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After The Turtles… The Cats

Jan 3rd, 2015
by rodney.
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We got this from Movie Finatic: Animation fandom circles are all a-buzz (or is it reeling?) from the news that director and producer Michael Bay, fresh from his successful (at least financially) re-boot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is now set to give a try at a live-action movie based on (wait for it): Thundercats. The thought of Mr. Bay taking on another 80’s animated TV icon was enough for no less than The Onion to create their own spoof article. But is all this just talk or is it actually happening? Stay Tooned! *Snarf Snarf Snarf…*

image c. 2014 by Jannica Coons

image c. 2014 by Jannica Coons

The Robot Cat and a Lot of Dogs

Jan 1st, 2015
by rodney.
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First off: Happy New Year! Welcome to 2015. We’re happy to be here with you.

Something cool slipped by us in 2014. Doraemon: New Nobita’s Great Demon—Peko and the Exploration Party of Five (whew what a title!) is the latest anime feature starring Doraemon — a robotic cat from the 22nd century who travels back in time to assist a young boy named Nobita Nobi. Since he premiered in 1969, Doraemon has become one of the most popular anime and manga stars in Japanese history — so much so that the Japanese government tagged him as Japan’s “animation ambassador”. In this latest feature, “While out playing, Nobita meets a dog prince who has become separated from his people. Thankfully Doraemon and his magical powers are close at hand so the gang set out on an adventure to return the prince to a mysterious land known as the Bow-Wow Dog Kingdom.” Evidently this new film is a remake of the 1982 feature Doraemon: Nobita and the Haunts of Evil. Really now. Here’s hoping that someone in the vast anime import industry might see fit to distribute this new film in North America. For now, check out the trailer over on YouTube.

image c. 2014 Toho Studios

image c. 2014 Toho Studios

The Panda is a Little Farther Away

Dec 14th, 2014
by rodney.
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As you may have heard floating through the air in Hollywood lately, Dreamworks Animation has been worrying a lot of people lately(notably investors) with a lack of hit movies. Several of the studio’s offerings over the last two years have not performed as hoped or expected at the box office — and now, Penguins of Madagascar is not exactly on track to set any new records either. Even How to Train Your Dragon 2, which was a blockbuster earlier this year by most standards, was not as much of one as many had expected. All of this seems to have made Dreamworks rather skittish about their upcoming slate of films — especially when it comes to the competition. To that end the studio recently announced that Kung Fu Panda 3, originally slated for release in December of 2015, has been pushed back four months to March of 2016 — presumably to keep out of the way of Star Wars VII, or at least that’s the buzz around town. Interestingly, that move puts the new date for Kung Fu Panda 3 just two weeks after Disney is scheduled to release Zootopia. It seems like 2016 just got a little more interesting — and 2015, perhaps less so.

image c. 2014 Dreamworks

image c. 2014 Dreamworks Animation

Back to the Fish Story

Dec 10th, 2014
by rodney.
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At the recent Comic Con Experience in Brazil, Pixar president Jim Morris chatted up the crowd about Finding Dory, Pixar’s upcoming CGI film scheduled for release in June of 2016. Besides showing them lots of preliminary artwork and other goodies, he also gave the world the first inklings of the new film’s plot.  Following the adventures of Finding Nemo (of course), this new film follows Dori (the royal blue tang who suffers from short term memory loss) as she journeys across the ocean in search of the marine research facility where she was born — and where her parents still live. Once again Dori will be voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, and her friend Marlin the clownfish (Nemo’s father) will again be voiced by Albert Brooks. No word yet if popular characters like Bruce the vegetarian-wannabe shark or Crash the oh-so-radical sea turtle dude will also make an appearance. But check out the article at Animation Xpress to find out what we do know now.

