India is working up a voracious appetite for chocolates.

A delectable combination of rising disposable incomes, changing lifestyles and a young population’s growing penchant for indulgence has transformed India into one of the world’s fastest growing chocolate markets.

A July report from French investment bank Societe Generale predicts that in the next five years, global confectioners will see the highest growth in four markets: India, Mexico, China and Brazil.

But it’s not just affluent Indians who are craving for chocolates, although they still comprise nearly 80% of country’s chocolate sales, according to Technopak, a retail consultancy. Lured by smaller, more affordable offerings, the rural hinterland and and tier 2 and 3 cities—still dominated by traditional Indian sweets—are developing quite a sweet tooth.

Overall, India’s per-capita spending on confectionery is tiny—and that means there’s plenty of room for growth.

Product play

In as early as 1998, India’s largest chocolate maker, Mondelēz—earlier called Cadbury—introduced chocolate packets that cost as low as Rs5. This was mainly to persuade non-users to try the products and to penetrate into rural areas.

At the other end of the market, Mondelēz is also expanding its range of premium chocolates for an urban clientele with a more international palette.

According to Prashant Peres, director, marketing (chocolates) at Mondelez India, to keep up with the growing demand in the premium segment, the company has introduced new products in recent months.

“With product and packaging innovations like our various home treat packs, we are also focusing on creating new consumption occasions in the mainstream segment,” Peres told Quartz in an email.

Alongside, the traditional notion that chocolates are meant only for children is also changing.

“Previously chocolates were predominantly seen as a confectionary product for children, which also limited their consumption. However, market leader Cadbury’s (Mondelez) has focussed on growing chocolate consumption by adults, for gifting as well as a celebratory consumption instead of traditional sweets,” said Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of Third Eyesight, a retail consultancy.

This has made it possible for other companies to bring niche products to the Indian market including premium chocolates (such as those by Ferrero Rocher) and imported products, Dutta told Quartz in an email.

Italy’s Ferrero Spa—makers of the popular Kinder Joy chocolates, Nutella chocolate spread, Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Tic Tac mints—has seen its revenue shoot up in India. In 2014, the company’s sales in India rose 76% to Rs1,014 crore ($160 million) and it posted its first-ever profit of Rs12 lakh ($18,931).

Such numbers have enticed others to join India’s chocolate craze. In March this year, Mars International India, a subsidiary of the American Mars Inc, announced that it will invest Rs1,005 crore ($159 million) in a new factory in Pune in Maharashtra. The plant will make brands like Snickers and Galaxy.

Factors such as rising cocoa prices and lack of supply-chain infrastructure in India have not exactly dampened the enthusiasm of chocolate makers.

Peter Hartlaub’s copy of the 1960 San Francisco rapid transit plan map by Eric Fischer on Flickr.

Gunning for Buzzard’s spot as the most credibly underground American indie of the year, in comes Tangerine, Sean Baker’s motor-mouthed, occasionally hyper-active, at times repetitious tour of the street corners, fleabag motels, and back alleys of West Hollywood. Let out of jail on the morning before Christmas, transgender prostitute Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) learns that her boyfriend-slash-pimp Chester (James Ransone, pretty funny) has been cheating on her with a fish—what you’d call a cisgender woman in academic company—named Dana or Desiree or Dinah. Nobody seems 100 percent sure on the name, except that it starts with a D. So off go Sin-Dee and her best friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor), hitting up every corner and soup line, occasionally crossing paths with an Armenian cabbie (Karren Karagulian) and the odd cop or stingy client. Shot on an iPhone outfitted with an anamorphic clip-on adapter, the movie ...

It's called Targeted Allocation Money. It's awesome for rich teams and it sucks for broke teams.

The LA Galaxy are expected to sign Mexico star Giovani dos Santos shortly for what is likely to be a league-record salary. Because the Galaxy already have the maximum allowable Designated Players under the league rules, they have to find a way to free up a DP slot. On Wednesday, Major League Soccer announced a new rule that allows them to do just that -- Targeted Allocation Money.

On the surface, this seems like an even more ridiculously shameless way to help the Galaxy than the first high-profile randomly made up MLS rule -- the Beckham Rule, or Designated Player rule. Instead, it's actually a really cool way to screw over the MLS 1.0 owners who are holding the league back.

Hold up. What the hell is regular Allocation Money?

