Ramin Zahed

Philip Hunt, Creative Director, Studio aka

June 30, 2009 – This week, director Philip Hunt’s charming CG-animated project Lost and Found took home the top audience award at the Palm Springs Short Festival. Produced by Hunt and his team at London’s S...

Pitch Party ’09: Meet the Winners!

June 28, 2009 – It was a tough job, but someone had to do it! Our animation industry judges spent the last week reviewing the eclectic and colorful pitches submitted by this year’s clever contestants. That’s why w...

Books We Love

June 26, 2009 –
The Art of Up
By Tim Hauser
(Chronicle Books, $40)
A fantastic new Pixar movie deserves yet another collectible Art of book, and it’s good to report tha...

Destination: Animation

June 26, 2009 – With numerous premieres, world-class panels and programs, the 2009 edition of the Annecy Festival and Market promises to be one of the most exciting animation events in recent memory.

The fortun...

Brussels’ Sprouts

June 26, 2009 – More than six decades after being introduced in a Beglian newspaper comic, pint-sized adventurers Suske and Wiske are getting ready for their major CG-animated movie splash.

If you’re not...

Ode to Dirty Harry

June 26, 2009 – Illusion Studios pushes the envelope with Boogie, a tongue-in-cheek, ultra-violent 2D movie about a tough-guy assassin based on a popular Argentine comic strip.

Move over, Jason S...

Log Jam Soothes the Savage Beasts!

June 26, 2009 – Alexei Alexeev’s award-winning short, KJFG No. 5, inspires a delightful new TV series.

How do you capture lightning in a bottle? One way is to put a talented bear, a rabbit, a litt...

Cartoon Network/Adult Swim Announce Comic-Con Schedule

June 26, 2009 – Cartoon Network and Adult Swim will be having a strong presence at this year’s Comic-Con. The cabler announced its healthy slate of panels, fan events and special signings at the event (July 23-Jul...

Acker’s 9 Scores a New Website

June 18, 2009 – Focus Features has launched a brand new website for Shane Acker’s upcoming release, 9. Produced by Tim Burton, the CG-animated feature is based on the Oscar-winning student short by Acker.
...

Pitch Party ’09: It’s Time to Vote!

June 15, 2009 – It’s time to make your vote count again! Animation Magazine’s 8th Annual Pitch Party is officially on, and you can now click here:

Coraline, Mary and Max, Slavar Among Annecy’s Top Winners

June 14, 2009 – Stop-motion was the name of the game at the Annecy festival this past weekend as Henry Selick’s acclaimed fantasy Coraline and Adam Elliot’s Sundance favorite Mary and Max tied for th...

Weaving, McKellan and Serkis Confirmed for The Hobbit

June 12, 2009 – Hugo Weaving, Ian McKellan and Andy Serkis will reprise their roles as Elrond, Gandalf and Gollum in The Hobbit, according to director Guillermo del Toro. The buy director told the BBC this ...

Lima to Lead Mr. Limpet

June 12, 2009 – Enchanted director Kevin Lima will be helming the upcoming remake of the classic 1964 Don Knott feature The Incredible Mr. Limpet, says The Hollywood Reporter. The live-action/...

Applegate, Faris & Poehler to Voice the Chipettes

June 12, 2009 – The holiday 2009 feature, Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakuel has found its Chipettes. MTV’s movie blog reports that Christina Applegate, Anna Faris and Amy Poehler will be voicing the female ...

Euro Multiplatform Workshop Set for August

June 12, 2009 – A high-level workshop about creating multiplatform content will take place August 4-8 at the Media Business School in Ronda (near Malaga), Spain. Aimed at producers, designers and directors of audi...

Tatia Rosenthal
Director, $9.99

June 08, 2009 – Tatia Rosenthal’s acclaimed stop-motion movie $9.99 will be getting a limited release in New York and Los Angeles on June 19, and will platform throughout the month in other cities around th...

Kickstand Grows in Brooklyn

June 05, 2009 – A new animation and research development company called Kickstand has opened its doors in Brooklyn, New York. Using a team of technical directors with backgrounds in DreamWorks Animation and Charl...

Pixologic Unveils GoZ for ZBrush

June 05, 2009 – Pixologic has introduced GoZ, a special new feature of Pixologic’s ZBrush, which is designed to easily connect data workflow to and from modo with a single button click.

Once inside modo, rende...

Moonscoop’s Hero: 108 Toys with Playmates

June 05, 2009 – Moonscoop’s eagerly anticipated new animated series Hero: 108 has landed Playmates as its global toy partner (excluding Taiwan). The deal allows Playmates to develop and market show-related ...

Disney’s D23 Expo Details Are Announced

June 04, 2009 – Disney fans will be able to get sneak previews of upcoming new movies and behind-the-scenes info about classic toons at the first D23 Expo, scheduled to take place at the Anaheim Convention Center ...

Nelvana Spins New BeyBlade Relaunch

June 02, 2009 – The massively popular toyline and animated series about the spinning tops called BeyBlades is getting a reboot. Nelvana and d-rights announced today that 51 new episodes of the series will be ready...

Disney Unveils Plans at Licensing Show

June 02, 2009 – Following yesterday news about primetime Handy Manny projects, Disney unveiled plans for new product line extensions for the Toy Story franchise, two new Princess characters (Tiana from T...

Producers’ Event Spotlights Pixar and 3-D Technologies

June 01, 2009 – If you’ve been thinking about checking out the First Produced By event held at Sony Studios this week (June 5-7), you’ll be happy to know that the event features a great panel about Pixar’s unique ...

Family Guy Is Eyeing Best Comedy Emmy

May 29, 2009 – The Peter Griffin clan are hoping to give live-action sitcoms such as 30 Rock and The Office a run for their money this Emmy season. Variety reports that Family Guy exec...

Bruckheimer and Yeatman Talk Guinea Pig VFX

May 28, 2009 – Uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Oscar-winning vfx supervisor-turned-director Hoyt Yeatman (The Abyss) led an informative behind-the-scenes press session about the making of Disney’s upco...

Pitch Party Winners’ Updates!

May 28, 2009 – It’s always interesting to find out what’s been happening to the projects and talented artists who submitted the winning entries in previous years’ Pitch Party contests. So we contacted some of the...

Winx Creator Offers Darker Teen Property

May 26, 2009 – Italian creator of the popular animated Winx series and Rainbow CEO Iginio Straffi has created a new girl-skewing franchise called Maya Fox, featuring a 17-year-old girl character who...

Classic Crawlers
John Lasseter Discusses the New Bug’s Life Blu-ray

May 22, 2009 – Fans of Pixar’s 1998 holiday movie A Bug’s Life had reason to rejoice this week as Disney released a new Blu-ray High-Def edition of the movie on Tuesday. Directed by John Lasseter and Andre...

Bakugan Back in Business on Cartoon Network

May 22, 2009 – Dan, Marucho, Drago and the rest of the gang from Bakugan have kicked off their new season of adventures on Cartoon Network Saturdays at 9 a.m. in grand style.

The second season, which co...

Galactik Football to Score on GMTV

May 22, 2009 – Alphanim’s popular animated series Galactik Football will begin airing on U.K.’s free-to-air GMTV block on CITV Channel and ITV4 simultanously. The half-hour toon, which originally premiered...

Fishtronaut Makes Huge Splash in Latin America

May 22, 2009 – The Brazilian animated series Fishtronaut was the most-watched kids TV show (age group four to 11) in its broadcasting time (7:30 p.m.-8 p.m.) during its first week of broadcast on Discover...

Kevin Eastman,
Co-Creator, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

May 21, 2009 – It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird introduced the world to the timeless sewer-dwelling, pizza-munching quartet of crime-fighters known as the Teenage M...

Daytime Emmy Noms Announced

May 19, 2009 – The National Academy of TV Arts and Sciences has released the list of nominees for the 36th Annual Daytime Awards. Judging for the category of Individual Achievement in Animation will be conducted ...

Studio 37 Forges Animated Alliances

May 15, 2009 – The two-year-old French telecom Orange film subsidiary Studio 37 is making a lot of news at the Cannes Film Festival and market this week. The Paris-based company announced several animation partne...

New One Piece Episodes to Stream Online

May 15, 2009 – Fans of One Piece will be able to watch new English-subtitled episodes of the popular pirate manga series online within an hour of the weekly broadcast in Japan. FUNimation, Toei Animation, ...

Atom Finds Waverly’s Fuzz Arresting

May 14, 2009 – Comedy Central and its web partner atom.com have picked up The Fuzz, a new five-episode animated web series from Waverly Films, a team of seven filmmakers based in Brooklyn who met at New Yo...

SIGGRAPH Announces Computer Fest Noms

May 14, 2009 – The organizers of this year’s SIGGRAPH 2009 Computer Animation Festival (set to take place in New Orleans Aug. 4-7) have announced the selection of award nominees for the event. Nominees were chose...

Disney’s All Aboard Christmas Carol Train

May 08, 2009 – Disney announced today that the studio is going full steam ahead with a special 40-city train tour to promote Robert Zemeckis’s upcoming holiday feature A Christmas Carol. This special prom...

Mr. Warburton’s New Book Is Out!

May 07, 2009 – If you’re a fan of the popular Cartoon Network series Codename: Kids Next Door (2002-2008), you should check out the new book by the show’s talented creator Tom Warburton, 1000 Times No.

Check Out Flu-Fighting Animated Video

May 01, 2009 – Our friend Mark Simon, an animation veteran whose credits include Timmy’s Lessons in Nature and Luke and Reece Save the World wrote to let us know about an animated project he produce...

Two Millimages Toons Will Screen in Cannes

April 30, 2009 – French animation house Millimages will have a strong presence at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It was announced this week that the studio’s feature animated project Les Lascars: The Movie

Red Stick’s Peek at Disney’s Princess & the Frog

April 27, 2009 – Disney’s veteran animation visual effects supervisor Marlon West gave an excellent and inspiring presentation about the making of the much-anticipated holiday release The Princess and the Frog

Plympton’s Hot Dog Lands Baton

April 27, 2009 – New York’s indie darling Bill Plympton added yet another award to his ever-growing kudos gallery for his 2008 short Hot Dog this weekend.The Annie-nominated short was the winner of the Red B...

Thomas Borch Nielsen
Director, Sunshine Barry & the Disco Worms

April 24, 2009 – Who would have thought that an unusually funny movie about disco-dancing worms, yes worms, would come out of Denmark’s thriving animation scene? Although the film hasn’t been picked up for distribu...

Barker’s Runaway Pulls into Cannes

April 24, 2009 – Canadian animator Cordell Barker’s latest short Runaway will make its world premiere at the 48th Intl. Critics’ Week at Cannes (May 14-22). The fast-paced offering from Barker, who is best k...

