ANIMATED DISCUSSION

In the article “Can Anyone Dethrone Disney?” (by John Horn, June 1), it was reported that “Sony Pictures, MGM and Universal Pictures have no public plans to launch animation units.” While clearly the implication is that none of these studios have feature animation units in the works, the fact is that MGM Animation produced the recent theatrical releases “The Pebble and the Penguin” (1995) and “All Dogs Go to Heaven 2” (1996).

The core business of our division is direct-to-home-video movies and television series. Our first original direct-to-home-video movie, “Babes in Toyland,” will be released for this Christmas, and we have an animated sequel to “The Secret of NIMH” in development. We have also produced 60 half-hour episodes of a new “Pink Panther” series, and we are working on the second season of our syndicated show “All Dogs Go to Heaven--The Series.” On top of all this, we continue to seek out feature properties to develop and produce.

JAY FUKUTO

Senior Vice President MGM Animation

Santa Monica

No one is going to repeat the success of Disney animated films until they stop trying to remake Disney animated films, specifically “Snow White,” “Cinderella” and “Bambi.” I tried to do it with my script based on James Clavell’s “Thrump-o-Moto” for Rankin-Bass (it sadly never made it to production) and in my fantasy Spellsinger novels.

As for the “stubborn camel Habibi” in DreamWorks’ “The Prince of Egypt” not speaking, the producers have it all wrong. He should. That’s what animation is for: to show us what live-action films cannot. Otherwise, you might as well just use a live camel.

ALAN DEAN FOSTER

Prescott, Ariz.