animated-news

Oscar races heat up

The Animation Blog reports that Disney bought the cover of Daily Variety last week to promote Up not only for Best Animated Feature, but for Best Picture as well. The L.A. Times says Fantastic Mr. Fox’s impressive showing during it’s qualifying run and it’s critical success may make it a strong contender for an animated […]

Another “Best Animated Movies Ever” list

With awards season getting ready to kick off, it might be fun to discuss some of the best animation of all time. Entertainment Weekly recently put out their take, and if you’ve ever complained that these kinds of lists are too American or Disney-centric you might want to check this one out. On the other […]

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Feast

This Thanksgiving Day, ABC will serve up their annual airing of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving at 8pm/7c. Then after the special, get a extra-helping with This Is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers.

Cloudy cover art, details, and Meatballs

An advertisement in trade magazine Video Business includes the cover art and specific details for Sony’s upcoming release of their $120m box-office hit Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, landing on single and double disc DVD and Blu-ray on January 5, 2010. To see the cover art and specs, follow this link:

Hollywood Reporter animation updates

One of the movie business’ industry Bibles, The Hollywood Reporter has updated its website with several new animation stories. It confirms Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham have joined the voice cast of Animal Logic’s animated feature Guardians Of Ga’hoole for director Zack Snyder; the film follows “Soren, a young owl enthralled […]

Globes expand animation category

The Oscars aren’t the only awards show expanding. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced a new rule for the Golden Globe Awards that would allow five nominations in the Best Animated Feature category when there are at least 12 eligible films — which is the case this year. The past three years have had […]

Princess Tiana in museum, parks, and stores

Disney is pulling out all the stops to make sure The Princess and the Frog is a success. The News and Observer looks at the big reasons why and focuses in on some of Tiana’s theme park appearances. Yahoo Finance looks at the major merchandising push and what’s available. And (as we reported previously) Disney […]

Planet Hulk coming in February

Marvel Entertainment’s newest animated movie, Planet Hulk, will be released on DVD and Blu Ray on February 2nd, 2010. The movie’s storyline will involve the Hulk, being seen as too dangerous to be kept on earth, getting exiled into outer space. DVD Active has details on the extras, which will include a commentary, a Making of […]

New Princess and the Frog images

A number of new images and cast photos from Disney’s anticipated The Princess and the Frog can now be found at Comingsoon.net. The studio’s return to hand-drawn animation opens in limited release on November 25th before going wide on December 11th.

A Fantastic debut

Despite playing at only four locations nationwide, Fatastic Mr. Fox was still able to make over $265,000 during its opening weekend in America, giving the movie an extremely impressive per-screen average of more than $66,000. The Wes Anderson animated film, which has been well-received by critics so far, goes wide next week.

Merry Madagascar airs tonight

Just a reminder (since it is over a week until Thanksgiving and you might not be expecting Christmas specials already!) that DreamWorks’ Merry Madagascar airs tonight at 8pm ET on NBC. The Washington Post has a preview. The verdict? While the reviewer would prefer to “move-it, move-it” to December, “there are laughs to be had”.

Frog gets red carpet treatment at premiere

Disney’s The Princess and the Frog got a celebrity-filled red carpet premiere in Burbank Sunday, according to Variety. IESB.net has a gallery of photos from the event.

Nick Animation Festival to showcase entries

The winners of Nickelodeon’s Animation Festival have been announced. Select entries will be showcased on Nicktoons from November 16 through November 20, and will also be featured on their website. Check out Toon Zone for the full list of winners.

Trailer for Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths released

IGN Video has the trailer for the upcoming Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths direct-to-video animated movie. It is scheduled for release in Spring 2010.

Pooh in court again

The BBC reports that the Slesinger family is taking Disney back to court again over Winnie-the-Pooh. In a case just a few moths ago the judge ruled the Slesinger’s can not claim claim infringement since they transferred all of their rights to Pooh to Disney (who must still pay royalties). The family now says they […]

Posh joining Madagascar cast?

Victoria Beckham may be joining the cast of DreamWorks’ Madagascar 3, according to Aceshowbiz. The film hits theatres on May 25, 2012.

Trailer for Dante’s Inferno online

ComingSoon.net has the trailer for the upcoming animated film Dante’s Inferno. To be released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2010, the film is an offshoot of the video game of the same name, also coming early next year.

