Ultimate Disney has menus and screen grabs from Home on the Range: A Little Patch of Heaven Sing Alongs Songs DVD, arriving in stores on March 23.

UPN’s Game Over had a lackluster debut on Wednesday. TVWeek.com reveals that the critically-panned, computer-animated sitcom received a 0.6 rating/2 share in adults 18 to 49 with 2 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. These ratings are even worse than the ratings for Enterprise, which had held the same time slot. Thanks to Toon […]

\\{{link http://www.forbes.com/business/2004/03/12/cx_al_0312nemo.html Forbes}}\\ reports that a French judge has ruled against Franck Le Calvez, who asked the court to stop the merchandising of \\Finding Nemo\\ in France. “Even though a civil trial remains on the docket for the fall, the court decision is a blow to Franck Le Calvez, the author behind the small publishing […]

Since today seems to be the day for screen grabs, follow the “More” link for four captures from the preview Chicken Little, Disney’s first completely computer-generated movie produced sans Pixar, as seen on disc 1 of the upcoming Brother Bear 2-disc set, due out in Region 1 on March 30.

Laughing Place has a great new in-depth interview with Disney’s dynamic directing/writing duo Ron Clements and John Musker who helmed The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and Treasure Planet. Thanks to Kristin for the alert.

Philippe Druillet’s grotesque take on the legendary vampire will become a CG series thanks to Wolfland Pictures. Druillet himself is supervising the project, that casts Jean Rochefort as the vampire’s voice and title song by Catherine Ringer. Have a look at the teaser for this gothic horror comedy.

Follow the “More” link for a story sketch from The Chronological Donald, one of the DVDs in the 3rd wave of collectible Walt Disney’s Treasures scheduled for release on May 18, 2004.

Follow the “More” link for three images from Buena Vista Home Entertainment’s Paul McCartney: The Music and the Animation Collection which is due out on DVD and VHS April 13, 2004.

That’s right, sports fans – another box set to thin out your wallet has been announced for release this year! TV Shows on DVD has posted the full specs for The Simpsons: Season Four, which includes such classics as “A Streetcar Named Marge,” “Whacking Day,” and “Mr. Plow.” It will street on June 15th, and […]

Maybe The Lion King 1½ wont be such a fluke decent sequel after all. One story doing the rounds today, and highlighted by {{link http://www.showbizdata.com/contacts/picknews.cfm?id=34899 Showbiz Data}}, sees the animators laid off from Disney’s Paris, Tokyo, Toronto, Florida and California studios finding their way back to the Mouse House – this time down under, at […]

Playbill reports that Avenue Q director Jason Moore is set to direct ABC’s upcoming television musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Featuring music from the Disney’s 1996 animated film, the musical will also feature new music from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, while Sally Robinson (last year’s The Music Man) is penning the script. The […]

One can now read the first chapter of Garfield: The Movie‘s novelization, available at Random House’s official website. Thanks to Coming Soon! for the report.

The always entertaining {{link http://www.dvdfile.com/software/review/dvd-video_8/scoobydoo_s1_s2.html DVD File}} kick-starts the Scooby reviews online today with their first look at the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete First and Second Seasons DVD collection, which brings together all 24 episodes from the first two series. Although the package and episodes gain top marks, the bonus extras seem to […]

Walt Disney’s daughter Diane Disney-Miller has finally spoken out about the power struggles at the top of the company that bears her father’s name. Speaking to the {{link http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-diane10mar10,1,6178675.story?coll=la-home-headlines LA Times}} (free subscription and well worth it), she said that Michael Eisner had done some “great things for the company” but that it was “time […]

Cheryl Hines, who will lend her voice to DreamWorks/NBC’s Father of the Pride CGI comedy in the fall, is proud for very different reasons this week: she gave birth to daughter Catherine Rose on Monday! {{link http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,13669,00.html E Online}} reports the news, while also touching on Hines’ feelings on voicing an animated character and naming […]

Following the closure of Walt Disney Feature Animation-Florida, a group of animators, led by studio veteran Eddie Pittman, forged ahead with a plan to keep Walt Disney’s traditional style of animation alive, by opening Legacy Animation Studios. Chris Douvalas over at {{link http://www.animatedbuzz.com/WB/53.html Animated Buzz}} recently spoke to Pittman about the first couple of months […]

