Sun Microsystems today announced the online release of the 3D animation film Big Buck Bunny rendered using Network.com’s Sun Grid compute utility service. The movie is created using open source 3D software suite Blender, available from blender.org as well as Network.com Application Catalog, a collection of online grid-enabled applications that can be used in an […]

No Angelina Jolie or Jackie Chan in sight, but actors Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, James Hong and Michael Clarke Duncan hit the red carpet yesterday at the Los Angeles premiere of their new film Kung Fu Panda at the (where else?) Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Also in attendance were the movie’s talented directors John […]

It’s no secret China’s cost advantages make manufacturing toys, clothes and fake designer watches a useful option, but now animation producers are waking up to the fact that cheap production costs combined with a love of anime make it a great country for making animated movies as well, reports Variety in yet another Annecy-related animation […]

In an interesting article about independent animation producers working without the traditional pipelines and high overhead, Variety reveals that Vanguard Animation, which plans to unveil its Space Chimps at the Annecy animation festival, is “finalizing the script for its next feature, an action-adventure version of a contemporary Oz story with Corpse Bride‘s Mike Johnson attached […]

Debate flares whenever someone tries to identify the world’s first animated film, which means some will surely take exception as the Annecy fest gives the honor to Frenchman Emile Cohl this time, celebrating 100 years since the debut of the artist’s landmark toon Fantasmagorie. It was on Aug. 17, 1908, that Gaumont released Cohl’s two-minute […]

Variety thinks India may lead medium’s next creative wave and tells you why. The online article also offers an exclusive first look at the Disney short Glago’s Ghost, about a Russian border guard spies an alien during his shift.

Sigourney Weaver suspects that director James Cameron’s epic science fiction adventure, Avatar, will change Hollywood forever because of the stunning new 3-D technology that Cameron has perfected. “It was quite an adventure,” the actress tells CanWest News Service. “We were in New Zealand for a lot of it, where I’d never worked. We were working […]

Dustin Hoffman gave some advice to the makers of Kung Fu Panda via the Hartford Courant: “Anyone who does animation, who is involved with this extraordinarily intricate process, has to have real emotional issues and I hope you get help.” And if his Panda performance didn’t work? Hoffman smiles. “It’s the animators’ fault!” The 70-year-old, […]

Do not expect a teaser for Pixar’s Up to be attached to copies of Wall•E, according to JV Pixar News. Instead the first trailer of Disney’s own Bolt will debut in front of Pixar’s latest film. Check out JV Pixar News for more updates on everything Pixar, including the new soundtrack cover artwork for Wall•E.

Check out the trailer for the first animated film created from scratch for 3-D at Cartoon Brew, which also links to the official Fly Me To The Moon blog.

The DreamWorks Animation blockbuster will debut on Blu-ray this Fall, says DVD Town, 6 weeks before the theatrical release of its sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

The New York Times takes an interesting look at the surprisingly smooth integration of Pixar into Disney two years after their merger. Among other victories, the paper points out that while Cars racked up a relatively low (to Pixar’s standards) $460 million in global ticket sales, the franchise generated $5 billion in sales of related […]

Variety takes a look at “newer, less-obtrusive options” for performance capture.

The actor tells Daily Camera that “in a way, I feel like this is my most fleshed out and the most satisfied I’ve been with a role. Where a lot of times, on most movies, I have a lot of leftover stuff that I didn’t feel I totally nailed as much as I wanted to. […]

The L.A. Times takes a look at the challenge that Tinker Bell might represent for the John Lasseter-run Disney studio: “The female character’s success should be an interesting test for Lasseter, whose Pixar animated films over the past decade have largely catered to boys. Somehow Pixar and parent company Disney have managed to largely overlook […]

Head over to the SF Gate to check out Charles Solomon’s reviews of two new books about the Pixar studio: David Price’s The Pixar Touch and Karen Paik’s To Infinity and Beyond: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios. Meanwhile, AWN takes a look at Don Peri’s new book Working with Walt: Interviews with Disney Artists.

Radio stations nationwide are hosting online contests, giving you a chance to win some cool Mattel toys from the upcoming DreamWorks Animation film.

Bye bye Brittany Murphy! Tinker Bell will magically get a new voice in her first feature film due October 28th on DVD and Blu-ray. MovieWeb reports that Tinker Bell now stars Mae Whitman as the title character, along with the voices of Raven-Symone (Iridessa), Kristen Chenoweth (Rosetta), Angelica Huston (Queen Clarion), America Fererra and Lucy […]

The Weinstein Company set January 15, 2010 as the release date for Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil which will be directed by animator Michael D’Isa-Hogan (Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, Home on the Range, Looney Tunes: Back in Action). A star-studded cast was already announced for the sequel to the 2005 sleeper hit: Heroes‘ Hayden Panettiere will […]

More stills from the LucasFilm/Warner Bros. animated feature film surfaced online at MovieWeb. Star Wars: The Clone Wars will hit theaters on August 15th.

DVD Active has full details on the Blu-ray releases of Beowulf: Director’s Cut coming out on July 29th and Shrek the Third on September 16th. The site also notes that Transformers will get the Blu-ray treatment on September 2nd while season 1 & 2 of Duckmann will be released by Paramount in the ogre’s shadow […]

Check out the online scrapbook of The Little Mermaid on Broadway for photos of some of the most famous guests who recently attended the show. The official Disney on Broadway site also offers an interesting interview with Ashley Brown, Broadway’s super nanny Mary Poppins.

As previously reported, Brian d’Arcy James, the singing actor who was recently seen in the Off-Broadway musical Next to Normal, will play the title role of the green ogre in DreamWorks’ first Broadway musical Shrek the Musical, with Cry-Baby‘s Chester Gregory II as Donkey, Avenue Q Tony nominee John Tartaglia as Pinocchio, Tony winner Sutton […]

Nickelodeon plans to bring to life the Olivia books to life in a new computer-generated TV series set to debut in 2009. According to AWN, Olivia’s imagination leads the way in this new series which aims to foster the sense of make-believe and play that every preschooler has. The show will encourage children to be […]

Variety posted a fascinating and rare portrait of Annie Award winner Nicolas Marlet, who DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg approved as the single designer to create all the characters’ looks in the upcoming Kung Fu Panda. Nicolas explains among other things that his biggest challenge on the movie was the character of Viper, voiced by Lucy Liu. […]

AWN’s Joseph Gilland discusses here what he hopes is the next renaissance for animation.

The L.A. Times reveals that the much acclaimed animated film will be distributed in North America and select Latin American territories “sometime soon.” In the semi-autobiographical Waltz With Bashir, director Ari Folman loosely recounts his time fighting as an Israeli solider in the 1982 war with Lebanon. Last year, Sony Pictures Classics was the domestic […]

Bollywood Ungama talked to Dashavatar director Bhavik Thakore about the song featured in the upcoming animated film from India.

/film alerts Pixar fans that Amazon is currently offering six of the studio’s 2-disc special edition DVDs at a 57% discount!

Load your iPod this weekend with a chestload of free interviews with some of the most fascinating personalities from the animation world: The Animation Podcast offers lengthy audio podcasts with masters such as Andreas Deja, Milt Kahl, Glen Keane, James Baxter, Ray Harryhausen, Ron Clements and John Musker; while BuzzBender recently chatted with Bee Movie‘s […]