Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, via the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, talk has begun once more that Disney may purchase Pixar. Other ideas being considered are that Disney might buy a minority stake of Pixar, or that Pixar could grant Disney participation in the performance of its future movies in exchange for sequel rights to its […]

In a recent report, the U.S. Institute of Medicine stated that television has been found to strongly influence what children younger than 12 years old eat. Responding to that finding, the panel of scientists recommended that animated characters should promote only healthy food, pointing to the use of characters to push Happy Meals and cookies […]

“Will digital effects ruin Hollywood?” – that is the question asked by Edward Jay Epstein. In his article “The Schizoid Split in Movies,” available at Slate, Epstein ponders whether directors are spending so much time dealing with special effects that they fail to fulfill the film’s live action needs. Likewise, Epstein considers that working with […]

DVDActive has a large version of the cover artwork for the Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit DVD, coming to stores on February 7th. Bonus material for the DVD has yet to be announced.

Cover art for The Land Before Time: 2 Big Dino-Riffic Adventures has been added to DVDActive. Also listed at the site are the DVD set’s bonus features, including: three sing-along songs, “How Do I Find Things?” features, “Ducky’s Deep Sea Discovery,” a “Stars of The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water” feature, and […]

Regarding the new animated series Wolverine and the X-Men, Jason Netter of Kickstart Entertainment remarks to Comics2Film, “We’re just ramping up the writing and the artistic development.” Furthermore, he adds, “Full production will start early next year.” With Netter serving as the series’ producer, Greg Johnson, writer of Marvel’s DTV movies Ultimate Avengers, Ultimate Avengers […]

The official website for the Toy Story 2 Special Edition DVD is now open. Features of the site include info about the DVD, a photo gallery, the film’s trailer, downloads, games, and activities. The Toy Story 2 Special Edition DVD will hit stores on December 26th. Thanks to Justin Williams at the Animated-News Forum for […]

The Venice, California-based Exodus Film Group announced Wednesday that veteran licensing executive Bruce Auerbach has been named president of the company’s new consumer products division, reports The Big Cartoon Database. Reporting to Exodus president John D. Eraklis, Auerbach will manage all licensing and merchandising efforts, including those of Exodus’ animation slate, containing such upcoming flicks […]

‘GeorgeC’ in our Animated News Forums points out that a Snoopy vs The Red Baron video game is due out in Fall 2006 for PC, Playstation, and XBox. “Pilot Snoopy’s famous Sopwith Camel and other unique aircraft in perilous sky-high dogfights, no-holds-barred air races and heart-pounding missions behind enemy lines.”

The AWN Showcase submits a couple of new pictures from Pixar’s latest short film, One Man Band. Meanwhile, a recent poster for the short may also be found at the Internet Movie Database.

IGN FilmForce examines Scooby-Doo! Unmasked for the Nintendo DS, uncovering what it holds to be a fine, if not spectacular, game. Providing the title with an overall score of 6.5, the site writes, “Scooby-Doo! Unmasked is undone by its lack of polish, making it hard to recommend even though there’s a lot to like. If […]

The newest trailer for next May’s DreamWorks CGI entry Over the Hedge has hit Yahoo! Movies, in both Windows Media and QuickTime versions. Also available at the site is the film’s poster, seen to the right of this news brief.

Once the company’s executive vice president and CFO, Alan Bergman has been promoted as president of Walt Disney Studios, reports bizjournals.com, via Yahoo! Finance. With this new title, Bergman will report directly to Chairman Dick Cook, while overseeing operations for all business units such as Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, Miramax, and Disney Theatrical Productions. […]

AWN points to Variety, where news comes that Jared Stern has signed a two-year deal to pen both original and existing projects at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Stern made headlines earlier this year, when it was announced that he had sold his idea for Toy Story 3 to Disney, during his time in the Feature […]

The Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit DVD will be released on February 7th, in a single-disc edition, DVDActive reports. Offering the film in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the DVD will likewise contain English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround tracks for the movie.