Many critics are saying that the game should have never been started for UPN’s Game Over, the first computer-animated primetime show on broadcast televison. Though most enjoy the show’s animation and voice performances, many find the script lacking. “Shows about video-game characters, like the games themselves, ought to be fun,” writes David Bianculli in the […]

\\{{link http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/10/business/media/10place.html?ei=5065&en=f3c12b7b9c37c729&ex=1079586000&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&position= The New York Times}}\\ has a very interesting article on the wrangling that went on behind the scenes at Disney after last week’s unprecedented shareholder vote against the board. They also report that the company is renegotiating CEO Michael Eisner’s contract “to allow him to retain a salary of $1 million even though […]

{{link http://www.macnn.com/news/23784 MacNN}} reports that at a recent conference an Apple representative said “Pixar has used Linux and Intel-based architecture in 2003, but that Pixar was switching to Mac OS X and G5 workstations for its production work. [He] went on to say that this switch was ‘a move that no doubt made common CEO […]

‘MusicFan’ has alerted us to a little bit of info he’s found on the screenwriter of DreamWorks as yet unannounced Rex Havoc feature. Panellists at this year’s {{link http://www.austinfilmfestival.com/panelistsbios03.php Austin Film Festival Site}} (running October 14-21) include many names that will be known to animation and film fans. A little down the list, though, is […]

Coming Soon! has some casting news on the upcoming Fat Albert movie. Kenan Thompson of Barbershop 2: Back in Business and cast member of NBC’s long-running late night comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live has been cast in the title role. “The film will start with animation, move into live-action and end in the animated […]

The Big Cartoon DataBase reports the sad news that everybody’s favorite corncob pipe-smoking sailor has been dropped by Cartoon Network. The timing is particularly bad because this is the year of Popeye’s seventy-fifth anniversary. Maybe they have one of those mandatory retirement age clauses like Disney has for its board of directors. Follow the link […]

The {{link http://www.hometheaterforum.com/index.php Home Theater Forum}} brigade, a seriously dedicated band of “cinema at home” enthusiasts, had their annual chat with home video and DVD execs from Warner Brothers last night. For details on titles of particular interest to animation fans, check out here:

Pictures from Back to Gaya, Germany’s first completely computer-animated movie, are available at MySan.

While not strictly animated titles, there are a bunch of highly anticipated catalog releases coming from Disney this year that will appeal to all those who love the Studio’s classics, including the original Freaky Friday, Flight Of The Navigator and Walt’s last musical, The Happiest Millionaire. {{link http://www.dvdfile.com/software/dvd-video/archive/2004/03_08.html DVD File}} reports that Disney “will release […]

Following our story that DreamWorks seems to have more animated films in {{link http://www.animatedviews.com/wp-content/uploads/archives/00000922.html various states of production}} that it can shake a stick at, comes news, courtesy of ‘MusicFan’, that there are no less than five more projects lined up. The {{link http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1503404 already known-about}} Master P: Kung Fu Panda has had a new […]

{{link http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=598&ncid=790&e=7&u=/nm/20040308/film_nm/film_ross_dc The Hollywood Reporter}}, via Yahoo News, has revealed that Gary Ross, the writer of such films as Big, Dave and the director of Pleasantville and this year’s hopeful in the Oscar race, Seabuscuit, is getting into animation. “Universal Pictures has optioned Kate DiCamillo’s Newberry Medal-winning novel The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story […]

Christian Willis’ {{link http://www.songofthesouth.net/news/index.html Song Of The South.net}}, absolutely the greatest online resourse for all things Brer Rabbit (though don’t go looking for bootlegs – it’s a respectable site), is reporting that Roy Disney would support the eventual release of his Uncle Walt’s 1946 animation/live-action masterpiece Song Of The South on DVD. “[Eisner] has been […]

{{link http://www.darkhorizons.com/news04/040308f.php Dark Horizons}} points to some pretty major movies shifting their original release date orders. Of most interest to animation fans will be the Tom Hanks CGI-fest The Polar Express‘ date change. The Robert Zemeckis-helmed movie will now open nine days later, on November 19 2004.

The Laughing Place has the complete video from SaveDisney.com’s March 3rd press conference, responding to the unprecented no confidence vote. The event followed Wednesday’s Shareholder Meeting.