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A Closer Look at 2017

Our friends over at Cartoon Brew are finishing up the year with an article about 60 (!) animated films scheduled for release in 2017. Some are brand new releases, and some have already made the rounds in other parts of the world but will not be premiering in North America ’till next year. And of course, with a huge set of films like that, more than a fair share of them are definitely going to have some interest for the anthropomorphic fans out there! Taking a quick look ourselves, the upcoming animated films of furry note — some a lot, some a little — include (deep breath…): Animal Crackers, Beast of Burden, Blazing Samurai, Bunyan & Babe, Cars 3, Clara, Despicable Me 3, The Emoji Movie, Ferdinand, Foodiverse, Godzilla (yes, the first animated Godzilla movie!), Here Comes The Grump, Kikoriki — Deja Vu, Kung Food, Lino, Manou the Swift, Mune — Guardian of the Moon, My Cool Dad, My Little Pony — The Movie, The Nut Job 2, Ping Pong Rabbit, Pokemon The Movie — I Choose You, Punyakoti, The Red Turtle, Richard the Stork, Rock Dog, Sahara, Smurfs — The Lost Village, Spark, The Star, Urfin Jus and His Wooden Soldiers, and Underdog. Whew! The article at Cartoon Brew includes several trailers. Of course we’ll be talking a lot more about each of these films as they get closer to release. Happy New Year!

image c. 2016 Studio Canal

One Big Bird — and Not From Sesame Street!

Mary J. Lai creates art and animation under the moniker of Birdzilla Studios. According to her web site, “She has a fondness for birds, which are a frequent subject in her work and cause of quite a few shenanigans in her life. Her achievements include receiving the Matt Groening Initiative award for her thesis film Velo Hoot (which was also selected for an encore in the Best of the NorthWest Animation Film Fest), featured filmmaker for UCLA’s Film & TV’s Director’s Spotlight for her second year film dream(drem)n., and multiple donor awards.” And of course, there are lots of animal, monster, and anthro-animal characters in her portfolio too. Check out her demo reel!

image c. 2016 by Mary J. Lai

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Make the World a Prettier Place

Tyler “Ty” Amato is another artist we met at CTN. He describes his skills as Art Direction and Illustration. Or more precisely, he says it like this: “Hi, I’m Ty! I’m an art director, designer, illustrator, doodler, and a dreamer based in Orlando, Florida. I’m passionate about intricate art that tells a story and I’m hoping to make the world a better place by making it a better looking place.” To that end he has lots of illustrations (of furries, humans, and many other characters) at his web site, as well as a well-stocked Society 6 page where you can buy his artwork as prints, t-shirts, coffee mugs and other fancy stuff. [And of course, Merry Christmas to you all!  We hope you and yours had a good one.]

image c. 2016 by Ty Amato

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Dog Pictures. And More.

Janice Rostenthal is an illustrator and character designer whom we met at the CTN Animation Expo. She describes herself as a “Disney Imagineer, Ringling College of Art and Design illustration & visual development alumna, dog-person.” As you can see from her web site, that seems to cover all the bases! [And with that, we wish you all Happy Holidays and a Blessed Solstice!]

image c. 2016 by Janice Rosenthal

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It’s About Magic… It’s About Wonder…

There’s a new full-color trade paperback on its way from IDW publishing, one that brings together comics from several celebrated Disney comic artists — all of them presenting stories set at the Disney Parks! Here’s what they say: “Sixty years of Disney Parks—who knew? Now IDW is celebrating with decades of Disney’s classic Park-themed adventure comics! Carl Barks‘ Scrooge McDuck and Donald travel from the Mark Twain Riverboat to the top of the Matterhorn… then Mickey investigates the strange disappearance of the Country Bear Jamboree. And is that the real Pegleg Pete standing in for the Cast Member who plays him?” Featuring stories and art from Carl Barks, Giorgio Cavazzano, Massimo Fecchi, and Victor “Vicar” Arriagada Rios, Donald and Mickey: The Magic Kingdom Collection comes to comic book stores this January.

