Check out the Upcoming Pixar Gallery page for four beautiful images from the new Pixar short Presto which will play later this month before the already critically acclaimed Wall•E. Here’s the official synopsis for the Doug Sweetland-directed short: “Dignity. Poise. Mystery. We expect nothing less from the great, turn-of-the-century magician, Presto. But, when Presto forgets […]

AP offers an interesting profile 74-year-old Caroll Spinney who has been playing both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch in Sesame Street for nearly four decades now.

Four-time Oscar winner Stan Winston, who created some of the most memorable visual effects in cinematic history, passed away yesterday at age 62 after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma. The effects master helped bring the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, the extraterrestrials from Aliens, the robots from Terminator and even Edward Scissorhands to the big […]

Imagi announced today that Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy would be joining Freddie Highmore for the 2009 feature adaptation of Astro Boy, being directed by David Bowers (Flushed Away). Summit Entertainment will distribute the film worldwide except for Imagi‘s reserved territories of Japan, Hong Kong and China. Astro Boy […]

The DreamWorks Animation hit grossed a healthy $14 million overseas over its second weekend in only 15 markets. Paramount’s go-slow release strategy has paid off so far with a foreign cume of $41.5 million so far, with the family pic expanding to China and Mexico next weekend. Panda only dropped one spot this weekend at […]

European exhibitor Kinepolis in Belgium, France and Spain have been keen to take on alternative 3-D films. They not only want to test the market but also ensure a steady 3-D product stream once they start promoting the format, says Variety. Fly Me to the Moon, a family animation conceived in 3-D by Belgium toon […]

MediaPost offers a rundown of the various promotions in the works for Twentieth Century Fox’s July animated film Space Chimps, from partners like Dole to malls and theaters ads, video games, an online campaign and a chimp language translator found on the film’s official site that allows kids create messages in chimp-an-eez and send them […]

/Film finally offers us a first look at Disney’s CG follow-up to Meet the Robinsons, which has had a rocky production and the Mouse House kept under wraps until today. Miley Cyrus voices Penny, Bolt’s acting partner, in this anticipated 3D November release. Except a teaser trailer to be attached to Wall•E later this month.

Harry Knowles describes the new Pixar film as “arguably the best film Walt Disney has ever had its name on,” “one of the absolute best hard science fiction films made in my adult life,” and “an incredible work of speculative future mythology the likes of which, I’ve never seen… whilst also being wildly entertaining and […]

Actor Seann William Scott revealed more details on the animated comedy Planet 51 in a recent interview with SCI FI Wire. “One of the first scenes is, like, you see everyone watching this movie, and it pulls back to reveal that they’re aliens. And so humans are aliens to them. And Dwayne Johnson’s character lands […]

The Pixar Blog just posted three new vignettes which recently aired in Brazil. Also make sure to preview the excellent soundtrack over at Amazon MP3!

‘Renn Brown’ posted an interesting mini-essay on his blog over at CHUD about what he thinks the main difference is between the two animation giants.

Sony responded yesterday to the walkout by the writers for Sony Pictures TV’s upcoming animated series for Fox Sit Down, Shut Up. The writers, who are members of the WGA, left the show Thursday, claiming that they were misled by Sony TV that they would be covered by the WGA, while the studio had made […]

Nina Paley’s feminist musical Sita Sings the Blues and Bill Plympton’s blackly comic redemption tale Idiots & Angels pulled off a triumphant double at the 32nd Annecy International Animated Film Festival, winning best picture and a Special Mention respectively. Read the full list of winners here.

