Month: December 2007

Menken, Mear talk Mermaid musical

After its first preview on Broadway recently, composer Alan Menken talked to with Rotten Tomatoes about the difficulties of bringing Disney’s classic film The Little Mermaid to the theatre. “I really hadn’t thought about Mermaid for the stage, for the challenge of being under the sea. As everyone knows, that was one of the difficulties. […]

Three Little Pigs added to National Film Registry

Walt Disney’s Academy Award winning 1933 short Three Little Pigs has been added to the National Film Registry according to the head of the Library of Congress, James Billington. Each year the Librarian of Congress, advised by the National Film Preservation Board, selects up to 25 films that are culturally, historically or aesthetically significant to […]

Delgo trailer online

Trailers for the Fathom Studios’ upcoming animated film Delgo have appeared on Movie-list.com. Featuring the voices of actors such as Val Kilmer and Jennifer Love Hewitt, Delgo is a fantasy-adventure about a naive teenager who must rally his group of friends to protect their world from conflict between the Lockni and Nohrin people.

Brad Bird wants respect for toon writers

Variety via PixarPlanet has pulished an interview with Brad Bird wherein the Pixar writer and director calls for more respect for writers of animated films. Bird says, “The whole question of writing for animation is skewed. There isn’t a giant difference between animation and live action. You need characters, stories, themes. It’s called good storytelling.”

Exclusive first look at Bolt; new Wall•E image

An exclusive first look at the stars of the upcoming Disney flick Bolt can be seen at Rope Of Silence, along with an image of the film’s logo. A new promo shot of Pixar’s Wall•E can also be found on the site, showing the robo-protagonist clinging to the side of a space ship. Thanks to […]

Ratatouille, Paprika among the best of 2007

Editors at RottenTomatoes.com have picked twenty best films of 2007 which, according to them, are definitely worth your time. Animated films featured in the list are Ratatouille and Paprika.

Persepolis among five best directorial debut of 2007

IFC.com has published an article featuring five best directorial debut of the year 2007 which includes Marjane Satrapi’s animated film Persepolis. According to the article, “Satrapi’s film isn’t just a faithful adaptation but an energized improvement of its source material, lending the author’s personal saga of oppression and exile an aesthetic fluidity and vitality that […]

Persepolis in motion and life during wartime

AWN has an in-depth article which focuses on how Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novels were brought to life in the award winning film Persepolis. The article examines how the novels were adapted to create a black-and-white animated film that stands apart and follows the filmmakers journey from defining the design of the film to finding distributors […]

Tim Burton's musical numbers

CreativeLoafing, in one of its articles, talks about song and dance numbers from Tim Burton’s films which also features “Kidnap the Sandy Claus” from The Nightmare Before Christmas and “Remains of the Day” from The Corpse Bride. Both of these songs were composed by Burton’s perennial composer Danny Elfman.

Ratatouille honored at Austin Film Critics Award

UpcomingPixar reports that Ratatouille has been judged the Best Animated film at Austin Film Critics Award. Pixar’s Cars had won the same award last year.

Sneak peak at Coraline

An all-new clip from the upcoming stop-motion film Coraline has appeared on Ain’t It Cool News. Directed by Henry Selick of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame, Coraline is planned to open in theaters sometime this year. A direct link to the footage is here.

High-Def Animation Took Off in 2007

Take a look back at the big year animation had on both high-def optical disc formats — Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

Ho-ho-ho! Season's Greetings, an' all that jazz!

TaleSpin 2, Return To Never-Land‘s Pixie-Powered Edition reviewed, Disney and Filmation giveaway contests, and our extensive pick of The Best Of 2007: The Year In Review!

The Best Of 2007: The Year In Review

From the best to the worst, here are our top ten DVD picks of the year, including some other worthy titles and those to stay clear of, as well as our top three motion pictures!

Disney Channel Giveaway – Winner Announced!

A Disney Channel grab bag: Wish Gone Amiss, Johnny Kapahala, Hannah Montana and Halloweentown – winner announced!

Classic Filmation Giveaway – Winner Announced!

A duo of Filmation action: The Secrets Of Isis and The Best of BraveStarr – winner announced!

New York, the animated city

TheReeler.com has posted an article on the animation scene in New York City. Besides the depiction of the city in animation over the years, the article also talks about local animation superstars, surprises and best-kept secrets.

New WALL•E character

UpcomingPixar, with ThePixarBlog, reports that IMDB is listing a new character from Pixar’s upcoming film WALL•E. The character is called Hoverchair Mother and is played by Kim Kopf. Directed by Andrew Stanton, WALL•E hits theatres 27 June 2008.

Stan Lee promises many more Marvel movies

RottenTomatoes, In one of its articles, reports that according to Stan Lee, the company is leaving no major character unfilmed. Lee further adds, “Now they’re not working on it but they have been discussing whether to do it — Power Pack. They’ll be doing Submariner, Captain America, The Avengers, Nick Fury.”

Toy Story 2 added on iTunes

UpcomingPixar reports that Pixar’s Toy Story 2 has been added to the iTunes, completing the collection of Pixar films on the store.

New Persepolis trailer online

Apple has made available a new trailer for Persepolis to watch and download in various formats. Based on Marjane Satrapi’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel, critically acclaimed Persepolis opens in theatres December 25.

Return To Never-Land: Pixie-Powered Edition

Call us crazy, but we really liked this Disney sequel, though the special features don’t offer any sort of upgrade over the previous DVD edition.

TaleSpin: Volume 2

This well-done, typical Disney Afternoon show comes in a pretty mediocre DVD set.

New Horton character posters

A batch of brand new Horton Hears A Who character posters have appeared on CanMag. The five one-sheets feature the various ‘toon stars of the film, including the Mayor of Whosville and the big elephant himself. Horton will open in theaters on March 18th, 2008.

Get Goofy

Just a reminder that the new Goofy short, How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios debuts today with Disney’s live action film National Treasure: Book of Secrets (look in How to Hook Up Your Home Theater for very quick cameos of the likenesses of Walt Disney and John Lasseter). […]

Mickey’s Twice Upon A Christmas

Mickey certainly isn’t the best he’s ever looked in this collection of Christmas tales that are sorely lacking the festive spirit or any other redeeming values.

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything trailer online

Apple has made available the online trailer for the The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything : A Veggietales Movie in various formats. The movie is set to hit theatres January 11, 2008.

Marjane Satrapi talks Persepolis, and more

RottenTomatoes.com has an exclusive interview with Marjane Satrapi, graphic novelist and the director of Persepolis, about her long journey into moviedom. Satrapi also discusses comics to film adaptation of her semi-autobiographical novel, culture shock, and the Oscars. The interview also features few exclusive stills and a clip from the movie Persepolis.

Thirty-second Bunnies Theatre presents Spider-man 3

Thirty-second Bunnies Theatre has come out with their Bunnies’ rendition of Spider-man 3. Bunnies version of the film can be viewed here.

Gatchaman sneak peak and concept art

An in-depth article on IESB currently features a behind the scenes look at the upcoming 2009 action flick, Gatchaman. The story includes technical details of the film, a short history on the original Gatchaman series, character and plot details, several concept art images, and an interview with director Kevin Munroe. “It’s an origin story. We’re […]