The following is a press release from Buena Vista Home Entertainment regarding their unique FastPlay feature found on many of their family-oriented DVD releases, emphasizing their plans to expand its implementation due to high customer satisfaction.

Check out the newly redesigned dreamworksanimation.com for: * information on their films, including Over the Hedge, Shrek the Third, all the way to the Madagascar sequel coming in Fall 2008; * an Animation 101 on how they make movies; * an exclusive interview with the producer and directors of Over the Hedge; * a look […]

Chuck Oberleitner discusses the future of where Disney animators might be animating in “So Long Circle 7—Hello Feature Animation?” at o-meon. It appears that they could move from the “hat building” (so named for the big Sorcerer’s Apprentice hat out front) to either the old animation building on the studio lot or to the newer […]

A trailer for Universal Home Video’s The Adventures of Brer Rabbit can be seen at its page at Hollywood Video. The DVD was released yesterday and features the enduring character of Brer Rabbit in a story that strings many Uncle Remus tales into one continuous narrative.

The French poster for Disney/Pixar’s Cars can be caught at the {{link http://www.animatedviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1192&start=67 Animated News Forum}} thanks to Kinoo. Cars will be released theatrically in France on June 14. Updated! Thanks to Frédéric’s Cars fansite, currently offering a teaser image and a note to “Fasten your seat belts, only few days left before cars.online.fr starts”, […]

Check out where to find the two Easter Eggs on yesterday’s DVD release of Chicken Little here:

Almost as good as AfriCam are these five new images from Disney’s The Wild, set for theatrical release on April 14.

Following is a press release and photos from Buena Vista Home Entertainment regarding a search held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center to find the real-life Chicken Little.

Larry Loc writes about Mark Kausler’s recent visit to the animation class at the Laguna College of Art and Design at the ASIFA-Hollywood blog. Christian Ziebarth from Animated News attended for the latter part of the afternoon when the silent Oswald cartoon was shown. Mark also screened his short It’s the Cat for the students. […]

Kristin sends us an excerpt from a recent TV Guide email newsletter regarding the recent departure of Chef voice Isaac Hayes from Comedy Central’s hit South Park:

The official website for Cars is now live at www.carsthemovie.com. Starting with Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), new models will be rolled out weekly in the Cars Showroom throughout the next two months. Users will be able to: Check out stats and fun facts for each car character, including Lightning McQueen, Sally the Porche […]

Yahoo! News reports Isaac Hayes has quit Comedy Central’s South Park as the voice of Chef stating that he feels the show is intolerant of religion. South Park co-creator Matt Stone fired back accusing Hayes of religious favoritism.

On Friday, March 10, the Walt Disney Company held its 2006 annual meeting of shareholders at The Pond in Anaheim, California, just a few miles away from the main gates of the Disneyland Resort. Following the meeting, Mark Goldhaber from MousePlanet.com and Jim Hill from JimHillMedia.com sat down with “o-meon’s grownup geeks’ guide” podcast host […]

Yahoo! Movies reports on the Disney shareholder meeting which took place earlier today at the Anaheim Convention Center across the street from the Disneyland Resort. There appeared to be no divisiveness as in the last two shareholder meetings and John Lasseter and Roy Disney were both cheered as they were introduced to the audience.

The official international site for Blue Sky/20th Century Fox’s Ice Age: The Meltdown. Be sure to check out the trailer andthe character bios. The front page mentions release dates for each country.

A previously unseen clip from the Warner Bros. coming theatrical feature Ant Bully can be found at Cartoon Network. Coming Soon has an extensive summary of the film. A teaser poster image can be seen here.

According to Yahoo! News, citizens of Bristol, England, are hoping for statues of Wallace and Gromit to be erected in their town in celebration of their multiple Oscar wins. “Matthew Symonds, a local councilor in Bristol where Nick Park and Aardman Animations created the now-famous pair, said it was time to recognize the contribution that […]

An industry insider tells us that DreamWorks Animation held a test screening of Over the Hedge last week and it received the highest scores ever for a DreamWorks animated film, even better than Shrek and Shrek 2. Over the Hedge opens in wide release on May 19th, 2006.

The English language version of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli film Howl’s Moving Castle is released tomorrow by Walt Disney Home Entertainment. Following are some images from the bonus features in which John Lasseter meets Miyazaki-san and in which Pete Docter discusses directing the English language dub (one image is not from the DVD):

Absolutely not animated but absolutely animation-related is this live action take on the famous intro to each episode of The Simpsons animated television series (as pointed out by Cartoon Brew). Can’t wait to see their take on Kang and Kodos.

Following quickly on the heels of the first part, Part Two of the Milt Kahl lecture has been posted at the Animation Podcast. Milt answers questions from CalArts students, one of whom is the young Brad Bird from thirty years ago.

Apparently in the interest of full public disclosure, Yahoo! Finance reports that President Ed Catmull has been raised by Pixar to an annual salary of $1 million. Maybe now he can get a Cars pool next to his Finding Nemo swimming pool.

Clay Kaytis’ Animation Podcast updated recently with an lecture Milt Kahl gave to students at CalArts in 1976 in which he “discusses a rough cut of some of his work on Medusa in The Rescuers.”

Yahoo! Finance presents an up close and personal look at Disney’s new CEO Robert Iger with a special focus on Iger’s recent improvements at the Feature Animation division. According to Iger, “The real value will be in the quality and ultimate success of Animation under the new company, Disney and Pixar. That’s really where the […]

The hard, metallic characters of Pixar’s Cars get a soft, fluffy makeover as new plushies by Snaptoys. So far only Luigi and McQueen are available, with more on the way.

Sources close to the Walt Disney Company tell o-meon.com that the popular feature animation production team of John Musker and Ron Clements will be returning to Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA). Musker and Clements whose work as writers, director and producer includes The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules and Treasure Planet, left WDFA last year after […]

Today marks the Region 1 release of Disney’s classic animated feature Lady and the Tramp as the next in the line of Disney’s prestigious Platinum Editions. This 2-disc set features a stunning digital restoration and tons of fun and informative extras, especially in giving story man Joe Grant well-deserved and due credit for the genesis […]

The following is a recent press release from Toonacious™ Family Entertainment about their recent linking up with C&I Partners to fund animated feature film projects, both CG and 2D:

The Orange County Register’s Gadgetress Tamara Chuang has posted a review and pictures at her blog about the trailer for the Keanu Reeves vehicle A Scanner Darkly, a movie that is itself set in “the O.C.” The film uses “interpolated rotoscoping . . . to create a haunting, highly stylized vision of the future.”

For your daily nostalgia fix, check out four classic Maypo commercials from the 1950’s and 1960’s, as mentioned at Cartoon Brew. The commercials were produced with the explicit intention of killing off a poorly selling cereal product. Ironically, the campaign was so successful that sales of Maypo brand oatmeal went through the roof.