James R Whitson Author Archive
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Chicken Little: Blu-ray Preview

A look at the Chicken Little Blu-ray disc, the first “Disney Classic” released in the new high definition disc format.

Oscar Shorts on iTunes

Four of the five nominees for Best Animated Short at the 2007 Academy Awards are available for download at the iTunes Store, including Oscar winner The Danish Poet. Also online are The Little Matchgirl, Maestro, and No Time For Nuts. All cost $1.99.

Happy Feet dances to Oscar gold

On a night where Hollywood touted and awarded environmental awareness, Warner Brothers’ Happy Feet fit the theme better than Pixar’s gas-guzzling Cars to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Cars also lost out to another environmental film, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, for Best Song. Torill Kove’s The Danish Poet took the award for […]

The Simpsons wins WGA Award

The Simpsons won the animation prize at the 2007 Writers Guild of America Awards. The award went to John Frink for writing the episode “The Italian Bob”.

Cars speeds off with top Annie Award, Flushed Away wins big

Disney/Pixar’s Cars took home the top prize at the 2007 Annie Awards, but DreamWorks/Aardman’s Flushed Away was the night’s big winner. In addition to the award for “Best Animated Feature”, Cars also won for “Feature Music”. Flushed Away more than doubled that take with five awards, the most for any film: “Animated Effects”, “Feature Character […]

Cars wins Grammy Award

Randy Newman picked up the 2007 Grammy Award for “Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media” for Our Town from Cars. The film’s album lost the “Best Compilation Soundtrack Album” award to Walk the Line, while Bob Dylan beat out John Mayer’s performance of Route 66 for the “Best Solo Rock […]

Happy Feet wins BAFTA

The 2007 British Academy of Film and Television Arts has given their award for “Best Animated Feature” to Happy Feet. Ian Gouldstone’s GUY 101 took the “Animated Short” award. And the award for “Best Visual Effects” went to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

Sunday a big night for awards

Five major groups will be handing awards out tonight – the British Academy of Film and Television Arts giving their equivalent of the Oscar, the Grammy Awards for music, the Annie Awards for animation, the Visual Effects Society Awards, and the Writers Guild of America Awards. Look for the winners to be announced as soon […]

DreamWorks, Aardman split official

The rumors have been confirmed as DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animation announced today that they have decided to discontinue their relationship with each other. The two companies teamed up to produce the films Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Flushed Away. DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said, “I have had the […]

AWN looks at 2007 animated Oscar nominees

Animation World Network has posted their annual Oscar Showcase. The site features a collection of pics, articles, and info about each animated nominee and video clips from all the animated shorts. You can also vote on who you think will win on Oscar night.

2007 Oscar nominations announced

The nominations for the 79th Annual Academy Awards have been announced. Come tell us your thoughts in the Animated News & Views Forum. The nominees for Best Animated Film are • Disney/Pixar’s Cars – John Lasseter • Warner Bros.’ Happy Feet – George Miller • Sony/Columbia’s Monster House – Gil Kenan The nominees for Best […]

Cars takes PGA Award

Disney/Pixar’s Cars added more hardware to its shelf with Darla K. Anderson winning the Producers Guild’s Animated Feature award. The film raced past Flushed Away, Happy Feet, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and Monster House for the prize.

Ghost in the Shell to go live-action?

Variety reports that a live action version of Ghost in the Shell is being shopped around by animation company Production I.G., who acquired the rights from publisher Kodansha. The animated futuristic police thriller has seen life in manga comics, animated features and a TV series.

WALL• E revealed

The first image from WALL• E, the Disney/Pixar film scheduled to to come after Ratatouille, has been released in a December 2006 Letter to the Shareholders by Disney CEO Bob Iger. “We’re… excited about Pixar’s next animated movie, Ratatouille, which will be released this summer. And I’m pleased to give you an exclusive first look […]

Disney/Pixar want rights to John Carter of Mars – but for live-action or animation?

