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Warner Bros Sets Mechanism Designed To Generate More Animated Films

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday January 7, 2013 @ 12:47pm PSTTags: Animation, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

In an effort to catch up with the animated films being generated at other studios, Warner Bros has formed what it calls a feature animation creative consortium. They’ve identified a core group of filmmakers to form a Justice League for the production of cartoons. The team’s goal will be to generate one animated film per year. John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, Nicholas Stoller, Phil Lord and Chris Miller and Jared Stern are the first directors in the program. They aren’t exclusive to the studio, and will develop animated projects along with the live action films they direct. Stoller has written Storks, which will be directed by Doug Sweetland for 2015 release; Requa and Ficarra will spearhead Smallfoot, from an original idea by Despicable Me‘s Sergio Pablos, who’ll direct for 2016 release. First out of the gate will be the 3D The LEGO Movie, which will be released by Warner Bros/Village Roadshow Films by February 7, 2014. Warner Bros execs Jeff Robinov, Greg Silverman, Courtenay Valenti and Chris deFaria will oversee the effort.

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New Entirely Online Process For Animation Entries To 2013 Annie Awards

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday September 3, 2012 @ 2:45pm PDTTags: Animation, Annie Awards, Awards

BURBANK, Calif. (September 3, 2012) – The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announces its Call for Entries today for the 40th Annual Annie Awards. Featuring a new, more direct and entirely online platform this year, step-by-step instructions are

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TV Academy Names Juried Winners In Animation & Costuming

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday August 22, 2012 @ 12:15pm PDTTags: Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences, Animation, Primetime Emmy Awards

NoHo Arts District, CA, August, 22, 2012 – The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced today the juried winners for the 64th Primetime Emmy® Awards in the categories of Individual Achievement in Animation and Costumes for a Variety Program or Special. These awards will be handed out during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday, September 15. The 2012 juried winners include:

Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation

Disney Phineas And Ferb • Doof Dynasty • Disney Channel • Disney Television Animation
Jill Daniels, Background Paint

Disney Prep & Landing: Naughty Vs. Nice • ABC • Walt Disney Animation Studios
Bill Schwab, Character Design

Secret Mountain Fort Awesome • Nightmare Sauce • Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios
Robertryan Cory, Character Design

Secret Mountain Fort Awesome • Nightmare Sauce • Cartoon Network • Cartoon Network Studios
Chris Tsirgiotis, Background Design

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Animation and Comic Book Veteran Roger Slifer Critically Injured In Hit And Run

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday June 27, 2012 @ 11:16am PDTTags: Animation, DC Comics, Marvel

Friends and fans of Roger Slifer are asking police and the public for their help in tracking down the hit-and-run driver who ran down Slifer in a Santa Monica intersection, leaving him in critical condition. Police say the animation … Read More »

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OSCARS: Animation Feature Race Heats Up – But Will Spielberg’s ‘Tintin’ Make The Cut?

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday September 28, 2011 @ 7:18pm PDTTags: 84th Academy Awards, Animation, Cars 2, Peter Jackson, Pixar, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin
Pete Hammond

There is always controversy about what is true animation, particularly with the motion capture process which uses real performances by actors and then essentially animates the scenes. I’m told that key members in the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’s … Read More »

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Oscar: 15 Animated Features For 2010 Race

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday November 15, 2010 @ 12:12pm PSTTags: 83rd Academy Awards, Academy Awards, Animated Movies, Animation, Movies, Oscar Animated Feature Entries, Oscar Best Animated Feature, Oscars

Beverly Hills, CA — Fifteen features have been accepted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.

The 15 features are:
“Alpha and Omega”
“Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore”
“Despicable Me”
“The Dreams of Jinsha”
“How to Train Your Dragon”
“Idiots and Angels”
“The Illusionist”
“Legend of the Guardians: The

… Read More »

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‘Despicable Me’ Crosses $500 Million Mark

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday November 5, 2010 @ 4:49pm PDTTags: Animation, Box Office, Despicable Me, Despicable Me $500 Million, Despicable Me Box Office, Despicable Me Steve Carell, Illumination Entertainment, Movies, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Despicable Me, the first film out of the gate for Universal Pictures and Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Entertainment, will cross the $500 million worldwide gross mark tomorrow. It steps into rarefied territory as the film continues to roll out around the world. The 3D animated film that starred Steve Carell recently cracked the Top 10 list of all time biggest domestic-grossing animated films. The pic, which cost $69 million to make, has grossed $248 million domestically, which puts it a distant second behind Toy Story 3, but makes it 2010′s second biggest animated film domestic grosser so far. Despicable Me also has become  Universal’s sixth highest domestic-grossing film ever, and the studio’s biggest international grossing film of 2010. The film just opened in Japan but hasn’t played yet in several territories including China. It has done $247 million overseas, and is expected to finish as Universal’s fifth all-time biggest grossing film in the international marketplace. Just as important, the picture pulled Universal out of a prolonged slump. Read More »

