After our claim last Saturday that Golden Blaze was “believed to be the first full-length animated feature produced in Flash to receive a theatrical release” Octavio Valdés wrote in to tell us about Magos y Gigantes (Wizards and Giants) which was a fully Flash produced film created by Anima Studios and released in Latin American […]

Every Saturday this month Regal Cinemas will be screening Golden Blaze, directed by animator Bryon E. Carson and believed to be the first full-length animated feature produced in Flash to receive a theatrical release. The movie features the voice talent skills of Blair Underwood, Michael Clarke Duncan, Neil Patrick Harris, Sanaa Lathan, and Khleo Thomas. […]

The Newport Beach Film Festival, which runs April 21-30, has recently released its full schedule. There are a number of animation events (some can be previewed on the website) as part of the festival, with perhaps the biggest announcement being that they are going to screen Dan Lund’s Dream On Silly Dreamer, which chronicles the […]

Three new stills from Disney’s Tarzan II can be viewed here:

April Fool’s Day has come and gone so you know we can’t be joking about this. The Pakistani Daily Times reports that Pope John Paul II will now live on posthumously as new superhero “The Incredible Popeman” in a comic book produced by Rodolfo Leon of Colombia. Leon plans to have his creation meet up […]

We reported before on a “Ward Kimball home movie” event to take place on April 21 and now we have some more information it from a mailing from Hollywood Heritage. Follow the ‘More’ link for an exact reproduction of the text of the postcard (right down to the misspelling of Ward’s last name). It appears […]

Chuck Oberleitner has updated his Grownup Geeks’s Guide to Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary with substantial and pertinent information on how to hone in on the best times to visit Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. With the 50th Anniversary celebration about to begin soon there are many different factors that will affect crowd size at various points in […]

Since today is April Fool’s Day we figured we should do something for it, but the best we could come up with is this report from a couple of years ago at The Museum of Hoaxes that on April 1, 2002, “The Japan Times announced that the Japanese government . . . would be . […]

JHM guest writer Cory Mitchell has the lowdown on a “proposed Futurama simulator ride that has been making the rounds to different theme parks.” Apparently the ride acts as a parody of Disney’s Star Tours space flight simulator.

DIK Animation Studios has announced that they will be creating an animated series based on the live action TV series smash hit Friends. Studio chief, Dan Mutschler, states, “Friends left the air at the height of its popularity. It would be crazy not to take advantage of that. Through the magic of animation we can […]

If you’ve ever wanted to see yourself as a South Park character but haven’t yet built up enough industry clout to be featured in one of the episodes you can now create yourself as a friend of Kenny, Kyle, Cartman, and Stan at this German South Park fan site. Thanks to South Park fan extraordinaire […]

The US Postal Service has revealed new postage stamp designs for this year including ones featuring Jim Henson and the Muppets and another set featuring Disney characters (and there’s another one of the Northeast Deciduous Forest that sure looks like the cover for Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are).

We mentioned yesterday that some more Star Wars animation was on its way but we’re not sure this is exactly what we meant. Anyways, M&M’s now have an animated commercial up advertising their new Darth Vader dark chocolate candies featuring colors that seem to be taken from the Dark Lord of the Sith’s robotic chest […]

‘Plightyear’ in our Animated News Forum points us to an article at Coming Soon about plans for more animated Star Wars material including half hour episodes of Clone Wars.

Industry observer Chuck Oberleitner gives the rundown on the latest business move by The Walt Disney Company: CEO Elect Bob Iger’s dismantling of the Eisner regime’s Strategic Planning unit. While this may seem like a purely business move and not a creative one it is likely to have long range positive effects on Disney’s creative […]

From our “Not Necessarily Animation News” files we’d like to point out that there was a character named Jack Sparrow in an old Uncle Remus tale long before there was a character named Jack Sparrow in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Perhaps the Pirates of the Caribbean writers were inspired by the earlier story.

Animation World Network has a new article all about Disney’s direct-to-video empire. The article is quite comprehensive and discusses the history of the phenomenon from Return of Jafar all the way up to Stitch Has a Glitch and Kronk’s New Groove . . . and hints that maybe even the shelved Dumbo II will eventually […]

The ASIFA-Hollywood blog is now sporting some photos from last Saturday’s Animated Commercials from the 1950s & 60s program (original link via Cartoon Brew). The show was a sold-out success with a few people even having to sit on the steps in the aisles. Due to its success Jerry Beck has promised to put together […]

Tomorrow afternoon ASIFA-Hollywood and Cartoon Brew’s Jerry Beck will be hosting a program featuring animated commercials from the 1950s & 60s, television’s golden age. Come check it out because, “much of the material being screened on Saturday is not on video or viewable in any other format.” March 26th • 3:00pm The American Film Institute […]

While likely to be an early April Fool’s Day joke, somebody has gone to great lengths to explain why they need to auction off a plush Stitch toy on eBay that is supposedly possessed by a poltergeist or other restless spirit. Perhaps this is a Blair Witch-style marketing scheme on behalf of Disney to drum […]

Kristin writes in to point out that the image at Amazon.com for the DVD cover of the Rankin-Bass Easter special Here Comes Peter Cottontail mentions that there is a Peter Cottontail: The Movie coming Spring 2006. A look at its IMDb page confirms that this movie is in production and features several big name celebrity […]

“Bob Tucker Director Media Relations for the Disneyland Resort (DLR) has released a statement concerning the incident in Disneyland Park with author Jim Hill this past Sunday.”

It appears that the Road Runner (Fastius Tasty-us) is the latest celebrity to get caught up in the blogging craze. Read all about his dealing with iPods, Jimmy Buffett music, Pilates, and that wiliest of coyotes, Wile E. Coyote (Apetitius Giganticus) (original link via Cartoon Brew; for further reading check out James T. Kirk’s Captain’s […]

Toon Zone informs us that a sequel to Blue Sky’s CGI hit Robots is very likely to be made. Producer William Joyce assures that the sequel will have a stronger storyline than the first, which was more of a set up for the audience to be introduced to the robotic world. Robots 2 is likely […]

If you’re going to be giving your own guided tours of Disneyland make sure you don’t charge for them and make sure folks who paid for an official tour don’t get confused and assimilated into your group or they might report you and you might get kicked out of “The Happiest Place on Earth,” as […]

Cartoon Network’s official site for Season 3 of Star Wars: Clone Wars is now up. This season will consist of five 12-minute episodes (beginning tonight) rather than ten 3-minute episodes as the first two seasons did. It will still be action-packed but also considerably more character driven. This season will also end by dovetailing right […]

Ain’t It Cool News reports on some coming developments in the world of 3D cinema. The discussion centers mostly around the announcement made at the recent ShoWest that George Lucas’ entire Star Wars saga is likely to be shown in 3D in theaters worldwide throughout 2007, but there is also the curious mention that parts […]

Yahoo! Finance reports an Associated Press interview with Bob Iger, “CEO Elect” of The Walt Disney Company, in which he discusses the company’s future, its relationship with Pixar and Roy Disney, and more. “Our mission is to create more high-quality entertainment for more people to consume in more places more often. As challenging as that […]

Motley Fool Rick Aristotle Munarriz has written a treatise listing several things Bob Iger should do when he takes over Michael Eisner’s spot at the head of The Walt Disney Company. Some of his suggestions are sure to be controversial (letting Pixar go) but some will be agreeable to most onlookers (reviving animation).

The Ice Age 2 trailer/short featuring more of the misadventures of the hapless Scrat which showed before Blue Sky’s Robots is now up at Fox’s Danish site (original link via Animation Nation).