Hidden inside the Walt Disney Company’s annual investors report lies the first “real” image of the studios’ 2009 animated feature, The Princess and the Frog, showcasing the film’s main character, Tiana. Meanwhile, David Gilson’s blog presents us with a high resolution, cleaned up version of the image. The Princess and the Frog will be the […]

Animation World Network reports that Pixar’s hit Toy Story will be adapted for the stage for audiences traveling on the Disney Wonder cruise ship. “Following the storyline of the original film, Toy Story – The Musical will give the audience a toy’s-eye view of life in Andy’s room, exploring the true meaning of friendship as […]

According to Variety, animated movies are big in Israel filling up six slots in their list of the top ten grossing movies at the box office for 2007 with Ratatouille and Shrek the Third topping the list and Bee Movie showing up as well.

Despite the writer’s strike shutting down their more usual glitzy awards show, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handed out their annual Golden Globes awards tonight. Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille picked up this year’s award for Best Animated Film. The animation prize has only been awarded since last year when Pixar also picked up the trophy, for Cars. […]

UpcomingPixar, via InTheNews.co.uk, reports that according to Tom Hanks, the third instalment of the Toy Story films is being prepared and has the full support of the actor, who voices one of the main characters Woody in the film. Directed by Lee Unkrich, Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 is slated for a 2009 release.

UpcomingPixar has posted the first screenshots from the video game WALL•E. Published by THQ and created by Heavy Iron Studios, the video game is based on the upcoming Disney/Pixar’s feature WALL•E which is set to hit theatres June 27.

Over at The Hollywood Reporter‘s award season coverage, director Brad Bird is one of the six screenwriters sharing their experiences and approach to how they penned their nominated movies. Bird speaks about coming late to the production of Ratatouille, while of the other scribes, John Logan reveals what it was like adapting Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney […]

Ghibliworld has an exclusive in-depth interview with Pixar storyboard artist Enrico Casarosa wherein he talks about Studio Ghibli, Pixar and how Hayao Miyazaki’s films have influenced his own work. According to him, “Miyazaki has this uncanny ability to add a childish sense of wonder to his stories. He’s able to make us feel like little […]

On Saturday, January 19th, a panel discussion devoted to character animationespecially as it relates to advancing animation technology will be held at the Ince Theater at Sony Pictures Imageworks. The panel will be moderated by Frank Gladstone and will include important guest panelists from several animation studios. More details follow:

The Digital Bits has the scoop on several animated disc announcements made during the past week. On February 19th Warner will debut Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers and Tom and Jerry: Tales – Volume 1 DVDs. Fox will be releasing an Ice Age: The Meltdown special edition DVD on March 2nd. Paramount/DreamWorks’ Bee Movie […]

Over on our Animated Views side we have an interview with Hyun-Min Lee and Bert and Jennifer Klein regarding their new short, The Chestnut Tree, which has just garnered two Annie Awards nominations. This touching short subject film was executive produced by Don Hahn with further assistance rendered by Eric Goldberg. Check it out for […]

Exodus Films’ official site presents us with a detailed look at the characters from their upcoming animated flick, Igor. The animated comedy centers on an evil scientist’s hunch-backed lab assistant who has big dreams of becoming a mad scientist himself and winning the annual evil science Fair. The stellar voice cast includes Steve Buscemi, John […]

Joblo has published some new details concerning the upcoming Batman: Gotham Knight, a collection of six animated shorts set in Chris Nolans’ Batman-universe. Although each short will be penned by a different writer, they will all be directed by Bruce Timm, already a familiar face in the animated world of Batman. The new stories, done […]

Dailymotion currently hosts the teaser trailer for Resident Evil: Degeneration, the first full-length CG animation based on the game franchise of the same name. The brand new storyline will not have any known ties with the live-action films but will take place in the game-universe instead. Resident Evil: Degeneration is currently scheduled for a fall […]

UpcomingPixar via BusinessWire reports that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment have announced their new line-up of Blu-ray initiatives in 2008 which will mark first Platinum Disney animated classic Sleeping Beauty on Blu-ray in the fall of 2008. Along with an all-new enhanced home theater mix in 7.1 surround sound, Sleeping Beauty Platinum Edition Blu-ray Disc […]