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Walt Disney On ‘How To Train An Animator’

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday November 5, 2010 @ 1:39am PDTTags: Animation, DreamWorks Animation, Megamind, Movies, Sony Pictures Animation, Tangled, Walt Disney, Walt Disney Studios

With DreamWorks Animation opening Megamind today, and Sony Pictures Animation just naming a new president, and Walt Disney Studios releasing Tangled shortly, and Universal/Illumination sending Despicable Me overseas, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences enforcing a November 1st deadline for 2010 Best Animated feature entries, it’s more relevant than ever to spotlight a letter written by Walt Disney in 1935 about the business of toon storytelling. The Drawn Blog (described as a daily source of inspiration for illustration, animation, cartooning, and comic art) recently drew attention to an 8-page Walt memo to Don Graham, a highly respected art teacher, about setting up art classes for Disney animators that would become the studio’s structured training program. That gave birth to the Golden Age of Animation, what with Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs released in 1937, and Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940.

The full memo is posted on the website, but I felt it was important to repeat it here as well. Because today’s toonmakers who place relentless hipness over emotional substance would do well to remember Walt’s words, especially about animation laughs: “Comedy, to be appreciated, must have contact with the audience. This we all know, but sometimes forget. By contact, I mean that there must be a familiar, sub-conscious association. Somewhere, or at some time, the audience has felt, or met with, or seen, or dreamt, the situation pictured. A study of the best gags and audience reaction we have had, will prove that the action or situation is something based on an imaginative experience or a direct life connection. This is what I mean by contact with the audience. When the action or the business loses its contact, it becomes silly and meaningless to the audience.”

WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
INTER-OFFICE COMMUNICATION

DATE DECEMBER 23, 1935
TO DON GRAHAM
FROM WALT

Right after the holidays, I want to get together with you and work out a very systematic training course for young animators, and also outline a plan of approach for our older animators.

Some of our established animators at the present time are lacking in many things, and I think we should arrange a series of courses to enable these men to learn and acquire the things they lack.

Naturally the first most important thing for any animator to know is how to draw. Therefore it will be necessary that we have a good life drawing class. But you must remember Don, that while there are many men who make a good showing in the drawing class, and who, from your angle, seem good prospects – these very men lack in some other phase of the business that is very essential to their success as animators.

I have found that men respond much more readily to classes dealing with practical problems than to more theoretic treatment. Therefore I think it would be a very good idea to appeal to these men by conducting these classes with the practical approach in mind. In other words, try to show in these classes that the men can make immediate practical application of what they are being taught.

The talks given by Fergy, Fred Moore, Ham Luske, and Fred Spencer, have been enthusiastically received by all those in attendance. Immediately following these talks, I have noticed a great change in animation. Some men have made close to 100% improvement in the handling and timing of their work. This strikes me as pointing a way toward the proper method of teaching in the future.

The following occurs to me as a method of procedure:

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James McAvoy And Hugh Laurie Voice Aardman’s ‘Arthur Christmas’

By TIM ADLER in London | Tuesday November 2, 2010 @ 12:06pm PDTTags: Aardman Animation, Animation, Bill Nighy, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Movie Deals, Movies

They join Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton for Aardman’s first movie under its 3-year Sony Pictures Animation deal. The 3D CG film is slated for release on November 23 of next year. Set on Christmas night, the film’s story reveals the answer to … Read More »

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Wallace & Gromit Toon Profits Fall By 56%

By TIM ADLER in London | Sunday October 10, 2010 @ 9:25pm PDTTags: Aardman Animation, Animation, Movies, UK Film Tax Credit

Aardman, the animation company which makes the Oscar-winning cartoon duo, saw its profits fall from £1,061,408 to £469,243 ($747,826) in 2009. But at least it made a profit, Aardman stresses. It was reported here over the weekend that the company … Read More »

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Sony UK Acquires ‘Jackboots On Whitehall’

By TIM ADLER in London | Friday September 24, 2010 @ 11:12pm PDTTags: Animation, Ewan McGregor, Movies, Trailers, Video

