Deadline breaks down the Oscar race for Best Animated Feature. “This year, there are lots of indies entered, but expect the battle to continue among the titans, especially studios who are pouring money into campaigns for their box office behemoths. So when it comes to predicting a surefire winner, there just doesn’t seem to be […]

The Wrap reports that Disney’s Frozen will reach the Chinese box office in 2014. The Chinese government regulates foreign films, only letting about 34 approved movies in per year. Getting one of those slots in the world’s second-largest movie market is a high priority for Hollywood filmmakers.

Christmas started early at the box office this weekend, and movies performed more or less as they were expected to. Saving Mr. Banks got off to a decent start with $9 million, which may seem small on the surface, but it’s important to remember that the movie cost Disney only $30 million to make. The […]

Because they just keep raking in plenty of cold, hard cash for the studio, 20th Century Fox has officially greenlit a long-rumored fifth Ice Age movie, ComingSoon.net is reporting. The movie is set to cool down movie theaters on July 15th, 2016, bumping Blue Sky’s previously announced Anubis back to March 23, 2018. Since it […]

Don Bluth’s An American Tail is finally getting the hi-def treatment, Blu-Ray.com is reporting. Unfortunately for fans, the release appears to be extremely light on bonus content, with a Somewhere Out There sing-along and a theatrical trailer being the only extras listed. The Blu-Ray comes out on March 4th.

20th Century Fox’s Walking With Dinosaurs opens today in theaters nationwide, albeit with respectively less fanfare than The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Saving Mr. Banks. The adaptation of the BBC miniseries–which was also adapted into a well-received stage show–hasn’t been faring well with critics, scoring a “freshness” rating of only 24% on Rotten […]

Saving Mr. Banks opens wide today in 2,110 theaters according to Box Office Mojo. The film is doing well with the critics, earning an 80% at Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus review of the movie is: “Aggressively likable and sentimental to a fault, Saving Mr. Banks pays tribute to the Disney legacy with excellent performances […]

The soundtrack for Disney’s film Frozen has joined a rare club — it’s beome just the 10th soundtrack from an animated film to crack Billboard’s Top Ten list. The last film to accomplish the feat was Cars in 2006. Meanwhile, Idina Menzel’s version of Let It Go is climbing the singles chart. It’s upo to […]

The L.A. Times profiles Fred Seibert, who produced or gave a leg up to shows such as Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents, and Adventure Time. His latest focus is online video where his company, Frederator Studios, runs Cartoon Hangover, one of the fastest-growing channels on YouTube. “The Internet is ushering […]

Two articles detailing Disney’s involvement in the film Saving Mr. Banks hit the web this week. The Hollywood Reporter looks at it from the point of view of the writers who worried the studio might kill the project or bury it so it couldn’t be made elsewhere. The Wrap has more from Disney’s perspective, who […]

Variety reports that Cartoon Network is bringing back the Powerpuff Girls for a special episode on January 20th. The episode will reunite the original voice cast and include special guest Ringo Starr. Titled Dance Pantsed, the special “follows Mojo Jojo as he kidnaps a mathematician, an opera singer and a badger to steal Chemical X […]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt are officially the two leads for the English-language dub of The Wind Rises, Screen Rant is reporting.  Other members of the voice cast include John Krasinski, Martin Short, Stanley Tucci, Mandy Patinkin, William H. Macy, Werner Herzog, Mae Whitman, and Elijah Wood, among others. The Wind Rises comes to the states […]

Seventy-five songs from 2013 films have been shortlisted for nominations in the Original Song category at the Oscars, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Those from animated movies are: Shine Your Way from The Croods Happy from Despicable Me 2 Gonna Be Alright from Epic Rise Up from Epic What Matters […]

With Iron Man 3’s billion dollar take leading the way, Disney has broken its company records for best domestic, international, and worldwide box office according to Variety. Along with Iron Man, Monsters University brought in over $700 million worldwide, the latest Thor sequel took in over $600 million, Oz almost reached $500 million, and Frozen […]

