Mickey Mouse is an cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks.
As it’s the 2nd talking koala movie, the 2nd juke box musical and the 11th talking animal movie of year, Illumination Entertainment’s Sing! suffers from a certain lack of originality. Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), an upbeat, if less than honest koala, runs a crumbling theater that he’d love to restore to its former glory. But […]
The second edition of the GLAS Animation Festival is on its way, taking place March 2nd-5th, 2017 in the city of Berkeley, California, just a quick ride away from San Francisco. Guests this year include Brad Bird (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), Massaski Yusa (Mind Game), George Schwizgebel (Jeu), Mathieu Labaye (The Labyrinth), Amy Lockhart […]
I don’t know about you – but I’m celebrating the holidays with two local cartoon screenings and two animated radio broadcasts and I’m inviting everyone – and that means YOU – to join me. The first is tonight, as I appear on Stu’s Show, an internet radio broadcast of media-maven Stu Shostack. I suppose we […]
Distributor GKIDS has announced that it will release Studio Ghibli’s Ocean Waves, which has been unreleased in the U.S. until now. The film will play starting on December 28th at IFC Center in New York, and one night only in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Theatre, in a new 4K restoration. The film will then […]
Sony Pictures Animation has launched the world’s first-ever vertical movie trailer designed especially for mobile users supporting the forthcoming animated The Emoji Movie – a computer animated adventure that “unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone”. For the first 24 hours, the trailer will be optimized for mobile users and best viewed on the […]
Twenty five new additions to the National Film Registry were announced this past week by The Library of Congress. Among the 2016 honorees are two now-classic Disney features that helped bring about the animation renaissance of the 1990s: The Lion King and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, […]
Top-billed actors will bring the characters of McDuck Manor to life in the all-new animated comedy series DuckTales, premiering in summer 2017 on Disney XD channels around the world. Leading the quack pack on globe-trotting adventures are: David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck, Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz and Bobby Moynihan as the voices of mischief-making Huey, […]
Two of Disney Channel’s newest animated series, “Elena of Avalor” and “Milo Murphy’s Law”, recently picked-up Annie Awards nominations. I spoke with “Elena” creator/executive producer Craig Gerber and co-producer/story editor Silvia Olivas, along with “Milo” co-creator and EP Dan Povenmire, about the recognition and the success of their shows: Jackson: How did you get the […]
From the imagination of Guillermo del Toro comes a tale of two worlds set to collide in the epic saga DreamWorks Trollhunters, which follows ordinary teenager Jim Lake Jr. who inadvertently discovers an extraordinary secret civilization of mighty trolls beneath his small town of Arcadia. Marc Guggenheim (TV’s Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), Rodrigo Blaas […]
Diversity in Animation: It’s A Tough Concept to Nail Down
This week’s animation roundtable in The Hollywood Reporter sparked some online ire for featuring both a group that is decidedly homogeneous (read: white and male) and for discussing the concept of diversity in animated films. There’s just one problem though: diversity in animation as a concept is incredibly difficult to define and covers far more […]