Escape from Planet Earth beat expectations over its opening weekend, pulling in $16.6 million for a 4th place finish, according to Box Office Mojo’s studio estimates. BOM had projected the film would only bring in $11.3 million while Box Office Prophets predicted a similar $12.1 million haul.

The Simpsons won the Writers Guild award for TV animation last night for the episode Ned ‘n Edna’s Blend Agenda. This was writer Jeff Westbrook’s third award in the category, having previously won in 2007 and 2008 for the long running series as well. The Hollywood Reporter has the full list of nominees and winners.

DreamWorks Animation and REGIONS Group of Companies have signed a licensing agreement to develop indoor theme parks in major cities throughout Russia. The theme parks, scheduled to open in 2015, will be located in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Yekaterinburg. The parks will include a mixed-use movie and concert hall, 4D movie theater, three-star 400-room hotel, […]

The soundtrack for the just released film Escape from Planet Earth is available and Film Music Reporter has the details and track listing. The Aaron Zigman scored album was recorded “with a 100 piece orchestra and choir at Abbey Road Studios in London”.

The Wrap reports that Universal has put a mystery film on their schedule for July 3, 2015 — a holiday weekend usually reserved for major tentpole releases. The movie will be an animated feature from Illumination Entertainment, the company behind Despicable Me, The Lorax, and the upcoming Grinch remake. But this will be a new, […]

With their spring release just weeks away, DreamWorks is already looking towards Turbo, slated to come out this summer. IOL Motoring reports that the studio has tricked out a Chevy Camaro with “a make-over of Hollywood proportions. The DTM-style front splitter is big enough to make a locomotive blush, and the goliath supercharger sprouting out […]

Finishing up their promotional push, more stars of the film Escape From Planet Earth talked with the media this week. William Shatner spoke with the Montreal Gazette. Jane Lynch interviewed with She Knows. And director Cal Brunker talked with the Canadian Press on how the film is a big leap for Canadian animation. The film, […]

Check out The Rotoscopers for a look at the poster for Pixar’s upcoming short film The Blue Umbrella. A giveaway prize at the short’s premiere in Germany, “the poster is minimalistic and absolutely adorable. It shows the blue umbrella cuddling up to the red umbrella among a sea of boring black umbrellas.” Look for The […]

Jessica Alba and George Lopez talk with Collider about their film opening this Thursday, Escape from Planet Earth. They talk about their reasons for doing the film, how they were case, the recording process, and much more. Lopez said, “When you look at who is in this movie, I mean, I’ve done a lot of […]

Netflix and DreamWorks Animation today announced they will create the first ever Netflix Original Series for kids. Based on their upcoming movie Turbo (premiering in theaters this summer) the Netflix series Turbo: F.A.S.T. (Fast Action Stunt Team) debuts exclusively this December. “Families love Netflix, so creating an original series for kids was a natural for […]

Today was animation historian Jerry Beck’s last day at Cartoon Brew, the site he founded nine years ago with Amid Amidi. “For those wondering where I’m going – I’m planning to continue doing what I’ve been doing: animation showings in L.A. (with plans to bring my act to New York as well), teaching cartoon history, […]

The person in charge of marketing for the mysterious Disney film now titled Tomorrowland needs a raise, as internet buzz over the unknown project is at a fever pitch. The latest to weigh in is Disney expert Jim Hill. In his usual detailed and entertaining style, Hill posits that the film formally known as 1952 […]

Deadline is reporting that visual effects/animation studio Rhythm & Hues is filing for bankruptcy, telling some employees not to come in, and delaying paychecks. The news comes just hours after their winning of the Bafta for Special Visual Effects for Life of Pi and weeks before the Oscars where they are nominated twice in that […]

Pixar story illustrator Matt Jones is working with Facebook to basically reinvent the smiley, according to Buzzfeed. “Facebook was canny enough to realize that traditional emoticons are quite bland. At Pixar we consider emotional states every day with every drawing we make. Our work is informed by the years of study we do, constantly studying […]

Animation Fascination has pulled a three and a half minute preview of the upcoming Monsters University film off the upcoming Monsters Inc. 3D blu-ray disc and posted it for viewing. “We finally get a better look at the film’s storyline, along with some new concept art and animation. The whole thing is hosted by the […]

Brave continued its award winning streak, this time taking the top animation prize from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The Pixar film defeated Frankenweenie and ParaNorman. The Making Of Longbird won for Best Short Animation while Life Of Pi won for Special Visual Effects.

Animation (and quasi-related projects) were all losers in the Grammy Award race. The Woody Allen film Midnight In Paris won Best Compilation Soundtrack over The Muppets, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo took the award for Best Score Soundtrack over The Adventures of Tintin, and Safe & Sound from The Hunger Games was the winner […]

A relatively small animated film is causing a big stink in the courts according to The Hollywood Reporter. Writer-director Tony Leech and film producer Brian Inerfeld, two of the people behind the surprise hit Hoodwinked claim that The Weinstein Co. have “sabotaged” their followup project, Escape From Planet Earth, and cost them millions. The Weinstein’s […]

Brave and Life of Pi were the top film winners and Game Of Thrones the top TV winner at the Visual Effects Society Awards this week, with each earning four trophies according to Deadline. Pi director Ang Lee was also honored with the Visionary Award, saying “This is not visual effects, it’s visual art”. The […]

The Berlin International Film Festival kicks off today and one of the shorts on the program is Pixar’s The Blue Umbrella. First-time director Saschka Unseld talked with The Playlist about the short’s plot, his pitch to Pixar, the idea to go photorealistic rather than cartoony, his experience on the technical side of things rather than […]

The Hollywood Reporter says that DreamWorks is looking at layoffs after the underperformance of Rise of the Guardians and the just announced reduction in the number of films being released this year. Their sources say “no single film project in development will be targeted” but “plans for an unspecified reduction of the company’s 2,000 or […]

The previously reported collobaration between Google and Disney to promote the upcoming film Oz The Great and Powerful is now online, and Wired has the details on the “stunning bit of entertainment”.

DreamWorks Animation has announced that they are moving the release date of their upcoming film Mr. Peabody & Sherman from November of this year to March 7, 2014. “Our distributor [Twentieth Century Fox], who has had great success in March with their Ice Age franchise, has recommended we move Mr. Peabody & Sherman to the […]

As previously mentioned, an opera by Philip Glass based on the life of Walt Disney titled The Perfect American recently premiered in Spain. Want to see it? No need to hop a flight to Madrid. Cartoon Brew reports that you can watch it online live today at 2pm ET at Medici.tv. It will be available […]

Over a period of two years at LAIKA Studios in Oregon, a crew of more than 320 animators, designers, artists, and technicians came together to hand-craft the film ParaNorman. Since then the movie has won 15 Best Animated Feature Film awards, the Character Animation & Design Annie Award, and is also nominated for an Academy […]