Disney's Tron Animated Series

BoxOfficeMagazine has recently spoken with Adam Horowitz a writer and producer of the TV show Lost. He has also scripted Tron Legacy and is one of the developer’s of the new Tron Uprising cartoon that will show up on Disney XD. The voice cast includes Elijah Wood, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mandy Moore, Paul Reubens, Nate Corddry and Lance Henriksen, with Bruce Boxleitner reprising his Tron character. Also Variety's previous report that Wood's character would be called "Beck" and will lead a revolution inside the Grid's computer world. It will be a 10 episode's and that the show will not then be released till the summer of 2012.

Horowitz Furher said:

"that the events of the show will take place in between the events of Tron and Tron: Legacy.”This animated show will take place from when Flynn is in a safe house. It's from when Clu takes over the grid to before when Sam comes in. So if you were wondering what was the grid like before that, and then watch the show."

Stop, Diego, Stop: Cartoon doll gets man carpool path ticket

To be clear, State Patrol troopers say, kids do count for the carpool lane tally. Just not fake one.
On Thursday, the State Patrol detailed a stop in which a man late for work put his daughter's doll in the front passenger seat and tried to glide by in the carpool lane.

The doll was Diego, cousin of Dora the Explorer.

Diego got his own show, a spinoff of the Nickelodeon pre-school-age series, in 2005: "Go Diego, Go."

Luckily for him, fake kids don't get tickets from troopers.

The incident happened Nov. 29 on the northbound state Route 167 ramp to northbound Interstate 405. The driver was one of 21 people stopped for carpool lane violations that dawn.

"As cars moved past in the HOV lane the trooper observed a vehicle whose passenger had enormous unblinking eyes," Trooper Julie Startup said in a statement. "Realizing it was a doll in the front seat the vehicle was stopped."

But at least the driver was careful with his daughter's doll. Diego was wearing his seatbelt.

Katzenberg Planning 6 ‘Kung Fu Panda’ Movies

This past summer, DreamWorks Animation closed the book on Shrek, putting the once lovable green ogre out of his unhappiness with Shrek Forever After, the fourth fairy tale adventure in the studio’s highest-grossing franchise. The widely popular series, which grossed $1.27 billion theatrically in the U.S. alone, seeded two holiday DVDs, a Broadway musical, and an upcoming Puss in Boots spin-off, but the big, bad Shrek only lasted for four features.

Which is why it’s a shock that Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of DreamWorks and CEO of DreamWorks Animation, believes Kung Fu Panda, easily the next big thing at the cartoon production house, will make bigger into six individual chapters?

Speaking with Empire about Madagascar 3, Katzenberg said, “Kung Fu Panda actually has 6 chapters to it, and we’ve charted that out over the years. How To Train Your Dragon is at least three: maybe more, but we know there are a least three chapters to that story. There are in fact 8 books.”
I love KFP and I’m all for planning ahead (make a list before you go to the store!), but plotting out six sequels before a second is even in theaters is absurd and underscores the “dollar first” model of DreamWorks Animation versus the “story first” mentality of its closest competitor, Pixar though they have curved some to the pressure of sequels recently.

DreamWorks Animation defenders will cry out, “But it’s a business! It has to turn a profit and answer to shareholders!” Of course it does, and sequels are a proven way to take advantage of on a brand audiences have responded to before. But that argument/cop out doesn’t hold water when DWA’s “How to Train Your Kung Fu Shrek” is compared to the regular output of original, successful content at Pixar, or Disney Animation in its heyday.

The studio isn’t putting all its eggs in Po’s proverbial bowl of noodles, although. Maybe in response to raised eyebrows over Katzenberg’s master plan, DWA formally proclaimed it will bring Me and My Shadow to the screen in 2013. According to the press release (via ComingSoon), the original concept will unite hand-drawn and CGI animation into a 3D feature about “Shadow Stan, an extremely frustrated shadow who yearns for a dynamic life but happens to be stuck with Stanley Grubb, the world’s most boring human.” Until Shadow Stan breaks the one rule (”they lead, we follow”) and takes control of Stanley.

