The Weinstein Company is releasing the French-Candian co-production, Leap! on March 3rd – and here is the first trailer. The film stars the voice of starring Elle Fanning as an orphan girl dreaming of becoming a ballerina, making her way to Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil […]
Archive for December, 2016
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Tyrus Wong 1910-2016
December 31st, 2016 
Jerry Beck Tyrus Wong, a Hollywood production artist and designer, most notable for his delicate work that inspired Walt Disney’s Bambi (1942), has passed away at age 106. A Disney inspirational sketch artist from 1938 through 41 – and later a career film production illustrator for Warner Bros. from 1942 through 1968 – Wong’s work establishing the […]
Charles Solomon Reviews “Sing”
December 23rd, 2016 Charles Solomon 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 Jerry Beck Winter Tour 2016
December 21st, 2016 Jerry Beck 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 […]
MOBILE TEASER: Sony’s “The Emoji Movie”
December 20th, 2016 Jerry Beck 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 […]
Production Starts on “Street Gang” – A Feature Documentary on “Sesame Street”
December 20th, 2016 Jackson Murphy Production is just underway on Street Gang, a documentary on the origin of one of the most iconic shows in the history of television Sesame Street. Macrocosm Entertainment and Citizen Skull Productions are producing the feature based, in-part, on the 2008 New York Times best-selling book of the same name by Michael Davis profiling the […]
OFFICIAL TRAILER: Reel FX “Rock Dog”
December 19th, 2016 Jerry Beck With Sing coming out out on Wednesday, and Summit Releasing’s La-La Land in theaters – both films reviving musicals – Summit is in good shape with its plans to put the animated Rock Dog in theaters this coming February. Today the studio dropped its latest trailer (below). Opening theatrically on February 24th via Summit Premiere […]
GLAS Animation Festival 2017 Announces Special Guests
December 19th, 2016 Jerry Beck 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 […]
Gkids To Release Studio Ghibli’s 1993 TV Feature “Ocean Waves”
December 19th, 2016 Jerry Beck 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 […]
“Lion King” and “Roger Rabbit” Added To National Film Registry
December 19th, 2016 Jerry Beck 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, […]
Disney Reveals New “DuckTales” Cast With Tribute Theme Song Video
December 16th, 2016 Jerry Beck 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, […]
Diversity in Animation: It’s A Tough Concept to Nail Down
December 16th, 2016 Charles Kenny 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 […]
CREATOR’S SPOTLIGHT: A Chat with the Producers of Disney Channel’s “Elena of Avalor” and “Milo Murphy’s Law”
December 16th, 2016 Jackson Murphy 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 […]
Dreamworks “Trollhunters” Featurette
December 15th, 2016 Jerry Beck 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 […]
Charles Solomon’s Animation Year End Review 2016
Although he wrote them in 1859, Charles Dickens might have been thinking of animation in 2016 when he penned the celebrated lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the […]