Following is the full press release from Starz Entertainment on their Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe sweepstakes running from now to October 23. The grand prize is a trip for four to the Walt Disney World® Resort near Orlando, FL.

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 34th Annual Annie Awards: Honoring excellence in the field of animation, the deadline for ASIFA-Hollywood to receive entry forms is October 6, 2006. ASIFA-Hollywood must receive materials for nomination judging October 27, 2006.

The call for entries to the Newport Beach Film Festival has recently opened. The organizers have said they intend to have a heavy focus on animation in 2007. The eighth annual Newport Beach Film Festival will run from April 19th through April 29th, 2007.

The TV Squad blog reports on three animated pilots that were up for consideration at the recent New York Television Festival, including End of the Line, Squid Dragon Legend and Strange Transmissions (via Netscape).

20th Century Fox’s \\{{link http://www.everyoneshero.com/ Everyone’s Hero}}\\ opens today in 2,896 theatres, according to {{link http://www.boxofficemojo.com/counts/chart/?yr=2006&wk=37&p=.htm Box Office Mojo}}. The film has split the critics, garnering a rotten 50% on {{link http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/everyones_hero/ Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer}}. The \\{{link http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/movies/mmx-060915-movies-review-hero,0,3290779.story?coll=mmx-movies_top_heds Chicago Tribune}}\\ calls it “a likable, good-natured family show”, but the \\{{link http://www.azcentral.com/ent/movies/articles/0915hero0915.html Arizona Republic}}\\ says “I […]

A guest reviewer at Harry Knowles’ AICN gives an optimistic sneak preview of his sneak preview of Warner Bros.’ Happy Feet. Maybe mo-capping tap dancing will become all the rage now.

ComingSoon.net announces a CGI Mr. Peabody & Sherman, to be produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by The Lion King’s Rob Minkoff. “The bespectacled dog Mr. Peabody and his adopted pet boy Sherman were introduced in 1959 in a series of short segments as part of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Together, they had more […]

Following up on our story yesterday on the coming CGI adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! we call your attention to two full-size stills from the film presented by ComingSoon.net. The imagery looks very true to the classic Seuss style.

NYC’s popular film festival, Animation Block Party, offers a free evening of shorts on September 19, 2006, at Club Sugar at 311 Church Street. All films featured in the end of summer screening were submitted by friends of Animation Block Party on MySpace.com. Happy hour will run from 5-7pm and the screenings will begin around […]

USA Today reports on Blue Sky Studios’ Horton Hears a Who!, giving the release date as March 14, 2008. The all-CGI/no live-action Dr. Seuss adaptation will be voiced by comedy powerhouses Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell, among others.

The Hollywood Reporter fills us in on the details of Universal Pictures’ The Tale of Despereaux crew, announcing Corpse Bride’s Mike Johnson as director, replacing The Triplets Of Belleville’s Sylvain Chomet, plus Justin Long, Dustin Hoffman and Kevin Kline as some of the voice actors. “Despereaux is the tale of three misfits — a banished […]

The Hollywood Reporter via Reuters finds that brothers Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi will write and direct the animated movie Ruby Tuesday. Including twelve songs from the Rolling Stones, the project is being co-produced by Mick Jagger, Luc Besson and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam. Besson’s EuropaCorp is funding Tuesday, and will distribute the film as well. Involving […]

Luc Besson’s latest film, Arthur and the Invisibles, is also his last, says the director. Regarding the 10 films he has directed, Besson told RTL radio, “They are my 10 little babies. I love them all. I am pleased to have completed this cycle. That is finished.” Nonetheless, the newfound spare time Besson has will […]

DVD Active relays the word of Monster House‘s DVD arrival. Sporting the title’s cover art, the site lists its bonus features to include: seven featurettes (‘Imaginary Heroes,’ ‘Beginner’s Luck,’ ‘The Best of Friends,’ ‘Lots of Dots,’ ‘Black Box Theater,’ ‘Making It Real,’ and ‘Did You Hear That?’), a multi-angle featurette entitled ‘Eliza vs. Nebbercracker,’ a […]

TV Shows on DVD indicates the September issue of the magazine Newtype may include a free DVD containing the first episode of Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Also, it appears the series’ Collection 1: Blue Lion DVD set is already for sale at such stores as Best Buy and Wal-Mart, while other venues will not […]

Two new international teaser trailers for Happy Feet are now available for one’s viewing pleasure at Coming Soon. Meanwhile, The Internet Movie Poster Awards displays four Russian character banners for the movie.