It sounds talented. Maybe even seven sequels promising. But is it original? Aside from the obvious Peter Pan reference, “Me and My Shadow” is a song written in 1927 by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, and Dave Dreyer (then later famously performed by Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.) about a man and his shadow. I wish them the best on this non-sequel.

BFI receives ‘largest ever’ British animation donation

More than 2,800 cans of animation plus film prints, stills, scripts, papers, and thousands of original cells from the Halas & Batchelor Cartoon Company – which includes classic titles such as Animal Farm & The Owl and the Pussycat – have been donated to the BFI National Archive.

The Collection has been donated by Vivien Halas, daughter of husband and wife team, John Halas and Joy Batchelor who set up their studio in 1940 and is the largest single donation of British animation in the BFI’s history.

Hailed as “a British counterpart to Disney”, Halas & Batchelor’s work included not just children’s films and series, but also theatrical shorts, wartime information, commercials and industrial training films.

Explaining her reason for donating the collection, Vivien Halas said: “A portrait bust of my father has been in the board room of the BFI for many years and the BFI National Archive has already preserved most of Halas & Batchelor’s early war films in the COI collection. So it seems very apt that this great institution should become a permanent home for the fruits of my parents’ labours.

“I gave up my career as a graphic designer in Paris to care for the collection after my father’s death in 1995 but now need the security of a large organisation who can offer the specialist knowledge to preserve the materials for future generations and to make them accessible”

BFI Director Amanda Nevill said the organisation was “very grateful” to have been entrusted without he collection which she said: “demands to be seen and we have the curatorial skills and resources to present it in new and exciting ways, whether online as an educational resource, in our expanding chain of BFI mediatheques, on DVD or in cinemas.”

NBC's 'Community' characters get animated

The cast of NBC's sitcom "Community" will be more animated than ever in Thursday's episode because, well, they all were turned into marionettes.

That's right, the entire cast was re-created as changeable creatures for a stop-motion Christmas episode that recalls the Rankin/ Bass specials of yesteryear.

"My compass tells me it's a great little piece of television," says show creator Dan Harmon.
NBC honcho Jeff Gaspin first suggested to Harmon that "Community" should try an animated episode over the summer.

However, traditional animation takes a long time to produce. So consultant, writer and recurring character Dino Stamatopoulos suggested stop-motion, which he uses on the Cartoon Network.
"We started asking is it possible to squeeze something out before Christmas if you start right now?" Harmon says.

There was enough time, he found out, but they needed to start immediately. Soon, craftsmen in the art of stop-motion began the process of creating models of the cast. Harmon and his team began sketching out a Christmas story.

The result, airing Thursday at 8 p.m. on NBC, revolves around Abed (Danny Pudi), who wakes up seeing the world in a stopmotion scene.

He takes this as a sign that everyone needs to learn the meaning of Christmas. His fellow Greendale Community College students begin to think he's wacky. But soon they're all undergoing hypnosis to explore Abed's winter scene.

"I think we should commit to the format, starting with a song," Abed encourages, before breaking into a melody.

"These people practice a sadly dying craft - because of [computer-generated animation], but it's a completely different kind of art form," Harmon says. "You can't practice it without answering to a higher calling. You have to have a true love of human behavior. You really have to respect the people doing it in the Rankin/Bass days."

Rankin/Bass, of course, were the producers behind the stop-motion classics "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "The Year Without a Santa Claus."

Those specials, like the "Community" effort, were created by artists who carefully move each model, shoot a frame, move the models, shoot a frame. Or, as Abed says in the show, "We're silicone dolls, with foam bodies over ball-and-socket armatures."

Harmon says it took about a month and a half to shoot the episode, which came in at about the cost of an episode and a half of "Community."

Harmon says calling him a fan of classic stop-motion specials doesn't fully cover his feelings.
"Back when we were kids, there were three networks, and that stuff was going to be dispensed like communion wafers," he says, citing "Rudolph" as a favorite. "Rudolph walking through the snow, with his red nose and that sound effect that came with it.

