
Paprikaas awarded Nickelodeon’s Kung Fu Panda series
Technicolor has issued an press release announcing that its Paprikaas Animation Studio, based in Bangalore, India, has been named as the facilities house that will handle the computer generated imagery for Nickelodeon’s Kung Fu Panda television series. Paprikaas previously built a relationship with the channel with its Penguins Of Madagascar show, based on another of […] |
The Smurfs begins filming
ComingSoon reports that filming on Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation’s live-action and animated comedy The Smurfs began on Friday, March 26, in New York. Directed by Raja Gosnell and featuring the voices of Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara and Hank Azaria, The Smurfs is slated to hit theatres on August 3, 2011. |
“Laugh Wars”? Lucas adds comedy…
Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich are heading to the Skywalker Ranch: after their parodies of George Lucas’ Star Wars films, the duo have been tapped to mastermind more of the same, but this time get to play in Lucas’ backyard, with a commission to develop a new animated Star Wars series that […] |
Up with the Hugos!
Fresh off of its wins for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score at the 82nd annual Academy Awards, Disney/Pixar’s Up has received another major award nomination. |
Titans Triumphs, But 3D Conversions Still Clash
Clash Of The Titans’ $61.4m opening weekend seemed to validate Warner Brothers’ decision to covert the film to the 3D process after the production had wrapped, says The Hollywood Reporter. But the quality of the conversion has been a sore point in reviews for the film and, in another article, THR reports that others in […] |
New Charles Schulz book collects prose writings
University Press Of Mississippi, known for its extensive line of comics-related books, has just announced a new book featuring the writings of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, entitled My Life With Charlie Brown. The publishers feel that this book constitutes something akin to an autobiography, given how some of the pieces do trace Schulz’s life […] |
A Despicable Easter greeting
Universal Pictures has created another advertisement for their already much marketed Despicable Me, this time in the form of a holiday poster. The ad features the very marketable yellow corn pop minion characters inside an Easter basket among Easter eggs. Despicable Me opens everywhere this July. |
Henry Selick bringing stop-motion back to Disney
Henry Selick is returning back to Disney, reports Variety. The director of Coraline who began his animation career at Disney in the late ’70s, has struck an exclusive long-term deal with Disney/Pixar to make stop-motion features for the studio. John Lasseter’s decision to bring Selick back to the studio is seen as another boost for […] |
First Yogi Bear images
The Movie Insider has what appear to be the first images from the upcoming Yogi Bear live-action/CGI hybrid. Included on the site are an early poster for the film as well as character shots of Yogi and Boo-Boo. Starring Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake, Yogi Bear hits theaters on December 17th, 2010. |
Universal and Illumination ready to Hop
With Despicable Me still to come, Universal has announced that they are ready to develop their next project with animation studio Illumination. I Hop will be an live-action/CG hybrid with James Marsden and The Big Bang Theory‘s Kaley Cuoco set to star opposite the animated son of the Easter Bunny. Russell Brand will voice the […] |
Godzilla stomps back onto the big screen
A press release announcing the legendary Japanese creature feature star is to return to theaters in a new major monster picture can be read here: |
Toy Story 3 to be previewed at colleges
Walt Disney Pictures just announced their latest marketing campaign for their upcoming Toy Story 3: Screening the movie in advance at select colleges across America. The only catch will be that the whole movie won’t be shown. Instead, it will be a special “Cliffhanger Edition” of the film, with only the first 65 minutes of the […] |
Sofia Vergara Joins the cast of The Smurfs and Happy Feet 2
HeatVision reports that Sofia Vergara has joined the cast of The Smurfs, the big screen adaptation of the cartoon series. Sofia will play Odile, a powerful executive at a high-end French cosmetics company who is married to the live-action character played by Neil Patrick Harris. Produced by Columbia Pictures and directed by Raja Gosnell, The […] |
Dragon tops box office
According to Variety, DreamWork’s How To Train Your Dragon topped the box office last weekend with an estimated $43.3 million intake. While these numbers didn’t exactly signify a mega-hit, the gross was enough to knock Disney’s Alice In Wonderland from first place and met industry expectations. 3D showings of Dragon helped boost its opening weekend, […] |
Does next month’s Avatar Blu-ray have no extras?