[Thanks to Fred Patten for the heads up on this article]

image c. 2014 Disney/Pixar

image c. 2014 Disney/Pixar

Exotic, Strange, and Beautiful

Dec 3rd, 2014
by rodney.
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Brynn Methany is an artist who works in “concept art and illustration” (her words). “I specialize in creature design, fantasy illustration and visual development for publishing, film and games.” At her web site you’ll see many examples of her illustrations of creatures both familiar and fantastic — out of this world, literally. You will also see what became of many of those illustrations later on: Witness the trailer for Dust, an independent science fiction movie for which Brynn did both production art and creature design.

image c. 2014 by Brynn Methany

image c. 2014 by Brynn Metheny

Dogs… in… SPACE!

Nov 29th, 2014
by rodney.
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In 2010 Russia’s Centre of National Film gave the world Space Dogs, a CGI animated feature that celebrated the memory of Strelka and Belka (the first animals ever to survive a trip rocketing into orbit) by re-imagining them in a science fiction adventure. Now one of the same directors (Inna Evlannikova) has returned to bring us their further adventures in Space Dogs 2, also known as Space Dog: Adventure to the Moon. Epic Pictures has picked up international distribution rights for the film. According to their web site, the plot goes like this: “When the world’s most precious monuments disappear before everyone’s eyes, an unlikely team of two legendary Russian canine astronauts named Belka and Strelka, a heroic American monkey named Bonnie, and Belka’s brave teenage son Pushok jet off to the dark side of the moon to investigate the mystery.” The site also has a link to the trailer. Here’s another Russian film that is slowly making its way around North America in specialty screenings, so look for it. (It’s also available on DVD at least some places, apparently.)

image c. 2014 Epic Pictures

image c. 2014 Epic Pictures

Ducks from Russia

Nov 27th, 2014
by rodney.
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Here’s something for Thanksgiving: More birds! Now it’s Quackers, a new CGI animated film on its way from Russia’s Rome Animation and Film Studio. (Rome or not, it’s from Russia.) “A conflict flares up between local Mandarin Ducks and the Military Mallards who land on the Chinese island, mistaking it for Hawaii. While the fathers fight and argue, Longway, the Emperor’s son, and Erica, the commander’s daughter, meet and become friends. The kids must ally all the ducks to battle their foe, the daunting Ms. Knout, who seeks to destroy the Sun.” Got all that? Directed by Viktor Lakisov and due in 2016, Quackers has its own official web site, as well as a preview video up on Vimeo.

image c. 2014 Rome Animation

image c. 2014 Rome Animation & Film Studio

Green is Yellow

Nov 26th, 2014
by rodney.
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From Variety: “Wrekin Hill Entertainment has acquired all North American rights to Christian De Vita’s 3D animated feature Yellowbird from TeamTO and Haut & Court. The film… is written by Antoine Barraud and Guilhem Lesaffre with Cory Edwards and based on artwork by Benjamin Renner (Ernest and Celestine).” Seth Green (Greg the Bunny, Robot Chicken) stars as the voice of Yellowbird, “…a teenage bird so scared to venture out into the world that he nearly misses the fun of discovering who he really is.” Other voices include Dakota Fanning (Charlotte’s Web), Danny Glover, Elliott Gould, Jim Rash, and Christine Baranski. The distributors have been slowly trickling the film out to North American theaters, so take a look around for it — or else visit the Yellowbird Facebook page. Meanwhile, the English trailer is up on YouTube.

image c. 2014 Wrekin Hill Entertainment

image c. 2014 Wrekin Hill Entertainment

A Kendu Attitude

Nov 1st, 2014
by rodney.
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Kendu Films is the creation of Davy Liu, a veteran artist and animator who has worked on numerous projects at Disney — including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Mulan, and The Lion King — as well as at ILM and Warner Brothers. Now he’s started his own production company, hoping to “encourage the next generation with a ‘Can Do’ spirit in every child by bringing great content and encouragement to families everywhere.” To that end he has created a series of five illustrated books, “Invisible Tails — parables told from the animal’s perspective”, whose titles include The Enchanted Tree, Fire Fish, Jordan’s Guest, The Royal Feast, and The Giant Leaf. You can purchase each of these books at the official Kendu Films web site, and also see a collection of development art from these and various film projects the studio is currently working on.

image c. 2014 Kendu Films

image c. 2014 Kendu Films

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