The Orlando Sentinel via the Los Angeles Times has an interesting article up about Andy Serkis’ research and preparation for his motion-capture acting of the title character in King Kong. Director Peter Jackson utilized not only Serkis’ broader body action, but the nuanced expressions of his face as well. “To play Kong in the lavish […]

Nausicaa.net relays a translation from a Japanese article describing 3 new exclusive short features produced and soon-to-be screened at the Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan. Shown only at the museum’s Saturn Theater, House-hunting, Mon-mon the Water Spider, and The Day I Harvested A Star will be showing alternatively to the visitor’s choice, rather than the […]

A 2-disc DVD set for the animated series The Garbage Pail Kids is expected to be released on April 4th, says DVDtoons. At this time, no other details about the set are known.

According to the IMDB Studio Briefing, the study “Economics of Motion Pictures 2006,” from Monterey, CA-based Kagan Research, has found animated movies to be the most profitable film genre between 2000 and 2004. On average, the movies each earned a gross profit of $194.5 million.

Latino Review has a new image from Monster House. Columbia Pictures’ computer animated comedy will open in theaters on July 21, 2006.

Jeffrey Katzenberg has revealed a new venture between DreamWorks Animation and Hewlett-Packard: the Halo room, indicates StarTribune.com. Costing $550,000 to create, each Halo room includes four high-definition plasma screens, along with lighting, camera angles, wall-color, acoustics and furniture tailored to make two Halo systems feel like a single room, when linked together. In response to […]

With NBC5.com’s @ The Movies, Ray Harryhausen, the master of stop-motion animation special effects, shares his thoughts on the recently released Harryhausen Gift Set, which features the films 20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, and It Came From Beneath the Sea.

CG Society and the CMP Game Group-owned Game Developers Conference have announced a new competition for computer graphics artwork, the Graphic Impact Annual Animation Competition, reports Gamasutra. This year’s theme for the contest is “the Pivotal Moment,” with rules stating, “You must create an image, animation and story depicting a pivotal moment between antagonist and […]

Cover artwork has arrived at DVD Active for each of the three upcoming DVD volumes of The Real Ghostbusters: Spooky Spirits, Creatures of the Night, and Slimefighters.

DVDtoons has the press release for the DVDs of The Batman: The Complete First Season and Teen Titans: The Complete First Season, along with back cover artwork for the latter of the two.

Another “For Your Consideration” poster promoting Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride has appeared at Oscar Watch. This time, the award categories being pushed include: Best Animated Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song, and Best Sound Editing.

From Ultimate Disney comes word of two new bonus features being included for the Howl’s Moving Castle two-disc DVD. Aside from the usual “Behind the Microphone” English voice cast featurette, storyboards, trailers, and television spots, the DVD will have an interview with Pete Doctor, director of Howl’s English dubbing, and the featurette “Hello, Mr. Lasseter,” […]

Under the theme “What animated characters would look like if they were real people,” Fark.com offers a unique gallery of pictures posing some of history’s most famous cartoon faces in real-life form.

Animation appears to be playing a key role in Disney’s award show push, as its latest “For Your Consideration” website, provided under the Buena Vista Pictures banner, contains spots for The Chronicles of Narnia, Chicken Little, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Pooh’s Heffalump Movie. Full songs from Narnia (“Wunderkind” and “Can’t Take It In”), Chicken Little […]

Releasing a plethora of praise, Coming Soon reviews the Toy Story 2 Special Edition DVD, due for release on December 26th. Providing scores of 10/10 for the film itself and 9/10 for the DVD’s extras, the site summarizes its thoughts on the package with, “Overall, if you’re a Pixar or Toy Story fan, this is […]

Hollywood.com indicates that publicist Ivy ‘Supersonic’ Silberstein still insists she created the character of Scrat, the loveable acorn-adoring animal from Fox/Blue Sky’s Ice Age movies. Continuing her fight for recognition, Silberstein has plastered posters over New York City and Los Angeles, asking folks to visit Scrat.com for her side of the story.

According to The Mercury, via The Big Cartoon Database, Warner Bros. and the government of the Australian state of Tasmania are having “closed-door talks” this week, in an effort to bring hope to the endangered Tasmanian devil. The conversations concern an agreement that could bring publicity and funding for research of the facial tumor threatening […]

On February 28, 2006, The Real Ghostbusters will arrive in stores. However, the animated series will be released in DVD volumes of random episodes, rather than season sets. DVDtoons has the episode listings for those volumes, featuring: Volume 1: Catch Me If You Can (“Night Game,” “Lost and Foundry,” “Bird of Kildarby,” and “Killerwatt”), Volume […]

Around 250 original pictures from such Disney classics as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Fantasia have been discovered at a warehouse in Chiba University, reports Kyodo News, via Yahoo! Asia. Including celluloid and background images, along with sketches, the pictures were donated by the Walt Disney Co. to the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, after […]

Coming soon to your cell phone may be animated avatars that accurately lip-synch, if 3Dmsg, a division of speech technology leader Sensory, has its way. Utilizing the company’s homegrown animation and voice-recognition technologies, the avatars will contain lips that move with the same precision as that of a real person’s, when pronouncing phonemes or parts […]

Latino Review displays a promotional image from Garfield 2, arriving in theaters on June 23, 2006.

IGN FilmForce was in attendance at this year’s Jump Festival, Japan’s annual gala of previews from videogame, manga and anime companies. Found at the festival were another demo and trailer for the anticipated video game Kingdom Hearts II, the presentation of which FilmForce summarizes.

A new article at BackStage reveals that while the pair failed to make it to the list of seven movies eligible for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, both Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit were among the final fifteen films once considered for the award.

Today is the last day to pick up one-of-a-kind Ice Age and Robots artwork available in Blue Sky Studios’ charity auction on eBay. Proceeds from each piece will go to either the Red Cross or the American Humane Society, as they continue their relief efforts in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The auction […]

Following our recent sit down discussion with famed Disney animator {{link http://www.animatedviews.com/wp-content/uploads/archives/00003772.html Andreas Deja}}, Animated News’ Christian Ziebarth met up with one of Deja’s fellow alumni at the Disney Studio, animator and director Eric Goldberg, most recently a director-for-hire on Looney Tunes: Back In Action. During the informal chat, Goldberg spoke about his career at […]

According to Moviehole, Elizabeth Hurley is “in talks” to join her Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery co-star Mike Myers for Shrek 3. The popular ogre’s second sequel will hit theaters on May 18, 2007.

{{link http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2005/05.12.16b.html The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences}} has announced the 7 feature films released in 2005 up for consideration for the Best Visual Effects Oscar: \\Batman Begins\\ \\Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\\ \\The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe\\ \\Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire\\ \\King Kong\\ […]

Full-size Over the Hedge poster image available here (special thanks to Olivier):

{{link http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2005/05.12.15c.html The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences}} has announced the 42 original songs from eligible feature-length films released in 2005 up for consideration for Oscars. Six are from animated films: “\\Great Big World\\” from \\Hookwinked\\ “\\One Little Slip\\” from \\Chicken Little\\ “\\Remains of the Day\\” from \\Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride\\ “\\Shine\\” from […]

Jim Hill Media points to website names registered by Disney not too long ago, supposing some of the things the Mouse House may have in its future. Projects found in the mix involve: a Tron sequel, the Little Mermaid Broadway show, Le Muppet Show, and the mysterious Adventures of Barf Bag.