The studio’s home entertainment arm has picked up UK rights to the WWII satire. Vertigo Films will release the puppet cartoon theatrically on October 8th. Ewan McGregor voices the hero with Rosamund Pike, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Merchant, Alan Cumming, Richard E Grant, Timothy Spall, Dominic West, Richard Griffiths, Richard O’Brien … Read More »

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DISNEY SMASHES BOX OFFICE RECORDS: ‘Toy Story 3′ Crossing $1B, Studio First To Release 2 Billion-Dollar Pics In Single Year

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday August 27, 2010 @ 10:44am PDTTags: Animation, Box Office Record, Disney Animation, Disney Box Office, Toy Story 3, Toy Story 3 Box Office, Toy Story 3 Global Box Office

Today, Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 is expected to cross the $1 billion box office mark in global grosses. The film is already the world’s largest animated release of all time and the 7th biggest motion picture. That makes Disney the first studio … Read More »

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‘Toy Story 3′ Now Biggest Toon Of All Time

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday August 13, 2010 @ 2:51pm PDTTags: Animation, Box Office Record, John Lasseter, Pixar Disney, Toy Story 3, Toy Story 3 Box Office, Toy Story 3 Global Box Office

BURBANK, Calif. – August 13, 2010 – With record-breaking box office tallies around the world, Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 has become the highest-grossing animated film of all time taking in more than $920 million at the global box office to date. This weekend, the critically acclaimed Toy Story 3 is expected to become Disney’s second film to cross the $400 million domestic threshold and currently ranks as the 4th highest grossing film in company history globally. “In 1995, the talented team at Pixar introduced a cowboy, a space ranger and their friends who have gone on to become some of the most beloved characters in the world. The success of Toy Story is due to the tremendously creative and innovative team at Pixar, led by John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, and our incredible marketing and distribution teams around the world,” said Rich Ross

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Warner Bros Next Movie Star: Bugs Bunny

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday August 12, 2010 @ 5:44pm PDTTags: Animation, David Berenbaum, Toons, Warner Bros
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has hired Elf scribe David Berenbaum to write Bugs Bunny, a live action/CG feature film designed to revive one of the studio’s most iconic intellectual properties. I’m told that Berenbaum, who also adapted The Spiderwick Chronicles and is writing an animated project with George Lucas–just closed his deal.  No producer has yet been assigned. While Warner Bros has struggled to pick winners out of its DC Comics catalog beyond Batman, the studio has done little with its Looney Tunes catalog lately. Warner Bros scored with the 1996 film Space Jam, mingling Looney Tunes characters with NBA Read More »

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Chris Meledandri’s Illumination Game Plan Includes ‘Despicable Me’ Sequel, ‘Minion’ Spinoffs, Dr. Seuss, The Addams Family

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday July 13, 2010 @ 7:22am PDTTags: Adam Fogelson, Animation, Chris Meledandri, David Linde, Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Despicable Me Box Office, Hop, Illumination Entertainment, Jeff Zucker, Marc Shmuger, NBC Universal, Ron Meyer, Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures Chris Meledandri
Mike Fleming

Film Review Despicable MeEXCLUSIVE: Three years ago, Universal Pictures brass wooed Chris Meledandri away from his president post at Fox Animation to start its first family film unit. Over the weekend, Illumination’s first effort, Despicable Me, nearly doubled … Read More »

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IT’S GOOD TO BE BAD! ‘Despicable Me 3D’ Doubles Expectations For $60.1M Weekend; R-Rated ‘Predators’ On Target With $25.3M; ‘Eclipse’ Global Cume Now $456M; See How This Hollywood Summer Is Doing Overseas

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday July 11, 2010 @ 1:30pm PDTTags: Animation, Box Office, Despicable Me, Despicable Me Box Office, Despicable Me Steve Carell, Eclipse, Predators, Robert Rodriguez, Summer Movies, Summit Entertainment, The Last Airbender Box Office, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Box Office, Theaters, Toy Story 3, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures

SUNDAY AM: It was a great weekend at the box office with the total tally $202M, up an impressive +41.4% from last year. And that doesn’t factor in next week which features the most anticipated movie of the summer, Chris Nolan’s Inception. Year to date, 2010 revenues are running $5.9M, that up 5.06% … Read More »

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Trio To Receive WGA Honors April 23rd

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday April 15, 2008 @ 11:44am PDTTags: Animation, Awards, Brad Bird, Hollywood, WGA, Writers

wga.bmpThe Writers Guild of America West’s Animation Writers Caucus (AWC) has awarded its 10th annual Animation Writing Award for lifetime achievement to Pixar writer-director Brad Bird, whose most recent film, Ratatouille, won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature … Read More »

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