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Bob Hoskins passes away at 71

Bob Hoskins, known for playing Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit alongside famous cartoon characters, has passed away, Animation Interviews is reporting. While being paired up with a cartoon rabbit and the vivacious Jessica Rabbit made him legendary in the animation community, Hoskins starred in other notable movies, including Hook, The Long Good Friday, […]

Enjoy the first five minutes of How to Train Your Dragon 2

DreamWorks has been getting fans excited about its newest feature How to Train Your Dragon 2 by releasing tidbits as the premiere date draws closer. The trailers hint at a dynamic storyline with a new enemy, new dragons, and secrets from Hiccup’s past. DreamWorks has unleashed the movie’s first five minutes on the Internet. The […]

Moonbot acquires Olivia Kidney and The Extincts

Moonbot Studios, home of William Joyce, develops most of their creative properties in house. For the first time ever, Moonbot has bought two outside properties to turn into feature films. The first is the Olivia Kidney trilogy by Ellen Potter, which is planned as a live action movie with extensive animated sequences. “At Moonbot, we’re […]

Dexter’s Laboratory gets a comic book series

Dexter’s Laboratory was a popular show on Cartoon Network. It was about a super genius boy named Dexter with a secret laboratory in his house. His experiments were constantly being destroyed by his older sister Dee Dee with whom Dexter had a love-hate relationship. Cartoon Network is breathing new life into some of its popular, […]

Idina Menzel to sing Let It Go at the Oscars

To the delight of Frozen fans everywhere, Idina Menzel will perform at the Academy Awards on March 2, singing the signature song of her character Elsa. According to Collider, Let It Go is a frontrunner in the category. The Frozen album is the longest running number one soundtrack since 2003. Disney is capitalizing on the […]

Disney Interactive’s animates new short with Google

Despite all the negative news about layoffs, Disney Interactive has a new project that pairs it with search mogul Google. Disney and Google are launching a new animated short entitled: Blank: A Vinylmation Love Story. Disney memorabilia collectors will recognize Vinylmation as the line of figurines with mouse ears. It “is a stop-motion animated film […]

Miyazaki expresses views on Japan’s anime industry

Hayao Miyazaki, director of My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Castle in the Sky, was recently interviewed on his thoughts about Japan’s anime industry. Anime News Network reports that in the interview Miyazaki said the problem with the anime industry is that it has too many otaku “…who ‘don’t spend time watching real people’ and […]

Leaked first images of Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

A few images have leaked on the Internet of the turtles in Michael Bay’s live action remake of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Many news sources were asked to take down the images, but ComicsAlliance still has one available. Many fans have been speculating about what Michael Bay’s turtles would look like and the pictures […]

New poster for How To Train Your Dragon 2

Collider has the newest poster for How To Train Your Dragon 2, featuring the viking twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut with their two-headed Zippleback, affectionately named Barf and Belch. The movie releases on June 13.

Angelina Jolie makes evil look beautiful in new Maleifcent trailer

Disney’s classic Sleeping Beauty doesn’t delve into the evil enchantress Maleficent’s past. After 55 years, Disney is revealing Maleficent’s backstory in a live-action movie starring Angelina Jolie as the wicked villainess and Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora. In the new film trailer from E! Online, Maleficent’s dastardly deeds are hinted at, including a battle and […]

The Muppets express outrage and get a lot of publicity

Disney released another trailer for Muppets Most Wanted and the Muppets were outraged…about not getting nominated for the Golden Globes. They may be outraged about the lack of nominations, but they should be pleased with the amount of publicity they are receiving. ToughPigs rounds up the all the press releases, interviews, and news articles that […]

Interviews with producer Todd Lieberman, Miss Piggy, Kermit, Walter and new pictures from Muppets Most Wanted

Collider was bursting with new information about Muppets Most Wanted. First they have new interviews with Kermit, Walter, and Miss Piggy, where each reveals their personal experience working on the new film, then there are fourteen glorious, brand new photos from behind the scenes that will be sure to delight Muppet fans. If that was […]

Disney renews Sofia the First, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Doc McStuffins

Three of Disney’s children’s shows are doing so well that they have been renewed. Sofia the First and Doc McStuffins are both going into their third seasons and Jake and the Neverland Pirates enters its treasure-hunting fourth. The VP of original programming and general manager at Disney Junior Worldwide Nancy Kanter says that these three […]

Compare animation knock-offs to the genuine Disney article

A tale as old as time is that smaller studios have been copying Disney movies since they realized they could turn a profit with cheaply made knock-offs. Disney has been known to sue some of these studios, but that does not prevent new ones from popping up. Cartoon Brew has generated a list of these […]

DreamWorks enters the tablet market

DreamWorks is developing its own tablet, says the LA Times. The animation studio partnered with Fuhu Inc. to create the DreamTab, a device designed to teach children how to be animators. The tablet uses the 4.4 Kit Kat Android operating system and will allow its users to stream video and play games. It will retail […]

Phase 4 copies Disney’s Frozen

Smaller studios are are infamous for copying Disney’s successful animated features. These films are quickly released to DVD to ride in the wake of Disney’s name. Usually these studios are left to their own devices, but sometimes Disney finds issues to sue. Phase 4 Films changed the title of its 3D animated film from The […]

Disney says out with the old and in with the old?

