“Magnum Farce” Independent Animated Feature Hits Production Milestone
Los Angeles, CA, June 03, 2012 — Magnum Farce is an independently produced spoof of Dirty Harry-style films which boasts Oscar-Nominated “King of Indie Animation” Bill Plympton as advisory producer, and the recent addition of the Annie Award-wining voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, Tom Kenny, to the cast.
Bella Fe FIlms, the sole proprietorship of Producer/Director Ken Mora, aims to fill an overlooked niche in Animation and eventually become “The Pixar of Rated R.”
On June 1st, 2012, Mora wraps recording of voice tracks with Tom Kenny, and commences the nose-to-tail animatic which then goes to Emmy Award-winning sound editor Rick Partlow for Foley. Bella Fe Film’s aggressive goal is to be ready for release in 2013. “As a small fish in a big pond, our distribution strategy has to be as flexible and smart as our production strategy.”
To that end, Bella Fe Films has teamed with Lightrow Pictures, producer of the action-genre film Rules to ensure a base-line distribution through DVD venues Best Buy, Barnes & Nobel, Target, Sears, and Amazon. “Of course, the brass ring is theatrical distribution, but we’re not waiting for the inevitable crack in current distribution models, we’re taking a page from Ray Kurtzweil’s philosophy of anticipating inevitable trends, and pioneering them.”
So how does an Independent Studio hope to go toe-to-toe with Industry juggernauts like DreamWorks, Sony, and Pixar? “That’s the beauty of it,” says Mora “Ours are different niches. While the Majors go after the increasingly over-saturated four-corner animation market, I’m targeting the underserved fans of Animation who watch Robot Chicken, South Park, and are fans of Spike and Mike.”
Mora’s strategy has attracted the participation of some “Name” talent. Among other notable cast are Larry Hankin of Breaking Bad and Seinfeld, as well as Anime, Animation, and Gaming voice-acting veterans Barbara Goodson, Kyle Hebert, and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows star Mike Vaughn. Also on the roster are the voice talents of fellow Indie Animators, Bill Plympton and Jim Lujan.
“The Independent Animation community is highly creative, dynamic, and incredibly self-supporting. The short’s enthusiastic reception from my peers, along with multiple Film Festival awards, has spurred me forward,” says Mora. His tally of awards includes wins for his animated short adaptations of Magnum Farce, as well as the original feature-length screenplay.