image c. 2016 IDW Publishing

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Dragons To The Rescue

Like many other fans, we were disappointed to recently be informed that Dreamworks Animation has pushed back the release date of How To Train Your Dragon 3 again — this time to the spring of 2019. But in the meantime came some good news: Early next year Dark Horse Press is releasing a new full-color graphic novel, How To Train Your Dragon — The Serpent’s Heir. “Picking up just after the events in How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hiccup, Astrid, and company are called upon to assist the people of an earthquake-plagued island. But their lives are imperiled by a madman and an incredible new dragon who even Toothless—the alpha dragon—may not be able to control!” The big news is that Dean Deblois, who has worked on the Dragons movie series as both writer and director, is one of the co-scripters of this new graphic novel (along with Richard Hamilton). Hollywood Reporter has an interview with the creative team.

image c. 2016 Dark Horse Press

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Judge Him By His Size, Do You?

This is from a couple of years ago, but we just found it recently at Comic Con in San Diego. Mouseheart is a fantasy adventure series for young readers, written by Lisa Fiedler and illustrated by Vivienne To. “Hopper is just an ordinary pet-shop mouse—until he escapes. Soon he finds himself below the bustling streets of Brooklyn, deep within the untamed tangles of transit tunnels, and in Atlantia, a glorious utopian rat civilization. But all is not as it seems. Hopper misses Pinkie and Pup, the siblings he lost in the escape attempt. Atlantia is constantly threatened by roving rebels who wish to bring the city to its knees. And there are cats everywhere, cats who would normally eat a rodent in a second, but leave the rats unharmed . . . and no one can seem to answer why. Soon Hopper is caught in the cross-hairs of an epic battle, one that spans generations and species. As the clashes rage, Hopper learns terrible, extraordinary secrets.” Mouseheart was published in 2014 by Margaret K. McElderry Books. Since then there have been two more, Hopper’s Destiny and Return of the Forgotten. There’s lots more at the official Mouseheart web site.

image c. 2016 Margaret K. McElderry Books

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Where’s My Tree?

In anticipation of the next Guardians of Galaxy movie coming out next summer, Marvel Comics is bringing us a new Guardians crossover series called Grounded — and of course, our buddy Rocket Raccoon gets his very own new title as part of it. “From the pages of Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket has found himself stuck in the LAST place he wants to be—the backwards, no-class, pit of a planet called Earth. It’s where those dumb furry things people say he looks like are from! One thing is clear—it doesn’t matter who or what gets in his way…he’s gotta get off this mudball, NOW. Easier said than done.” Rocket Raccoon: Grounded #1 comes blasting your way (literally!) at the end of December, but if you just can’t wait, Comics Alliance has a preview.

image c. 2016 Marvel Comics

Never Chicken Out

We missed this one earlier this year, but it’s worth mentioning: For a few years now Disney has been distributing Animasia Studio’s 2D animated series Chuck Chicken on their channels in Southeast Asia. Now Animation Magazine has announced that Animasia have teamed up with Zero One Animation in China to create Chuck Chicken — The Movie. Animasia’s official web site lays it out pretty clear: “Chuck Chicken takes place on an island called Rocky Perch, a land filled with chaos, mayhem and birds…… lots and lots of birds. Welcome to Golden Egg Securities, the number one security service on Rocky Perch. Chuck, who runs the company with his two friends, Flick and Wing. They provide Kung Fu style security to the citizens of Rocky Perch and their valuables, as they travel across the island. Chuck also inherited a very special talisman in the shape of a golden egg, an object that bestows amazing powers on whomever possesses it, and turns Chuck into Kung Fu Chicken. Unfortunately for Chuck, the talisman doesn’t come with any instructions, so he doesn’t know how to properly control his new abilities.” Got all that? Given the interest that many Chinese animation studios have shown in creating product intended for American markets, there’s a good chance we may have an English version of Chuck Chicken waiting in the wings.

image c. 2016 Animasia Studios