Okay, so you're new here. Before we get started, you need to understand that MLS has such a ridiculously convoluted set of rules that sometimes it seems like GMs don't exactly know how to manipulate them. Toronto FC hired an MLS rules guy to be their GM instead of a soccer or stats guy because it's the most useful skill for a GM to have.

Allocation Money can be used for specific things like buying down a player's salary cap hit or signing new players. Teams have three Designated Player slots for players with any salary, but who only count $350,000 against the salary cap. If you have enough Allocation Money, you can buy down the salary of an expensive player so it is below the DP threshold for cap reasons, allowing you to sign another expensive player. This is the mechanism New York City FC used to sign all of David Villa, Frank Lampard, Andrea Pirlo and Mix Diskerud.

So what is Targeted Allocation Money?

It's a new rule/mechanism announced by MLS on Wednesday. Targeted Allocation can only be used on players making more than the maximum salary charge of $436,250. It cannot be used to buy down the salaries of other players or to pay transfer fees for other players. If you use it to convert an existing DP into a non-DP for cap purposes, you are forced to sign a new DP.

Clubs will get $100,000 per year over the next five years, but they can just use all $500,000 right now if they want.

So why are we just hearing about this now?

MLS made it up during the CBA negotiations, but it would have been a pretty crappy PR move to announce it then, so they held it until right before the summer transfer window opened. It was explained to all GMs last week.

The league couldn't exactly propose a fourth DP slot while crying poverty to the players, but they had to make up some mechanism that allowed rich teams to sign more top players without giving middle-of-the-road players more than the minimum amount they had to in order to keep them happy. This is what they came up with.

Who does this benefit, specifically?

LA and Seattle, mostly. But really, anyone who uses all three DP slots.

But I’d be surprised if this move helps a team buy a player it couldn’t before. That’s 1/4th of the cheapest DP salary on a yearly basis.

— Will Parchman (@WillParchman) July 8, 2015

Someone like TFC, who has three DPs who make a ton of money, can't buy down one of their existing ones to open up a new slot. This mechanism basically allows teams to have three DPs and a DP Lite. Or in the case of NYCFC, who had enough Allocation Money from being an expansion team to buy down Mix without this, they get two DP Lites. Toronto can sign someone who barely makes DP money and buy them down, but they can't buy a new star.

LA and Seattle are in really good shape. They each have a fairly cheap DP -- Omar Gonzalez and Osvaldo Alonso -- who they can buy down, allowing them to sign another superstar. While the Sounders are not currently rumored to be close to signing a huge name, they certainly will be soon.

Vancouver Whitecaps, Orlando City, Philadelphia Union, Real Salt Lake, Portland Timbers, San Jose Earthquakes, Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire are the other teams that have three DPs and can benefit immediately if they choose to spend more money on a new DP.

If low-budget teams don't benefit, can they just refuse to use it?

Nope! Buried at the bottom of the MLS release is the best part.

While MLS clubs are not required to use their full $100,000 each season, they are required to use the remaining amount during the following year. For example, if a club does not use its $100,000 allotment in 2015, that club must use or trade at least that $100,000 of Targeted Allocation Money in 2016.

Get what this means?

Basically, every team that does not have or plan to have three DPs has zero use for Targeted Allocation. The league is forcing teams to use it or trade it. If you have no use for it, the best move is to trade it for players or picks, right? Well, the trade market isn't huge. Theoretically, any team with three DPs can use it, but they're not all going to be willing to trade a good player or pick to get more Targeted Allocation. A lot of those teams are still fairly low-budget -- Colorado, for example. The only teams who would definitely be willing to trade something of value for Targeted Allocation are the four big spenders-- LA, Seattle, NYCFC and Toronto.

So the other teams have to a) use Targeted Allocation even though they're already under the cap and it does nothing for them or b) make the rich richer. The only other option is to spend more money. The league is telling its cheapest teams that they need to spend more or willingly tip the scales even more in favor of the teams that are spending. Those are their only two choices.

Then why does MLS have a salary cap? It's time to just blow the damn thing up, right?

The Big Four certainly think so, and the likes of Portland and Vancouver, and probably Orlando and Red Bulls too, wouldn't be bothered by that development either. But the rest of the owners? They'd lose it. They're not having that. They got into this league because the salary cap made it an extremely low-risk investment and they're not going to let some people who actually like soccer screw with that investment.

