Category: media

“A collection of vintage Disney animation cells, sketches and background pictures has been uncovered in a warehouse at a Japanese university. About 250 pieces including works from Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, Fantasia and Cinderella were discovered at the building at Chiba University near Tokyo.”

“The FCC said Friday it would delay implementation of new rules governing children’s programming on digital television to consider an agreement struck by entertainment companies and children’s advocates. The rules, which were to have taken effect Jan. 1, would require that digital broadcasters bump up the amount of children’s programming they offer if they multicast, or subdivide their allotment of spectrum into multiple channels.” Protests and lawsuits from entertainment companies such as Disney and Viacom led to the decision to delay implementation.

The recording industry has been pulling out all the stops to try to put an end to illegal file-sharing and other forms of high-tech piracy. But according to a new study, all the lawsuits, threats, and interventions aren’t having much of an impact in the UK. 51% of iPod users in Great Britain continue to download music without paying for it, and fewer than 20% use legal pay-per-download services exclusively. “The survey… also highlighted a large degree of confusion among consumers about whether or not they were breaking copyright laws by using illegal sites. Only four in 10 said that they understood the law.”

The small and ultra-secretive cadre of foreign entertainment journalists behind Hollywood’s second-biggest awards ceremony has been shaken by the suicide of one of its own. “The events surrounding the suicide, which occurred four days before this year’s [Golden Globe] nominations were announced in Beverly Hills, offer a rare glimpse at the inner workings of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which has used disciplinary procedures to protect a lucrative show that has become an important part of the Hollywood awards game.”

Peter and Bobby Farrelly are not exactly known for highbrow comedy. The sibling filmmakers behind the slapstick hits There’s Something About Mary and Dumb & Dumber have always relied on gross-out gags and borderline-offensive jokes to sell tickets, and while their movies frequently garner good reviews from serious critics, they are hardly the stuff of serious art. So you might have expected the folks at the Special Olympics to react with horror upon learning that the Farrelly’s next movie would feature a protagonist who fakes a mental disability in an attempt to steal the gold at the games. Instead, though, officials from the organization saw an opportunity, and the result is a movie that all involved hope treads the line of good taste in the name of humanizing those with disabilities.

If you’re not between the ages of 18 and 49, you may as well be dead to the American entertainment industry and its attendant advertisers. The rationale behind this seemingly arbitrary distinction has always been based on issues of disposable income and willingness to spend it, but as an article of faith, the dominance of the young adult crowd seems to be seriously flawed. “It’s almost impossible to get anyone to revisit conventional wisdom, but maybe it’s time advertisers took a deep, relaxing breath and a careful second look. It’s possible they’re coveting a demographic that’s strapped for cash and not watching much television. And ignoring one, with cash, that is.”

The Daytime Emmy Awards have taken the first step in acknowledging the importance of new media forms in the modern entertainment industry, announcing the creation of a new category for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms. “The award will recognize excellence in entertainment programming created specifically for viewing online or via cellphone, Ipod or video-on-demand.”

Satellite radio has never suffered from a lack of faith on the part of its investors. “It’s only a matter of time,” we’ve been constantly told, before pay radio becomes the new standard in a media universe clogged with corporate radio conglomerates, 8-minute ad blocks, and shrinking playlists. The predictions may have seemed grandiose, but with XM and Sirius finally snaring some top-of-the-line star personalities (Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, and Bob Dylan) and securing exclusive deals with the four major sports leagues, satellite may be on the verge of fulfilling its promise.

There was never really any question about whether Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, fast becoming known as “the gay cowboy movie,” would be a good film. From the beginning, the critics were nearly unanimous in their approval. But the larger question was obvious: is the wider America of 2005, a country deeply divided along social and political lines and embroiled in a bitter debate over issues of homosexuality, ready to embrace a love story with two men in the lead roles? The early answer, it appears, is yes. In its first weekend in wide release (beyond the notoriously liberal boundaries of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco,) cracked the top ten in national box office receipts, and scored with moviegoers in locales as diverse as St. Louis, Miami, and Plano, Texas.

There is certainly no shortage of bad movies these days, but to A.O. Scott, there don’t seem to be many current films that approach the colossal level of sheer badness attained by the Hollywood of yesteryear. Why should we care? Well, the elements that go into a great flop are frequently the same pieces that can come together to form a masterpiece: “extravagant ambition, irrational risk, pure chutzpah, a synergistic blend of vanity, vision and self-delusion. The tiniest miscalculation on the part of the artist – or of the audience – can mean the difference between adulation and derision. So in the realm of creative achievement, the worst is not just the opposite of the best, but also its neighbor.”