animated-news

The art and technology of Paperman

Fast Company delves into the art and technology behind Paperman with legendary 2D animator Glen Keane and 3D animator John Kahrs. Inspired by watching Keane sketch on top of CG animations, Kahrs combined “new aesthetics with standing traditions” and married “the tangibility of CG with the human grit of a pen on paper” to bring […]

Powell and Mendes going back to Rio

John Powell and Sergio Mendes will be back to provide the music for Rio 2, according to Film Music Reporter. The movie will also include “new Brazilian artists and original music by Janelle Monáe and The Wondaland Arts Society”. Look for the Rio to return next spring.

Lasseter talks Disney Infinity

Disney recently announced a major new video game called Disney Infinity. Like Activision’s Skylanders, the game will use toys you buy as your onscreen character. The more toys you collect the more characters you have to choose from — and the more money the company rakes in on a game you already bought. John Lasseter […]

Tiana a top moment in recent black history

In their coverage of the “Top Moments in Black History” from 2000-2012, NewsOne has listed Disney introducing the first African-American princess. Voiced by Anika Noni Rose in the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog, “Tiana’s plucky character and the film’s New Orleans backdrop gave the typical tale with an original twist”.

The Longest Daycare now online

Fox’s animated Simpsons short film Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare is now online for your viewing pleasure over on the studio’s official YouTube page. The Oscar-nominated cartoon features Maggie trapped in the dreaded Ayn Rand school for tots. It was shown in theaters before Ice Age 4 last summer.

VFX issues bubble over

After a pre-Oscar protest by Rhythm & Hues visual effects employees and supporters, and the winner of the visual effects Oscar having his mic cut off just as he was about to mention their issues, VFX Soldier has an open letter to Life of Pi director Ang Lee who mentioned after winning the directing trophy […]

Paperman producer (temporary) kicked out of Oscars

After Paperman director John Kahrs accepted the Oscar for Best Animated Short at the Oscars last night, producer Kristina Reed threw several paper airplanes over the mezzanine in celebration, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It went largely unnoticed by the crowd, but security didn’t think the act was very sweet, kicking her out of the […]

How Ted presented at the Oscars

One of the most talked-about aspects of last night’s Oscars is the remarkable visual effects that allowed Ted the teddy bear to present, with Mark Wahlberg, Oscars for Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. Deadline.com and Coming Soon reveal how Tippet Studio integrated the CGI character into the live broadcast.

Brave, Paperman, Pi win Oscars

Brave kept Pixar’s winning streak going and Disney won an Oscar for Paperman. Life of Pi was the Visual Effects Academy Award winner. Acceptance speeches, baackstage interviews, and thank you videos from the Oscar website can be seen here:

My Neighbor Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle Blu-rays in May

Walt Disney Home Entertainment has announced the much awaited Blu-ray releases of Studio Ghibli classics My Neighbor Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle this spring, reports Blu-ray. The specifications and special features on these releases have yet to be announced. These Blu-ray-DVD combo sets will be available to own starting May 21, 2013.

Turkeys bumped up an entire year

Turkeys–the obscure-sounding animated feature from Relativity Media about turkeys who travel back in time to the first Thanksgiving to change the course of history–is going to be coming out a lot sooner than expecting, Cinema Blend is reporting. The site is saying that the reason behind the bump was a possitive response to early test footage, and […]

Unique Props from ParaNorman auctioned

Variety – The Children’s Charity of Southern California is hosting the online auction of two props used in LAIKA and Focus Features’ comedy thriller ParaNorman, which is Oscar-nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. The internet auction is coordinated through Profiles in History, from Friday, February 22nd to Monday, March 4th. All proceeds will help to […]

Designing the imperfect world of ParaNorman

Wired has a look behind the scenes at the creation of the unique look in ParaNorman. Nelson Lowry, the film’s production designer, “had a goal: Nothing should be perfect. Lines didn’t have to be straight, inspiration would be found in mistakes, and the final product should looks as much like the ‘beautiful, expressive napkin sketch’ […]

Countdown to Cloudy 2 trailer

A trailer for Cloudy with a Chance for Meatballs 2 will be released on February 27th. To build the anticipation, Sony Pictures Animation is posting a new image from the film everyday until then on their Facebook page. The film itself is slated to open on September 27, 2013.

