A PR Newswire release late yesterday announced that Irving Ludwig has passed away at the age of 95. Ludwig was the former president of Buena Vista Distribution and was instrumental in launching successful marketing campaigns for such heavyweight Disney classics as Fantasia and Mary Poppins. He is remembered as an honest businessman who never sacrificed […]

The official wesbite for Imagi Entertainment’s Cat Tale has opened. Owning sections for the film’s news, synopsis, and cast, the site also features the movie’s trailer. Cat Tale will arrive in theaters in 2006.

Rick DeMott, managing editor of {{link http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=2705&page=2 Animation World Network}}, takes a look at the upcoming Academy Award races for Animated Feature and Animated Short films and tries to predict what Oscar might be thinking.

{{link http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/051128a.php Dark Horizons}} has pictures of the Davy Jones haunted ship from Disney’s upcoming film \\Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest\\. The film is scheduled to open in July 2006.

The Producers Guild of America added a category for animation to their annual PGA Awards, according to {{link http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=15473 AWN}}. PGA Awards co-chair, Bruce Cohen said, “The recent renaissance in animated features has been one of our industry’s greatest success stories of the past decade, and we feel it’s only appropriate that the Producers Guild […]

{{link http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_6450.html Movies Online}} notes that the official website for \\{{link http://www.aeonflux.com/ Aeon Flux}}\\ has been updated with lots of new content, including new sections for production notes and cast and crew bios, more images and production art, a downloadable screensaver, and much more. The film, based on the MTV animated series created by Peter […]

Facing off against Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and newcomer Yours, Mine & Ours for family audiences, Chicken Little fell a slight 16% over the weekend, to finish in fourth place with an estimated $12.4 million. This brings the Disney comedy’s domestic box office total to approximately $118.2 million. Box Office Guru provides […]

As pointed out by ‘Piotr’ in our Animated News Forums, a 4th Cars teaser has been made available in Apple’s section of online QuickTime movie trailer. “Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the […]

Born on June 28, 1932, Noriyuki “Pat” Morita died yesterday, November 24th, at his Las Vegas home. His passing was the result of natural causes, said his wife of 12 years, Evelyn. Many fans of the actor know him best for his performance as Mr. Kesuke Miyagi in the four Karate Kid fims – a […]

Coming directly to video stores, from Mattel and Lions Gate Family Entertainment, are two brand-new Barbie adventures. The Barbie Diaries, scheduled for release in January 2006, places its title character, now with a new “toon-shaded” CGI look, in her sophomore year at high school. Meanwhile, Barbie Fairytopia Mermaidia, coming March 2006, continues the franchise began […]

Rumor has it that Peter Jackson is currently trying to convince the Director’s Guild of America to provide “Animation Directed By” credits for two unnamed collaborators on King Kong. Word has yet to arrive on the DGA’s reponse to Jackson’s request. The news comes courtesy of the Hot Blog, via Cinematical [note: open “Reader Comments” […]

Included in a healthy offering of Holiday projects at AOL Music, the Polar Express sountrack, featuring the Oscar-nominated ballad “Believe,” may be heard for free.

Toon Zone points to sources TitansTower.com and Titansgo.net to report that Teen Titans has been cancelled by Cartoon Network. No explanation regarding the move has been given yet. Nonetheless, fans of Teen Titans are already making an attempt to revive the show, with one group creating a petition.

On this day of Thanksgiving we can all be thankful for the teaser trailer of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest as pointed out by Kinoo in the Animated News Forums.

Five images from Disney’s direct-to-video title The Fox and the Hound 2 (due out Winter 2006) from the preview on the upcoming Kronk’s New Groove DVD (due out Dec. 13) can be found here:

Latino Review has the latest pic promoting DreamWorks Animation’s CGI comedy, Kung Fu Panda, revealing many of cast’s main characters.

MQ7.net brings an Inquirer News Service brief biography of John Aquino. The inspirational read recounts how a visit from a Disney animator to Animaction, the Santa Monica-based animation school, changed Aquino’s life. The animator would later go from being a trainee for Hercules to a character finaler for Chicken Little.

Variety, via Coming Soon, indicates that Walt Disney Pictures is teaming with the cable network Starz! to advertise their upcoming features Cars and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe. A 45-second teaser trailer for Disney/Pixar’s Cars will premiere over the Thanksgiving weekend, running as an interstitial. Likewise, a 9-minute sneak […]

Henry Selick, famed stop-motion director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, recently took time out of his busy schedule to talk with Animated News about his new short Moongirl and some of his past and future projects. Henry has worked on projects as diverse as Pillsbury Doughboy commercials and the […]

TV Shows on DVD points to Amazon.com, where entries for the DVD arrivals of Goof Troop and Quack Pack await. Judging by their suggested retail price of $14.99, it is likely that neither release will contain as many episodes as the recent Ducktales and Rescue Rangers DVD box sets. UPDATE! Cover artwork for the Goof […]

The traditionally animated DTV film Ultimage Avengers: The Movie will hit stores in DVD and UMD form, on February 21, 2006. While a synopsis for the film may be found at DVDtoons, no word yet has arrived on the bonus specs for the single-disc release.

JoBlo exclusively has the final U.S. one sheet for Hoodwinked. The Weinstein Co.’s computer animated comedy will open in theaters December 23rd.

The first clip from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe is now up at AOL Moviefone. Featuring an introduction from director Andrew Adamson, the video reveals both good and evil troops marching toward the movie’s final battle. Also, at Dark Horizons, Adamson discusses Narnia, lending thoughts on his transition from […]

To promote today’s release of Seinfeld Seasons 5 and 6 (buy them together and they come with the infamous ‘puffy shirt’ and some other goodies) on DVD Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has re-imagined a scene from the classic television series in “Sein-imation.” The official Seinfeld page indicates that more “Sein-imated” scenes are included on the […]

For iPod Video fans, Pixar’s short Knick Knack has just been released on iTunes. Download Here

o-meon has updated with a review of holiday movies including a look at various animated versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol including the Disney, Muppets, and Mr. Magoo versions.

This past weekend, Chicken Little fell to #3 with $14,711,378, averaging $4,186 per each of its 3,514 theaters. This brings the Disney hit’s total domestic gross to $99,093,096. At #19, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit enjoyed its seventh week of release with $285,592, averaging $585 per each of its 488 theaters. Thus […]

TV Shows on DVD displays the advertisement for the January 31, 2006 release of the Pink Panther Show: Classic Cartoon Collection 5-disc box set. Bonus features for the package include: “Behind the Feline: The Cartoon Phenomenon” documentary, “Pink Patter with Art Leonardi: The Story Behind the Animation” featurette, “Remembering Friz: A Tribute to Friz Freleng” […]

Toon Zone houses three schedules providing air dates of animated movies and specials, many of which are Holiday-themed, for Disney Channel, Toon Disney, and Cartoon Network.

The episode listing, in addition to front and back case artwork, for the Nick Picks #3 DVD is now online at DVDtoons. Episodes to accommodate the release are: All Grown Up: “Dude, Where’s My Horse?,” Spongebob Squarepants: “Fear of a Krabby Patty,” Catscratch: “Bringing Down the Mouse,” The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: “Brobot,” […]