UpcomingPixar reports that THQ via BusinessWire have officially announced the WALL•E Video Game for all major platforms which include the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. According to the press release, WALL•E is expected to release this summer and will mark THQ’s next installment in the company’s well-established and successful association with Disney/Pixar. Development […]

Warner Bros., the only major studio to release their films in both competing high-def optical disc formats, today announced that they will be dropping their support for HD-DVD and instead releasing exclusively on Blu-ray. With studios supporting Blu-ray now accounting for 70% of Hollywood content — only Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks support HD-DVD now — the […]

People reports that Knut, the famous young polar bear who resides at the Berlin Zoo, might be starring in his own animated film in the near future. The Animation Picture Company, responsible for the Garfield movie, plans to focus the feature on Knut and his caretaker, with Suri Cruise providing the English voice of the […]

During the last few weeks the major studios firmed up the dates for their 2008 releases. Here’s a look at how the year in animation is shaping up so far: • January 11 – The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything – A VeggieTales Movie (Universal) • March 14 – Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! […]

As with everything in Rumored Rumblings, take the following with a grain of salt. Several different web sites around the net are buzzing that Pixar’s slightly mysterious 2009 release, Up, may be a re-telling of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic 17th century story Don Quixote. Variety wrote in the summer of 2007 that Up was “about […]

BroadwayWorld.com reports that Disney Theatrical Productions’ three shows currently running on Broadway all set box office records for the week ending December 30, 2007. The Lion King, a six time Tony award winner now in its tenth year, set a new record at the Minskoff Theatre with $1,571,937. Mary Poppins set a record at the […]

The Digital Bits reports that Universal Studios Home Video will be releasing The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2 DVD on April 15th for $39.98. According to The Bits, the 3-disc set will include some 75 remastered shorts — though the actual titles are unknown at this time. For now, you can […]

After its first preview on Broadway recently, composer Alan Menken talked to with Rotten Tomatoes about the difficulties of bringing Disney’s classic film The Little Mermaid to the theatre. “I really hadn’t thought about Mermaid for the stage, for the challenge of being under the sea. As everyone knows, that was one of the difficulties. […]

Walt Disney’s Academy Award winning 1933 short Three Little Pigs has been added to the National Film Registry according to the head of the Library of Congress, James Billington. Each year the Librarian of Congress, advised by the National Film Preservation Board, selects up to 25 films that are culturally, historically or aesthetically significant to […]

Trailers for the Fathom Studios’ upcoming animated film Delgo have appeared on Movie-list.com. Featuring the voices of actors such as Val Kilmer and Jennifer Love Hewitt, Delgo is a fantasy-adventure about a naive teenager who must rally his group of friends to protect their world from conflict between the Lockni and Nohrin people.

Variety via PixarPlanet has pulished an interview with Brad Bird wherein the Pixar writer and director calls for more respect for writers of animated films. Bird says, “The whole question of writing for animation is skewed. There isn’t a giant difference between animation and live action. You need characters, stories, themes. It’s called good storytelling.”

An exclusive first look at the stars of the upcoming Disney flick Bolt can be seen at Rope Of Silence, along with an image of the film’s logo. A new promo shot of Pixar’s Wall•E can also be found on the site, showing the robo-protagonist clinging to the side of a space ship. Thanks to […]

Editors at RottenTomatoes.com have picked twenty best films of 2007 which, according to them, are definitely worth your time. Animated films featured in the list are Ratatouille and Paprika.

IFC.com has published an article featuring five best directorial debut of the year 2007 which includes Marjane Satrapi’s animated film Persepolis. According to the article, “Satrapi’s film isn’t just a faithful adaptation but an energized improvement of its source material, lending the author’s personal saga of oppression and exile an aesthetic fluidity and vitality that […]

AWN has an in-depth article which focuses on how Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novels were brought to life in the award winning film Persepolis. The article examines how the novels were adapted to create a black-and-white animated film that stands apart and follows the filmmakers journey from defining the design of the film to finding distributors […]