Wow is it hard to type when you are drooling on your keyboard. The Digital Bits just put up a review of Looney Tunes Golden DVD Collection. Oh ya, The Rabbit of Seville, gurrgggle (currently drooling like Homer Simpson over a box of donuts).

Raise your hand if you know who Keith Lango is. Ok, a few of you. Have you ever watched a Big Idea cartoon like Veggie Tales, 3-2-1 Pengiuns, or the Electronic Theater at Siggraph 2001? Then you probably saw some of his work and didn’t even know it. Well I stopped over at his page […]

{{link http://www.nausicaa.net Nausicaa.net}} will be interviewing Cindy and Don Hewitt, “the duo behind the English adaptations of \\Spirited Away\\, \\Porco Rosso\\, and \\Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind\\ (among others)”. They are {{email nausicaa_interview@airpost.net accepting interview questions}} from their readers through October 25. They have also announced they are moving to a new server, so […]

With no signs of a buyer in sight analysts say Disney will have to wait until next year to find someone interested in purchasing its chain of Disney Stores. {{link http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/031022/media_disney_stores_3.html Reuters}} reports that one of the major problems is that Disney has already “sold hundreds of licenses for their famed characters, flooding the market […]

Walt Disney Internet Group {{link http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/?epi_menuItemID=989a6827590d7dda9cdf6023a0908a0c&epi_menuID=c791260db682611740b28e347a808a0c&epi_baseMenuID=384979e8cc48c441ef0130f5c6908a0c&newsId=20031022005227&ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&div=1865077808 announced}} today that they will soon bring some of their popular Disney and Pixar characters to mobile phones in the form of voice ring tones. “Initially, the character voices will include Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Stitch, Pooh and Tigger. There will be several […]

Legendary stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen looks back on his extensive career in a new book, An Animated Life, due out November 22. With a couple of his classic films also just out on disc, {{link http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/ten_questions/harryhausen_ray/index.html DVD File}} today has Ten Questions with the creator of many of the most memorable special effects films in […]

{{link http://www.dvdreview.com DVD Review}} today highlights several hidden ‘Easter Egg’ features to be found on the MGM released edition of A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie DVD. A deleted scene and additional clips await you {{link http://www.dvdreview.com/eastereggs/collect/516.html here}}!

Among other contests, {{link http://www.thedigitalbits.com/ The Digital Bits}} is running a chance to win copies of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection on DVD for free! Check this {{link http://www.thedigitalbits.com/contest.html link}} for entry details – US and non-US participants are all welcome.

Zap2It reports that two roles in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film will be auctioned off on November 28. If you’ve got any treasure stored away in your Gringott’s account, it might be a good time to withdraw some of it and take it to the auction block. Even if you […]

Zap2It reports that on October 21 Pirates of the Caribbean was voted the favorite film of 2003 for the 7th Annual Hollywood Film Festival Hollywood Awards.

A new Disney Editions book released to commemorate Brother Bear‘s imminent release is reviewed over at {{link http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID210210.asp The Laughing Place}}. Rhett Wickham’s take on the book by H. Clark Wakabayashi also looks at the stories behind the movie and how the book reveals more than the usual watered-down Disney approach. Brother Bear: A Transformation […]

The LA Times reports the new animated series in which self-mythologizing movie producer Robert Evans lends his voice to an animated version of himself, will premiere tonight at 10:30. Evans, who is 73, is nowadays more famous for having been famous. He was good-looking enough to have been discovered twice by Hollywood; he married movie […]

{{link http://www.jimhillmedia.com/main/index.htm Jim Hill}} gets the scoop once again in a great article on \\George of the Jungle 2.\\ Brendan Fraser, the actor portraying the title character in the original movie, reportedly turned down $12.5 million to appear in the sequel but came up with a hilarious idea for a cameo. Unfortunately, when the directors […]

Disney Legend, animator, director, musician, railroad enthusiast, two-time Academy Award winner, and possibly the man responsible for getting America ready to head into space, Ward Kimball is the subject of new articles at both {{link http://www.digitalmediafx.com/Features/wardkimball.html Digital Media FX}} and {{link http://www.animagic.hpg.ig.com.br/wardkimball.htm Animagic}}.