Characters that Walt Disney himself worked on are still popular today and according to the Motley Fool 2015 will be the year of vintage Disney. The Fool brings to our attention the Descendants project, about the children of Disney heroes and villains in a high school. It is a single made-for-TV movie in live-action, but […]

Disney princesses may be better role models than some claim

Disney princesses take a lot of heat for being poor influences on little girls, because Disney associates them with fashion, make-up, etc. Some say it is easy to pick on the princess pantheon due to their dominance in media and merchandise, but the Voyages Extraordinaires blog published a (quite lengthy) critique on the Disney Princess line […]

Animation spirits riding high, but is darkness around the corner?

Bloomberg Businessweek ran down the numbers for animated movies this year and concluded that this was a profitable year for studios. Frozen is projected to make $250 million and the article lists other earnings: • Despicable Me 2 at $367 million • Monsters University at $268 million • The Croods at $187 million Despite the […]

New Rio 2 trailer

Rio 2’s new trailer premiered today with details about the movie’s story. Blu, Jewel, and their three chicks discover they are not the only blue macaws left in the world. They journey to the Amazon with their friends to find the flock, finding not only their own kind but Jewel’s father and ex-boyfriend. Nigel, the […]

Holocaust victim Anne Frank gets her own animated picture

Anne Frank has been the subject of film, plays, and television since her diary chronicling her years hiding from the Nazis was published in 1947. Animation Magazine reports that the young girl’s life will be made into an animated film. Ari Folman will direct the film and he is a respected Israeli filmmaker, having recently […]

Disney villain’s reproduce and their kids get a movie!

Disney fans are going to go crazy over this news from Inside the Magic: the Mouse House is developing a new Disney channel original movie starring the children of their most evil characters. Descendants, the article notes, is Disney’s attempt to reproduce Monster High’s success. Monster High is a popular toy and movie line following […]

Disney celebrates ninety years of animation

The LA Times highlights that Disney Animation Studios will be celebrating ninety years in existence by basking in Frozen’s continuing success. There will also be an invitation only event at the Disney Legends Plaza in Walt Disney Studios. Special guests include John Lasseter, Frozen director Chris Buck, Ed Catmull, and more Disney talent from voice […]

Eisner pays compliment to Disney’s Get A Horse

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner complimented Disney on its latest short Get A Horse and their success with Frozen, which some are calling an instant classic. He tweeted his praise for the short, as mentioned by Cartoon Brew, proclaiming that it is “the best film of the year.” In a follow-up tweet he congratulated Disney […]

New motion capture movie Tarzan 3D trailer premieres

While Russia and Germany are already getting their share of the new Tarzan 3D on the silver screen, English-speaking audiences must make do with a UK trailer. Tarzan 3D is made by Constantin Films and stars Kellan Lutz as the voice and performance capture actor for Tarzan. Screenrant tell us that the original story was […]

The Miyazaki Pippi Longstocking film that never was

Studio Ghibli unearthed some treasures from their archives: concept art for a Pippi Longstocking movie. ComicsAlliance tells us that back in 1971, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata approached Astrid Lindgren to adapt her famous children’s books into a movie. They painted watercolor storyboards and presented them to Lindgren, but after meeting with the animation team […]

Is Kaguya-hime appropriate for a global audience?

No one can deny that Isao Takahata’s The Legend of Princess Kaguya has beautiful animation, but ANN found a piece by Newsweek journalist Akihiko Reizei that suggests some scenes are not made for a global audience. Reizei believes it would be a good idea to release an “international” version, where scenes–i.e. breast-feeding and nudity–would be […]

New Boxtrolls trailer showcases amazing and detailed work behind the film

Instead of revealing more of the film’s plot, the newest trailer for Laika’s Boxtrolls goes behind the scenes of how the film is made. Set to the tune “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands,” the trailer shows how the stop motion process requires intensive focus of detail from making the puppets’ clothing to […]

Not a surprise: Kaguya-hime dominates Japanese box office

As most Studio Ghibli films are prone to do The Tale of Princess Kaguya swept the box office by taking the number one spot. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that the film earned $2.8 million in only two days. This is the first Studio Ghibli film released post-Hayao Miyazaki’s, the studio’s founder, retirement and the […]

Obama visits DreamWorks and “wants to work there.”

US President Barack Obama paid a visit to DreamWorks Animation Studios today to discuss the US economy, take a tour of the studio, and meet with big time supporter Jeffrey Katzenberg. There was speculation that Obama’s speech would be overrun with an audience in green shirts protesting visual effects jobs being outsourced, says Cartoon Brew. […]