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Production update on the new Wallace & Gromit short

Aardman confirmed on their official Wallace & Gromit blog that voice recording for A Matter of Loaf and Death is now completed. Peter Sallis, who turned 87 this year, returns as the voice of Wallace.

New Looney Tunes collections coming to DVD

DVD Active reveals that Warner Home Video will release Looney Tunes: Spotlight Collection Vol. 6, featuring 30 cartoons, as well as Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Vol. 6, a 4-disc set including 60 more cartoons and 15 bonus shorts, on on October 21st.

Walden Media to develop Housebroken

Walden Media has acquired a new family-oriented tale titled Housebroken, says the Hollywood Reporter, which takes a comedic look at a group of talking animals forced to live under the same roof when the two halves of the couple that owns them moves in together. Housebroken will combine CG and live action in the manner […]

Sony picked up U.S. distribution rights for Planet 51

Variety reports that Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group will distribute Planet 51 in the United States on November 20, 2009. The alien adventure comedy centers on an astronaut who lands on Planet 51 thinking he’s the first to set foot on it. To his surprise, he discovers it’s inhabited by little green people who live […]

Wall•E and Eve: more music inspired by the Pixar blockbuster

Keeping up the tradition, Disney is releasing today a companion soundtrack to their latest Pixar blockbuster which can be previewed and purchased at Amazon MP3. While underwhelming at first listening, it remains a must for Wall•E fans!

Latest Wall•E interviews

Andrew Stanton lost his cool with Cincinnati.com while Sigourney Weaver was all smile on the Early Show a few days ago to promote Pixar’s new film.

Pixar exhibit moving to Korea

The Korea Times walks us through the traveling Pixar exhibit, now in Seoul on time for the studio’s 20th anniversary.

The success story of Disney On Ice

Disney on Ice, once a backwater that the media giant practically ignored, has quietly grown into an important tool for the company as it seeks to further exploit its creative franchises and turn young children into Disneyphiles, explains the NY Times. Moreover, the shows — which are populated with figure skaters dressed as Disney cartoon […]

Box office update

Disney/Pixar’s Wall•E made $8.8M yesterday, bringing its domestic cume to an impressive $103M and on its way to post the third best 10-day total in Pixar history and 5th highest for any animated film with a projected $133M. Meanwhile DreamWorks Animation’s critically acclaimed blockbuster hit Kung Fu Panda grossed an additional $2M on Friday and […]

David Fincher teaming with Blur on CG project

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Dark Horse Entertainment, David Fincher and animation house Blur Studios (Gopher Broke) are teaming up to bring cult comic The Goon to the movies as a CG-animated film. Created by Eric Powell in 1999, the comic follows the adventures of a muscle-bound brawler who claims to be the primary enforcer […]

More trouble for Where the Wild Things Are?

Coming Soon notes that the Spike Jonze film, which was to use live-action puppetry and computer animation to bring to life the Maurice Sendak picture book, has been removed from Warner Bros.’ release schedule. Where the Wild Things Are began shooting in 2005 and was initially set for a May 2008 release before being pushed […]

Hello, Dolly! composer moved by Wall•E

AP caught up with Hello, Dolly! composer Jerry Herman to get his reactions on the use of two of the Tony-winning musical’s songs in Pixar’s latest blockbuster. “I’m still blown away by the fact that two songs of mine that are close to 50 years old have been used as the underpinning. My eyes were […]

Disney drops Destino DVD release plans

Ultimate Disney reports that the Mouse House has revised its press release for Walt Disney Treasures: Wave 8 by dropping from the track list the 2003 realization of the long-unfinished Walt Disney/Salvador Dali animated short, Destino. The site adds that The Chronological Donald, Volume 4 and Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow are still scheduled for […]

More details on the Madagascar and Shrek the Third Blu-rays

DVD Active has the full list of bonus features on the September 16th Blu-ray release of DreamWorks Animation’s blockbuster hit Shrek the Third and cover art for the September 23rd release of Madagascar.

MPAA rating for Igor

The CG comedy, set for release in the U.S. on September 19th, is rated PG for “some thematic elements, scary images, action and mild language.”

