Month: January 2010 – page 2

Cloudy is a hit on home video

Cloudly With a Chance of Meatballs is currently sweeping the home video charts, ranking as the top selling Blu-Ray, DVD and rental in America, according to Movie Web. The critically acclaimed animated comedy from Sony came to DVD and Blu-Ray on January 5th.

Hoodwinked Too! toys now at Burger King, despite movie’s delay

Burger King is now selling six new toys based off of the movie Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil with their kids meals. The sequel to the surprise 2006 hit was originally supposed to come out this weekend, but the Weinstein Company made the decision last month to indefinately delay the release of the film. Reasons for […]

Wild Things are coming home this spring

DVD Active reveals that Where the Wild Things Are, the live-action movie based on Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book of the same name, will be hitting store shelves on DVD and Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack on March 2nd. Nothing is known about the DVD release at this point, but the Blu-Ray will include a brand new short […]

Casting news for Yellow Submarine

Cary Elwes, Dean Lennox Kelly, Peter Serafinowicz and Adam Campbell are set to play the Fab Four in Disney’s upcoming Yellow Submarine remake. The CGI-animated movie, based on the cartoon feature from 1968 that pitted the Beatles against the villainous Blue Meanies, will be directed by Robert Zemeckis and use the same motion capture technology that he recently […]

Fox challenging Up?

Is Fantastic Mr. Fox the frontrunner for the Oscar? The New York TImes makes the case — in their usual in-depth fashion. Awards Daily, however, much more tersely replies “but critics don’t vote on the Oscars”.

Tintin historian sued

Amid over at Cartoon Brew has the disappointing news that the Tintin estate (or more specifically “the lawyer who married the widow of Tintin creator Hergé and now controls the Tintin estate”) is suing people who use the character, even when it might fall into the fair use category. One target of a lawsuit, Bob […]

Movies of 2010

The New York TImes has a list of about 100 films being released this year including a short blurb about each. Note that the list is sorted by the season of the year the films are being released.

Blue Sky in the spotlight

The New York Times has a nice piece about Blue Sky Studios, their history, how they upset the major players in 2009, and their future. They note that Ice Age 3 was the #1 animated film of 2009 at the global box office, easily besting Pixar’s Up and DreamWorks’ Monsters vs. Aliens — and they […]

Will Avatar sink Titanic?

With the movie ruling the weekend for the fourth week in a row, many are starting to wonder if Avatar will have the strength to be able to overcome Titanic‘s box office record and become the highest grossing movie of all time. Newsweek looks at the many things that have been working in the film’s favor, […]

Planet 51 DVD and Blu-ray in March

DVDTimes reports that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Planet 51 on 9th March 2010. Extra features on these releases will include, “Planetarium – The Voice Stars of Planet 51“, “Extended Scenes”, “The World of Planet 51“, “Life On Planet 51: Behind-the-Scenes Featurette”, “Music Video Montage” and “Animation Progression […]

A look at Waking Sleeping Beauty

The L.A. Times was on hand for a screening of Waking Sleeping Beauty, a documentary which looks at Disney during the turbulent period from the 1980s to early 1990s. Financed and distributed by Disney, and produced by Peter Schneider and directed by Don Hahn, you might expect a white-washed version of events. Not so says […]

Disney memorial service held, animation building to be renamed

ABC7 in Los Angeles has a report and some video of the Roy E. Disney memorial service held yesterday at the El Capitan Theatre. The upbeat ceremony featured performances and clips from some of his work and guests were asked to wear bright colors instead of black. Disney CEO Robert Iger announced that Burbank animation […]

DreamWorks at CES

DreamWorks Animation made a splash at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. The company is teaming up with Samsung to promote 3D television, according to Variety. Buyers of Samsung 3D TV’s will get a free copy of the Monsters vs. Aliens 3D Blu-ray disc, the first ever 3D BD. Exclusive 3D trailers from DreamWorks will also […]

Disney vs The Simpsons

Now at 20 years and counting, The Simpsons is a pop culture institution. Intelligent Life compares and contrasts the show to another animation powerhouse — Disney. The piece makes several interesting points, including: while The Simpsons started as a sort of anti-Disney, over time the show has gone from rebel to establishment; perhaps counterintuitively, Disney […]

Alice in Wonderland Special Un-Anniversary Edition DVD in March

Disney has announced a 2-disc Special Un-Anniversary Edition DVD of Alice in Wonderland for release on March 30, 2010, reports UltimateDisney. New bonus features on this release will include the deleted scene “Pig and Pepper” considered in the 1930s, and the featurette “Reflections on Alice.” The site also suggests that The Great Mouse Detective, previously […]