The Simpsons Movie was one of the big winners last night at the 37th annual Key Art Awards, which honor the best movie posters, trailers and other marketing efforts. The Fox feature film won four awards, including honors for its theatrical cardboard “standees” and its Web site design. Meanwhile Bee Movie won for Best Family […]

Kung Fu Panda dropped only 50% yesterday to gross an estimated $10M Friday from an expanded theater count of 4,136 en route for a strong $35M weekend. Nikki Finke warns that Saturday matinees will need to be big for the animated film to grab the #2 spot since M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening performed much […]

DreamWorks Animation’s latest hit is trailing the pace of 2006’s Cars and reached yesterday a very impressive $83 million at the U.S. box office. Kung Fu Panda is expected to only drop 35-40% this weekend with most kids finally out of school. Look for Po to sit on $120 million by Sunday.

The hilarious Anna Faris revealed to MTV News, while on the Albuquerque set of her new movie Observe & Report, that should be starring alongside Saturday Night Live‘s Andy Samberg in Sony Pictures Animation’s next feature film: “I’m doing an animated movie when I get back called Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. It’s a […]

Upcoming Pixar notes that Marketplace posted a great interview, also available as an audio podcast, with author David Price about Pixar’s transformation from failing computer company to Hollywood darling. A new Wall•E featurette entitled A Space Journey In Sound can also be viewed at Rotten Tomatoes, and Variety explains why merchandise for the movie is […]

Amid at Cartoon Brew takes a nostalgic look at the wonderful View-master reels of classic Hanna-Barbera characters created back in 1960, unearthed by Bob Logan.

While the repercussions of the writers’ strike on the animation industry were relatively limited since animation is handled by a different guild, an actors’ strike would be a totally different story; no acting or publicity would be allowed for the duration of the strike meaning no new recording sessions for shows like The Simpsons, the […]

Upcoming Pixar alerts fans that the John Goodman-hosted showing of Monster’s Inc. on ABC 7 tomorrow night at 8:00/7:00pm Central will include an exclusive sneak peek at the new attraction, Toy Story Mania.

DisneyShopping.com opened today the online Wall•E boutique and offers free shipping on all items this weekend only. Simply apply the code “walleship” when checking out.

Clay Kaytis posted part 2 of yet another fantastic interview on his Animation Podcast website, this time with veteran animator Ken Duncan. Ken’s credits include All Dogs Go to Heaven, Aladdin, Hercules, Shark Tale, TMNT and he is currently serving as supervising animator on the Tim Burton-produced feature adaptation of Shane Acker’s 9. Make sure […]

Got You Beat and Braver, the two deleted sequences from the 2003 Jungle Book theatrical sequel getting a Special Edition DVD release next Tuesday, are online at the film’s official site under the “Video” section. Save your pennies if you already have the Jungle Book 2 DVD: the only new feature on this Special Edition […]

Filemon Trevino accomplished his lifelong dream of entering the Guinness Book of World Records thanks to a quarter-mile-long pencil drawing now certified as the world’s largest. The Mexican artist said he spent 6,000 hours and used 800 pencils to complete his representation of the heart and circulatory system, with symbols including doves, geometric shapes and […]

Disney hosted a press demonstration of its new BD Live features earlier this week, which will be launched with the Blu-Ray release of the Sleeping Beauty‘s 50th Anniversary Edition disc. Movieweb offers several stills from the demo along with a detailed rundown. While the new features do sound impressive, sadly they will only be available […]

The actress recently dropped a tidbit to Reuters about her part as Susan Murphy, aka Ginormica, in DreamWorks’ March 2009 stereoscopic feature: “[It] will be a real achievement for myself in that it’s the first female lead of an animated film from a major animation studio in quite a while. I just work with studios […]

NOLA reveals that Bullard said the New Orleans Museum of Art blockbuster will host an exhibit of cartoon illustration next year called Dreams Do Come True: Classic Fairy Tales from Disney Studios, and set to coincide with the release of Disney’s New Orleans-based The Princess and the Frog.

MTV offers an exciting first look at Spike Jonze’s troubled adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are which will incorporate voice performance, live-action puppetry and computer animation. The film, which Warner Bros. will release theatrically on October 16, 2009, features the talent of Catherine Keener, Benicio Del Toro, Forest Whitaker, and Catherine O’Hara.