Florida's Film, Television and the Arts Magazine
Pensacola Connection for February 2026
IN-FOCUS:“PENSACOLA CONNECTION" FOR FEBRUARY 2026:
This month: Bay Civic Center news, another local film about to seek funding and begin shooting, and congrats to a Central Florida animator, and his frigid furry creation…
FIRST: While Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and city planning authorities are busy working out a master plan for a $71-million-dollar major overhaul and renovations project for the aging Bay Civic Center arena property at Gregory, Alcaniz and Chase Streets, it’s full speed ahead at full throttle for the 13th Annual PensaCon cosplay, comics, sci-fi, horror, animation & gaming convention, on February 20th, 21st, and 22nd. Highlights this year include a cast reunion of “CHiPs” stars Erik Estrada & Larry Wilcox, a “Lost Boys” cast reunion with stars Jason Patric, Billy Wirth, Jamison Newlander & Chance Michael Corbitt, “Mad About You” star Paul Reiser, “Facts of Life” co-star Mindy Cohn, “Highlander” star Christopher Lambert, “Total Recall/SeaQuest/Starship Troopers” star Michael Ironside, “Batman 1989” star Robert Wuhl and still legions more. Plus: Q&A panels, autographs & photo-ops, cosplay costume contests, books & comic art, character merchandise, gaming tournaments, workshops & seminars, a shorts & features film festival, food trucks, free VIP trolley transportation and still more! For complete details, visit their website at: www.pensacon.com.
And while all this is going on, the property’s eastside parking lot formerly used as the Poseidon’s Bay outdoor activities area, is being eyed by the Mayor’s board for 3 new additional buildings, including an $84.4-million-dollar sports & music event center, a $29.8-million-dollar shared lobby & practice ice rink for the Ice Flyers hockey team, and a third un-estimated hi-rise building, to be either a new multi-level parking garage, or a new hotel building to match the still-defunct Royal Crown Plaza Grand Hotel, adjacent to the Bay Center arena. The 3 new complex buildings are expected to stretch the length of the back parking lot property, all the way out to North 9th Avenue. For more information, see: https://www.facebook.com/photo/bid/?fbid=1460009302800570&set=pcb.
NEXT: Local indy filmmaker Kalvo Griffin of FORC3 Studios is prepping to begin shooting in early March, for his first ever feature length motion picture: “Sweet Dreams.” Set in Pensacola, the film is a horror thriller about loss of love, loss of sleep, and if the hero’s not careful, loss of self and sanity. No current estimate of budget available, but a crowd-sourcing account has been set up at www.seedandspark.com, with a tentative goal set at $10,000 in 60 days, with a requirement to raise at least 80%, or else no-go. Griffin has been an active filmmaker in the Pensacola area for the last 10 years, whether as producer, director, script writer, story pitch board artist (I guess he didn’t need MY help with that) and numerous other crew hats. Already Griffin is walking the beat up through the downtown Pensacola business district, entreating local businesses to support the film project, and doing paid hiring of local cast & crew. Check the video links below to follow the progress band wagon on this exciting project. This reporter will be following this story, as it continues to develop.
FB Live on-camera funding pitch video: https://www.facebook.com/kalvo.griffin/videos/4227514804176145/
Facebook video link: https://www.facebook.com/reel/13646646294169
FB Site Page: https://www.facebook.com/people/Sweet-Dreams/615577574671768/#
AND FINALLY: As Oscar Night season approaches for March 2nd, 2025, I couldn’t help noticing… “Snow Bear” by Aaron Blaise, the pantomime tale of a lonesome polar bear who builds himself a snow-pal, got the ‘cold shoulder’ from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and did not make this year’s list of Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short. “Well…” I say: “So what?” Well…I for one, am as proud as wintergreen (or ice cooler) punch, to say that Blaise’s own bubbly Baloo of the iceberg set, is still making its own mark on history. Florida-made animation history, and former Disney independent animation history, as one of the first new indy cartoon shorts in a long time, to come out of the Sunshine State, and wander its own way across 21st Century Earth’s icy tundras. Not a bad testimony to the world, for a Central Florida based, self-made sorcerer of sketchdom in his own right.
Born in Burlington, Vermont in 1968 and raised in Naples, Florida, Blaise graduated in 1989 from Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, before starting in 1990 at Walt Disney World Feature Animation Florida, at Disney/MGM Hollywood Studios Park in Orlando, as Florida branch animation supervisor for “Rescuers Down Under, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, the Lion King…” all the way up to “Mulan” and “Brother Bear” in late 2003. After Disney/Orlando closed its Florida branch studio in early 2004, Blaise went on to join Tradition Studios of Digital Domain in Port St. Lucie in 2010, but their studio and first slated animated feature soon went bankrupt in 2012, closed down, and is seldom talked about to this day. (Still researching that one…) Meanwhile, though long retired from Disney’s animation tables, Blaise is now living in Apopka and is still actively teaching art online (wildlife portraits, animal humor cartoons) publishing several art books, and is currently gathering fellow artists for a big 2D animators’ seminar & workshop event in California, this coming spring. A pity he hasn’t come to Pensacola yet, but here’s still hoping one day he will, either as a future Pensacola guest artist, or at his own local event. To find out more, check out: www.creatureartteacher.com/animated-masterclass2026/, as well as his Facebook page, at: https://www.facebook.com/AaronBlaiseArt. In the meantime, the 11-minute 2024 short “Snow Bear” is currently streaming on YouTube, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOXolSQcEb4
Okay, that’s all for February, and for the winter season.
Until next month, Later, Gators!
_______________________________
Sincerely yours, KENNETH L. MANNING
Your Pensacola Connection
49 Murphy Lane, Pensacola, FL 32505
Phone: 1-850-287-2581
