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Warner Archive Collection Announces “Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice” blu-ray

Good news for Physical Media collectors – Warner Archive Collection is giving its fiercest collectors their choice of rare titles in the Looney Tunes catalog. Announced by George Feltenstein (and yours truly) earlier today on The Extra’s podcast, a new 20-title collection, Vol. 1 of a new series called Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice, is expected […]

Disney’s Jennifer Lee and Director Michel Ocelot To Receive Honorary Cristal Awards at Annecy

The Annecy Festival is thrilled to honor not one, but two greats names in animation: Jennifer Lee and Michel Ocelot as recipients of the Honorary Cristal, an honor rarely bestowed in the decades of the Festival’s history. For the Festival’s Artistic Director, Marcel Jean, “the return of the Annecy Festival to its pre-pandemic state is […]

Twenty-Six Features are Eligible for Academy Consideration

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced feature films eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 94th Academy Awards. Some of the films have not yet had their required qualifying release and must fulfill that requirement and comply with all the category’s other qualifying rules to advance in […]

INTERVIEW: “ClayDream” Director Marq Evans On New Will Vinton Documentary

One of the most anticipated movies for animation fans at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival is ClayDream – about the life and career of claymation master Will Vinton. Director Marq Evans interviewed Vinton before he passed away in 2018. Evans gives us Vinton’s highs (like the California Raisins characters and winning an Oscar) and lows […]

The Center for Learning Unlimited unveils Brainstorm Productions

The Center for Learning Unlimited, a non-public, WASC accredited day school in Torrance, California, proudly makes a dual announcement of convocation and expansion. On June 15, the inaugural graduating class of CLU’s career animation training program officially enters the workforce. Simultaneously, CLU flings open the doors of its blossoming, companion motion graphics studio: Brainstorm Productions.

Remembering Marcell Jankovics

I still remember when I discovered the work of the great Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics, who died on May 29th at the age of 79. In 1975, I saw Sisyphus in the 10th Annual International Tournée of Animation. The skill with which the artist captured the anatomy of the character, his frustration and the essence […]

Peilin Chou Debuts “Awakening”

Awakening is a PSA directed by Oscar-nominated producer Peilin Chou (Over The Moon), in response to the rise in Asian violence across the country. As part of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and with the goal of inspiring and uplifting the community and beyond, Awakening features an exciting line-up of top Asian American animation […]

Kinsane Entertainment Acquires Film and Associated Rights to “Young Captain Nemo”

Kinsane Entertainment Inc, a global kids and family entertainment company owned by Rainshine Entertainment, announces the acquisition of the book adaptation rights for best-selling author Jason Henderson’s Young Captain Nemo, an Amazon.com chart-topping middle-grade fiction trilogy. Kinsane will develop the literary franchise as an animated series, as mobile games, consumer products, and more for worldwide […]

Anime To Binge While Sheltering in Place

To help fill the enforced hours at home of “sheltering in place,” here are some anime series that lend themselves to binge watching. Some are older, some recent; adventures, comedies, romances. Typically, the adventures take the main characters on quests where they face much realer danger than American counterparts. The comedies have a take-no-prisoners silliness […]

Hype, PunkRobot & Red Animation Studios Join Pipelines to Form “Los Amigos”

Three of the most successful studios in Latin America today announce a coalition based on a shared production pipeline to be dubbed “Los Amigos.” Brazil’s Hype (Tainá and the Guardians of the Amazon), Chile’s Academy award-winning PunkRobot (Bear Story), and Peru’s Red Animation Studios (A Mouse Tale), have been working together since 2017 on a […]

Don Lusk (1913-2018)

Disney Legend Don Lusk has passed away today at age 105 – reported by his dear friend Navah Paskowitz-Asner (Ed Asner’s daughter-in-law) on her Facebook page this morning. Lusk was hired by The Walt Disney Company in 1933 and he became an animator in 1938 on Ferdinand The Bull. His animation graced key scenes in […]

Børge Ring R.I.P.

The animation community is mourning the passing today of one of its own and most beloved, Børge Ring – a renown Danish comic strip artist, jazz musician and animator. In 1978 he animated a short Oh My Darling, which won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and received an Academy Award nomination – and in […]

Emily Hubley on “The Faith Journal Project”

Filmmaker Emily Hubley has announced her next project: The Faith Journal Project, a 3-part undertaking (short film, an installation and an application) related to the 7000+ self-portraits (in 49 journals) created by her mom, artist/filmmaker Faith Hubley, in the final decades of her life. “This has long been in the works,” says Hubley. “and now […]

RIP ‘Spongebob’ Creator Stephen Hillenberg

Stephen Hillenberg, the creator of Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants passed away yesterday, November 26th, from complications from ALS. To say he was one of the nicest guys in animation would be an understatement. He will be sorely missed. He was not only a cartoonist and animator, but a marine biologist and teacher as well. Born in […]

Heritage Auctions Signature Animation Sale features Mary Blair and Dan Haskett

Heritage Auctions has put online hundreds of new lots coinciding with their upcoming December 8th and 9th signature animation auction in Beverly Hills. In addition to a voluminous amount of rare Disney art, the auction features numerous intriguing pieces from Warner Bros., Fleischer, Peanuts, MGM, Bakshi and others. Of special noter, a selection of pencil […]