James R Whitson Author Archive
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The Tale of Despereaux

The ingredients in The Tale of Despereaux never come together in this boring and rambling film.

2008 Best Song Oscar contenders announced

Forty-nine songs will compete for nominations in the Best Original Song category at the 81st Academy Awards, and four of them are from animated films: Barking at the Moon, from Bolt Down to Earth, from WALL-E I Thought I Lost You, from Bolt The Traveling Song, from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa The Oscar nominations will […]

Delgo

Delgo flies higher than expected in this epic film.

Bolt

Bolt may not be fully awesome, but Disney is definitely back on a roll after some misfires earlier this decade.

LAFCA names WALL-E Best Picture

Variety reports that the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has named WALL-E Best Picture. This is the first time the group has ever given the award to an animated film. Waltz With Bashir won the Animation award and was the runner up for the Documentary award.

Animated Grammy nominations

The nominees for the 51st Grammy Awards have been annouced, and Disney has the only nominees from animated projects. While the Annie Award voters may not have thought WALL-E worthy, the Grammy Award voters thought differently with the film picking up three nominations. Enchanted received two nods while the musical version of The Little Mermaid […]

WALL-E wins NBR awards

Awards season has started as the National Board of Review has announced the winners of its annual prizes. WALL-E won the award for Best Animated Feature and was also named one of the Top Ten Films of the year. Waltz with Bashir was named one of the Top Five Foreign Films of the year.

Kung Fu Panda leads 36th Annie Awards nominations

The nominations for the 36th Annie Awards were announced today, and Kung Fu Panda leads all films with 17 nominations. Bolt was second with 9 nods, and WALL-E third with 8. Those three, along with $9.99 and Waltz with Bashir were tapped for Best Feature. Winners will be announced on Friday, January 30, 2009, at […]

WALL-E contest ending soon; review online now

Disney/Pixar’s latest, instant classic WALL-E comes to DVD and Blu-ray on November 18, but we have a copy for one lucky winner to grab thanks to Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment! Simply add your details to this form and you’ll be entered into the giveaway draw! The closing date is release day, November 18 at […]

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

DreamWorks should have sent the Madagascar sequel Back 2 The Drawing Board.

Academy announces films under consideration for animated Oscar

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that 14 films have been submitted for consideration in the Best Animated Feature category for the 81st Academy Awards: Bolt, Delgo, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, Dragon Hunters, Fly Me to the Moon, Igor, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, $9.99, The Sky […]

Clone Wars, Fly Me To the Moon open today

In a rare occurrence, two animated films open on the same day. First up is Warner Bros.’ Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The film opens in 3,452 theatres according to Box Office Mojo. Critics say the force is not strong with this one — it scores 18% on the Tomatometer, and an abysmal 5% counting […]

Animated News & Views Comic-Con 2008 Report

Three of the founders of Animated News & Views recently returned from California where they all met up for the very first time at Comic-Con International 2008. You can read their accounts of the meet-up, the convention itself, and their vacation-in-a-vacation at Disneyland in their report — filled with a ton of photos — over […]

ASIFA announces Winsor McCay recipients

At a private ceremony at Comic-Con, ASIFA-Hollywood announced the recipients of the Winsor McCay Awards – given for a lifetime of achievement in animation. John Lasseter, Mike Judge, and Nick Park will be honored with the award at the 2009 Annie Awards. Antran Manoogian, ASIFA-Hollywood president, said “Their career achievments and outstanding contributions to the […]

2008 Emmy nominees announced

The nominees for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards have been announced. Here are the animated entries: Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour) • Creature Comforts America • King Of The Hill • Robot Chicken • SpongeBob SquarePants • The Simpsons Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour Or More) • Blue Harvest […]

Character from Pixar's Up revealed

Apparently gone unreported (as far as we can tell) since it’s release in November 2007, there is a bit of news about Pixar’s next film, Up, on the Blu-ray version of Ratatouille. In a scene where Remy is running through the walls of a building towards the rooftop he is chased by a dog, who […]

WALL-E

Words fail to convey just how wonderfully unique WALL-E is.

The Sword In The Stone and The Jungle Book 2 Contest – Winners Announced!

The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book 2 Contest – Winners Announced!

Kung Fu Panda

DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda is strong. Unlike some of their past efforts, this one is not even a little bit frightening.

Disney announces ten animated films through 2012

The Walt Disney Studios unveiled an ambitious slate of 10 new animated feature films from Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios to be released through the year 2012 at a New York press conference held today by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, and John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and […]

UPDATE: Ice Age 3 trailer online – now in HD

The teaser trailer for Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs can now be viewed online in QuickTime high definition exclusively at AOL Moviefone . Ice Age 3 is set to hit theaters on July 1st, 2009, and stars the voice talents of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, and Queen Latifah.

Cartoon Network announces 2008 programming

Cartoon Network announced its programming line-up for 2008 at its annual Advertising Upfront Presentation in New York City today. Filmmaker George Lucas made a guest appearance and introduced a new clip reel from the upcoming animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The new series will help launch a new programming strategy for the network, […]

Every South Park episode free online

Full episodes of South Park are available to view for free online at the show’s official website according to AWN. The site includes video clips and every episode of the show. The video can be fast-forwarded and rewound, excluding the embedded commercials that can not be skipped. The beta site also includes an avatar maker, […]

The title song from One Hundred and One Dalmatians?

Mark Evanier has posted an interesting story about a song he heard when he was eight years old. It was from a 78 RPM Little Golden Record that he won at a Disney event that featured two songs from One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The A side was the well known Cruella De Vil, and […]

A look at the world of Ponyo

GhibliWold has a look at a watercolor made by Hayao Miyazaki that shows the world of his upcoming film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Naussica.net reports that according to the film’s production diary the number of the animation cels in Ponyo exceeds 160,000. That compares to about 148,000 for Howl’s Moving Castle, 140,000 […]

Box office and sales charts – week ending March 23, 2008

MOVIES (weekend box office from Box Office Mojo) 1. Horton Hears a Who! – $24.6 million ($86.0 million total) DVD (weekly sales from Nielsen VideoScan via The Hollywood Reporter) 1. Bee Movie 4. 101 Dalmations 6. Beowulf BROADWAY (weekly box office from Broadway.com) 2. The Lion King ($1,323,304) 3. The Little Mermaid ($1,186,297) 4. Mary […]

Creating the Who-world of Horton

CGSociety has an excellent in-depth article where they talk to the the crew at Blue Sky Studios who worked on Horton Hears a Who! to find out what went into creating the unique look of the Who-world and its characters. The piece delves into the programming of the Seussian logic of exaggeration required to get […]

Japan names anime ambassador

MSNBC reports that Japan has named an animated cat to be the country’s anime ambassador! Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura named Doraemon, a popular cartoon robot cat, to the post during an inauguration ceremony and said, “Doraemon, I hope you will travel around the world as an anime ambassador to deepen people’s understanding of Japan so […]

DreamWorks Animation names new head of development

Alex Schwartz has been named head of development at DreamWorks Animation according to The Big Cartoon Database. Co-president of production Bill Damaschke said, “Alex is an exceptional and experienced executive with a proven track record. As we see the line between live action and animation continue to blur, we are eager to broaden our slate […]

The Hanna Barbera Treasury nominated for Book of the Year award

Congratulations to animation historian Jerry Beck whose book The Hanna Barbera Treasury has been named a finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards. The book is nominated in the “Popular Culture” category and faces competition from seven other entrants. Beck said, “This was a rare case where the finished book turned out exactly […]