SpongeBob Collector’s DVD to Swim in the Fall

April 24, 2009 – Can’t get enough of the happy-go-lucky yellow sea sponge? Then mark your calendar for Sept. 22. That’s when Nickelodeon Home Ent. will release SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes D...

Red Stick Panels Focus on Web Content

April 23, 2009 – During the past two days, attendees of the 5th Annual Red Stick Animation Festival in Baton Rouge have been treated to several informative panels about the future of animated content on the web. Fe...

Talking Toons in Baton Rouge
A Report from Red Stick Animation Festival

April 22, 2009 – The beautiful port town of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is hosting the fifth edition of the eclectic, entertaining and all-around useful Red Stick International Animation Festival this week (April 22-25...

DQE to Fly with The Little Prince

April 20, 2009 – Indian animation powerhouse DQ Entertainment has embarked on the production of a new CG-animated series based on Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s beloved masterpiece, The Little Prince, alongside ...

Wolverine, Magneto and an Exclusive X-Men Clip!

April 20, 2009 – Wolverine and the X-Men brought Marvel’s misunderstood mutants back to animation when it debuted on Nicktoons earlier this year, and now it’s three-part debut episode Heroes Return ha...

Toy Story 3 Trailer Sneaks at NAB

April 20, 2009 – Buzz Lightyear and Cowboy Woody made a surprise visit to NAB this week as Disney offered the first public screening of the teaser trailer for its upcoming Toy Story 3 at the Digital Cinema S...

Disney Channel Shuffles Execs in Europe

April 20, 2009 – The rebranding of Jetix and Disney Channel in Europe has led to the resignation of Steve Aranguren, VP for global original programming at Disney Channels Europe, MidEast and Africa, and Michael Cai...

FUNimation Picks Up Five New VIZ toons

April 19, 2009 – VIZ Media has licensed five of its top animated series to FUNimation Channel, the anime network by FUNimation Ent. and OlympuSAT. Set for debut in late spring and summer of 2009 are the shows Bu...

Paramount Visits Animal’s Kingdom

April 19, 2009 – Paramount will be making a feature based on Mike Bullock’s popular family comic book series Lions, Tigers and Bears, according to The Hollywood Reporter. First published by Image Comi...

David Lynch Directs Moby’s Animated Video

April 19, 2009 – You can always count on eccentric indie director David Lynch to come up with projects that captivate and intrigue audiences worldwide. The latest project from the man behind cult classics such as

Cosmic Quantum Ray, Phineas & Ferb Big Winners at Cartoons on the Bay

April 06, 2009 – Mike Young Productions’ Cosmic Quantum Ray and Disney’s Phineas and Ferb were two of the winners in the top categories at this year’s Pulcinella Awards, which was held Saturday (April...

Rai Fiction Toons Up 3 New Shows

April 05, 2009 – Italian pubcaster Rai Fiction unveiled its new slate of animated programs this weekend at the 13th edition of the Cartoons on the Bay festival held in Rapallo (April 2-5). Luca Milano, Rai Fiction’...

MIPTV Wrap: Day Three
“The Time-Wasters Stayed Home!”

April 02, 2009 – Despite the lousy weather, most of the toon execs I cornered today seemed pretty happy about their business meetings—of course, they would just say that to the gullible press, right? It was a bit d...

Iron Man Gets A Face Lift

April 01, 2009 – Nicktoons debuts a stylish new animated series starring a teenaged version of the Marvel superhero.

If you tune in to the new series Iron Man: Armored Adventures expecting an anima...

The Name’s Oso, Special Agent Oso

April 01, 2009 – A new animated preschool show on Playhouse Disney pushes the visual envelope while gently spoofing secret agent movies.

James Bond and all the other Cold War-era spies have inspired their share ...

When Earthlings Attack!

April 01, 2009 – After winning the Best Feature Prize at Ottawa, Aristomenis Tsirbas’ indie labor of love, Battle for Terra, is ready for its 3-D blitz.

Only a few weeks after DreamWorks’ splashy

Jurassic Choo Choo

April 01, 2009 – Creator Craig Bartlett talks about his new animated creation Dinosaur Train, a Jim Henson Company project which is scheduled to pull into PBS KIDS this fall.

It’s always great news...

It’s a Cracking New Game, Gromit!

April 01, 2009 – Telltale Games delivers an awesome new series of games for two beloved Aardman characters.

It’s a well-known fact that if you’re a game designer dealing with characters as universally rev...

Alphanim’s 21st Century Game Plan

April 01, 2009 – Heath Kenny, the recently appointed creative director of the French studio, discusses the 2009 slate and plans for increasing the company’s global profile.

Last year, French animation stu...

A Graphic Take on Tweens

April 01, 2009 – The creators of CarpeDiem and TV-Loonland’s My Life Me take a break to tell us about their great-looking new project.

Four excitable tweens try to make sense of the joys and anxiet...

They Came From MIPTV…

April 01, 2009 – As international animation content producers and buyers head over to Cannes this month (March 30-April 3) in search of the next big thing, we put our feelers out there to bring you news about these...

Executive Q&A: MIPTV 2009

March 31, 2009 – The first quarter of the year finds international animation content producers and buyers heading over to Cannes for the MIPTV market (March 30-April 3) and the Cartoons on the Bay festival (April 2...

MIPTV Wrap: Day Two

March 31, 2009 – Perhaps it was the sunshine finally making an appearance on the Croisette or everyone adjusting to the fact that according to Reed Midem, there has been a 10 percent drop in attendance at MIPTV thi...

MIPTV Wrap: Day One

March 30, 2009 – Over 13,000 participants and 4,500 companies from 111 countries are expected to attend this year’s MIPTV market in Cannes, France this year. But if you were actually one of the people who made it t...

JAM Media Rolls with Hybrid Toon Roy

March 28, 2009 – Roy, a new 13x26 animation/live-action hybrid series from Dublin-based JAM Media will be making a splash at MIPTV this month. Commissioned by CBBC and executive produced by Sue Nott, Roy

VIZ Debuts Naruto, Bleach Pics on iTunes

March 27, 2009 – Fans of VIZ Media’s Bleach and Naruto movies can now enjoy dubbed versions of the pics on iTunes. Bleach: The Movie, Memories of a Nobody, and three full-length Naruto f...

Tom McGillis
Exec producer, series creator
6Teen, Total Drama Island, Stoked (Fresh TV)

March 27, 2009 – Toronto-based Tom McGillis and his Fresh-TV partner Jennifer Pertsch have created some of the most popular tween-skewing animated shows of recent years. Since Tom will be attending this month’s MIP...

Wacom Unveils the New Intuos4

March 25, 2009 – Wacom fans can welcome a new addition to the family as the company unveils its new professional pen table, the Intuos 4. The new Intuos Grip Pen features Wacom’s latest proprietary Tip Sensor techn...

Ristorante Paradiso Toon Opens for Business

March 25, 2009 – A new anime series based on Natsume Ono’s popular manga Ristorante Paradiso is set to launch on Japan’s Fuji TV Fuji next month. Animated by David Production, the 11-part series is directed ...

Disney Picks Up Ponyo for Aug. Release

March 23, 2009 – Disney will release Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea on August 14, 2009. Retitled as Ponyo for its U.S. theatrical run, the English-language version features the voices ...

Shaman, Sweet Dreams Win Big at SXSW

March 19, 2009 – Shaman by Luc Perez and Sweet Dreams by Kirsten Lepore took the Best Animated Short and Special Jury Awards at this week’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Shaman

Titmouse Games Dives into Seven Haunted Seas

March 19, 2009 – Hollywood-based toon shop Titmouse (adult swim’s Metalocalpyse) has officially launched its original game development studio venture, Titmouse Games. This new gaming arm is overseen by gamin...

Wild Things Poster Is Unleashed

March 19, 2009 – A new poster for the much-anticipated adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are has hit the web recently. The Warner Bros. feature has been delayed several times, but it now l...

Pixar’s UP to Open Cannes Festival

March 19, 2009 – Disney/Pixar’s UP has been selected as the opening ceremony film for the prestigious Cannes Festival this year. Directed by Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) the 3-D feature will makes its...

CBeebies Gives Chuggington Second Season Pass

March 17, 2009 – BBC’s CBeebies Channel has picked up 26 more episodes of Ludorom’s popular CG-animated series, Chuggington—bringing the total episode number to 78 x 10. The show premiered in the U.K. in the...

Annecy 2009 Announces Official Selection

March 16, 2009 – The Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June 8-13) has released the names of the shorts, TV series, student projects and commercials of its 2009 Official Selection categories. Nick Park’s...

Geronimo Will Be the Big Cheese at MIPTV

March 15, 2009 – Atlanytica Entertainment and Moonscoop will be offering a sneak peek at their eagerly anticipated new series Geronimo Stilton at MIPTV this year. Based on Elisabetta Dami’s best-selling chil...

The Secret of Kells Gets Solid Raves

March 13, 2009 – The new European animated feature The Secret of Kells (also known as Brendan and the Secret of Kells) has been getting fantastic reviews in Ireland, where it was released last week. P...

BRB’s Papawa Pops Up in Italy, Portugal

March 13, 2009 – Watch out, Lost! BRB’s wild animated series Papawa, which is about a mysterious island and its nightmarish residents, is taking over Europe, one country at a time. We just got ...

Cartoons on the Bay Announces ’09 Lineup in Tiglio

March 12, 2009 – RAI Trade’s Cartoons on the Bay festival has revealed more details about this year’s upcoming tributes and programs, which will take place April 2-5 in three main location—Rapallo, Santa Margherita...

An Amazon Princess Is Reborn

March 11, 2009 – By any standard, Princess Diana of Themyscira (a.k.a. Wonder Woman) may be one of the most intriguing female superheroes in pop culture history. William Moulton Marston’s sublime creation, who firs...

Astro Boy Short Rockets in April

March 09, 2009 – It looks like die-hard Astro Boy fans won’t have to wait until October’s Imagi movie release to get a dose of their favorite manga hero. Anime News Network reports that a new 18-minute Astro Boy...

Fox to Unleash Marmaduke Movie

March 06, 2009 – Brad Anderson’s famous Great Dane Marmaduke will be getting the big-screen treatment at 20th Century Fox. According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Tom Dey has been hired to develop a fe...

Michel Ocelot
Director, Azur and Asmar

March 03, 2009 – American audiences will finally get a chance to enjoy Michel Ocelot’s acclaimed animated feature Azur and Asmar: The Princes’ Quest on March 17 when the movie comes out on DVD (Genius/Weinst...