"A lot of kids were comforted by these myths of misfits," says Harmon, "finding out all these things that make them stand out are going to be the things that make them great."

Independent’s Dave Brown wins Political Cartoon of Year

A cartoon by The Independent's Dave Brown has been named Political Cartoon of the Year 2010.

Published in this newspaper the day after the Coalition government was formed in May, the cartoon shows David Cameron and Nick Clegg in a coal mine with the Liberal Democrat leader as the canary. Speaking at an awards ceremony organised by The Political Cartoon Society in London on Monday night, Dave Brown said the work reflected his belief "that Clegg was there as nothing more than personal protection for Cameron, an early warning of poisonous air ahead, and, of course, ultimately expendable."

Dave Brown previously won Cartoon of the Year awards in 2003 and 2006.

Animation Domination Contest Narrows

The Oscars for the world of animation, the Annies, announced the nominees for this year’s top prize on Monday, and there were no surprises to be had. “Toy Story 3,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Tangled,” “The Illusionist,” and “Despicable Me” received nods for best animated characteristic.

The list of finalists, from the International Animated Film Society, is sure to have some partly cover with the little gold man race, especially this year, when the Academy can nominate only three films (out of 15 submitted for eligibility). “Toy Story 3″ is a lock, of course, but may also wind up in the best picture category, as “Up” did last year. “Tangled” performed well at the box office against stiff competition, which could help its chances.

“How to Train Your Dragon” might be a good bet for the final spot, but don’t double-down yet. Last year, Annie voters gave their top prize to the little-seen Irish film “The Secret of Kells,” and it went on to secure an Oscar slot. Can the same happen for the “Despicable Me” or “The Illusionist” this year? The Bagger will pay close attention to the cartoon winnings to find out.

Also, the Annie list for short animation has several titles in common with the Academy’s short list. Oscar pool fanatics, keep an eye on this to game your chances against your friends and colleagues.

Jesse McCartney: Young Justice's Robin!

Are you ready to have more Jesse McCartney in your life? We are!

The 23-year-old musician has been working on adding his voice to the Young Justice reboot from Cartoon Network. Jesse, who will voice Robin, wedged up with JJJ to chat about the project and working with voice veterans. Check it out:

On Young Justice: “It’s so overwhelming so far. I’ve been working for about six months on the first season and almost finished with it. I play Robin, who is one of the legendary superheroes in the Young Justice league. I’m in a room full of other voice over artists who have been doing this for decades. It’s actually something I grew up wanting to do, being a huge comic book, cartoon and action hero fan. Now, I’m doing it and I get to recreate all these episodes for a new generation who get to watch cartoons on Saturday morning.”

On picking and choosing his superheroes: “I didn’t really care either way which superhero I was, I was just about to be ’super’ so it was great whichever way. The director called me up and I had worked with him before this. He just said that he had this Young Justice project with an amazing group of writers and wanted me to come in and read for Grayson. I usually play the younger guy who has to up his voice a lot. It’s such an easy-going process. I go in once a week and I’m in a room with about ten other artists. It’s been wild.”

On working alongside voice veterans: “These guys are such pros. This one guy, Kevin, I believe he voiced Scooby Doo. Some of these guys have been doing this since I was a kid. I think they were the voices in the stuff that I used to watch. Now getting to work next to them is great and they’re all so cool to me. I’m definitely the youngest in the room and the newest at it.

Vampire Animation Released in Russia

Full-length animation film Nosferatu. The Horror of Night created by Russian animators goes on universal release in Russia.

Its author is Vladimir Marinichev, a former officer of the Petersburg Criminal Investigation Department. He decided to try his wings as a film director after watching the animated cartoon film History of Toys. Animation seemed to him quite reasonably priced: one just needed a computer and some imagination.

