Karen Idelson: Last News

Karen Idelson When Studio Ghibli receives its honorary Palme d’Or May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival, the creative home to Hayao Miyazaki — arguably the most admired and influential living animation director — will make history. This marks the first time an honorary Palme d’Or has been given to a group, which sits well with the helmer.

Karen Idelson May 19 is Animation Day at Cannes, with a full day of programming that includes an animation showcase, a panel discussion and other networking opportunities. The event is held in partnership with the Marché du Film. The highlight of the program is the Annecy Animation Showcase, which spotlights five works-in-progress.

Karen Idelson When director Joel Crawford considered including a realistic panic attack in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” he knew it would be an important moment for kids and adults alike. “We know so many people who struggle with anxiety or we struggle with it and have panic attacks ourselves,” Crawford says. “Children can handle these scenes, maybe sometimes better than adults, and it can help everyone to feel seen if we create a scene that feels like it’s drawn from something that really happens.” In the scene, Puss is overwhelmed by fear as he considers that he’s used up eight of his nine lives. Though the character’s signature state of mind is that of a daring, playful and extroverted cat, this new film takes him in a more vulnerable direction.

Karen Idelson Franklin Armstrong, a member of the Peanuts gang and one of the world’s most iconic cartoon characters, will be celebrated at this year’s Comic-con and through an endowment program created to support diversity and inclusiveness in animation. “Franklin” was one of the first Black characters to appear in a mainstream comic strip and his arrival continues to be a significant point in the history of animation.Charles M.

Karen Idelson When writer-director Leon Cheo was crafting his Indeed Rising Voices short “The 25th Filial Exemplar,” he drew inspiration from old Hollywood films with terrifying depictions of the parent-child relationship, both classic (“Psycho”) and unintentionally camp (“Mommie Dearest”).But his initial creative spark came from something much closer to home: an article he read about a man in China who dressed up as his late sister to help ease his mother’s feelings of loss and grief. Cheo’s own parents live in his native Singapore, and he’s aware that as they grow older, he may have to help them navigate the health care system. It’s rare in Asian culture for parents to go into nursing homes or for people outside the family to provide assistance, so he knows that the burden of providing care could very well fall on him.  “It’s an unpaid job that kind of lasts a lifetime,” says Cheo. Cheo amped up the psychological terror and turmoil in “The 25th Filial Exemplar,” infusing the story with the dark tone of a horror movie and adding sibling rivalry to the thematic mix. While it’s often the first-born male child who becomes the favorite in Asian cultures, in this film, it’s the daughter — though the “daughter” is actually the son dressed as his dead sister.

Karen Idelson “Doc McStuffins” featured many famous voices over the years. Creator Chris Nee was especially delighted when then-first lady Michelle Obama agreed to lend her voice to the episode “Doc McStuffins Goes to Washington.” The episode appeared in 2015.