This sounds like it's good, then?

Yes, even if you're a fan of a team that doesn't spend any money. This will stink for you for a few years, then eventually be a huge positive.

Maybe Clark Hunt, Stan Kroenke, Robert Kraft and the others like them will think about selling their teams if they think the league has become too competitively imbalanced and they have to risk millions more in order to make the playoffs. At this point, MLS is popular and stable enough that they'd make a healthy profit on their investments, so they might be willing to cash out.

Anyone who's going to buy into MLS isn't going to do so thinking that cost controls make it an easy money faucet. They're going to do it because they think soccer is growing rapidly, and that it can make a lot of money with some serious investment, and it's OK if they eat a loss for a few seasons. There are more City Football Groups lying around -- more than there are good remaining expansion opportunities.

Yes, MLS invented a mechanism that allowed LA to sign dos Santos, but they also came up with a really slick way to put the squeeze on crappy owners. This is, unequivocally, a great thing for soccer in America.

Muse is a brain sensing headband for assisted meditation. It pairs over bluetooth with your phone to guide you through a meditation session with realtime feedback on your brain’s activity, followed by some stat tracking that helps you improve your calm over time.

We decided to take it apart to look at how the Muse works! Head over the Adafruit Learning System for the complete teardown with photos and the part numbers for the chips we could identify.

Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

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It Defies Tech

Established in 1981, Logitech is, in their words, "a world leader in products that connect people to the digital experiences they care about" but boiled down to human-speak they simply make pretty good computer peripheral devices like mice and keyboards with typically good-behaving software. Logitech is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, with headquarters in Newark, CA, as well, and employs over 7,000 people. Today, through a tiny sliver at the top of their home page, Logitech introduced a new identity designed by London-based DesignStudio.

Although I'm on vacation and was planning on covering this story on Monday of next week, I had to come online — see xkcd's "Duty Calls" comic — to set at least one thing straight: Logitech is NOT changing its name to Logi, as reported by a few blogs. Logitech remains Logitech but will be introducing a new range of products branded as Logi. Perhaps it's setting a precedent for dropping "tech" in the future but for now, it's still Logitech.

Today Logitech revealed its biggest brand transformation since its founding. Building on its heritage as a leader in peripherals for the PC, Logitech is reinventing itself as a company with design at its core. […] Since 2013, Logitech has been working behind the scenes on reinventing the company, shaking things up culturally and through its product innovation. Its latest products are an outward expression of these changes, and moving forward Logitech is also bringing new life to its brand identity.

Provided press release

The logotype nods to Logitech's 30-year heritage with the use of the Brown Pro typeface, designed by Aurèle Sack from Lausanne, Switzerland, the birthplace of Logitech and still where its EMEA headquarters are based. The logo also takes inspiration from Paul Renner's experimental sketches for his now classic modernist typeface, 'Futura'.

DesignStudio project page

Logitech's logo has never held any kind of special place in my heart. The half-moon shape with the squiggle — which apparently was originally an eye — and the bursts is confusing and has no evident meaning. The 2012 change into a single color and another sans serif didn't improve anything. Cutting all ties to the old identity feels like the right direction to go in and pave the road for something new and different. The new wordmark falls in the current trend of geometric, friendly sans serifs with its defining trademark being the abstracted "g". It's catchy, it's well done, an it's fairly distinctive, particularly when the wordmark gets broken only into "logi". Keeping the ear of the "g" helps solve the slight readability issues this might cause with people unfamiliar with the brand. As a way to signal that this is a new Logitech, this logo works perfectly, but it certainly starts to blend in with the numerous other sans serif tech brands in the world.

The new logo is flexible as a label for Logitech's bright new product range — Logi. […] The Logi products of the future are designed for a more youthful audience. An audience that can now see themselves in the imagery we use. Our inspiration for colour came from the clothing people wear today — brighter, more vibrant — with a variety of colours too, rather than a reliance on the old approach of 'one colour equals the brand'.

DesignStudio project page

In application, Logitech starts to look a little like the Microsoft Surface stuff with all the colors and faux youthful attitude — sorry, DesignStudio and Logitech team, I realize you are trying to come across as genuine with your depiction of young, in-the-know, cool people, but it has that unfortunate sheen of trying-too-hard. A secondary sans serif has been introduced that clashes with the geometric strictness of the logo; something a little more distant or close in structure would have worked better. The "logi" logo works great on the products, being short and easily readable. Overall, this is a good change that finally breaks Logitech free from that old logo and allows it to position itself as a lifestyle brand a la Beats, even if they are just selling souped up mouseses.

