Rio 2 just missed winning the weekend box office, taking in $39 million to the Captain America sequel’s $41.4 million. Box Office Mojo notes its take was “essentially identical to the first Rio’s $39.2 million debut around the same time in 2011. Among recent animated movies, it’s noticeably higher than Cloudy with a Chance of […]

Blue Sky’s Rio 2 opens today in 3,948 theatres, according to Box Office Mojo. Critics are split with most leaning the wrong way, according to the Tomatometer where the film currently sits at 47%. Their consensus: “Like most sequels, Rio 2 takes its predecessor’s basic template and tries to make it bigger – which means […]

The New York Times covers a story that was a long time coming — Disney staffers celebrating an animated feature winning an Oscar. “The gathering at Walt Disney Animation here was supposed to be a giddy celebration. The studio had achieved the ultimate validation for its hard-fought creative rebirth: Frozen, its Nordic tale of two […]

Ernest & Celestine co-director Benjamin Renner talks about the genesis of the film with the Wall Street Journal. The “24-year-old fresh out of film school… got a phone call that would change everything. Didier Brunner, the French producer behind Oscar-nominated films The Triplets of Belleville and The Secret of Kells, had liked one of Mr. […]

The Pixar team that came into Disney Animation in 2006 believes their work at changing the culture at the then-struggling studio has paid off over the last few years, according to the Wall Street Journal. Disney and Pixar president Ed Catmull said, “When we came to Disney eight years ago, it was to bring the […]

Box Office Mojo reports that Frozen hit a major milestone this weekend, becoming just the 18th movie to ever take in $1 billion worldwide. They also note it’s only the fifth non-sequel movie to reach that number. They’re projecting Frozen could eventually land in the all-time worldwide top ten list, which would put it past […]

Gravity was one of the big winners at the 76th Annual Academy Awards, taking home seven Oscars, including Best Director, Best Visual Effects, and Best Score. Frozen beat out Despicable Me 2, The Croods, Ernest and Celestine, and The Wind Rises for Best Animated Feature. The song Let It Go from Frozen won the award […]

The Wrap says DreamWorks Animation has reached a pivotal moment in growth of the company — they “can get away with releasing movies that are not huge hits”. How? Diversification, including things like licensing, TV, toys, and theme parks. An investment analyst quoted pointed out that DreamWorks “has reduced its reliance on film performance by […]

BuzzFeed talks with legendary animation director Hayao Miyazaki about his career, his latest film (The Wind Rises) opening in the United States, and his announced retirement. “I really felt that this was the maximum that I could give to produce an animated film. The work of animation is building up bricks and mortar, bricks and […]

Jim Hill talks with Disney’s Eric Goldberg about how the studio evolved Mickey Mouse backwards for their short Get a Horse. “In order to make Get A Horse really look like it was something that it had been produced during that specific era in Hollywood history, the animators who worked on this short had to […]

The New York Times has posted several pieces about Frozen this week. First is a look into the changing story, which originally featured feuding sisters and a cast where “most of the characters were really unlikable”. Next is a piece about how the animators pushed to make the singing believable. Finally, a video that “goes […]

Time magazine profiles retiring director Hayao Miyazaki and reviews what he says will be his last film. “The Wind Rises may be a challenging end to a major artist’s career. But Miyazaki has retired before, after the 1997 Princess Mononoke, and he returned to make four more wonders, including this one, that immeasurably enrich his […]

Vanity Fair has a fascinating article about how much of the best animation of the past quarter century has almost entirely come from one group of students at the California Institute of the Arts in the 1970s. “Their journey begins, and ends, with the Walt Disney Studios. As director and writer Brad Bird (The Incredibles, […]

Frozen won the Best Animated Film prize at the BAFTA awards this past week, topping Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University. Sleeping With The Fishes won for Best British Short Animation. Gravity was the night’s big winner, picking up seven awards: British Film, Director, Visual Effects, Cinematography, Editing, Music, and Sound.

TVLine reports that Fox has set an air date of May 4th for their upcoming Lego Simpsons episode. In “the animated series’ 550th episode, titled “Brick Like Me… Homer wakes up in a world where his family and everyone in Springfield are made of LEGOs. He then must ‘put together’ how he got there and […]

Box Office Mojo reports that The Lego Movie opened this weekend with an estimated $69.1 million. That’s good for second all time in the month of February and fifth all time for a non-sequel animated film. Meanwhile, in its eleventh week Frozen continued to impress with a fourth place finish and $6.9 million. The film […]

The Lego Movie opens today in 3,775 theatres according to Box Office Mojo. The film is receiving stellar reviews, earning an almost perfect 99% at Rotten Tomatoes. Their consensus: “Boasting beautiful animation, a charming voice cast, laugh-a-minute gags, and a surprisingly thoughtful story, The Lego Movie is colorful fun for all ages”. Fandango reports that […]

The five animated short films nominated for an Oscar are being profiled by several sites around the web, including the Washington Post, the Boston Herald, the Huffington Post, and Crave Online. If you’d like to see the films for yourself, Shorts HD is once again bringing their Oscar Nominated Short Film program (Live Action, Animation, […]

Frozen took top honors for Best Animated Feature at the Annie Awards this year along with four other trophies: Directing, Music, Production Design, and Voice Acting. The Croods picked up three awards, for Animated Effects, Character Design, and Character Animation. On the TV side, Disney’s Mickey Mouse won three awards for Character Design, Music, and […]

A columnist for The Motley Fool believes that the partnership Google and DreamWorks Animation recently sealed doesn’t go far enough, and they the search engine should outright buy the movie studio. “Google doesn’t just want to own YouTube for others to program… Google has invested directly in popular channels like Machinima and Vevo. It’s done […]

Academy Award winning animator Will Vinton is turning his attention to the stage with his latest project: a musical called The Kiss based on The Frog Prince. “I’m thrilled about bringing a comedic animation perspective to the stage… We’ve already put several years of blood, sweat, and tears into The Kiss originally as an animated […]

DreamWorks Animation has announced that Ed Helms, Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll and Jordan Peele will be starring in an upcoming feature titled Captain Underpants. The film will is based on Dav Pilkey’s book series “which centers around two scheming fourth graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins whose personal missions are to play pranks, […]

While Fortune discusses whether a Frozen sequel should be in the works despite Disney’s usual reluctance to do so with their classic series films, The Animation Guild Blog looks at the question from another more interesting perspective.