AP caught up with Hello, Dolly! composer Jerry Herman to get his reactions on the use of two of the Tony-winning musical’s songs in Pixar’s latest blockbuster. “I’m still blown away by the fact that two songs of mine that are close to 50 years old have been used as the underpinning. My eyes were […]

Ultimate Disney reports that the Mouse House has revised its press release for Walt Disney Treasures: Wave 8 by dropping from the track list the 2003 realization of the long-unfinished Walt Disney/Salvador Dali animated short, Destino. The site adds that The Chronological Donald, Volume 4 and Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow are still scheduled for […]

DVD Active has the full list of bonus features on the September 16th Blu-ray release of DreamWorks Animation’s blockbuster hit Shrek the Third and cover art for the September 23rd release of Madagascar.

The CG comedy, set for release in the U.S. on September 19th, is rated PG for “some thematic elements, scary images, action and mild language.”

Producer Charlotte Huggins (Journey to the Center of the Earth) spoke to SCI FI Wire about her other film coming to U.S. theaters this summer: Fly Me to the Moon, a 3-D animated family/SF film about bugs that stow away on the first moon mission. “Fly Me to the Moon is great. It’s the first […]

The TAG Blog reports on a recent visit to the Culver City studio. Things look rosier for their January 2010 feature film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, with one artist commenting: “The directors pull it one direction and the execs push it another. Now that we have a new set of people at the […]

Fantasy Moguls predicts a five-day of $58 million-$63 million for Pixar’s latest blockbuster, which would give the Chaplinesque little robot a 10-day domestic cume of about $140 million. Meanwhile Coming Soon expects a 34% drop for Wall•E pointing to a 3-day $41.5 gross of million. The Disney/Pixar hit grossed an impressive $8.9M on Monday, 40+% […]

The Village Voice questionably went through the movie mogul’s trash and found “a letter from French producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam refers to the distribution of a sequel to Arthur and the Invincibles. That partly animated film was directed by Luc Besson and released initially in France in 2006 as Arthur et les Minimoys, but Besson […]

Brand new footage from the upcoming Lucasfilm Animation film will be screened later this month at the Star Wars Celebration Japan at the Makuhari Messe center. Coming Soon has the full details.

The prolific composer, who most recently signed the Prince Caspian score for Disney, talks to Ain’t It Cool about his body of work, including the Shrek blockbusters: Director Andrew Adamson and I] have spent a lot of time together. We went through Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, the first Narnia, and now the second […]

Dark Knight actor confirmed to Sci Fi Wire that he would be playing at least three characters in Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming motion-capture-animated A Christmas Carol: “I play Marley. I play Tiny Tim, and I play Bob Cratchit, so I play three [characters].” In the animated film–which Robert Zemeckis is directing with the same technology he […]

As the SAG contract expired a few hours ago and Hollywood is crossing its fingers, the TAG Blog takes us down memory lane by looking back at the Great Walt Disney Cartoonists Strike that took place 67 years ago…

While announcing the projects it will be working on over the next 2 years, Sony Pictures Imageworks revealed details on Open Season 2, Sony Pictures Animation’s sequel to the $190 million hit OPEN SEASON for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “Boog and Elliot are back for more crazy adventures. After falling head over hooves in love […]

GhibliWorld has posted the very first review of Hayao Miyazaki’s upcoming film Ponyo on the Cliff by industry insider and broadcasting writer Hashimoto Atsushi. In his spoiler-free review, Atsushi mentions, “I’ve never seen such a hot air during any of the previews I visited over the last two years. They all gazed at the screen […]

The Hollywood Reporter takes a look at Pixar’s winning streak and tries to break down the reason for the studio’s consistent success. Stability, smarts and techno-savviness are key according to the trade magazine, resulting in an even better-than-projected $63.1M opening weekend for Wall•E, the biggest for an animated film this year.