Remastered Tom & Jerry DVD Will Arrive in June

March 03, 2009 – A new remastered collection of Tom and Jerry shorts directed by Chuck Jones will be released on DVD on June 23. Warner Bros. Home Video’ Tom and Jerry: Chuck Jones Collection will showcase 3...

DQ and Moonscoop Make Magical Plans for Tara Duncan

March 03, 2009 – India’s DQ Entertainment and French studio Moonscoop announced today that they have partnered to produce a new 2D animated series titled Tara Duncan, which will have an estimated budget of 6...

TeamTO’s 3-D Occho to Fly in Lyon

March 01, 2009 – Paris and Valence-based studio TeamTO will present a sneak peek of its upcoming stereoscopic feature Occho Kochio this Thursday at Cartoon Movie in Lyon (March 5, at 3 p.m. in Studio 2). Bas...

WB Throws Lonely Dog a Bone

February 26, 2009 – A series of paintings featuring a lonesome-looking pooch have inspired a new CG-animated movie in development at Warner Bros. Variety reports that the rights to Queenstown artist Ivan Clarke...

TCM Plans Special Chuck Jones Tribute

February 26, 2009 – Turner Class Movies is presenting a wonderful eight-hour tribute to toon legend Chuck Jones on March 24, the day it premieres Peggy Stern’s acclaimed documentary Chuck Jones: Memories of Childho...

Oscar Loves WALL•E, Maison and Button

February 22, 2009 – Nine months after its intial release in U.S theaters, Andrew Stanton’s critically acclaimed feature WALL•E took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 81st edition of the Academy A...

Ponyo Sweeps Tokyo Anime Awards

February 20, 2009 – Anime master Hayao Miyazaki has scored another big awards sweep with his latest feature, Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. The movie has been selected as the top Animation of th...

You Heart WALL•E!

February 20, 2009 – We asked you, our brilliant media-savvy readers, to pick your favorites for this year’s much-discussed Academy Awards, and it looks like most of our readers want Disney/Pixar’s WALL•E to win...

Emud Mokhberi,
Oscar-nominated co-director,
Oktapodi

February 17, 2009 – We had the chance to catch up with animator Emud Mokhberi, co-director of the Oscar-nominated short Oktapodi, which has also received numerous awards on the festival circuit in the past year...

Gonzo Studio Plans Restructure, Will Cut Staff to 30

February 13, 2009 – Japanese company GDH will restructure its animation studio Gonzo and cut creative staff from 130 to 30, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper. The five-year plan is to save the com...

Boomerang Hearts Johnny Bravo V. Day Marathon

February 13, 2009 – If you were thinking of an animated way to celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend, how about tuning in to Boomerang Johnny Bravo marathon, from 2 to 8:30 p.m. on the cabler? In honor of the romanti...

Kango Launches Endangered Species Site

February 12, 2009 – Conservation International and Dana Point, Calif.-based company Kango (a division of G8R Group) announced the launch of Tales 4 Tomorrow, a new kids online brand which promotes animal conser...

SIGGRAPH Reels in Real-Time Rendering Content

February 12, 2009 – Gaming enthusiasts have yet another reason to attend this year’s hot SIGGRAPH confab, scheduled to take place August 3-7 in New Orleans. As part of the event’s expanded focus on gaming, this year’s...

Studio 100 Launches Paris Toon Shop

February 12, 2009 – Benelux-based children’s animation and live-action producer Studio 100 is opening new animation shop in Paris. According to Variety, former Alphanim exec Jan Van Rijsselberge has been tapped...

Aardman Dominates DVD Scene This Week

February 09, 2009 – Although it’s going to be a while until U.S. audiences can catch Nick Park’s BAFTA- and Annie Award-winning special Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, there are four new DVD relea...

Playtime in a Parallel World

February 05, 2009 – Papaya Studio’s Jonathan Han discusses developing a spooky little game based on LAIKA’s 3-D stop-motion fantasy.

Those who want to relive and expand their enjoyment of Henry Selick’s Coraline...

Who’ll Bail Out the Toy Biz?

February 03, 2009 – Over 20,000 Toy Town professionals hope new ideas and innovations will help them brave the hard times as the industry gets ready for Toy Fair in New York City this month.

Although the toy busine...

Jonas Odell, Director, Lies

February 02, 2009 – Last month, Swedish animator Jonas Odell won the top prize for international shorts at Sundance for his new film, Lies. This highly stylized projects features three episodes dealing with the...

Disney FX Wiz Robert Broughton Dies at 91

January 30, 2009 – Pioneering camera effects artist Robert Broughton who worked on almost every Disney movie from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to The Black Hole (1979) passed away recently at ...

Glen Hanson, Director, Shiny Toy Gun’s Ghost Town Video

January 19, 2009 – It’s always a pleasure to see a cool new animated music video that goes beyond the standard limitations and clichés of the genre. The Shiny Toy Guns video for their new video single Ghost Town

Black Freighter Gets Arrrrr Rating

January 08, 2009 – While Warner Bros.’ upcoming superhero epic Watchmen is solidly tailored to the PG-13 crowd, its animated companion piece has been slapped with an R rating by the Motion Picture Association ...

Top 10 Animation/VFX Tools of the Year

December 23, 2008 – We left it up to our readers to pick their favorite animation and vfx tools/software packages of the year. Here are the terrific 10 items that earned the most votes, in alphabetical order:

3d...

Laika Lets Go 65, Nixes Jack and Ben

December 22, 2008 – Portland-based animation studio Laika Entertainment has laid off 65 people and axed its troubled project in development Jack and Ben’s Animated Adventure. The CG-animated feature was slated ...

LEGO Batman Flies to iPhones/iPods

December 22, 2008 – Just in time for the holidays, fans of LEGO Batman: Gotham City Games can enjoy their favorite caped crusader on iPhones and iPod Touch screens. The Warner Bros. Interactive game features 16...

Bully Bros. Post Ready for Business

December 22, 2008 – A new state-of-the-art post and vfx studio has opened its door in Santa Monica, Calif. Founded by creative director/lead fx artist Kiki Chansamone and exec producer Jason Forest, Bully Bros. specia...

Singapore Plans New VFX Studio

December 11, 2008 – In conjunction with this week’s Asia TV Forum and SIGGRAPH Asia, the Singapore government has announced plans to build a new state-of-the-art soundstage in the region. The special effects studio wi...

CG Pioneer Encourages SIGGRAPH to Broaden Focus

December 11, 2008 – Don Greenberg, director of Cornell University’s highly regarded computer graphics program, encouraged the audience at the inaugural edition of SIGGRAPH Asia in Singapore to expand the applications ...

Missing Lynx Found in Santa Monica

November 06, 2008 – Actor and producer Antonio Banderas and Spanish director Raul Garcia introduced their new CG-animated feature The Missing Lynx (El Lince Perdido) at a premiere screening held at the A...

Mater Takes Center Stage: A chat with Victor Navone and Rob Gibbs, co-directors of the new Disney/Pixar TV Cars Toons.

October 27, 2008 – This week marks the premiere of Pixar’s Cars Toons, a three-part shorts series featuring Mater, the rusty tow truck which befriended Lightning McQueen in the 2005 feature. The animated vigne...

Jimmy Two Shoes Tops MIPCOM Jr. List

October 13, 2008 – Breakthrough Entertainment's animated series Jimmy Two Shoes landed the top spot on the most-screened list at the MIPCOM Junior market this past weekend (Oct. 11, 12). Co-produced by Breakth...

Mater Stars in Own Mini-Show on Disney

September 26, 2008 – Mater, the rusty tow truck which befriended Lightning McQueen in the 2005 Pixar feature Cars, will be starring in his own animated three-part short series. Pixar’s Cars Toons will pre...

PorchLight, Caboom Team Up for Beary Boo

September 26, 2008 – Ecological awareness is on the mind of Beary Boo, a new animated series about a green-living brown bear cub, which will be distributed by L.A.-based Porchlight Ent. and produced by Caboom, a...

Two-day 5D Confab Eyes Immersive Design

September 26, 2008 – The first edition of 5D: The Future of Immersive Design Conference will offer panels, workshops and presentations on the brave new world of emerging design and technology at the University Art Muse...

Milan Fest Moved by House of Small Cubes

September 26, 2008 – Japanese animator Kunio Kato’s beautifully animated and poetic short La maison en petits cubes (The House of Small Cubes) received the prize for best animated picture at the Milan Fil...

Marathon to Unveil Amazing Spiez at MIPCOM

September 22, 2008 – After introducing the world to the global hit series Totally Spies!, French animation powerhouse Marathon Media plans to unveil a new espionage-themed series at MIPCOM next month. Co-created...

Mouse’s Tale Captures Cartoon D’Or at Euro Forum

September 19, 2008 – Those talented French animation students have done it again. Benjamin Renner, a graduate of France’s LA Poudriere, has taken home Cartoon Forum’s Cartoon D’Or Award for his graduation project, A...

Huang’s NVISION Keynote Explores Visual Computing Ecosystem

August 26, 2008 – Jen-Hsun Huang, the charismatic co-founder, president and CEO Of NVIDIA, kicked off the three-day NVISION 08 conference with an entertaining and informative keynote speech at t...

Stan Winston’s Legacy Celebrated at SIGGRAPH

August 14, 2008 – Hundreds of fans of the late special effects legend Stan Winston filled the house at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles to pay tribute to his life and achievements last night. Part of SIGGRA...

Telltale Readies Wallace & Gromit Games

July 28, 2008 – The folks at Telltale Games and Aardman Animation have just released a cinematic teaser trailer, character renders and concept art for the upcoming episodic Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures...

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Flirts with Live Action

July 28, 2008 – What would Comic-Con be without the devoted animation fans who love dressing up as their favorite characters? The folks at Cartoon Network sent us a picture of four avid fans of Aqua Teen Hunger...

Miyazaki’s Ponyo Swimming with Raves

July 21, 2008 – While audiences in many territories flocked to see Chris Nolan’s Batman epic this past weekend, family moviegoers in Japan lined up to experience Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, (Gake no U...

Totoro Inspires Charity Auction and Exhibit

July 14, 2008 – It’s been 20 years since Hayao Miyazaki introduced the world to his loveable forest spirit in the acclaimed animated feature My Neighbor Totoro. This summer, the popular classic has inspired...

Thurop Van Orman, Creator
Cartoon Network’s The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

July 07, 2008 – Thurop Van Orman’s beautifully animated and quirky toon, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, has developed a nice following since it debuted on Cartoon Network’s Thursday night comedy l...

