DIGITAL L.A. ANIMATION COMES TO LIFE AT INTERNATIONAL PARTY.

Byline: David Bloom 

Fifteen years ago, when Terry Thoren founded the World Animation Festival, there wasn't much going on in the field, at least not in the United States.

The theatrical shorts business that had been home for such geniuses as Looney Tunes directors Tex Avery and Chuck Jones was dead, Disney was reeling from the disastrous box office results for ``The Black Cauldron,'' and television was a backwater of insipid, poorly drawn kiddie cartoons.

No more. These days, the world of animation is a wonderful one indeed.

``You've got so many opportunities. There's animation everywhere now,'' said Thoren, CEO of Klasky-Csupo, the Hollywood-based animation company that has scored TV hits with such clever shows as ``Rugrats.''

Tote up the changes since 1985: Seven animated films will be released this summer from just about all the major studios' newly hatched animation divisions; ``The Simpsons'' are finishing their 10th year as one of the most celebrated and deeply thoughtful sitcoms in TV history; and cable television and the Internet have embraced animation as crucial parts of their entertainment offerings.

The World Animation Celebration, which hits Hollywood this week, will try to cover all that's happening now in the business and art of animation, in film, television and on the Internet.

And with 1,400 contest entries from 66 countries, along with a series of special events, business panels and spotlights on the latest in Japanese, Polish and Czech work, it's truly a worldwide celebration.

Events will mostly be held at the Egyptian Theater and the nearby Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. Among the highlights is the Tuesday night world premiere of ``Heavy Metal 2000,'' the sequel to the 1981 animated cult movie. ``The Simpsons'' creator Matt Groening will be honored in a salute on Thursday.

On Friday, film veterans Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (``The Rescuers,'' ``An American Tail'' and the insanely cool-looking new ``Titan A.E.'') are among a number of notables receiving lifetime achievement awards. Next Saturday, film critic Leonard Maltin will join director Brad Bird in talking about the creation of last year's criminally overlooked ``The Iron Giant.'' The show wraps up Sunday with an overview of the year's best work.

The festival will also feature a conference on the TV animation business, a trade and recruiting show and a panel on creating feature-length animation.

That latter panel, featuring key members of ``The Blair Witch Project'' creative team, will focus on making and marketing inexpensive, independent-film-style animation for grown-ups, said Thoren.

Thoren said he believes there's a market out there for modestly budgeted, grown-up-oriented animation. His company is making its own such project, an as-yet unnamed R-rated film based on the works of Charles Bukowski (as well as a big-budget ``Rugrats'' sequel for Thanksgiving).

One important aspect will be to establish, as the ``Blair Witch'' folks did so well, an Internet presence early on, where the film's characters and mythology can be introduced, Thoren said.

Animators looking for outlets for their work can also hit the Roosevelt, where most of the big Web sites that carry animation will be taking pitches in their hotel cabanas.

All told, it truly will be a world celebration. For more information, schedules and ticket prices, go to www.wacfest.com. The festival runs Tuesday through Sunday, with some adults-only events starting as late as midnight.

SITE OF THE WEEK

--The Los Angeles Almanac: A sprawling but well-organized Web site covering a huge array of stats, facts and historical tidbits about the city wrapped around us. It bills itself as the first-ever almanac devoted to a single metropolitan area.

--Where: www.losangelesalmanac.com

--What's cool: The range of information is remarkable. Lots of details - useful ones, too - like municipal phone numbers for dozens of area cities. (What's up with that rapidly declining live birth rate in Los Angeles County the past several years?) And oddball stuff like area legends and prominent people (finance and construction magnate Eli Broad is the richest man in Los Angeles, with an estimated $4 billion fortune. But that only puts him 48th in America, a rather astonishing notion.).

--Features: Links to the latest reports on traffic incidents, weather (sunny again; go figure) and seismic maps (a disturbingly marked-up map). There are also suggestions for visitors, an events calendar and more. A site just stuffed with information.

--You'll like this if: You need to settle that bar bet on the population density of Hawaiian Gardens. Or you just want to know if any traffic accidents or quakes lie between you and your next destination.

Think your Web fave is good enough for Site of the Week? Send your suggestions to [e-mail].

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