After 21 years at the helm, Michael Eisner will step down as chief executive of The Walt Disney Company today. Reports from around the web look at his legacy: “Just days before exiting his post as CEO of the Walt Disney Co., Michael Eisner… called his 21 years at Disney “the most gratifying experience in […]

The following is a press release from DreamWorks Animation SKG about some recent changes in their upper eschelons of management:

Muppet Central reports that “Jerry Juhl, head writer of the Muppets for more than thirty-five years died Monday.” Jerry wrote for The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and the television specials. Thanks to Kristin for the heads up. Jim Hill has more.

Skwigly Animation Magazine reports on a scientific study investigating subjects’ emotional response to various styles of robots that obtained some interesting results. These results are then applied to the reactions of the general public to the characters in several recent CGI movies, such as Shrek, The Incredibles, and The Polar Express.

On November 10, ASIFA-Hollywood will be holding a 40-year reunion for Kimba the White Lion, Osamu Tezuka’s anime-ish story of a white lion cub separated from his parents. The evening will bring together several people who worked on both the Japanese and American versions of the film. The hot topic of the evening should be […]

Animation World Network has a new preview of some of the animated shorts making the festival circuit at the moment. QuickTime clips of each short are made available and it looks like all types of animation are represented.

Yahoo! News and the Sydney Morning Herald report that veteran TV actor Don Adams (born Donald James Yarmy) has passed away at the young age of 82. Don Adams provided the voice for the animated penguin character Tennessee Tuxedo as well as animated spy character Inspector Gadget which was loosely based on his Maxwell Smart […]

Roving reporter Chuck Oberleitner gives a rundown at his o-meon site of the many Disney-related events that have occurred this month including Lost at the Emmys, the Cinderella celebration at the El Capitan, the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, the official opening of the Ward Kimball Train Exhibit, the induction of new Disney Legends, and […]

\\Corpse Bride\\ made $20.1 million in its (wide) opening weekend, according to {{link http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2005&wknd=38&p=.htm Box Office Mojo}}. That puts the fim right at {{link http://www.boxofficemojo.com/forecast/ Mojo’s}} prediction, $4 million short of {{link http://www.boxofficereport.com/wbon/forecast.shtml Box Office Report’s}} prediction, and $4 million above {{link http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=9189 Box Office Prophet’s}} prediction.

Check out Animation World Magazine for an article by Mike Johnson, who gets into the gruesome details of his demanding stop-motion work on The Corpse Bride and tells of an encounter with legendary stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen.

After a while out in the cold (sorry!), with little news on how the film was progressing, George (Mad Max, Babe) Miller’s first fully animated feature Happy Feet looks to be coming along nicely. Three {{link http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs47&d=05380&f=Image0493.jpg first-look images}} from {{link http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs47&d=05380&f=Image0643.jpg behind-the-scenes}} have {{link http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs47&d=05380&f=Image067.jpg surfaced online}}, and though they may be rather fuzzy, […]

Ultimate Disney notes that the trailers for Kronk’s New Groove and the Lady and the Tramp: Platinum Edition DVD are now online. Futhermore, the site reports that the MPAA has just classified Studio Ghibli’s 1995 animated fantasy Whisper of the Heart with a “G” rating. This announcement hints that the film will debut on Region […]

Yahoo! Movies presents a clip from Chicken Little, entitled “Dodgeball.” In the scene, Chicken Little, Abby, and Runt must deal with the popular kids in gym class. Chicken Little will hatch in theaters on November 4th.

IGN FilmForce reviews the soundtrack for Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, giving the CD a score of 7.0. In the meantime, people may check the full soundtrack out for themselves at AOL Music.

Muppet Central News indicates that a feature-length version of Fraggle Rock may soon be heading to theaters. Already in the early stages of development, the film will see the characters from the original television show entering outer space, also known as the “human world.” Targeted for audiences both young and old, the Fraggle Rock movie […]

Pictures from the Sony computer animated movie Open Season, opening in theaters on September 29, 2006, are now up at JoBlo.

Toon Zone points to Batman: Yesterday, Today and Beyond, where images of new villains created specifically for The Batman’s universe await. Meanwhile, the trailer for this fall’s DTV The Batman Versus Dracula can be found at the latter site as well.

Not sure whether you should see \\Corpse Bride\\? Or just got any other question you need an answer to? Why not {{link http://www.askthedead.com/ Ask the Dead}}? This \\Corpse Bride\\ themed ouija board can get you the answer you seek from beyond the grave! OK, maybe not, but it’s still fun!

Warner Brothers’ \\Corpse Bride\\ opens today in 3,204 theatres, according to {{link http://www.boxofficemojo.com/counts/chart/?yr=2005&wk=38&p=.htm Box Office Mojo}}, who {{link http://www.boxofficemojo.com/forecast/ predict}} a second place finish for the weekend with $20 million. {{link http://www.rottentomatoes.com/news/comments/?entryid=243728 Rotten Tomatoes}} calls it “one of the best reviewed wide releases of the year”. The film has an 81% fresh rating on the […]

IGN FilmForce reports on yesterday’s preview of some upcoming Walt Disney Studios releases. The big announcement was for the 2008 release Gnomeo and Juliette, a gnome version of the famous Shakespeare play and featuring music by Elton John who previously contributed to The Lion King. The report does not mention if the movie will be […]

Send an email to your friends reminding them of tomorrow’s opening of \\Corpse Bride\\ with Warner Brothers’ {{link http://www.bonymail.com/ Bony Mail}} . Using a skeletal finger on a foggy mirror you can write a message to a friend, who will get to see your message written by the bony hand!

Last Tuesday the annual Disney Legends event was held at the opera house on Disneyland’s Main Street. Nineteen people qualified as new Disney Legends this year and the two keynote recipients were longtime media personality Art Linkletter and longtime comedian Steve Martin. Several photos from the event can be viewed here:

As the film’s release date draws near, marketing for Chicken Little is heating up. First of all, character cards introducing the movie’s stars are spreading throughout the online community, with Mr. Little’s at MovieWeb, Mr. Runt’s at Latino Review, Mr. Morkubine’s at Coming Soon, and Ms. Abby’s at Cinematic Happenings Under Development. In other Chicken […]

Coming Soon has the lowdown on future projects from DreamWorks Animation, including notes on Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Rex Havoc, It Came From Earth! and Route 66.

At DVD Answers, high-res artwork has arrived for the 50th Anniversary Edition DVDs of The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, Muppet Christmas Carol, and Muppet Treasure Island, along with revised art for the Kronk’s New Groove DVD. Moreover, courtesy of The Disney Database comes new info and the cover for the Special Edition DVD […]

Follow the ‘More’ link for some photos from last Thursday’s West Coast Cinderella premiere held at Disney’s own El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.

Animated News has obtained one still from the featurette Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years which is playing in the opera house on Disneyland’s Main St. during the 18-month long 50th Anniversary celebration. This film gives a comical historical sketch of the history of the park and makes efficient use of footage filmed over the […]

Someone has captured this {{link http://www.sept23.com/ freaky home video}} of what appears to be a real \\Corpse Bride\\ at an unnamed graveyard. The cameraman says he is not sure if what he heard and saw was “just my imagination, but see for yourself”. If you can’t see what he’s talking about, at 20 seconds into […]

While there’s still one hour left of International Talk Like A Pirate Day we better mention that Ultimate Disney has just posted the movie poster for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It looks like the skull has some interesting new earrings.