The famous vampire named Nosferatu became the protagonist of The Horror of Night. After all, the former militiaman has firsthand experience in the naywards of human soul. Nevertheless, the animation film characters make one smile rather than fear. Dracula, for example, is very elegant and ironical, and a musician into the bargain.

Peter Chung Takes ‘the Big Risk’ With CGI-Animated Firebreather

Infamously risky but rewarding animator Peter Chung has finally made a film for everybody in Firebreather. If his new all-CGI movie is a hit on Cartoon Network, the Aeon Flux creator hopes it will assure Hollywood that the time is right to pull the trigger on other adult-oriented animated movies.

Margaret and Belloc's carnal knowledge is something Duncan doesn't want particulars on, as one hilarious scene illustrates, but the cross-species sexual union fits perfectly with Chung's previous adult-oriented explorations in daring animated series like Aeon Flux and Reign: The Conqueror, as well as Ralph Bakshi's cult fantasy film Fire and Ice, one of Chung's earliest animation gigs.

Similarly, Firebreather, which first appearances Wednesday on Cartoon Network, finds Chung striking a confident balance between breathtaking action sequences, ranging from parkour chases to full-scale military and supernatural warfare, and the subtle shot-blocking that infuses the film's quieter moments with relatable psychodrama.

Not bad, considering Firebreather is Chung's first CGI feature film, and that he had zero contact to the comic prior to starting the project. From designing the main humanoid and demonic characters to naturally directing Firebreather's incendiary action and tender relationship sequences, Chung has proven he can do it all, for any target audience.

Mickey Mouse's birthday has Walt Disney's most famous cartoon rodent turning 82

Oh boy! Mickey Mouse is one old rodent! Walt Disney's most famous cartoon creatiobn turned 82 on Thursday. Mickey’s first appearance with sound and the first of his films to be distributed was in "Steamboat Willie" on Nov. 18, 1928.

The falsetto-speaking mouse appeared in "Plane Crazy" six months prior, alongside Minnie, but in that feature he was as quiet as a, well, mouse. Ub Iwerks was the main animator for both shorts as well as co-director with Walt Disney, who also provided the vocals for the star of the show .

The popular mouse first spoke actual words in "The Karnival Kid" in 1929. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In an effort to bring the famous mouse back into the spotlight, last year the Walt Disney Company announced they would be rebranding Mickey Mouse as a more mischievous rodent, starting with the upcoming video game "Epic Mickey."

Cheburashka is Back on Russian panel

Cheburashka has returned on the Russian panel, now as a character of the Japanese animated cartoon. 3 new series about adventures of Cheburashka and Gena the Crocodile have been recently established in Moscow, at the opening of the Japanese Film Festival.

The animation about Cheburashka recreated and continued in Japan was accepted by the character’s literary father Eduard Uspenskiy, and co-creators of the original animation Leonid Shvartsman and Yuriy Norshteyn. "Cheburashka" was first time exposed in Japan almost ten years ago. All the sequences in Soviet Cheburashka animation were model shots shaped manually, without any computer aid.

The most famous Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki was personally busy in the digital processing of the four Soviet cartoon films directed by Roman Kachanov. The Japanese resorted for consultations to one of the most respected Russian animators - Yuriy Norshteyn. Yuriy Norshteyn: “It is an event that will probably go beyond the kingdom of animation and will perhaps somehow influence the attitude to animation in this country, if this entire story has stepped as far as the Japanese islands and created such a furore there”.

Animated Cartoon ‘Unstoppable’ fails to end ‘Megamind’ from first place

Animated films are huge and they are going to play for a long time. ’Unstoppable’ estimates in the second place .The animated cartoon Megamind stays at No-1 which stated the top spot for the second week. According to Hollywood box office the anthology for this animated cartoon is $30.1 million.Unstoppable made $23.5 million.

The film with the voices of Will Ferrell and Tina Fey, has done $89.8 million in 10 days. Tony Scott still didn’t beat the box office traffic in theaters.

Livingston says studio executives would not expect to upend Megamind, which likes most recent, big-studio animation, enjoyed replicate business from kids and parents. The movie dropped a negligible 35% from last week’s No. 1 debut.