Luxo points to the Character Design blog, which offers an interview with Nate Wragg, character designer for Pixar. The conversation covers such topics as some specifics of Wragg’s work, other top character designers, and a typical day at Pixar. Recently, Wragg lent his talent to the company’s upcoming Ratatouille and the E-Ville Press comic anthology […]

MovieZine.se via The Internet Movie Poster Awards has captured the Swedish poster for Open Season. Interestingly, it appears that the film is known as Boog & Elliot: Wild Friends in Sweden.

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo: 10) Barnyard with $2,715,092, averaging $1,083 over 2,506 theaters ($67,014,342 total; 6th week) 20) Cars with $478,322, averaging $1,000 over 478 theaters ($242,618,740 total; 14th week) 24) Monster House with $451,667, averaging $1,012 over 446 theaters ($71,423,510 total; 8th week) 26) The Ant Bully with $290,781, averaging $1,072 over 271 […]

Clay Kaytis has posted the second part of his interview with longtime Disney animator Burny Mattinson. “In part two, Burny describes his transition from his short lived career as a full-fledged animator to a story artist and then to director. He also tells about the transition the studio made from Walt to the twilight of […]

At the age of 80 years old, Jan Svochak died Wednesday afternoon, reports Cartoon Brew. After fighting in World War II, Svochak gained a position at Famous Studios in NYC, assisting Marty Taras on cartoons starring Baby Huey, Little Audrey, and Herman & Katnip. In addition, he freelanced for Pelican Films, Byron Rabbitt, Zanders, Buzzco, […]

DVD Active displays the box artwork for Garfield – 2-Movie Collection. Arriving in stores on October 10th, the set will contain both Garfield: The Movie and this year’s Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.

A blog post at Cinematical.com reveals the movie titles that will appear first when Apple’s iTunes makes films available for download. Obviously, Disney and Pixar movies figure heavily in the mix. The list even mentions Toy Story 3 (but not W.A.L.-E.).

From Buena Vista Home Entertainment, the direct-to-video sequel Brother Bear 2 took the top spot on the national DVD sales chart for the week ending September 3rd. This marks the second time this year that a Disney direct-to-video film has debuted at #1, with Bambi 2 also entering the position. In fact, the February midquel […]

IGN previews some of Disney’s upcoming video game titles, including Chicken Little: Ace in Action and Meet the Robinsons. Ace in Action follows the sci-fi exploits of the suave chicken hero Ace, once again voiced by Adam West. As for Robinsons, the video game adaptation allows players to explore some of the worlds and feats […]

Playbill reveals that before the musical hits Broadway, The Little Mermaid will make its world premiere in June 2007 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Ellie Caulkins Opera House. With direction from Francesca Zambello, the production is being developed by choreographer Stephen Mear, scenic designer George Tsypin, costume designer Tatiana Noginova and lighting […]

Wallace and Gromit are to be awarded the freedom of their home city, Bristol. Known as the southern English city’s “finest accolade,” the honor historically allowed special rights to its recipients. Today, however, the award is more of a symbolic gesture of praise. “Aardman Animations, and Wallace and Gromit in particular, are amongst Bristol’s greatest […]

Jerry Beck at Cartoon Brew is now selling rare, classic artwork from the Terrytoons studio, once located in New Rochelle, New York. As the site explains, “Much of this material was original black and white Terrytoon cartoon backgrounds from 1934 to 1936 in their original folders.” Although various auction houses and animation galleries contacted by […]

Latino Review showcases several new pictures from 20th Century Fox/IDT Entertainment’s Everyone’s Hero. The computer animated adventure will open in theaters on September 15th.