Get Meatballs early — for a price

InteractiveTV Today reports that Sony will let owners of their Bravia brand HDTVs and BD players with networking capability rent their studios’ Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs a month before its January DVD release date. The catch (besides having to own certain Sony TVs)? The price — $24.95. Hiro Kawano, SVP of Sony Electronics’ […]

Troubled MGM heading for the auction block?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, the once-fabled Hollywood major that has faced troubled times since the late 1960s, passing through various hands and ending up as little more than a production company with a famous name, is said to be on the way to a sale, as reported by Variety. This marks the second time in just a […]

Disney profits up; consumer DVD spending down

In a generally buoyant marketplace, the major entertainment conglomerates have posted better than expected returns for the summer, with Disney the last to announce an 18% rise in profits. This is despite a couple of theatrical misfires, including the Jerry Bruckheimer produced G-Force, and lower than usual consumer spending on DVDs, according to Video Business […]

Stan Berkowitz recieves WGA animation award

Emmy award winning Stan Berkowitz, writer on a host of animated superhero shows and DC Universe movies, is to receive the Writers Guild of America West Animation Writers Caucus’ writing award tonight, for Lifetime Achievement. A full press release follows:

Twenty films compete for Oscar nominations

AMPAS announced today that 20 films have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 82nd Academy Awards, though 7 still await their qualifying runs. If at least 16 animated films qualify, there could be up to 5 nominees up for the big prize — a level that has only been […]

The Look of Mr. Fox

Comingsoon.net has a behind-the-scenes article about how director Wes Anderson and his team achieved the unique look of the stop-motion animated comedy Fantastic Mr. Fox. Starring George Clooney and based on the book by Roald Dahl, Mr. Fox opens in limited release on Friday before going nationwide on November 25th.

Secret of Kells gets US distribution, Oscar run

US distributor GKIDS has announced they will be bringing Irish director Tomm Moore’s animated film The Secret of Kells to U.S. audiences. Opening March 12, 2010, the film will first get an Oscar qualifying run in LA starting December 4. “Magic, fantasy, and Celtic mythology come together” in the story of young boy who meets […]

Extended Planet 51 clip now online

Yahoo! Movies now has a 2-minute clip from Sony’s upcoming animated sci-fi comedy Planet 51. The movie stars Dwayne Johnson as the voice of Chuck Baker, an American astronaut who finds himself on a planet populated entirely by green people who believe that he’s an alien invader. Also featuring Justin Long, Jessica Biel and Gary […]

Burton, Timm, Katzenberg to receive Winsor McCay Award

ASIFA-Hollywood has announced the 2009 recipients of the Winsor McCay Award, “one of the highest honors given to an individual in the animation industry in recognition for career contributions to the art of animation.” Those being honored with the prize at the 37th Annual Annie Awards are: Tim Burton, Bruce Timm, and Jeffrey Katzenberg. ASIFA-Hollywood […]

Meatballs to land on DVD and Blu-ray

Sony has announced their $118.6 million-grossing comedy Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs for home video release on January 5, 2010. Available on DVD ($28.96), two-DVD ($34.95) and Blu-ray ($39.95), the film will include commentary from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller and, on the two-disc, featurettes, deleted scenes, music video, sing-along and game, the […]

Animation impact on 2010 Oscars

Awards season is creeping up on us, and ABC News has the story on how animated films might factor into the Oscars. Up obviously could get Best Picture and Best Animated Film nominations, but could that hurt the film’s chances at getting either? Also discussed are the chances of the Best Animated Film category getting […]

New poster from Alice, more to come?

FirstShowing.net has the latest on Disney’s social/viral marketing campaign for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. The Mad Hatter has posted a new poster on his Facebook page. He’s offered to post more when he reaches 7,500 people giving the image a “Like”. He’s up almost 6,000 now so check back later to see what else […]

Docter and Peterson go deep into Up

Newsarama has a two-part interview with Pete Docter and Bill Peterson, who (not so coincidentally!) are the men behind today’s DVD and BD release of Up. The piece goes into a lot of details about the inspiration, motivation, and construction of the film. “The first pitch to John Lasseter made him cry…with no visuals! Did […]