Pixar chief John Lasseter has reportedly removed Bob Peterson, director of the film The Good Dinosaur, nine months before the film is due out in theaters, writes HuffingtonPost. No replacement has been set, but the studio is attempting to meet the 2014 release date. Last minute shuffles are nothing new to Pixar and if true, […]

Disney has acquired the North American theatrical distribution rights to Hayao Miyazaki’s newest feature film, The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu), reports Blu-ray. The film follows the life of Jiro Horikoshi, from his ambitious childhood to adulthood as he creates an elegant, flight worthy plane that eventually is used for something quite different than he expected- […]

USA Today reports that Marvel Comics will publish The Muppets Omnibus, a hardcover collection of four series – originally released by Boom! Studios – by cartoonist Roger Langridge. The featured series include The Muppet Show, The Muppet Show Comic Book: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson, The Muppet Show Comic Book and The Muppets. The Muppets […]

Blu-ray.com has the artwork for the standard and 3D Blu-ray packages for DisneyToons’ Planes. The covers are similar to the film’s theatrical posters, although the character Rochelle is no longer shown. Bonus features for the sets have yet to be announced. With a domestic gross of $59.6 million thus far, Planes will arrive in stores […]

On the heels of Disney Infinity arriving in stores, Disney has announced more news concerning its interactive unit: On September 19, it will close its 10-year-old Toontown virtual world. In addition, the company will close Pirates of the Caribbean Online and Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow, to focus more on Club Penguin and mobile gaming. Bloomberg.com […]

While animation may have suffered at the box office this summer, The Hollywood Reporter notes that it thrived in the toy aisles of retail stores. Thinkway Toys’ line of Despicable Me 2 merchandise – the Fart Gun being a particular highlight – sold out in the UK before the movie even hit theaters. And with […]

According to Blu-ray.com, Planes will arrive in stores on December 10. Amazon.com has the DisneyToon title available to pre-order in two-disc and three-disc packages, although bonus features are unknown at this time. Thus far, Planes has collected $49.6 million domestically, set to pass its reported production budget of $50 million this weekend.

Random House has placed the first 21 pages of Frozen: The Junior Novelization, penned by Sarah Nathan and Sela Roman, online. It is unknown how closely the adaptation follows the latest feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios, particularly since the book replaces songs with dialogue. Nonetheless, the preview offers a glimpse of the opening scenes […]

Bleeding Cool has a few images from director Isao Takahata’s upcoming film Kaguya-hime No Monogatari. And Cinema Blend notes that the record for most Tweets sent in a second was set this month due to a TV airing of Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle In The Sky.

“Are Hollywood studios cranking out too many animated films?” asks The Los Angeles Times, in a new piece observing the under-performance of recent animated films like DreamWorks’ Turbo and DisneyToons’ Planes. The article comes on the heels of a similar piece by Forbes. “Everybody has been able to survive so far, but as more films […]

One can’t expect a movie about talking fish to be scientifically accurate, but people do glean information from them and take them as facts. It’s a habit that really should be broken and you will understand why after reading The Fisheries Blog post about Finding Nemo and clownfish reproduction. Apparently, clownfish are born hermaphrodites and […]

Most superheroines wear skintight or very little clothing, usually showing off their *ahem* gifted bodies while fighting the good fight. The Burka Avenger, created by Aaron Haroon Rashid, instead clads a traditional burka to hide her secret identity. So what’s her backstory? Jiya is a Pakistani teacher who fights to prevent a girl’s school from […]

Collider has posted a video interview with Bret McKenzie, one half of Flight of the Conchords, a Middle Earth elf, and the Oscar winning song writer of The Muppets. While he is out promoting another project, a considerable amount of time is spent on the new Muppet sequel Most Wanted. He discusses: How winning the […]

If you want a visual wrap-up, ComingSoon.net has a slideshow of over 100 images from the recent D23 Expo. It includes peeks at Star Wars Orange Harvest, Marvel’s Big Hero 6, Avatar theme park, the Avengers Academy and more.

Deadline takes a look at the Emmy nominated TV series’ up for Best Visual Effects. Instead of focusing solely on the shows themselves, the piece talks about what goes into putting effects on screen in the more time-limited fashion required with TV schedules.

This summer saw a record number of animated movies hit theaters: Blue Sky’s Epic, Pixar’s Monsters University, Illumination’s Despicable Me 2, DreamWorks’ Turbo, Sony’s The Smurfs 2 and DisneyToons’ Planes. While Despicable Me 2 rose to become the year’s second-biggest film, Forbes observes that most of the animated releases performed below expectations, with Turbo, The […]

Last May, Foodfight! finally arrived on DVD, after more than 10 years in development. Now The New York Times traces the film’s making, including its numerous setbacks. In 2000, Threshold Entertainment announced the feature would explore the unseen after-hours world of a grocery store, with the supporting cast comprised of famous mascots like Mr. Clean […]

Among the many things previewed at Disney’s D23 last weekend was Disney Channel’s upcoming Wander Over Yonder, a cartoon show that focuses on an overly optimistic space traveler going across the galaxy and facing off against the appropriately named Lord Hater.  The show comes from Craig McCracken and his co-producer wife Lauren Faust, with the […]

Perhaps it happened because of the disappointing returns from Turbo, or perhaps it was going to happen regardless, but Dawn Taubin is the new head of marketing at DreamWorks Animation, Deadline is reporting. Taubin has a pretty strong track record going for her, including a number of the Harry Potter movies, Happy Feet, The Help, […]

Although Friday’s animation panel took most of the attention regarding Disney’s D23 convention, the event still had plenty to offer yesterday from their upcoming slate of live-action movies as well. Collider has a full recap of the event, with descriptions of the footage shown and official film logos for Maleficent, Tomorrowland and more. Readers should […]

Two of Adult Swim’s most popular cartoon shows “for big kids” have season premieres tonight. First up is the latest version of Aqua Teen Hunger Force–this time titled Aqua TV Show Show–at midnight EST. Then comes the channel’s almost as bizarre Squidbillies at 12:15 EST. Judging from promos, Aqua TV‘s premiere episode will involve Shake […]

Despite early reports that indicated otherwise, Planes didn’t open on top this weekend, or even cross the $30 million mark. Still, the $22 million debut it saw was a good one, and the film received an A- from film goers, although that is more or less common for family films. Noting that there are no […]