Fly Me To The Moon producer interview

Producer Charlotte Huggins (Journey to the Center of the Earth) spoke to SCI FI Wire about her other film coming to U.S. theaters this summer: Fly Me to the Moon, a 3-D animated family/SF film about bugs that stow away on the first moon mission. “Fly Me to the Moon is great. It’s the first […]

Updates from Sony Pictures Animation

The TAG Blog reports on a recent visit to the Culver City studio. Things look rosier for their January 2010 feature film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, with one artist commenting: “The directors pull it one direction and the execs push it another. Now that we have a new set of people at the […]

Box office forecast for Wall•E

Fantasy Moguls predicts a five-day of $58 million-$63 million for Pixar’s latest blockbuster, which would give the Chaplinesque little robot a 10-day domestic cume of about $140 million. Meanwhile Coming Soon expects a 34% drop for Wall•E pointing to a 3-day $41.5 gross of million. The Disney/Pixar hit grossed an impressive $8.9M on Monday, 40+% […]

Arthur spotted in Harvey Weinstein's trash

The Village Voice questionably went through the movie mogul’s trash and found “a letter from French producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam refers to the distribution of a sequel to Arthur and the Invincibles. That partly animated film was directed by Luc Besson and released initially in France in 2006 as Arthur et les Minimoys, but Besson […]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars sneak peek at Celebration Japan

Brand new footage from the upcoming Lucasfilm Animation film will be screened later this month at the Star Wars Celebration Japan at the Makuhari Messe center. Coming Soon has the full details.

Harry Gregson-Williams reminisces on his Shrek scores

The prolific composer, who most recently signed the Prince Caspian score for Disney, talks to Ain’t It Cool about his body of work, including the Shrek blockbusters: Director Andrew Adamson and I] have spent a lot of time together. We went through Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, the first Narnia, and now the second […]

Gary Oldman discusses his Christmas Carol roles

Dark Knight actor confirmed to Sci Fi Wire that he would be playing at least three characters in Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming motion-capture-animated A Christmas Carol: “I play Marley. I play Tiny Tim, and I play Bob Cratchit, so I play three [characters].” In the animated film–which Robert Zemeckis is directing with the same technology he […]

A look back at the 1941 Disney strike

As the SAG contract expired a few hours ago and Hollywood is crossing its fingers, the TAG Blog takes us down memory lane by looking back at the Great Walt Disney Cartoonists Strike that took place 67 years ago…

Details emerge on Open Season sequel

While announcing the projects it will be working on over the next 2 years, Sony Pictures Imageworks revealed details on Open Season 2, Sony Pictures Animation’s sequel to the $190 million hit OPEN SEASON for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “Boog and Elliot are back for more crazy adventures. After falling head over hooves in love […]

The recipe to Pixar's success

The Hollywood Reporter takes a look at Pixar’s winning streak and tries to break down the reason for the studio’s consistent success. Stability, smarts and techno-savviness are key according to the trade magazine, resulting in an even better-than-projected $63.1M opening weekend for Wall•E, the biggest for an animated film this year.

Google signs animation deal with Seth McFarlane

Google has teamed up with the creator of Family Guy to create 50 two minute episodes of a new cartoon called Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, an animation series which will appear exclusively on the Internet. Seth MacFarlane has created a stable of new characters to star in the series, which will premiere in […]

Walt Disney World's Pleasure Island closing down

Jim Hill talks about “the real reason WDW’s night club complex is shuttering. Which is Mickey’s desire to create a seamless Guest experience for all those shopping & dining at Downtown Disney.”

Teaser trailer for Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff

Ain’t It Cool points to what looks like the first trailer for Hayao Miyazaki’s upcoming animated feature which opens July 19th in Japan. The film centers on a goldfish named Ponyo who desperately wants to be a human. In pursuing her goal, she befriends a five-year-old human boy, Sosuke-who ironically Miyazaki-san based on his own […]

More on Wall•E's box office performance

A $100 million-plus production, Wall•E repeated the feat of every single past Pixar film by opening #1 at the U.S. box office this weekend. About 22% of patrons for the wondrously reviewed film were couples without children. “That basically tells you that the adults have heard the reviews, and they’re coming,” Disney distribution president Chuck […]

Official estimates are in: #1 with $62.5M for Wall•E

Pixar’s latest narrowly edged out DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda opening weekend numbers with a $23.1M Friday and a rather modest $23M Saturday for a $62.5M three-day total. Meanwhile Panda, in spite of suffering its biggest drop this weekend (46.5%), still topped $179.3M on its way to beat Madagascar‘s $193.6M by the end of its run […]