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Animation Magic

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Animation Magic Inc.
Founded1991 (Massachusetts branch)
1992 (Saint Petersburg branch)[1]
FoundersIgor Razboff and Dale DeSharone
Defunct2001 (2001)[2]
FateDissolved by Vivendi
Headquarters
Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S.
Number of locations
3
ProductsVideo games and animation
OwnerCapitol Multimedia
Number of employees
~150
SubsidiariesООО "АМИ"

Animation Magic (Russian: «Магия анимации», romanized: Magiya Animatsii) was a Russian-American animation studio founded in Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1991, with offices later added in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a 100%-owned subsidiary in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The company developed animations for CD-based software. It was acquired in December 1994 by Capitol Multimedia.

By 1994 Animation Magic had 90 employees, including 12 software engineers and approximately 60 animators, computer graphic, background and sprite artists. Its products included Link: The Faces of Evil,[3] Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon,[4] Mutant Rampage: Bodyslam, Pyramid Adventures,[5] I.M. Meen,[6] King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride, Darby the Dragon, and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans.[7][8]

Legacy

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Circa 2006, games by Animation Magic were major source materials for YouTube poops, specifically Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and I. M. Meen.[9]

On September 6, 2020, over 200 animators collaborated to reanimate 21 minutes of cutscenes of Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon (both 1993).[10][11][12][13] Nintendo Wire reported, "The ever-shifting mediums and the contrasting animation styles, ranging from professional and sophisticated to intentionally goofy and exaggerated, lend themselves incredibly well to cutscenes that were already chaotic and bizarre to begin with."[11][12]

References

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  1. ^ Puffer, Sheila M.; McCarthy, Daniel J.; Satinsky, Daniel M. (2018). Hammer and Silicon: The Soviet Diaspora in the US Innovation Economy. Cambridge University Press. pp. 152–153. ISBN 978-1107190856. I went back to computer design and computer manufacturing, and in 1991, I started my own business in multimedia called Animation Magic. When I started that business, Russia opened up and my partner, who was also from Massachusetts but originally from California, suggested that we should probably hire some animators from Russia because that would make us more competitive in the marketplace. We would have better animation and therefore more success, so I went to Russia and we opened a business there in 1992.
  2. ^ Игорь Варнавский (Igor Varnavsky) (January 31, 2008). Закрытые страницы истории. Крупные игровые компании в России были еще в 90-е, но мы об этом не знали. Igromania (in Russian). Vol. 1, no. 124 (published January 2008). Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  3. ^ "Link: The Faces of Evil". MobyGames. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  4. ^ "Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon". MobyGames. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  5. ^ "Pyramid Adventures Episode 1: Treasures of the Lost Pyramid - The Cutting Room Floor". tcrf.net. Retrieved 2021-07-09.
  6. ^ Brad Cook. "Test of I.M. Meen". Allgame. Archived from the original on March 6, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  7. ^ "Animation Magic". The Video Animation Company. Archived from the original on August 5, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  8. ^ "Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on January 1, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  9. ^ "Inside YouTube Poop, the nonsensical genre that invented meme culture on the internet". Inside YouTube Poop, the nonsensical genre that invented meme culture on the internet. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  10. ^ "Someone's remade the Zelda CD-i games, and they're kind of good now". PCGamesN. 28 November 2020. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
  11. ^ a b "Zelda CD-i Reanimated brings together over 200 animators to celebrate the worst-ever Zelda cutscenes". Nintendo Wire. 2020-09-07. Retrieved 2022-08-24.
  12. ^ a b The Zelda CDi Reanimated Collab!, retrieved 2022-08-24
  13. ^ Muñoz, José David (2020-09-08). "Los Zelda CD-i se han reanimado de una manera gloriosa gracias a los esfuerzos de varios fans". Hobbyconsolas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-08-24.
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