S4 Studios Unleashes Fraidy Cat

July 02, 2008 – Hollywood-based S4 Studios has completed Fraidy Cat, a Flash-animated short written by Larry Le Francis and directed by Geoffrey Kater. The first in a series of “horror” shorts produced by t...

Get Your SIGGRAPH On!

July 01, 2008 – By all accounts, next month’s SIGGRAPH confab (held at the Los Angeles Convention Center and Nokia Theater) is expected to offer some of most exciting CG animation and vfx-related panels, screening...

Moonscoop and DQ Form 5-Year Alliance

June 27, 2008 – A new five-year alliance has been formed between India's DQ Entertainment and France's Moonscoop Group. This new partnership, which includes five animated series and two feature co-productions is e...

Stan Winston Tribute Added to SIGGRAPH

June 25, 2008 – A tribute to the late special effects master Stan Winston, a special conversation between Disney/Pixar’s chief creative officer John Lasseter and Oscar-winning 2D animator Frederic Back and a sneak...

American Greetings Fights for Strawberry Shortcake Rights

June 23, 2008 – Who knew Strawberry Shortcake could be such a little troublemaker? According to a story in The Los Angeles Times, Cleveland-based American Greetings, which owns the rights to the famous ’80s...

Mike Young’s Toon Aids China’s Earthquake Victims

June 19, 2008 – Proceeds from a special screening of Mike Young Productions and Global Digital Creations’ Happy Little Submarines feature will be used to build new schools in earthquake-affected areas on Ch...

Pitch Party 2008 Voting Underway

June 18, 2008 – Animation Magazine’s 7th Annual Pitch Party is on and you can now click here: www.animationmagazine.net/pi...

SIGGRAPH Asia Festival Deadline Approaches

June 17, 2008 – The SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 Computer Animation Festival is open for submissions and is seeking innovative and provocative works from all around the world. The SIGGRAPH Asia event will take place Dec. 10...

Paley, Plympton Nab Annecy Palmares Prizes

June 16, 2008 – The 32nd edition of the Annecy Int’l Animation Festival proved to be the year of the New York indie animators as Nina Paley's Flash-animated feature Sita Sings the Blues won the top prize fo...

Hulk, Happening Outperform Predictions

June 16, 2008 – Friday the 13th proved to be a lucky date for Marvel and Universal as their reboot of The Incredible Hulk brought in an estimated $54.5 million domestically over the weekend. Playing in 3,50...

Russian World Studios Launches Toon Division

June 16, 2008 – A full-length feature based the fairy tale Konyok Gorbunok will be the first project of Russian World Studios' newly launched animation arm. Variety reports that the Russian studio wi...

Exodus and Sparx Team Up for Bunyan

June 16, 2008 – L.A.-based Exodus Film Group will team up with Paris-based Sparx Animation Studios to deliver its upcoming feature Bunyan & Babe. According to Variety, Sparx will begin work on the fe...

Daytime Emmys Drawn to Toons

June 16, 2008 – Emmy loves animation—at least the Creative Arts Daytime Emmys did this past Friday (June 13) as many of our favorite animated shows received the coveted prize. PBS, Nick Jr., Disney Channel, Kids'...

Nicktoons Hungry for Three Delivery

June 16, 2008 – Animation Collective's sizzling new toon, Three Delivery, will be served up by Nicktoons on June 27. An awesome mix of martial arts, high-speed bike races, paranormal mysteries and Chinese ...

L.A.'s Nuart Screens Animation Show Volume 4

June 13, 2008 – The Fourth edition of The Animation Show, the hip collection of contemporary shorts curated by Mike Judge makes it Los Angeles debut at the Nuart theater today.(Judge's former partner in cri...

DIC Pinches Penny Brite

June 11, 2008 – After hitting the jackpot with classic girl brands such as Strawberry Shortcake, Eloise and Horseland, DIC Entertainment is now eyeing Charisma Brands’ wholesome retro line, Penny Brite. DIC’s exec...

Boondocks 2, Fantastic 4 Discs Land Today

June 10, 2008 – As most students begin their countdown to the end of the school year, two hot DVD releases hit stores today. Fans of Aaron McGruder’s edgy and trend-setting comic The Boondocks can let forwa...

Hot Pitch Party Tips from Last Year’s Winner!

June 10, 2008 – One of the most frequent questions we get around this time of the year is what has happened to previous winners of our Pitch Party contest. We caught up with Brian Smith and the team at Toronto’s E...

Sam Register joins WB Animation

June 09, 2008 – Cartoon Network veteran Sam Register has joined Warner Bros. Animation as exec VP of creative affairs. The Hollywood Reporter says he will be in charge of running the day-to-day operations o...

Tinker Bell DVD to Fly in October

June 09, 2008 – It’s been 55 years since Tinker Bell made her animated debut in the popular Disney feature Peter Pan. The single-minded fairy will be the star of her own CG-animated adventure on October 28,...

Monster Buster Club Open for Business on Jetix

June 07, 2008 – U.S. audiences will finally meet Marathon Media’s CG-animated series Monster Buster Club when it premieres this Monday (June 9) at 7 p.m. on Toon Disney’s Jetix block. With an estimated budg...

Kung Fu Panda Kicks Way into Theaters Today

June 06, 2008 – After many months of anticipation and online fan pro and con debates, DreamWorks Animation’s visually arresting Kung Fu Panda delivers the goods in theaters across the country today. Release...

Vanguard and Platinum Get Graphic

June 06, 2008 – Vanguard Animation has joined forces with Platinum Studios to form Vanguard Comics, a new imprint designed to develop properties that can be introduced both as graphic novels/comic books and featur...

BRB’s Imp Begins Mischief in France

June 06, 2008 – French TV Canal+ will begin airing BRB Internacional’s award-winning new series The Imp on a daily basis today. Co-produced by Red Kite Animation, Screen 21 and TVC, the 65-part High-Def com...

Toon Boom Sharpens Pencil Check Pro

June 06, 2008 – Toon Boom has launched a new flexible line-testing software called Toon Boom Pencil Check Pro. The new tool completes the animation pipeline by offering a wide array of capture options, an efficien...

Sex’s Cattrall Hot for Producing Parker

June 05, 2008 – Forget about her role as Samantha in Sex and the City. Actress Kim Cattrall’s next big role will be on Breakthrough Animation’s hot new show Producing Partner. Slated for a spring 200...

It’s a Strawberry Shortcake World After All

June 05, 2008 – DIC Entertainment has closed a slate of broadcast deals for many of its hit animated shows in Europe, Middle East and Africa. High on the list of money generators are the company’s evergreen girls’...

WALL•E Clips Debut on AniMagTV

June 05, 2008 – As Disney and Pixar gear up to release their eagerly awaited new animated feature film, we’re bringing you some behind-the-scenes featurettes, as well as the high-resolution trailer for WALL•E

TV-Loonland’s Owl Wise About Toy Deals

June 05, 2008 – Kids in the U.K. will be able to get their hands on a new plush toy based on TV-Loonland’s pink animated character, The Owl. Toy outfit Vivid Imagination has signed a deal to produced a range of pl...

Flapjack Sets Sail on Cartoon Network Tonight

June 05, 2008 – If you’re in the mood for a beautifully designed and animated new show that doesn’t insult the intelligence and makes you smile, you’ll have to check out the new Cartoon Network series The Marve...

Indie Animator PES

June 05, 2008 – This month, Paramount Home Entertainment released the third edition of Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt’s anthology series The Animation Show on DVD which features shorts such as Run Wrake’s...

TeamTO Spreads Wings with Hareport

June 03, 2008 – Paris-based animation studio TeamTO has joined forces with Folimage, La Poudriere and L’Equipe to launch a new production entity called La Cartoucherie, based in Bourg-Les-Valence, in the Drome reg...

CMG Bets on SHAX’s Louis La Chance

May 15, 2008 – Cinema Management Group is putting good money down on a new CG-animated feature about the Monaco Grand Prix. The international sales outfit signed worldwide sales rights to Louis La Chance, ...

Kahani World Makes A Splash in Cannes

May 15, 2008 – Indian production entities are creating a huge presence at this week’s international film market in Cannes. According to recent figures released by the country’s National Assoc. of Software and Ser...

Toei Preps Six Different Kitaro Movies

May 14, 2008 – Fans of the popular otherworldly Japanese series Kitaro will have six reasons to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the property next year. According to Daily Variety, a new animated f...

Animation Magazine's featured School of the Month:
The DAVE School

May 13, 2008 – As anyone who attended the recent NAB confab in Las Vegas can tell you, the growth of stereoscopic 3-D technologies is having a huge impact on the entertainment and animation business. That’s why O...

Strong Buzz for Oshi’s Sky Crawlers

May 08, 2008 – Mamoru Oshi’s new anime feature The Sky Crawlers (Sukai Kurora) is expected to generate a lot of interest at the Cannes Film market this month (May 14-25) according to insiders. The n...

Ottawa Festival Deadline Only 3 Weeks Away

May 08, 2008 – If you plan to get your animated projects considered by the prestigious Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF), you have about three weeks left to make the June 1, 2008 entry deadline.

...

New Speed Racer and Avatar: Book 3 DVDs Roll Out Today

May 07, 2008 – Riding the wave of publicity building up to this Friday’s release of the Wachowski brothers’ live-action Speed Racer, Lionsgate is releasing Speed Racer the Next Generation: The Beginning...

Henson’s Sid the Science Kid to Debut on Labor Day

May 06, 2008 – The Jim Henson Company announced recently that it’s deep in production of the new digital puppet-animated series Sid the Science Kid. Produced with Los Angeles PBS station, KCET, the 40 half...

Daytime Emmys Show Love for Toons

May 01, 2008 – The nominating committee for the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards did a fine job of spreading the wealth among animated contenders yesterday. PBS, Disney Channel, Discovery Kids, Nickelodeon, Nick J...

Buster Animates Sweet Mrs. Butterworth

April 25, 2008 – L.A-based conceptual design studio Buster has created two new animated ads featuring classic syrup matriarch, Mrs. Butterworth. Buster’s new 2008 version of the toon spokeswoman stars in an ad for ...

GDH’s Online Anime Hennako-chan Premieres Today

April 25, 2008 – Anime fans can look for a new series about an elementary schoolgirl with special telekinetic powers online today. Based on a popular manga by Fujio Akatsuka, the new adaptation is titled Hennako...

Diego Shrinks for Nick’s Bug Week

April 24, 2008 – Kids will be extra careful not to step on a new mini-sized version of Diego during Nick Jr.’s special bug-themed week, beginning May 12. The bi-lingual preschool star will shrink to bug size in a n...

Ubisoft Looks East to Beef Up Staff

April 24, 2008 – French gaming publisher Ubisoft is looking to add 900 new employees to its business in the next 12 months. With emphasis on growing its new studios in Singapore, India and China, the gaming powerho...

