Muppet Central reports that “Jerry Juhl, head writer of the Muppets for more than thirty-five years died Monday.” Jerry wrote for The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and the television specials. Thanks to Kristin for the heads up. Jim Hill has more.

Skwigly Animation Magazine reports on a scientific study investigating subjects’ emotional response to various styles of robots that obtained some interesting results. These results are then applied to the reactions of the general public to the characters in several recent CGI movies, such as Shrek, The Incredibles, and The Polar Express.

On November 10, ASIFA-Hollywood will be holding a 40-year reunion for Kimba the White Lion, Osamu Tezuka’s anime-ish story of a white lion cub separated from his parents. The evening will bring together several people who worked on both the Japanese and American versions of the film. The hot topic of the evening should be […]

Animation World Network has a new preview of some of the animated shorts making the festival circuit at the moment. QuickTime clips of each short are made available and it looks like all types of animation are represented.

Yahoo! News and the Sydney Morning Herald report that veteran TV actor Don Adams (born Donald James Yarmy) has passed away at the young age of 82. Don Adams provided the voice for the animated penguin character Tennessee Tuxedo as well as animated spy character Inspector Gadget which was loosely based on his Maxwell Smart […]

Roving reporter Chuck Oberleitner gives a rundown at his o-meon site of the many Disney-related events that have occurred this month including Lost at the Emmys, the Cinderella celebration at the El Capitan, the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, the official opening of the Ward Kimball Train Exhibit, the induction of new Disney Legends, and […]

Check out Animation World Magazine for an article by Mike Johnson, who gets into the gruesome details of his demanding stop-motion work on The Corpse Bride and tells of an encounter with legendary stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen.

IGN FilmForce reports on yesterday’s preview of some upcoming Walt Disney Studios releases. The big announcement was for the 2008 release Gnomeo and Juliette, a gnome version of the famous Shakespeare play and featuring music by Elton John who previously contributed to The Lion King. The report does not mention if the movie will be […]

Last Tuesday the annual Disney Legends event was held at the opera house on Disneyland’s Main Street. Nineteen people qualified as new Disney Legends this year and the two keynote recipients were longtime media personality Art Linkletter and longtime comedian Steve Martin. Several photos from the event can be viewed here:

Follow the ‘More’ link for some photos from last Thursday’s West Coast Cinderella premiere held at Disney’s own El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.

Animated News has obtained one still from the featurette Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years which is playing in the opera house on Disneyland’s Main St. during the 18-month long 50th Anniversary celebration. This film gives a comical historical sketch of the history of the park and makes efficient use of footage filmed over the […]

While there’s still one hour left of International Talk Like A Pirate Day we better mention that Ultimate Disney has just posted the movie poster for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It looks like the skull has some interesting new earrings.

Corpse Bride reviews are now starting to pop up on the Internet. Check out TV Guide Online for a four-star review and Jim Hill Media for a review that says Bride is not quite but almost as good as The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Grab your wands and brush up on your spells. The visually stunning full trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has just been made available at AOL MovieFone.

Animated News reader Kristin writes in to point out a review of Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit at the Sydney Morning Herald. “While the rest of the movie world was falling in love with computer animation, Nick Park stuck with the old ways. Wallace and Gromit are hand-made, like a Rolls-Royce.” If […]

In what is perhaps the most bizarre concern centered around Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, cheesemaker Charles Martell fears the fame that is about to be bestowed upon his cheese. Stinking Bishop, a specialty dairy made in Dymock near Gloucester is set to take a starring role in the upcoming DreamWorks release. […]

Larry Loc has posted at the ASIFA-Hollywood Blog a report of last Saturday’s evening with animator Glen Keane (sporting a new beard) held at the Laguna College of Art & Design and has also sent us a few extra photos that can be viewed here:

The official site for Comedy Central’s South Park has recently announced that the show has been renewed for three more seasons. “[Trey] Parker and [Matt] Stone will continue under the new agreement to write, direct and edit every episode of South Park as they have since the creation of the show. New episodes of South […]

A recent article in the http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/12/1126377253812.html”>Sydney Morning Herald dicusses animated movies that have become (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) or are becoming (Tarzan, Shrek) Broadway musicals and mentions that there is even the possibility of a Batman musical. Thanks to Kristin for the heads up.

Clay Kaytis’ Animation Podcast site has just updated with the first part of an interview with Disney directing duo Ron Clements and John Musker. “This will be a brief detour from the Nik Ranieri series since today marks the first day that Ron and John no longer work at Disney. After 32 years for Ron […]

Just a reminder that Disney’s classic animated film Cinderella will be enjoying a brief theatrical run from September 15-25 at Disney’s own El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. A representative from Animated News will be there on the 15th to cover the opening night festivities and the filmmmaker’s panel discussion. “To further mark this special […]

DreamWorks’ hit CGI flick Madagascar is continuing to make a strong showing around the world. Opening number one this week in five European markets including Italy, the movie grossed $11.6 million to reach a box office total of $291.5 million. The Numbers reports that the film, which still has yet to open in Thailand and […]

Save Disney’s website may be out of commission now that Roy E. Disney has been invited back to The Walt Disney Company but there’s a new site attempting to carry on the Save Disney legacy: Saved Disney.

The Animation Podcast site has updated with part 3 of its Nik Ranieri interview in which Nik, “shares his experiences working on his first feature film for Disney, Roger Rabbit,” as well as discussing some of his encounters with Richard Williams.

Brandon Neeld has written in with a report on The Incredibles on Ice. Read the report here:

The 10th Anniversary DVD of Pixar’s first film Toy Story is being released today. If you have previous versions of Toy Story on DVD don’t throw those away or eBay them but check out what this new release has to offer, including: Disney/Pixar’s “First Ever” DTS 5.1 audio track, newly remastered Dolby 5.1 EX Track, […]

Not exactly animation news but The Orange County Register has posted an interactive tour of Walt Disney’s apartment above the fire station on Disneyland’s Main St. The virtual tour is hosted by Tim O’Day, Disneyland Director of Press and Publicity, and no subscription is required to take the tour online.

Mark your calendars. Here’s a few animation related events coming up later this month: September 10: Artistic Pitching for Animation Workshop hosted by The Visual Effects Society Education Committee September 10: Glen Keane Reception at Laguna Art College September 15 – 25: Cinderella at the El Capitan Theater with Opening Night Panel Discussion September 21: […]

From TV Guide’s “Daily Scoop” email newsletter: “20th Century Fox TV is adapting the book Stories from a Moron, a collection of humorous correspondence between author Ed Broth and assorted magazines, with an introduction penned by Jerry Seinfeld, into an animated series, says Variety. But is Seinfeld’s involvement actually deeper than it appears? Moron’s Broth, […]

We’ve mentioned it a number of times in the past few weeks but today is the release date for Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. This direct-to-video title underscores that the Disney studios down under are capable of producing theatrical quality animation, which, in turn, has made many wonder why the Disney executives […]