The website for Giftmaker Russ Berrie and Company, Inc. reports that they have inked a deal with DreamWorks Animation to produce merchandise for the upcoming CGI feature Madagascar. “In addition to plush toys, RUSS will also produce a variety of Madagascar products in other gift categories, including plush key chains and backpack danglers, hand puppets, […]

Justin Williams in our Animated News forum has listed a host of special features that will be on Disney’s upcoming 2-disc Bambi Platinum Edition DVD.

Roy Disney has recently posted an open letter stating that, despite their decision to not nominate an alternate slate of members for the Disney board, the Save Disney movement is still keeping a watchful eye on the Walt Disney Company to see to it that they keep their promise to “get rid of Eisner, and […]

The official Star Wars site has just announced that seasons 1 and 2 of the Clone Wars animated micro-series will be released to DVD on March 22, 2005, which is one day after season 3 first airs on Cartoon Network.

In his latest article, Chuck Oberleitner focuses on the recent news of Save Disney’s pulling back in their efforts to oust Michael Eisner from The Walt Disney Company. Special emphasis is given to Chairman George Mitchell’s reputation as a successful mediator.

“Blacksanta” at the Ultimate Disney forums shares an e-mail apparently from film historian Leonard Maltin about plans for upcoming waves of the Walt Disney Treasures series, which include a catch-all DVD for miscellaneous cartoons and the remaining Silly Symphonies.

Yahoo! News reports that, while not perfectly satisfied with the outcome of their efforts to oust Michael Eisner from his position as The Walt Disney Company’s CEO, Roy Disney and Stanley Gold have decided not to push for an alternate slate of directors when the company’s next annual meeting is held in March 2005. “The […]

Ultimate Disney has posted a review of the upcoming 2-disc 40th Anniversary Edition DVD of Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins represented the most ambitious blend of live action and animation up to that time. The review is summed up with, “Disney has put together an excellent two-disc set worthy of Walt’s most brilliant live action film. […]

While it was predominantly live action, the Mickey Mouse Club show from the 1950’s did have that militantly fun animated opening sequence and other animated bits. The first week of this show will be available on December 7 as part of Wave 4 of the Walt Disney Treasure series. The show is certainly a product […]

The menu screens from Disc 2 (which are formatted completely different from the ones on Disc 1) of Mickey Mouse in Black and White: Volume 2 can be found here:

While it is unfortunate that the packaging is cheaper and not completely consistent with earlier waves, the upcoming Wave 4 of the Walt Disney Treasures series still has plenty of great content. Follow the ‘More’ link to view four menu screens from Disc 1 of Mickey Mouse in Black and White: Volume Two and stay […]

The British site Sky News has posted a list recently of the Top 20 most viewed movies of all time. The list only looks at total viewings by UK citizens. It does not look at critics ratings or financial intake. Only two animated films (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at No. 3 and The […]

Animation World Network has an exclusive new article collecting remembrances of animation great Frank Thomas from many of today’s heavyweights in the animation industry, including John Canemaker, John Lasseter, Leonard Maltin, Tom Sito, Andreas Deja, Gary Goldman, Ron Clements, Gene Deitch, and more.

Macy’s now has a page at their site dedicated to tomorrow’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with Sponge Bob and Chicken Little figuring in very prominently, amongst other animated characters.

Animated News reader Thorsten Hasenkamm writes in to inform us that, hot on the heels of the recent DVD release of the live action Pink Panther movies, The Pink Panther Cartoon Collection is now available from Amazon UK in a special 4-disc set. Maybe they will eventually release such a complete set stateside.

Just a reminder of the “Art and Entertainment of Chuck Jones” event going on tomorrow, November 20, at The Laguna College of Art and Design and the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity (see original Animated News article and the Cartoon Brew piece). Eric Goldberg will be presenting and speaking on some rare Chuck Jones material. […]

For the first time since 1966 Mickey Mouse has been chosen to be the Grand Marshal at the 2005 Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena, CA, Yahoo! News reports. The only other non-humans to have led the parade in its 116 year history have been Kermit the Frog and ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy along with […]

Getting a big head start on April Fool’s Day joking, the Dateline: Hollywood site has an interesting fictional piece about the eight major Hollywood studios suing Pixar for being continuously successful. As faux as the piece may be, it still seems to accurately reveal the Hollywood mentality. Case in point: “The complaint asks that a […]

In the latest edition of o-meon, an exciting new behind the scenes pop-culture and show biz news and information site, Editor C. W. Oberleitner talks about the future of Pixar Animation Studios and how it might have an impact on The Walt Disney Company’s search for a new CEO.

Yahoo! News reports that Disney’s long-rumored production of Toy Story 3 without Pixar’s involvement is now under way. Apparently Walt Disney Feature Animation is “in the process of setting up a digital animation facility in Glendale — not far from the digs of its bitter rival DreamWorks Animation.” Let’s all cross our fingers and hope […]

Randall Cyrene at DVD Toons has posted a review of the DVD release of the most recent Peanuts special, I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown. If Disney’s recent CGI-ing of its classic characters has disappointed some we can all be glad that the Peanuts characters are still lovingly rendered in traditional hand-drawn animation […]

BonusMage at the Ultimate Disney forums has scanned in an ad from the UK edition of the recent Mulan DVD revealing that the release date (at least in the UK) for The Incredibles DVD will be Easter 2005.

Despite mixed reviews and being derailed at the box office by The Incredibles, The Polar Express is still able to claim the record of biggest opening weekend take for a Hollywood movie showing in IMAX format, according to The Big Cartoon Database. Previous contenders in this category include Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban […]

In its Stupid Crimes and Misdemeanors section Court TV.com reports that an off-duty police officer in Alberta, Canada, dressed as Shrek caught a smalltime thief fleeing from a liquor store. After running from “Shrek” the criminal surrendered himself to “regular” police officers, mostly in an attempt to find safety from the temporarily ogre-like cop.

Chuck Oberleitner’s new site O-Meon has some fresh information on the very recent firing of Mulan producer Pam Coats from her post as Executive Vice President of Creative Affairs at Walt Disney Feature Animation. The firing was reported by one observer to be Stainton’s way of “clearing the field of potential replacements.”

Chuck Oberleitner, formerly of Jim Hill Media fame, writes in to point us to an article at his new site (O-Meon) about all the ups and downs in the last couple decades of Walt Disney’s Feature Animation division, with special emphasis on David Stainton’s involvement and the upcoming Chicken Little film.

Follow the ‘More’ link to view six images of some of the popup book-style interstitials from Disney’s CGI holiday movie Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas, which is released today.

Animated News’ Christian just got back from the ASIFA-Hollywood screening of The Incredibles (one of the perks of membership . . . hint, hint) at the Writer’s Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. Brad Bird was scheduled to attend but couldn’t make it. Pete Docter (director of Monsters, Inc.) was there to fill in and in […]

We complete our series of excerpts from the production notes for The Incredibles today with parts 5 and 6, which discuss the breakthroughs in animation technology that were made during production and the movie’s ambitious musical score.

Getting back on track today after time and circumstance prevented postings earlier this week, we now present you with parts three and four of the production notes for Pixar’s The Incredibles. These segments discuss the voice casting and the visual design for the movie. Parts five and six will be presented tomorrow to complete the […]