Sedelmaier Goes Back to Future with Jetsons Ad

April 24, 2008 – The Jetsons, Hanna Barbera’s beloved family of the future are having a healthy second career as TV ad spokespeople. You can catch Geroge Jetson, wife Jane, Rosie the Robot and family dog Astro in a...

Black Maria Introduces Hot Latina Toon

April 24, 2008 – Spain’s animation studio Black Maria is shopping Yenny, a new teen-targeting series about a beautiful 22-year-old aspiring model who has one minor flaw—she has huge feet. The 26 x 11 High-De...

H2V Media Sees Future in Astrology.com

April 24, 2008 – Canada-based H2V Media announced last week that it’s partnering with Astrology.com for the distribution of H2V’s mixed media documentary series Astro 12: The Collection & Other Esoteric Traditio...

Kung Fu Panda, Indy 4 to Bow in Cannes

April 23, 2008 – DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming feature Kung Fu Panda is set to make its worldwide premiere at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25). In recent years, the glamorous Cannes...

Gumby, Wonder Pets Sing on DVD Tuesday

April 23, 2008 – Gumby, The Wonder Pets and Oban Star Racers are three of the animated stars making a splash on DVD today.

Art Clokey’s popular 1950s claymated hero appears in the new DVD release of the 1995 fea...

Animag Goes Green on Earth Day!

April 23, 2008 – In honor of Earth Day, we want to do our part in saving the planet. That’s why we’re offering a special one-time subscription price to the digital version of Animation Magazine—a whole year ...

VIZ’s Bleach Movie to Splash on 300 Screens

April 23, 2008 – He sees dead people. That’s Kurosaki Ichigo, the young hero of the hit anime series Bleach, created by manga artist Tite Kubo, which first began airing in Japan in 2004 and was picked up by ...

Baby Ball Bounces Into the World

April 23, 2008 – We're happy to report that Animation Magazine's talented and hard-working web and gaming editor Ryan Ball and his wife Jamie are the proud parents of a healthy baby boy today. Atticus Walker Ball w...

VFX Star Knoll Interviewed on modo Podcast

April 22, 2008 – Oscar-winning visual effects guru John Knoll (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Speed Racer) shares the secrets of his career with Luxology president Brad Peebler in a special podcast...

Lasseter Shines at UCLA’s Dumbo Screening

April 22, 2008 – CG animation pioneer and Oscar-winning director John Lasseter proved to be a huge hit at UCLA Film & TV Archive’s “The Movie That Inspired Me” event Monday night at the Billy Wilder Theater in West...

Ben 10: Alien Force Shatters Earthly Records

April 22, 2008 – Cartoon Network’s recent facelift and aging of Ben Tennyson, the star of the animated series Ben 10 proved to be a rating bonanza for the cabler. Ben 10: Alien Force’s Friday night sh...

Cloverfield DVD Attacks Stores Today

April 22, 2008 – If you missed director Matt Reeves’ low-budget 350-foot monster movie Cloverfield in theaters last January, you can enjoy the nausea-inducing hand-held camera stylings at home thanks to the ...

Porchlight’s Four Eyes to Blink on CiTV

April 21, 2008 – U.K.’s children’s digital channel CiTV has acquired L.A.-based PorchLight Entertainment and French Pictor Media’s 2D animated series Four Eyes. The 26 x 30 toon follows the offbeat adventure...

DIC Hits Right Notes with Online Music Service

March 31, 2008 – DIC Ent. is expanding its empire with a new online production music business called Cuetunes (www.cuetunes.com). The new site, which debuted this month, offers quality, cost-effect production music...

FICCI Frames Focuses on Original Indian Toons

March 27, 2008 – This week’s well-attended FICCI-Frames confab in Mumbai (March 25-27) offered several animation and vfx-related panels exploring the growth of the industry in the region. Some of the top Indian stu...

Annecy Unveils Eclectic ’08 Lineup

March 24, 2008 – The organizers of the prestigious Annecy International Animated Film Festival have announced the lineup for this year’s edition (June 9-14). This year, 1,866 projects were submitted to the world-fa...

Z Animation Lays 2D Tiles

March 21, 2008 – The creative team at New York- and L.A.-based studio Z Animation recently wrapped a new 30-second traditionally animated spot for Bella Casa, one of India’s top tile, bath and kitchen retailers. Di...

Britney Blows Her Head Off on South Park

March 21, 2008 – The career of everyone’s favorite troubled pop star, Britney Spears, has been getting a much-needed shot in the arm thanks to animation this week. A couple of weeks ago, Spears debuted her new anim...

Persepolis Nabs Another Prize at Cartoon Movie

March 07, 2008 – Although they lost the Oscar to Brad Bird and Ratatouille, Persepolis directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud won the Award for Best European Director of the Year at this week...

48 Euro Pics Bow at Cartoon Movie

February 28, 2008 – If you happen to be in Germany next week and would like to take a sneak peek of what the European animated feature film community has to offer, you should definitely check out the tenth edition of ...

Pirates Helmer to Navigate First Animated Pic

February 27, 2008 – Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski is getting ready to follow up his CG-laden phantom swashbucklers with a fully animated feature, according to The Hollywood Reporter. O...

Evangelion 1.0 Nabs Tokyo Fair Top Honor

February 26, 2008 – Evangelion 1.0: You are (Not) Alone has been given the Animation of the Year Award by the organizers of this year’s Tokyo International Fair (TAF). Directed by Hideaki Anno, Masayuki and Kaz...

Replacements Ready for Sophomore Season

February 22, 2008 – Disney Channel will launch the second season of its popular animated series The Replacements on Monday, March 10. Created by children's author and illustrator Dan Santat (The Guild of Gen...

China Extends Ban on SpongeBob

February 22, 2008 – Just when it seemed that the Chinese regulators were going to warm up a little to Western shows, the country's State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) is cracking down harder on imported...

And Your Oscar Winners Are...

February 22, 2008 – Just in time of the real Academy Awards ceremony, which takes place this Sunday (check them out on ABC at 5 p.m.), we've tallied your votes for your favorites in the Best Animated Feature, Best Ani...

Animag Book Signing in Big Apple

February 21, 2008 – Last week, Animation Magazine hosted a party in celebration of our 20th anniversary retrospective art book at New York City’s very cool Animazing Gallery. We were fortunate enough to have se...

Tyler Perry a.k.a. Madea Talks Toons

February 21, 2008 – Tyler Perry, the man behind such surprise box-office hits as Madea’s Family Reunion and Diary of a Mad Black Woman is getting into the animation business. Helping him bring his unique...

DUCK Swims with Hoop

February 20, 2008 – LA.-based indie studio DUCK recently wrapped the innovative partially animated music video for rising star Jesca Hoop’s second single “Money.” Directed by Richard Borge and produced by Mark Mederna...

Big Bad Boo Ready for Business in Vancouver

February 20, 2008 – A new Vancouver-based toon house founded by husband-and-wife team of Aly Jetha and Shabnam Rezaei, officially opened its doors in January. Located in the city’s historic Yaletown district, the stud...

First Smurfs Movie Images Leaked

February 20, 2008 – The Internet was humming yesterday with news about little sky-blue guys known as the Smurfs—or Les Schtroumpfs as they’re called in French. It all started when French network France 3 offere...

Famed Poster Artist John Alvin Dies at 59

February 11, 2008 – John Alvin, the creator of famous movie posters for popular films such as E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, passed away on Wednesday from a h...

Ratatouille Cooks 10-Course Annie Sweep

February 09, 2008 – It wasn’t exactly a big surprise when Brad Bird’s much-loved feature Ratatouille delivered a sweet ten-trophy sweep at the 35th Annual Annie Awards held Friday evening at UCLA’s Royce Hall i...

Christy Hui, From Martial Arts to Nature Princesses

September 27, 2007 – Four years ago, Christy Hui shook up the Saturday morning landscape with her trend-setting animated hit Xiaolin Showdown, which generated a huge fan base when aired on Kids’ WB! and Cartoon ...

Persepolis, Golden Age Nab Grand Prizes at Ottawa

September 24, 2007 – Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Parronaud’s black-and-white animated feature Persepolis, Koji Yamamura’s short Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor and Aaron Augenblick’s Golden Age were...

ASIFA-Hollyood Now Accepting Annie Noms

September 24, 2007 – There are still three more months left in 2007, but the hard-working folks at ASIFA-Hollywood have already begun accepting nominations online for the 35th Annual Annie Awards. If you’d like your wo...

Spain’s Filmax launches Online Store

September 24, 2007 – Spanish mini-major Filmax Ent. will launch an online megastore to sell films and music worldwide, according to Variety. The studio behind such animated features such as Nocturna, T...

Two Versions of Softimage|XSI 6.5 Release Hit Market Today

September 24, 2007 – Two new software packages from the Softimage family are available to CG artists this week. The Montreal-based company—a subsidiary of Avid Tech.—has announced the release of Softimage|XSI® 6.5 Esse...

Milla Fights More Zombies in Resident Evil: Extinction

September 21, 2007 – If flesh-eating zombies, post-apocalyptic scenarios and a butt-kicking Milla Jovovich rock your boat, then you’ll find yourself drawn to Sony’s third Resident Evil chapter, opening nationwid...

Paul Dini’s the Man for Gatchaman

September 21, 2007 – Warner Bros. Animation veteran Paul Dini—whose amazing credits include Batman: the Animated Series, Superman, Batman Beyond, Duck Dodgers and the ABC series Lost—...

Weinsteins, Exodus Seal the Deal

September 21, 2007 – The Weinstein Company and Exodus Film Group announced that the first movie developed under their CG-animated co-production deal wiill be Navy Seals, a family comedy/adventure about a team of...

TOKYOPOP Polishes More Dark Crystal Mangas

September 21, 2007 – If you were one of those die-hard Dark Crystal fans who couldn’t wait to get their hands on the 25th anniversary DVD a couple of weeks ago, you’d be happy to hear about more tie-in plans fo...

Edgar & Ellen Scare Up New Viewers on Nicktoons

September 20, 2007 – Star Farms’ popular pranksters Edgar & Ellen are ready for their ghoulish close-ups on Nicktoons this fall. The mischievous twins get two special back-to-back premiere episodes on Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. ...

Fllickerlab Supercharged for Colbert’s Tek Jansen

September 20, 2007 – New York-based Flickerlab Studios is helping bring Stephen Colbert’s animated hero Tek Jansen to animated life. The shop has animated the first of eight new Tek Jansen adventures that will be rolle...

Disney Channel Sneaks Phineas and Ferb Again!