The first and the last book of Magoo

To the very end Millard Kaufman was telling jokes, which was some sort of hobby to him. In that job he was gently helped by his wife. They had a phone trick; both of them would be online and just at one instant in the middle of the conversation one would say a joke. In a happy environment, Millard Kaufman lasted to live for 92 years: he died in his apartment in Los Angeles on March the 17th, this year.

He is well known, first of all by giving us a nature of an old, near-sighted Quincy Magoo, the famous cartoon character. Then, he had enough guts to write and publish his first book when he was at the age of 90. It was the book “Bowl of cherries”, translated to many languages. When the novel was conventional by riders, Millard got inspirited. One year later he started with writing a new novel “Misadventure”, which will unfortunately be published posthumously this drop.

The thing which applauded up Kaufman was the fact that the publishers to whom he had offered his writing couldn’t think that the book was written by a 90 years old man. “Bowl of cherries” is a story of an American soldier who went to Iraq where he found out the secrets of an ancient architecture. Novel is filled with curses, but as well with jokes of ex American president Bush.


Born in 1917, “father” of Quincy Magoo was a journalist. He stopped his career as a journalist for attending the II World War, to fight beside Hitler. He hasn’t continued to his returning his job as a journalist. Coming back to Los Angeles he started functioning in the film industry. First job was a beat to him. He wrote a script play for a cartoon. He made up a quality of a bold, rich, short-sighted and short gentleman who is getting into troubles because of his seeing problem. The character of Quincy Magoo came lively by John Humbly and Robert Canon. Then the life of this charming gentleman found his way directly to the Oscar. After that Kaufman got a job in MGM where he worked as a writer for 15 years. One of his best movies is for sure is “Bad day at Black Rock” with Spenser Tracy.

And so that was his job until he got withdraw. That is when Millard got to his senses and comprehend that all he wanted to be for all those years was to be a writer. The last script he wrote in 1986.

“It was a magnificent experience for me”, said Millard Kaufman in one of the latest interviews. “At the commencement I believed that writing a book is not more differences from writing a script play for a movie. I was wrong. It was a real confront for me.

Primary Look: Disney going old school with new Pooh

"Winnie the Pooh" will be back to his old nature again next year.

Walt Disney Animation Studios is returning the honey-loving teddy bear and his pals to their hand-drawn animated roots for a feature film plunging into theaters July 15, 2011. The new "Winnie the Pooh," the first big-screen "Pooh" quest from Disney animators in more than 30 years, will more closely look like the classic short films from the 1960s and '70s.

"We wanted to create a movie for the big screen that had the appeal and wit of those innovative shorts," said Peter Del Vecho, the film's producer. "What originally endeared all of us adults and children to these characters was that they were distended animals that came to life in the imagination of a child. We wanted to renew that imagination in a big way."

Pooh and company will relinquish recent puppet-powered, computer-generated Disney Channel makeovers in favor of the old-fashioned illustrative style that places the silly bear and his friends among the pages of a storybook. Jim Cummings ("The Tigger Movie") returns as the voice of Pooh and Tigger, with John Cleese ("Monty Python") serving as the storyteller.

While this version of "Pooh" won't be produced by a computer or projected in 3-D, Del Vecho cautioned it wouldn't simply be a redux of past "Pooh" projects. He said the film, spearheaded by Disney and Pixar animation Chief John Lasseter, will trait five new original songs and a faster pace punctuated with humor that's fitting for modern audiences.

"We're definitely resyetting the franchise and using this film as the instance to set for the studio," said Del Vecho. "Many versions have been done, and it's been a way for the property to live on in children's minds, but we're eager this is a new phase for 'Winnie the Pooh.' It's a return to quality storytelling that's been missing in more recent projects."

World's longest cartoon revealed at Xiamen Int'l Animation Festival

The 3rd Xiamen International Animation Festival released yesterday and is hosted by the Xiamen Municipal Government. The festival drew over 100 animation companies from 12 regions of China came to partake in it.