Reports are coming in on various websites that next month’s DVD/Blu-ray release of James Cameron’s Avatar will be completely without extras. This is supposedly to use all of the disc space available to present the movie in the best high definition possible. A future, ultimate edition loaded with bonus content is expected to come out in […] |
Waking Sleeping Beauty awakens…
Don Hahn’s refreshingly honest documentary on the “Disney Renaissance” of the 1990s, from its explosion to its explosive downfall, opens today on selected screens in New York, Los Angeles, San Francsico and Chicago. A poster and full press release, in which Hahn describes his film in depth, follows: |
How To Train Your Dragon opens today
DreamWork’s new animated flick, How To Train Your Dragon, opens today on over 7,000 screens, including those in IMAX theaters. 2,175 of these screens are equipped with 3D, though this number is not a record due to Avatar and Alice In Wonderland still playing in some theaters. Reviews for the new film are extremely positive, […] |
New Shrek Forever After character posters
Two new posters for DreamWorks’ Shrek Forever After have just been revealed at Yahoo! Movies, and they offer small hints about the movie’s plot. The first features the title character behind bars and apparently jailed. The second has new villain Rumplestilskin standing in front of an army of witches, sporting a strange red hair style that makes […] |
Another Despicable Me trailer strikes the internet
A fourth trailer for Universal’s upcoming Despicable Me can be found in various formats over at Apple.com. The animated comedy starring Steve Carell opens in theaters everywhere on July 9th. |
Why DreamWorks tops Pixar
Cinema Blend has a piece with the link-baiting title “5 Ways DreamWorks Animation Is Better Than Pixar”. The article isn’t nearly as contentious as the title would suggest, however, and does a good job of fairly pointing out the areas where DreamWorks excels over its rival. |
Top celebrity voices
Forbes delves into the world of celebrity voice acting to rank the A-list — a top 10 based on box office earnings and press attention. |
Catmull discusses keys to success
Mashable discusses a talk Disney and Pixar Animation President Ed Catmull gave at the Economist Innovation Conference. He said Pixar’s success was due to being able to trust his managers, not being afraid of making mistakes and then having to fix them, and balancing the artistic with the commercial. |
Toy Story Lego mural celebrates Blu-ray releases!
Pixar Story Supervisor Jason Katz and Lego Master Builder Erik Varszegi joined the children of the Boys & Girls Club of America to assemble a one-of-a-kind Lego mural in Hollywood on Tuesday, March 23, to promote the releases of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 Special Edition Blu-ray Discs yesterday. More details and photos can […] |
Live action Maleficent movie happening?
Disney is reportedly working on making a live action movie based on one of their most popular animated villains. Maleficent, being penned by Alice in Wonderland screenwriter Linda Woolverton, will apparently tell the story of Sleeping Beauty from Maleficent’s perspective. None other than Tim Burton himself is being considered as a director for the project. |
Up wins Humane Society award
Disney/Pixar’s Up has picked up some more hardware, this time the feature film award at the Humane Society’s Genesis Awards, according to the L.A. Times. The Genesis Awards “honor media depictions of animal protection issues”. |
Preschool Star Wars series coming to TV?
IESB.net has a somewhat surprising rumor that George Lucas will be bringing the Star Wars franchise to preschoolers. They believe the new series, based on the kid-friendly line of Galactic Heroes toys, is to be titled Squishies. |
New animated Green Lantern film in the works
Comics Continuum reports that a new animated Green Lantern direct to video film is in the works at Warner, timed to be released at thte same time as the live-action Green Lantern movie coming out in the summer of 2011. |
Popeye heads back to the big screen in CGI and 3D
Sony is all set to bring Popeye the Sailor Man back to the big screen by giving him the CGI and 3D treatment, reports Collider via Variety. With Avi Arad producing, Mike Jones is in talks to write the screenplay. According to Variety, “The logline is being kept under wraps, but Popeye’s love interest Olive […] |
The lighting and look of Dragons
The New York Times discusses the lighting and overall look of DreamWorks’ How To Train Your Dragon with director Chris Sanders and cinematographer and eight time Oscar nominee Roger Deakins. Deakins is most well known for his live action work (No Country for Old Men, The Village, A Beautiful Mind, The Shawshank Redemption) and had […] |
When Dragons and Titans clash
Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. are currently battling it out over booking 3-D screens for their upcoming tentpole releases, the LA Times is reporting. Paramount Pictures is going through possibly extreme measures to get their animated How to Train Your Dragon in 3-D theaters, to the point where they’re even threatening some venues that they won’t […] |