DVDActive also has the latest on some re-releases of favorites from Fox Home Entertainment. First up, an Anastasia: Family Fun Edition DVD will arrive in stores on March 14th. The two-disc set will present the film in widescreen and full screen, with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Bonus features for the DVD involve: a […]

Rumor has it that the 1959 television series of Quick Draw McGraw, which also featured segments from Augie Doggie & Doggy Daddy, and Super Snooper & Blabber Mouse, will be riding the next wave of Hanna Barbera Collection sets. The news comes from TV Shows on DVD, which further indicates that a set dedicated to […]

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) has announced the “Which Way Did They Go?” exhibition, to be held Thursday, December 15, 2005 through Saturday, January 21, 2006. The exhibit displays work from five alumni of SVA’s Film, Video & Animation Department: John R. Dilworth, Yvette Kaplan, Alex Kupershmidt, Chris Prynoski and Tom Sito. Drawings, sketches, […]

Yahoo! News reports on TV ratings of recent holiday special broadcasts, incuding the fact that A Charlie Brown Christmas received its best ratings in at least 4 years and did quite well up against Survivor and other holiday specials and first run shows. Thanks to Kristin for the heads up.

The Star Tribune reports that the Walt Disney Co. is looking into a unique way of spreading its media content, with the news being discovered from a currently pending patent application. Apparently, Disney is considering a plan such as this: Upon buying a meal at a restaurant, one will receive a portable media player and […]

The entire soundtrack to Hoodwinked, the computer animated comedy from Weinstein Co., may heard completely free at AOL Music.

Ultimate Disney has the details about the March 21st DVD release of Chicken Little. The film will be presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby Digital 5.1. Bonus features for the DVD include: the “Hatching Chicken Little” making-of-featurette, deleted scenes (including three alternate openings), the “Where’s Fish?” interactive game, a Karaoke sing along, and music […]

Anime director Hayao Miyazaki’s oldest son, Goro Miyazaki, will make his directorial debut with the animated film Tales from Earthsea, says distributor Toho Co., via The Big Cartoon Database. The project will be based on the Earthsea fantasy novels from author Ursula Le Guin, particularly the third and fourth books of the series. Revealing the […]

In a deal signed last Friday, DreamWorks, the independent studio founded by director Steven Spielberg, producer Jeffrey Katzenberg and music boss David Geffen, was sold to Paramount Pictures for $1.6 billion. After months of negotiations with Universal (Spielberg’s long-time base and current DreamWorks distributor), a deal could not be completed with Universal’s owners, NBC/GE. Conversely, […]

With a $65.5 million opening, Disney executives are more than pleased with the box office performance of The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe and have greenlit production of the next book in CS Lewis’ series, Prince Caspian. The {{link http://www.narniaweb.com/news.asp?id=705&dl=7532925 NarniaWeb site}} says they have received word from an anonymous […]

Nominated for three Annie Awards, including Best Home Entertainment Production, Kronk’s New Groove appears to be drawing mixed reviews, though all of them seem to indicate that the movie will at least be enjoyed by younger audiences. “Humor abounds in this successful sequel, the animation and voice talent are strong, and the characters are just […]

Today marks the release of two Disney titles new to DVD: Valiant from Vanguard Animation and distributed by Disney, and Kronk’s New Groove, a fun and inventive sequel to Yzma’s New Groove The Emperor’s New Groove. Animated News’ Christian Ziebarth gives some of his thoughts on each:

Opening Wednesday at New York’s Museum of Modern Art is ”Pixar: 20 Years of Animation,” reportedly the “most extensive gallery exhibition” the Museum of Modern Art has ever devoted to animation. Displaying paintings, concept art, sculptures, and a collection of “digital installations,” the exhibit promises a treasure of more than 500 pieces from Pixar studios, […]

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe roared with an impressive debut, taking the top spot in last weekend’s box office, with $65,556,312 from 3,616 theaters. In the meantime, another Disney release, Chicken Little, fell to #9 with $2,306,627 from 2,326 theaters, for a total domestic cume of $127,280,176. At #12 […]

New images from DreamWorks’ computer animated comedy Over the Hedge are up at Latino Review, which also has a picture of what appears to be a theater standee for the film.