Two members of US Congress introduced a bill today (July 8), backed by the Obama administration, that would pay for two years of community and technical colleges for first-time American students.

“America’s College Promise Act,” which senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) and representative Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) told reporters has at least 10 Democratic Senate co-sponsors and 61 Democratic co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, is a small step in attempting to tackle the problem of skyrocketing higher education costs in the US. Though it wouldn’t likely pass in the Republican-controlled Congress, it may get some wind in its sails because of US president Barack Obama’s proposal earlier this year to grant all US students access to free community college.

More importantly, the bill exemplifies a larger nationwide push (paywall) to reduce the cost of an undergraduate degree for debt-burdened Americans. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has gained popularity on a platform that champions free community college, and this month in Oregon lawmakers passed a bill to implement free community college for students statewide, based on a similar program already offered in Tennessee. A solid show of support could encourage lawmakers in other states and districts to propose similar measures.

The plan, which would pay for students enrolled at least half-time with satisfactory grades, would cost the federal government about $90 billion over the next decade, lawmakers said during a press call—$30 billion more than Obama’s initial estimate. Of that, about $80 billion would go toward covering 75% of the cost of community college, while states would need to pay the other 25%. The remaining $10 billion would go toward paying tuition for low-income students at four-year minority-serving institutions such as historically black colleges and Hispanic colleges. Lawmakers supporting the bill estimate that if all the states participate, nine million college students could save an average of $3,800 each per year on tuition.

“We all believe that every student in America deserves a fair shot at a higher education and a path toward the middle class,” Baldwin said during a press call. Republican lawmakers have argued that the federal government can’t afford free college tuition for all, nor can Americans afford the higher taxes needed to foot the bill. Obama has also argued that the initiative would help bridge the gap in skills between American workers and jobs.

Americans must have at least a bachelor’s degree to earn more than the median weekly wage in the country.

Under the new bill, states would have to ensure that eligible two-year community and technical colleges meet quality standards, and that credits from two-year colleges are fully transferrable to four-year schools. Currently only 16% of two-year college students actually go on to earn a bachelor’s degree. The hope is that lessening the financial burden of those first two years would help students complete a bachelor’s degree.

Ok, the new parent company of RadioShack, General Wireless is trying some things out –

RadioShack is in the middle of a bold retail experiment: is it possible to acquire a venerable brand with a deteriorated reputation through bankruptcy and rehabilitate it into a place where people actually want to shop? The Shack’s new owners are harnessing the power of song and dance to try this…well, and also portable speakers. And rap.

Orlando Jones sings the #RadioShackisBack

There’s more –

To up its cool factor (and remind shoppers that stores are still open), the company recently launched a comeback campaign complete with a #RadioShackisBack hashtag on Twitter and Facebook and a flashmobvideo featuring comedians Carlos Mencia and Orlando Jones dancing with shoppers and employees.

…

With Boombotix comes cultural clout, thanks to its new creative director, Robert “RZA” Diggs, a founding member of hip hop group the Wu-Tang Clan. Diggs lent the iconic Wu logo to a limited edition Boombot and suggested that exclusive music by the group be embedded directly into the speaker. The concept has since lured artists from other genres, such as Shavo of System of a Down, and The Grateful Dead who have selected tracks exclusively for Boombot speakers to mark anniversaries or special collaborations.

#Entrepreneur stepped into the recording studio with Robert Diggs aka @RZA of the @wutangbrand to discuss his latest venture @boombotix — check out the story on @entrepreneur today or love tap link in profile xo #tech #audio #audiophile #business #electronics

A photo posted by Tanya Klich (@tanyaklich) on Jul 7, 2015 at 6:56am PDT

3 more images in gallery

Google's Chromecast is one of the easiest to use and most widely supported TV streaming sticks out there, but the only way to use it has been over a Wi-Fi connection. If your TV is out of range or your airways are too crowded, there really hasn't been a solution. Google just started selling a cool little accessory for Chromecast owners with Wi-Fi woes, though: a hardwired ethernet adapter for the Chromecast.

