All Roy, All DayInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Today’s Magic News takes us to Las Vegas and Los Angeles primarily. We have several stories about Roy Horn and his continued recovery as well as the upcoming “Father of the Pride” cartoon series. It will be the first series on NBC’s primetime to use the computer to generate the images — in much the same way as Shrek and Jimmy Neutron. The producers of the show include Siegfried and Roy as well as the studio that put out Shrek, Dreamworks SKG.

The Hollywood aspect gets a bit thick but Roy’s meeting with Montecore — the tiger responsible for his injuries — is heartwarming.

Read On . . .

Roy Horn Visits Montecore. Roy made his first visit to the white tiger responsible for his nearly fatal injuries. On October 3^rd, last year, Montecore mauled Roy onstage during a live show in Las Vegas. Roy spent the last nine months fighting for life and Montecore has been kept at the magicians? Las Vegas refuge. Roy was described as tearful. The Contra Costa Times quoted an Internet source saying, ?the 59-year-old patted and chatted to the big cat as part of a TV documentary on his recovery, according to IMDb.com, which will be aired on the first anniversary of the tiger attack that left Horn clinically dead for a minute.?

The reunion took place at Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden at the Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas, where Montecore has been housed since the mauling. Meanwhile, Horn has amazed doctors, who feared he wouldn’t survive his injuries. He has regained the ability to speak and write.

Read the full article …

The Hollywood aspect gets a bit thick but Roy’s meeting with Montecore — the tiger responsible for his injuries — is heartwarming.

Read On . . .

Read the full article here.

NBC Previews ?Adult-Themed? Father of the Pride. This weekend, NBC offered critics a preview of Father of the Pride; the ?hugely ambitious? CGI animated show about the animals who live and work with Las Vegas magicians. The show is a replacement for the iconic Friends.

The show was beyond concept phase when Roy was attacked by Montecore last year. Siegfried and Roy are not only the inspiration for the show but also involved in the production. After the mauling, Dream Works suspended production. Jeffrrey Katzenberg (the K of Dreamworks SGK), said the project was restarted because ?suddenly this show has come to mean so much to (Roy) and the two of them.?

Critics called the preview ?surprising.? ?Though the furry creatures walk and talk, they are anything but cute, cuddly or family friendly.? The first episode shown involves an undersexed tiger competing with a ?dirty old lion? for the attention of a mate. ?After one of the many sexual innuendos, a grizzled critic leaned over and whispered, ?Well, they?ve written off the kid audience.??

Read the full article from the industry website, TV Barn here.

Katzenberg Pats Self On Back. Jeffrey Katzenberg made it clear to the assembled press and critics that he was the one who decided to suspend production of ?Father of the Pride? after Roy was attacked by Montecore.

“Our immediate reactions was, ‘What’s going to happen to Roy?'” Katzenberg said in an interview at NBC’s fall press tour over the weekend in Los Angeles. “He is someone who has been a friend of mine for 15 years, and ? this happens to someone who is a friend and someone who you care a lot about, and ? it’s devastating. ? There was a big pause. A big, big pause. And all I could think about was, ‘What can I do to help him?'”

Katzenberg added that plans for the show went forward only with Horn’s blessing. “Well, he was the one who turned [attention] to the show,” Katzenberg said. “The moment that he was ? in a place in which he was starting to think of a future, rather than ? literally hanging on for his life, ? he wanted to talk about the show. And ‘How is it?’ And ‘I wanted to see things.’ [He] wanted to see the animation. ? So ? it became ? almost part of a process of recovery for him in it. It was very important to him.”

Roy has recovered enough to have appeared in a videotape presentation for the series this past May. Now, Katzenberg added, the show’s producers are treading carefully around the accident in the series, which is a satirical half-hour comedy. Mr. Katzenberg said that scenes are screened to avoid any viewer wondering if the interaction between humans and the animals was safe.

Mr. Katzenberg also commended NBC for showing the cartoon at 9:00 pm Eastern to ensure it would not be seen by children. Mr. Katzenberg did not comment on the fact that 9:00 Eastern would be 8:00 Central and prime time for families in the Midwest.

Read the full Sci-Fi Channel article here.

Bloomberg News Considers Franz Harary Without Peer. Bloomberg Financial News is not your usual source for television recommendations or evaluations of magicians and so it is very special when they provide both. The benefactor of the well-deserved praise is Ann Arbor, Michigan native Franz Harary. He appears in the special, World Magic as the host and master illusionist.

Mr. Harary uses his considerable talents to cause the Taj Mahal to disappear and to ?absorb a ten-foot missile into his chest. Mr. Harary points out how the type of magic performed usually reflects the culture in which it is done. In China, there is an emphasis on the production of food; in Vegas, Mr. Harary produces or vanishes a jet plane; and while in India, he vanishes one of the most important landmarks. To read the review, click here.