Weekend box office actuals are in and Jeffrey Katzenberg can sigh in relief: DreamWorks Animation’s latest ended up grossing a total of $60,239,130 over the weekend, slightly ahead of Cars‘ $60,119,509 opening two years ago today on June 9, 2006. Adjusted to inflation the Pixar film would still be ahead but who’s counting!

Coming Soon! offers an extended clip of Wall•E, introduced by none other than Pixar voice regular John Ratzenberger.

In another great article, Jim Hill looks at the opening weekend of Kung Fu Panda and reports that while Disney won’t discuss opening numbers for Wall•E, the Mouse House is currently projecting for the new Pixar film to end its theatrical domestic run north of $260 million. Which would reverse the domestic box office trends […]

The team at Disney’s Movie Surfers sat down with writer/director Andrew Stanton to chat about his new film Wall•E. Thanks to Upcoming Pixar for the link.

The Globe and Mail takes a very interesting look this morning at celebrity voices in animated feature films, noting that “em>Kung Fu Panda was in production for four years, but Angelina Jolie spent one week on it and got all the press. Few people know who provided the voices for such classic animated movies as […]

/Film posted on their site the video clip from Pixar’s upcoming film that was shown during ABC’s airing of Finding Nemo this weekend. The scene involves Eve placing Wall•E in a shuttle back to earth. Sigourney Weaver makes a cameo as the voice of the space shuttle computer.

Kids entertainment producer Hit Entertainment will produce the next series of Bob the Builder and Thomas & Friends in CGI, says C21 Media. Thomas will be reworked by Canadian production company Nitrogen, with LA-based SD Entertainment taking up CGI duties on Bob the Builder. The result of 18 months research, Christopher Skala, executive producer and […]

Singer Jesse McCartney, who was reportedly cast as Terrence in the direct-to-video animated film Tinker Bell coming this October, also ended up being the voice of Theodore in the Alvin & The Chipmunks feature film. The young artist told the Toronto Sun that he has been a huge fan of voiceover work and animation since […]

Kung Fu Panda not only topped the U.S. box office this weekend; it also had a strong start overseas with $20.7 million from only nine markets with each posting the top result for a DreamWorks animated film, according to Variety. “The booming Russian market led the way with $9.2 million, 158% better than Ratatouille, followed […]

DreamWorks Animation’s latest, powered by rave reviews and an underserved family audience, had the studio’s highest opening for a non-sequel with an estimated $60M gross over the three-day weekend. That is $120,000 shy of Cars‘ opening but Kung Fu Panda still has a shot at beating the Pixar film’s number when final grosses come in […]

Coming Soon! points to the new NBA TV spot for Disney/Pixar’s latest.

The Pixar Blog has confirmed that Andrew Stanton is currently writing the film version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars for Pixar. No details on the project has been announced yet. AWN, however adds that the film is said to be a mix of live action and animation and Stanton is rumoured to […]

GhibliWiki reports that according to Toshio Suzuki, a US release for Miyazaki’s upcoming film Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea has been decided. Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy have been selected as the producers. No details on a release date or voice cast have been announced. The website however reports that a large scale […]

Mark Osborne and John Stevenson recently chatted with Red Orbit about their new film. Says Mark, “We didn’t want to just make a parody and didn’t want to make just a silly movie, although we knew we had to make something that was funny and engaging and for a broad audience. But we saw it […]

Scotland on Sunday offers a fascinating look at Pixar’s latest, including an interview with Ben Burtt, the legendary Star Wars sound designer who gave Wall•E his voice. “It was three years ago and I’d just finished Revenge Of The Sith,” says Ben. “I went home and said to my wife: ‘Oh boy, this is great. […]

Variety notes that the six-day Annecy International Animated Film Festival will world premiere two new shorts, Pixar’s Presto, directed by Doug Sweetland, as well as Disney’s Glago’s Guest, helmed by Bolt co-director Chris Williams. Bibo Bergeron will also present his anticipated A Monster in Paris, the key animation project at Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp outside its […]

Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that very early box office numbers show that DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda punched out at least a $17 million debut Friday in very wide release at 4,114 theaters. That could approach $20M if the West Coast figures continue coming in strong. The toon is well on its way to a […]

/Film posted the trailer for DreamWorks’ November sequel, which will be attached to copies of Kung Fu Panda this weekend. Enjoy!

DreamWork’s animated martial arts comedy Kung Fu Panda opened in theaters today. The film is doing very well with critics, scoring an impressive 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, with most reviewers agreeing that it is a highly enjoyable summer flick. The movie is expected to come in at number 1 at the box office this weekend, […]

Mark Osborne and John Stevenson talk to AndPop about their directorial debut and their experience working on DreamWorks Animation’s latest. Kung Fu Panda is a critical darling with 85% positive reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, a rare feat for the studio and one largely due to these directors’ vision. The film is now in theaters nationwide […]

“What is the point of living? In my mind, the point of living is to love.” Stanton’s words to the Guardian are reflected in Wall•E — essentially a love story, but specifically about a robot’s awareness of the ability to love. Part of what inspired Stanton to create Wall•E was the exploration of the question […]

411 Mania thinks so and explains why.

Dustin Hoffman told Fox News on the red carpet of at the recent Kung Fu Panda premiere that he first met co-star Angelina Jolie when she was an awkward, not-so-stunning teen who accompanied her father, actor Jon Voight, to the set of Hook back in 1991. “I meet this slender, awkward, shy girl with a […]

It’s official: a gala screening of Andrew Stanton’s new Pixar film will be hosted out of competition at Moscow’s 30th international film festival on June 25th.

Platinum Studios and Vanguard Animation have formed Vanguard Comics, an imprint designed to develop properties that can simultaneously be launched as comicbooks or graphic novels as well as feature films, says Variety. Platinum Studios CEO-chairman Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Vanguard Animation chairman John H. Williams, producer of the Shrek series, are launching the imprint. They’ve […]

Actor Seth Rogen reveals to Collider that he and his writing partner Evan Goldberg are currently penning an episode of The Simpsons‘ coming season. “We called The Simpsons and asked if we could write an episode. Evan actually met James L Brooks at a party and James said he really liked Superbad, so we thought […]

Escape Studios is hosting a two-day animation workshop in London on June 10-11 presented by Andrew Gordon, who is currently supervising animator on Pixar’s new short film Presto. During the two days, Gordon will cover all aspects of character animation craft in extraordinary detail. He’ll review the basic principles, staging and pose design as well […]