Carl Urbano, winner of the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Golden Award in 1981, has died at 94. He began his career in the 1930’s, and in 1940 was an animator for the Oscar-nominated \\Puss Gets The Boot\\, the first appearance of Tom and Jerry and the first “full teaming of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, […]

\\Fresh Spins\\, a direct-to-video animated series that takes traditional stories and gives them a, what else, fresh spin, is set for a Spring 2004 release according to \\{{link http://www.animationmagazine.net/article.php?article_id=1672 Animation Magazine}}\\. Developed by {{link http://www.Noodlesoup.net Noodlesoup Prods.}} and the {{link http://www.thejgroup.com Johnson Group}} and created by Jeffrey Nodelman, the stories will feature scripts by David […]

{{link http://news.awn.com/index.php3?ltype=top&newsitem_no=9423 Animation World Network}} has reported that Shrek producer John H Williams, who has a four picture CG deal set up with Disney in the US under his Vanguard Animation banner, is teaming up with various German-based companies to produce the animation for Happily N’Ever After, a comedy that continues the trend to turn […]

{{link http://www.broadway.com/template_1.asp?CI=31575&CT=38 Broadway.com}} reports that Destiny’s Child’s Michelle Williams will replace Toni Braxton in the musical \\Aida\\ next month. \\Aida\\, with a score by Elton John and Tim Rice in their first collaboration since \\The Lion King\\, is Disney Theatricals third Broadway show.

Toon Zone reports that everyone’s favorite fleet-footed Mexican mouse, Speedy Gonzales, will be making a guest appearance on the November 8 episode of ¡Mucha Lucha! on the Kids WB. Set your TiVos, because sometimes the only way you can catch Speedy is on slow-motion playback. No word yet on whether his cousin, Slowpoke Rodríguez, will […]

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the second film this year to gross $300 million in domestic box office, may earn a distinction that’s even more uncommon: back-to-back sequels shot in one simultaneous production. Recent successes which have followed the same format are Warner Bros.’ “Matrix” sequels and New Line’s “Lord […]

An insider who has seen the storyboards in progress has let us know that a \\Fox and the Hound\\ midquel is currently in development at Disney. We’re told the story features some sort of circus that looks similar to the backgrounds from the apparently dead in the water \\Dumbo 2\\. There is also a new […]

Some loved it, some hated it, but Warner Brothers’ last attempt at putting the Looney Tunes on the big screen, which was supposed to hit disc today, has been pushed back to October 28th to coincide with the release of the classic Looney Tunes box sets. Space Jam, from 1996, has been issued on disc […]

Animation historian and writer Jerry Beck, whose {{link http://www.cartoonresearch.com/screenings.html Cartoon Research}} continues to be a well respected and deep source of news and views on animated topics, writes on our {{link http://animation.skyblueproductions.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=42#post42 Forum Pages}} that he is hosting a special event at the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences tomorrow night which will include […]

A federal court has denied Caterpillar’s request to halt Disney’s release of \\George of the Jungle 2\\, calling their arguments “unpersuasive”. Caterpillar charged trademark infringement because of scenes in the movie where the villains drive their equipment. They also claimed their reputation would be tarnished because of the association.

Scott Adams, creator of the daily comic strip \\Dilbert\\, has invited five top cartoonists to draw and write the strip all this week. A further twist – the artists are not named so you can try to guess who did them! Check out {{link http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/mystery_artist.html the strips}} all this week to play along.

Russia’s first theatrically released animated feature in forty years will be screened at the Chicago International Animation Festival (November 6-8) according to {{link http://www.bcdb.com/ The Big Cartoon Database}}. {{link http://melnitsa.com/melnitsa.htm Melnitsa Animation’s}} first full-length animated feature \\{{link http://karliknos.spb.ru/eng/mult Little Longnose}}\\ (\\Karlik Nos\\ in Russian) premiered in Russia in March 2003. BCDB contacted Melnitsa Animation about […]

{{link http://news.awn.com/index.php3?ltype=top&newsitem_no=9411 AWN}} reports that Disney has named it’s 2003 Disney Legends honorees, a recognition that began in 1987 to honor individuals for their “creativity and imagination”. This year’s honorees are: Tutti Camarata – Music; Edna Disney – Founder; Lillian Disney – Founder; Orlando Ferrante – Imagineering; Richard Fleischer – Film; Floyd Gottfredson – Publishing; […]

Although many may want to wipe this from their minds, today sees the release of {{link http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005JMAY/ref=ase_thehomeimprovemz/102-3502886-9685707?v=glance&s=dvd George Of The Jungle 2}} on DVD. Based on the Jay Ward characters from the animated series, though wth a whole new live-action cast (only John Cleese as the voice of the ape named Ape reprises his role […]

Jim Hill Media updates with a new article on a recent South Park episode which decries the increasing tendency nowadays for filmmakers to re-release their movies with previously cut footage added back in or altogether new footage and suggests that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas decided not to do any such thing to the Indiana […]

The news page at Kimba W. Lion’s Corner of the Web reports that the 1997 movie Jungle Emperor Leo will be released through AnimeWorks on DVD October 28 in the US. Watch it after watching your new Lion King DVD. Or before.