The 82nd Academy Awards, to be held March 7, will be a two-headed affair as far as the host will be concerned: Steve Martin returns to the podium, to be joined by his SNL, 30 Rock and the upcoming It’s Complicated colleague Alec Baldwin, as announced by The Hollywood Reporter.

“On a showy, exuberant demonstration of the glories of motion capture, computer animation and 3D technology level, it’s a wow. On any emotional level, it’s as cold as Marley’s Ghost”, so says Kirk Honeycutt in his Hollywood Reporter review for Disney’s production of Robert Zemeckis’ film of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

The National Film Board of Canada’s animated documentary Tying Your Own Shoes by Shira Avni, has won the Golden Dove Award at the 52nd International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film.

The Hollywood Reporter suggests the doubling of entries in the Best Picture Academy Awards race could have a major effect on future Oscar winners…or not. Will it mean more space for big-budget blockbusters like Star Trek and animated fare such as Up? Or just create extra room for more arthouse titles? You won’t find the […]

DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg announced Tuesday that Shrek The Musical, the Broadway edition of the company’s Oscar-winning animated film, was DVD bound in “unique packaging”. Grossing $380 worldwide, this year’s release of Monsters Vs. Aliens was seen as a disappointment internationally, for unknown reasons, prompting Katzenberg to suggest the future of the franchise could be […]

After more than a year of intensive restoration work, the full length edition of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, which featured groundbreaking special effects work that continues to influence filmmakers today, will premiere on February 12 2010 as part of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, and at the Alte Oper house in Frankfurt on the same […]

The home entertainment journal Video Business has reported that The Walt Disney Company is planning their own digital delivery service, named Keychest, with a view to bringing on demand content to consumers, primarily focusing at first on the Studio’s “dedicated groups of fans”.

The $31.2 million grossing animated adventure 9, directed by Shane Acker from his original short film, has been announced for release on DVD ($29.98) and Blu-ray ($39.98) by Universal on December 29 2009. The packages will include deleted scenes, featurettes, commentary and short films, presumed to include the original 9.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has shattered the Guinness World Record for tallest ice sculpture, in Los Angeles to mark the DVD and Blu-ray release of Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs. Measuring in at a Mammoth 48 feet tall, things got a little chilly in Southern California on Tuesday when Scrat, sculpted by innovative […]

Celebrating the release of Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure under the Secretary-General’s Creative Community Outreach Initiative and promoting environmental awareness in the lead-up to the upcoming Copenhagen conference on Climate Change, Disney’s Tinker Bell was named Honorary Ambassador of Green on October 25 2009, by United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyo […]

After “horror stories” spread around the internet about the state of the images reproduced in a new Blu-ray edition of Max Fleischer’s 1939 animated feature Gulliver’s Travels, Animated Views takes a look at the disc itself, and finds that it does indeed present the film in questionable form and not at all as originally intended. […]

The once-popular but long dead animation on DVD domain DVDtoons has found itself of the selling block again, after recent attempts to jump start the page failed. Although the asked for fee is a whopping $7500, the minimum price that could be accepted is a lower but still substantial $2500. Details on what the buyer […]

As well as new reviews for Monsters Vs. Aliens and the DVD release of The Zeta Project: Season One, Animated Views today discusses the traditionally animated superhero comedy Captain Toontastic, being animated in France for international release.

Over at Animated Views, Jeremie Noyer has been keeping us up to date with all the theatrical and DVD releases by interviewing the key players behind a whole host of last week’s big titles: • Azur & Asmar: Michel Ocelot’s Quest For Tolerance – the director speaks about his latest feature and the first of […]

Academy Awards can be handy things for screenwriters wanting to get into animation: after Michael Arndt, who won the original screenplay Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine, was picked to work on Pixar’s Toy Story 3, The Hollywood Reporter announces that this year’s adapted screenplay writer Simon Beaufoy, winner for Slumdog Millionaire, has joined DreamWorks to […]

