James R Whitson Author Archive
Reviews | Interviews | Features | Blogs | News

Tangled

Disney is finally able to untangle itself from the story problems of its recent past with this beautiful and very enjoyable retelling of the Rapunzel classic.

Bambi coming in March 2011

Disney has announced Bambi will be the next in the Diamond Edition line, to be released on March 1, 2011. The film were feature a newly enhanced digital restoration, and enhanced picture and sound. A BD/DVD combo pack, HD digital download, and an SD digital download will be available on release day, with the DVD […]

2010 Annie Award nominations announced

ASIFA-Hollywood, has announced the nominations for the 38th Annual Annie Awards. The nominees for Best Animated Feature are Despicable Me, How to Train Your Dragon, Tangled, The Illusionist, and Toy Story 3. “This has been an unprecedented year for animation, as the high quality of work represented by our nominees will attest,” said ASIFA-Hollywood President […]

Toy Story 3 picks up NBR awards

Award season continues as the National Board of Review revealed their picks today. Toy Story 3 picked up the award for Best Animated Feature and was named one of the Ten Best Films of the year.

Newman up for two Grammy’s

Composer Randy Newman is up for two Grammy Awards from two different animated projects. Toy Story 3 is nominated for Best Score Soundtrack. Other nominees include Danny Elfman for Alice in Wonderland and James Horner for Avatar. Newman is also up for Best Song written For TV or Film for Down in New Orleans from […]

Tangled stronger than expected

Tangled barely missed coming in first place over the weekend, performing stronger than analysts expected according to Entertainment Weekly. It took in $49.1 million to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ $50.3 million. Adding in the mid-week opening days gave it a $69 million five day take. That’s good for the second best Thanksgiving opening […]

Tangled opens

Disney’s 50th animated classic, Tangled, opens today in 3,603 theatres according to Box Office Mojo. The critical consensus has been very positive, with the film garnering a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes (and an even better 95% from the top critics). It’s being compared favorably to The Lion King and Aladdin, and a few have even […]

Megamind continues to rule box office

DreamWorks’ Megamind earned another first place finish at the box office with $30.1 million in its second week, according to EW.com. It’s cumulative total is $89.8 million.

Megamind

Megamind may be uneven, but the humor saves the day. DreamWorks makes what could have been a bad film look so good!

Megamind opens

DreamWorks’ Megamind opens today in 3,944 theatres, according to Box Office Mojo. With a middling 64%, the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus is “It regurgitates plot points from earlier animated efforts, and isn’t quite as funny as it should be, but a top-shelf voice cast and strong visuals help make Megamind a pleasant, if unspectacular, diversion.” […]

Phineas and Ferb origins detailed

Wired has a piece with the creators of Phineas and Ferb, where they discuss the long 16 year journey the show took from conception to screen, while being rejected from every studio they pitched to.

Bonus features creators interviewed

Pixar Talk talks with Pixar’s special features producers Erica Milsom and Tony Kaplan about how they create all that extra content for DVD/BD releases.

An Evening With Bill Plympton

ASIFA-Hollywood is presenting an Evening With Bill Plympton on Thursday, October 28, 2010 in Burbank CA. Hosted by Tom Sito, Plympton will discuss his prolific career and unique approach to film making. He’ll also speak about his new animated feature Idiots & Angels and an upcoming documentary about his career. Admission is free. Details follow:

Tangled actress Moore interview

SheKnows has a fun interviews with Mandy Moore about her upcoming role as the voice of Rapunzel in Disney’s Tangled. The questions include topics like getting grounded, the attraction of bad boys, hair styles, joining the Disney princess line, and married life for the star.

Rapunzel now greeting park guests

Starting today, characters portraying Rapunzel and Flynn Rider from Disney’s upcoming film Tangled are greeting guests at the Disneyland Park in California. Beginning October 24, the characters will also appear at Magic Kingdom in Florida.

Why do we cry so easily at animated films?

Time looks at why adults let loose with the waterworks so easily when watching animated films. Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich posits that, “Live action movies are someone else’s story. With animation, audiences can’t think that. Their guards are down.”

Green Lantern revealed

TV Guide has an exclusive first look at Green Lantern: The Animated Series. The Warner Bros. Animation series, coming to Cartoon Network in 2011, is being previewed this weekend at New York Comic Con. The DC character is also getting a live action feature in 2011 with Ryan Reynolds in the title role.

25 years of Pixar’s archives

CNet takes a look at the Oakland Museum of California exhibit Pixar: 25 Years of Animation. Included is a slideshow of 44 pieces from the collection.

Dragons And Princesses trailer online

Twitch has the first trailer for Michel Ocelot’s Dragons And Princesses. The project, from the director of Kirikou and the Sorceress and Azur & Asmar, is being developed as both a television series and a feature film.

Pepé Le Pew to stink up big screen

Pepé Le Pew is heading to the big screen according to Vulture. The film will be live-action/CGI and Mike Myers will give voice to the love sick skunk. Thanks to “gaastra” in the Animated Views Forum for the heads up.

Voice of Dora sues Nick

CNN reports that Caitlin Sanchez, the teenage actress who voiced Dora the Explorer for the past three years, and her family are suing Nickelodeon alleging she hasn’t been properly compensated for her work. They claim they were pressured to sign an unfair contract and that they are owed millions. Nickelodeon claims the allegations are baseless.

Beauty and the Beast Diamond Edition – Coupon

Save $10 off the Beauty and the Beast Diamond Edition Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack by clicking below. Details on the linked page.

Animated Views #10,000

This post marks the 10,000th story posted to Animated Views since our launch (as Animated News) back in October 2003! We’d like to thank our readers and our forum members who have been with us since the beginning and all those who have joined since. We do this because of your loyalty, support, and our […]

Curious George getting rebooted

The L. A. Times is reporting that Universal and Illumination Entertainment (the studio behind Despicable Me) have a Curious George film in the works. While Universal and Imagine produced a Curious George film only four years ago, this new outing will start from scratch.

Despicable Me opens

Universal’s Despicable Me opens today in 3,474 theatres, according to Box Office Mojo. The film is receiving solid reviews, earning an 81% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Box Office Prophets predicts Despicable Me will eclipse the latest film in the Twilight series to take first place with $50.2 million.

2010 Emmy nominations announced

The nominees for the 2010 Emmy Awards have been announced. The list of animated entries follows:

Ilene Woods dead at 81

Ilene Woods, the voice of Cinderella and a Disney Legend, has died at the age of 81 according to a post by D23. No further details have been released at this time.

Animated Addams Family in the works

The Addams Family looks to be headed back to the big screen according to ComingSoon.net. The site recently spoke with producer Christopher Meledandri who confirmed theananimated version is in the works, “with Tim Burton involved, hopefully to direct”. Other details at this early stage include the film will be stop-motion, possibly be shot in black […]

Tick Tock Tale details

Stitch Kingdom has details and pics from Disney’s upcoming animated short Tick Tock Tale, recently screened at the 2010 Annecy International Animated Film Festival

Benson on Barbie

Jodi Benson, who plays Barbie in the Toy Story movies but who is perhaps best known for her role as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, talks with Click on Detroit about her role as the famous doll, the new direction they took with the character, and her work process. “I never say, ‘Hey, this is […]