Rio, the Oscar nominated film about bird smuggling set in Brazil, is set to have a sequel, says Cinema Blend. Director Carlos Saldanha is progressing on the potential film, which may be set during the 2014 World Cup. Fox hasn’t signed any script deals, but all signs are in Rio 2′s favor.

No Country for Old Men's Javier Bardem is no longer set to lend his voice to Universal's upcoming Despicable Me 2, Screen Rant is reporting. Bardem was set to play the new villain in the film, but that role is now apparently up for grabs now. It is not set to have any impact on the sequel's planned summer 2013 release date. Bardem, meanwhile, will still be seen on the big screen playing a villain soon, in this holiday season's upcoming James Bond adventure Skyfall.

A brief one minute promo for Studio Ghibli’s 2010 film, Arrietty, is now available for streaming. Via ANN the promo highlights the dub voice actors Bridgit Mendler and David Henrie; they play the leads in the film. Arrietty reimagines the 1952 British novel in a Tokyo suburb. It will be opening February 17 in the US.

The Sacramento Bee has two major headlines from DreamWorks. Gregg Taylor has been named the new head of development. Taylor started his DreamWorks animation relationship began with Shrek and prior to his promotion worked on expanding the How to Train Your Dragon, Penguins of Madagascar and television projects. Alex Schwartz is the new producer for the upcoming Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Schwartz is the current head of animation development and looks forward to working on the movie.

According to Deadline, Aardman Animation will be changing a scene shown in the trailer for The Pirates! Band Of Misfits after complaints from leprosy groups. The scene in question featured a character with leprosy demonstrating he has the disease by showing his arm falling off. An Aardman spokesperson told Deadline, “After reviewing the matter, we decided to change the scene out of respect and sensitivity for those who suffer from leprosy. The last thing anyone intended was to offend anyone and it is clear to us that the right way to proceed is to honor the efforts made by organizations like [the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations] to educate the public about this disease”. The film is slated to open in March 2012.

The LA Times has recently posted an interview with Disney's Bryon Howard and Nathan Greno, both of whom directed Tangled and the new short film Tangled Ever After. “The movie kind of buttons up, but the one thing we didn’t do in the movie was a wedding,” Greno says of the film. “There’d be a beautiful wedding of Flynn and Rapunzel, just like the royal wedding. It would be this big, grand event." The directors discuss over the course of the interview how that lead to the short's plot of Pascal the chameleon and Maxiumus the horse losing Flynn and Rapunzel's wedding rings on their big day. The short is currently playing in theaters with Beauty and the Beast 3-D.

Warner Bros. has jut announced that their animated movie Happy Feet Two will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 13th, DVD Active is reporting. The extras will, apparently, only be featured on the Blu-Ray, will include interviews, sing-alongs and more. Meanwhile, Universal has announced that their live-action/animated Easter comedy Hop will be released on Blu-Ray on March 23rd. Extras will include a number of featurettes. Although Hop was a box office hit, the same can't be said for Happy Feet Two, which underwhelmed with a total gross of just $60 million against of a production budget of $140 million.

Universal’s upcoming animated movie The Lorax has been given a PG rating by the MPAA for “brief mild language,” according to ComingSoon.net. Dr. Seuss fans, of course, will remember how often the children’s book author used profanity in his stories…which would be never. Still, this isn’t the first time a Dr. Seuss movie was given a PG, with the live-action Grinch and Cat in the Hat movies both being given that rating. The Lorax opens everywhere in March.

Three brand new sneak peek clips from Nick's upcoming cartoon series Avatar: The Legend of Korra have been posted online and can be viewed here. The sequel to The Last Airbender takes place 70 years (!) after the original show, and follows the adventures of Korra, the next Avatar after the late Aang (Katara, however, is apparently still alive). Although highly anticipated by fans, the series is still without a premiere date.

If you’ve noticed the black bars on Google, Wikipedia, and other news websites, then you probably know about PIPA (Protect IP Act) and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). These two bills are being debated in the US Congress as you read this post. These two acts have the power to censor, regulate, and shutdown millions of Internet sites, mostly user-generated content i.e. Facebook, Wikipedia, Youtube, that violate copyright or post unauthorized material; as decided by the Attorney General. AnimatedViews.com could be a potential victim because we bring you news and reviews about the animation industry. Keep us and other websites from disappearing like the first animated movie ever created. Cartoon Brew, has a video explaining PIPA and SOPA in great detail.

For the poor souls who didn't see The Muppets in theaters, the DVD is free for mass consumption on March 20, reports ToughPigs.com. Special features include the longest blooper reel ever made in Muppet history, eight deleted scenes, music videos, interviews, audio commentary, and easter eggs. The movie will be released in a DVD/Blu-Ray combo and if your order straight from Disney you will receive a commemorative Muppet lithographs.

A new Spanish poster for The Lorax has just been posted at the internet movie poster awards. Unlike previous ads for the film, it is the human characters who take center stage here rather than the Lorax himself. The new movie from the creators of the blockbuster hit Despicable Me comes to theaters in the states on March 2nd.

