animated-news

Writers Guild warns Nick

The Writers Guild of America, West claims Nickelodeon has been negligent in making residual payments, according to The Wrap. The union has given them until March 25th to post a $3 million bond before they tell their members to withhold their services from the company. Nick says they’ve “been working with the WGA to resolve […]

Disney Infinity delayed until August

Disney Interactive has pushed the launch date of its new video game and toy initiative Disney Infinity to August 18. The project was originally scheduled to debut in June for Nintendo Wii, Wii U, 3DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and mobile. Infinity will feature activities inspired by Monsters University, Pirates of the Caribbean and […]

Dorothy of Oz gets new title, release date

Clarius Entertainment will distribute Summertime Entertainment’s computer animated musical Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return in early 2014, says Variety. Originally titled Dorothy of Oz, the project had been scheduled for later this year. Directed by Daniel St. Pierre and Will Finn, Legends of Oz features Lea Michele as the voice of Dorothy, with songs by […]

China Gets Another Animation Studio

China is the hotbed for the animation industry these days. Oriental Dreamworks is going into Shanghai and now Gary Wang, the Tudou founder, will build his own studio in Beijing. Wang sold Tudou, arguably the Chinese version of Youtube, to Youku, and decided to invest his future in domestic feature projects, says Animation Magazine. Wang […]

Atlantis Blu-ray coming this summer

Last December, Disney announced the Atlantis: 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray, featuring The Lost Empire as well as its direct-to-video sequel Milo’s Return, would hit stores this week, alongside Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Brother Bear. But Disney quietly postponed the Atlantis Blu-ray in January, moving it to an unknown date. […]

It’s over 9000 calories! Chomp down on Dragon Ball Z food

While we’re not sure of the exact calorie count, the Japanese LAWSON convenience store chain is loaded with Super Saiyan snacks. The Japanese are notorious for play on word advertising and Dagon Ball Z is also known for naming its characters after food. ANN explains that as a promotion for Dragon Ball Z: Battle of […]

New 2D shorts star the Mouse

Bob Iger may have said there aren’t any 2D films in production, but Disney has not stopped the traditional animated short according to Cartoon Research. The new shorts have…”the design esthetic for the Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts reaches back almost 80 years and borrows reverentially from the bold style of his 1930s design, but not […]

Gaumont and DreamWorks team for Noddy animated series

Gaumont Animation has entered a development and production agreement with DreamWorks Classics and France Télévisions to produce the computer animated series Noddy, says Deadline.com. The series will focus on the title wooden boy who lives in Toyland, as conceived by author Enid Blyton in 1949. DreamWorks acquired the rights to the character Noddy when the […]

Rovio reveals Angry Birds Toons international rollout

On its official blog, Rovio unveils its game plan for the first of 52 episodes of the new Angry Birds Toons animated series. Starting March 16, the initial episode will hit broadcast TV in international territories, including Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Korea and Norway. On March 17, the series will be available […]

Disney, Trance writer to make live-action Beauty & the Beast

Disney has hired Joe Ahearne (Danny Boyle’s upcoming Trance) to script The Beast, a live-action 3D adaptation of Beauty & the Beast. But audiences should expect a film far different than the studio’s 1991 animated musical. In the same vein as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Oz The Great and Powerful, The Beast will […]

UPDATED: Cancelled, Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been

In news that will surprise many–given that a sixth season had already been put into production–, Lucasfilm and Disney have announced that Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been cancelled, the HD Room is reporting. The series was expected to air on Disney XD in the future, but in an effort to put a focus on […]

Goro Miyazaki on directing Poppy Hill

The Los Angeles Times profiles Goro Miyazaki and his latest directorial project, From Up on Poppy Hill. The son of legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Goro “represents the new guard” at Studio Ghibli. In addition to tracing his past, the article also reveals his prediction of what lies ahead for animation. “To be honest I […]

New Monsters University vids include spoiler-filled Japanese trailer

Coming Soon delivers three new ads for Monsters University, each continuing the viral campaign to recruit monsters for the film’s fictional college. But it’s the new Japanese trailer posted by Movie Collection that’s garnering the most recent buzz, as it contains a bit more info than some people would prefer. On Twitter, Pixar animator Catherine […]

Second Simpsons movie coming in distant future

At UCLA’s annual entertainment symposium last weekend, Simpsons creator Matt Groening said that a sequel to the 2007 hit The Simpsons Movie will not happen any time soon. “It took us four years [to make] and it killed us,” Groening said during a keynote Q&A with the movie’s director, David Silverman. The movie “stole animators […]