According to the organizing group, invited by the COSPLAY organizing group, the largest cartoon in the world - Pili will be shown at the 3rd Xiamen International Animation Festival.

Pili is a marionette show from Taiwan. The TV series started in 1985, and it still persists today. The Pili marionette show is performed by many kinds of puppets, and uses state-of-the-art animation to help there its fighting art. The fragile design of the appearance and characteristics of each puppet has made Pili puppet show a well-known entertainment in Taiwan.

Apart from that, well-known animation artists will be partaking and give performances at the 3rd Xiamen International Animation Festival, including Taiwanese cartoonist Xiao Yanzhong, COSER and Xiao Xiao Bai.

North Korea emerges as animation producer

North Korea’s information technology (IT) industry, in particular in the field of computer-based animation production, is well on its way to achieve success, according to a Dutch outsourcing specialist currently conducting IT business with North Korean companies.

The ceremony was planned by the Hanns Seidel Foundation, a German organization. “Pororo the Little Penguin,” an animated cartoon series, was an inter-Korean project finished in 2002. Also the same year, Akom, a South Korean company, also outsourced the production of “Empress Chung” to North Korea. The animation was released in 2005.

Tjia stated that some of the American Walt Disney animations were created by North Koreans, merely by accident. Politically North Korea and America have a barbed relationship and the American government prohibits the private sector from doing business with North Korean companies.

“There was a time when Walt Disney outsourced their animation production to countries in Asia like Vietnam or the Philippines. But the company didn’t have whole control over exactly which country the work was shaped, and found out later that some was produced in North Korea,” he said, adding that this was discovered after the animations had aired on TV.

An official at the Seoul Animation Center confirmed some of what the Dutchman said, confirming that Walt Disney’s outsourcing to Asia was true, and that’s accurately how South Korea’s animation industry took off. The news of a burgeoning animation industry in North Korea comes as a revelation to many who are used to hearing mainly about food shortage, human rights violations and the regime’s nuclear ambitions.

Tina Fey realizes her inner cartoon

Things are coating up for Tina Fey.

She's the acclaimed, Emmy-winning creator, writer and co-star of 30 Rock; earned rave reviews from fans and critics alike as the hugely popular Sarah Palin twin on Saturday Night Live; and this past spring, co-starred with Steve Carell in the romantic comedy, Date Night. Fey, 40, is trying something different, mostly designed to please her five-year-old daughter Alice. Mom is one of the star voices in the 3-D animated movie, Megamind, which releases Nov. 5.

In the spoofing superhero cartoon, Fey offers the voice for Roxanne Ritchi, a TV reporter and the quasi-love interest in the Lois Lane tradition of the Superman yarn. But unlike Lois Lane, Ritchi doesn't necessarily swoon for just one superhero. After all, in Megamind, there are two aliens from one more planet living in Metro City: Megamind (Will Ferrell) and Metro Man (Brad Pitt).

As luck and the plot would have it, Ferrell's Megamind is the nemesis to Pitt's Metro Man, since Metro Man ends up being a well-liked celebrity offense fighter in sharp contrast to the genius outcast, Megamind. Fed up with being rejected, Megamind uses his intellect for evil, and most probably defeats Metro Man, leaving Megamind lonely, and Metro City vulnerable, after the emergence of the Megamind's dastardly creation, Titan (Jonah Hill).

Ironic heroes and villains are everywhere. That's another reason Fey determined to make room for the project. "And I found the recording conference freeing, because you can really try different things," says Fey. She could also relate to the reporter role in Megamind, having played the droll newscaster on the popular Weekend Update sections of Saturday Night Live. "I am one of America's best known fake reporters," she says. "I'm going to have a fake show on CNN."

Joking aside, Fey did have a hand in making over the passive Lois Lane archetype, giving Roxanne Ritchi a more skeptical outlook. She was also pleased with her cartoon character's look, though the short haircut, she be firm, makes her character come across like a younger version of TV personality Sharon Osbourne.