The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the Cannes Film Festival is about to go 3D with the world premiere of Disney/Pixar’s digital offering Up, which will open the Festival de Cannes in the south of France on May 13. Festival organizers saw an early version of the film and “absolutely loved it”, says Mark Zoradi, president […]

With 20th Century Fox pleased with its recent forays into “live-action” editions of some fondly remembered animated characters (Garfield, Alvin And The Chipmunks, etc) the studio is set to continue the trend by updating the classic Brad Anderson strip Marmaduke for the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter states that director Tom Dey has signed up […]

Variety reports that DreamWorks Animation’s latest earnings are reflecting the current revenue dips being experienced by most of the motion picture studios. Added concern for the Broadway musical Shrek and overall DVD sales are among the topics Jeffrey Katzenberg addresses in relation to DWA’s last quarter profit figures.

As promotions for director Henry Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline continue, the Character Design page has an interview with artist Damon Bard, while the W+K agency doing all that promoting has a number of interesting posts up on their blog, including photos from the Portland premiere, a fascinating Coraline campaign video, marketing materials and […]

Superman Returns actor Brandon Routh has revealed that his next film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World will be “a mix of real people with some drawn animation”. Collider.com has a video interview on the project with Routh.

Writer-director Julien Charles has revealed details on his new animated series Rocket Jo, being produced in Paris by Millimages and 2d3danimations. Exploring the difficulties the title character and the jetpack he made himself (half the problem right there!) have getting off the ground, each of the 52 one-minute episodes will present a new flying test. […]

Paco Vink, who together with Albert ’t Hooft founded the animation studio AniKey in Holland, has announced that the company has recently finished the 25 minute traditionally animated film Paultje en de Draak (Paul And The Dragon). Intended for children aged 5-13 years old who are suffering with cancer, the film, which is based on […]

Barry A. Sanders’ Canadian Animation Resources has posted some comments on Henry Selick’s Coraline, but what makes them unique is that the reviewer saw the film at a Q&A session with author Neil Gaiman. Elsewhere, Sanders’ friend Dominic von Riedemann has added a two-part interview with Gaiman at his Suite 101 page.

The Trailer Addict site gives us a look at the new poster for Disney/Pixar’s Up, which develops what was shown in the initial teaser. Up will float onto screens May 29, 2009.

London’s Studio Aka has announced completion of their 25-minute animated film adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ award winning children’s book Lost And Found. A co-production between Studio Aka and Contender Entertainment Group, Lost And Found was adapted and directed by the studio’s Philip Hunt, with narration by Jim Broadbent, soon to be seen in this summer’s […]

The Hollywood Reporter has more on yesterday’s announcement that DreamWorks’ live-action motion pictures will begin to be distributed by the Walt Disney Studios under their Touchstone Pictures banner from 2010. The deal calls for approximately 30 films to be released over seven years, with Disney providing $250 million in contingency funding to the company in […]

Buena Vista Home Entertainment have revealed details on the April 28 2009 release of the X-Men animated series which comes to disc in two volumes. Fans will be pleased that the two-disc sets will present the episodes in chronological order, with none of the programs missing in the first run of 32 shows. For a […]

Ever since Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg left Paramount Studios to run The Walt Disney Company in 1984, the Mouse House has wanted to break into the Steven Spielberg business. Today, after talks for the re-launched DreamWorks faltered between the producer-director and his traditional cinematic home Universal, the Disney Studio has confirmed their recent talks […]

It was awards night yesterday evening at the Royal Opera House in London as the British Academy of Film and Television presented their annual awards in recognition of exceptional achievement in film. Although the awards are often further pointers to the Oscars a couple of weeks later, this year was a very British event with […]

Over at our Animated Views sister site, we’ve a packed update full of new and recent reviews and a contest to win The Tale Of Despereaux goodies! James R Whitson offers up his animated views on Disney’s Bolt and the independent feature Delgo, which hits theater screens today. Also on the front page’s Tooning In […]