The accessory is a power brick that plugs into the Chromecast's USB port, and—in addition to providing power—embedded in the brick is a full-sized Ethernet port. Just plug in and you can forget about ever having to push bits over Wi-Fi again. The adapter is $15 on the Google Store, and it supports up to 100Mbps.

Google has been continually updating the Chromecast with new tricks. Besides the usual swath of media content, you can now use it as a presentation device by pushing Google Slides documents, the Google Docs PowerPoint competitor, directly to a TV. The company is also planning to use it more as a gaming device by experimenting with dual-screen gaming content. All of that is going to take bandwidth, so it's nice to have a hardwired connection as an option.

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The Mino Shoe Life Tracker is a device that fits into a runner’s shoe and alerts them when it’s time to get a new pair. The device slips in under the sock-liner and easily shows the life left in the shoe with a series of indicator lights. The goal of the device is to prevent injury and pain that can be caused by running with worn-out sneakers.

For a limited time, the Mino Shoe Life Tracker is available in our Laughing Squid Store at a 20% discount.

images via Laughing Squid Store

Micro Center is a destination retailer designed to satisfy the dedicated computer user, they’re one of the best places to get Do It Yourself Electronics, 3D Printer Parts & Accessories and more – and now, the Adafruit product line up is coming to a Micro Center near you.

Adafruit waited to do retail in a big way. Why? Because we wanted to do it right, with the right partner, for the right reasons, and the right time – it’s Micro Center and it’s now

Here’s where we need your help, what specific Adafruit products do you want stocked at your local Micro Center? Post up in the comments, tweet, Google+ (ladyada, Adafruit, community), Instagram, Facebook, whatever ya want, we’ll make it happen!

Special thanks to Samantha & Kevin!

Micro Center is one of the largest computer and consumer electronics retailers in the United States. Despite the down economy, we have experienced extraordinary growth over the past several years. We have achieved:

• Double-digit same-store sales growth every year
• Strong monthly growth in new customers in all markets
• Laptop sales trending 30 percent higher than the industry average
• Desktops sales bucking the U.S. industry by rising over 10 percent
• Opening six new regional stores since 2007, for a total of 25 stores across the U.S.
• New stores with more floor space and specialized customer service areas
• A new and exciting store format for legacy stores with many new merchandising opportunities

BuzzFeed has posted 10 paintings that depict celebrity chef Guy Fieri as a series of Renaissance babies. The exact reason why BuzzFeed or anyone else would do this is unclear.

images via BuzzFeed

via BuzzFeed

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel, New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, and former NBA player Kenny “the Jet” Smith have launched a new private equity fund called TitleCard Capital.

Their schtick? Companies “will benefit from TitleCard’s high-profile management team and investors,” according to the fund’s recently launched website. No longer will athletes and celebrities be relegated to mere spokespeople; now they’ll create and fund their own companies, the company says.

More from the site:

Celebrity businesspeople have significant successes leveraging their personal brands to drive awareness, form valuable partnerships, and create unique value for their companies and for themselves.

We believe elite athletes and artists are more than pitchmen for someone else, or even a personal brand for themselves, and instead empire builders.

In other words, TitleCard’s investment thesis is that rich people will want to invest with celebrities because famous people can tap their large Twitter and Facebook followings to sell stuff their companies make. Then, instead of watching the profits land in other people’s laps, they’ll be able to pocket more for themselves.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The website says the new firm is aimed at investing in companies across a wide spectrum of industries, including technology, consumer products, specialty finance, media, entertainment, and hospitality. It was the lead investor on a recent $9 million fund raise for online luxury mattress company Leesa.

Most of the management team is drawn from the same group of men (and yes, they are all men) who run the Denver, Colorado, based Impact Opportunities Fund.

According to the IOF’s website, the fund has made 10 private equity and debt investments in four companies since 2012: a hotel developer, a wine importer, a water filtration company, and a specialty lender that provides financing to professional athletes. While the fund doesn’t disclose its size, it said its previous fund managed $100 million and consisted of an acquisition of a light manufacturing company and a specialty finance firm.

Kimmel’s not the first celebrity to get into investing. Just look at Ashton Kutcher’s A-Grade Investments, which backed Uber, Airbnb, and Spotify, among others.

Still, if you weren’t worried about there being a bubble before, you might be now.

celestialmazer:

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF A DRESS

Restored dress as worn by Ellen Terry in her 1888 portayal of Lady Macbeth.