Gumby creator Art Clokey dies at age 88

Art Clokey, creator of the popular Gumby character as well as the Christian television series Davey And Goliath, passed away last Friday, reports Yahoo!News. The animator, who suffered from repeated bladder infections, died in his home in California at the age of 88. His character of Gumby arose from a student project he completed titled […]

Last Airbender TV spot confirmed for the Super Bowl

Fans of the hit Nickelodeon animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender will be happy to know that a brand new TV spot for the live-action film based on it is set to air during the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 7th. Other confirmed TV spots for the game include the Martin Scorsese thriller Shutter Island and the hotly anticipated […]

The Princess And The Frog’s Supervising Animator Mark Henn – Part 2: The “Disney Decade”

Jeremie Noyer continues his multi-part discussion with Mark Henn, looking back at the 1990s, when the Disney Studio enjoyed a huge resurgence of popularity in its films.

Fourth Pirates film claims May 2011 release date

With Sony’s Spider-Man 4 apparently no longer coming in May 2011, other studios are now taking the chance to claim new release dates for their own movies in that timeframe. Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is now set to be released on May 20th, which would allow for it to come out a week […]

The Simpsons to air 450th episode on Sunday

On its way to yet another milestone, The Simpsons will air its 450th episode on Sunday night at 8pm EST. The episode, entitled Once Upon a Time in Springfield, will be followed by a new hourlong special celebrating the show’s history. The documentary, from Super Size Me’s Morgan Spurlock, goes by the humorous title of […]

Sleeping Beauty nods off back to the vault

In addition to the previously announced Disney titles retiring from their current DVD pressings, the Studio has added The Jungle Book (DVD) and Sleeping Beauty (DVD and Blu-ray) Platinum Editions to the list of films that will be discontinued from this January 30. The titles will remain on shelves until stock runs out.

Spidey Vs…?

The Hollywood Reporter announces that the fourth Spider-Man movie under Sam Raimi has hit another stumbling block after the director and the producing studio Sony couldn’t agree on which villains Spidey would face. Raimi wants the Vulture while Sony is after the Black Cat, a situation the two partners have faced before when Sony forced […]

Avatar, Up among PGA nominations

The Producers Guild of America have announced their nominations for their Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Avatar alphabetically fronts the list, which also names District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious B******s, Invictus, Precious, Star Trek, Up and Up In The Air. Up […]

Not so magic new year for Disney family

It was an unfortunate start to 2010 for Walt Disney’s grandson Patrick Disney Miller, son of Walt’s daughter Diane Disney Miller and the Disney Company’s former CEO Ron Miller, when the 42 year old pleaded not guilty to weapons charges. He was arrested after police found multiple illegal guns and other items at his Los […]

Disney/Marvel brings Stan Lee into the fold

As well as announcing the closing of the deal to purchase Marvel Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company has also “expanded its ties” with Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment, with which it already has a first-look deal. Lee was the creator of many characters in the Marvel stable, and this new agreement will bring him closer to […]

Animated Rings gets Blu upgrade

Timed to the release of Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy coming to Blu-ray on April 6, distributors Warner Bros. will also upgrade director Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated feature edition of the first half of the story to the high definition format as a BD/DVD combo pack for $29.99. The film, notorious in […]

Astro Boy coming to DVD in March

Summit Entertainment’s animated action adventure Astro Boy is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray on March 16th, according to Amazon.com. No further details on the release are currently available. Starring the voice talents of Freddie Highmore and Nicolas Cage, Astro Boy was a dissapointment in theaters, grossing just $19 million against a production budget of $65 million.

TV DVD Award Winners

The winners of the 2009 TV DVD Awards have been announced, per this article from Home Media Magazine (original article here).

Avatar tops $1 billion worldwide

After only a few weeks of release, Avatar has already accomplished what only a few films in the history of cinema have done, crossing the $1 billion mark in worldwide receipts yesterday and becoming one the highest grossing movies of all time. The James Cameron epic surpassed The Dark Knight’s worldwide gross yesterday and is currently only behind […]

Disney completes acquisition of Marvel Entertainment

Disney and Marvel have completed the deal that they announced last August, in which Disney revealed a plan to purchase the comic book entertainment company for $4.3 billion. The agreement was made final when Marvel’s shareholders approved the deal. The Walt Disney Company now has rights to over 5,000 characters from Marvel’s extensive comic history.