With animated Oscar up for grabs, nominees in the spotlight

USA Today says in a ceremony not likely to feature many surprises, the animation category is the place to look for drama. “Animated feature films, having shed some of their slapstick reputation by adopting more sophisticated themes and technology and a keener competitive spirit, are creating compelling storylines for Sunday night’s Academy Awards”. With the […]

Never before seen sketches by Walt

In preparation for the Oscars, Disney says they needed some pointers on their red carpet strut. Corny? Yes! But a good excuse to post some never before seen sketches by Walt Disney that were used in the 1933 short Mickey’s Gala Premier.

Oscar’s Snow White speaks

One of the most infamous musical numbers in Oscar history occurred in 1989 at the 61st Academy Awards when Rob Lowe and an unauthorized-by-Disney Snow White performed an excruciating 15 minute song and dance number with several uncomfortable stars in the audience as props. The producer behind the segment never worked in Hollywood again, Disney […]

Taking animation seriously

Contactmusic and the AP say it’s time to take the animation category at the oscar seriously. Brave director Mark Andrews says, “I think this year with these films — and so many more — the envelope for animation is being pushed. We keep seeing more risky, deep films that we wouldn’t have seen 10 years […]

Simpsons director talks The Longest Daycare

Unfortunately, Fox has pulled The Longest Daycare, the final film nominated for the Best Animated Short Oscar, off the web [update: it’s back online!], so hopefully you caught it when it aired this past Sunday. But The Hollywood Reporter has something almost as good for Simpsons fans: a 25 minute video interview with director David […]

Saturn Award nominees

The 39th Annual Saturn Awards, honoring the best in science fiction, fantasy, and horror films, have announced their nominees. Brave, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, and Wreck-It Ralph are up for Best Animated Film. And Danny Elfman was nominated for Best Music for Frankenweenie. The Avengers, Battleship, The Hobbit, John Carter, Life of Pi, and Snow White and […]

Shane Acker Joins Beasts Of Burden Pack

Popular Dark Horse comic book series Beasts Of Burden is about a pack of dogs charged with protecting their fellow animals and humans from paranormal nightmares. Reel FX, the new studio out to make a name for itself, recently picked up the movie rights and Shane Acker as the director. Acker previously directed the robotic […]

USA Today looks into “open race” for Best Animated Feature Oscar

USA Today has an extensive look at the five nominations for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, with various intverviews with people behind the scenes of the year’s contenders. Stating that there is no clear frontrunner for the prize this year, the article goes into the individual movies’ chances of victory, as well as the filmmakers […]

Recreating New York for The Avengers

Visual effects house ILM has posted a video feature titled “Behind the Magic: Building a Digital New York for The Avengers“. According to their post at YouTube: “Although roughly a third of The Avengers is set in New York City precious little was actually filmed there… [The crew] digitally recreated roughly 20 square blocks of […]

Deja blog educates and inspires

If you’re not checking out former Disney animator Andreas Deja’s blog Deja View you need to bookmark it now. A supervising animator on such classic films as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, Deja’s last entry includes an historic photo of some of the Nine Old Men working on […]

Beck to score Frozen

Christophe Beck has been hired to score Disney’s upcoming film Frozen, according to Film Music Reporter. Beck previously scored The Hangover, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Muppets, and Paperman among many others.

Behind the early success of Escape From Planet Earth

Moviefone looks into the surprising opening week numbers for Escape From Planet Earth. “Here’s a kids’ film that’s not based on a familiar title or franchise, one without A-list stars in the leads, made by off-brand animators (Rainmaker Entertainment, which had never made a theatrical feature before) for an indie studio (The Weinstein Company), with […]

MU students and staff revealed

Total Film has posted character art for several of the students and staff of Monsters University. Also included are their school ID cards revealing the names of some of the characters we’ve seen in the trailers.

Recent Toy Story 4 rumors debunked

The rumors of Toy Story 4 are false, says Drew McWeeny at HitFix. Colombian radio host Jorge Luis Balaguera raised eyebrows on Monday when he “confirmed” via Twitter that Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack would return for Toy Story 4 in 2015. However, McWeeny’s source says the report is 100 percent inaccurate. Fortunately […]

The Stooge confirmed as a development proposal

It appears Mickey Mouse and Roger Rabbit are indeed teaming up, at least for a development proposal. On Sunday, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? author Gary K. Wolf, under pen name “Walter Windchill”, reported on his website that the animated characters would team for a reimagining of the 1952 Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movie The […]

Escape from Planet Earth tops Monday box office

Despite a fourth place finish for the Presidents Day weekend, Escape from Planet Earth jumped to the top of the box office on Monday, with $5.2 million, says Box Office Mojo. By comparison, weekend champ A Good Day to Die Hard took $3.8 million. Distributed by The Weinstein Company, Escape from Planet Earth has collected […]