“When Ellen starred alongside Henry Irving in Macbeth in 1888, there was not a wide choice of fabrics available in England, and Alice could not find the colours she wanted to achieve her effects. She wanted one dress to ‘look as much like soft chain armour as I could, and yet have something that would give the appearance of the scales of a serpent.’ (Mrs. J. Comyns Carr’s ‘Reminiscences’. London: Hutchinson, 1926) Mrs. Nettlship found a twist of soft green silk and blue tinsel in Bohemia and this was crocheted to achieve the chain mail effect.

The dress hung beautifully but: ‘we did not think that it was brilliant enough, so it was sewn all over with real green beetle wings, and a narrow border in Celtic designs, worked out in rubies and diamonds, hemmed all the edges. To this was added a cloak of shot velvet in heather tones, upon which great griffens were embroidered in flame-coloured tinsel. The wimple, or veil, was held in place by a circlet of rubies, and two long plaits twisted with gold hung to her knees.’

the history blog.
the guardian
V&A 
blogspot

NEW PRODUCT – Miniature WiFi Module – Official Raspberry Pi Edition

This cute little dongle is perfect for making your Raspberry Pi cable-free by adding WiFi. Take advantage of the Raspberry Pi’s USB port to add a low cost, but high-reliability wireless link.  You’ll have wireless Internet in 10 minutes! Works great with 802.11b/g/n networks.

This is the official Raspberry Pi foundation version, for use with the most recent Raspberry Pi operating systems.

This module will be the only one that will be supported by the Windows 10 IoT version once it supports WiFi. We recommend it for people who plan to be using Windows 10 IoT on the Raspberry Pi or when you know for sure you are going to be using Raspbian with a current kernel and don’t need any kernel modifications because this chipset was only supported recently. For a WiFi module that works with more than just the Pi and also works with any Raspberry Pi operating system/release, click here!

When using with a Raspberry Pi: The latest Raspbian distributions support this module out-of-the-box.  Check out our detailed tutorial for how to set up WiFi networking on the Pi. If you have a model B you may find that you need to have a powered hub to use this adapter, so if you’re having power flakiness with your Pi, try a hub!

Please note: These are good for home/office usage with a Raspberry Pi when the router is nearby. For installation projects or large-scale distribution, we strongly recommend upgrading to this stick with a larger antenna – especially if you plan on putting the Pi behind something or inside an enclosure/wall/box/sign/etc!

In stock and shipping now!

It won’t be a week’s run, but pencil Sept. 30 on your calendar. Warner Bros. and Fathom Events are putting a remastered “Signature Edition” version of The Iron Giant in theaters for a very limited engagement. The special-event screening will take place at 7:00 p.m. on Sept. 30, with an encore showing on Oct. 4 at 12 p.m. in participating theaters around the country. The new remastered cut will include two all-new scenes. 

“We can’t wait to bring this family favorite back its home on the big screen,” said Fathom Events CEO John Rubey, in a statement. “The Iron Giant is meant to be seen and heard in movie theaters and this is a great chance for fans new and old to enjoy this classic, remastered with new scenes.”

The Iron Giant tells the story of a rebellious Maine boy named Hogarth who befriends a towering 50-foot robot (voiced by Vin Diesel) who is both wanted and feared in 1957 America, at the height of Cold War paranoia. The film, Bird’s first as director, was soundly ignored at the box-office when it opened on Aug. 3, 1999, debuting at No. 9 and ultimately grossing only $23.2 million (reportedly less than a third of its production budget). But critics lavished it with praise and it went on to win nine Annie Awards. In the 16 years since, The Iron Giant has only risen in profile and is considered one of the richest animated films of an age mostly dominated by Pixar films. The gorgeous Mondo poster (above) echoes the passion and artistry that drip off every frame of the film.

Following the brief theatrical re-release, a high-definition version of The Iron Giant: Signature Edition will be available from digital retailers in the fall of 2015. More information about the Sept. 30 re-release can be found on the Fathom Events tickets page. 

ca-tsuka:

The Iron Giant is coming back to US theaters.
Remastered “Signature Edition”.
Two all-new scenes.
New FX animations by Michel Gagné.

sorry:

being the annoying friend like:

Yet another blow in the battle for its racist name.