The Disney Animated app was named the iPad App of the Year by Apple in their Best of 2013 Editor’s Choice iTunes Rankings. “This enchanting tour of Disney’s legendary film vault awes with a bounty of animated sequences, interactive character models, and a spellbinding presentation”. Despicable Me 2 was chosen as the Best Animated Movie. […]

Well, that didn’t take long. Only weeks after Family Guy “killed off” Brian the dog–to the outrage of fans on the internet everywhere–, the show has brought the beloved pooch back from the dead, Yahoo! TV says in a recap of last night’s episode. Although some might think the death was “undone” as a response to […]

USA Today has your first look at a new image from DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming How to Train Your Dragon 2. The article also details many aspects of the sequel’s plot, mainly focusing on Cate Blanchet’s character, Valka, a hermit who has devoted her life to keeping dragons away from people. “Her years of isolation and dealing […]

Despicable Me 2, The Croods, The Wind Rises, Monsters University, and Frozen are the five films nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Critics Choice Awards this year. Frozen and Despicable Me 2 both also scored nominations for Best Original Song, while the nominations for Best Visual Effects were Gravity, Iron Man 3, Star Trek Into Darkness, […]

A new trailer for The Nut Job is online at iTunes. The story “follows the travails of Surly (voiced by Will Arnett), a mischievous squirrel, and his rat friend Buddy, who plan a nut store heist of outrageous proportions and unwittingly find themselves embroiled in a much more complicated and hilarious adventure”. It opens on […]

The Croods director Chris Sanders talks with Deadline about the film, including the film’s theme about family, the original plot, the difficulties in keeping up with star Nicolas Cage’s schedule, his CG learning curve, and much more. “For me, working on this film must be what it feels like to build either a 747 or […]

Lawrence of Arabia’s Peter O’Toole has passed away, The Guardian is reporting. Nominated for eight Academy Awards over the course of his career–but sadly never winning any–, O’Toole was also known to animation fans as the voice of food critic Anton Ego in Ratatouille. In addition, O’Toole was also heard in The Nutcracker Prince and as […]

Bloomberg Businessweek ran down the numbers for animated movies this year and concluded that this was a profitable year for studios. Frozen is projected to make $250 million and the article lists other earnings: • Despicable Me 2 at $367 million • Monsters University at $268 million • The Croods at $187 million Despite the […]

An L.A. Times interview brings together five of this year’s top animation directors — Frozen’s Jennifer Lee, Despicable Me 2’s Chris Renaud, The Croods’ Chris Sanders, Monsters University’s Dan Scanlon, and Epic’s Chris Wedge — to discuss topics such as “the challenges of female characters, the effect of celebrity voice actors, and the changing economics […]

Christopher Finch’s new book The CG Story: Computer Generated Animation and Special Effects, “which peels the curtain back on CG pioneers like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and Pixar founders John Lasseter and Ed Catmull and their respective contributions to film”, gets an exclusive excerpt this week at Deadline. The extended sample details “the […]

NPR has more on the 90th anniversary of Disney Animation. In an audio interview with John Lasseter (with some printed excerpts as well) he discusses many topics including: the creation of Mickey Mouse, the impact of Snow White, his own first interaction with Disney as a teenager, leaving Disney for Pixar, the recent Disney revitalization, […]

Rio 2’s new trailer premiered today with details about the movie’s story. Blu, Jewel, and their three chicks discover they are not the only blue macaws left in the world. They journey to the Amazon with their friends to find the flock, finding not only their own kind but Jewel’s father and ex-boyfriend. Nigel, the […]

Anne Frank has been the subject of film, plays, and television since her diary chronicling her years hiding from the Nazis was published in 1947. Animation Magazine reports that the young girl’s life will be made into an animated film. Ari Folman will direct the film and he is a respected Israeli filmmaker, having recently […]

Disney fans are going to go crazy over this news from Inside the Magic: the Mouse House is developing a new Disney channel original movie starring the children of their most evil characters. Descendants, the article notes, is Disney’s attempt to reproduce Monster High’s success. Monster High is a popular toy and movie line following […]