“How did they do that?” is a question that, as an audience, we don’t ask much anymore. This is especially true in animation, particularly in our digital age, where computer animation has made the impossible possible on screen, all the time. But “How did they do that?’ applies to every frame of director Richard Williams […]

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Independent

The king of the independent animators – Bill Plympton – has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funding for his next ani aged feature-in-progress: Slide. It looks great to me – but I’ll let Bill tell you himself in the video below and his letter to me below that: Plympton’s New Feature SLIDE is running […]

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GKIDS

GKIDS, the acclaimed distributor of multiple Academy Award-nominated animated features, has announced the voice cast of the upcoming English language dub for legendary animation house Studio Ghibli’s latest feature Earwig and The Witch. The film is directed by Goro Miyazaki (From Up on Poppy Hill, Tales from Earthsea) and produced by studio co-founder Toshio Suzuki, […]

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In addition to interviewing director Pete Docter, co-director Kemp Powers and producer Dana Murray, a few months ago I had the chance to speak with six other key creative makers of Soul. Pixar’s 23rd film is already nominated for the Best Animated Feature Critics Choice Award and debuts next Friday December 25th on Disney+. These […]

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Disney

Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar have entered into a wide-ranging, multiyear overall deal with Disney that calls for them to produce animated and live-action series and movies for Disney Branded Television. They will work closely with Meredith Roberts, senior vice president/general manager, Television Animation, Disney Channels, and Ayo Davis, executive vice president, Creative Development […]

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Anime

This first—and long overdue—release on Blu-ray of Satoshi Kon’s one television series, Paranoia Agent (2004), reminds viewers of the exceptional talent animation lost when he died a decade ago at 46. As he did in Millennium Actress and Paprika, Kon deftly blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy: Neither the characters nor the viewer can […]

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Netflix

Netflix announced today a new animated feature film currently in production, The Magician’s Elephant, based on two-time Newbery Award winner Kate DiCamillo’s novel of the same title. The film marks the directorial debut of renowned visual effects veteran Wendy Rogers (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Puss in Boots) and is produced by Julia […]

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Independent

Baobab Studios, the independent interactive animation production company, announced today its latest project, Namoo, a virtual reality experience written and directed by acclaimed Korean filmmaker, Erick Oh. The now-completed film was created entirely in Facebook’s VR animation tool, Quill, with all of the props, characters, and environments hand-painted directly in VR. Baobab will release Namoo […]

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Several years ago, a friend of mine shared a moment from his childhood that he jokingly referred to as “traumatic.” It was the mid-1970’s and he was grocery shopping with his parents, when he suddenly though to ask what time it was. After his parents told him, he did some quick elementary school math as […]

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DreamWorks

DreamWorks Animation has optioned the rights to “Dog Man,” the bestselling series by author and illustrator Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants), and is currently developing a feature film based on the series. Peter Hastings (Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain) is attached to direct. Hastings, a six-time Emmy Award and Peabody winner, joined DreamWorks Animation in 2011, […]

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