2007 and we're already full steam ahead. Animax Entertainment just made the featured creator list over at Revver - another home page tout for us. We've been using Revver to distribute some of our original animation productions like those profound missives from Arnold Schwarzenegger over at ArnoldSpeaks.com, our well received Christmas cards and then some of other animated content. If you are a content creator, the Revver model is a producer respectful one in that you get a cut every time someone checks out your content. Take a gander.

Animax on Sundance Channel

Hey there - Animax Entertainment is on the Sundance Channel - actually the Greenimation promo site for the Sundance Film Festival. Watch Meet the Banes and vote for us! You can vote once a day. If we win we get a series.

The Banes are the most despicable family on Earth. Enjoy!

And a special hello to Robert Redford!

Healthy Kids

Wow - Animax Entertainment loves the new Disney site called Healthy Kids. The site helps kids understand the importance of healthy eating, the food pyramid, and the importance of physical activity. You get a chance to watch, train and play along with all of your favorite Disney characters including Mickey Mouse and his friends, The Incredibles, Lilo & Stitch and Kim Possible. There are a bunch of games mixed in with all the food information. What with all the news reports about kids and obesity, the site hopes to shrink the problem at least a little bit. We're doing sit-ups as we write these very words....

More Holiday Love

More fans of Animax Entertainment's Christmas greetings from the ad world: AdRants and AdLand.

And from the animation world:

• Chris Georgenes of Mudbubble said "Nice Animax! Love them both."
• Ed Scharlach, writer of numerous Scooby-Doo, Happy Days and Odd Couple episodes, and all around nice guy said, "Funny cards. Loved King Klaus."
  

Head of the Class

Wow. Another great holiday gift. We just found out that Arnold Schwarzenegger's Hanukkah card over at ArnoldSpeaks.com was one of the top 5 holiday cards on Revver this month.

Thanks for submitting a video to the Revver Film School holiday greeting card project! Your video was one of the 5 most-watched videos, and will be featured on the Revver blog (http://blog.revver.com/?p=405), in a dashboard message to all Revver users, and in the featured Head of the Class collection (http://one.revver.com/collections/show/78137).

Good work!!! Keep watch on your dashboard for the next project theme. Happy Holidays from Revver!

Alex Black

Thanks everyone for voting for ArnoldSpeaks even if you might not for Arnold Schwarzenegger himself :)

Christmas Cards

This Christmas, Animax produced two different Christmas cards. You can watch them below, or send the urls to a friend.

King Klaus


A Nutty Christmas!

Animax Got Into MIT!!!

Congratulations Animax! We got into MIT! Actually we got into the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium blog because of one of our transmedia productions. Huh? Not even wikipedia has a listing for "transmedia." We're pretty sure after reading this, that transmedia means how a particular piece of content is handled across various storytelling media - broadcast, broadband, theatrical, retail entertainment, etc. and how each piece of content and it's treatment contributes to a meta-narrative spanning across all media in aggregate. We're not exactly sure that's what it means because our brain started to hurt trying to understand all the MIT-speak (although, reading Geoffrey Long's blog helped.)

Anyways, all the fuss is being made over the highbrow cartoon we produce for WWE called Mr. McMahon's Kiss My Ass. It turns out that KMA is one of the "stranger transmedia products" Sam Ford has ever heard of - now, that's a pull-quote! Ford is a 2007 Masters of Science Candidate in Comparative Media Studies at MIT and is entering his second year as a media analyst for the Convergence Culture Consortium. He's also a fan of wrestling -- he didn't go as far as to say he's a fan of Mr. McMahon's posterior. KMA qualifies as transmedia because McMahon exploits his rump live in the ring (theatrical entertainment), on TV (broadcast entertainment), in print, and now, with our help, online. By the way, the latest episode features Mel Gibson.

Upon further review it seems like we've been involved in a number of transmedia productions not the least of which is the one Animax won an Emmy for - ESPN's animated Off-Mikes which spans many of the same media as WWE including radio.

P.S. Hey MIT, we feel like we deserve an honorary doctorate after trying to figure this transmedia stuff out.

Numb and Number

ESPN launched the next episode of the Emmy Award winning Off-Mikes today featuring Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg in "Numb and Number." In this episode Greenberg causes a scene at a christening party as his son rides him like a bucking bronco.

WWE - The Passion of the Ass Starring Mel Gibson

Tonight the latest cartoon that Animax Entertainment produced for WWE went live. It's called Mel Gibson's Passion of the Ass and it features Vince McMahon taking the Apocalypto director to task for being a drunk, a racist and an all around ass. Mel Gibson might have been #1 at the box office this past weekend but Mr. McMahon's ass is tops.

Camera Phone Darts

A mobile game we designed for GoSub60 will be launching soon. Motion-sensing technology uses your cellphone's camera to bring the real world movement of the handset into gameplay. It's actually a new kind of gameplay on your phone and will let multiple people play darts against each other.