September 20, 2007 – Audiences who missed the sneak preview of Disney Channel’s new animated series Phineas and Ferb a few weeks ago get another chance to sample the show on Friday, Sep. 28 at 10:45 p.m. The 2D ...

Academy Spotlights Canadian Women Animators

September 20, 2007 – Oscar nominees Janet Perlman, Caroline Leaf, Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis and Oscar winner Torill Kove will share the spotlight at a special evening decidated to “Canadian Women in Animation” at t...

Speed Racer Drives More Licensing Deals

September 20, 2007 – Since tomorrow (Sep. 21) is the official 40th anniversary of the classic anime series Speed Racer, we had to dig up some related news to share with you. The folks at Speed Racer Enterprises ...

France Picks Persepolis as Official Oscar Entry

September 19, 2007 – After receiving various festival honors around the world—including a special jury prize at Cannes—Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronanud’s black-and-white 2D animated feature Persepolis has b...

DreamWorks’ Monsters vs. Aliens Attacks
Earlier Than Planned

September 19, 2007 – Believe it or not, it’s not too soon to shuffle animated movie release dates for 2009. The latest example: DreamWorks Animation and Paramount announced today that their upcoming stereoscopic 3-D fe...

Animation Lab Ropes in Artists for Wild Bunch

September 19, 2007 – Irsael’s toon and new media studio Animation Lab has announced the addition of seven new artists and writers to the team assembled for its upcoming feature The Wild Bunch, which will be dire...

Academy Exhibits Wong’s Classic Bambi Art

September 19, 2007 – Fans of Tyus Wong, the renowned artist behind the amazing illustrations for Disney’s 1942 classic feature, Bambi, will get a chance to see his classic art on display at the new Academy of Mo...

TV-Loonland Plays with Nippon’s Penelope

September 19, 2007 – TV-Loonland has announced that it will be handling multi-territory distribution for Nippon Animation’s hot pre-school show Penelope today.

Based on the children’s book series written by ...

Luxology Unleashes Powers of modo 301

September 19, 2007 – Luxology has announced the arrival of the latest version of its 3D content creation software, modo 301. Available for both Mac OSX and Windows, modo 301 features new sculpting and item animation, a...

Dalch Is Drawn to Classic Media

September 19, 2007 – Lara Dalch has been tapped as Classic Media’s senior director of brand development and promotions, North America. She will oversee brand partnerships and promotions for the New York-based company’s...

Superman: Doomsday, Tweety DVDs Take Flight

September 18, 2007 – It’s a bird—and it’s Superman day at the DVD stores today as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment unleashes new releases featuring two of its most recognized characters.

Billed as the first PG-13 ani...

Laura’s Star Will Shine Again in Sequel

September 18, 2007 – Piet De Rycker and Thilo Rothkirch’s charming 2004 feature Laura’s Star will be getting a sequel, thanks to a $562,000 funding package from German organization Medienboard Berlin-Brandenberg...

Buster Gets Graphic with Tim Gunn

September 18, 2007 – Just when you thought Bravo celebrity host Tim Gunn couldn’t possibily get any more animated, the folks at L.A. design studio Buster wanted to let the world know that they are responsible for the n...

Zinkia Interactive Launches Kids’ Mobile TV Channel

September 18, 2007 – Spanish kids can’t get enough of Pocoyo. Created by Spanish house Zinkia and co-proudced with Granada International in association with Granada Kids and Cosgrove Hall, the CG-animated series is now...

Another Terrific Tuesday for TV Toons on DVD

September 18, 2007 – If you dig catching full seasons of your favorite animated shows on DVD, this is going to be one heck of a week for you. We’ve got new releases featuring Rocky and Bullwinkle, Family Guy...

The Mouse Courts George Lucas

August 31, 2007 – Animation insiders are reporting that Disney is in heavy courtship mode to get broadcast rights for George Lucas’ much anticipated CG-animated series Clone Wars. Jim Hill Media (www.jimhillm...

Disney TV Powers Up Asian Jetix VOD

August 31, 2007 – Kids in Singapore will have a new way of tuning in to Jetix popular toons such as W.I.T.C.H., Get Ed, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go and A.T.O.M. Walt Disney TV...

Italy’s Virtuality Confab Announces Lineup

August 31, 2007 – The deadline for submissions for Turin, Italy’s Virtuality Conference is coming up fast. According to event organizers, you must submit paper, abstract, video or art material or enter material to b...

Xmas in August for Sony’s ChubbChubbs

August 06, 2007 – The aliens are back! The fuzzy, unpredictable CG-animated characters of Eric Armstrong’s Oscar-winning 2003 short are back for a new holiday romp titled The ChubbChubbs Save Xmas. Directed b...

Get Ready for Toon Boom Studio 4

August 01, 2007 – Montreal-based animation software solution powerhouse Toon Boom Animation has announced the arrival of its new Toon Boom Studio 4 package. The release is billed as an all-in-one software, offering ...

JoeCartoon Relaunches One-Stop Humor Site

August 01, 2007 – If you’re looking for ways to battle the mid-summer blahs, you may want to check out the new JoeCartoon.com website, which has just relaunched. Recently acquired by Endemol USA, the site offers an ...

Surf’s Up Catches Blu-Ray Wave This Fall

July 31, 2007 – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment revealed yesterday that it will bring its early summer CGI feature Surf’s Up to Blu-ray on October 9. The announced extras of the Blu-ray will include filmma...

Popeye the Sailor DVD Sets Sail Today

July 31, 2007 – Fans of a certain spinach-chomping sailor with oversized forearms will be stampeding to stores today as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment releases the long-awaited Popeye the Sailor: 1933-1938 Vol...

In the Small Gets Big-Screen Treatment

July 31, 2007 – The film rights to Michael Hague’s graphic novel In the Small have been snapped up by Warner Bros. and Akiva Goldsman’s Weed Road Pictures. According to Daily Variety, Hague’s Little,...

Izzard Takes Over as Igor’s Nemesis

July 31, 2007 – Move over, Ari Gold. Eddie Izzard’s in the lab. The trades announced recently that actor and comedian Eddie Izzard (The Riches, My Super Ex-Girlfriend) has replaced Jeremy Piven (E...

Happy 67th Birthday, Bugs!

July 27, 2007 – Everyone’s favorite carrot-chomping, wise-cracking rabbit is celebrating his 67th birthday today. Bugs Bunny first appeared in Tex Avery’s much-loved short, A Wild Hare, on July 27, 1940. In...

Depp Sinks His Teath in Dark Shadows Role

July 27, 2007 – Johnny Depp will be adding the role of famous bloodsucker Barnabas Collins to his growing list of oddball/creepy/crazy screen portrayals. Todays’ Daily Variety reports that Warner Bros. is j...

Sean Penn, Iggy Pop Join Persepolis Cast

July 13, 2007 – The English-language version of Marjane Satrapi’s 2D black-and-white movie Persepolis will feature the voices of Sean Penn and Iggy Pop, as well as previously announced Gena Rowlands, Cather...

FJORG! Animation Competition Debuts at SIGGRAPH ’07

July 13, 2007 – Get ready for a 32-hour live “Iron Animator” event planned for this year’s SIGGRAPH in San Diego. Sponsored by Siggraph, AMD, DreamWorks Animation and HP, this inaugural FJORG! Contest invites 15 c...

Neptuno, Character Farm Grow Katakune

July 13, 2007 – Spain’s Neptuno Films and Singapore’s Character Farm will join forces to distribute the 3D animated preshool toon Katakune. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is the first deal...

Junction Point Becomes Mouse’s New Cheese

July 13, 2007 – Disney has bought Warren Spector’s Junction Point Studios in an effort to continue fortifying its game-publishing arm. Based in Austin, Texas, Junction Point will continue to create games based on ...

We Love Your Student Shorts!

July 05, 2007 – There's still time to enter Animation Magazine's Annual Student Reel Awards. Please send us your animated short (completed in 2006-2007 school year either on DVD or VHS or provide us with a downloa...

Pearce Sisters Takes Top Prize at Platform

July 02, 2007 – The Pearce Sisters, Luis Cook’s wickedly funny and macabre tale about two weather-lashed Sisters living in remote coastal town won the Grand Prix (as well as best Art Design Prize) at the in...

Powerpuff Girls, Pooh Hit the DVD Screens Today

June 19, 2007 – Fans of Craig McCracken's groundbreaking Cartoon Network series The Powerpuff Girls can check out the the complete first season of the show on a new DVD out in stores today. First introduced...

Cuppa Coffee Brews Fresh Bounty Hunter PSA

June 15, 2007 – Duane (Dog the Bounty Hunter) Chapman is the latest celebrity to become a stop-motion animated character, thanks to the folks at Canada’s Cuppa Coffee Studios. Dog is the star of his own animated P...

Stan Lee to Animate Sexy Paris Hilton Strip

June 14, 2007 – After bringing to life characters such as Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk, comic-book legend Stan Lee will focus his attentions on current jailbird heiress Paris Hilton. The New York Daily Ne...

Art Institute Feels the Force with Star Wars Workshop

June 13, 2007 – VFX visionaries Phil Tippett and Ken Ralston will be on hand to share their knowledge with high school students at a special hands-on Star Wars vfx workshop at The Art Institute of California—Orang...

Art’s Desire, Mirage Tie for Academy’s Gold Medal

June 13, 2007 – The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences 34th Annual Student Academy Awards were recently handed out in Hollywood. Sarah Wickliffe’s Art’s Desire (New York University) and Youngwoong...

Lil' Bush Wreaks Havoc on Comedy Central

June 13, 2007 – As the real-life President Bush’s popularity ratings sink to all-time low, an animated kid-sized version of George W. gets ready for his close-up on Comedy Central tonight. Co-proudced by comedy wr...

Shanghai Festival Toons In

June 13, 2007 – Animation was the name of the game at this year’s Shanghai TV Festival, which opened this Monday. The 13th annual event runs through Friday at the Shanghai New Intl. Expo Center—in a format separat...

Pixar Hot for Senior Citizen Pic

June 12, 2007 – After focusing on a French rat this summer, and a lovable robot named Wall*E in 2008, the folks at Pixar will give us a movie about a 70-year-old man who fights various animals and villains in 2009...

Chiodo Bros. Craft Little Horrors for Born

June 12, 2007 – L.A.’s stop-motion masters the Chiodo Brothers will be working on a new psychological thriller about a claymation artist living in an idyllic English town. Titled Born, the movie will be pro...

Framestore CFC Mo-Caps with Movimento

June 12, 2007 – Noted CG and vfx house Framestore CFC will use REALVIZ Movimento for its jam-packed 2007-2008 production pipeline. REALVIZ Movimento is a state-of-the-art video-based motion capture solution, “powe...