Reports are that Disney and/or Pixar are working to acquire the rights to Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars series. But the question is will it be for a live-action franchise or an animated film? Variety started the ball rolling, while Dark Horizons and Mania Movies both go into history of the […]

Animation from Enchanted online

Cartoon Brew has posted a link to a Disney promo video featuring clips from several upcoming films. Among them is the first animation seen from Enchanted.

Lionsgate getting input from online users on future projects

Lionsgate is getting feedback from internet users to help them decide about future animated projects, according to Animation Magazine. The online teen community Habbo is hosting several animated shorts. For 14 days users can vote on whether or not Lionsgate should expand them to feature length. VP of marketing for Lionsgate Michael Rathauser said “Through […]

Cars wins Animated Globe

Cars took home the first trophy for Best Animated Feature at the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards. The Song of the Heart from Happy Feet took the award for Best Original Song. Cars director John Lasseter spoke afterwards about the large number of animated films released in 2006. “I love animation. I’m a big supporter […]

Box Office: 1/12/2007 Weekend

In its opening weekend Arthur and the Invisibles took in $4.3 million, only good enough to crack the top ten in 9th place. Happily N’Ever After added another $3.3 million in its second weekend for a 12th place finish – and a two week total of $10.8 million. Happy Feet danced to a 17th place […]

Arthur And The Invisibles

While Arthur and the Invisibles is a fun little film, it had the potential to be so much more.

Arthur and the Invisibles opens wide today

MGM/Weinstein’s Arthur and the Invisibles opens wide in 2,247 theatres today according to Box Office Mojo. The critical consensus at Rotten Tomatoes is that the film (with a Tomatometer reading of 25%) “wastes its big-name voice talent on a predictable script and substandard CG animation”. Reviewers for Newsday and the Los Angeles Times are more […]

Happily N’Ever After

Another fairy tale gets fractured. But all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Happily N’Ever After back together again.

Happily N'Ever After opens

Lions Gate Films’ Happily N’Ever After opens this weekend in 2,381 theatres, according to Box Office Mojo. The film is being almost universally panned by the critics, scoring an abyssimal 5% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer – and a perfect 0% Rotten with their Cream of the Crop critics.

Seven films shortlisted for VFX Oscar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday that seven films are on the shortlist for a nomination in the Visual Effects category at the 79th Academy Awards. The films are: Casino Royale, Eragon, Night at the Museum, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Poseidon, Superman Returns, and X-Men The Last Stand. […]

First animation Golden Globe nominations announced

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominations for the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards today. Just established this year is a new category for Best Animated Film. President of the HFPA said, “Animated features have become an important component of the studio lineup so there was an overwhelming consensus that this new category be […]

Happy Feet picks up awards

Awards season gets into full swing this week, and Happy Feet has taken a head start on the competition. The New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association have both named the film “Best Animated Film”, while the American Film Institute has selected it as one of the year’s top ten films. […]

Cars rides off with three Grammy nominations

The nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards were announced today, and the three nominations going to animated entries this year were all from Disney/Pixar’s Cars. The film’s album was nominated for “Best Compilation Soundtrack Album”. Randy Newman picked up his 6th Grammy nomination, getting the nod in “Best Song Written For A Motion Picture” […]

The Fox And The Hound 2 Giveaway – Winner!

As yet another part of our launch celebrations, Animated News & Views gave one of our readers a chance to win a copy of Disney’s The Fox and the Hound 2! Winner announced!

Full list of 2007 Annie Award Nominees

The full list of nominees for the 2007 Annie Awards is now available. For the first time in Annie history, all voting for the 34th Annual Annie Awards will be cast online rather than by mail. A record high 3,700+ ASIFA-Hollywood members will be required to view judging material online for all nominees before casting […]

BREAKING… 2007 Annie Award Nominations

Various news outlets (including Cartoon Brew, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Associated Press) are reporting that nominations for the 2007 Annie Awards have been revealed. DreamWorks leads all studios with a total if 17 nominations, while DW’s Flushed Away and Pixar’s Cars lead all films with 9 nods. Full list coming soon… Best Animated Feature […]