Announced well over a year ago, we haven’t heard anything about Disney’s live-action Tinker Bell movie since it was first talked about back in 2010. That changed today when star Elizabeth Banks talked with Movie Hole about the project, saying that the plot involves its title character getting “thrown out of Never Never Land, and it’s about where she goes and who she meets and the adventures she has.” The actress, however, is quick to point out that the movie is still a long way from actually getting made. “You might as well not even write it down because who knows, it might not even happen.” Not surprisingly, the film is currently without a release date.

Here's a project that has several big Hollywood names and animation veterans tied to it or at least the story development phase. The film in question will be based off poet Khalil Gibran's book The Prophet. Salma Hayek’s Ventanarosa Productions will produce the film and Roger Allers, The Lion King director, will helm it. Other members rumored to be on the creative team are: Tomm Moore (The Secret Of Kells ), Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets Of Belleville), John Stevenson (Kung Fu Panda), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), and Nina Paley (Sita Sings The Blues).

Great snakes! The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn won the award for Best Animated Feature at tonight's Golden Globe Awards. The adventure film beat Cars 2, Arthur Christmas, Puss in Boots and Rango for the prize. Tintin always had a good chance for the Golden Globe, given the character's extreme popularity internationally and that the Globes are given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press.

Collider.com has news about two superhero projects, one from each of the two comic giants. A movie based off Marvel’s Deadpool character has been rumored for years, but Marvel artist Rob Liefeld has neither confirmed or denied that eight minutes of test footage has been completed. There isn’t a release date yet, but the script will be R-rated and true to the comics. DC’s Green Arrowis being transformed into a TV drama meant to fill the Smallville void. The series will be called Arrow with writers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim of Green Lantern fame attached to the project.

Rango got off to a strong start on its possible road to an Academy Award when it won the prize for Best Animated Feature at this year's Critics Choice Awards. The film beat Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Arthur Christmas and The Adventures of Tintin for the trophy. Meanwhile, Life's a Happy Song from The Muppets won in the Best Song category, while Rise of the Planet of the Apes was given the award for Best Visual Effects of the year.

Piartes of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides director Rob Marshall is returning to direct musicals. He directed the 2002 critically acclaimed and Oscar winner Chicago. Disney has slated him to direct a feature-length movie of Stephen Sondheim’s fairytale mashup Into the Woods. Marhsall hasn’t been attached to the fifth Pirates movie, but whether it gets made or not depends on how Johnny Depp feels about the script.

Disney is pulling fan favorites from the vault to cash in on 3-D craze before it dies. The Lion King and Cars 2 were treated with the third dimension treatment and Beauty and the Beast will come out this week and critics’ reviews are already mixed. The new Tangled short will be worth a visit to the theater, however. Now everyone’s favorite father and son clown fish are swimming into movie theaters. The first trailer for Finding Nemo 3-D came out today. Unlike the 1991 animated classic, Pixar’s fish tale was rendered in 3-D and seeing it that way will create an entirely new depth to the background and characters. The question remains, which Disney 3-D conversion is next?

In news that will probably dissapoint some people, Warner Bros. has once again pulled the plug on their live-action remake of the Anime film Akira, THR is reporting. The exact reason for this is unknown, but apparently it has to do with the studio wanting to cut the $90 million budget nearly in half, moving it down to $60 million. That would not be an easy task for an effects-heavy project like Akira, which still has yet to officially sign on any stars outside of Tron: Legacy's Garrett Hedlund. Warner Bros. has been making a number of choices lately in the interest of increasing studio profits, including shutting down production on a number of movies and delaying the availability of their films on Netflix in order to encourage more DVD sales.

A clip from Disney's upcoming animated short Tangled Ever After has just been posted on the studio's official Youtube page. The short will tell the story of the wild events that take place on Flynn and Rapunzel's wedding day. It will be shown in theaters with Beauty and the Beast 3-D, which opens next Friday.

As awards season continues, the nominations for the Producer Guild Awards have been announced. Nominated in the Best Animated Feature category were The Adventures of Tintin. Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Cars 2 and Rango. Curiously absent from the nominations was Aardman Animation’s Arthur Christmas, which had a “freshness” rating of more than 90% over at the movie review website RottenTomatoes.com, as opposed to Cars 2′s 33% rating. The winners will be announced on January 21st.

Each year the National Film Registry from the Library of Congress selects twenty-five films to be preserved for posterity. This year Disney’s 1942 animated classic based off Felix Salten’s novel was added: Bambi and Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull’s 1972 film A Computer Animated Hand, one of the earliest 3D animation films. The film is one minute long and goes through a hand’s movements, later it was incorporated into the 1976 film Futureworld. These were the only animated films added this year, but we can presume the future will see many more added the national archive. For a complete list, visit The Hollywood Reporter.

DVDActive reports that DreamWorks Animation has announced DVD, 2D Blu-ray/DVD Combo, and 2D & 3D Blu-ray/DVD Combo releases of their latest hit Puss In Boots for February 24th 2012. Extras on this release will include two featurettes: "Purr-fect Pairings: The Voices Behind The Legends", and "World Of DreamWorks Animation", deleted scenes, and trailers. The Blu-ray releases will also include an all-new adventure "The Three Diablos" along with a digital copy of the film.