Judson Tapped as New President of Warner Bros. Animation

June 12, 2007 – Veteran digital media and children’s TV exec Lisa Judson has been named as the new president of Warner Bros. Animation. Warner Bros. TV Group president Bruce Rosenblum, to whom Judson reports, made...

An $18 Million Weekend for Sony’s Surfing Penguins

June 11, 2007 – The animated penguins of Sony’s Surf’s Up caught a relatively mellow tide at the box office this weekend as the pic landed in at No. 4 with an estimated $18 million fro 3,528 theaters. Compe...

Spanish Tooth Fairy Sweetens TV Deal

June 11, 2007 – A Spanish mouse version of the Tooth Fairy will be getting its own animated TV show soon. Variety reports that The Hairy Tooth Fairy, Spain’s biggest box-office hit of the year, will ...

Monster Sails Away with Lifeboat Luke

June 11, 2007 – Monster Distributes has picked up an animated children’s series about a lifeboat and a magical seaside town . Targetting kids 4-7, the 52 x 5 show is called Lifeboat Luke and uses narration,...

Decode’s Urban Vermin Invades VOOM Animania

June 11, 2007 – Decode Ent.’s CG animated series about two fighting raccoon brothers is getting ready for its High Def close-up. The Canadian shop has announced that its series Urban Vermin will be featured on VOO...

Nelvana’s Grossology Ready for Licensing Splash

June 11, 2007 – Kids seem to have an endless appetite for gross-out humor. Judging from Canadian toon house Nelvana’s success with its new series Grossology, more fans will discover the appeal of Sylvia Bra...

Luxology’s modo 301 Says Bonjour

June 11, 2007 – San Francisco-based 3D creation software house Luxology announced today that it will use Bonjour technology from Apple to power its upcoming modo 301 release. Luxology will ship a comprehensive upg...

Sony Rides Penguin Wave with Surf’s Up

June 09, 2007 – DreamWorks’ green ogre and Disney’s ghoulish pirates will get some killer competition today in theaters in the shape of cute, CG-animated surfing penguins. Sony Pictures Animation’s sophomore effor...

Persepolis and TekkonKinkreet Get U.S. Dates

June 08, 2007 – Two well-received indie animated features have announced their U.S. opening dates. Michael Arias’ anime/CG hybrid hit Tekkonkinkreet will be distributed by Sony on July 13 in Los Angeles and...

Humanitas Toasts Three Kids’ Toons

June 08, 2007 – Congratulations are in order for the writers of three great children’s animated series which are up for the prestigious Humanitas Prize this year.

Nominated for the $25,000 Humanitas kudos in t...

Buddha Toon to Aid Thailand’s Poor

June 08, 2007 – Thailand’s MonoFilm will donate profits from the sales of its animated movie The Life of Buddha to charity, according to a recent Variety story. Produced by Wallapa Pimthong, the $5 m...

Vooz Goes Green with Myo & Ga

June 08, 2007 – Korean outfit Vooz, the creator of the popular Pucca character, will be spreading an environmental message with its new children’s animated series Myo & Ga. The new toon combines adventure a...

Win a Pair of Tickets to a Special Screening of Shrek the Third!

May 08, 2007 – DreamWorks Animation and ASIFA-Hollywood have kindly give us 50 tickets to special screenings of Shrek the Third on Tuesday, May 15 in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

If you are in Los A...

Winx Fairies Spread Movie Wings

May 03, 2007 – The fashion-conscious fairies of Rainbow’s Winx Club are ready for their big-screen close-up. It was announced this week that the Rome, Italy-based Rainbow is producing a CG-animated feature...

Ark, Dreammaker, En Tus Brazos Nab SIGGRAPH ’07 Honors

April 24, 2007 – Grzegorz Jonkajtys and Marcin Kobylecki’s CG-animated eye-popper Ark, Leszek Plichta’s Dreammaker and Supinfocom students Francois-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret and Matthieu Landour’s

Americanized Creature Comforts Premieres on CBS in June

April 19, 2007 – The U.S. version of Aardman’s acclaimed Creature Comforts series is finally set to make its debut on CBS Monday, June 4 at 8 p.m. Based on Nick Park’s 1989 Oscar-winning short, the half-hour...

Miereanu Gets Animated for Warner

April 16, 2007 – Warner Bros. Animation has tapped veteran entertainment and sports communications exec Gary Miereanu as director of publicity. Miereanu will oversee all publicity activities for WBA’s properties, i...

Ugly Duckling and Me! Helmers Win Cartoon Movie’s Top Prize

March 09, 2007 – Michael Hegner and Karsten Kiilerich were awarded Cartoon Movie´s Directors of the Year prize at the annual event held at Potsdam, Germany today (Friday, March 9). The duo received the honor for th...

Don Hertzfeldt
Acclaimed Indie Animator (Rejected, Meaning of Life, Everything Will Be OK)

February 27, 2007 – For the past 12 years, Santa Barbara, Calif.-based indie animator Don Hertzfeldt has created a series of inspiring, quirky hand-drawn shorts which have delighted toon lovers and festivalgoers all ...

VIZ Takes Bite out of Big Apple Comic-Con

February 26, 2007 – San Francisco-based manga and anime powerhouse VIZ Media had a high profile at the New York Comic-Con show this past weekend. Offering an interative photo booth that allowed attendees to pose with ...

Warner Hungry for Justice League

February 23, 2007 – As the Nicolas Cage comic-book vehicle Ghost Rider continues to blaze a hot trail at the box office this weekend, studio suits around town are furiously trying to greenlight more live-action...

Mouse House Squeaks for Second Season of Yin Yang Yo!

February 23, 2007 – Animation “It Guy” of the year, Bob Boyle, has another reason to celebrate as Toon Disney recently picked up a second season of his hot Flash-animated show Yin Yang Yo for its Jetix block of...

Cars Spins to Annies’ Victory Lane

February 12, 2007 – In what may be the bellwether for what may happen on Oscar night, Disney/Pixar’s Cars took the top honor for Best Animated Feature at the 34th Annual Annie Awards Sunday night at the Alex Th...

Torill Kove, Director of Oscar-Winning Short The Danish Poet

January 31, 2007 – Norwegian born animator Torill Kove had her first date with Oscar in 1999, when her short My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts landed a well-deserved nomination. The talented artist just ...

TV Festival Pays Tribute to Simpsons, Lucas

January 26, 2007 – Die-hard fans who’ve been hungry for tightly guarded details about this summer’s The Simpsons Movie would be wise to pick up tickets for the March 15 tribute to the series set as part of L.A...

Angelina Ballerina Takes to the Stage

January 26, 2007 – HIT Entertainment’s elegant white mouse will be making her English National Ballet debut this year. Angelina’s Star Performance puts the popular classical ballerina in a live show, planned f...

Cars, Happy Feet, Monster House Nab Feature Oscar Nominations

January 23, 2007 – As many of the media watchers had predicted, the three nomination spots in the Best Animation Oscar race were filled by Disney/Pixar’s Cars, Warner Bros. Happy Feet and Sony Pictures ...

Nicktoons Drawn to Decode’s Planet Sketch

January 22, 2007 – Those who were waiting for a major U.S. cabler to pick up Decode/Aardman’s fun comedy show Planet Sketch have a big smile on their faces today. That’s because Nicktoons has picked up the CG-...

Ice Age 2 Picked as Most Profitable Movie of ’06

January 22, 2007 – Although Scrat and his preshistoric buddies from Fox/Blue Sky’s Ice Age: The Meltdown may have been snubbed by many of the year-end critics and awards groups, they are laughing all the way t...

Sheridan Institute Installs Toon Boom

January 22, 2007 – Students enrolled at Canada’s acclaimed Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advance learning will be able to take advantage of Toon Boom’s Storyboard and Solo products in their animation labs begi...

News from NATPE: Words from the Wise

January 15, 2007 – If it seems a bit quiet in your neck of the woods this week, it’s because many of the animation execs, buyers, sellers, producers and distributors are attending the NATPE confab in Las Vegas (Jan. ...

Last Chance to Get Free Tickets to Special Happily N’Ever After Screening

December 19, 2006 – Would you like to take a sneak peek at the new CG-animated feature Happily N’Ever After? If you live in the Los Angeles area, Animation Magazine, ASIFA—Hollywood and Lionsgate are inv...

A Good Month for Entertainment Rights’ Kid Brands

December 08, 2006 – U.K. media group Entertainment Rights has announced the delivery of several new programs across four key brands to three of the U.K. ’s major broadcasters:

Rupert Bear—Follow the Magic w...

HIT’s Benelux Consumer Division Goes In-House

December 08, 2006 – HIT Entertainment, the U.K. home of such brands as Bob the Builder, Pingu, Thomas & Friends and Angelina Ballerina ahs moved its consumer products division for the Benelux region in house. The Belg...

Bandai Plugs In New Honneamise Online Community

December 08, 2006 – Top Japanese animation outfit Bandai Visual USA has jumpstarted Honneamise, a new anime community on MySpace.com. The jazzed-up site (www.myspace.com/honneamise) offers related info and down...

Hertzfeldt, Weil and Augenblick Shorts to Shine at Sundance

December 07, 2006 – The Sundance Film Festival announced several new animated titles set to screen Jan. 18-28 at Park City, Utah. Alex Weil’s SIGGRAPH 2006 hit One Rat Short, Aaron Augenblick’s Golden Age

Pirates Sequel Steals Record DVD Booty

December 07, 2006 – Arrrrr, time to bring on the grog! The folks at Disney Home Entertainment are celebrating today as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest posted a record 5 million DVD sales on its first...

Three Comic Voices Sign Up for FOX’s Two Dreadful Children

December 07, 2006 – Chris Kattan (Saturday Night Live), French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun) and Meredith Roberts (Kitchen Confidential) will be voicing characters for the upcoming FOX-TV animat...

Digital-Tutors Announces RealFlow4 Training

December 07, 2006 – Oklahoma City-based interactive training outfit Digital-Tutors has announced the release of Intro to RealFlow 4, a guide to creating realistic fluid and dynamic simulations with RealFlow4. ...

Disney Channel’s London Arm Pumps Up for New Toons

December 06, 2006 – The Mouse is ready to find new cheese in Europe. Disney Channel in Europe will be upping investment in original programs and local co-productions, according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter

Mischel Ready for New Rainmaker Role

December 06, 2006 – Vancouver-based vfx. animation and post house Rainmaker has tapped Rick Mischel to serve in a new role as an executive producer with a ‘first look’ deal. Rainmaker recently acquired Mainframe Enter...