NYTimes has posted an article wherein George Lucas discusses elements of his latest film and television project Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Lucas talks in depth about creating the film and his involvement with the project. The film, set to be released by Warner Brothers on Aug 15, will also introduce an animated television series […]

Google has teamed up with the creator of Family Guy to create 50 two minute episodes of a new cartoon called Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, an animation series which will appear exclusively on the Internet. Seth MacFarlane has created a stable of new characters to star in the series, which will premiere in […]

Jim Hill talks about “the real reason WDW’s night club complex is shuttering. Which is Mickey’s desire to create a seamless Guest experience for all those shopping & dining at Downtown Disney.”

Ain’t It Cool points to what looks like the first trailer for Hayao Miyazaki’s upcoming animated feature which opens July 19th in Japan. The film centers on a goldfish named Ponyo who desperately wants to be a human. In pursuing her goal, she befriends a five-year-old human boy, Sosuke-who ironically Miyazaki-san based on his own […]

A $100 million-plus production, Wall•E repeated the feat of every single past Pixar film by opening #1 at the U.S. box office this weekend. About 22% of patrons for the wondrously reviewed film were couples without children. “That basically tells you that the adults have heard the reviews, and they’re coming,” Disney distribution president Chuck […]

Pixar’s latest narrowly edged out DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda opening weekend numbers with a $23.1M Friday and a rather modest $23M Saturday for a $62.5M three-day total. Meanwhile Panda, in spite of suffering its biggest drop this weekend (46.5%), still topped $179.3M on its way to beat Madagascar‘s $193.6M by the end of its run […]

The Pixar masterpiece exceeded expectations with an estimated $23.3M gross yesterday for what should be a $64–67M three-day weekend. That would make it the third biggest opening for a non-sequel animated film, behind Pixar’s own Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Congratulations to everyone at Disney/Pixar!

According to Fantasy Moguls, Pixar’s perfectly-reviewed film is off to a meteoric start, much stronger than last year’s Ratatouille. The new animated masterpiece, already described by many critics as the likely winner of the next animation Oscar, will almost certainly top $20M on opening day. One source told the site $60M+ for the weekend and […]

Empire offers a first look at the new trailer for Disney’s November animated feature film Bolt which can also be enjoyed on the big screen in theaters nationwide starting today in front of Wall•E.

And Pixar’s latest also rose to 98% of positive reviews overall according to Rotten Tomatoes. It “has all the heart, soul, spirit and romance of the very best silent movies 60 years ago.” says the Hollywood Reporter. “One of the best films of the summer” (USA Today), “Pixar’s ninth consecutive wonder of the animated world” […]

Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that Disney and Pixar are going to push hard for a Best Picture Oscar nomination for Wall•E “on the basis of its anti-toon moody darkness and rave reviews by critics who matter.” Only Beauty and the Beast earned a nomination in that category back in 1991, and that was before an […]

UpcomingPixar, via UpcomingFilmScores, reports that Michael Giacchino will be scoring Pixar’s 2009 feature film, Up. Giacchino’s previous works also include Pixar films such as The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

Yahoo! Movies exclusively debuted the trailer for the December 19th animated feature film The Tale of Despereaux, Directed by Sam Fell (Flushed Away) and featuring the voices of Matthew Broderick, Robbie Coltrane, Frances Conroy, Tony Hale, Ciaran Hinds, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Frank Langella, Christopher Lloyd, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Tracey Ullman, Emma Watson […]

UpcomingPixar shares a SlashFilm link featuring the Making of Pixar’s WALL•E. The site has made available two clips featuring concept art, design and voice acting that went into the making of the film.

Rotten Tomatoes sums it all up: “It’s rare that a picture earns comparisons with Chaplin’s City Lights and Kubrick’s 2001. It’s rarer still that said picture is also praised as intelligent, visually remarkable, darkly funny, and ultimately, heartwarming family fare. However, critics say the good folks at Pixar have done just that with Wall•E, perhaps […]