SXSW films include Blue Umbrella, Gold Sparrow

The South by Southwest festival opens today in Austin, Texas. Eleven animated short films are on the schedule, including the United States premiere of Pixar’s The Blue Umbrella. The full list of movies being screened is on the SXSW website. Another film to look for is The Gold Sparrow. The film was directed by Daniel […]

Disney and Oz through the years

With Oz The Great and Powerful opening today, Indiewire looks back at the long history Disney has with the stories of L. Frank Baum, dating back to the 1930’s when Walt considered Oz as a possible followup to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Pixar scientist lectures on importance of math

The Verge writes about a recent lecture titled Math in the Movies by Pixar Senior Scientist Tony DeRose at New York’s Museum of Mathematics. His talk to a diverse crowd of young and old was about “translating principles of arithmetic, geometry, and algebra into software that renders objects or powers physics engines. This process is […]

From Up On Poppy Hill dub clip

One of the first dubbed clips of Studio Ghibli’s newest feature film From Up On Poppy Hill has hit the Internet reports Anime News Network. GKids will release the film in the US. It is based on a 1960’s shōjo manga by Tetsurō Sayama and Chizuru Takahashi and it is about two teenagers falling in […]

15th Cartoon Movie is underway

Variety takes a look at the 15th annual Cartoon Movie, Europe’s gathering for animation enthusiasts. Fifty-six projects are set to premiere, including three movies: Miffy: The Movie based off the Dutch children’s TV series, Aya of Yop City described as a teen soap opera and it is based off a graphic novels series, and lastly […]

Disney pulls away from traditional animation

Bad news for traditional/2D animation fans, from The Guardian, Disney states they do not have any future plans for the medium. All of the current Disney movies in production are in 3D, which has become the industry standard. “To my knowledge we’re not developing a 2D or hand-drawn feature animated film right now,” said [Bob] […]

New Turkeys image?

Other than a couple of press releases and a blurry image there isn’t a lot out there about Relativity Media and Reel FX’s upcoming film Turkeys. The movie was originally set for a 2014 premiere but in an aggressive move after DreamWorks moved Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Reel FX moved their film up by an […]

Yes, that was Tim Curry you heard on Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Last week’s episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars was not just the conclusion to the show’s fifth season, but it was also the first to feature veteran actor Tim Curry as the evil Palpatine. Giant Freaking Robot is reporting that the reason for this is that Ian Abercrombie, who had been voicing the character since 2008, […]

New The Croods clip

Yahoo! Movies has your first look at a new clip from The Croods, in which the title characters do battle with a small army of monkeys. The Chris Sanders film comes to the big screen in 3-D on March 22nd.

How Disney bought Lucasfilm and what the future holds

BusinessWeek has an in-depth article on how Disney bought Lucasfilm and what they plan to do with it. The behind the scenes piece reveals that the seed of the plan was planted at the opening of the revamped Star Tours ride in Walt Disney World where Disney CEO Bob Iger and George Lucas had a […]

Year long Stravinsky celebration excludes animation

Charles Solomon, writing for the Southern California Public Radio decries the latest Los Angeles cultural event to exclude animation — a year-long cultural celebration of The Rite of Spring called LA’s Rite: Stravinsky, Innovation and Dance. “Musicians, dancers and scholars will be involved in symposia, performances, exhibitions and digital installations through October. Nowhere is there […]

DreamWorks investing in technology to streamline animation

The Motley Fool, a financial-services company that supports investments, recently took a tour of DreamWorks Animation. Despite their recent issues with layoffs and earnings results, after seeing the “investments the company had made in terms of technology to streamline and improve its animations” the reporter changed his “overall image of the company from just a […]

Amazon adds another kid’s series to original slate

Amazon Studios has added another original children’s series to their production slate. Sara Solves It (created by the people behind Blue’s Clues, Super Why, Arthur and Curious George) follows a brother and sister as they attempt to solve each episode’s mystery — an interactive, math-based puzzle that the home viewer can solve along with the […]

Disney shareholders elect to keep company the same

The Los Angeles Times has an update on the Disney shareholder meeting. With stock at an all time high, shareholders rejected the two proposals that would restructure how the company was governed. The first would have split the CEO and chairman roles into two separate positions and the second would have created an easier path […]

Sofia The First earns a second season

The young Princess Sofia is certainly living up to her title as she charms young audiences. Disney decided to renew the cartoon Sofia The First for a second season, says The Hollywood Reporter. “We are so proud of the strong connection our young viewers and their parents have forged with Sofia,” said Nancy Kanter, senior vp original […]

New Turbo poster speeds online

A new poster for Turbo has been revealed over at Yahoo! Movies. The DreamWorks Animation action film zooms into theaters everywhere this July.