Hollander Gets Animated About Pixar

December 06, 2006 – Former Rhythm & Hues film division president Richard Hollander has ankled his position to join Pixar Animation studio as a producer, according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter. Lee Berge...

Portland’s PLATFORM Fest Sets Dates

December 06, 2006 – Portland, Oregon, just became more animated. It was announced yesterday that the PLATFORM International Animation Festival is ready to launch June 25-30, 2007 in Portland. Festival founder and dire...

NaturalMotion High on endorphin 2.7

December 06, 2006 – U.K.-based software developer NaturalMotion has announced the release of new versions of endorphin 2.7 and related Learning Edition (eLE). The new versions of the award-winning software features ne...

CN’s Ben and Foster Will Make First-Quarter DVD Splash

December 06, 2006 – Kids will have a hard time leaving home in February and March as Cartoon Network and Warner Home Video have announced new DVD release dates for the first seasons of Ben 10 and Foster’s Ho...

Channel Frederator Launches New “Freddies” Awards

November 14, 2006 – If you thought user-submitted podcast toons were getting short-changed during the bountiful awards season, Fred Seibert and his talented team at Channel Frederator have just the thing for you. On J...

Over the Hedge Critters Prove Popular on Discs

October 27, 2006 – The hyperactive CG-animated animals of DreamWorks Animation’s Over the Hedge are proving to be hot items on DVD this week. The Paramount Home Entertainment-distributed title delivered an est...

Learn How to Pitch with Rita Street!

October 27, 2006 – If you have a great idea for an animated TV series and happen to be in Los Angeles on December 4, you’re in luck. Animation industry expert Rita Street (CEO of Radar Cartoons, producer of upcoming ...

Moonscoop, Classic Media Scare Up New Casper Series

October 09, 2006 – An old, familiar ghost has got a new lease on life thanks to the folks at Moonscoop, Classic Media and India’s DQ Ent. First created by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo in 1945, Casper the Friendly Ghos...

Fantasia Hits the Right Notes at the Hollywood Bowl

August 21, 2006 – File the amazing concert performance of Disney’s 1940 classic Fantasia at the Hollywood Bowl this past weekend as another reminder of the glories of 2D animation. Thanks to the effortless ch...

Sony Announces Cloudy Directors

August 16, 2006 – The folks at Sony Pictures Animation are getting ready to send off their debut feature, Open Season, in grand style. At a special press event held at the studio’s Culver City space on the So...

Turner to Set Up New London Toon Shop

July 25, 2006 – Turner Broadcasting Europe will set up a new animation studio in London’s Soho district next year. According to various trade reports, this multi-million production arm is the cabler’s biggest Brit...

Astral, Corus Hungry for More of Teletoon Pie

July 14, 2006 – Montreal-based Astral and Toronto’s Corus Entertainment Inc. announced on Thursday that they will buy the remaining 20 percent of the Teletoon Network that they didn't already own for C$96 million ...

French Renaissance Wins at Annecy

June 12, 2006 – After six days of packed screenings of 279 animated projects from around the world, the top Cristal awards were handed out a well-attended ceremony this past Saturday at Annecy. Renaissance,...

A Flash-Animated Game Show Host Wags his Tail on PBS’s FETCH!

May 24, 2006 – Just when you thought you had seen every possible variation on the reality/game show theme, the producers at Boston public broadcaster WGBH and Vancouver’s Global Mechanic toon house have come up w...

Vanguard Wags Tail for Santa’s Paws

May 11, 2006 – Christmas is going to the dogs, thanks to a new animated feature in development at Vanguard Animation in conjunction with Nash Entertainment. Variety reports that the U.K.-based studio (whic...

Second Season of IGPX Revs Up on Cartoon Network

May 10, 2006 – The resilient Team Satomi gang are ready for new challenges in the second season of IGPX, which kicks off Saturday, May 22, at 10:30 p.m. on Cartoon Network. Co-produced by Japanese powerh...

Women in Animation Presents Panel on CG Toons on TV

April 19, 2006 – If you’re looking for a chance to mingle with toonerati types and attend a panel discussion on 3D animation for television, the Women in Animation International Annual Meeting is the event for you....

Russo Writes the Book on [adult swim]

April 18, 2006 – As Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] block continues to deliver strong ratings and fans anxiously wait the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie to open in the fall, we caught up with Ron Russo, author ...

Cartoon Network Holds Benefit Silent Auction for Fyn Stec

April 18, 2006 – If you happen to be in Los Angeles this Thursday evening, you may want to visit Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank. The good folks at the studio are hosting a special animation benefit silent aucti...

Captain Planet Rules Boomerang on Earth Day

April 11, 2006 – If you’re looking for new ways to celebrate Earth Day (you’re done with the whole tree-planting thing!), we suggest you tune in to Boomerang’s 13-episode marathon of the ’90s-era show, Captain P...

New Windows Version of Call of Duty 2 Open to Gamers

April 11, 2006 – Santa Monica-based Activision and Infinity Ward are releasing a new Windows PC update for the hit game Call of Duty 2, which includes the anti-cheat software PunkBuster, as well as two new m...

Grass Greener at Entertainment Rights

April 11, 2006 – Nikkie Grass (nee Sherrard) has been appointed the new head of marketing at U.K’s family entertainment group, Entertainment Rights. Before joining the ER team, Grass was at Disney, where she was ma...

Digital-Tutors Nabs Innovator of the Year Award

April 11, 2006 – PL Studos’ Digital-Tutors has received the Innovator of the Year Award from the folks at The Journal Record, a leading business publication in the Midweat. The publication honored companies who ar...

Winnie the Pooh DVD Hits the Fans

April 11, 2006 – It’s a big day for Disney fans at the DVD stores today as the Mouse House releases a new digitally remastered version of the 1987 feature, Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robi...

DAZ Introduces Developer Program with New DAZlStudio 1.3

April 10, 2006 – Utah-based 3D software and models developer DAZ Productions has released a new developer program (Software Development Kit SDK) with the latest version of its free digital art software, DAZlStudio ...

Fischinger to Swim in DVD Waters

April 10, 2006 – The prayers of abstract expressionist animator Oskar Fischinger’s fans have finally been answered. L.A.-based Center for Visual Music will release a new DVD featuring ten of Fischinger’s beautiful ...

Ice Melts More Filmgoers’ Hearts

April 10, 2006 – Can Scrat and company single-handedly save the first quarter doldrums at the box office? In light of the estimated $34.5 million Fox/Blue Sky’s Ice Age : The Meltdown (directed by Carlos Sal...

Toon Boom Touts Terrific Week

April 07, 2006 – It’s been a busy news week for the folks at Montreal-based Toon Boom Animation. On Monday, it was announced that award-winning studio Cosgrove Hall (Little Robots, Fifi and the Flowertots...

DreamWorks Rocks with Punk Farm

April 06, 2006 – If you needed more evidence that animation studios can’t get enough features about farm animals, look no further than the latest news from DreamWorks Animation. The studio’s next animated feature w...

On Your DVD Wish List Today:
Chronicles of Narnia, Tripping the Rift

April 04, 2006 – C. S. Lewis’ magnificent lion Aslan is finally ready to roar on DVD today. Directed by Shrek helmer Andrew Adamson, Disney/Walden Media’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and...

Laika Snaps Up Snow’s Monsters

April 03, 2006 – Portland-based Laika Entertainment is developing an animated feature based on author/illustrator Alan Snow’s best-selling children’s book series, Here be Monsters. The book, which is current...

Zoo Films and Atomic Cartoons
Hit the Bollywood Road

March 29, 2006 – A dysfunctional singing-and-dancing Anglo-Indian family is the focus of Bollywood Road, a new animated series to be co-produced by London’s Zoo Films and Toronto-based Atomic Cartoons. Creat...

Joe Cartoon Puts New Site, DVDs and Deals in Its Blender

March 29, 2006 – Spring is bursting all over for the talented folks at Los Angeles-based Joe Cartoon studios. The popular Internet home of shorts such as Gerbil in a Microwave and Lump: The No-Legged Dog

Bix Pix’s Miss Twigley’s Tree Branches Out in Cannes

March 28, 2006 – Miss Twigley is ready to take her show on the road. Bix Pix’s beautifully clay-animated adaptation of Dorothea Warren Fox’s classic book, Miss Twigley’s Tree, will be available at the MIPTV ...

Monster Brings Eclectic Selection to MIPTV

March 27, 2006 – There’s a lot of buzz surrounding the shows Andrew Fitzpatrick and his Dublin-based Monster Distributes shingle are taking to the MIPTV market this year. “We have a lot of unusual animation,” he no...

EM.Entertainment Gets Immersive with Croco Loco

March 24, 2006 – One of the big trends at this year’s MIPTV market in France is the high visibility of shows that mix live-action with CG-animated sequences. German company EM Entertainment GmbH will be exploring t...

DIC Re-Acquires 20 of Its Animated Shows from Disney

March 23, 2006 – It seems like not a day goes by without some kinds of new development coming out of DIC Entertainment. Yesterday the company’s chairman and CEO Andy Heyward announced that the L.A. toon house has r...

The Zula Patrol Rockets Away to MarVista

March 23, 2006 – The scientifically minded aliens of The Zula Patrol have a new home today. MarVista Entertainment has acquired the international distribution rights to the CG-animated children’s show that a...

IDT Renames Yankee Irving, Pushes Back Release Date

March 23, 2006 – IDT’s CG-animated feature about a young boy’s heroic cross-country quest has a new name and a new release date. The feature, which was originally directed by the late Christopher Reeve and titled

Cuppa Coffee Brews Big for MIP

March 23, 2006 – Toronto-based toon shop Cuppa Coffee will be brewed to the max and totally caffeinated at this year’s MIPTV market in France. According to company president Adam Shaheen the shop has more titles ta...

NVIDIA Fixes Up a New Gelato Flavor

March 23, 2006 – Artists looking for ways to create high-quality images in a shorter period of time have a new rendering softwar to turn to. Santa Clara, Calif.-based NVIDA has announced the release of its new Gela...

Toon Boom Offers New Mac-Ready Software

March 22, 2006 – Montreal’s Emmy-award winning Toon Boom Animation has released a new version of its Studio V3 software for Intel-based Macs. Toon Boom Studio offers a dynamic animation toolset that works with Qui...

FableVision Nabs Library Assoc. and Parents' Choice Awards

March 22, 2006 – Boston-based media developer and publisher FableVision has been raking in the awards in recent weeks. The company’s Essay Express K12 writing software was the recipient of a top honor for the Ameri...

Ethnic Heroes Save the Day on [adult swim]’s Politically Incorrect Minoriteam